Candidates say a lot of things during debates — numbers, figures, claims and more.
It can be hard to hear or understand everything that was said, but that's why we at The Ubyssey have a team dedicated to fact-checking all the big claims candidates make during debates.
Here we're covering the Great Debate on February 29 where the candidates for all positions debated each other.
Hopefully this gives you a clearer idea on what was discussed — and how much of it was true.
Quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.
VP academic and university affairs
Drédyn Fontana and Taushifa Shaikh are running for VP academic and university affairs.
Drédyn Fontana: I am committed to ensuring UBC stays on their divestment goals by 2030.
True. UBC committed to divest from fossil fuels by 2030.
Taushifa Shaikh: I do not think [the Academic Experience Survey] … represents the entire student body because only 3,413 responses were collected.
True. The AMS’s 2023 Academic Experience Survey (AES) got 3,413 responses, the highest response rate in its history.
Fontana: Essentially what university administrators are saying is that no one actually gets kicked out for drug use. There's one person I believe in the past few years that was.
True. According to 2023 This Magazine coverage, Matthew Ramsey, UBC media relations director of university affairs, said one resident has been evicted for substance use over the past three years.
Shaikh: According to last year’s AES report, 43 per cent of Indigenous students face discrimination not only from students but also instructors.
Shaikh: More than 40 per cent of Land Use Plan is going to be dedicated to external housing, and that does not cover students.
Almost true. Forty per cent of the Land Use Plan’s new housing capacity is guaranteed to be rented to the UBC community.
VP administration
Amy Liao, Jai Sodhi and Kevin Heieis are running for VP administration.
Jai Sodhi: The AMS launched the Lending Library … it has HDMI cable for $5 that students can [borrow], which you have to book two to three days in advance.
True. According to the AMS Lending Library’s website, it takes 2–3 business days for loan requests to be confirmed via email. Meanwhile, an “extra long HDMI cable” costs $5 and a standard-length cable costs $2.
Sodhi: All of the AMS food outlets, except Blue Chip, are running at a loss.
False. The AMS’s budget and budget reforecast show that Blue Chip, Honour Roll, Grand Noodle Emporium and The Gallery are profitable.
Kevin Heieis: The Clubs Benefit Fund has spent more than it has brought in despite having over $600,000 in reserve.
True. According to the 2023/24 AMS Funds and Fees Report, revenues for the Clubs Benefit Fund was $45,384.66 from student fees and expenditures totalled $66,438.32. The fund also currently has a reserve of $663,741.22.
Amy Liao: We did have an initiative last year but it was removed from this year and it was the Event Benefit Fund, and that's something that I want to keep pushing forward and advocate for for next year.
Unclear. Laio could be referring to amendments made to the Constituency Aid Fund — which is available for constituencies to host events — in June 2022 that provided subsidies to constituency members hoping to attend events but were financially unable to do so.
VP external
Ayesha Irfan and Jake Sawatzky are running for VP external.
Ayesha Irfan: A platform point is to work with the Graduate Student Society to ensure the BC Graduate Scholarship includes non-STEM disciplines.
True, but misleading. According to the scholarship website, the BC Graduate Scholarship is focused on students in STEM fields, but those in professional programs in business or health are also eligible.
Irfan: We have now less international students coming in [to UBC].
False. Since the 2020/21 academic year, international student enrolment has stayed relatively the same.
Irfan: If you're a student on campus, you have no housing rights as tenants underneath the Residential Tenancy Act [RTA]. UBC Housing has increased rent from 3.5 to 8 per cent over the last year, and the RTA cap for basically to live anywhere in the Greater Vancouver area is 3.5 per cent.
True. Students living in on-campus housing are not covered under the RTA, which means they are not included in the RTA’s rent increase cap of 3.5 per cent. Last year, UBC Housing increased rent from 3.5 to 8 per cent, and announced plans to increase rent between 5 to 6 per cent for the 2024/2025 academic year.
Jake Sawatzky: The BC Builds program and how they're building a lot more homes in BC, specifically it's 8,000 homes in Vancouver.
Essentially true. The BC government announced the launch of the BC Builds program last month that aims to build between 8,000 to 10,000 homes over the first five years of the program. According to the program’s website, BC Builds is part of a larger investment in housing development that has constructed “nearly 8,000 units in Vancouver” since 2017.
VP finance
Mohkam Singh Malik (ਮੋਹਕਮ) and Gavin Fung-Quon are running for VP finance.
Mohkam Singh Malik: We are currently losing more than $700,000 … Every single business in the Nest except for Blue Chip Cafe lost money last quarter.
False. The last quarter was quarter four and the report has not been released yet. In the quarter 2 financial update, Honour Roll and Grand Noodle Emporium also exceeded projected contributions to Nest revenue. The AMS’s budget and budget reforecast show that Blue Chip, Honour Roll, Grand Noodle Emporium and The Gallery are profitable.
M Malik: You shouldn't pay roughly $60 in AMS membership fee.
False. The AMS membership fee for 2023/24 is $48.23
Gavin Fung-Quon: We were expecting more profits, so it seems slower but in terms of the revenue generated from them, but we're actually positive in almost all of our businesses.
True. Per the Quarter 2 finance update. Additionally, the AMS’s budget and budget reforecast show that Blue Chip, Honour Roll, Grand Noodle Emporium and The Gallery are profitable.
M Malik: If 40 per cent of students are food insecure, we shouldn't be giving ourselves a raise.
Mostly true. Thirty-eight per cent of students reported having worried, at some point over the last twelve months, about running out of food before they could afford to buy more groceries, according to the 2023 AES.
Senate
Alex Chui, Ferdinand Rother, Jasper Lorein, Kamil Kanji, Kareem Hassib, Kyle Rogers, Sahib Malik, Solomon Yi-Kieran and Taushifa Shaikh are running for five student senator-at-large seats.
Rother and Rogers were absent.
Taushifa Shaikh: [The AMS AES] currently states that there's only 35 per cent of respondents that believe that they're receiving a good value in proportion to their tuition fees in their academics.
Jasper Lorien: “Advocacy on lecture capture technology] is actually something that I had been working on with [the Disabilities United Collective (DUC)] with their #Access4All petition … but right next to it, we also call for funding from the university for technological support and more TAs for that.
True. DUC launched the national #Access4All campaign in September 2023 that calls for increased lecture capture technology at UBC and training for TAs and instructors to use said technology, among other things.
Kareem Hassib: Most PhD students take five years or longer to finish their degree but [UBC] only pays them for four.
True. According to UBC’s Minimum Funding Policy for PhD Students, all full-time students must receive a funding package of at least $24,000 per year for the first four years of their program.
Kamil Kanji: The reason why it's difficult for some people to make any progress on implementing mandatory recorded lectures is because of academic freedom requirements that are placed into the collective agreements with the Faculty Association.
Potentially true. There is no explicit mention of lecture recording in the UBC Faculty Association’s collective agreement for 2022–2025. There is emphasis on the freedom of faculty to teach how they want without “external or non-academic constraints."
Hassib: There's many universities that have already [implemented required Indigenous knowledge courses]: Trent University, University of Manitoba or University of Winnipeg rather, Brandon University.
True. As of 2023, Trent University, the University of Winnipeg and Brandon University all require undergraduate students to take at least one Indigenous-related course in order to graduate.
Board of Governors
Eshana Bhangu, Kamil Kanji, Jasper Lorien, Ferdinand Rother, Siddharth Rout, Leonard Wang and Enav Zusman are running for BoG.
Rother, Rout, Wang and Zusman were absent.
Kamil Kanji: There are no options for anonymous or third-party reporting at UBC [under Policy SC17].
True. According to Section 10 of Policy SC17, UBC’s Sexual Misconduct Policy, “UBC may be unable to proceed with an Investigation based on anonymous or third‐party allegations due to a lack of evidence or when proceeding would violate procedural fairness.” SC17 is currently under review.
Eshana Bhangu: According to the Investigations Office report, there's only been 55 reports under SC 17, which I don't believe accurately reflects the rates of sexualized violence at UBC.
Essentially true. According to the most recent Investigations Office report, there were 50 reported cases of sexual misconduct at UBC in the 2022/23 academic year.
Jasper Lorien: It is the first time in five years [LR7] is going to be under review and it's going to affect all of the approximately 25 per cent of students at UBC that identify as disabled.
True. Policy LR7, UBC’s Disability Accommodation Policy, is up for review by the Senate and Board of Governors this year. It is also true that there are a reported 25 per cent of disabled students at UBC, according to the 2023 AMS Academic Experience Survey.
Lorien: Only right now, the endowment [fund investments] that is being released. And that causes a lot of problems when we're trying to do more work and you cannot see exactly where the money is.
Mostly true. The only holdings disclosure reports released by UBC Investment Management detailing the university’s investments are those related to the endowment fund and the staff pension fund. Notably, the most recent reports are from December 31, 2022.
Bhangu: When I was on the [Student Affordability] Task Force when I was VPAUA and still there hasn’t been that much progress on it.
True. Bhangu was one of the student representatives on the Student Affordability Task Force (SATF) in 2021 when she was the AMS VP academic and university affairs, and co-wrote the task force’s final report and recommendations. In the almost two years since the report’s publication, few of the recommendations have been implemented, although UBC has said it is drafting a multi-year tuition framework as called for in the SATF report.
President
Alexandra Smith, Brandyn Marx, Shaun "The Bulldozer" You and Christian 'CK' Kyle are running for president.
Shaun "The Bulldozer" You: Last time we only had a turnout of 22 per cent –– it should be way higher in my view.”
True. During the 2023 AMS General Election and Referendums there was a 22.9% turnout rate.
Alexandra Smith: Fifty per cent of students have experienced financial hardship related to tuition and other expenses.
True. According to the 202 3AMS AES.
Christian ‘CK’ Kyle: There's a legal requirement that was not met in compliance with the AMS’s bylaws [in regards to the three bylaws rejected by Council.]
CK: We increased [Safewalk] usage by roughly 400 per cent.
True. Safewalk interactions from first term 2022/23 have increased 402 per cent compared to first term 2023/24.
Marx: I think a fundamental misunderstanding is that [the Welcome Back BBQ and Block Party are] supposed to be a revenue producing event.
Noted. OASIS Event Services has offered their services for events such as the UBC Block Party, since 2007. Last year, for the 13th annual Block Party (2023) “the AMS sold $250,000 less in ticket revenue than initial projections.”
Smith: Kai now has the ability to prohibit certain people from coming into Council.
True. In November 2023, AMS Council approved a code change that allows the speaker to bar individuals from attending one or more Council meetings “for reasons of safety or if it is feared that such individuals will disrupt proceedings.” Kai Rogers is the AMS’s speaker.
Smith: The AMS not subject to [the] Freedom of Information Act.
True. The AMS is a private entity and is not required to release emails and correspondences when requested under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).
CK: [SR2] does not apply to PC1 complaints or PC2 complaints, those are confidential by default.
True. Both PC1 and PC2 say complaints are confidential according to the respective policies.
Marx: Senate endorsed [an exam database] in 2011. We spent $80,000 on it by 2015 but we could not get the required engagement from faculty who are overworked and underpaid to upload all of their own exams.
True. According to Ubyssey coverage, student senators advocated for an exam database in March 2011, and it cost the AMS $80,000.
Smith: We spent $800,000 on communications, and $120[,000] on food bank. We're just not having a pragmatic approach here.
Mostly false. According to the AMS’s 2022/23 budget reforecast, the society spent roughly $124,000 on the AMS Food Bank and $256,000 on communications. According to the 2023/24 budget, the society spent $350,000 on communications and $135,000 on the food bank.
Marx: Affiliate institutions include St. Mark's College, Vancouver School of Economics, Vancouver School of Theology, Regent College.
False. The Vancouver School of Economics (VSE) is not an affiliate college, but the department of economics in the Faculty of Arts.
CK: We have affiliate colleges … Their Indigenous students aren’t able to use UBC Indigenous supports. Their international students cannot use UBC international support.
Likely true. According to Amy Black, an affiliate college student executive, affiliate college students don’t have access to International Student Advising and have difficulty accessing UBC’s Indigenious supports. The affiliate colleges have their own financial aid systems which can impact international student support. In a statement to The Ubyssey, CK said this was discussed at a January 15 President’s Council meeting.
— Additional reporting by Emilija Vītols Harrison, Spencer Izen and Trinity Sala
This article is part of our 2024 AMS Elections coverage. Voting is open until March 8.