The AMS President Bijan Ahmadian is embroiled in a conflict with the AMS Equity staff after last Wednesday’s Council meeting where the AMS Equity & Diversity Coordinator position was cut and its Equity Policy rescinded.

The decision was made quickly on Wednesday, after councilors held an “in camera” meeting—a private meeting where the public and press are not admitted—on Monday. The move to cut the programs drew an angry response from Equity officials who said that the unusually late distribution of the Council’s agenda minutes (two hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin instead of the previous Friday), as well as the neglect to invite Equity staff to Wednesday’s Council meeting, was evidence that AMS Council had thrown fair democratic procedure out the window.

The latest move by AMS President Bijan Ahamadian to invoke communications protocol that makes him exclusively responsible for speaking on behalf of the Council has prevented senior AMS Equity staff from speaking with the media, compounding frustration.

“This is a radical act to completely dismantle any support for equity in the AMS,” said Isabel Krupp, AMS Equity Facilitator and volunteer. “Essentially what it’s saying is that the AMS will effectively seek to dismantle any student efforts to create their own sorts of anti-discriminatory programs and safer spaces.”

While Ahmadian maintains “everybody knew what the whole meeting was about,” he did concede that there wasn’t a formal e-mail notifying Equity staff of the proposed cut, and that any communication was by word of mouth. In the end, Council voted 22 to 4 in favour of removing the Equity Coordinator position.

“I do believe that it is possible, if not likely, that the structures of the AMS inherently favour the inclusion of some groups to the exclusion of others,” said Matthew Naylor, Arts Councilor. “However, I do not feel that this is going to be addressed by the erstwhile Equity Program, a program with ideological roots that feed off of self-censorship and which promotes a brand of suffocating political correctness to the detriment of honest political debate.”

Naylor added that the AMS Equity program promotes a “self-righteous self-loathing that may as well be called the ‘white-man’s burden for the modern age.’”

The AMS Equity program was instituted in 2008 to address concerns coming from clubs, services, and Council members about the responsibility of the student government to provide a policy and a program to combat discrimination and harassment for student services that do not fall under the university’s jurisdiction. It was passed with almost unanimous support by Council.

Over the past year, the program has trained approximately 200 Equity officers and registration for AMS Equity Officer training workshops has been over-capacity.

“Thank you for providing a more heightened awareness of how to deal with day to day concerns that may arise in my club. It is useful to know that there are actual resources available to any members of my club,” wrote one anonymous participant in her feedback.

According to Ahmadian, the AMS Equity Program was scrapped because Council felt it was economically necessary to cut the student-run program and that the proposed program would be more credible if it was run by a hired-by-UBC professional. Council members took umbrage with the mandatory requirement of the AMS Equity Policy, arguing that it did more harm than good, saying that forced Equity training prevented participants from responding positively to the program.
Despite the cut, Ahmadian maintains that the Council’s focus on Equity is strong and that the only change is that UBC will hire the program coordinator.

Terri Kennedy, UBC Equity Advisor, was not made aware of the changes. In terms of replicating the AMS policy, she said that it is “beyond the capacity” of UBC Equity to provide such a program.

“We couldn’t replicate what [AMS Equity] is currently doing in that particular program,” Kennedy said. “I would hopefully get something back from the AMS to clarify the decisions made.”

However, in tough economic times it is usually equity-like programs which bear the brunt of the budget crunch.

“Because of the economic climate we live in, the recession has hit minority groups harder than it has the mainstream groups that are privileged,” said UBC sociologist Sunera Thobani, founding member of the cross-Canada Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equity (RACE) network.

Thobani said the AMS’ move reflects the attitude of provincial and national governments in Canada, which have seen a dismantling of social programs which were geared to promote equality in Canada. “I think it really is up to the student organizations on campus to be leading this because they are representing students of minority groups,” said Thobani. “Not championing equity is to fail the needs of your own constituents.”

The unilateral decision made by the AMS executive may alarm students who voted in the new executive on the express desire for an open and transparent government, following past AMS President Blake Frederick’s term, which saw him attempt to stifle his Council after his ill-fated human rights complaint to the UN resulted in uproar.

“I think the message is pretty clear,” said Krupp. “The AMS will offer no support for students who face barriers with accessing services AMS provides.”

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