I sat down with Steve Warner, candidate for the position of Vice-Presidet, External to talk about his experience that he brings to the table, as well as his goals and aspirations for the role.
What sort of skills and experience do you bring to the table?
The role of VPE largely deals with three areas: residences, Dean’s office and administration, and the UTSU. So I bring two main areas of experience. In the last year I have been on the Victoria College Council, with Gabe [current Co-President of VUSAC], Alex [current Vice-President, External], and others. Through that I have a lot of experience working with keeping up with their leadership on that file, working with administration. We have lobbied for Vic to collect race stats with admissions, dealing with a student-professor mentorship program, things like that. In that regard, I’ve been very lucky to work under their leadership on the administration side of things. This allows me, due to having knowledge on these issues already, to continue their work next term with little learning curve.
In terms of the UTSU, I’ve been on the board for the past year. I’ve been very active in student politics, and I’ve done a lot in that regard. So it’s made me very familiar with the issues, what is currently going on, not just the bad things like the fires that everyone hears about but also the good things, such as the health and dental plan we’ve been working to reform for the past term. I’ve had a great opportunity to learn a lot about the UTSU and U of T wide campus concerns. From that I’ll be able to bring to the table that wealth of experience, knowledge, and connections. Not only to make sure that the policy that the UTSU creates reflects the interests that Vic has, but also to be able to work with these people so that those policies reflect our interests the first time.
The VPE is a pretty big role to hold, like you said – you’re dealing with the UTSU, you’re dealing with residences, and you’re dealing with administration. How do you plan on attacking the role?
From a time management perspective, my goal is to create a balance throughout the year of the various commitments. I’m already doing a lot this year in terms of my involvement, at Vic and at U of T as well as the boarder community. The VPE role would largely replace those, and so I’m already in a position to manage the position well in that regard. In terms of priority, I don’t want to say I’m going to deal with one issue over another, as each thing that the VPE does is important in its own and different way.
In terms of a general plan, in the summer where we have the opportunity to do a lot of the back-room legwork to prepare things for the term, I would like to focus on building up those connections with the new UTSU executive, see what direction they want to take their policy in, and offer my input as necessary. I’d also like to meet with admin and outgoing council, and get a stronger feel for what they’ve been dealing with. This should be able to set me up for a great position in the fall, so when school starts I can take the areas I’ve been working on over the summer, put them on the backburner, and take-up dealing with residence councils and other groups as they come back.
Relations between VUSAC and the Dean’s office can be strained at times, which is really just the nature of the relationship between a student government and their administration. How do you plan to make this a positive relationship?
I like how you phrased that question – as to how I will make it a positive relationship. There are some people at Vic who are very anti-Dean’s office and who would basically like to see us abandon them all together and go our own way. I’m not sure I entirely agree with that. There is a relationship between the Dean’s office and VUSAC, and it’s a reciprocal one. The Dean’s office provides institutional, staff, and often financial support, whereas VUSAC provides the passion, knowledge, ideas, and the legwork on the organizational aspect of events at Vic. So that relationship should be a strong one, they are two organizations that are complimentary in nature, and yes the relationship has often been precarious. I think it’s not secret that the Dean’s office has often been bad at listening to the priorities, ideas, and plans of VUSAC. And maybe if they are listening, they’re not necessarily agreeing and not taking them into consideration. I think that’s a big problem. I think the solution to that relationship is communication. We need to sort of reset the table in terms of how things are going, because they are precarious right now. There has been a lot of tension this year in terms of the Gardiner Gala, the focus groups, which have sort of strained things.
My first priorities would be to have a sit-down meeting with the Judiciary, with people from the Dean’s office, so we can look at our plans and mutual aspirations for the coming year and how they can complement each other, how we can work together on the issues that we both want to deal with, and how we can complement the things that we individually want to do. I think it’s very important that we remember that VUSAC is Vic’s student government, it is for students, and that we are elected and accountable to the students, not the Dean’s office.
How do you plan to work with Vic’s UTSU reps and the UTSU to promote Vic’s interests and what sort of interests you hope to promote?
I don’t really see the role of UTSU director and being VPE as all that different in this regard. While on the UTSU and before that when watching from the sidelines, I’ve always championed Vic’s issues. It’s never been for me being on the UTSU and telling Vic what’s happening, it’s been me telling the UTSU this is what Vic wants, and this what were going to do. I think I would really be able to bring that perspective to the VPE. I think that’s a misconception with how the UTSU Directors work. We are accountable to Vic; we bring Vic’s interests to the UTSU, not the other way around.
From a policy perspective, I hope that Vic’s Directors (Garnett and Stephanie who are running unopposed) pursue the Policy and Procedures committee, and help to shape the policy aspirations of the Union through that metric. I don’t see it as a part of my role as VPE to have a direct hand in shaping policy, as that would be an over-reach of bounds. That being said, if anyone at the UTSU, Vic Directors or otherwise, want to come to me and say, “we want your input”, that would be totally fine.
But in terms of Vic’s own interests, I think we just want stability at this point. Over the last few, we’ve had these fires with the UTSU, whether that be the board proposal, or corruption, lack of transparency in the budget, undemocratic elections, there has always been something that has forced Vic to mobilize to be heard. My aspirations would be to change that tone a bit, to avoid situations where we have to mobilize Vic. I think everyone is a bit tired of the UTSU, everyone just wants a functioning Union, and I’d like to work towards that, and shape policy before its implemented so we don’t have to retroactively say “this is unacceptable to Vic’s interests.” We need to be able to deal it with proactively so that Vic doesn’t have to respond in numbers like it’s had to do in the past.
The VUSAC Spring Elections Town Hall takes place in NF003 this Friday at 17:15 where you can ask candidates any questions you may have.
Voting takes place Saturday, March 19th through to Wednesday, March 23rd online at voting.utoronto.ca
