Category Archives: Activism
Meet the Editors: Evelyn Cranston
Evelyn Cranston was an editor and collective member for The Talon UBC‘s first year, from 2014 to 2015. She designed The Talon‘s print edition, which is available to view online here.
Place, Memory, and the 2008 GSS Handbook
In 2008, the release of the annual UBC Graduate Student Society Handbook caused a big stir. Usually a quite ordinary student resource (intended to be used as an agenda and a basic guide to campus resources), the editors of the 2008 GSS Handbook turned it into a primer for resistance, complete with a thorough history […]
Students Vote for Action Against Tuition and Residence Hikes
This afternoon, UBC’s student association – the Alma Mater Society (AMS) – held its Annual General Meeting. This historic meeting was the first AGM to meet quorum in almost forty years. At the meeting, UBC students voted overwhelmingly in favour of giving the AMS a mandate to oppose the university administration’s recent proposals to increase […]
March Against the (neoliberal) Machine: Students Unite Against Fee Raises
On Friday October 24th, angry students gathered at the Koerner Plaza to demand fair tuition and housing costs. The university, in a move of callous money-grabbing, has recently announced that it will raise international students’ tuition by 10 percent and residence fees by 20 percent as well as adding new costs to the residence meal […]
Meet the Editors: Urooba Jamal
They said I would get addicted. That once was not enough. That it would lead to more and more as I craved more and more. They were right. As soon as I had my first hit, I haven’t been able to stop since. Feminism was my gateway drug to social justice. It all began when […]
Kaitlyn Melton’s Teach-In Speech:
Hello everyone. I want to start by echoing the sentiments of others who have spoken and thank you for taking the time to come out and learn and understand the complex dynamics behind everything that’s been happening these past few weeks. My name is Kaitlyn Melton, and I am the president of the Residence Hall […]
#raisetherates: BC’s 3rd Annual Welfare Challenge
Shila is a third year Bachelor’s of Social Work student, a queer woman of colour, and an international student from Indonesia passionate about food, politics, and anti-oppressive social work practice. Samantha is a Vietnamese Chinese Canadian teenager born and raised in south east van. She is in her third year at UBC and plans on […]
UBC, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Divestment Update
Isn’t it a shame when your perceptions of something end up being ill-founded? I suppose that’s just a reality of growing up—things are not always as they seem, and UBC’s commitment to sustainability is no exception to this truth. One of the driving forces behind my choice to attend UBC was its progressive environmental approach, […]
May Anne Then’s Teach-In Speech: Ask yourself, “What is my philosophy on access?”
I’d like to begin by acknowledging that what I say today will no doubt be influenced by my personal experiences and may not represent all international students. I am May Anne, an International student from Malaysia/Brunei. I joined the Science faculty 4 years ago and have since transferred to Forestry. I came to UBC in […]
Anne Kessler’s Teach-In Speech: ‘We must hold the university to account’
Hi UBC, My name is Anne Kessler, I’m your AMS VP academic and university affairs, and I’ve been asked here today to give you some background information on the proposed tuition and housing increases. I’m going to be giving a recounting of our meetings with the university so far and some sense of how the […]
