Twenty-eight candidates are running for eight seats on Governing Council. About half showed up to a town hall last Monday to field questions from an audience around the same size. The event was hosted and extensively promoted by the French Club, known as EFUT, and the Young Liberals of U of T.
This year, GC shortened the election season from five to three weeks and reduced the number of signatures required for nomination from 20 to five. But the number of candidates decreased from last year, when 46 students ran (of which three were disqualified and three withdrew).
Students hold eight seats on the 50-seat GC, despite frequent calls to give students, staff, and faculty equal representation. Though student governors are vastly outnumbered—a perennial issue that was raised Monday night—they can vote on decisions that come before the university’s highest decision-making council and give voice to the students they represent.
In this issue and the next, The Varsity takes a look at each constituency represented on GC. Voting takes place on ROSI until March 12. All candidates’ statements are available online at here (PDF).
Full-Time Undergraduate Constituency I: 13 candidates, 2 seats
With Andrew Agnew-Iler’s decision not to seek another term, 12 new candidates are vying with incumbent Margaret Kim for one of two seats reserved for undergraduate candidates from Arts and Science, UTSC, and UTM.
Kim said she wanted an opportunity to build on the work she started this year, and compared sitting on GC to a part-time job and that students needed a representative who treated it that way. She added that she spent about 15 hours a week attending meetings, not including the time it took to prepare. “I try to make sure that when I go into that room, I know what I’m talking about and that I have constructive, critical questions to ask these people,” she said.
Candidates like Kim, whose approach to campaigning is mainly through face-to-face interaction, face stiff competition. Other candidates have lined up a string of endorsements and made extensive use of social media to get out the vote.
One of those contenders, Daniel Gatto, has received endorsements from several former governors and student society leaders. As of press time, he had 178 members in his Facebook group. “I already have a fair base of contacts to work with and I’m really into outreach, so I’m always trying to connect with new organizations,” said Gatto. He said that one of the major items of his platform would allow students to opt into health and dental plans on ROSI. “That’s really a UTSU issue but I don’t see the UTSU as an organization that would bring forward something like that.” Gatto also recalled an instance where he found a piece of a cutting board in his Subway sandwich and said he wanted to work for healthier food choices on campus and give campus groups like Investing in Integrity a stronger profile when it came to finance-related issues.
Full-Time Undergraduate Constituency II: 6 candidates, 2 seats
The race for the professional faculties seats is on, with several challengers mounting sophisticated campaigns. Manveen Puri, a first-year medical student, boasts 27 campaign volunteers who have together logged in 39 volunteer hours, according to Puri’s website. Puri said he didn’t feel that endorsements from student society leaders were particularly effective and that he preferred to campaign by talking to students in their classes.
Adam Heller is a law student seeking his second term on GC. Heller said he wanted to be a moderate representative that would stand up to small special interests and oppose an activist form of governance. He said he understood GC’s role as inter-jurisdictional between the faculties.
Ken Kuran is a mechanical engineering student who has the endorsement of the current Engineering Society president and a past EngSoc president (EngSoc itself does not endorse candidates). He said he and fellow candidate Natalie Melton also had the support of current student governor Ryan Campbell, who graduates this year. Kuran said that one of his priorities would be to address the disparities in tuition costs between Arts and Science students and engineering students, whose tuition is considerably higher.
Heller said he felt some of his opponents were misleading students with proposals that he described as “overly broad.” “I think the platforms of some of the other candidates suggest that they don’t understand the role of Governing Council. I think they’re pledging things that aren’t within the purview of Governing Council,” said Heller, who declined to name names.
Kuran didn’t hold back. “We personally don’t feel that Adam Heller has done a sufficient amount to even deserve a seat on Governing Council,” he said. Kuran accused Heller of poor attendance at meetings and said he only showed up when the president and other higher-ups were in attendance.
“If you put out these massive overhauls that you claim you’re going to achieve, it’s not going to happen,” said Heller. “The Governing Council is not about these faculty-specific proposals that one student is going to be able to pursue.”
An earlier version of this article stated that Ken Kuran has the endorsements of past Engineering Society presidents. In fact, he has been endorsed by the current EngSoc president and one past president.
