Here are the official statements for the candidates running for ASSU President and ASSU Executives in our upcoming elections. There is one (1) position for President being contested and four (4) Executive positions.

Approved Candidate posters can be found here

Candidates for ASSU President

Alex Erickson

I’m Alex Erickson, and I study Economics and International Relations at University College.

On campus, I’ve been fortunate to work with the UTSU, starting as President of their First Year Council. That year, we took after the new student information gap (see “ www.utsuhandbook.ca ” if you’re curious) and a variety of advocacy projects. Currently, I serve as UTSU Social Sciences Director, working on projects like the Remote Learning

Survey, to amplify student voices in improving online education. I’ve also worked for FAS as Special Projects Assistant to the Munk One program, which has given me a valuable perspective on the Faculty’s operations.

I’ve gotten to know several course unions and their leaders given my UTSU role, and been inspired by their passion to build stronger communities on our campus. I will follow suit as President.

My priorities:

  1. Advocacy: I believe it’s important to drive existing priorities to the finish line, like extending CR/NCR deadlines, “Same Degree Same Fee”, and others. I’m also hoping to start conversations about breadth requirements, course evaluations and pre-university content delivery.
  2. Serving Students: I’ll explore options to digitize the exam bank (behind a login portal), and make the ASSU website more user-friendly. I also have some ideas to support transparency on academic offense regulations.
  3. Strong Relationships: I’ll offer an individual meeting to every course union leader before the fall semester, to begin an ongoing conversation. I will not only listen to, but actively seek out, your ideas and feedback through the term.

Fiona McCrow

I have never been someone who has backed down from a challenge or stayed silent against injustice. In the three years that I have been a member of this community, I have consistently advocated for my peers and I will continue to do exactly that. This year, I had the pleasure of serving as the Vice President of Socials for the History Students’ Association. I worked closely with students to create events and also attended ASSU meetings to identify and overcome challenges that our students are facing. If elected, I will listen to you and fight with you.

As I reflect on how it has felt to be a student at UofT, one word that strikes me is “survival”. As students, we are constantly in survival mode, living under the pressures from our courses, careers, and commitments. We need to reinvent what it means to be a UofT student, so that we can flourish instead of merely enduring. This is why I have centered my goals as the ASSU President around the idea of “revise, refresh, and reconnect”. Among the many visions that I have to improve the student experience, the three fundamental pillars that I will work tirelessly to build as your president are: improving mental health support, increasing institutional transparency, and enhancing academic inclusivity.

Trust me when I promise you that I will always fight for our interests and goals.

Together we can revise, refresh, and reconnect the ASSU community.

Fatemeh Nami

Hello friends!

It has been an honor to serve on ASSU’s Executive over the past year. I know that it has been a tough one for you, both as students in the Covid era and as Course Union representatives tasked with major responsibilities. I write this with genuine gratitude that you chose me to represent you during this tumultuous time.

Over the past school year, I’ve gained invaluable experience with the Union, from meeting with the Dean to relay your online learning concerns, to having substantive conversations with the Executive over the commitments that ASSU undertakes. I have also sat on the Scholarship Committee, moderated for URC, and have been working to bring back our annual Open Mic.

If elected as President, some immediate priorities of mine would be permanently extending CR/NCR deadlines and examining solutions to particularly difficult program requirements, continuing ASSU’s work with the tri-campus mental health initiative, and relaying your concerns to the Dean’s Office regarding (hopefully) a return to hybrid classes. I recognize that beyond those immediate priorities, the role comes with challenges that the President and Executive must deal with as they arrive – I will work closely with you to fight for your interests.

In this fairly uncertain time in ASSU history, the continuity of the Union’s successes depends on a President who is informed by the inner workings of the Executive and its relationship with the Dean and Course Unions. I ask today that you to trust me, Fatemeh, to carry on this trajectory.

Sarina Wong

Three years ago, I served as an ASSU executive. I hope that this year, you’ll trust me to be your ASSU President.

I know the past year has been an especially trying time. I have heard your frustrations with online learning, quarantined life, mental health. I understand how important it is to address these issues in part because I have struggled with them as well.

My goal is to help ensure future growth and stability, focusing on mental health and accessibility. Specifically, I aim to:

  • Make in-person and online class recordings mandatory.
  • Address grade manipulation and grade deflation.
  • Create a plan for a smooth transition from online to hybrid/in-person learning in the current pandemic and vice versa in the event of another pandemic.
  • Increase resources to support health and wellness; moving away from CAMH to resources like Gerstein Healthline.
  • Fight against the Mandatory Leave of Absence policy.
  • Increase access to bursaries for BIPOC students.
  • Create support programs for international students.
  • Promote knowledge and usage of accessibility services and improve the accessibility services website.

I know this work won’t be easy but I embrace challenges. When I fought Canada’s largest school board, the TDSB, for students’ rights to travel for international competitions, we won. When the pandemic shut down campus, impacting student life, I helped to create Bridgespace, an online student engagement platform that has over 6,000 student participants globally. I hope that you, like these other students, will trust me to fight for our interests as your President.

Aidasadat Zarghami

Hi everyone!

My name is Aida and I am running as the president of ASSU. I know this past year has been one of the toughest years for many including us, students. I know many of us have struggled in different ways either financially or academically with the online school, online tests, and so many other issues. This year, an important lesson that I learned is at U of T we are not just students but, every person is part of a big family and a close community. As your president, my goals are to contribute to the ASSU council and my fellow students by ensuring growth, diversity, inclusion and sustainability for all.

This year, fortunately, I had the chance of serving as one of the student councillors in the curriculum committee of the A&S Council. Now I have decided to make my role further and truly help every single one of my fellow students in the Arts & Science community as much as I can.

My goals are both in the academics and non-academics realm. I want to help students to have the opportunity to succeed in whatever area of study they are in. Some of my goals are changing CR/NCR policies, changing the path to academic success, more financial support, inviting more students from other parts of the country to join our university, and many more that does not fit into a short statement.

I hope that you trust me because you will not regret it.

Candidates for ASSU Executive

Megan Bryson

Hi! I’m Megan Bryson a second-year life sciences student pursuing a double major in Human Biology and Psychology and apart of the Varsity Blues track and field team. I am excited to be a candidate for the 2021 spring ASSU executive team to work alongside others with a genuine interest and a passion for our campus and student population. Although this year has been challenging, I am confident in my ability to adapt and advocate for students needs that reflect those within the faculty of Arts and Science. I look forward to this potential opportunity and cannot wait to begin building a positive environment and improving student life!

Cianna Choo

My name is Cianna. I am a third-year student studying neuroscience and molecular genetics. I am in my second term as the Orientation Coordinator for St. Mike’s. I have served as the Vice President of Academic Affairs and currently as the President of the St. Michael’s College Student Union. During my terms, I have gain experience working with other student unions and organizations to create programming to promote the academic success and professional development of students. This year, my team and I have secured the promise of the USMC President to expand our mental health supports by hiring a second counselor, and we have established two new commuter spaces on our campus.

On ASSU, I would like for the posting of lecture recordings with mandatory closed captioning to continue even when in-person so students can have equal opportunity and access to material. Additionally, I would like to work with the course unions to create a program “bank” that contains resources, testimonials, and information from the student perspective regarding each program and the careers associated to aid students selecting programs.

I would like to create an alumni speaker series, which highlights the opportunities available to students after graduation and provides a space to speak openly about the struggles of completing your undergrad and give advice.

Finally, I hope to establish a course union directory which contains the contact information of the executives of each course union and key UofT staff members to facilitate communication and collaboration between unions.

Paavni Grover

Hi everyone! I am Paavni and I’m in my first year, planning to major in Economics and International Relations.

It has been an honour to serve as your ASSU Executive for the past year, and I could not be more excited to seek re-election for the 2021-2022 year!

During the past year, I started working with the career centre to enhance career opportunities for the Arts and Science students. If re-elected, I want to continue to work with them and make these opportunities more accessible to the students. I also want to create new initiatives that strengthen ASSU’s ties with course unions and to make it easier for students to share their concerns in order to better address the problems facing students across the faculty.

I also believe that as an international student, I had additional value to the team by bringing that point of view to the table. I started university in an online set up so I also understand the obstacles of transition from high school to university. That experience will help me guide incoming students as well.

Having also served on the Arts & Science Council, I have aimed to ensure that the policies and programs at our Faculty support students’ wellbeing. I have gained so much knowledge in the past year and I feel that the skills I have acquired qualify me as effective and dedicated ASSU executive going forward.

Thank you for considering me as your ASSU Executive. Vote for Paavni!

Sumeya A. Hassan

It is with great pleasure to announce that I am running for an executive position for this year’s Arts and Science Students Union. As an ASSU executive, I hope to improve the quality of life on and off campus by advocating for more funding for therapy sessions, and facilitating linkages between students and culturally safe therapy providers to ensure access to programs that better reflect the student body. I will also aim to keep options open for additional accommodations, such as fighting to extend the credit/no-credit option beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research programs are often restrictive and limited in their abilities to acknowledge the challenges that first year students face. To address this barrier, I will push for the creation of more internship and research project opportunities and improve research opportunities for underrepresented students who lack prior experience. Furthermore, I will promote introducing community member review opportunities and remove barriers for the application processes of both research and scholarship programs.

My genuine interest in building inclusive authentic relationships with diverse groups of people is what makes me qualified for this position. If elected, I will use my power to make your voice in the UofT community heard. If you’re looking to elect a passionate, approachable and dedicated candidate, I am your person. I represent a fresh voice with new ideas. I pledge to be creative and resourceful while also going above and beyond to represent you. Vote Sumeya for executive!

Basmah Ramadan

Hi everyone! I want to keep this short and simple. I have been at UofT for three years now and I know a lot of struggles that students face. As an ASSU exec I hope to work on and accomplish the following:

  • Remove late withdrawal from transcripts
  • Work towards more CR/NCR leniency on program requirements.
  • Compile a resource file with volunteer opportunities, internship, and jobs as well as ASSU services
    (ex. past exams and midterms) for students to refer to throughout the year
  • Plan a career fair to connect students with professionals in their field

I have a lot of experience from being on the UTSU and the Muslim Students Association for 2 consecutive years. I want to work with all of you to make sure you have a great time here at UofT. My name is Basmah, translating to smile in Arabic. I hope you smiled reading that 🙂

Have a fantastic rest of the day and don’t forget to vote for Basmah!

Thank you!

Sidrah Rana

My name is Sidrah Rana – I’m a third year student in physics, math, and chemistry, running to be an executive on ASSU!

After serving as Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences in the UTSU this past year, where I worked with physical science departments and consulted with respective course unions, I want to bring my initiatives for equity x academic reform to the broader ArtSci community! Below are a few ideas:

Navigating university life can be difficult, which is exacerbated for marginalized students. In many programs, students are gaslit by academic registrars, which leave students with little support on utilizing their degree. Through student consultation, I want academic registrars to be held accountable and adequately trained to support ALL students in ALL programs.

Additionally, many students do not know their academic rights – there is much confusion around “academic freedom” and the instructor handbook. I want to implement a social-media campaign that breaks down the handbook in accessible ways, and to inform students about who to contact if an instructor is violating their rights.

I also want to encourage “best practices” by instructors, especially because of COVID. An idea that I am co-piloting with other student leaders in my departments that I want to bring to the ArtSci level, is to interview perceived “good” instructors in many departments on how they implement “best practices” within courses, summarize their responses, and highlight them to students and departments.

I would love to demonstrate my commitment to equity in academics as an ASSU executive!

Mechelle Wu

Hey everyone

My name is Mechelle, and I’m a first-year student specializing in Linguistics and minoring in Psychology. I’m eager to take on the opportunity to represent the diverse student body of the Faculty of Arts & Science. In the short time I’ve spent at U of T, I’ve witnessed an undercurrent of unmet needs of the student experience.

If elected, I will work to develop and implement an evaluation system for the mental health, academic support, and accessibility services our school offers, as many of us have found them lacking. The evaluations would allow students to provide feedback to learning strategists, academic advisors, and writing centre instructors, amongst others, to push for improvement. I hope to further increase the quality of student support through this initiative and others, such as advocating for a unified, one-stop web experience that improves access to student resources.

I would also love to start a semi-casual multidisciplinary research podcast that sparks further interest in the discoveries currently being made by students at U of T. This would make discussions centered around research more widely available and deepen connections across the student community. In the face of continued online learning, these connections are essential to both our education and well-being. With that in mind, I intend to fight against the practice of prohibiting backtracking on tests, as it puts students at an even more unfair disadvantage given our circumstances.

I aim to amplify and act on the behalf of all student voices. Vote for Mechelle!