On every campus, the main purpose of a students’ union is to represent and serve their membership. Both the UTSU and the SCSU use three pillars to fulfill their mandate to their members: cost saving services, advocacy, and events. This is the basic structure of how students’ unions operate on most campuses and it has served students well.
But no matter what work a students’ union prioritizes or excels at, it can only be done through strength in numbers. From using economies of scale to get discounts for members, to throwing big parties and funding diverse clubs, or having the membership be represented — as one strong voice to decision makers, all the work of a students’ union can only be done through the collective representation of its members.
[pullquote]“What happened at Scarborough was not ideal and a better model that works was implemented at UTM…Disagreements are part of a healthy democracy. Democracy doesn’t mean you will always get your way. It certainly doesn’t mean that you should leave the table the minute you don’t get exactly what you want.”[/pullquote]
Unfortunately, about 10 years ago, the model of representation of Scarborough students in the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) — the precursor to the UTSU — was not working out. The main problems lay in the fact that events and services were centred downtown, and Scarborough students didn’t have as much access. Because of the barriers the vast distances between campuses created, the SAC ran a referendum at the Scarborough campus to have fees students paid to SAC given to the SCSU so they could better deliver the services and events at a more local level. Both organizations still saw the value of having central representation and agreed that SAC would also advocate for Scarborough students at Simcoe Hall.
One thing that both organizations quickly saw, with the quick turnover and lack of Scarborough in the SAC structure was that representing Scarborough downtown was not something sac could do effectively. So when the time came for SAC to have the same discussions with the UTMSU, they decided to go with a different route. Because of the lack of strong representation Scarborough saw downtown, but in recognition of the difficulty SAC had in delivering services and events on a different campus, they created a different structure. SAC would reroute some of the fees, enough to deliver events and services, but some of the fees would stay at SAC and UTM would also stay as a part of the SAC structure. This allowed for SAC to use the strength in numbers to strongly represent UTM and downtown students and using economies of scale to deliver services like orientation, the health and dental plan, and agendas to both campuses at a lower rate.
While Scarborough students had local representation and some of the services being delivered by the SCSU, the lack of representation downtown made things difficult to do the best job we could have done in representing students at UTSC. Unfortunately, U of T operates in a top down decision-making model, with major decisions being conceived and made at Simcoe Hall. Because of this, by the time it came to UTSC, it would have been too late to effectively advocate to make sure it was in the best interest of students. For example, UTSC has been working on changing its governance system for two years with campus stakeholders before Governing Council created and shoved down UTSC’s throat a model that practically gutted student representation in a couple of months.
With colleges being walking distance from the UTSU and the executives spending almost all their time on the St. George campus, students have full access to their union. What happened at Scarborough was not ideal and a better model that works was implemented at UTM. If the duplication of services at a college level is an issue, then brainstorming can be done on how to come up with and put forward better services to students. With such a large number of students in a small area, a lot can be achieved if students worked better together and pooled resources. Disagreements are part of a healthy democracy. Democracy doesn’t mean you will always get your way. It certainly doesn’t mean that you should leave the table the minute you don’t get exactly what you want. Many students were successful in implementing the majority of electoral reforms that they wanted this year. This is a perfect example of how democracy works. My advice to St. George students is to continue to respect the process, and work within it.
