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Fraternities take power in AMS elections

A strong euphoria filled the air at the Gallery last night, mixed in with the smell of stale beer and…

By Jesse Ferreras , in Blogs UBC Outsider , on January 25, 2008

A strong euphoria filled the air at the Gallery last night, mixed in with the smell of stale beer and the chants and cheers of student politicos eager to hear the results of the AMS Elections.

In the midst of the elections fray, I was informed of an interesting fact – UBC fraternities have real power now.

Normally fraternity members sink into obscurity in such elections, but this year they reigned supreme after three of them were elected to important positions.

Bijan Ahmadian, a member of Sigma Chi, is now a student representative to the UBC Board of Governors. He won in a landslide, garnering 1398 votes, and he now has the ear of UBC’s highest governing body.

Two Greeks have been elected to Senate. Azim Wazeer, a member of Phi Delta Theta, was a given to win a seat. He took 796 votes, just 30 votes shy of losing the race.

The real surprise here was Beta Theta Pi member Rob McLean, who came in second with 932 votes. That could be because he really mobilized himself on the final day of voting. He went so far as to be up at 8 a.m. to stick posters near every paper polling station he could find. He gets mad respect from me for going to that effort.

With two people on the board and two on senate, the Greek System has a chance to raise its concerns directly to both UBC’s highest governing body and its highest academic body. Fraternities have struggled a long time to gain respect at this school – as of last night, they’re a force to be reckoned with.