The Fall 2025 caucus meeting report
Vic’s Fall Caucus took place on Friday, November 21st at the Old Vic Chapel. It was chaired by VUSAC’s Vice President External (VPE) Isha Mathur and consisted of reports and Q and A with administrators, VUSAC executives, and levy representatives. Highlights of the 3.5 hour meeting included discussions on accessibility, campus spaces, and Vic’s Annual Operating Budget.
Administration Reports
President Rhonda McEwen discussed campus master planning and common themes from student feedback, including physical accessibility, wellness, diversity, and free discourse. Registrar Yvette Ali informed students of extra drop-in hours for the end of the term, a new Advisor on Call to provide immediate assistance, a program supporting suspended students, and study abroad deadlines. Professor Ira Wells from the Office of the Principal discussed developing partnerships, efforts to scale up experiential learning, the expansion of the faculty-student mentorship program, and revisions to the Vic One application process.
Dean of Students Kelly Castle outlined ongoing food and space reviews and summarised feedback from the Dean’s Advisory Committee meetings, which includes demands for longer dining hours, after hours study spaces, and increased campus housing. Castle informed students about planned improvements to Wymilwood Lounge and the Glass Study Room at Goldring. Bursar and Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Ankrett discussed renovations, efforts towards food affordability, and plans to improve student safety.
Admin reports took 50 minutes, which was double the time they were scheduled for. This delay significantly decreased time for Q and A. One attendee expressed that “admin should respect the five minute limit.” This issue was acknowledged by Mathur during the meeting and is not unique to this semester’s caucus, suggesting a need to review the meeting procedure.
During the question period, President McEwen addressed a concern about the potential restoration of Egerton Ryerson’s portrait to Old Vic. She outlined the context behind the portrait’s removal during the pandemic as a safety measure, and “not in objection to who he was.” Restoration discussions have been under way for three and a half years and concerns about erasing history have arisen. Discussions include consultation with Vic’s Indigenous Advisory Circle, made up of “student representation, faculty, librarians, and elders.” An anonymous feedback form was administered at their recommendation but is “getting very little feedback,” McEwen said. She encouraged students to make their opinions heard soon because while there is no timeline set, “there will be a time when we have to do something.”
Accessibility was a recurring theme throughout the meeting. The President discussed campus space enhancements accommodating sensory needs, and the CAO mentioned plans for improving accessibility through building and facilities modernisations. Issues were raised about Old Vic’s elevator closure for its modernisation, which will span all Winter semester. The CAO assured students that most events will be relocated and classes will be adjusted based on need.
A student highlighted concerns with the Registrar’s 2024/25 Student Experience Survey, which lacked an option to identify as disabled. Thus, when assessing accessibility, “it is not possible to filter out and see how disabled students are experiencing this.” The Registrar’s Office cited privacy concerns limiting survey questions on disability and said accessibility “wasn’t a strong theme in the responses.” Students clarified that this may be because focused and intentional data from disabled students was not collected by this form.
The Strand asked the Dean’s Office about the student response and budget allocated to their new wellness programming. According to Castle, the budget is “packed into staffing” and difficult to break down. 30% of on-site counselling is funded through Vic’s budget, from residence, commuter, and UofT transfer fees. Responding to a follow-up request for increased transparency and student input on the Student and Registrarial Services portion of Vic’s Annual Operating Budget, Castle encouraged students to attend Dean’s Advisory Committee meetings.The Strand raised a question about the Coburn Award, through which Vic maintains ties to Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This has come up at past caucus meetings due to the universities’ connections to the Israeli military, which has been widely acknowledged to be committing genocide in Gaza. McEwen’s response focused on the importance of students’ ability to travel and research in the region. Vic has consistently used ideas of ‘academic freedom’ to justify this partnership. While McEwen suggests that academic freedom manifests in students’ ability to explore their interests, it is unclear how Victoria College represents Palestinian views. The award is only in partnership with Israeli universities, many of which contradict academic freedom by aligning with hegemonic state narratives of suppressing Palestinian voices in academic discourse, and being complicit in Israel’s scholasticide in Gaza.
VUSAC and Levy Reports
VUSAC President Rohini Patra’s report, presented by another exec in Patra’s absence, discussed her $5.50 Ned’s Cafe initiative and recently successful efforts to open Goldring Student Centre on weekends. She mentioned the Diwali collaboration with admin and Patra’s intentions to host similar large-scale events for Lunar New Year and Eid. Vice President Internal Aiden Kong discussed VUSAC retreat and staff/co-chair hiring, acknowledging delays in the process. Mathur’s VPE report discussed the Vic Pride scholarship, elections, and Eat After Eight, which recently launched a volunteer program and supports approximately 40 students per night.
Levies provided updates on hiring and programming. The Cat’s Eye discussed their expanded subcommittee, their Pub Night with VicPride, and Co-Manager hiring. VicPride detailed events and Acta Victoriana discussed their launch party. VCAA, VCDS, and The Strand mentioned rocky leadership transitions and future plans, including VCDS’s upcoming shows and the Strand’s plan to make their office a bookable space. Caffiends detailed collaborations and cafe maintenance. VicXposure reported on free dark room sessions and their equipment rentals program, which they plan to expand next term. The Student Projects Fund outlined website updates and applications reviewed thus far, and encouraged Vic students to apply for funding.
The VUSAC and student groups question period involved pre-submitted and live questions. VOCA addressed concerns about unused commuter lockers and proposed a solution of reserving 15-20 lockers for short term sign-outs. The Strand received a question about their accessible e-paper. This was paused due to technical problems with the Strand’s Issuu subscription and website, which the web team is working to resolve.
Expanding on this, the Strand Editor-in-Chief highlighted the time investment that this work, and generally running a monthly publication, takes on the part of the Strand team and asked the VUSAC president about paying masthead members. Concerns about recognising student leaders’ labour and time are underscored by the fact that Vic has the largest endowment of any UofT college and that other campus publications pay their workers. Patra commented that using a majority of a levy’s funding to pay execs “doesn’t sound equitable.” It should be noted that the VUSAC President is paid an honorarium of $8000, VPs receive $600, Staff receive $500, and Commissioners and Co-chairs receive $250 each. Patra contended that student leadership is voluntary and work does not correspond to compensation, a perspective expressed by VUSAC in the past. This approach systemically excludes less wealthy students, who often work jobs out of financial necessity, from participating in student leadership. Patra also mentioned that levies can increase budget towards honoraria if they wish. However, VUSAC constrains this through constitutional limits on honoraria allocation. VUSAC went as far as to cut the Cat’s Eye’s honoraria budget last year, despite protests from members of the exec team.
VUSAC was asked about reintroducing grocery card giveaways, which occurred before the pandemic. VUSAC members stated that giveaways are an inefficient use of funding. VOCA mentioned a potential collaboration with Regenesis UofT to establish a grocery co-op, which addresses similar concerns of food insecurity. The Equity Commission discussed plans to make non-perishable groceries and recipe carts available to expand access and promote food literacy.
Concerns were raised regarding the visibility of information about student programming outside social media. Students who do not use Instagram or have issues navigating devices are often unaware of events, opportunities, and hiring. The Commuter Commissioner mentioned efforts to better utilise VOCA’s website, and suggested VUSAC and other groups use PDFs shared through Google Drive to circulate documents. A VOCA executive recommended a centralised website with all programming and hiring listed. It was also suggested that QR codes should be used in conjunction with links to accommodate people who do not use smartphones.
Accessibility concerns were at the crux of the final discussion item. Several students detailed experiences of hostility and ignorance towards disabled individuals within student organisations, a lack of forethought during event planning, and an absence of training and proactive measures that sideline disabled students from programming and spaces at Vic. VUSAC’s failure to establish accountability for levies, clubs, and themselves with regards to accessibility, and their history of “penalizing disabled students for their disability” was brought up. The proposed solution by students was to create an Accessibility Commission on VUSAC. The Equity Commissioner suggested an interim Head of Accessibility on their team, which was not met positively. Students and a few VUSAC members outlined a framework for disability representation. This generated action items for the VUSAC meeting on Friday, November 28th to discuss and vote on these plans1.
The meeting concluded with a raffle for students who stayed until the end, in an effort by Mathur to encourage attendance and participation.
1During the November 28th meeting, VUSAC voted in favour of the creation of an Accessibility Committee and committed to a constitutional review to incorporate disability representation within council