Category: AMS

Categories
AMS

#095: Electiontastic! Accolades and Affrontery

Currently listening to: “French Navy” – Camera Obscura

AMS election voting starts today and continues through the week (Jan 25-29)! Go out and exercise your democratic rights lest you wish to waive your right to complain about anything else AMS that happens over the next year.

But first, a sprinkling of accolades and snark to hand out, based on the candidates’ performances thus far…

Wit and Words:
I am rather disappointed that puns and wordplay ran few and far in between! What happened to the creative minds at work here? A snappy and intriguing catchphrase always makes a good first impression. While fully understanding some candidates’ preference of staying staid and professional, the sprightly capriciousness of a well-crafted statement which allows personality to shine through never fails to impress. In this case, VP Admin candidate Michael Haack‘s “I’m a Haack!” pun is oh so painful and thus oh so painfully fantastic. Moving on. Following closely behind in terms of unorthodox wordplay, I wouldn’t go quite as far as to call presidential candidate Pak Ho Leung’s platform eloquent (indeed, I have no idea if the fellow’s serious), but the conversational style he’s presented himself in is absolutely hilarious. Thus, bonus points for daring creativity and populist rhetoric. Opportunities passed up: Presidential candidate Natalie Swift officially needs more headdesk-worthy puns based upon her last name.

Colour Me Impressed (And Then Some):
Websites and posters and holy gods of design geekery! The scroll-through user-friendliness of VP Academic candidate Ben Cappellacci’s website is brilliant, as are his posters. Absolutely splendidly designed; almost Lomography-esque in their eye-catching simplicity. Many, many props. VP External candidate Jeremy McElroy’s website is an absolutely breathtaking sight to behold. Splendid mastery of the colour green, not to mention those PDFs. Presidential candidate Bijan Ahmadian’s website is extremely impressive, what with buttons and pop-ups and frames and technological savviness all around. However, FONTS, people! Fonts can make or break any website design, as the fine people over at Clients from Hell can attest. The header with blobby font must go. Other fine examples of design include VP Academic candidate Rodrigo Ferrari-Nunes’ posters. Very effective use of b&w – keeping it classy.

Sweater Vest Incarnation to Rival Stephen Harper’s:
[I apologize in advance for the superficiality of the following paragraph. But by Jove, I am curious!]
What is it about election campaigning that draws out the sweaters, sweater vests, and the argyle? I am no AMS Confidential, so there shan’t be compare-and-contrast pictures of Harper and the candidates, but there has been a good number of sweaters (and not just incumbent VP External Tim Chu’s usual attire of decidedly comfortable-looking fuzzy sweaters). Board of Governors candidate Guillaume Houle was spotted in the AUS office in a green-and-grey argyle sweater; rumour has it that VP External candidate Stas Pavlov has been sporting argyle sweater vests in a myriad of colours, while VP Admin candidate Michael Haack’s website features him in similar attire. An attempt to look more personable, as a certain prime minister attempted, or a serious sartorial consideration (and possible cause for concern)?

A Sublime Example of Parody:
VP External candidate Aaron Palm’s campaign is a stellar example of how satire should be done- bold, in-your-face, accompanied by spiffy .jpgs. This entire section is thus dedicated to Mr. Palm’s excellent parody of the Grand Ole’ Party, Tea Parties, gun-slinging-mud-slinging, Sarah Palin, representing mav’riks all across Amurrika UBC.

—

So go VOTE! Even better, vote and then tell nine people, who will tell nine people…

Categories
AMS

#085: Some last thoughts

Currently listening to: “I Hate Camera” – The Bird and the Bee

I shan’t be redundant and reiterate what’s already all over the interwebs, so I shall simply direct you to my good friend the Ubyssey, before presenting some last thoughts on all this.

Yes, it was messy, it was dirty, and it was a complete trainwreck. But it got students thinking. We could ask if it really took something this drastic to draw attention from students, especially about something which ought to be at the forefront of our minds. Indeed, we could ask if this would have happened if there had been higher levels of student involvement to begin with. All this bodes very interestingly for the upcoming AMS elections, which you can bet this blogger will be scruntinizing closely.

On a separate note, last night’s meeting was characterized by polar opposites when it came to expression. Eloquence battled with utter lack of decorum: as impressed as I am with the level of thought and effort placed into some statements, I continue to be baffled by the amount of rudeness exhibited. Hooting and shouting and booing punctuated by shrill giggling at any contrary opinion, particularly from one side of this divide. Hint: Heckling doesn’t change opinions; there is generally simply a sense of great unprofessionalism all around.

Well, it’s all well done, but the aftermath lives: we shall see how this all pans out in the long run.

Categories
AMS

#082: Further notes on the UN debacle…

Currently listening to: “Here It Goes Again” – ok go

This email emerged in my inbox about an hour ago. I have taken the liberty of print-screening it and uploading it here. (Click to enlarge to read full text and witness rubbish Photoshop underlining.)

not appropriate!

I pause to point out the irony that this email was sent out with an AMS header.

In any case, classic example of framing the issue for something it isn’t. With this email, from which I shall quote liberally,

“…your AMS Student Council is seeking to impeach your elected AMS President, Blake Frederick and Vice-President of External Affairs, Tim Chu who are taking action against the high cost of education,”

Frederick is trying to make the issue one of tuition costs by diverting attention away from the inappropriate manner in which he “took action”. Deliberately blurring the lines between procedure and policy by making the issue about One Man’s Crusade to Lower Tuition, he confuses readers about the reasons which led to the AMS council’s call for his resignation. By looking at all the surface arguments presented, it’s hard to disagree. Nobody likes higher tuition costs! Here’s someone doing something about it! Who wouldn’t agree with that? And that is precisely what this email is trying to do – trying to make students sympathetic to his cause. Look, Freddy (can I call you Freddy?) I don’t like higher tuition, but I also don’t like how you didn’t ask people what they thought about it…and went off to the United freaking Nations about it by yourself and then called it an AMS decision. The situation needs to be described in clear terms, which this email fails at doing. Without stating my own opinions on impeachment, the more we allow this to be misrepresented as an issue surrounding lowering tuition, the further we drift from the fact that the recall is about the undemocractic means by which he decided to act. Case in point: as a strong proponent of left-wing ideas (and it dismays me that this debate seems to be heading down the Right vs. Left alley), I would simply like to point out the “democracy” in “social democracy”.

“The reason why he is being recalled is because he circumvented the AMS. He never came to us to present the human rights complaint for debate, and by neglecting to do so he took away the representation of students through their elected officials. The AMS is a democratic institution where all directors come together to debate issues and then proceed with policies that pass with a majority vote. The issue of tuition has nothing to do with Blake’s or Tim’s recall. It is their actions that council is judging.”
– Katherine Tyson, Arts Representative

Frederick implores readers to write their AMS representatives with their opinions on tuition fees. I, too, would like you to do so: write them about tuition fees, as it is definitely an important issue facing students, and I am all for reduced tuition fees. But also write them about what you think about all these shenanigans and let them know how you’d like them to proceed.

—

EDIT: Case in point: the new profile picture of the Facebook group opposing impeachment. As previously stated, this is not about the supposed preferences some people have for higher tuition fees vs. the preference for lower tuition. Must we exhaust the point?

Categories
AMS

#081: We are all saved!!!

Currently listening to: “Bratislava” – Beirut

Fret not, for our days of cruel oppression under the staggering weight of obscene tuition costs have finally come to an end!

UN storms the Knoll

I shan’t be redundant, for the resolutions from last night’s AMS meeting have been liveblogged and generally quite widely disseminated on a number of sources (1, 2, 3, 4 – sorry if I’ve missed anything).

And yes, this update was mostly just an excuse to post the link to that wickedly brilliant YouTube video.

Categories
AMS

#080: The UN Debacle, continued

Liveblogging today’s emergency AMS Council meeting at 5 pm

Spam prevention powered by Akismet