The Insiders
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Oct
18
Want to be consulted? It's your fuckin' week.
Posted by: Neal Yonson | October 18, 2007 | 9 Comments
There’s a veritable cornucopia of consultations going on right now. So get your voices and obnoxious views into those final reports, dudes. For serious.
Sub Renew – AMS is starting the consultation process for the prospective expansion and renovation of the SUB. Everything from buying out Pacific Spirit Place (the university-owned and operated cafeteria) to constructing a brand new building in the University Square precinct, to a mere sprucing up of our current digs is on the table. AMS VP Admin Sarah Naiman is heading up the process. The SUB renew committee has been meeting since last spring. They’ve hired a “space planning” firm for some big bucks to plan the space programming. That means they’ll find out what we want and lay out floor plans. Architecture will come later. (If this confuses you, join the club).
Anyhow. Right now there’s a focus group consultation phase. Next there will be a round table consultation phase. After that you’ll get to vote on which options you like most. (note: will there be a “none of the above” option available?). After that you’ll vote in a referendum to approve a fee to fund the preferred SUB renew plan.
Here’s the next focus group sessions, organized by constituency:
- General – Oct. 18 – SUB Council Chambers (room 206)- 5-6
- REC and Varsity – Oct.19 – SUB Council Chambers (room 206) – 5-6
- Resource Groups – Oct. 18 – Resource Group Area of the SUB – 12:30-1:30
- Greeks – Oct. 25 – SUB Council Chambers (room 206) – 5-6
- Residences TBA
- Audiology and Speech Sciences, Dentistry, Nursing, Medicine, Occupational
and Environmental Hygiene, Pharmacy, Rehab Sciences – Oct. 15th – SUB Room 42U (lower level) – 12-1 - SCARP and Architecture – Oct. 15th – Lasserre rm. 202 – 5:30 – 6:30
- Commerce – Oct. 16th – SUB 42U (lower level) – 11-12
- Science – Oct 16th – Ladha Science Student Center, top floor – 12:30-1:30
- Journalism, Law, LAIS – Oct. 16 – Council Chambers 1-2
- Education, Forestry, LAFS, Human kinetics, Social Work – Oct. 22nd – SUB
Council Chambers (room 206) – 3-4 - Arts and Music – Oct. 23 – SUB 205 (2nd floor) – 12-1
- Applied Sciences – Oct 24th – SUB Council Chambers (room 206)- 3-4
- Graduate Students – Oct. 23rd – Penthouse, Graduate Students Center – 5-6
Transit consultation – The AMS is running another consultation about transit issues. That’s because, soon the U-pass is up for renewal, and they want to come up with the best deal and know what to lobby for with Translink. Check out the Facebook group “Transit: what’s your BEEF” to post feedback.
AMS VP-X Matt Naylor and the External commission are hosting a panel discussion this Friday at the Norm, which should great, with cool panelists. It’s from 12:00-1:30 in the Norm theatre in the SUB. Check it out.
panelists:
NDP Transit Critic Maureen Karagianis
NDP MLA Gregor Robertson (my riding’s MLA, and personal crush)
AMS President Jeff Friedrich
UBC TREK Administrator Carole Jolly
NPA Councillor Peter Ladner
U-Boulevard/University Square consultation – The University’s Campus and Community Planning office has been conducting some consultations regarding the future of the long-beleaguered U-boulevard neighborhood plan, recently re-christened “university square”. You may have noticed a big booth next to the SUB conversation pit last week for four days. Hopefully, you filled out a form and took a look at the options on the table. In case you’ve been under a rock, the previous above-ground plans were turfed due to student dissatisfaction at last May’s BoG meeting, and new land-use options are on the table. The underground tunnel and bus loop are in all likelihood going forward, though the latter still requires the BoG’s final approval. According to Student BoG rep Darren Peets, apparently the results of the current consultation for above-ground land-use are not exactly to the liking of some of the university brass. This probably means the responses have preferred less buildings, less density, and more green. Keep your eye out for the final report on that – it should be ready by November’s BoG meeting.
Comments
9 Comments so far
On space planning: They figure out what we need and how much of it. They also do a conceptual layout of what might go where, based on what needs to be next to what or far away from whatever else. Quiet study rooms do not go next to swing dance lessons, for instance. Some parts of the building would need to be locked off most of the time, while other parts might be open 24/7, and it would make some sense to collect the latter in particular. SUB today is a hodgepodge — I challenge anyone to find the Varsity Outdoor Club (founder of Mountain Equipment Co-op) or the Sexual Assault Support Centre in under 10 minutes.
An architect will take the functional plan and figure out how to make a building out of it, with rooms, ventilation systems, etc., and hopefully (in my opinion) with an exterior that does not resemble a fortress with space for cannons.
On U Square: there are people on the planning side who are a bit uncomfortable with what the populace wants, and they’ll find a few sympathetic ears on Board. Calling them “brass” is overstating things.
aw come on. “brass” isn’t an insult. It’s just a name for people in official positions of various sorts. Some people in Planning, and all people on the BoG can safely be labelled thus. Lucky you!
I dunno, the top brass are generally the decision making block…
Anyone else confused as to the makeup of the transit speakers? Two Dippers and no BC Libs?
Did they just turn down the invitation to participate?
A more important question – were Libs invited?
I cant see that as being all that important a question, I flat out assume they were.
Im actually mildly surprised the NDP were invited…
Kevin Falcon and Sam Sullivan were invited. Christy Clark was considered, but she has a show at this time. We had two NDP and one NPA. Plus Carole and Jeff.
Sorry to not see you there today Maayan.
Where was the media at the panel? I didn’t notice a single notepad or recorder.
I have to say that I am extremely disappointed about the turnout for the transit panel on Friday. In my opinion, the speakers were compelling and the discussion was needed. I am sure that a large number of students would have been very interested in hearing the discussion as transit is always a popular conversation topic among students. The event was decently advertised and occurred at a time of day that has the greatest concentration of students in the SUB. Despite this, Matthew Naylor had to stand outside the Norm Theatre and practically beg students to come watch the discussion. Sure, it was lunchtime on a Friday, but come on, I’d expect more than 10 people to show up. I guess this just shows that students need to be bribed with food or other incentives for them to sacrifice their time to voice their opinions.
Darn, that sucks. Matt, I really wanted to be there, but I had, you know, “school”. I’m would have expected a good turnout – it was a good panel of people.