Student politics is messy, and the last few years at U of T have been no exception. Lurking beneath quarrels over campus bars, online voting, and Israeli Apartheid Week lie serious questions. What is the appropriate business of a student union? What do we want our student union doing? What policies and skill sets do this year’s executive candidates bring to the table in order to accomplish our union’s goals?
The UTSU’s bylaws give some insight into past priorities for the union. The priorities they suggest can be roughly categorized as services, community building, and political work. The bylaws treat each category as roughly equal, declaring that the union exists to do work in each area. This is what students in the past thought the union should do. What do we think today?
What sort of services should the UTSU offer? It currently provides discounted products acquired through bulk purchasing, administers the health and dental plan, doles out club funding, and more. Some of these services are great, others perhaps less so. What further services could the UTSU productively offer its members? Which current services should be ended? What guidelines should determine the types of services the UTSU offers?
What political advocacy should the UTSU engage in? The bylaws mandate advocacy on behalf of students as well as on behalf of the community at large. Some have suggested that previous political campaigns have been inappropriate. Are there criteria that ought to govern the appropriate bounds for the union’s political work? Which political goals should we prioritize, amongst the ones we do pursue?
Community building is in some ways derivative of service provision and political advocacy. Services require distribution and this is often accomplished through events, such as the clubs fair. Sometimes hosting an event, like frosh week, can be a service in its own right. Political advocacy also requires community building, such as mobilizing and organizing students to participate in campaigns and protests. Furthermore, community building is useful in its own right. Being part of a positively engaged student community is good for its own sake. Whether this year’s candidates lean towards services or political work, what community building skills do they have to further our goals?
This election season I would like to hear from candidates who have comprehensive answers to these questions. What is the appropriate balance between services and political work and what community-building skills will they bring to the executive team?
Denys Robinson studies philosophy.
