Here are notes from the regular AMS Council meeting of March 10, 2021 (held virtually on Zoom):
New Speaker Soon? AMS President Cole Evans, who has been chairing Council meetings in the absence of a Speaker, said the process for getting a Speaker was moving forward.
New Housing Service: Council formally approved the creation of a new Housing Service. Student Services Manager Ian Stone said he hoped it would launch this term.
Election Results: Isabelle Ava-Pointon, the Chief Electoral Officer, announced the AMS election results. Turnout was low (6.9%), down from 11.6% the year before. She said one of the biggest reasons for this was that there was only one contested Executive election.
Four of the five Executive positions went to candidates running opposed: Cole Evans (re-elected as President), Mary Gan (elected as VP Finance), Lauren Benson (elected as VP Administration), and Saad Shoaib (elected as VP External). In the only contested vote, Eshana Banghu was elected as VP Academic & University Affairs (VPAUA).
Georgia Yee, the current VPAUA, won one of the two seats for UBC Vancouver students on the Board of Governors. The other went to Max Holmes, elected to the Board for the third time.
The five student Senators at large will be Georgia Yee, Julia Burnham, Shivani Mehta, Eshana Bhangu, and Dante Agosti-Moro.
Fall Return? President Cole Evans reported that the University was saying there would be increased campus activity in the fall. He said this was exciting news, but said some students may have health concerns about a reopening, and international students may have problems with study permits. He said the AMS would do some consultation to find out what students are worrying about, and that would inform AMS advocacy.
VPAUA Georgia Yee said she would be asking about vaccination clinics and rapid testing on campus.
VP External Kalith Nanayakkara said that, given the promising news, a decision had been made to continue the U-Pass program as is.
SASC staffed: Managing Director Keith Hester said a manager and assistant manager have been hired for the Sexual Assault Support Centre, so it will be fully staffed now.
Email problems: In response to a question from Councillor Mathew Ho, the Managing Director said the email problems the AMS has been experiencing are the result of larger issues affecting Microsoft Exchange.
Indigenous Seat: Laura Beaudry, the current Indigenous representative, said a Town Hall is being held to decide how to fill the seat in the future.
Remote invigilation: Council was told that Senate is moving towards enforcing restrictions on the use of remote invigilation.
We Used to Own a Lodge? The Archivist astonished Councillors by telling them the AMS used to have a lodge in Whistler. Also a committee called Unecorn and another committee called ABBA.
A Committee of their Own: Council approved the creation of a permanent Affiliates Committee to allow students at the Affiliated Institutions to bring their concerns to the AMS.
More Money for Clubs: Council approved a Code change to increase the amount of money available to individual clubs from the Clubs Benefit Fund.
Improving Turnout: Council directed the Governance Committee and the Elections Committee to look into improving student engagement with AMS elections.
Next meeting:
The next regular Council meeting will be held on March 24, 2021 on Zoom.
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