Student Governor Jasper Lorien has resigned from UBC’s Board of Governors, the university’s highest decision-making body.
In an email to The Ubyssey, Lorien wrote that they resigned from the board on March 16, citing personal reasons. They stated that not being able to be present at this month’s board meetings also factored into their decision to resign.
Lorien had served on the board since April 2025, and currently serves as a senator on UBC Vancouver’s Senate, the university’s academic governance body. Earlier this month, they were re-elected for a third term on Senate and unsuccessfully ran for AMS president against Dylan Evans.
During their term as a governor, Lorien pushed the university to increase student food security funding to $1.2 million, from $800,000. When the board voted to increase tuition last December, they were one of four governors to vote against any increases.
The board is expected to pass the university's annual budget on March 31, with the vacancy now leaving Vancouver campus students without one of their two directly elected representatives on the 21-person board.
A senior AMS source familiar with the matter said they expect the circumstances surrounding the resignation may negatively affect the board's trust in student representatives. The Ubyssey is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
(Under AMS Code, the elected student governors are also non-voting members of AMS council).
As the newly elected student governors — Zarifa Nawar and Drédyn Fontana — start their terms on April 1, the board will not hold a by-election to fill the vacancy. Thandi Fletcher, a university spokesperson, wrote that when another student governor resigned earlier in the school year, it took “several weeks” to elect a replacement, in a statement to The Ubyssey.
