On November 13, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) convened a special Board of Directors (BOD) meeting to discuss a referendum on the union’s Health & Dental Plan. 

The union then convened for its second meeting of the month on November 20. It deliberated over the affiliation of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), ratified its audit, discussed bylaw and policy amendments for the union’s ongoing infrastructure, and gave updates on its solidarity work. 

Special BOD meeting

The November 13 BOD meeting focused on a proposed referendum question on the Health and Dental Insurance Plan’s proposed inflation increase and cap. 

Referendums are questions posed to the student body to vote on. Often they involve a fee the UTGSU collects on behalf of a student organization. 

Executive Director Corey Scott presented how the union would update the referendum question to make changes to the Health and Dental Plan more “definitive” and “accountable” to UTGSU members. 

The proposal included introducing a 10 per cent maximum permitted healthcare and dental care annual fee increase and requiring a referendum when increases above the cap are needed. 

For example, from 2022–2023, the BOD increased health fees by 16.8 per cent and dental fees by 10.9 per cent without a referendum. The graduate students pay the fee, but there is an opt-out option for students with equivalent insurance that’s not OHIP or UHIP. 

These changes would allow the UTGSU to mimic all four of the undergraduate students’ unions, which have maximum permitted inflationary increases of 10 per cent annually.

The motion to update the referendum question passed. The campaign for the referendum will be between November 27 and December 7, and the voting period will start December 4 and end December 7 at 9:00 am. Voting will be online, requiring one’s UTORID and password.

OISE GSA

At the November 20 meeting, UTGSU President Amir Moghadam updated the BOD about discussions on the union’s affiliation with OISE’s GSA. After a 2019 audit that found that the OISE GSA had violated its constitution during the course union’s elections, the UTGSU Council decided to disaffiliate with the OISE GSA. 

The OISE GSA went inactive in 2019, until March 2023 when OISE students voted to reactivate it. According to the OISE GSA, the “UTGSU continued to collect student fees from OISE students during the inactive periods.” When reactivated, the OISE GSA only received funding from OISE, which amounted to around $4,000 per year. Due to the lack of funding, the GSA started campaigning for funding from UTGSU.

In October 2023, the UTGSU discussed a motion to redesignate the OISE GSA as a course union. The motion also proposed reworking the GSA’s funding so it could receive 65 per cent of UTGSU’s membership fees — the full amount it received before the UTGSU disaffiliated with the GSA in 2019. The motion failed.

After, the OISE GSA requested to reaffiliate as an affiliate organization, such as the UTM’s Association of Graduate Students and the Graduate Students’ Association at Scarborough. At the UTGSU July 15 BOD meeting, the union motioned to redesignate the GSA as a course union instead. 

Now in November, the UTGSU motioned to rescind the previous motion, make the OISE GSA an affiliate organization, and have the GSA receive 35 per cent of membership fees similar to other affiliate organizations. The union expects this to facilitate a better relationship with the GSA that would be equitable to affiliate organizations and course unions.

OISE GSA President Aytaj Pashayeva presented to the BOD that the new agreement respects OISE GSA’s independence, history, and ability to unite OISE students across departments. She also criticized previously suggested options — such as the referenda to increase student fees,  to disaffiliate, and the annual fundraising efforts — all of which she argued would be unsustainable for OISE GSA and students. 

Division 2 Director Interim Susanne Nyaga echoed Pashayeva’s remarks, stressing that without this agreement, OISE’s abilities to build community and connect would be drastically impacted. The motion carried.

Audit, finances, bylaws 

Scott presented the UTGSU audit on behalf of absent VP Finance Farshad Murtada. Scott presented a report on the union’s short-term investments and restricted funds and discussed their surplus report. 

The UTGSU allocated $60,000 to the Student Conference Bursary Fund, $100,000 to the Graduate Community Development Fund, $80,000 to the Black Graduate Student Bursary Fund, $300,000 to the Building, Planning & Accessibility Fund, and $310,000 to the UTGSU Reserve Fund. 

From the Building, Planning & Accessibility Fund, VP Academic 3 & 4 Julian Nickel discussed allocating  $40,000 to use for building maintenance, particularly fixing the air conditioning in the UTGSU building as well as repainting the Grad Student Pub, repairing the pub and Building Ambassador Office, making their building more accessible, maintaining the UTGSU gym floors, and operating the Grad Loft Backroom. The motion carried.

The union also made bylaw and policy amendments to split the two positions of Vice-Presidents (VP) Academic into one VP Academic and VP Graduate Life for the next academic year. The academic position would focus on university affairs, while the graduate life position would focus on organizing events for graduate students. 

The union will be hosting their Annual General Meeting on December 5 from 6:00–9:00 pm in the Earth Sciences Auditorium. 

Solidarity statements

During the meeting, Nickel informed the BOD about the union recently joining the University of Toronto Employees’ Associations and Unions’ statement of opposition regarding the U of T User Guide on Protest.

The union also offered support to RBC Off Campus — a student environmental activist group — for pressuring universities, including U of T, to divest from big banks like RBC because of the bank’s investment in fossil fuel companies. The Varsity was unable to obtain a copy of this statement.