Third-year honours political science student Kamil Kanji is looking to continue his role as a student senator with a focus on open educational resources, academic policy changes and equity initiatives.
Kanji has served on the Senate as a student senator-at-large since last term when he was appointed by AMS Council to replace Anisha Sandhu. He pointed to this and his experience with AMS Council and in the AMS President’s Office as an asset.
“I think collectively what all those experiences have taught me and provided me is a real look into the needs of students across the board.”
To carve a clearer path toward open education resources, Kanji said he plans to advocate for recorded lectures by ensuring that UBC allocates more financial resources for the right technology as well as training professors on how to operate it.
Regarding the rising costs of textbooks, he would like to create a university-funded subsidy to reimburse students, as well as a policy to cap textbook costs. The Arts and Science Undergraduate socieities currently have subsidy programs.
He also proposed some other academic policy changes, including altering course withdrawal deadlines to later in the semester or to the last day of classes.
He also would like to amend the Senate’s policy V103, which states that the holding of an exam, formal or in-term, is forbidden during the two weeks prior to the final exam period.
“Right now, that policy has gotten very ambiguous in the way that it says that no major examinations may be held, but there is no definition for what a major exam means,” Kanji said.
Kanji put a strong emphasis on implementing new plans in UBC’s Campus Vision 2050, for more spaced-out, quiet and accessible spaces on campus for students to study and spend their time.
Another major point in his platform is creating a new Senate committee to focus on the Inclusion Action Plan and Indigenous Strategic Plan. He said he wants to “conduct a curriculum review of relevant UBC courses to be cognizant of historical anti-Black racism, discrimination, as well as Indigenous reconciliation.”
To receive a wider reach of the student perspectives, he said he would create a more open and accessible Senate. In his previous 2022 campaign, he claimed he would start Senate social media accounts to keep the student body engaged — but it doesn’t appear if this was achieved in the most recent term.
He said, if elected for a full term, he will work on starting these accounts and engaging in new ways to make Senate more transparent.
“Whether that be using current social media channels with Student Senate Caucus and hosting frequent town halls, update sessions, and … having informal discussion opportunities on social events to the senators to break down communication barriers with consistent transparency.”
Kanji is running against fellow incumbent Romina Hajizadeh and newcomvers Ayesha Irfan, Kareem Hassib, Mathew Ho, Davey Li and Sultana Razia for one of five student senator-at-large seats.
Follow us at @UbysseyNews on Twitter and follow our election coverage starting February 27. This article is part of our 2023 AMS Elections coverage.