With another semester wrapping up, the Charlatan sat down with the Graduate Students’ Association president Jay Ramasubramanyam to discuss which one of his team’s campaign promises were upheld, which weren’t, and what’s to be expected for next year’s team.
Promise: Provide graduate students with specific mental health counselling.
Yes: “It was a huge victory for us,” Ramasubramanyam said. “We got Carleton to commit to hiring a graduate counsellor, which had been one of our ongoing demands for a very long time.”
He added that the GSA wanted a graduate-specific counselor because many graduate students might be teaching assistants or contract instructors to their undegraduate peers, so having a common place for both undergraduate and graduate students to access mental health counselling could be problematic.
“It puts graduate students in a relatively awkward position with their students,” Ramasubramanyam said.
Promise: Advocacy for an Indigenous policy
In Progress: Ramasubramanyam said the ReconciliAction group that was struck this last year with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) was a great step in improving the GSA’s platform for increased Indigenous advocacy.
He said he hopes to see more representation of Indigenous languages on campus next year under Ashley Courchene, GSA’s incoming president and current vice-president (finance), who himself is an Indigenous-identifying student.
Promise: Anti-Islamophobia campaign
In Progress: Ramasubramanyam said the platform for the campaign was made by the GSA’s vice-president (external) Helia Doutaghi, who worked very closely with the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) on it.
Ramasubramanyam said the GSA hosted many events as part of this campaign, including a networking event only for Muslim students and professors. He also said the GSA is looking to have an end-of-year event to commemorate the victims of the Christchurch mosque shooting that took place last month.
Promise: Increased partnership with the CFS
Yes: Ramasubramanyam said this year was a “remarkable year” for GSA’s relationship with the CFS. According to him, the GSA’s relationship with the CFS became stronger because of the failed referendum by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) to defederate from the CFS.
“Our relationship is still as strong as it was before,” Ramasubramanyam said.
Promise: Equal international student tuition for graduate students
Yes: Ramasubramanyam said the GSA advocated for international PhD students to pay domestic tuition, which is covered by grants from the university.
Ramasubramanyam also said the total grants for graduate students have been increased by $21,000 this year.
Promise: Better bus services
No: “A lot of people on campus rely on bus number 7. . . and there have been issues in terms of crowd capacity, so this is something we’re working on with the local councillor Shawn Menard and also mayor Jim Watson,” Ramasubramanyam said. “It’s still ongoing.”
File photo
