The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has released two roadmaps detailing the student government’s priorities and commitments for the rest of the academic year.
The advocacy and executive roadmaps aim to strengthen CUSA’s accountability, said Mohamed “Faris” Riazudden, CUSA president.
“Often, there is a connotation associated with CUSA,” Riazudden said. “We wanted to change that by providing [students] with all the ways we can be transparent.”
Advocacy roadmap
CUSA’s advocacy roadmap, released Dec. 9, identifies 12 commitments “crucial to [the] student body.”
“These priorities encompass a diverse range of concerns, addressing issues like housing, tuition, food insecurity and [equity, diversity and inclusion] policy,” the roadmap reads.
Artur Estrela da Silva, CUSA associate vice-president of research and advocacy, said the 12 commitments came from consultation with students and internal discussion.
“Some are priorities that CUSA has already been advocating for for a few years,” Estrela da Silva said. “We’ve been able to advocate already at all the levels we would like […] meaning the university, municipal, provincial and federal [levels].”
The Charlatan’s Oct. 30 investigation was “not at all” a factor in the advocacy roadmap, Riazudden said.
The Charlatan’s investigation detailed six students’ accounts of alleged hazing within a Carleton University Greek letter sorority..
The sources’ allegations include: hand-feeding ice cream to nude sorority mentors; a culture of substance abuse; incidents of alleged sexual misconduct; delayed investigations relating to these incidents; a student’s mental health decline; and performing a “sexual” dance in front of hundreds of people at an event called the Greek Olympics.
Several students criticized Riazudden’s interactions with students regarding the investigation, the Charlatan reported.
“We’ve been working on the advocacy roadmap for months now,” Riazudden said. “We were already behind in publishing it.”
Estrela da Silva said some advocacy priorities, like tuition and transit, are in the works now.
“[CUSA] is discussing a plan of international student tuition guarantee,” Estrela da Silva said. “Students would be able to know what exact amount they would be paying on each term of their studies for four years.”
CUSA is also currently in talks with 19 embassies to create scholarships for international students, Riazudden said.
Estrela da Silva said transit access is his personal advocacy priority.
On Nov. 14, the city council transit commission proposed cutting Route 111 service to Carleton and replacing it with an O-Train connection at Mooney’s Bay.
Hundreds of students rely on that route, according to a CUSA statement released Nov. 17. CUSA has requested to bring students’ concerns before the commission, the statement said.
“We’ve been in constant contact with OC Transpo,” Estrela da Silva said. “Housing and accessibility are major things for us as well, and those correlate with transit changing.
“[There’s] uncertainty on how that’s going to look for students.”
Estrela da Silva added students can get more information from CUSA by submitting an advocacy concern form.
“[Students can] get information from CUSA on how we’re tackling an issue and what we can do,” he said. “They can also have the opportunity to schedule a meeting with some of the members of our [executive team].”
He said students should receive a follow-up within a week of submitting the form.
Executive roadmap
Released on Nov. 6, CUSA’s executive roadmap ensures CUSA’s promises to students are “unified,” Riazudden said.
The roadmap’s four “pillars” are advocacy and representation; student support and service; student development and experience, and student trust.
The roadmap also details CUSA’s plans to release a budget report, annual survey and gift registry.
“I think [the executive roadmap] is a really great thing,” said Aiden Rohacek, CUSA associate vice-president of executive relations. “Students can hold us accountable to make sure we actually accomplish what we tried to do in the first place.”
Riazudden said the executive roadmap will change on a year-by-year basis.
“We’re going to have a more united front on [executive matters],” Riazudden said. “We wanted this to be an ongoing thing for all the execs that come in every year.”
Rohacek noted the executive roadmap isn’t the “be-all and end-all” of accountability.
“We should always be striving to be more transparent,” he said. “You can never really be too accountable.”
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
