Several motions were passed at yesterday’s AMS Council meeting with little to no debate, including code changes on executive accountability and funding for renovating a lounge in the Nest.
One of the motions that passed was a contract extension with Studentcare — the organization that works with the AMS and GSS to provide student health care coverage.
VP Finance Mary Gan said that the main change within the contract extension is a $1 increase per student in the Studentcare service fee, which is a result of increasing inflationary pressures.
Another motion involving renovation of a “pocket lounge” in the basement of the Nest also passed unanimously. This lounge is across from Grand Noodle Emporium. AMS President Cole Evans noted that the AMS’s Student Engagement Survey indicated interest in having more seating and microwaves in the Nest.
Council approved $17,000 to renovate the space, to increase seating capacity by 50 per cent through new furniture and to add three to four new microwaves.
Executive accountability dominated part of the meeting, with a set of code changes on executive accountability and commitments and a reprimand of a sitting exec.
The new code changes require commitments undertaken by executives that could interfere with their work to gain approval from Council, give the president more managerial authority and establish monthly in-camera sessions to discuss performance-related issues pertaining to executives.
The Ubyssey pressed Council on why the sessions need to be in-camera (closed to the public). Evans said it’s because they are HR-related matters.
He added the meetings will enable the president to have a “candid conversation” around executive performance “without throwing [their] fellow executive under the bus publicly,” especially if they have to do with personal matters.
“If Council has concerns ... this actually creates a much more effective way for those concerns to be brought up to a wider body where in the past they might have just faded within the executive and never came out,” Evans said.
The code changes were approved unanimously with two abstentions.
After a lengthy in-camera discussion on the performance of the VP Administration, Lauren Benson, Council put forward a motion to reprimand the her for “poor performance," but provided no further detail.
Benson ran on a campaign of improving communication within the AMS and establishing more COVID-19 support for clubs. Halfway through her term, it appeared that many of her campaign promises remain unfulfilled. Visual arts students raised specific concerns last term that she was not responding to their inquiries on the then-non-functioning Hatch Art Gallery. She did not run for re-election this year.
With seven in favour, three against and three abstentions, the motion passed.
Benson wrote in a statement to The Ubyssey after the meeting that she “respects the decision of the Council” and is hoping to finish the rest of her term “in the strongest way possible.”
“While there have been some challenges I’ve faced during my term, I am very proud of the work that my team and I have been able to accomplish for UBC students this past year,” Benson said.
Benson was elected a member of the Ubyssey Publications Society Board of Directors and will begin her term in April 2022. The board has no say over The Ubyssey’s editorial operations.