Last week, candidates for the University of Toronto Student’s Union (UTSU) Board of Directors were announced. Respective director positions for Arts & Science, Trinity College, University College, St. Michael’s College, New College, Innis College, Victoria, Woodsworth, Engineering, Kinesiology, and Professional are all contested. Most candidates are running as part of one of the two slates, U of T Voice or Team Unite, while a handful are running as independents.
Directors are elected annually, along with the executives of the UTSU. The board is the final decision-making body of the UTSU, and its approval is required for all resolutions before they are implemented. In the past year, major topics of discussion for the Board of Directors have included the implementation of online voting and rejection of colleges seeking fee diversion.
Arts & Science At-Large
Team Unite’s Kevin Lunianga
Kevin Lunianga, a fourth-year criminology student who ran for the position with the incumbent slate last year, is running with Team Unite this year. Lunianga commented on the difference between working with the two teams: “With Team Unite, we reflect and come up with our own ideas and we run as a slate, whereas I felt like with the incumbent slate, there is an agenda and everyone has similar minds and we all follow it. I really like the liberty I have in running with [Team Unite].” Lunianga’s platform points include planning events that promote equity, informing students about UTSU services, and increasing unity between the colleges.
U of T Voice’s Kadija Tulloch
Sania Khan and Kadija Tulloch are running with U of T Voice. Khan’s platform points include lobbying for the elimination of interest on tuition fees and increasing accessibility to physical and mental health services on campus. Tulloch’s platform points include advocating for the Transitional Year Programme (TYP) and fostering a better learning and teaching environment on campus.
Independent candidate Maha Naqi
Maha Naqi, a third-year international relations and peace and conflict studies student and co-head of the Trinity College Meeting (TCM), and Shashua Qiu are also running.
Victoria College
Zach Morgenstern, one of the race’s few independent candidates, hopes to accomplish a greater UTSU commitment to causes relevant to students, remarking that he sees the directorship as an activist role. He is running against another independent candidate, Robert Fan, as well as Victor Lee of Team Voice. Team Unite’s campaign manager, Vip Vigneswaran, commented that the team supports all independent Victoria College candidates.
Professional Faculties at Large
Team Unite’s Tolu Alabi
Two of the three candidates running are affiliated with Team Voice: chemical engineering student Andi Musa and second-year pharmacy student Thomas Huang, with only Tolu Alabi representing Team Unite. All three express interest in elevating the concerns of professional faculties students, and Alabi emphasizes reinforcing ties between faculties and ensuring easier access to social services as her key platform points. Huang refused to speak to The Varsity beyond expressing his pride in Team Voice membership.
Woodsworth College
Team Unite candidates Junlin Liu and Jennifer Zhang, as well as Team Voice candidates Sydney Lang, Josephine Petrolo, and Jenny Lin, have remarked on the diversity of Woodsworth College, the university’s newest and largest college.
Both Unite directorial candidates emphasize fostering a sense of commonality to make sure their members are better represented. Liu also prioritizes cheaper and more diverse food options on campus. Voice’s candidates had been involved in a variety of campus groups, including Lin’s three years as an executive on U of T United Nations International Childrens’s Emergency Fund, Lang’s role as residence don and member of the orientation team, and Petrolo’s presence on the Woodsworth College Students’ Association.
St. Michael’s College
Team Unite’s Yun-chun Huang
The three Voice candidates, Lakisha Ledchumanan, Bamike Kuroyo, and Michael Kanopoulos, have all been engaged with organizations at St. Mike’s and across the campus and consider their diversity representative of the college student body’s needs. The Unite candidate, Yu-chun (Jim) Huang, stressed transparency of the union’s decisions as a priority.
Innis College
U of T Voice’s Llyvell Gomes
Llyvell Gomes, affiliated with Team Voice, hopes to pull from his experience on the UTSU Clubs Committee to look out for the needs of clubs and associations on campus, looking to expand clubs services and reform the UTSU’s Clubs Policy. Yiwen (Kevin) Wu approached Team Unite with his own platform that also prioritized clubs, as well as improving communication between the executive, the colleges, and the student body as a whole, which he believes starts with better meeting attendance.
Kinesiology
Unite’s Ryan Schwenger’s platform includes promises to reach out to the wider union and keep Faculty of Kinesiology concerns on the agenda. Voice’s candidate, Niki Firmalino, has stressed campus inclusivity as her key platform point.
Engineering
Team Unite’s Kunsu Chen
Though neither Unite nor Voice have made fee diversion a major electoral issue, the question looms large in the minds of voters in engineering, where 96 per cent of voters supported fee diversion in last years referendum. Team Unite is represented in Engineering by Paolo Piguing, Kunsu Chen, and Ryan Gomes, while Abhinove (Abhi) Amalsadia and Safinur Majumder are running with Team Voice.
U of T Voice’s Abhinove Amalsadia
Gomes and Chen both commented that they saw fee diversion and greater representation for international students to be high priorities for their constituency. “Our role is to represent the engineering body, and if they want something done, we are going to do it for them,” says Chen. Third-year student and Voice candidate Majumder sought out the slate in an effort to get more involved with the Faculty of Engineering. His running mate, Amalsadia, hopes to expand professional and academic co-op and networking opportunities for engineering students.
Trinity College
Patrick Andison, a third-year political science and sociology student, is one of the few candidates running independently. “It’s not particularly daunting to be an independent. I’m running simply because I’m looking for the votes from the Trinity community, and I don’t feel the need or think it is appropriate to attach myself to a slate,” said Andison. His platform points include representing the TCM on the Board of Directors and promoting TCM platform points.
Andison’s opponent, Joanne Zhang, is running with U of T Voice. Zhang’s platform points include hosting more club showcases and inter-club events, creating more commuter centres, and expanding the UTSU volunteer program.
University College
Last Tuesday, Candi Chin-Sang, one of two University College director candidate for U of T Voice, dropped out of the election, citing differences with her slate. This leaves Alexandra McKinnon as the sole University College candidate for U of T Voice. McKinnon’s platform points include improving residence life on campus, lobbying for increased accessibility for physical and mental health services, and advocating for international student representation on Governing Council.
Team Unite’s Felipe Vincencio-Heap
Team Unite has three candidates running: Michelle Hsiao, Felipe Vicencio-Heap, and Eric Schwenger. “As far as that goes, it really comes back to the idea that its about having candidates, period…It’s really about participating in the democratic process,” said Vicencio-Heap.
Team Unite’s Eric Schwenger
Last Wednesday, Schwenger was elected as vice-president of the University College Literary and Athletic Society (UCLit). “The UClit, from my experience this year and years past, [has] taken a little bit of a less prominent role compared with the other colleges in terms of things like the referendum and society autonomy at the university. . . at UC, we seem to be more of a neutral party. I’m hoping next year — if elected VP — to have students become more informed, be aware of what’s going around them. . . There is a severe lack of infirmity across campus — very few students know what they should know about the UTSU and they deserve to be informed.”
New College
U of T Voice’s Bukky Adeyinka
U of T Voice’s Solviu Kondan
U of T Voice’s Hank Ko
New College is the most contested constituency, with seven candidates running for three seats. Xinwei Li, Daniel Marin, and Nick Grant are running with Team Unite. Silviu Kondan, Bukky Adeyinka, and Hank Ko are running with U of T Voice. Dennis Tuyishime is running as an independent.
Team Unite’s Xinwei Li
Team Unite’s Daniel Marin
Independent candidate Dennis Tuyishime
Grant, who is currently a first-year representative on the New College Student Council (NCSC), believes that the relationship between the colleges and the UTSU can be improved.“Transparency is a big issue and a lot of it’s just misinformation. There is conflicting opinions on almost anything and when we have debates on NCSC, the New College directors from UTSU that come in disagree with us on a lot of points,” Grant said.
Positions for the director for the Faculties of Architecture, Law, Dentistry, Medicine, Music, Nursing and Pharmacy are set to be acclaimed, although students in those faculties have the option to vote “no” with each position. Candidates for UTM are to be released next week.
