Endorsements
January 22nd, 2013 • Tuition
UBC students! You need to vote in this AMS Election to keep your Upass! Vote at https://amsvoting.as.it.ubc.ca
Don’t know who to vote for? Check out my endorsements!
Board of Governors: Tristan Miller and Matt Parson
Matt has had experience as AMS VP Academic and University Affairs and as AMS President. Representing our efforts to prevent non-student housing from being placed on our UBC bus loop, he has shown that his style of diplomacy works. In addressing the unfair issue of BC not investing in post-secondary education, Matt, unlike the other candidates, had a prepared answer on framing this issue as one that requires the BC Government’s change of impression on university degrees. His ideas really spoke to my fear that living in a conservative time in Canada, the conservative decision-makers are killing the liberal arts, which require critical thinking.
Tristan Miller. He is the only candidate who said that he will need to critically look at the UBC master budget to determine how he would vote on the 2% increase in tuition that UBC proposes over the past years. Though he may still vote yes on the 2% tuition increase if he learns that voting no would negatively affect students’ quality of education, in the event that he is elected, Tristan Miller has shown that he has thought critically about UBC’s finances and that he will not succumb to the pressure of saying yes now, unlike the other candidates. The truth is, the other candidates seem to me that they are basing some of their ideas on the University’s financial needs based on meetings they have had with the University administration. With Tristan’s background as AMS VP Finance, I put my trust in him and his expertise of critical thinking about higher education finances. More on him to come tonight.
Ideal BoG candidates should speak confidently about convincing the UBC Board of Governors to lobby the BC Government for the creation of a B.C. higher-education price index.
Ideal BoG candidates should speak confidently about criticizing the leadership of Where’s The Funding? and acknowledging that the AMS, with a very small budget, can inspire student action on lobbying for post-secondary funding.
Ideal BoG candidates should acknowledge that AMS needs to have its own Nationbuilder or Constituency Relationship Management so when student governors are representing students’ interests in terms of post-secondary funding and tuition, they can have much more of a political standing.
No candidates are ideal. However, considering all the candidates in this race, I think Tristan Miller and Matt Parson are the candidates you should vote for.