After three days of voting, the UTSU 2010 Election results are in. “Stronger Together” won five out of the five executive positions with “Change UofT” winning 7 BOD spots. Approximately 16.4% of the 44,000 undergrads who attend the University of Toronto voted (which is a lower turnout than the 2006 municipal election in my home town of Whitby Ontario). President-elect Adam Awad received 58.24% of the votes cast for President which means only 9.3% of U of T students voted for him.

With this in mind, let me be the first person to arrogantly prescribe a complete overhaul of the political system here at U of T. Here, in no particular order, is what I would change:

Scrap 90% of the EPC:

If the University of Toronto consistently gets one thing right, it’s treating us like adults. The UTSU Elections Procedures Code does the exact opposite. The EPC assumes that voters at the best University in the country won’t be able to recognize false information on a poster or punish candidates who have annoying literature. It lets Adam Awad and Steve Masse run on their records but denies either campaign the ability to question their opponent’s past performance. Before the next election, the UTSU should remove the prohibition of pre-campaigning, allow for negative campaigning and unfetter the candidates. The institution of the University is built on a philosophy of intelligent and honest debate. The EPC’s definition of “fair play” is so narrow that candidates are prevented from really interacting with each other,  segregating their ideas and stopping them from entering the political sphere.

The UTSU can keep the rules that facilitate the actual casting of votes but should remove all of the rules that get in the way of what. While this doesn’t require a completely libertarian UTSU electoral process, new rules can and must be brought in as the status-quo is rigid and counter-democratic.

Formalize official UTSU Political Parties:

If you want to engage students in the political process, make it openly partisan. In the 2010 election various clubs picked sides and both sides engaged in behind-the-scenes negative campaigning. If pre-campaigning was no longer prohibited opposition groups would actually have a chance at winning (there has been a 100% incumbency rate over the last five years) and it would make the UTSU visible all year, not just during the elections. The EPC has very strict spending rules, which are intended to level the playing field. If political parties were formalized (they already sort-of exist but only in the shadows) and students fund raised (limited to donations from U of T students only) it would further increase interest in the political process. Members of the UTSU executive are visible and get to campaign-without-really-campaigning in office. If political parties existed (with rules prohibiting affiliation with any outside political party) every candidate would be incentivized to have a full-fleshed out platform with a website that exists all year (I’d like to clarify that I am not anti-point form but ST/Change could have done a lot better) instead of creating a website in a rush, from scratch with low site-traffic.

Political parties will level the playing field, engage more students all-year-round and  raise the level of debate to one appropriate for the University of Toronto.

Hold Real Debates:

The debate this year was excellent but only hardcore political science nerds (like me) watched the whole thing in one sitting (I watched it thrice). The current debate rules put even more focus on the slates that run which makes it even harder for a third-party candidate/independent to run. There should be separate debates for each executive position and each college/faculty should hold a public debate between their Board of Directors candidates. These debates should be taken seriously (not audience “hooting”/”hollering”) with a moderator asking all the questions, not the supporters from each side trying to burn their opponents.

Create a continuous U of T news cycle – all day everyday:

News at U of T is painfully slow. The Varsity and The Newspaper have great websites but they still only release articles twice a week or so. “The Mike”, the paper at my college, doesn’t have a website which is the same for several other student newspapers. Proposing a 24 Hour News network at U of T sounds slightly ridiculous but better online coverage could be done effectively and quickly. A news aggregator National Newswatch and Canada News Desk could be set up for all of U of T. All of my classes offer some form of online interaction but news at U of T (like the EPC) has yet to catch up to Web 2.0. BlogUT has taken a great first step in covering the election but this needs to be built upon, quickly. Better election coverage would increase voter turnout which would benefit the UTSU as they draw their strength as representatives from an engaged population of students/citizens.

Make the CRO completely independent:

The CRO is chosen by the UTSU. There has yet to be a case at the U of T where the CRO skewed the election but the selection process must be above reproach.

Institute Term Limits:

100% incumbency rate. A higher turnover would bring fresh ideas to the UTSU and would prevent the UTSU from having the appearance of being a “clique.”

Double the size of the BOD and make the UTSU more parliamentary:

There are 30 positions on the UTSU Board of Directors but I have yet to find an average student who knew exactly what they do. The UTSU Executive needs to give more power back to its committees and adding more members would help give a voice to colleges/faculties who feel underrepresented. There is no real separation of powers for the UTSU, and this needs to change.

Publish the UTSU’s meeting minutes:

Currently the UTSU does not publish their minutes online. Over the last two years outside groups have tried to change this at the UTSU’s Annual General Meeting(s) but the UTSU has vehemently resisted this. The UTSU should start publishing the minutes from their meetings and pursue a policy of increased transparency. The University of Toronto Students’ Union holds many rallies/campaigns throughout the year. Low voter turnout and the appearance that the UTSU is intentionally opaque in its operations decrease their legitimacy which puts them on a lower ground when advocating for students. It is the little things that matter, and meeting minutes are one of these “little things.”

Elect the VP Campus Life:

The VP Campus Life is an appointed position though he/she has the same amount of power and responsibility as the other executives and also receives a salary. The change from an elected to an appointed VP Campus Life  was recent and is the most anachronistic facet of the UTSU (that is not the EPC.)

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The University of Toronto Students’ Union gets around $72 a year from each of its 44 000 students. The 10 candidates who ran for executive positions this year were all intelligent, engaged, sincere and serious about the UTSU and U of T.

Unfortunately the UTSU Election process is one where students are not engaged, the debate is neither intelligent nor sincere. It is time to get serious.

From the day I started at U of T, five years ago, to today not a week has gone by when I have not been told, read or said myself, that I am going to the best university in the country. We are all here to become citizens of the world, people who explore every side of an issue and are constantly searching for the truth.

16.4% voter turnout is a sign that something is very wrong with the polity that is U of T.

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Note: The opinions of this blog are mine and mine alone, they do not reflect the views of BlogUT. In the interest of logistics if anyone wants to debate what I’ve written further please feel free to do so on my blog www.equivocator.ca.