Kinwa Bluesky is running to be a staff representative on UBC’s Board of Governors. She is the senior manager of Indigenous initiatives at the Human Early Learning Partnership in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health.
The Ubyssey spoke to Bluesky about her campaign and what she hopes to bring to the board. We asked her the same questions we asked all candidates, and edited this interview for length and clarity.
The Ubyssey: Why are you running and why should people elect you?
Kinwa Bluesky: I think I'm in a unique position. I have been an undergraduate and graduate student. I work as a sessional instructor. I’ve been a residence advisor. I used to work in what was called Career Services. I think I’ve spent almost a decade in administration or operations at the university as staff, and now I’m a PhD student here again, but I’ve been a student for longer, almost 13 years. I think I bring a unique lens to this work.
Last week, the federal government announced it would be further reducing the number of new international study permits from 437,000 in 2025 to 155,000 in 2026. This is a 65 per cent decline. How should the university respond to budget shortfalls that may result from this?
I hope it doesn't continue to impact students in particular, because I know they're also reducing the eligibility for student loans, and so this is also challenging for the student body. My hope is that UBC will have more opportunities to fund student bursaries and scholarships, to increase that for students as well. That’s one of the options that might be available.
Earlier this year, the UBC Library announced a “significant structural deficit” in its funding, despite UBC President Benoit-Antoine Bacon stating that the university is in a financially strong position. What do you believe is the correct response to the library’s problems?
One of the committees is responsible for helping with financial oversight, and in particular has representation from the library. So I hope that there would be more opportunities to funnel some of that surplus budget to assist some of these needs. Obviously, libraries play a key role in our acquisition and search for knowledge, so I think this also plays into infrastructural needs that we have across campus.
Should UBC organize teaching and learning around the tradition of a university as a place of pure knowledge-seeking, or around the interests of the post-graduation labour market?
I don't think that they're mutually exclusive. For myself, I've gone back to classwork this term as part of my first year of my PhD in interdisciplinary studies, and it's been so fascinating to step into the joy and pursuit of knowledge, looking back across history. We’ve been studying feminism and different areas of interest that provide a background and orientation to learning in an interdisciplinary way. Having said that, I've also been in the workforce for a number of decades, and I've always found that my education and background in law have served my work and my research.
I think the nature of the question goes a little bit to the kind of opportunities that would be helpful for students to gain more opportunities in a competitive job market. So looking at ways to support them, like co-op placements and opportunities to support their learning in a way that helps to bolster their resumes and CVs. I think one of the challenges that has also occurred over the past is that the cost of living has risen so high that it puts challenges on students to be able to study, work and live. If there were more opportunities to support learning on evenings or weekends, so that students can be going to school full-time and still be able to pursue a degree or degrees. Those are some policy decisions that might be more conducive to the needs of a student body and our staff as well, like staff who have to work full-time — for myself, I am able to do schooling as well. Those are policies the institution has supported that have enabled me to do both in a good way.
Over the last three years, some students and staff have called on the university to divest from companies they say are complicit in the Palestinian genocide. If elected, will you push for divestment from these companies?
Obviously, we want to ensure that institutions and corporations that are helping to support our higher learning institutions are in alignment with human rights and values that support peace and harmony, not just here, but also around the world. And I think there are challenges in where the funding comes from, especially when Canada depends so heavily on our natural resources and industrial partners that could be infringing on rights. It is challenging because we want to be able to support students, faculty, staff, research initiatives and learning, and where is the money coming from? These are challenging conversations to have, and yet I think that it's important to think about the private sector and its responsibility to the social good.
Despite a 44 per cent decrease in UBCV greenhouse gas emissions since 2007, the university is not on track to meet its 85 per cent reduction goal by 2030. Is there anything you would do differently to attempt to meet this goal? If not, how do you plan to approach climate-related issues at UBC?
I'd hope that part of the role of the Board of Governors is to be able to help with the administration and its operations, including its assets. That's part of the role of the committees, to be able to be tracking those strategic initiatives and priorities as they're moving along and trying to create ways to meet them. I think it'd be interesting to have ways that the student body and staff could create individual actions as part of a collective to help mobilize some of these initiatives.
Are there any issues important to your candidacy that you haven't got the chance to talk about already?
I guess the primary driver that's impacting me, my education and staff involvement has been related to Indigenous initiatives on campus. When I saw that there is an Indigenous Engagement Committee, I thought, here’s an opportunity where I could have a role in monitoring Indigenous strategic initiatives that are happening on campus. And part of it is to be able to move the needle and make sure that we as an institution are upholding our statutory legal duties to meet the Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And how that trickles down really does impact the funding that goes into Indigenous initiatives and research for faculty and faculty-led research, the teaching curricula here. There are so many opportunities that would benefit the UBC-wide community supporting the Indigenous Strategic Plan moving forward.
