Raymond Dang is a fourth-year Public Policy and Environmental Studies student running with the Shine Bright slate to be the SCSU’s next Vice-President Academics & University Affairs. Dang was a Political Science Students’ Association representative for three years in a row, has served on the Council on Student Services, and is the current SCSU Director of Political Science.
One of Dang’s platform points is to advocate for more affordable residence spaces. Part of his plan to achieve this is to lobby the university to “give a commitment as a percentage of affordable residence homes.”
“I understand it is definitely difficult, but having these conversations is necessary, long-run, if we want to create communities that interact with each other.”
When asked what he would do about the provincial government’s changes to postsecondary fee frameworks, which would potentially put the SCSU at risk of losing its funding and cut university revenue, Dang is a proponent of “working with the university to find revenue streams so that it is sustainable, and not just relying on student revenue like student tuition.”
He suggested federal grants, federal sponsorship, and corporate sponsorship as alternate streams of revenue.
In the past year, Dang has been the subject of controversy, first when he proposed a media policy aimed at regulating access to SCSU meetings, and then when he motioned to give the UTSC Women’s and Trans Centre money (AGM).
When asked about the media policy, Dang said that he “absolutely never intended to make that policy about controlling media” and acknowledged that the wording of the motion was “super clumsy.”
He added that he hoped the SCSU would issue a statement clarifying his record.
When asked why he proposed the motion to give money to the centre, Dang said that it was because after the AGM, he discovered that the SCSU had enough money in its contingency reserve to give to the centre.
However, Dang added that, looking back, he would do things differently in light of the criticism.
“I would publicize it everywhere, I’d talk to students everywhere. I’d get people who were… also at the AGM and talk to them about the issue.”
