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By: Aphra Hughes

If you've ever sat in the
area above the stairs on the
upper floor of the library and
peered out the window, you
would have seen a strange
bridge running next to the
window and leading from the
library stairwell to parts
unknown. Today | explored
those parts unknown and met
the inhabitants.

The area is known as
EMS (Educational Media
Services ). What EMS does
is provide and service all the
electronic equipment used at
the university, such as over-
head projectors, televisions
and VCRs, and computers
for PowerPoint
tions. There are four people
working fulltime at EMS and
three lucky students. EMS
hasn't advertised their stu-
dent jobs for a couple of

presenta-.

maintaining the chain of com-
mand —not!

He sees the group as a
collective, as do the others.
This is one office where
"Take me to your leader" is
not the best request, as the
others look slightly baffled
when asked who is in charge.

“With four independent deci-
sion makers, communicating
is vital, as is getting along.
The group spends time
together outside work regu-
larly, Andrew says. Andrew
grew up in St. Stephen, a
small town in New Brunswick
just across the border from
Calais, Maine. St Stephen
has a population of about five
thousand and was one of the
first European settlements in
Canada. The house he grew
up in is three hundred and
fifty years old. Andrew joined
the Navy straight out of high

oto E

The EMS Staff: A diverse buncl _—

years, because of “a huge
training curve" for students
starting at EMS while they
learn all the equipment. The
result is that EMS holds on to
students from one year to the
next as much as possible,
and fills the rare vacancies
by word of mouth or by
resumes from students who
actually walked into the
office.

The head of EMS is
Andrew Snih, the handsome
clean-cut guy with the short
brown hair in the group
photo. Andrew came to
UNBC after nine 1/2 years in
the Navy. Naturally, he runs
a tight ship and prides him-
self on strict discipline and

school, and trained as an
electronics technician. He
says the training in the Navy
is second to none, because
in the Navy you learn disci-
pline, dedication, pride in
your work, and get practice in
fault-finding. Fault-finding is
important in electronics
because you need to pinpoint
what is wrong with malfunc-
tioning equipment before you
can start fixing it. The disad-
vanage is, you see the world
for up to a year at a time,
which is not so great once
you have a wife and children.
Also the Navy has not given
raises or promotions for
about six years, so he was
falling steadily further behind

civilian salaries for the same
work. Andrew then moved to
Prince George because his
wife Jocelyn got a job at
UNBC. He figured if he didn't
get a job, he could always be
a stay-at-home dad, but as it
turned out, he joined UNBC
as an A/V technician in EMS,
and moved "up." Being the
head means that while he
mostly does the same job as
the others, he does do more
of the planning, gives more
advice, hears more com-
plaints, and is involved in
more of the University admin-
istration.

The only female at EMS,
and the only one who
dressed up for Halloween, is
Emily Paterson. Emily is a
local girl and went to
Duchess Park high school.
She graduated in 1991 and
used to be a student at
UNBC. She was taking a
bachelor's in Psychology,
and started working part-time
in the library. From there,
she moved to EMS in 1997,
part-time at first and later full-
time.

Emily really likes work-
ing at the university, and she
likes the EMS team. She is
the only one at EMS who isn't
a technician by trade, and
she admits to not being all
that fond of computers.
Emily does less fixing of
equipment and more of what
she calls the "girl stuff":
answering the phone, cus-
tomer service, scanning, con-
verting video, PowerPoint,
and making reservations for
the equipment. Emily com-
plains that there aren't a lot of
young single males on the
university staff. She hopes
this article will make EMS
better known to students,
who often don't realize they
can use EMS, but she is also
hoping to meet more guys as
a result!

The only other single
EMS employee is Craig
Anderlini, a tall, dark, slim
young man. He went to
CNC, where he took a diplo-
ma in electronic engineering
technology. He reckons
his day is evenly split
between helping students,
helping professors, and work

Out of the Spotlight

in the back office. He doesn’t
do alot of repairbecause
most of the UNBC equipment
is still too new to break down.
Craig often works evenings,
because EMS is open from
8:30 am to 8:30 pm.

The "new kid" at EMS is
Tony Donovan, the guy with
lots of sandy hair and a
bushy mustache. Tony was
originally hired by the univer-
sity to work on the Y2K prob-
lem, which he did for five

months. He then shifted to
working on the CTS
Helpdesk, and moved

upstairs about six months
ago. Tony grew up in St
John, New Brunswick, a mill
town about an hour north of

Andrew's home town. He
went to the community col-
lege there, and got a diploma
in Computer Programming
and Computer Systems
Analysis. Tony thinks com-
munity colleges are great
because they are so much
more "hands-on". He really —
likes his job here, and says
that one of the nice things is
that, while they get very busy
sometimes, at the end of the
day, they're done. There is
nothing leftover tomorrow.
Work is reasonably steady all
year round. In the summer,
staff take their holidays, but
they also work on special
projects.
(continued on page 13)

BRITISH COLUMBIA
LEGISLATIVE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

2003 Program

PURPOSE
To provide British Columbia university graduates
an opportunity to supplement their academic training with
exposure to public policy-making and the legislative process
within the province’s parliamentary system.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE
individuals who have received a Bachelor’s Degree
from a B.C. university or a B.C. university-college
within two years of January 2003.

LOCATION

Parliament Buildings, Victoria, British Columbia

TERM
January 6, 2003 - June 30, 2003

APPLICATION DEADLINE
January 31, 2002 - 4 p.m.

STIPEND
$16,210 for 6 months

HOW TO APPLY
Program Applications are available from Political Science
Departments at all universities in British Columbia.
You can also request an application by contacting the
Public Education & Outreach Office in Room 144,
Parliament Buildings, Victoria B.C., V8V 1X4.
Telephone: (250) 387-8669 Email: BCLIP@leg.bc.ca.
Or print an application from the
website: www.legis.gov.bc.ca.

ACADEMIC ADVISORS
Dr. Paul Tennant, University of British Columbia
Dr. Patrick Smith, Simon Fraser University
Dr. Norman Ruff, University of Victoria
Dr. Tracy Summerville, University of Northern British Columbia

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