A student activist from Venezuela, Carli says he will work to support international, LGBTQ and black students at George Brown College

After half an hour of being grilled by the Student Association’s (SA) board of directors, Carlos Carli was appointed the new director of equity at a Dec. 12, 2016 board meeting.

The SA funds The Dialog.

Carli was up against Masini McDermott competing for the executive position that was vacated after Rajai Refai resigned as the director of equity in November.

Steve Cornwell, the assistant editor of The Dialog, had also applied but was disqualified because he was not a full-time student.

Carli has worked as a peer-coach in Peerconnect at George Brown College (GBC) and is an international business management student from Venezuela.

McDermott was the president of the Mosaic club and is a program advisor with the Black Student Success Network (BSSN) at the college.

During the question period Carli emphasized that he was a student activist in Venezuela against the “communist and very oppressive” government, which was voted out in 2015.

He said that as an international student he understands their issues best but also wants to work to support LGBTQ and black students communities at the college.

McDermott said she would work on raising awareness of mental health supports that are available at the college.

The board held a vote by secret ballot and Carli was announced as the winner and appointed the new director of equity effective immediately.

“Thank you for the opportunity,” wrote Carli in a tweet that night. “Truly honoured to be representing the interest of such a diverse student body.”

“I think Carlos is a great candidate and he will be great as a director of equity,” said McDermott after the results of the vote was announced. “I’m not going to stop to raising awareness with some of the things I feel need to be addressed with the Student Association and the college.”

Before McDermott and Carli presented, the board heard a recommendation from professor Neil Price to establish a black student constituency representative position. Price presented to the board as a representative of the BSSN.

McDermott said she plans to run in the spring elections if the position of a black students constituency representative is created.

“For me racialzied students need a voice, specifically black students, we’ve had different groups of minorities that have representatives and I think it’s about time that we had a black student representative for the Student Association.”

The SA is still searching for candidates for the vacant satellite campus director position.