Last night, 9 out of 14 candidates for the student senator-at-large race squared off in the Pit for the great debate. Daniel Aminbaksh, Keanu Chan, Dianya Gao, Mankanwar Singh and Shorya Goyal were not in attendance.
The discussion included reforming disability and exam accommodations, as well as advocating for 24/7 library access despite budget constraints.
UBC recently released its first Student Diversity Census report and candidates were asked whether they would use the data to guide their advocacy.
Candidates almost unanimously cited LR7 — UBC’s Disability Accommodation Policy — as being outdated and in need of review to better reflect students' needs, and they said they would use the recent census data to push for this.
Incumbent Drédyn Fontana pointed out that, according to the report, many students face barriers getting a formal diagnosis — which the Centre for Accessibility needs in order to provide accommodation.
“Currently, the medical model is broken. It's breaking. We're seeing more and more students registering with the CfA, and it's not sustainable,” Fontana said.
Veeru Vaidesh Seethanaboyina agreed, and said “I would also use the reports to come to better conclusions on how things must be done.”
Candidates were also asked about any other policies they believed needed to be reviewed and how they would do so.
Many candidates spoke about reviewing towards policies v102 and v103, both regarding exam hardship.
Incumbent Jasper Lorien noted they will be sitting on the working group reviewing these policies in their current capacity as student senator.
“There's a lot of really great work that we can do there …. This is how you make those improvements,” said Lorien.
Zarifa Nawar also said she wants to advocate for temporary health accommodations to be part of the policies.
Incumbent Kareem Hassib offered an additional approach to accommodating hardships by permanently pushing back the course drop-deadline with a W standing. He said it’s an issue that students choose to not drop classes and “just get an F instead of going through the incredibly difficult process of trying to drop a course.”
Incumbent Solomon Yi-Kieran said he wanted to expand policy V131, the policy to eliminate the costs of digital learning tools, saying it should also be expanded to physical textbooks.
Many candidates have also promised advocating for 24/7 library access; however, Senate reports have shown that there is not enough funding to do so and could lead to further cuts.
Candidates acknowledged it would be an uphill battle, but incremental steps could be taken to have 24-hour access.
“Anyone that's saying that we can get 24-hour library access this year is lying to you. There's going to be a fight about library hours this year, and it's important to make sure that they're not cutting the hours,” Lorien said.
Fontana proposed a more tangible goal would be getting expanding hours during midterm or finals seasons.
Mohkam Singh Malik (ਮੋਹਕਮ) said libraries are “an essential service,” especially for commuter students, and he would advocate for funding to not be cut further.
Ananya Gupta said she would aim to lay the groundwork for expanding hours in the future. “Just because it's hard, it doesn't mean it's impossible,” she said.
Candidates also emphasized the importance of united advocacy and bargaining power of the Student Senate Caucus — and critiqued the efficiency of last year's caucus along the way.
“[Previous Caucus’s] have gotten the drop date extended. They've gotten a cap on digital assessment tools. This caucus can't say the same,” Nawar said.
Nawar, Yi-Kieran and Gupta all said they would seek leadership roles in the Caucus.
Malik heavily criticized last year’s Caucus. “The Student Senate Caucus for the past year has been a joke,” he said, but added that if utilized correctly, it can be a good advocacy tool.
“It's a very good connecting body within the Senate. I would love to be part of the Caucus,” said newcomer Bardia Mohammadizadeh.
This article is part of our 2025 AMS Elections coverage. Follow us at @UbysseyNews on X (formerly Twitter) and follow our election coverage starting March 3.
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