The official student candidates for Governing Council will be announced tomorrow, January 20 at 10:00 am. Nominations opened on January 7 at noon and ran until January 17 at 5:00 pm. There are eight student positions that must be re-elected each year to Governing Council. These students will have the chance to sit on U of T’s highest decision making body and oversee the university’s academic, business, and student affairs.
According to Governing Council’s webpage, effective council members are expected to be informed about important campus issues and processes, ask relevant questions, and exercise their right to vote at council meetings — which usually occur six times per year. These council member votes will decide the direction of university policy. Recent policy changes approved by Governing Council include the controversial university-mandated leave of absence policy and U of T’s stand-alone policy on sexual violence and sexual harassment.
Governing Council’s chambers has seen significant unrest from unsatisfied students fighting for better mental health services over the past four years, including an occupation of Simcoe Hall and frequent protests outside of the hall during the council’s consideration and eventual passing of the university-mandated leave of absence policy. Council meetings also present an opportunity for questioning President Meric Gertler and other senior administration to clarify various issues from the university’s weather policy to confrontations on allegations of Campus Police misconduct.
Of the 50 members on Governing Council, only 30 are elected. Elected members consist of teaching staff, alumni, administrative staff, and a variety of students. Four full-time undergraduate students, two part-time undergraduate students, and two graduate students will be elected for one-year terms come the end of the campaign period.
Equity among Governing Council has been a contested issue for years — international students were ineligible to run for Council positions until 2015 when the University of Toronto Act was amended. In 2019, The Varsity’s own analysis of governors found that the council was largely male-dominated.
Students will have the chance to vote for their preferred candidates online starting February 3 at 9:00 am. Online votes and mail ballots must be received by February 14 at 5:00 pm. Nominees will be able to campaign up until the end of the voting period, but may only begin their campaigns on January 27.
Election results will be released on February 18. There is a three-day appeals process to protest any of the election outcomes, while the official declaration of the winners will not be released until February 21 at noon.
Editor’s Note (January 19, 7:06pm): An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the University of Toronto Act was passed in 2015. In fact, the Act was passed in 1971 and amended to include international students on Governing Council in 2015. The Varsity regrets the error.
