March 5, 2018

MARCH 5, 2018 | VOLUME XCIX | ISSUE XXVI NO EXPECTATIONS SINCE 1918

U

THE UBYSSEY

ams elections 2018

everything you need to know before you vote

2 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

table of contents

candidate profiles

president 05 vp external 06 v p a c a de mic + uni v e rsi t y a f fa irs 07 v p a dminis t r at ion 07 board of governors 08 vp finance 09 senate 10

e l e c t ions quo t e wa l l 12 crossword 13 feature: ‘vicious cycle’ 14 opinions

‘what i care about is being heard — not being preached to’ 16 ‘i reject the inter-fr aternit y council’s endorsement’ 17 ‘the inter-fraternity council’s “apology” was disappointing’ 17 ‘every vote counts — even yours’ 18 ‘why do the ams election candidates still lack female representation?’ 18

historical ams demographics 19 referenda 20 who should you vote for? 22 v o t in g w e e k b in g o 24

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 3

U THE UBYSSEY

MARCH 5, 2018 | VOLUME XCIX| ISSUE XXVI EDITORIAL

STAFF

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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to acknowledge that this paper and the land on which we study and work is the traditional, occupied, unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Every year the AMS election comes and goes, and every year most students don’t even know it has happened. In the greater scheme of things, it’s easy to dismiss as one of the more unimportant and uninteresting events on campus. But these elections truly affect students’ lives in tangible and inescapable ways: sexual assault policy, the clubs you’re involved with, where you throw your coffee cup away and whether it gets recycled, how much you pay for your food and whether or not your voice is represented.

So whether you’re a die-hard hack or a newbie to all things student governance, we hope this issue helps you out. (Take a whiff and smell the blood, sweat, tears and coffee of red-eyed editors and volunteers alike.) Read up on candidate profiles to get an in-depth look at each hopeful, disentangle legalese with our explainer on this year’s referendum questions and how they might affect you, ignite something within yourself as you read letters from passionate students and finally, get closer to deciding how you might vote with our handy short-form analysis.

If you want any license at all to loudly complain as you wave your hands under a faucet in the Nest this coming year, you know what to do.

Voting opens online at amsvoting.as.it. ubc.ca Monday, March 5 and closes on Friday, March 9.

Samantha McCabe + Alex Nguyen, News Editors

4 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

who are these people? they might be your next student leaders.

we talked to every candidate, went to every debate and here is what we found.

// samantha mccabe, alex nguyen, sophie sutcliffe, julia burnham, moira wyton, zak vescera, joshua azizi, lawrence ge + henry anderson // photos in this issue by patrick gillin + zubair hirji

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 5

candidate profiles

president

andy lin

Fourth-year arts student Marium Hamid wants to make the AMS more accessible, inclusive and communicative to students. This platform is motivated by her involvement on campus, especially her current term as the AMS student services manager.

“The role has given me the unique opportunity to see what students need. That motivates me.”

To achieve this goal, Hamid focuses on three areas: making services more accessible, improving the student experience and engaging students in communications and advocacy.

First, she aims to improve awareness around the AMS/GSS Health and Dental Plan as well as wellness services like VICE and EmpowerMe. “I want to make sure that students know what their money is worth and how exactly they can access all these services and what they gain when accessing them,” she said.

The second pillar includes conducting an accessibility audit on all

Third-year business and computer science student Andy Lin wants to “bring God’s love to campus,” after crediting Christianity for “changing his life” and “giving him hope while being bullied growing up.”

Along with preaching the gospel himself, Lin aims to accomplish this goal by working with groups on campus to host inter-faith dialogues, Christian speakers and apologetics courses.

He doesn’t have any specific policies that he wants to change or implement, but he noted that his platform is message-motivated rather than policy-based.

“It’s clear from the scripture that believing in the gospel gives eternal life and I want to bring that good news to all students,” Lin said, quoting Bible verse John 3:16.

“So I’m here to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether it’s through the Internet or through the campaign materials. Once I get elected, by changing culture, the policies will naturally change themselves.”

campus buildings and giving student organizations training from wellness services like the Sexual Assault Support Centre and VICE. On the recreational side, Hamid said at the Great Debate that she wants to increase the capacity of Block Party by 2,000 people by opening up the Nest and making it an all-day event rather than just a set number of hours in the evening.

After some disastrous Block Party financing a couple years ago, the society managed to balance their budget last year through cost-cutting measures. It remains to be seen how Hamid would manage the budget of her proposed changes.

For the last pillar, Hamid intends to revamp the AMS website and regularly inform students about the society’s advocacy and fees.

“If you are in the majority of students who don’t know what the AMS is, I hear you,” she said. “I want to make sure that above all things, students should never have the question of, ‘what is the AMS?’”

rodney little mustache Rodney Little Mustache, a thirdyear mature student and member of the Piikani Nation of the Niitsitapi Confederacy, wants to better

engage Indigenous students on UBC campus.

“It was only me [at the first elections debate] who was First Na-

Beside students, Hamid stressed the importance of better communication with UBC Senate and Board of Governors in order to improve the AMS’s effort in advocating to these governance bodies and holding them accountable. She views this objective to be one of the biggest challenges facing the presidential role, since UBC has seen many leadership changes in the past year.

“It’s very crucial for the president to lead the society in making meaningful relationships with [leadership], but also challenging them on things that we know students want from them,” she said.

When pressed further on how she would ensure meaningful consultation between the AMS and the university given botched consultations in the past, Hamid said that being a student senator — a role that she is r erunning for — has given her insight into how to leverage different policies and the governance structure to better advocate for students. tions, and I think [students] have to be engaged more,” he said.

Little Mustache’s platform is based on the Seven Sacred Teachings within First Nations communities, which focus on humility, courage, respect, wisdom, truth, honesty and love. It is also informed by his decades-long experience living with HIV and working with HIV/AIDS support services.

“Courage is that, as a united student body, we should stand up for the environment, sexual assault, Indigenous inclusion and political issues of the day,” he said.

“I also understand now after so many years living with HIV and going to these conferences, I’m finally putting together who I am — and the land plays a big part in who you are.”

More concretely, Little Mustache wants to establish an AMS committee to advocate on issues like Indigenous admission processes, housing and tuition funding, as well as to better include

His focus on cultural change is also based on observations of student apathy toward the AMS, in which he referenced the historically low voter turnout for the society’s elections and the success of President Alan Ehrenholz, who started his campaign as a joke candidate.

Lin himself has had no involvement with the AMS beside voting.

“I want students to not be apathetic about the community and come together, but I disagree with the way [Ehrenholz] did it because he ran as more of a joke and he only went so far as to show students are apathetic,” he said.

“I have a solution and it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

On other issues like discrimination and sexual assault, Lin believes that they can be fixed or prevented through faith in the gospel, in addition to concrete policy implementation.

“Policy 131 — that is only damage control,” he said during the Great Debate. “If you want to be preventa-

tive, you need the gospel.”

On the topics of housing and tuition, Lin wrote on his platform that he would work with the AMS, the Board of Governors and Senate on them, but did not give concrete advocacy strategies. Regarding sustainability, his main point is wanting to see a change from styrofoam packaging to more sustainable packaging in the University Village food court.

“Beyond policy, if you believe in Jesus, He has a promise that He will take care of us,” Lin wrote.

When asked about how he would reconcile his platform with supporting a diverse student population and AMS services like the Pride Collective, Lin said that he is willing to answer their skepticism.

“If they bring up objections, I will answer them,” he said. “But it’s not like I’m going to condemn them for what they believe in.”

When asked at the Great Debate, Lin clarified that he is not a joke candidate. U

marium hamid “I strongly believe that the university would react more to us if we held them accountable from the start,” she said. “[The AMS]

should include a very honest appraisal of what they are doing well and what they are not, and ... leveraging the student voice for that.” U

the Indigenous perspective within the society’s decision-making process. He previously proposed its creation to the AMS, but the society decided to create an advisory group instead.

He also wants to declare 2020 the year of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit students, and host events to showcase their experiences.

“What UBC is doing right now is that they have a pole out there and a reconciliation centre, but those are dealing with the elders — we also need something for the upcoming generations,” he said.

To accomplish these goals, Little Mustache said that he would reach out to the First Nations students and elders at UBC as well as the communities and reserves beyond campus. He also acknowledged that it would require a lot of work, given the “intertwined and bureaucratic” nature of the university and the AMS’s governance bodies as well as his current lack of in-depth familiarity with them.

When asked about how he would overcome these challenges, Little Mustache said he would do so “with patience” and discussions, which are his chosen methods to engage with non-Indigenous communities as well.

“I know I’m talking a lot on First Nations issues here,” he said.

“I know there are a lot of different communities here — and I’m willing to reach out and go to each different community and go to their different clubs to understand where they’re coming from, what’s missing.”

Little Mustache is also aware of the difficulty that could come from the age gap between him and the student body, but expressed that it doesn’t “faze” him.

“I have experience and everything I do, I do it for the students that should be here, that need to come here,” he said. “I have a body of a 50-year-old, but the mind of a child. Nothing fazes me — nine years ago, I was almost dead and now nothing fazes me.” U

6 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

candidate profiles

vp external cristina ilnitchi Third-year interdisciplinary studies student Cristina Ilnitchi is running to be the next AMS VP External with a platform focused on affordability, accessibility and

wellbeing. One of three candidates vying for the position, Ilnitchi is hoping to use her experience as the campaigns and outreach commissioner (COC) in the VP Academic

Mishal Tahir, one of three candidates running for AMS VP External, is focusing her platform on achieving a SkyTrain line to UBC, improving affordability and scholarships — especially for international students — and strengthening student housing rights. As a third-year international relations and economics student, Tahir is looking to leverage her experience as VP External of the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) to “increase student engagement” beyond the constituency level.

“The VP External office is more [of] a means to arrange different things,” said Tahir. “I’m AUS VP External and I talk to [executives] about how ‘I’m more [of] a channel for you guys’ [for] reaching out to different people and organizations.”

In terms of concrete goals, Tahir wants to lobby the provincial government to honour its campaign commitment to interest-free student loans, as well as for recently-announced transit funding to be allocated to extend the Millennium Sky-

Train all the way to UBC without stopping at Arbutus, which she describes as her most challenging goal.

“It’s tricky because there’s a lot of actors involved in this decision-making process,” said Tahir, noting that in the meantime she would also lobby for increased service on the 25, 33, 41 and 44 bus routes after collecting student feedback. “It hasn’t been set in stone where [transit funding] is going directly so it does of course leave a bit of a gap to find means to secure [further SkyTrain] funding.”

Another one of her priorities is to look externally to businesses and alumni for further international student scholarship funding in order to compliment the recently-announced Blue and Gold campaign for students. Tahir acknowledges that this may fall more under the VP Academic portfolio, but that she would like to collaborate on the issue.

“There are some existing donors that contribute scholarship money for domestic students only

s.g. krishna

office to advocate for students.

“I took all of [my platform] points from the student issues that I worked with this year, that I got from student data though the Academic Experience Survey and through other research,” said Ilnitchi, noting her platform’s focus on bringing more open educational resources (OERs) to UBC students.

“I’ve seen that there is a student need to continue this work and to find new approaches.”

For Ilnitchi, securing government financial support for student interests is essential. Areas she would like to advocate for include increased government funding for OERs, matching mental health care spending by students, and “realistic” student loan living allowances.

Increasing the base funding for domestic tuition is, Ilnitchi admits, a lofty goal, but one she believes is key to making education at UBC more accessible.

“I’d like to take the opportunity to advocate for greater base funding so that from year to year you don’t and there are some for international students, but I definitely think that there is more that can be looked into for international scholarships,” said Tahir, noting that larger businesses like KPMG come to mind as possible donors.

As for student housing access, Tahir is committed to continuing the legacy of last year’s Rent with Rights campaign, but was vague in how she intended to ensure the adoption of all nine recommendations.

“I would add my element of creativity and unique element of my innovation to it and see what other options we could have to create more awareness about it to students and lobby more support than what we already have,” she said. “But most of the work would be just to continue [the campaign] to its endpoint.”

Tahir stressed that her focus would be on keeping up the momentum of ongoing advocacy and laying the groundwork for future achievements.

“If you’re advocating for some-

S.G. Krishna is a second-year commerce student running for AMS VP External with a focus on improving job opportunities for international students and increasing the ease of opting out of the U-Pass.

Krishna has no formal leadership experience on campus, but stressed his multicultural communication experience will help him “talk more to people and to negotiate and persuade my ideas to them.”

“I thought, ‘Let me try to do something for society, for UBC,’ because I’ve learned a lot here and met many new people here,” said Krishna.

Krishna’s main focus is on improving the access and support international students have for jobs in Vancouver, which he claims lags behind those of their domestic peers.

Although career development is not usually contained under the VP External portfolio and he gave no specific strategies to achieve this goal, Krishna says it is all a part of helping students.

see those two per cent increases [from the university].”

Ilnitchi also hopes to improve the #TextbookBrokeBC campaign she organized as COC through further face-to-face student outreach.

“I’ve seen what it means when students go beyond just signing a petition,” said Ilnitchi. “[I am] really [committed to] using that outreach to collect data to be able to go to the provincial government and support our asks with that data.”

Using data-driven advocacy to secure a long-term U-Pass agreement with Translink and securing a SkyTrain extension to UBC are both top priorities for Ilnitchi, as is lobbying the federal government to count on-campus work towards international student’s permanent resident applications. She also wants to lobby the province to hold UBC accountable to its “lacklustre” implementation of the sexual misconduct policy.

“There is a lot of opportunity there to collaborate with the provincial government to ensure that UBC rolls out the [Sexual Violence

Prevention and Response] Office and the policy appropriately, all the while respecting the autonomy of the university,” said Ilnitchi, citing her role as VP Programming of UBC Sororities, which has seen her working on how to implement sexual violence policies before.

In the wake of incumbent VP Academic candidate Max Holmes’ allegations of insensitive questions about his platforms points on the sexual misconduct policy from members of the Inter-Fraternity Council during his endorsement meeting, Ilnitchi has joined three other candidates in rejecting their endorsement of her candidacy.

Ilnitchi stressed that while her platform is extensive, she believes that her experience working on them as COC will help her “hit the ground running.”

“I do have advocacy that is continuing on from the past, but also I want to explore new and exciting initiatives ... and seeing what are the possibilities there.” U

mishal tahir thing as a student and you’re putting your time and effort into fighting for something — you want to see re-

sults,” said Tahir. “I do want results, but at the same time, results that are long-term and sustainable.” U

“People who are from here have many connections — like from family, friends, whatever it is — but for international students, there are no supports,” he said.

When asked about the upcoming referendum to renew the U-Pass, Krishna responded that the AMS should “get rid of the U-Pass for people who don’t want it.

“In my year one, I never went out of UBC — I think just three times in a year — so I think I paid like 160 bucks per month, but it’s a waste,” he said. (It’s actually $160 per term.)

He did not clarify how he would negotiate for further opt-out flexibility or ensure that this did not increase the overall cost for students in the long-run.

On transit — one of the VP External’s most significant issues — Krishna argued that it was “working perfectly,” but was still too expensive and that he will lobby for heated bus-stations at UBC. He also believes the AMS should lobby the City of Vancou-

ver for increased snow removal services on weekends.

“I think UBC needs to be more organized. People have to clean the roads on the weekends also, because [students] stay here too, so it creates a problem.”

Both major issues for the VP External, Krishna has no policies related to open educational resources advocacy in his platform, and made public his intention to advocate for equalized domestic and international tuition rates five days into the campaign.

When asked about the Rent with Rights campaign and Policy 131 on sexual misconduct, Krishna responded that he “wasn’t aware” of the campaign or the policy, and in closing his interview, he appeared to ask the interviewer her own thoughts on what he should be addressing.

“As a VP External, what other privileges can I get to speak out of the box? Like would I have any other responsibilities on me … ?” U

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 7

candidate profiles

vp academic + university affairs max holmes

Max Holmes is the current VP Academic and University Affairs and is running for re-election in this year’s uncontested race.

Holmes was elected to the position

in a September by-election following Daniel Lam’s resignation.

“My platform is really based off what I have learned over the past couple of months as the cur-

rent VP Academic and University Affairs,” said Holmes. “There’s some new things in there, and some old things too.”

Holmes’s current campaign rests on four main points: survivor-centric sexual violence support, holistic student affordability, accountable implementation of UBC’s new strategic plan and a systematic approach to student mental health.

Being his own predecessor, Holmes reflected on the past year and noted two “big regrets,” one of which is the discussion surrounding the expulsion policy.

“It’s not right for us to say that we can ban you from the Nest, which can make it so that you can’t access any of the services that you pay for,” said Holmes.

“I wish I had the same clarity of mind that I do now on that policy.”

Holmes also regrets the length of time it took for him to form the Indigenous advisory group, the formation of which was prompted by a question that current AMS presidential candidate Rodney Little Mustache posed in the September by-election.

Proper consultation and advocacy efforts are at the forefront of a lot of Holmes’s plans — and he was quick to express his disappointment with the university in taking them seriously.

“The VP Academic is very much an advocate for students that have been mistreated at UBC — the students that we’ve failed, honestly,” said Holmes. “We failed survivors. We fail students that face mental health issues.”

Despite the lack of choice in the race, Holmes is confident that he has demonstrated a proven track

record. He mentioned how many previous VP Academic candidates have run on the platform point to review Policy 73, and during his term it “took less than two months to work with the VP Students office and get a committee from legal.” He has also taken issues with the UBC Housing Action Plan consultation to the Board of Governors in order to get the university to “take this seriously.”

“I’ve been someone who’s been able to show that if the university doesn’t do what students want, then you can call the university out,” said Holmes.

“I think it’s important that students come out and vote, whether it’s for or against me, because I think students need to have a voice in who is advocating for them to the university. There’s nothing more important than that.” U

candidate profiles

vp administration aaron verones

Third-year cognitive systems major Aaron Verones wants to improve the communication from the VP Administration office, increase space availability to the UBC community and route more money back into students by hiring them whenever possible.

Like his opponent Chris Hakim, Verones is a knowledgable candidate, having served as assistant to former AMS president Ava Nasiri and currently as the vicechair of the AMS Steering Committee. Of the two candidates, he also has more experience within clubs from working as a UBC Dance Club executive.

To improve communication, he would both re-design the AMS website — something that he had previously submitted a proposal for as Nasiri’s assistant — and reduce wait times for clubs to hear back from the VP Administration office by “making internal procedures more efficient.”

Verones would also prioritize revising the recent expulsion policy, which has been criticized as being hypocritical and anti-homeless.

“I think there are issues with the policy itself, like [that] it doesn’t contain any provisions to access student services for a student if they were to be expelled,” he said. “It gives [the] Operations Committee the unilateral power to make these expulsion decisions.”

Verones’s campaign has also seen some ups and downs.

On the first day of campaigning, he received a 24-hour suspension for online campaigning as a penalty for sending out mass emails before the start of the official period. When asked about the violation, Verones said it came down to him having a “different interpretation of AMS Code” than the elections administrator.

He was also one of two candidates who did not reject their Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) endorsement, following an open letter

by VP Academic Max Holmes alleging insensitive questions about sexual assault support. Verones was pressed on this issue multiple times during the Great Debate.

“I think that it is irrelevant that I’ve chosen to accept the IFC en-

dorsement when we could be doing so much better to help our students,” said Verones. He also said he was the only candidate who met with the IFC president to “hear him out.”

On March 2, he also published a Facebook post, discussing his decision not to reject the IFC decision at length.

“My refusal to reject the endorsement has been used to suggest that I will refuse to act when I am informed of a sexual assault. I say again, this is absolutely and unequivocally incorrect,” he wrote.

“My refusal to judge the IFC and my refusal to judge a survivor come from precisely the same values: I listen to everyone, judge no one, and help all.”

Overall, Verones said that his motivation to run comes largely from a desire to serve the student body.

“I just love living a life of service, and so VP Admin drew my interest because of the sheer number of groups that it’s able to serve, and the administration and systems design-oriented thinking that’ll have to be applied. I’m just so excited for it.” U Second-year arts student Chris Hakim wants to bring more consistency to the AMS’s operations.

Having been involved in student governance since he first came to UBC, Hakim now has a wealth of experience within the AMS. Currently, he serves as a councillor on AMS Council, the chair of the Governance Committee and a member of the Operations, Advocacy and Student Life committees.

The bulk of Hakim’s platform centres around continuity, with him stressing that the treatment of clubs and emphasis on sustainability should not vary from year to year.

“One of the things I’ve started noticing in [the] AMS is you’re really reliant on voting somebody in to get something done,” he said.

chris hakim

“There are things I believe that should continue to progress without [being] super reliant on voting [for] somebody. So a big part of my platform is making sure that when I’m in, you can still see progress in different branches of the AMS, in terms of advocacy or operations, still growing without being reliant on voting in a VP [who is] really working on that.”

Hakim said that he would achieve this by using the Operations Committee Policy Manual to standardize the regulations for clubs, creating a binding document for constituencies and creating a committee within the AMS that would be able to tackle sustainability initiatives and bring proposals directly to council.

“Year after year, the VP Admin is always promising some online, quick, efficient system that will fix everything,” he said during a debate. “Let me tell you right now, it’s not going to happen. If that fix was so simple, we would have had that multiple candidates ago, multiple administrations ago.”

Hakim also mentioned in his platform that he would increase the psychology coverage under

the AMS/GSS Studentcare plan from its current $300, which has raised some concerns about not being sufficient to support students with serious mental health issues.

Hakim did have a brief lack of consistency during the campaign, however, regarding the recent expulsion policy. When asked during the Great Debate, Hakim said that the Operations Committee — which he sits on — is currently reviewing the policy, but he also said that he knew there were issues with the policy when it was first sent to AMS Council.

Overall, Hakim said that he is motivated to run because working with the AMS is something that he really enjoys doing.

“Everybody has their own hobbies that they enjoy, [like] skiing [or] sports, but I really enjoyed getting into AMS Council,” he said.

“The VP Admin portfolio is the biggest portfolio. It has the largest budget, has the most amount of staff, [and] I believe that has a lot more potential to it than what a lot of people think.” U

8 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

why can’t you vote for your board of governors student members this year? // samantha mccabe

This year’s “race” for the Board of Governors student member seats was uncontested — incumbent Jeanie Malone and newcomer Jakob Gattinger were the only two candidates. The Board election is governed by a specific set of rules:

instead of students being able to abstain from or vote “no” to an uncontested candidate as in the case of AMS elections, Malone and Gattinger are “acclaimed” as elected, meaning that they automatically get the seats.

The rules that enact this are actually those governing Senate, but oddly apply here as well. In 1973, when the provincial government made the decision that there should be elected seats on the Board, existing University Act

regulations that applied to the university chancellor and Senate were shuffled over to include elected Board members as well.

“I believe that the notion was that someone was better than no one, and that they had those people assume office without having to go through an interim process because if they were rejected in some sort of verification then we’d have to reopen nominations again,” said Christopher Eaton, associate registrar of academic governance and director of the Office of the Senate.

The concern would be, said Eaton, that an entirely new elections process would leave vacancies of important elected voices on the Board for up to months at a time due to the sluggishness of an election.

On the flip side, an incredibly under-qualified Board student member could put the student voice at risk.

“From my perspective, the best way is to try and foster more people

running in elections,” said Malone.

“And that’s something that I think is for sure feasible. … Our best bet is to try and encourage folks to consider running early on in this year, rather than just right up close to the election period. That’s probably my main strategy.”

“I think it is about communication,” said Gattinger. He pledged, along with Malone, to keep writing his Ubyssey columns on what students can expect from each session of student governance bodies that he sits on.

Since the Council of the Senates is responsible for updating and regulating the elections rules of the university, any appeals to the current rules would have to be brought to that body. Change is possible there — but any change to the rules governing Senate election, since those are more formally outlined, would need to be brought to the legislative assembly of British Columbia. U

candidate profiles

board of governors jakob gattinger Jakob Gattinger is ready to take his frustrations with UBC governance bureaucracy and throw himself into

a new role with the Board of Governors. As someone who ran for the race — and lost — last year, he has

Jeanie Malone, biomedical engineering graduate student and Board of Governors student member, is returning for a Board seat after a year of lessons learned.

Malone and Jakob Gattinger — the only two students running — have already been “acclaimed as elected,” or given the seats without conducting a formal vote. This is because of Senate rules that govern elected seats on Board as well.

Malone’s goals for the coming year are consistent with her platform last year, which emphasized student experience and transparency.

“I think last year I went in and I didn’t have a great understanding of all the pieces and how they moved and what would be possible — like the feasibility and the political situations around issues [weren’t] something I would have known coming from outside of Board,” she said.

“This year, there are a couple projects that I’m working on that are in progress and that I think we

will be able to see a good amount of progress on this year.”

On her website, she names the affordability and availability of student housing as well as the funding and severity of mental health issues on campus as two of the topics she has championed when brought to the Board. She and Kevin Doering, last year’s student Board members, heavily advocated regarding the in-progress Housing Action Plan.

On the second topic, students have been crying out for more attention to be paid to mental health issues.

“It was something that I pressed to get at the Board table, to start having conversations both around how we handle crisis, so suicide and crisis, versus also how we handle sort of general every day mental health on campus and sort of the resourcing around there,” Malone said.

“So we had sort of a preliminary discussion and I’m hoping we continue to have those things brought to Board.”

since accrued new experience in the form of a Senate seat and a brief stint as interim AMS VP Academic and University Affairs.

“Senate moves very slowly, and things at Board move very quickly,” he said. “And so now that I have become, in all honesty, quite frustrated with the number of things that we’ve tried to do in Senate this year and just how long it takes to get things to progress even a little bit, it’s exciting for me to get to go and do something where things will happen quicker.”

He is, however, also rerunning for Senate because he sees it as a benefit to be able to work within both bodies, since much of their work overlaps and compliments each other.

Since this year’s race is uncontested, Gattinger is automatically one of the two Board student members for UBC Vancouver. But he hopes to remain accountable to students by continuing to write columns on what students should expect from these governance bodies, Tuition will also be a huge topic on the Board docket this year — the international student tuition triennium increase of 46.8 per cent over three years ends in December and the issue will be up for a vote again.

Speaking about any sort of tuition increases, Malone said, “the conversation becomes very, ‘we break the budget now or we increase it now.’ Hopefully, it sounds like there is some interest in maybe not doing two per cent for everything but maybe looking at the costs of different programs and how that impacts different groups.”

In addition to helping the Board reimagine strategies in response to overwhelmingly negative student feedback on annual increases, she also hopes that she can press them to take actual actions based on conversations, identifying a hesitancy that she grew frustrated with at times.

“I think generally the administration is very hesitant to bring forward things that are radical,

as well as regularly attending the meetings of other bodies.

“It shouldn’t take, as it has in the past, major incidents for the lines of communication to stay open,” he said. “I think that’s something that we should be mindful of.”

In the upcoming year, Gattinger hopes to heavily advocate on behalf of students on the topic of affordability in particular.

He has promised to push the administration to, “at a minimum, seriously improve the justification around the necessity of annual increases and explore the possibility of reducing or eliminating increases for continuing students.” This was an issue that he was passionate about during the Great Debate, hard-lining that unless the Board tried to personally respond to students who took the time to provide tuition consultation feedback, he would be voting against any future increases.

“If students are taking the time to share [their thoughts], I think we owe them an answer.”

In the upcoming year, as the controversial three-year international tuition proposal is coming to a close and will need to be reconsidered, this will prove particularly telling.

“If we are well-prepared, it will go a long way toward us being able to at least have the students have as much say as we can.”

On the same topic of affordability and with Vancouver’s crippling housing crisis in mind, he wants to push the Board to consider unconventional models, such as purchasing property off-campus to use for student housing.

Gattinger sees advocacy on these issues as best supplemented by working with the leaders of the other governance bodies — Senate student members and the AMS executives.

“You’re only two people, on the Board,” he said, “and if you try to do everything yourself it’s probably not going to work out very well.” U

jeanie malone or new,” she said. “They are very conservative in what they do bring to the Board table, which

unfortunately means as a Board, you can only sort of approve or disapprove what you get.” U

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 9

candidate profiles

vp finance Third-year economics student Adam Forsgren aims to make the AMS’s monetary operations more accountable to students and expand its investment portfolio.

His campaign promises improved management of the AMS’s financial systems, as well as continuing the fin-tech and investment reforms started last year.

As AMS financial systems coordinator, Forsgren oversees the integration and management of fin-tech platforms like Showpass into AMS events and helps manage a wide financial portfolio.

“A big part of doing the job is researching what kind of fin-tech and financial systems are out there,” he said. “I also get a lot of insight into each and every [AMS] position.”

Forsgren’s platform is based on drafting the first budget following a fee restructuring referendum drafted by current VP Finance Alim Lakhiyalov, forming a more comprehensive approach to budget formulation and improving the AMS’s financial manage-

ment through new organizational platforms.

Forsgren hopes that these policies will engage students in the AMS’s everyday financial decision-making through increased consultation on fees and more focus on financial literacy for stakeholders.

“I would like to see students, if asked on the street ‘What does the AMS do?’ that they have an actual tangible answer to that,” Forsgren said. “As a student society as well as a nonprofit, there are so many aspects that I have no clue about and that I’m sure students don’t know.”

Forsgren also said that he would focus on keeping students informed on AMS activities rather than just budget figures, emphasizing that transparency is a matter of showing the process — not just the result.

“I think it needs to be clear: what are we doing, how are we going to reach that goal, and what happened?” he said.

kuol akuechbeny Kuol Akuechbeny, a third-year business student and AMS University Affairs Commissioner, is running for the position of VP Finance on a platform of supporting clubs, student entrepreneurs and businesses through ambitious financial reforms.

One of Akuechbeny’s key promises is to expand the recently introduced credit card system, phasing out slower cheque-based reimbursement in the process. As the former AMS clubs and constituencies financial administrator and current president of World University Service of Canada UBC, Akuechbeny said he understands clubs’ need for financial flexibility.

“As financial administrator, I was the point of contact for all the treasurers. ... I understand what clubs are going through and what we need to implement.”

In his role as a non-voting member on the AMS Finance Commission, Akuechbeny helped get credit cards on the finance

office’s agenda, but said the current figure of 30 credit cards is too low. Accordingly, he proposes a complete shift from paper to plastic, promising to end chequebased reimbursement for club expenses within three months.

“It was supposed to be done during Louis [Retief’s, former VP Finance] time,” he said, “and now Alim [Lakhiyalov’s, current VP Finance] time is coming to an end and it still has not been done.”

Akuechbeny also plans to expand and utilize existing AMS services, emphasizing that many services aren’t used because club members and students simply aren’t aware of them.

“I want to go the extra mile making sure people know the information,” said Akuechbeny.

“They should be using it or else it’s not benefiting students, and then we would see how we can correct that.”

One of the platforms that he would expand is the Student

Concretely, Forsgren’s policies represent little change from his predecessor. He would double the amount of credit cards available to clubs from 30 to 60 — something the VP Finance office already aims to do — and re-evaluate the AMS’s investment portfolio. He would also create a budget under the new guidelines passed by Lakhiyalov.

This is not the only way Forsgren is following in the incumbent’s footsteps — if elected, Forsgren will be the fifth consecutive VP Finance from the Sigma Chi fraternity. He attributed this legacy to its culture of “giving back” and personal excellence.

He also accepted an endorsement from the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC), defending the organization while most candidates have rejected theirs amid allegations of insensitive questions about sexual assault support.

“The Greek community has offered so many positive experiences to a countless number of students,” said Forsgren in an emailed stateInitiative Fund, an AMS fund for student philanthropic and academic work currently valued at around $37,000. Akuechbeny said he would increase the fund by 50 per cent.

To finance this, Akuechbeny wants to increase business revenue through a close assessment of the AMS’s budgetary needs and tighter financial planning. He stressed that, as a student society, the AMS and its businesses should put affordability first.

adam forsgren

ment to The Ubyssey. “I believe the IFC’s questions — albeit contentious — were trying to understand Max’s platform in more depth.”

Overall, he stressed that his main motivations for running are to bene-

fit the community and his own personal professional development.

“Being in the AMS felt like a natural succession to go and do what you want to do — that idea of progressing and giving back.” U

“We want to make revenue, in a good way,” said Akuechbeny, who proposed increasing returns through tightened internal accountability and management. “But we also want to make things affordable to our students on this campus.”

Akuechbeny’s platform is ambitious — and he acknowledged that it will be tough to execute, but maintains that the AMS shouldn’t back down from a challenge.

“There will be risks, but that shouldn’t stop us from using a sus-

tainable system — we just need to be careful,” he said. “We are a major student society in a big university. We can handle this.”

Ultimately, Akuechbeny sees the position as a chance to create change as well as balanced budgets.

“This is an executive position and a political position for the AMS,” said Akuechbeny. “It shouldn’t just focus on the AMS’s money, but go beyond that — and that’s [what] I intend to do.” U

Sorry!

Not sorry Canadians apologize about a lot of things, but not about having one of the best medical schools in the world.

International students are welcome to apply to the University of Toronto’s MD Program.

Learn more. Visit uoft.me/MDYVR

MD_Program_2018_AD_6x6in_Ubyssey.indd 1

2018-02-21 12:09 PM

10 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

candidate profiles

senate

hannah xiao

After a year of serving as a senator-at-large in the UBC Vancouver Senate’s student caucus, fourthyear mining engineering student Jakob Gattinger is running for re-election to continue the work he’s already started and tackle the topics he didn’t get around to addressing last year.

His platform revolves less around buzzwords and more around specific goals that he hopes to achieve.

For one, he plans to advocate for a long-overdue governance review of Senate that could reform its structure and culture in various ways.

“Senate in the past has done a governance review, believe it or not, once every 20 years, which I think is completely unacceptable,” he said. “I think it should be done much more often and involve external parties rather than senators undertaking a

Fourth-year science student Hannah Xiao, who ran for Senate back in 2015, is now running again to become a student senator-at-large for the upcoming school year. The three major pillars of her platform consist of increasing student engagement with Senate, improving school curriculum and the academic experience, as well as integrating mental health support systems into course curricula.

“I’ve seen how these policies affect people when they’re vague or when they’re not good enough — it can be very detrimental,” Xiao said.

“I think creating an overall review of the policies that are in place because some of them are very old, and bringing them into this decade and having them reflect this student body that it is now — that’s something that I feel

really passionate about.”

Despite her lack of Senate experience, Xiao believes that she is qualified through other leadership roles that she has held, which range from being the AMS representative for the UBC Science Undergraduate Society to the vice-chair of the AMS Education Committee.

To increase student engagement and transparency, she wants to push for more digestible and timely publications of Senate committee minutes, pointing out that the last available document was published a year ago.

“Their February [docket] is like 560 pages — that’s not digestible for students, no one’s going to, for fun, read 500 pages,” she said.

Xiao also suggested that student senators reach out to clubs or

review of themselves for all intensive purposes.”

Another big goal that Gattinger has — one which he identified as his loftiest — is to reform exam schedules in a way that favours students.

Two reforms he suggested were shortening exam periods and holding exams on Sundays, which could both open up extra days for a fall reading break and possibly even a longer winter break as well.

“Fall reading break has become a big topic point, but I think it goes deeper than that in what student workload looks like [and] how the exam period is structured. We have a very short winter break, which has not been as much of a topic of concern, but for a lot of students who come internationally, they’re travelling thousands of miles to maybe have nine or ten days off.”

He’s also interested in re-examining UBC’s exam concession procedures, which organize how a students’ exam would be postponed in the case of conflicting responsibilities or unforeseen circumstances such as an illness.

“If students do need a concession, they shouldn’t feel like it’s a combative environment where they should have to go up against their faculty,” he said.

Gattinger is currently the chair of the Agenda Committee, which oversees the rules and procedures of the Senate as well as the agendas for Senate meetings. He hopes to continue holding this position, in which he plans to push for a governance review as soon as possible.

It was in the Agenda Committee that a recommendation for the recently-created ad hoc committee

ernors as a student member, a position she will occupy again in the coming year.

Malone is running on a fourpronged platform of “governance, equity, accessibility, and communication.”

First and foremost, Malone thinks it’s long overdue that Senate undergo a governance review.

“The Board [of Governors] over the last two years has just undergone through a really key governance review, looking at its structures, its committees, having it be more efficient,” said Malone. “My hope is that the Senate will be able to do something similar.”

Malone’s equity platform focuses on the year-old sexual misconduct policy. Passing the policy was an important step, but “the implementation, I think, still needs work from the Senate side of things,” she said.

Malone also wants to improve accessibility by reforming UBC’s financial awards programs.

“The ways those [awards] get distributed is extremely variable,” she said. “It’s hard to figure out as a student what you are qualified for or the process for which people are granted these awards.” Malone advocates that transparency in the awards application process will allow for admissions to be held

accountable and encourage more students to apply.

Malone believes the final component of her platform, communication, holds the most importance. She wants to encourage student interaction by writing columns for The Ubyssey, meeting with student groups, and being accessible on social media.

“I’m always willing to chat.

My goal is to represent students and make sure that student voices are heard and respected in the Senate.”

Already slated to serve as Board of Governors representative in 2018 (she and other Senate hopeful, Jakob Gattinger, ran unopposed for the two student member seats), Malone believes her presence on both governing bodies will be key for coordination between the two. There’s always been a “left hand not talking to right hand” disconnect between the Senate and BoG, she described.

Witnessing this dysfunction while serving as EUS president is what inspired her to cross over and bridge the divide in the first place.

“Having me being fully in the loop on the other side was very useful, and I’d like to be able to do that again this year.” U

constituencies to explain the Senate’s relevance to their university experience.

To improve the academic experience, Xiao listed a multitude of different items including mandated course syllabi, standardized concession policies, the earlier release of exam schedules and the adjustment of withdrawal deadlines.

She also believes that any changes related to course curriculum must go through more consultation with the student body, citing the lack of student consultation regarding Senate’s approval of the Biomedical Engineering program.

“I didn’t like that consultation with students rarely happened ... and it was represented in a way where students were consulted

where they weren’t,” she said.

“But one thing that I did like is that the student senate caucus did band together and they did advocate against it.”

Xiao’s final platform pillar is the integration of mental health resources into school curricula. Xiao believes that, with the new Equity and Inclusion ad hoc committee, new policy should be implemented that requires professors to provide mental health resources and support.

“The first step should be [around] first points of contact.

Students, they see their professors every day ... but there’s currently no training or standard policy that requires professors to either put mental health resources on their syllabi or just reach out to students,” said Xiao. U

jakob gattinger on academic equity and inclusion came about. Gattinger was elected to the committee — which aims to advance equity and diversity within the social, academic and institutional levels of the university — at the February 28 Senate meeting, and he hopes to join the committee again if he is re-elected.

“There were a number of recommendations that came primarily around the time when Stephen Toope was UBC president about how we can improve diversity and inclusion in the Senate in an academic sense — but those were never really been followed up on. So I see we now finally have the opportunity to do those, [and] students kind of drove the bus on making this happen.” U

jeanie malone

Jeanie Malone, a master’s student in biomedical engineering, is running to be a student-at-large on UBC Senate. She has been serving in student governance for the bulk of her six-year experience at UBC, beginning in the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS).

“I spent lots and lots of time running around in red, jumping in fountains occasionally, and putting up all the posters.” She was the EUS President in 2016-2017 and currently sits on the Board of Gov-

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MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 11

koul akuechbeny

Third-year commerce student Kuol Akuechbeny is running for a Senate seat with a platform centred around mental health, diversity and expanding open educational resources (OERs).

While Akuechbeny is new to the Senate, he does have leadership experience from serving as AMS University Affairs commissioner and president of the World University Services of Canada (WUSC) UBC, which works to bring refugee students to the university. He, himself, is a refugee from South Sudan.

Within Senate, Akuechbeny hopes to adjust UBC’s academic policies in ways that can better accommodate students with mental health problems. He cited the experience of a friend who went

through a difficult period with his mental health and was unable to organize himself around UBC’s current academic policies — for example, his program required him to take a full course load. He ultimately left UBC. “Those things were not very flexible to this student, and that’s why he’s not on campus, in my opinion,” he said. “So I think we should have done more.”

Akuechbeny’s also interested in working towards a fall reading break, which he believes would be beneficial to students’ wellbeing.

Akuechbeny is also concerned that Senate has not been flexible enough towards OERs, which are free teaching materials that students can use. He plans to join the Library

Committee to advocate for more of these resources, in order to cut down the costs of textbooks for students.

He wants to sit in on the newly-created ad hoc committee on Equity and Inclusion as well, in order to push for more inclusive and diverse programs on campus. He cites the normalization of diversity on campus as an ambition of his.

“My most ambitious goal would be … seeing that down the line — in the next two to five years for example — people don’t have to say ‘Oh I think there’s a shortage of diversity and inclusion at this point,’” he said. “Everyone can see it like common sense.”

Besides Senate, Akuechbeny is also running to be AMS VP Finance, a role that he seems to

have devoted more attention to on his website. It is also currently unclear how he would use the two roles to complement each other, if elected to both.

But regardless of which position he is running for, Akuechbeny is running to give back to the community.

“All the students that come through [WUSC] believe that it is a good idea to give back to UBC, British Columbia and Canada — the country that gives us a new home, and an amazing country to be in,” he said.

“So I want to give back to UBC students by using my experience as a way of saying thank you for all of the good things you have done for me.” U

marium hamid

Fourth-year arts student Marium Hamid is re-running this year to carry on her current work at the UBC Vancouver Senate. Her platform consists of implementing policies that prioritize inclusivity in course curricula, increasing the affordability of course materials and improving the execution of Policy 131.

Having previously been involved with the Senate as an arts student Senator and the current student Senator caucus co-chair, Hamid believes that one of her major advantages comes from her extensive knowledge of Senate procedure.

“All of my experience comes from having worked in these realms and making sure that all of these goals are realistic,” said Hamid.

“Having mobilized the entirety of [the student senator caucus] in

the past year, I feel that I have the skills necessary to put … an advocacy effort which will finally get things done.”

One aspect of Hamid’s platform is to ensure that inclusion is taken into account when considering academic experience. Her commitment to these issues is reflected by her previous work on creating the new Equity and Inclusion ad hoc committee. Re-running for Senate, she wants to work with the ad hoc committee to continue pushing for the implementation of inclusivity recommendations made in previous years.

Hamid also wants to push for the implementation of a concrete policy that will address the affordability of course materials, which include print textbooks and paid online resources, within the next term.

“Education is already very difficult and expensive at UBC, it should not be further hindered by the cost of some of these very expensive textbooks,” said Hamid.

Another significant part of Hamid’s platform is to ensure that Policy 131 is aligned with all other school policies, acknowledging that it often took years before specific policies were complemented by other existing policies. By doing this, Hamid believes that UBC will be getting closer to having the survivor centric support that is necessary to fulfill the goals outlined in the sexual assault policy.

“The right concessions, academic appeals process, admissions processes, as well as a survival centric approach to sexual assault, will [all] take a lot of time,” said Hamid. “But I believe that if we are to make a

good change [toward] this promise, this is exactly where we start.”

Hamid is also running for AMS President, which she believes will complement her role at Senate and allow her to bridge the gap between student experience and academic affairs. And although being both senator and president can be very time-consuming, Hamid believes that she holds the diligence necessary to keep up with her work.

“I think my experience as somebody who has worked with seven different services of the AMS while being a student senator, speaks to that already,” she said.

“And as president, I think I have the opportunity to leverage a lot of the knowledge that I gained from one end to the other and put them two together to work very effectively.” U

First-year bachelor of international economics student Matthias Leuprecht is running to be one of five student senators-at-large in the UBC Vancouver Senate.

“I have a bold and progressive vision for UBC,” said Leuprecht.

“And that vision is that every student will understand how their degree leads to environmental sustainability and Canadian Indigenous reconciliation.”

To achieve the first goal of sustainability, Leuprecht wants to continue recent reform efforts to the curriculum guide.

“I want to … ensure that when courses are reviewed and those courses come up, that there’s enough sustainability-related content in those courses and that they’re going through the sustainability consultation process.”

Leuprecht anticipates that achieving that goal will require thorough consultation with professors.

“I think the biggest challenges we’ll face is from current program chairs and department heads who have put in place large programs like political science that maybe don’t have as much sustainability-related content in them as they could and working with them,” said Leuprecht.

He also has some concrete proposals to help UBC work towards Indigenous reconciliation.

“I want to change academic policy so that Indigenous guest lectures are prioritized when professors can’t make the lecture and there’s an absence,” said Leuprecht.

Leuprecht also wants to expand the Senate policy J-54, Admission for British Columbia Youth in Care,

which provides a path for children in the youth-in-care system to attend university.

Leuprecht explained that a third of homeless youth are part of the LGBTQ2+ community, the vast majority of whom are represented in the foster care system. Indigenous children are also largely overrepresented in foster care.

“That’s a policy that would make a really big difference in a lot of people’s lives across campus,” he said.

These core issues — sustainability and Indigenous reconciliation — are more than just talking points for Leuprecht.

“I do believe that climate change is the most important issue facing our society today. I do believe it is the biggest risk to our world, and I think it’s extremely important that UBC is a world leader on that issue.”

Advocating for Indigenous rights is what inspired Leuprecht to dive into politics in the first place.

“When I was 14 I had the opportunity to visit an Indigenous reserve and what I saw was horrific,” said Leuprecht. “There are people in Canada who live in third-world conditions — it is absolutely devastating.

The fact that you can’t drink tap water in Canada in some places, in particular on reserves, should immediately shock people and make them reflect on how we’re treating them.”

Other issues Leuprecht wants to tackle are passing the recommendations of the ad hoc committee on student mental health and wellbeing, improving Senate engagement with faculty, and demanding Senate’s accountability for small programs like his own in the Vancouver School of Economics. U

matthias leuprecht

Max Holmes, current student senator and AMS VP Academic and University Affairs (VPAUA), is running for re-election in the UBC Vancouver Senate. If elected as a senator, Holmes plans to continue his focus on survivor-centric sexual assault policy and reforming academic concession, complementing two major tenets of his work as VPAUA. He is also re-running for the VPAUA position in this year’s election.

“From a senate perspective, most of it — if not all of it — ties back into my VP Academic role because as VP Academic, I am the Alma Mater Society’s liaison to the Senate,” Holmes said.

“Of course, one of the advantages of being VP Academic is that I can also ensure that the resources of the VP Academic office are always there to support all student senators.”

As a survivor himself, sexual assault reform has long been one of the most important issues on Holmes’s platform. As a senator, this will involve “looking at [UBC’s] academic accommodation policies” to find ways to support survivors from an academic perspective.

More information about how to contact counselling, how to access the Sexual Assault Support Centre and how to navigate Policy 131 could also be added to syllabi as part of the mandatory syllabi policy. But

Holmes noted that this policy is still being worked on, despite having been talked about for at least five years.

“So a lot of times in the Senate, it’s not always necessarily bad policies that are getting pushed through, but rather good policies that are taking too long in the bureaucratic process.”

On the much discussed topic of a fall reading week, Holmes suggested that while the creation of a break isn’t far away, it is unlikely to be a full week due to concerns like de-accreditation of programs and extra financial burden if classes were to start earlier.

“I do not doubt that we are going

to get some kind of break in the fall very soon,” he said.

“But the issue is looking at the trade-offs there and also looking at the ability to get that full break because that’s truly what people want.

They want a full week, and currently, from all the modeling we’ve done, it looks basically impossible to get that in what we’ve done currently, without having programs de-accredited like engineering.”

Instead, “creative solutions” will have to be looked into, especially regarding exam guidelines and scheduling like shortening the number of hours for an exam, opening more restricted spaces and holding exams on Sunday. U

max holmes

12 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

that was a lot. let’s take a break before jumping in again.

over the course of this election, a lot of people have said a lot of things. here are our favourites.

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 13

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CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1- Bishop’s headdress; 6- Rough files; 11- Patriotic org.; 14- Papal garment; 15- Author Calvino; 16- Lennon’s mate; 17- Survey; 19- Tony-winning Hagen; 20- Guess; 21- Concerning Comanches, e.g.; 23- T.G.I.F. part;

24- Defrauded; 25- Discovers; 29- Cave-dwelling dwarf; 30- Cornerstone abbr.; 31- Rip; 32- Mai ___; 35- In spite of; 39- Simile center; 40- Author ___ Stanley Gardner; 41- Tropical lizard; 42- Sleep disorder; 44- Officer of a university; 45- Raise the level;

48- Guy’s counterpart; 49- Nissan model; 50- Like some diets; 55- Daughter of Cadmus; 56- Countless; 58- Intent; 59- Fantasy genre; 60- Open, as a gate; 61- Maiden name indicator; 62- Corner; 63- Poles for sails;

DOWN 1- Oliver Twist’s request; 2- Angers; 3- Diplomacy; 4- “The Time Machine” people; 5- Chinese money; 6- Mob scenes; 7- Play to ___ (draw); 8- Parked oneself; 9- Excess; 10- Light reddish brown; 11- Distrust; 12- Architectural piers; 13- Author Dahl; 18- Turner and others; 22- Proverb ending?; 24- Slatted wooden box; 25- Tuneful Horne; 26- Those, to Juan;

27- ___ boy!; 28- Inexperienced; 29- Inventor Nikola; 31- Trio; 32- Personal quirks; 33- “Puppy Love” singer; 34- Aviation pioneer Sikorsky; 36- Attention; 37- Monetary unit of Bhutan; 38- ___ Rosenkavalier; 42- Gallery offering; 43- Local church; 44- Bundle; 45- Continental identity of a Chinese person; 46- Bottled spirit; 47- Garden figure; 48- Urchin; 50- Mystical Muslim; 51- Actress Turner; 52Subsides; 53- Blind piece; 54Sun. speeches; 57- Matchsticks game;

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14 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

The AMS elections have dominated Ubyssey coverage, message boards in the Nest and Facebook feeds for the past week. The debates are over and voting is underway. By Friday, UBC will have a new AMS president, four new executives and a set of fresh representatives on Senate and the Board of Governors.

But, really, who cares?

Apathy seems to be the default attitude of many students, a sentiment that is reflected in voter trends.

Out of 54,329 registered students at UBC’s Vancouver campus, 20.7 per cent voted in last year’s AMS election — and that was considered a huge success.

In 2016, that number was 12.5 per cent, and it was only marginally better the year before that.

Besides the fact that the AMS’ budget is funded by roughly $14 million of student fees, it represents the students of UBC in policy negotiations with university administration and different levels of government. It is responsible for important parts of student life, including health insurance, club funding and

management, and the popular U-Pass.

But the majority of students aren’t convinced it is worth it to click a few buttons and vote.

The AMS has an outreach problem. Even if every student has an interest in the AMS, there’s a fundamental lack of knowledge about what those interests are.

“I think my previous apathy towards the elections mostly stemmed from a lack of understanding on my part about what the AMS is really responsible for and the responsibilities of each position,” said Emmanuel Sales, a third-year computer science student. “Even as a participant of a couple of student clubs, the details were pretty hazy to me.”

When it comes to elections, students often don’t know that elections are even happening, how to vote, what the key issues are in the election or what the candidates stand for.

“I don’t usually know the candidates,” confessed Jewel Pang, a third-year student in interna-

tional relations. “If I have met them ... they’re strangers and they’re usually weird or annoying me outside the Nest.”

While it is easy enough to participate in AMS elections — voting is done online using your Campus Wide Login — other barriers exist. One is the cost in time and effort it takes to find out what each candidate’s platform is.

“One of the most important pieces of information that federal and provincial elections have is the party to which the candidates belong,” said UBC Professor Dr. Richard Johnston, who holds the Canada Research Chair in public opinion, elections, and representation. “That tells you 90 per cent of what you need to know.”

Because there are no party affiliations or slates in AMS elections, students cannot make assumptions about what a candidate stands for, requiring actual effort on their part to find out a candidate’s position on key issues.

According to Johnston, when deciding whether to vote in an

election or not, voters will consider whether the candidates offer a choice that truly represents a difference among alternatives.

“When you get into arenas where it is hard to stick a label on a candidate, that means that the cost of finding out what the candidate stands for skyrockets,” said Johnston.

A second barrier to voting is the perceived unimportance of the election issues. And as an advocacy organization first and foremost, the AMS is limited in what it can actually do.

“The system [of bureaucracy] the AMS works within is very difficult to overcome,” said fourth-year philosophy student Walden Putterman. “It’s kind of impenetrable.”

Pang agrees with this sentiment.

“I don’t think they have an influence in how UBC is run,” said Pang. “You just hear about Block Party, about how they don’t have enough money to book good artists.”

Another explanation: as young people, students simply have not developed the habit of voting.

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 15

“Turning out and voting is an acquired taste,” said Johnston.

“So we’re talking about a student population that hasn’t acquired the taste.”

All of these barriers can be overcome — to some extent.

Last year, former Elections Administrator (EA) and current VP Academic Max Holmes ran one of the most successful AMS elections campaigns in recent history. Voter turnout in that election almost doubled from the previous year, from 12.6 to 20.7 per cent.

The key to success, according to Holmes, was having the Elections Committee focus solely on getting voters to vote instead of advertising what the candidates stand for. “[In previous years] we advertised trying to get more information about candidates and, truthfully, that’s the job of candidates,” Holmes said. “The Elections Committee should be focused on getting people out to vote.”

For the first time, the Elections Committee ran targeted advertisements on Facebook and engaged students on Reddit. It also set up polling stations in first-year dormitories, with the idea of bringing the election to students.

“If you could get a first year out to vote for the first time, that’s hopefully someone you can get to vote for their entire UBC career,” Holmes said.

The EA for this year’s election, Filza Raza, is trying to build upon the efforts of last year. According to Raza, the majority of the committee’s $30,000-plus budget is allocated towards get-out-thevote efforts. Some of that money is paying for a dedicated communications staffer, the first time the Elections Committee has funded such a role.

This year the Elections Committee is also trying to stay away from events that require students to show up at a specific place and time. Instead, they’re setting up in high-traffic areas such as the lower atrium of the Nest to engage students face-to-face.

“A lot of students don’t want to go out of their way to actually go to these events,” said Raza. “Instead, we’re going to place our events in locations where students already are.”

And they are on the right track,

according to Johnston.

“Get out the vote efforts or engaging people in a [face-to-face] conversation about them voting makes them more likely to vote,” he said.

Unfortunately, the staff required to run a successful get-out-the-vote operation is likely beyond the resources of the Elections Committee and all of the candidates combined.

“We’re trying our best this year to fill in the gaps wherever we possible can with the resources we have,” said Raza.

interviewed for this article came to the polls for the first time to block Franz Kurtzke’s radical bid for AMS VP Academic in last September’s by-election.

But while more and better candidates almost always means more votes, there’s little the Elections Committee can do to control that.

“If you have a small group of people running in elections, you have less outreach,” said Holmes.

from the shadows. But parts of it do coordinate their votes, and that has an impact. Greek candidates, for example, have historically been overrepresented in the AMS, thanks in part to mobilization on the part of the Inter-Fraternity Council and Greek organizations to get their members to the polls.

Because the candidates are fairly few, they are often chosen by a small group of students who always cast their ballots. They’re the potential ‘selectorate’ — the demo-

One way to draw people to the polls is something outside the Elections Committee’s influence: who decides to run. Candidates who draw widespread attention — positive or negative — are crucial to motivating people to vote.

“Some of that can be image and personal characteristics, some of that can also be whether that candidate stands for a set of issues that resonates with people,” explained Johnston. He emphasized that a positive message, grassroots support and the right platform can push even disaffected demographics to vote, citing the example of unexpected youth turnout in the 2015 Canadian federal election.

That goes for AMS candidates, too. Holmes said that candidates who can hone in on key sets of issues are often instrumental in increasing interest in elections.

“People are sometimes selectively interested in things that the AMS does — they might not be interested in anything except our financial accountability,” explained Holmes.

Just as good candidates can draw support, bad ones attract votes against them. Some students

graphic whose votes often decide the election’s outcome.

“Every election, there’s always the 10 per cent that show up and vote,” said Holmes.

Unlike generally apathetic voters, the students in this 10 per cent have an active stake in the outcome of the election. They’re club executives, Greek members and AMS employees who don’t mind the cost of researching candidates because they already know how the election result can either benefit or harm them.

“They have a buy-in into the election,” explained Holmes.

Ten per cent might not seem like much, but in low-turnout elections, it might be all it takes to win. In 2016, when only 12.6 per cent of students showed up the polls, that ten percent represent about 80 per cent of the total turnout.

That doesn’t mean that this ‘selectorate’ is a unified voting bloc, secretly picking AMS executives

While 500 fraternity members is miniscule in a student population of 54,000-plus, it was a powerful force in the context of the 2016 election, when less than 5,000 people cast a vote for either presidential candidate — 14.4 per cent of the grand total of 5,726 abstained — and only an average of 4,000 students cast a vote for other executive positions, with an average of 30 per cent abstaining.

If only 10 per cent of students are guaranteed voters, odds are that candidates are trying extra hard to court those groups with policies and promises that specifically benefit them.

“If you’re not part of the voting electorate, there is not much of an incentive for politicians to look after you,” said Johnston.

That wouldn’t be a problem, of course, if more people outside that 10 per cent could be convinced to vote.

But that’s easier said than done.

It is Jason Meng’s first year at UBC, but the science student said he’s already decided he’s not voting in the AMS election.

“I’ve never been a part of [the AMS] from the start,” said Meng.

“It has nothing to do with me.”

Meng is one of thousands of commuters at UBC to whom the AMS and its services are either unknown or simply not useful. If ‘the

10 per cent’ have the most buy-in, commuters, who feel like they’re low on the AMS’ list of priorities, have the least.

“I don’t feel connected or engaged at all with the AMS,” said Meng. “It’s a different entity.”

This year, the Elections Committee has increased its efforts to reach out to commuters — but there’s only so much they can do.

“One thing that works is engaging with voters in physical spaces that aren’t going to necessarily be involved in the election — commuters when they’re getting off the bus, for example,” explained Holmes, describing feedback from his time as EA. Meng and other interviewed students acknowledged that the root of the problem is that many commuter students don’t feel engaged in the UBC community and are less likely to be informed about AMS policies even when they benefit them. Pang, for example, wasn’t aware that the AMS helped to implement and maintain the U-Pass, a vital help to commuters’ budgets: “I like that program a lot,” she said.

The result is that commuters feel the AMS doesn’t make policy for them, which means they don’t vote and thus don’t influence policy — a vicious cycle of disengagement with no easy solution.

“I feel like [the AMS] serve a niche group,” said Meng.

Whether it’s on a national scale or in the context of a university, elections are the most fundamental accountability mechanism that exist in a democracy. At UBC, the lack of voter participation has created a vicious cycle of disenfranchisement.

And while the Elections Committee is pushing to change that, it is not something that is going to be solved overnight.

Nonetheless, Raza implores people to exercise their vote.

“The people that you’re electing are people that have so much influence over day-to-day university matters, which issues should be lobbied [and] what big events should happen over the year,” said Raza.

“It’s important for students, especially if they want to complain about things, to actually go and cast a vote.” U

16 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

letter: what i care about is being heard — not being preached to // samantha solomon

Dear Mr. Lin, My name is Sam. I am a fourthyear accounting and business technology management student, currently on a co-op term, and am returning to school in September 2018. I am fully Jewish, meaning that as far back as anyone in my family can remember, we have all been Jewish. I attended Jewish school for 12 years, followed by three years at public high school and identify with Conservative Judaism.

Writing this, I have no intention of being the “Court Jew,” meaning that my opinions absolutely do not represent the opinions of all Jewish people on campus or otherwise.

During the first debate, you

said that the biggest issue facing the AMS is that “there aren’t enough Christians at UBC.” What I want to ask you is: what is “enough Christians at UBC”? Would that be a 100 per cent Christian campus?

As AMS president, how would you

measure your success, and why do you think this is the biggest issue?

When a Jewish student asked you how your gospel would affect them, you answered that it is “a good opportunity to have these options.” To explain to you how I

That is how I feel about Christianity. I am familiar with the options available — the Old and New Testament, Christian and Muslim values, but I still want to practice Judaism.

There is a big difference between having a conversation to learn about

values of a different religion and preaching gospel. I haven’t been able to find examples of how you suggest inter-faith dialogue on your website, where you suggest bringing in a variety of Christian speakers with no other representation.

What I want from the AMS is to feel heard, and your policies seem to be all about preaching. Nowhere on your website have I found out how you plan to hear what students want and serve their best interests through anything other than preaching. I want to wish you the best of luck with your campaign. I am glad that Christianity has been such a positive part of your life, but it isn’t right for me.

Sincerely, Sam U

feel about this, I will sidetrack a bit.

I don’t like ketchup. Yes, I have tried ketchup and I still don’t like it. When I go to the grocery store, I see ketchup and I know that it is an option. My friends like ketchup and they can eat ketchup if they want, but I don’t want to.

“As AMS president, ... why do you think this is the biggest issue?”

PEXELS

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 17

letter: i reject the interfraternity council’s endorsement // max holmes

After meeting with the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) for their AMS elections endorsement meeting, I have decided to reject their endorsement of my campaign for re-election as AMS VP Academic and University Affairs and student Senator-at-large.

During the meeting, I realized that my values and those of the IFC leadership are incompatible. The opinions expressed to me by the IFC leadership regarding campus sexual assault during the endorsement meeting are fundamentally at odds with my own beliefs and my election’s platform. It became apparent to me that IFC leadership cares more about the image of their institution than the systematic abuse survivors have experienced.

I think it would only be appropriate for me to start this letter by say-

ing that I have worked with countless fraternity members who do not share the values expressed by IFC leadership and would be outraged by the questions asked in the meeting. I still stand by what I said when I was first endorsed by IFC during my by-election campaign: “Greek Life has always been a central pillar to the UBC campus experience.”

After presenting my platform, members in the room were allowed to ask questions. The first question I was asked came from the IFC president who wanted to know what I meant by “survivor-centric support.” I explained that survivor-centric support is built off of the idea that we don’t judge the accuracy of a survivor’s disclosure when offering accommodations, and that we prioritize the support

and choice of survivors first. I was happy to explain what is a very important platform point both personally and professionally.

IFC leadership continued to ask questions, including a question relating to whether those accused of sexual assault would receive accommodations. At the time, I was surprised by the question and answered that I couldn’t think of many scenarios where they would need accommodation. Looking back now, there are some accommodation scenarios I can think of — as an example, academic accommodations during an investigation. The president then told me that he could think of a scenario but did not elaborate.

Continuing our conversation, IFC leadership brought up the issue of false accusations. I made it clear that the literature and research show that false accusations make up a tiny percentage of reports. Also, I made it clear that accommodations offered to survivors do not assume the guilt of the accused, but assume the trauma of the survivor.

At one point, another fraternity leader brought up an example where he thought housing accommodation would be appropriate for someone who has been accused and should be offered by the AMS. He talked about how a member of his fraternity had been accused of sexual assault and that girls in sororities did not feel comfortable coming to their fraternity house parties anymore. I answered by making it clear that the AMS doesn’t have the resources to offer housing accommodations to those accused of sexual assault. I also made it clear that the AMS does not have the ability to remove someone from their current housing if they are accused. I pointed out that by making someone leave their current housing, they were assuming guilt in this scenario. At this

letter: the interfraternity council’s “apology” was disappointing // silken handford-perronnet + robyn wilson

After reading Max Holmes’s letter in which he rejected the Inter-Fraternity Council’s (IFC) endorsement, we felt an overwhelming feeling of anger and sadness. The statements made by the IFC leadership are about their concerns of the image of their organizations and accommodations for those who are accused of sexual assault over supporting survivors and the systematic oppression that they face.

Furthermore, the lack of acknowledgement of sexual assault within their community in the statement that the IFC released is extremely telling about their concerns.

Speaking as survivors ourselves, the lack of care for the safety and health of survivors is

abhorrent. Many survivors of sexual assault do not come forward because of the backlash they face.

It takes great courage for survivors to come forward; often they are blamed for their own assault and the focus is shifted to how the accusations negatively impact the accused instead of centering the trauma that the survivors experience.

The IFC’s statement claims that what was said in their meeting was taken out of context and that they support survivors of sexual assault.

If that is the case, why has there been silence and so little action within their community regarding claims of sexual assault? For example, there was the conviction of Mathew Aaron Shufelt in January,

who plead guilty to sexual assaulting a female student in the fraternity village, which the IFC remained silent about.

When given the chance to comment further, IFC President Jeriah Newman said in a Ubyssey article that Holmes’s post serves to further stigmatize fraternities and perpetuate negative stereotypes, and that fraternity men are not going to want to participate in dialogues about consent and sexual assault.

As sorority women, sexual assault is not a negative stereotype of the Greek community — it is a reality that influences our decisions when engaging with the community and is an issue that

point, it was clear to me that the priority was not the safety of the sorority members or fraternity members, but rather the attendance of women at their house party.

Later in the questioning, the IFC president brought up that using the word “survivor” could be stigmatizing to the accused because it assumes their guilt. At this point, as a survivor myself, I began to both feel uncomfortable and unsafe in the environment I was in — but I understood that as an advocate for students, I had to make my point clear. I told everyone in the room that the word “survivor” does not assume the guilt of the accused, but rather assumes that someone has experienced an extremely traumatizing event and needs our support.

The conversation began to wrap up, and I ended by saying that I would review the issue but stay committed to survivor-centric support. They thanked me for my attendance, I thanked them for listening to me and I left the room.

Afterward, I spoke to friends to calm down after what was an event that made me both emotional and gave me some of the worst feelings I’ve ever had as a survivor.

It is disappointing that despite the passing of Policy 131 and the con-

tinued fight to implement a survivor-centric approach at UBC, some leaders in our community are still resistant to supporting and believing survivors. I also recognize the privileged position I am in, as an uncontested incumbent candidate, to be able to publicly challenge what was said at this meeting and to stand for the values I believe in.

I hope that members of the Greek community will still support my campaign and the values I stand for as an advocate for all students. As a survivor, as a student and as an advocate who firmly believes in survivor-centric support, I cannot accept an endorsement from an organization whose leaders support the views expressed at this meeting. U Max Holmes is a second-year arts student, AMS VP Academic and University Affairs and a student member of the UBC Vancouver Senate. All opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Editor’s Note: The Inter-Fraternity Council has released a statement on their Facebook page, citing that “The IFC’s values and views were assumed at this meeting and have unfortunately been misconstrued, with certain questions taken out of context.”

“I made it clear that accommodations offered to survivors do not assume the guilt of the accused, but assume the trauma of the survivor.”

desperately needs to be attended to. In regards to the engagement of fraternity men in dialogues about consent and sexual assault, their participation should not be conditional. When discussing violence and oppression, it is not productive to privilege the comfort of allies over tackling issues of violence and oppression. This is not an attempt to make fraternity members feel guilty, but rather it should be a challenge to be uncomfortable with the truth about your position of power, safety and convenience.

While we recognize that not all members of UBC Fraternities support the views of the IFC, we must recognize the power that these individuals hold within their organizations and be aware of how these sentiments are systematically reproduced. We are not interested in arguing over how “a few bad

FILE PATRICK GILLIN

apples” do not represent the whole community but rather looking for concrete ways that we can change the communities that we occupy and address systemic issues. Furthermore, it is essential that those of who are able and safe to do so do not remain silent on these issues.

Silence is complicity — it allows for this type of violence to continue, while survivors never receive the justice they deserve. U Silken Handford-Perronnet is a fifth-year student majoring in First Nations and Indigenous studies and gender, race, sexuality and social justice, and a member of the UBC sororities community.

Robyn Wilson is a fifth-year student majoring in geography and an alumna member of the UBC sororities community.

18 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

editorial: every vote counts — even yours

// ubyssey editorial board

Every year, the AMS elections take place and every year the voter turnout is shockingly low — especially in recent years.

Last year, the voter turnout surpassed its goal of 20 per cent by just 0.7 per cent, but in 2015 and 2016 the turnout was 12.9 per cent and 12.5 per cent, respectively. So we are reaching out to you, the students, to encourage you to vote and surpass last year’s turnout.

As told by last year’s AUS VP External race, every vote matters.

Mishal Tahir won by just one vote over Chris Hakim and three over Jamie Gill. Additionally, the AUS president position came down to a 22-vote difference and the VP Internal by only 11.

If you haven’t been keeping up with this year’s election coverage, we suggest you start catching up now so you can make the most informed decision possible. Your student government is in power to represent you and it is vital to your time at UBC to have your opinion heard.

There are seven different races in this election period: President, VP Administration, VP Academic and University Affairs, VP External, VP Finance, UBC Board of Governors and UBC Senate. The profiles of candidates for each race can be found in this issue and most all have websites that explain and promote their platform.

If you’re not looking to add more reading to your pile, we also live

op-ed: why do the ams election candidates still lack VOTE YES female representation?

AMS Referenda 2018 VOTE MARCH 5-9

Keep your U-Pass, and more

// emma hicks

Vote here: https://amsvoting.as.it.ubc.ca/ Last year, The Ubyssey published an opinion letter explaining why we need to encourage more women to run for leadership positions in the AMS. At the time, there were only five women running for a position out of twenty-two candidates — there were no women candidates for the president position, and only two for executive positions.

This year, there are five women running out of the fifteen candidates; there is one woman running for president and two others running for an executive position. This is barely a one per cent increase

from last year’s executive races and it is not ideal for a campus whose student population is over fifty per cent female.

Women and gender minorities have been, and still are, largely underrepresented across the country, and it proves no different at UBC. So why aren’t more women interested in running for student government? Why aren’t more young women taking a leadership stance in these formative years that could not only help shape their careers, but UBC’s and Canada’s future?

streamed the all-candidate Great Debate where every candidate was questioned on everything from broad AMS issues to specific candidate goals.

Voting is mostly online so there is no reason not to take a few minutes, press a few buttons and hit “submit.” Vote while you’re sitting on the bus, procrastinating in class or studying at the library. Where you do it, we don’t care — what we do care about is that you do it.

We can do better than just one-fifth of students voting and 2018 could be the year that voter turnout finally increases.

You can vote online from March 5 to 9. U

Since 1915, there have only been 12 female AMS presidents — that represents 11.6 per cent of our university’s governance. There’s not necessarily any one reason why more female students aren’t running in the AMS elections, and there isn’t any one solution to encourage them to run in the future — but the one thing we can do right now is acknowledge the gender gaps that exist in politics and emphasize that women have just as much of a right to run for leadership positions as men.

Although there are some women in leadership positions at UBC — such as Pooja Bhatti and Sally Lin who are the VP Administration and VP External Affairs, respectively — they still represent only two of five executive positions within the AMS. So for a campus that has a women-identifying majority, it appears inconsistent that our student government lacks equal representation.

Most notably in the 2017 AMS elections, the two women who ran for executive positions, Bhatti and Lin, were the successful candidates over their male competitors. Assuming that they were elected because they were best fit for the position, it is evident why we need to see more women in the AMS. Just like last year and for the years to come, we need to encourage our women friends, peers and classmates to seek positions of leadership, and continue to examine why we women don’t run in the first place. U Emma Hicks is the Opinion & Blog editor at The Ubyssey. She is also a fourth-year creative writing and English literature student.

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 19

WHO REPRESENTS YOU? THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE UBC ALMA MATER SOCIETY SINCE 1915

MALE 45% MALE

67% FEMALE

33%

FEMALE 55%

STUDENT BODY OVER LAST DECADE, BY GENDER2

STUDENT EXECUTIVES SINCE 1915, BY GENDER1

1 Head = 5%

AMS STUDENT EXECUTIVES SINCE 1915,

BY RACE WHITE (91.5%)

ASIAN (4.1%)

MIDDLE EASTERN (2.5%)

SOUTH ASIAN (1.6%)

BLACK (0.3%)

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE SINCE THE FOUNDING OF THE AMS?

34 YEARS

35 YEARS

43 YEARS

BEFORE THE FIRST FEMALE EXECUTIVE WAS ELECTED, WHO WAS NOT A SECRETARY OR THE HEAD OF A WOMEN’S SOCIETY.

BEFORE THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT WAS ELECTED

BEFORE THE FIRST PERSON OF COLOUR WAS ELECTED TO THE AMS

Noreen A. Donaldson was elected president of the AMS in 1950.

Jairis Mutambikwa was elected Vice President of the AMS in 1958.

1

Genders and enthnicities for some executives had to be determined by name and appearance due to not being able to interview them personally. 2Data from UBC PAIR Office Website - Demographics by Gender.

// data: jack lamming, graphics: aziz sonawalla

20 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

what you need to know about the referenda

// alex nguyen + samantha mccabe There are four referendum questions on the elections ballot this year, covering a wide range of topics: the extension of current U-Pass contract, the restructuring of AMS fees, the removal of student court from AMS bylaws and the creation of the Sustainable Food Access Fund. The first three have already been endorsed by the AMS. Here’s a break down of what you need to know and how the referenda results could impact you:

u-pass

“Do you support and approve the continuation of the U-Pass BC program at the current price of $41.00/ month, effective April 2018?”

First instated in May 2017, the current $41 per month U-Pass contract — which covers all TransLink services like buses, SkyTrains and the SeaBus — is set to expire in April 2018. If approved, students would be able to continue paying this price until the end of 2019. If rejected, UBC students would be kicked out of the U-Pass BC program

and required to pay $172 per month for a normal three-zone adult pass instead.

fee restructuring “Do you support and approve the fee restructuring proposal as presented?”

Fee collection is crucial to the AMS: they collect about $20 million from students through fees every year. Most of those fees are non-discretionary, meaning they’re specifically allocated to different services — sometimes resulting in untouched funds and making it crucial that the fee structure is accurate to current student needs.

The fee restructuring proposal contains four key voting points. First, voting “yes” will support the doubling of the Sexual Assault Support Services Fee from $3.55 to $7. This fee funds the day-to-day operations of the AMS’s Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC), which has historically struggled with funding as it aims to provide

crisis support, advocacy and education on campus. This will also help to support SASC’s continued expansion.

Second, it’s proposed that the graduate student fee will decrease, from $7 to $3.55.

The third and fourth points of the referendum are regarding the renewal of AMS fees. Eleven fees will have to come up for renewal every three years should the referendum be voted through.

This is to prevent fee structures from becoming outdated and allow the AMS increased ease of change. However, Tania Talebzadeh, a fourth-year GRSJ student and the co-chair of the Social Justice Centre, has concerns that this referendum infringes upon the transparency and communication that the student resource centres usually have with the AMS. The “resource group fee,” which covers Pride UBC, the Social Justice Centre and the Women’s Centre, is on the AMS list.

“A big concern within all of the resources centres has been the fact that we were not even aware of this restructuring, and these questions being put out to students,” said Talebzadeh.

“So there has been no communication from the AMS around this issue … It places an extra bureaucratic block to our processes.”

She said that this referendum has raised concerns on the part of the resource group leaders that it will slow down the process for students to be able to access funding and support.

“Why didn’t you, as the AMS, come and approach us if you had issues with transparency and such? Why didn’t you come consult us in relation to how you wish to handle this with the broader student body?”

With the referendum, “any fee that fails to win renewal will stay in place for one fiscal year before being discontinued,” representing a big change.

student court “Do you support and approve amending the AMS Bylaws in accordance with the changes presented in the document entitled Removing Student Court from the AMS Bylaws?”

Student Court has, according to the AMS, become useless in recent years.

The body, which is intended to be an independent decision-making structure for students with complaints or concerns, hasn’t been filled since 2010. It also isn’t very independent — according to society bylaw, AMS Council can still vote against any of its decisions.

Attempts to strengthen Student Court against Council failed in referendum, according to Sheldon Goldfarb, the AMS archivist. “In another attempt to strengthen the Court, Council put a rule in Code to prevent itself from overturning Court rulings, but the next time a Court ruling was made that Council didn’t like (in 2010), Council suspended that Code rule and rejected the Court ruling. It later amended Code to remove that rule permanently.”

VP Admin candidate Chris Hakim,

who put forward the referendum to AMS Council, said in an emailed statement, “A crucial issue with Student Court is that it is providing a slow and costly service that is done better in other avenues of the AMS. There are already various bodies within the AMS that offer the same services that Student Court does, and in a much faster, more effective, and cost-efficient way.”

To those that might be concerned about fair and democratic process, AMS President Alan Ehrenholz stated “this is a more efficient process and we’ll still hold up those democratic values at the end of the day. The people that are going to be on Council are elected, and I would encourage students to have trust in the elected leadership to make decisions that are best for the Society.”

Ehrenholz also pointed to the AMS Ombudsperson as someone students could go to for help.

Sustainable Food Access Fund “Do you support the AMS establishing a Sustainable Food Access Fund through a refundable fee of $0.35 to support on-campus sustainable food initiatives (subsidize food prices and increase programming at Agora Cafe and UBC Sprouts, and offer a student discount at the UBC Farm Market and Roots on the Roof)?”

Four UBC organic and sustainable food initiatives have proposed a refundable fee of $0.35 to support their operations and keep their products affordable for students.

For UBC Sprouts and Agora Cafe, the fee would expand and subsidize their programs, allowing them to continue offering their products at the same prices despite rising food costs.

For UBC Farm Market and Roots on the Roof, the fee would also be used to subsidize their programs in order to create a 10 to 15 per cent discount for students.

More specifically, $0.15 would go toward UBC Sprouts, $0.07 toward Agora, $0.03 toward Roots on the Roof and $0.10 toward UBC Farm Market.

According to UBC Sprouts Vice-President Nikki Lax, the four groups came up with the referendum question after realizing that their operations are not “financially sustainable at the current pricing” due to the higher-price premium placed on organic food and produce.

“We realized that we’re feeling those repercussions and we’re just trying to make this food accessible,” she said.

“With a little bit of annual subsidy, our entire operations could be way better, way more financially-sustainable and more viable.”

Currently, the groups’ operations are funded by sales, Community Supported Agriculture boxes, workshop donations and grants. They receive no direct funding from UBC. If approved, the fee would stay at the same level for the years after, unless the groups pose another referendum question to have it increase with inflation. U

The choice is up to YOU. Visit us at one of our polling booths or vote online March 5 - 9.

Because it only takes a minute to make your voice heard.

https://amsvoting.as.it.ubc.ca

22 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

who should you vote for?

while we highly encourage every ubc student to voraciously consume our coverage, we know that it’s hard to find the time.

Sometimes, you just want to read the most bare-bones analysis. so here you have it: a brutally honest run-down of what each person could offer you as a student and who you might choose to vote for.

president marium hamid Hamid is a knowledgeable and experienced candidate. In particular, her work as AMS student services manager this year could provide her with the know-how to make the presidential role more concrete than just being a glorified spokesperson for the AMS. Out of the three candidates, she also has the most tangible platform and strategies — although some platform points like expanding the Block Party are questionable, given the AMS’s disastrous financial planning in the past. It also remains to be seen how she would be able to break from the status quo and bring new perspectives to the AMS.

andy lin Lin certainly brings a fresh perspective, but when his response to every question is “the love of Jesus Christ,” it was at times hard to take him seriously as a candidate. His answers become particularly intangible in light of topics like sexual assault, especially at a university that is having challenges implementing a policy to combat the issue.

Beyond his platform, Lin lacks any substantial knowledge about the AMS. But he is willing to engage in inter-faith dialogue — if he’s elected, you can find him at the president’s office, “sitting back and waiting for people to talk to [him].”

rodney little mustache Little Mustache is the first presidential candidate to have truly pushed for an Indigenous perspective, which is significant given the AMS’s current lack of substantial representation from these communities. His objectives to create an Indigenous committee and to declare 2020 the year of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students also give his platform tangibility, but it’s clear that he would have to get past a steep learning curve on governance structures at UBC if elected. We hope that if elected, he would follow up on his ideas with tangible working steps to get there — and if he isn’t elected, we hope that the AMS follows up on his incredibly important ideas for Indigenous representation.

vp finance kuol akuechbeny

Editor’s Note: We think it’s worth mentioning that Linda Huang, who dropped out of the race on Wednesday, would have been a great candidate for VP Finance, dominating in the debate and showing strong expertise with her platform.

While Akuechbeny is positioning himself as “an outsider,” he has worked for the AMS for over two years in a range of demanding roles. His club-oriented platform includes a full transition from paper to digital reimbursement and reinstating an advisory board to support AMS businesses. Akuechbeny’s goals might not be accomplished easily or quickly — but they’re necessary, and he’s confident that his tenure as a club president, treasurer and AMS clubs and constituencies financial administrator proves he can pay the bills. We’ll see if he can follow through, if elected.

adam forsgren

Forsgren, the current financial systems coordinator, would expand the AMS’s investment portfolio and update the society’s fin-tech platform, if elected. While Forsgren is a competent and experienced candidate, his platform often reads a bit like the position’s job description, avoiding criticism of the status quo or promises of real change. We wish his expertise translated into a more ambitious, goal-oriented platform, but he’s a safe, fiscally-conservative bet at the moment.

vp administration aaron verones

chris hakim

Verones has a wealth of experience as well as a solid platform — however, his turbulent campaign leaves us with questions about how his term would run. Verones first had a campaign suspension and later came under fire for not rejecting his IFC endorsement, leading to some expressing concerns about how he would handle the issue of sexual assault as VP Administration. Unlike Hakim, however, he does have experience outside of student government that could bring some different perspective to the role. He also mentioned the controversial expulsion policy as something he would like to see re-examined.

While Hakim has shown a lot of initiative as an AMS councillor, his time on Council has brought up questions about his consistency and policies. Although he mentioned that he would want to change the expulsion policy, he was on the committee that drafted it. But he does have the experience and knowledge to complete his main platform point, which is to ensure consistency within the VP Admin office by creating guidelines and code. He also has a solid plan for moving into the renovated SUB, which will be a large part of the VP Administration role over the summer.

senate jeanie malone

marium hamid

Malone has been involved in UBC governance forever, giving her a level of expertise that few candidates can match. Her platform’s a bit vague — Policy 131 reform and governance review stand out as her only concrete goals. It is useful to have a representative from BoG on the Senate, and she seems committed to making sure the two bodies coordinate effectively. She emphasized communication as her manifesto, wanting Senate to listen more closely to student desires and hoping that that would inspire students to take a more active role in return.

kuol akuechbeny Akuechbeny’s platform has promising goals in it that are certainly achievable, and it’s easy to imagine him working with like-minded senators to get them done. However, it’s also small and not very detailed — he seems to have more plans for the VP Finance position than he does for a senate seat.

Akuechbeny’s new to Senate, but his experience in both the AMS and WUSC suggests that he’ll be capable of adjusting to the job. If mental health, diversity and open educational resources are issues you’d like to see advanced, Akuechbeny is worth your vote.

Hamid’s advantage mostly comes from the large amount of experience and knowledge she has garnered from serving on different governance bodies at UBC. She has also shown commitment to inclusivity through her past work, in particular her role in creating the ad hoc committee on academic equity and inclusion. On the flip side, Hamid has yet to prove how she would be able to break from the status quo in an oft-bureaucratic Senate. She is also running to become AMS president, which may complement her work or hinder her ability to work effectively as a Senator.

matthias leuprecht A first-year student running in his first election, Leuprecht offers a youthful enthusiasm and ambition to the role. For what it’s worth, Leuprecht responds to emails within minutes, he can name all his predecessors at the drop of a hat and his knowledge of Senate’s committees and general structure is impressive. His policies seem a little idealistic and certainly different from what other senatorial candidates are campaigning on. If elected, it remains to be seen how he would incorporate his platform with that of others to achieve tangible goals.

max holmes Holmes brings valuable institutional knowledge to the table, and he was able to speak about Senate issues at a level of detail that was in a league of his own. His platform largely coincides with his goals for his return to the VP Academic portfolio. He is dedicated to reforming winter exam schedules so that a fall reading break is possible, and seems to actually have some realistic ideas on how to do so. His IFC endorsement rejection has garnered a lot of praise from the community, and his ability to speak up for what he believes in is promising.

jakob gattinger As an incumbent who is very knowledgeable about Senate and its goals, Gattinger has established himself as a competent candidate who knows how to make progress on a goal.

His platform — which includes improving academic concessions, conducting a governance review of Senate and adjusting exam schedules to open up free days for projects such as a fall reading break — is in line with the interests of other senators and realistic. If re-elected, his focus, experience and seat on Board of Governors will make him an impactful presence on Senate in the next year.

hannah xiao Xiao is new to the Senate, but she is up to date on governance body’s discussions and holds a good understanding of how it can impact student life. Her platform consists of increasing student engagement and Senate transparency, improving the academic experience and implementing better mental health support systems. Xiao emphasizes that increasing student engagement is crucial to creating improvements to school curriculum, yet her plan for doing this is not coherent. Besides student engagement, she aims to achieve too many things at once, making her goals seem scattered and unfocused.

MARCH 5, 2018 MONDAY | elections | 23

board of governors jeanie malone

Editor’s Note: Since Malone and Gattinger were the only two students who put their hats in the ring this year, they have already been “acclaimed as elected” — in other words, given the seats without a formal vote. We still think it’s worthwhile for students to stay informed on their policies and promises in order to hold them accountable in the coming year.

This will be Malone’s second term as a student member of the Board, meaning that she brings a host of experience and institutional knowledge to the role. Hopefully she’ll bring a renewed vigour and a little more push-back on some important policies upcoming, most notably the international student tuition discussions and the ongoing implementation of the sexual misconduct policy. With a Board that’s hesitant to try anything new, she could use her experience and be someone to call on them to consider alternative models and different options.

jakob gattinger

After a term on Senate, Gattinger wants to bring a refreshing vocality and stubbornness to his new role. Hopefully he’ll maintain this feisty side, and instead of slipping into the all-too-frequent student member trap of justifying unpopular Board decisions, instead calling them out.

He’s promised to vote no to tuition proposals if BoG doesn’t start responding to student feedback — we’d like to see him go further and push BoG to actually take student feedback into consideration. He has shown his ability to leverage his platforms to bring up new discussions — we hope to see him keep it up.

vp academic + university affairs max holmes Holmes is running unopposed for re-election, so it’s a good thing that he has a demonstrated track record of advocating for students and pushing UBC to listen, albeit incrementally. He has proven himself to be outspoken in standing up for his values — the IFC endorsement rejection is proof of that, especially as it spurred response from other candidates on the topic. He’s incredi-

bly knowledgeable about the portfolio and wants another term to finish his long-term goals; his promises in the fall were a little lofty, but he recognizes that. We hope he follows through with his ambitious promises of improving AMS communication, pushing UBC on implementing the sexual misconduct policy and creating an effective Indigenous advocacy group.

vp external cristina ilnitchi Voters who value continuity and experience need look no further than Ilnitchi. She demonstrates them both in her concrete policies on data-driven open educational resources and tuition advocacy, which are also informed by her work as AMS campaigns and outreach commissioner.

While her platform is extensive — and arguably unachievable in a single term — Ilnitchi is the only candidate to include holding UBC accountable for sexual misconduct policy implementation and advocating for further mental health funding from the government in her campaign.

mishal tahir Tahir’s experience at the constituency level as AUS VP External is evident in her platform, which emphasizes lobbying for interest-free student loans and increased international student scholarship opportunities from off-campus partners. While outspoken on transit issues and extending the SkyTrain to UBC immediately rather than after the Arbutus extension — which is extremely unlikely — Tahir’s policy proposals tend to be a bit vague. Her promises to continue ongoing advocacy work also don’t demonstrate a huge awareness of what could be improved on.

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s.g. krishna While he has no formal leadership experience on campus, Krishna brings enthusiasm to the race. He has promised to increase job opportunities for international students, create air-conditioned bus stops and equalize domestic and international tuition rates by lobbying the Board of Governors, which is usually the VP Academic’s responsibility. Without introducing specific platform strategies to achieve these goals, however, he appears to be unaware of many aspects of the VP External portfolio. He also wants to make the U-Pass optional, which could endanger the program’s existence. U

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24 | elections | MONDAY MARCH 5, 2018

2018 AMS ELECTIONS

B I N G O Andy Lin mentions the gospel

Candidate tries to legitimize a buzzword

Multiple Senate candidates desperately try to have different platforms

Campaign poster with no website link

“I wasn’t in the room when the decision was made”

Uncontested candidate still campaigns

Candidate drops out

Candidate is suspended from campaigning

“Student experience”

Voter turnout hits 20 per cent, AMS celebrates wildly

“Student engagement” (Free)

Campus leader forced to step down due to scandal

Ubyssey editorial begging people to vote

You can’t remember a single thing the AMS has done in the past year

Candidate is factchecked wrong three times in the same article

“Fall reading break”

Candidate’s thin veneer of geniality slips

Someone asks if Andy Lin is a joke candidate

Candidate wears a suit to something they really didn’t need to wear a suit to

You meet a candidate irl and they campaign to your face

Candidate has no idea what UBC’s sexual misconduct policy is

You’re invited to more than five Facebook events in a day

Winning candidate gets beer dumped on them

Poster that could be an album cover

You’re given a free thing by a candidate