The Scarborough campus is in the midst of deciding which student leaders will represent it in the coming year. Elections for the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) will take place this February 4–6, with two slates and eight independent candidates competing for executive and directorial positions. Four executive and 16 directorial positions are up for elections.
The New Political Student Party (NPSP) has candidates running for the roles of president and vice-president, academics and university affairs, but none running for vice-president, external or vice-president, equity. The party has 14 candidates running for 16 directorial positions. The other slate, Vote Students First, has students running for all four executive positions, in addition to 13 candidates running for directorial positions.
Vote Students First features three current SCSU executives: Guled Arale is running for re-election as vice-president external, and current vice-president campus life Tashin Chowdhury is running for president. Arale said that experience is one of the main things his party brings to the table. “There are a lot of changes happening: a new principal, the Scarborough campus 50 anniversary, the Pan American Games. All these opportunities need an experienced team to be able to use and take advantage of them,” he explained.
While members of the NPSP are not current members of the SCSU executive team, they believe that their leadership experience makes them worthwhile candidates. Habiba Desai, their presidential candidate, said that her work as a marketing intern for a solar energy firm has provided her with knowledge of how businesses operate on a large scale. She also cited her leadership experience as president of the pre-law society and as a first-year mentor. Shauna Nandkissore, the NPSP candidate for vice-president academics and university affairs, said that her work with business and conference services has given her the necessary experience for the role, in addition to her work with the Green Path program, which helps international students adjust to life in Canada.
Vote Students First used social media extensively in their campaign, releasing a video outlining their main goals; as well as a Facebook page featuring their Twitter and Instagram account. Highlights of the team’s platform include establishing a shuttle bus between the St. George and Scarborough campuses, installing heated bus shelters, and continuing to build and develop the sexual education center.
“What we do is talk to students and find the issues that matter to them, whatever they may be,” said Arale. He also pointed out the diversity of his team, arguing that they are in touch with the many needs of the campus. “When we were putting together the team we looked at students from different years, different student groups — we basically tried to approach student leaders from all over campus.”
The NPSP’s platform has five main points: improving student life, advocating for student issues, remodelling the menu of the student restaurant “Rex’s Den,” making learning a fun initiative, and mandatory updating of the SCSU. Desai said: “My idea is to focus on small meaningful changes. This includes avoiding advocating for issues that are not relevant to student life at UTSC.”
She said that the team hopes to have weekly town hall meetings with all executives and directors present, so that students can interact with their union. She feels that the biggest problem facing the Scarborough campus is apathy. “Students do not care. They have given up about the SCSU. A majority do not vote and we wish to change that by informing them about what SCSU is.”
Arale agrees that there is apathy towards student politics on campus, but he also understands why that might be. “U of T students have to deal with a lot: the incredibly hard courses, working up to two or three jobs, commuting up to two hours every day. I think that they want to engage but there’s all these things standing in their way.” Arale says that he wants the student union to be accountable to the students of Scarborough campus: “At the end of the day, it’s not a political game — you pay a lot of money for your student union, and it should be an environment of excellence.”
Arale also advocated running as a slate: “No one person can do this work — you need a team and having a team that has shared ideals can make the work being done that much easier.”
Outside of the two slates, there are eight independent candidates running for executive positions. Dharsha Sundarampillai and Massih Bidhendi are running for president, Bashorat Umar Muhammod, Vithura Ravirajan, Zheng Zeng for vice-president of academics and university affairs, Dulaa Osman and Zi Jian Wang for vice-president external, and Oranoos Mohammad for vice-president equity. They could not be reached for comment.
