The Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC) held its second Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday, November 22. The meeting was part of an ongoing process to make VUSAC more open to Victoria students. Though the meeting was well attended, this was partially because attendance was mandatory for leaders of Victoria’s student levies and clubs.
SADIA AWAN/THE VARSITY
A large portion of the agenda was devoted to an update on the ongoing Student Societies Summit between the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) and other student societies. No one on the UTSU Executive attended the AGM. Jelena Savic, VUSAC president, updated students on the discussions on electoral reform and college representatives on the UTSU Board of Directors.
“We’ve come down to a consensus on some things, but when we get down to the nitty-gritty about student governance, we don’t agree… Every student society agrees on everything — which is a miracle — but the only one with severe objections is the UTSU,” said Savic.
Last March, 61 per cent of Victoria voters cast ballots in favour of fee diversion, yet failed to reach required turnout for a binding decision. Zack Medow, vice-president, external of VUSAC, reflected on the summit and Victoria’s position on fee diversion: “Instead of having to do something radical, like fee diversion, the University has gotten involved, and the table has opened to change the structure… Fee diversion is less the goal than the last resort.”
Students were largely supportive of VUSAC’s efforts at the summit and the future of student governance at Victoria and U of T. David Kitai, assistant chief returning officer of VUSAC argued that VUSAC “can act as a mediating body, without that vested hatred in the UTSU that you might find with Trinity or Engineering.”
“The way I see it, it’s the UTSU’s dragging of its feet that is holding us back. I genuinely think that if the UTSU is willing to compromise, I would be very happy to remain in the UTSU,” said Kitai.
Other issues addressed at the AGM included possible changes on the representative structure at Victoria, including a new Board of Directors. No specific details on membership or elections were given. Despite this, a binding motion was approved for VUSAC to hold an open meeting on representative structures, including the Board of Directors by the end of January. First-year Stephen Warner criticized the Board of Directors: “I’ve been confused as hell about how student government works at Vic. Adding another layer of government isn’t best and won’t solve the issue. We should streamline what we’ve got.”
Voting reform was also discussed, with members approving a binding motion on VUSAC to investigate the use of alternative, ranked voting. Savic highlighted the importance of voting reform, saying that, “There is a clear democratic deficit with the current system, so to address that in whatever way we see fit with student input in the discussion is going to be an absolutely amazing achievement for this year.”
