The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) held its eighth Board of Directors meeting on November 27 over Zoom. During the meeting, the executives shared what they have been working on in the past month and recapped the UTMSU’s annual general meeting (AGM).

The board also welcomed two new members: Crystal Cheng and Ayesha Dayala. They were elected by the student representatives and will be working as first-year representatives for the board. 

Executive reports 

Each executive member of the UTMSU gave a report on what they have been working on.

Fahad Dayala, Vice-President Internal, discussed his role at the UTMSU’s AGM, which took place on November 16. At the AGM, Dayala presented the UTMSU’s financial statements, which showed the union’s financial performance over the past year. 

He also outlined his work on adjusting UTMSU operations after Mississauga was placed under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All in-person UTMSU activity has been closed down, except for the Blind Duck Pub, which remains open for takeout for students on campus and in residence.

With regard to U-Pass distribution, Dayala said that students can still pick up their U-Pass in person, but they also have the option to receive it by mail. 

He discussed an upcoming campus groups portal, which will be used for streamlining communication from the UTMSU to campus groups, clubs, and societies in regard to things such as documentation and financial statements. The portal is still in the works. So far, Dayala has met with some organizations and hopes to finalize plans over the next few weeks.

Dayala also discussed the union’s progress in hiring a part-time coordinator for its Mental Health Peer Support Program, which has not yet been launched. He said that the UTMSU will be concluding the hiring process and finalizing the candidate soon.

Anushka Sokhi, Vice-President University Affairs, highlighted the UTMSU’s Academic Advocacy Week that took place this past month. “We had sessions with our academic coordinators… who led sessions about academic integrity,” said Sokhi. 

Lily Pan, Vice-President External, reported that she has attended meetings with food services administrators as well as members from the hospitality department at UTM. She said that administrators also gave updates that the contract between UTM and Chartwells, the campus’ food service provider, will be going forward.

Noha Farawi, Vice-President Equity, discussed the UTMSU’s Divest Now Campaign, which seeks to get U of T to remove its investments from the fossil fuel industry. She expressed the UTMSU’s support of the University of Toronto’s Environmental Resource Network.

Tarwah Afrah, Vice-President Campus Life, discussed plans for welcoming new and returning students for the winter semester. “The campus life team is also figuring out how frosh is going to look,” Afrah said.

UTMSU President Mitra Yakubi highlighted the recent AGM in her report, saying, “[students] got to hear back from their [executives] as to what work [they have] been up to.” Yakubi also gave updates on the UTMSU’s Mental Health Peer Support Program, saying that the UTMSU has been holding meetings and plans to launch the project in the winter semester. 

UTMSU equipment budget

Following the executive reports, Dayala spoke about the UTMSU’s plan to replace its computers, looking for a budget of $25,000 to be approved. He highlighted the need for new computers, noting that the computers that the UTMSU currently uses were purchased around seven years ago. The new computers will be available for use by all full-time UTMSU staff members. 

Dayala said that the UTMSU is looking to have the budget approved first, and then will move on to calculate exact costs for the number of computers it will purchase, which Dayala did not disclose at the meeting.

Yakubi moved on to discuss another initiative that the UTMSU is looking to implement, which is a laptop rental program. “We are trying to find different resources that we can make available… We know students are struggling when it comes to connectivity issues, [technology] issues… So this is one avenue that we want to support folks in,” she said.

Yakubi noted that the program plans to make renting a laptop free of charge, and that they are currently working on the proposal for this program.