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March 28, 2007

NUSC Budeet Update

HAAKON SULLIVAN
STAFF WRITER

On October 25, students of
UNBC voted in a referendum to
see if we wanted to pay a little
extra for a new student center.
Not much has been said since the
referendum, so I had a conversa-
tion with current NUGSS pres-
ident Jillian Merrick concerning
the progress of the new Northern
University Student Center.

She said that the project so far
has been a lot of work and that it
has been delayed quite a bit be-
cause of a few issues. The lease
of the building has become a bit
complicated after the change in
university administration as the
new administration has a differ-
ent take on NUGSS-University
relations. As well, a partner in the

cost-consulting firm doing a cost
analysis for NUGSS also passed
away, meaning that time was
needed to find a replacement.

When the cost analysis came
back, Merrick found that they
were way over budget due to the
increase in material and labor
costs. Because of this one meet-
ing room, a few offices, and the
pub patio has been removed. The
plans also included a number of
student lounges and that had to be
merged into one big one.

Another decision made was
that the center will be run by stu-
dents so NUGGS will hire stu-
dents to work at the pub and cof-
fee shop. The center will also still
be bound by University contracts
such as the ones with Pepsi and
the Bank of Montreal. Chartwells

will not be involved with the stu-
dent center however.

This part of the negotiation is
difficult Merrick said, as the Uni-
versity does not want the center
competing with businesses within
the university even though it is not
NUGSS intention to do so.

As for securing the loan to pay
for the building, NUGSS has the
intention of taking the loan from
the Integris. Credit Union, but
Integris believed that it was too
risky to invest in NUGSS as it can
dissolve without paying off their
debts.

It was decided that NUGSS
would deal with the BMO as they
already have a contract with the
university. With the loan, the fund
is now at 1.1 million dollars. So
far, some of that money has been

used for cost analysis and for ex-
perts to examine the building.

As for costs to students, build-
ing fees should remain static for
the students. NUGSS also does
not expect to profit much from the
pub and coffee shop either so if it
does profit well, the building can
get upgraded faster.

Merrick said that working on
this has been really time consum-
ing and that the center is finally
being made a reality. However,
she said that there have been many
hoops to jump through.

The lease for the building
should be obtained by the end
of April and students should be
enjoying the benefits of the new
student center by the January
2008 semester.

Co-op and Academic Programs
Examined by Senate

REBECCA CARMICHAEL
Co-Epiror IN CHIEF

The last Senate meeting, held
on March 14, 2007, was packed
with people seeking information
on décisions made about programs
affected by the budget cuts.

The sub-committee created to
reexamine the deletion of the co-
operative education program pre-
sented its findings. Based on the
information received from con-
sultations with various affected
groups and with other universi-
ties, the sub-committee reached
some conclusions.

They agree unanimously that

the co-op program should be kept
in place at UNBC, although some
changes should be made to the
program. The Senate also exam-
ined a motion to revisit the- tem-
porary suspension of admissions
to four degree programs. The mo-
tion passed for the Board of Gov-
ernors to reexamine this decision,
although currently admission will
still be suspended. :
The Senate sub-committee
reviewing the co-operative educa-
tion program proposed the creation

_of an integrated career preparation

program open to all students, with
accredited co-operative education

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being one pillar of that. They rec-
ognized that the co-op program
could be financially self sustain-
ing if more students were enrolled
in it.

The new program would in-
clude more comprehensive mar-
keting strategies advertising the
benefits of co-op and career prep-
aration, including incentives such
as offering work terms for aca-
demic credit.

The committee had examined
successful programs in other uni-
versities such as Wilfred Laurier
and Waterloo. They found that
these universities were support-

ive of a wide variety of career
preparation activities, including
experiential and service learn-
ing alongside accredited co-op
programs.

An integrated career program
would be centered on optimizing
student learning in a variety of
areas, and the resources current-
ly used for co-op and the under-
utilized career center could be
combined. However, funding
will still be an issue, which is
something that will be consid-
ered as plans for this program
are created.

The sub-committee unani-
mously recommended that the
motion to delete co-op be with-
drawn, which the Senate ap-
proved. Provost Howard Brunt
withdrew the motion directly.

The plan for the comprehen-
sive career learning plan will be
drafted over the upcoming year

and presented to Senate in May
2008. Until that time, students
currently in co-op will continue
on as normal. It is unclear whether
admissions to the program will be
reinstated in the coming year.

A more heated debate in Sen-
ate was regarding the temporary
suspension of admissions to four
degrees — women’s studies, north-
em studies, physics, and econom-
ics.

According to item 27-2R of
the University Act, the approval of
Senate is required “to make rules
considered advisable for limiting
the admission or accommodation
of students.”

Many Senate members: felt

-that the Senate was not consulted

and did not give their approval for
this decision. Others felt that tem-
porary suspensions would not fall
under this rule, and that spending
too much time on them would be
detrimental.

After much discussion, a mo-
tion was passed for the Board of
Governors to reexamine this deci-
sion in consultation with the Sen-
ate. However, admissions for new
or transferring students will still
be suspended for those programs
as proposed.

Changes to these programs are
of great concern to many students.
For current students engaging in
co-op or these degree programs,

not much will change as a result.

of these decisions, however future
outcomes are still unclear.

_ HAAKON SULLIVAN
STAFF WRITER

Just recently the issue of air
quality has become a concern for
the citizens of Prince George. To
help find a solution, the city estab-
lished something called the Prince
George Air Quality Research
Working Group to help find a way
to improve air quality.

A member of this group,
UNBC professor John Spagnol,
is currently building a computer
model to help the group see how
factors such as temperature, hu-
midity, and wind contribute to the
air quality around Prince George.
This will be built using an exist-
ing dispersion model and data col-
lected over a six year period using
weather balloons and surface de-
vices. What this program will also
do is measure the simulated lev-
els of pollutants at each point in
the air above Prince George and
determine the sources of the pol-
jutants.

_ This model ‘kes a lot of
power as it is currently taking
seven hours per simulated year.
To speed the process up however,
he is using four computers and a
128 processor cluster to run many
simulated 3 years at the same time.

_ The accuracy of the model is
still being investigated, but so far
it looks like the data is heading in
the right direction. However, the
data will never be exactly accurate
because there are some unknown
factors that have to be estimated

-such as road dust and industrial

sources.

The city’s concer for the air
quality comes from a situation
this February and the end of Janu-
ary which involved the Ministry
of Environment calling an air ad-
visory for the Prince George area.
The area most affected was the
BCR site with a measurement of
84 micro grams of fine particulate
matter per cubic meter. Follow-
ing behind was downtown with a
measurement of 79 micro grams

of fine particulate matter per cubic

meter. The Air ca —
is50,