Over the Edge September 8-22 NUGSS Newsletter By Kaleigh Milinazzo || NUGSS President I’m excited to welcome you to another year at UNBC! As an undergrad student at UNBC you are automatically a part of the Northern Undergraduate Student Society (NUGSS). NUGSS is the student government at UNBC, and is comprised of 11 elected student representatives. We have four executive directors, VP Finance, External, Social and Student Affairs, as well as six associate directors: Associate Director’s Events, Planning, Campus Sustainability as well as Colleges, First Nations and Women’s Representatives. | am privileged to be given the opportunity to represent your interests as NUGSS President this year. As an undergraduate student you are able to access NUGSS services such as club funding, an ombudsperson, emergency financial and food aid, our health and dental plan, and full office services including faxing, lockers and international student cards. Check out our website for more info, nugss. unbc.ca! Looking back at our short history of just 15 years, I’m proud of the accomplishments of past Board of Directors. NUGSS has overseen the implementation of your health and dental plan, and passed two successful referendums to offer you a U-PASS for unlimited use of the Prince George transit system and Four Seasons aquatic centre. 2008 saw the grand opening of the Northern University Student Centre (NUSC). Within the NUSC, you can grab a fair trade coffee at Degrees Coffee Co., a hot panini at the Grab and Go sandwich bar and enjoy a cold pint at the Thirsty Moose pub. The Thirsty Moose offers food and drinks specials throughout the week, such as Terminator Tuesdays and Wing Wednesdays that are set to become UNBC traditions. The NUSC events space is also host to concerts and events. The NUSC also has cozy study rooms and a student lounge. Please come study, have fun, and support your student building! September is a busy month for NUGSS as we strive to bring you a great campus experience! Here is what you can expect this September: The Last Days of Summer: Backyard BBQ XV — September 10th, 2010: What better way to say good bye to summer than with a BBQ with 1,500 of your closest UNBC friends! Our traditional frosh week event consists of a free BBQ followed by this year’s headlining act, Bedouin Soundclash with Daniel Wesley opening! Presale tickets will be available the week of Aug. 30" and main sales September 8'-10" You'll be humming “When the Night Feels My Song” long after they’ve left the stage! NUGSS Clubs Days — September 15th & 16th, 2010: During this time UNBC clubs will have tables set up in the Wintergarden. Come out and see what they have to offer! Email VP Student Affairs, Heather Carson at nugss-studentaffairs@unbc. ca for information about joining clubs or starting them. 13th Annual ‘Shine Day’ — September 18th, 2010: Shine day is our main Shinerama campaign consisting of hundreds of student volunteers, working with universities and colleges across the country. You can expect to see students shoe shining, car washing, and conducting bottle drives around the city of Prince George all in an effort to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis! Come join us! T-Wolves vs. Alumni Basketball Games — September 25, 2010. Come watch UNBC alumni take on the UNBC Timberwolves! Women tip off at 6:00pm, followed by the men at 7:30pm at the Northern Sport Centre. All funds raised from 50/50 and admission will go to NUGSS’s Shinerama campaign. For any information or suggestions regarding NUGSS events, contact Morgan Melnyk, VP Social, nuggs-social@unbc.ca So, how can you get involved in all this? Join a club, start a club, come check out Bedouin Soundclash this Friday, or come take part in Shinerama! Or, if you are a student passionate about campus life and fun, email Morgan for information about joining the Events Planning Committee. Additionally, if you're a student interested in helping out clubs, the Monetary Affairs Commission (MAC) may be right for you! MAC is comprised of student representatives who evaluate club funding requests. Get in touch with Jenn Larsen, Vice President Finance for more information, nugss-finance@unbc.ca. And finally, if you are passionate about transportation issues, email Alex Wallace, VP External at nugss- external@unbc.ca_for information about joining the Northern Transportation Improvement Committee! If there is one thing I’ve learned at UNBC, there are many great ways to get involved on campus and to get to know the amazing people around you. It’s your year UNBC; let’s make it a great one! News Page 5 Aid Problems Flood Pakistan By Hanna Petersen || News Editor While we have been battling smoke and fire in British Columbia this summer, a world away Pakistan has been suffering under tremendous flood waters. About a month ago severe monsoon rains began in the country’s Northwest and resulted in devastating flood waters that have affected more than 17 million people. The UN estimates that 1.2 million homes have been destroyed, leaving 5 million people homeless. The death toll is around 1,600 most of which occurred early in the flooding. However officials state that the crisis is still growing. So far the world has promised more than 1 billion dollars in aid for Pakistan. The U.S. is the largest international donor, pledging 76 million dollars. Canada has pledged 33 million dollars so far, and the federal government has announced that it will match the money raised by Canadians for relief operations, dollar-for-dollar. Canada is also on standby, ready to send our disaster response team, DART, to the flooded areas in the country. The flooding began in the Northwest but has since moved South. The UN estimates that nearly a million people have been displaced in the South in the Thatta and Qambar-Shadakot districts. Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, has stated that it will take at least three years for the country to recovery from this disaster. The sheer number of people affected is hard to imagine as five million people homeless or displaced is unfathomable. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, has stated that the flooding in Pakistan is the worst disaster he as ever seen and he also urged the world to do more for the devastated country. However, getting aid to Pakistan has not been without problems. Aid donations from the public got off to a very slow response. In the first few weeks after the flooding major charities received less donations than in the past for other disaster born tragedies. The UN reports that the number of people suffering from the massive flooding, more than 17 million and growing, is more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 Haitian earthquake. The assumption for this slower response from the public, despite the overwhelming need in the country, is the slow onset of the flooding compared to the sweeping tsunami and earthquake. Also, less media coverage of the flooding could have contributed to a general ignorance of level of destruction and suffering. The donations have been steadily rising, and after Ottawa announced it would match Canadian donations dollar-for-dollar, Canadian donations jumped 23 percent. Aid for Pakistan has not been without concern either. As with many developing nations affected by disaster, concern is raised as to how the aid money will be spent. Officials urge the Pakistani government to spend with transparency and accountability. Established national and international organizations, like the Red Cross, have the knowledge and experience to ensure that aid is delivered effectively. The presence of the Taliban in Pakistan has caused some alarm for international aid workers in the country. The Taliban issued a vague threat against foreign aid workers as Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq claimed the U.S. and other countries supporting Pakistan have ulterior motives than providing relief for flood victims. UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes responded with “We will obviously take these threats seriously as we did before, and take appropriate precautions but we will not be deterred from doing what we believe we need to do, which is help the people of Pakistan.” If the relief efforts were not facing enough problems, reports of illegitimate charities asking for monetary assistance for Pakistan have been surfacing as well. These fake charities are basically scams which use the disaster in Pakistan as ruse to make money. Many of these fake charities and organizations use names similar to established charities, so it is important to double check the organizations information to insure it is legitimate. Donators are also advised to be wary of organizations that make direct appeals through email, phone calls, or text messages. Money is the most effective form of relief that can be given to the flood ravaged country because money can be used to meet the specific needs of a region. Whereas donated food and merchandise is less effective in that regard. Effective and legitimate donations can be made to such organizations as the Canadian Red Cross, Oxfam Canada, World Vision Canada, or Care Canada. Senate Wants to Change UNBC Academic Transcipts Proposed change will show the significance of each grade By Shelby Petersen || Editor in Chief On September 23 the UNBC Senate will bring forward a motion to change the way the UNBC academic transcripts will look. The motion will affect all UNBC students, and thus all academic programs at UNBC. Before the motion, UNBC grades are generally calculated as percent grades and then translated into letter grades for the Office of the Registrar. Then, the Registrar's Office converts these letter grades to grade points, and both the letter grade and the grade point are displayed on the transcript. With the new motion, transcripts will also display the median class letter grade as well as the number of students in the class in addition to the student's letter grade. The only exception to this amendment would be if the class has less than five students. It has been deemed that if the class has less than five students there is a charge that the students’ confidentiality could be breached. The median grade of the class would be the letter grade of the person whose grade is exactly in the middle of the class. The reason that the median grade will be used rather than the mean grade (the average of all the grades in the class) is that class grades are calculated by letter grade, making it impossible to find a numeric average. The Senate feels that this motion will not only add structure to the grading process, it will also show the significance of each grade. Grades tend to increase as students progress through their degree because the system weeds out those pesky underachievers (and those who switch Majors). Moreover, the higher level a student achieves the more nuanced their classes are allowing for a higher level of interest which translates in to more favourable grades. Because of this, the Senate feels that it is important the person reading your transcript know just what your letter grade means in comparison to the rest of the class. This would mean that if you received a C+ in Biology 101 (which is not a really great grade), but the rest of the class gota C or lower whomever is reading your transcript would see that you were really on top of your class. Likewise, if you received an A- in English 170 but the rest of the class received an A or higher, you would appear inferior, thus devaluing your well-deserved grade. While the reasoning behind this proposal is quite clear, there are both pro’s and con’s which follow this motion. If you are a student who naturally succeeds and is at the top of her class on a regular basis, the proposed changes to the academic transcript will only make you appear like more of a go-getter. However, if you are a mediocre or run-of-the-mill student you have the potential of appearing even less noteworthy than you did before. And, for those students who just are barely scraping by — well, your transcript will show just how poor of a student you really are. If you do not plan on pursuing any more education after you get that diploma in your hands, then this new proposal probably doesn’t mean much to you. However, if you are counting down the days until you get to apply for that MA, this new Senate motion really forces you to step up and bring your “A” game. Overall, this proposed motion is good for overachievers and bad for the mediocre and poor students, but isn’t that the way the real world works? The meeting will take on September 23, 2010 at 3:30PM in room 7-172.