On March 16, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) held its monthly Board of Directors (BOD) meeting, where members confirmed the date for the Spring General Meeting and presented proposed fee increases for the following academic year.

UTSU Student Aid Program

The meeting began 12 minutes later than scheduled to allow for a quorum. The union moved to allocate $100,000 from the UTSU operating budget to the Student Aid Program.

The UTSU Student Aid Program offers bursaries of up to $500 to students who can put toward reimbursements for expenses such as books, academic supplies, exam deferrals, academic conferences, health and wellness needs, accessibility needs, PRESTO, emergencies like sudden financial hardship, and learning platforms like TopHat or WileyPlus. 

UTSU Vice President (VP) Finance & Operations Elizabeth Shechtman explained that due to a high inflow of applications — 700 in total — for the 2025 winter semester, the union needs more money to approve student grants. So far, the UTSU has spent $200,000 on the initial 400 applications. $100,000 was added on top of the roughly $400,000 already allocated to the program to support the remaining 300 applicants.

However, The Varsity was unable to confirm how much had been exactly allocated to the Student Aid Program and why the union mathematically needed an additional $100,000. 

The motion was approved.

Fee increases 

During the meeting, the union increased its Health and Dental Plan fees for the upcoming academic year by 10 per cent. Previously, the union changed its mental health coverage without informing students and later reverted to its original coverage plan. 

Shechtman explained that the premiums — the annual amount paid per student — increase every year, so the union needs to adjust the cost to align with its insurance rates. This is the maximum fee increase allowed. 

“As you all know, we’ve gone through different changes with the Health and Dental plan this year, but we really just want to make sure that it is the most feasible for us to keep going,” said Shechtman. 

Next, Shechtman reported a 1.7 per cent increase in student society fees to match the Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI) — a measure that reflects the change in the cost of an average assortment of goods and services. 

This change will affect all student society fees, except for those of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Shecthman explained that the CFS adjusts its fees according to Canada’s CPI, resulting in a 1.8 per cent rise for this academic year.

Executive reports

The board then moved on to executive reports, starting with UTSU President Shehab Mansour, who discussed preparing for the end-of-year executive transition into the new UTSU team and REES (Respect, Educate, Empower, Survivors) — an online platform reporting sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault. This is an initiative the union has been discussing since its August BOD meeting. 

Mansour mentioned that the U of T Office of the Vice-Provost is now supporting the REES project, with the pilot set to launch in August or September of this year.

The meeting then moved on to Shechtman, who announced the opening of the UTSU scholarship applications on March 18. The scholarships are awarded to students for various initiatives for student leadership, campus involvement, and equity initiatives. The Google form will be available to students until April 7. 

Next, VP Public & University Affairs Avreet Jagdev gave a report on the TTC ticket program the union launched late last month. The program offers free single-ride TTC tickets weekly to help with students’ transit costs “while supplies last.” Students can collect up to three tickets per week at the Student Commons on Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 12:00–3:00 pm.

Jagdev stated the program has been “very successful,” with the UTSU giving out around 120 tickets per day when the program runs, which she accounts for $4,500 in transit savings. However, as the program may run out of tickets before the end of the week, the total number of tickets available is not specified. 

Referendum requirements 

The meeting adjourned after the board lost quorum but continued with an informal discussion about the union’s Election and Referenda Code. Shechtman discussed editing the code which limits the number of referendum questions in elections to one internal question from the UTSU BOD and one external question submitted by St. George students. 

This proposal sparked a discussion among directors, with some arguing that limiting the number of levies would be too restrictive. Director Daisy Zhao remarked that “the external levies are really important” and that limiting them would be “a disservice… to students.”

Director Diego Moura Panario agreed with Zhao, and said that this decision would also restrict future boards “from putting forward referendums that would truly benefit the students.”

During the informal discussion, the board didn’t finalize a decision on this matter. However, Shechtman mentioned that the union could either remove the limit entirely or set a higher limit in the future.

According to the Election and Referenda Code, amended in January 2025, “There will be a maximum of 1 internal question and 1 external question per election.” However, the union approved three referenda for their 2025 election cycle and later added a fourth levy for the Aerospace Team. The Varsity was unable to confirm when the fourth levy was added.

Spring general meeting 

Executives announced the date for the UTSU Spring General meeting, which is scheduled to take place online on April 13 at 4:00 pm. 

Shechtman said the meeting’s sole purpose is to ratify the results of the recent UTSU 2025 elections.

UTSU VP Finance & Operations Elizabeth Shechtman did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment in time for publication.