AMS VP Administration Amy Liao ran on a platform promising to better the experiences of clubs and AMS subsidiaries, improve the Nest and work toward the AMS Sustainability Action Plan's 2026 goals.
Halfway through her term, Liao has delivered on many — but not all — of her goals.
Supporting subsidiaries
Liao told The Ubyssey in a statement one of her top priorities has been to foster student engagement. She referenced the Club Executive Orientation and the Club Executive Social that her team hosted in July, which she said gave club leaders the chance to connect both with each other and with the VP administration team.
"It was inspiring to see such a diverse range of clubs ... sharing their experiences," Liao wrote.
Liao also highlighted her work in organizing the 2024 AMS Clubs Fair. According to Liao, the September 25 event featured “Activation Zones” for 11 clubs, with drop-in activities from volleyball to mahjong to allow students to informally try out new activities. The implementation of these zones aligned with Liao’s campaign aims to take a “‘club centric’” approach to community engagement.
“From setting up until 1AM with my team … to the text from clubs that I received telling me how many membership sign-ups they had received — planning Clubs Fair was one of the most tiring and rewarding things I’ve ever done,” wrote Liao.
Additionally, as written in the published 2024/25 executive goals, Liao aims to facilitate “Smooth Operations & Resources” by developing a bookings calendar for AMS rooms. However, in an October AMS council meeting, Liao noted challenges with AMS room availability given the discrepancy between the number of available rooms (22) and the number of clubs (414).
Liao said she has been working with various directors and coordinators to resolve the issue, and that a “user-friendly” room bookings calendar will go live on the AMS website shortly. Liao also said for now her team has simplified the AMS room-booking form by altering questions to minimize confusion.
Improving the Nest
Another core goal of Liao’s is to build community through shared spaces with a focus on the AMS Nest, and Liao spoke on both the Hatch Art Gallery and the AMS Commons as spaces of priority for her team.
Liao highlighted the Hatch’s recent "Ode to the Third Space" exhibit in collaboration with groups like CiTR and Blank Vinyl Project, and also said the Commons’ hosting of a clay modelling event offered students “a creative outlet to relax and connect with peers during the midterm season.” Liao further wrote she is “thrilled about the programming [her team has] lined up” moving forward for the Commons.
Liao also said this year’s Nest Safety and Inclusive Spaces Review will have an audit in addition to its normal survey in order to include input from a representative from UBC’s Disabilities United Collective.
One area of the Nest Liao that has remained unsuccessful in improving so far are the AMS’s sensory rooms.
“While we are fully committed to bringing this space to life as soon as possible, there have been some logistical challenges and dependencies that have slowed the timeline – such as the ordering and delivery of the materials for the space,” Liao said.
“We are actively working in close collaboration with the Disabilities United Collective to ensure that the space is fully functional as soon as possible!”
Fostering sustainability
Liao emphasized Plant-Based September and Circular Economy in October as examples of sustainability campaigns her team has organized so far. Circular Economy week was mainly composed of two events, Community Eats and a Trivia Night at The Gallery, both of which Liao wrote “combined fun and education around sustainability.”
Liao also said her team digitized the Circular Economy Week campaign to ensure students that didn’t attend the events still had access to the resources presented.
However, the Interactive Sustainability Centre (ISC) which Liao had planned to have fully open by September has still not debuted. The goal of the ISC is largely to showcase projects funded by the Sustainable Projects Fund.
“We’re eagerly anticipating the final pieces needed …. [and] Once these items are installed, we’ll be ready to officially open,” Liao wrote, but she did not provide a timeline on when that expected opening would be.
Challenges to productivity
In a special meeting of the AMS Council on October 25, Liao said she felt “alienated from the conversation” at the AMS office surrounding the investigation of former VP Academic of University Affairs Drédyn Fontana, and expressed such alienation was making it hard for the VPs to perform to the best of their abilities.
VP External Ayesha Irfan also said none of the AMS VPs felt safe going to the AMS’s Executive Performance and Accountability (EPA) Committee.
Liao told The Ubyssey she stood by her comment, writing “It was hard being able to do work when I was one of 2 other VPs not knowing what [was] going on.” However, Liao said she has since come to understand the EPA’s rationale and disagreed that she feels unsafe going to the EPA with concerns.
“I think that the elected councillors who decided to sit on this committee and give their time always have the Society’s best interest in mind, and that includes any concerns that I, an Executive, may have.”
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