Category: AUS

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AUS Student Politics

AUS Student Court Ruling: WTF?

Might as well go a bit further into the Student Court ruling, for the sake of the archives. (The next time Student Court makes a questionable ruling, hopefully people will come here to find out why the last one was questionable too.) But not too in depth, so don’t be scared off. Unlike Naylor’s “Rising Scourge of Kritarchy”, reading the ruling is hopefully not a pre-requisite to understanding this post.

In going through the ruling, Student Court’s decision-making narrative appeared to go something like this:

[1] Mr. Trasolini, the Appellant, would like us to rule on the validity of Ricardo Bortolon’s decision to count a disputed ballot in favour of Mr. Platt.

[2] AMS Code gives constituencies the ability to make their own rules governing elections, provided that a set of 20 conditions are met.

[3] In AUS electoral code some of those conditions are met explicitly but some are only met implicitly, by giving the AUS Elections Committee (AUSEC) the discretion to set specific rules.

[4] There seem to be two main issues with which the Court is presented in this case:

1) Was the electoral framework sound? And, if so
2) Was the application of the framework correct in this case?

[5] For the parts of AUS Code where the AUSEC is given discretion, they did not set specific rules before the election. Instead, they used their discretion to deal with issues as they arose.

[6] AUS Code, by not having explicit rules and simply giving the AUSEC discretion to make decisions, does not satisfy the conditions set out in AMS Code governing constituency elections.

[7] We find the AUS Constitution to be in violation of AMS Code.

[8] In the event of a violation of AMS Code, the AMS Bylaws give us the power to render an action “void and of no effect”

[9] We consider the AUS Presidential Election to be an action, and declare it to be void and of no effect.

[10] Since the election has been invalidated, it is unnecessary to rule on the validity of the disputed ballot.

Continue reading “AUS Student Court Ruling: WTF?”
Categories
AUS Issues Student Politics

Student Court: AUS Presidential Election “void and of no effect”

On Friday, Student Court handed down a decision in Trasolini v. AUS Elections Committee which concluded that this year’s AUS Presidential Election is “void and of no effect”.

Upon reviewing the decision, Brian Platt sent an email to AUS council announcing that he was stepping down immediately. Elysia Pine, who was elected as AUS VP Internal this year, ascends to the presidency on an interim basis until the AUS can figure out what to do next. Basically the two major details that need to be worked out:

1) Who is the interim president? Should it be Elysia or should AUS council appoint someone else to fill this role?

2) When should the by-election be held? Could the AUS really hold a legitimate presidential election during exams, or worse, during the summer? Or is September the only viable option?

There will almost certainly be a special AUS council meeting held this week devoted to figuring out these details. Unfortunately there’s no obvious best course of action here.

Continue reading “Student Court: AUS Presidential Election “void and of no effect””
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AUS

The MASS Renew Project

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.

Continue reading “The MASS Renew Project”
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AUS

Arts, The Force is With You

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!

Continue reading “Arts, The Force is With You”
Categories
AUS Campus Life

Arts County Fair is no more

The yearly campus festival of music and debauchery synonymous with the last day of classes is no more. Ats County Fair, the last-day-of-class drinking extravaganza that has marked the end of the school year for 16 seasons of students at UBC has come to a sad end. The Arts Undergraduate society cancelled the event for the year at a Tuesday meeting.

Citing the increasing debt that the even has incurred over the past two years, the press release from AUS president Stephanie Ryan expressed regret about the need for the cancellation. Essentially, he financial reality of running an enormous festival with security have gotten out of sync with the revenue from ticket and alcohol sales.

In the press release Stephanie blamed a lack of engagement on campus and change in the sense of community and drinking culture for the declining popularity of the event. Looking over pictures of ACF crouds with AUS old timer (and blog hero) Gerald Deo revealed a pretty stark trend – simply less people.

I’ve never been to ACF, and don’t know too much about it, but this seems unfortunate even to me. The cancellation of this event will only make people more convinced of the dearth of fun on campus, and ignite more feelings of disappointment in campus life, and detachment from the campus community. Facts is facts though – the AUS can’t go on losing tens of thousands of dollars every few years. Happily, the AMS will be running an event on the last day of school as something of a substitute for ACF this year on McInnes field. And it’s anything like the welcome back BBQ, it will probably rock. So we can still look forward to that.

The interesting thing about this is to speculate about the AUS itself. With the fair out of the way, they will actually be able to reclaim the second term of the year. There’s great potential for any number of creative and interesting events now. Who knows, this may even result in a better and stronger AUS that has a more sustained focus on Arts students throughout the year, instead of the typical form of a fairly small clique of ACF-planners.

Categories
AMS AUS Development

AMS meeting Nov. 7th – Nancy and Arts

Lowdown on yesterday’s meeting: it was exhausting, and sort of charged up for some weird reason. I think order was poorer than usual somehow. Maybe it’s the pressure of the end of the year building up.

Anyway. The meeting began with Nancy Knight, the Administration’s AVP campus & Community Planning. Nancy always puts on a good show, and her presentations to AMS council always bring about some interesting discussion. She was presenting about the re-consultation results and new recommendations she’s put together for U-Blvd. Or rather, the subset of the University Boulevard Neighborhood known as “University Square”. As outlined a couple posts ago, the consultation and revised plans have been going on in collaboration with students over the past several months. Nancy summarized the results from both the July and September consultations, and then went on to describe a preliminary revised plan for the square area. You can see the “before and after” diagrams for the building plan below. Outlined in yellow is the university-boulevard neighborhood, as specified in the Official Community Plan. Outlined in red is the University square subset of that plan.

Above, is the diagram for the plan before last May’s Board meeting. note the buildings on both sides of the proposed plaza, and the lack of a knoll, and the boxed-in entrance to the SUB.

Here is what Nancy showed us yesterday. The blue building footprints on the west side (ie. over top of Hennings, Hebb and Ladha) aren’t new buildings – they’re just there to indicate that the border of the square precinct is being pushed back and integrated with the academic buildings. Note the re-appearance of the knoll. The U-shaped building is the only one that would have residential of the upper levels. It’s left tip is meant to be some sort of alumni/welcome centre/ community hall/SUB expansion concept. The ladder-like thing is a prospective covered walkway from the opening of the underground loop to the SUB. The Square in the trees is supposed to be some sort of student lounge or social space.

for more riveting details, check behind the jump

Nancy talked about four elements in the revised open space plan:

  • Knoll (re-created green space)
  • Plazas (with green elements)
  • Walkways (with green elements)
  • Patios and seating areas

Also five elements in the revised building program (130000-160000 sq ft, depending on SUB renew plans)

  • Offices/Classrooms/meeting rooms
  • Student lounge/social spaces
  • Food outlets/ student businesses
  • Student housing
  • Community hall (ie. alum, welcome centre, etc)

She emphasized the importance of having a “mixed use” space in the square: that is, one with both daytime uses (shops, offices) and 24-hour ones (residential, study spaces). Clearly, in some ways this vision of a complete cocktail of uses doesn’t always jive with what people want. For example, in the cases of offices, most commercial, and residential, the results from the surveys were very negative. I asked Nancy yesterday what she does as a planner in instances like these when feedback tells you something that you disagree with. She replied that you try to deal wit the underlying qualitative worries. For instance, with the housing, a lot of the qualitative concern surrounded the ideas of unnaffordability, market housing, non-student residents, and so on. So even though residential is still included in the new plan, it’s half as much, she’s guaranteed that it will be only for students, and it will be in the price range of the residences, run by a non-profit. I found this fairly convincing. I still haven’t heard a great case for office and classroom space to be included though.

That said, this thing is a vast improvement to me. The aren’t buildings boxing the square, and the knoll is the central green feature. It feels more open, and the shift in emphasis from commercial uses to community and student-focused uses are quite good. Also, this isn’t final. A lot depends on what the AMS depends to do regarding SUB renewal. Expanding SUB into the square could mean AMS administered social space, and more AMS businesses in the square area. I think that’s pretty cool.

In other council business, the Arts caucus had a bit of a show of strength yesterday. They came decked out in faculty colours, wielding purple pom-poms, sporting a minty-fresh representative (AJ Johal), and ready with THREE motions (in varying degrees of silliness and obsolescence) from the floor (much to Jeff’s frustration {and much to my rage, when a notably trivial issue was referred to code and policies}). A feisty AUS Pres Stephanie Ryan put it this way: “we’ve decided to be more effective. We do this by wearing purple, and reading documents before council”. And indeed, read documents they had. SAC minutes, which are usually ignored, and rubber-stamped, were dissected by Arts councilor Sam Heppell before they were finally approved. Recent questions about SAC (specifically the rules governing how they constitute and de-constitute clubs) have potentiated their forthcoming presentation to council.

Other stuff on the agenda was approval of policies coming out of Blake Frederick’s housing document. These were deferred to the next meeting, since they had only been sent out half an hour before council. The document itself had been sent out way before, and the policies didn’t differ in content from the document, but, the arts caucus, in a self-righteous tizzy, (and ironically having just proffered three motions from the floor) said it was not enough time. As a result, the document can’t be used to lobby administrators until the new year. I guess there always has to be a balance between good “process,” and common sense. Having read the document, and discussed it with Blake, I’m think it was as ready as it’s going to be.

Time is a pretty sensitive issue all around. Not enough time, people wasting each other’s time, and so on. I happened to be sitting next to one of the new Education reps (I think her name was Dana). It was her first council meeting. When asked how she liked it, she said something like “Very interesting…but I think some people should be more careful with how they use other’s time”. Amen to that.

Categories
AUS Campus Life

UBC Student falls off roof top, now in serious condition

This is taken from the RCMP website. Whoever the person in serious condition is, we wish them a speedy recovery.

UBC student falls off roof top, now in serious condition at VHG

Vancouver, UBC: Charges are pending against another student.

On April 12th, 2007 at approximately 02:20 pm, RCMP members of the University of British-Columbia Detachment attended a Fraternity House located in the 2800 block of Westbrook Mall after receiving word that a young man had fallen off the patio roof top.

After a preliminary investigation, witnesses say the young man who was standing on top of the patio roof top, reached down to another man who was standing on the ground. Police investigators are trying to determine what took place at that time. What we do know is that the young man fell down approximately 20 feet onto concrete injuring his head.

The victim was transported to Vancouver General Hospital where he is currently in serious but stable condition.

During the course of their investigation, police arrested the18-year-old man who standing on the ground during the incident. He was released on a Promise to Appear and is facing charges of Criminal Negligence Causing Bodily Harm.

Both young men are UBC students and alcohol appears to have been a factor in this incident. Students were celebrating Arts County Fair which is an annual event which symbolizes the end of classes.

This incident serves as a grim reminder that alcohol often lessens inhibitions and can lead to poor decisions.

Released by:

Cst. Annie Linteau
“E” Division Strategic Communications
Phone#: (604)264-2929


Source: http://www.rcmp-bcmedia.ca/ (under “Today’s News”)

Categories
AUS Campus Life

Bigger is better?

I’m very loyal to Arts. But people tend to respond defensively when I criticize, so I’m forced to preface this by saying “please don’t respond defensively.”

In their most recent elections, the AUS had 400 voters. SUS? 1400. Which is quite the difference. But it’s even more stark if you realize for a second that Arts is more than twice the size of Science. Now I know voter turnout is a pretty poor measure of engagement. And might be explained by other factors, like online voting in SUS, and campaign differences, on which I’d rather not dwell. But I think it’s relatively clear that, on-campus, Science students are more engaged with their student society than are Arts ones.

This makes me sad. To be sure, there are probably reasons related to the management of the undergrad societies, but those are almost certain to provoke the defensive responses that make me cry myself to sleep at night (or not). So let’s focus on the systemic reasons this could be the case:

  1. Faculty size. Arts is huge. Science less so. It’s a very de-centralized faculty, and there is little shared affinity between people in various programs of study. By contrast, Science is at least smaller, there are more common classes (in early years) and, most importantly, there’s a sense that being “in Science” means something that being “in Arts” doesn’t. What’s the solution? Perhaps leveraging AUS council and contacts to work to develop affinities at the deparemental level, and complete the circle by ensuring that there’s some way the departments come back to Arts at the end of the day.
  2. Physical space. I’ve mentioned this before, but the new Ladha centre is far superior to MASS. MASS is designed in such a way as to place the AUS at the centre whilst relegating students to the periphery, while Ladha, even though it houses SUS offices (which are smaller than those for the AUS), is far more student-friendly. It’s also important to note that spaces like the war room and other ones in MASS aren’t used as much by students as the Ladha ones. No idea why. (The AUS ought to also consider learning from SUS which has managed to leverage its fantastic new space… it’s become a hub for all sorts of student-friendly activities.)
  3. Arts County Fair. Ask any AUSer what they’re doing this time of year, and they say “Fair.” Cuz they are. It consumes the AUS for a good chunk of the year. While I love ACF, I can’t help but wonder if this is a service that the AUS ought to invest to much of its time and energy. (I should first note that time and energy are necessarily a zero sum game – if someone is spending time on A, then that is less time they can be spending on B and C.) What’s the return to Arts students for the fair? They get no additional benefit. Hell, they don’t even get a discount on admission. It’s an Arts event in name only. Which I’m fine with, but it clearly comes at the cost of other engagement. Moreover, there exists a perception that “all the AUS does is ACF.” While I’ll be the first to say that’s not the case, that perception can quite readily alienate the thousands of Arts students who don’t attend the fair. I’m all for ACF, and it’s a valuable campus service, but we can’t disregard the cost.
  4. Snobbery. Arts students have an inferiority complex that makes me sad. There’s the “would you like fries with that” stigma that surrounds an Arts degree, and I suspect it contributes to a drop in affinity.

I’m sure there’s more, but I’m late for real estate transactions. But I’m curious as to thoughts. It’s an uphill battle in Arts, and it’s been that way for as long as I can remember. I’m also at a loss for solutions. Any thoughts?

Categories
AUS

AUS Presidental Slap-Fest

I don’t like writing about elections. But it’s kinda our bread and butter, and people seem to enjoy it. Hmm.

To begin, my colleague has taken the AUS to task for its elections administration. In short, I differ in her assessment, to a point. The voting has been highly visible, well-planned and well-executed; I suspect it’s almost impossible for an Arts student to miss a voting booth over the course of the week. The downside? There’s like NO information about candidates anywhere. Nothing in the Underground that I’ve yet seen (from the VFM contest winners, no less), nothing on the AUS website. Nothing except posters. Which are designed to get elected, not to inform. You have to be a Facebook friend, in which case you already know the candidates. (I pretty much blame the candidates. They’re just as responsible for getting the word out as Elections staff. The staff in this election have been first-rate.)

So what info would be out there? Well, that’s the problem. It’s a very thin gruel, at best. There’s AJ Johal‘s site, which really just reads like a resume of a high school student councillor. AJ, love ya, but you’ve gotta leave high school off the qualifications. Seriously. His site has another major weakness. He doesn’t tell us why we should vote for him. “Because it matters,” he says. Unfortunately, his definition of why it matters is merely the stock “we have your money” argument.

Then there’s Steph Ryan. She’s produced a platform, impressive only measured in relation to her opponent’s. Problem is, most of it can be really better done by someone else. Free tutoring? AMS rep. Don’t promise things you can’t personally deliver. She promises to publish meeting times and use the AUS web site to get this information out. But big friggin’ deal – you find me a student who’s interested in committee meetings and minutes, and I’ll show you a student who’s already involved. Listening to students is a good idea, to be sure. But the first post on her web site is devoted to what she’s heard from students. Either her own past consultation has been inadequate, or her future consultation wasteful. And SUB Concourse office hours? Good idea. But you have your own MASS space that it’s probably more important to leverage.

But at least she has a platform. And she’s done very good work with the Faculty to provide services and help drive Arts engagement. Unfortunately, neither candidate, though, has really taken stock of the true measure of the irrelevance of the AUS, both as a political and non-political entity. What are the problems?

  • Physical space. They don’t fully leverage MASS, certainly not as effectively as Ladha. MASS is designed in such a way as to give the prime, interior space to AUSers, while ordinary students float about the periphery. As physical space, it makes the AUS users into the insiders, while everybody else is an outsider. Literally. There are better ways to use the space, and to get students using the rooms. They get a gold star for the events calendar, though.
  • The size of Arts. It’s huge. Just too big. And there’s no sense of identity. Why? Probably because of the size. An AUS President needs to consider how best to address this, and to build a coherent sense of Artsiness. How? I suspect it involves working with the departments, as they’re far more likely to be a driver of student engagement. Faculty reps on AUS are woefully under-used (just an ACF clean-up crew, basically) and that’s a communication link that needs to develop.
  • The relationship with the Faculty. It’s strong right now. But there’s a danger of being co-opted. I recall hearing something about the AUS using the MASS student levies (since the mortgage is paid off) to fund Arts Advising. That’s fucked up. It’s a core academic service – the University has no business making students pay. So it’s an important existential question – how close ought the relationship be between the Society and Faculty? Sure, co-operation is good, when it comes to Last Lecture etc., but is that meaningful co-operation, or just titular, consultative input? And is there a danger of co-opting the student voice?

I’m an Arts grad. I never had any affinity for the AUS; I only voted for my friends, and sometimes Spencer. (I kid, I kid. I actually never voted for Spencer. Fa fa.) (Okay, that’s a joke too.) But it’s an organization too often dominated by the politically ambitious (PoliSci students, of course), fighting an uphill battle in a faculty whose student engagement is probably among the lowest on campus.

There’s an existential conversation that needs to happen, and I don’t see that.

Categories
AUS

I take issues with the AUS Elections

Hey if you’re in arts, you can vote in the AUS elections right now. Vote until the 30th. The polling booths are supposed to be on either entrance of the SUB and somewhere in Buchanan, 10-5pm.

Also, since the people running the elections did not specify how many people you can vote for in some positions, here are the specifics: 11 General Officers, and 7 AMS reps (correct me if I’m wrong)

As to their write ups and who’s running – there are no write ups and a list of who’s running is also not on the AUS official website. But there’s an unofficial list here (see two posts down). So I guess, vote for your friends? What an….. interesting way to run an election. If you have Facebook you have to join “Aus Elections” (and they have to approve you as a friend) in order to see the write ups of some candidates.

I asked Stephanie Ryan (AUS President incumbent) where I could receive the information on where the polling booths would be, here was her reply:
“i’m not sure, but i do know that the candidates will be able to tell their friends where to go and that we’ve hit 3 major entrance-ways and that our booths will be well-labelled, so in 5 days most Arts students will probably stumble across a voting booth at at least one point in time”

While I agree that a lot of arts students will be able to see the booths, I don’t think this reliance on having the candidates tell their friends where to go vote is a smart idea for two reasons:
1) The campaign period ended on the 23rd before voting began on the 26th, and the information on ballot locations wasn’t available until the 25th. So you would technically be breaking the rules on campaigning unless you contacted every single friend on a “private conversation” basis to let them know where they could vote.
2) Relying on “telling your friends” skews the elections once again towards voting for your friend. Especially since the write-ups of candidates are not even accessible unless you check Facebook and memorize who you want to vote for and then try to remember the list of people at the poll.

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