The Insiders
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Jan
21
Maayan's Endorsements
Posted by: Neal Yonson | January 21, 2008 | 19 Comments
Well, I figure there’s no point waiting any longer. If you care, here’s who I’ll be voting for, and briefly why. I haven’t included a scientific dissection of each candidate’s pros and cons, though I’m happy to discuss this in more detail in the comments.
President: Erin Rennie – I talked about this in an earlier post. Notwithstanding Jeff’s rebuke of Tim and I for endorsing her, Erin is the best person for the job. As posted on the Devil’s Advocate, she sent out a release today assuring students that she’s perfectly serious about taking the job and doing her best, if elected. She’s qualified, she’s a leader. Vote for your first choice – or else democracy’s a sham. My first choice is Erin.
(And by the way – if this situation (“this situation” being the one where people are afraid of voting Rennie for fear of “splitting the vote” for their second-favorite candidate) drives you crazy, make sure to support a sensible voting system that prevents vote-splitting next time someone suggests one. This will be occuring in a month or so. So don’t forget.)
The rest behind the jump.
VP Academic: Alex Lougheed – Alex’s platform is solid. He’s matured a lot in the last year. He’s shown that he can work as a team player, he’s conscientious, knowledgeable, and quite creative in his own way. I hope that Alex will continue to develop his internal sense of values, so that he can make decisions that are not only practical and beneficial for students, but also personally meaningful.
VP External: Stefanie Ratjen – Stef’s experience in the UBC community with grassroots activism will help her connect her the VPX portfolio with students. She has strong opinions, but it looks like she’ll ultimately be willing to take direction and be open. Stef’s commitment to lobby on a provincial level is a good thing; her unclear overtures about using CFS in some way to do so need to be clarified.
VP Academic: Sarah Naiman – Sarah has been working very hard this year on the SUB renew project. She planned a successful consultation strategy, and successfully renovated the Pit with VP Finance Brittany Tyson. Watching Sarah speak to the Board of Governors this fall about SUB Renew made me feel proud of the AMS, and proud to be a UBC student. She’s that convincing. Sarah will continue to do a good job on SUB renew, and she’s promised to devote more time to restructure SAC, which I look forward to seeing.
VP Finance: Andrew Forshner – I’ve had the pleasure of working with Andrew this year. He’s clever, practical, has financial experience, and is truly one of the best listeners I know. His commitment to sustainability in the businesses is appreciated.
BoG:
Andrew Carne – Andrew has demonstrated his knowledge of campus development issues. His commitment to communicating with students is important. This year, students have demonstrated an increased interest in BoG decisions – it’ll be great to capitalize on that momentum. I don’t know him personally, but I have it on several good authorities that he impressed in the debates and can be trusted.
Tim Blair – Tim will bring a level of maturity to the Board. As an experienced naturalist, community activist, and professional engineer, Tim has both the right priorities and the necessary credibility to be an effective Board member. He knows alot about sustainability, and a lot about UBC planning issues. He’ll be a credible champion of our open spaces and the Farm.
Senate: As others have mentioned, there’s a great calibre of candidates this year.
Blake Frederick – Blake knows the issues inside out, having worked as the AVP academic for the AMS this year. He’s already got important relationships that will be useful this year. He’s truly thoughtful, and won’t be a fair-weather senator.
Alex Lougheed – I agree with Brendon here. Alex is meticulous and detail oriented. He has some specific ideas about making student senators more effective and cohesive. While these might be a bit hard to achieve, the thought is a good one, and Alex himself will be a great senator.
Philip Edgcumbe – I am very impressed by Philip’s platform. His two main ideas – recording lectures, and allowing students to challege the exam for a course – are both good and practical. The rest of his platform reads like a what’s what of important academic issues. Philip has clearly done his homework, and done it well. He’s young and keen, and will hopefully get the ball rolling on his ideas early.
Alfie Lee – Alfie has woked hard this year both on AMS and senate. His enthusiasm is appreciated. His platform points are all right-on. Study space, timely exam schedules, library hours, teacher training – damn slow senate processes!!
Azim Wazeer – Azim’s platform looks good. The issue of the LPI and TOEFL is a new one, but the annoyance of having to take gazillions of standardized tests is not small for international students. I’m sceptical of Azim’s recommendation about having grad students study at UBC for a year before letting them TA. Many grad students need TA positions to finance their graduate work, especially in their first year.
Comments
19 Comments so far
ahhh.
maayan you blog like no other
may i ask once again?
me, you + the tahitan holiday package with the his and her jet-skis?
This is verging on the creepy – who the heck are you?? And I have to question your taste in travel choices, sir. Holiday packages are boring.
Maayan, I think you site just got spammed! (freaky…)
But thank you for your endorsement and I truly appreciate your support!
Maayan I’m heartbroken!
Warm regards,
Nate
Nate, what gentleman. (though flying to tahiti would be more than our year’s allotment of carbon, I’m afraid)
Also – I realize there’s an inordinate amount of endorsements now on this site from various people. Having just read the Cavalier’s admonishment, here http://www.thecavalier.ca/archives/2008/01/19/report-from-lethbridge/, I feel a bit bad about this. Therefore, please ignore them and make up your own mind.
Hey, Maayan,
No matter how this election goes, I finally understand what Bruce has been fight for and what you have so tirelessly advocate for. Omg, Condorcet system is good. That’s a painful way of learning!
Alfie
Maayan –
Don’t succumb to the moralizing of the Cavalier. Endorsements are just information like anything else and it is the fool that either uses them exclusively or does not listen to them at all.
Although we at the Devil’s Advocate do like to poke fun at the idea of endorsements (see: disendorsement), I do think that they have value.
I mean, I’ve followed most of the races closely and have already made up my mind. But for those students who aren’t election junkies like myself, reading a well thought-out recommendation of candidates by someone they trust (or someone who had power) can be helpful. I’ll probably be deciding BoG and Senate in part based on endorsements.
Also – well thought out selections.
<sniff>
How can you say Alex has a solid platform? It’s made of PAPER! Mine’s wood!
<sob>
The Hydrant needs to come out of its shell (though it may freeze in this weather) and realize there’s more to campus than dogs and pressure.
My platform isn’t made of paper, only nine copies are. It transcends the medium it can be read off of, and exists in the ‘aether of ideas’™. You criticize me for having a platform based in electrons, well hydrant, last I checked your ideas are made of matter, and unless you’re made of antimatter or beta particles, you require electrons to be stable.
Why don’t you just rename this blog “Vote Erin Rennie”? A title like that would get straight to the point, allowing you to cut down on 95% of the articles here. You may not be aware, but the internet can only support so many heaps of glowing, flowery endorsements.
FYI – that above Spencer is not the usual Spencer.
– #96
i can’t believe Keys just signed off as “#96”
Alex, it’s not that your campaign platform is made from electrons, it’s how little it relies on solid objects. Obviously, every campaign platform made of baryonic matter will contain a good dollop of electrons, mine included. However, I’m not aware of any physical manifestation of your platform that could support an 86.8kg Fire Hydrant over rough terrain. Your platform just isn’t as robust.
And the aether was decommissioned about a century ago due to budget cuts.
I wonder if there’s a chance we can do disendorsements on this page. If that were possible, I’d disendorse The Knoll in its candidacy for the prize money in the VFM campaign.
This alleged “Weekly” ranks at the bottom of the barrel among UBC publications. It’s badly written, poorly-researched and might serve better as toilet paper than reading material.
Since the beginning of the AMS Election its writers have endeavoured not to give readers important information about any candidates, but to unwaveringly support Stefanie Ratjen and slam Freeman Poritz.
Admittedly, I’ve slammed them both on my own blog, but I’ve done it on the basis of things that have come out of their campaigns.
The Knoll’s just a little nastier than that. One of its writers, Jasmine Ramze, has created a Facebook group at http://ubc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9096231101&ref=mf
with the specific aim of railing Poritz’s campaign into the ground. One of her criticisms is that he’s in a fraternity. You know what, so am I! And so’s Rob McLean, one of the people that the Knoll has endorsed as a candidate! So’s BoG candidate Bijan Ahmadian, and so’s Senate candidate Azim Wazeer, but I guess the Knoll has seen it fit to ignore that. Either that or refused outright to do any research.
I admit, Freeman said a stupid thing back in 2003. A very inadvisable comment for which I’ve slammed him as well.
I should also note that Ms. Ramze has conveniently not listed her name as the group’s creator, even though it clearly shows up that way in her Facebook mini-feed. Instead it’s been attributed to a mysterious Sandra Davidson from San Antonio, Texas.
It’s a shame that the infostream has to be polluted by this kind of trash. I’ve had my own experience being slammed by the Knoll when they made me a subject of one of their editorials. Not only did they not consult me about the facts, they claimed that I didn’t write a story about one of its editor’s calls to boycott Israeli universities because I was told by the Thunderbird editors that the story wasn’t worth “the paper that [The Thunderbird] is allegedly printed on.”
First, that’s not true. Second, if the Knoll’s editors had bothered to Google the word “Thunderbird,” they might have noticed it’s published on the internet, and not on paper.
Maayan, I apologize that my rant was done here, but frankly I’m more confident that it’ll be read here than in the Knoll itself.
That, and they don’t even have a webpage up. You can’t access the Knoll’s site through the Voter-Funded Media page. But given the administrative incompetence we’ve seen throughout the elections, that could be anyone’s fault. Though I wouldn’t put it past the Knoll.
endorsing more beer? we need a brewery!
How about a beeraucracy?
I actually tend to agree Jesse. This episode of the knoll was a dissapointment to me. I typically enjoy reading it. That facebook group is an embarrasment to its creators.
When did the knoll endorse Rob McLean? Not that he’s inherently bad, but for VP Academic, he was their second choice.
I thought it was Nathan Crompton, probably the most qualified and competent VP Academic candidate (who has gotten surprisingly minimal press coverage this campaign), who was endorsed. It states that on the cover.