Eligibility, Rights and Privileges of Members

General Requirements and Eligibility

Membership in the Association of Philosophy Students is automatically granted to any student currently enrolled in a degree program in philosophy regardless of race, gender, religious denomination, prior or concurrent group affiliation, and/or sexual orientation.

  1. Membership in the Association of Philosophy Students is additionally open to any registered student at the University of Toronto. Students not enrolled in a degree program in philosophy are asked to complete a basic application for membership requesting contact information for the purposes of communication with these students.
  2. Honorary membership may be extended to alumni and faculty of the University of Toronto Scarborough. It is not necessary for members graduating from the University of Toronto Scarborough to reapply for membership following graduation.

Rights and Privileges

General members of the Association of Philosophy Students shall be afforded the following rights:

  1. The right to attend and participate in any event organized and approved by the Association of Philosophy Students including all events organized in concert with external organizations.
  2. The right to communicate, discuss, and explore ideas freely and without undue persecution. The Association of Philosophy Students reserves the right to intervene on any activity that is deemed impermissible by the policies and/or guidelines set by the University of Toronto.
  3. The right to organize and engage in activities and/or events that are reasonable and lawful. All student organized events must be approved by the Executive Committee and must follow the declared guidelines.
  4. The right to vote in any election held by the Association of Philosophy Students, or on any decision requiring a membership vote. This includes annual elections for executive members, by-elections, and decisions concerning amendments to the constitution of the Association of Philosophy Students.
  5. The right to apply for, run, and claim candidacy for an executive position pending a favourable majority vote conducted at a valid General Meeting as declared in the constitution. All general members are subject to an application process. Only members who are deemed eligible by this process may be offered candidacy.

Honorary members of the Association of Philosophy Students shall be afforded the following rights:

  1. The right to attend and participate in any event organized and approved by the Association of Philosophy Students including all events organized in concert with external organizations.
  2. The right to communicate, discuss, and explore ideas freely and without undue persecution. The Association of Philosophy Students reserves the right to intervene on any activity that is deemed impermissible by the policies set by the University of Toronto.
  3. The right to serve in an advisory capacity to the Executive Committee if a request is made for such service. The honorary member is also afforded to right to decline this request and retain full honorary membership.
  4. Honorary members of the Association of Philosophy Students may not participate in student elections, and may not aspire to or claim positions on the Executive Committee. They may also not participate in votes—either in person or by proxy—passed by the Executive Committee under any circumstance.

Apply for Membership

If you would like to apply for membership, or if you are already a member and would like us to record your academic and philosophical interests, please complete this form. We are interested in hearing what our members are most interested in getting out of their experience at UTSC and will use the feedback that we receive to determine the events and services we organize for the future.

Constitution Update!

While a selection of the constitution is presented for your convenience to the right, many significant changes to the constitution have been made. Though the full constitution is published online, you may download an abridged version containing only those sections immediately relevant to general or honorary membership.

Running for Executive Office

General members have the right to apply for, run for, and claim candidacy of an executive position pending a favourable majority vote at a qualified election. If you are interested in running for office the following information will be useful:

  • Applications are accepted at the beginning of winter semester. The application period ends in February.
  • Applications for each executive position will be made available online.
  • Elections will be held in March.
  • The constitution declares that at least three members of the Executive Committee are students not in their final year of study. If you are a first or second year student interested in running for office, we encourage you to apply.
  • A full declaration of the organizations policies concerning elections can be found here. Even if you are not interested in running for office, there are opportunities for general members to assist in selecting applicants and conducting elections.

Executive Directory

  • For questions concerning academic services on campus, please contact the VIce President Academics.
  • If you have an idea for an event on or off-campus, or if you would like to assist in the preparations for a scheduled event or facilitate a discussion night, please contact the VIce President Events
  • For questions regarding administrative concerns, please contact the Vice President External.
  • To volunteer to take minutes at a General Meeting, please contact the Vice President Operations.
  • If you have a juridical dispute with another member—general or executive— please direct your communications to the President.
  • For general inquiries, please email us at utsc.aps@gmail.com.

Guidelines for Member Events

General members of the Association of Philosophy Students may propose and organize events utilizing the resources of the Association of the Philosophy Students. Resources include budgetary funds awarded to and maintained by the Association of Philosophy Students as well as assets owned by or granted to the Association of Philosophy Students by the University of Toronto. Thus, resources include the use of this site for promoting the event, and any space on campus awarded to the Association of Philosophy Students for the purposes of hosting the event.

Any member wishing to organize his or her own event must submit a written request to the Vice-President Events. This request must detail the resources the member wishes to make use of, the primary purpose of the event, and must provide a reasonable justification for the use of the resources requested.

In general, a member organized event must:

  1. Contribute to the primary purpose stated by the Association of Philosophy Students in its constitution;
  2. Be open to the entire general membership;
  3. Be carried out in a lawful, reasonable manner, regardless of whether the event occurs on-campus, or off-campus.
  4. Not be organized for the monetary benefit of any individual member, or any subset of the general membership.

In all cases, the Executive Committee reserves the right to deny or grant the request, once it is issued. All requests will be acknowledged, and a response will be sent communicating the Executive Committee's decision.