On November 15th, Victoria College’s first caucus meeting of the year took place in Northrop Frye Hall. All matters on the agenda were quickly and efficiently covered with the meeting lasting less than two hours.
To start the meeting off, Ryan Gomes, Vice-President Professional Faculties with the UTSU, gave a presentation on tuition caps in Ontario. The presentation provided an effective explanation as to how tuition increases occur in Ontario, and how the new Ontario Student Grant—which has promised to grant free tuition to students from families whose annual income is below $50,000—may not entirely accomplish this goal.
Gomes’ presentation was followed by updates from VUSAC co-Presidents, Stuart Norton and Rahul Christoffersen. Norton began by addressing the troubles the union faced over the summer due to vacancies in the equity and commuter commissioner position. Both seats have since been filled, along with three empty councillor positions filled in a subsequent fall by-election.
Christoffersen continued by updating the efforts of various commissions so far this year, including the Arts & Culture Commission’s Friday Night Live ticket sales, as well as the Sustainability Commission’s upcoming climate justice conference. The new Racialized Students Collective was also discussed, which was established this year to discuss and confront issues faced by racialized students on campus.
Norton went on to discuss his efforts in reforming alcohol procedures at Victoria College. The alcohol procedures document, which requires food to be served along with alcohol—among other things—is not legally binding, but is one that states “best practices” for serving alcohol on campus. He says he is working with Victoria College Dean Kelley Castle to reform this document to make event planning involving alcohol more practical and cost-effective, moving forward.
Following the presidential update was a presentation by Victoria College Union member Auni Ahsan and Ahmad Ilyas on the ongoing YouDecide campaign. The campaign seeks to gain signatures from 20 percent of UTSU members in order to initiate a referendum on membership in the Canadian Federation of Students. A previous editorial in <i>The Strand<i> provided insight into this campaign.
The meeting finished off with a motion from Ahsan that would remove the requirement for individuals running for VUSAC positions to have poll clerks, which he argues are inconsequential given that VUSAC elections take place online. He went on to say that the poll clerk requirement puts an undue burden on commuter students, who often are swayed from running for positions due to this stipulation.
Despite overwhelming support for the motion from those present at the meeting, the motion itself carried no weight. Ratification of amendments of this sort are left up to the council to vote on.
