2 News. Volume 12, Issue 3 October 12, 2005 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Maggie Gilbert (eit-ote@unbc.ca) MANAGING EDITOR Stephanie Wilson (biz-ote@unbc.ca) PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Belinda Li (prod-ote@unbc.ca) NEWS EDITOR Andrew Kurjata (news-ote@unbc.ca) ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Earson Gibson (arts-ote@unbc.ca) SPORTS AND CLUBS EDITOR Tyler Clarke (sports-ote@unbc.ca) FEATURES AND OPINIONS EDITOR Vacant PHOTO EDITOR Vincent Chan AD MANAGER Ashley-Paige Smith DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Vacant TECHNICAL ADVISOR Eric Chlebek STAFF WRITERS Tanya Alvarez Aaron Baker Elizabeth Fyles Jeremy Johnson Nathan Kelly Tabitha-Ann Liona Lundholm Bob Woob PHOTOGRAPHERS Rob Van Adrichem CARTOONISTS Josh Hammerstedt Shaun Lyons CONTRIBUTORS Nayda Bell Heather Hogan Kyle Lamouthe Diana McLay Jaqueline Nunes Amanda-Marie Quintino Emily Shepard Matt Somers Ruth Swanson Mathura Thevarajah Over the Edge is the official independent publishing media of students at the University of Northern British Columbia. As such, it is our mandate to report on issues of interest to students in the Northern Region. We encourage all students, both on the main and regional campuses to submit to Over the Edge. Over the Edge is part of the Canadian University Press network of papers, otherwise known as CUP. CUP is an organization that is entirely owned by member papers, and provides such services as a news wire and adver- tising to Over the Edge. OFFICE LOCATION 7-219 MAILING ADDRESS 3333 University Way Prince George, BCV2N 429 PHONE (250) 960-5633 FAX (250) 960-5407 E-mail over-the-edge@unbc.ca October 12, 2005 + Over the Edge NUGSS Elections on October 13 and 14 ANDREW KURJATA NEWS EDITOR Starting October 13, and continuing through until October 14, NUGSS will be holding elections for three pos- itions on its Board of Directors, One of these, VP Student Affairs, is an Executive Committee position and has two candidates, Adrienne Floyd and Jai Parmar. The other two are Associ- ate Director positions, Women's Rep- resentative and CSM Representative. These have one candidate each, Megan Blanchard and Satvir Sanghar respect- ivly. Because they are not up against any opposition, the vote will be by acclama- Jai Parmar Parmar already has experience within NUGSS, having previously held the position of CSM Representa- tive, which he left earlier this year in order to run for VP Student Affairs. He is a third year student in the Col- lege of Science and Management, and is pursuing a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Psychology. He is also beginning his third year as a general member of the on-campus Dosti (Indian culture) club. He began work with this club be- fore attending UNBC, and became its tion, in which students either say “yes” or“no’ to the candidates taking office, All three positions are open due to resignations earlier in the year. Former VP Student Affairs Aaron Widdis handed in his formal resignation after being offered a co-op job in Vancou- ver. The former Women's Representa- tive resigned for “personal reasons” and the former CSM Representative, Jai Parmar, resigned in order to run for VP Student Affairs. The VP Student Affairs is a very im- portant position. It takes responsibility for all the clubs and services that are provided through NUGGS, tepre- sents international students at UNBC, and runs the Refugee Program. It is also supposed to inform students of the goals, services, and activities pro- vided by NUGSS, attempts to ensure student representation on UNBC’s administration and education commit- tees, is responsible for changes made to NUGSS’ constitution and. Bylaws, and makes sure that Board of Direc- tor policies are effectively implemented and kept up to date. The Women's Representative does just what the name implies, repre- senting all women’s issues at UNBC, including working with the Women's POSITION VP Student Affairs President last year. Through the Dosti club he has organized many social and charitable events, which demonstrates his “interest in student extracurricular activities and general well-being.” He says that as a member of the Executive, his focus would be on stu- dent needs, “because students are and should continue to be the number one priority of the undergraduate society.’ He looks forward to events and de- velopments such as the building of the NUSC, POSITION Women’s Rep Megan Blanchard A second year Computer Science student, Blanchard is an active volun- teer at the Northern Women’s Centre at UNBC. She has an extensive back- ground in extracurricular activities, and throughout high school she was a member of a Peer Support group, band, and editorial board of the year- book. She also plays piano, flute, works with the Girl Guides of Canada, and is a certified lifeguard and Red Cross swimming instructor. Adrienne Floyd Floyd is a newcomer to UNBC, but not a newcomer to post-secondary in- stitutions. Currently working towards - double major in International Busi- ness and Marketing, she already holds a diploma in Business Administration, which she earned while attending Sel- kirk College in Castlegar. While at Sel- kirk, she held the position of Second Year Rep for Business Students, fol- lowed by becoming VP External. She says that if she was to take of- fice, her priorities would be keeping students aware of NUGSS'’ goals and POSITION CSM Rep Satvir Sangha Sangha is a second year Internation- al Business and International Studies studént. She is also no newcomer to post-secondary organizations. Like Parmar, she is involved it the Dosti club, having been VP last year and cur- Centre and planning and running the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The position is also an Associate Dir- ector of the VP External. The CSM (College of Sciences and Management) Representative is an Associate Director of VP Student Affairs, and represents the College of Sciences and Manage- ment Faculty Department within NUGSS while also sitting on UNBC's CSM committee. See below for profiles of the candi- dates. plans, bringing more visibility to the Refugee fund, making sure that all students are aware of who NUGSS members are, and making sure that International Students are aware of “the goals and the plans of UNBC... and make it feel like home so they can talk to people.’ She also has stated that she would like to see some more ‘outdoors clubs and create more links between clubs. Finally, she wishes to make NUGSS more approachable, as she feels that some students are a bit intimidated by its current structure. rently holding the Treasurer position. She also holds the executive position of co-chair and Director of Finance in the World University Service of Canada. With this experience, she feels ready to take on the position of CSM Rep. Professor Investigates Self-Este KYLE LAMOTHE THE MANITOBAN (UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA) WINNIPEG, MB. (CUP) — If you don't love yourself, you might be miss- ing out on love signs sent by the other sex, according to University of Mani- toba researcher. Dr. Jessica Cameron, who recently presented the results of five studies she conducted on how self- esteem is connected to initiating rela- tionships. “Relationships are important. They, are a good source of happiness and they contribute to psychological and emotional health,’ she said. “However, initiating relationships is interpersonal and risky because of the potential for rejection — fear of rejec- tion is the most common obstacle.’ For heterosexual males, one of the most powerful attributes to success- fully initiating romantic relationships is having high self-esteem: males pick up more cues by the opposite sex of in- terest if they have more confidence in themselves. Whether or not the female is actually giving off these flirtatious cues is hard to measure, so it's possible that males with high self-esteem pick up on inten- tional cues, as well as imagined. For females, however, having confi- dence in oneself was far less correlated with successfully initiating a relation- ship: in fact, it barely matters at all. Cameron began the presentation by demonstrating the differences between high and low self-esteem individuals: although both want to attain close rela- tionships, their views and expectations are varied. High self-esteem is associated with seeing the self as valuable, while lack of confidence views the self as worth- less. Low self-esteem individuals an- ticipate that others will share this view of worthlessness with them and either reject or accept them based on it. Motivations for pursuing the op- posite sex also.diverge based on self- esteem: those with less’ are cautious because they aim to protect themselves from rejection, while those with more readily accept rejection as a way of en- hancing or improving themselves. Cameron's studies were based on re- sponses from first year introduction to psychology students. She found that males initiate most relationships of university students, and that self-es- teem is a large indicator of how often and successful those initiations are. “Why are low self-esteem males less successful?” Cameron asked. “Because they don't progress to more direct strat- egies. Most flirting begins with indirect strategies such as standing closer to another person, looking at them more often and others; however, males with low self-esteem less often move up to more direct strategies.” Cameron found that detecting reci- procity from the opposite is the most important variable holding back this progression to more direct flirting. “Those with lower self-esteem over- estimate the effect that their indirect glances or behaviour reveal to the other person, she said. The fifth study conducted by Cam- eron involved 79 undergraduates who recorded introductory videos similar to those in dating services. The par- ticipants were then shown one of two em and Dating BELINDA LI Males who have low self-esteem just won't get the hint because they see them- selves as being worthless. videos of moderately to very attract- ive actors of the opposite sex either sending flirtatious cues or exhibiting none. These videos were pre-taped and scripted, but the students were under the impression that the actors were re- sponding to their dating service videos. The results showed that males with high self-esteem saw more liking cues than those with less self-esteem. The data were not as stark when comparing high and low self-esteem females.