You know you've heard them before even if this is your first year at UBC. Donald Trump may have coined “winning” but luckily, our candidates are a little smarter than that.
This elections season, we heard a lot of terms like “engagement” and “student experience” being throw around. We believe it is our duty that we bring attention to these buzzwords so that you, the voter, aren't blindly voting for the candidate who talks big game but doesn't actually get anything done.
So here's a compiled list of this year's election buzzwords:
Communication
Cited by Marium Hamid, Jeanie Malone, Jakob Gattinger among many others mentioned being more “communicative” or wanting to have a “more open communication” with the student body.
Communication is a key factor in any leadership position, but as UBC and the AMS have both proven, they're not all that good at it.
Transparency
The AMS is sketchy and these candidates know what's up — and they're not afraid to say it. Malone ran on a platform of transparency last year when she was first elected to the Board of Governors (BoG), and she continues to be transparent by — along with fellow BoG representative, Gattinger — writing columns for The Ubyssey, in which they both break down what goes on in council, Senate and BoG meetings.
Max Holmes, also wants you to know that he's not afraid to call UBC — that at times is also sketchy — out on their shit. “I’ve been someone who’s been able to show that if the university doesn’t do what students want, then you can call the university out,” he said in a previous interview with The Ubyssey.
Fall reading week
Arguably one of the most brought-up topics this election season was implementing a fall reading week — it was also arguably the biggest indicator between who is an incumbent candidate and who is a newbie.
Despite other Canadian universities having an extended long weekend to a full week off in the fall, UBC just can't work out their issues — Senate candidates, I'm looking at you.