As the school year wraps up, the Charlatan spoke with Jacob Howell, president of the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA), to determine which campaign promises were upheld throughout the year and which were scrapped.
Promise: Guest pass system in the Caf
In Progress: Howell said he is still talking with university administration about his promise to increase the number of dining guest passes students are given to use with visitors in the cafeteria.
He added that he’ll be bringing this project to his new role as next year’s vice-president (finance) for the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), along with Sissi De Flaviis, current RRRA vice-president (administration), who will also be joining Howell as a CUSA executive next year.
Promise: Increased residence programming and events
Yes: Howell said RRRA was able to budget around $83,000 for student programming this year, up from the nearly $60,000 budgeted in 2017-18.
This year, RRRA was able to implement several new concerts, frosh events and continue their annual sponsorship of the SOAR student leadership conference and RRRA Formal.
Howell said the bigger budget allowed RRRA to partner up with more other student groups on campus, which he said produced bigger and better events this year.
Promise: Two-ply toilet paper available for students in residence
Yes: Howell said two-ply toilet paper is currently available in residence, but students and Residence Fellows (RF) who spoke with the Charlatan said they were not impressed with the quality of the new toilet paper rolls.
Victoria Naghavi, a first-year student living in Glengarry residence, said she and her roommates would rather pay out of pocket and “put a dent in their bank accounts,” than use the provided toilet paper.
“The quality is so poor that my podmates and I chose to buy toilet paper all year,” she said.
Katelyn Sloan, an RF in Lennox and Addington, said she was unsure of whether the toilet paper was actually one or two-ply. “It definitely doesn’t feel like two-ply to me,” she said.
Promise: Free feminine hygiene products on all residence floors
In Progress: RFs are currently able to pick up feminine hygiene supplies from the RRRA office, and distribute the products themselves on the floors. But, currently the supplies are not located within residence buildings, as was promised. Howell said RRRA does not have jurisdiction over RFs, so they cannot enforce having the products on residence floors.
Howell said RRRA “has a storage room filled to the ceiling with many boxes of feminine hygiene products, so supply is not in short by any means.”
He said he predicts feminine hygiene products will be more readily available within residence buildings next year because he said RFs will be notified of their supply in August, rather than months later like this past year.
Promise: Creating an online job bank
No: According to Howell, RRRA executives were looking to expand the online job bank they had already prototyped, but the cost and time of the project proved to be too much.
“It just became too big of a project for us to kind of do on our own time,” Howell said. “It was too much of an infrastructure change to develop in our own office, so we had to abandon that project.”
Promise: Printers and free printing in residence buildings
No: Howell said during talks with administration and Carleton’s housing services, he was informed each printer would cost approximately $10,000. “To put those in each of the 11 residence buildings would be a heavy project,” he said.
“The printer at Residence Commons is actually the most under-utilized printer in the Carleton campus, so I guess there’s just no desire for the increase in printers,” Howell said. “If the need is not there—or the demand is not there—I guess there’s no need, right?”
File photo
