Eshana Bhangu is running for the Board of Governors to work on Campus Vision 2050 and craft a UBC budget that serves student needs.
Bhangu is a fourth-year international relations student and the current AMS President. She was also the AMS VP academic and university affairs (VPAUA) in 2021/22 and has sat on the Senate for three years as a student senator-at-large.
She identified ensuring a student voice is represented in Campus Vision 2050, UBC’s long term land use plan currently in development, as a priority. She criticized the target of 3,300 additional residence beds in the draft plan as unambitious, considering UBC’s growth over the past few years.
She said other stakeholders' priorities seem to be taking precedent over students'.
“Residents from the [University Neighbourhoods Association] and other stakeholders often end up taking the forefront of those conversations,” she said. “I really want to push for UBC to be aggressive in their [housing] targets.”
Bhangu also said she would push the Board to fully implement the Student Affordability Task Force’s (SATF) recommendations. She sat on the SATF Implementation Committee and is currently in the working group to develop metrics for the plan.
One SATF priority she highlighted was a review of UBC’s policy for needs-based aid, which currently does not include international students.
“I just want to make sure that we're expanding that eligibility in that policy and having international students be able to access needs based aid,” she said.
Bhangu also noted significant work on student issues like affordability has been left to UBC executives to complete, and said she would push for more Board oversight.
She characterized the Board’s surprise at the tuition rise protests earlier this year as a result of disengagement from the university’s work.
“I do think the Board needs to be a little more in touch with what’s happening on the ground.”
Bhangu said, if elected, she would also try to engage more in meetings than previous student governors.
“On the Board, it's a little different from the AMS where you can't just go and do things then implement them in your own organization,” she said. “So a lot of it has to happen with genuine engagement with the stuff that's being presented on committees and at the Board level.”
To help students understand the Board’s work, Bhangu said she would produce regular updates to be shared with AMS Council and constituencies.
“I lean towards leveraging the channels that already exist. I think your personal social media channel can only do so much,” she said.
Bhangu said she has detailed knowledge of UBC policy from her years in student politics, and criticized her opponents’ platforms as not being feasible.
“My platform is deliverable, and I can be sure that I'll show results at the end of the year,” she said.
Bhangu noted she completed all her goals as VPAUA, and said she is on track to do so as president — although completing her goals has sometimes put her public in conflict with marginalized students — specifically Jewish and 2SLGBTQIA+ students — at AMS Council. She also wanted to narrow the AMS's Records Policy to reduce the kinds of records students could request, but later walked back on the proposal.
Bhangu is running against Kareem Hassib, Onyekachukwu Odenigbo, Sultana Razia and Leonard Wang.
Follow us at @UbysseyNews on Twitter and follow our election coverage starting February 27. This article is part of our 2023 AMS Elections coverage.
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