4 News September 28, 2005 + Over the Edge New Programs at UNBC UNBC Expands Program Offerings ELIZABETH FYLES STAFF WRITER Starting this semester, there are several new program offerings for UNBC graduate and undergraduate students. It is hoped that these new programs will continue to attract stu- dents as UNBC continues to expand. The addition of two new master's programs and two new undergradu- ate programs this year alone signifies a continuing state of improvement in the education available to UNBC students. A new joint major program is the Economics / Mathematics degree. This is the only Bachelor of Science degree in the Economics department and requires a minimum of 121 credit hours for graduation, There are also two new masters programs being offered now for the Nursing program: Family Nurse Practitioner and the Academic Master's in Nursing. The academic MScN program requires more stan- dard class time and a thesis while the FNP MScN is more clinically ori- ented with a practicum. These two programs, especially the FNP program, are needed to provide more nurses who are able to deal with the specific needs and practices of the population of Northern British Columbia. The first 15 students in the FNP MScN degree started this September. The FNP master's program was developed with some financial help from the BC Government and was designed to be a northern compli- ment to the programs now being of- fered at both UVic and UBC. A joint program between UNBC and UBC is another relatively new development in the Environmental Science and Engineering Depart- ment, The Environmental Engineer- ing degree is designed to take four and a half years, with the first two years and the final half-year at UNBC and the third and fourth years at UBC. “Flaving joint programs with other universities is a fantastic way for UNBC to quickly build a repu- tation in the academic world, as it is such a new university.“ UNBC offers more in the environ- mental aspect of the program, while UBC focuses on the engineering portion of the degree. Through this program, students will gain hands- on experience useful in today’s job market. Having joint programs with other universities is a fantastic way for UNBC to quickly build a reputation in the academic world, as it is such a new university. This program is currently going through the accreditation process with the Canadian Engineering Ac- creditation Board. If successful, it will be an accredited engineering program as of next year, just as the first cohort of Environmental Engineering stu- dents will be graduating. Discount Textbook Web Site a Roaring Success BELINDA Li With mediocre buy-back prices and ridiculously long lines, it is no wonder why students are turning to online textbook stores. MICHAEL SITAYEB EXCALIBUR (YORK UNIVERSITY) WITH FILES FROM AMY CHUNG TORONTO (CUP) = Asa Ryerson student two years ago, Mike Levine— like most students—was looking to save every last periny on books by reselling old ones and buying used copies. When he tried selling his $115 textbook back to the bookstore, he was offered just $23 after a 35 minute wait. Three months later, just in time for the 2004-05 academic year, Mike Lev- ine, Paul Levine and Lawson Hennick co-founded = www.booksforschool.ca, now Canada’s largest free online text- book exchange service. Already, thousands of students are posting hundreds of textbooks online. University bookstores tend to devalue ‘the price of used books and then bump up the resell price to make a profit on each transaction. The web site allows students to save on books by elimin- WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE YOU GOING? International Centre idy Abroad Fair esday October 4 to ‘hursday October 6 NBC Wintergarden Take off with the UNBC International Centre ee ee OE Oe ating the middleman and providing the means for students to sell directly to each other, thus reducing overhead costs and the bookstore's profit require- ments, according to Paul Levine. While York offers a form of free book exchange on its web site through postings and e-mail contact, www. booksforschool.ca already has a higher nutnber of users and more-features to get students in contact with each other. The web site offers instant messaging and member profiles to facilitate trans- actions between members. According to Paul, the web site in- cludes an endorsement feature that would help users identify shady vend- ors. “For security reasons, the rating system helps users see if the person selling the. book is good or bad,” says Paul. “Sometimes, books are pictured on the site so buyers can feel more con- fident when they ate purchasing the book,’ he adds. Furthermore, there is a watch list on the site that allows students to type in the ISBN number of the book-so the buyer will know when the book be- comes available. According to co-founder Lawson Hennick, the web site has also estab- lished a social network between the users where there is a feature entitled “mentors and proteges’, Mentors are upper year students who offer advice to younget students regarding the courses they plan to take. Depending on your luck the web site can indeed offer some amazing savings. Fundamentals of Physics-7th edition by Halliday, for example, is available at the York bookstore for $125.95. Ama- zon sells it for $113.35 and UniText for $119.65. At www.booksforschool.ca a copy was located for just $70. If a student cannot find a desired textbook, there is also an option to purchase brand new books at prices that are not marked-up like university bookstores, said Levine. A UNBC Student's International Exchange Experience: | am a fourth-year political science-international studies joint major. In my third year, | went on a two-semester exchange to Hebei University, China, which is 150 km south of Beijing. Admittedly, during my first few weeks there, my immediate thoughts were those of home, though they quickly vanished. Not being able to read, write or speak Chinese obviously had its pitfalls: ordering food was always quite the adventure. | quickly learned to imitate the characteristics of a chicken, cow, pig and, on occasion, dog, when ordering food. The university | studied at had thirty thousand students and, of them, 200 were foreigners from around the world, all studying Chinese. Initially, | was not able to communicate with my classmates, as they were from Mongolia, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Africa, Europe and the United States (the American slow southern drawl was harder to understand than most of the other foreign languages). After 10 months of intensive Chinese language class and two months of travelling, | was fluent in Chinese. With the exception of talking to my parents and some of the Americans who were also studying there, | didn’t speak English during my time there. | strongly feel that a UNBC exchange can be a life changing ex- perience as it can expose us to the many cultures and languages around the world. No matter what any of us are studying here, to learn another language can lead us to many interesting job opportunities around the world. As | have been asked to write these few words by the UNBC Internation- al Center, | would like to show my bias and recommend going to Hebei University to anyone considering an exchange..Many of the students | studied with last year have returned to China this year for one more year of study. Oh yeah, one last thing: you get credit for going on any UNBC exchange. - Adam Doyle s-2 ore @ “scones