Shining Light on Carleton's Secretive Board of Governors

Dale Craig. Linda Ann Daly. Ron Jackson. These are individuals many Carleton students are not
familiar with, yet whose decisions impact their daily lives. These women and men with 29 others
compose the Board of Governors, Carleton's highest decision making body. Some positions are elected
by students and workers yet most positions are not. The unelected community members are mostly
from the business sector and come from Ottawa's affluent society. Contrary to representing the public
interest, members have been known to make decisions which corporatize the university for profit Some
have little ties to Carleton, yet are responsible for the allocation of resources, tuition, bargaining, etc. In
past years, the Board had managed to stay in the dark and keep a low profile. The Board has now come
out of the shadows into the spotlight due to a series of missteps and sharpening contradictions with the
Carleton community. The saga began when the unelected members tried to prevent union executives
from sitting on the Board. They argued the later had conflicts of interest because they represented the
Carleton community. Ironically, this clarified the conflict between the interests of the unelected
members and those of students, workers and faculty. Campus United, the alliance of unions on campus,
responded with an open letter calling for more transparency and democratic accountability. The letter
echoed a longstanding demand that all positions on the Board be elected by students and workers on
campus, the ones who have to live with the decisions. The unelected contingent of the Board reacted by
trying to hide even more from the light; taking draconian steps to make the Board even less transparent
and democratic. They are now trying to impose a gag order on one Board member, Root Gorelick, an
elected faculty representative, to prevent him from blogging about open Board proceedings. Those who
try to hide from the light, seem to attract it even more. The move by the Board has generated unwanted
attention from the Canadian Association of University Teachers which has condemned the move as
undemocratic and are considering calling for an academic boycott of Carleton. Many students and
workers at Carleton are also very disappointed in the Board's reaction. We are currently at a high point
of consciousness about this due to the bold attempts the senior administration made at tightening their
grasp around how the school is governed, who is able to speak, and who gets acknowledged, Wesley
Petite, a PhD student and union activist, told the Leveller. I would like to see an effort to support real
discussion on serious issues. The options framing tuition increase, for example, are presented as fixed
by the outgoing Financial VP Duncan Watt and this definitely discourages debate and puts reps with
more open and progressive ideas on uneven footing in this debate. A rally has been announced for
January 26th to remind the Board that students are watching and demanding all power to students and
workers.