Board of Governors and Senate elections this week

By Hannah Sabaratnam

The Board of Governors (BoG) and the Senate elections started on March 2.

The BoG is looking for new students, staff and faculty members, while the Senate elections are for representatives of the faculty, graduates, undergraduates and G. Raymond Chang School.

The voting period for both elections will end on March 5. Members can only vote for the constituency they belong to.

For example, undergraduate students can only vote for undergraduate students and faculty members can only vote for faculty.

While there is some overlap between the two governing bodies, each has their own distinct responsibilities.

The BoG is responsible for the overall strategy of the university, including planning and finance.

The Senate is responsible for academic and student related matters, such as curriculum, academic and non-academic student behavior policy, and implementation of new programs. The role of student representatives in both groups is to be the voice of the student body.

Fourth-year math student and student senator Aedan Hennessy said he doesn’t find there to be “preference given to faculty members” and “faculty members
of the Senate are usually quite interested to hear about the perspective of the students.”

Shervin Akhlaghi, a fifth-year civil engineering student who currently serves as a student representative on the BoG, said students’ voices are “as equal to anyone else on the board.”

As we near the end of the school year, the budget for next year is one of the major topics of discussion for the Board.

As for the Senate, the use of AI in the classroom was part of January’s meeting and will continue to be addressed. Part of the conversation included the boundaries of AI for instructional use and what areas remain controversial for students.

Students reflect on four years of OneCard needed to access campus buildings

By Eunice Soriano

Students at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) spoke with The Eyeopener on whether they think TMU’s student identity cards—OneCards—have more pros than cons.

The university announced in early 2022 that effective Jan. 31, 2022, all campus buildings would require a OneCard to enter. Prior to that, all campus buildings used to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with OneCard access required from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

According to a statement by the university, RFID technology was added to OneCards in the early 2000s to support tap-based building access. The school added a digital OneCard option on mobile devices from Fall 2024 onwards.

Students still need their physical OneCards to write quizzes, tests and
other assessments.

With more OneCard readers always being installed throughout the school, Matthew Araneta, a fifth-year engineering student, said he appreciates the convenience of being able to use his phone to enter a building.

But he said scanning his OneCard on multiple readers in the same complex has become a redundant routine.

Some students also underlined the importance of the cards as a valid security measure.

Shahd Al Chnewi, a second-year politics and governance student, said without the OneCards, it is hard to decipher who attends the school and the existing readers are sufficient in controlling the people bustling in and out of TMU.

Kezia Edwards, a fifth-year English student said she does not see the point in adding more OneCard readers, underlining the extra steps that are taken before entering.

“I think that it’s very useful and makes sense, especially for where we are campus-wise… I think we’re relatively safe,” Edwards said.

“The scanners can be a bit of a hindrance… people who just have the physical card have to dig through their bag or be prepared to have it at the door,”
said Edwards.

The university said OneCard readers are placed at a specific height to bolster accessibility. The statement also mentioned that the card readers have auditory and visual signals.