Disabilities seat

Dear fellow students, this letter is to inform you about the opportunity to create a non-voting seat within the AMS Student Council for a representative of students with disabilities. Last Wednesday, the AMS Student Council rejected a motion to make this position a reality. On December 2, we plan to bring this motion before the Council with the hope that the Council members who voted against this motion will reconsider their failure to represent the needs of ALL students.

The Alma Mater Society mission statement avows to improve the quality of the educational, social and personal lives of the students of UBC. Currently, the structure of AMS Council is academic; students are represented based on their faculty. The structure of the council has led to the under-representation of certain student groups, including students with disabilities. Last year, an international student seat was created and we encouraged continued efforts within the AMS to represent equity seeking groups, including students with disabilities.

As a non-voting seat, the representative of students with disabilities will serve primarily as an advisor and provide a consultative voice for Council members so that they can make the best and most informed decisions as possible. The Students’ Council is the highest decision making body of the AMS, and in addition to offering services to students, the AMS is an advocate of students’ issues and ensures the needs of students are presented to the university administration and the federal, provincial and municipal governments. We must seek to create a barrier-free environment by being sensitive to the challenges that may hinder or prevent students with disabilities from participating fully in university life.

What can you do? Contact your AMS faculty representative and encourage them to vote in favour of passing this momentous and overdue motion on December 2.

Thank you for your assistance in bringing this issue to the students! Please feel welcome to contact us if you have any questions or consult Emma Ellison, the AMS equity and diversity coordinator, via equity@ams.ubc.ca if you require additional information about the motion.

—Jeanine and Adam Wasika

AMS Council’s motion to deny a non-voting seat for students with disabilities is an inequitably ablelist and appalling decision. But perhaps even more offensive than the motion’s rejection were the councilor’s arguments against it. Throughout the debate, people with disabilities were referred to at least three times by multiple councilors as “a special interest group.” One councilor even suggested that people living with disabilities need to conform to the “normal methods” of the AMS. However, the problem is this: these ideas of “normalcy” suggest that people with disabilities are somehow less than; if they can’t hack it because of physical, mental, emotional or social barriers, then they don’t belong in the governing process of the AMS. It is exactly these barriers that AMS councilors should have taken into account when making their decision to pass the motion.

Their decision is ableism at its worst (establishing able-bodied, able-minded people as an ideal norm). There are social barriers and stigma surrounding living with a disability that make it harder to engage in a political environment that normalizes able bodies and minds—a sentiment expressed by many of the disabled students who attended Council. Why are we placing the onus on students with disabilities to find resources and representation for themselves on top of all the barriers they already may face?

AMS Council has only succeeded in impeding disabled students and their allies; the offensively ableist environment encountered in council chambers last week will only make it harder to participate in the political process. Council members claim the current system adequately represents their constituents, but by ignoring their voices last Wednesday they inequitably and unacceptably proved the opposite to be true.

—Laura Mehes,
Women’s and Gender Studies Undergraduate Society

I was disappointed but not altogether surprised when the motion to create a non-voting seat for students with disabilities was voted down by AMS Council. This is an organization that is historically comprised of an elite group of students, who interpret “student issues” in very limited ways. This was seen when many Council members referred to students with disabilities, and other marginalized groups on campus, as “special interest groups.” In my experience, AMS Council is very removed from the realities and concerns affecting many students on campus.

Many students elected to Council take their access to resources and institutional power for granted, and are often unaware of the impacts of their decisions and (in)actions on UBC’s diverse student population. When they fail to recognize systemic barriers to accessing and fully participating in education, as well as barriers to participating in “campus life,” they contribute to a culture of compliance and silence around social power and privilege within the AMS and broader communities. In this context, I expected heated debate around the motion, and also expected students supporting the motion to be put in the position of having to explain, justify and prove ourselves. I expected students against the motion to construct bureaucratic barriers to creating formal representation, which would reflect ignorance of issues around accessibility and inclusion.

Fortunately, there are communities working on campus to politicize “student politics” and open up the category of “student.” Many students attended the Council meeting to speak in support of this motion, and I would like to recognize their important intervention at this meeting as well as their ongoing commitment to empowering communities on campus. Even though this motion was ultimately voted down, it is important that we continue to coordinate our organizing in order to strengthen our efforts on campus.

—Emma Ellison

Editor’s Note: Ellison is the AMS Equity and Diversity Coordinator

Gore-tex vex

In response to “Don’t be an umbrella jerk,” Nov. 23

Dear Ubyssey,

“Unfortunately ubiquitous?” What’s your beef with Gore-Tex? Between walking around campus, skiing, and hiking, my miracle Gore-Tex jacket has paid itself off many times over. You also recommend rain jackets in your column…but not Gore-Tex? What gives!?

—Sam Mason,
Gore-Tex fan
Drive jive

Living on Commercial Drive for the past few months, and hanging out there since forever, gave me a sense of a family community, where people always say hi to one another and everyone smiles. Living in that community I would receive tons of phone calls about potlucks at different houses or a musical jam happening somewhere else. One of these places belonged to Szvi Tal, a home owner on the corner of East 2nd, right off the Drive, who puts a smile on every face by throwing live theatre shows in his living room or drum circles in his backyard.

Things have changed now for him since his recent renovation plans to expand his cultural home has come in conflict with the cities zoning bylaws, forcing even some of the tenants to leave. Personally, I respect the zoning laws. However, I think the city should also consider the fact of how communal his home is and the expansions have created necessary space for all the good times. He is trying to raise 1000 signatures in his partition and I would appreciate it if anyone who believes in this cause to help out. His petition can be found at ThePetitionSite.com/1/To-Support-Tzvis-Place.

—Raien Naraghi

Do you know your groceries?

In response to “Know your groceries,” Nov. 19.

I was very disappointed in this week’s feature article in The Ubyssey called “Know Your Groceries.” When it comes to food, as with almost everything, we have to move beyond solely economic factors in determining our choices. We need to consider not just price, but also how what we are buying effects our social, political and ecological environment. When it comes to purchasing food, we should be featuring articles that encourage students to think beyond whether they will be able to afford beer on the weekends. We should be encouraging thought and dialogue about how and where our food was grown and what effect this has on the physical environment, who grew and produced our food, how these people are treated and how the animals were treated during the production of our eggs/meat/milk.

Often, making ethical purchasing decisions has a higher individual economic price, but I would like to think that students would be willing to give up a little beer money to contribute to a more just and sustainable world. We hold great power in our choices, and it would be nice to see The Ubyssey mobilizing on empowering students rather than demoting them to merely thoughtless consumers seeking out the cheapest food possible at the bottom of a large, corporate industrial food chain.

—Rebecca Beaton
UBC Environment and
Sustainability in Geography

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