NO VOTE NO VOICE – not sure yet?

This afternoon, after having attended one of the last debates, I sat down, cleared my desk, typed in https://adm.ams.ubc.ca/elections2010/ and voted for the 2010 AMS elections.

Have you voted yet?

If you haven’t and you’re still not sure about who to vote for you might want to keep reading…

As voting days start I noticed that there were many direct attacks at certain candidates during today’s debates (*cough*tim*cough*). Also, the joke candidates were especially meticulous in their answers, one endlessly citing the Bible (Isaac 41:10, James 4:17, etc, etc) and the other one implying that we should take special attention to the dangerous fact that UBC lies in the war zone between terrorist-Victoria and the rest of Canada. For the purpose of this summary of today’s debates, I will leave both the personal attacks and the jokes out of it… I’ll also make it short, for most of you probably what the candidates are about anyway.

President

Natalie Swift

1. (Student Question) What’s the main purpose of resource groups and how will you support them? these groups support under-represented groups on campus, I completely support them. I will move the review of discrimination and make them a priority through my term in office… Rebuttal to Bijan’s comment on integration: One group that we don’t represent are aboriginal students, I’d be concerned with the term integration, we have to take pride on our differences.

2. Closing remarks – Encourages students to get engaged in these elections, vote, find out about what the candidates stand for, have a voice even if they don’t vote for her.

Bijan Ahmadian

1. (Sean Kim’s question) Everybody at UBC wants to find a good career, what are you, the other candidates, thinking about to give students the resources to achieve this goal? We duplicate some of the services which are already offered by the university, we need to work closely with the university to make sure that they take interest of the students.

2. What do think about indexing current and future fees for the AMS? One of the most important issues is the new SUB, if we don’t index we’ll pay forever. Fees were not set considering the devaluation of money.

Sean Kim

1.What do think about indexing current and future fees for the AMS? Another way to reduce tuition is to make e-books, which promotes sustainability. Also, we could break fees into individual components, cut the ones we don’t use.

VP Academic

Ben Cappellacci

1. (Student Question) What would you do to change the image of the AMS? Consistency, we had an inconsistent year, we will be more consistent in the way we represent students.

2. Are you strong enough to stand up to the university? The monetization of the university is a big issue, the AMS is getting in the way of that agenda so that students come first. Having sat on the senate, I know how that process works, working with council and involving policies that help UBC…

Rodrigo Ferrari-Nunes

1. (Student Question) What would you do to change the image of the AMS? Work with the VP External to change the image and marketing perspective. Most of that patching has to do with communication, transparency, involving committees and putting the information out there, being public. There has been a lack of diligence, there needs to be more detail, making sure that people read what they sign and know what’s going on…

2. (Student Question) How do you see the role of education? The university? A public institution that gives back to the society. It has initiatives that empower people. It should train and create jobs and opportunities but it should not run for profit.