The UBC International Students Association (ISA) has been working for years to have its executives elected through student-wide elections — but this goal remains out of reach.
The association aims to support the ever-growing international student community by supporting international student clubs and representing international students to university governance.
Last year, international students made up 35 per cent of graduate students and 25 per cent of undergraduate students at UBC’s Vancouver campus, according to a report released by the UBC Vancouver Senate.
“If that’s such a strong factor in why people are coming here, what people do when they get here, who people are when they’re here, then it needs to be defined, and it needs to be supported,” said ISA President Farah El-Afifi.
Elections of the ISA executives are currently done within the club. El-Afifi noted that she was elected by “40 members at most.”
She believes that expanding them to student-wide elections would give the club’s executives legitimacy not only in the eyes of international students, but before university governance as well. UBC’s Policy 71 states that faculty deans must consult with elected student leadership regarding changes in tuition and fees.
“I do want it so that … UBC is actually talking to international students,” said El-Afifi.
“If we’re not scouting those consultations, we’re not there … Students who are elected by the student body are then … officially considered student leaders, and then they’re mandated to be at all consultations, especially about tuition.”
While the AMS represents all students, El-Afifi feels that because international students make up over a quarter of the student population, increased representation would be beneficial.
“It’s really just supplementary … It’s supposed to make the student body representative stronger,” said El-Afifi.
According to her, the ISA has been working on this project for the past three years, adding that the process has taken so long because ISA has never done something of this magnitude before and because of a lack of infrastructure within the club.
“This is the first year that we’ve had … an office in the AMS,” she said.
According to her, the ISA had spoken to former AMS Presidents Ava Nasiri and Alan Ehrenholz, as well as current VP Academic and University Affairs Max Holmes about the project.
But expectations became unclear when communication ceased last year, despite being informed that things were on track.
“Basically, [it] wasn’t a thing anymore really quickly,” El-Afifi said. “And I’m not super sure why … I didn’t get a huge explanation.”
AMS VP Administration Chris Hakim acknowledged the conversations about the society and the ISA last year, but noted that they were “preliminary.”
“Last year the AMS spoke to the ISA about the possibility of student-wide international student elections,” Hakim wrote in a written statement to The Ubyssey.
“The conversations were preliminary and never progressed to a real proposal.”
He added the AMS is also unaware of any approved proposals for the ISA to use Simply Voting, the system used for student-wide elections by the AMS and other groups they have contracts with.
El-Afifi said that a proposal had not been an expectation in previous talks with the AMS — but the ISA is open to further cooperation with the society.
“The end goal is just to have … a representative body for international students so that there is a definitive voice for international students on campus,” she said.