THE VARSITY
Vol. CXXXIII, No. 18
University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
4 March, 2013
“Renew our fight” Sajjad to run unopposed for UTSU presidency Simon Bredin NEWS EDITOR
FiLe pHoTo: Bernarda Gospic/ THe VarsiTy
Current vice-president, university affairs Munib Sajjad will run unopposed for the presidency of the University of Toronto Students’ Union in this month’s election. Sajjad heads a ticket called Renew, which includes 18 board candidates and a team of four vice-presidents. All the Renew executive candidates are set to be acclaimed to their positions. Sajjad’s executive team of vice-presidents consists of Sana Ali (external), Agnes So (university affairs), Cameron Wathey (internal), and Yollen Bollo-Kamara (equity). Current vice-president, equity, Noor Baig is running for the Board of Directors on the Renew slate as an Arts & Science director-at-large. Bollo-Kamara, appointed this year as vice-president, campus life, is running for Baig’s current role of vice-president, equity. Acclaimed positions will be put to a “confirmation vote” with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ options on the ballot alongside the candidate’s name. According to the electoral code, positions where the candidate receives a majority of ‘no’ votes will be declared vacant. “In my past term as the vice-president, university affairs, I saw first hand how important it was to unite all 47,000 members to build campus life, fight for our rights and representation as students,
and provide cost-saving services,” said Sajjad in a statement released late Sunday night. Sajjad appeared poised for a campaign emphasizing his work in exposing illegal ancillary fees and opposing tuition increases. It is not clear what form a scheduled debate on March 7 will take. Sajjad could field questions from the audience, in a similar structure to the 2010 election. Several opposition candidates are seeking positions on the utsu’s Board of Directors, an oversight body with representatives from each of the colleges. Ben Crase is running for Trinity College’s one board seat, while simultaneously seeking to succeed Sam Greene as Trinity’s co-head of college. Crase is a co-author of a recent report examining how Trinity could sever financial ties with the utsu. In his candidate statement, Crase pledged to “do everything I can to ensure that Trinity students are no longer fee paying members of the utsu” by the time his term would begin in September 2013. No other candidate referenced the ongoing defederation crisis (for more, see “March referenda,” below) in their opening statements. The candidates convened Sunday in a closeddoor all-candidates meeting. The campaign period begins Monday. Polls are open March 12 to 14. For more coverage of the UTSU election, see #UTSU2013
Colleges schedule March referenda on severing financial ties to UTSU Colleges threaten to host votes themselves, if union refuses Zane Schwartz ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Members of vusac vote in favour of holding a defederation referendum Bernarda Gospic/THe VarsiTy
Meetings at Trinity, Victoria, and Engineering this week unanimously approved the holding of referenda to sever financial ties with the University of Toronto Students’ Union. Trinity scheduled a vote from March 25–29, and Victoria from March 23–26. Shaun Shepherd, the outgoing utsu president, has said the union will not host the referenda, as requested by the units seeking defederation. Instead, Shepherd offered to meet again with college leaders, saying he wanted to “focus on issues of primacy” such as illegal fees and access to multi-faith prayer space, and less on “silly” issues, including defederation, that he says are a “distraction.”
Have a ball by learning how to toss spheres of snow from a pro pg 23
“Every few years we see this push for some type of drastic change,” said Shepherd. Shepherd’s offer of mediation was swiftly rejected by college leaders, all of whom are determined to put the question of continuing financial ties with the union to a vote before the end of this academic year. “Faith has been lost in the utsu’s ability to hold meaningful dialogue,” said Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (vusac) president Shoaib Alli. “This tactic isn’t new. They’ve been doing it all year. They defied the will of their members at the sgm in February, they’re trying to defy the will of their members now, and they’ll keep defying the will of their members until we fight back and throw off this degraded, corrupt system,” said Sam Greene, co-head of Trinity College. “Ninety per cent of what we’ve heard from the Union this year, and for the past decade, is prevarication, equivocation, misdirection and obfuscation,” said Greene.
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