Local News Over the Edge Nov 22, 1995 Page 3 Student Elections or Student Apathy?! by Toni Fletcher On October 11, 12, and 13 elections for student representatives to the UNBC senate were held. There were 161 ballots cast. I have heard the comment that this low turnout is another example of the apathy of the student body, however I believe it is a matter of the students at UNBC not being aware of the opportunity for involvement rather than not caring to be involved. Although many students are aware that there is a Senate, most are not familiar with its role or how it functions within the University community. With the hopes of changing that, I will be writing a series of occasional articles for future issues of “Over the Edge” about the UNBC Senate. This being the first such article, I will start with the basics. The Senate is a body of 20 individuals elected and selected from various components of the UNBC community. There are representatives from the faculty, administration, students, ee J 1 aboriginal communities and the major northern regions that UNBC serves. The powers of the Senate and the rules it operates under are based on provincial legislation specifically, the UNBC act. Senate’s basic function is to oversee the academic running of the University. Besides setting program and degree requirements, the Senate formulates policies and sets rules that will guide students in their academic undertakings, and direct faculty in their imparting of-wisdom to these same students. So, “How. does Senate work?”, you might ask if you haven’t already fallen asleep, or turned the page. To begin with, most of the actual work is done at the committee level. There are a number of Standing Committees that deal with issues that range from academic appeals to library hours, from international agreemtns with fie So bd oe _ other universities to service for students. I won’t bore you with a long list of committees, but in future articles I hope to highlight the specific function of each committee, as well as how they operate and who to contact for more information. Student involvement is important at a university. To ensure that you have an opportunity to be involved, all of the standing committees require both a graduate and undergraduate student in their membership. If you don’t actually want to be on a committee, but are interested in what’s going on, all “Senate and Senate committees meetings are open to the public. Senate meetings are held in the Senate Chambers on the first floor of the Administration Building, at 3 pm on the second Wednesday of each month. Senate Committees meet at various times and locations. The minutes from all these meetings are available in the library. In addition to the Standing Committees, there are also a number of short term committees struck to eel Sat ee J J 4 accomplish specific tasks. Two such committees currently working are the Committee to find a new Vice-President, Academic, and the President’s Planning Committee. The Committee to find a new V.P.A. will be setting the selection criteria and coordinating the search for the best person to meet those criteria (as if Dr. P. Wasn’t!!). The President’s Planning committee will be reviewing the previous academic and administrative plans of UNBC, to see if they are still relevant, and revising them where necessary. The President’s Planning committee has two student members, but also wants your input on the direction you want to see at the University. There will be public forums and information sessions before the end of the semester, so watch for them, and voice your opinions. The most important aspects of Senate is that you can participate in making the rules. It isn’t easy; and the rules are neither made nor i J > Hie" t ii 4 UNBC’'s Mess by Karry Gibson Are the students of UNBC stupid or just lazy? Well the answer is one or the other because the gar- bage around our small campus is disgusting. My bet is to say that the students doing all of the littering are not stupid or else they wouldn’t be here to begin with, so they must be lazy. Most students do put their garbage in the proper areas, how- ever there is a smaller number, mainly smokers, that litter consid- erable. All you have to do is to go to any outdoor exit in our school to find cigarette butts by the dozen in that area. Also, outside the resi- dences there are designated ashtrays which are not being used in the in- tended manner. These ashtrays were supposed to be for cigarettes but somehow they have been invaded by other garbage. The worst thing about these ashtrays is that they are not dumped out often enough, many times students are not able to put their cigarettes in these ashtrays because it becomes a fire hazard to o so. The blame lies on us all. It is ridiculous because cigarette cleanup costs in the area of 3-4 thousand dollars per year. This money could go to more productive things if people just weren’t so lazy. So what about littering in general? Where does it come from? Who cleans it up? The majority of garbage found around the school is made by the students living in the two resi- dence buildings and/or the people that hang around the resi- dences a lot. Some of the most popular garbage that keeps turn- ing up is: cafeteria packaging, beer/pop bottles/cans, pump- kins, empty cigarette packs and chip bags can be found at almost any location on our campus. Maintenance cleans up the lit- ter, including the cigarette butts, around the school but this gar- bage is mostly indoors. Also, once a year students are hired to do odd jobs around the cam- pus and one of their tasks is to clean up litter. Much of the blame can be placed on the maturity levels of students. It seems as though a larger number of first year stu- dents are making a considerable mess. Being a first year student last year, I was able to quickly see the mess which was made by my fellow students. There is garbage found constantly between the two residences although there are three dumpsters for students to use. This seems to me like plain la- ziness on the part of the students making the mess. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! It is important for us, as a new institution to make a good first impression. This means taking care of our brand new facility so that it is an attractive place for new stu- dents to attend and also to keep cur- rent students coming back year af- ter year. The money which is wasted Not Just A Tan, It’s An : “Awesome Tan" : 3133 Westwood Dr. 563-1010 in senseless littering could be go- ing towards much better things if people, as a whole, started caring more for their school environment. Well, I know the students and staff of UNBC are not stupid, however, some do have bad hab- its which need to be changed. With the cooperation of all students, fac- ulty, and visitors we can work to- gether to make UNBC a cleaner, greener university. Minute and Monthly Packages Available 100. MINUTES 2 S 20.00 G.S.T Incl. hak MINUTES $ 30.00 G5S.T Incl. - 10 Wolff Tanning Beds - Open 7 Days a Week - Ait Conditioned ~ Easy Parkin - Meticulously Clean oFerdly Stat changed quickly, but it can be done. If you want to know more about the Senate or any of the Standing Committees, you can get information at the Registrar’s office or contact one of your student Senators. Our e-mail addresses are posted at the Registrar’s office. by Jennifer Arndt 4: and Paul Berard Quality or affordable daycare on campus?:“It will be more expensive then daycare i in town” admitted’ “Anne- Marie Prediger, Manager of. Childcare services. UNBC’s daycare will strive to provide quality daycare with licensed early childhood edu- cators, unfortunately, such quality boosts prices. Prices have not yet UNBC’s faci id sk prove to»be very successful on campus.