Carleton University Students' Association
[2] Starting 11 August 2021, the Democratic Reform Committee (DRC) met twice every week with the goal of restoring student trust in CUSA that had been lost in recent years.[2] The Committee also organized four public forums for students-at-large to raise any questions, comments, or concerns regarding reforms to CUSA's governance and elections systems.As a Not-For-Profit Corporation, the CUSA Board is subject to all relevant principles and policies of the Ontario government, provincial law, and the Articles of Incorporation.To ensure ethical fiscal management within CUSA operations & strategy, all members of the Board hold a fiduciary responsibility towards the organization.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."[21][22] 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.The responsible thing to do is to reverse the decision," adding that "the motion was never meant to imply that raising funds for Cystic Fibrosis research was not a worthwhile cause.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.[25][26] 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.[28] 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.[30] After several weeks a counter petition was created to try to bar the issue from going to a university-wide vote, which was controversially[31] spearheaded by several CUSA officials.[34] 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.[35] 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.