Janzen Lee's thoughts (rant?) on the AMS
If you were to check out VP External candidate Janzen Lee's Facebook event right now, you'd see a pretty run-of-the-mill platform. But if you'd seen it when it launched early this week, it'd have been a very different story.
Lee's platform at the time was as much an attack on the current VP External's office as it was an expression of disdain for the AMS:
"As students, one of the greatest challenges we face in our great city is affordability... What has the current administration done about that? Why aren’t you in the mayor’s office every day pleading our case and expressing that the greatest shame of our society is that young men and women who want nothing more than access to knowledge are barred by lack of funds. Why aren’t our representatives present at each and every political convention exchanging dialogue with those capable of reforming the student loan system. How could access to funds limit our right to an education?"
Moving past the issue of whether the affordability of post-secondary education is in fact "the greatest shame of our society"—rather than, say, homelessness and poverty, amongst other things—the notion that current the current VP External, Bahareh Jokar, and her minions have been absent on key issues is simply unfair and unwarranted in our mind. Yet, Lee continued:
"Why has the current administration had minimal, if any, contact with the established system? Why aren’t they fighting for us!?"
Over the past several years, the AMS has led the creation of lobbying bodies, including the Alliance of B.C. Students (which has made student grants one of its major campaign issues) and Get On Board BC (transit lobbying); Jokar has served as the student Co-Chair for the Better Transit + Transportation Coalition. Jokar and AMS President Tanner Bokor's updates to AMS Council have consistently focused on their meetings with key government and university officials. We could talk about Lobby Days, David Eby's presence at AMS Council in the fall, etc., but it just becomes redundant at a certain point.
Now, it is fair game to criticize the AMS's effectiveness. But to suggest that the AMS has had "minimal, if any, contact" with key decision-makers is grossly unfair. No doubt, the productivity of these efforts is always in doubt—it's got to be challenging appealing to Christy Clark's goodwill after UBC students contributed to her embarrassing defeat in the Point Grey riding.
But, let's be clear. This is not for a lack of effort.
We were excited to see the VP External race be contested this year—students deserve a good debate on these issues. But that's just it: a good debate. Not this. Janzen Lee, we welcome your comments on this.
The full text of Janzen Lee's original campaign page text can be seen below:
The AMS has become irrelevant in the lives of students. As an organization, it is inactive and boring and does not relate to the massive student population it claims to represent. It is time for an outside perspective. Time for action and time for a new goal. My campaign is not me vs. my opponent, it is change vs. more of the same. I am the new goal I see for our student government.
3 things: Problem, Solution, Benefit. There exists a problem with the current system. I have a solution. As a student population, we will benefit. The problem is that the office of the External Vice-President whose mandate is to lobby municipal, provincial, and federal government on behalf of the students of UBC has been operating in the shadows, leaving students unaware of the work that is being done. When I told people I was considering running for VP External, the majority of them answered “Oh, that’s really cool… What do they do?” What does the VP External do? Because most people have no idea. I want us to join the ranks of the world’s top institutions. I want our letters to be on the lips of every researcher, highschool grad and instructor in the world. Our problem, is that the current administration wants none of this.
As students, one of the greatest challenges we face in our great city is affordability. I have spoken to students who do not have the fortune of living on campus, outraged they must transit hours each day because they can nowhere near afford the outrageous costs of housing near the university. What has the current administration done about that? Why aren’t you in the mayor’s office every day pleading our case and expressing that the greatest shame of our society is that young men and women who want nothing more than access to knowledge are barred by lack of funds. Why aren’t our representatives present at each and every political convention exchanging dialogue with those capable of reforming the student loan system. How could access to funds limit our right to an education?
These are the problems with our AMS as I see it. It has become, to an extent, irrelevant and I want to reverse and bolster the necessity of the office of external vice-president. Here is my solution. We are fortunate to find ourselves in the midst of a federal election year. I pledge to be in the ear of politicians who are seeking election in order to gauge and ensure their commitment to alleviating the burdensome life of a student. Why has the current administration had minimal, if any, contact with the established system? Why aren’t they fighting for us!? We have an opportunity here that comes along only every once in a few years and why don’t we seize it?
The benefit from my planned endeavours are obvious. My only goal is to better the lives of students and I believe my efforts could be better directed towards the overall benefit of the student population rather than spending millions of dollars a year with little to show for it. Or if there have been improvements in our lives, they’ve gone unnoticed. If you will allow me, I will be present at each and every opportunity that passes my desk to have our voices heard beyond the walls of the SUB into the places which actually matter. My voice will ring through the halls that we as students will not go away quietly and we will not allow our plight to be ignored.
I’m in Arts, I study political science, I am from Vancouver and I live on residence, I am a part of clubs and organizations across campus. All of these things are what make our school incredible: diversity. The Alma Mater Society’s mandate is to actively represent the entirety of the student population. That. Means. Everyone. Not just the select few insiders of student government but each and every academic, athletic, creative, social, and entrepreneurial student of this university. I will listen to everyone’s voice, actively seeking it, not just heeding the advice of the political elite that has so long held a monopoly over the affairs of this society.
The powers that be are shocked by my candidacy; that someone not in their “friend group” is seeking to change the way things are done at this school. The fact that the office of external vice president has been naturally uncontested for years is disgusting. Why aren’t people getting involved, why is this unambiguous apathy of students so rampant on our campus? Because it is the failure of this office to get students interested, informed, and involved in student government. I offer difference. Even if I do not win this election, I hope the serious nature of my candidacy and opposition to the status quo serves to show the student population that if things do not change, we will be continuing a trend of mediocrity from our leadership. Instead, you should expect and accept nothing less than greatness from those you trust to represent you.