The Ryerson Students’ Union 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 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.
The 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 and for banning a men's issuesstudent group on campus. In 2015, former RSU vice-president education Jesse Root was accused of deleting emails in violation of Ontario's privacy laws. On January 24, 2019, photos of credit card statements belonging to RSU President Ramganesh Ragupathy were obtained and published on Facebook by political group Rhinoceros Party. 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-third 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.
