In just over a week, a by-election will be held to elect the Students’ Administrative Council’s next Vice President of Equity on campus, along with several empty positions on SAC’s board of directors.

The resignation of former VP Equity Julia Munk on August 22 left SAC with major position to fill. Munk left citing issues of SAC transparency and funding, said SAC president Rini Ghosh.

As a consequence of this reshuffle, the council now must hold a by-election to fill the position.

Polling will begin on Wednesday October 6 when ROSI opens and will close on Friday, October 8 at 5 pm. The results will be announced at 7 pm on October 8.

Arek Aniolowski, SAC’s Chief Returning Officer, gave The Varsity a detailed rundown of what this election will require and entail.

Nominations for all positions will be accepted until Thursday at 5 pm. The deadline applies to the VP Equity position as well as seats on the Board of Directors for representatives from the Faculty of Engineering, OISE, the Transitional Year Program, the Faculty of Health and Physical Education, and the Faculty of Music. To run for directors’ positions, students do not have to be members of these particular faculties, but do require the signatures of at least 10 full time students to be considered eligible.

Candidates may start campaigning on Monday, October 4 and there will be two debates, one at U of T’s Erindale campus on October 3 and the other on the St. George campus on October 5.

Jasleen Sekhon, the Interim VP of equity, said that “a lot of what I do is go to meetings dealing with equity and social causes. A big part of the job is forming a response from SAC relating to equity issues.”

She stressed that the overall goal of the Equity VP is to ensure access for marginalized students and make it know that they do have a voice and will always be welcomed at SAC. Sekhon will not be running in the election.

The person who is elected will face a somewhat daunting task of playing catch-up in the position. Because the first semester is already a month old, the in-coming VP will be expected to keep up with a steep learning curve .

“I want to get a new VP who will be able to handle the task of rebuilding the Equity seat at SAC,” said Ghosh. She detailed the issues that SAC hopes to tackle this year. “Issues of diversity, especially women’s issues and LGBT issues.”

“We want to get more women involved in campus politics and we want more people of marginalized groups to know they will have a voice at SAC.”