New Tuition Policy Question Added To AMS Referenda

From March 7-11, the AMS will be holding four referenda ^[1] dealing with the U-Pass, a student fee increase, and bylaw changes. As of today, a fifth question was added via student petition.

This afternoon, members of the UBC Social Justice Centre delivered a petition to VP Academic and University Affairs Matt Parson with around 1200 signatures calling for a referendum regarding the AMS’s policy on tuition and tuition increases. The question to be put to students as phrased on the petition is “From now on should the AMS lobby for reduced tuition fees for both domestic and international students?”

Under AMS Bylaws ^[2], a referendum must be called if a petition is submitted with signatures from 1000 students, or 5% of AMS members, whichever is less. While the signatures of those who signed the petition still need to be verified, it looks extremely likely that the 1000-signature threshold will be attained. As well, this referendum does not necessarily have to be held concurrently with the other four referendum questions. The bylaws specify only that the referendum must be held “not less than ten (10) days and not more than thirty (30) days after (…) the submission to the Vice-President of a petition”. However, while it could be held at a different time, initial indications are that they will all be run concurrently. 

The intent behind this new question is similar to a referendum question posed just over a year ago during the 2010 AMS elections ^[3], also looking to revise the AMS’s stance on tuition. The question posed at that time was “Should the AMS actively lobby for reduced tuition fees and increased government funding?” At the time, this question was considered to be an after-the-fact attempt to vindicate Blake Frederick and Tim Chu and show that students at least supported the idea behind their UN complaint ^[4], if not method or execution behind it.

Initially, it was reported that the tuition policy question had been the only referendum question (there were 9 questions that year) to both reach quorum and obtain the required majority. However, as a result of the massive electoral fraud ^[5] that took place in 2010, 134 “yes” votes were subtracted, making it unclear whether or not the question had actually reached quorum, as illustrated in the image below. Despite the question receiving 80% approval, the AMS has not acted on the 2010 referendum because of this ambiguity surrounding whether or not quorum was met.

The results of the 2010 tuition policy referendum were inconclusive due to uncertainty resulting from that year's massive electoral fraud.