The Senate meets monthly to discuss and vote on UBC academic matters. But, Senate can often be hard to understand for the average student and the agenda docket can be super long and dull to read.
Senate Recentred is written by members of the Student Senate Caucus to demystify Senate by giving students a snapshot of what Senate is doing this month.
This month’s agenda is on the lighter side but here’s what to expect at the November 16 Senate meeting.
UBC Senate to welcome new student senator
The UBC Senate is welcoming a new Faculty of Education Student Senator, Holly Patraschuk. The Student Senate Caucus is made up of 18 Student Senators who work to represent UBC student interests. We are so excited to welcome Holly to the caucus and work with her to better the academic lives of students across UBC. The term for the Faculty of Education Student Senator is different from most other senators, and as a result, Holly will serve until September 30, 2023 instead of April 2023.
Increased seats for Bachelor of Midwifery program
The Senate will also be looking to approve an expansion of the Bachelor of Midwifery program from 24 available seats for students to 32 seats. Earlier this year, the provincial Ministry of Advanced Education approved funding to provide UBC with an additional eight seats for this program. UBC is the only source of midwifery education in BC, and if approved, these new seats will become available at the Lark Education Site in Surrey.
New Awards Committee bursaries
Due to the departure of UBC’s 15th President and Vice-Chancellor Santa Ono, the Awards Committee has proposed $2,000 of bursaries to honour him. If approved, these bursaries will be available to students on both the UBCV and UBCO campuses and will be adjudicated by Enrolment Services. These bursaries would also be available each year, beginning in the 2023/2024 winter term.
Shpeller is a fifth-year biomedical engineering student and the Faculty of Applied Science student senator and Student Senate Caucus co-chair. Kanji is a third-year honours political science and international relations student, and senator-at-large.
If you have questions for the Student Senate Caucus, you can email co-chairs Laia Shpeller at laia.shpeller@ubc.ca and Romina Hajizadeh atromihajizadeh@gmail.com.
Senate Recentred is a column written by members of the Student Senate Caucus to demystify senate from the inside, out.