Chief returning officer of the York Federation of Students’ elections, Bradley Chin, says he put up 250 posters around campus to notify students of the start of the YFS election nomination period. This is how he made up for not printing the notice in a campus newspaper 14 days ahead of the start, rather than 12 as was done.
But as I wandered around this campus, Ididn’t see a single one. Not even outside the YFS office’s bulletin board in the Student Centre—the first place where something like this would be. Nothing on their Winter Term newsletter, their Facebook page or defunct group, or on their Twitter. No email blasts either.
Their website has a notice in the rotating banner, but one would think the promotion for the election to govern one of Canada’s largest student unions (over 50,000 undergraduates), an election to elect five students executives and 16 student directors, who’ll have control over a budget of over $1.9 million in collected students levies, would have a larger, more prominent presence.
This is a reflection of the YFS’s opaque behaviour over the past year and beyond. Since September, aside from announcements of fun, social events like Yorkfest and Multicultural Week, the YFS’s website and social media accounts have been silent on announcements of their dealing with governance and the budget before decisions are made.
Contrast this with the university administration, who despite all their flaws, advertise their senate and board of governor’s meetings online, posting agendas and reports for anyone — even those outside York — to see.
YFS posts board of directors’ meeting agendas and reports after the fact on the YFS History web page, a page that has nothing really to do with meetings. Somebody who wants to attend a board of directors’ meeting, as all undergraduate members are entitled to do, has no indication when or where they will take place. In fact, members of the YFS have to ask to see documents, as opposed to those documents being available freely in the first place.
Motions that have been approved, after the fact, include the creation of a YFS used bookstore, condemning the police after the Sammy Yatim shooting, and a Sikh solidarity motion—all of which I’m sure the student body would be more than willing to support if they knew the motions were being proposed.
How many people knew the YFS has already had their Annual General Meeting on November 12? Members of other clubs I’ve spoken to told me that it indeed happened, and that they were all personally invited by the YFS executive.
While there’s no bylaw stating that the AGM has to be widely advertised, unlike the elections, one would think that a not-for-profit organization like a student union would want to bring as much attention to the meeting as possible.
Ablatant disregard for transparency anywhere else would be heavily criticized. Transparency is an election issue at most other universities, with it already being mentioned in platforms at Waterloo, Laurier, UBC, Ryerson, Western, and Carleton, amongst others.
I would be happy with documents being posted online, before meetings happen, and not having to email the president asking for meeting reports; the president probably could be using their time better by not having to check their emails about these kinds of things. But at York, it seems the YFS’s lips are sealed.
Divyesh Mistry
Copy Editor
