During the October 23 meeting of the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) Board of Directors (BOD), members were given updates on COVID-19, campus police, and upcoming collaborations with other organizations.
The SCSU’s September 2020 income statement reports that the SCSU made $30,465.66 in revenue and spent $55,779.71, making the group’s net income loss $25,314.05. The SCSU’s largest expense was slightly above $32,000 for wages and benefits costs.
COVID-19 updates
SCSU President Sarah Mohamed began the meeting by speaking about the Chief Administrative Office Student Forum, an event that Mohamed and Vice-President Operations Bruce Chan attended on October 8. Mohamed said that they were given updates that flu shots will be made available on campus in early November.
Mohamed also reported that UTSC’s Highland Hall will be made a COVID-19 testing centre beginning this winter. The SCSU’s October BOD Meeting package described safety protocols the future centre will follow, including “[blocking] off stairs to the area” and being “closed off so members of the community can’t enter campus.”
Campus police and safety
Reporting on SCSU’s conversations with the administration, Mohammad said, “[UTSC] is saying that, as of now, they’re not going to ban the special constables program.” Special constables are campus police who patrol the campus who are given the authority of a police officer by the Toronto Police Services Board.
The BOD meeting package claimed that, should UTSC abolish campus police, “Toronto Police would have to be the main point of contact should anything happen on campus which is harder since no one has control over [Toronto] police.”
The package also said that campus police undergo anti-oppression training, which the UTSC would not be able to impose on Toronto Police. However, UTSC is hiring a new director of campus safety and security who will work with campus police in an anti-racist framework.
Collaborations with student groups
Vice-President Academics and University Affairs Lubaba Gemma spoke about the SCSU’s Education For All campaign. The campaign consists of a series of webinars that highlight how different demographics of students access education.
Gemma explained that the first event explored “barriers that [Black students] face,” while saying that the next event would focus on disability justice. Gemma described the panel as being “well-received.”
According to Gemma, the SCSU executives met with the Ontario Provincial Youth Cabinet on October 6 to introduce campaigns both groups will be working on in the upcoming academic year.
In her report, Vice-President External Eesha Chaudhry said that she had organized another meeting with WomenatthecentrE, a non-profit organization that Chaudhry described as “[aiming] to support fem-identifying individuals who’ve experienced domestic violence or assault.” Although the meeting was established to further discuss collaboration on the SCSU’s Consent Culture campaign, Chaudhry also reported the possibility of introducing a WomenatthecentrE chapter at UTSC.
Vice-President Equity Kanitha Uthayakumar spoke about meeting with the Sexual Harassment and Assault Resource Exchange (SHARE). The meeting discussed outreach and future collaborations between the organization and the SCSU, specifically “webinars on the issue of content culture.”
Vice-President Campus Life TJ Ho spoke about UTSC’s One Extra Friend Initiative, which he created for UTSC students to “make new, like-minded friends online.” Ho also said that the SCSU hosted its October Club Training on October 23, which he described as “an educational experience for club representatives of UTSC to learn how to run clubs.”
