The Salterrae gets to Summit all up with UTSU President Yolen Bollo-Kamara

Politics can be an exhausting subject. Still, the discussions surrounding fee diversion and the democratic conduct of student societies has major consequences for the way Trinity students are represented, and how the college operates.I had the opportunity to chat with Yolen Bollo-Kamara, president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), about some of the hottest topics on campus. This includes the Student Societies Summit and the proposed changes to the structure of the UTSU Board of Directors. We also discussed robots and confectionery. Iris: I have a theory that the world is going to end in an epic human versus robot battle. If that happens, what weapon would you choose to fight the machines?Yolen: I imagine they would be powered by batteries. Can I say electricity? To electrocute them, or short-circuit them. I: What is the most important thing that first-year Trinity students should know about the UTSU?Y: That there are so many opportunities to get involved. Two ways that I can highlight are the five commissions, which are open committees that anyone can join. So if you have ideas about campaigns or events you can come out, put forward motions, and help determine what you want the UTSU to look like. There is also the Blue Crew, which is a volunteer program. You can sign up to help with specific events, so people have gone to help out backstage, meet concert artists, and set up for events. There is also the Annual General Meeting (AGM). There are a bunch of ways in the Fall in which students who are interested in getting involved with their students’ union can do so.I: One of the talking points on campus is the proposal for changes to the structure of the Board of Directors, which includes five positions for marginalized students. The proposal does not stipulate that the Directors be members of those communities themselves, so how do you envisage that working?Y: I think the idea is that they would be self-identified. Woodsworth has a Mature Students’ Director and there’s no way, as far as I know, of ensuring that you are a mature student in order to run for that position. It is expected that you would self-identify as part of that group and I imagine that students would vote for someone who does. I think that you would expect that people running for those positions are the ones who want to do that kind of work and who hopefully self-identify as part of those communities. The students still have to elect them and the endorsement of student groups will be really important. What the committee was seeking to do with the roles was to look at ways to connect students with the broader communities as well as making sure we are doing the work that we talk about in our mandate. Part of the role would be to reach out to all these groups on campus. I think they have a lot of say in who would be the best person to represent them.I: How would you frame the role of the marginalized directors? My experiences of being racialized are very different from yours, for example. Y: I would say that the role is to connect with resources, to reach out to communities as I mentioned. One of the things I am trying to do now is seek feedback from students as to what they think about the proposal that has been put forward. What I would like to see is if anyone has any specific ideas as to what each director would work on. I’d envision that the Racialized Students’ Director would work on things like Black History Month or South Asian History Month. They would also have a role in events: there was a blackface issue that happened a few years ago and so they would have a role in shaping a response to that. Of course, no-one could ever be the spokesperson for their own community, but I think that the person who runs for this position will be someone who is interested in anti-racism work, and who has a background of working with these communities.I: One of the things that Trinity students, and other divisions, are worried about is the redefinition of classes. Under the proposed structure, entire colleges could lose representation. Are you concerned about that?Y: Absolutely. The proposal was just that: a proposal. We encourage amendments and new proposals. There’s been a lot of discussion about the best way for colleges and faculties to be represented in the UTSU. There were some concerns brought up with the previous structure that there was no guarantee that the person elected would be necessarily connected. For example, a lot of first-year students run. If the first-year student knows a lot of people and happens to get elected, some people have brought up the concern that the student might not know as much about the issues as the president of the student society. I heard from a couple of student society presidents that they felt that they would be best able to represent their constituents on the UTSU. Ex-officio members are banned– you can’t be the St Mike’s representative on the UTSU by virtue of being the SMCSU president. One of the things we did was to put forward a motion to create an Arts & Science Committee that would directly report to the Board and be able to put forward motions, and have the presidents, or designates, of all the colleges in the faculty of Arts & Science. That way, they could put forward issues pertaining to the colleges. That is just one proposal. This is a really important opportunity for us to figure out how we can best represent students across U of T. I: So it is something that is still very much on the table.Y: Yes. I didn’t put forward that proposal, I’m not married to it in any sense. We are a dynamic organization, our structure has changed over the years many times.I: You mentioned the Student Societies Summit. Can you understand why some student leaders wanted to seek help from the administration?Y: I think that right now they have actually been meeting with a lot of the student societies in an alternative possibility to the Student Societies’ Summit. I have a lot of confidence that we can solve these issues ourselves. Other than the fact that we are autonomous and should remain as such, I think that we, as a students’ union don’t agree with the administration and sometimes we have to work in an oppositional role on issues like flat fees and ancillary fees. I think it would be strange to assume that the university is completely neutral in this. I think it sets a bad precedent in terms of the amount of power that the university would have to be able to interfere with the way that student societies are run. I feel like communication over the past couple of years has not been as clear as it could be. The [Board structure debate] is an issue that people want to talk about right now and we are setting up meetings with all of the divisions. At this point, I still haven’t heard back from Trinity, other than that they will get back to me. I’m looking forward to meeting with them. Communication has not been good in the past and we have seen a lot of communication through The Varsity and through social media, but not meeting face to face and actually addressing the issues that people have. I: How would you improve the relationship and communication between the UTSU and Trinity?Y: When I was running for election, I was speaking to a student from Trinity who I thought was really great and had been involved in a number of things on campus and I asked him if he would be interested in running as part of my team. He said that he was really interested but he was not sure because of the time commitment. He ended up not doing it, but something he said that I thought was striking was that he did not think Trin students could get involved in the UTSU because someone had told him that when he was in first year. It’s things like that– it’s building up a culture in which students think they can’t get involved or are afraid to get involved because of the rhetoric that gets thrown around. I think we could do a much better job of building a collegial-political environment where students aren’t afraid to get involved. There are many opportunities to be involved and it’s the membership that defines the UTSU. If we can take a step back and think about what the issues are and how to resolve them, as opposed to whether fee diversion should happen or shouldn’t happen, then I think that would go a long way. I: Do you prefer M&Ms, or Skittles?Y: That’s a good question. I definitely prefer M&Ms to Smarties; with Skittles, it depends on the day. I’m going to say Skittles. I like to eat half the bag at once, to really taste the rainbow, so to speak. I: To end, do you have a fun fact about yourself that you would like to share with us?Y: We do ice breakers all the time, and I can never think of a fun fact! Not to say that I’m not awkward now, but when I was in first and second year, I was even more so. I was terrified of talking, even when I got involved in the UTSU. Around the summer that I got involved, I did this pageant. It wasn’t a beauty pageant– it was more focused on culture and heritage. It was a really cool opportunity to get to learn more about Sierra Leone, which is where I’m from, and put myself out there onstage and answer questions. If I hadn’t done that, I probably wouldn’t have got involved with the UTSU because I was terrified of talking to people.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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