First-timers and current senators found consensus on many issues at last night’s Great Debate, including academic accessibility and greater engagement with equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).
Incumbents Romina Hajizadeh and Kamil Kanji were outnumbered by Senate newcomers Ayesha Irfan, Sultana Razia, Kareem Hassib and Davey Li.
Mathew Ho, another new face to the Senate, was unable to attend as he was representing UBC at a Model EU event. In a written statement to The Ubyssey, Ho noted that he advocates for "experiential learning" opportunities such as the Model EU event in his platform.
Candidates were questioned on UBC’s international agreements with academic institutions in countries with records of human rights and academic freedom violations, an issue the Senate has been wrestling with recently.
Candidates generally erred on the side of continuing to pursue these, albeit only after evaluating their impacts.
“We have to make sure we’re not financially contributing to those institutions’ administrators who are continuing to suppress voices,” Hassib said. “But at the same time, we can’t completely cut off these institutions because… there are human rights groups on the ground in these countries who are actively trying to improve their conditions.”
Kanji and Hajizadeh both criticized the slow pace of the Provost’s office, which is currently working on a policy draft to address these concerns.
“It’s quite disappointing to see not a lot has been done, we are still waiting [for] a report from the Provost office,” Hajizadeh said, noting the “glacial” pace was nothing new for the Senate.
All candidates were in agreement of pursuing a standing EDI committee within the Senate.
Razia emphasized an EDI committee should not just be a “token” committee.
“We need actual plans where we can actually implement work on this committee,” Razia said, but did not give examples of what this might look like.
Candidates also noted that EDI must be implemented across all committees and bodies of the Senate.
Hajizadeh gave examples of what EDI could look like on other committees, such as bias training for those sitting on an appeals committee.
She further drew on her experience sitting on a faculty search committee, saying that in these roles, “equity hiring modules are so important.”
Candidates were asked what priorities they had for the beginning of a new Senate triennium, as Senate 2023 comes to a close this year.
Kanji said he would advocate for a permanent extension to the course add-drop deadline, noting that there was institutional precedent for such a policy.
Irfan and Li both talked about reviewing Senate policies.
“There are some policies that haven’t been touched in ten years,” Irfan said, noting that policies should reflect how UBC has developed over the past decade.
Senators were eager to assert their support for finding more ways to include Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in academic curriculum across degree programs, such as through having a compulsory Indigenous studies course.
However, the only audience question of the evening asked how candidates would justify including additional mandatory courses in degree programs that are already credit-heavy, namely engineering.
Li, Kanji and Hajizadeh advocated for including Indigenous ways of knowing and perspectives into existing courses.
“When you’re taking six, seven courses, you really don’t want to be taking eight,” Li said, “Which really highlights the importance [of] Indigenizing [curricula]."
Hassib and Razia both suggested adapting program requirements to include Indigenous courses in lieu of an elective course.
“I think the answer to that question is to incorporate Indigenous course credit somewhere into the way that your program is credited,” Hassib said, giving the example of replacing some of the Arts credits that science students are required to take with Indigenous course credits.
Irfan added that seeking input from Indigenous engineers on how to incorporate Indigenous material into a heavy degree schedule would be valuable.
Voting opens on March 6 and closes on March 10.
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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