The Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students (APUS) offices and emails have been closed since April 25, covering the entire summer academic session, despite membership more than doubling to 14,000 students during the period. 

APUS has not completed the 2024–2025 or the 2023–2024 audit, and the 2022–2023 audit was only finalized in June. The university withholds APUS’ yearly student fees, totalling around two million dollars, until the association submits its audit to the Governing Council (GC). 

The association also did not promote events, summer hours, or general meetings via social media, and could not be reached at the email addresses or phone numbers listed on their website. 

Out of office, digitally and physically

Every executive and staff member was emailed this summer — some multiple times — but The Varsity did not receive a response until hours before the weekly print publication ended on September 7, when a joint statement arrived from APUS President Jaime Kearns, Vice-President External Shanti Dhoré, and Vice-President Internal Dianne Acuna. 

Emails to APUS’ president, info clerk, office & information coordinator, and events & outreach coordinator all triggered the same automated reply, stating that the Sidney Smith offices were closed as of April 25 and directing inquiries to the president’s email. The messages gave no reopening dates.

As recently as September 2, the info clerks and office & information coordinator still had the same automatic replies.

APUS’ listed office hours at Sidney Smith and North Borden Building are Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. As of September 5 — four days into the fall semester — both offices remained closed. A representative from the Arts & Science Student Union said they had not seen any activity at the Sidney Smith office since May. 

On September 4, The Varsity found the North Borden office door unlocked and the lights off. A package delivered on July 2 still sat unopened at the Spadina Crescent office. The tap was dripping.

The joint statement did not address APUS’s absence from its office or its lack of email responses. President Kearns wrote separately to The Varsity, “We can understand how it may have been hard for folks to get in touch with us, but we request that the Varsity contacts us through our APUS accounts and not our personal email or social media accounts to respect privacy as they are not publicly advertised.”

Missing audits

APUS has not completed its audits for the past two fiscal years. The GC withholds each year’s student fees until it receives the approved audit. The 2022–2023 audit was only finalized this June and uploaded publicly in early September, while this article was being written.

In the joint statement, APUS executives wrote, “At our August 2025 board meeting, the board made a recommendation to adopt the Fiscal 2023 audited financial statements. At the Special General Meeting held in September 2025, the Fiscal 2023 audited financial statements were ratified. Auditors were also appointed to conduct the Fiscal 2024 audit and that is currently underway. Fiscal 2025 will be conducted after that.”

The Varsity was unable to attend the Special General Meeting on August 28 and did not receive a response to requests for meeting minutes or a meeting recording. Neither has been uploaded to APUS’ website. 

When asked whether the delayed audits had affected APUS’ operations, the statement read: “At this time, the UofT administration has released APUS some of the membership fees… Throughout the last year, we have notified both our board and membership at general meetings of the financial constraints APUS continues to experience, but when approving proposed budgets, we will continue to prioritize servicing our membership.”

APUS’s mandatory membership dues are $13.65 for part-time students in the fall, winter, and summer terms. Its most recent 2022–2023 audit lists $2,314,380 in total revenue, which includes health and dental insurance fees. 

Summer work

APUS’ Instagram feed has been inactive since March 13. Historically, the association has hosted socials, general meetings, and workshops during the summer, but this year it was also absent from this year’s UTSU Clubs Fair. 

On May 7, winter semester part-time students received the APUS newsletter, which stated: “we’ll return for the Summer 2025 terms after a brief hiatus.”

The next newsletter was on July 9, announcing a $250 summer bursary program and the upcoming August Special General Meeting. The final summer newsletter came on August 21, giving notice for the general meeting and promoting the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) Ontario’s Food Experience Survey, and “Hands Off Our Education!” campaign. These updates were only shared via the APUS newsletter. 

In response to questions about its activity over the summer, APUS executives wrote the following in the joint statement:

“This summer, the following was provided to our membership: bursaries, [Canadian Federation of Students Ontario General Meeting] CFS OGM, Special General Meeting, and the laptop loan program. In addition, at our monthly board meetings, our board is updated on the advocacy work and programming to our membership, along with the financial status of our organization. In addition, there are other committees that meet throughout the year as well including the Finance Committee.

Members of the APUS Board and Executives attended CFS meetings namely Skills, the Ontario Circle of First Nations, Metis and Inuit Students stand alone conference and RISE.

Throughout the year our memberships’ part-time voices are further represented as we also attend other UofT committees ie, [Council of Student Services] COSS, Hart House etc.”

The Hart House Board of Stewards has historically only met from September to April. 

Three of APUS’s four executives also hold separate roles within CFS Ontario: Kearns served as Circle of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Students Constituency Commissioner; Dhoré was Local 97 representative; and Jennifer Coggon chaired the Part-Time and Continuing Education Caucus. 

APUS staff, executives, and honorariums

Kearns has been APUS president since 2019. When asked about the length of her presidency, the statement replied: “APUS annual elections, as mandated by our membership and reflected in our bylaws, took place earlier in the year, where executive and board positions were open. Elections are held and conducted in a democratic manner. All APUS members are eligible to seek nominations.”

When asked if the APUS executives and staff were paid during the summer, APUS wrote: “All democratically elected executive committee members receive a small honorarium as stipulated in the APUS bylaws and policy.”

Executives receive $800 per month, while staff are paid either $28.91 per hour or an annual salary, with the member services coordinator paid $52,941.98, and the executive director paid $65,000–$70,000. 

Correction: This article has been corrected to reflect that APUS President Jaime Kearns is still a student, and did not graduate in 2020. 

Editor’s note (September 10, 5:25 PM): This article has been updated to reflect that Jennifer Coogan is no longer an APUS executive. 

Editor’s Note, January 11, 2026: In a December 5 email to The Varsity, Kearns clarified that the North Borden office has staff or executives in the office during the day, but it will be locked if only one person is in the office, or if it is empty.