Neal Yonson is a native of Ottawa. He graduated from the University of Toronto with an Hon.B.Sc. in 2006 and will be happy to tell you about how things seemed to work more smoothly there. After traveling across the country for free (protip: strategically arrange grad school visits where they reimburse travel) he came to UBC to start a Ph.D. in chemistry. He was quite happy to avoid student issues until he found out how much it cost to go to the BirdCoop. Since then, he has been involved with a variety of advocacy projects.
With many uncontested (or essentially uncontested) races, SUS elections have not had much excitement factor this year. (Except maybe this.) Still, there’s one race worth talking about, and Kevin Moore shares his thoughts on that.
The race for SUS AMS rep is looking to be the most exciting of the SUS elections. Every other race is either uncontested, or has a councilor in it against a bunch of new people.
We’ve uploaded and posted links to all of the reports arising from the AMS Electoral Fraud investigation on our Twitter feed but since not everyone is twitter-savvy just yet, here are the links to:
Final Report from Isabel Ferreras (Elections Administrator)
Report from Forensic Data Recovery (Independent Auditing Firm)
Revised Elections Results presented in a somewhat awkward format.
Final cost to the AMS: currently estimated at $42,000-43,000.
As has already been discussed in a number of places already, UBC has recently created a Student Editorial Team to go along with The Administration Blog, where Pierre “zeeVP” Ouillet and Brian “BowtieBrian” Sullivan can communicate directly with the UBC community. The fact that the various different media have managed to each take something different from what was discussed during the first meeting is, I think, a positive thing. In that spirit, this posting is about something that definitely won’t be appearing in any other media source.
During the meeting we were discussing the (then-upcoming) CUS fee referendum when BSul mentioned something about an athletics fee at UVic having been recently turned down. It was a throwaway line, really, but my ears perked up due to my fanatical interest in athletics fees. As I looked into the details surrounding the proposed UVic athletics fee I realized something: UBC already did what UVic had proposed and had gotten away with it, successfully avoiding ministry intervention. And not only that, UBC will probably get away with it again in the future too.
AUS, EUS, and now SUS. We’ve got ’em all. (Actually not true – sorry HKin – let us know if there is anyone interested in covering HKin). Here are some initial thoughts on the SUS races.
My name is Kevin Moore and I am going to be covering the SUS elections for you this year. I am currently in my fifth year of a Computer Science degree and will be (hopefully) graduating next month. I currently sit on SUS council as the representative for the Computer Science Students Society which I serve as the president for.
This year’s election, like most before it, does not have many candidates that have not already done something on council. Several councilors who already hold executive positions are running for another executive position this year, and one of them is running for re-election. As for the AMS representative, only two of the seven people running (four are elected) are running for re-election. AMS rep will by far be the most interesting and contested race this year with so many people new to council running.
For now I will leave you with a link to the candidate profiles so you can read over the platforms and see who is running. In the next day or so I will post a more detailed analysis of each candidate and who I think you should vote for. You can find the candidates list at http://www.ubcvotes.ca/science/candidates/
Our intrepid AUS reporter Crystal Hon knows a thing or two about projects involving the building of new student space at UBC. Here are her thoughts on a referendum question being put to Arts students.
By now some of you will have found out about the AUS Fee Referendum that is on the ballot for this round of elections. The AUS unfortunately did not run a promotional campaign on this issue so students who are not on the list-serv, in the facebook group or have some kind of connection to the AUS won’t know about it. Let’s start with the referendum question.
Do you support the Arts Undergraduate Society increasing its yearly student fee starting with the 2010/2011 Academic year from $13 to:
$18 for the academic years 2010/2011 to 2011/2012, and to;
$23 for the academic years 2012/2013 to 2013/2014, and to;
$28 for the academic year 2015/2016,
for the purpose of building a new student social and study space in an area surrounding the new Buchanan West courtyard as well as renovating the current Meekison Arts Student Space (MASS) by adding student club offices, multimedia meeting rooms, group study rooms and other student facilities as determined by the Arts Undergraduate Student Social Space Expansion (AUSSSE) committee following a consultation with the Arts students?
Notes:
-The Fee would increase in each school year after the 2015/16 school year by the rate of inflation determined by the Canadian Consumer Price Index.
-The Fee would be levied on all active AUS members on a yearly basis
-The Fee would continue to be levied until the AUS has completed all its financing obligations for the new Student Social space and re-purposing of the current Meekison Arts Student Space.
UBC Votes! But none of us in AUS elections since none of us are Arts students. But that doesn’t mean we can’t provide coverage, and so without further ado, we present our first guest blogger who rarely wears pants. AMS Gossip Guy is going to be jealous. Don’t forget to vote in Continuous VFM.
Dear UBC Insiders Readers,
My name is Crystal Hon and I am going to be your AUS election blogger! A couple things about me: I am currently majoring in English Literature and I am a little bit addicted to Reese’s pieces. I have a bit of experience in running in elections and working in student societies. I was most recently known as the VP Administration for the AMS and before that, I was the VP Internal for the AUS. I agreed to do help the Insiders with the AUS elections because I love the Arts and I believe in the ability of students to change their university experience. With that being said, I am so excited to be blogging for the Insiders; I have never been on this side of the elections fence before!
This year on Insiders we’ve tried to stay away from ranty editorials but this time I can’t resist.
I was brought into this commerce fee thing innocently enough, when Alex told me about a CUS meeting where they would be discussing the fee. I was happy to stay out of it and let him deal with it all until I got a message saying that he couldn’t make the meeting and could I please go take notes in his place? So I went, and got my first taste of the CUS.
From the beginning, the process behind running the referendum has been poisoned and as is widely acknowledged, is an inititative of the Dean, not the CUS. Most, if not all, of the info the CUS went on appeared to have come in the form of “Dean Dan said…” and the CUS blindly trusted anything that was said. I understand that Dan is a popular fellow. I had the pleasure of working with him on a university committee considering NCAA membership. He’s charismatic and persuasive. But it doesn’t mean he’s necessarily on your side.
So as far as the comments Dean Dan made today, we had given Dan an outline of what we suggested we would like to see him talk about. That being said, Dean Dan is obviously in a position where he wants, you know, he is personally invested in this and we really wanted him to share the information that he shared with us two Fridays ago. So he shared that information with students as well. He went on to share his own personal biases as well.
Connor McGauley, incoming CUS President
From March 1, 2010 CUS meeting
This piece in opposition to the proposed $500 Commerce fee was written by Adrian Pape, an undergraduate student in commerce.
The point to this counterpoint can be found here.
Problems with the CUS Referendum
1. “Building fee” or “student fee”: call it what you want, this fee has already been rejected by the provincial government. The previous fee was rejected because it was considered a tuition increase (which is capped at 2%). UVic held a referendum last October on “a new athletics and recreation building fee” that passed, but was also rejected. This falls under the tuition category. These fees are capped. We shouldn’t be trying to sneak around that issue. N.B.: They were voting on an Athletics and Recreating building – we’re voting on an academic building – our classrooms.
What exciting times we live in! The CUS this week has a referendum before their members to decide on a $500 fee to support the construction of Phase II of the Henry Angus building. This is one half of a point-counterpoint on the subject. This was written by Laura Silvester, outgoing CUS president.
For the counterpoint to this article, please click here.
The question currently being posed to Commerce students is whether or not they are supportive of paying an annual $500 student fee to fund a part of the Henry Angus building renewal project. I will be stating reasons why Commerce students may be in favour of this.
With impeccable timing, the AMS chose the last Friday of the reading break to post a press release regarding allegations of voting irregularities in the last round of AMS elections. Due to the complete absence of details in the press release and the high potential for scandal, there has been quite a bit of speculation about what could possibly have gone on.
I’ll tell you now: I don’t actually know what’s going on, but at this point it seems fairly safe to say that electoral fraud has in fact occurred.
The people in the know are not talking. But there are some interesting tidbits that have emerged indicating that this Wednesday’s council meeting should be full of intrigue.
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