All Posts Tagged With: "UBC"
UBC sets up very, very open interviews for Dean of Education candidates
Final two contenders asked to give a public speech, take questions from the audience
Transparency is a funny thing to navigate for any public university stuck in that semi-autonomous but government-operated grey zone. Especially if you’re trying to be globally competitive, as some Canadian institutions are. When and how a university attempts to be more open can be an interesting thing to watch, because of course no university has to do such things, but sometimes they do—and it makes it all the more glaring when they turtle up.
For example, at the University of British Columbia, the selection of a new Dean of Education has been remarkably open. Later this month, the final two candidates will make a public pitch to interested observers as to their vision for the faculty, and take questions from the audience.
Last year, when choosing a new Dean of Arts, the university conducted an election for which student would sit on the selection committee. They also let everyone know when the list of candidates was narrowed to three.
In this case, it’s good publicity for the university, it’s a way to consult the community in a key decision without giving over control—and it’s an approach other universities should emulate.
UBC stalls on animal research disclosure
Group files complaint with privacy commissioner
The University of British Columbia is withholding information related to animal research, according to advocacy group Stop UBC Animal Research. In September the group filed a freedom of information request for details regarding the use of piglets, monkeys, cats, mice and rabbits in experiments. According to the group, UBC failed to respond within the required 20 days. A complaint has been filed with the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act commissioner.
Outcry against animal research
“Frathouses evict students” story misses the mark
UBC students knew of Olympics displacement when they signed their contracts
A story by the National Post on UBC fraternities renting out their buildings for the Olympics has raised eyebrows:
More than 200 students at the University of British Columbia are being forced out of their rooms by their own fraternities — which have decided to cash in by renting out to 2010 Games visitors.
The story insinuates that fraternity members are being unfairly kicked out of their places for a whole month with little compensation. One problem with the story: While it seems that one fraternity (Psi Upsilon) didn’t fully consult with its members before hand, most fraternity members were consulted every step of the way.
Adam Mattinson, house manager of Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE), said that discussions on renting out their fraternity for the Games had begun in early 2009 with the DKE council, and that all members who chose to live in the house for the 2009–2010 school year knew when signing their contract that they would be forced to find temporary accommodation in February.
“We knew well in advance that this was going to happen, so we’ve been doing everything we can to make sure there are no issues,” he said. While DKE has not yet fully decided where the additional funds will be going, all residents will see their rent lowered for January, March and April, in addition to not paying for February.
Another fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi (ADP), will be giving each of their displaced residents an additional $500 in exchange for leaving for the month of February. They also started consulting with their members as far back as early 2009, and also had a clause in their residence contracts explaining the situation.
“Ultimately, renting out our fraternity house during the games will benefit members,” said Campbell Bryson, ADP philanthropy chair. He mentioned, as the Post story did, that the point of renting out the fraternities—which are located across the street from UBC’s Thunderbird Arena, host hockey and sledge-hockey during the Olympics—is to increase funds for various initiatives: some are putting the money to scholarships, while others are using it for building maintenance.
So, put this one fairly low on the “Olympic Scandal” meter—it seems that the inconvenience of members leaving for a month is offset by the long term goal of helping a (fraternity) brother out.
Updated: Join a frat, live on the street
Olympics visitors cause eviction of 200 UBC frat members
This strikes me as rediculous:
More than 200 students at the University of British Columbia are being forced out of their rooms by their own fraternities — which have decided to cash in by renting out to 2010 Games visitors.
In particular, the admission that frat members had no choice:
At Psi Upsilon, 30 fraternity members who pay $730 for monthly room and board have been ordered to leave their rooms. All possessions must be removed before the rooms are rented out.
Psi Upsilon house manager Aaron Thomson refused to say how much the group is making from its rentals.
He told The Vancouver Province the money would go toward a scholarship fund, to pay for repairs and maintenance work, and to top up the fraternity’s contingency fund.“We have this great opportunity where we can fix the house and get all this money,” Mr. Thomson said on Wednesday. “It is, of course, difficult for most people to have to leave for a month.”
Thomson said frat members didn’t have a choice in the matter and no vote was held, but he said the majority favoured the plan.
If, indeed, the money will be used to improve frat houses, and directed towards scholarships, wouldn’t it be appropriate to put the case directly to members? Rather than evicting them without cause, why not try and convince them that it is in the best interest of the fraternity for tenants to leave for a month? According to Psi Upsilon’s website, house vacancies occur in September, and that if you want to live there, you have to wait for someone else to leave. Is there a rider in the lease that the agreement becomes during the Olympic? So much for Greek “brotherhood.”
Maybe someone a little closer to the action can tell us whether this is as outrageous as it seems.
UPDATE: As Justin Mcelroy has pointed out, not all fraternities have acted as outrageously as this Can West story has suggested. In fact, many frats consulted directly with members and ensured they were sufficiently aware of plans to rent out frat houses during the Olympics.
That still leaves the question as to whether Psi Upsilon, the frat featured in the Can West story consulted with their members or not. The Psi Upsilon house manager does say that no vote was held and that members did not have a choice.
Who asked students?
The ‘Big 5′ debate in review
When the presidents of what have been named the “Big 5” schools — the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill University, University of Alberta and Université de Montréal — met via video conference with Maclean’s Paul Wells this summer, what they had to say was sure to ignite some buzz in the academic sphere.
Though some smaller schools are up in arms about the thought of losing their place in competitive Canadian research, as the ‘Big 5′ presidents propose, perhaps by creating these research-intensive graduate schools, a new focus on undergraduate learning that would directly benefit students is a worthwhile flipside.
Most recently, a book funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education argues that undergraduate education is in need of an overhaul. The authors argue several points, the concept of focusing on teaching and not research for undergraduate faculty needs to become the new norm ties into the ‘Big 5’ proposal.
Despite the fact no one has actually asked the students what their take is, it’s fairly easy to say students would not be opposed to smaller class sizes, where professors are accessible and solely focused on their learning. After all, it’s their tuition dollars that go towards funding these research-based programs and whose enrollment these schools set up in booths in high school gymnasiums to obtain.
Already boasting a combined 40 per cent of the country’s research funding, the presidents of the ‘Big 5′ schools spelled out their dissatisfaction with the current state of universities in Canada.
Having to spread funding and resources to educate the masses — a disproportionate number of undergraduate students to graduate researchers — these presidents argued for a change of focus at these ‘top’ schools, enrolling fewer undergraduates and transforming these institutions into primarily graduate research-based schools.
Their reasoning being that in order to “attract the world’s best scholars” and pump out graduates who can match or best their world colleagues, a greater focus needs to be paid to these programs and leave the undergraduate population to the smaller schools.
“If you strongly support the very highest forms of international peer review,” said Indira Samarasekera president of the University of Alberta, in the article, “and you drive toward excellence, and you create pools of funding where people can compete at an international standard, you will then encourage and enable certain institutions to differentially excel.”
Now almost five months later and the merits of the proposal for higher education institutions as set out by the schools’ presidents is still being debated.
In August, the smaller schools retorted in a second Maclean’s article, including the University of Waterloo, Lakehead University, Laurentian and the University of Guelph, who collectively argued their graduate research programs, many producing high-caliber researchers, should not be designated to instruct solely undergraduates.
While the ‘Big 5’ argue that Canadian research is not measuring up, the smaller schools have said that’s a reflection of the large programs and they’ve had their chance to prove their worth. “They had their opportunities to clearly demonstrate that they can make a difference,” said Frederick Filbert, president of Lakehead University.
Other schools responded through other media outlets. Roseann Runte, president of Carleton University wrote an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail, arguing that differentiating schools as proposed squanders competition and collaboration.
“Canada needs to create an environment in our universities, our cities, our provinces that will support and generate such innovation. This will not happen by closing the door to potential players or instituting an intellectual caste system,” she wrote.
Since then provincial governments, bloggers and other media outlets have chimed in on what is to become of higher education. When Katie Engelhart talked to Canada’s provincial education ministers many expressed the fact that differentiated schools already exist, as it is not the intention for all universities to be “top researchers.” But none are eager to openly support the ‘Big 5’ proposal.
It seems imperative that all these voices, both larger and smaller schools along with governments and the students attending Canadian universities each have role to play in the decision. Regardless, as with most politics, a change won’t happen overnight.
- photo by dcJohn
Botched coup at UBC
AMS exec powers neutered over unauthorized UN tuition complaint
After 12 days of campus controversy and student politics machinations, the UBC Alma Mater Society President (AMS) executives who issued an unauthorized human rights complaint to the United Nations will keep their jobs. A recall motion, to have President Blake Frederick and Vice President Eexternal Tim Chu impeached, was pulled back only after it was discovered at the 11th hour that doing so through a vote of student council would have been illegal.
The complaint to the UN alleged the B.C. and federal governments were responsible for “gross human rights violations” due to the cost of tuition.
Following a unanimous motion by student council a week ago to ask Frederick and Chu to resign following the complaint they filed on behalf of the AMS—without approval or knowledge from AMS Council—the stage was set for a special meeting to recall the two. However, following veiled threats by Frederick and Chu that they would be considering legal action if they were removed by council, a legal opinion was sought on how the two of them could be removed as Directors of the AMS.
Most councilors were fairly certain the legal opinion would allow them to proceed. The meeting was set for 4pm on Monday. At 3:30, the opinion came in—and it clearly stated that to recall/impeach the two of them would be a contravention of BC’s Society Act, which the AMS is legally bound by. The Act requires a petition signed by at least two per cent of UBC students and a meeting with the same number of students, with 75 per cent voting for recall.
Oops.
So, though the complaint to the UN had been retracted and Frederick had apologized for his actions, council decided to gut, strip, and neuter Frederick and Chu of their powers, with a variety of measures designed to completely paralyze the largest student union in Canada for the next two months. These include:
a) No press releases can be sent without the permission of student council.
b) Frederick and Chu cannot have meetings or communications that could adversely affect the reputation of the AMS with important stakeholders (UBC Administration, provincial/federal government) without approval of student council.
c) An official censure of Frederick of Chu.
d) Frederick, Chu, and the rest of the AMS executive (whom, hilariously, all signed off on cheques that allowed the AMS to go forward with the legal complaint without knowing what they were signing) are forced to write weekly reports detailing their hour-by-hour activities.
e) Frederick will no longer chair the Executive Committee.
f) Next year’s executive will take power on February 12th, two weeks earlier than usual, in order to prevent Frederick and Chu from saying, doing, or thinking anything that might cause controversy during the Winter Olympics (this wasn’t stated in the actual motion, but it’s widely acknowledged as the subtext for the decision).
Update on UBC Student Union complaint to the UN
Emergency Council meeting being set up to retract complaint, ask AMS President Blake Frederick to resign
For the first update on the story, click here.
Amazingly enough, student councillors don’t like finding out that they’ve launched a formal human rights complaint to the United Nations over press releases, and news stories, and tweets.
An motion to call an emergency meeting of AMS Council has been brought forward, with the following items being on the agenda:
1. That Council retract the complaint to the UN against the VC and Canadian governments, and direct the AMS Communications Department to issue a press release stating that this was not the will of the Society.
2. That Council prohibit the expenditure of any further AMS resources of any nature on this action.
3. That Council request that President Blake Frederick resign from Council.
4. That Council request that VP External Affairs Tim Chu resign from Council.
If the motion to ask for resignation passes, and Frederick and Chu choose not to resign, council will serve the two of them with notices of impeachment.
Why are they so upset? Well, filing an official human rights complaint with the United Nations is a pretty big deal. In their steps to do so, there was a pretty giant lack of communication.
— In March, the executive committee signed off on the following:
“The AMS will pursue a legal battle with the Province on the basis that the recent Education funding cuts are against the UN charter.”
— The AMS (meaning, Frederick and Chu) looked for firms that would take on the case. They decided upon Pivot Legal Society, which is pretty much a straight forward legal advocacy group for the disadvantaged.
— In October, Pivot Legal Society informed the AMS that the case was feasible, and they would go ahead pursuing the case with their consent. Frederick and Chu claimed that the executive committee agreed to go forward with the case, even though a specific motion was not passed. Two other members of the executive committee (VP Finance Tom Dvorak and VP Academic Johannes Rebane) disagreed that the question had even been brought up.
— The AMS collected affidavit from people concerned about high tuition rates, and gave them to Pivot Legal Society. They determined that Markle (who was no longer a student) had the best story—despite the fact Markle made upwards of $20,000 in 2008/2009 as an AMS Executive—and thus would be included in the complaint. The AMS is paying for Markle’s fees.
— The Communications Planning Group, which you would think would play a big part in this, was not notified of the press conference, the press release, or that this was even on the table. The student newspaper The Ubyssey wasn’t even informed of the press conference (other local media were). Nonetheless, the press conference happened. And the controversy began…
On the whole, it looks that at most 4–5 people within the student union knew what was going on, and that they deliberately tried to keep this decision as secret as possible. While it’s fair to argue that there were on-the-record minutes that said the AMS was investigating this, it seems absolutely preposterous that something of this magnitude (assuming you believe that the United Nations has legitimacy in the area of provincial post-secondary education, which is extremely questionable) would be kept so quiet, and never debated publicly. Oh, and the society is on the hook for thousands of dollars in legal fees. Given all that, don’t be surprised if a) This complaint to the United Nations is quickly retracted, and b) Blake Frederick’s reign as President ends within a fortnight.
UBC student union complains to UN about tuition fees
Yes, you heard that correctly.
UBC’s Alma Mater Society, the largest student union in Canada, has filed a complaint to the UN in an attempt to address high tuition rates. I really don’t want to preface this any more than need be, so here’s the press release…
The UBC Alma Mater Society (AMS), represented by Pivot Legal LLP, has filed a complaint to the United Nations regarding the federal and provincial government’s failure to meet their international obligations to provide accessible post-secondary education.
By failing to adequately control tuition fees and not providing sufficient financial support to students, the complaint states that the government is violating its commitment under Article 13 ( c ) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights which states “Higher education shall be made accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.”
“Since the tuition fee freeze was lifted in 2002, student fees in British Columbia have more than doubled,” says AMS President Blake Frederick. “The high cost of tuition means that many capable students, particularly those from lower-income families, are unable to get a university education.”
Lack of financial resources has been cited as the leading reason why BC students are unable to pursue post-secondary education. In 1996, the provincial government enacted legislation that froze tuition rates throughout the province. This was an important step towards reducing financial barriers to post-secondary education. The provincial government ended the tuition fee freeze in 2002, and since that time, the AMS has actively lobbied the provincial and federal government to regulate tuition fees in the province.
“When Canada signed on to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, they made a commitment to work towards free post-secondary education,” says Katrina Pacey, counsel for the AMS. “Instead, the government has increased tuition rates on an annual basis. We are asking the UN to hold the government accountable for their complete failure to live up to their commitment to accessible higher education.”
The AMS, which represents 45,000 students at UBC’s Vancouver Campus, is named as a complainant alongside UBC graduate Tristan Markle. The complainants have asked that the UN appoint an independent expert of Special Rapporteur to investigate the situation.
The official complaint is here.
For the record, Tristan Markle was the AMS VP Administration in 2008/2009, and was a former leader of the UBC Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a self-professed “radical” group associated with protests and controversy on campus.
If you’re wondering why no current student is named as a complainant in this, it’s because the release has caught the entire campus off-guard—this wasn’t something that had been talked about in student council, or in any public meetings for that matter. Unsurprisingly, public reaction (“public reaction” being “facebook statuses and tweets) have thus far has ranged from “embarrassing and pointless” to “does the AMS have any understanding of international law?” to “I’m ready to quit everything I do on campus. It is so useless when you see the stupid bull shit that comes out of the AMS,” and finally, comparing it to “the finest lobbying / advocacy method used by nutjobs everywhere.”
In a related (and incredibly ironic note), just last month the AMS sent out a press release that criticized UBC, and due to the fact that it was a) incredibly inflammatory, and b) not passed by student council first, President Frederick narrowly avoided being censured.
I’ll be researching on whether this has any sort of precedence, whether there is even a smidgen of chance that the UN could/would do something about this, and if the only thing this will lead to is the perception that UBC students have more faith in the power of the United Nations than anyone outside of Ban Ki-Moon’s immediate family.
Also, if you want to see student politicians get really, really angry at their president via tweets, check out the messages being sent to AMS President Frederick.
Click here to read: Update on UBC Student Union complaint to the UN
Promoting balanced lifestyles on campus
UBC campus community is urged to develop better habits
From Nov. 2 to 6, students, faculty, and staff participated in the first annual UBC THRIVE, a series of events promoting health and well-being among the UBC community. THRIVE was organised by the Department of Health, Safety and Environment (responsible for staff/faculty events and activities) and the Office of the Vice President, Students (responsible for student activities through Healthy Minds). attended and interviewed participants at three of the week’s activities: Breakfast with President Toope, the Wellness Fair, and the Healthy Minds Workshop.
Suzanne Jolly - Health, Safety and Environment, Geoff Cox, & Patty Hambler - Wellness Centre
On Nov. 3, to kick-off UBC THRIVE, President Stephen Toope and UBC Food Services Chef Andy Chan gave a cooking demonstration in which they shared tips on creating a healthy breakfast. Their menu featured caramelized pears and Vancouver Island goat cheese crostini as well as UBC Farm Swiss chard omelette with Qualicum spiced cheese. Following the demonstration, UBC Food Services provided spectators with samples of the menu.
Chef Andy Chan and UBC President Stephen Toope prepare a healthy breakfast
At the Breakfast kickoff, I interviewed Suzanne Jolly, HSE Coordinator for Health Promotion Programs, about UBC THRIVE.
Q: Can you tell me how the idea of the first annual UBC Thrive came about?
A: I was talking to a colleague, Patty Hambler, who runs the UBC Wellness Centre and she and I were talking about really how in order to create change around health issues on campus it needed to be a community-wide type of event. We talked further about maybe making it a whole wellness week. And we started running that idea by colleagues and friends all over campus among students, staff, and faculty and everyone was really inspired by that and eventually we came together to create the THRIVE committee to really get this going.
Q: What are the benefits of using social media tools such Facebook, twitter, and blogs to share information about UBC THRIVE?
A: Being creative around the diverse, technologically, savvy generation of students, as well as staff and faculty is really crucial in our success in getting the word out about UBC’s events in general, especially THRIVE week. We have our ubcthrive.ca website, which is actually a blog which we’re updating and having contributors from all over campus contribute information to that blog, so then we aren’t the only source of health and wellness on this campus. And so it’s really helping us diversity who we meet in terms of needs: who we communicate with, as well as who contributes, who has a voice in our community.
And I think that’s really important around social justice issues as well as health and wellness in general. It’s been a real essential tool for us to communicate with students, staff, and faculty and we are really excited to see, for example, that various faculties on campus have twitter sites and it’s not just the younger generation that are tweeting. And so, we’re trying to reach out in a variety of different ways because of that.
The pet projects of tomorrow’s innovators
UBC hosts panel of young leaders at its second annual TEDxTerry Talks
Iris Amuto, Eric Ma, Jennifer Kaban, Tahira Ebrahim, Azim Wazeer: TEDxTerry Talks speakers
On Oct 3, UBC hosted more than 250 students and alumni to the second annual TEDxTerry Talks 2009, a UBC student conference that provides a platform for its young leaders to share innovative ideas and discuss personal projects they are passionate about. This year, the speakers were seven undergraduate students, one graduate student and a young alumnus.
TEDx, where the x = independently organized TED event, is a program initiated by the group widely known for their Ideas Worth Spreading Series of annual conferences and inspirational videos of invited speakers. TEDx is designed to provide an opportunity for anyone to self-organise and host an event that will bring people together to share in a TED-like experience.
TEDxTerry Talks (tag: TEDxTt) emerged out of the Terry Project, a collaborative initiative between the UBC Faculties of Arts and Science. Its key purpose is to educate primary undergraduate students about current global issues such as malaria, H1N1, and poverty through organising events and fostering conversations using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and their blogs.
Jennifer Gardy, alumnus speaker: “Public Health in the 21st Century: the Open-Source Outbreak”
Dr. Jennifer Gardy, an alumnus speaker at the event, is co-leading the new genome research lab at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). She is also known as “Nerd Girl” from her Globe and Mail blog of the same name. In her talk, Gardy shared how advances in technology have provided increased collaboration on scientific research and scholarly publications — what she labelled as public health 2.0.
For example, she showed how one publication had 36 authors. After leading the audience through the origins of H1N1, she stated how it only took five days from the sequencing of the virus to the first open-source paper. Gardy ended her talk emphasizing how students should be willing to explore the benefits of Open Access publications, collaborative research, and emerging technologies.
Via email, Maclean’s OnCampus asked Gardy, along with other speakers, about her pet project:
Q: What is the value of open-access (OA) publications? Are these types of publications being supported by scientists?
Gardy: OA publications have value because they remove access barriers to knowledge. To access anything more than an abstract of a scientific paper in the pre-OA days, someone who was interested in the paper either had to a) be affiliated with an institution that had a subscription to that journal (and then be able to access that subscription either online or by traveling to the library to see the print copy) or b) willing to pay the per-article charge, generally $30-$50, to be able to download or access that article.
This excluded all sorts of groups from being able to access information: researchers whose institutes don’t have enough money to pay for a subscription (e.g pretty much all of the developing world) and people who are interested in a topic but don’t have an institutional affiliation (e.g. a patient trying to do research into a rare disorder they have) are two of the most obvious groups, but there are others you wouldn’t think of it….OA removes all these headaches and barriers and lets anybody see a paper, taking knowledge out of the domain of just the ivory tower and giving back to the people.
Q:What was the role of open-access publications in the discovery of H1N1?
Gardy: As far as H1N1 goes, virtually all of the big, early papers on the virus were published in non-OA journals but the authors chose to pay the extra costs and make the articles freely available. Many other important papers were published in weekly online OA journals like Eurosurveillance and MMWR. Thus ANYBODY could access the most up-to-date knowledge and contribute to the investigation into the virus.
Also, the outbreak catalyzed the creation of PLoS Currents, an online OA “pre-journal” where authors can submit works in progress that are vetted a by a small team of experts but nor formally peer-reviewed, and which can then be published later once they are more developed. The first PLoS Currents site (there will be one site each for a range of topics) is on influenza research, and launched a few months back at www.ploscurrents.org/influenza. It’s a neat new model for scientific publishing.
UBC votes to leave CASA—in six months
Student execs say they are excited about the prospects of a larger lobbying budget
After lengthy debate about the wording of the motion but relatively little debate about its actual merits, UBC’s Alma Mater Society, the largest student union in Canada, has declared its intent to leave the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA).
Originally, the motion in front of council read, “Therefore, be it resolved that the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia – Vancouver cease its affiliation to the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.” However, after a letter was urgently sent from CASA to councillors reminding them that a) UBC could not legally leave CASA until April 1, and b) UBC legally needed to give 30 days of notice before taking formal steps to leave the organization, there was a debate about whether to delay the debate until the AMS had gotten a legal opinion on the matter. That vote was defeated narrowly, and the end compromise was to word the motion more vaguely, so that it simply stated the AMS’ intent to leave CASA after April 1, 2010.
As one councillor put it, “We should let the people whose job it is to write legal policy write this policy, to make sure we take the proper formal steps for this to happen legally.”
Debate on the actual motion was fairly short. The current AMS President, Blake Frederick, told council that CASA didn’t make sense for UBC. The 2008/2009 AMS President, Mike Duncan, told council essentially the same thing. And the 2007/2008 AMS VP External, Matt Naylor, told council…well, you get the picture.
While there were a decent number of vocal dissidents to the motion—once councillor said “I am ashamed to be part of a organization that is so unprofessional with the groups we deal with”—most were in favour of the motion, given that is non-binding.
So what does the motion actually mean? Well, barring a fairly big ideological change in the makeup of the AMS executive, or drastic change in how CASA conducts its business, UBC will become independent on April 1, 2010, and remain so for a while. Current and past executives are excited about the prospects of having a much larger budget for lobbying (In the past, the AMS spent $70,000 on CASA), to spend more time working on provincial issues, and being in full control of external relations.
Meanwhile, most councillors (and by proxy, the student body) don’t really care about lobbying so long as it doesn’t take up a ton of money and doesn’t cause any public embarrassments to UBC. Frankly, there’s just too much bad blood and pettiness between the two groups right now for good-faith bargaining to happen.
UBC to decide on CASA membership tonight
But will the motion pass? This time, for a variety of reasons, the result isn’t certain
If one thing has been made clear over the past few weeks on this website, it’s that’s the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is definite water-cooler talk. That is, if the Internet had some sort of equivalent of a water cooler. But regardless, through a combination of its size and its penchant for creating controversy, the CFS can definitely be considered sexy within the realm of Canadian post-secondary student government/lobbying. Which isn’t saying much. But still.
However, the CFS’ counterpart, the smaller and federally-focused Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, keeps trundling along, working exclusively on issues of federal jurisdiction. Its largest member, UBC, may be fully pulling out of the group tonight. A motion has been put forward to the student council that would see the Alma Mater Society (AMS) fully remove itself from CASA. One of the things CASA trumpets as a selling point is that members can easily join and leave whenever they see fit without a full-scale referendum—and UBC students may just take full advantage of that.
Curiously, the end of the motion reads: (click for the entire motion)
“Be it further resolved that the AMS remain unaffiliated to any federal lobbying organization, for no less than two years; and
Be it further resolved that if the AMS considers affiliation with an external lobbying organization, it negotiate with CASA first.”
It’s a clear compromise on those who drafted the motion to find common ground with councillors who are neutral on the relative merits of CASA, but are strongly against joining the CFS. On the other hand, if federal fixed-election laws have taught us anything, it’s that these sorts of “we pwomise” motions/laws can easily be circumvented. A new executive and council could come in and override all of this.
So will the motion pass? Last year at this time, the AMS voted to step down to associate member status within CASA (the motion passed unanimously). This time however, the vote is not so certain. Much of the conflict has come due to the clumsy way the AMS executive has tried to distance itself from the organization. Most memorably, an email to students sent by VP External Tim Chu, the AMS claimed that “CASA is an organization that has quite a bit of problems. These problems include… Spending more money on cell phones than member relations.” Which would be ridiculous. If it were true.
However, in a meeting with UBC, National Director Arati Sharma said that CASA talked more about the cell phone budget than the member relations budget at their last AGM. Oops. Furthermore, the external office of the AMS, which is in charge of carrying out lobbying, hasn’t exactly been controversy-free in the last few months. It’ll be up to councillors to determine if Canada’s largest student union can competently handle external lobbying without any outside help or affiliation. I’ll have a report up on the decision once it breaks tonight (or, for those out on the east coast, more likely tomorrow morning).
UPDATE: Earlier today, Arati Sharma sent a letter to AMS Councillors and campus media which contained this interesting tidbit:
“In the current contract between the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia – Vancouver, and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (point 7 on page 3 of the attached Full Member Agreement), the AMS agreed to the exit provisions of Article 4 of the constitution (page 2 of attached Constitution 2007), which states in 4.10:
“A Full member reverting to Associate Membership or an Associate Member withdrawing from the organization must notify the Board of Directors in writing no less than thirty (30) calendar days in advance of employing the necessary legislative steps in the Member’s constitution or Bylaws.”
Two CASA representatives met with AMS representatives on October 8, 2009 but no notice of tonight’s motion was given. CASA was informed by the UBC Insiders (a campus blog) Twitter feed instead.
Olympic hockey jerseys unveiled at UBC
Design incorporates Canadian icons, including a moose, beaver, killer whale and the fleur-de-lis
On Monday, Hockey Canada unveiled Team Canada’s 2010 hockey jersey that will be worn by the men’s, women’s and sledge hockey teams representing Canada at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. While music played over loudspeakers, two huge jersey replicas were hoisted at the UBC Thunderbird Arena, one of the two venues for Olympic hockey.
Elisa Testa, 7 and Cole MacEwen, 11 modelling the sweaters
The jerseys were designed by Nike in collaboration with Musqueam artist Debra Sparrow in order to tell the story of Canada’s rich history. Inside the red maple leaf crest, the central element of the jersey, are design features that incorporate imagery from across Canada including smaller maple leafs representing the Olympic gold medal counts for Canada’s men’s (7), women’s (3), and sledge hockey team (1).
Stuart Iwasaki, Nike designer and Debra Sparrow, Musqueam artist
The graphic design features Salish symbols and patterns which are representative of the First Nations across Canada and incorporates Canadian icons: the maple leaf, hockey player, moose, beaver, killer whale, and the fleur-de-lis. The thunderbird and eagle are two powerful First Nations symbols that support and protect the central maple leaf. According to Stuart Iwasaki, a Nike designer, the cultural imagery reflects a desire to inspire the athletes by providing elements of First Nations artwork and sketches in the design.
2010 Team Canada logo (courtesy of Hockey Canada)
After using the traditional logo of a hockey player skating through a black and red maple leaf for international competitions over the past 14 years, Hockey Canada had to come up with a new design to comply with International Olympic Committee rules that forbid national sports federations displaying their logo at the games.
A replica 2010 jersey is available commercially at a suggested retail price of $134.95 with proceeds from the sales going to support Salish youth sports.
Bob Nicholson, President/CEO Hockey Canada speaks at press conference
UBC Thunderbird Arena
Artists take over at UBC gardens
Experience the synergy between art and nature
Art In The Garden took place at the UBC Botanical Garden from August 8 to 9. Since 1999, this annual event has been organised by Janet Lee within the private garden of her home. This year she collaborated with Friends of the Garden, which enabled the event to be relocated and expanded to include twenty diverse BC artists with garden-themed artwork.
Video features Janet Lee and Gudrun Hancock
Janet Lee, Janet Planet Designs and Gudrun Hancock, Friends of the Garden share why Art In The Garden is now at the UBC Botanical Garden, the reasons for the change, and the benefits of the new location.
Video features Raymond Chow, Yolande Morin, and Douglas Walker
Raymond Chow explains why the UBC Endowment Lands inspired him to spend a month at the UBC Botanical Garden to create a series of paintings. In describing his painting of the garden tunnel, he recommends that musicians play their music at its entrance because of the incredible acoustics.
Raymond Chow views the UBC Botanical Garden tunnel as a sound chamber for musicians
Yolande Morin recalls her artistic beginnings in photography as a nine years old. She used a little box camera she received as a gift to take pictures of her friends and family. She states: “[I was] trying to imitate the cherry blossoms by Van Gogh on the blue sky…by photographing in black and white the tree that was in front of our house”
Douglas Walker describes the functionality of an artpiece he calls French Horn Union Number 7. It pumps water through two French Horn sculptures in an S-shape causing water to pour out of the fountains while continuously rotating a water wheel.
Douglas Walker with his French Horn Union Number 7
Gurdin Hancock, Friends of the Garden discovers an Alcea Rosea
Additional pictures are available in the Flickr set.
Enjoying blueberries in the sun
UBC community gets a taste of the flavour of summer
From July 28th to 30th, the first annual UBC Blueberry Fest took place at the University of British Columbia. Summer visitors and members of the local community were offered a variety of menu choices such as fresh blueberries, blueberry pancakes, and baked goods.
According to Will Van Baalen of the B.C. Blueberry Council, the B.C. blueberry industry produces close to 90 million pounds from its 650-person grower base. It also has 18,000 acres of highbush blueberries in B.C.’s lower mainland.
Featuring: Will Van Baalen, BC Blueberries Council; Amy Frye, UBC Farm;
Simran Bains, Westberry Farms; Jose Aliangan, UBC Food Services
Meenakshi Mannoe and Kate Parnell, 4th year UBC students eating blueberry cream blintzes
Julia Ostertag of UBC Farm selling their local produce
Satwinder Bains and Simran Bains of Westberry Farms display their fresh blueberries
Jose Aliangan of UBC Food Services makes blueberry pancakes
See the flickr set for additional photos.
UBC student sues over alleged religious discrimination
Lawyer admits that plaintiff had not regularly attended church for awhile
According to Xtra West, a University of British Columbia student is appealing a decision by a BC Supreme Court judge to dismiss her suit of religious discrimination against the school.
Cynthia Maughan, now 49, first sued the school November 2002 after she received a B-minus in a literature class.
Among other claims, Maughan says she missed out on at least one opportunity to further her understanding of course material because the instructor decided, along with the rest of the class, to hold an extra seminar on a Sunday. Maughan objected, saying that Sunday is her sabbath.
Maughan identifies as Anglican, and sued the university for allegedly discriminating against her as a Christian and subjecting her to hatred and contempt, naming four UBC teachers in the suit.
Her lawyer later admitted to reporters that Maughan had not regularly attended church in some time. She is seeking $18 million in damages.
The irony of BC’s slashed education programs
Funding cuts were announced by Moira Stilwell, UBC faculty member
Irony of ironies: The BC government’s $16 million worth of funding cuts to a slew of financial assistance programs was announced by newly minted Minister of Advanced Education Moira Stilwell, herself a faculty member at UBC (though now on indefinite leave, obviously).
This is the second straight year in which the Liberal Campbell government has slashed post-secondary education funding for the upcoming year without any advance warning to those being affected. Last year, it caused plenty of last minute scrambling for universities, and this year, it’s students who have been suckered-punched her. Because really, communication is sooo overrated. Little wonder why one prominent post-secondary education advocate has referred to the government’s handling of this file as “a spiralling helldive of disaster“.
The right side of your brain needs love, too
Hi everyone, This is my introductory post for Maclean’s OnCampus. As my awesomely creative blog title suggests, I hope to pamper you with campus news about cool extracurricular activities, artsy going-ons, outstanding cultural leaders, culinary wonders, fashion funsies and anything else hip and exciting. Everyone could use a healthier, more balanced brain. Sure, the school [...]
Hi everyone,
This is my introductory post for Maclean’s OnCampus. As my awesomely creative blog title suggests, I hope to pamper you with campus news about cool extracurricular activities, artsy going-ons, outstanding cultural leaders, culinary wonders, fashion funsies and anything else hip and exciting.
Everyone could use a healthier, more balanced brain. Sure, the school books are important, but so is building social networks and exploring your inner Picasso. Or Jane Austen. Or David Cronenberg
Personally, I like to tap into the creative juices of Lady Gaga.
Just joking. Or am I?
But before you answer that question, a bit about me: I’m currently a Master of Journalism student at the University of British Columbia. I’m also a summer arts and features reporter for the Victoria Times Colonist.
You can find some of my other freelance work here, here, and here.
Oh, and follow me on Twitter: @AmandaAsh. Sometimes I say really great stuff in 140 characters.
Empowering African entrepreneurs
Program teaches young people to write business plans, aims to help build business
This week, a team of Sauder School of Business students from the University of British Columbia are travelling to Africa as part of the Sauder Africa Initiative. Students from Strathmore University in Nairobi and UBC are collaborating to educate and mentor African youth through business development workshops.
Sauder Africa Initiative – Sauder School of Business, UBC from tyfn on Vimeo.
Professor Nancy Langton, who developed the initiative, says local knowledge of participating Kenyan students is integral to the success of the program. Two participating MBA student team members, Joanna Pedersen and Jonathan Kaida, tell us more about the program and why they decided to get involved.
Some excerpts:
[The Sauder Africa Initiative is] a way of bringing education to people and using some of our skills and some of our knowledge from the classroom, and some of our knowledge theoretically on the ground, to help young people and encourage them to work within their communities and work with some of the unemployment problems they face.
- Professor Nancy Langton, Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Division
…I thought the setup of the program was really progressive, it was focused on education and not financing and I thought it was a great opportunity to use some of the skills that I had acquired through the program.
- Jonathan Kaida, MBA student
Jonathan Kaida, Joanna Pedersen, and Professor Nancy Langton
