Over The Edge Page 2 ; |
EcoVillage North: The people and the oy acca

Business Program Blues
Students at UNBC raise questions about

the future of the program

By Kristina Redion
Things seem to be looking
up for the business students
here at UNBC. The major
upset among students was a
general lack of confidence in
the. stability of the business
program brought on by a lack
of full time tenure tract pro-
fessors leading to a lack of
available and knowledgeable
advisors. What escalated the
anxiety was last week’s res-
ignation of finance professor,
Dennis Olson. Olson is the
second professor to have
resigned from the finance
department. Last summer
saw the resignation of
finance professor Ata
Yesilayatrack. Also missing
from the staff is Michelle
Nelson, marketing professor,
on an_ underdetermined
leave of absence. For the
moment, the vacated posi-
tions are filled with instruc-
tors, so all courses next
semester will be covered.
Separate meetings were
scheduled by the administra-
tion with the faculty and the
students to .address con-
cerns. The student meeting
was held on November 26 by
UNBC president Charles
Jago, vice-president
Deborah Poff, the chair of
math and computer science
Lee Keener, and the chair of
the business administration,
Richard Barth. It was attend-
ed by over 200 students who
voiced a unanimous displea-
sure with the university's
non-committal stance. At the
time of the meeting, Jago
and Poff were unwilling to
give students any definite
confirmation of the future of
the business program. This
lead to one student announc-
ing their intent to bring a law-
suit against the school,
should UNBC not provide the
student with the education
promised. Directly following
the meeting, business major
Kam Pattar summed up stu-
dent frustrations saying, “I go

to one ‘of ‘these meetings’
every year, they’re meant to, .”

shut the students up.”
Which would be an impres-
sive feat considering busi-
is the second largest

program here (following
forestry) with enrollments of
over 400 and increasing.
Pattar is also one of the
founding members of the
Business Undergraduate
Student Society
(B.U.G.S.S.). The society
was recently formed to repre-
sent the entire faculty of busi-
ness administration. Pattar is
joined on the interim commit-
tee chairing B.U.G.S.S. by

Joey Fong, Tanis Churchill,

Jeremy Fung, Brett Corels,
Chris Stirling, and Ben
Isaacson.

In the wake of such a
breach of communication,
the administration is working
on ways to rebuild student
trust. Both Jago and Poff
have made announcements
about availability to students
and flexible office hours, for
those who want to meet with
them. The main complaints
of not being listened to and
not solving staffing issues,
seem to be moving towards
being resolved. On the issue
of not being listened to the
administration, with the help
of B.U.G.S.S., is in the
process of setting up a stu-
dent committee. The commit-
tee will have five members -
one from each department -
and will @old regular meet-
ings with the administration
to better service the stu-
dents.

The focus of the first meet-
ing will be resolving staffing
issues. This includes filling
the gaps and creating more
tenure tract positions. In
addition to these changes,
the business program will be
subject to an external pro-
gram review within the nest
few weeks. The review will
be done by independent and
established business experts
to define what direction the
program should be taking.

To be more helpful,
B.U.G.S.S., is asking all
business students to sign up.
Sigh up’ sheets ‘can be found’
in the N°U.G-:S.S- Office or all’
seven board members can’
be reached at bug-
board@unbc.ca.

By Nicole Larson
The people of EcoVillage
North

| recently attended one of
the planning sessions put on
by the members of the
EcoVillage North Society. It
started with a vegetarian
potluck dinner, during which |
got to know some of the
members. They: interacted
like an extended family, ask-
ing after missing members,
commenting on each other’s
day and sharing opinions on
everything from the recent
Paul Ramsey recall effort to
how to properly train a
puppy. These are a diverse
group of very normal people,
with very normal lives and
very normal jobs, who are
worried about the world that
we live in and abuse.

The actual business of the
meeting took place in a very

¢

orderly fashion, with each
person asking for specific
amounts of time during the
meeting to ask any questions
they had, to present any new
information they had come
across and to announce any-
thing which they felt was of
importance to the society.
The main topic of discussion
was the proposal outlines
where the members of the
EcoVillage North Association
want to place the actual
ecovillage, explains what an
EcoVillage actually is, and
the benefits that the ecovil-
lage that the ecovillage will
have to the community of
Prince George.
The plans of the people of
EcoVillage North

The members of the
EcoVillage North Association

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are asking for 180 acres of
land, just . off Tyner
Boulevard, near the south
boundary of the University of
Northern British Columbia
endowment lands. A great
deal of the land will be left in
its natural state. The plans
for this community take into
account natural land features
and waterways, such as
ponds and streams. Lands
which are sensitive to devel-
opment, such as unstable
soils, watercourses, signifi-
cant slopes and wildlife corri-
dors will be left alone and
remain natural, and buffer
zones will be adjacent to
those lands to protect them
further. There is a strong
desire to maintain the natural

aesthetic beauty of the area

Continued on Page 4

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