Under a recent five-year renewal of the U-Pass program between Translink and student associations in Metro Vancouver, the current monthly $41 price freeze will continue until April 30, 2020. Then there will be an annual two per cent increase until the price reaches around $46 by 2024.
In April 2018, the Board of Governors (BoG) approved an initial $60 million for the Integrated Renewal Program (IRP) to revamp the university’s aging digital infrastructure by summer 2021.
According to Translink’s 2017 Transit Service Performance Review, six of the top ten routes with the most annual boardings service the university. But bus hours have only seen a one per cent increase across the entire sub-region.
UBC is considering stopping the compound annual growth rate for new-to-UBC students — which was three per cent between 2014/15 and 2018/19 — for the next five years by maintaining a flat level of new international student intake.
Now, Vancouver City Council has directed staff to create a report reviewing the barriers to municipal election engagement, which has traditionally seen low participation from students.
People asking for donations to the Children’s Joy Foundation on campus is nothing new. But UBC community members have been alleging that it’s a scam since at least November 2016.
During an emotional ceremony at the Engineering Student Centre on November 28, students and faculty gathered to honour the lives of the 14 women engineering students killed in the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre.
“Youth Rising is a collective of young people ... that leans toward the common goal of ensuring what is promised to us [about climate justice] by the government is upheld,” said national spokesperson Avery Shannon.
More UBC Board of Governors members are pushing back against the university’s annual tuition and fee increases, marking a change from an earlier trend of “not thinking too hard” about them.
“The most charitable way to put it is that the optics are appalling,” said Senator and mathematics professor Dr. Philip Loewen.
Since kicking off last year, the Blue and Gold campaign has raised over $50 million for student scholarships. The AMS is arguing that more of that money should be put towards need-based scholarships for Indigenous students to uphold the school’s commitment towards reconciliation.
UBC has been convicted on four counts of violating the Federal Fisheries Act for dumping ammonia down a storm drain that led to Booming Grounds Creek, resulting in the deaths of over 70 fish.
Ono’s announcement comes after 3 days of fallout over former PWIAS Director Dr. Philippe Tortell’s resignation over a directive that he says threatens the academic independence of the Institute.
PWIAS Director Dr. Philippe Tortell resigned in protest during a presentation to UBC unit leaders, saying that the directive would “completely remove [the PWIAS’s] independence.”
“At this point, we need to be able to show that the Senate is able to get stuff done and is able to listen … to the needs of students, faculty and the wider university community.”
Tortell is leaving his position in protest over a directive from the Institute’s Board of Trustees that would eliminate PWIAS initiatives and fold its research into existing UBC programs run by administrators.
He expects a new UBC campus would attract other high-tech businesses around the area, generating tax revenue and employment opportunities for the district.
“The university has very much embraced the idea of diversity and the idea of equity, but actually turning that into an empirical reality is hard, [and] it requires hard work,” said Hirsh.
According to a UBC report, only five actual fires were reported in UBC residences from 2014 to 2017 — but a whopping 212 fire alarms were set off between November 2017 and November 2018 alone.