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Page 1: mywcsa.commywcsa.com/wdw/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/minute… · Web viewNasra Mahad (Community Outreach Director) Brad Dalgleish (Academic Bridging Director) Wenjun (Sarah) Deng

Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Woodsworth College Students’ Association

Monday, September 14th, 2015119 St. George Street

In Attendance:Olivia Hauck (President)Teeka Cookson (Vice-President of Internal Affairs)Shonali Lakhani (Vice President of Public Relations) Ongio Tsui (Vice-President of Social Affairs)Aadil Nathani (Vice-President Financial Affairs)Amanda Li (Vice-President External Affairs)Sarah Bear (Upper-Year Students Director)Kristine Medrero (Upper-Year Students Director)Novera Khan (Off-Campus Students Director) Sandleen Azam (Professional Development Director) Ryan Jeong (Associate Director of Social Affairs)Dylan Forgas (Associate Director of Financial Affairs)Jing Bian (Associate Director of Public Relations)Zack Habi (Full Time Students' Director)Alyy Patel (Full Time Students' Director)Justin Zelnicker (First Year Students' Director)Barbara Dacal (First Year Students' Director)Nasra Mahad (Community Outreach Director)Brad Dalgleish (Academic Bridging Director)Wenjun (Sarah) Deng (Woodsworth Residence Director)Julia Standish (89 Chestnut Residence Director)

Ex-Officio: Christina Alcena (Incoming CRO)Sabrina Lane-Smith (Outgoing Orientation Coordinator)Chantal Issa (Outgoing Orientation Coordinator)Cailyn Stewart (Woodsworth Director on the UTSU)Aakanksha John (Outgoing VP External Affairs)

Other:Sydney LangDefne ArslanRyan Standil

Regrets:Danielle Oullette (Vice-President of Athletic Affairs)Miranda Li (Associate Director of Athletic Affairs)

1) Call to Order 4:17 pm

2) Approval of the Agenda

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Moved: Hauck Seconded: Cookson

Arslan: Could we add in to the agenda Write to Excite line to item number 9?

Motion to add Write to Excite as item number 9 to agenda.

Motion passed.

John: I’d like to move items 15 and 16 underneath Frosh Presentation, as I will no longer be part of the board after item 8.

Motion to move item 15, Hiring an Equity Chair and item 16, Creating a team for the Legacy Project to items 7 and 8, respectively.

Motion passed.

Cookson: Can I add a motion to Internal Elections?

Motion to appoint _____ to the position of Chestnut Director for 2015-2016.

Motion passes.

3) Approval of the Previous Executive Meeting MinutesMoved: Hauck Seconded: Cookson

Motion passes.

4) Approval of the Previous Board of Directors Meeting MinutesMoved: Hauck Seconded: Cookson

Motion passes.

5) Approval of the Board Reports

Hauck: My board report was added a bit later but will be added on the website as part of the president’s blog. I wanted to wish everyone good luck on their assignments. WCSA has been busy planning all our events. I also wanted to congratulate the newly elected board members; I’m really excited to work with you guys this year.

Azam: I’d like to start off by congratulating new board member, looking forward to working with you all. I’m in charge of the ‘Are You Woodsworthy?’ conference, it is set for February 27th and I’ve booked Kruger Hall so far, but I may change venues altogether. Please spread the word about the planning committee, the deadline to apply is this Friday. I’m also planning an event with U of T improve team. Last year had a good turn out; we’re aiming for November 4.

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John: This is my last board meeting, it has been an interesting time and I am very honoured to serve my college. I wanted to give you all a summary of what the portfolio has been up to. We’re looking to change to have an external policy to affiliate groups. An external contract is being made for them specifically. I was also a head leader for frosh, I hope to submit a reflection during the frosh presentation. We’ve started conversations for gaining CCR notification for our clubs; we want them to be recognized for all the hard work they put in. We also finished getting applications for the Howl. Interviews will be done this week. I’ve also been working on the Legacy Project. It is a program for first years to shadow senior students for a day, which will begin next month, keep an eye out for that. Thanks for giving me the chance to serve.

Cookson: Huge thanks to Aakanksha for stepping up to the plate when we needed to fill this position. We loved working with you and will miss you.

Moved: Hauck Seconded: Cookson Motion passed.

6) Frosh Presentation

Issa: There is a full breakdown in appendix. - Under budget by a couple hundred dollars. Frosh revenue: surplus of $6000,

brought it up to $110 000 for WCSA. - Frosh kits were a big saving after we changed suppliers. - Block party had a lot of unexpected expenses: Pay for street signs mentioning it was

closed and parking. Other than that, everything was on budget. We got a lot of extra funds when people registered the day of.

- We got $500 from Trinity on collaboration. $500 from Zipcar as sponsor. - We bought TTC tokens that we didn’t need so we’re giving it to WCSA. - We got to keep a lot of the leader deposits because some we had to take away, but

most people just didn’t pick it up. We decided with Teeka and we will be donating this amount to Make A Wish.

Lane-Smith: We have a brief summary of how each event went in the appendix as well, there were a few hiccups but we dealt with it well. The full one will be available in the manual, but I didn’t want to put it in the board package as there is sensitive information and it will be published online. If you have any questions let me know.

Please see appendix item 1, Aakanksha’s Frosh Reflection.

Issa: When we were hired the theme was supposed to be around the world. Travelling to a different continent each day. We were hired to do that. After discussing with dean of students, and sexual orientation offices they told us not to keep the theme, because of exactly what Aakanksha talked about. We were nervous that people would take it out of context. We changed it to celebrating different possible events from different places. Noting changing the around the world theme to make it easier on us and people who could possible criticize us. The theme was “Welcome to Your One Love Woodsworth”. No actual

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things were being said other than during opening ceremonies to explain the theme. The flags were up to welcome. The last thing we wanted to do was to disrespect or offend anyone. We tried our best to make it as welcoming as possible.

John: Around the world theme itself was supposed to represent cultural diversity. And I understand you tried to do so. On the frosh schedule itself that’s what it said and that’s what everyone thought the theme is. When you talk about One Love Woodsworth, you’re still talking about cultural diversity. Who are you welcoming? I’m saying that the frosh events were not what you were trying to celebrate.

Issa: I agree, we bit on way more than we could chew. That’s what we’re apologizing for, we realize how hard it would have been to do what we wanted to do with our orig. proposal. That’s why people steer away from around the world theme, that’s why we changed it mid way throughout the summer. We sought advice and we tried to keep it similar but focused on celebrating specific events after. It was a pleasure working with everyone and good luck with all the newly admitted board members.

Lane-Smith: Shout out to the OEC!

7) Hiring an Equity Chair

John: I would like to hire an equity chair speaking to the issue of frosh. There are still holes and gaps. For example, we don’t recognize First Nation’s sovereign land, even when we start WCSA meetings, which is ridiculous. When I was first year rep we had to approach our VP internal but frankly I wasn’t sure how to approach her, I was afraid of offending her and afraid being reprimanded. As a board member, you have a lot on your plate and responsibility. But we need more inclusive framework; I think we need someone who is dedicated to this. There should be applications for someone with the appropriate knowledge and background, appointed by the college. They should not be part of WCSA, but have an authority in it. A committee would be necessary as well. I strongly feel we need someone not on the board to ensure everything is fair. I was thinking that the UTSU has a racialized student collective and we could use their resources, I strongly support people part of that space. I feel they are very educated on this topic. I think getting people recognized by the university externally, who know and understand this topic, to form this committee. We need people who have experience, and are not currently on the board, which is a safe enough distance to form an appropriate committee.

Hauck: I just want to clarify, are we striking an ad-hoc committee, or are we looking at external committee?

John: I’m concerned with whether we make it an open call, it may over lap with external. I have another question, is TYP under a college?

Lakhani: I asked the registrar and TYP is not part of a college until they graduate into it.

Tsui: TYP is not part of the board, but Academic Bridging is.

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Cookson grants speaking rights to Lang.

Lang: As an external person I want to enforce the seriousness of this. If someone on the board experiences racism, that is a serious issue. I have been a part of the board for years before this one, and ever year I have experienced sexism and sexual harassment. It needs to be addressed and I want to make sure everyone is engaged in this issue and realize how important it is.

John: It is important that we recognize this gap we have, it is incredibly critical. Regular students can’t speak for themselves here. As a board, we have opinions for the majority, but we need to critically analyze these opinions. We can’t exclude the minority.

Stewart: I know these issues make people uncomfortable, but it is important to recognize that this is the first step in dealing with these issues and going through with the investigation.

Motion to strike ad-hoc committee chaired by Cailyn Steward and Sydney Lang to investigate the hiring of an Equity Chair.

Moved: John Seconded: Stewart

Motion passed.

8) Creating a team for the Legacy Project

John: The legacy project is something Ongio wanted to bring up encouraging first year engagement after frosh. We had an idea of mentor shadowing for the day. I want to strike a committee to carry this forward after I leave the board to establish my framework of ideas. I suggest the First Year Reps and Upper Year reps to take part in this initative.

Sydney: This is a great idea, but just to note, the dean’s office already has a mentorship and e-mentorship program. So use them as a tool to see what they found successful in their model or see if we can do something different.

John: Looking at existing frameworks is great and it is also to recognize upper year students and what we go through. There’s three steps. The students would come to an event, names get put in a pot and drawn to get matched up for the day, and then a final reflection. There will be an open call for seniors to sign up.

Nathani: The idea is good in principle; but we also have the First Year Mentorship Program with the Dean’s Office, which is the same thing you’re outlining.

John: I wanted something short term, the First Year Mentorship Program is long-term, this is just one day. The work is going into making sure people are matched up.

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Dacal: First year students aren’t really sure what’s going on and having the guidance of a senior student would be very helpful to tell you what to do. Not having guidance now kind of leaves us feeling stranded. I know that this program would help them find someone with the experience to shadow, to help with the transition.

Justin: I just wanted to say I love your ideas and your opinions, keep saying what you are, it’s important. I hope we can keep in touch.

John: Thank you, I really appreciate that.

Hauck: We need to think of a unique way to approach this, there are a lot of firs year mentorship programs. So it has to be something unique but I’m definitely willing to explore this.

John: It’s pretty much us giving them one on one advice. It works with commuter and mature students’ schedules. Other programs require much more commitment where we don’t as much.

Motion to strike an ad-hoc committee that is responsible for overseeing the mentorship program.

Amendment: Motion to strike an ad-hoc committee that is responsible for discussing and developing the Legacy Project

Moved: John Seconded: Cookson

Motion passed.

9) Approval of the CRO ReportBIRT the WCSA BoD approve the report from the Chief Returning Office on the WCSA 2015 Fall by-elections as presented.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Motion passed.

10) By-Elections ResultsBIRT the WCSA BoD ratify results of the 2015 Fall by-elections as presented.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Cookson: Congratulations to all those elected, it was a clean election with no issues or challenges. I’ve read through the report, and there are no issues there. Klara also wants to congratulate everyone, and thanks for listening to us and our rules.

Hauck: Congrats guys!

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Motion passed.

11) Write to Excite Program

Hauck grants Standil speaking rights.

Standil: Thanks for having me! I was invited here by Defne, and we’ve had some positive email dialogue with Olivia and Teeka. I was tutoring students one on one for 7 years at Western. I finished law school and worked at a corporate law firm and was bored. I wanted to go back to what I really enjoyed doing at Western. I am now giving a prep course teaching students how to get great marks on essays. It’s interesting how so many bright and high achieving students struggle the most articulating themselves. Write to Excite encourages students to have the most complex ideas and articulating it in simple prose. The course starts two Thursdays from now at OISE, if the board could help me spread the word that would be great. The full price of the course is $199. The early bird price is $169 if you sign up 7 days before. If you have any questions please let me know.

John: I definitely think there’s a need and that this works well with our portfolios, I commend you for starting this. I like the framework of the idea that you encourage the complex ideas students have. I wanted to propose to the board donating a sum of money from the external portfolio to get a discounted rate for Woodsworth students. Li: I think this is a great idea, I would definitely look into but we can’t make decisions about this at the moment.

Cookson: Can external, professional development and upper years talk with Ryan further about this after the meeting for a few minutes?

Dacal: Is there any specific processes with the essay writing workshop?

Ryan: I believe 99% of writing follows similar style, but of course they’re all different.

Will review and discuss further with Standil.

12) Services and Initiatives AssistantBIRT the WCSA BoD ratify the hiring of Radha Lamba to the position of Services and Initiatives Assistant.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Cookson: She’s our new office staff member, I wanted to ratify her to the board in accordance with our policies. She’s been great so far.

Motion passed.

13) Chief Returning Officer

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BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Christina Alcena as the new Chief Returning Officer for the 2015-2016 term.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Vote.

Motion passed.

14) Internal Elections

Cookson: We put a call out to the general Woodsworth students for positions that have yet to be filled and Julia expressed her interest and she will speak to why she wants to join. Whoever is appointed will be an ex-officio and will not have voting rights. Julia, why don’t you speak to why you want to be the Chestnut Director.

Standish: I live at Chestnut at the Woodsworth floor, and I didn’t even know there was a position, which says a lot. I know Chestnut is far but we are part of the college just as much as everyone else. I would like to bridge that gap.

Lakhani: What kind of events or initiatives do you want to put in place?

Standish: I think a big part of it is just getting people informed and get them aware that there are events. We could have more posters around the floor for example.

Motion to appoint Julia Standish to the position of Chestnut Director for 2015-2016.

Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Vote.

Motion passed.

15) Dissolving Current CommitteesBIRT the WCSA BoD dissolve all current standing committees, effective immediately.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Cookson: As I mentioned in the email I sent, WCSA has some standing committees that meet once a month to discuss certain topics. We had some committees struck in the summer that need to be dissolved now that we have the full board. You have to be on a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 4. If you’re chairing a committee, you have to be on at least another as well.

Khan: Are we dissolving the off campus committee?

Cookson: No that’s’ not ad-hoc.

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Motion passed.

Lang: I have to leave soon, and I wanted to inform the board of something quickly, can I do it here?

Cookson: Yeah sure, go ahead.

Lang: I work with Fossil Free for U of T working with the university to diverse from the top 200 fossil fuel committees. We’re having a march next Thursday from 5-7pm starting in the halls of Sid Smith. It would be great if Woodsworth could spread the word and share the event on Facebook.

16) Committees

Cookson: There can be unlimited amount of people as long as it’s not an even number for voting purposes. And the executive review committee cannot have executives on it, for obvious reasons.

Medrero: Does my hiring committee count as one?

Cookson: We’ll dissolve after gala and re-strike for hiring for orientation, so no.

Elections and Referenda CommitteeBIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Teeka, Jing, and Sarah to the Elections and Referenda Committee to be co-chaired by Hauck and Alcena.Moved: Hauck Seconded: Cookson

Cookson: The ERC oversees any elections we have. You would help the CRO monitor any promotional materials online and in the college and report to the CRO anything you see.

Hauck: If you are on the ERC, you can’t sign anyone’s nomination form and support their campaign.

Lakhani: Also if you plan on running again, you would have to drop the committee.

Executive Review CommitteeBIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Justine, Kristine, Novera, and Zack to the Executive Review Committee to be chaired by Dylan.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Forgas: I just learned about this, but I’m think I’m a pretty fair person and would do a good job as Chair. Vote. Forgas appointed chair.

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External CommitteeBIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Sarah, Wenjun, Julia, Justin, Teeka, Aadil, Kristine, and Nasra to the External Committee to be chaired by Amanda Li.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Editorial Review CommitteeBIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Sarah, Novera, Ryan, and Brad to the Editorial Review Committee to be chaired by Amanda Li.Moved: Cookson Seconded: Hauck

Athletics CommitteeBIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Ongio, Zack, Olivia, Dylan, Kristine, Wenjun, and Ryan to the Athletics Committee to be chaired by Danielle Ouellette and Miranda Li.Moved: Ouellette Seconded: Cookson

Policy Review CommitteeBIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Teeka, Amanda, Shonali, Wenjun, Nasra, Julia, Ryan, Justin, Brad, and Zack to the Policy Review Committee to be chaired by Hauck.Moved: Hauck Seconded: Cookson

Social CommitteeBIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Amanda, Alyy, Zack, Kristine, Sarah, Justin, Wenjun, Nasra, and Novera to the Social Committee to be chaired by Ongio Tsui and Ryan Jeong.Moved: Tsui Seconded: Cookson

Motions passed.

17) Streetcar Pub CrawlTsui: After much discussion and many meetings, the Pub Crawl will be happening next Tuesday, October 27th. One of the reasons I chose a weeknight was that I wanted to avoid any risks of the weekend, especially with Halloween on a Saturday this year. All the bars are confirmed, the first is round in Kensington at Round, we have the whole place to ourselves, then we’ll go down to SPiN, where we have a section booked out, and then O’Grady’s where we have the entire second floor. I was wondering who on the board would like to be a sober leader? Right now I have Ryan, Teeka and myself. If we don’t have enough I may call the event off. There have been many years with incidents happening and I don’t want it happening this year.

Bian: When will the even being?

Tsui: There will be a workshop in Kruger around 7 to give students info and a run down on how the night will go. Pickup is at Spadina and Sussex around 7:15 pm.

Hauck: I wanted to see if people would be able to drink at the last bar if they were sober?

Tsui: No because I’m organizing the streetcar to drop us off where we get picked up. I realize it is midterm season, but in order to minimize risk, it had to be on a Tuesday.

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Medrero: Will board members have to pay?

Tsui: In the past yes, but I’ll speak to Teeka about it afterwards.

Cookson: If you’re a sober leader no, but if you plan on drinking then you will have to pay.

18) Other Business

Hauck: If you haven’t voted yet, please vote in the federal election!

Medrero: Coffee Crawl is happening on Friday! Four coffee shops are Manic Coffee, Voodoo Child, Fika Café, and Jimmy’s Coffee. All board members will not have to sign up, but I am capping it at 25 people, so please message me by tonight. We will be having tour groups, so if you want to lead a group that would be great because at least one of us have to stay at each coffee shop the whole time. I was also wondering if directors could have business cards. When we were approaching coffee shops, it was very unprofessional that we didn’t have any cards to give out. I was getting looks because I had to write my name and number down on the back of someone else’s card.

Cookson: We can look into it and see if we can afford it in the budget, if anything, if you guys are willing to pay a part of the fee and we’ll cover the rest, which could be an option too.

Medrero: Yeah anything would be great.

Cookson: Please sign up for office hours, I want a maximum of 2 people at a time. Directors hold office hours in room 105. If there is no other time convenient for oyu and its conflicting with someone else’s schedule, just let me know, but try not to have more than two people in the office at a time. You will also be getting CCR notation, I will be sending out the document around the board tonight.

19) Adjournment

Moved: Tsui Seconded: Khan

Adjourned 6:01 pm.

Motion passed.

Appendix1. Aakanksha’s Frosh Reflection

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WCSA Exec/Frosh Head Leader reflection; Monday Oct 19th 2015

I would like to start by acknowledging that we celebrated student-run events that were organized with a lot of blood, sweat and tears , for our students to enjoy, on land that Canada or more correctly, Turtle Island’s Indigenous people are prevented from enjoying. It is a great privilege I did not earn and therefore, recognize Indigenous sovereignty on stolen land that we sit on. I am honoured to have been a part of Frosh, representing WCSA during it. That being said, for a Frosh that had an “Around the World Theme”, our events and facilitative frameworks were ironically not as culturally diverse and reflective as they could have been. I am not alone, for several of Woodsworth’s community members and board members share my views.

While I understand and in some cases, can even empathise with the OCs, OECs and the board applauding the success of Frosh, it was first time I experienced Frosh outside being a Froshee 3 years ago and the first time I experienced as a WCSA executive. Yet, looking back at frosh…personally and professionally, I have never been more disrespected or demeaned as a member of this board or as a racialized student. As a person with a very visible and vocal pride in my ethnic heritage, cultural diversity is not term that can be thrown around lightly. And yet it was; mentioned twice during the intro of Frosh; a nice way to highlight Woodsworth’s cultural make-up.

Cultural diversity is more than just a selling point; it should have been more respected. Having Portuguese chicken for lunch, Zumba, and an Around the World Karaoke and flags around Krueger, is not good enough. There is a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation: the only way you perform the latter is by centralising the culturally diverse voice in your framework. To me as a racialized student and as a member of this board, and a Woodsworth Student we could have done so much better. I recognized this pretty early on, and when I noticed it and spoke up about it; I was shut down like others. Every time I stepped up to try and make the college look better that week, try to make it look like it was actually reflecting what it promised its students, reprimands and complaints were delivered against me and others; shout out to the sensitive part of the Frosh Reflection dossier, what’s good?

If at this point, anyone is doubting or confused at the intention behind why I’m saying this, here’s what I have to say: I’ve been on this board and been dedicated to my college since day 1 (albeit a break in the 2nd year). I love my college and I hold it to a certain standard as student that pays fees and a racialized student that has to navigate extremely instutionalized spaces. And I am human being, not without error, not without being complicit. But here’s the thing: my personal experience as a racialized student is extremely critical to the lens through which I view my professional responsibility to the college as a board member. I don’t have the luxury of separating the two. And yet, quite unprofessionally, my personal “errors” were highlighted above the systemic and organizational issues I was trying to raise. Still, my position as an executive was useless in the entire power scheme of things, because I was silenced and made to remember how we repeatedly ignore those that are racialized and diverse in this college.

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Maybe I should make it more explicit that my intentions that week were not to disturb an organizational structure or power dynamic. Nonetheless, I don’t owe it to anyone neither should I have to explain the way I approach saving my college’s face as a racialized student. No. But we do owe it to our students to explain why we didn’t deliver, because we didn’t.Frosh had amazing events that were more on the theme of living in Toronto rather being living Around the World. They are not the same thing; take it from someone who’s actually lived around the world. Take it from someone who had to keep quiet for two months because she didn’t feel safe enough to bring it up, someone who had to work with the people that disrespected her opinions and demeaned her actions through misunderstanding them, someone’s who’s equity education is appreciated just as long as they don’t disturb popular rhetoric...

That someone is me.

I was elected and appointed to have a critical opinion as a duty to better serve my college and work collaboratively with those that share the honour of representing it. Not to ignore or silence those that have been historically discounted from spaces exactly like this. My experiences need to be seen and my voice needs to be heard. If I have caused any offense, please feel free to ask me questions, I welcome the chance.

Thank you.