CUSA Levy Fee Referendum

Vote “YES” on March 11-12!

Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) represents and advocates for the needs of undergraduate students by providing essential services, programming, and opportunities for involvement. CUSA currently operates six service centres, the Unified Support Centre, and student-run businesses such as Ollie’s, Rooster’s, and The Wing. Additionally, CUSA administers the Health and Dental Plan and provides funding for over 275 certified undergraduate clubs.

Currently, the CUSA fee is one of the lowest student union fees in the province. The existing fee is no longer sufficient to maintain current services and programming levels due to rising costs from inflation and operational expenses. Without a levy increase, there will be further reductions in CUSA’s services such as free printing, service centers, subsidized prices at student-run businesses, and funding for student-run initiatives. CUSA is proposing a $22.68 increase to the student levy fee to ensure CUSA’s services can continue to support you.

Question:

To ensure CUSA’s services continue without further reductions, do you support an increase of $22.68 per term of the CUSA student levy (pro-rated for part-time students), indexed to Consumer Price Index, starting in Fall 2025?

Why are we putting this question forward?

CUSA was established in 1948 when Carleton University was founded, and since then, it has advocated for students’ rights on campus. CUSA serves as the voice of the undergraduate student body, with student leaders elected by students to serve students.

However, this role has become increasingly challenging due to mounting financial pressures. In our current dire financial situation, we can no longer create meaningful change that supports students without cutting essential services.

Whether you rely on CUSA for free printing, health and dental insurance, service centers, Fall-O events, a coffee from Rooster’s, wings and a beer from Ollie’s, or club certification, CUSA plays a significant role in student life.

With rising costs across the global economy, the last thing we want is to increase the financial burden on students. However, as outlined in our Operational Update Report, this is our only viable option to avoid further cuts that would negatively impact student services.

We will soon release details about upcoming opportunities for students to engage directly with CUSA executives and stakeholders. Your voice matters, and we are ready to listen.

To understand CUSA’s current operational and financial situation, check out our Operational Update Report 2024-2025.

View the report here

CUSA Services at a Glance

CUSA offers a variety of services, events, and more to all Carleton University undergraduate members. Click on each icon to learn more about our services.

Unfortunately, with the increased operational costs and limited revenue options, it has been difficult for CUSA to sustain the current level of operations. Vote “YES” on March 11-12 so we can continue to support you!

6 Service Centres
Unified Support Centre
200+ Clubs
3 CUSA Businesses
Health + Dental Plan
Events & Programmings
Free Printing
Student Advocacy

What will the levy increase fund?

Stable prices at CUSA Businesses

  • In order to keep prices at CUSA businesses consistent, we would need to increase the CUSA levy
  • If the referendum fails to pass, we will have to raise the prices at CUSA Businesses, which means students will have to pay more through increases
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Continuation of free printing

  • Continue to provide students with 100 free pages of printing each year, which is great for reports, assignment printing, advertising, and any personal projects.
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More programming

  • Improvements that will lead to better experiences for Frosh, Frost, etc.
  • More money can be put to cultural events
  • More money can be spent on promoting these events
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Securing student jobs

  • Student jobs at CUSA businesses will be preserved
  • Higher likelihood for more jobs in the future
  • More jobs for students lead to a better overall experience in CUSA businesses and more wages and experience for student employees
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Long Term Projects

  • Potential for investing in other opportunities to improve CUSA and student experience on campus
  • Can be a first step for a new student union building
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Frequently Asked Questions

The CUSA fee has never seen an increase. It was sent when the University was founded over 75 years ago and has only increased with CPI/inflation. Ever since COVID, the costs for CUSA to continue operating have gone up to an unsustainable level. Not to mention, CUSA has tried different things to expand each year and it has gotten to a point where the CUSA fee needs to increase in order for CUSA to sustain itself.

CUSA may not seem front and centre like other organizations on Carleton campus and that is because we don’t have the capacity to email everyone in the school. The truth is, we give students the opportunity to benefit from health and dental insurance and we give students different services such as free printing, Clubs funding and developments through our service centres. Plus, our businesses serve almost 10,000 customers collectively each year by offering affordable food options on campus, especially in comparison to Carleton Dining Services.

As are most student unions, CUSA has a democratically elected Council that shares many differing views. Sometimes, these discussions can get political and come off as aggressive and controversial. As a student union, we strive to represent students as best as we can and sometimes it comes off as we are being too political. While we are striving to find ways to best serve students, the unfortunate side effect is we have a Council and executive that only serves a one-year term and our permanence in the organization is limited. CUSA has tried to correct this through democratic reform and expanding our full time staffing structure to add longer term permanent staffing to our organization. These expansions cost a lot of money but have been proven to be successful. 

Voting will happen on March 11th and 12th through your cmail account. Please look out for that email and don’t forget to vote!

Unfortunately, student jobs will be cut, prices at CUSA businesses will go up, CUSA services like free printing will be cut, and CUSA won’t be as prominent in its programming for the next several years. This is unfortunately a 3-year decision and it greatly impacts the student experience you will have on campus and for those students who will come after you.

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