Students Imagine and Re-Imagine the New SUB

Ever considered what might the new SUB look like when it’s done? What are the structural possibilities? What are some edgy architectural features?

That’s exactly the question that a group of fourth-year environmental design students are trying to answer! Our very own UBC students are getting in on the new SUB action and they’re holding an exhibition tomorrow to showcase their work. In one of the few classes where construction of the new SUB is integrated into the curriculum, these students are imagining, un-imagining and re-imagining possibilities upon possibilities for the future.

The professor in charge of this course, Martin Lewis, has had a history of engaging students with real applications – he integrated the construction of the new Buchanan building in this course last year!

It will be held tomorrow (December 9, 2009) in the SUB from 9:30am to 12:30pm and from 1:30pm to 5:30pm. A hosted lunch will begin at 12:30pm. The exhibition is also meant to elicit student feedback so please feel free to share your opinions!

Their work is both provocative and fascinating – visit their website to check out what they’ve been working on!

Straw Poll: Which media do you use?

This is just a quick straw poll of our readers – I’m curious as to what media you’ve been using to keep abreast of the AMS-UN Affair. If you can, provide a few reasons for choosing the media that you do or a brief critique of the media that you’ve found. The more information, the better!

Leave your feedback in the comments, we’d love to hear from you. Remember that while comments can be moderated, they’re still anonymous! Feel free to sign in with any affiliate service (Facebook, Twitter, OpenID) if you’d like too.

And if you missed it, no one from the Spectator made it onto Taylor Loren’s hot-list. Crushing disappointment. I must seek a paper bag to wear when I go reporting in the future.

Where to Begin?

I've been to a lot of AMS meetings over the past two and a half years, but this one certainly takes the cake. Incredible tension, unprecedented attendance from the student body, heckling, equity complaints, streaming video courtesy of our friends at The Ubyssey, etc.

It began with the legal opinion coming to Council, basically informing them that a recall motion would be illegal. Thus, the much anticipated motion did not see the light of day. Council's arsenal of motions was, however, not depleted. I won't go into the details of the motions, but the meeting ended up with a motion of censure from Council, passing without dissent, along with successful motions to limit the abilities of Blake Frederick and Tim Chu to pull any more stunts of this nature.

Stunts.

That's what this all came down to.

Stunning admissions from Blake came out tonight. Our own Justin Yang paraphrased as best he could throughout the entire meeting, at one point noting that Blake said : "It's meant to start a dialogue...the intention is not to have the UN drop other priorities and focus on the issue of post-secondary education and come to Canada to help us."

This is my first concern with the whole thing. If you don't want the UN to come to Canada to help us, and do not want them to divert attention from their actual concerns, then don't file a complaint to them. It undermines any and all credibly you have to admit that you filed an official complaint to the most visible international organization with the sole intent to stir things up. The UN is not a counselling service; it is not a toll-free hotline; and it is not there to field complaints about post-secondary student debt.

It's the UN.

Points were made that this created a national dialogue, and so clearly it was a great move. Well, the first part is correct. Somehow I don't think this kind of attention serves the AMS very well at all. But hey, maybe scathing editorials from Manitoba are all a part of what Blake and Tim were going for.

But that is not the point of this whole mess, just one of the issues I personally have with it.

With regards to the whole process of picking a co-complainant, there was no real answer given. We're basically told that there was a questionnaire, and the most suitable candidate was picked from among those who took it. Councillor Geoff Costeloe finally asked the question I'd been wondering all along: Who here was asked to take that questionnaire? Answer: No one.

It's been made abundantly clear that no one was consulted on the whole "Hey, let's complain to the UN" thing, so I don't know where or how the selection process took place, but I don't think I'm the only one that finds it odd that Tristan Markle, former VP Admin of the AMS, just happened to be chosen as lucky co-complainant. It was pretty confusing to hear all about a selection process and not moments later hear apologies for not contacting students or Council about it.

Blake also claimed that his intent was to mobilize students, and noted that they have been mobilized, though not necessarily on this campus. Based on a straw poll conducted at the meeting, at least 3/4 of those in the relatively filled Norm Theatre were opposed to Blake and Tim's actions. I'm not entirely sure that this was the type of mobilization that was inteneded to occur, but you have to give them credit for bringing the most at-large students that the AMS has seen in... probably a long time.

Tim addressed concerns about the lack of lobby days this year (where the AMS spends $9000 to head to Victoria and do a bunch of cooperative lobbying as a group). He stated that his office was too busy as they were tackling issues of Childcare, UPass, etc.

I'm sorry, but if you feel that tuition is such a pressing issue and warrants an appeal to the United Nations, maybe you ought to make a little more time for it in your office's schedule. Maybe you ought to meet with more MLAs and MPs on the issue. Maybe you ought to try and tackle the issue in a constructive, meaningful way. Just maybe?

I've rambled enough for now, and should consider resting up for my 8:30am final. I couldn't address all the concerns I had tonight with the meeting, but I've done my best. And so concludes my first post on UBC Spectator. I hope there are more to come.

Best of luck on finals, everyone!

Liveblog: AMS Council Meeting – December 7, 2009

The UBC Spectator will be hosting a liveblog for the AMS Council Meeting to be held on December 7, 2009, at 4:00pm.

This time, we’ll be featuring the following panelists, in addition to your friendly neighbourhood spectators:

• Ekaterina Dovjenko (AMS Councillor, Commerce)
• Mitchell Wright (Former AMS Councillor, Arts)
• Maria Cirstea (AMS Councillor, Science)
• Jason Ng (Social Capital)
• Taylor Loren (Twitterlebrity)

Edit: The relevant legal opinion is now located online here. We get bragging rights for having posted it first. :P

Catch the liveblog after the jump!

They’ve Got Friends in High Places

Thanks to Mitchell Wright, the UBC Spectator has learned that Edward Pullman, Director of Finance for the University of Victoria Students’ Society, has apparently put forth a motion at the UVSS to support the complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding tuition fees as evidenced by this Facebook group.

This excerpt from the group’s informational section is particularly illuminating:

We wholeheartedly disagree with this motion, because:

1) WE'RE UVIC, NOT UBC: From the perspective of the UVSS, we are not UBC students. We are not governed by the AMS. Their democratically-elected board voted to rescind that motion, and it is not right for the UVSS to intervene in their affairs. This is a UBC matter that ought to be dealt with by UBC students. Telling their board what you think is best for them is condescending, and, frankly, the UVSS has more pressing issues to deal with than what the UBC AMS chooses to do.

2) THIS IS ABOUT TRANSPARENCY, NOT TUITION FEES: While we, as students, certainly would like to see lower tuition in British Columbia, our opposition to this motion, and the original AMS complaint, have nothing to do with tuition fees. At issue is how Frederick and Chu handled the complaint; instead of taking it up with the board, they kept it to themselves, leaving their colleagues on the AMS completely in the dark the whole time. But when the complaint was lodged, they claimed to speak on behalf of the entire AMS, despite the fact these two had kept the entire process shrouded in secrecy from the board. The retraction shows that they clearly did not speak on the entire board’s behalf, either.

Pullman’s motion reads as follows:

WHEREAS the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights stipulates that signatories will work toward the progressive introduction of user-fee free post-secondary education; and

WHEREAS the government of Canada signed the Covenant in 1976; and

Whereas since 1976 tuition fees in BC have increased more than 800%, adjusting for inflation; and

WHEREAS the President and Vice President External of the UBC-Vancouver Alma Mater Society filed a complaint with the United Nations, highlighting that BC and Canada have for 33 years failed to uphold the Covenant; and

WHEREAS such creative actions are valuable in generating media coverage of the failure of the governments of BC and Canada to provide access to post-secondary education to low- and middle-income families; and

WHEREAS the UBC-Vancouver AMS Council unanimously voted to withdraw the complaint and issue a statement informing the public of the withdrawal on Wednesday, December 2; and

WHEREAS this decision publicly undermines the work of the majority of students' unions in the province, including the University of Victoria Students' Society, to pressure the governments of BC and Canada to make education more affordable; and

WHEREAS the UBC-Vancouver AMS continues to have policy supporting tuition fee increases; and

WHEREAS the vast majority of students' unions in the province, including the UVSS, are campaigning to reduce tuition fees; and

WHEREAS members of the UVSS Board of Directors have expressed a desire for the UVSS to work closer with the UBC-Vancouver AMS; and

WHEREAS working together requires that core policies align; therefore

BIRT the Chairperson send a letter to the Council of the UBC-Vancouver Alma Mater Society expressing concern that its decision to publicly withdraw the AMS's complaint to the United Nations of the failure of the governments of BC and Canada to live up to the Covenant undermines the work of the majority of students' unions in the province to make post-secondary education more accessible; and

BIFRT the letter urge the UBC-Vancouver AMS Council to overturn its policy in favour of tuition fee increases and adopt policy supporting the progressive reduction of tuition fees.

Updated (December 5, 2009): Geoff Sharpe has provided us with the agenda for the UVSS Board of Directors meeting where this motion will come up. Also, Geoff points out Eye on the UVSS, a great blog for anyone interested in the goings-on at UVic.

Day Nine of the AMS-UN Affair: Link Redux

Check out the accumulation of links describing the events of the AMS-UN Affair since day one after the jump!

From Crystal Hon: An Apology

Crystal Hon, VP Administration, sent the following email to AMS Council some twenty minutes ago:

Council,

This week, Tom and Johannes did some research to find out which two signing authorities signed the cheque that was payable to Pivot Legal.  It has come to light that I was one of the people who signed the cheque. I am telling Council this because I feel it is necessary to be accountable for my part in this issue. I apologize for not practicing due diligence and I will not make the same mistake again.

As always, my office is open; please do not hesitate to come talk to me if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Regards,

Crystal

We will report as events progress.