Students now have a new senator-at-large following Anisha Sandhu’s resignation last month.
Sandhu was elected as one of five student senators-at-large in the March AMS Elections, receiving 4,982 votes. Kamil Kanji, who AMS Council unanimously appointed to fill the seat two weeks ago, also ran in those elections for one of the five senator-at-large seats. He received 3,943 votes, falling short of being elected by around 500 votes.
This would have been Sandhu’s third year on the UBC Vancouver Senate. She previously served as a faculty student senator for the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Sandhu was not available for an interview before publication.
The process to fill the vacancy is outlined in Section 4 of AMS code. The student members of Senate must interview one or more candidates and present nominations to AMS Council. Council then must recommend the Senate appoint one of those candidates to fill the position.
In this case, the AMS and Student Senate Caucus solicited applications for the position through social media. AMS President Eshana Bhangu said the Caucus received around 38 applications for the position through the Google Form. Bhangu, who is also a student senator-at-large, and other student senators worked to create a shortlist, and after interviews, the Caucus recommended a candidate to AMS Council.
Bhangu said Kanji’s “application was quite good,” but pointed to the fact that nearly 4,000 students voted for him in the most recent AMS elections as the key reason he was appointed.
“At the end of the day, we can’t forget that 4,000 did echo support [for Kanji],” Bhangu said. “Elections are absolutely the democratic due process, but over here as well, there’s a reason we have code and procedures over here at the AMS and Senate.”
Kanji, who works in Bhangu’s office as the AMS’s Strategy and Governance Lead, said he was honoured that he was selected to fill the vacancy.
Similar to his priorities during the election, Kanji said he wants to work to conduct an accessibility audit of campus buildings, support Black and Indigenous students and ensure a standing committee on equity is formed.
“I’m still equally as motivated as I was in the election to make as much of that come to fruition as possible,” Kanji said.
When asked how he’ll garner trust from students who didn’t vote for him, Kanji said actions speak louder than words.
“It’s really making sure that those goals come to fruition to show students that no matter who you are, no matter who you voted for, we are all working toward the same goal of making your life better.”
A previous version of this story misstated the number of years Anisha Sandhu has been a senator. This article was updated on June 15, 2022 at 8:13 a.m. to reflect this change.