The three candidates for the UBC Board of Governors found agreement on Campus Vision 2050 priorities and graduate student advocacy at the Great Debate.
Following a more heated debate on Wednesday night, Thursday’s debate was gentler, with only a brief spat between the incumbents and newcomer over conflict of interest toward the end of the debate.
Incumbents Max Holmes and Georgia Yee are running for another term on the Board, while Tate Kaufman is aiming to unseat one of them.
A discussion on Campus Vision 2050 brought up a plethora of suggestions on things the candidates could advocate for in the planning process. From affordable housing, to child care, to needed safety changes to Marine Drive, candidates only diverged slightly on this issue.
Holmes called Campus Vision 2050 the reason he’s running for a fourth term on the Board, and dove into the need for 50 per cent of new housing to be rentals, with 10 per cent of that reserved for low-cost faculty, staff and grad student housing.
When asked a question on how the three undergrads would advocate for grad students on a Board with no graduate student-specific representation, candidates again reached a consensus on the need to do more for grad students.
Sam Kenston was a grad student running for Board, but dropped out on Wednesday.
Holmes pointed to child care advocacy in Campus Vision 2050, raising the minimum stipend and more affordable housing for grad students. Kaufman spoke more in depth about the challenges of being a grad student, but he and Yee both didn’t dive into specifics on what they would do.
However, things heated up during a conversation on interactions of the Board with the AMS.
In a response on how he’s engaged with the AMS in his time on the Board, Holmes turned to attack Kaufman.
“One thing I wouldn’t do is I wouldn’t be AMS president at the same time as trying to be a governor because that would be a clear conflict of interest and too close of a relationship,” Holmes said. Kaufman is also running for AMS president, which, if he’s elected, could mean that he would need to sit out on many key votes.
Yee echoed this conflict of interest statement in a follow up.
Kaufman’s response was minimal. “All I’m going to say [is] that no vote at all is better than a vote in the wrong direction.”
Holmes disagreed.
“I think the track record is, [student governors] have been in the right direction on almost every single issue … really the option is, a vote in the right direction or no vote at all.”
Kaufman returned to his familiar talking point of ensuring that people are allowed to have space on campus for “discussion and debate” through the Board upholding the bookings policy.
But Holmes raised doubt on whether this is a feasible promise.
“There hasn’t been a single vote on that issue at the Board of Governors that has been implemented by the executive and you’d be overreaching to try to put any vote on it. The majority of the Board would disagree with you on that vote anyway so you wouldn't make any change,” he said.
Voting begins March 7.
Follow us at @UbysseyNews on Twitter and follow our election coverage starting February 28. This article is part of our 2022 AMS elections coverage.
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