On October 20, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) held its monthly Board of Directors (BOD) meeting. 

The union executives discussed a new initiative for sexual assault survivors on campus and deadlines for student clubs to receive the union’s recognition. The UTSU also approved term allowance for its board members. 

Student Senate and new policies

Vice President (VP) Finance & Operations Elizabeth Shechtman began the meeting with updates on the UTSU’s Student Senate — the union’s governance organ of student representatives that advise the BOD on academic issues. The union elected its first student senators in September. Shechtman relayed that the UTSU has so far elected around 24 senators, who held their first meeting on September 22. 

VP Equity Sakeena Mohammad reported on the union’s recent initiative to merge the UTSU Closet at the Student Commons — a space where students can get professional wear — with a new project, the Survivors Clothing Closet. The union is launching this project with the Prevention, Empowerment, Advocacy, Response for Survivors (PEARS) Project, a grassroots and trauma-informed student organization which provides support to survivors of sexual violence at U of T. The PEARS’ survivors’ closet is meant to bring essential clothing to survivors of sexual violence through donations. 

“This project is designed to address the need for clothing regardless of the circumstances,” the PEARS Project wrote in an Instagram post.

Shechtman then read a report on behalf of VP Public & University Affairs Avreet Jagdev, who was absent from the meeting. In the report, Jagdev mentioned she was looking for ways to present students’ and faculty’s concerns about U of T’s new user guide on the university’s protest policies to the office of the vice-provost. 

Finally, Shechtman reported for UTSU’s VP Student Life Tala Mehdi, who was also absent. Shechtman talked about club recognition, saying that the union received over 65 applications in October for UTSU’s recognition from student clubs. 

Shechtman noted that the deadline to apply for the union’s recognition is November 15 and clubs can apply to receive funding from the union until the end of November. And yet, the UTSU website claims that the latest deadline for all funding applications is March 15.

Shechtman also stressed that student clubs cannot be recognized by the UTSU without approval from the U of T’s Student Life office. 

New allowance for BOD members 

During the meeting, executives also discussed the union’s spending on the BOD’s professional development. Shechtman proposed the allocation of $1,000 to each of the 10 BOD members per term to spend on “professional needs.” This proposal sparked debate among the directors.

BOD member Ron Ulitsky expressed support for the motion. “I believe that money [will be] well spent… since the board of the UTSU [represents] all students and we definitely could use a bit more professional development,” he said. 

However, director Diego Moura Panario voiced concerns over the proposed directors’ allowance. 

“It seems like an excessive amount,” said Panario. “It’s $10,000 [in total] which I think would be much better used on student services — if it’s more grants to students [or] if it’s spending on clubs. Something that actually helps the majority of students on campus.”

Ultimately, Shechtman proposed an alternative motion to allocate $5,000 to the entire BOD, $500 for each director, for professional development needs, which was approved during the meeting.