Over the Edge * March 27th 2013 Community 3 LETTER TO THE EDITOR WENDEL SCHWAB CONTRIBUTOR I was shocked and dismayed to read the “Cold War” article in Over the Edge. How can such a situation be tolerated at the UNBC campus for so many years? One of the advantages of attending UNBC is the connected nature of the campus, where students can reach almost any building without having to brave the harsh winter weather of Prince George. In fact, students at other universities, such as Thompson Rivers University, are often jealous of the interconnectedness of the buildings on UNBC’s campus. With this huge advantage, how is UNBC still so inadequate at properly removing snow and clearing walkways to the few buildings that aren’t connected to the rest of campus? You’d think UNBC’s snow removal budget would go so much further than most other universities could ever achieve. 66 Ferrying students from the dorms when walkways are inadequately cleared is a stop-gap solution and the university administration should have been seeking more permanent solutions years ago. As a disabled student myself, I understand how Conan Winkelmeyer must feel at having to request a ride from the dorms to the main campus or vice versa; needing unnecessary help like that robs disabled students of their agency and infantilizes them. This is something those of us who are disabled really want to avoid because it makes us feel like we aren’t free, independent people capable of making our own way in the world; by requiring disabled students to seek outside help to do something that should be just as easy as walking from Point A to Point B, the university administration has shown a callous disregard for the well-being of their disabled students. the Edge. Further, I find the response of the university administration to be tone deaf in the highest order. Rob Giardino had no right to ask Mr. Winkelmeyer to take down the “Neyoh Snow Removal Weekend Team,” and his appeal to the jobs of the unionized workers who are unable or unwilling to properly carry out their snow removal duties is especially insensitive in an era where most students are wondering if they’ll even find a job post-graduation. I feel absolutely no sympathy at all for those poor unionized workers who are having their jobs threatened by students banding together to take care of each other to try to make the university a better place. Maybe those workers don’t even deserve to have a job if they can be replaced by a few volunteer students coordinating on Facebook to do the job they can’t. I also think Steve Patton is a coward for not showing up to the meeting scheduled with Over the Edge (yeah Steve Patton, I called you a coward, what are you going to do about it?) and I’m afraid this is the tone and tenor of the response the I also think Steve Patton is a coward for not showing up to the meeting scheduled with Over students at UNBC will receive from the adnministration. Only as a group can we, the students and concerned staff at UNBC, do something about this. This is one issue I think we can fight our uncaring university administration over and win. I urge all UNBC students to stand with Conan Winkelmeyer, Selena Hunjen (maybe she should sue the university over this, maybe the threat of a financial hit would motivate the administration to finally act), Brenda Christensen, and everyone working to improve this situation and make UNBC a better place for all the students who attend here eA see : , Velie lags 2 somia” : € a od $ ae e ay io Jp” sey é