Candidate profile: Steven Miller

Steven Miller is running to be a faculty representative on UBC’s Board of Governors. Serving as the head of the faculty of Medicine’s department of pediatrics and chief of pediatric medicine at BC Children’s Hospital, Miller has been at UBC since 2022.

The Ubyssey spoke to Miller about his campaign and what he hopes to bring to the board. We asked him 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?

Steven Miller: I am a physician-scientist and educator in the department of pediatrics in the faculty of medicine. I started my career in Canada at UBC in 2005, and I've had the opportunity since then to work at UBC and another Canadian institution, coming back to UBC in 2022 to lead the department of pediatrics. I think we have an outstanding university, and I am impressed by the community of people who make up this university — faculty, staff, learners — and I am interested in joining the Board of Governors to promote an even more outstanding university. I'm particularly interested in representing the faculty voice with the goal of strengthening our university in accomplishing its mission: research, education and promoting a better British Columbia.

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 recognize that our federal and provincial governments are facing huge deficits, and over the next couple of years, we are going to see new financial pressures on the university. As a pediatrician, and particularly as the head of pediatrics at UBC, I am convinced more than ever that our role is about creating a future. We do that by engaging and educating the next generation of academics and I believe that the next generation needs to be defined inclusively.

This issue raises both the question of how, as a university, we will navigate this new financial climate and these new financial headwinds, and how do we do that in a way that doesn't compromise our future? With my experience at UBC working with national agencies like the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and on international boards, I've seen the potential of reframing the question around fiscal responsibility from ‘how do we spend less,’ to ‘how do we spend better?’ As we bring people together collaboratively around a common vision and a common mission, ensuring that we thrive as a university in our academic mission, we will be able to support the incoming classes of learners.

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?

Let me take a step back and say that with my approach when faced with complex issues, the first is to recognize the importance of listening. I would like to engage with faculty, staff and learners, to hear the diverse perspectives around the core functions of the library that need to be sustained, and if there are core functions that need to be enhanced. I am not someone who shies away from change. The question I'm asking: is there an opportunity in this to look at how we can best support the library with the very specific goals of strengthening the academic mandate of our university? Are we spending as best we can, rather than do we need to spend less?

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?

Why do we need to make a choice that's binary? I am so excited by the discovery that happens at UBC, and as a pediatric neurologist, I'm impressed at how those things that have been of greatest impact on child health have often emerged from discoveries that were pure knowledge seeking. I've seen the impact of discoveries that were not meant to improve the life of a child, and yet, I see approaches to how we care for children and families that were inconceivable 20 years ago when I started my career. I don't think we would have seen these discoveries if we had presumed to know what that outcome had to be at the outset.

When I think about how we create a vibrant future for the UBC community, it is going to have to involve both pure knowledge seeking and the very tangible needs that we have as a province. I see those tangible needs every day in the health system and in my experience as a physician, scientist, educator and even in my own research team. From a people perspective in my research team, people have joined our group for both what they might do in the job market afterwards after their training, and also what they might discover. I am so impressed at how plans often proceed differently than expected. I think it would be a loss if we didn't hold the importance of both of these perspectives together.

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?

I will push for listening, bringing diverse voices to the table to express their perspectives and to learn from one another. To do this from the value of compassion and with the goal of outcomes that strengthen our university.

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?

Climate-related issues at UBC are a priority, and this is a good example of where we have outstanding academic capacity at UBC. Having engaged with many venues across the university, I'm impressed at the talent we have at UBC addressing climate change, and I see this from people whose primary academic focus is around climate change and also people who are shifting their perspective to address climate change-related issues in their diverse programs of research. I respect experts, and if elected to the Board of Governors, I want to ensure that we're hearing from our experts on how to meet our commitments to climate change.

Are there any issues important to your candidacy that you haven’t got the chance to talk about already?

One of the key issues we face as a university is faculty renewal. As we think about the fiscal responsibilities of the Board of Governors, I want to be sure we address the sustainability and the impact of our faculty.

There are many dimensions to this that involve how we recruit and retain faculty, and very importantly, how we support faculty through issues of, for example, housing. I want to be sure that if elected to the Board of Governors, I have an opportunity to bring the voices of the diversity of our faculty to the table, strengthening the faculty at UBC as enablers of the university's mission, and in educating, teaching, training and supporting learners as the next generation for British Columbia and beyond.