Unofficial SCSU elections results reveal UTSConnect slate dominance

The unofficial results of the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) election were released on February 10, with the UTSConnect slate winning 10 of the 11 positions they contested.

A five-person core executive, alongside directors for the centres and departments hosted at UTSC, make up the 21 representatives on the SCSU.

The elections saw a clash between the UTSConnect and UTSC Links for three of the five executive positions. The entire executive was won by UTSConnect candidates.

Sitharsana Srithas won the presidency; Deena Hassan and Nana Frimpong won the positions of Vice-President Operations and Vice-President Equity, respectively in uncontested races; Christina Arayata won the Vice-President Academic & University Affairs position; and Kubra Zakir won the position of Vice-President External.

There were 11,454 votes cast across all categories in the election, of which 8.89 per cent were abstentions and 7.55 per cent were spoiled ballots.

The slate DiverseUTSC lost every contest they had with UTSConnect for director positions. The Centre for Critical Development Studies position was won by Radhika Gupta; the Department of Anthropology and Health Studies was won by Lavelle Williams; the Department of English was won by Vanessa Vigneswaramoorthy; and the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies was won by Hania Jahangir, all of the UTSConnect slate.

The acclaimed contests for director positions included the Centre for French and Linguistics won by Claire Caluag of DiverseUTSC; the Department of Art, Culture and Media won by Sylvie Stojanovski of UTSConnect; the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences  won by Rahul Gupta of UTSConnect; the Department of Human Geography won by Justin Don who was unaffiliated; the Department of Management  won by Rosia Nouri of UTSConnect; the Department of Physical and Environmental Science won by Curtis Weaver of UTSConnect; and the Department of Sociology won by Ashley Morris who was unaffiliated.

There were four runoff contests between UTSConnect and unaffiliated candidates for director positions, including the Department of Biological Sciences won by Gobika Sithamparanthan of UTSConnect; the Department of Philosophy won by Ali Hosseini Nassab who was unaffiliated; the Department of Psychology won by Sarah Touman of UTSConnect; and the Department of Political Science won by Raymond Dang of UTSConnect.

Lastly, the position of Part-Time Director remains vacant.