The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union has a new interim president after much debate at an emergency board meeting on Monday, Jan. 4. VP external Amir Bashir is now at the helm, replacing VP academics Aisha Khaja.
Zuhair Syed is SCSU president in name only—he was removed from all presidential duties on Dec. 18, receiving a tier 3 censure from the board of directors for “his inaction in representing the student interest as the President & CEO of the SCSU.” Syed told The Varsity that he is currently speaking to board members to come up with a compromise and get his duties back.
Syed admitted to skipping meetings for various governing bodies and not producing reports, but contested other allegations. He also denies allegations from two board members who say he threatened them.
Syed will keep his pay and title unless 1,000 students petition for his impeachment. As of Jan. 6, there are 511 signatures in an online petition to remove Syed as president. Campaigners for his impeachment have also collected signatures at the Student Centre.
The allegations
The tier 3 motion to remove Syed’s duties was brought forth by Imran Khan, the chairman of the SCSU board of directors, after he investigated several allegations on a Facebook group accusing Syed of neglecting his presidential duties.
Khan learned from UTSC admin that after Syed’s second presidential term started, he only attended one out of four Academic Committee meetings, two out of eight Governing Council meetings, and has been consistently late for Council of Student Services meetings. Syed is required to present a report on every board meeting; Khan said that prior to Dec. 18, Syed’s most recent report was on Aug. 21. Khan also said Syed did not carry out town hall forums planned for the fall semester.
The allegation that Syed failed to attend the Remembrance Day ceremony was not corroborated. Aisha Khaja, VP academics, was chosen to attend the ceremony instead.
“In no way or form am I denying [the above mentioned] allegations and I as a president apologize for it,” said Syed. He said he neglected these duties because he was busy with big projects, such as opening a new restaurant after campus eatery Bluff’s was shut down in February 2009. Syed also cited numerous meetings about the Pan Am Games athletic facility to be built on campus.
“[Apart from those projects], I took on all duties of [the VP campus life] when he was out of work for about a month and a half [due to illness]. It has been difficult juggling big projects so I sort of left out other things,” added Syed.
Responding to the allegation of insufficient office hours, Syed said that he fulfilled the 35 office hours per week that were required of him. Fatih Kurt, VP human resources, said Syed is “putting in more than the recommended number of hours because of his work load.” Syed also said two assistants were in the office to take messages when he wasn’t available.
Khan said Syed did not carry out the Exam De-stressors program, where the union gives out refreshments during exam time. Syed responded that such events and town hall forums are new additions that he came up with, and are not essential.
Syed also denies the accusation from other board members that he has been smoking shisha in the SCSU office. “Shisha has a distinct smell, so if I was smoking it in the office the police would have smelled it and there is no report stating that I have participated in illegal activity,” he said.
The power handover
VP academics Aisha Khaja took on the duties of the president from Dec. 18 to Jan. 4. Humanities director Maryann Raby raised a motion to replace Khaja with Bashir, pointing to a conflict of interest between Syed and Khaja because of a personal altercation between the two.
Khaja alleges that Syed threatened her on Dec. 13 in the Scarborough campus library after seeing that she had joined a Facebook group advocating for his removal as president and had invited others to the group.
An excerpt of Khaja’s statement in the Dec. 14 minutes of the SCSU board meeting reads, “After what happened on [Dec. 13], I am afraid to come to work. I want it to be publicly known that I will lead [Syed’s] impeachment. No apology will stop me from making me feel scared. I now have to walk around campus with a walkie-talkie connected to the campus police because I don’t feel safe.” Khaja says she has filed a police report and that she will only meet Syed with another exec president present or through email.
Khaja later said she no longer plans to lead the impeachment and that the decision should be made by the student body.
The board fiercely argued the motion. “I am not given the opportunity [to take on presidential duties] because I was threatened and I spoke up,” Khaja said.
Khan also alleges that he was threatened by Syed but did not go to the police or take the threat seriously. Syed apologized for his unprofessional tone during his altercation with Khaja and Khan, but denies threatening anyone.
Prior to the tier 3 censure, Syed had received three tier 1 censures, which are verbal reprimands for absence in meetings and failing to produce reports. He also received a tier 2 censure on Dec. 14 that ordered him to write an apology letter to Khan and Khaja for the incidents in the library. He has not written the letter.
“[Syed] should have never been president in the first place,” said David Leaman, a fourth-year UTSC student. “It’s a tragedy that [the SCSU] is an organization that takes a lot of money from [students] and spends it on salaries for people who don’t do their jobs.”
“[The SCSU] does a lot of good that no one knows about,” said Jon Mandrozos, a sixth-year student who led a sit-in at Bluff’s last February to challenge Syed over what Mandrozos and others saw as mismanagement of the student restaurant. Mandrozos said he would like more transparency, but added that he appreciates the SCSU’s effort in improving wireless access on campus.
“I think that Zuhair has some flaws […] but I also think that [there] were no prior warnings of the tier 3 and that wasn’t really done except for the chair’s warnings,” said Bashir, the new interim president. “As a fellow executive, I think he was doing his job.”
Bashir said he plans to hold more town halls, to talk to critics of SCSU, and to ask for suggestions on how the union can improve.
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