In the 2024–2025 academic year, the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) advocated to lower the GPA for Good Academic Standing at UTSC, launched a Trans Well-being Grant, and passed motions on Gaza fundraising and expanding multi-faith prayer centers at its Annual (AMM) and Winter Members’ Meetings (WMM). However, students have raised concerns about reimbursements and the SCSU’s finances.

Despite a contentious election cycle and an initial failed ratification vote, the SCSU approved Lalise Shifara’s election as the union’s 2025–2026 president after a revote at an emergency Board of Directors (BOD) meeting in May.  

After an eventful year, The Varsity looks back at the SCSU’s term under President Hunain Sindhu’s leadership.

Campaigns and advocacy

SCSU Vice President (VP) Academic and University Affairs Zanira Manesiya led a campaign to lower UTSC’s minimum GPA for Good Academic Standing from 1.6 to 1.5, to match the requirement for UTM and the UTSG Faculty of Arts and Science. At the SCSU’s WMM in April, Manesiya shared that the Office of the Vice-Dean Academics and the Directors of the Registrar approved this policy, which will take effect in September 2025. 

In collaboration with UTSC’s Women and Trans Centre, Sindhu and his team introduced the SCSU’s Trans Well-being Grant, which awards students up to $200 based on financial need. In an interview with The Varsity, Sindhu highlighted the importance of this grant, saying, “One type of advocacy… is providing support and resources, because we recognize [what’s] needed.” 

WMM and delayed deposits 

At this year’s AMM, the SCSU passed motions to create an Indigenous Students Director position and donate money to an international fundraiser for Gaza. 

At the WMM, the SCSU passed a motion calling on the union to “take action itself to expand the multi-faith prayer space within the Student Centre as part of the upcoming renovations” and “continue to lobby for more multi-faith prayer space outside of the Student Centre.”  

Fourth-year political science student David Ojeifo proposed adding an emergency motion to the WMM agenda, calling for the Clubs Committee to investigate delays in club funding and reimbursements. The chair rejected this motion because it did not meet the criteria for an emergency motion, which must address an urgent issue that occurred after the deadline to submit a motion to the general meeting space, but still requires immediate SCSU response. 

African Students Association (ASA) President Aleeyah Okolo wrote in an email to The Varsity that the club has “been waiting for over a year on some reimbursements, and since November for the rest. Our club cannot do a lot of the events that we want to do. Many executives have paid out of pocket for the events that we have held, and it disappoints the executives as well as the general members when things have to be cancelled due to funds.”

In an email to The Varsity, Sindhu explained that there have been recent delays in reimbursements because the SCSU is switching from cheques to direct deposit reimbursements. 

As of writing, The Varsity was unable to verify whether clubs have received pending reimbursements.

Finances

In the 2023–2024 fiscal period, the SCSU earned about $454,000 in net income, an 8.8 per cent decrease from about $498,000 in 2022–2023.

The SCSU’s total revenue in 2023–2024 was around $8.4 million, an almost 5 per cent increase from 2022–2023. In the same period, its expenses went up by about 6.6 percent from $7.6 million to $8.1 million.

The 1265 Bistro, the restaurant owned and operated by the SCSU, earned about $127,000 in net income in 2023–2024 after receiving a $127,500 subsidy from the SCSU, and had an operating loss of about $16,000. In comparison, in the 2022–2023 fiscal year, the Bistro only had a net income of about $64,000. 

In an email to The Varsity, Ojeifo wrote that “What’s concerning is that the SCSU continues to present the restaurant as “profitable” and highlights its growing revenue, without acknowledging that profitability is artificially sustained by external subsidies… This raises important questions about the sustainability of the restaurant’s operations and the integrity of the financial narrative being presented to students.”

Election ratification

The SCSU did not ratify the 2025–2026 election results at its March BOD meeting due to issues raised by candidates about team conduct and elections procedures –– a highly irregular move that drew criticism from both students and SCSU staff. The results were later ratified at an emergency BOD meeting held on May 9, after the SCSU received legal advice. The successful ratification came after all but six of the members present at the meeting declared a conflict of interest and left the room prior to voting. No members had previously declared a conflict of interest at the March BOD meeting.