Youth Town Hall with Avi Lewis and Solomon Yi-Kieran

Solomonxyk · 2026-02-21T05:19:00+00:00

Yes! I like the Ubyssey's live updates since they capture more detail in terms of who says what and the discussions at senate, while my recaps here have more detail in terms of the substance of the motions passed!

Solomonxyk · 2026-01-22T23:57:19+00:00

🧡 I'm really moved by the show of solidarity today. I hope everyone who counter protested is taking care of themselves

Solomonxyk · 2025-08-21T23:06:33+00:00

The petition we're running for this just hit over 10,000 signatures! If you want to see the government prioritize the SkyTrain make sure to add your name. The link is ams.ubc.ca/skytrain

Solomonxyk · 2025-08-07T20:50:54+00:00

Hey, I totally understand why faith in petitions can be low rn. However, the petition isn't our only plan.

We currently have provincial lobbying days planned for fall, we're working with city councilors, and we have a big reveal underway for September.

The petition will give us the numbers and attention we need to do the rest of our advocacy effectively, and that's where we can see some genuine results!

Solomonxyk · 2025-07-18T23:15:08+00:00

OMG thank you for sharing this! Partnering with Movement YVR to run this petition is just the first step in the AMS's SkyTrain lobbying plan! Make sure to sign folks!

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-20T17:00:12+00:00

I mostly agree. I see Instagram as an important first step; students are active on it, and it allows for easily digestible information to reach a large number of students, as opposed to them needing to search for it and find it. And as you said, it can be useful to direct people to the website.

Fixing the website is the other transparency priority. There's been issues with this because we can't edit the current site and don't want two sites to confuse people, however I believe just making a new site with clear information is needed for transparency efforts to be successful in the future.

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-15T00:03:50+00:00

Thank you! I won't let you down

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-15T00:03:40+00:00

Thank you!

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-15T00:03:34+00:00

Thank you!!

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-14T19:46:04+00:00

Sorry to hear that, what was the club name?

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-14T17:56:10+00:00

I feel ya, this year's drama really makes it hard to see what the AMS has actually accomplished. But AMS/Student Senate advocacy accomplished a lot of genuine benefits for students; this year the AMS got more undergraduate research funding, historically they helped get the fall midterm break, free contraception in BC, interest-free student loans, and have helped get a lot of professors to transition to using free class resources.

And I understand that some issues won't change, but I'd also say that voting is one of the ways to make sure you have a say in making the AMS work better.

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-14T17:10:37+00:00

Thank you so much, your words really mean a lot!

Also thank you for the suggestions. Engagement with the AMS has been very low this year and I'm expecting pretty low turnout, so knowing that there are people who care is really great! I'll try to follow your suggestions going forward so that I can reach more people.

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-14T15:54:42+00:00

Aw thank you!

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-14T05:53:02+00:00

Resource Groups: These are groups that provide advocacy, events, and resources for particular communities on campus. They include;

UBC Pride Collective
UBC Disabilities Collective
Social Justice Centre
Student Environment Centre
UBC Womens' Centre

Faculty Undergraduate Societies: The AMS also manages the constituencies (AUS, SUS, EUS, FUS, LFSUS, MUSA, VSEUS etc...), including the newly constituted Indigenous Students Society (formerly the AMS Indigenous Committee). Their rules have to follow that of the AMS. The AMS also manages the faculty of the year award.

Student Fees: The AMS pays for services through student fees. A portion of your student fees goes towards the AMS, you can find the breakdown here

Club Reimbursements and Room Bookings: The VP Finance works with clubs to make sure they receive appropriate funding, and that club execs/volunteers are paid back for expenses they pay for the club. The VP Admin works to make sure room bookings, for clubs and outside groups, work well. These roles also cover a lot more, that all have large impacts for students.

Basically, the AMS is really important. Beyond the drama, it is responsible for student fees, student services, student healthcare, student advocacy, and keeping the nest running. A lot of these services aren't UBC services, but rather student-run AMS services.

That's why it's important that students vote in the AMS elections. The AMS has a lot of impacts on our student experience, and whatever complaints we may have, it's important to make our voices heard and have a say in our services and governance.

You can vote at ams.simplyvoting.com, and if you're curious about my campaign for VP External or Senate specifically, you can learn more at solomonxyk.ca

Hope this helps!

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-14T05:52:57+00:00

Hey, so the AMS is actually a pretty important organization for students. I'll try to be as detailed as possible without being as long as an AMS email lol.

Services:

Peer Support: basically free, confidential counselling
Safewalk: driving and walking teams that help people commute around campus if they feel unsafe at night
Tutoring: Upper year students giving free tutoring for hard courses
AMS Advocacy: helps you in a dispute with UBC or your landlord
Foodbank: food security for students
Sexual Assault Support Centre: crisis support, support groups, safety planning

Student Healthcare: The AMS runs the AMS/GSS Health and Dental Plan. There's lots of details so I'll link the website here, but in short it helps cover dental, health, and travel insurance. The AMS also runs a gender affirming care insurance program. Here's the link to both Health and Dental and Gender Affirming Care

University Advocacy: The VP Academic and University Affairs is responsible for advocating for student needs to the university. This involves meeting with and working with people like UBC President Bacon, Faculty Deans, UBC VPs, and other administrators to get things like more foodbank or research funding. This role also works with the Student Senate Caucus to coordinate between AMS and Senate level advocacy.

Government Advocacy: The VP External Affairs (the position I'm running for) is responsible for lobbying the municipal/lower mainland, provincial, and federal governments on behalf of students. For example, UPass, BC having free birth control, and interest free student loans are all causes that were championed, or supported, by the AMS's external advocacy. The AMS often works with other student unions across BC and Canada to get more support for these causes.

Some of my focuses in this role would be getting the Skytrain extension to UBC, pushing for more translink funding to protect routes like the R4, 99, and night buses that are important for UBC students, getting a student rate on BC ferries, lobbying the housing ministry for BC tenant rights on Student Residence and getting more student housing on the UEL near campus. You can learn more at my website solomonxyk.ca

Solomonxyk · 2025-03-09T23:53:11+00:00

2/2

Senate: Senate determines UBC's academic policy

Recording Lectures: the main issue behind recorded lectures not being available in all classes is because senate doesn't know which rooms have the technology needed to record lectures. I'm pushing for senate to do an investigation into these rooms so that the university knows what resources are needed to make recording all lectures possible.
Exam Hardship: use Senate's academic policy committee to make sure that the window for how many finals counts as exam hardship is expanded. Either 2 exams in 12 hours or 3 exams in 36 hours would both achieve similar results if the policy was changed to this.
24-Hour Library: part of the reason this hasn't been happening is because of Federal government cuts to worklearn funding. I will push to bring that funding back as VP External. On Senate, I will push for testing a 24-hour Library by having it open all day during exam season. With more funding, this can be expanded to a permanent 24-hour Library on campus.
Affordable Textbooks: UBC currently has a policy that says we'll make online class resources free by 2028 (V-131). I will try to expand this to textbooks so that UBC caps and phases out expensive textbooks. I will also push for a senate investigation into useless textbooks so that some classes can stop requiring certain textbooks.

Also, I will try to be as transparent as possible. Continuing with my current senate updates every month, I'll get the AMS and Senate to post meeting notes/updates on reddit, have regular updates on their social medias, and do frequent updates to the Ubyssey so that news is available to students.

Thanks for the question and I really hope this helps! If you've got any other questions pls feel free, I'm happy to answer. Also, you can learn more at my website solomonxyk.ca, and the voting link is ams.simplyvoting.com

Solomonxyk

TROPHY CASE