RSU president Siddhanth Satish re-runs in 2022-23 election with new ‘Forward’ slate

By Thea Gribilas and Heidi Lee

The current president of the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) is re-running for the 2022-23 RSU election with a different slate to students. 

On the RSU website, RSU president Siddhanth Satish is listed as part of the candidate profiles along with 25 candidates from the ‘Forward’ slate. 

Forward promises in their platform that they will rebuild student engagement; rename the students’ union; restructure student financial aid; and create equity-based initiatives. In September, the RSU passed a motion to establish a rebranding committee after Ryerson announced it would be changing its name. No rebrand or renaming was ever announced and no further updates on the rebranding committee were provided. 

The Eyeopener has compiled a list of Forward candidates for the 2022-23 RSU election. Polls close on Feb. 4. 

President: Siddhanth Satish

Satish is the current RSU president and is a final-year hospitality and tourism student. 

He was the RSU’s vice-president education in the 2020-21 term and, according to Satish, he was able to establish some reliefs and services for domestic and international students, although those reliefs were not disclosed. 

During his term as president, he said he created new services and was able to focus on safety measures for the recovery of the pandemic, although those safety measures were not disclosed or specified in their bio. 

In the 2021-22 RSU elections campaigning period, His previous slate ‘Adapt’ promised to create COVID-19 safety measures, vaccination clinics and Personal Protective Equipment vending machines on campus. To date, none of these have promises been fulfilled. 

Satish also kept the food box program, which was heavily criticized during last year’s campaign, where Adapt allegedly breached students’ privacy by urging them to vote for Adapt. Satish added that the food box program has served over 2,000 students. 

Although Adapt promised in 2021 to increase financial transparency within the RSU and to be more accountable to its membership, Satish has consistently been unreachable to Eye editors.

Vice-President Student Life and Events: Nikita Khan

Khan is a third-year business management student, who said she has been “attending school events and social gatherings throughout her school life and her university career.” 

According to her bio on the RSU website, Khan had a self-owned business during her high school years. 

As vice-president student life and events, she said she will look to recreate “the campus environment” and bring along engaging events for students, although no details were provided. 

Vice-President Operations: Seyed Amir Hossein Dehnadi

Dehnadi is a third-year industrial engineering student and is the current vice-president of finance and operations at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. 

According to Dehnadi, he has “created communities, workshops and certifications to support industrial engineering.”

He said if elected, he will “continue to represent and assist the student body.” No plans for how this will be facilitated were provided. 

Vice-President Equity: Hilla Yaniv

Yaniv is a third-year accounting student and is the RSU’s current Ted Rogers School of Management director. 

She has been involved in the RSU since her first year at the university, serving then as a board director. She previously ran with the Adapt slate last year. 

Yaniv said she will work on “gender-based violence and period poverty to allow a safe space for every student.” She also said she will stand against all religious and culture-based violence both on and off campus. 

Vice-President Education: Tarman Kaur

Kaur is a third-year computer science student and is the current vice-president education of the RSU. 

She said she was able to acquire various financial reliefs for students and spearhead mental health-related initiatives, although no specifics were provided. 

She said she previously worked to provide financial aid to students in the form of transit and textbook grants. 

The Eye previously reported that Kaur was working on a textbook grant in July, however, no updates have been provided on that initiative since. 

The transit grant has been advertised on the RSU’s social media platforms and was previously accepting applications to be considered for the initiative. 

Kaur said she is looking to make the university a more safe and inclusive space for Ryerson students. According to Kaur, she has also worked to “preserve transparency and demonstrate accountability” within the RSU. 

If re-elected she said she hopes to bring additional resources to students, although specifics were not provided.