Zarifa Nawar is running to be a member of UBC’s Senate on a platform of enriching students’ academic experience, improving equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives, and boosting Senate efficiency.
The third-year gender, race, sexuality and social justice student wants to solidify the Senate as a place to “improve the academic experience of students.” Nawar is currently the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs (AUA) and noted her position has given her helpful experience in being able to make the Senate an effective body.
“I work very closely with senators, and I’ve already been working on priorities related to exam hardship, exam policies, disability accommodations and improving procedures related to appeals for academic discipline," said Nawar.
Regarding policy changes, Nawar wants to ensure no exams are held before formal exam periods and also plans to advocate for a more compassionate policy regarding exam hardships. In addition, she aims to change UBC’s policy mandating final exams in lower-level courses.
“The policy really does not prioritize teaching and learning excellence, so changing this is key,” Nawar said.
On student academic support, Nawar plans to increase digital-based learning tools to cap textbook costs. She also wants to extend UBC’s course withdrawal deadline, standardize access to past course syllabi and develop an exam database. For student health and accessibility changes specifically, Nawar plans to advocate for the removal of vague language in UBC’s disability accommodation policy LR7 to include temporary health issues. All five of these goals are outlined in Senate 2026, the Student Senate Caucus’s three-year policy goals.
Nawar also said she wants to better integrate Generative AI into teaching and learning activities.
“With the transforming nature of Gen AI, there's a lot of room to shift the current guidelines from its restrictive and limiting nature towards something that can … ethically and effectively leverage learning.”
As a challenge in the Senate, Nawar said she saw a “huge lack” of unified priorities around what the student mission is, and said aims to address this challenge by advocating for better collaboration and unifying key priorities.
“We also need to spend a significant amount of time at the start to figure out what the rest of the year is going to look like,” she said.
Nawar additionally aims to ensure transparency and innovation in the Senate by emphasizing EDI training and by advocating term limits for Senators.
"Some senators are serving for extended periods of time, sometimes decades, and while that's commendable, it also results in an eventual lack of new ideas and diversity on the Senate," Nawar said.
Nawar did not specify which senators have served for decades. The University Act states that senators have to be re-elected every three years, but it does not list a maximum number of terms a senator may serve.
When asked how she would work with senior Senate members to advocate for student needs, Nawar replied “people will take us seriously when we are being serious and ensuring that we can rise above the petty politics we have.”
The Ubyssey recently published an article which detailed several past AMS executives alleging a culture of petty politics and casual bullying within the AMS.
“I will make sure to be someone who is open to hearing everyone and not letting petty politics get in the way of a progressive caucus that actually delivers results for students.”
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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