SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSIONER Amy Mann

What a year it has been! Two weeks ago, we held environmental equity week. The week started with a wonderful speaker panel on environmental equity featuring many knowledge academics and activists in the community. On Wednesday, we held a decolonial walking tour of U of T with Dr. Jon Johnson to learn about the Indigenous history and on-going presence on campus as well as the on-going struggle for justice at the University of Toronto. Finally, we ended the week with Divest Fest, a full-day event to talk about divestment, drink hot chocolate, play games, and establish our presence on campus. It was pouring so we had to move the event inside to the Cat’s Eye. The event was on the same day as the Board of Regents met, the body that decides whether Victoria University divests from fossil fuels. While, they did not make the decision to divest that meeting, we are excited to continuing being part of this important conversation.

We have more planned this semester. We will be holding an eco-grief café in the upcoming months to give students a change to debrief and talk about eco-anxiety and drink some coffee and eat snacks. More details will come in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned (if you don’t already, be sure to follow us @vic.sustainability). We also have more advocacy goals this semester we hope to accomplish – the roll out of compost bins at Victoria College has been delayed several times this term but we are hopeful that it will finally happen in the upcoming weeks.

Thank you to everyone that helped with our events this term, showed up, and kept showing up even though change is slow and painful! Throughout this year, I have been constantly reminded of the power and necessity of community for to create change. By refusing to take a stance that everything is hopeless, we have actively changed the odds and created a different path. I feel so incredibly grateful to the Vic community. None of this would be possible without you.

If you have not gotten involved yet, we would love to have you come out to our events. We meet every Monday from 5-6pm in the VUSAC office. Everyone is welcome (if you email me ahead of time with your favourite snack, I can make sure it is there). You can also follow us on Instagram to hear about events we are putting on. I hope to see you there!