Elections for the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) took place February 4–6. Unofficial presidential results were announced last Friday. The election was contested primarily by two slates: New Political Student Party (NPSP), led by presidential candidate Habiba Desai, and Students First (SF), led by Tashin Chowdhury. SF filled 15 of the 17 executive and directorial positions for 2014–2015, with all incumbent members of the team being re-elected. Chowdhury won the presidential election by 1101* votes to Desai’s 369.
Chowdhury outlined SF’s priorities for the next year, proposing “Healthier food options on campus. We kind of don’t have a lot on campus; we just have Booster Juice, so it’s not too affordable,” he said, “we’re also trying to get a shuttle bus to and from the St. George campus. I think that’s something we actually had not too long ago, but the population of the university wasn’t nearly big enough to accommodate that kind of shuttle bus service, but we’ve nearly doubled in population since we last had it.” He argues that this would help the many UTSC students who take classes downtown, as well as help clubs at the St. George and Scarborough campuses coordinate activities.
Other SF plans include creating an events forum to help integrate campus life, as well as continue to advocate for lower tuition, more study space, and more multi-faith and programmable space on campus.
Desai describes what the NPSP should have done differently during the election: “Just engaging more students, because during the elections we knew there was apathy on campus, but just looking at the voter turnout, it was higher than before, but it was still not that great of a turnout,” she said. “Only 15 per cent of our student population turned out to vote. So it was like 15 per cent of the student population ended up deciding what would happen for the whole entire student population.”
“We really hit the floor early,” said Chowdhury, explaining the success of his slate’s campaign, “we tried to talk to as many people as we can and really heard what they had to say before we hit the floor and started asking people to vote for us. So we did a lot of research, I would say, just getting to know our student population, a lot earlier than the other party, I would say.”
Desai, for her part, remains committed to her plans. “We want to do the things that we wanted to do as SCSU. Some of these ideas didn’t even involve a lot of money. They were just simple small changes to make campus life better. For some of these things we don’t need SCSU to accomplish them, and that’s what we’re going to look towards until next year and then run elections again.”
“In terms of their platform ideas and whether they can deliver, I think the expectations for results are going to be much higher this year than they’ve ever been,” said Desai, “because students voted for them and now students are going to say, ‘Well, we voted for you, so did you do these things?’ If they can accomplish them, then great, but if they can’t, then I think there’s going to be more accountability for sure.”
Other executive members of the winning slate include Nicole Dionisio for vice-president, academics and student affairs; Guled Arale for vice-president, external; and Sabrina Azraq for vice-president, equity.
*All vote counts unofficial until ratified
