Candidate Bios - VP Academic & University Affairs

Hi, I’m Ananya Gupta, & I’m running to be your next VP AUA. As VP Academic of the Arts Undergraduate Society, I’ve advocated for increased club funding, secured $10k for the Textbook Broke campaign, & run Health & Wellness events such as Bunny Therapy & Exam Care Packs. My work with the AUS has positively impacted the student body & I wish to bring about similar change to the AMS. My platform focuses on:

• Academic Accessibility
• Affordability
• Student Engagement

As your next VP AUA, I aim to:

• Expand OERs & textbook funding,
• Push for Universal Design for Learning principles,
• Advocate for Lecture Capture Technology,
• Ensure professors have the infrastructure & funds to create accessible learning environments,
• Work towards the creation of an exam database,
  Increase WorkLearn funding, &
• Extend the add/drop deadline.

Beyond academics, I’m committed to:

• Improving food security & reducing food waste by donating food from dining halls to Food Banks for students,
• Pushing for student-focused housing & bursaries to keep living affordable, &
• Strengthening student advocacy through regular caucus meetings & Advocacy 101 sessions.

Vote Ananya for tangible change at the AMS!

More: ananya4aua.ca

Hi! I’m Zarifa, and I am running to be re-elected as your VP Academic and University Affairs. As your current VP AUA, I secured $250,000 for undergraduate research opportunities, $150,000 for hybrid and accessible learning and continued funding for on-campus jobs.

Re-elected as your VP Academic and University Affairs, I will continue to focus on:

• Securing at minimum $800,000 towards multi-year food security funding
• Continuing to advocate for improvements to Workday, like a term-by-term calendar view, ability to download timetables, and better user interface
• Advocating for the increase of value per recipient of international student awards
• Ensuring that UBC prioritizes building more low-cost, high-density student housing
• Advocating for open-educational resources and cost-free course materials
• Fighting tuition increases by presenting strong affordability arguments while articulating the harmful impacts of these increases
• Advocating for the use of GenAI like ChatGPT to be integrated into learning
• Creating an exam database with access to past exams
• Advocating for the permanent extension of the course withdrawal deadline to the last day of classes

More: votezarifa.com