Throughout the University of Toronto Students’ Union’s (UTSU) fall Annual General Meeting (AGM), a variety of questions from constituents took issue with the UTSU’s level of engagement with the student body that it represents. The AGM itself lost quorum, leaving some agenda items unaddressed.

Lack of democratic participation is not just limited to the AGM. Voter turnout for the UTSU elections is low; this year’s elections were recorded at a 4.2 per cent turnout.

Questions honing in on this point produced one takeaway: concerns are consistently being raised that the UTSU is failing to tackle issues of declining participation, especially on the topic of voting.

At a glance, student governance seems to be becoming less and less prominent in student life at U of T. Not only that, but the selection of those that do take up the mantle of student governance is small and comes from a narrow spread of the U of T community, as more and more students appear to be less interested in the UTSU’s affairs and operations.

Is this something the UTSU needs to deal with? Or is this just the chartered course for student unions at large? And, most importantly, how can we fix it?

The scale of the problem

The UTSU plays a vital role in representing the student body and acting as a voice and liaison between them, the university administration, and outside bodies.

Nevertheless, especially for commuters, it’s not always obvious how its efforts have impacted or made changes to student life in and out of campus. For me personally, discussion and attention paid to the UTSU flared as the 2018 U-Pass referendum swung into full force, but with its conclusion, I don’t recall public discussion about the issues that the UTSU faced during the spring elections this year — especially when several board positions were uncontested. My experience shows that the UTSU has failed to attract student attention beyond interest in U-Pass.

Other student unions across Canada see greater participation rates. While the UTSU has had a low average of 12.8 per cent turnout in its general elections from 2016–2019, unions of similar executive sizes and lower student populations are seeing different results.

The Students’ Society of McGill University serves the interests of around 27,000 undergraduate students for the fall 2018 term. It has a 25.2 per cent turnout rate from 2013–2019. Meanwhile, the University of Alberta Students’ Union similarly represents a student body of just over 39,000 students for the 2018–2019 year. Since 2016, it has had an average voter turnout of 21.8 per cent, well-above U of T’s rates.

How do we increase participation?

A recent Varsity article concludes with a quote from current UTSU President, Joshua Bowman: “I want to incentivize students to vote, period.” If the UTSU wants to seriously tackle decreasing engagement, it should consider efforts to exemplify the UTSU’s focal point of representation by matching its size to the vast and diverse student body.

Forming and introducing more positions and opportunities for involvement in the UTSU, especially with the intention to promote particular representation of specific groups and organizations is a good start. For example, each of the colleges are represented by at least one member on the board, but that minimum can rise in order to diversify the representative influence on the union, such as including multiple representatives from lower and upper years, an initiative which has begun through the UTSU’s First Year Council.

The administrative duties of the union cannot be overstated, but outreach and promotion of the UTSU is a key part of its operations. Although the practice of working behind the scenes is quintessentially accepted in government, student unions need to take advantage of their special affinity with the membership they represent, come from, and will return to after their posts. To fall short in this task contravenes the special relationship that makes student governance an empowering opportunity for both sides of the table.

Andre Fajardo is a fourth-year Political Science and Philosophy student at Innis College.