Here are the three slates running in the 2013 Rideau River Residence Association’s elections:
Undivided
President: Will Cathcart
Vice-president (administration): Arif Jaffer
Vice-president (programming): Jessica Barlow
When Will Cathcart looks at residences around him, he said he sees an amazing space, but he thinks about what he could do to make it better.
“I see potential in residence to be a better space, a more exceptional space,” he said.
The Undivided slate wants to make Abstentions more affordable, revitalize residence spirit, create a residence-wide student lounge and establish a tenant board to work with housing on dealing with maintenance issues.
With respect to the meal plan, the team wants to “make meal time more epic” by lobbying the cafeteria to make meals accessible by swipe, not by time.
“Basically, when you go to your 8:30 a.m. class and eat a meal before that, you come back from class . . . and you have to wait for the time in which the next meal is served to eat. If you want to have that second breakfast or third dinner, we want to make your meal plan work for you,” Cathcart said.
The team said they want to bring programming to residence and said they aren’t happy with the lack of events this year.
“Jessica [Barlow] and I have been super involved in our communities, and Arif [Jaffer] is a fantastic number cruncher. I feel like the platform I devised with my team is the best one to meet students’ needs, and we’re really excited to implement our ideas,” Cathcart said.
Rez-Solution
President: Sidney Otoboeze
Vice-president (administration): Daniel Shalinsky
Vice-president (programming): Kendra Kading
Rez-Solution said they believe there’s a lot more they could do to ensure that residence is a fun and comfortable home away from home for all students, both Canadian and international.
Rez-Solution said they want to encourage the housing department to revamp their meal system at the Fresh Food Company. Currently, students can only eat once at certain designated breakfast, lunch or dinner times, which can be restricting. Rather than have these time periods, they said they will lobby for the housing department to allow students to get their meals per swipe, so they can eat on their own schedule.
The slate promises to lower Abstentions prices, ensure consistent laundry services, and hold the housing department responsible for faulty washers or dryers.
As for programming and events, Rez-Solution plans to bring new, fun events to residence. One such idea is Homecoming, especially because Carleton football will return next year. They also want to improve upon classic rez events, like Rez Idol, Carleton’s Next Top Model and the residence boat cruise. The team is seeking an official partnership with Residence Life so that they can work together to bring bigger and better events on a regular basis.
Rez-Solution believes the current RRRA executives have done their best to meet their goals. However, they said they believe there has been a considerable decline in residence programming in the last few years, and RRRA has failed to keep students engaged and involved.
“This residence association serves about 3,500 students, yet I don’t believe enough of these students truly know what RRRA stands for,” presidential candidate Sidney Otoboeze said.
A Team You Can Trust
President: Joel Tallerico
Vice-president (administration): Natalie Mohamed
Vice-president (programming): Juan Colicchio
“Everyday, going into work, I know I can make a difference, even in one student’s life. I love that,” current RRRA vice-president (administration) Joel Tallerico said.
Tallerico, Natalie Mohamed and Juan Colicchio said they believe that RRRA can really make a difference in students’ lives. They believe that there is still more that they can do and so much more they can give.
Tallerico said their slate name comes from promises in last year’s campaign that they’ve been able to implement, like making a Greyhound stop at Carleton, which makes them the team that residence students can trust.
At the first RRRA council meeting last year, executive benefits were cut, saving over $26,000. This year, the team says they will freeze the benefits to the same amount as last year, and make sure they aren’t increased.
One of the events the team wants to create next year is to bring Bill Nye the Science Guy to Carleton and said they have already confirmed his availability with agents.
They said they also want to create a book-sharing platform through the RRRA website for easy access to residence students to buy and sell textbooks.
They also said they want to work with athletics to bring a special intramural rate for residence students.
“We know that the transition for students from living at home to living on campus can be hard, and we want to make that transition as smooth as possible and make next year the best year it can be,” Tallerico said.
