Fahad Dayala

Fahad Dayala is a second-year accounting specialist student. Dayala became involved with the UTMSU in his first year and is running as part of the Connect UTM slate. He has also participated in planning Orientation Week, which involved reaching out to potential sponsors in Mississauga. Through this experience he feels he gained a greater understanding of the issues facing UTM students and of how the UTMSU functions.

In an interview with The Varsity, Dayala said that the UTMSU “is where I decided that this is a great opportunity for me to be there and do something good for the students.” Dayala also participates in campus clubs, such as the Muslim Students’ Association, and at the campus athetic department where he learned more about students’ needs on campus.

Dayala’s priorities include revamping the relationship between campus clubs and the UTMSU, as well as modernizing the club infrastructure, which currently requires many of the records to be kept and written in paper form. To achieve this, he would introduce an online system for clubs to fill out and upload forms. Dayala feels this would make the UTMSU more efficient and allow clubs to focus on engaging with students, rather than dealing with paperwork. He would also try to keep campus groups from being affected by potential budget cuts.

ADITI PUTCHA/THE VARSITY

Med Kane

Med Kane is a first-year UTM student and the only independent candidate in the UTMSU executive elections. On his campaign platform, Kane lists financial independence, UTMSU transparency in hiring, and promoting various on-campus initiatives such as a student’s garden and a student’s academy as his goals. The student’s academy, under Kane’s proposal, would be “a UTMSU sponsored student run academy for undergrad polymaths and scholars who want to explore the frontiers of advanced study in an interdisciplinary context.”

For the union’s financial well-being, Kane hopes to seek grants from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments for events and increased club funding — this would also include cutting of “nonessential UTMSU costs.” Kane also wrote in his candidate statement that he will “refuse to advocate for the hiring of candidates of associates and staff who do not commit to transparency and openness in engaging with students,” and hopes to offer greater media access to the union by offering biweekly meetings.

The Varsity has reached out to Kane for comment.