The four candidates for VP academic and university affairs (VPAUA) discussed many issues including affordability, support for Black students and the toxic drug crisis during the first debate last night.
The candidates for VPAUA are Dana Turdy, the AMS Strategy and Governance lead; Kamil Kanji, an AMS councillor who sits on the advocacy and governance committees; Anisha Sandhu, an incumbent student senator for the faculty of land and food systems; and Anushreya Arora, a newcomer to student government.
Candidates gave a broad array of answers when asked what aspect of the Student Affordability Task Force (SATF) recommendations they’d push forward as VPAUA. The SATF is a group — which includes incumbent VPAUA Eshana Bhangu — created to give recommendations on student affordability at UBC.
VP Students Ainsley Carry presented a draft set of recommendations from the SATF at the February 17 Board of Governors Finance Committee meeting.
Kanji agreed with the SATF’s recommendation of a multi-year tuition framework while saying that all tuition increases should be opposed. Sandhu said she would focus on “students being unable to have access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food and childcare to attend classes” when addressing living cost challenges.
Turdy, on the other hand, challenged the SATF’s recommendations.
“I found that the recommendations were not enough. I think we could go much further with a detailed budget on where exactly UBC is going to put funding into helping students directly.”
Meanwhile, Arora said, “I would say that making it affordable for everyone is a prime concern” without referencing any specific recommendation of the task force.
On an audience question about how to best support Black students, Kanji said “ one of the most important things we can do is to hold true to the recommendations put forward by the Black student caucus to the Board of Governors earlier this year.” He highlighted the hiring of Black faculty, scholarships for Black students and “a unique black student space on campus.”
Meanwhile, Arora said that to support the Black community on campus, she’d “engage everyone together and not make them feel like they're a minority community in general.”
Turdy called for more anti-oppression education in the AMS.
“As AMS student leaders, we are currently not mandated to be trained in anti-racism, anti-oppression or sexual violence education, which I think are all essential, essential trainings that we should receive as leaders that are directly communicating with students and advocating for students.”
When asked about drug-testing materials, Turdy and Sandhu both directly supported the AMS making drug-testing materials more accessible while Kanji said the AMS should be organizing more Naloxone training and destigmatizing drug use.
Kanji also said the AMS needed to work with constituencies to ensure they have the necessary resources and training they need.
Sandhu and Arora both initially discussed communication as a means of addressing the overdose crisis, rather than the drug-testing materials. Sandhu later mentioned the AMS’ distribution of masks to students as a model that could be extended to drug testing.
Turdy called out UBC for “a particular poster posted in UBC residences, just extremely stigmatizing around marijuana use on campus” and for the clause in residence contracts that says students may be evicted for illegal drug use or being around illegal drug use.
“We really should be working on awareness and safe use instead of, you know, stigmatizing users and an abstinence campaign which has proven over and over again, not to work,” Turdy said.
Turdy wrote four articles for The Ubyssey between January and April 2021.
Follow us at @UbysseyNews on Twitter and follow our election coverage starting February 28. This article is part of our 2022 AMS elections coverage.