Features
Governance Part II: UBC Properties Trust
Once again, this is inspired by Tristan Markle’s excellent letter to the Ubyssey. He identifies UBC Properties Trust as a key driving force in the U.Blvd decision. He’s quite right. But the UBCPT question is one that’s far more broad than UBlvd; in fact, I’d argue it’s a fundamental threat to the University’s governance. So, [...]
Executive Interview Series, Part I: Jeff Friedrich, AMS President
Yesterday, Wednesday the 11th, I had the pleasure of invading the presidential office to talk to our own Jeff Friedrich. The interview is 51 minutes long, but well worth it – Jeff talks about all the big issues in impressive depth. So click the link, and let Jeff’s dulcet American accent soothe you while you [...]
Corporate Governance I: BoG
Since my time on the Board, I’ve taken an interest in governance best practices. And if not that, at least been more keenly aware of the relationships that build at Board levels, how the selection of a key few political appointees can really make a difference. To that end I was particularly intrigued by the [...]
Campaign tips, or, how students learned to stop reading and love the familiar.
After my recent abysmal loss in the SUS elections, I found myself wondering what, exactly, do candidates need to do to themselves and surrounding victims in order to get their message out? Student leaders and political junkies constantly and lamely lament the so-called “student apathy” problem. Everyone else is too apathetic to care, frankly. The [...]
Aquatic Centre Gym, Part II
First, I should note an addendum to my previous post. Rec has released their proposed fee reductions. They’re very good. They’re 25-30% in the Elite (refereed) divisions, and 45-50% in the Co-rec. This is a very welcome development. Something interesting happened with the Aquatic Centre Gym closure. Note Tuesday’s Ubyssey – there were two stories, [...]
Aquatic Centre Gym, Part I
So the University decided to close the Aquatic Centre Gym. Students fought back. There’s the story. The first part is dedicated to the gym and the background – Part II will discuss the very interesting student response. Why is the gym important?On its face, it may not be. The Bird Coop is bigger, there are [...]
Issue of the Day: AMS Accessibility – Language
This hit me the other day. I was having a conversation with a candidate, asking him (candidate wasn’t necessarily male, I’m just using the pronoun because it’s easier) about his ideas, and he was having trouble communicating, and verbalizing them, particularly when I’d ask him to relate them to abstract concepts. I tried my reassuring [...]
Poll Results
Now that online voting has closed, it’s time to pollute the waters of the Sea of Democracy with that most undemocratic of innovations – the opinion poll!! We had 80 responses, and this violates pretty much every law of polling – no random sampling, no random ordering of the numbers, self-selecting respondents… so it’s pretty [...]
Issue of the Day: First-Year Students
The AMS has done a terrific job in addressing issues of systemic barriers to access. (Note: by “access” I refer to the general ability to participate in the AMS, both in terms of services and in government.) See the gender-neutral washroom, its bursary fund, cab fares after midnight, and childcare for examples. But take a [...]
Issue of the Day: Services
The largest chunk of the AMS’ discretionary budget, and their largest non-food/beer source of relevance to UBC students, is their services. (Full list here). It should be noted that Services are administered directly by the Executive Co-Ordinator of Student Services, a hired (non-elected) position that serves as the sixth member of the Executive Committee. Some [...]
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