Archive for January, 2008
Brendon’s Endorsements
Here are my endorsements, for what they’re worth. I tried to give justification behind my decisions – both why I am supporting certain candidates, and why I’m not supporting others. Please note: These are not necessarily Maayan’s endorsements, or any one else’s from the UBC Insiders, those will come later in the week. I am [...]
Second round of AMS debates show an improving trend.
Today saw two additional rounds of debates – one at noon for the President, VP Academic, and VP finance races, and an additional one in the evening over beers at The Gallery for the VP Administration, VP External, and Senate races. All but the BoG candidates had their chance in the hotseat. These are my [...]
BoG rep Darren Peets’s Words of Wisdom
Darren Peets, by the incomparable JJ McCullough (don’t sue me JJ!) Governor Peets’s priceless pearls of wisdom. Listen up BoG candidates!!Can a bog rep actually make a difference?Yes, absolutely, but it may not always be obvious to more than ~50 people, very few of whom are students. The turnaround time may also be very slow. [...]
Issue of the Day: Governance, Pt. 2 – Internal Issues
At the end of the day, UBC is an academic institution. The Board of Governors should be responsive to students’ concerns, needs and priorities. Creating a University Town has changed the campus community (read about the ramifications in Tim’s article about on campus events, alcohol licensing, ACF), and has created many new pressures and responsibilities [...]
Speech therapists, writers, needed.
The three “serious” presidential candidates. Foot-in-mouth disease? So I was only at about the first 20 minutes of yesterday’s candidate debate in the SUB conversation pit. That means I got to hear the presidential candidates answer a few questions. It was a little painful. Not to be a hater, but I don’ think it’s too [...]
Issue of the Day: Governance Issues Pt. 1 – Municipal Governance
This is an important issue, and a big topic. It came up in the VP Academic debate yesterday, and could use some explanation. There are two important background points to understanding this issue: 1. When UBC was created, the Province endowed the University with a lot of land – 175 acres; 2. That land is [...]
Issue of the day: Student Senate Caucus, efficacy of.
I admit that I cannot comment on the senate proceedings this past year, as I am now living on another continent. However, if history is an indicator of the present and future, I will allow myself to write a short excerpt on student senator’s and their caucus’ effectiveness. The Continuity HarpThe majority of the Senate’s [...]
Buzzwords: “Council Empowerment”
This post is by Spencer Keys, the AMS President of 05/06. We thank him for his participation. I will be blogging more about the basics of both committee reform and the Strategic Framework later in the week for the new readers out there. Maayan has politely asked me on a number of occasions to write [...]
Issue of the Day: AMS Businesses
The AMS businesses are an important way for the AMS to make money so that we can keep student fees lower. And we do have some of the lowest student union fees in the country (when you take out athletics fees, health & dental, U-Pass, etc, and you’re left with the AMS’ actual operating budget). [...]
Issue of the day: Campus life
Boy, it’s hard to write “Issue” posts when there’s no candidate platforms four days before voting. Oh wait, the campaign just started today. Never mind that, then. Last year I spent a lot of time harping on what I see as the slow and steady decline since I first came to UBC in the good [...]
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