The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) released a statement on September 15 announcing its plans to appoint a new Vice-President University Affairs following the resignation of Carina Zhang on September 4.
“It was a pleasure working with my fellow executives in the office, but my decision is still to resign from the VP University Affairs position due to personal reasons,” wrote Zhang in a previous statement to The Varsity. “I appreciate all the support they’ve given me, and wish my colleagues best of luck in the future.”
According to a UTSU bylaw referenced in the UTSU statement, candidates for the new VP University Affairs will be chosen by the UTSU Executive Committee after an interview process has been conducted. At least two candidates must be presented to the Board of Directors for election, and the Executive Committee must “post the vacant position for no less than twenty (20) days.”
“In practice, however, the Executive Committee delegates that power to a shortlisting committee composed of directors as well as executives,” wrote UTSU President Mathias Memmel in an email to The Varsity. “The idea is to allow directors to participate.” The shortlisting committee will be struck at the next UTSU board meeting on September 28.
This process took place last year to appoint Matthew Thomas, who succeeded Lucinda Qu as UTSU Vice-President External.
Memmel believes it is “highly unlikely” that a new VP University Affairs will be elected by the time the UTSU Annual General Meeting takes place on October 30.
Zhang was the only member of the UTSU executive elected from the We the Students slate, running on a platform focused on international students and eliminating the exam deferral and exam remark fees.
