Michael Clement (Connect UTSC)

Michael Clement, a fourth-year student studying chemistry and philosophy, is running for vice-president campus life as part of the Connect UTSC slate. 

He has served as director of physical & environmental sciences on the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) Board of Directors for the past two years, and he is currently the president of the Environmental & Physical Sciences Students’ Association. He has also been involved in orientation as the master of ceremonies.

Clement is running because he wants to improve campus life by helping student groups reconnect with the union and help students become involved in groups that support their interests. He describes campus as a place with lots of things to do if students know where to look, adding that he wants to help people find what is right for them, both socially and academically. One of his ideas is to hold virtual escape rooms to help students destress.

Clement noted that a lot of students don’t trust the union, so his message for voters is to take the time to look through each of the candidates’ backgrounds and vote. His goal is to bring back that trust to the union and bring back engagement with clubs.

TJ Ho (MOTIVATE UTSC)

TJ Ho is a third-year student majoring in psychology and creative writing. Ho is running for re-election as vice-president campus life of the SCSU under the MOTIVATE UTSC slate. 

Ho feels that he has accomplished a lot serving in the SCSU this year, including UTSC’s first-ever online orientation event. He noted that he wasn’t prepared for campus events to be held online due to COVID-19. If re-elected, Ho said, “I [would] have so much more strategy and so much more to contribute to the student body.”

His top priority if re-elected would be to continue holding online events, such as Zoom karaoke sessions and YouTube social deduction games.

He would also work to improve the SCSU website by adding a calendar to which students could subscribe for alerts to all student-life events happening. “There will be… more opportunities for them to actually engage with real events or through person-to-person connection,” he said.

Ho would also prioritize partnered online exercise programs for students to “introduce a virtual workout buddy to tackle mental and physical wellness during the unprecedented, challenging times that [he thinks] students are facing right now.”

Oluwapelumi Sobowale (Independent)

Oluwapelumi Sobowale is a fourth-year student studying international development studies and political science. He is running for vice-president campus life as an independent candidate. 

One of Sobowale’s main ideas is to hold an orientation, not just for first-year students, but for everyone in the community. The purpose of an event like this would be to show the diversity of Scarborough to first-year students who have never experienced the city. 

He also wants to create a sense of community through virtual events and “create programs that allow people and students around campus and all over the world… to meet each other virtually.”

Even though he is running as an independent candidate, Sobowale asks, “Do not give up on me without actually looking at what I have to offer because I have a lot.”

The voting period for the SCSU elections will be held from March 2–4.