Ryerson Students' Union

The Ryerson Students' Union (RSU) is the former students' union that represented full-time undergraduate and graduate students at Ryerson University. All full-time students were required to be members and pay a levy. The money was used to fund student groups, events for students and campaigning.

Ryerson Students' Union
InstitutionRyerson University
LocationToronto, Ontario
EstablishedJune 27, 1967
PresidentAli Yousaf
Vice presidentsEducation:
Siddhanth Satish
Equity:
Vaishali Vinayak
Operations:
Liora Dubinski
Student Life & Events:
Usama Sheikh
Members35,000+
Websitewww.rsuonline.ca

Ryerson University terminated its long-standing agreement with the students' union on January 24, 2020, stripping the union of its ability to represent students at the university and collect a levy.[1]

Board

The board of directors set the direction and the executive manage the day-to-day operations of the corporation. Students elect 3 to 7 members from each faculty, depending on the size of the faculty, to the board, in addition to student representatives from the university's senate, student groups, course unions and residence.

Equity Service Centres

The RSU has seven Equity Service Centres: The Centre for Women & Trans People, The Good Food Centre, Racialised Students' Collective, RyeACCESS, RyePRIDE, Centre for Safer Sex & Sexual Violence Support, and the Trans Collective. These centres serve as a space for students from different marginalized backgrounds to come together and organize equity and social justice initiatives, events, and campaigns.

In 2010, The board of directors voted to change the name from "Community Service Groups" to "Equity Service Centres".

http://rsuequity.ca

Controversy

The RSU has been extensively criticized for its equity centre policies [2] and for banning a men's issues student group on campus.[3] In 2015, former RSU vice-president education Jesse Root was accused of deleting emails in violation of Ontario's privacy laws.[4]

On January 24, 2019, photos of credit card statements belonging to RSU President Ramganesh Ragupathy (Ram Ganesh) were obtained and published on Facebook by political group Rhinoceros Party.[5] The statements show frivolous spending by Ganesh of over $250,000, including transactions for alcohol, a casino, various bars and nightclubs, hotel rooms, and at a sporting goods store. Ganesh, alongside with vice-president operations, Savreen Gosal, were suspended at a board of directors meeting. Later, Genesh was impeached with a two-thirds majority on February 11, 2019. Maklane DeWever was elected RSU president, by the board of directors in the same meeting.

In response to ongoing turmoil at the union involving both the above scandal and an inability to renegotiate a new operating agreement, Ryerson University terminated its 1986 operating agreement with the union and declared that it would no longer recognize the union as the official student government for full-time undergraduate and graduate students on campus.[6] The courts ordered an injunction preventing the university from severing the agreement.[7][8]

See also

References
  1. Venn, David. (2019-01-24)."Ryerson 'has lost confidence' in student union, drops RSU as official student government". Toronto Star. Retrieved on 2020-01-25
  2. "White students barred from funded RSU student group event". Ryersonian.ca. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2013-05-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Prof: emails were illegally deleted". The Eyeopener. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  5. "Rhino Party". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  6. https://www.ryerson.ca/news-events/news/2020/01/ryerson-university-terminates-agreement-with-ryerson-student-union/
  7. Jeffords, Shawn (10 March 2020). "Ryerson University must transfer withheld funding to student union, judge rules". CTV News. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  8. "Statement from the university on injunction hearing between Ryerson and the RSU". Ryerson University. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
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