On March 24, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) convened for its monthly Board of Directors (BOD) meeting. 

The meeting began with the self-nomination process for next year’s Board of Appeals (BoA). The BoA is the UTGSU’s final level of appeals, and investigates decisions made by the union’s BODs, committees, and course unions. 

The BoA for the upcoming academic year is determined by an ad hoc committee which is made up of one officer and two board directors. 

The UTGSU’s Executive Committee recommended Vice-President (VP) Academics, Divisions 3 & 4 Julian Nickel to be the ad hoc committee officer. President Amir Moghadam proposed nominating Division 3 Director Joscelyn van der Veen for the director role, which she accepted. Division 2 Director Asha Mudie nominated herself as well. 

The Directors then moved on to larger discussions of UTGSU fee changes, the Health & Dental Plan, and a potential year-end event. 

UTGSU fee changes

VP Finance Farshad Murtada presented proposed fee changes for the UTGSU’s membership fee to account for Ontario’s Consumer Price Index increase, which reflects the change in the cost of an average assortment of goods and services. 

In the motion, Murtada outlined how the 1.7 per cent adjustment for Ontario’s cost of living and 1.8 per cent adjustment for Canada’s cost of living would affect specific levies. 

For example, the Canadian Federation of Students membership fee, which makes up a portion of the UTGSU’s fees, would see a 1.8 per cent increase to align with Ontario cost of living, while the Bikechain, U of T Sexual Education Centre, and Regenesis levies would see a 1.7 per cent increase. 

The motion carried.

Health & Dental Plan fee increase

Based on administrative costs, plan costs, claims history, and inflation trends, Murtada proposed two fee increases: a 6.24 per cent increase for the health plan and a 0.79 per cent increase for the dental plan. 

In a presentation with the UTGSU Health & Dental Administrator Shain Abdulla, Murtada explained how these increases would maintain a healthy surplus and ensure that the union remains in a strong financial position. 

Murtada added that mental health practitioners and prescriptions remain the main cost driver, with claims accounting for 85 to 90 per cent of all coverage costs. Claims are documents that students submit to recover money spent on healthcare services from the plan provider. For the UTGSU, GreenShield is the insurance provider. 

The motion carried. 

End-of-year event

To celebrate the union’s successes over the past year, VP Academics, Divisions 1 & 2 Ameer Ali, proposed allocating an additional $15,000 to the Campaign and Programming budgets to host a semi-formal for members and staff who contributed to UTGSU’s year. Ali asked the Directors to approve the motion to secure a deposit at Hotel Ocho, where the semi-formal would be held in the evening. 

Given that UTGSU’s funding comes from members’ fees, Ali clarified that, aside from needs-based waivers, students themselves would need to cover the ticket fees themselves to ensure commitment to attending.

The proposal sparked a lengthy debate over the event’s purpose and structure. Directors expressed confusion about who the event was intended to serve — UTGSU executives or general membership — and questioned whether it would be fair to charge students fees for a union event. 

Director van der Veen asked whether Ali had consulted members about their desires for programming of this type, arguing that a semi-formal would be a departure from the UTGSU’s usual events. She added that a semi-formal is “quite exclusionary,” because tickets cost $30 per student.

Division 4 Director Nicholas Silver argued that charging union members would be “slightly hypocritical,” but also raised a concern that, without such an event, UTGSU would lack a major event for much of the calendar year. 

Division 3 Director Dominic Shillingford echoed van der Veen and Silver’s questions about the event’s urgency and rationale, and stated that he would not support an event that only served a fraction of the membership, especially with an increase in allocation to fund it. 

Finally, Division 3 Director Griffin Schwartz raised concerns about the “elitist” and “disconnected” optics of a semi-formal event, particularly after recently ratifying increases to student fees. 

In response, multiple executive members sought to address the Directors’ concerns. 

Ali explained that, in previous years, he had discussed a gala-style collaboration with course unions, though it did not come to fruition. He also addressed concerns about membership, arguing that the semi-formal was open to any member, but was limited in capacity like other union events with limited resources, such as the 5-Buck Lunches.

“Any of our events have capacities. So if you go to the free lunches, there’s a certain amount of free lunches that we give away,” he said. “If we have the 5-Buck Lunch, we have 70 tickets. I understand that’s a smaller amount. The principle, though, is the same. There’s a set amount put aside. And [it’s] first come, first serve. Some members get that benefit. Some members don’t.”

Though President Moghadam ultimately expressed his opposition to the motion, he reminded Directors that if a similar event were to align with the union’s goals and politics, it would still be worth consideration. VP External Jady Liang echoed VP Ali’s sentiments about the importance of celebrating a year of successful events. She proposed that the union consider creating a different end-of-year event that could include more members.

After the debate, Chair Nour Alideeb concluded the discussion and called for a vote. The motion failed.