In an effort to encourage a more diverse range of students to apply, the senate has approved the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s proposal to remove mandatory science pre-requisites for the M.D. program, although they will still be strongly recommended.
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“Replacing the student information system is one of the largest system replacements at the university because it is so core to everything that the institution is involved with,” said Jennifer Burns, UBC's chief information officer.
Mental health and student engagement were under the microscope at the yesterday's debate. Eleven of the fourteen Senate candidates participated in the event and with so many candidates running with similar platforms, contenders struggled to stand out
“I’m currently the AMS Vice-president Academic and University Affairs and a current student senator and chair of the ad-hoc senate committee on student mental health. I think that that continuity is very important.”
“My platform is really focused on student health, development and wellbeing. Those are my three main categories that I’m focused on. Mental health is a big one. I want to introduce a fall reading break and really advocate for that.”
“One of the main platform pieces that sets me apart ... is my piece on harassment discrimination and I hope to start a discussion with regards to sexual assault and that's particularly effective in the graduate student community recently.”
“I’ve been working under the VP Academic’s office as the mental health commissioner over the last two years, so I’ve gotten to work with two different VP Academics. Through this position I’ve done a lot in terms of research and advocacy.”
“For a lot of candidates, they want to talk about what they want to bring to the senate. But for me, a lot of my platform is also looking at how we can improve student senate caucus so that we can better hear student’s voices.”
"I’m a good advocate. I think I know the campus well enough to be able to advocate for students and really, it fits exactly my vision and what I think we should prioritize for UBC, to introduce the idea of a united campus."
“The mental health aspects are definitely stemming from my experiences this year, where we have a regular standard time table where we take 8 courses ... It motivated me to advocate not only for better mental health, but for the smaller departments.”
I would love to work with the ad-hoc mental health committee because I am a huge mental health advocate and used Access & Diversity before. I’ve seen the state of mental health on campus and it’s improving, thanks to the work of our current senators.
“Coming from a background where I’ve just been involved as a residence advisor, UBC in exchange, as well as clubs on campus, I think that I bring a different perspective to the role. I think that I bring enough fresh perspective.”
“It’s very difficult to come up with something new ... it seems more beneficial to actually achieve those goals that Senate decided on three years ago. My platform is working with what the Senate has done three years before.”
“I am really interested maximizing student spaces. Not in the way I’ve heard thrown around with 24 hour study spaces. I want to improve student engagement be informed making it easier for them to look up information on running next year.”
“What's going to set me apart from the other candidates is my experience personally dealing with students from my work in Arts Academic Advising and my intention to focus this year on finishing other projects.”