Trinity College’s student government has called for the immediate resignation of UTSU chief returning officer Daniel Lo.
The Trinity College Meeting (TCM), Trinity’s student government arm, passed the motion nearly unanimously at a meeting Monday night.
UTSU CRO Daniel Lo reads his notes during last week's all-candidates debate. BERNARDA GOSPIC/THE VARSITY
Lo, who is responsible for overseeing the election, was not immediately available for comment.
But Clara Ho, vice-president of university affairs and chair of the elections and referenda committee, indicated that she was open to listening to student complaints, although she had not yet seen the resolution passed by Trinity.
“Something is very, very wrong with these elections,” said Sam Greene, treasurer of the TCM and author of the motion.
“Every student has the right to fair and impartial elections,” said Greene. “We must have CROs and DROs that students feel they can trust, who will impose and apply the rules fairly. That is not the case with Daniel Lo.”
Some students, such as fifth-year Evan Hutchison, felt that by passing the motion, Trinity risked “inviting ridicule” while “achieving nothing.”
But most students disagreed, and forged ahead with the resolution. “This is a dialogue that needs to happen across the campus,” said Jake Brockman, a student head at Trinity and member of the Arts & Science Faculty Council.
An amendment successfully introduced by Brockman calls on other college councils to pass similar motions, and for a letter to be sent on behalf of the Trinity student government to Jill Matus, vice-provost students, seeking her opinion on the election and Lo’s conduct.
“We’re not doing this to further one slate’s agenda over the other. All students suffer from unfair elections,” said Aras Jizan, a fourth-year who voted in favour of the motion.
Anger with Lo’s handling of the election has been mounting all week, beginning with the unusually short notice given for the all-candidates debate.
“I’m equally as frustrated as you guys are,” said Team Unity presidential candidate Shaun Shepherd and incumbent UTSU executive at the all-candidates debate last Wednesday, when confronted with pointed questions over the lack of notice for the debate.
Reached for comment on Monday, however, Shepherd said he felt that Lo had been “fair” thus far.
Although Shepherd said that his team had taken pains to familiarize themselves with electoral policy, and they found it “simple to remain within the rules,” he was penalized hours earlier in a ruling that found an endorsement made by The Varsity constituted “unauthorized campaign materials.”
At the meeting Monday evening, students cited a variety of reasons for supporting the call for Lo’s resignation: the disparity of demerit points awarded to date, a perceived conflict of interest in the hiring and appeals process for the CRO, and the scope of the CRO’s decisions this year.
“The fact that the CRO can issue demerit points over a person’s Facebook status sets a dangerous precedent at this university,” said Angelo Mateo, a first-year student who also voted in favour of the motion.
“I understand where people are coming from with this whole conflict of interest thing, but I take my duties as outlined in the by-laws very seriously,” said Ho. Ho has promised a fair review of controversial decisions made by the CRO.
Among students at the meeting, there was a growing sense that their votes will never matter, so long as the CRO retains the power to disqualify candidates and leaves students with insufficient recourse.
“It’s getting a point where the CRO has more power than the voters,” remarked Brent Schmidt, presidential candidate with StudentsFirst who was not involved with the vote at Trinity.
Last year, some StudentsFirst candidates were disqualified before elections opened over issues with their filing paperwork, leading the entire slate to boycott the election in protest.
Schmidt and his team have been forced to confront the possibility that they may well be disqualified once again. In that event, they will be ineligible for the standard reimbursement of expenses incurred during the campaign.
“I’ve spent $700 out of my own pocket,” said Schmidt. “That’s my rent money for the month.”
Asked how he will recoup his losses if he does get disqualified, Schmidt pauses and looks at the ground. “We’ll have a fundraiser, or something,” he says glumly. “I guess.”
