Audrey Xue is running for VP finance.
As a diploma in accounting student at the Sauder School of Business, Xue wants to become more involved with the university. She previously obtained her PhD at UBC in molecular ecology, and she has extensive work experience across project management and academic research in life sciences.
Xue said that although she has no prior experience in the AMS, she has a strong interest in student governance.
“It's kind of rare, if you compare the candidates, where they come from, most of them are actually already in AMS … I feel it's also encouraging to other students that really anyone can run,” Xue told The Ubyssey.
Xue’s top priorities include streamlining club reimbursements, reviewing the AMS/GSS Health and Dental Plan and achieving financial sustainability by increasing revenue and cutting costs. “I see myself as someone who really prioritizes efficiency,” she said.
Xue wants to improve clubs’ reimbursement processing, as she said many clubs face delays and don’t receive clear communication regarding timelines. To improve operations, she wants to automate request intakes by creating a form, reducing administrative work.
Xue said that one of the reasons she returned to school to study accounting was to pursue sustainability-related finance and accounting. As a result, improving the AMS’s emission reporting is one of her key goals. Xue said she wants to disclose Scope 3 emissions — indirect greenhouse gases produced in a company’s value chain that are not within the organization's control, to “help drive campus sustainability.”
The AMS already discloses Scope 3 emissions from the Nest through its greenhouse gas inventory report, most recently released in September.
Xue plans to initiate a review of the current AMS/GSS Health and Dental Plan to avoid redundancy with public coverage, cost efficiency and student needs. Currently, all students are automatically enrolled in the plan at a cost of $388.26 per year, and have the option to opt-out.
Xue cited that in her experience, the plan overlaps with the Canadian Dental Care Plan and B.C.’s MSP Supplementary Benefits.
Her platform states she will include tiered coverage and have special considerations for international students, while raising opt-out awareness and educating students on existing public benefits.
“The research will prepare AMS for negotiations in the next contract renewal cycle,” her platform states.
While Xue praised Gagan Parmar’s leadership as current VP finance, Xue would like to lower the risk of the investment portfolio — something Parmar recently increased.
“Obviously [the adjustment] has to be compensated by generating more revenue from other sources, like the AMS businesses — which are currently not doing so well — but that's in the bigger context of the whole economy suffering right now.”
In terms of increasing revenue in light of AMS business underperformance, Xue aims to increase Nest revenue streams while creating student opportunities.
“I will work to partner with entrepreneurship@UBC (a program with Innovation UBC) to support student-led startups through alumni and faculty mentorship and modest micro-investments using revenue-based financing,” her platform reads.
“Instead of taking equity, AMS would receive a small, capped share of revenue for a limited period. Returns would be directed into student services and future ventures.”
Currently, revenue earned by entrepreneurship@UBC through ventures, licensing and investments are reinvested back into the UBC ecosystem to support further research translation, innovation and startup growth. They are not affiliated with the AMS.
She proposed a collaboration between the AMS and University Blvd Lot — the parking lot under the Nest — to develop parking and EV incentives in order to drive more traffic to the Nest. She said customers could potentially receive parking rebates that could be obtained after purchasing from Nest vendors. The lot is owned and operated by UBC Parking.
Xue also supports increasing the club's benefit fee from $0.85 to $4.85, as proposed in an AMS referendum. “Given the economic downturn, we're not at the stage where we could support students’ clubs without increasing that fee.”
Although Parmar stated the Capital Projects Fee — proposed to increase by $3, from $9.95 — would permit the AMS to support new spaces and seating, Xue felt as though “more reasons or explanation needs to be given,” to justify the fee, and suggested the money could possibly be used elsewhere.
“Are there other choices that we can use the $10 for?” Xue said, before suggesting that bringing printers to the Nest, for example, could be a more beneficial use of the fee. She did agree that increasing student seating could drive foot traffic in the Nest — something the businesses need.
“Last year, there was a proposal to bring in printers, and that hasn't been materialized,” she said. A print shop was brought to the Nest in November, which was a key platform promise of current AMS VP Administration Dylan Evans.
When managing the AMS’s budget, which is forecasted to slide into a deficit, Xue was very adamant on looking anywhere to cut costs. She said she would consider changing AMS staffing by working with human resources, and said costs could be reduced, considering the potential inefficiency of having multiple part-time students on payroll.
“Can we look at the efficiency of those part-time and full-time staff,” she asked, “could some of the part-time staff be combined into a full-time staff position?”
“If you're always switching between staff doing … [a task], you constantly have to explain [things to them]. And that actually reduces efficiency,” she said.
Xue also wants to digitize the operations of the VP Finance Office, with the hopes of improving communication among the team and saving paper along the way.
