ANNUAL REPORT20 1 5 / 20 1 6

As we do our year in review we are faced with the bittersweet ending of our time together. It is bitter to walk away from what has become a family to us, but sweet to see all the growth CUSA has achieved during the past year. Having the opportunity to be your student representatives for this academic year has been a true blessing. From all your executive team, please accept our most sincere and warm gratitude.

There’s so many things we want to thank you for, but out of all those things, we really want to thank you Ravens for believ-ing in us. Without your support none of this would have been possible. Having elected us as your executive team meant that you trusted our judgement and proposals. You believed in us and allowed us to represent you in order to enrich your student experience at Carleton. Knowing we have this kind of support and trust from students is what motivated us to work harder every day, and to give our events, campaigns, clubs, and services all we had. At the end of the day what really made us hap-py, more than seeing a proposal come a reality, was to see how this proposal had a positive effects in your life, and how you benefited from it.

Congratulations to all of you for finishing another academic year at Carleton. Congratulations to those who are graduating, you made it! And the best of luck to the rest of the student body! May all your goals, aspirations, and dreams become a reality Ravens!

Sincerely,

Your CUSA Executive 2015-2016

PROMISES MADE, PROMISes KEPT

10/12

11/12

8/8

12/12

6/7

PROGRESS

10/12

90% of GOALS

57/63

EXCELLENCE IN SERVICES To strive for excellence in delivery of all student services, with

professionalism and consistency.

INCREASED STUDENT ENGAGEMENTTo increase both the number students engaged and the quality

of each student experience.

ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCETo structurally improve the inner operations, governance and

procedures that will be catalysts for overall organizational excellence.

BUSINESS INNOVATIONTo creatively develop business solutions that will serve more

students, while increasing revenue and creating more job opportunities.

FOSTERING COMMUNITYTo create a strong sense of community and belonging for all students.

INCREASED ADVOCACYTo increase the level of results-driven advocacy surrounding student

issues locally and nationally.

CUSA set out 63 goals to be completed by April 2016.

COMPLETED

At Your Students’ Association, we’re continually working to improve your services, programming and student life experience.

In May of 2015 CUSA undertook an ambitious multi-year strategic plan to renew, innovate, and move CUSA forward. We identi�ed 63 goals – separated into six pillars – that framed the plan for strategic growth.

HIGHLIGHTSHERE’S WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO SO FAR THIS TERM:

• Lauched a co-working space for student groups to work and collaborate• Introduced the CUSA Hub - an online engagement platform to help students connect with clubs,

societies and services• Cut Executive benefits by $8100.00 and re-invested those funds into student programming• Relocated and renovated the CUSA Food Centre for increased accessibility and capacity

• Brought the summer U-Pass to Carleton students• Increased Clubs & Societies funding• Created 6 new student jobs and increased job opportunities in our businesses• Introduced halal food options to the menus at Ollie’s and Rooster’s

• Negotiated extentded library hours• Designed new swag, available at Henry’s Convenience Store• Brought exciting new events to Ollie’s• Revived The Raven-Carleton’s official yearbook

EXPANDING YOUR SERVICES

ADDRESSING YOUR CONCERNS

ENHANCING YOUR STUDENT LIFE

It was recognized that CUSA offered a great variety of services in accordance with its’ diverse student membership. Service to students was identified as a core value, and a core operation. In reviewing feed-back from many of the services, it was concluded that many services were “satisfactory” or “good,” but lacked a sense of excellence. It is within CUSA’s core values to always pursue excellence.

MAJOR GOALS

Create Co-working space for Clubs & Societies

It was identified that a lack of collaborative space for Clubs and Societies was an on-going resource defi-ciency. CUSA addressed this issue by creating a new Coworking space, with a number of features meant to foster a collaborative environment. By providing Clubs and Societies with access to a productive, innovative and collaborative space, CUSA made it easier for student groups to come together and work on projects of varying scopes. The space was designed by students, for students, and is quickly becoming a hub for innovation and creativity.

New Clubs & Societies Funding System

With a growing number of Clubs & Societies and an aging funding system, it was identified that an over-hauling of the funding system was necessary to avoid overspending and ensure more responsible fund-ing allocations. CUSA addressed this issue by adopting a funding model similar to the one used by the Community Foundation of Ottawa charity grant system. CUSA’s new and improved online Clubs funding system successfully allocated over $120,000 and has allowed for a more transparent funding process with fewer limitations on clubs, while also keeping the funding allocation within CUSA’s budget.

Fighting the growing Cost of Education - Growing the Bursary Fund

In 2013, CUSA launched the largest student-led bursary program in Canada. This bursary has since grown from $212,000 to approximately $240,000 and is part of a larger endowment fund. As the fund grows so to does the number of students it helps. The cost of post-secondary education continues to rise and it is important that CUSA continues to help to improve the accessibility of education. In March of 2015 CUSA passed a referendum increasing the Bursary Fund by a $1 a student per semester. Because of this change, in 15 years CUSA will have created a million-dollar Bursary Fund for students.

10/12

EXCELLENCE IN SERVICES To strive for excellence in delivery of all student services,

with professionalism and consistency.

Improve Health and Wellness Centre

Since the Health and Wellness Centre was established as a pilot program in early 2014, many lessons have shaped the growth and objectives of this service centre. This year CUSA chose to shift its focus towards providing peer to peer Mental Health support in partnership with the Student for Mental Health Alliance. Since this change the service centre has seen an increase in the number of student visits and quality of engagement

Revitalization of Food Centre

To achieve excellence in student services, CUSA must continue to build on its strengths. For years the Food Centre has provided food security services for students in need, and it continues to see an increas-ing number of student visits. The relocation of the centre to the third floor allowed for a more storage space for food as well as more foot traffic, resulting in an increase in total visits per month. In addition to the new location, better branding has brought new life to CUSA’s Food Centre. The Food Centre has seen over 655 student visits since September 2015.

Health and Dental Plan Improvements

For the past three years CUSA has surveyed students about the quality of the CUSA Health and Dental Plan. Students love the quality of service but they have asked for increased health and dental coverage. A Health and Dental Plan Review committee—established through CUSA Council—is conducting a full re-view of the plan benefits, cost comparisons, and possible improvements. The student Committee’s focus has been on providing mental health counselling coverage and improving current paramedical coverage.

MINOR GOALS

✓ Improve the CUSA Agenda: Student Survival Guide ✓ Official Athletics Box Office – Selling Carleton Ravens games at CUSA

✓ Renovations to revive and revitalize: REC Hall and Aboriginal Service Centre ✓ Expanding Exam Study Snacks – MORE SNACKS, MORE OPTIONS

IN PROGRESS

Sink for the Food Centre – increase food options and accessibilityAblutions Room Renovations – increase space and accessibility

Student engagement was recognized as an important determinant of CUSA’s overall success. The review reported a high level of student engagement in CUSA’s Clubs and Societies and a steadily increasing number engaging through CUSA’s Service Centres. The weak points in the review identified were the consistency and quality of CUSA’s communications, and the availability of ‘entry’ level volunteer positions.

MAJOR GOALS

CUSA HUB: A new online portal for Clubs and Societies

In September 2015 CUSA introduced CUSA Hub, a new, interactive online engagement platform to make it easier than ever for students to connect with over 300 clubs, societies, and services on campus. There’s plenty of exciting features, including the CUSA Hub calendar, where students can find every club and society event all in one place, and interactive feeds for each group. At CUSA, Clubs & Societies are more than just extracurricular. They’re where students meet mentors, confidants and lifelong friends. CUSA Hub makes it easier for students to create those connections.

New CUSA Marketing Strategy

An overview of the CUSA communication strategy identified a great emphasis on branding and market-ing. The CUSA brand saw a face-lift this year, with new branded items, from tents, to banners, to better signage. The new CUSA Marketing strategy stemmed from positively engaging new students with CUSA, to connecting them with all our businesses and services. Social Media played a key role in the execution of the marketing outreach, with CUSA’s Facebook page seeing a 200% engagement increase.

CUSA Street Team – Volunteer Engagement

Volunteers are the backbone of CUSA’s operations. In order to increase volunteer engagement, an organizational review was conducted at the beginning of the academic year. The review outlined a for-mal Recruitment, Retention, and Recognition strategy (RRR) that resulted in the creation of the CUSA Street Team. The Street Team has become the volunteer-core of the organization, with over one-hundred committed volunteers that are actively involved in the CUSA events and initiatives.

INCREASED STUDENT ENGAGEMENT To increase both the number students engaged and the quality

of each student experience.

8/8

CUSA Street Team – Volunteer Engagement

Volunteers are the backbone of CUSA’s operations. In order to increase volunteer engagement, an organizational review was conducted at the beginning of the academic year. The review outlined a for-mal Recruitment, Retention, and Recognition strategy (RRR) that resulted in the creation of the CUSA Street Team. The Street Team has become the volunteer-core of the organization, with over one-hundred committed volunteers that are actively involved in the CUSA events and initiatives.

Higher quality FREE SWAG

This year, CUSA entered new agreements with distributors to use higher quality textile and materials in the production of clothing and accessories. The CUSA communications office also created a collection of brand new designs for this year’s swag, all of which have been very well received by students.

CUSA Bi-weekly Newsletter

Keeping students in the loop has generally been a difficult task due to the abundance of information that needs to be conveyed and the large number of students. Therefore, the CUSA bi-weekly newsletter was created to help keep students informed about the organization’s events, programs, and services. The newsletter includes upcoming events, current programming, volunteer opportunities, and highlights clubs, societies, and services on campus.

MINOR GOALS

✓ More Student Life programming at Oliver’s ✓ Higher Engagement with Fall Orientation

✓ Delivering measureable results with Service Centres

Improving organizational operations is a task that many organizations strive to achieve on a daily basis. It was up to the 2015-16 Executives to identify overlap, inefficiencies, and set up procedures, workflows and operations, that would help increase the overall productivity of CUSA.

MAJOR GOALS

Communications Office

This year CUSA identified communication with students as an important area for improvement. The creation of a Communications Office – and the hiring of a Graphic Design Intern and Communications Coordinator - has increased the organization’s reach and significantly improved engagement with CU-SA’s services and programming. In particular, social media reach has increased considerably, with over 2000 new followers on Facebook so far this year.

Front Office Re-Design

The CUSA main office is the front line for the services we offer. Whether it be students buying tickets, asking questions about the health plan, looking for directions, or just trying to get involved, the front office experiences a significant amount of traffic each day. It only made sense to take a serious look at the layout of the office to improve the visual appeal, organizational efficiency, and - most importantly - accessibility. The redesign, which was completed in August 2015, demonstrates CUSA’s commitment to providing efficient, professional service to every student.

A transparent and accountable budget

At the core of every effective organization is ensuring it is as transparent and open aspossible. This year, the CUSA executives implemented several measures to ensure allfinancial aspects of CUSA are open and accountable. Publishing the CUSA budget online, and sharing it through all social media outlets, providing 10 days of open consultations directly with the Vice President Finance and expanding the mandate of the Financial Review Committee.

Increasing Grants and Sponsorship

This year CUSA has made it a priority to obtain more grants and corporate sponsorship in order to access more funding for services and programming. This began with hiring a Sponsorship and Grants Coordina-tor, whose job is to connect with possible sponsors and find new funding opportunities. Since the coordi-nator was hired, over $25,000 in new funding has been obtained.

ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCETo structurally improve the inner operations, governance and

procedures that will be catalysts for overall organizational excellence.

11/12

Revitalization of CUSA Website

The CUSA website is an important first point of contact with the association’s services for many stu-dents. CUSA identified a number of structural and technical issues with the current website and initiated a full redesign that will make it more comprehensive and easier to navigate. The redesign will be com-pleted by February 2015 and will be useful for students for years to come.

Student Union Building Research

A student union building would be transformative for CUSA and all of the students on the Carleton campus. A hub of student space, living at the heart of campus, with bookable spaces for extra curricular activities, increased open concept study spaces, and all the student services in one location. Space is an ever growing issue on the Carleton campus, and CUSA is creating a solution. Teaming up with the GSA and Administration, CUSA has began the consultation process and determining the scope of the project, to determine a plan for implementation.

Creation of a General Manager position for multi-year program support

Multi-year projects in the CUSA environment with an executive leadership team transitioning every year is a difficult task. In review of the fulltime staff and operating structure of CUSA a big decision was made to create the position of General Manager to assist the student executives in the business operations, and long term vision and goals for CUSA.

MINOR GOALS

✓ Settle University Centre Fee Legal Case – settled after 4 long years of dispute

✓ Paid back monies that CUSA owed (CFS) – settled all CUSA owed accounts ✓ Feedback system – Airloop tech solution allows CUSA

to receive anonymous feedback ✓ Settle Health Plan Legal Case

IN PROGRESS

CUSA Advisory Board - create an Alumni Advisory Committee to bring in support

Create more Job Opportunities

CUSA employs over one hundred and fifty students in its businesses, service centres, and administra-tive jobs. This year the organization added six new jobs for students, allowing it to grow with its students while also providing income for those looking for work.

Introduce SWAG Shop at Henrys

In addition to introducing new, higher quality promotional items this year, CUSA also opened an official swag shop in Henry’s Convenience Store in January 2016. For the first time, students can show off their school pride by purchasing CUSA promotional clothing.

Halal food options at our Businesses

Inclusivity on campus is paramount, especially in our businesses. That is why it only made sense to expand food options at Oliver’s, Rooster’s, and Henry’s to include Halal food. At Rooster’s, students can now opt to have their meals cooked on one of the new dedicated cooking spaces. There are two new spaces, one for halal meat, and one for vegetarian meals. Over at Oliver’s, students can now order each Ollie’s classic burger as a veggie or halal burger. There’s new wrap options, too. Each wrap can now be ordered with halal chicken. Finally, Henry’s Convenience Store now sells Halal samosas and will be continuing to source more options in the future.

Promotional Strategy for Rooster’s

Rooster’s Coffeehouse is the best place to get great tasting fair-trade coffee and food for the lowest prices. However, in order to compete with other coffee options on campus, it is crucial to make students aware of Rooster’s and what they offer from the moment they arrive on campus. This year, first years participating in Fall Orientation received a free Roosters coffee tumbler and a coupon to try out Roost-er’s signature fair trade coffee.

Expand Rooster’s Smoothie program

This year Rooster’s completely reinvented its signature smoothies with more fresh ingredients and a brand new smoothie machine. Not only do students now have a great tasting and healthy beverage op-tion, but the new smoothie machine paid for itself within the first week of classes.

BUSINESS INNOVATIONTo creatively develop business solutions that will serve more students,

while increasing revenue and creating more job opportunities.

12/12

MAJOR GOALS

Improve business marketing

An important goal this year was to establish a better system for marketing CUSA’s businesses. Since the university customer-base constantly changes as older students graduate and new students arrive, busi-nesses must constantly introduce their brand to new customers. For Haven books, the vice-president finance created a comprehensive advertisement plan to map out promotions for the year. At Henry’s Convenience Store, the business is undergoing a three-phase upgrade plan improve the store’s appear-ance and add services such as hot food. For Oliver’s and Rooster’s CUSA is working to continue to build on each business’s unique culture in order to increase traffic. Both establishments have a certain vibe and aesthetic, and the key was to showcase that in order to make them both more welcoming and accessible for all students.

Sink in Henry’s Convenience store to expand fresh food options

Henry’s Convenience is always looking to improve and reach new customers. By adding an industrial sink to the store, Henry’s is now able to sell hot food and expand food options to serve students better.

MINOR GOALS

✓ Expand Haven advertising to first years ✓ Making Roosters Fair Trade

✓ Upgrade Food Service at Roosters✓ Improved WIFI at Oliver’s

✓ Oliver’s Patio Revitalization

Expand the scope of the Conference and Discretionary Fund to Student Initiative Fund

This year CUSA transformed the existing Conference and Discretionary Fund into a new system called the Student Initiative Fund (SIF). SIF was created with a mandate to provide funding not only for stu-dents attending conferences and competitions, but also for students working on academic projects and charity events. So far this year SIF has provided funding for over 150 students for everything from engi-neering projects to marketing conferences.

Bringing back Carleton’s official yearbook

From 1942 to 1980, Carleton University produced “The Raven,” the annual yearbook. The yearbook was a candid compilation of campus, academics, clubs, societies, and most of all: student life. It used to capture brilliant young women and men dedicate countless hours as they earned a degree in the nation’s capital. Then, for thirty-six years The Raven came to a halt. Thousands of memories went unpublished; decades of student life went uncaptured. This year, we’re bringing it back.

Collaboration with Graphics Services

CUSA’s new partnership with the university’s Graphics Services provides clubs and societies with a wider variety of printing options on campus. CUSA was also able to pursue new sponsorship opportunities with Graphics Services to save students money.

Increase C&S Funding

In December 2015, the CUSA team successfully passed a referendum to increase the existing clubs and societies levy by $3.50 per student. This increase will equate to thousands of dollars in new funding for clubs and societies in future years.

FOSTERING COMMUNITYTo create a strong sense of community and belonging for all students.

6/7

MAJOR GOALS

MINOR GOALS

✓ Better collaboration between VPSI, SC, C&S ✓ More bookable spaces

IN PROGRESS

Multi-faith Room Revitalisation

Increasing safety on campus (safety survey)

Last year CUSA initiated a two-year survey to determine the current state of student safety on campus. Once the results of the survey are available in the association will move forward with a comprehensive plan to improve and expand safety services where they are needed most. (

Extended Library hours

CUSA, in partnership with CASG, successfully negotiated a pilot program to extend library hours to 24 hours a day during the 2015 fall midterm season from October 14-22. The results have been shared with the University Senate and discussion around the next steps and course of action is being undertaken.

Innovate Sexual Assault Awareness week

In September 2015, CUSA’s Vice President Student Issues made a number of innovative changes to the existing Sexual Assault Awareness week to increase engagement and expand the scope. The campaign, titled beFOREPLAYask, included a number of new workshops, a resource fair, a talk by the executive directors of the blog Feministing, and the innovative new Clothesline Project.

Expanded Mental Health campaign

Improvements were also made to CUSA’s mental health campaign, Pop the Stigma, including some excit-ing new speakers and more therapy dog sessions. Pop the Stigma received a marketing facelift, and ad-ditional funding for speakers and guests to visit our campus. With the additional of the friendship bench, CUSA’s mental health support services are available are year-round.

Summer UPASS Referendum

Bringing forth the long awaited Summer UPASS for the summer of 2016. A UPASS available to all stu-dents who are enrolled in 1.0 Credits or more, at 50% the cost of a regular presto pass. This will be huge savings for the Carleton student body, and a huge step in improving transportation, as it is still a large barrier to education.

INCREASED ADVOCACYTo increase the level of results-driven advocacy surrounding

student issues locally and nationally.

10/12

MAJOR GOALS

Cut Executive Benefits

As a part of their 2015 platform promises, CUSA executives cut over $8100 from their total benefits and reinvested it into CUSA student programming.

Effective Federal GOTV Campaign

As young student leaders, CUSA played a key role in getting students and young people out to Vote in the 2016 Federal Elections. From engaging online platform discussions, to hosting the Ottawa-Centre debate right in the UC Atrium, to providing the Carleton campus with advanced polling, CUSA is proud of the integral part it took to securing the highest voter turnout in all of Canada (Ottawa-Centre).

MINOR GOALS

✓ Faster booking process through student affairs✓ Summer UPASS Agreement

✓ Improve Bus Routes to Carleton

IN PROGRESS

Reforming Council Exam Coat Check

PREPARED BY THE CARLETON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE 2015-16

President: Fahd AlhattabVP Finance: Craig Handy

VP Internal: Sofia DalaVP Student Life: Sean Smith

VP Student Issues: Maddie AdamsVP Student Services: Frena Hailekiros