As the academic year comes to an end, the current VUSAC Council is wrapping up their terms and beginning the transition process for newly elected members. The Strand takes a look at VUSAC’s activities this year, changes implemented, and concerns faced.
Equity and Food Security
VUSAC addressed equity concerns through some engagement with administrators and several initiatives. One of these was finding funds to get the VUSAC Pride Scholarship endowed, which will now come from Highball revenue. Another action implemented by Vice President Student Organisations (VPSO) Anya Ivantchenko, Equity Commissioner Hana Greenberg, and the Dean’s Office is equity training for clubs and levies. Ivantchenko highlighted in the Winter Semi-Annual Report that this initiative has “struggled to get off the ground for the last couple of years.”
The Equity Commission put out a Feedback Form to determine students’ concerns but has kept most of the information anonymous. According to the Fall Semi-Annual Report, major themes of concern were food security, financial literacy, and physical accessibility. The recently implemented food pantry addresses some of these by providing students with free, non-perishable grocery items and recipe cards.
Another initiative tackling food insecurity is The Eat After Eight program, which has grown significantly under the portfolio of Vice President External (VPE) Isha Mathur. The program now runs three nights a week and has a regular team of volunteers, with about 40 students attending each night. During Winter semester, the Sustainability Commission facilitated a partnership with Friendlier to implement a reusable container program to reduce waste from disposable materials.
Cultural Inclusion
A concern that came up both during the Election Town Hall and through VUSAC’s anonymous feedback form was that the March 20th meeting was scheduled on Eid, sidelining and creating barriers for students who celebrate the holiday. VPE Mathur stated VUSAC execs had tried to work around Eid but that it was “just unfortunate” that it was not possible. During the Town Hall, Greenberg acknowledged the oversight, while taking the opportunity to mention the Equity Commission’s Eid event in collaboration with Residence Dons. Speaking to The Strand about this event, one student stated she “appreciates these efforts to incorporate my culture at Vic” but “hope[s] this will go beyond just celebrations in the future.”
Despite the involvement of the Dons, the Eid event did not receive any funding from the Dean’s Office, adding to ongoing concerns about the inconsistent treatment of different cultural identities at Vic. This issue was highlighted in Greenberg’s Fall Semi-Annual report and came up following Vic’s large-scale Diwali Dinner. Unlike previous years and most cultural events, this was a collaboration between VUSAC President Rohini Patra and the Vic President’s Office, with the admin contributing a substantial portion of funding. Notably, the Equity Commission moved to have their financial contribution to this event removed, as they were not involved in its planning. Following criticism from students about potential uneven treatment of different cultures and celebrations, Council committed to doing more large-scale celebrations and admin collaborations for other cultural occasions. The Equity Commission took on the responsibility for these and hosted Lunar New Year and Ramadan events. They confirmed to The Strand that their budget paid for the entire cost, without support from admin.
Accessibility
Improving support for disabled students at Vic was a major concern this year. Comments made at Caucus indicate that in addition to physical accessibility issues requiring admin attention, disabled students also directly experienced discrimination on VUSAC Commissions last year. Following a period of advocacy by VCU students during Fall semester, and a lengthy discussion at Fall Caucus, VUSAC voted in favour of creating an ad-hoc Accessibility Committee under the VPE portfolio. VPE Isha Mathur worked to create, promote, and hire this Committee. The Chair of the Committee was incorporated into VUSAC as a non-voting Staff member for the second semester. Mathur praised the efforts of the new Accessibility Chair, Raphaël Garneau, in the span of a few months. This includes work on a resource guide clarifying information on services available to students, collaboration with admin to increase visibility of accessibility concerns, and improving accessibility in Vic spaces. As per the final VUSAC meeting on March 27, the Accessibility Committee has been codified into the VUSAC Constitution.
VUSAC meetings also moved to a hybrid model this year, allowing non-VUSAC students to join through Zoom. There have been implementation and technical issues with this, and it is thus far unclear who on VUSAC is responsible for hosting the meeting and ensuring online attendees are able to contribute.
Budget and Finances
Budget ratification meetings were notably shorter this year. Itemised time limits were implemented during the Fall meeting, which some students suggested did not allow sufficient time to debate certain budgets. Additionally, concerns regarding transparency were raised about the fact that time limits were not published on the meeting agenda. Council did not implement these limits during Winter Budget Ratification, but set tentative time slots for clubs, levies, and VUSAC. VCU members were informed of these beforehand and could attend the meeting according to their allocated time.
Changes were made to the budgeting process for the Winter semester, as Budget Steering meetings were opened up to the entirety of VUSAC. In previous years, only the Budget Steering Committee made up of a select few VUSAC members could attend these meetings, with remaining Council members bringing their concerns to Budget Ratification. It was suggested during a Fall semester meeting that this process was contributing to the lengthy meetings (one of which reached 6 hours last year).
According to comments made at Winter Caucus, finances have been “difficult” for VUSAC this year. The first Finance Chair resigned and a new one was hired midway through the year. Several levies failed their Fall Audits, and comments and documents provided by levy representatives indicate that some were frustrated with the short turnaround time to submit documents and attend meetings for audits. Following concerns raised at Caucus, VUSAC confirmed that audits would be re-done.
Another finance concern was the portion of the budget allocated to subsidising Highball tickets. VUSAC’s Highball expenditure was $47 992 this year, around $15 000 higher than last year’s $32 960. Students questioned the rationale behind this decision and the expectations set for next year’s Council to maintain cheaper tickets by allocating similarly high levels of funding to the event. President Rohini Patra stated at Winter Caucus that she “wanted to break down the price and increase the quantity so that we still end up making the same amount of money.” However, Patra leaves open the question of the impact to profits given the significantly higher expenditure. The $15 000 increase in expenses suggests that VUSAC would require a similar jump in revenue to maintain last year’s profits.
The Finance Chair is expected to publish a report with details on budget utilisation by the end of April.
Levies
VUSAC provides oversight to levies in terms of finances and governance. This year, VUSAC tabled all levy head honorarias until roles were transitioned to avoid issues with transfer that have come up in past years.
VUSAC also facilitated amendments to multiple levy Constitutions this year. The Strand’s and VicPride!’s Constitutions were updated to clarify certain roles and implement honoraria changes. VicXposure’s Constitution was amended to reduce honoraria for the levy’s heads, which had previously exceeded 30% of their funding and was thus not permitted under VUSAC’s Constitution. Additionally, The Victoriad has been merged with VicXposure and will now be able to operate with levy funding to produce their yearbook. The Victoriad has been running as a club for the past two years, but had been an official levy years ago.
Elections and Future
Spring 2026 Election results were ratified on March 27, 2026 at the Joint Council Meeting. The incoming executive team consists of Hana Greenberg as President, Kiara Moeskops as VPI, Baran Aghdesi as VPE, and Kaela Kaela-Marie Paty as VPSO. VUSAC will publish an election report in the coming weeks.
