Bryan Buraga is a master’s student in community and regional planning who is bringing his recent experience as counselor for the Graduate Student Society (GSS) on AMS Council to the race for one of five Student Senator-at-large positions.
While Buraga has less than a year of student government experience at UBC, during their undergraduate degree at McGill, they spent two years on the Senate and one year on its Board of Governors. He also served as President of the Student Society of McGill, a role comparable to AMS President.
“I come from a student movement [and] activism background,” Buraga said.
“It's important to have student representation and ensure that students' rights are respected,” Buraga said of the appeals and academic policy committees that he hopes to sit on. They said it’s “unacceptable that students have to wait eight to 10 months” for their case to be heard.
Burgaga said sitting on the academic policy committee would be an important opportunity to bring student’s lived experiences into discussion around the LR7 accessibility policy, among others.
If elected, Buraga wants to pursue changes to LR7 that would allow students to self-certify that they have a diagnosis. He said it comes from a personal place, noting they ran into challenges when registering with the Center for Accessibility themselves because of the three-year cap on recognition of diagnoses.
“I had to go speak with medical professional[s] and pay out of pocket first, which is a very fortunate position to be in, but I know a lot of students struggle and aren't able to have that financial support to be able to get the diagnoses that they might need,” Buraga said.
They are similarly concerned with the fairness of other university policies, including its rules on exclusion from university residences and the exam hardship policy. He said that in discussion with current student senators, he learned about cases where students were suspended from classes, and if living in residence, were evicted without protections, because the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) in BC specifically does not apply to student residences.
Buraga also says that his experience with exam and syllabi databases policies at McGill is an asset he could bring to the Senate. “I can say, ‘hey, McGill, we did it this way. UBC is just as good of a school. Why can't we do it here?’” He said that as an AMS councillor, he saw constituencies were developing their own exam and syllabi databases, but that it would be effective if it became an institutionalized practice.
Buraga said that he wants to continue to carry out the work that the Student Senate Caucus committed to in their Senate 2026, their triennial priority list published two and a half years ago.
He acknowledged that while there has been disunity and conflict within the caucus in the past, he is impressed with its performance this year.
“I think the caucus as a whole has done a really good job of maintaining a united student front and advancing student priorities,” Buraga said. He pointed to the current caucus’s action on ensuring UBC does not partner with universities complicit in human rights abuses.
“Continuing on the work that they've been doing, and not trying to reinvent the wheel, I think, is super important to keep that momentum moving forward,” Buraga commented.
Buraga also brought forward an idea for course feedback policies at UBC in response to a report that the Senate released this year,suggesting that professors are concerned with “harmful, vague and discriminatory comments on SEI surveys”.
They suggested UBC would benefit from a mid-course SEI equivalent, so that both students and professors are able to get the feedback and tweak the course.
He said that SEI surveys remain a relevant resource for professors to improve their courses.
“I trust in the student body to share their lived experiences, and to share [it] earnestly and honestly with professors.”
While president of McGill’s student union, he spearheaded the successful campaign for a fall reading break, and said he wants voters to know that he has experience mobilizing students for change.
“I don't necessarily have the UBC experience, but I do bring a wealth of other experience to the table” they concluded.
