By Alexandra Holyk
The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) announced its election candidates for the upcoming school year despite not being recognized as a student government by the university.
“The university has actively attempted to not recognize us and undermined our election,” said the RSU’s interim vice-president operations James Fotak at the union’s Semi-Annual General Meeting (SAGM) on Feb. 3.
After Ryerson terminated its 1986 Operating Agreement with the students’ union, vice-provost, students Jen McMillen released several statements detailing the next steps for a re-structured student government.
Students will be voting for the structure of their student government established in partnership with Ryerson in March, according to McMillen.
After the vice-president marketing position was removed at Monday’s SAGM, there will only be five executive positions students can vote for.
The RSU elections are expected to take place on Feb. 12-14 in the Student Campus Centre and not online, according to Fotak. To vote using the paper ballots, students are asked to bring their OneCard and proof of full-time enrollment.
There are 38 election candidates from two slates—Inspire and Rise—as well as one independent candidate.
One of the presidential candidates, Ali Yousaf, is running as a returning RSU executive member after being elected as vice-president operations during the 2017-18 academic year.
The Eyeopener previously reported that Yousaf was involved in the RSU’s 6 Fest in 2016, where a portion of $79,996.81 intended for student refunds was transferred into his personal bank account.
He was also involved in the RSU’s 2017 colonialism campaign—a statement that was released on the RSU’s Facebook page criticizing Canada 150 celebrations, due to the country’s roots in colonialism.
“I think it’s important that folks do their research about candidates,” Fotak said in an interview with The Eye.
Here is the list of candidates:
EXECUTIVE TEAM
President
Charmaine Reid — Inspire
Ali Yousaf — Rise
Vice-president student life and events
Usama Sheikh — Rise
Tafyra Poyser — Inspire
Vice-president education
Ezra Li — Inspire
Siddhanth Satish — Rise
Vice-president equity
Vaishali Vinayak — Rise
Robert Molloy — Inspire
Vice-president operations
Zaima Aurony — Inspire
Liora Dubinsky — Rise
BOARD OF DIRECTORS — FACULTY REPRESENTATIVES CANDIDATES
Arts (3)
Alexandra Nash — Inspire
Gabriele Douglas — Inspire
Iqra Iqbal — Rise
Anika Zaman — Rise
Kartiki Sharma — Rise
Engineering and Architecture (3)
Maryam Marei — Inspire
Carley Haakenson-Tetzlaff — Inspire
Umar Abdullah — Rise
Salar Syed — Rise
Zain Choudhry — Rise
Communication and Design (3)
Ashan Mahendran — Inspire
Aidan Falkenberg — Rise
Nu Hai Anh (Cassie) Ton — Inspire
Ted Rogers School of Management (5)
Tyler Lontok — Inspire
Syeda Azad — Inspire
Hilla Yaniv — Rise
Preet Patel — Rise
Akif Anwar — Rise
Homra Ghaznavi — Rise
Abaan Ahmed — Rise
Science (2)
Kajetha Jeyapalan — Rise
Elwad Gedleh – Rise
Community Services (3)
Steph Rychlo — Inspire
Dusty Luck — Independent Candidate
Sabrina Ahmed — Rise
Danish Khalid — Rise
Jasmeen Thandi — Rise
International student representative
Amruta Nikte — Inspire
Amr Shaikh — Rise
Leave a Reply