Adam Hill is a second-year PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) specializing in Curriculum & Pedagogy. He is running for Internal Commissioner.

Hill is currently an OISE course union representative on the UTGSU’s General Council.

“In my first two years as a member and representative in the Union, I have witnessed two fraught Internal Commissioners’ tenures,” he wrote in a statement online. “I love the Union; I want to do everything within my capacity to do the most for the most people.”

Hill previously served on the Society of Graduate Students and the Education Students’ Council of Western University.

He is campaigning on a platform of developing a conflict of interest policy consistent with the Ontario Corporations Act (OCA), under which the UTGSU is incorporated. “After reviewing all of our current Bylaws and Policies, I found that our Union’s vision of conflict of interest lacks clarity and precision,” he wrote on his campaign platform. “No Conflict of Interest policy will ever be comprehensive and exhaustive enough, but we can do a lot more than what’s currently on our books.”

In his interview with The Varsity, Hill called a more robust conflict of interest policy “extremely valuable” due to “the complicated network of interests within a student society.”

Hill is also advocating for incorporating the UTGSU under the Canadian Not-for-profit Corporations Act instead of the OCA because “it gives us a bit more… flexibility and stability,” given “what’s happening with the Ford government right now, [the OCA is] not exactly reliable… or consistent.”

Hill is referring to the recent changes to postsecondary education funding that are affecting the Ontario Student Assistance Program, tuition, and student fee opt-outs. These changes could potentially lead to drastic cuts to the UTGSU’s funding.