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editor ARSHY MANN » news@ubyssey.ca assistant editor KALYEENA MAKORTOFF » kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca SENIOR WRITER MICKI COWAN » mcowan@ubyssey.ca
Chaaban back in race
AMS Elections Committee reinstates electoral candidate Kalyeena Makortoff kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca Presidential candidate Omar Chaaban was reinstated to the AMS presidential race late Tuesday evening after the AMS Elections Committee completed an investigation regarding Chaaban’s incomplete nomination form. On Monday, January 10, Elections Administrator Erik MacKinnon had announced that Chaaban was disqualified when one of his 50 nomination signatures was deemed invalid. The student number of the individual was initially found invalid by UBC Enrollment Services. Chaaban had collected the minimum amount of nominations, and the questionable signature left him with only 49 nominations, disqualifying him from participating in the AMS elections. The student nomination in question was ruled a legitimate member of the AMS, after re-checking their registration details. A press release issued Tuesday evening explained that the student is no longer registered at UBC, but is attending Corpus Christi College, an affiliate of St. Mark’s College and an affiliate of the AMS. According to the press release, the student admitted that their finances were not in order and it was unclear whether their AMS fees had been paid or not. “On Monday Erik told me not to worry about it and to continue campaigning,” Omar Chaaban
Man attacked near UBC Police are investigating a Monday morning attack on a 31-year-old man in the 4700-block of West Fifth Avenue near Blanca Street, according to CTV. Const. Lindsey Houghton said that the victim is currently in critical condition and has multiple injuries, adding that police knew the victim and that the victim knew his attacker. CTV captured footage of a substantial amount of blood smeared on the outside wall of a residence. Police say that a baseball bat might have been used in the attack. Candidates withdr aw from Board, VP External races
geoff lister file Photo/The Ubyssey
explained. He did continue campaigning until later that night when he was officially disqualified. “But when I talked to the student, she assured me she’d paid AMS fees,” Chaaban said. “I wanted to look into it and Erik really did his research.” MacKinnon said he contacted Director of Operations at Corpus Christi and St. Mark’s Helen Lamb who found that the fees were transferred to the AMS from St. Mark’s College in November 2010. AMS Accounting Supervisor
Amy Lam also confirmed that the payment had been received, paid on Corpus Christi’s behalf. The nominator was assuredly “a valid member of the AMS and therefore a valid nominator on Omar’s nomination form.” “Erik, the elections administrator, was trying to call me all day, [but] I was in class.” Chaaban got the call “right after I finished class and he explained to me, in great detail, the whole thing. I was expecting him to say that he did all he could and
I was still out of the race, but instead he told me I was back in.” “I’m just really, really happy that I’m back in the race,” said Chaaban. “I sincerely hope that future candidates view this as a lesson to collect more signatures than the minimum amount required to submit their nomination,” MacKinnon said. “Thankfully, this situation has worked out for the positive, and Omar Chaaban is free to run for the AMS Presidency.” U
UBC student awarded Rhodes Scholarship Erika Baker Contributor Aneil Jaswal was having dinner at a restaurant last term when he received the phone call he had been waiting for: the Rhodes Scholarship selection decision. The man on the phone started the conversation by talking about how difficult of a choice it was to select who had won the scholarship, valued at $150,000 for educational expenses, at Oxford University. “You think it’s not a good response but you are hopeful,” Jaswal said. After the man on the phone told him that he had won the scholarship, right there in the restaurant, his heart jumped. Jaswal contacted his parents with the good news, but had no idea how excited they were until he returned home to Vernon, BC for the winter break. Family members had created a banner and t-shirts to celebrate his achievement, a reaction Jaswal didn’t expect. Ja s wa l sh a red h i s st or y with The Ubyssey over coffee and laughed at the unforeseen
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Aneil Jaswal, Rhodes Scholarship winner. josh curran photo/The Ubyssey
situation. He will be one of 11 Rhodes Scholars from Canada studying at Oxford University next September, where he intends to study global health science, global governance diplomacy or public health in the form of two masters or a PhD.
Jaswal is no stranger to his fields of interest. He has had the privilege to intern with the World Health Organization in Geneva, as well as conduct research in Nairobi where he helped investigate how cell phone use can improve health results in HIV
patients. Jaswal also worked with Social Capital Partners, a national not-for-profit social finance organization. Jaswal is currently a fourthyear Land and Food Systems student enrolled in the Global Resource Systems program. During his time at UBC, Jaswal has taken advantage of the campus community through investing his time with STAND Darfur, creating an online course for Health Sciences Online and leading a Student Directed Seminar on trade, aid and international health. “UBC is a big place and the size is a bit of a challenge at first, but over the years I’ve learned how to take advantage of it and just enjoy it all,” Jaswal said. With only a few months left until he graduates, Jaswal has been thinking of building a bucket list of things he wants to take part in on campus before leaving for Oxford, such as participating in Storm the Wall and exploring Pacific Spirit Park. Jaswal is thankful for the relationships he has built at UBC and is getting ready to graduate and begin his new adventure. U
As some candidates moved forward with their campaigns in the 2011 AMS Elections, others ceased their involvement altogether. Sean Cregten and Mike Silley have both resigned from the Board of Governors (BoG) race. Silley is still a contender in the VP Administration race. In addition, Noam Chomsky, who has no relation and bears no resemblence to the real professor and philosopher, has withdrawn his name from the VP External race. According to the AMS Elections Twitter account, Weina Zhou has removed herself from the Senate race due to personal reasons. UBC doc t or s f ind l in k between Down’s syndrome and Alzheimer’s UBC researchers have discovered the genetic mechanism responsible for development of Alzheimer’s Disease in both the general public and those who have Down’s Syndrome. According to a UBC press release, excessive production of Regulator of Calcineurin 1 (RCAN1) is the catalyst for a chain reaction that eliminates neurons in the cortex and hippocampus in people with Alzheimer’s and Down’s Syndrome. The researchers say that this is a potential new target for drugs that treat dementia in those patients. “We can develop therapies that interfere with the gene’s ability to produce that protein, and hopefully short-circuit the destruction of brain cells,” said Dr. Weihong Song, Canada Research Chair and professor of psychiatry at UBC. Cellphone use in classroom promoted in new program Top Hat Monocle, a company founded by recent engineering graduates, has created a program that utilizes both computers and mobile devices in the classroom to increase communication between students and professors. Seeking to revitalize and update the student experience, they developed MonocleCAT, software that allows for interactive participation through quizzes and polls created by instructors. Founders of the program say they have tracked a five to seven per cent grade increase with software use in the classroom. Launched at the University of Waterloo last year, usage will be expanded to Wilfred Laurier University this semester.
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