AMS President Christian ‘CK’ Kyle ran on a platform to improve the student experience, provide academic support and aid both clubs and student affordability.
Halfway through his term, CK has focused on fostering strong connections between the AMS and student constituencies, building community and promoting academic support in alignment with his campaign promises — but in an interview with The Ubyssey, CK mentioned the successful completion of very few of his goals so far.
Connecting student groups
A significant focus of CK's term has been building stronger partnerships and fostering greater involvement with student groups on campus that were previously not affiliated with the AMS.
CK cited meetings he’d had with UBC’s Residence Hall Association (RHA), the Thunderbird Athletes Council and the Student Alumni Council as examples of his work to connect with student groups previously unaffiliated with the AMS.
CK said he hopes to continue building up communications so undergraduate societies can have a more supportive system in the long run, since “there are a lot of student groups that are on the ground hearing concerns from students that we're not allowing for channel[s] to elevate.”
Enhancing student experience
In his executive goals, CK listed “Building up Campus Spirit,” particularly in order to address the 57 per cent of students who reported they felt no sense of belonging on campus in the 2024 Academic Experience Survey.
From the Welcome Back BBQ to hosting a marshmallow roasting campfire pit outside the Nest, CK said he’s helped to facilitate events both big and small during his time in office.
“You want people to say, 'Oh, that's so cool, that's really novel' …. [and host] things [that] are going to get people talking and hopefully doing their own fun, silly things,” CK said.
CK also said he would have a working group up and running in December to put together a joint orientation calendar to help prevent overlap in the events undergraduate societies throw during orientation week. December is the listed deadline for the project in CK's published goals, but with exam season around the corner, finalization of the group in the given timeline may not be feasible.
Additionally, the AMS's Annual General Meeting (AGM) this year mirrored the last in having minimal advertisement and failing to meet quorum.
Academic support
During his campaign for presidency, CK said it was "absolutely nuts” that UBC was the only major university in Canada to not have an accessible exam database for students.
CK said the idea has received a lot of support and the AMS is currently looking into constructing a formal proposal for the creation of an AMS Exam Database to submit to UBC’s Senate.
“We've seen a lot of buy-in, honestly, from administration … different people and faculties and different professors,” CK said.
However, given the failure of previous UBC exam databases, CK said the AMS wants to make sure it collects all the proper information to build an unrushed, solid foundation before it submits its proposal.
Regardless of the time spent gathering data, CK said the AMS is “on track” to have the database ready by his self-issued April deadline.
Challenges and future plans
CK told The Ubyssey crisis management has taken up a significant portion of his time, and that his biggest learning curve was learning how much time he’d actually have to work toward actualizing goals.
“We can all pretend these jobs are eight hours a day, but they’re not,” CK said. “There’s a finite amount of time you have in this role, and there’s a reality that so much of it is spent crisis-managing, especially as the president.”
CK also occupied three of the five AMS executive positions recently, serving for a brief time simultaneously as President, interim VP Academic and University Affairs (AUA) and interim VP Finance after former VP AUA Drédyn Fontana was removed from office and former VP Finance Gavin Fung-Quon took a leave of absence due to “personal reasons." Both the interim VP AUA and VP Finance positions have recently been filled, relieving CK of his temporary duties on multiple executive fronts.
In spite of these challenges, CK said he is optimistic about the remainder of his term and that he will aim to solidify partnerships, continue work on the exam database and continue to establish a more collaborative orientation framework.
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