here’s who’s running for the

Words by Racy Rafique, Jake MacAndrew and Gabriela Silva Ponte

President

Marina Gerges

Marina Gerges is running unopposed for re-election as president of the Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU).

The fourth-year biomedical engineering student said it’s not the right time for her to leave her position.

“It’s important for us to just continue building on what we’ve done,” said Gerges. “Even though it was hard, I think that if I leave and we go backwards, it will just be harder for us to be able to do this again and continue the momentum of a working and functional students’ union.”

Gerges said she wants to address subjects such as mental health and improving communica tions between the school and its students.

Gerges is the sole candidate running for the position of president, after the TMSU revealed that the other presidential candi dates were deemed ineligible by the Chief Returning Officer, Adrian Aziz, as previ ously reported by The Eyeopener

Since her election last year, Gerges has amended the old Ryerson Students’ Union by laws, been accused and absolved of workplace racism and harassment and announced a fi nancial mismanagement investigation into the previous year’s TMSU, as previously reported by The Eye

Vice President OPERATIONS

Success Daka is a second-year computer engineering student running for his second term on the TMSU. Last year, Daka was a Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science director but is now running for vice president operations.

He said he is interested in the financial operations of the students’ union and making sure students get what they’re paying for.

“A lot of the students on campus don’t see the students’ union fighting for them. So when it’s time for them to actually get involved in what we’re doing, it’s kind of hard for them because they can’t see how it’s actually impacting their lives,” he said in an interview with The Eye

Daka said he would like to analyze the percentage of students using the TMSU’s programs and events to improve them and “make sure more people use them.”

“To do this we actually need to do the research and consultation with the student body, which I think we didn’t do enough of this year,” he said.

Daka said he is hoping to establish ways to help international students find housing. He is also working toward community outreach between students and academic services.

He added that he wants to continue the discounts the TMSU has in place.

Earlier this year, the students’ union introduced a discount on Adobe Creative Cloud and Grammarly for all students, as

Nathan Sugunalan

Nathan Sugunalan is a geographic analysis student and previously served as the Faculty of Arts senator. He later served as the TMSU vice president education after the position opened following Umar Abdullah’s resignation from the role at the July BoD meeting, as previously reported by The Eye Sugunalan is running under Dream, which is one of two slates with candidates in executive positions.

He was inspired to run for the position following the influx of independent candidates that won in last year’s TMSU election.

“We saw the independents win last year and it was such a big shift from [previous elections]. It was just really inspiring,” said Sugunalan. “Let’s take this as far as we can. Rebuild this place and just have a great experience for [undergraduate students and] whoever’s coming after us.”

He said one of the biggest changes has been the increased transparency within the union.

Sugunalan plans to bring in an external consulting firm to report on the progress of the union similar to the annual audits cur rently in place. Additionally, he would add a live updated budget on the TMSU website.

Angie Awadallah

Angie Awadallah is a third-year biomedical sciences major who has been on the TMSU for a year as a Faculty of Science director.

“It almost felt like a responsibility to run for this position in particular,” she said.

“It would be a shame to not continue this work. And to not build the organization up to the levels of success that I had in mind when I first ran for Faculty of Science director last year.”

She said the one-year term isn’t enough to fix both present and past issues within the students’ union.

Awadallah said she’s hoping to kickstart bursaries for equity deserving and underrepresented populations as well as hold the students’ union accountable.

She said this year’s team didn’t think there would be so many “hurdles” and “messes” to

Mahira Shoaib

Mahira Shoaib is in her third-year of business technology management.

Shoaib is running under one of two slates in the executive position category, Team Revolt.

“Throughout my academic journey, I have gained a deep understanding of the importance of effective operations management in achieving organizational goals,” said Shoaib in her candidate statement. “I have also developed strong leadership skills through various team projects and extracurricular activities, which I believe will serve me well in this role.”

If elected, Shoaib plans to improve TMSU’s operations and streamline its processes. “I believe that this is essential to ensuring that we can continue to deliver high-quality services to our members and create a vibrant and supportive community.”

Vice President equity

“This is the students’ money, we collect it and then after we put it to work for them, for whatever services that we have, whatever ser vices we develop, they can see where it’s going. And that’s one thing that I really wanted to…be more public with our budget,” said Sugunalan.

He said being more interactive with stu dents is on his list of priorities. He’s look ing to do that through hosting more town halls, conducting surveys and implementing community-wide grants.

Sugunalan said although he only joined the TMSU executive team in October of last year with many issues to fix, it motivated him to make strides in actions such as the bylaw amendments—which he said he was most involved with as an executive.

“I helped to rebuild the relationships with the other unions on campus,” said Sugunalan. “Over time, once they saw I was a more genuine person, they kind of opened up more to the TMSU.”

Aya Bakir

Aya Bakir is a second-year sociology student running for her second term on the TMSU. Last year, Bakir held the position of Faculty of Arts director and was a member of the TMSU’s Social Justice Committee. Her campaign is centred around improving trauma informed counselling on campus for racialized and queer students, adding more prayer space on campus for Muslim students and improving support for international students. Bakir said there is a disconnect between the union and services at TMU. She plans to connect them together in hopes of creating social justice events that are more cohesive.