4 News January 18, 2006 + Over the Edge Sunday Bus Service is Here to Stay! ANNA GRADOWSKA STAFF WRITER Before the winter holidays, there was a whisper in NUGSS of plans for Sun- day transit services. Those whispers soon became an official declaration, as the student society announced it was launching a new Sunday bus service to cater to the needs of UNBC students all around the city, The NTIC, created years ago to pursue improved transit for students, had finally reached its goal. The commission is comprised of representatives from all around; it in- cludes members of NUGSS, PGPiRG, UNBC students, university adminis- trators, and a city representative,namely the city transit analyst, Warren Hall. By collaborating with the City of Prince George, the commission was able to create Sunday bus service to and from the university as well as all around the tity. In December, a pilot was wieaathed to feel out the needs of the students. NUGSS was able to build their own schedule, though limited, to try and cater to the commuters. The first week's trial saw a wonderful turnout’ of both students and member of the commun- ity. Despite the delays that occurred, approximately 200 commuters used the Sunday bus services in that one day. After gathering feedback, NUGSS was able to adjust the schedule for the better, eliminating many of the prob- lems of the past trial. Although many students had left for the holidays, for the next two trials the turnout and re- sponse was still very positive. NTIC'’s goal for the pilot was promo- tion, and that goal was accomplished as the word was spread throughout the university and the city. Through pro- motion within UNBC, there was a de- sire to inform students, create interest, and spread the word, Many inquiring students approached NUGSS to get acquainted with the new system. “Originally, NUGSS had decided to print 300 copies of the bus schedule, thinking it would last at least a couple weeks. In re- ality, all 300 copies were gone in under 36 hours.” “The response from the students was huge, I would even say overwhelming,’ says Aidan Kelly, VP of External AE fairs for NUGSS and chdir of NTIC. Oneal NUGSS had decided to print 300 copies of the bus schedule, thinking it would last at least a couple weeks. In reality, all 300 copies were gone in under 36 hours, a definite re- flection of student interest. ‘The public also began to notice the ‘unusual buses on the Sunday streets, and the city felt a great response from its commuters, The new Sunday ser- vice has not only improved transit for students, but for all public transit users in Prince George. The City of Prince George is carrying the financial bu- rden of this project and their attitude towards the initiative signifies the pro- found importance of UNBC to the community. NTIC and Warren Hall will be promoting the new services in the city, as well as collaborating with businesses to create incentive for stu- dents to explore the city with their new Sunday mobility. Though Sunday bus service will not likely be running during the summer due to the financial constraints, this service will become a permanent part of the fall and winter transit system. The new service is here to stay and starts Sunday, January 22: the new schedule will mirror that of the second trial and will last all through the semester. More information on this new Sun- day transit service can be found at the NUGSS office. VINCENT CHAN After a successful trial run last semester, the much-anticipated Sunday Bus iis is going to be permanent as of January 22, Textbook Tardiness Hampers First Week VINCENT CHAN These empty shelves that should have contained required textbooks in the UNBC Bookstore caused numerous problems for students and professors in almost every faculty in the first week of classes. EARSON GIBSON STAFF WRITER UNBC students rubbed their knuckles last week while waiting for some tardy textbooks to arrive, Already a week into classes, students ate grow- ing impatient as tests and assignments creep nearer, many of which. require reading that is not yet available at the UNEC bookstore. Third-year chemistry evades Eliza- beth Fyles says, “I have an assignment due on Friday and there are questions on it from the Mant and the text- book is not in the bookstore yet, and theres no sign, theres nothing that tells us when the textbook will be in.” Similar sentiments are echoed from students in every program. Students are not the only people set back by this delay.’ Professors have had to spend a great amount of time photocopying sections from texts to distribute to their classes. English Pro- fessor MacKinley-Hay ‘says three out of her four classes are affected by the empty shelves, “It's inconvenient to say the least. All of the instructors, as far as I know, have been going out of their way to make the reading available to the students. It’s not the kind of thing we want to be doing at the beginning of term, but we're managing, I think, reasonably well, and were all looking forward to the time when the texts will be on the shelves.’ There are several reasons for the de- layed arrival of the texts, one of which is what bookstore manager Mardeana Berg describes as increased enrollment. “Generally, at this time of year, we've got students coming into different classes that- they've recently enrolled in. If they let a new section in we have to quickly get some more books. This year it's been a lot heavier than in past years:” In other cases, professors have been unable to get their reading lists to the bookstore before the mid-October deadline for the Winter semester. In these instances, the required texts are sometimes sold out to other schools and the bookstore has to back order, This means the bookstore only receives the texts when they once again become available, the timeframe for which var- ies from instance to instance. ; Occasionally, a publisher will release the new edition of a text around the time that classes start. In some unusual circumstances, these editions are pub- lished after the start of classes. For in- stance, the second edition of the Long- man Anthology of English Literature was released on the sixth of September, four days after the first day of classes. The Longman Anthology is required for Engl 212, a required class for Eng- lish majors. It is scheduled to arrive be- fore the end of this week. Dr. MacKinley-Hay is teaching the course this semester, and says “I was assured by the publisher representative that it would be here for-the beginning of class in January: it hasn't happened. As a consequence, (the representative] has had to offer to pay for photocopy- ing and anything that needs to be done to make sure that the students have the reading.’ Every bookstore employee is working hard to fill the shelves, but they have been hampered by the unusually high amount of reading packages they have to hand copy. Berg assures that “our primary goal is to get students looked after just as quickly as we can. We're rush ordering as much as we can, we've got every work station pushing hard, but we got bottlenecked with a bunch of late arrivals.”