AMS President Riley Huntley campaigned on “results-driven advocacy.” When elected, he came into the office with proposals around affordability, equity, improving engagement and belonging, and securing the AMS long-term stability.
Now, several months into his term, he highlighted fast-paced progress, tangible results, some frustration and changing goals in an interview with The Ubyssey.
“Our permanent staff were shocked at the first half of the year of how much was being accomplished,” Huntley said.
Yet, Huntley expressed frustration around some goals, including assessing international students' needs and securing support on projects addressing student affordability issues such as food insecurity or housing.
Affordability
Affordability was a key focus of Huntley’s campaign, telling The Ubyssey he aimed to lead a textbook audit to identify underutilized course materials and promote open, affordable resources for students. According to his executive goals, the audit was planned for November last year.
However, Huntley said the goal was “scrapped." He explained some of his campaign’s priorities like the textbook audit and exam database have shifted to the office of VP Academic and University Affairs Zarifa Nawar. Nonetheless, the audit did not take place under Nawar’s office either. Huntley said that AMS executives decided to focus on the Textbook Broke campaign instead.
Huntley also called on the university to assess the financial needs of international students and provide appropriate funding. Huntley said the AMS has received clear messaging from the government that international students’ needs are not a priority, and that they are still seen as “a form of revenue generation.”
One area where that materializes is in bursary funding. Huntley stated that the AMS has identified barriers to international students’ access to financial aid. "We give about $700,000 per year [in bursaries]," he said, "that international students aren't able to access." This is despite all fee-paying members of the AMS, including international students, funding the AMS's student aid bursary. A UBC official noted at a November Council meeting that the university — which administers the AMS's bursaries — requires that students be citizens, residents or have refugee status at the time of bursary application.
Unless the university works with the AMS to solve the bursary issue, the AMS will "have no choice but to pull all of our bursary funding [from the university], because we're required to make sure that all UBC students can access it," Huntley said.
He affirmed that the AMS has pushed UBC to maintain its commitment of $800,000 towards food insecurity programs as outlined in the 2025-26 budget. Calls to go beyond that have not been answered, and won’t be until the Board of Governors approves a new budget in March. As a result, Huntley said the AMS is looking for ways to make food insecurity programs less dependent on university funding.
Huntley also mentioned the AMS has been pushing — without success, yet — for the university to consider third-party funding options to go beyond its Campus Vision 2050 commitment of 3,300 new student beds, something Huntley campaigned for. He also expressed that the AMS is looking at other ways the student union can increase the supply of student dwellings.
Equity and advocacy
While Huntley did not make divestment a focus of his campaign, the AMS has faced calls for it to advocate for UBC to divest from businesses with alleged ties to genocide and human rights abuses in Palestine.
Huntley said progress in divestment talks has been slow, calling achievements in the area “a tough one,” saying the process needs to move faster. He stressed that student advocates have been resilient in calling for divestment and complimented the university's holistic approach, but said UBC’s efforts to address multiple social issues concurrently are slowing the process. While the AMS has heard that progress is being made, “we're not really going to see it for another year.”
Huntley said that the AMS has expanded the space allocated to the Indigenous Student Society in the Nest, and integrated Indigenous representation into AMS bodies.
Student engagement
Returning to a “culture of engagement” not seen in years was one of Huntley’s main objectives entering office. During his campaign, he was hopeful that introducing the VP student life portfolio would be beneficial for both students and AMS executives in delivering this goal.
“It's definitely worth the investment,” Huntley said. “Part of why we brought that position in is because you can see at every other student union across the country that they have something like it.”
Huntley had also vouched for his office’s executive goals to strengthen the relationship with the Graduate Student Society as well as student organizations at UBCO. He said AMS executives went on a work retreat with GSS executives last year and have focused on bringing a unified message to negotiations with the university.
He also touted having reached quorum for the fourth time in 40 years at last year’s general meeting. He said the initial investment of $5,000 in prizes will help with election engagement down the road, and gives people “extra opportunity” to learn what the AMS is doing.
“If that means we have to give free cookies for the school year to a few students, it's definitely a good thing.”
Reaching quorum at general meetings, he said, “should be non-negotiable.”
Long-term stability and future challenges
Huntley said there has been progress in improving the AMS’ financial transparency, mentioning their intent to announce the publication of public budgets for offices that receive money from students. However, he seemed concerned about the future of the economy posing a challenge in the AMS long-term stability.
Huntley expressed concern about the effects of economic uncertainty on AMS businesses and investments, and how the effects on the student union’s investments could impact its ability “to launch new initiatives.”
Economic uncertainty may hinder the long-term sustainability of the AMS, he said, while adding that steps are being taken to move forward.
“We have to be able to justify every penny that we're spending and bringing that spending as closely in alignment with what the students are calling for,” Huntley said.
He said it was necessary to increase AMS fees through a referendum in this year’s election to finance projects like a 24/7 Nest during finals season.
“We had one failed [fee increase referendum] during the last election, but [the proposed referendum is] a bit more closely aligned with the current needs of students today and the needs of the AMS to be able to keep pushing forward.”
Now in the final months of his term, Huntley has been proudest about bringing back the AMS Equity & Inclusion Office, rebuilding relationships with resource groups by extending to them the same protection afforded to subsidiary organizations in AMS bylaws.
As well, Huntley is finally settling into his office. Torn between a swivel chair and a standing desk, he decided on both, having bought a standing desk out of his own pocket.
