DiTomasso talks OSAP cuts, VUSAC programming and mental health and wellness
The Strand: If you could state your name, your major, and the position you’re running for.
Dorian DiTommaso: My name is Dorian DiTommaso, I’m a Sociology Specialist, and I’m running for the position of councillor.
TS: What year are you in?
DD: Second year.
TS: Why are you running as councillor?
DD: I wanted to do it in first year but I thought to myself that I should kind of hold back for a bit and get to know the community better, and I did that through getting to know—I guess, going through the Cat’s Eye and through Caffiends and through those experiences—I got to know the community. And then from there I went on to do Transition Mentor so I could get to know the first years a little bit better. I just generally did some other things outside of Vic which, mostly like the biggest thing I guess would be, Represent Conference, which is this thing where we ran, or which we ran for elected student leaders. So, basically I had the experience of seeing firsthand how we train for these positions and essentially being a part of that training and to give it a shorter term, I want us to do it from the start, and then this now, I see it as a better opportunity than it was in first year because first year I was scared, first year I was trying to get stuff together; now, now that I’m here I’m ready to give back because I’ve had so much that Vic has given to me.
TS: What sets you apart from the other candidates?
DD: What sets me apart, I guess I’m not as, although I have experiences through, or in the community and also through, like I said, outside things, I’d rather not make those the center of my campaign because I don’t think it’s a good idea to make experiences the center, because if you make experience the center then you’re saying that those experiences are more important than you, in a way. I think that I’d rather focus on what I can give and what I can learn rather than what I know already. I guess what makes me different is I want to take this position, I want to go into this position in a learning sense rather than in a doing sense, because I know that if I make promises that I can’t keep, that looks bad on me and that looks bad on VUSAC. I can’t promise to change anything massive and I can’t promise to give something new, but I can promise to work hard and I can promise to learn and to take the position seriously, and I guess that’s, I’d think that’s what would make me different, or the most different in the sense that I’m not focused on what I can do, but what I can learn.
TS: What events or commissions to you plan to assist in during your time?
DD: Generally, the most excited to work with would be the things like Scarlet and Gold and the Arts and Culture committee, or commission, as well as commuters and the Equity Commission because of the work I saw them do last year with the Doc and Talks, and all the various events, there was a ton of events that I really enjoyed. Generally, I’d like to work on all of them because I think the best thing I could do as a councillor is spread myself as broadly possible. I have, accidentally actually set myself up for that in a way in that I only have three courses this semester. That’s unimportant, but I think that most importantly I would like to work on things like High Ball and, like, the big events that we have. But at the same time, I think it’s really important to work on the little things because that just seems a bit shallow. And I don’t want to make it seem that I only care about these things because that’s not what I care about, I care about the little things. I care about the people trying to get through Vic, and I can connect that to my Transition Mentor experience. Generally, the general picture it’s Scarlet and Gold, Arts and Culture, Equity and Commuter, but specifically I want to work with everything and to see small commissions grow. Like, Mental Health I think was created only last year and I think that’s a really important commission that needs to get bigger and needs to get more recognition, especially given the crisis with mental health at U of T.
TS: What is one issue that you are passionate about?
DD: Well, I guess, I’ll give you two because two of them are very important to me, one being the mental health crisis. I think it’s very important to be aware of it at least, even if you don’t take the action you should at least know what’s going on and at least try to contribute in the smallest way you can or what little way you can, or what little way you’re comfortable with. So that’s one, the mental health crisis on campus. And, then the other one that’s probably most important to me is OSAP being demolished, because I’ve seen that affect pretty much every one of my friends as well as myself, because I come from a single parent family and OSAP used to cover my entire tuition and now it covers, like, nothing. And now I have to go into debt, which is something that most people now have to do because of the OSAP cuts. And it’s very awkward for certain people who maybe already are in debt and maybe not personally but family debt, where they don’t have a way. I have one friend for example where her family income is quite high but because they’re in so much debt there’s nothing they can do, so OSAP gives the bare minimum.
I guess those are the two things I would like to focus on as a councillor if you wanted a platform platform. Like I said at the start, I’m not really focused on promising any platforms, and that’s kind of what I would go on. But, if you wanted to know what I would be very interested in working on it would be the mental health crisis and OSAP and opting in and opting out and things like those, that stuff.
TS: How do you plan to make events more accessible so everyone can attend?
DD: Well, I think it’s worth noting, it’s worth noting already that VUSAC does an incredible job of doing so and that my commitment or my contribution to it would be very minimal at most. Because not that I wouldn’t want to make it more accessible but I think they already do a really great job at doing so. I guess I could give an example, like in terms of events that cost money, which is very difficult for some students obviously, because especially with the OSAP cuts so they might not be able to afford things like that. It’s very hard to get this question around because of the promise aspect, right: obviously I can’t promise to do anything, but in a sense that events that are inaccessible by monetary value or something like that there are ways to get around that, I assume. And, like, I’ve seen because there’s situations where VUSAC gives tickets for cheaper, not for cheaper…something, anyway! If it was up to me, I would make it so that people who were, if it was up to me, and people couldn’t afford the event, they could come to the event for free in that situation. In other situations, obviously, making the event as equitable as possible and as accessible in terms of mobility. So, booking spaces that are accessible, using the Cat’s Eye, for example, because the Cat’s Eye is a very accessible space or the most part. Having people trained so that they know what to do and what not to do in terms of running events, so like, having people do equity training. I’ve been through that many times at this point, which is a good thing, because it’s always good to have a reminder of it. But just generally ensuring that people have, or ensuring that people, I guess, ensure that their events are equitable, that their events are inclusive, accessible in terms of mobility and accessible in terms of monetary funds, and also, like, with the problems of allergies and gluten-free, stuff like that. Obviously, you just have to be very aware of everything that someone could need and to make sure that you include that in preparing an event. I think that’s a good strategy to go by just make that you know, and if you know, then you’ll do it. So maybe even asking, before an event happens, sending out a form for people to submit. Whoever wants to come can just submit requirements that they need. And then if they need those requirements, we’ll have them.
TS: How do you plan to make these events much more engaged? How do you plan to increase event attendance?
DD: Once again, I think that’s a very difficult thing for a position like mine, if I was to be elected as councilor, because councillors have an impact, but they don’t have the biggest of impacts. So, in terms of trying to make it more attended, higher attendance, I think that for me it would just be about advertising it, like, relentlessly. So, throughout every single, through basically every single function that we have, we could get something through. I was, I did, when I was in Represent, I was doing the social media stuff, so I kind of know my way around it. But at the same time I’m also, like, terrible at Facebook and stuff like that. But generally, getting to, getting people to attend an event, is really, I think there’s two ways to do it. One is advertising as relentlessly as possible, but also, more importantly, reaching out personally. So, going to other events and other functions and being like, “Oh, this is sort of similar to our event, come and check this out”. Or, like, just talking to people personally, making sure you know as many people as possible, making sure you have meaningful relationships with people, rather than just using social media as a mediator and as a, I guess, a third, like, middle ground, because it’s better to invite someone in person than to invite them through social media. We at Vic all have that experience of getting like a thousand invites to Facebook events and just clicking “interested” and then not actually going. So, to counteract that, you have to just make something personalized: so personalize these events. Maybe a video that has someone who actually is talking about the event instead of just making a post that no one will read.
TS: What can you do in your power to persuade people to opt into their fees?
DD: I think that getting people to stay opted-in has to start from the top and go down and by that, I mean not just in terms of VUSAC and not just in terms of student groups but, I mean, like, literally by class. Like, because if someone who has a lot of money opts out, then someone who doesn’t have the money to maybe pay for as many textbooks that they need, will opt out as well because they see, well if I’m not here, if that person’s not opting in and they have money, why should I opt in? Right? And it’s a snowball effect of that. It’s about making people, it’s about starting it from there, getting as many people to opt in as possible. And less, I think that the way they’ve gone about it with ChooseUofT is both good and bad. It’s good in a way that it’s like, getting it out there, of getting the message out there. But I also think it’s bad in a way that it really ostracizes people who do opt out. And some people who do opt out and necessarily need to, if they don’t have enough money, like I said, to pay tuition—if they opt out, then they’re going to feel really uncomfortable and they can’t talk about it, in a way. Like, they can’t openly say, “Well, I opted out,” right? Because then they’re going to get, well, I don’t know what they’re going to get, right, like obviously, I can’t make that judgement, because if they are ostracized, or whatever. But, it’s about starting it from the top, making sure that you have it, and less about, less of an aggressive stance with ChooseUofT in the sense that like “Opt in, stay opted-in please,” like, not as much as, like, not as much making people feel bad for making the choice to do it. Because sometimes it’s not about, like it’s not possible for them to do it, and more about asking and giving the reasons why they should stay in, and giving the reasons, like showing who it supports the most. Because I think that’s another thing that is really important, because, like I said with the advertising other events, you really need to personalize these things for people to make, or for people to actually feel a connection to them. So, if you have ChooseUofT, which is this ver , at least to me it seemed very general and very broad, but if you personalize it and get people who are part of the student groups, because from what I know it was just UTSU and VUSAC for the most part, at least here, that was advertising it, like that’s all I got from it. But if you get people in student groups who are affected by it personally, or you get people who are opted-in but have reasons for opting in, despite their challenges, maybe. Like, you have people who don’t have money, and chose to opt in regardless. Then that’s how you make it a more effective strategy, that’s how you kind of formulate a more effective strategy to get people to stay opted-in. So, you have to make it personal, you have to give them the reasons rather than just yelling at them to stay opted-in.
TS: What would you do if you do not win?
DD: I don’t really know. I have a variety of, like, ideas of, like, pathways that I can go. Some of them involve, just, because I’m involved in other things, so I have TM that I’m still involved in and I’ll be involved in that for the rest of the year. I have Cat’s Eye [sub-committee], I have Caffeinds volunteer, I have soccer intramurals and now I just started doing fencing because I did it in grade six and I decided “Hey, why not now?” Because, like I’ve got to get out my energy somewhere, and like hitting people with swords seems fun.
If I lose, and I don’t have the councillor position to do things I was thinking of, if I’m still able to run in the spring with this position I was going apply for Cat’s Eye Co-Manager, but, if I can’t do that and run then I won’t apply. But, like, generally, I guess I’ll just do what I usually do, and that’s just, or, do what I did last year, which is trying to find things which are important to me and seem interesting and just do them.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You can vote now until October 4 at voting.utoronto.ca
