Kelowna Board Meeting, 2024
a quiet event in the interior
Every year the UBC Board holds one meeting on the Kelowna campus. For many years the meeting was held in September. Around the return to in-person meetings post pandemic the annual meeting was shifted to June. I recall a key item of September meetings being presentations from the three student societies. This year we were treated to a UBC-O update and a report from Campus & Community Planning on greenhouse gas emissions.
The board meeting included a pre-meeting campus tour, ‘community’ reception, and board dinner. The public session of the board lasted a bit longer than an hour of the day long proceedings - much of which was in camera.
The campus tour coincided with a mid-afternoon rain storm. Representatives of Campus Planning walked us around key sites on the campus- highlighting recent buildings and current projects. UBC-O is not a large campus, yet our walk managed to avoid the student protest camp installed in the middle of campus.
During my first board term in 2017-2020 I recall the community receptions involving more UBC-O faculty and students. The dinner often was held with representatives of the UBC-O senate on campus, not downtown in something called the ‘innovation centre.’ The June 26th ‘community’ reception included local MLAs and municipal politicians, donors, and other such luminaries.
Much of the business of the meeting was behind closed doors so I am unable to say anything about what may have been discussed. Much that was on the open (i.e. public) agenda was approved or received via the consent agenda - which means it gets approved without discussion in an omnibus resolution. The key public debated decision was the dissolution of the People, Community, and International standing committee.
A number of high level appointments were ratified by the board in camera (some of which were officially announced instantaneously -Dean Jan Hare and VP-Ext Melanie Steward, others will follow).
The most noteworthy event of a quiet meeting was the multi-hour flight delay leaving Kelowna that evening.