Каруэлтон университеті студенттік бірлестігінің жаңа басқару құрылымы

Undergraduate student union at Carleton University, Ottawa

The Carleton University Students' Association (or CUSA) is a non profit corporation that represents the undergraduate students at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

CUSA Council adopted the new governance structure on the advice of the Democratic Reform Committee and CUSA’s lawyers to comply with new provincial legislation and to expand decision making responsibilities and ethical safeguards. Students voted for change in 2021, and the restructuring will give students confidence their dollars are being used wisely by their students’ association in the future.

The Vice Presidents are no longer be voting members of the CUSA council. Their seats was converted to student representative seats based on academic faculty enrolment. CUSA Council is responsible for hiring Vice Presidents and appointing the Board of Directors. The Council operates as a deciding body for the association's day to day business, holding power on advocacy & accountability actions of the Executive team, with a stronger emphasis on Presidential accountability as the President is the only elected body. The Vice Presidents work as "hired officers" of the association, accountable to the council & the board.

Firstly, of the executive positions, now only the Presidency is elected by students at large. The Vice Presidential roles have been redefined, with much of their power dispersed to other check and balance bodies within CUSA. Because of this, the positions were deemed to no longer rise to the level of student at large elections and will be selected, elected, and appointed by CUSA Council after the CUSA Presidential and Council election. The CUSA Presidency role is a full time role that requires a 35 hours/week commitment. The CUSA President will be responsible to the CUSA Board of Directors, CUSA Council, and the Not For Profit Corporations Act (2010). The CUSA President supervises the Executive Director on behalf of the CUSA Board and the Vice Presidents. The association now uses the single transferable vote system. The association has been holding online elections since 2014. Voter turnout in 2017 was over 37%. The voter turnout in the 2024 General Elections was 19.8%.

CUSA oversee's over 200 recognized clubs and societies. CUSA also offers a number of different services to clubs and societies. All clubs and societies, and services available to them, can be found at cusaclubs. ca

On December 5, 2006, CUSA voted 26 25 1 1 (26 in favour, 25 against, 1 abstaining, 1 absent) of supporting abortion rights, and discontinuing anti abortion activism. This drew critical reactions from anti abortion groups and from campus groups, such as the Carleton University Debating Society, that said CUSA was stifling open debate. Those in favour of the motion defended it as ensuring "women's rights" on campus. This vote was reversed in December 2012.

In November 2008, the CUSA voted to drop its annual Shinerama cystic fibrosis fundraiser, in favour of a fundraiser for an as yet undetermined charity, because the illness is not "inclusive" enough. Shinerama is a fundraiser held at universities across Canada every fall in support of the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF), first held in 1961; Carleton has participated for the past 25 years and has contributed nearly $1 million to the cause. Donnie Northrup, CUSA councillor representing the Faculty of Science, introduced the motion which stated that cystic fibrosis "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men" and that therefore, it was inappropriate for the CUSA to donate money to researching a cure. Supporters of the motion argued that "all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve diverse communities."

The CUSA was criticized for this decision since the motion did not reveal the source of the claim that cystic fibrosis affects only Caucasians. In fact, the CCFF's website states that: "The disease is most common in caucasians, but it can affect all races." Nick Bergamini, a CUSA council member who represents Journalism students, stated that "They're playing racial politics with something that is supposed to bring people together – a charity." Cathleen Morrison, who is the CEO of the CCFF, stated in an interview with CTV News that although cystic fibrosis "does affect Caucasian populations primarily," the term Caucasian includes people from South Asia, North Africa, the Persian Gulf and Israel. Morrison explained that "These are Caucasian populations. These people do not have white skin. They have CF, it now seems, in the same ratios as other Caucasian people who do have white skin." Morrison also stated that cystic fibrosis affects just as many young girls as boys. Jonathan Kay, a columnist for the National Post, blasted CUSA for this decision. Kay stated that "Even by the loopy standards of students governments, this has got to be a new low." Kay argued that cystic fibrosis, although it has a much higher rate of occurrence in caucasian males, affects all races and both genders. Kay also pointed out that many charity events raise money for breast cancer, even though it is primarily a female disease, and for Tay–Sachs disease, whose sufferers are almost exclusively Jewish. Editorial and opinion articles from the Ottawa Citizen have also condemned CUSA's actions with the editorial declaring that "when [a student association] does something as ignorant and thoughtless as Carleton University's did this week, the country pays attention."

CUSA president Brittany Smyth later stated that the council has been considering rotating the beneficiary of Shinerama instead of always giving the money to one charity, arguing that "It's about people wanting to do something different." Smyth announced an emergency meeting of CUSA's council to vote on a new motion to reinstate the charity. A unanimous vote at that meeting revoked the earlier decision, approved the restoration of next year's Shinerama campaign and also approved the publication of an apology over the matter. Donnie Northrup, the council representative responsible for moving the original motion to cancel Shinerama, resigned his position at CUSA as did another councillor, Sean Maguire. However, over the summer of 2009 Northrup was acclaimed back into CUSA. The meeting also received petitions demanding the resignation of Smyth and certain other councillors, although no actions on these were immediately taken.

On February 13, 2009, Bruce Kyereh Addo of the Demand Better slate was found to be in violation of the Consolidated Electoral Code on multiple counts and subsequently disqualified. To date, Kyereh Addo's disqualification was upheld by the electoral board.

During the 2009–2010 school year, a group of students launched a petition to hold a referendum on possible disaffiliation of CUSA from the CFS. Stated reasoning for this referendum was to counter issues such as the claimed ineffectiveness of the CFS and interference in other university's unions. In a press release the petitioners stated that the CFS "made almost no gains as a lobby group in its 30 years of operation." This was strongly denied by the CFS. spearheaded by several CUSA officials. Soon afterward CUSA officially endorsed the counter petition by a vote of 17 in favour, 7 against and 9 abstaining. The motion also mandates that CUSA members must advocate in favour of the CFS. This has attracted more criticism toward CUSA by students who feel it should stay neutral and instead try to help students make an informed decision. The pro referendum petition ended up garnering over 2300 signatures before its submission to the CFS offices in Toronto. Despite being hand delivered by a Bailiff, the CFS have stated they did not receive the petition. A referendum at Carleton had previously been held in 1995, on the possibility of joining the newly formed Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), that lost narrowly.

In 2016, Ashley Courchene, a third year political science major, ran for Vice President Student Services under the slate Change. After winning the election by only 21 votes, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Matt Swain disqualified the Change slate due to an alleged infraction by the assistant campaign manager Ahmad Gitteh and presidential candidate Abdullah Jabber, which led to Ashley Courchene's disqualification. Mr. Courchene successfully appealed the disqualification to the Electoral Board. Your Carleton then successfully appealed to the Constitutional Board (which overrides the electoral board). Mr. Courchene then went to the Ontario Superior Court, which reinstated him to the position of VPSS. Neither CUSA nor Your Carleton appealed the court's decision.