At its Board of Directors (BOD) meeting on August 21, the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) appointed an at-large member to the Bursary Committee. The union also presented its income statement and reviewed its meeting with the UTSC Office of Student Experience and Wellbeing (OSEW). 

Bursary Committee and SCSU’s income

After appointing members to its other at-large committees during the previous SCSU BOD meeting on August 2, the union reopened applications for the Bursary Committee members due to a lack of applicants. An at-large member was appointed to the committee by vote at the meeting. 

Vice-President (VP) Operations Jena Bah, presented SCSU’s income statement. In 2023–2024, the union made $8.8 million in revenue: a 10 per cent increase from the SCSU’s 2022–2023 revenue and a 27.5 per cent increase from 2021–2022. The union’s total expenses in 2023–2024 amounted to about $7.5 million — roughly the same as last year. Finally, Bah reported a net surplus — their total income after deductions — of around $235,000. 

Campaigns and advocacy

VP External Omar Mousa announced the creation of two new advocacy groups — the Housing Advocacy Group and Transit Advocacy Group — to assist with gathering testimonials, conducting general outreach for petitions and events related to the portfolio, and organizing meetings on behalf of the SCSU. 

Some of the campaigns under the two groups will include a petition for a UTSC-Kennedy Station shuttle bus and a U-Pass for UTSC students. The previous SCSU executives discussed transit initiatives at the end of their term, as they found data from Uber reflected a 72 per cent increase in trips in Scarborough before and after the Scarborough Line 3 shutdown.

Mousa also provided updates on the SCSU Executive Committee’s meeting with the OSEW. During the meeting, SCSU executives raised the issue of the lack of faith-based mental health support for Muslim students at UTSC, following U of T cutting ties with the Muslim chaplain, Imam Omar Patel, in January. The decision followed an alleged antisemitic Instagram post, which he said was falsely attributed to him. 

SCSU President Hunain Sindhu shared that the OSEW decided a Muslim counsellor would be hired. 

Mousa also noted that SCSU executives mentioned the need to change the OSEW’s postering policy at their meeting with the group. In March, a group of UTSC professors advocating for the security of Jewish students under the name Campus Aware set up posters across campus. The posters criticized chants and phrases used by pro-Palestinian protesters such as, “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the Intifada” — writing that such chants “affect the sense of security… of Jewish students, staff and faculty.” 

“OSEW allowed posters with anti-Palestinian racism to be put up, twisting the meanings of chants and Arabic words. They were very hateful, racist, and dangerous,” said Mousa.

Sindhu added, “For anyone who may have heard that OSEW didn’t approve them, just know that OSEW also didn’t take them down.”

Lastly, Sindhu shared that SCSU executives asked OSEW to release a statement in support of the student-led protests in Bangladesh. 

“We know that the Bangladeshi community on campus was very disturbed,” he said. “Yes, the SCSU can do something [to support students], but it won’t have as much impact as [when] OSEW [takes action].”

Mousa added that there were UTSC students who took part in the protests in Bangladesh and were injured. 

“We asked the [OSEW] to be more open with our students in terms of being willing to release statements about issues. We will continue to advocate for our students, their mental health, and their right to protest,” said Mousa.