Claiming that “student media have been abusing their positions as disseminators and aggregators of information,” the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) Board of Directors voted unanimously on December 12 on a first step to passing a motion to control student media accreditation and access to meetings.

The item was moved by Director of Political Science Raymond Dang and was carried from a previous meeting held on November 27. At the December meeting, the board voted to refer the item to its governance committee for further amendments.

Dang wrote in his motion that student media have been “misrepresenting the reality of the situation,” and that “recent days have shown the entire campus can be misled on important topics relating to their lives.”

During the discussion, Dang said that “it was very disappointing to see a lot of the reporting not just by existing student organizations but start-up student organizations this semester reporting falsely on what the Board of Directors have done.”

However, since Dang would not “repeat any sort of false information or misleading information that was said or not said elsewhere,” it is unclear what coverage Dang was referring to.

The Varsity most recently covered the SCSU’s November Board of Directors meeting, in which Dang moved a controversial motion to give $4,500 to the UTSC Women’s and Trans Centre, despite students voting against giving the funding at SCSU’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The Varsity and The Underground have also reported on the string of food quality issues that have occurred at SCSU-affiliated outlets this semester.

Dang wrote in his motion that “students rely on their fellow student journalists to accurately report the truth and hold power to account,” and called for student publications to submit requests to be recognized so that they can cover the SCSU.

The union’s bylaws already recognize student publications as “The Varsity, The Underground, Fusion Radio or any other student media either print or online.” Bylaw changes must be ratified at a meeting of members, such as the AGM.

Under Dang’s proposed policy, an ad hoc committee that would consist of the vice-president operations, vice-president external, and three directors to be chosen by the Board of Directors would make decisions on media access.

The SCSU would also adopt the Canadian Association of Journalists’ ethics standards as “guiding principles.” The guidelines touch on subjects such as independence, transparency, and accountability.

Since the motion was originally moved at the November meeting, the dates proposed in the text have already passed. As such, it is unclear when the committee will meet and by what date student publications will be required to submit applications, although Dang motioned for the governance committee to discuss the item at its first possible meeting.

According to the motion as it stands, changes will come into effect on January 1 if immediate action is taken, and will be enforced throughout the remainder of the academic year. All student media must apparently apply or reapply for accreditation for the union to either reaffirm or deny access.

During the board meeting, The Varsity was asked not to live tweet or photograph the events over concerns of online harassment of board members.

The chair of the meeting, Hildah Otieno, emphasized that this ban was not about media protocol but about protecting board members from intimidation.  

The Varsity tweeted once thereafter to post the text of the media accreditation policy motion. Upon discovery of the live tweet from the meeting, Otieno asked the reporter to remove the tweet, which The Varsity did not.

This is @ilyaoverseas here. One of the motions at the #SCSU board meeting today is on "media accreditation," moved by Political Science Director Raymond Dang. The motion passed unanimously, according to @TheVarsity reporter @annmarieelpa pic.twitter.com/aAEGadpwfj

— Varsity News (@VarsityNewsUofT) December 12, 2018

The SCSU currently has a Media Communications Policy, which outlines the media’s access to public meetings and spaces provided by the union. However, there is no policy regarding live tweeting under their bylaws and governing documents.

This incident comes shortly after two Varsity reporters were also barred from taking photos and live tweeting at a University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union meeting held on December 3. The reporters were subsequently asked to leave the meeting after continuing to live tweet at the direction of their editors.

The Varsity has reached out to the SCSU for comment.

Despite a rejection from students at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in November, the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) Board of Directors voted to give an additional $4,500 to the UTSC Women’s and Trans Centre (WTC) for its annual conference.

During the AGM, the WTC requested $7,000 for its Making HERstory 2019 conference, but students voted to reduce the amount to $2,500.

This was largely due to concerns about the SCSU’s financial situation, as well as reluctance over giving such a large amount, especially because the WTC already receives $40,000 in levies.

At the board meeting on November 27, Political Science Director Raymond Dang motioned to give the WTC an additional $4,500 to complete the $7,000 that it requested for the conference. Dang called it a “one-time special amount.”

The money would be drawn from the SCSU’s unrestricted contingency fund. This fund does not include Health, Dental, and Student Centre Reserve funds.

While debating this motion, SCSU Physical and Environmental Science Director Zakia Fahmida Taj said that the student body already decided on this matter during the AGM. “We’re supposed to be representing the student body itself,” Taj said.

SCSU President Nicole Brayiannis agreed, saying that she would be “cautious” about giving more money.

In response, Dang claimed that there was “misinformation” during the AGM, which caused students to assume that the SCSU would be put into deficit if the full $7,000 was provided to the WTC.

Dang’s motion said that the SCSU has a “$66,745 allocation to [the] contingency reserve.”

Brayiannis proposed that the requested additional amount of $4,500 be reduced to $2,500, which would be added to the $2,500 previously settled during the AGM, totalling to $5,000.

According to Brayiannis, since students at the AGM already agreed on $2,500, and that $7,000 was too high, a total of $5,000 would be an “assured amount.”

SCSU Vice-President Equity Chemi Lhamo agreed with Brayiannis’ motion. She said that because of the “lack of information” at the AGM, students also chose not to fund sponsorship opportunities like the multi-faith initiative.

“By allowing one entity to access a certain unrestricted fund, I do not think that upholds the values of the union,” Lhamo said.

Several other students expressed their confusion as to why the SCSU could not provide the original requested money. Executive Director Francis Pineda said that the budget is “healthy” and that there are funds to support this motion.

Lhamo said that it is “not smart to overspend just because there is money.”

Dang argued that the money was needed because “$2,500 plus $2,500 does not equal $7,000. It equals $5,000. That is not sufficient funding [for the conference].”

Tensions rose in the room and the chair requested for people not to communicate with each other in a “distracting way,” and that people should not slam their name cards down.

Dang also asked the room to “keep things civil” and not to call people names in public or private conversation. He asked others to refrain from using “bad language.”

WTC members expressed that the WTC was already “exhausting [its] resources,” having been rejected by Hart House to receive help with funding. They added that the WTC was already in collaboration with internal and external clubs.

Brayiannis’ motion to amend the amount from $4,500 to $2,500 failed. The motion for the $4,500 to be provided to the WTC passed and the meeting moved on to the in-camera session.

At around 10:00 pm, Brayiannis motioned for the meeting to table, which passed. This meant that the remaining items on the agenda would all be moved to the next meeting in January.

The Varsity has reached out to Lhamo, Dang, and the WTC for comment.

At the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) six-hour 2018 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on November 14, motions to fund the Muslim Chaplaincy, as well as the UTSC Women’s and Trans Centre’s (WTC) 2019 conference Making HERstory, were proposed and met with controversy over whether to donate money.

Muslim Chaplaincy

The motions for the SCSU to give $25,000 annually to the Muslim Chaplaincy for operational costs were struck down by members in attendance.

SCSU Vice-President Equity Chemi Lhamo said that although there are other religious groups on campus, none of them are funded by the SCSU. Some other religious groups at UTSC include the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Jewish Student Life.

A union member at the meeting said that it is unfair to other religious groups for the SCSU to fund only the Muslim Chaplaincy.

Union member and 2018 SCSU presidential candidate Ray Alibux proposed that the SCSU should instead donate $25,000 for a multi-faith chaplaincy in order to make the motion fairer to all religious groups at UTSC.

“Having a single fund for a single group may lead to issues like people feeling excluded,” said Alibux.

Another member opposed Alibux’s amendment, saying, “We have no money, that’s why we amended the [previous] motions.”

Alibux’s amendment failed and other amendments to strike out the motions asking for the SCSU to donate to the Muslim Chaplaincy passed.

The same motion also proposed that the SCSU provide a permanent space for the Muslim Chaplaincy. Members expressed concerns that this motion may create conflict between religious groups at UTSC.

Lhamo proposed to amend the motion to say that the SCSU will lobby for U of T to pay for it, and permanent spaces would be provided for both the Muslim Chaplaincy and other multi-faith initiatives.

SCSU President Nicole Brayiannis spoke in favour of Lhamo’s amendment, and said that future plans for buildings like the Instructional Centre II will provide “ample opportunity” to lobby for the spaces.

After a long discussion, the much-amended motion was finally passed.

Women’s and Trans Centre

Shagun Kanwar, the Finance and Safety Coordinator at the WTC, moved for the SCSU to contribute $7,000 to WTC’s 2019 conference, Making HERstory. The motion was amended so that the monetary support was lower, after concerns from students about where the money would come from and where it would go.

When asked why the WTC needed $7,000 more if it already had $40,000 in levies, Kanwar said that much of the levies were spent on honorariums for WTC coordinators.

Each WTC coordinator receives $8,000 for two semesters.

“The honorarium in there is not reasonable,” said one student.

Raymond Dang, the Director of Political Science on the SCSU board, disagreed and said that WTC coordinators deserved to be paid this amount because “a lot of the time a lot of these coordinators pass their hours [for their pay].”

WTC External Coordinator Leon Tsai presented the budget breakdown for the conference, which showed that out of the total cost of $30,000, about $24,000 was allocated toward speakers and performances, while $6,000 was for logistics. Of the $24,000, over $20,000 of that would be paid toward the keynote speaker, whom the WTC members said was a highly regarded #MeToo figure.

According to Brayiannis, since most of the surplus money is budgeted toward building maintenance like roof repairs, most of the donations to WTC would have to come from the donations line.

In hopes of being practical with the donations line, which has a limit of $5,000 for all entities, Lhamo said that access to funding is already difficult anywhere. She emphasized the SCSU’s role as WTC’s co-collaborator and wanted to change SCSU’s donation from $7,000 to $2,500.

Lhamo’s amendment to lower the SCSU’s monetary contribution passed. Kanwar’s motion for the SCSU to assist WTC in advertising the conference also passed.

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) Annual General Meeting (AGM) on November 14 focused heavily on meeting procedures, extended debates on amendments, and several equity-related motions. The six-hour meeting was also a platform for discussion on the audited financial reports from the 2017–2018 year, executive reports, and questions about space issues at UTSC.

The AGM began with welcoming remarks by Wendy Phillips, the Indigenous Elder at UTSC. She acknowledged the mishaps at the previous AGMs in the past and requested that everyone “be kind to one another” and to work with the SCSU.

SCSU President Nicole Brayiannis made the first motion for the approval of the agenda, which was uncharacteristically followed by a long debate and hostility from a few students.

Anup Atwal, President of the Scarborough Campus’ Union Reform (SCU Reform) Club, led the debate, arguing that his motions in the agenda were “heavily amended, edited, and didn’t reflect what he needed to say.” The SCU Reform Club was started this year in protest of what students saw as the SCSU’s lack of transparency, engagement, and good governance.

Atwal called for his motions to be removed, which was followed by a heated argument between him and the speaker about the legality of the bylaw committee to amend motions.

Ray Alibux, who was involved in last year’s controversial SCSU elections, tried to add another motion to the agenda, asking to remove SCSU Political Science Director Raymond Dang. However, the speaker halted his motion, claiming that it was slander.

After the agenda was approved, the AGM moved on to the auditor’s report of the 2017–2018 financial year, which was presented by Yale and Partners. The auditor’s report passed quickly, and the discussion moved on to the executive reports presented by the SCSU.

Executive reports serve as a platform to show all the work that has been done by the SCSU so far and give students a chance to address any concerns. Students asked questions about the lack of recreation rooms on campus, overcrowded study rooms, and the lack of 24-hour food options on campus.

The SCSU acknowledged that these problems existed and said that it was working with the university to find solutions.

The equity-related motions submitted by students included increased funding to the Muslim Chaplaincy and the UTSC Women and Trans Centre.

The motion for the former proposed funding $25,000 a year to the Muslim Chaplaincy, which students opposed because they said that it was not fair to favour one chaplaincy, and that funding should be the university’s responsibility.

This motion passed with extensive amendments, including striking the proposal for funding just the Muslim Chaplaincy, making provisions to open up discussions to give more support to all chaplaincies at UTSC.

The next motion, regarding changing the period for the Fall and Winter General Meetings, passed quickly with hardly any debate or opposition. This motion included presenting a revised operating budget at every meeting and including director updates in the upcoming Winter General Meeting.

Similarly, after five hours of discussion at the AGM, the Board of Directors-related motion made by Raymond Dang was directly called to question and passed quickly. This motion included the election of a Vice-President Campus Life and the introduction of one elected international student representative as a voting member on the Board of Directors.

Around 10:00 pm, the AGM finally arrived at the last motion of the day, which proposed a $7,000 donation to the UTSC Women and Trans Centre for its 2019 conference, “Making HERstory.”

Discussion was heavily focused on where the money would come from as well as what it would be used to buy.

SCSU Vice-President Equity Chemi Lhamo made an amendment to reduce the amount of funding requested by the Women and Trans Centre, as the SCSU usually has a cap of “$5,000 for all entities.”

Brayiannis agreed with her and said that “$2,500 was the most reasonable amount they could allocate to the conference.”

The amendment was passed and the contribution was decreased from $7,000 to $2,500. Subsequently, the AGM was adjourned, having run for six hours.

The Scarborough Campus Student Union (SCSU) held an emergency board of directors meeting on November 7, exactly a week before its Annual General Meeting (AGM). The emergency meeting discussed whether to add several recommendations from the SCSU Policy and By-law Committee to the AGM agenda.

One such motion was presented by Sarkis Kidanian, the President of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association at UTSC.

Kidanian motioned to have the SCSU “host a Fall General Meeting and a Winter General Meeting to make the Student Union’s work transparent and allow the students to hold their executed tasks accountable.”

According to the motion, these additional meetings are necessary because not everyone can attend the AGM and “the student body cannot hold SCSU executive accountable with only one [AGM].”

The committee recommended that the motion be added to the AGM agenda with some amendments, namely specifying dates during which the additional meetings could be held, as well as giving the SCSU the power to make any bylaw and policy amendments necessary in order to hold these meetings if passed.

This recommendation and all associated amendments from the committee passed.

Another motion was made by member Anup Atwal to allow online voting in SCSU elections.

Atwal is the President of the Scarborough Campus’ Union Reform Club (SCU Reform), which was founded in September as a students’ movement against the SCSU.

In the motion, Atwal raised SCU Reform’s concern that the “SCSU has struggled to address the concerns of voter apathy over the past several years, resulting in less than 15 per cent of members participating in the electoral process.”

The voter turnout in the last SCSU election in February was around 13 per cent.

Atwal recommended that the SCSU solve this issue by “permitting electronic balloting for all future Elections and Referenda held by the Union through the U-elecT system.”

The committee recommended that the motion not be added to the AGM agenda, with a committee member explaining that they did not approve it because of the proposal to use the U-elecT system.

Director of Philosophy Rebecca Saldanha agreed with Atwal but said that “it is problematic to trust the university as we are a union separate from the university.”

“It’s the union’s job to check students like in any other union, in work rather, you’re separate from your work because you’re supposed to depend on your union,” Saldanha continued. “We have two different mascots for the university and the union. We don’t trust them with the mascot, how do you trust them with something so serious as voting?”

The U-elecT system is run through the university and is used by several student organizations, including The Varsity.

SCSU President Nicole Brayiannis said that “one of the biggest concerns with online voting is coercion.”

Brayiannis outlined that “right now at least we have tape lines so that students can’t physically go with other students to the voting area” and “if [voting] is online there’s no safety measures for students to vote.”

While Brayiannis agreed that online voting can be convenient, she said that “for now I don’t think it’s a smart move on the union to implement or seek to kind of rush this process by the spring election.”

The University of Toronto Students’ Union underwent a similar debate before it approved online voting in 2013.

After a lengthy debate, the recommendation was passed, meaning that the motion will not be on the agenda at the AGM.

The SCSU emergency meeting was announced just over 48 hours in advance on the SCSU’s Facebook page. This was in violation of its bylaws as outlined in section 2.2 of the SCSU constitution, which states that notice of emergency meetings has to be given at least 72 hours in advance.

SCSU has not responded to requests for comment.

Another bug has apparently been found in food from Asian Gourmet, a restaurant in UTSC’s Student Centre. The discovery was made on October 14 by UTSC student Edison Liu, who was having a long study session when he found what appeared to be a larva in his food.

A similar incident occurred last March, when another UTSC student found a “large winged insect” on her bok choy from Asian Gourmet.

Liu posted about the incident on the “UTSC Bird Courses” group on Facebook, where he included a photo of the insect on his food. The insect also seemed to be on a piece of bok choy.

PHOTO VIA EDISON LIU/FACEBOOK

“I asked for a refund,” Liu wrote to The Varsity. “But the lady didn’t even say sorry. She said bugs from veggies [are] not bad for me.”

Asian Gourmet confirmed the incident. “It’s very difficult to control,” said Asian Gourmet to The Varsity. “We [buy] the veggies from the supermarket. Sometimes [the insect] is hiding inside. Even if we cut it very carefully, we can’t see… we clean two times, three times, but now more carefully.”

Asian Gourmet also said that many Chinese restaurants have a similar issue with their vegetables, and that students should always be careful when eating in particular Chinese greens like bok choy.

“Tell the students we’re so sorry, we’re so sorry for what happened,” said Asian Gourmet.

All food vendors in the Student Centre operate with the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) as the landlord.

The Varsity has reached out to the SCSU for comment.

Transparency, a Canadian flag, and a stop to “self-righteous political correctness.” These are the beliefs of the Scarborough Campus’ Union Reform Club (SCU Reform), an emerging student movement against the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU).

Formed in early September 2018, SCU Reform is now a club recognized under Ulife and is comprised of an unknown number of students who want to change the culture of the SCSU.

SCU Reform President Anup Atwal, a fourth-year student, said that up to 300 students could be in his club. The Varsity was unable to verify that number.

SCU Reform claims that the SCSU lacks transparency on budgets, is not upfront about issues, and is not accessible.

In an email to The Varsity, the SCSU wrote that it “welcomes… and encourages students to become engaged in proposing new ideas for the upcoming year,” and that it “relies on member engagement to ensure that the diverse and ever-changing needs of students continue to be attended to, as [they] advocate for them to be met.”

The SCSU also noted that it is planning to change its outreach tactics to a more “on-the-ground” member engagement. It is hoping to better inform students about the SCSU’s services, campaigns, and events.

The SCU Reform website highlights that, while it does not want to end the SCSU, it also does not want UTSC students to be “tainted” with “petty identity politics” and “never-ending controversy.”

“My battle is not with any individual director or executive,” said Atwal. “It’s about the structure of the institution and [SCSU] not caring [about the student body].”

Atwal said that the ultimate goal of SCU Reform is to get more students engaged in student elections, to force the union to listen to them, and to discourage voter apathy.

“Voter apathy leads to this… bottleneck effect in which you have a small cluster of ideas operating on a $1.1 million budget.” He added that, of “13,500 students, less than 2,000 voted. That’s not acceptable.”

According to its website, dedicated SCU Reform members study SCSU documents, such as Board of Director packages and the SCSU Constitution and Bylaws. They also discuss ways to change the union.

In the works is an account of the 2018 SCSU elections and the controversies surrounding it.

Three candidates ran to head the SCSU in 2018. Nicole Brayiannis, the current president; Deena Hassan, who was disqualified twice; and Ray Alibux. Alibux is now a member of SCU Reform.

“The reason I joined SCU Reform was because I wanted to see more transparency within how the SCSU was being run,” wrote Alibux to The Varsity.

He complained about the lack of transparency when he entered the elections for the first time. “They don’t lay out anything. If you want to enter the system, you have to already be part of the system.”

The SCSU said that, this term, it has organized the “biggest Frosh available at UTSC.” They are also “looking forward to” opening the Chatime in the Student Centre, hosting a Mayoral Transit Debate, and campaigning for a more accessible education.

Amid a rising international student population, student unions and the seven colleges are expanding their representation on campus and creating services catered to those demographics. The Varsity reached out to several student unions and college governments for a roundup of international student representation on campus.

UTSU

The University of Toronto Students’ Union does not have a specific committee geared toward international students. However, it does have positions which serve the international student population, such as Vice-President Student Life and Vice-President Equity.

UTGSU

The International Students’ Caucus (ISC) at the University of Toronto Graduate Students Union (UTGSU) aims to address the interests and concerns regarding international graduate students.

The caucus hosts social, academic, and professional workshops and meetings concerning governance and policy changes within the university community and the city at large.

“The ISC is a group under the UTGSU [that] mainly serves international students’ interests, including academic success, social interaction, and networking,” reads a statement on its website.

“Meetings will be held monthly and will focus on the needs of the caucus’ members and the needs of all international graduate students including social interaction, networking, and potential changes in programming and/or governance at the university, city, and/or provincial levels.”

The ISC’s elected positions include the chair, who oversees the caucus as a whole, and the UTGSU Executive Liaison.

UTMSU

The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) represents over 13,500 students across the UTM, with 20 per cent of students being international. While the UTMSU does not have a specific position or caucus dedicated to international students, they do provide several services.

“We endeavour to ensure that the rights of all students are respected, provide cost-saving services, programs and events, and represent the voices of part-time undergraduate students across the University and to all levels of government,” reads a statement on their website. “We are fundamentally committed to the principle of access to education for all.”

The UTMSU also has several campaigns in partnership with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) regarding international student issues, including Fight for Fees, Fairness for International Students, and OHIP for International Students.

SCSU

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) currently does not have a specific levy or caucus dedicated to international students; however, it has positions aimed toward serving the needs of domestic and international students alike on campus, such as Vice-President Campus Life and Vice-President Equity.

SCSU also provides specific services in partnership with the CFS for international students including the International Student Identity Card, which provides students with exclusive discounts such as airfare and entertainment.

Innis College

The Innis College student body provides a number of resources and services made available to international students. The Innis Residence Council has six positions for Junior International House Representatives who work alongside Senior House Representatives to coordinate events and foster a sense of involvement. An International Transition Advisor is also available on campus.

New College

New College houses the International Foundation Program, which provides conditional acceptance to international students whose English proficiency scores do not meet direct entrance requirements. The program guarantees admission to the Faculty of Arts & Science or the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering upon completion.

Madison Hönig, New College Student Council President, told The Varsity, “At New College, international students make up an important part of our student population. We are lucky to house the International Foundation Program (IFP) at New College. As such, we do have an International Foundation Program Representative to advocate for these students.”

“Additionally, we work closely with the New College Residence Council and the main governance structures within the College to ensure that international students are being advocated for and included in our programming, academic initiatives and support at New College,” continued Hönig. “We are working to see that international student representation and advocacy is considered within the portfolios of all of our members.”

University College

University College’s International Student Advisor aims to provide academic and personal resources to International students through their sUCcess Centre. Appointments can be made to meet with an advisor.

Victoria College

Victoria College International Students Association (VISA) is a levy funded by the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council that aims to support the needs and interests of international students at Victoria College.

VISA is used to host social, academic, and professional events throughout the year and also funds a mentorship program for incoming students.

“Our program offered help to students from all backgrounds, in which the mentor would be providing both academic and moral support to the students transitioning into the new university environment, through a two-hour session every two weeks,” reads a statement from the mentorship program’s website.

Woodsworth College

The International Students Director under the Woodsworth College Student Association (WCSA) is the representative for international students at Woodsworth College. The International Students Director also coordinates events hosted by the association catered to international students.

“With this role, I hope to connect with not only incoming international students but also upper year students to bridge the gap between them. I look forward to continuing with some of the events introduced by last year’s director as well as introducing a few new ones,” reads a statement on its website from from Leslie Mutoni, WCSA’s International Students Director.

During the 2017–2018 academic year, the university welcomed over 19,187 international students from across 163 countries and regions, mainly from China, India, the United States, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

The Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students and student societies at St. Michael’s College and Trinity College did not respond to The Varsity’s requests for comment.