UBC elections: an experiment in Voter-Funded Media

Out of sync with most other students' unions in Canada, the Alma Mater Society of UBC is having its elections this month for its five-person Executive Committee, and is also holding elections to the UBC Board of Governors and Vancouver Senate. Voting ends on Thursday, January 31. All positions are contested, though it is widely assumed that the Presidency will be won by Jeff Friedrich, current AMS VP Academic and University Affairs.

Slates are banned in AMS elections [PDF], even informal ones.

Most interestingly, this years' AMS elections are serving as a test bed for Voter-Funded Media, a concept invented by Mark Latham (not the former Australian Labor Party leader). Thirteen student media publications, existing and new, have registered with the AMS Elections Committee. When students vote, they will have the opportunity to vote for the publication(s) that they felt best educated them about the candidates. Prizes, ranging from $500 to $1,500, will be given to the student publications judged by the voters to have done the best job.

The basic idea behind Voter-Funded Media (VFM) is that media financially dependent, in part, on the freely-given approval of voters will tend be more loyal to and responsive to the voters, in contrast to both the corporate media (e.g. The Globe and Mail) and the non-profit media (e.g. the CBC, The Ubyssey).

The Ubyssey, which is not participating in VFM, has covered VFM, frequently with a critical eye. Colleen Tang penned a news article, "Legitimacy concerns loom over Voter Funded Media," which suggested that some entrants in the VFM contest were purely motivated by a desire to win prize money.

However, there are a number of solid VFM publications in the race. In particular, check out the blog Elections Insider: Separating the Truth from the Chaff, produced by two AMS "insiders," Gina Eom and Tim Louman-Gardiner. This blog has produced 70 entries in just 17 days. Furthermore, these entries are not just one-sentence posts, but rather comprehensive articles exploring every aspect of the election: the candidates, Voter-Funded Media itself, the issues at play in the election, even a discussion of the impact of a slate-less election. In fact, I would say that the comprehensiveness of Elections Insider far outranks many established student newspapers that I have read in terms of their elections coverage.

Other VFM contestants worth noting include Elections Daily, The Knoll (whose foray into student politics one year ago was abruptly aborted), Radical Beer Tribune (for entertainment value), and The Thunderbird.

Great new blog on post-secondary education policy in Canada

Dale Kirby, Assistant Professor of Post-Secondary Education Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, has a new blog: Post-Secondary Education Blog. Dr. Kirby's illustrious career includes time spent on the National Executive of the Canadian Federation of Students. His blog doesn't cover student politics, however, but rather policy issues affecting post-secondary education, such as tuition fees, women in academia, post-secondary education economics, and other challenges that post-secondary institutions face. His blog only started three weeks ago, and it looks to be truly promising.

With regards to tuition fees, this blog has three entries: $2,000 Tuition Subsidy for 1st Year University Students in New Brunswick; University Tuition & Student Debt in the UK; and Tuition Fee Debate in Quebec. Dr. Kirby's entry on tuition fees in the UK also includes a brief discussion of Tuition Rationalization Theory, the position that "free or universally low tuition fees are inequitable because they spend more public funds, raised through taxation, to subsidize post-secondary studies for higher income groups who have much higher post-secondary participation rates compared to lower income earners." For a contrary perspective, one can view Michael Conlon's article, Tuition hikes don't add up, one of many articles that Dr. Conlon has written to oppose this theory. (Dr. Conlon, former Director of Research for the CFS, is now working for the Canadian Association of University Teachers.)

"Panel on Current Affairs in Student Politics"

I will be participating in a panel discussion on "Current Affairs in Student Politics" at the upcoming 69th National Conference of the Canadian University Press. My fellow panellists will be Ian Boyko, Government Relations Coordinator of the Canadian Federation of Students, and Carson Jerema, Editor-in-Chief of The Manitoban. Beyond the title, no specific topics for discussion have been set, though I am sure that the discussion will be most interesting. I will also be attending the CUP conference.

(My apologies for the temporary 'disappearance' of this blog. There were some problems with Webserve.ca, the company that hosts this website, but thankfully these have been resolved.)

A message from the Simon Fraser Student Society

The Simon Fraser Student Society released the following message today:

The Simon Fraser Student Society is pleased to announce that Hattie Aitken has been reinstated with full back pay and damages to her position as Graduate Issues and University Relations Coordinator. On behalf of the Student Society, we apologise for and withdraw any statements made on behalf of the Student Society which suggest or imply that Ms. Aitken is not honest or trustworthy or that she conspired with others against the interests of the Simon Fraser Student Society or its members.

(I don't know which organ of the Society authorized this statement.)

For the purposes of full disclosure...

As of tomorrow, I will officially be working for the Kwantlen Student Association, an organization that I have reported on quite a fair bit on this blog to date. My employer has no problem with my continued publication of this blog. However, for the record: all content published here is my own, and may not necessarily reflect the position of my employer.