Earlier today, the St. George Round Table (SGRT), the collaborative body of elected student council presidents and heads of colleges and faculties at the St. George campus, sent a letter to provost Cheryl Regehr expressing concern with the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) electoral process and calling for the creation of a centralized St. George union.
The letter is signed by representatives from the Engineering Society, Innis College Students’ Society, Kinesiology and Physical Education Undergraduate Association, Medical Society, St. Michael`s College Student Union (SMCSU), Trinity College Meeting (TCM), University College Literary and Athletic Society, Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC), and Woodsworth College Students’ Association.
“Our dissatisfactions regarding the UTSU are far reaching and varied. Most worrying of these is the UTSU’s inability to deliver transparent, democratic, and accessible elections practices,” the letter states.
The letter calls on Governing Council to consider a number of recommendations from the Student Societies Summit Report, including the creation of an independent elections and appeals board and the establishment of an arms-length chief returning officer (CRO) for mandatory fee-drawing societies.
“This board would exist in order to make sure all elections are run fairly and in a manner that is representative of the students’ wishes. I don’t feel such a board would hinder student autonomy in any way — it is simply a way to ensure that elections are carried out fairly and properly,” said Victor Baciu, SMCSU president.
The letter also calls for the creation of a centralized St. George campus students’ union. “In the midst of a Scarborough and Mississauga student union, it seems odd that our campus has no unified body that is specific to the needs of students attending St. George. We feel that a union specifically for St. George would be the most fair and logical way of representing these students,” added Baciu.
“[This letter] represents, for the first time in U of T’s history, a coordinated attempt by the colleges and Medical Society to reject the UTSU in favour of a St. George-centric governance body,” said Kaleem Hawa, TCM chair.
The letter additionally points to Governing Council for enhanced clarity on the Policy for Compulsory Non-Academic Incidental Fees. Under the policy, if the office of the vice-president and provost has reason to believe that a student society is not operating in an “open, accessible and democratic fashion,” then it may withhold fees from that society.
“We believe it is clear that the UTSU has not been behaving in a manner consistent with these outlined expectations. Greater definitional clarity and reinforcement from administration would be welcome,” the letter says.
Rowan DeBues, VUSAC president, added, “As things stand, the university can feel free to interpret their own policy in whatever way they see fit. Having a clear set of guidelines as to what constitutes democratic, accessible, and transparent government takes away a lot of grey area which the university could potentially take advantage of in a confrontation.”
The letter comes on the heels of a series of letters from numerous Ontario students’ unions urging the rejection of the Student Societies Summit recommendations. The letters alleged that the summit was a flawed process, and that the recommendations of its final report threaten student union autonomy and “[open] up the Governing Council and University of Toronto Administration to liability.”
Last Thursday, Vilko Zbogar, a Toronto-based lawyer representing the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students (APUS), sent a letter to Regehr urging the university to “terminate the process of seeking to make policy changes affecting student societies, without the consent of the affected societies.” The letter alleges that the university has no jurisdiction to act on any of the recommendations set out in the Student Societies Summit report.
The next Governing Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 25.
Update (May 27, 2014, 12:35 AM): Abdullah Shihipar, president of the Arts and Science Student Union (ASSU), commented, “While we understand that the SGRT wants to see structural changes that ensure St. George students have robust representation in student governance, we think their endorsement of the summit recommendations is misguided. They would have adverse effects on all student societies, adding another layer of bureaucracy.” Shihipar wrote an op-ed from ASSU with treasurer Dylan Chauvin-Smith in The Varsity this week criticizing the summit recommendations.
Update (May 28, 2014, 8:44 AM): Yolen Bollo-Kamara, president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), commented, “I believe there is still room to solve these issues together. I think we owe it to our members to try. The administrative route has not worked, and if we are being honest, we have not tried an approach based on communication, good faith and respect for our mutual membership. There are a number of points in the letter that I have not been approached to discuss with the signatories. I am hoping we can end the destructive cycle of communicating through campus press and the social media rumour mill, resulting in misunderstandings and misinformation. My message to the signatories is to meet with me, together. I know the SGRT is a closed body that not everyone can approach, and while I question that, I respect it. But I cannot help but be concerned about the fact that it is summertime and most of our members are not on campus and have not been consulted. I welcome discussion and proposals for change, whether at our Board Meetings, Commission meetings or at the Annual General Meeting. Within any of these bodies or outside of them, I am confident that we can work together to build more constructive relationships so that we can focus on serving the interests of our mutual membership as best we can.”
