As we draw nearer to the close of the academic year, we find ourselves once again in the midst of the election season for student leaders across U of T. The election period for the university’s Governing Council was a particularly quiet one, and now that the results have been released, our new governors have their work cut out for them.
As U of T’s highest governing body, the council endeavours to effectively govern and manage the university, its policies, budgeting, and planning. Alongside the ex officio President and Chancellor, the council is composed of 48 members, some elected from the student body, faculty, staff, alumni, and others appointed by the provincial government. However, only Canadian citizens can sit on the council. This requirement has caused irritaion, as it prohibits international students from holding these positions.
The mandate of the Governing Council is to handle university affairs; academic policy making falls directly within this jurisdiction. Seeing as international students are an integral part of the student body and their academic careers at the university are affected by the decisions of the Governing Council — much like domestic students — one would think that they too should be afforded an opportunity to partake in these decision making processes. There is no reason why international student can’t be involved in such tasks as appointing the university president, fixing employee salaries, appointing and removing staff members, and conducting examinations.
One could entertain the argument that as a Canadian university, it may be in U of T’s interest that its governing board is composed of predominantly Canadian representatives. But as the university welcomes over 10,000 international students a year, it would be fitting to see these opportunities afforded to all students inclusively.
Perhaps some compromise can be found. One suggestion would be to allow international students to sit in these governing positions up to some designated quota. As the representatives are elected, there could arise no issues of preferential selection for students from certain countries.
It must be noted however that this is not a phenomenon unique to U of T. It seems to be a common clause in university governing legislation across the country: McMaster’s act also required Canaidan citizenship. Furthermore, credit must be given where credit is due. In comparison to other universities in the gta, ours does have significant student representation on its governing board: eight of the 50 elected positions are filled by students which makes for 16 per cent representation on the council. That means we beat out Ryerson, whose students make up 12.5 per cent of its Board of Governors, and leave York in the dust, whose students constitute six per cent of their Board.
The Governing Council legislation incorporating the clause of citizenship as a requirement was amended over 30 years ago. Perhaps it is due time to consider a revision. Particularly at our fine U of T, drenched as it is in boundless global citizenship rhetoric, it would be fitting to see these opportunities extended to all.
Dionne Boahene is a third-year student studying economics and international relations.
