The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) held its seventh Board of Directors meeting on October 30 over Zoom. Members discussed initiatives that they have been working on in the past month, including an upcoming divestment campaign, and discussed audit financial statements that detailed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Statements revealed that the Blind Duck Pub struggled during the pandemic, and students saw a decrease in wages due the lack of activity on campus. 

 

Executive reports

During the meeting’s executive reports, Noha Farawi, Vice-President Equity, highlighted the Campaigns and Advocacy Commission, which was held this past month and included over 60 student attendees, according to Farawi. She noted that many people were interested in the upcoming Divest Now campaign.

The first step of the Divest Now campaign, Farawi said, is to hold a meeting with the Central Student Association at the University of Guelph, which has voted to divest from fossil fuels after seven years of student-led advocacy. “The working group will meet soon to discuss how we’re going to bring this campaign to UTM,” said Farawi. 

Mitra Yakubi, President of the UTMSU, discussed her team’s work on its Mental Health Care Program, noting that it recently trained volunteers. Yakubi also highlighted upcoming events, such as the VolunTEAM Cafe, and discussed the ongoing ‘EducationForAll’ campaign. 

Yakubi noted that in October, her team continued to post student testimonials in order to keep the momentum of the campaign going. The team members also met with the administration for a second meeting, which “assured [them] that they were currently working on the demands and what it looks like for them to implement parts of the demands.” 

 

Audited financial statements draft

The meeting moved on to discuss the audited financial statement draft of the 2019–2020 year, as presented by Fahad Dayala, Vice-President Internal. Financial statement audits pertain to student clubs, which submit financial statements to the UTMSU. 

With regard to the Blind Duck, a pub run by the UTMSU, total assets were low compared to the previous year, mostly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We didn’t have any events in the last two months of the financial year, and that’s why we did not have [any] accounts receivables pending,” Dayala said. 

The Blind Duck’s inventory also went down toward the end of the year due to COVID-19. “We had to throw [out] some of the inventory at the Blind Duck because they were perishable items… some of the things expired and things of that nature happened,” said Dayala. Things were similar with respect to liabilities and net assets, with liabilities showing less due to the inactivity surrounding the pandemic in the last two months. 

Dayala discussed income statements as well, highlighting low sales and expenditures due to the lack of people on campus and low wages because of the closures for part-time staff during those last two months. He also pointed to the significant decrease in revenue from the student levy, which dropped from $117,00 to $96,000. This, Dayala explained, was due to the opt-out option that was available last year because of the Student Choice Initiative. He further noted that the audited financial statement draft will be presented at the UTMSU’s upcoming annual general meeting. 

UTMSU audit

The next part of the budget presentation involved the UTMSU audit, which looks into the finances of the union itself, also presented by Dayala. He began with current assets, which showed “a big jump in numbers from 2019–2020.” 

Dayala explained that this is due to the UTMSU managing its own health and dental plan. Previously, the UTMSU acquired its plan through the University of Toronto Student’s Union (UTSU) but has managed the plan itself since last year, having broken off from the UTSU at the beginning of 2019. “That is why we saw a significant increase in… cash and cash equivalents,” he said.