QO

Making up bullshit since 1994

October 12, 2005

Volume 12, Issue 3

Promoting Prince George in the South

ROB VAN ADRICHEM

Prince George Mayor Colin Kinsley (left) and Dr. Charles Jago (right) celebrate the opening of the UNBC and Initia-

tives Prince George offices in Vancouver.

ELIZABETH FYLES
STAFF WRITER

There is a new, shared development
in the growth of Prince George and
UNBC: a partially connected office

between UNBC and Initiatives Prince -

George has been opened in Vancouver,
Although opening an office in Van-
couver had been discussed for years here
at UNBC, nothing had officially been
done. That is when Initiatives Prince
George stepped in. They approached
UNBC, saying they wanted to open an
office in Vancouver to promote Prince
George and would like UNBC to open
the office next to them, sharing a glass
window between the two offices.

“Vancouver is the largest
and busiest city in West-
ern Canada and UNBC
needs the resources that
it can only get there.’

Rob Van Adrichem, Public Relations
Director at UNBC, explains that the
offices had been built with a window
between the two and Initiative Prince
George wanted someone on the other
side of the window that has the same
priorities: bringing more students,
companies and publicity to Prince
George.

The offices are in the World Trade
Center next to Canada Place. “This is
an ideal place to have our office, as the
heads of many corporate and govern-
ment offices are here as well,” says Van
Adrichem.

With the great amount of meetings
held in Vancouver, it is the perfect place
to seek students and find sponsorship.
Merely having a location to meet with
people in Vancouver is advantageous,
as well, not to mention that faculty and
administration from UNBC will have
a university satellite to go to when they
are in Vancouver.

The three main stated reasons for
having the office in Vancouver are to
recruit students, to give people from
UNBC a place to go, and to store the
UNBC propaganda. “It may sound
slightly weird to say we need an office
just for storing brochures, but shipping .
them back and forth requires a lot of
time and money,’ says Van Adrichem.

Recruiting students will also be
much easier when there is an office in
Vancouver. Many international stu-
dents go to Vancouver because it is an
easy locale to reach, but they would be
more comfortable in a smaller setting,
such as UNBC,

With the advent of the new office, the
university will be able to capitalize on
this situation. Also, having Initiatives
Prince George. working side-by-side
with UNBC will bring more amenities
to Prince George, which will, in turn,
bring more students.

Vancouver is the largest and busiest
city in Western Canada and UNBC
needs the resources that it can only get
there.“ We have to have a profile there,’
Van Adrichem states. The first step in
this endeavour is to create a space for
UNBC in Vancouver, and this office
fits such a requirement perfectly,

Education Program Problems Brought Before Ombudsperson

ELIZABETH FYLES
STAFF WRITER

‘There is growing controversy in the
Education Program this semester. As
reported last semester, the entire pro-
gram was moved to Lakewood Jr. Sec-
ondary School, and not everyone is
happy with the move. The concerns of
some of the students in this program
have been brought to the attention of
the UNBC Ombudsperson.

Complaints include the fact that
there is only one computer, one printer,
and. one photocopier, none of which
work; that students are not allowed to
use any of Lakewood's resources (such
as the gym, library, or computers); and
that it is harder to use these resources
at UNBC. As well, the environment is
a lot louder than at UNBC, because

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not only are the walls “temporary walls’,
as is so often seen in high schools, but a
bell rings three time an hour, and, final-
ly, the schedule that was promised last
year of two days a week from 9:00AM
to 4:00PM has turned into 9:00AM to
8:00PM on one day and 9:30AM to
6:00PM on the second day.

Ben Trerist, a Senior Year (SY) pro-
gram student, feels that all of these
issues could easily be resolved, but
that it shouldn't be the students’ re-
sponsibility to fix them. He feels that
all of the complaints could be rectified
easily, but, since most of them were dis-
cussed last year in negotiations, it is a
waste of his and other's time to have
to go over everything again, Trerist
also believes that the notices that most
UNBC students can take advantage

of, such as information on opting out
of the NUGSS health and dental plan,
are not available to the students in this
program.

Another specific concern of the SY
cohort is that of overlapping content
in the classes. Trerist is not certain
why this should happen, as most of
their professors are the same as last
year. As well, the credit hours that are
being given do not correspond to the
amount of class hours. Normally, a two
credit class would have two class hours
of teaching, and, in some cases in this
program, it is more like three hours.
The communication from adminis-
tration and faculty to the students on
these issues has also been left wanting.
Trerist states that the relationship be-
tween these three sides is more adver-

sarial than it should be.

To add insult to injury, there are
strong rumors of a BC Teacher's Fed-
eration strike. If this happens, it is not
certain whether these students will even
be able to continue going to school. Or-
dinarily, this kind of strike does not af-
fect university students, but, as they are
using a facility that is affected, they may
not be allowed to cross the picket line,
or the faculty might feel that crossing
the picket line would be bad form as
they are also teachers.

On the other side of the story, some
students are happy with the move to
Lakewood. One of these students is
Marianne Brown. While she agrees that
there are a few problems (such as park-
ing when winter comes), for the most
part, she is not unhappy with the move.

When the program was at the Univer-
sity, the students had to move classes all
day due to space issues; at Lakewood,
this is not a problem. Additionally, she
feels that, as the students in this pro-
gtam are going to end up working in
schools like Lakewood anyway, there
is no harm in learning how to teach in
that kind of school.

Trerist and Brown can agree on a few
things, though, such as that the Uni-
versity did need more space and that
moving their program was the easiest
and most logical thing to do. Another
point of agreement is that neither feel
as though they, or any other students,
can afford to waste a lot of time trying
to figure out what should be done by

the administration.

J Hang onto Your identity