The AMS said it is taking steps to improve relationships with affiliate colleges after some college students said they felt they weren’t truly part of the AMS.
Theological colleges Saint Mark's College, Regent College and Vancouver School of Theology are affiliated with UBC. Their students are AMS members and each college has a seat on AMS Council, but affiliate college students are often left out of AMS initiatives.
Last year, AMS Council formed an ad hoc committee on affiliate colleges to address some of the issues that had come up. The committee finished its work in March.
Former AMS VP Administration Sylvester Mensah Jr said that last year, UBC stopped sharing student information from affiliate colleges with the AMS, resulting in the AMS having to communicate directly with enrolment services at the affiliate colleges to obtain that information. Mensah said this change showed that communication was at the root of the problems between the AMS and affiliate colleges.
AMS Councillor Christopher Sundby from Regent College, chair of the now-dissolved committee, said that affiliate colleges are often left out of society surveys and advocacy. They’re also have issues accessing the health and dental plan, the U-Pass program and university facilities.
“I can't speak for all colleges, but at Regent, many students don’t feel like they’re part of UBC or the AMS,” he said.
Sundby placed some of the blame on the AMS for this issue, but also said that affiliate college students do tend to stay within their colleges and plan their own events.
After the dissolution of the ad hoc committee, Council approved the creation of an Extraordinary Committee on Affiliates to continue addressing the issues present.
“I am confident that this Committee, combined with a more well-defined role for the VP Admin as a liaison between affiliated institutions and the AMS, will lead to an even stronger relationship in the future,” Mensah said.
“This was a great opportunity to have a full discussion on what issues exist and what concrete steps can be taken to solve them.”
However. Sundby said he believed there is a long way to go to heal the relationship between AMS and the affiliate colleges. The new extraordinary committee is only set to meet once per term, and Sundby said the committee likely won’t meet again until the fall.
“The issues ... will remain ongoing, but now there is a formal space for discussion and improvement.”
Share this article
