This year, it costs full-time students at least $512 to be a member of Victoria College.
Victoria College is not unique in this regard—every college at the University of Toronto (UofT) requires extra fees to be a member—but it is the most expensive. Misguided attempts have emerged in lowering student fees such as the Student Choice Initiative, which probably every newspaper in the province has written about, including The Strand. Without advocating for wholesale defunding, however, Victoria College’s high level of student fees still allows for—or perhaps requires—questions about how and why money is being used.
$445.44 to the Dean’s Office
Fees that go directly to the college are the ones which bear the heaviest burden on Victoria College students.
Full-time students pay $218.91 for student services. While exact budgets are not accessible online, Dean Kelley Castle explained in an email to The Strand that these fees not only contribute to support services but also supplement endowments for conferences, student supports, and co-curricular opportunities. They also contribute to Victoria College’s transition programming, equity programming, graduation banquet/ceremonies, peer support programs, and skills development programming. Students also pay a student centre fee that goes towards the Goldring Student Centre’s mortgage, totalling $200 yearly for those attending full-time.
In addition, full-time non-residents pay a $26.53 commuter fee which “contributes to the provision of an onsite personal counsellor, a counsellor for BIPOC identified students, Commuter dons, Goldring Commuter programming … and Commuter orientation,” according to Castle. “We also allocate funds to particular projects in on-campus Commuter spaces drawing on requests made through the Dean’s Advisory Committee, VUSAC, and other student groups.”
Over the past five years, the student services fee has been trending upward (rising by just over 4% when accounting for inflation) while the yearly commuter fee rose from $30.80 in 2017-18 to $34.66 in 2020-21 before dropping down this year; the student centre fee has remained constant including through COVID-19. “Victoria University’s Board of Regents approves fee amounts every year. They are guided by a Board protocol that was developed with extensive input from students,” explained Castle.
$66.52 to VUSAC
The Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC), which directly receives $24.93 per full-time student, is the representative student society at Victoria College. Their budget is divided amongst clubs, commissions, executives, and staff. “Fees must contribute to Vic students and the community,” explained VUSAC President Jerico Raguindin in an email to The Strand. “We are generally not profit-generating, nor do we seek to be—any profits made are usually contributed to a charitable cause or supplements a big expense.” The rest of VUSAC’s fees—totalling $41.59—go towards levies which “address particular needs and provide crucial services at Vic.” They differentiate from clubs in that they are financially and operationally independent whilst still following VUSAC’s standards; this autonomy also means they set their own student fees.
VUSAC fundees submit a suggested budget in line with VUSAC’s policies; the Vice-President Student Organizations (VPSO) helps clubs and levies think through their budget, particularly in helping decide what sort of programming they’d like to offer. VPSO Kate Haberl explained that “the Budget Steering Committee reviews those budgets to make sure that all of their proposed expenses are ethical and within our boundaries.” The budget is then voted on by the VUSAC council at ratification meetings, wherein they typically review major line items—for instance, costing over $500—rather than going line-by-line. Any subsequent expenditure additions need to be ratified by the council.
Full-time VUSAC fees—including for levies—have hovered within the $33-$34 per semester range over the past five years, save for last year when it was about $32.50 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that, when taking inflation into account, VUSAC’s student fees have actually gone down in real terms. An optimistic outlook is that VUSAC is trying to alleviate their financial burden on students; a pessimistic one is that they did not need that much money in the first place.
How does VUSAC spend fees?
VUSAC’s Finance Chair is currently undertaking a novel levy audit, shedding light on budget utilisation. This year, several levies have budgeted for more than their annual student fees by using past years’ surpluses: The Strand ($3.00 for full-time students) is using 110% of this year’s student fees, Victoria College Athletic Association (VCAA, $3.00) is using 131%, Vic Xposure is using 164%, and The Cat’s Eye ($2.00) is using 245%. Save for the Victoria International Student Association (VISA, $0.20) who are slated to spend essentially all of their student fees, all other levies are expected to fall short. Vic Pride! ($0.32) is expected to use 29% of their student fees this year and have $1,971.70 in surplus; Acta Victoriana ($1.63) expects 38% and $8,806.50 respectively; and BLVCK ($0.77) expects 82% and $966.47. Even The Strand, VCAA, and VicXposure have enough built-up surplus that they have yet to budget for $16,671.55, $3,859.23, and $1,151.34 of this years’ fees respectively (figures accurate as of March 12).
In response, VPSO Kate Haberl wrote to The Strand that “it’s not over until it’s over—budget utilisation will continue to fluctuate over the rest of the semester as the ability of levies to plan and hold programming changes due to COVID-19, and as they continue to make budget amendments to use their funds, so honestly looking at their utilisation in the middle of the semester is not a very accurate way of assessing how they’re doing in terms of using funds.”
As of now, the Finance Chair “optimistically” expects $33,426.79 in total levy surplus this year. VUSAC reports that one of their main priorities for the rest of this year as working with levies to decrease this.
The audit also revealed what percentage of 2021-2022 budgeted funds is dedicated to honoraria, which are compensation “given in an effort to eliminate financial barriers and hopefully make some of Vic’s most demanding and time-consuming student leadership opportunities more accessible to students.” Of particular note are Vic Xposure (17%), The Cat’s Eye (21%), and Acta Victoriana (34%). “I know that’s a controversial topic,” wrote Haberl. “All I will say is that Vic’s student leaders put a tremendous amount of work into their positions, and if you look at the actual dollar amount they are being paid, it’s hardly outrageous amounts.” Amongst levies, this ranges from $500 to $2000 each. According to Haberl, she and the Finance Chair have been evaluating honoraria and working with levies using relatively higher percentages of their budgets.
Both World University Service of Canada (WUSC, $2.50) and Student Projects ($3.00) are managed externally from VUSAC, so they were not subject to this audit. Meanwhile, Caffiends ($0.13) is a unique case as they are profit generating; they budget for 2071% of their student fees and use café profits to pay for honoraria, which equals 21% of their budgeted funds this year. The Victoria College Drama Society (VCDS, $3.25) have yet to have their budget ratified at time of publication and thus the Finance Chair has been unable to complete their audit.
While the Finance Chair did not undertake an audit on broader VUSAC, similar statistics can be uncovered. VUSAC spent 49% of their budgeted funds in the fall of 2021; for this semester, the council is over-budgeting because—as seen throughout this article—it is difficult for groups to use up 100% of their budgeted funds. VUSAC honoraria adds up to $8000 in the Fall Budget or 14.67% of the budgeted expenses (and 29.67% of their actual spending) while this semester’s $5,500 is 4.4% of budgeted expenses (accurate as of the March 4 VUSAC meeting). This goes towards the President, who receives $8000 in the fall term; the three Vice-Presidents who are accorded $1000 each in the winter budget; and the five Staff members who receive $500 at the end of the year.
At the March 4 VUSAC Meeting, Equity Commissioner Cam Miranda-Radbord forwarded a motion to raise the President Salary to $1,500 to the President and the three Vice-Presidents’ to $3,000 each, while providing $500 each to the 14 Commissioners and Co-Chairs. The amendment cites “that students who need to pay for housing, food, and tuition, holding a VUSAC position often cannot be balanced with a part-time job and classes … this leads to the exclusion of valuable would-be advocates, clashing with one of VUSAC’s core goals of equity.”
Beyond the statistics
This year’s Finance Chair has also explicitly published the amount actually spent for each budget line as opposed to just the funds initially requested, allowing us an inside look which—amongst the five budgets available online—was only also accessible in 2018-2019.
VUSAC reported spending $26,968.86 of their requested $54,536.65 in the fall of 2021, and has budgeted $125,046.82 for winter 2022. “I would classify the three things we do to be advocacy, programming, and services—with these being prioritised differently with different councils and circumstances,” explained Raguindin. VUSAC’s non-honoraria budget can largely be understood along those lines.
The majority of VUSAC funds go towards programming—namely events, meetings, and giveaways—reaching $12,401.20 in fall 2021 and budgeted for $88,395.76 in winter 2022. These expenses include food, physical goods, promotion/advertising, rentals, decorations, entrance fees, transportation, publishing, required websites/domains, and honoraria for guests/presenters/workers. In fall of 2021, services were only $5,095.44 for photocopier usage and lease as the Office remained closed; $13,324.06 is budgeted for winter 2022, now including safe sex supplies, snacks/drinks, office supplies, phone lines, the community fridge, and copy paper.
Only $500 was directly dedicated to advocacy this year, through consultations on UofT sexual violence policy. However, it must be noted that engagement can manifest elsewhere. Raguindin provided a list: “Engaging with Victoria College and University of Toronto administration to lobby, demand, and create change in a myriad of aspects at this institution … Collaborating with admin when possible and building bridges with other student groups … to create a stronger unified voice. Conducting surveys and data collection on students to amplify their voice and better represent them. Providing resources by way of funding, connections, and labour power to students who would like to pursue advocacy projects. Reacting to relevant community events happening at Vic, UofT, and Toronto.”
Non-honoria budgeting is more unilateral for levies: “They do a massive amount of work to provide students with great programming,” explained Haberl in an email to The Strand. “Without them, Vic’s student life simply wouldn’t be what it is!” In the fall, their programming both directly and indirectly—such as by extensive upgrades to The Cat’s Eye—cost $23,179; for the winter semester, $36,770.69 is budgeted.
VUSAC also budgeted for $5,226 in council and club merchandise this year, and $6,700 across the executive, office, and some commission for contingencies/unplanned expenses this semester; levies budgeted $3,416.16 and $1,050 respectively. Caffiends, while also hosting events and purchasing merchandise, is somewhat of an anomaly: it’s not generally programming or service, but a profit generating business. To pay for the goods required to operate, they consumed $5,516.25 in fall 2021 and are expected to use $805.67 this semester, with the rest of their expenses covered by sales.
Student Fees and The COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous effect on VUSAC and its levies. In-person programming has been restricted if not totally impossible since March 2020, forcing organisations to deliver their programming online; the turbulent waves have also made the foreplanning that comes with submitting budgets difficult. According to Haberl, there were several instances where restrictions threw a hatchet into already-budgeted plans. “Frankly, there just is not as much for clubs and levies to spend their money on when they cannot do in-person programming,” she stated. “Moreover, low participation has been very discouraging and many clubs and levies feel that it is not an appropriate use of funds to put on lavish events for only a few attendees.”
Despite creative efforts to expend funds, this has led to surpluses all around of which there are caveats in spending. “When new fees are collected, it is done so with the expectation in mind that it is for that year. We are therefore limited with what we can do with surplus money of the year,” Raguidin wrote. Unspent surplus remains in the VUSAC account indefinitely.
VUSAC suggests investing surplus into a project that will have lasting impact on the Vic students of today and tomorrow, as it “must impact the entirety of the Vic community.” In his email to The Strand, Raguindin explained that such proposals are evaluated by the Finance Chair along with the council as “VUSAC proper, to my awareness, has actually not tackled spending the surplus.” The Strand, for instance, intends to spend down their surplus by buying new computers for the office to be used going forward, replacing the ones that have slowed due to the heavy software that publication requires.
Victoria College in context
All federated colleges directly receive student fees: for full-time students at Trinity College it totals $324.86 and $266.44 at St Michael’s College (SMC). While Trinity did not respond to The Strand’s request for comment, SMC Director of Communications Laurie Morris explained that there they “are used to support a variety of initiatives as appropriate, including orientation and transformational projects on campus such as upgrades and enhancements to student spaces.”
Amongst UofT student government fees for full-time students, VUSAC actually hovers in the middle alongside the University Literary & Athletics Society (UC Lit, $61.3) and SMC Student Union ($63.36). At the low end are the two most populous colleges: Woodsworth College Student Association (WCSA) receives $15 and New College Student Council (NCSC) receives $43. On the other side are the least populated colleges: Trinity College Meeting (TCM) receives $91 per student while the Innis College Student Society (ICSS) clocks in at $78.06. Likewise, while perhaps difficult to navigate for lay people (including yours truly), VUSAC is one of the more transparent college councils at UofT: WCSA and ICSS have not posted their budget to their website since 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 respectively.
Woodsworth VP of Financial Affairs Nithin Eluvathingal explained that they normally use any surplus to grant awards to their students; Raguidin told The Strand that this was not an option for VUSAC, as fees are designated for activities. Meanwhile, both UC Lit and SMC Student Union representatives cited that they roll their surplus over into next year. The SMC Student Union VP of Finance Kamil Mansoori told The Strand that “to the best of my knowledge,” there are no additional regulations for spending past year’s surplus fees at SMC. It remains unclear where VUSAC’s surplus policy comes from: Castle cited that she was unaware of it, and Raguindin did not respond in time for publication. TCM and NSSC did not respond to The Strand’s request, while the ICSS declined to comment.
All of this to say is that Victoria College and VUSAC are not necessarily isolated or unique when it comes to finances; similar inquiries could—and, I implore, should—be made elsewhere, particularly given the large role that income and wealth play in equity.
Editor’s note: The article has been amended to remove the name of the Finance Chair, to reflect a previous agreement with The Strand based on security reasons.
