The Insiders
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Sep
14
A Forensic Examination of the War on Fun, Part 1
Posted by: Neal Yonson | September 14, 2009 | 12 Comments
Last year, former Ubyssey reporter Bryan Zandberg wrote a piece for the Tyee examining whether there was a “War on Fun” at UBC.
A year later, the piece is as dated as it is current. Sgt. Dan Wendland is no longer with us at UBC, but his legacy lives on through the policies he implemented. The students featured in the article for the most part have given up the fight, but a new set of students is discovering the absurdity with which the RCMP holds power over Special Occasion Licences (SOLs) at UBC.
In re-launching UBC Insiders, we made investigative features part of our mandate. Over the summer, I tracked down as many Special Occasion Licence applications filed at UBC as possible. With these in hand, a database was constructed through many, many late nights of data-entry. The database has been put online and can be accessed here. The database profiles 730 events from January 2008 until the present. The results confirm things that, empirically, students knew were happening. But they also raise questions about what rules the RCMP was actually enforcing.
Read more
Sep
11
Three Questions for the President
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | September 11, 2009 | 1 Comment
Before Imagine day, I managed to sit down with Presidents Toope and Frederick to ask them three questions:
1. How will the Class of 2013’s UBC experience differ from the Class of 2010’s?
2. What is the value of an incoming undergraduate to the University?
3. Why did the entering class decide to come to University, and how will UBC deliver?
The Presidents were given the questions days in advance of their interview. Here are their responses.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ywsazhHls]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn2gV5F8GUw]
Sep
9
Summer News Recap
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Summer News Recap
Happy First Week all. Here’s what happened while you were out.
On Campus
The Student Board of Governors representatives turned over. Tim Blair bids farewell, as Michael Duncan takes his place. Bijan Ahmadian and Alexandra Caldwell (UBC-O) were re-elected for their respective second terms.
The University approved a plan to in-fill Totem residence. This was met with surprise and glee from at least one editor of this blog. (Board item front page, 60-megabyte board presentation .pdf)
Sep
3
St. John Hospice
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | September 3, 2009 | 29 Comments
Last September, in partnership with the Vancouver Hospice Society, the Order of St. John and Vancouver Coastal Health, the Board of Governors passed a partial Board 1 to build a hospice. The building will only cost UBC marginal maintenance costs, the management will be undertaken by VCH, and the building is forfeited to UBC in at least fifty years. A good deal for all parties. The Board approved the plan, and sent the planning department off to come up with a site and to contract out the design.
Sep
3
AMS Council: Sep 2, 2009
Posted by: Neal Yonson | September 3, 2009 | 5 Comments
Highlights from tonight:
- Is UBC driving us crazy?
- Further plundering of the President’s fund by the external office
Sep
1
Introducing: Insiders 2.0
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | September 1, 2009 | 7 Comments
Welcome!
After slaving away behind the scenes for three months now, we’re finally public. Introducing the brand-new UBC Insiders! Andrew, Justin, Neal and I have been working away behind the scenes, securing the new team, working on web development and coming up with a business strategy, editorial schedules and research ideas to give you what you want from UBC Insiders: the best coverage of UBC Vancouver political news and opinion. Read more
Aug
28
A Shout Out
Posted by: Neal Yonson | August 28, 2009 | 1 Comment
To the AMS, and Fincom in particular for helping fund my trip to Ottawa to attend the CIS AGM.
You can read the articles I wrote about it here and here.
If you are hoping to go to a conference, event, or have a special project in mind, I strongly encourage you to apply for one of their Student Initiatives Fund grants (which is what I got).
If you are an AMS club looking to do something special, they also have an option for you: the Clubs Benefit Fund.
Finally, another good funding option they have is the Innovative Projects Fund, which exists to provide seed money for new projects of direct benefit to students.
I am a huge AMS fan and it’s not only because they just gave me money. It is easy to criticize them when they make mistakes, but in the end it is full of great people who do good things, and UBC students are definitely better off for it.
Aug
28
AMS Council: August 19, 2009
Posted by: Neal Yonson | August 28, 2009 | Comments Off on AMS Council: August 19, 2009
It’s so nice out today. Can’t we all just go sit on the Knoll and have council there?
Highlights:
- A visit from Pierre Ouillet and Brian Sullivan
- Tom Dvorak’s EPIC Sunglasses tan
Bonjour Pierre Ouillet
Pierre Ouillet (UBC’s VP Finance, Resources and Operations) is here with Brian Sullivan to talk about structural deficits in the UBC budget. These must be the hot new thing in institutional finance this year, since we also got a presentation from Tom Dvorak about it last month.
Aug
28
The Downside of Automatic Enrolment
Posted by: Neal Yonson | August 28, 2009 | Comments Off on The Downside of Automatic Enrolment
The Faculty of Graduate Studies (FoGS) recently implemented “automated continuous thesis registration”, which works as follows:
“Starting in Summer 2009, when students register in a thesis or dissertation course once, their registration in that course will automatically roll each term until the end of the student’s program (excepting if they are on leave).’
On the surface this seems pragmatic. In the original email which went out last May they hoped that it would make life easier for students, faculty and staff. They also allege that students not registering was a common occurrence, causing UBC to lose out on some tuition fees and provincial funding.
Aug
28
Campus Shows: Fall 2009
Posted by: Neal Yonson | August 28, 2009 | Comments Off on Campus Shows: Fall 2009
This year, the Ubyssey will have more resources invested in their culture section (one editor last year; this year there are two), with fewer resources going into news (two editors last year; this year only one). They now have a culture blog and, I believe, a paid culture staffer over the summer. Correction: Apparently the grant the Ubyssey obtained went news and coordinating editors. Over the summer the rest of the staff is volunteer.
A quick look at their recent culture content reveals entries about other websites, and coverage of things happening around Vancouver which are already covered quite competently by Vancouver’s other media outlets. Events happening or upcoming on campus or put on by the AMS? Not a peep.
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