Business dominates every aspect of our lives. As U of T students, we’re constantly obsessing over how to balance paying for tuition and rent while maintaining any semblance of a social life. Corporate advertising strategies whisper to us as we obsessively scroll, eat, and drink. Everything has been standardized, packaged, and branded with the same conventional wisdom that led us to enroll in this university to begin with.

My time at The Varsity has been anything but conventional. I spent the last two years as an Opinion columnist, voicing my thoughts on both international and local affairs. From Rishi Sunak’s appointment as the British Prime Minister to rising car theft in Toronto, I argued. For people to be more moderate in American politics, for greater measures to be taken to protect Canada’s national security against foreign espionage. And then I argued some more.

But during this race to argue, I slowed down, believing more could be done by thinking small. Who actually is in charge of the power structures that shape up our daily lives? How can these people be held to account? How can we influence our university — the institution that we collectively pay billions of dollars to — to manage its finances responsibly and equitably?

I decided the Business & Labour section was a good place to start answering these questions.

This spring, 50 students set up an encampment in King’s College Circle, calling on the university to disclose and divest its investments in companies contributing to the Israeli military. After witnessing the anger and unrest the university’s business operations were causing in our community, I made it a priority for this section to try to deliver answers as accurately and timely as possible. The section got off to a running start with a deep-dive analysis of University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation’s investments.

As your Editor, I want to streamline governance coverage by introducing a governance correspondent to the section. A lot is said and done at the Business Board and Planning and Budget committee meetings. Little tidbits of information are sprinkled all over hundred-page financial reports, so what better way to keep the people in charge on their toes than by bringing this information to light?

I’d also like to continue the section’s strong tradition of providing labour coverage. Last year’s team proved to be very busy with labour news, as Canadian Union of Public Employees’s long-winded negotiations with U of T finally ended with significant compensation increases. I want to maintain this section’s role as the home for the stories of never-ending struggles between workers and their employers for better pay and benefits.

Lastly, I believe entrepreneurship coverage is very important and would like to emphasize this by starting a series on business coverage. Student start-ups and business ventures deserve a spotlight in our paper. We are funded and supported by you, after all.

In our relentless pursuit of professional and academic success, we often find ourselves trying to conform to society’s expectations of us. But in this way, we neglect the curious, brilliant sounds and ideas that surround us — the uncelebrated union victories, the unread budget reports. I want this section to be the place where all this exploration is brought to light.

Conventional is boring. Together, I’m looking forward to breaking new ground with you in providing business and labour coverage.