On March 30, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) announced that graduate students at U of T had elected a new group of executives and directors as their representatives for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Students elected Mohammadamir Ghasemian Moghaddam as president with 806 votes. The other elected members of the executive committee include Ameer Ali as vice-president (VP) academics divisions 1 and 2, Julian Nickel as VP academics divisions 3 and 4, Farshad Murtada as VP finance, Jady Liang as VP external, and Friedemann Krannich as VP internal. Nickel, Murtada, Liang and Krannich all ran unopposed for their positions.

1556 of 20,341 eligible voters cast their ballots, resulting in a 7.6 per cent voter turnout — almost two percentage points higher than last year’s 5.7 per cent turnout. 

The results of the election will remain unofficial until the Board of Directors (BOD) decides whether to ratify them. The BOD plans to hold an online vote by April 8 on whether to ratify these results.

Directors and referenda

The electorate also elected twelve directors to the BOD, out of 28 available director positions. 

Students elected Kanika Lawton as director for division 1, filling one of the seven seats allocated to humanities students. For the social sciences, voters elected Abdul Hamed Shekib Mohamed, Willis Opondo, and Hai Tran — less than half of the seats for the division. Out of the 15 candidates running for division 3, Grisha Taroyan, Joscelyn van der Veen, Petra Duff, Amir Hossein Mohammad Zadeh, Griffin Schwartz, Dominic Shillingford, and Fateme Eskandary received the most votes as physical sciences directors in division 3. Voters approved Siti Hazirah Binte Mohamad — the only candidate running for division 4 — as the sole life sciences director.

The BOD will appoint members to the UTM and UTSC director positions in September. 

The ballot also included two referenda questions, which asked students to vote yes or no on whether to increase the levy for the U of T Sexual Education Centre and institute a new levy for Regenesis Toronto. 

Students voted in favour of increasing the U of T Sexual Education Centre levy from $0.31 to $0.50 per semester for part-time students and from $0.62 to $1.00 per semester for full-time students. 

The electorate also voted in favour of instituting a new levy for environmental club Regenesis Toronto that will amount to $7.23 per semester for full-time students and $3.62 per semester for part-time students. This marks the third referendum in which Regenesis chapters across the three campuses have successfully secured levies — first in the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union’s 2023 elections, and more recently in the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s 2024 elections.