What jolly man is moving up North (from the United States)? Santa of course — Santa Ono. While we warmly welcome our new 15th president to UBC, there are some things that definitely need to change around here. Is Santa Ono the man to do it? One can only hope. The Ubyssey has kindly taken the time to create a wish list in an attempt to point Ono in the right direction.
Follow through on your promise to engage the university community
After being named UBC’s president, Ono told the Vancouver Sun he wanted to “engage the entire university community” — something UBC has been known to lack. School spirit is severely wanting with only a few glimmers when it comes to Thunderbird football.
In 2014, The Globe and Mail wrote, “[UBC] has made genuine efforts to improve undergraduate education and achieved one of the lowest student-to-professor ratios in the country. Still, students gave mixed reviews on a national student survey, landing UBC well below average on Canadian students’ overall satisfaction.”
As UBC’s independent student newspaper, we know firsthand just how challenging it is to involve students with topics pertaining to their university. Maybe our jolly new president will be able to change student life on campus to be more engaging.
Run UBC like a university, not like a business
One of the criticisms about Gupta was that he had experience in running businesses, but not universities. And of course we don’t wish for Ono to go the way of Gupta.
Last year, the overwhelming majority of students and faculty were in favour of divestment, but those voices were largely ignored as the Board of Governors voted to not divest from fossil fuels. He’ll have to nudge the Board of Governors in the right direction. They're starting to take baby steps toward transparency, but they need some encouragement to help them along.
Please provide us with timely interviews
We know you're busy, but it really helps us out when admin (especially the president) don't leave us hanging for days on end when we request an interview. This was a great start.
Let loose your reindeer on campus
Enough with the puppies from the Wellness Centre and mini horses outside the Nest, we want new animals to play with on campus — reindeer. Specifically speaking, we want Rudolph, who will match all of our red noses come the winter rain.
Also, we don’t want him to actually get rid of the puppies and the mini horses. We love them all and they can coexist peacefully with the reindeer.
Actually hear students and implement feedback
Especially after last year’s arguably unjustified tuition hike, we have high hopes for the man who stopped a tuition hike at the University of Cincinnati by sacrificing his bonus. We aren’t asking for that specifically, but a similar crusader sentiment for students would be greatly appreciated.
Twitter also worked wonders for student communication at the University of Cincinnati and he'll have to keep it up here too if he wants to build his UBC following. For the love of god, we beg of him to please bestow upon us our own cool hashtag — one that comes from the heart.
Don’t leave UBC for the University of Toronto
Santa, you’ve just come to town. We’ve already lost Stephen Toope and Arvind Gupta to U of T, so please don’t leave us. It’s UBC’s time to take the first place ranking in this country and you may just be the person to lead us there. We personally promise to bake you cookies and bring you milk if you do so.
Sincerely,
The Ubyssey