The annual VUSAC Spring Elections Town Hall took place this Friday, March 18th. Candidates took to the podium to discuss issues ranging from representation, reformation, and responding to Rahul’s Christoffersen’s many questions, and the Town Hall served in many respects as a complement to the VUSAC Elections Forum on Facebook. What seemed to be the two most commonly stressed concerns by all of the candidates was visibility and accessibility.
Chief Returning Officer Saambavi Mano began the Town Hall by introducing VCDS and VUSAC representatives. This year’s ballots contain two separate referendum questions about raising levy funding and VUSAC funding, respectively. A representative from the Victoria College Drama Society spoke in favour of the levy referendum, stating that the fee to run shows at Bader has increased to almost a quarter of their yearly budget. The VCDS said that they would not like to have to rely on profits when deciding what plays to produce. The fee increase would allow for the continued use of the space and freedom of production choice.
From VUSAC, Shannon Brown and Carl Abrahamansen followed, discussing the proposed $2 increase to the VUSAC incidental fees in addition to a yearly increase according to the CPI. Both referendum questions ask for the CPI to be used as the growth rate.
The three candidates for the Board of Regents were next to speak. Current VUSAC Co-president Ben Atkins, current Vice-President Student Organizations candidate Hannah Brennen, and current Presidential candidate Chris Knipe are running for three of the four student positions on the Board, a governing body that includes Vic faculty and alumni as well as students and administration. Atkins, as a current member of the Board, discussed his efforts this year to amend the gendered language of the Victoria University Act, one of the constitutional documents of Vic.
Questions and concerns were raised regarding the Board’s predominantly white, male cohort. Brennen, being the only female candidate running, tied the problem to a general lack of representation across the many administrative bodies of Vic, explaining that, alongside Atkins, she wishes to continue revising the Victoria College Act.
All candidates agreed that the Board of Regents should be a resource for students to contact administration and that as it stands, the Board’s operations are too obscured from the student body.
Scarlet and Gold Commissioner candidates Zahavah Kay and Jemimah Raffe-Devine were asked questions mostly regarding the Scarlet and Gold portfolio and budget. Raffe-Devine hopes to bring more attention to the fall semi-formal and creating alternative events to those who chose to not attend pub nights. Kay emphasized her platform’s focus on involving students in the planning process by utilizing online surveys, as well as planning socially conscience events that donate funds collected to charities.
Questions about the high time commitment required to plan Highball, Vic’s annual formal dinner and dance, prompted repeated assertions from both candidates that they are good at managing time. Neither candidates want to maintain the exclusivity of Highball and are open to investigating in other food and venue alternatives. Kay emphasized that she does not want to raise Highball tickets, and Raffe-Devine followed up by explaining that keeping tickets low increases diversity among students who attend, which is her goal.
Arts and Culture Commissioner candidate Olivia Klasios spoke next, running unopposed. She discussed her goal of making the commission more visible both internal to and external to Vic. She told the crowd that her many years of experience on VUSAC have given her insight as to what type of events work, and what is missing from the arts and culture portfolio. Klasios plans to continue the very popular open mic nights, but plans to collaborate with other groups to combine many open mic nights into a single event to maintain sustainability.
She also discussed reaching off campus and gaining student access to AGO’s First Thursdays and Friday Night Live at the ROM. By creating awareness through events off campus, Klasios hopes to involve students who typically are not interested in the type of programming normally put on by VUSAC
Academic & Professional Development Commissioner candidate, Nina Christianson, is also running unopposed. Most questions for Christianson revolved around how she planned to develop the young Commission, as if elected, she would be only the second person to lead it in its short history. The commission’s focus this year was on the latter professional development aspect of its name, with academic development initiatives being few and far between. Christianson’s goals are to develop the academic portion of the portfolio by creating a system of academic support where students can easily find information, and collaborate with alumni to help students build connections.
After Christianson finished, Brennen returned to the stage with fellow Vice-President Student Organizations candidate Peter Huycke. Both discussed the importance of organization to improve the interactions and experience between student groups and VUSAC. Huycke plans to do this by expanding the Clubs and Levy handbook. Brennen understands the experience of being in a student club and would like to utilize this to help student groups gain freedom and accessibility to VUSAC.
A hot topic for the two candidates was that of the use of the club storage room. Its current state of disorder prompted Brennen to suggest that clubs use labels to indicate which items belong to them and which items do not belong to them. VCDS is concerned with the use of the ”Exercise Room” in the Goldring basement (Editor’s note: the “exercise room” is a room in the Goldring centre basement that is windowed on three sides yet requires keycard access, allowing the three treadmills who call the otherwise-empty room home to taunt each passerby) as it is a potential space for expanded club storage. Huycke plans to pressure the Goldring building committee to give up the space to students, and Brennen echoed this desire to expand club storage to this space.
Candidates also discussed how the VPSO currently deals with smaller, low-overhead groups, and what can change about the approach. An online question from Brenan Sivapragasam noted the bureaucracy and redundancy that comes from the current guidelines, with many Vic clubs only relying on VUSAC budget for snacks, drinks and space rental. Huycke said he would take a hands-off approach, advising smaller groups of what the VPSO can do for them, but letting them have freedom of their actions. Brennen suggested making the creation of student clubs much simpler by removing paper work and replacing it with a Google Doc form. She also suggested the enforcement of a semester-long budget for student clubs, to better maintain the distribution of money to clubs. Huycke also supports the monitoring of student club budgets.
Vice-President Internal candidates William Cuddy and Golda Greenspoon were next to speak, and a clear difference in personal styles was apparent. Greenspoon, in her opening remarks, claimed that she may not be mean enough for the position, but stated that the position is about “empathy and open mindedness”. Cuddy’s remarks illustrated how seriously he takes the idea of interpersonal conflict within VUSAC, stating that “you can’t… you can’t create open wounds that fester.”
Cuddy sees the role of VPI as a team builder. He proposes to finish a policy handbook by the start of the Fall Semester, ready for new councillors. Greenspoon sees the position as more of an HR position, and also would plan to have the handbook finished by early September, but would rather place her focus on creating a support system for conflict resolution.
Current VUSAC co-president Gabriel Zoltan-Johan asked the two candidates about how to sustain equity within a judiciary that has the potential to comprise of exclusively white males. Greenspoon stated that she wants to bring in an equity commissioner, or introduce equity training as soon as possible, while Cuddy too recognized this lack of representation as a barrier, and said that he would lobby for an appointed Equity commissioner as well as an equity focus within his proposed handbook.
Upon being asked about tangible initiatives that will be introduced in the upcoming year, Cuddy outlined a key policy element of his campaign, an initiative to create a complete institutional history of VUSAC that will educate and remind members of mistakes that should not be made in the future as well as what has historically helped VUSAC operate smoothly. In response to the same question about concrete initiatives, Greenspoon defaulted back to the policy handbook previously discussed.
Vice-President External candidates, Steve Warner and George Wilson, followed. In his opening remarks, Wilson stated a platform based on a more transparent and visible VUSAC, which he claimed he can create based on his involvement in external groups and institutional experience. Warner, the current Vic UTSU Director, outlined plans to improve involvement of residence councils within Vic and challenge the current alcohol policy within residences. Warner has been a commuter during his time as an undergrad, while Wilson has lived on residence, serving as Burwash President this year. Both candidates stated their desire to make on-campus events more accessible to commuters.
When asked by the current VPE Alex Martinborough if they will bring anything new to the role’s portfolio, both candidates agreed and built on the idea of creating a more accessible VUSAC with many constructive opinions. When working externally, Warner plans to involve VUSAC with UTSU politics and beyond. Wilson offered a more case-by-case approach, claiming that VUSAC should not involve itself with every political cause of the UTSU just for the sake of it, and that VUSAC must ensure that any external involvement represents the interests of Vic students first and foremost.
The last round of discussion for the night was between the Presidential candidates, Chris Knipe and the duo of Stuart Norton and Rahul Christoffersen. Knipe’s platform is built off of changing the institutional structure to how VUSAC communicates to students and vice versa. Although new to VUSAC, Knipe believes he can be a catalyst for change within the system. Norton and Christoffersen discussed the shift in focus of their campaign. The two were originally going to focus their efforts on dismantling hierarchy within VUSAC, but the lack of identity representation among this year’s candidates and the fact that nobody is currently running for Equity Commissioner caused a change in their platform to focusing on equity issues as a chance to burst the “Vic bubble.” Knipe focused on the current lack of a Commuter Commissioner candidate, and referenced his out-on-the-street method of approaching students socially to discuss concerns and ideas. Christoffersen expanded on this and stated that he refuses to enter the year without a Commuter Commissioner.
When questioned by Raffe-Devine how to eliminate the VUSAC bubble, Knipe replied that institutional change is the only way to rectify the problems of the current structure of VUSAC. Knipe plans to take a social, open minded approach that would encourage circulation of ideas and discussion. Norton and Christoffersen, both very experienced with VUSAC, claims that “it comes down to the culture of the council” where a VPI is needed to define and separate friendships and coworkers.
All candidates addressed the large size of the judiciary. Knipe claimed that power needs to be rotated through council. Norton addressed that the problem isn’t with the size of the judiciary, but how information travels throughout council; an open forum for communication is needed as opposed to the current linear structure of how information gets communicated.
Brennen then took the mic to ask directly how to get more students interested and involved in VUSAC, considering the small number of people in attendance at the Town Hall (a quick head count at the end of the night placed about twenty people in the room). Knipe said that in order for VUSAC to properly engage the Vic student body at large, VUSAC needs to shift its attention to being more representative and less administrative. Norton and Christoffersen suggested strictly doing things that students are interested in, and emphasized that they will ensure VUSAC’s relevancy by making sure that marginalized groups involved in Vic life.
At 10pm, Mano signalled the end of the Town Hall and instructed those in attendance that voting was to begin at midnight. Students are able to vote for their chosen candidate at voting.utoronto.ca from March 19th-23rd.
Correction: this article originally misquoted Benjamin Atkins with regards to the constitution of the Board of Regents.
With files from Anthony Burton
