Whose student housing plan is better?

Please remember to vote for us in the Voter Funded Media contest! The decisions giving rise to #iamastudent (though, as an external observer, it is unclear to me whether this continues to have any meaningful momentum) include both the tuition increase to international students and the significant increase in student housing pricing.  Unfortunately the 20% [...]

Follow the Money: How Student Rents Are Funneled Into New Construction Projects

UBC wants to build new undergrad teaching labs which will cost $80M. As is the case with many campus building projects, UBC does not have $80M. So, UBC has concocted a plan to come up with $80M. There is some complicated financial wizardry afoot.

Underground Bus Loop Cancelled Again

Campus and Community Planning has revealed that the current plan for a new transit terminal at UBC has been deemed unfeasible.

UBC hands out $11.8M in interest-free mortgages to admin, faculty

Mortgage interest paid to UBC by students living in residence this year: ~$18 million. Mortgage interest paid to UBC by upper admin and faculty: $0.

More Than A Bystander

The true colours of many of UBC’s student athletes were made very clear last night. Supportive of outright sexism and harassment. Shame on them.

Random. Precedent Setting. Undergrad. Cash Grab.

Another year, another attempt at a random precedent setting undergrad cash grab from UBC. This year’s version is the proposed Bachelor of International Economics (BIE), a new degree program in the Vancouver School of Economics (VSE), a new school in the faculty of Arts.

Here’s Why The UBC Liquor Store Moved

Saying Wesbrook Place is a “better location” for a liquor store implies that some sort of fomal comparison was made between two or more locations, based on a measurable set of criteria. This did not happen.

Here’s the Mahony and Sons Lease

The ban on liquor stores in U-Blvd is not protecting Mahony’s from competition for something they do, it’s protecting them for something they don’t do. Even if they wanted to do off-sales, Mahony’s is unable to under the current terms of their own licence. It’s protectionism for protectionism’s sake.

UBC Maximizing Housing Density by Minimizing Legal Compliance

Would UBC break the law to fulfill their market housing ambitions?

Yes!

Gage South to be Designated “Academic”

“The recommended … amendments to the Land Use Plan are the designation of the current ‘Area Under Review’ to ‘Academic’ which will allow student housing.”