Dear York University Students,

As your elected Vice President Equity at the York Federation of Students, I would like welcome all of you to the 2010/2011 school year.

The lines between our university and the greater community are not drawn in stone. Although a thriving, independent community in its own right, York University provides us with a privileged point from which we can observe and understand that wider community around us. As many of us begin to gain a understanding of ourselves in relation to communities, both local and global, we begin to perceive this privilege, as well as its boundaries. With this, comes much responsibility and the need for a greater understanding and acceptance.

Naturally, such privilege is not distributed accordingly, nor fairly, nor equally.

Equity, defined as distinct (but similar) to equality; is a quality of both understanding and acting in a manner that remedies the unevenness in the spread of our social fabric.

Equity, is, by this definition, a manner of seeking out the various challenges to equality with the intention of not passively recognizing them, but overcoming.

Equity, is, by this definition, a manner of acting on what we have found, both through the active raising of awareness, as well as pursuing what is socially just; to remedy, to the greatest of our abilities, the inequities present here at York, as well as the diverse communities in which we are located within and inevitably linked. Our identities transcend location, space, boundaries, and even time; being mindful of this we must address oppression by interacting within an equitable manner at all times.

As Vice President Equity I hope to introduce students to equity based issues in creative ways, as well as to empower students to see their positive potential in breaking the cycles of inequity that, in our complicity, we unknowingly perpetuate and become victim to. Contact me to join in equity based campaigns or to volunteer and help organize equity based events that challenge oppression in our society.

Historically, it has been the students of all the world's nations that have taken part in virtually every struggle against inequity. The privileged vantage point we occupy allows us not only to merely see, to passively perceive, to observe, but to act.

We hope that you join us in our attempts to work towards this in the upcoming year.

In solidarity,

Yusuf Mohamed

Vice-President Equity

"What is it in a dream which touches us so much?" Then he smiled and said, "We are just testing your art because you know how to look through the veil of images."- Ghauth Ali Shah