Northrup’s return is proof of a broken system

Another one of the appointees was Heather Murley. She was the Chief Electoral Officer in last year’s CUSA election. Nice person, but not a very independent thinker. She was a councillor last year, voting the same way as last year’s CUSA executive on every single recorded vote. Somehow, it was decided she would be perfect to preside over an election in which three incumbent executives were running.

Sure enough, all three incumbents lost their elections after the Shinerama scandal. Including Erik Halliwell, who was a candidate for president.

Funny story about that, though. The student who defeated Halliwell in that election was disqualified by Murley, making Halliwell the new CUSA president.

And after doing a bang-up job running the election, Murley suddenly finds herself with a council seat again. Naturally, Halliwell found himself in favour of the motion for her acclamation.

Does this sound like something the undergraduate students of Carleton University would support?

Absolutely not. But for some reason, it wasn’t up to the students. And that’s a problem.

The student association is supposed to serve the students. In this instance, that clearly isn’t the case. And quite frankly, this isn’t in the best interest of the student association either. Why bring back a year old scandal by giving Northrup a seat on council? And why fuel controversy over last year’s election by giving the chief electoral officer a seat too?

Is it groupthink? Is it cronyism? Is it sheer arrogance? In my opinion, it very well may be all three. But at the end of the day, I am just one voice in a chorus of students. And all of our voices have been silenced by the undemocratic actions of our student union.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe students have forgiven Northrup. Maybe they would have voted for Murley. But it’s their right to choose. It shouldn’t have been decided in the back rooms of the CUSA office.

But this is just a small part of a big picture. There is a severe democratic deficit on campus, and it is not limited to Carleton University. In the next few weeks, I’ll be putting together a series on how democracy is failing in our student unions. I’ll be talking about subjects ranging from patronage appointments to outside interference from external organizations. But first, I’ll be trying to explain why YOU, the average student, should care.

If you have any questions, comments or ideas for the series, please feel free to e-mail me at dtesterATconnect.carleton.ca