This is a roundup of the positions of the candidates for each team in the spring 2017 elections for the University of Toronto Students’ Union, as well as independent candidates.
Demand Better
Mathias Memmel, president
- Restructuring UTSU including staff, board, and services.
- End overspending by cutting staff and spending half of the salaries budget on student jobs.
- Holding monthly career fairs to support professional students.
- Lobby for a freeze on fee increases.
- Leave the Canadian Federation of Students.
Daman Singh, VP internal
- Develop a centralized, ACORN-based system for opting out of the Health and Dental Plan.
- Ban slates from UTSU elections.
- Reduce executive salaries and restructure the executive.
- Merging the VP university affairs with VP external saving $50,000 per year.
Fasiha Mukhtar, VP external
- Make UTSU more open and accessible to student groups.
- Work with external groups to help bring students paid internships, research positions, and professional placements.
- Launch an outreach program for those who don’t identify with a college, ProFac, or club.
Josie Wu, VP university affairs
- Support international students as they transition into Canadian university life.
- Advocate for a wider array of financial aid resources, including for international students.
- Bring tax advice services and regular legal seminars to both UTSG and UTM.
Shivani Nathoo, VP ProFac
- Advocate for more responsiveness from UTSU to the needs of ProFac students.
- More accessibility services to ProFac students
- Lobby for better mental health resources to ProFac students.
 Chimwemwe Alao, VP equity
- Use UTSU’s institutional power to develop supportive relationships with grassroot movements.
- Address issues of anti-Black, within UTSU, as well.
- Adopt an education-based approach to equity, while also ensuring that the emotional labour of education isn’t left to marginalized students
 Stuart Norton, VP campus life
- Make it easier for clubs to apply for funding
- Work with clubs to integrate the UTSU into the campus life that already exists
- Make the shorter orientation week work for colleges and ProFacs by involving student societies in the planning.
Reboot U of T
Micah Ryu, president
- Remove UTSU’s full-time executive positions to better represent the international and ProFac students
- Launch a new clubs funding structure that takes into account reduplication of services by cultural clubs that provide services that often surpass the quality of the services provided by the UTSU.
- Make better use of UTSU’s funds.
- Build a new political campus culture in which more students are engaged, feel represented, and gain more value for their incidental fees.
Jessica Leung, VP internal
- Cutting full-time staff at the UTSU in favor of more part-time student jobs.
- Dissolving full-time UTSU executive salaries.
- Withdrawing from the CFS
- Putting an end to spending on politically partisan events and projects.
Nadine Abd El Razek, VP external
- Create real systemic change
- Be more transparent
- Better allocation of the money invested annually by U of T students
- Better allocation of student resources to clubs
Micael Thompson, VP university affairs
- Support clubs because they promote community, activity, and healthy living at U of T
- Make UTSU more accountable and transparent
- Advocate for accessible mental health services
Keeli-Shay Eaid, VP equity
- Allocate UTSU money to clubs that focus on and are passionate about pro-LGBTQ+, anti-racism, or mental wellness issues.
- View financial barriers as a serious equity consideration
Abduly Dau, VP campus life
- Encourage club funding to be transparent
- Provide a precise representation of the student body’s needs and wants
Jenny Yue, VP professional faculties
- Push to downsize the UTSU
- Increase union’s transparency in club funding
- Improve mental health initiatives
We the Students
Andre Fast, president
- Start a campaign on free tuition
- Represent low-income students
- Divestment from fossil fuels
- Work on a GTA U-Pass
- Introduce a nap room at UTSG
Jackie Zhao, VP internal
- Advocate for the improvement of the health and dental plan, so that students get more for their money.
- Support the creation of an international student bursary
- Continue working on the creation of a GTA U-Pass
- Introduce More Presto Loading Stations on Campus
Emmanuela Alimlim, VP external
- Advocate for better mental health policies, programming, and awareness
- Creating a community for international students
- Fighting for the reduction of tuition fees
- Advocating for OHIP for international students
Carina Zhang, VP university affairs
- Work toward eliminating exam deferral and re-mark fees.
- Free feminine products in washrooms
- Advocating for OHIP for international students
Michelle Mabira, VP equity
- Push for diversification of university staff and instructors
- Create and enforce a policy that outlines students’ rights regarding education and mental health at U of T.
- Establish UTSU as a proactive partner that represents marginalized students.
Julian Oliveira, VP campus life
- Celebrate diversity with events that encourage cross-campuses unity
- Create opportunities for students, especially marginalized students, to meet and collaborate with each other to create an inclusive community
- Make U of T a place that belongs to Trans, Black, and Muslim students
- Advocate for a campus life that is more accessible and inclusive
Natalie Biancolin, VP professional faculties
- Ensure that UTSU is accessible to students in professional faculties
- work with professional faculty councils to better address student needs
- advocate for more work and study spaces for professional faculty students
Whomst’d’ve U of T
John Sweeney, president
- Enforce transparency in the union
- Exit UTSU’s membership within the Canadian Federation of Students
- Support the de-federation of the groups that want to discontinue their membership within the UTSU
Saarthak Saxena, VP university affairs
- Helping our campus student unions achieve the goals they wish to achieve
- Address the issues that the colleges and professional faculties face with the administration and the UTSU.
Veronika Potylitsina, VP professional faculty
- Assure that ProFac students are given the respect they deserve
- Work with the administration to represent students
Independent candidates
Joshua Hands, president
- Provide more opportunities and reallocate funds to reduce student fees
- Work on a TTC Metropass
- Create a safe space where all students are respected
- Listen to the student issue and work to provide solutions.
Anne Boucher, VP external
- More accessible mental health services
- Advocate for more accessible public transportation
- More transparent funding for clubs
- Allocate UTSU’s money to benefit U of T students.
