Debate, protests flare as SCSU heads for elections

UTSC students better take a breather Tuesday.

Today is the forum for the upcoming Scarborough Campus Students’ Union election. Wednesday night will feature a debate on the campus radio station. On Thursday, the student union holds elections, sandwiched between a sit-in at the union’s restaurant slated for closure and a Friday protest.

During last year’s election, current president Zuhair Syed was disqualified for emailing the Elections Committee using his official SCSU account, and for sending two campaigning text messages after the campaigning period had ended.

The Board of Directors subsequently rejected Syed’s disqualification and hired him as interim president. Last October, an election for the official presidency was held and Syed was re-elected. Out of more than 10,000 students, 325 voted.

Since then, the union has been plagued with allegations of mismanagement, corruption and a culture of entitlement.

This year, Syed is running for re-election against SCSU vice chair Daniel Greanya.

The campus has been active in discussion, debate and action surrounding its union’s pay raises, budget, lack of financial audits and hostility to media. These concerns, combined with SCSU’s decision to close Bluff’s, the campus restaurant, were reported in an article in the Victoria College newspaper the Strand, igniting debate and attracting national media attention.

“I’m really tired of the SCSU’s mismanagement of student funds and resources. They don’t really seem to care,” said Xiaoli Li, a fifth-year drama and English student. “This Bluff’s thing is the final nail in the coffin.”

A Facebook group called “Scarborough Campus Students Union Needs Accountability,” started by a user under the pseudonym “Buttons D Kat,” has over 60 members.

Kat, who claims to be a third-year philosophy student, told The Varsity in an e-mail that he started the group “to get the otherwise uninterested students involved in the dealings of their own union” and “to uncover some of the under-reported, and in certain cases illegal, doings of the union.”

Kat cited the questionable firing of a third-party auditor and concerns over information security. UTSC students who wish to purchase a Metropass must use a debit card. The SCSU’s card reader, which has since been replaced, was allegedly used in a debit card fraud.

“We’re seeing the quality of campus life go down considerably while the SCSU executive is consistently voting to raise their own salaries,” said Li, referring to a recent hike in SCSU executive pay that totalled $63,000. Jon Mandrozos, a fifth-year student and the administrator for the Facebook event “Bluff’s Sit In,” told The Varsity that he was denied access to executive salary records from SCSU.

All of these issues will be discussed Wednesday night on the campus’ radio show titled “The SCSU Review and 2009 Elections.”

The next day, a sit-in will take place at Bluff’s restaurant on its last day of business. The decision to close down the restaurant came after employees filed a complaint to the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Some workers claim retaliation, although Syed maintained that all firing and lay-offs were legally conducted.

Mandrozos said he was frustrated with a lack of support from SCSU for arts groups and became even more frustrated after hearing a friend had been laid off from Bluff’s.

“SCSU’s been a mess pretty much this year. I think people should be informed of what’s going on and that councils like this should be held accountable. Students have allowed them to be unaccountable for their actions,” said Mandrozos.

At the sit-in, the protestors plan to have open discussion about the student union. They have invited all SCSU executives.

“People are screaming in the dark,” said Mandrozos. “I think what they really need is a forum where they can actually sit down with someone who would represent the SCSU and address issues people are having.”

On the day of the sit-in, SCSU’s will hold annual election is to be held. Many are hoping the election will be conducted without allegations of rule breaking.

In the midst of these allegations is a petition the sit-in group plans to circulate. According to SCSU bylaws, the student body can boot all elected SCSU executives from their jobs. If 10 per cent of the student body signs a petition to remove an exec, it goes to referendum to the entire student body 20 days later.

If Syed is removed, he will not be president for the rest of the school year, but he could still win the election for next year’s executives.