The Insiders
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Mar
2
AMS Electoral Fraud Presumed; Everything on Ballot Under Review
Posted by: Neal Yonson | March 2, 2010 | 1 Comment
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.
Mar
1
CUS Board to Vote on $500 Building Fee Referendum
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | March 1, 2010 | 6 Comments
Update 5:34pm: Today’s CUS meeting has been moved to Angus 296 from Angus 310.
Normally we try not to post snippets, but we feel this one is important enough.
At tonight’s CUS Board of Directors meeting (6:00pm, Henry Angus 310 296) there will be a vote to have the CUS go to a student referendum to implement a building fee of $500. This fee would only be implemented after the completion of Henry Angus building renovations.
Those of us who have been around since 2007 will notice this is a repeat of the same question asked then, which was deemed a Dean-initiated plebiscite instead of a proper student society fee, making it a tuition increase under their tuition policy.
The CUS was approached by Commerce Dean Daniel Muzyka as part of the faculty’s original financing plan to revisit the student fee three years later. The CUS is claiming that this student fee is necessary to secure donor money. Past Board documentation, however, states that the Faculty is seeking at most $18 million from students to simply pay off debt the Faculty was granted after their original financial plan collapsed.
The CUS has a media debrief tomorrow for media inquiries, which leads us to believe this is already a done deal for the CUS. At our last attempt to observe the CUS Board’s discussions, we were barred entry from their chambers, while the Dean was granted access. Minutes state this was for “a frank discussion of the situation with the current leadership of the CUS so all members are fully informed.”
More details forthcoming as we dig them up. Interested parties are advised to read through past board documentation (search: “Sauder”) and the Facebook note behind the jump by Dr. Peets in 2007.
Feb
5
CP&D Open Houses Galore
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | February 5, 2010 | 6 Comments
This is a little last minute, but if you want to be heard about the future of housing on campus, as well as the future of the heart of campus (the University Boulevard area, as well as McInnis Field and the current bus loop), there are two open houses forthcoming. All you need to do is show up:
1. Public Open House • UBC Student Housing Demand Study
Date: Friday, February 5th
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:30pm
Local: SUB 211
A follow-up to this study, which among other things, states that 43% of students living off campus would live on campus if they had the choice. Learn about the study and provide your input regarding the study and next-steps.
2. Public Open House • University Boulevard Neighbourhood
Date: Monday, February 8th
Time: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Local: SUB Concourse
Long ago, there was a design competition to redo the University Boulevard Neighbourhood (solid line). It’s been about six years since that design competition finished. Since then, the winning architects have disappeared, their replacement also disappeared, an underground bus loop has disappeared, and in the chaos, a 120 million dollar Student Union Building, and an Olympic-sized pit of mud have appeared.
Despite most of the original plan’s premises disappearing, the model of the neighbourhood remains the same. This open house seems to be a welcome acknowledgment of “ok, crap, what now”. Further, the ‘study area’ includes much much more than the University Boulevard Neighbourhood–going all the way to the current bus loop (where future plans are still undecided). It’ll be very interesting to see what’s on display.
Feb
3
Voter Funded Media Results
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | February 3, 2010 | 7 Comments
Here are the results from continuous VFM thusfar, and from the one-time VFM in interactive graph form!
The real winner at the end of the day, I would say, is the gossip rag AMS Confidential, who managed to create themselves partway through continuous VFM and eventually surpassed the Radical Beer Tribune in terms of total cash out.
It remains hard to get a firm grasp over the one-time VFM results, due to the limited information we now have. What we do know, is that on average, students allocated $1334 with their vouchers. This means a high degree of non-participation in one-time VFM, as this number should be at least $2000 if participation were 100%. If the history of one-time tells us anything though, it’s that results are hard to predict, and the characteristics you’d expect to be predictors aren’t that strong.
Analysis by Tim remains as true today as it did three years ago: there are different niches for the blogs to fill, but at the end of the day, the real benefit of one-time VFM is now the electorate can generally expect better-researched candidates.
We’ve been in talks with the Elections Committee to get more detailed results from the elections, as we beget further analysis. We’re hoping they get released to all soon, so we can try to get a better feeling on what exactly the results mean.
Feb
1
Yes, The Killers Killed the Liquor at Thunderbird Arena
Posted by: Neal Yonson | February 1, 2010 | Comments Off on Yes, The Killers Killed the Liquor at Thunderbird Arena
Avid readers of this blog may recall a post from last summer entitled: “Did The Killers Kill the Liquor at Thunderbird Arena?”
The original post should be read in its entirety, but if you’re too lazy the synopsis is that in July 2009, UBC Athletics put an application forward to amend the liquor licence at T-Bird Arena. (Apologies to Doug Mitchell; T-Bird Arena is much simpler to write than DMTWSC.) At the time, campus RCMP had serious objections to the proposal based on a series of major infractions at previous licenced (and non-licenced) events at the arena and things were not looking good for Athletics.
In the fall, the Liquor Control and Licencing Board (LCLB) issued their decision on Athletics’s application and it didn’t work out very well. In short: Yes, the Killers killed the liquor at Thunderbird Arena.
Jan
30
2010 Preliminary Election Results
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | January 30, 2010 | 2 Comments
But wait, democracy isn’t over just yet! Continuous VFM is continuous!
Jan
29
Over 6500!
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | January 29, 2010 | Comments Off on Over 6500!
Ignore the false reports, the elections committee just announced we’re over 6500!
Huge kudos to the elections committee. It appears a combination of VFM and a new elections voting website has make for a sustained increase in turnout. See you all at the Gallery for results!
Jan
28
Insiders Predicts Turnout Down 42%
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | January 28, 2010 | 10 Comments
Note: Within an hour of this post, the elections committee broke the model! Good job, EC! (more t-tests, next time, I promise)
I did a really simple logarithmic fit to the data the elections committee has been releasing.
I’m going to go ahead and predict turnout this year will be 3781. Only 58% of last years ~6500.
Note: I’d do some confidence intervals, but seriously, I just finished a STAT 306 assignment, and I’m tired of t-tests.
What’s different this year from last? This editor notes one big difference is the lack of a student-wide email, highly visible poll-booths, and highly visible campaigns. Post your thoughts in the comments thread.
Jan
28
Council Poll!
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | January 28, 2010 | 6 Comments
Haven’t voted yet? Why not?
It’s taken our monkeys a while, but they’ve finally counted the ballots and ranked the pairs. Who Council chose, as of Wednesday, January 20th.
Note: Proxies were counted as council members. This is simply a sample for entertainment purposes–I haven’t bothered with confidence intervals or any of that fun stuff. More results and details behind the jump!
Jan
27
The Presidential Debate Video
Posted by: Alex Lougheed | January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment
Voting is now open. Cast your ballot now!
Insiders would like to offer a huge thanks to our partner, the Ubyssey, the moderator, Geoff Costeloe, the hosts, the UBC Centre for Student Involvement, and our supporters, AMS Elections. We saw an attendance of over 70 live in the house in this first-ever event.
Note: the video freezes in the first four seconds. If you wait for about 20 seconds thereafter, it resumes. Alternative, you can skip ahead a tiny fraction of seconds and it will play faster. Also, the video began late, and is missing an introduction by the hosts to the Centre for Student Involvement, as well as half of the presentation of the themes.
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