VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

Semi-Annual Report 2014/2015

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Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015 Fall Semester Review

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS Message From The Editor

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President

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Vice President Operations

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Vice President External

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Councilors

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Commuter Commissioner

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Sustainability Commissioner

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Scarlet and Gold Commissioner

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Education and Equity Commissioner

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Communications Coordinator

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Secretary

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Chair

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Finance

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

VUSAC 2014-2015

Rowan DeBues

Enxhi Kondi

Kareem Jarrah

Gabriel Zoltan-Johan

Ben Atkins

Ally Scandolo

SaraLi Forouzanfar

Claire Wilkins

Olivia Klasios

Alice Zhu

Sumeeta Farrukh

Alex Martinborough

William Cuddy

Auni Ahsan

Rahul Christofferson

Simona Messina

Golda Greenspoon

Stuart Norton 4

LP Veilleux

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR First, I would like to thank all you lovely readers for taking the time to read this report. It’s important to keep up to date on things that concern your college and your student life, and we appreciate you taking an interest in VUSAC and what we do! For any questions, you can always shoot an email to us— info is listed at http://www.vusac.ca/council/ . When in doubt, send an email to info@vusac.ca and we will get you connected to the right person.

In addition to this report, there are several other ways to stay updated on us and what’s going on around Vic. Events and news are regularly posted to our website www.vusac.ca. Minutes from our biweekly meetings are posted to the site as well.

Like us on Facebook, follow us on twitter, subscribe to our YouTube channel for quick video updates of each meeting, and –new this year!- follow our instragram page! See, we can be cool and hip sometimes.

A special thank you to The Victoriad, The Cat’s Eye, and Damla Kerestecioğlu for allowing me to use their photos in this publication, and especially to Sepehr Jamali for the beautiful photo of Old Vic that graces the cover of this report.

Last, but definitely not least—thank you to my fellow VUSAC members. You guys are some of the most hardworking, dedicated individuals I have had the pleasure of working with (and let’s not forget how incredibly gorgeous we all are). Thanks for being so cool, and let’s have a great second semester!!

Sumeeta Farrukh Communications Coordinator

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

PRESIDENT Rowan DeBues It has been a busy year for all of VUSAC, though a year that started for me back in April 2014.

Here are a few of the things I have been working on so far in the 2014-2015 year.

Caffiends U of T’s favourite student ran coffee shop (don’t tell Diablos at UC!) has been sitting in a precarious position. Founded in 2007, Caffiends’ future has become uncertain after the opening of the Goldring Centre. Should it continue to operate out of Old Vic or should it move to the Goldring?

Over the summer I worked with students, alumni, and administration to negotiate Caffiends’ stay in Old Vic for the 2014-2015 year and established with the Office of the Dean of Students’ a working committee to discuss a permanent solution to the Caffiends question once and for all. Currently we are creating smaller discussion groups with students across campus to solicit feedback for all potential options. Please email me your thoughts if you want your voice heard on this issue.

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

UTSU For nearly a decade now college/faculty groups have been in somewhat of a deadlock with the University of Toronto Students’ Union over issues of transparent, fair, democratic governance. An all too brief summary of my personal opinion is that an organization that collects $1.2 million in fees from Victoria students should be responsive and accessible to Victorians. A proposal to eliminate Vic representatives on the UTSU governing board was defeated thanks in part to a fantastic show of democratic will by Victorian students who managed to gather well over 300 votes to preserve our current representation. That victory is just the beginning, as we are already working on separate proposals so as to increase the quality of representation Victorians receive and to continue to hold the UTSU accountable to those that pay so much into its operation.

A New President No, not VUSAC President, but President of Victoria! One of the worst kept secrets on campus is that this is our beloved Dr. Paul Gooch’s final term as President of Victoria University. One of my duties has been to sit on a selection committee to find a suitable successor for President Gooch.

All I can say thus far is that the process is going smoothly and that I am confident in finding a candidate capable of filling the President’s shoes (or socks perhaps I should say). If you have any specific characteristics or traits you wish to see in our next university President, please communicate them with me so I can represent those ideas within the committee! By the time next term starts we will have a new President.

Money, Money, Money The main theme of my elections platform was one of financial responsibility. We the students are already paying ever increasing fees to an ever increasing number of places on campus. I promised to make as efficient use of your money as possible and to make sure future fees were fair and affordable. To that end, I have worked very closely with the Finance Chair, Ben Atkins, and the rest of the budget steering committee to create VUSAC’s first natural surplus budget in four years. I would like to thank the clubs and commissions of Victoria for their patience in what must have seemed like an inane number of picky questions of costs, but the end result is a fair and responsible budget that is pushing your pennies as far as possible. This is also the first year that we asked Vic levies to send us their budgets for studying. The final piece of the puzzle in the remaining term is that I hope to find a way to address the problem of fee inflation. I am currently investigating ways to make sure that while inflation jacks up your student fees, your student government is not compounding your financial problems. Stay tuned for more on that.

Contact me at president@vusac.ca or just ambush me in Burwash. Either works!

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

VICE-PRESIDENT OPERATIONS Enxhi Kondi Every year, by its very nature, VUSAC brings together a collection of unique individuals intent on working together to foster a vibrant community for the students at Victoria College, and this year was no exception. What particularly differentiated this year’s council, however, from the ones preceding it were some new positions and a major learning curve for the council as a whole.

My term as Vice President Operations began partly in thin air; the position was a new merge of the previously existing Vice President Internal and Clubs Commissioner positions, and my transition was rather shaky to begin with. Lacking a Clubs Commissioner at the time, my transition report was general and delivered by the President, while the VPI transitioned me into the Judiciary part of my role. The following will describe my progress in the two individual aspects of my role.

In terms of managing clubs at Victoria College, it has been mostly smooth sailing in terms of problems and solutions: I’ve found the leader community at Vic to be particularly competent, understanding, and very motivated when it comes to compromising or resolutions, so it’s truly been a pleasure to work with such a great group. However, upon entering my role, I had to lay a lot of the groundwork from scratch. The club documentation initially present was poorly put together, outdated, or just plain missing. I worked extensively over the summer to establish contact with all existing Vic clubs, organise cohesive documentation of the clubs, and develop a Clubs Handbook which incorporated all the information clubs at Vic would need to function. I hosted a meeting of the club heads in the last few weeks of summer to inform clubs of their responsibilities and of the resources available to them at Vic, in order to prepare them for the year ahead. During Orientation Week, the first semester Clubs Fair took place, which was a great success, if I do say so myself. Near the end of first semester, I hosted another club heads meeting in 8

order for the clubs to regroup, update on what they accomplished first semester and goals for second semester, and to allow me to update the clubs on what I’d been working on that would affect them.

Then, during Vic Frost Week, the second semester Clubs Fair was held; this is the first year in a long time that there existed a second semester Clubs Fair and, while it was not as successful as Orientation, it is still good practise. Between all of these formal displays of my work with clubs, there is almost daily maintenance of clubs in terms of providing access to storage, signing out equipment and supplies, and answering general inquiries from club heads. Speaking of storage, that was initially one of my major projects for this year; renovation of the two storage rooms [oo3 and oo4] in Goldring. Unfortunately, due to other jobs that I have already mentioned and will mention in this report, I was unable to dedicate myself to complete that

“VUSAC brings together a collection of unique individuals intent on working together to foster a vibrant community for the students at Victoria College”

project in first semester, so the goal is to do so in the upcoming months before the end of my term as VPO. The second, arguably more personally taxing, role in my portfolio is as a member of the council Judiciary, particularly the one meant to take an internal focus on council dynamics and VUSAC’s function in the Vic community. Being an Orientation Executive this year facilitated part of this role for me over the summer by allowing me to work on incorporating

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

VUSAC into Vic programming [ie. Orientation Week]: I developed the VUSAC Handbook and coordinated VUSAC members’ involvement in Orientation events.

Not having a Vice President External over the summer, though, was difficult in some ways because the way the VUSAC Judiciary is currently structured is too heavy of a load for only two individuals, in this case being myself and the President. There were numerous times when I had to reach out and liaise with Levies myself to ensure they were updated and incorporated into events and such, on account of there being no one else to do it. Simultaneously, this was the summer that tensions really took off with the UTSU, and there were other issues as well, so the President, and myself to an extent, was focused there. Combined with what I said earlier about my

missioner, the details of which can be found in the minutes of the November 10th and November 21st meetings. Admittedly, the handling of this situation sparked some internal tension, but [cue the sappiness] I am proud of this council for the way we have moved forward from then, for the lessons we’ve learned, and for the persistence everyone has to continue toward accomplishing the goals we set out with.

However, we, as the Judiciary, were finding numerous things hard to cope with and, including after conducting One on One private meetings with each council member, as per my role as VPO, it was clear that the structure of the VUSAC Judiciary was not sustainable. This is where the most recent VUSAC Structuring Proposal comes in.

There are still approximately two months left of my term as VPO from the time of the publishing of this report, and there is still much to do. VUSAC is in the process of consultations regarding a re-structuring of the Judiciary and some other roles on council; details can be found in the minutes of the Jan. 16 meeting.

This will be taking a lot of the council’s, and my, devotion for the remainder of the year. My other major devotion will be toward the completion of the storage space renovation, along with a Councilor who has been partnering on this with me.

If you’re still reading, I’d like to thank you for your interest, and commend you for taking initiative at becoming more informed about what is going on in your community, particularly what this group of people, who you’ve [probably] empowered by election to repessentially building a foundation for club manageresent you, is doing. While this position is largely ment at Vic, the council itself was not being devoted thankless in the sense that it has a behind-themuch attention to. Luckily, there isn’t anything manscenes nature that is only really recognised when dated for VUSAC over the summer, but this did set something goes wrong, it certainly is very personally the tone for the rest of the year. After the Fall elections, our council still had the vacant position of Aca- rewarding and motivating when things actually go demic & Professional Development Commissioner for right! I am inspired by the people I get to work with which no one ran, but incorporation of the Vice Presi- and with that, I will let you read on to find out what dent External into the Judiciary went very smoothly. riveting stuff they’ve been working on!

One of the hardest things about being on the Judiciary, and perhaps about being on council in general, is separating the personal from the professional, particularly when you receive complaints and criticism, about yourself or other members, and are expected to act on it. This year, our council dealt with a particularly delicate situation of the failed impeachment, and subsequent resignation, of the Arts & Culture Com9

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

VICE-PRESIDENT EXTERNAL Kareem Jarrah The primary role for the Vice President External is to serve to represent Vic’s levies at VUSAC. In addition, the VPE also serves as a faucet for communication with residence councils and with the larger UofT community.

Levy Relations This year I have taken to ensuring VUSAC has an up -to-date copy of levy constitutions. As documents are often lost during year-to-year transitions, maintaining copies of levy constitutions with VUSAC will hopefully prevent the loss of crucial documents in the future. Furthermore, I have been working with the levies to update their constitutions to reflect current practices. In addition, it has been my pleasure to represent the levies at VUSAC meetings as well as sit on hiring committees and advisory boards for the levies allowing VUSAC to more efficiently be involved with the inner workings of the levies.

Caffiends’ Location Over the past year, Caffiends’ location has been questioned. Recently, a task force was created composed of members of VUSAC, Caffiends, and the Dean’s Office. The goal of this task force exists to evaluate the needs of Caffiends and examine possible locations to permanently house Caffiends. This is not to say that Caffiends will or will not move, but an evaluation of its needs is required to reach a sound decision regarding its permanent location.

Residence Relations This year, I have made an effort to ensure VUSAC communicates with Vic’s residence life more than it has traditionally. I have proposed an amendment to make it so that the VPE would meet with the building presidents. I have been attending building presidents’ meetings as well as don meetings in order to gain insight into Vic residence life and communicate VUSAC’s intentions and plans to the building presidents and residence dons.

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Victorian of the Month Recently, I have restarted the Victorian of the Month Award. In previous years, students would nominate a fellow Vic student who they believed was integral to the Vic community- not just a student who participates in Vic events, but also who is a friendly face that deserves recognition. I have restarted this award and any Vic student wishing to nominate a fellow Vic student can pick up a form in the VUSAC office. The award winner is announced at the end of the month.

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

COUNCILORS cre. I was also involved in organizing the Trick or Treat scavenger hunt around Goldring along with councillors Auni and Alex. A different initiative which I was also involved with was raising awareness and interest in the UTSU AGM, encouraging students to either attend the meeting, or proxy their vote, in order to make their voices heard.

LP Veilleux

I would like to preface my report by stating that it has been quite the semester at VUSAC and to congratulate the council on all it managed to accomplish over the course of the term. Aside from my ascribed hours supervising the office and attending meetings, there were a several initiatives and events which I Lastly, I have been in charge of VUSAC’s Twitter acspent my time organizing, preparing for, and holding. count for the entirety of the term. I’ve used it to proThe first major initiative which I took part in organiz- mote events and initiatives organized by VUSAC ing was co-operation with Vic for a Cure in order to such as the Bob, Winterfest, the Goldring Trick or raise money and awareness in their annual MovemTreat, etc. If any students would like their events ber campaign. Throughout the month of November I saw some great moustaches (along with a variety of publicized via our Twitter account, they should conother facial hair styles) which showed that there was tact me at my VUSAC e-mail address. plenty of awareness for the issue. In addition, the Stuart Norton campaign managed to raise $1,685 towards men’s health initiatives!

This past semester I have assisted and been involved with numerous initiatives and events within VUSAC. I have actively participated around the office and during meetings. I represented Victoria students at the UTSU AGM where we collectively voted down the proposed UTSU Board of Directors structure, resulting in Vic’s representation staying on the Board of Directors. I assisted Education and Equity Commissioner Claire Wilkins with the preparation and execution of Mike the Change in November. I worked together with the Deans Office, the Commuter Dons, the Education and Equity committee and other members of VUSAC to organize the ceremony for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence I also aided the Education and Equity Commissioner Against Women. I have been working with the Scarin organizing, putting on the annual Mike the Change lett and Gold Commissioner Olivia Klasios with the event. All in all, the event was well attended and was planning of the Gardiner Gala that is set to take most definitely a roaring success. Another event place on the evening of January 8th. My big initiawhich I was involved in planning along with the E & E tives for the remainder of the year will be revamping commissioner was the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. The the Goldring Student Centre Clubs Storage with VPO Enxhi Kondi, and participating as a member of the event was poignant and did a wonderful job commemorating the tragic events of the Montreal Massa- Highball Committee. I will continue to help out with 11

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

COUNCILORS smaller initiatives and events, as well as continuing to uity Commissioner, the VPE, the Commuter Dons participate as an active member of VUSAC around and two other Councillors to help organize the Nathe Vic community. tional Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women Ceremony.

Alex Martinborough

Rahul Christofferson In addition to fulfilling my Councillor mandate by attending and voting at meetings and holding weekly office hours, my main contributions to VUSAC this semester have been centered around assisting the Commuter Commissioner. I helped make pancakes every week at VOCA’s weekly pancake breakfasts and helped with research, budgeting and grocery shopping for the breakfasts and other food-related events. I helped make decisions on the CARA committee and assisted in organizing the CARA Holiday Social and the Commuter Festive Dinner. Next semester I will be helping organize skating trips, monthly movie nights and games of Assassins for commuters. This semester I also helped the VPO with assembling club recognition forms and constitutions and the VPE with the organization of the caucus meeting. Finally, I worked with the Education and Eq12

It has been a busy semester at VUSAC, and I’ve worked on a number of initiatives. This semester, I attended my first UTSU AGM, which was one of the main focuses of VUSAC for the early part of the semester. My main initiative, however, has been working with Kareem, our VPE, in working with the Levies. As a part of this task, we’ve researched in the Emmanuel College Archives, and met with all of the levies, where they explained their plans for the year. Another part of my work with Kareem was sitting on the Cat’s Eye Advisory Board. This advisory board has discussed means of increasing traffic in the Cat’s Eye and has selected a new comanager. One of my other roles on VUSAC was sitting on the Winterfest Chair selection committee. I was also involved with the Halloween Goldring Trickor-Treat with some fellow councillors and the other offices of the Goldring Center. This event encouraged people to explore what different offices have to offer. I am looking forward to next semester and working on the Internal Review Committee with Enxhi and LP. There seems to be some exciting things coming up in second semester, and I hope to be a part of them.

Golda Greenspoon This past semester as a councilor, I have been a part of various tasks within the VUSAC apart from attending meetings and holding office hours. To begin with, I was assigned the role of the Finance Chair, Ben Atkins’, assistant. I attended budget steering meetings,

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

COUNCILORS helped to determine and create the budget for the 2014-2015 year of the VUSAC and its clubs and levies back earlier in the semester. With this role I also worked on switching the finances to QuickBooks, updating the financial filing system within the office and will continue with more exciting initiatives like these next semester.

William Cuddy

In my capacity as a councilor, I have attended VUSAC meetings and performed administrative duties - but I've mainly been focused on my initiatives and other responsibilities on VUSAC. This past semester, I've been an active participant on VOCA in my role as VOCA councilor. Part of this Also, on the VUSAC, I have been producing vidinitiative was submitting VOCA for the UofT CCR eos for the council’s YouTube page. I strive to (Co-Curricular Record). We have succeeded in make these biweekly videos quick, accessible, in- doing this, and now VOCA members can receive a formational and fun, as a neat way to connect and form of credit for the work they do for commuters reach out to a larger audience. Another way that I around Vic. I helped to set up and organize the have participated in the VUSAC is my role as a commuter festive dinner as well. Apart from this, I councilor helping with the production of Victoria have also been involved with the Sustainability College’s Highball, though as this event is taking Commission and the organization of its sustainplace next semester my work with it has not yet ability networking sessions - these will all be hapreally begun. My final initiative that I am assisting pening this term, but the groundwork and foundawith is helping with the VUSAC socials, small get- tions were laid last semester. I've also helped the togethers between members of the council in orsustainability commission to update and upgrade der to get to know one another better. its website to be more user friendly and up to date.

I also actively participated with VUSAC to vote down the UTSU's board restructure, which would effectively remove college representation for Vic. I assisted with setting up the Harry Potter Pub Night (this was a minor task) as I was the first semester party assistant - I procured speakers for the event from the Cat's Eye, in cooperation with the Scarlet & Gold commissioner. This semester is where the bulk of my initiatives become more active - this semester, a full list of clubs and club contacts will be available right outside the VUSAC office.

Lastly, I am in charge of VUSAC's Instagram account - most of VUSAC's events will be anMy work on the council has been very rewarding nounced through this account, and some goingson around the office will also go out through that and so far and I am looking forward to an even account . better experience next semester with my fellow council members.

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COUNCILORS

Auni Ahsan VUSAC has been a really enjoyable experience for me so far! The first major initiative I helped with was the UTSU annual general meeting. I worked with other VUSAC members to try and increase the amount of Victoria student representation at the AGM, and was successfully able to proxy for 10 students and convinced several others to attend. The AGM was a great success, as there were more Vic students in attendance than ever before.

A minor event I helped organize was the Goldring trick-or-treat, which consisted of student and administrative offices all around Goldring opening their doors to offer students candy. This was set up in order to encourage students to explore every corner of our student centre, since many aren’t aware of how many offices call Goldring their home. I worked with LP and Alex to contact various offices to set this up, and we also created a draw with prizes for students that visited every office.

My biggest responsibility thus far has been as Assistant Chair for Vic’s Frost Week. I have been working with the two co-chairs, Emily and Aimee, in addition to the rest of the committee to organize the various events that Vic puts on, in addition to the UofT-wide Winterfest events.

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The last initiative I worked on so far is setting up SAD lamp access for Vic students. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a psychopathology similar to major depressive disorder, including symptoms like chronic sadness, excessive sleep, loss of energy and motivation, and irritability. Those who suffer from this largely underdiagnosed condition benefit greatly form bright light therapy: a treatment that involves sitting by a SAD lamp for 20-30 minutes every day. I proposed that student projects invest in three SAD lamps for Vic students to use and was approved. They have been ordered and students will be able to use them starting second semester!

Simona Messina -no report submitted-

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COMMUTER COMMISSIONER SaraLi Forouzanfar VOCA Executive Team The Commuter Commissioner can’t do everything alone – that’s where Victoria Off-Campus Association (VOCA) comes in! SaraLi acts as one co-chair, with the other chosen through applications. This year there were a number of strong applicants, but Saad Khan was chosen to help lead the rest of the executive team, also chosen by application to the cochairs. Currently there are 11 execs who help make everything happen! This year we have green shirts with VOCA on them, so we can stand out as a team and a resource for other commuters to approach.

year! The first is monthly waffles, where VOCA borrows waffle griddles from Burwash, which are a yummy alternative to pancakes (which are also served!). The other addition is monthly catering from Caffiends! The sustainable student-run café provides free coffee to those who need a morning pick-me-up.

Fall semester had brunches on Tuesdays, but this has changed to Thursdays due to VOCA Exec availability. We look forward to seeing you!

Regular Events We run regular events throughout the year, including movie nights and monthly dinners. We will also be As a hard-working team, we’ve had a great semester starting karaoke events and skating for those who and look forward to Winter! want more fun activities! Skating will be during Varsity stadium open hours and occasionally the trip to Weekly Brunches Nathan Philips Square.

Continuing the tradition, VOCA continued the weekly brunches this year, with supplies ordered from Chef Media Nathan in the Burwash Dining Hall. Toppings are This semester has seen a large expansion in media kept a surprise until we serve pancakes, with differ- outlets by VOCA. The website commuter.vusac.ca ent toppings are each week, keeping our brunches was not in use for a number of years until this year, refreshing and wanting to come back for more! Each when SaraLi revamped it during summer and got week there is a different Vic club advertised, which some execs to add some fancy widgets, syncing, continuously provides engagement to the commuand more. The VUSAC listserv, Facebook page, and nity. There are a few new additions to brunch this website are all being utilised. The new addition this 16

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year is Instagram, where we can be found http:// instagram.com/viccommuter/. Twitter is also getting updated, with more frequent tweets this upcoming semester! Tweet and follow us @VicCommuter!

Commuter Lounge. Also, on the level above, a new sign with “Commuter Lounge and Kitchenette” will be created through a contest to raise awareness of the space.

Commuter Resources

Commuter Festive Dinner

The Commuter Lounge in the Goldring Student Centre has a number of resources available for commuter usage, including a kitchenette and lockers.

The lockers are usually in high demand, so I decided an application system instead of a simple raffle would make more sense. This way, those who most needed the space would be allocated it. In addition, friends could pair up to share a locker, hence more students for the relatively small number of lockers we have. Soon we will be installing half lockers for those who need less space but would still like to store textbooks and extra socks. The kitchenette has a fridge, freezer, sink, reusable mugs, and storage space for student usage. The kettle that went missing will be replaced in January! The Commuter Lounge will also be getting a splash of colour with the décor event in February, where students will be able to create a mural to be hanged up in the

This year, SaraLi envisioned a separate Festive Dinner to enable more commuters to attend, as Burwash’s Festive Dinner only had 50 seats reserved for commuters. This event held more than double, with 128 seats available and all of them sold out!

The VOCA executive team put hard work into the decorations for the evening, while SaraLi made the room, catering, and general logistics happen. With fresh and familiar faces in attendance, festive music, and a social dessert after the sit-down dinner, the event was a huge success. This was also President Gooch’s last Festive Dinner attendance. We hope this will become a tradition in future years and that it will only grow to become bigger and better.

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SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSIONER from me; I’ll be paying for the orders once I receive their order form. Chris from Betty and Dash met with me and he is looking for models for his advertising The Sustainability Commission and event committees under the commission have had a good start in campaign. He also is asking if Kristina from last year renewed his bike insurance. So far he’s helped a few the first semester and have major plans to engage students in the second semester. Over the past few customers and seems to be doing well – I will need months, I have had the pleasure of working with vari- to meet up with him again next semester and see if he needs anything else. Finally, Vic Enviro Fashion ous student leaders at Vic and beyond Vic in the UofT community. I hope to continue this relationship Show is off to a good start this year, as they have selected their models and designers already. In addiwith fellow leaders in the following months. tion, they have secured their venue! Looking forward to more updates next semester.

First Semester

Alice Zhu

Green Reps Program

Burwash Programs

The Green Reps Program, under the guidance of Symon, has had successful turnout at its meetings the first semester, with around 11 green reps in total from each of the residences. Their campaign for November was ‘Water Month’, and Symon’s plan was to have a water saving competition between the residences to see which residence can save the most water. She also wanted to show a water documentary, although I do not know how it went. Next semester, Symon will be going on exchange and her vice-director of affairs will take over her place.

Chef Nathan and I put up some posters to encourage students to share trays (to reduce water use) and to bring reusable plates/mugs to study space. I think the later campaign worked since during my study space shift I saw several students with their own canteens. However, we’ll need to come up with more innovative ideas next semester though, since I realized students don’t want to share trays with each other and sometimes it is difficult to remember to bring one’s own mug/plate.

Public Relations

Second Semester

Sustainability Survey I’ve gotten help from William, a Councilor on VUSAC, with redesigning and updating the sustainability web- I will conduct a survey the first week of classes of Vic site. Hopefully he will continue to add updates to the students to see if the garden should be continued. I will also get Vic students ‘ opinion on a few sustainwebsite every month and make it look better. ability events as well.

Potential Upgrades to Buildings Federal Pre-Election Town Hall on Climate After meeting with Phys Plant representative, Peter, Change we both were interested in seeing if the Commuter Lounge lights can be turned off and if it is possible to This town hall will feature either leaders of the federal parties or their representatives. This open disget handdryers in residences. I am awaiting more cussion invites all students and faculty from Vic and information from Peter.

UofT to participate and hear their leaders speak on a Sustainable Groups at Vic major issue of our generation. The town hall will take place at the beginning of March. The invitation letter Caffiends will be ordering some Greenshift materials will be sent at the beginning of January, after the 18

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Christmas break.

A Climate for Change: Conference on Policy and Social Responsibility This conference is also centered around the theme of climate change, but will be more focused on empowering students and answering the question, “How can I tackle climate change in my community?” The event will take place in March. The speakers and booths have already been selected.

Vic Green Handbook The Vic Green Handbook is one way to get word out there about sustainability events on campus. Copies of the ~5 page long booklet can be found in Goldring, Old Vic, and some of the residences.

Vic EnviroWeek as part of UofT EcoFest EnviroWeek will happen in March and will be included in the events listing of UofT EcoFest, a broader month-full of events that will showcase sustainability events from all 7 colleges and from clubs as well.

VUSAC sustainability will be partnering with UTERN and ENSU on this initiative.

Burwash Campaigns Burwash tours and lunch with the chef: we’ll try to get students to gain a greater appreciation of Burwash’s services by giving tours of the facilities. Every week, we will also stick to the walls the total waste created to raise awareness of waste production.

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

SCARLET AND GOLD COMMISSIONER applications and single applications for this year’s Winterfest. Following the interview process, I se‘Arry Potta Pub Night: lected Aimee Huntington and Emily Ernst as coThis year, a combined effort between myself and the chairs for Victoria College. They then selected a committee after a period of applications and with this Building Presidents of Burwash, Rowell-Jackman, group of hard-working individuals I can only expect a Annesley, and Margaret Addison brought Victoria week of fun and spirited events. Aimee and Emily are College out to Old Vic for a magical pub night. Set a great team and I look forward to the upcoming accordingly with the theme of Harry Potter, Old Vic was transformed into an even more enchanted place Frost Week. than before with the help food services, which even Highball Committee Selection and Progress: provided Butterbeer! Attending the event was free of This year’s Highball committee is off to a fantastic charge but in order to gain entrance the students had start and I cannot wait to continue working with this to get a ticket from the VUSAC office or from their group. A venue has been chosen and we are moving president. We sold out several days prior to the acforward with making arrangements to make for an tual pub night and saw a lot of demand for more tickunforgettable Highball. I expect to finish ironing out ets. The night ran smoothly with the multitude of voldetails about a theme in the coming weeks and then unteers that assisted with both set up and clean up, moving ahead with making it a reality. This year as well as taking tickets and crowd control.

Highball is Thursday March 3rd, so make sure you Winterfest Co-Chair Selection: are available! Watch the VUSAC Facebook page for I had the pleasure of sorting through several co-chair announcements in February.

Olivia Klasios

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

EDUCATION & EQUITY COMMISSIONER Claire Wilkins The Education and Equity Commission began the 2014 fall term by finalizing its choice of committee members after reviewing applications submitted over the summer. The executive members of the team are Saambavi Mano, Laila Zaman, Haley Currie, Reema Kureishy, and Victoria Yang, and Zoë MacDonald. The committee works together to discuss equity issues on and off campus, and to organize events that hope to educate and inform students on matters of accessibility that may have previously gone unexamined. Members also assist the Education and Equity Commissioner in organizing and hosting events. This semester, committee members attended an Equity Training session, helped organize the Victoria College Book Exchange, and were integral to making Mike the Change the success it was.

The Education and Equity Committee will continue to meet biweekly into the spring semester. Individuals interested in joining the committee for the spring semester can find further information at educationandequity.vusac.ca.

Equity Training is an annual event run by the Education and Equity Commissioner that aims to equip student leaders with the necessary skills to handle their student relations equitably and fairly, and provides an opportunity for students to examine disparity within the University more closely. Equity Training occurred at the end of October, and all levy heads, club heads, and residence presidents were invited to participate. This year, the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council passed a constitutional amendment making Equity Training mandatory for all members of council. Allison Burgess from the Sexual and Gender Diversity Office and Sandra CarnegieDouglas from the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office gave an insightful and engaging presentation, and guided students through several work-shopping exercises that put equity training into everyday contexts. Overall, attendees received Equity Training as a positive experience.

In September, the commission ran the annual Victoria College Book Exchange in collaboration with Caffiends Café. The Victoria College Book Sale generously donated several boxes of books to the Exchange. Students came in to drop off books, and to pick up new ones to read. This event was a great opportunity for students to share knowledge with each other, through passing on books to others and picking up new books for themselves. Some books were traded and taken home by participating students, but leftover books remain on the Caffiends “take a book, leave a book” bookshelf, where the exchange continues informally throughout the year. If you’re stuck for reading material (although university students rarely are), come to Caffiends for a warm cup of coffee and Near the end of November, the Education and Equity trade a book for something new to feast your eyes Commission held Mike The Change in the Cat’s Eye. on.

Mike The Change is an annual open-mic event that aims to spread AIDS awareness and reduce stigma

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

surrounding the disease. Scott Nickerson and Christine DeCelles from People With AIDS Toronto spoke about their personal experiences, about the stigma surrounding AIDS, and dispelled myths surrounding the disease. After the presentation, students performed musical pieces and stand-up comedy routines.

Several raffle prizes were available to vote for, and the prizes were later distributed to winners. Proceeds from the event are in the process of being donated to the Canadian AIDS Society.

On December 5, students and faculty gathered together in the Wendy Cecil Atrium of the Goldring Centre to remember the individuals who lost their lives at École Polytechnique massacre of 1989 and to remember more broadly women and other minorities who experience violence in their lives. The event was held the day before the International Day of Remembrance and Violence Against Women. Guests gave speeches, songs were performed, and candles were lit in remembrance. The Education and Equity Commissioner, members of VUSAC, and several residence dons worked with the Campus Life Coordinator to generate ideas and organize participants. Although Education and Equity only assisted marginally in its operation, the event itself was a lovely and inspiring way to end the fall semester.

What the spring semester brings: -International Week -Aboriginal Heritage Week -Documentary Screening and Discussion Series -Student Mental Health Network initiatives in planning process

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR Sumeeta Farrukh Social Media This year, VUSAC has taken over social media!

Our Facebook page has remained the most popular and efficient way of quickly reaching a large number of students. Most posts will reach an average of 100200 students, and some posts, such as the post for discounted Ripley’s Aquarium tickets, have reached over 800 students! It’s a great way to gauge what types of events and activities Vic students appreciate the most, so we can use that information for future plans.

The YouTube channel has also bloomed since it’s inception last year. Councilor Golda Greenspoon has heads the production of these videos and as a results we have informative and entertaining quick videos for every meeting.

A new initiative this year was to create an instagram account. Councilor William Cuddy is the head of this account, uploading posters of events and photos of Vic to the account.

While we certainly have done a lot to cover our bases in regards to social media, I still feel that we can do more to increase our web presence and consistently reach a large audience. Heavy promotion of all the accounts will hopefully see more subscribers, followers and likes in the future.

VUSAC Newsletter The weekly VUSAC listerv newsletters have also received a great response. Every year, the Communications Coordinator chooses a theme for their newsletters. For example, last year’s CC, Jade Huguenin, chose cheesy movies to include at the end of the newsletters. I have chosen to include the goodness of wonderful, awful puns at the end of my 23

newsletters.

The listserv goes out to about 800 students, which is an incredible number to reach on a weekly basis. Students appreciate a clean, documented review of what’s happening in the coming week, and I have even received emails approving of my hilarious jokes (because they are so funny.) I am also impressed with many of the club heads and levy heads who are always actively planning and promoting their events. They consistently show their dedication to their group.

The process of subscribing to the newsletter is somewhat inconvenient. A student has to send me an email requesting to be subscribed, and then I have to manually enter the address. For students, it may seem a bit of a hassle and not worth the effort to subscribe, and (with the amount of subscribers we would ideally be getting) I would like a way online to collect and input several email addresses at once. I will look into some solutions—perhaps a continuosly updated google doc.

Future plans Scott Johnston, Assistant Dean of Student Life, and I are currently planning a communications summit in February for club and levy heads. This will allow us to discuss with other leaders at Vic regarding methods and issues of communication and how we can effectively and efficiently reach students.

Another plan I have is to create a communications survey. We speak a lot to fellow council members, club heads, and levy heads about how to reach students, but we need to see how the general student body responds to our messages. The survey will aim to find out which communications methods are most effective and what we can be doing better to help our students get the most of Victoria College.

VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

SECRETARY Ally Scandolo The main job of the VUSAC secretary is to record the discussions and motions conducted at meetings. For this year, I have made small structural changes to the format of the minutes, but for the most part, I have upheld the structure introduced by the previous secretary. A motion summary is currently in the works to be released after the final 2014-2015 VUSAC meeting – it will detail every motion from this year in one document. All minutes are available under the documents tag and are posted 72 hours after each meeting.

New to the secretary portfolio this year is office management. After the change in judiciary and commissioner roles, this part of the internal procedures was added to the job. This is VUSAC’s second year in the Goldring Student Centre, and the space still has a lot of potential for improvements. In November, accent walls were added to give the office some colour! Renovations and additions will continue until April, including a student study space that will be created with couches and desks for students to read and work in the office.

There will also be the creation of a decoration inventory, hopefully with enough items to allow students and groups to rent from VUSAC for events. Applications to Student Projects will be completed throughout the winter semester for space improvements, including furniture for the study space and decorating the office walls. The goal for the end of the year is to create a comfortable and inviting environment in the office for all students!

CHAIR Gabriel Zoltan-Johan -no report submitted-

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VUSAC Semi-Annual Report 2014-2015

FINANCE Ben Atkins -report pending-

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