4 CGampus News

November 7th 2012 - Over the Edge

B.C. GOVT 10 MAKE E-TEXTBOOKS FREE

VERONIKA BONDARENKO

THE UBYSSEY

VANCOUVER = (CUP) The B.C.
government wants to offer online
textbooks for free to university students,
but there's still a fair bit of homework to
do before the project becomes a reality.
The B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education
plans to commission textbook authors
or developers to put together online
textbooks for popular undergraduate
courses. As a condition of funding,
they'll be available through a Creative
Commons licence that makes them
free for anyone to use, reuse and revise.
A nonprofit called BCcampus, acting as
an agent of the government, will store
the textbooks online.

The ministry has promised to offer free
online textbooks for 40 of the most
popular post-secondary courses in the
province, but it’s up to professors to
decide what textbooks are assigned
within specific courses.

If all goes according to plan, some of the
books will be available by September
2013.

After looking at data from B.C. schools
and similar projects in Washington
and California, the ministry will decide
which courses will get free books. They
expect to commission books for first-

year courses like English, psychology
and calculus.

The BCcampus organization, a 10-year-
old publicly funded group, exists to
create online shared services and
resources for universities and colleges
in B.C. CUPE locals across B.C. have
railed against any “shared services”
plans promoted by the province,
arguing that they may result in lost
jobs.

The government argues that the
free textbooks will save over 200,000
students hundreds of dollars per year,
but Debbie Harvie, managing director
of the UBC Bookstore, said she'll wait
and see whether this plan will cut into
Bookstore sales.

“We don't yet know the effect of this
announcement, except to say that
there are not a lot of ‘free’ materials
available at this point,’ said Harvie.
“lam waiting to hear more specifics so
that | can understand how this could
affect the Bookstore. In the meantime,
we are, of course, selling e-textbooks
when we can get them, as well as new
[and] used [textbooks], custom course
packs and renting books too.”

Kiran Mahal, vice-president academic
and university affairs of the Alma Mater
Society (AMS) at UBC, agreed that free

access to online textbooks would
help make post-secondary education
cheaper.
“Different institutions, and even
different professors within the same
institution, use different textbooks
for courses that cover the same broad
subject matter,’ said Mahal. “The exact
textbook choice is up to the professor
This is why collaboration and
coordination with post-secondary

institutions is essential to the success
of this system.”

Mahal also stressed that the quest
to make higher education more
affordable should not end = at
textbooks.

“More needs to be done around
funding of higher education in a more
consistent and holistic way, from
student loan reform to increasing
the block grant provided to public

UNBC ENERGY

HANNA PETERSEN
NEWS EDITOR
UNBC’s ‘Energy tour’ has brought the

vision of sustainable energy to our na-
tion's capital. President George lwama
and VP External Rob van Adrichem
visited Ottawa, Ontario to present on
behalf of the Energy tour. The tour is
meant to foster dialogue about green
energy opportunities at UNBC. More
specifically, the presentations made
will showcase UNBC’s bioenergy facili-
ties at the Prince George Campus and
discuss the goal of integrating them
with housing and food production.
This system could demonstrate the
foundational elements of community
sustainability and act as a model for
communities keen to embrace green
energy.

While the tour is mainly focused on
northern BC communities like Ter-
race, Williams Lake, Fort Nelson, and
Dawson Creek, the tour recently com-
pleted its very important stopover in
Ottawa. lwama and van Adrichem met
with various government officials and
alumni to discuss the future of the bio-
energy plant.

“Today I’m in Ottawa, where President
George Ilwama and | are meeting with
various government officials about
UNBC’s proposal to build on our bio-
energy plant (already partially funded
by the federal government) and dem-
onstrate the relationship between
local energy production, food, and
housing, all part of a new vision of
community sustainability,” writes van
Adrichem on the Energy Tour's official
blog chronicling the trip. “Our first visit
was with renowned architect Douglas
Cardinal, who is perhaps most famous

for creating the Museum of Civilization
across the Ottawa River from the Par-
liament Buildings,’ continues van Adri-
chem. “What many people don’t know
is that, two decades ago, Cardinal also
designed a remote Aboriginal com-
munity in northern Quebec that is built
around a bioenergy plant for heating,
using local wood residues. In UNBC he
sees an inspired opportunity for build-
ing communities that are in harmony
with nature; a model for Canada. It rep-
resents a new opportunity to re-con-
nect people with energy, their environ-
ment, their housing, and food — all of it
tied to learning and research.”

President Iwama and Rob van Adri-

chem also met with MPs from almost
every party in order to discuss sustain-
able energy. “It’s easy to get down on
politicians and their motivation (or lack
thereof) for improving things, but | saw
a genuine attempt to consider new
ideas this week.’ writes van Adrichem.
“It was especially evident in a meeting
where Conservatives, Greens, Liberals,
and the NDP came together to hear
President Iwama and | speak about
UNBC’s opportunities to build on its
existing infrastructure and academic
programs to model northern commun-
ity sustainability. These MPs and staff
didn't have to be there, but they were.”

One of the issues the tour identities is

that hundreds of communities in Can-
ada still burn diesel to produce electri-
city. “One of the attendees was a UNBC
grad who works in Aboriginal Affairs
and Northern Development as a policy
analyst focusing on the dozens of com-
munities south of 60 that still burn
diesel for power generation at great ex-
pense,’ writes van Adrichem. “He wore
his alumni pin to the meeting and felt
that UNBCcould help to lead the way to
new alternatives for these communities.
It’s great that he feels that way about his
alma mater.’

The tour stopover in Ottawa marks a
new page in UNBC's history, as never
before has UNBC had such extensive