Investigative

This category contains 42 posts

The Underground Bus Loop – analyzed to death

This is a guest post by Dr. Darren Peets, who just completed both his Phd in physics, and his term as a student represetitive to the UBC Board of Governors. One issue at UBC that’s particularly bothered me, and which wasn’t resolved to my satisfaction during my Board term, is the proposed underground bus terminal [...]

Welcome to the University club

News and analysis by Tariq Ahmed, UBC law graduate and former Senator. Depending on how deeply buried in the library you’ve been for the last few weeks, you may have heard about Premier Campbell’s trip around the province waving his magic wand and turning everything short of a high school into a “university”. If you [...]

Historical review of SDS

A historical polemic by UBC alum Mike Thicke Do you know who the man in this picture is? If not, you probably lack a lot of knowledge that would be helpful in understanding the current activist climate at UBC. With Trek Park, the “Lougheed Affair”, and the recent Knoll Aid 2.0 RCMP confrontation, tension within [...]

B.C. PSE budgets are actually being cut

Last week, the Vancouver Sun broke a story about the Campbell government’s decision to deviate from the expected funding levels for post-secondary institutions by redistributing some money, boosting health care and trade training in some colleges and cutting university funding. I wrote a post saying how reasonable this was with respect to strategic development of [...]

UBC Farm politics, elaboration of.

If you’ve voted in the current student referendum, you may have noticed that there is no question about the UBC Farm. Most people of course, wouldn’t have expected one, but it is a surprise to some. The Friends of the Farm started a campaign to get a question on the referendum ballot which would see [...]

Student Court Decision

The Student Court released its decision today in the VP Academic matter. They allowed the appeal, ordering that Alex Lougheed be disqualified. The Court left the matter of how to fill the vacancy up to the AMS Executive. More to come later, undoubtedly after Council. But, for those interested, the excerpt that outlines the reasoning [...]

UBC Farm: Why they aren’t taking a referendum question to students this March

Most students know by now that the future of the UBC Farm is shrouded in uncertainty and controversy. This year strong student supporters of the Farm (particularly Friends of the Farm), wanted to hold a referendum question asking students to increase their student fees to support the farm’s programs and development. The hope was that [...]

CFS Politics. What fun!

You’ve probably noticed them: ads on the 99 B-line with smiling, ethnically diverse young people with “I am CFS” drawn on their outstreached hands in marker. The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), which is one of the two main federal student lobbies, is gearing up for a huge publicity campaign in the next month to [...]

The Coalition for Student Loan Fairness hits the lobbying sweet spot

There’s been a few new posts recently. Don’t forget to scroll down. What makes for great lobbying? What gets you in the news? Why do student governments agonize and student lobbies button up, while a comparatively small group rockets into national media coverage and affects actual national party policy? The lively example of the nascent [...]

Financial bullying in Commerce Faculty, or, what becomes of a bad precedent.

Dan Muzyka, Dean of the faculty of Commerce, is in the market for a sugar momma. The only reason he hasn’t posted on Craigslist yet is because he thinks he’s got a lead. Except this time she’s younger than he is, and considerably poorer – the Commerce Undergraduate Society. The affectionately self-dubbed “Dean Dan” has [...]

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