President of the UBC Faculty Association (FA), Mark Mac Lean, will be stepping down from his role as of June 30, 2017 to further pursue his academic role within the university as a faculty member and undergraduate chair of mathematics.
According to Mac Lean, the election process will begin very shortly, which will have a new FA president ready to take office on July 1. That person will fill the role for the year that remains in his term — after that year, a new president will be elected for the usual two-year term — as written in the FA’s constitution.
Mac Lean’s time as FA president saw UBC President Gupta’s resignation, a no-confidence vote in the Board of Governors from the association, and a continually high level of publicity surrounding sexual assault instances at UBC, leading to the formation of a draft sexual assault policy.
“We’re in a much more stable place than we were a year ago,” said Mac Lean on the timing of his decision to step down. “I was making the decision to do a second term in the midst of the no-confidence vote process — there was a lot going on last year, and frankly I also felt some responsibility to not just hand off a lot of big problems to the next person.”
As academic director for UBC’s first-year student initiatives, Mac Lean hopes to refocus his attention on the student experience, as well as “teaching and learning.”
“I’m excited to be getting back to the classroom in the fall,” said Mac Lean.
Nominations for the role will be open until early March, after which there will be a brief campaigning period. Shortly after the FA’s annual meeting in early April, the election results will be announced, according to Mac Lean.