The week before SAC’s annual general meeting last Thursday, rumours swirled on campus that the engineers were collecting proxy votes to block certain measures on the agenda.
In the end, the engineers’ proxies were vastly outnumbered-many of the 200-odd members who turned up carried the maximum of 11 votes. And dissent was largely absent, that is, until SAC’s name change-to Central Students’ Union-came up.
While no one mourned the passing of SAC, members took issue with the moniker “central” instead. Vice-president UTM Vlad Glebov immediately tabled an amendment to rename the organization to University of Toronto Students’ Union instead.
“The name ‘central’ alienates the Mississauga campus,” said Glebov. “I haven’t been able to find a student so far who likes the ‘central’ part of the name.”
“It’s too bureaucratic,” added vice-president university affairs Ashwyn Balamohan.
Alanna Prasad, head of the Chemistry Students’ Union, pointed out that her group already has dibs on the CSU initials.
“For a lot of students, ASSU already is the central students’ union,” said Arts and Science Students’ Union president Noaman Ali. “This would simply cause confusion.”
In the end, members voted overwhelmingly for the amended name change-including Hassum herself, but not before hearing from Gabe DeRoche, representing Trinity College, mock the dictatorial powers implied by the word “central.”
“It’s a pretty good description of what [SAC] do-they centralize resources and then redistribute them. Trinity is very much opposed to this.
“If SAC really would like to change its name to include the concept of centralization, Trinity College proposes another name: the United Student Society of Representatives, the USSR,” DeRoche said, to howls of laughter.
(“That’s a recycled joke,” remarked chairperson Hassum.)
