March 6, 2017

MARCH 6, 2017 | VOLUME XCVIII | ISSUE XXII PENCILS UP OUR ASSES SINCE 1918

U

THE UBYSSEY

elections 2017

U THE UBYSSEY MARCH 6, 2017 | VOLUME XCVIII| ISSUE XXII

EDITORIAL

table ofcontents

Coordinating Editor Jack Hauen coordinating@ubyssey.ca Design Editor Aiken Lao printeditor@ubyssey.ca News Editors Sruthi Tadepalli & Samantha McCabe news@ubyssey.ca Culture Editor Samuel Du Bois culture@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Olamide Olaniyan sports@ubyssey.ca Video Producer Kate Colenbrander video@ubyssey.ca Opinion + Blog Editor Bailey Ramsay opinions@ubyssey.ca Science Editor Koby Michaels science@ubyssey.ca Photo Editor Joshua Medicoff photos@ubyssey.ca Our Campus Coordinator Leo Soh ourcampus@ubyssey.ca Copy Editor Miguel Santa Maria copyeditor@ubyssey.ca BUSINESS Business Manager Ron Gorodetsky business@ubyssey.ca Web Developer Peter Siemens peter@ubyssey.ca Office Administrator Olivia Law advertising@ubyssey.ca President Sebastian Miskovic president@ubyssey.ca Operations Assistant Aine Coombs operations@ubyssey.ca

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03 candidate profiles 06 president 08 vp academic 09 vp administration 10 vp external 11 vp finance 12 board of governors 14 senate 16 who you should vote for 18 the cost of campaigning 20 everything you need to know about this year’s referendum questions 22 why the ubyssey is disendorsing every presidential candidate

from thenews desk

elections issue The time has come again.

It’s elections season (no, not that one — we have another three years until 2020) and we present to you our elections issue. In it, we cover everything from a crowded Board of Governors race to a notcrowded-enough presidential ballot, referendum questions and other important topics.

We get it. Student government can seem boring and unimportant, and everyone has midterms to write. But those who are elected to top positions within both the AMS and the university have a key role in determining the future of UBC, which means you do too. By voting, you can shape your university and transform

it into the institution you want it to be. As such, we hope this issue is able to provide guidance and clarity when you choose your new student government this week.

We’d like to thank our tireless volunteers and staff without whom we would not have been able to pull this issue together. Twenty-one candidates, seven races and three debates have required a coordinated and communicative team, and we could not be happier with how it came together.

Voting opens online Monday, March 6 and closes Friday, March 10. Your voice is what matters most — make it heard by voting.

—Sruthi Tadepalli & Samantha McCabe news editors

by alex nguyen, sruthi tadepalli, samantha mccabe, julia burnham, diana oproescu, hana golightly, moira wyton and sophie sutcliffe

candidateprofiles

president vp academic vp external vp finance

SUGAR BREWER

JAMES COHEN

THE CAIRN

Sugar Brewer is a fourth-year geography student running for president in this year’s AMS Elections. His platform focuses on transparency, student engagement and outreach.

Aside from holding various executive positions within his fraternity, Brewer does not have any other leadership experience. He believes his approachability, neutrality and capacity to communicate make him well-suited for the role of president.

“I think that it is difficult to have a true qualification for this position because, at this age, I think it is unlikely for anyone to have been in charge of 50,000 people,” said Brewer.

His main goals, if elected, are to revitalize the AMS app as a common mode of communication and to utilize human resources — “whether that would be groups or volunteers” — to get out and reach people.

Brewer also wants to expand Safewalk, which he says is “underdeveloped.” He hopes to be able to institute the use of cargo bicycles to increase the effectiveness of the service.

Brewer also has some ideas for his larger goal of making students more engaged. In order to increase the reach of Block Party, he wants to involve more students in its development in a volunteer capacity, hopefully giving those who help out a free ticket. He also wants to consult students on how they would like Block Party to look in order to make it more representative of all students.

“I grew up in Switzerland and I was very excited to come to North America, being on a campus and getting that collegiate feeling ... like in the movies,” said Brewer.

“I want to be able to offer [students] that experience that I know that they’re seeking.”

He also wants the AMS to help promote a healthier campus drinking culture.

“I think that if UBC says they can’t drink until they are 19, the AMS needs to recognize that they are going to drink anyways,” said Brewer.

As a part of his platform pillar of student engagement, Brewer also wants to mobilize students as a whole versus relying on representatives within university administration. “[I want to] make sure that [student] voices are actually heard in a way that makes them almost impossible to ignore when it comes to the light that we are displeased with the way that UBC [is] handling certain situations,” he said.

However, Brewer says his loftiest goal is the implementation of a multi-day on-campus frosh — something he acknowledges he will probably only be able to lay ground work for if elected.

Brewer’s platform lacks clear definition and large projects are noticeably absent from it. This was a purposeful decision.

“Every year, these presidents make these big, grand promises and they don’t come to fruition,” said Brewer.

“People get less and less convinced that the AMS is doing what it’s meant to be doing.”

He noted that while his goals may seem minor, they will have a significant impact.

“I want to set in motion and action tools that are going to help grow social culture through student engagement on campus,” said Brewer.

James Cohen, a fifth-year commerce student, is running for AMS president in this year’s AMS Elections. His platform focuses on mental health, events and advocating for students with the Board of Governors.

Cohen co-founded and has been the president of AMS club Party Well for the last three years. The club runs events on campus and sends the proceeds to charity. He also worked for AMS Events for two years.

His experience lends itself towards one of his platform points — “uniting the UBC community through better and bigger and more student programming events.” He specifically wants to expand Block Party and the Winter Classic, and make Block Party a charity event, a platform point that current President Ava Nasiri could not fulfill.

“When you run a philanthropic event, you get massive discounts in our production, you get over 70 per cent off in our production sources,” he said.

“I don’t think [Block Party] was managed anywhere near how it should have been.”

Cohen acknowledges that making Block Party philanthropic would be a risk, but says it would have to be a calculated one — once again noting discounts.

He emphasized that having an event that brings together so much of the student body would increase the feeling of unity on campus and making it philanthropic would also give students a feeling of pride in how much they have managed to raise for charity.

In this way, Cohen said his main goals of student programming and well-being overlap.

“Not only have I heard that an entire per cent of UBC’s students have attempted suicide on our campus, but actually someone really close to me who I care very deeply about had tried to kill themself,” said Cohen, referring to the National College Health Assessment Survey that found that 0.9 per cent of Canadian students had attempted suicide. “So I’m not just saying ‘wellness’ as a buzzword.”

Before he leaves UBC, Cohen wants to decrease that one per cent statistic. His plan to do this lacks some specificity, but he is open to improving existing AMS services and implementing new ones.

He specifically mentions Safewalk as a service he appreciates and hopes to improve.

“They take people home — that’s really great because obviously sexual assault is directly correlated to mental health,” said Cohen.

However, he noted that it is problematic that they may not take people home who are noticeably intoxicated.

If elected, he wants to expand Safewalk’s volunteer network, emphasizing that clubs like Party Well would like to help in order to escort students, intoxicated or otherwise, around campus at night.

His final platform point is his plan to advocate the UBC Board of Governors to take student voices seriously.

“I think that if UBC doesn’t listen to its students, students need to take drastic measures to make sure that this is the campus that we want it to be,” he said.

Of all his goals, Cohen acknowledges that his loftiest is to “make UBC the happiest university in North America.”

“I hope to lay down a [multi-year] plan ... in order to make sure that progress is continually made going forward,” said Cohen. “I’ll be doing my best in the one year that I can.”

The Cairn, a six-foot tall block of reinforced concrete, is in its fourth year majoring in publicity as a major campus advertising tool. Its platform focuses on AMS Council and concrete.

Having been on campus for a few decades, the Cairn has seen many AMS executive teams come together, and feels confident that as president, it can lead a diverse team.

“It has seen the one’s who have done well, it has seen the one’s who have not done so well,” said the Cairn’s human puppet in its stead. “It can bring together different interests, really push forward the AMS in a positive direction and continue to work on some of the past executives projects.”

The Cairn’s unique experience is what motivated it to run.

“It feels that just as the cement within its concrete structure binds together the different parts of the concrete, it can bind together an executive team as well as add staff and an entire AMS council to start to create positive change for the AMS,” said its representative.

If elected, the Cairn promises to effectively govern AMS Council. Specifically, it would ensure last-minute changes aren’t made to the AMS Council agenda and would prevent long meetings.

“The Cairn feels that changes to council agenda and amendments to the agenda, once it’s been sent out to councillors, should never happen,” said its human puppet.

“The Cairn feels that this is inappropriate and breaking of the decorum of Council, and it is disrespectful to councillors.”

It would also provide increased support to councillors at the beginning of their terms.

The Cairn’s loftiest goal is the implementation of porous concrete on campus as opposed to standard nonporous concrete.

“A significant amount of students on campus are environmentally engaged,” it said through its human puppet. “Porous concrete offers significant advantages in this, including groundwater recharge and the filtration of certain toxins.”

The Cairn is less of a joke candidate than you might think. In the Great Debate, the Cairn’s human puppet, a fourth-year engineering student named Alan Ehrenholz, revealed that if elected, he would take office.

“So yes, the Cairn is a serious candidate,” said Ehrenholz during the debate.

Ehrenholz has experience in student government, as he has been the past president of the Engineering Undergraduate Society. He also chaired the AMS Council’s oversight committee.

06 candidate profiles

vp administration board of governors

JESSE HOOTON

JULIAN DEL BALSO

Jesse Hooton is a fourth-year political science major running for president. His platform focuses on campus security, career counselling and sport.

Hooton doesn’t have any leadership experience on campus, but has been involved in campus life as a varsity athlete, something which he says gives him a unique perspective into “anyone with a constraining schedule outside class hours.”

This perspective is what fuelled one of his main platform points — career counselling.

“Different faculties, different programs, they offer career counselling seminars ... [but] so many students just don’t have the opportunities to attend so many of them,” said Hooton. “I know I don’t.”

As a potential solution to this problem, he puts forward the idea of a website where faculty will offer input and knowledge that might otherwise be offered at seminars in a concise fashion.

However, Hooton does not have a plan set in stone for how this would work.

“There is time to iron out and to expand the vision but right now, it’s something accessible, something flexible for students,” said Hooton.

Campus security is another major part of Hooton’s platform.

“I got three bikes stolen which is I think an issue that plagues this whole campus ... it really speaks to a larger issue of just how campus security hasn’t really been enough of a focus,” said Hooton. “This also spans to sexual assault. It’s been a problem certainly as long as I’ve been here and for many more years.”

He has a few plans for how he might combat these issues of campus security.

Over-archingly, he considers the possibility of an extension of the AMS’s Safewalk service that might patrol main areas of campus. Hooton says he will also advocate for the need for the cameras on campus, even in the face of privacy policies and legislation that may prevent it.

To prevent bike theft specifically he advocates for locked gated areas for bikes. He also thinks bait-bike programs would aid the issue. In response to already decreasing rates of bike theft, he promised that “it’s going to go down more if you elect me.”

According to Hooton, addressing the issue of sexual assault on campus is his loftiest goal, because it is more of a cultural problem. He plans to tackle it through PR campaigns, rallies and events.

“PR campaigns do a lot ... to advance and unstigmatize the sort of the problems that people have [when] discussing the issue,” said Hooton.

Sports culture on campus is important to Hooton, a varsity athlete. A specific challenge he sees if elected president is the growing discontent with fees included in student tuition to cover athletics and recreation.

Given his lack of experience Hooton believes that, as president, he would bring an outsider perspective to the AMS, and says his ability to handle pressure, remain consistent and not be intimidated will help him.

“You just have to have confidence that you do have the skills and ... know you have just as every right to be in this position as anyone else,” said Hooton.

Julian Del Balso is a fourth-year triple majoring in being “THE MAAANN OF THE PEOPLE” running for president in this year’s AMS Elections. He describes his platform as “steezy” — which, for the less informed, Urban Dictionary defines as a combination of the words “style” and “ease.”

Aside from his role as the admin of a meme page and hosting some “pretty good” camping trips, Del Balso acknowledges that he brings zero experience to the role.

When setting himself apart from his opposition, he said, “my lack of experience is appropriate.

“Unlike the other candidates, I am not good at school and work and leadership, and that makes me more like [students],” said Del Balso.

If elected, he promises to make his number one priority turning the fountain into a jacuzzi. He admits that the bureaucracy he would face might make this a challenge.

“You never know what the higher-ups are going to think,” said Del Balso. “The AMS only has so much power.”

However, this is not his loftiest goal. That, he acknowledges, is his aim to expand The Pit into the entirety of the Nest and having Pit Night five nights a week.

Del Balso also plans to put his entire salary towards getting arcade games into The Pit. “I’m extremely irresponsible with money. So however the AMS budget is allotted, it will be very interesting to see,” said Del Balso.

“I represent all of the students.”

senate

candidate profiles 07

president vp academic vp external vp finance

DANIEL LAM Daniel Lam, a third-year atmospheric sciences major, is running unopposed for the position of VP Academic and University Affairs. He is bringing with him a platform centred on affordability, student experience and equity and inclusion.

Buzzwords aside, Lam’s platform focuses on continuing the AMS’s efforts to decrease the impact of financial hardship on students’ academics, providing more support to certain underrepresented groups on campus and trying to help students get the most out of their academic experience.

One of the most noteworthy promises Lam makes is to push for a review of Policy 73, concerning academic accommodation for students with disabilities, in his efforts to provide support for students who need such assistance.

“Those who know me well would actually know that I’m a high-functioning autistic and I’ve been part of certain groups on this campus representing neuro-diverse individuals,” said Lam. “A lot of them talk about problems with Access and Diversity and issues that they’re facing with how the university is supporting students with disabilities.”

In terms of affordability, Lam emphasizes the importance of open educational resources. He plans to lobby with the future VP External to advocate for funding at a provincial level, as well as finding professors who are “champions of [open educational] resources,” stating that they are strong allies in the shift away from paper textbooks.

Lam also applauds the consultation done by the AMS in the past year for the sexual assault policy, and recognizes that continuing the advocacy efforts could pose a challenge in the coming year.

“The policy as I know it [is] only going to provide a sort of starting point for the university,” said Lam. Many of the points Lam brings up in his platform aren’t new to the work that the VP Academic has done in the past, but his knowledge of how the portfolio operates has influenced this conformity.

“This is a portfolio where a lot of projects are passed on every year. One of the things I didn’t want to do was actually start a lot of new projects because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep those promises,” said Lam.

08 candidate profiles

vp administration board of governors

senate

POOJA BHATTI

JULIEN HART

FARAZ NIKZAD

A fourth-year science student, Pooja Bhatti aims to strengthen the relationship between the AMS, constituencies and clubs. This platform is motivated by her experiences working with the AMS as the Science Undergraduate Society’s current VP Administration and as the UBC Canadian Liver Foundation’s former president.

She also believes that there’s a need to “rebuild this relationship” with clubs and constituencies because the executives of “the past years have been more focused on [the Nest].”

To achieve this goal, her platform has four pillars — restructure the AMS-constituency relationship, improve outreach to and by clubs, increase sustainability and accessibility of the Nest, and enhance campus culture.

For the first pillar, Bhatti aims to implement the recommendations to the issues laid out in a recent report established by the ad-hoc committee on the AMS’s relationship with constituencies. One particular issue is the lack of “structured support” from the AMS, which Bhatti also considers a major problem.

“I feel that a lot of the constituencies had to reach out, but there wasn’t much outreach from [the VP Administration] and all of the AMS,” said Bhatti. “I feel like something quite drastic had to happen to hear from them and I don’t think that’s a responsible way to run.”

In response, the recommendations include “improved communication,” “a resource package” and “AMS VPs reaching out to respective constituencies’ roles.”

The next two pillars plan to empower clubs by increasing communication between them and the AMS, as well as their awareness about the Student Life & Sustainability Centre. Bhatti also wants to streamline the current booking process in the Nest, the inefficiency of which was likewise pointed out by Julien Hart, another candidate.

“I’d like to make it an online booking system,” said Bhatti. “This is something we’ve established in our Abdul Ladha Science Student Centre and it works really well.”

For comparison, Hart aims to implement “a simple, more reliable” booking system. However, the specific details of what this simpler system would look like are not provided.

For the last pillar, Bhatti intends to incorporate clubs and constituencies into the planning process of events like Block Party in order to increase student engagement beyond the academic realm. She considers this the goal of her platform that will be hardest to achieve.

Overall, Bhatti believes that her extensive experiences at both the club and constituency levels are what would allow her to carry out her platform and give her an edge.

“I have been able to play up to some of the AMS VP Administration’s responsibilities [in the SUS], so it’s like I’ve done it on a smaller scale before,” said Bhatti.

A second-year commerce student, Julien Hart wants to empower clubs. This focus is motivated by his formal and informal experiences working in event-planning intensive positions such as the social chair of the Zeta Psi fraternity.

The knowledge he has gained at Sauder also influences his platform.

To facilitate the operation of clubs, Hart’s platform has three pillars — streamlining booking, simplifying the policy for club management software transitions and improving the current Club Handbook.

The first pillar tackles the inefficiency around booking, which Hart has “witnessed firsthand.” This issue is also addressed by Pooja Bhatti, another candidate in the VP Administration race.

To resolve this problem, Hart advocates for an “overhaul” of the current system in favour of a “simple and more reliable [one]” — he aims to present a visual list of the rooms available for easier booking, and have students tap in with their student card to increase accountability.

For reference, Bhatti suggests making it an online system like what the Abdul Ladha Science Student Centre currently has.

Hart’s second pillar aims to create a policy that would smooth out the transition between the club management softwares, which has received mixed reactions from students with the recent change from Orgsync to Clubhouse.

“We’re going to keep offering training sessions and people will learn it,” said Hart. “But if we keep switching these programs every time the contract ends … it’s going to be difficult for the clubs to stay engaged.”

To complement the policy, Hart also suggests reaching out to Sauder’s professors that are experts at organizational behaviour or business technology management for guidance. Hart doesn’t associate any potential cost with this form of consultation that he mentioned.

The last pillar suggests improvements to the Club Handbook that aim at providing clubs with technical knowledge beyond the administrative rules. Some areas include how to increase “the accessibility to corporate partnerships,” “establish [one’s] own sponsorships” and “[preserve the] marketing experience.”

“I want to take those [COMM] 202 skills and bring them to the club executives so they can get those sponsorships,” said Hart. “I’ve created some great relationships with people … there’s so much when people start expanding beyond the basic UBC resources.”

Overall, Hart considers this the hardest goal of his platform due to the amount of required information.

“It takes time and effort, but I think there’s a lot of value to be added from that,” said Hart. “That’s how I want the VP Administration to work with students — to work with students to empower them.“

A fourth-year commerce student, Faraz Nikzad aims to improve both the student and business sides of the AMS. This platform builds upon his experiences working with and for the AMS as the UBC Persian Club’s current president and as the former manager-on-duty for its food outlets.

To enhance the student experience, he first wants to “consult clubs and constituencies on [their concerns].”

At the same time, Nikzad plans to foster stronger partnerships between clubs by “introducing artistic and collaborative projects” through the AMS. “I’m thinking maybe a culture concert,” he said. “I’ve been involved with organizing multiple concerts and I believe that the AMS has that kind of platform to bring serious cultural materials [here].”

He also wants to create partnerships that would make the Nest more inclusive such as working with The Pride Collective. Nikzad believes that through these collaborations, “more people of different backgrounds [would be able to connect] and make [the Nest] the place that everyone feels welcomed at.”

However, he also considers this his platform’s hardest goal because “not everyone is on the same energy level.”

To enhance the business side, Nikzad aims to improve the food outlets’ customer service and costs in order to make the Nest more attractive.

“I would be working with the managers to come up with new plans,” he said. “[One is to] review the operations and products of our businesses and make sure that they are providing the best [services] to our students. [Another one is] to create a sustainable operations plan for the long-term that would result in a consistent and attractive experience at every outlet.”

Crediting the skills and connections that he has gained from working for the outlets, as well as the knowledge about logistics and operations that he has learned at Sauder, Nikzad feels comfortable that he would be able to accomplish these plans.

However, it should be noted that the VP Administraton is not the sole decision-maker for these areas of business.

Overall, he believes that this goal is what sets him apart from his competitors, as none of them discuss the AMS’s businesses in their platforms.

“The challenge of being VP Administration is working with people,” said Nikzad. “For me, it’s easier because I know all the managers well. I am probably the only candidate who has worked for the AMS for many years now.”

candidate profiles 09

president vp academic vp external vp finance

SALLY LIN

DARIO GAROUSIAN

Second-year political science and human geography student Sally Lin is currently one of two candidates running for the position of VP External in this year’s AMS Elections. Lin’s platform consists of three key points — academic affordability, better student housing and accessible transit.

In her first platform pillar of academic affordability, Lin emphasizes her goal of collaborating with other student unions to “lobby on federal legislation that prevents universities and bookstores [from] sourcing textbooks anywhere around the globe.”

Lin stated that the very issue of achieving textbook parity is unique. “No other students associations or unions, to my knowledge, have lobbied on it. I think that this is something that could do very well in bringing all student unions together,” she said.

The second key point in Lin’s platform is addressed in her online platform, as she hopes to “work with other student unions in BC to lobby the provincial government to relax debt rules and allow the university to find alternative financial arrangements.”

In addressing accessibility of transit for students, Lin hopes to push for quick development of the different phases of the Broadway Corridor, and work with the Mayor’s Council and the provincial government to achieve this goal.

In terms of challenges that could potentially arise this coming year as VP External, Lin said, “lobbying on providing students with more housing on campus would be a challenge simply because of the nature of the legislation change that it would require. It’s a much more complex issue in comparison to textbooks and student loans, as it involves a lot of different stakeholders.”

Despite the potential challenges that could face Lin, she expressed confidence and referred to her experience in past positions which include being a council member on the AMS board of directors, an elected Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) representative, co-chair of the AUS first-year committee, and an education and student services representative on the Vancouver School Board Committee.

Lin believes that what sets her apart from her opposition is the emphasis her platform puts on constituency support and engagement.

“I think I want to hit the nail on the head and say that being an arts councillor, I sat on the AUS and saw them experience a rocky year,” said Lin. “One thing that I really hope to do next year would be to re-examine constituency relationships. [I want to] look at how we can support them and how we can make smaller student societies under the AMS stronger.

“I will be putting all of my effort into the VP External portfolio, working tirelessly for students here at UBC.”

Dario Garousian, one of two candidates running for VP External in this year’s AMS elections, is a third-year political science and psychology major. He presents a three-part platform consisting of what he refers to on his website as “lobbying for you, fair and open external office, and fiscal plan and costing.”

The first pillar of Garousian’s platform focuses on issues such as the U-Pass and reimplementation of the 99 Special bus service — which ran from 2004 to 2006 before getting cancelled — as well as the hope of providing better housing for students.

As his platform states on housing, “the VP External must recommend that the provincial government enable post-secondary institutions to take on debt to build student housing. The VP External should further lobby the BC Government [to] fund 10 per cent of the costs of student housing in order to accelerate the process [and] help alleviate the housing market crunch.”

Garousian also notes the importance of the second pillar of his platform, which is to provide a transparent external office.

“A fair and open external office focuses a lot on redefining executive accountability toward students because right now the AMS, in my opinion, isn’t accountable to students,” said Garousian. “They aren’t regularly updating students on how much they are spending.”

He intends on creating a more “fair and open office” by accelerating and expanding data initiatives through the current AMS website, and by making lobbying data available digitally to students.

Garousian also emphasized his desire to restructure the VP External office, as he said he wants to “focus on effective and efficient advocacy by increasing our parttime student staff at no extra cost to students.”

In addressing potential challenges that would face him in the upcoming year, Garousian noted his lack of involvement with the AMS this past year.

“I took a break for myself. That’s going to be a problem for me. It’s going to be a challenge to define myself as an individual who is competent for office but also someone who knows the AMS.” However, Garousian states that what he think sets him apart from his opposition, Sally Lin, is his experience.

He was formerly vice-chair of the university and external relations committee, as well as the academic affairs commissioner. This past summer, Garousian also says that he was hired as the outreach organizer on electoral reform for LeadNow, an advocacy organization.

Garousian also has experience working for the NDP. During the Great Debate, he noted his connections within the party and that he “would work towards them because they do have priorities regarding students.” However, if elected, Garousian said he would drop all partisan affiliations.

When asked what his self-dubbed superlative would be, Garousian responded that it would be “most likely to be mayor.” “I like municipal politics because you really connect to your community to the greatest extent,” he said.

10 candidate profile

vp administration board of governors

senate

ALIM LAKHIYALOV Although Alim Lakhiyalov is running unopposed for the position of AMS VP Finance, he still has an extensive platform prepared and a host of relevant experiences.

A fourth-year cognitive systems and computer science major, Lakhiyalov is campaigning on a platform that includes creating a long-term sustainable financial plan, implementing professional development programs for students and integrating financial systems and expanding their usage to all clubs and constituencies.

“Financial systems help the smaller clubs actually generate more revenue,” said Lakhiyalov. “This year, I was fortunate enough to firsthand see the benefits of financial systems … I want to expand that.”

Lakhiyalov said that much of his motivation to run for the position came from his experience working as the associate VP Finance for the past year, a position in which he worked closely with current VP Finance Louis Retief.

“I was able to build that relationship with [the clubs and constituencies] and understand how much these organizations matter for our student community here that we have,” said Lakhiyalov. “One of the main motivators as well was for the past 10 months, the VP Finance and I have been working really, really closely ... and I was really involved in the launches of all these new initiatives. “[These projects have] such massive opportunities for growth in the future.”

Lakhiyalov has also worked as vice-chair of the fund committee.

Lakhiyalov said that his biggest challenge, if elected, will be implementing the new investment policy change which is being put up for referendum. He claims that if done correctly, the new policy could generate a lot more revenue for the AMS. He also pledged to continue Retief’s work in moving towards financial transparency by releasing the AMS budget on a quarterly basis.

“I really like this idea and I’d like to be the person to put this forward because with transparency, students are actually able to see what their money is going into.

With the quarterly updates, it won’t be a single time here and there [but instead] would be more frequent updates [so that] students can understand what’s happening financially with the AMS,” said Lakhiyalov.

During the Great Debate, Lakhiyalov noted that his quarterly reports would be a summary of the AMS’s financial situation and that he would separately release the line-item budget in July.

candidate profile 11

president vp academic vp external vp finance

LOUIS RETIEF

JAKOB GATTINGER

JEANIE MALONE

Louis Retief, a fourth-year finance and business technology management student, is running for the Board of Governors on a three-part platform of improving financial transparency, enhancing the student experience and advocating for increased affordability and services.

In his first platform pillar of improving financial transparency, Retief combines the past year’s hot button-topic of a transparent running of the Board with his extensive financial experience. As this year’s VP Finance, Retief is in charge of managing the entire AMS budget.

He’s also treasurer of the Student Legal Fund Society and of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

“I’ve worked quite extensively with the university this year. Specifically, the AMS received our first athletics and recreation budget in eight years from the university,” said Retief. “So just continuing that for multiple departments in the university and advocating to inform students on where the money is going.”

With this goal, he also hopes to increase student consultation for the allocation of the university’s Excellence Fund.

Like many of his fellow candidates, Retief’s second platform point emphasizes pushing the importance of the student experience. While he acknowledges the fiduciary duty to the university that he would have, should he be elected as a member, his platform notes that he intends to “advocate for increased spending to enhance the student community and experiences on campus.” He also plans to explore consultation opportunities to increase ties between UBC and students.

Finally, Retief wants to advocate for the affordability of services.

“I want to advocate for improved career services. It’s something I definitely see as lacking at UBC. If you look at a lot of the top-tier schools … they have some amazing access to career services, so I want to work with the university on improving those.”

Retief takes inspiration from his predecessors whom he considers “titans” on the Board.

“I have a lot of respect for both of them. They did a really good job encompassing the student voice, and really pushing that at the university and really being a loud voice in the room,” said Retief on Veronica Knott and Aaron Bailey, this past year’s Board student members .

He does, however, see some room for growth in that he hopes to attend every AMS Council meeting and also regularly attend GSS Council meetings.

Third-year mining engineering student Jakob Gattinger is running for the UBC Board of Governors on a platform of transparency, the student experience, campus safety, sustainability, diversity and communication.

Gattinger’s main leadership experience comes from being the Engineering Undergraduate Society’s VP Academic, a student member of the UBC president’s search committee for the new VP Provost and the chair of the AMS governance review implementation committee.

“I think those [roles] translate over to Board quite nicely in terms of getting a feel for what students want and then speaking up for them in the context of being a governor,” said Gattinger.

Like many of the other Board candidates, Gattinger places an emphasis on the student experience in his platform. He plans to push for positive change through initiatives like UBC GamePlan, mental health support services and advocating for the student voice when allocating the Strategic Initiatives Fund.

He is also a strong voice for transparency within the Board, with one of his platform points being advocating for a solid Policy 93 — the policy governing open and closed meetings of the Board, and an especially hot-button topic over the last year.

“As BoG has committed to incorporate the work of an independent consultant in further consultation on this topic, I will push to ensure there is room in this process for further input by students,” he said.

During the debates, it became clear that one of the finer points of Policy 93 change that Gattinger wants to push for is to have the overview of Board member meeting attendance discussed in open session — as it is currently discussed in closed session — as well as the release of more documents from meetings.

Gattinger’s platform also contains points on maintaining the sustainability of financial practice through pushing for advertisement of the Sustainable Future Fund to donors, improving campus safety through Policy 131 advocacy and boosting financial commitment to the Diversity Fund.

As a candidate who is also running for Senate this year, he notes that if he were to be selected for both positions, he would strive to increase the connectivity and cohesiveness of the two bodies.

“That’s why I’m running for both — to look at some of the funding side of things from the Board, and to try and address some of the implementation aspects from Senate side.”

What Gattinger considers his loftiest goal is his plan to advocate for a third of the Excellence Fund to be put towards student experience funding.

Jeanie Malone, a fifth-year electrical engineering student in the biomedical stream, is running for the UBC Board of Governors on a platform of seeking transparency, advocating for a better student experience and communicating the student voice.

As current president of the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) and a former EUS executive for a couple of years before that, as well as the current chair of the Geering Up board of advisors, Malone brings a lot of representative and management experience to the table.

As one of the students working (along with another BoG candidate, Jakob Gattinger) to oversee the approval process for the biomedical engineering undergraduate program, she also has a relatively unique experience working within the walls of the Board itself.

Malone’s platform points seem quite broad and a little intangible at first read, but she does have ideas for how to actually bring them to fruition. She emphasizes the small steps involved in changing the rhetoric of the Board, pointing to the hot-button topic of transparency as an example.

“I think that Policy 93 is obviously going to have a big impact, and [it’s important to be] pushing for student voices to be heard and pushing for transparency via the review of that policy,” said Malone. “I also think that it’s the little things like making sure that the agendas go out more than three hours before the meeting — things like that.”

Malone notes that while it can seem “nagging and annoying,” she would push for the Board to be timely about small transparency goals like releasing agendas earlier.

She considers her loftiest goal to be that of improving and maintaining the emphasis of past Board student members on the student experience. A platform goal of almost all of the candidates this year, Malone plans to do this by pushing for the prioritization of initiatives that come before Board like GamePlan, program consultations and the sexual assault policy.

“To accomplish this, I will seek nomination to both the Finance Committee, and the People, Community & International Committee,” reads Malone’s platform on her candidacy website.

Once student members of the Board are elected, their primary mandate is to ensure the best interests of the university first and foremost. To reconcile her priorities of the student experience and her role as a Board member, Malone hopes to be a strong advocate.

“I think that during committee meetings and during discussions, it’s important to be very clear [about the things that] will impact students and to make those choices,” said Malone. “But I think that once a decision is made, you stick by the decision and you represent Board.”

12 candidate profiles

vp administration board of governors

SNEHA BALANI

KEVIN DOERING

Sneha Balani, a fifth-year PhD candidate in the faculty of medicine studying cancer stem cells and tumour biology, is running for the Board of Governors on a platform of student advocacy, increased diversity and enhanced communication between students and the Board.

Balani has leadership experience as a former residence advisor, a former executive at various graduate associations, the president of GrasPods and as a student sitting on President Santa Ono’s UBC Vancouver nonacademic misconduct committee.

Her experience as chair of the Graduate Student Society’s (GSS) strategic planning ad hoc committee would likely be useful to her in the case of working on UBC’s strategic plan, a key factor in the university’s look at big-picture development.

A key component of Balani’s platform focuses on constant incorporation of the interests and needs of students. According to her online platform, she would “advocate for keeping students at the core of the decisionmaking process and ensuring student engagement is achieved through thoughtful consultation.” It’s important to note that, if elected, a student member’s mandate on the Board would be to serve the interests of the university as a whole — and sometimes advocating for the student voice is more difficult when put in practice.

“I think I could be a mature, uninhibited voice on the Board, being a graduate student and an international student, and also having the ability to connect with both graduates and undergraduates given my past experience with residence life,” said Balani, noting what she describes as a holistic perspective.

As another platform point, Balani hopes to increase communication between students and the Board, noting that she would like to continue the work that this past year’s Board student members Aaron Bailey and Veronica Knott have done by presenting at AMS and GSS meetings.

“I’m also passionate about inclusion and the maintenance of diversity, and increasing the accessibility of UBC to minorities and international students,” said Balani. Her prioritization of this particular platform goal is what makes her unique amongst the candidates’ collective emphasis on the student voice and as an international student, she does represent a diverse perspective.

While appreciative of the work that current Board student members have done, Balani said that she would be eager to learn from their strengths and shortcomings.

“They’ve tried to initiate a lot of initiatives, but they haven’t been able to take it to the end,” said Balani. “I don’t think it’s their fault. I think they did a really good job, but I just think the next person in this position can understand their role and do it better.”

Balani acknowledges that her platform points are quite broad and overarching. She also notes that a potential challenge for her could be the steep learning curve that she would face. She plans to mitigate these challenges by, again, emphasizing student consultation and applying her research experience to stay adequately prepared and informed before meetings.

Fourth-year honours economics student Kevin Doering is running for the Board of Governors on a platform of transparency and communication, tuition and affordability, and student housing.

As this year’s AMS associate VP Academic, he “worked to address student advocacy issues at all levels of UBC Administration, including drafting multiple submissions to the Board of Governors,” according to his website. He also worked previously as a peer advisor with Arts Academic Advising, a job that he says gave him a unique look into student issues in the academic sphere. “[Board] is not a place where you can show up on day one and say, ‘hey, I want to totally revamp the student experience.’ It’s a place where items and projects and policy are brought to you, and you have to work within that framework to achieve the goals you want,” said Doering.

“So I focused my platform on issues that I anticipate ... will be major highlighted issues [next year].”

Doering’s first pillar is to address the cost and scarcity of student housing, which he plans to do by advocating against any changes that he would see as having further negative effects. From his student member predecessors on the Board, he would have liked to see stronger opposition to the faculty housing plan. “[It’s] diverting money that would have gone to the creation of student housing — it is now going towards the creation of faculty housing. And I think that $10 million a year is a significant sum,” he said.

His second pillar aims to address the topic of transparency within the Board, which has been a big topic among candidates since the last year’s highly publicized transparency issues. As someone who worked on the AMS’s consultation process for Policy 93 on open and closed Board meetings, Doering emphasized both his understanding of and ability to bring meaningful consultation to the policy. To further increase transparency and student connection, he hopes to write a blog, write regular op-eds for The Ubyssey, and hold open sessions for students before committee meetings.

Doering’s third platform pillar concerns affordability, which he sees as not just tuition but also fees, textbooks and housing. For example, he wants to uphold the existing two per cent domestic tuition cap and advocate against the introduction of additional fees.

Doering hopes to address much of his platform promises through the dual lenses of a Board of Governors membership and a seat on the Senate, the other position that he is running for this year.

“In both positions I will strive to protect and improve affordability and access to education, not just by opposing tuition increases, but by addressing the many compounding issues that all contribute to affordability,” he said on his website.

On the challenge of being both a student advocate and owing a fiduciary duty to the Board as a member, Doering said, “I don’t think that the two are mutually exclusive.

I think that part of the reason that there are students elected to the Board of Governors is that a student’s perspective ... is often what’s in the best interests of the university.”

senate

candidate profiles 13

president vp academic vp external vp finance

KEVIN DOERING

DANIEL LAM

SIMRAN BRAR

Kevin Doering is launching his second campaign for a seat on the UBC Vancouver Senate, having first run unsuccessfully in 2016. The fourth-year honours economics student’s platform is aimed at ensuring that Senate will have a “student-focused agenda” for the next three years, as a new set of faculty representatives begin their terms this year.

“I can’t stress enough how much I genuinely care about working on these issues,” he said. “Everything students care about — from affordability to the education they’re receiving — happens at Senate.”

One of his platform goals is the elimination of nontuition mandatory course fees such as problem set access codes for students, which Doering suggests should be absorbed into tuition fees by UBC. He is also advocating to mandate a textbook review section in course evaluations in order to ensure the relevancy of required textbooks.

“Professors need to be more aware of what the textbook usage and relevancy in their classes actually look like,” said Doering, citing the 2016 Academic Experience Survey which revealed that 94 per cent of students have bought a textbook that they never used, while 42 per cent of students regularly don’t purchase required textbooks at all.

One part of the solution, Doering says, is increasing access to open educational resources (OERs) at UBC, a transition that has already begun to take place.

“There’s been a growing push for OERs at UBC and [the university] has shown willingness to make that push as well,” said Doering. “We’ve actually seen OER options double in the last year.”

According to Doering, another solution to the issue of educational unaffordability is further open access to past course materials, which currently contributes to a system “where students who are financially disadvantaged are also academically disadvantaged.”

“I understand that there are concerns regarding materials from previous years being used inappropriately, but it’s already happening in many ways,” said Doering, referring to websites like CourseHero which allow students access to thousands of past notes, exams and problem sets from UBC courses for monthly subscription fees.

“UBC needs to at least begin to address [the issue] through either making those materials openly available to all students, or coming up with some sort of system where this isn’t happening.”

Doering also stressed that the Student Senate caucus needs to be coordinated and united in the agenda items it puts forward in order to properly advocate for students.

“My platform is largely focused on new ideas that we can see into the triennium [and] that we can see completed rather than waiting for someone else to set that agenda,” said Doering. “It’s important that we start to look at what goals we can set for the next three years.”

Third-year atmospheric science student Daniel Lam served on the Student Senate caucus for this past academic year, and is running for re-election. His platform reflects some of the ongoing work that student senators are doing — which Lam hopes to continue into the new triennium — as well as the introduction of several new initiatives.

Lam plans to focus on the three central tenets of diversity, reforming the relationship between Senate and the Board of Governors and the introduction of a fall reading break — a goal of many current and prospective student senators that he says is long overdue at UBC. Based on observations during his previous Senate term, Lam sees a disconnect between the processes of program approval and tuition consultation. He wants to see them streamlined so that proper tuition consultations happen before programs are approved.

Lam sees the role of student senator as providing “an informed perspective from students to a body that is mainly made up of faculty,” given that students will directly feel the effects of Senate decisions.

“We are the ones who are going to be getting [the] most out of Senate,” said Lam. “For example, the Teaching and Learning Committee deals with teaching and learning technology we are going to use. Curriculum Committee deals with courses that we are going to take … this is why the student voice is incredibly vital.”

Additionally, Lam wants to continue the discussion of how the university can best support a diverse student body.

“University data has shown that certain groups of people are feeling less of a sense of belonging and also feeling less supported in their academics,” said Lam. “Groups like the LGBTQIA+ community and also certain international students from specific countries … are feeling less belonging.”

As a returning senator, Lam would aim to target this through the creation of an ad-hoc committee on supporting diversity in the student body.

He said that last year’s student senate did a good job of engaging with the larger student body, accomplished in part through the UBC Student Senators’ Twitter account and Lam’s recurring Ubyssey column on what to expect from Senate meetings.

“I think more students are informed now on what the Senate does and we want to continue that work that’s been done this year.”

Simran Brar is a third-year biology student running to be a student-at-large on the Vancouver Senate this year. Her platform centres on support for mental health initiatives, mandatory syllabi, a fall reading break, the extension of withdrawal deadlines and an ad hoc committee on diversity.

Brar frames her campaign with the three key values of dedication, engagement and transparency. To her, this means putting in work every week, reaching out to students and making Senate materials accessible to students.

One factor that motivates Brar to run for Senate is a perceived disconnect between the actions of UBC’s governing bodies and students’ understanding of them.

“I think, as student senators, we can try to bridge that gap by providing students with alternatives rather than 500-word meeting agendas to find out what Senate actually does,” said Brar. “I’ve heard concerns that students might not care, but I think in order to be transparent, you need to make materials accessible.

“There’s a disconnect,” she said. “If a significant part of the population doesn’t know what’s happening, how are you supposed to get a response?”

Through her involvement in the UBC Residence Hall Association, Brar has noticed patterns in student behaviour related to rising stress levels and she emphasizes the importance of mental health support. She is running because she believes that her concerns mirror those of her peers and wants to give students a clear place to take their academic issues.

Brar aims to see initiatives through to the finish line — during the campaign period and beyond.

“I think it’s unacceptable to push so hard for two weeks and then never consult with any of the students that you reached out to before,” said Brar.

In order to have a voice as a student senator, Brar notes it is important to make connections with faculty and long-standing members who know how to get issues on the agenda and give projects forward momentum.

“I don’t want to be the type of senator that goes to committee meetings, and then just goes to the Senate meeting that happens every month, and then doesn’t do any work or consult students,” she said.

Instead, Brar plans to spend time getting to know everyone from committee chairs to secretaries in order to gain a better understanding of how to make changes within the Senate system.

“I want to be the kind of senator that spends 10 hours working for Senate each week,” she said.

14 candidate profiles

vp administration board of governors

senate

WILLIAM CHEN

JAKOB GATTINGER

IAN SAPOLLNIK

William Chen, a first-year arts student, is running to be one of five student senators-at-large in the UBC Vancouver Senate. Citing that he is motivated to run “because the Senate is full of shit,” Chen’s platform centres around repealing the arts language requirement, affordable education, student consultation, and banning elections campaigning and commercial advertising in classrooms.

He says that the arts language requirement “puts a strain on the number of credits that arts students can take to achieve a well-rounded education,” without adding meaningful value to their degree.

Chen hopes to make education more affordable by working against mandatory textbook access codes and other barriers to open education and access to scientific research.

He also places a focus on harnessing the power of student support as a fundamental requirement for the Student Senate caucus, which comprises a minority of 18 members compared to 70 faculty and staff. He suggests that the Senate and the Board of Governors need to be reminded that student voices matter.

“Even though student senators are the elected representatives of the student body, they don’t necessarily always show that they have the student body behind them and that makes Senate less likely to take them seriously,” said Chen.

“We can’t just act as delegates anymore. This is more than just about voting yes or no — this is about making it clear that students will stand for certain issues,” he said. “That they are committed to working towards these issues, that they are willing to take a stand when textbook companies and the Board of Governors constantly try to rally against them.”

While Chen believes that past student senators have done well in advocating for mental health awareness, as well as bringing in new programs such as the African Studies minor which was initiated in 2005, he questions the feasibility and importance of oft-repeated campaign points such as introducing a fall reading break.

“I think a lot of student senators come onto the Senate, and they have big hopes and big aspirations. They have an idea of what they want UBC to be like, but they fail.

That’s inherently because the way we’re going at it is wrong.”

He wants to make it clear that while he brings specific goals to the table, Chen is more interested in pursuing projects that students want addressed in the long-term, long after campaigns are over.

“The way that we’re approaching the Senate is that this begins and ends at the ballot, and it doesn’t.”

Jakob Gattinger, a third-year mining engineering student, is running to be one of five student senators-at-large in the UBC Vancouver Senate — the university’s highest academic governing body. His platform is focused on mental health, a commitment to diversity and tuition consultation concerns.

“I think Senate requires that sort of non-student government lens and I think that I am able to bring that,” said Gattinger of his time as a student ambassador and Jump Start leader.

Gattinger cites his experience consulting on the recent Senate decision to approve a new biomedical engineering undergraduate degree as EUS VP Academic as the project that helped him see a “broader cross-section” of the impact of Senate decisions.

“Having [academic programs] that are just structurally unfriendly to mental health and well-being is what needs to be addressed next,” said Gattinger, referring to the new program which will see students in class with very few breaks for the first 18 months of their degree. “We’ve talked about [mental health and well-being] conceptually, but I think that they really need to be put into practice.”

Gattinger is also hoping to use a position on Senate to change aspects of academics that are “fundamentally unfriendly” to students by working to integrate academic and financial decisions. Given Gattinger’s current bid for a seat on the Board of Governors, a dual role on Senate and the Board could help him bridge the gap between program and tuition approvals, both of which are currently two separate processes.

“If we want quality consultations, having those academic and financial components come together is going to benefit students enormously,” said Gattinger.

“You can’t expect students to put their money into a black box and expect to get a program out.”

Noting that the newly created diversity and excellence funds fall under Board control, Gattinger is also hoping to ensure that those funds have the greatest possible impact on academics — for students and faculty alike — in terms of experiential learning and allocating money where it is needed most.

“I think finding areas of common ground for students and faculty is essential to making this particular initiative a success,” said Gattinger. “We have a small diversity fund and I think that there’d be a huge advantage if you’re pushing in both the Board and Senate.”

Third-year economics student Ian Sapollnik is running for re-election after serving one term as arts student senator in the UBC Vancouver Senate, making it his third campaign for Senate since he first ran in 2015.

His platform is focused on uniting tuition and curriculum approval processes, initiating a review of academic scheduling guidelines and creating a strong Student Senate caucus.

A self-described nerd, Sapollnik is confident that his past Senate experience and outspoken nature during Senate meetings will help him continue to advocate for the needs of students in UBC’s highest academic governing body.

“I am really, really passionate about academic experiences and ensuring that students at UBC are getting their best education,” said Sapollnik. Citing his achievements as a member of the Senate budget and curriculum committees this past year, a main focus of his platform is unifying the student consultation procedures for tuition and curriculum.

“They are completely separate processes,” said Sapollnik. “They are managed by completely separate people ... and that’s hugely problematic because the fees come from the curriculum and the two are inherently tied.”

A large component of achieving the difficult goal of unifying student consultations for the two processes will be getting the Board of Governors — which determines tuition fees — on board. Sapollnik noted that while progress is being made, he has realistic expectations for what can be accomplished in the short one-year term of a student senator.

“I don’t expect that [unified student consultation] process to be formalized or codified next year. My goal by the end of next year would be to have a document that outlines that process across the table for all programs at UBC,” he said.

Sapollnik also wants to conduct a review of academic scheduling procedures — including revisiting add/drop deadlines and exam scheduling guidelines.

“I’m not committing fully to having a fall reading break or moving the add/drop deadline,” said Sapollnik. “What I’m recognizing is that a full review of these processes hasn’t happened in quite some time and things have remained the same.”

Noting that his platform extends beyond advancing his own priorities, Sapollnik would also like to chair the 18-member Student Senate caucus if re-elected, giving continuity to the group of up to four potentially new senators.

“I really intend to bring the student senators together in a strategic way to get a spectacularly strong student voice and use the different interests, the different capabilities and experiences of other student senators to unify the Student Senate caucus,” he said. “I want to be a very strong support for everyone else as well.” U

candidate profiles 15

who you should vote for

by ubyssey staff This year, The Ubyssey is doing things a little differently. Instead of publishing candidate profiles where students could read transcriptions of short interviews with each candidate, we’ve restructured it by turning our candidate coverage into what we hope is a more in-depth analysis of their platforms, experience and performance.

That’s also why this article is not technically an endorsement of any candidates. We recognize that overall, students need to vote with the values and platforms that they want to see in their university’s governance, and that concept isn’t the same for everyone. Rather, this overview aims to be an honest, simplified and analytical version of what we think each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses are so that you can hopefully make an informed decision this year.

senate

president JESSE HOOTON Hooton’s platform notes plans to increase campus security and make career services more accessible, but he doesn’t have concrete plans for how to make his goals a reality. For example, he doesn’t fully acknowledge the obstacles apparent in privacy policy and legislature that would prevent him from installing security cameras on campus, simply saying he would advocate against them.

JAMES COHEN Cohen’s experience with event management lends itself well to a large part of his platform.

However, he lacks a clear process for achieving his more serious goals. Advocacy is an important part of student government, but in order to be effective, there needs to be more to the plan.

SUGAR BREWER Brewer criticizes the grandiose

plans usually presented by presidential candidates, and presents his own plans to simply engage students as a stark contrast. However, this leaves his platform feeling hard to define. His only clear plan is to emphasize the use of the AMS app which has failed to capture student interest since it was released.

“THE CAIRN” When we first heard “the Cairn” was running for President, we expected a mediocre joke candidate.

However, Alan Ehrenholz, the engineering student behind the concrete block, surprised us by answering questions in the Great Debate seriously, albeit in the third person. Despite Ehrenholz’s experience in student government, he doesn’t have a platform aside from hyperspecific plans to improve Council meetings, making it impossible to form a judgement.

KEVIN DOERING Doering’s technical knowledge of academic policy and ability to articulate achievable goals surrounding affordable education set him apart from other candidates. He exaggerated a few facts during the first debate, but if you value affordability and someone who knows how to work effectively within the current Senate system and with the AMS, he’s your guy.

WILLIAM CHEN Chen has specific, achievable goals that he defends passionately, and he would definitely shake things up on the student Senate caucus. While he does bring a dense factual knowledge to the table, he has seemed rather uncompromising and contemptuous of university governance — which could alienate Senators — and lacks experience working within a team.

JAKOB GATTINGER With project specific constituency experience working with Senate, Gattinger demonstrated his knowledge of Senate’s reach and impact through concrete plans to advance mental health and diversity initiatives. If you like him, vote him into both Senate and the Board of Governors — his ability to execute his platform would be limited should he be elected to only one role.

DANIEL LAM An incumbent senator, Lam has a thorough knowledge of how Senate functions and will carry forward work on fall reading break and diversity initiatives.

It would also likely be very beneficial to have the same person working both as VP Academic and on Senate. Lam is definitely a safe and reliable choice, although we would like to see him push boundaries in his ideas.

IAN SAPOLLNIK Sapollnik’s focus on creating a strong student Senate caucus by stepping up to be its chair is valuable for student leadership continuity during a year of high Senate membership turnover.

His platform’s emphasis on conducting a full scheduling review, while realistic, lacks innovation, making him a dependable choice as incumbent, but a little uninspiring.

SIMRAN BRAR Brar values a proactive approach to student engagement, and has worked directly with students through the Residence Hall Association.

She is well-researched and was able to speak knowledgeably on all debate topics. While Brar is passionate, her campaign promises are vague and buzzword-y.

Her success will hinge on her willingness to be outspoken and push boundaries.

vp administration

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POOJA BHATTI As the current SUS VP Administration and the only person who discussed the AMS Constituencies report and the SLSC, Bhatti would bring directly transferable skills and knowledge to this role. While she’s capable, she only offers a conventional platform and uninspiring arguments during debates. Overall, if you’re looking for a safe candidate, Bhatti is the one.

FARAZ NIKZAD As the former manageron-duty for the AMS’s food outlets, Nikzad would bring new and valuable skills to this role, but it’s unclear if the VP Administration has

enough power to accomplish his platform. His promotion of culture is also refreshing, but may distract from the role’s core responsibilities such as improving the booking system and the club management software.

JULIEN HART With his focus on clubs, Hart offers an innovative platform with some achievable goals that could greatly improve the experience of running a club if materialized. However, as the VP Administration’s portfolio extends beyond just club management, this emphasis could take away from other interest groups such as the constituencies.

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board of governors

DANIEL LAM Lam is running unopposed in this race, so it’s a good thing that he has a solid understanding of the portfolio and ample relevant experience. Given the longterm nature of current projects, he promises to continue the department’s efforts — but we hope to see some more tangible goals in the future, as we believe that he can be successful in executing them.

LOUIS RETIEF Retief brings a host of financial experience to the table, an asset on the Board, and emphasizes sustainability. With his prior experience and personality, he could bring a loud voice to the table. He does seem to plan to work within the existing structure of Council, which will benefit him, but we also hope to see some innovative ideas come forward.

vp finance ALIM LAKHIYALOV While Lakhiyalov is an experienced and knowledgeable candidate, he is running unopposed, making evaluation difficult. A few indicators of his performance in the coming year will be how transparent the AMS budget is, how many students actually see it, whether the AMS runs a deficit or surplus and how Block Party finances are managed.

JAKOB GATTINGER Much like Retief, Gattinger is another realistic candidate with tangible goals. With his prior experience, he brings some knowledge of policy, constituency, lobbying and consultation to the table. If you like him, vote him into both Senate and the Board of Governors — his platform would be best executed if elected to both roles.

KEVIN DOERING Doering’s title as current associate VP Academic should not be ignored — it has resulted in in-depth policy experience interacting with the Board.

He places a heavy value on

transparency, offering to run a blog if elected. If you like him, vote him into Senate and the Board — just like Gattinger, his platform would be best executed if elected to both roles.

SNEHA BALANI Balani brings a different host of experience forward as someone that is a PhD candidate, worked on the GSS strategic plan and was a former residence advisor.

While she lacks some tangibility in her broad-based ideas — which might inhibit her from bringing them to fruition — she underscores the importance of diversity in every aspect of UBC more so than the other candidates.

JEANIE MALONE As current EUS President, Malone is an articulate candidate who has tangible, small-step goals to achieve her larger aims of transparency and the student voice. She has experience lobbying as well, resulting in managerial and representative experience. We hope that if elected, she is a loud voice on the Board.

vp external SALLY LIN With substantial AMS and AUS experience, Lin is a candidate who prioritizes smaller and more tangible goals while putting engagement with student caucuses and constituencies at the forefront of her platform. In relation to her opposition, Lin has less experience being in communication with political representatives — however, she displays a great advantage in her professional communication and conduct.

DARIO GAROUSIAN Garousian is a candidate who has displayed his political experience with his work for the NDP. He has an innovative platform, and takes on many lofty and unique goals such as advocating for funding psychological assessment exams for students. However, these big-picture plans can make his platform seem unrealistic.

Garousian’s opposition has displayed greater professionalism in conduct both in communicating with The Ubyssey.

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1) FITNESS FACILITY To support the construction of a new student fitness and recreation building at UBC.

2) ART SALE To sell art from the AMS art collection so that the proceeds can go back into benefiting the AMS.

3) BYLAW CHANGES To amend AMS bylaws to keep us moving forward.

www.ams.ubc.ca/elections who you should vote for 17

THE COST OF CAMPAIGNING by julia burnham, diana oproescu and helen zhou

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very AMS election candidate running for an executive position is entitled to a certain amount of money to be reimbursed for campaign costs.

It’s more complicated than just getting free money, though.

As it turns out, it may be hard to regulate candidate spending — in practice, the cash can buy the posters and the candy, but it can’t buy you the election.

SHOW ME THE MONEY This year, each candidate has a $500 budget limit that they are restricted to, and the AMS will reimburse up to $350 of that for their campaign spending. To get reimbursed, the candidates are expected to present their receipts and budgets to the AMS Elections Committee.

A new rule this year is that if a candidate is running in more than one race, they are allotted a $750 spending limit and can be reimbursed up to $525 of that.

This new rule was put into place as a way to curb the concern that in the past, candidates received a $500 budget limit and were able to put up separate posters for the two positions they were running for, therefore doubling their facetime around campus.

“We were thinking of completely getting rid of allowing people to spend twice as much, but we recognize that candidates who are running for two positions might need a little more money, so we came up with the one and a half compromise,” said Max Holmes, the current AMS elections administrator (EA).

According to Louis Retief, AMS VP Finance, the purpose of making funding available to candidates is to be as inclusive as possible in the elections.

“There’s a lot of people who are interested in running for elections but just don’t necessarily have the money to be able to pay for things like posters, lawn signs and Facebook ads,” said Retief.

“Any student who wants to run for a position has the opportunity and the funding available for them to run the elections and to get their voice out there to students.”

18 the cost of campaigning

Retief also said that for the impact that the elections have on the AMS and the campus, the budget for it is relatively small.

“Every dollar that we put towards this is how we get the best leaders on campus onto the AMS, onto Board [of Governors] and onto Senate.”

For the 2016 elections, the AMS billed out $4,025.57 to reimburse all of the campaigns. This number has been consistently between $3,000 and $4,000 in the past years, and the AMS has budgeted $3,500 for reimbursements this year.

OVER-BUDGET AND UNDERWHELMED

“If we didn’t have financial restrictions, you could have a situation where people could spend an unlimited amount of money and you may get a situation where only rich people are going to be your executives,” said Holmes.

However, even with these caps in place, is there really anything stopping students from charging their credit cards and sweeping the evidence under the rug?

“When it comes to actually regulating it overall, it is difficult.

We do ask for candidates to give us receipts for basically everything that they spent money on and we get to see all of their campaign materials,” said Holmes.

With this method, the Elections Committee reviews the receipts submitted to them by candidates, and can pinpoint whether they do not recognize any of the campaign material displayed by the candidate as accounted for. In the case that campaign material is omitted in the accounting, there are only a few ways for the EA to handle the offense.

“It usually takes the entire elections committee to meet and discuss in order to disqualify someone, so it always depends on the situation,” said Holmes.

“If it’s someone’s only campaign violation, even though it is a major campaign violation, we would maybe think about not disqualifying them, but there could be a major punishment.

“Overspending is one of the violations that I would call major violation. We’ll question them and

then if it turns out that they left them out, they can get punished for that. They can end up losing their reimbursements entirely if they lie at all when it comes to their reimbursement or how much they spent.”

Even in the history of AMS Elections, Holmes can’t recall a recent time where overspending has led to anything more than a slap on the wrist.

“Often the reimbursement is [just] used as a punishment,” said Holmes. “If people do something that the EA thinks is wrong but [is not] going to disqualify them and wants to send a message, they might deduct $50 from their reimbursement limit.”

Disgraced former vicepresidential candidate Alex Kilpatrick shared his thoughts on the regulation of the budget cap, on the single condition that he was referred to in this article as disgraced former vice-presidential candidate Alex Kilpatrick.

“They have these restrictions on how much money you can spend, but they have absolutely no way of enforcing it other than I guess the unwavering moral compass of student politicians,” said Kilpatrick.

“If I wanted you to produce a video for me or something, I can write you a cheque for $400 with the memo line, ‘thanks for making me the video,’ I can send you an e-transfer and as long as we both agree to keep tight-lipped about it, there’s nothing the AMS can do.”

Kilpatrick’s dissection of the problems with the budgetary regulation boil down to the lack of real consequences and authority that the EA yields.

“Until they get subpoena power, there’s really very little they can do and they don’t want to tell you that because the AMS likes to believe that they are a paramilitary organization,” said Kilpatrick. “You know the more money you spend, the better result you’re going to get and there’s no way they can control the money you spend — all you’ve gotta do is lie about it.”

TIME IS MONEY

Kilpatrick noted the direct relationship between a candidate’s spending and their success in the AMS Elections.

“Buying posters costs money, buying social media ads costs money, producing videos costs money,” said Kilpatrick. “The more you can get your name out there, the more likely people are going to click on it because they recognize it.”

AMS President Ava Nasiri agreed with Kilpatrick in the advantage candidates have when they are more financially stable. “I do see it as a gap for students that are facing financial hardship and I think that that is a recommendation that our elections committee will be working on in terms of changing things,” said Nasiri.

“In the first campaign I ever ran, I was running for VP Internal of the AUS. I saw it as a job interview, and you don’t show up to a job interview at a big firm wearing sweatpants and a hoodie — you wear a nice outfit,” said Nasiri. “As you would invest in an outfit for a traditional interview, [for AMS Elections] you are investing in the materials that will allow you and support you in your candidacy for a position that the student body decides whether you deserve it or not.”

Despite these shared sentiments regarding the importance of financial investment in one’s campaign during the AMS Elections, Nasiri also emphasized the content of a candidate’s platform and their conduct as being crucial to election.

“I think it’s about people as opposed to posters or materials.

Running a successful campaign could be done with half the amount of posters that we use on campus,” said Nasiri. She then noted that if a candidate were to strictly stick to the total reimbursement limit as opposed to the total spending limit and dedicate their time to “creating those meaningful connections,” they could still have a substantial chance of being successful in the elections.

In her experience of running for AMS president last year, Nasiri noted the campaigning challenges she faced right up until the last day of elections.

“Right up until 5 p.m., I was running around with my shoddydrawn flyers,” said Nasiri. “At this point, I had a little bit left in my campaign spending, but I just

“They have absolutely no way of enforcing [how much money you can spend] other than I guess the unwavering moral compass of student politicians.”

—Alex Kilpatrick, disgraced former vice-presidential candidate

didn’t have the physical time to go back to the printers and I had already handed out all my flyers.”

Despite these challenges, Nasiri was successful in the 2016 election and essentially said that success really boils down to the relevance of a candidate’s profile, the research they have done and their conduct in relation not only to the UBC community, but also with fellow candidates.

“Your time is free,” said Kilpatrick. “I obviously lost, but a big part of my vote came from people that I met personally. If

you don’t think you can personally meet enough people in two weeks to swing that election or have an effect on it, you’re not really trying.”

Jenna Omassi, 2015 AMS VP Academic as well as a presidential candidate in last year’s elections, shared Kilpatrick’s sentiment in the importance of face-to-face interaction with the student body.

“The face-to-face campaigning piece doesn’t actually require a lot of resources. It requires a lot of time, but regarding money, not a lot of resources at all,” said Omassi. “You’ll see this again and again. The people who hand out Mini Eggs or lollipops do not necessarily win — it’s the people who spend the time standing on the street corners talking to people.”

Joke candidates have access to the same amount of funding as “real” candidates.

Alan Ehrenholz, who ran last year for VP Administration and is running a joke campaign this year as the Cairn, believes that while the hesitation to accept this is fair, he personally sees the benefit and value in joke campaigns.

“I think joke campaigns generally spend a lot less than real candidates and as such, they probably aren’t seeking huge amounts of reimbursement,” said Ehrenholz. He expects that his spending will add up to around $25 to $30 in order to build miniature Cairns.

“It would be a tough line to draw to say something like a joke candidate gets less than a real candidate — how do you really define that? I think it’s something that’s worth it, and it’s something that provides a little bit of an edge and a smile to the elections period. I think it’s something that should continue.”

The purpose of reimbursing candidates for their campaign spending is to remove a financial barrier to running for an executive position on the AMS — whether or not the candidate is serious.

However, the cost of being a student representative seems to lie more in the time and energy it takes to run a campaign.

“People who have the luxury, who are afforded that luxury of time, have that leg up on the campaigning trails,” said Omassi. U

the cost of campaigning 19

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS YEAR’S REFERENDUM QUESTIONS by samantha mccabe and sruthi tadepalli

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here are three referendums being put forward on this year’s AMS elections ballot. One of them, if successful, will establish a fee that would fund the construction of a student fitness and recreation building on campus. Another would allow the AMS to sell up to four pieces of art from their collection. The final one consists of changes to the AMS’s bylaws that reflect recent changes to the governance structure and are intended to reduce redundancy.

HOW EXACTLY DO REFERENDUMS WORK? A referendum is called for two reasons — either AMS Council has passed a resolution to hold one, or a petition has been signed by at least 1,000 students. This year, the only referendums on the ballot were put forward by AMS Council.

Referendums can only be phrased in a “yes or no” format for students to answer when voting.

A referendum doesn’t necessarily have to be held at the same time as elections, but timing them to occur simultaneously makes it more likely that the vote will achieve the eight per cent of eligible voters required to meet quorum — the minimum number of “yes” votes it must have to pass.

The eight per cent quorum may seem low, but given the usually low voter turnout, it can be harder than it sounds. In order for a referendum to pass, the winning side also needs more than 50 per cent of the votes, or if the referendum concerns AMS bylaws or constitution, 75 per cent.

This means that for this year’s referendum on bylaws to pass, there isn’t much room for voting students to answer “no.” So, if you’re voting, make an informed decision — you might be the deciding vote.

THE ATHLETICS REFERENDUM

THE QUESTION: “DO

YOU SUPPORT THE AMS

ESTABLISHING A GRADUATED

FEE (‘THE FEE’) TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STUDENT FITNESS AND

RECREATION BUILDING AT UBC VANCOUVER?”

If passed, this fee will begin at a sum of $5 for each student, and then increase an additional $5 per year until it reaches a $25 annual amount per student. The fee would go towards the construction of a building to be funded half by students through this fee and half by the university in conjunction with

UBC’s GamePlan. The fee would exist until the student half is completely paid for, to a maximum of $22.5 million towards project costs (the project is estimated to cost $45 million).

What would the new building look like? Preliminary plans show a combination of fitness space, gymnasium and support space.

“The fees that students are already paying [$21] are going towards programming, and that’s all of the classes and the games that are available to you right now,” said Ava Nasiri, AMS president, in a previous interview with The Ubyssey.

“What this new fee would be [for] is an actual building.”

Keegan Zanatta, an executive in charge of events for the Thunderbird Athletes Council (TAC), took charge of helping the AMS with this campaign backed by unanimous support from the TAC. “I decided to run point of this [for the TAC] to try and give back to campus a little bit and improve the student experience,” said Zanatta.

This referendum aims to remedy the fact that UBC, as one of the top universities in Canada, has a “pitiful” amount of fitness space, as described by Zanatta.

UBC, with its large population and finite fitness space, has 0.15 square feet of fitness space per student — much smaller than other schools.

“The biggest thing is just that this is a student-run initiative for other students to try and improve their experience on campus. This is by the students, for the students. It’s a fee, yes, but it’s a for-our-own-good type of thing,” said Zanatta.

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20 referendum

His only wariness of the referendum comes from the fact that there might not be a big enough voter turnout to pass it — in which case, according to him, it’s back to the drawing board for next year.

For more information, we’ve covered this referendum in a previous article. As noted by Nasiri, if approved, this fee would show the Board of Governors that students are serious about more fitness and athletic space on campus — but it does come at a cost.

THE SALE OF AMS ART PIECES

THE QUESTION: “DO YOU

AUTHORIZE THE AMS TO SELL UP TO FOUR PIECES OF ART

FROM THE AMS PERMANENT COLLECTION?”

The AMS has a 72-piece art collection currently valued at $4.5 million.

“We have four or five pieces that make up half of the worth of the gallery,” said AMS VP Administration, Chris Scott. “We would be looking probably for those more expensive ones to go because those are the ones that probably would be required to gain enough interest for the endowment.”

The most expensive piece is E.J. Hughes’ “Abandoned Village, River’s Inlet,” which is valued at $900,000.

A similar referendum question allowing the AMS to sell three pieces of art was already passed in 2012 — however, that question placed a one-year time limit on the sale. This lack of flexibility was problematic, and could have led to a potential income loss if they sold a piece when the time wasn’t right.

The flexibility also allows the AMS to adjust which painting they would sell based on rental income incurred by particular pieces.

“If suddenly in two years the one that’s worth $900,000 is getting rented out all the time, then we probably wouldn’t sell that one,” said Scott.

Selling the four most expensive pieces would also save the AMS $15,000 in insurance payments every year.

“Essentially, that’s what we’re looking to do ... stay within the mandate it was donated to us for and make it more relevant to students.”

omnibus bill — a vote is a vote for all to pass.

“It would not make sense to split them because they are all based off of recommendations from the governance review,” said Nasiri, referring to the external review process conducted on the AMS by consulting firm MNP earlier this year. AMS Council accepted all of those recommendations on the principle that picking and choosing would have made the review moot.

On changes from the governance review: “Do you support and approve amending the AMS Bylaws in accordance with the changes presented in the document entitled Bylaw Amendments: Structure of Council?”

These proposed amendments would change the section titled “members” so that Senate and Board of Governor student representatives would no longer officially sit on Council. They will still have seats and even make presentations, but would not be able to officially vote should this referendum pass.

Additionally, changes are being made to the threshold of how many students in a faculty equate to a single Council seat — from 1,500 to 3,000 students. This is being done because increased enrolment numbers of the university are resulting in too many seats on Council, according to the governance review.

In Nasiri’s opinion, this won’t affect the quality of representation that larger faculties get.

“You maintain the proportionality of the representation because inherently, no matter what, you do arts and the GSS are always going to have more seats,” said Nasiri.

Finally, with a change to Bylaw 13, “new student associations for degree-granting schools shall only be recognized as constituencies if their enrolment exceeds one per cent of the total enrolment of UBC Vancouver.” Bylaw 22, on the incorporation of branch societies, is being removed entirely.

On changes from the governance review: “Do you support and approve amending the AMS Bylaws in accordance with the changes presented in the document entitled Bylaw Amendments: General Manager/Managing Director?”

“After the formal restructuring of our senior manager organizational chart, the new title that better reflects the responsibility of our managing director should be in the bylaws as the best practice moving forward,” said Nasiri.

She cites the efforts to increase cohesiveness between the business and governance sides of the AMS as a good

reason why the role of managing director is gaining more breadth — hence the name change to match the changing responsibilities.

On changes to the Student Administrative Commission (SAC): “Do you support and approve amending the AMS Bylaws in accordance with the changes presented in the document entitled Bylaw Amendments: Bylaw Changes SAC & Budget Committee?”

SAC is a “relic from 1960s AMS,” according to Scott, who was also SAC’s vice-chair last year. When it was created, the SAC acted as the executive committee, but within four years of its establishment, it was stripped of its power due to its inefficiency.

“We’ve been trying to make it fit with the modern AMS when in reality, it doesn’t have a place,” said Scott.

If this referendum passes, it will remove all mentions of SAC from AMS bylaws. Its role in club policy and legislation will be taken over by the operations committee and implemented by the VP Administration and their staff. The VP Administration will take over the SAC’s role in cases where approval is needed for functions or charity drives.

“I’m looking forward to the increased efficiency that you will see. There will no longer be that bureaucratic loop to jump through to get stuff done,” said Scott.

On the investment policy: “Do you support and approve amending the AMS Bylaws in accordance with the changes presented in the document entitled Bylaw Amendments: Bylaw Changes Investment Policy?”

The investment policy question may seem a little jargon-y or confusing given that it regards how the AMS plans to change the way that it invests their sizeable reserve fund of $16.8 million.

We wrote a more detailed article on the proposed investment policy, but essentially if passed, this would change the current policy of 100 per cent fixed income — very safe — investment to a policy of 70 per cent fixed income and 30 per cent equities. That 30 per cent equity investment comes at a higher risk financially, but could result in an extra $500,000 in annual returns for the AMS to spend, according to VP Finance Louis Retief. “[What this change is] is how grandmas invest,” said Retief in an interview with The Ubyssey in February. “The chances of losing money are slim.”

In short — higher risk, higher potential reward. U

AMS BYLAW CHANGES

THE QUESTION: “DO YOU SUPPORT AND APPROVE

AMENDING THE AMS BYLAWS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE

CHANGES PRESENTED IN THE

DOCUMENT ENTITLED BYLAWS AMENDMENT PACKAGE 2017?”

The AMS has both bylaw and code governing it as a society.

While AMS code can be changed within Council when needed, bylaws are the most binding constitutional document that the AMS takes direction from. To change them, there needs to be either a referendum vote or an annual general meeting that reaches quorum.

“Most years, the AMS has some housekeeping bylaw changes, but this year we have some that are really, really important,” said AMS President Ava Nasiri.

According to Nasiri, the changes are intended to streamline and clarify parts of bylaws to make for smoother governance in the years to come.

Note that all of the following, more specific questions are packaged under the bylaw change referendum like an

The proposed investment policy “is how grandmas invest,” said Retief in an interview with The Ubyssey.

referendum 21

WHY THE UBYSSEY IS DISENDORSING EVERY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE by ubyssey staff

theubyssey

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his year, The Ubyssey’s goal during AMS Elections was to pivot away from traditional endorsements to a more analytical approach with the knowledge that different students will prioritize different values in their candidates. It worked pretty well in our endorsements replacement, “Who should you vote for?”

But the presidential race this year threw us for a loop. Never in our collective memory has there been such a lack of experience and feasible platform goals among the candidates — so much so that our editorial board feels confident saying that, as a voting UBC student, you have no good options.

There are five candidates for president this year — three are running seriously, one is a joke and one can’t seem to make up his mind.

JAMES COHEN

The founder of Party Well is running on the “student engagement/positivity” platform — a favourite of candidates with no real knowledge of what the AMS does. That in itself wouldn’t be a problem if he had an achievable platform to back it up with. Instead, he’s opted to fill his Facebook event with buzzwords like “community,” “student wellbeing” and “positive change.”

Cohen strongly advocates for Block Party to expand and

accommodate at least 20,000 students, and for it to become a philanthropic event. He says that the last one was “poorly managed,” which doesn’t do much to explain how he thinks it lost over $200,000 or what exactly he would change.

He also doesn’t seem to have a problem exaggerating his connections or previous experience, as demonstrated multiple times during this campaign.

Cohen offers few or no specifics about how he plans to achieve his vague goals — something that didn’t change in our interview with him.

The campaign goal he might be able to achieve is implementing better career counselling, but again, he falls flat on execution by offering no ideas beyond “[doing] something online.”

Hooton also didn’t have an issue making a joke many found homophobic when he punned on the double meaning of “fruity” in the first debate. Facing criticism, he opted to write a post on his campaign’s Facebook page decrying “political correctness at UBC” for “overstepping its bounds,” saying that “people need to stop being so sensitive.”

He deleted this post soon after.

JESSE HOOTON

SUGAR BREWER

Hooton has less leadership experience than Cohen and even less of an achievable platform.

Hooton mentions bike theft and sexual assault as reasons he would like to see increased security on campus, but offers few specifics beyond beefing up Safewalk to patrol main areas of campus — something UBC Security already does — and installing security cameras, a task which will run up against BC’s stringent privacy laws.

Hooton also seemed to place bike theft directly in tandem with sexual assault. We would have liked to see him emphasize the issue of sexual assault on campus as of a greater importance than getting his bike stolen three times. It should also be noted that bike theft is already decreasing on campus.

22 Why the ubyssey is disendorsing every presidential candidate

Of the three fully serious candidates, Brewer is probably the best choice — and by that we mean the least bad choice.

Brewer is running for the second year in a row. We would’ve liked to see him spend the past year learning how the AMS works, asking questions, getting involved in Council, then to come back with a beefed-up version of his student engagement-heavy platform of yesteryear. Unfortunately, it hasn’t changed much.

This time around, he’s focusing on the AMS app to reach students and bring their voices to the university administration — a noble goal, but considering the app’s middling popularity, it’s not a likely one.

What’s refreshing is his unwillingness to make big

promises that he’s not 100 per cent sure he’ll keep. But without any prior experience or a more concrete outline of his plans, even the promises he has made look shaky.

faith, and at worst, he’s taking advantage of students’ feelings toward the Cairn to land himself in office.

JULIAN “HOOLIGAN JONES” DEL BALSO ALAN EHRENHOLZ (THE CAIRN)

If Ehrenholz had run seriously, The Ubyssey is fully confident that he would be the best choice.

He has served as EUS president and chair of the AMS Executive Oversight Committee, and he ran for VP Administration last year — he even got our endorsement.

Unfortunately, we don’t feel comfortable voting for someone with no platform. At best, Ehrenholz is asking for a leap of

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good joke candidate — one that wasn’t a cheap reference to current events or pop culture.

Del Balso has been a welcome respite from student politicians (and student paper hacks) who take themselves too seriously.

Normally we wouldn’t disendorse a joke candidate — especially a good one — but we feel like “Why The Ubyssey is disendorsing every presidential candidate except Del Balso” might send the wrong message. Sorry. U

Why the ubyssey is disendorsing every presidential candidate 23

VOTE AMS EXECUTIVES • BOARD OF GOVERNORS SENATE • AMS REFERENDUMS

ams.ubc.ca/elections