Unofficial By-Election Results
Below are the unofficial By-election results for the 2025 By-Elections in Division One: Humanities. Results will become official upon ratification at the Board of Directors meeting on October 23, 2025. A total of 144 votes were cast out of 1,357 eligible voters (10.6%). The report from Simply Voting can be found below.
| Candidate Name | Agree | Disagree | Abstain | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jasmin L.K. Smith | 83 (79.0%) | 22 (21.0%) | 39 | Elected |
| Keturah Gray | 90 (87.4%) | 13 (12.6%) | 41 | Elected |
| Sadaf Sohrab | 96 (86.5%) | 15 (13.5%) | 33 | Elected |
| Thomas Vukovic | 92 (89.3%) | 11 (10.7%) | 41 | Elected |
| Yvette-Yuefan Wu | 92 (85.2%) | 16 (14.8%) | 36 | Elected |
By-Election Timeline
- Nomination Period: September 15 – September 25
- Campaign Period: September 29 – October 8
- Voting Period: October 6 (opens at 9:00AM) – October 8 (closes at 11:59PM)
Candidate Statements
Division One: Humanities
Jasmin L.K. Smith (she/they)
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I’m Jasmin Smith, and this is my first year in the Masters of English program at the University of Toronto. I received my Bachelors of Science in English and Psychology in 2024, also from UofT’s St. George campus, and am quite well acquainted with campus, life in Toronto, and the needs of the average student. I enjoyed my time at UofT so much during my undergrad that I decided to return to UofT for graduate studies, and I hope to once again involve myself in campus life the way I did during my undergrad. I am incredibly passionate about advocacy, and have been volunteering with Amnesty International’s Toronto chapter for five years, and served as the president of Amnesty International’s UofT chapter in the final year of my undergraduate degree. I have experience advocating for others, event planning, and implementing both long-term and short-term strategies and policy changes, and believe my past work in human rights has prepared me well to represent the Humanities division on the UTGSU. I believe my passion for the humanities, as well as past organizing experience, including a governance position on Amnesty Canada’s national youth board of directors, has prepared me to take on a role like the position of Humanities representative on the UTGSU board, and advocate on behalf of my peers. I look forward to the year ahead, and appreciate the opportunity to run for a position on the UTGSU.
Keturah Gray (she/her)
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Keturah Gray is a PhD student in the Department of Music Education. During her time at the University of Toronto, she has served on the Graduate House Residence Advisory Committee, worked as a teaching assistant in various music education courses, and served as a graduate student mentor and research assistant focusing on equity, diversity, and inclusion for undergraduate and graduate teaching and learning at the Faculty of Music. She has also been the secretary of the Music Graduate Students Association and volunteered at the UTGSU Grad Fest event. Keturah is currently serving on the Graduate Education Council, an academic advisory committee and approval body responsible for developing and implementing policies and regulations for graduate students at the University of Toronto. She strongly values the importance of equity, diversity, and representation. As an international student, she understands the challenges faced by all students and aims to be an advocate by fostering a greater sense of community among graduate students. With Keturah’s years of experience as an educator, she is well-equipped to fulfill the responsibilities of this position. Keturah is excited and eager to become more involved in the graduate community and looks forward to serving you in the best way she can.
Sadaf Sohrab (she/her)
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Hello! My name is Sadaf and I am a first-year MA student in Music Education at the University of Toronto. While this is my first year here, it is not my first time being involved in student leadership.
I completed my undergraduate studies at York University, where I spent six years both studying and contributing to the student community. During that time, I founded the Music Education Students’ Association at York (YMESA) and served as its president for three years. The club was created to fill a gap in student representation and support for music education students. Under my leadership, YMESA expanded to provide resources for students preparing for teacher’s college, as well as opportunities to connect with the wider community.
Some initiatives included:
Theory Guiders, a free peer-tutoring service for students who needed help with mandatory music theory courses.
Note to Neighbour, a community outreach project that partnered with a local school to provide free music classes for children.
I also served as President of the Faculty of Education Students’ Association (FESA). In this role, I represented a broad student body and worked to ensure that students’ needs were met. For example, when the MPT (Mathematics Proficiency Test) was reinstated as a requirement, I quickly coordinated sessions among the Council and Faculty to provide additional information and peer tutoring for students in preparation for this change.
Community-building has always been central to my leadership approach. As both a student and educator serving the Brampton and Jane/Finch communities, I have seen the importance of student voice and representation in shaping meaningful educational experiences. I care deeply about ensuring that all students feel supported, heard, and empowered to succeed. As a member of the UTGSU Board of Directors, I hope to bring this experience and commitment to student advocacy to the graduate community at U of T. I believe I can contribute meaningfully to the governance and management of UTGSU, working collaboratively to strengthen student support and engagement!
Thomas Vukovic (he/him)
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Hello, I’m Thomas and I’m running to represent you on the UTGSU’s Board of Directors this year. I have a long background of governance and am looking forward to contributing my experience to the board and advocating on your behalf for the issues you care about. I hope to collaborate with the current executive team and board members to help provide support to students in need, develop a plan to integrate transit within GSU services, and to advocate for all Division One students. I am especially interested in working to provide transit options for students. Coming from a school that had a transit pass included with student fees, I have seen the wealth of benefits it can provide from reducing commute times, creating safer environments, and giving students options to explore the city they live in or get where they need to go with more convenience. With your support, I look forward to working with the board to bring those benefits to our community as well. Please reach out to me if you have any questions, and I hope to have your support for this position!
Yvette-Yuefan Wu (she/they)
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(she/they) I am a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy. My main research interest includes philosophy questions on trauma, care, and life and death. I have many years of experience in peer support and community work among diasporic and immigrant trans and gender-diverse people, and am now acting as the Deputive Director of One Among Us. My service goal is to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity within UTGSU, advocating for greater representation and benefits for international graduate students, graduate students from racial/gender minorities, and graduation students with disabilities. This requires sensitivity to relevant needs and the dismantling of epistemic injustice, and I hope to make use of my abilities drawing from my experience. I believe that policies and strategies designed to benefit minority groups ultimately benefit the majority as well.
You can also see my personal profile and CV at my personal website: https://aka.sauri.ca/ Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Positions Available
Board of Directors:
- Division 1 (Humanities) Director (5 positions available )
Please note that UTM and UTSC students may also seek candidacy for divisional directors and are not limited to run for their campus based director position.
The General Elections for all positions (Executives and Board of Directors) is regularly held in February and March.
Candidate Documents
Division One: Humanities
- Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (Collaborative Studies)
- Art History
- Book History and Print Culture (Collaborative Studies)
- Cinema Studies
- Classics
- Comparative Literature
- Diaspora and Transnational Studies (Collaborative Studies)
- Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies
- East Asian Studies
- Editing Ancient and Medieval Texts (Collaborative Studies)
- English
- French Language and Literature
- Germanic Languages and Literatures
- History
- History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
- Italian and Spanish Studies
- Jewish Studies (Collaborative Studies)
- Linguistics
- Medieval Studies
- Mediterranean Archaeology (Collaborative Studies)
- Museum Studies
- Music
- Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
- Philosophy
- Religion
- Slavic Languages and Literatures
- South Asian Studies (Collaborative Studies)
- Visual Studies
- Women and Gender Studies
- Women and Gender Studies (Collaborative Studies)
Important Documents
Election Complaints and Concerns
Please complete the following form to record a complaint recording the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union 2025 By-Elections. You can find the Election and Referenda policies here.
Please note that complaints related to specific events should be submitted in a timely manner (within five days of the issue/event occurring). You can learn more about the complaints process in Policy E1.8 Violation of Rules (or see below). If you need to submit addition details via email, please contact cro@utgsu.ca. This is the first level of complaint as per E1.8.1. and E1.8.2.
Rulings
The Chief Returning Officer and Elections & Referenda Committee adjudicate complaints and breaches of the policies and bylaws related to elections. View the rulings in the folder below.
Last updated: September 29, 2025
Appeal a Decision of the CRO
Candidates and Complainants may appeal the decision of the Chief Returning Officer to the Elections & Referenda Committee within five days of the CRO ruling. The appeal must address why the CRO made the wrong interpretation of the bylaws, policies and rules, and should not appeal simply because the Appellant disagrees with the ruling. Appeals can be submitted to erc@utgsu.ca via the following PDF form.
Questions
Email the CRO, Harmanbeer Sandhu, at cro@utgsu.ca if you have any questions or concerns about the election.
- Nomination Period: September 15 – September 25
- Campaign Period: September 29 – October 8
- Voting Period: October 6 – October 8
Directors sit on committees, participate in working groups and oversee the work of the Executive Committee. Directors can typically work between 2-5 hours per week depending on their project and committee assignments. Both Executives and Directors are elected in annual General Elections in March. You can find a description of each position in the UTGSU By-Laws see sections 4 and 7.l
The UTGSU Election Rules can be found in the UTGSU Policy Handbook under Election Policy 1 (E1), starting on page 44.
This information is currently being updated on exact process to collect nominations – it has historically been a digital via Google Forms. All candidates in the UTGSU by-elections must first be successfully nominated during the Nomination Period from September 15 to September 25, 2025. This includes filling out the required personal information and consent forms and collecting the minimum required number of nominators for the position they are running for. You may only seek nomination for one position at a time.
- Board of Director Candidates are required to collect at least 5 nominations.
- Executive Officer Candidates are required to collect at least 25 nominations.
Nomination forms will include: Name, Student Number, Academic Program, the University of Toronto Email and a Digital Consent Waiver.
Yes, you can sign as many nomination forms as you would like – as long as you are a currently enrolled graduate student at the University of Toronto. You may also sign your own nomination form. A nomination is not a vote or endorsement in the election. Nominations give permission for candidates to seek to run in an election.
The complete candidate list with their candidate statements will be uploaded at the start of campaigning on September 29, 2025. All candidates must be successfully nominated during the Nomination Period.
Voting will open on Monday, October 6, 2025 at 9:00AM and ends on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at 11:59PM.
Only Graduate Students at the University of Toronto are allowed to vote in this election. Undergraduate Students are not permitted to vote. You will require your UTORID and password to vote. The voting website will be https://utgsu.simplyvoting.com.
For Director Elections, voters will be able to select up to seven (5) candidates from that division.
You can submit elections complaints and concerns through the Election Complaint Form. This form goes to the CRO for investigations and judgment, which may result in warnings, demerit points or other penaltie
SimplyVoting links will only be sent out at the start of the Voting Period. The contact information is directly sent from the university to SimplyVoting. You may have marked previous emails as Spam or Unsubscribed from the list. Electors that unsubscribed or reported an email blast message as spam may resubscribe by simply sending an email message to resubscribe@simplyvoting.com. If you continue to have issues, please contact cro@utgsu.ca.
Regardless, you should be able to access the voting platform at https://utgsu.simplyvoting.com
If you are unable to vote, please contact cro@utgsu.ca.
As a reminder, graduate students in the Toronto School of Theology and all undergraduate students are not eligible to vote in UTGSU By-Elections.
Email the CRO, Harmanbeer Sandhu, at cro@utgsu.ca if you have any questions or concerns about the elections.