Dr. Mario Gallo has resigned from the University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA) Board of Directors. Fall election candidate Fei Liu will be replacing Gallo on the Board.
Gallo, a professor in the School of Kinesiology, was one of seven candidates elected to the Board in November. The UNA receives funding from UBC and oversees the neighbourhoods surrounding campus.
“It was a really tough decision to resign from the UNA board. At this moment, I was not able to meet the time requirements this committee and other committees affiliated with this role required,” Gallo wrote in a statement sent to The Ubyssey.
Richard Watson, the chair of the UNA board, called Gallo’s resignation a “shock” due to her recent election. “Our hopes were that she would continue on but we're going to miss her,” he said.
The UNA Board announced on March 23 that the vacancy after Dr. Gallo’s resignation would be filled by Liu, who lost in the fall election by only eight votes. Since the elections were held recently, Watson said the Board approached Liu and asked her to fill the vacant position.
Liu was deemed a good candidate for the position by the Board, which was confident that she “had a good candidacy profile,” according to Watson.
“[Liu] is a good candidate to consider for appointment because of her demographic representations. She's a mother of young children, she lives in the residence, she works on campus [and] she's a part of the Chinese community, which is a significant part of Wesbrook,” said Watson.
Liu said she is excited to have the opportunity to serve and represent the community. As a new Board member, she said she wants to focus on “multicultural and multigenerational community engagement, increasing security and sustainability, stakeholder relationships and land use planning."
All students who ran in the fall election were unsuccessful in their bid for Board seats, but the AMS said it wasn’t able to put forward a student to fill Gallo’s seat in this circumstance.
“The AMS is continuously exploring ways to encourage student residents to get involved in the UNA in understanding the significant student population in the neighbourhoods,” wrote Saad Shoaib, AMS VP external, in a statement sent to The Ubyssey.
An example of student representation is the recent development of an Advisory Committee between the UNA and the AMS, “which provides avenues for further engagement between the AMS and the UNA,” said Shoaib.
Liu said she hopes to join the UNA-AMS Joint Advisory Committee to bridge the gap between the students and the residents on campus.