Over The Edge - Page 4 NUGSS AND GSS PRESENTATION TO PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL NOV. 12, 1997 - UNBC SENATE CHAMBERS Presented By: John Stevenson, acting NUGSS President, and Liz Hughes, acting President of the GSS. As you may have noticed outside of NUGSS last week we asked for some of your campus concerns, questions and solutions. NUGSS is invited usually once per aca- demic semester to prepare a formal presentation to the President's ~ Council. Members of this council include the President, Vice- President(s), Deans of each College, and other brass of the campus. The purpose of this visit can be expressed similarly as why is NUGSS here and what do they repre- sent? The following article reflects what | presented to the President Council. | addressed 6 areas of con- © cern: 1) Distribution of resources based on the needs of the students. ' 2)’ Parking: Problems and Solutions 3) CTS: Solutions 4) Campus Safety 5) Campus Appearance 6) UNBC Plex / Recreation Facility Problems and Distribution of resources, based on student needs and representation, seems to be one of the best ways to determine who gets what. UNBC can be described a§ a small, intimate campus but did you know that people have to sit on the stairs in the _larger lecture halls while other classes have less than ten students. When planning for growth, not excluding any . programs, and faced with a very tight budget, it is crucial that UNBC reviews all pro- grams and resulting budget - allocation. Parking in. the overflow lot or the “boneyard” is a rape situation waiting to happen. it is not visible from campus, there is no fighting in the actual area, no established pathways, and no help-line station nearby. Ironically, you must purchase a ticket to ‘park here. Gary from parking is han- dling out tickets to vehicles parked in places with no “No Parking” signs in sight. Most students who arrive mid-day to find both*lots jam-packed will look for nooks and cran- nies to park in, if they save a dollar then it's a better start to the day! We are asking that adequate signage and . cement barricades be put in " place NOW. To say that they are ordered while still writing tickets in these-‘vague’ areas may only lead to a scandal. PIRG and other groups have been somewhat suc- cessful in organizing and promoting carpools. We sug- gest development of a priori- ty parking pass for carpool- ers = say a minimum of 3 people per car; priority park- ing spots and financial sav- ings. Monitoring this system is the big problem...open to suggestions here. For fur- ther information, an ENVS class has been working on: this idea as a class project. Also,.the Park and Ride sys- ’ tem from the Multiplex park- ing lot seems like a good idea. We would hope that this ‘would bring different busses to a common “exchange”. This would make sense because if you do not have a car to get to _the Multiplex..then what good is this going to do?’ < From discussion that arose, it seems that Victoria actually determines the specific bus routes, and this may not‘hap- pen > Your support (President's Council) on “some kind(s): of alternative transportation methods as mentioned is needed to uti- lize the resources we have - in this case the parking lots and bus service to the cam- pus. The print-card system that is in place at 10 cents per page is a problem. Simply put, we feel that the University is charging too much for this service. We believe that 5 cents per page reflects the true cost of. print- ing one page. If the paper cost from last academic year ran over budget, is this deficit being made up by charging 10 cents per page? < Their answer was No, and that the price charged reflects to cost of setting up the new printing system. > We suggest to consider having to supply your own paper for the print- ers. Access to the labs is becoming increasingly diffi- cult. UNBC prides itself on our image and in advertising literature that we as an insti- tution, utilize and embrace the latest technology. To support this claim we sug- gest: . * CTS devotes at least one lab to general use, with no classes scheduled — * Move Monday nights down- time for servicing to Friday nights when user numbers are lower. * Increase network infrastruc- ture to provide the basis for’. lab expansion * Look at the basic services CTS should provide to stu- dent needs rather than stretch the entire service to - the point-where small gaps are increasingly hard to fix. le. can-CTS actually operate a Internet Service (Modem Pool) without sacrificing lab resources? How do Regional Students fit in to services currently provided? This point is basic, but the doors between the First Nations center and the com- puter labs are dangerous. You never know when some- one is going to burst through the doors - you wouldn’t want to drop your pen here! We request some windows / door removal / In/out signs. < Facilities will look in to installing glass here | was told (nice pun eh!) > Some handicapped students have raised concerns over the wheelchair parking area, specifically the maintenance of pathways and ‘snow removal from these areas. A sidewalk from Parking Lot B is badly needed. As it stands right now you have a choice of either muddy shoes or risk getting run over by some late person desperately looking for a parking spot. The smoking committee recommendations were good in principal, and generally agreed that the: disposal of cig butts on the ground in/around the Agora is done in extremely poor taste. Continual inspection of light- ing fixtures, especially in high use areas and in the public eye (Ceremonial Loop, Canfor Theatre), should be inspected frequently. < As an example | pointed out a Slide Show presentation last night (Nov: 11) and some of the Canfor’s landing lights were . burnt out. The guy who was putting on the show asked me how to turn on’the lights as he was showing off some ~ books and posters. | had to tell him that they were on believe it or not....they were just bumt out. This guy had paid the handsome amount of cash to use the Canfor and all of it’s. lights/facilities>. Also, we suggest the place- ment to cafeteria trollies in front of the Library entrance, and below the library (study lounge) for a place to put dishes and glasses. A more serious matter is the graffiti in the washrooms, we request that these problem wash- rooms be painted over once a week or when needed. As pointed out by Godfrey Medhurst, Head of Facilities...every 2500 bucks he spends cleaning up things like graffiti and vandalism is one more computer that we will never see. PAY ATTEN- . requirements......a TION HERE PEOPLE! Lastly, | would like to talk about the UNBC Plex. Recently, there have been indications of building a UNBC Plex - a sports and events center on campus. We are aware of the enor- mous cost to build any kind of building but we are more than willing to- help with fundraising and planning. A building to provide needed services, possibly help stu- dent retention as well. You will not have the support of the general student popula- tion for this project uniess we (NUGSS and-GSS) have control over part of the build- ing. The Graduate Student . Society, formerly GSS, also presented concerns and problems associated with their perspective of the deal here at UNBC. They agreed that they have similar con- cerns to ours, and some overlap. In brief, they requested an update of their computers available to the grad students as some soft- ware they use simply doesn’t fun on a 8 Mb , 25 MHz machine!! Seems like a rea- sonable request eh?! Also, they would like to, develop a_ Teachers Aid (T/A) standard - . ie hiring practices, contracts, good thing for us, ugrads! We informally discussed to work together on this and present a proposal to the powers that be....any suggestions? Drop em off to the NUGSS office and label it “T/A Standards Committee” Lastly, they too brought up the concern with. photocopying (resources available, price), and difficul- ty in doing research in the library (especially the micro- fiche machines). That's it from here, Cheers! ak Rm KK EF.