Election Dates: 12:01 AM Wednesday, January 18th - 11:59 PM Thursday, January 19th, 2023
Check your UofT email during the election dates for your voting link, or cast your vote at:
Want to see the candidates running in the RCSA election present their platforms? Looking to see what RCSA has been up to and what changes are being made?
Our Annual General Meeting is on January 17th, 7:00PM – 8:00PM EST @ BA1210 (Bahen Centre). The Annual General Meeting is the yearly elections platform for Presidential & Vice Presidential candidates to present their vision and goals for RCSA through speeches. We will also be providing information about Director and Committee Hiring during the meeting, as well as voting on changes on the Constitution.
Join us to see what your vote will look like in this year’s RCSA elections and what we have in store!
Presidential Candidate
Connie Choy (She/Her)
Presidential Candidate
Hey everyone! I’m Connie Choy (she/her), and I am a second-year student specializing in Accounting. Currently, I serve as the Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and my primary focus is to represent all interests and backgrounds of Rotman students in order to foster an inclusive and collaborative environment. I am excited to be running for President of RCSA!
As president, I have three goals and initiatives to implement as they contribute to the growth, mission, and vision of RCSA.
1. Implement an official forum/platform for students to raise concerns: As the EDI director in RCSA, my biggest focus is to represent the interest of Rotman students to RCSA leadership. However, there is no mechanism for students to voice concerns about their own well-being including academic distress, mental health, etc. Back in 2022, when I was trying to collect feedback for RCSA as part of the EDI outreach project, I noticed that majority of the feedback was related to the individual’s well-being as opposed to the performance of the club. If elected as the President, my first goal is to expand our communication channels to students and encourage them to speak about any concerns they have regarding their own well-being. I will help RCSA to implement an official forum or platform so that students can raise concerns throughout the school either discreetly or indiscreetly or identified. With mental health being a significant issue in today’s society, I am hoping that this will help students come forward to talk about any issues in a safe closed environment.
2. Expand EDI Efforts to other RC clubs: Another initiative of mine, if elected as the President, is to promote some of the successful initiatives we have in RCSA to other clubs. One such initiative is Blind Hiring. Blind Hiring has been one of EDI’s most successful initiatives that has been heavily praised. This year, we have revamped the blind hiring guide and successfully conducted blind hiring through the intern applications. I would like to proactively reach out to other clubs, introducing and explaining the Blind Hiring process to them, and sharing our Blind Hiring guide with them.
3. Reinforce the connection between RCSA and RC clubs: The last initiative is to reinforce the connection between RCSA, and other RC clubs as stated in the RCSA mission statement. There are plenty of collaborative opportunities where RCSA can host more events and achieve greater turnout rates. Each RC club excels in certain events and highlights its areas of expertise. Collaboration would also lead to greater exposure of RCSA. A lot of people know what RCSA is, but they don’t know what our accomplishments are. By partnering with other RC clubs, people would know more about our events, initiatives, and what we are trying to target to achieve greater growth for the club. As an effective liaison, it is more than just overseeing what other clubs are trying to do but building a better and more collaborative relationship.
Vice-Presidential Candidate
Luca DiPietro (He/Him)
Vice-Presidential Candidate
Hey everyone! My name is Luca DiPietro (he/him) and I am a second year RC student specializing in Management. I currently serve as the Director of External Relations at RCSA, and am thrilled to be running to be your Vice-President of RCSA.
There are several goals that I wish to tackle if elected as Vice-President of the Rotman Commerce Students’ Association; I believe that the following (3) goals deeply align with the overarching mission and vision of the RCSA:
1. Increased Collaboration with other RC Clubs: An important component of the RCSA’s overarching mandate is to liaise with other RC groups in order to serve the best interests of Rotman Commerce Students. Throughout my time as Director of External Relations at the RCSA, I have observed that the RCSA lacks in its collaborative efforts with other RC groups. In order to best serve the interests of students, we must work together to create increasingly beneficial and welcoming events and involvement opportunities for students. We will best serve the interests of students by working together and communicating regularly, instead of further segmenting ourselves.
2. Mental Health Supports and Learning Opportunities: The mental health and wellness of a student is imperative to a student’s academic and extracurricular performance. I speak from experience when I say that at times, the rigor and intensity of Rotman Commerce can cause students to feel discouraged and hopeless. During these times, one may be struggling with their mental health as well. Thus, it is increasingly important that RCSA look to provide opportunities for students to develop strategies to improve one’s mental health, and the mental health of their peers. This could be done through the creation of partnerships with Student Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON) in order to discuss coping strategies for students, or even in collaboration with public health units, in order to administer SafeTalk training to students.
3. Informed Advocacy: RCSA’s vision guides us to advocate and represent the interests of students when interacting with the RCSL and RCPO. Therefore, it is vital that the RCSA remain receptive to the concerns that are at the forefront of students’ minds at all times. Although difficult to remain aware of these prevalent issues, if elected as Vice-President, I would ensure that measures are taken to understand the needs of students such as the continuation of RCSA Town halls, the re-implementation of RCSA office hours, and access to social media outreach, such as Instagram polls. It is essential that we as a student group are committed to understanding the needs of our students, and that our actions/policies are continuously informed by the students. Our overarching mission should be to achieve an increasingly student-centred Rotman Commerce community.