SAC chairperson Jen Hassum has outlined five primary priorities as well as a number of secondary issues that will make up the student union’s 2006-2007 agenda.
First on the agenda is outreach, specifically reaching out to students to let them know that SAC’s different advocacies and services go beyond supplying cheaper TTC metro passes. “That’s been a huge problem,” said Hassum.
Among numerous initiatives, she and SAC VP of Campus Life Camille Cendaña will be taking two weeks off in September and going into classrooms to make announcements and encourage student participation.
“I think a lot of people don’t know that SAC is a good example of a direct democracy because unlike many other student unions, every member has a vote and a voice at our commission meetings. So if people wanna see SAC changed, they just need to come to one of our meetings and propose something.”
The union will also address the problem of childcare space, particularly at UTM, with an enormous campaign involving distributing 10,000 postcards, which students will sign and then return to SAC. SAC hopes to use the signed postcards to persuade the administration to establish a childcare facility at UTM.
SAC will also follow up on issues of diversity and tolerance on-campus, in light of the “Islamophobic” incidents of the past spring.
“We’re working on a campaign with [the Canadian Federation of Students]. We’ll also be distributing pins that say, ‘No Islamphobia, anti-Semitism, racism’ during Frosh Week. We’re gonna be having some follow-up events and really trying to work to make our campus inclusive and to make sure that if there are any other problems in the future that we come together as a community,” said Hassum.
Tuition fees are another focus of intense scrutiny. SAC recently expressed alarm over projected tuition revenues, saying that tuition seemed to be increasing at a larger rate than that allowed by the provincial government. Hassum explains that SAC hopes to make tuition fees a main issue so that by the time of the 2007 provincial elections, the union will be able to lobby political parties to make a commitment to stopping tuition fee increases.
The last of the five priorities is the issue of creating a student commons.
“There’s an advisory committee on student space and SAC has a seat on it and we’ve submitted our proposal. I actually have the draft report for the committee and we’re gonna pass it at the next meeting and then look into what buildings we can work on immediately and what we can commit to for permanent facilities.”
Though these five issues are singled out as the top priorities of the year, it is unlikely that students will see tangible or significant results by the end of the year.
“A lot of our organizational priorities like outreach, how do you judge if you’re successful at outreach? The childcare issue, we’re not gonna see a permanent facility build next year, but we’re definitely gonna be raising it as an issue. Same thing with Islamophobia: we’re never gonna declare victory to diversity and tolerance but I think these [issues] are very ambitious and even just going at them and putting them out there and making them an issue within the university community is worthwhile.”
Students will see more definite results from work on the agenda’s “secondary” issues. These include trying to make Gerstein a 24-hour library, expanding the Walk Safer program’s hours (it currently operates until midnight), and creating a student rights handbook to be distributed in September or October.
“A lot of these secondary issues I think we can definitely get victories on,” said Hassum. “But as for the primary ones, well, I think we’ve gotten the ball rolling. We’ve already been working on all these issues for the past four months and we’ve already started to get by it. I’m optimistic.”
