UBC recently passed Policy 92, which is a “land use agreement” for the university that was put into practice in October 2009. Didn’t hear about it? That’s because it was passed by e-mail confirmation, without so much as a lick of public discussion.

Now, this may not sound like a big deal, but recall the amendments made to the University Act earlier in the school year. The provincial government and UBC worked together to allow universities in BC to lock up residents up to six months for violating noise bylaws on campus, and retroactively made it possible for UBC to illegally fine and collect more than $4 million worth of parking tickets.

This directly affects students—and they weren’t consulted. This university speaks a good game when it comes to consulting with students, and they do so most of the time—except when something comes up that could affect their control. Then, it becomes incredibly secret, as it was with the parking tickets, and as it is with Policy 92.

The university would argue that it is the job of the two student representatives on the 21-member Board of Governors (BoG) to represent students. However, BoG representative Michael Duncan admitted in an interview that he did not read the policy in his e-mail and that he failed to call a meeting for public consultation. And in BoG’s e-mail confirmation process, a lack of response automatically translates to a ‘yes.’

The other BoG representative, Bijan Ahmadian, said that he “trusts” the “smart people” in the university to ensure the legitimacy of the process. How nice for him. We’re a little more skeptical. It may be legal for the university to pass policies via e-mail, but when you’re dealing with controversial issues and already have a perception of being weak on accountability, it might be best to be a little more public, you know?

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