Ghosts of AMS presidents past

Canada's first female PM: Kim Campbell, 1967-1968

For Kim Campbell, getting involved with student politics at UBC was somewhat of a fluke. Having been student council president at her high school — the first female to hold the position — she was invited to a retreat put on by the AMS. While there, the actions of a fellow student encouraged her to run for freshman president.

“There was a fellow who kept on announcing that he was going to be frosh president [and] being really obnoxious about it. I thought, ‘No, you're not.’ So that’s why I ran,” said Campbell.

That ambition is in part what led her to become Canada's first — and so far only — female prime minister.

Campbell became involved in politics post-university while still in law school, being elected as a trustee of the Vancouver Public School Board in 1980. After representing Vancouver Point-Grey as a member of the legislative assembly of British Columbia from 1986-88, she was then elected as the member of parliament for Vancouver Centre in 1988. While serving as a MP, Campbell held numerous cabinet positions, including the post of minister of justice and attorney-general where she oversaw crucial legislation amendments in gun control and sexual assault laws.

In 1993, Campbell served as prime minister of Canada and implemented radical changes to the structure of the federal cabinet. Campbell sees her legacy as a prime minister though as promoting the equality of women.

“We judge who gets to do what job by the people we see doing that job … so if we never see a woman doing something, we don't imagine that a woman can do that job,” said Campbell. “It takes time to change the landscape, but it’s really the only way you get to change the culture.”

Campaign Advice: While running for freshman class president, Kim’s campaign slogan was “Kim is cuddlier.” How catchy.

— S.S.

Attacked by The Ubyssey: Janice Boyle, 1995-1996

Janice Boyle was busy during her time in the AMS. In her various roles as science representative, vice-president and president, she strengthened their student services by providing year-round payment for students who were previously employed as volunteers, created the first AMS student health plan and helped negotiate a sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola that garnered the university $8.5 million in funding over 10 years.

But the biggest issue that Boyle had to navigate was the tension between the AMS and The Ubyssey, which published numerous scathing articles about the AMS despite being owned by them. These tensions peaked with The Ufeces, a Ubyssey spoof issue that relentlessly mocked Boyle — who was VP at the time — as well as the rest of the AMS. The paper was eventually shut down for a year due to both sides’ unwillingness to cooperate.

“It was tiresome,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but it was a good experience in terms of getting a bit of a tougher skin.”

Beyond what was learned from this, Boyle learned a lot from her time at the AMS.

“It really gave an opportunity to get a lot of experience it would take you sometimes decades to get in a working life at a young age,” she said. “I got more out of my education in my experience with the student union than almost any other aspect of university.”

After leaving UBC, Boyle made a career out of raising money for various charities. She worked for Covenant House for 14 years where she helped raise over $80 million to support homeless youth. She now works for Multiple Sclerosis Canada where she oversees the fundraising and service staff of the organization’s western branch and gets “to continue to hone all the skills” that she learned at the AMS.

Alternative Education: Boyle was initially a physics major, but after three years of working with the AMS, she decided to drop out of UBC.

“[I] had no desire to finish after that because, at that stage, I knew I wasn’t going to continue on with physics as my career.” (In case you weren’t already thinking of dropping out.)

— J.A.

Frosh Man: Erfan Kazemi, 2001-2002

These days, Erfan Kazemi is a chartered accountant who has helped raise over $300 million in financing at Sandstorm Gold Ltd., a commodity finance company that provides funds to mining companies in exchange for the right to purchase a share of the resources extracted.

As a UBC student 15 years ago, however, he initially found his footing at the AMS — first as VP Academic and then as president.

Together with his student co-workers, Kazemi helped create one of the AMS’s most beloved events — Frosh Week.

“We didn’t feel there was an entire event that kind of got you integrated into the school,” he said. “It’s easy to go from class, not really interact with your classmates and make those connections and friendships. [Organizing Frosh] was something that, at the time, we thought was important.”

Other things Kazemi and his team worked on include supporting campus services with adequate resources, ensuring that the AMS health plan would remain in place and lobbying the provincial government to ensure tuition would not be raised following the end of a province-wide tuition freeze.

“We stated very clearly that we thought that the provincial government at the time should still continue to have a regulatory role in tuition.”

Following graduation, Kazemi found his way into the world of business. For six years, he worked at the prestigious accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers where he eventually became a senior manager. At Sandstorm, Kazemi works as the company’s chief financial officer, a role which consists of tasks such as structuring transactions and sitting down with investors to discuss their plans.

“It’s a pretty interesting role and I’m working with some very young people who are very intelligent and bright, and they also went to UBC.”

Not-So-Tragic Ending: In 2002, The Ubyssey ran an article that said that Kazemi had been killed in a rap-related gang-war.

“I remember getting calls and people reaching out to me worried that it was a real article.”

— J.A.

U-Pass: Kristen Harvey, 2002-2003

As both VP External and then president of the AMS, Kristen Harvey devoted herself to the the development and eventual approval of the first student U-Pass, which the AMS had been negotiating for with UBC and TransLink for many years without any success.

Thanks to the accessibility of a newly-implemented online voting system, the U-Pass was finally approved in February 2003 with a record-breaking voter turnout. That same referendum also approved the creation of the Sexual Assault Support Centre, which Harvey also worked towards the creation of.

Although she is proud of her successes, Harvey credits a lot of her achievements to her team members in the AMS as well as her predecessors.

“Nobody comes in for a one-year term of office and is able to just do everything as a solo or an individual effort,” she said. “We were able to inherit some great work from previous executives and, as a result, finish them.”

Harvey was also the first aboriginal president of the AMS and her work after graduation has focused mainly on providing education to First Nations communities. After a short stint with the Vancouver Olympic Committee, Harvey worked for the First Educations Steering Committee, an organization dedicated to improving the education of First Nations in BC. In 2013 she returned to UBC as the associate director of strategic aboriginal enrolment initiatives where she works to identify and address various barriers to aboriginal enrolment at the university.

“My message to people who are supporting students at UBC is to consider the ways that we can do our work that makes UBC especially welcoming for aboriginal students, whether it’s in curriculum, services or initiatives,” she said. “I’m proud to be who I am and if it can be an example, then I’m happy to share my story.”

Fashion Advice: Harvey’s Twitter contains gems like this one from 2013 — “Today I wore a yellow rain jacket, black pants and black boots, and I just realized I looked like I was enforcing parking regulations.”

— J.A.

UN shenanigans: Blake Frederick, 2009-2010

In 2009, the AMS filed a complaint with the United Nations to address high tuition fees, claiming that they violated the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights — an international accord stating that higher education must be accessible to all. This complaint ended up making major news and was dubbed “UN-gate.”

While the AMS executive signed off on pursuing the legal battle, the stunt was largely run by Blake Frederick, a staunch supporter of tuition reform and the AMS president at the time.

“My main campaign issue was that the cost of education is so prohibitively high that many students who deserve UBC do not get to attend,” said Frederick. “We decided [we needed to] get some more outside pressure on this issue. One of the ideas that was raised in our executive council meeting was [to file] a UN complaint as a media stunt.”

Frederick had been a supporter of tuition reform since initially getting involved in the AMS while working as a researcher for the VP Academic in his third year. The next year, Frederick was both a student representative on the Senate and an associate VP External.

While much of Frederick’s time in university was defined by student politics, Frederick’s life took a very different path after graduation.

“After I graduated, I went to work with the NDP for a bit, [but] I was never really a party person … that only lasted about half a year,” said Frederick.

Since earning his second degree in 2013, Frederick has been working as a web developer.

Stomach grumbling: Frederick and fellow members of the executive went on a hunger strike shortly after being elected into office in an attempt to shame the government into acting on homelessness.

— S.S.

Best beard: Jeremy McElroy, 2011-12

Jeremy McElroy saw a presidential term coloured by mild disagreements and a campaign against the original “war on fun.” Before and during his presidential term, new RCMP leadership and newly located private residences on campus took issue with the school’s beer gardens, which used to be a regular feature at UBC. Liquor licenses began to be increasingly denied to student events.

“During my time — from my first year until when I left — that was effectively when beer gardens died at UBC,” said McElroy. “That casual event atmosphere disappeared.”

In the midst of this, a group of students involved in the various undergraduate societies, including McElroy, banded together to lobby against such measures. They were light-hearted, but certainly took a serious approach.

They coined the term “war on fun” to represent the fact that “the university was condoning the quelling of student organization on campus, of leadership opportunities [and] of creating a social and inclusive environment on campus.”

The events stopped happening anyway, but McElroy still feels that the relative success of the campaign was very valuable to student life as it showed future students that lobbying for social opportunities on campus is possible and important.

In his career today, McElroy has continued down the path of non-profit management — he is currently the general manager at the Kwantlen Student Association, overseeing over 20,000 students.

His experience with the AMS certainly prepared him for this line of work.

“In fact, I was hired almost explicitly because of my experience at UBC,” said McElroy.

McElroy immensely enjoyed his time with the AMS, even when under stress. He described conflicts within the diverse student government as constant — a trend that hasn’t changed.

“The Ubyssey being there, always knowing everything that was going on, was both a blessing and a curse,” he said, laughing.

AMS Best Beard: “If I could be known as the president with the facial hair, then I will die a happy man,” said McElroy in a 2012 interview.

— S.M.

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