News from NUGSS: Update from the VP Internal Shelley Termuende VP Internal | NUGSS ello from your NUGSS VP Internal! February is, as always, a busy month for NUGSS. We have finished all of our club hearings and are happy to announce the introduction of two new clubs: The Synthetic Biology Club, and The Jack Project UNBC. If you are interested in what these clubs have to offer, feel free to inquire at the NUGSS office. We have given advanced standing to the UNBC Outdoors Club and the UNBC Musical Productions club based on their strong membership, financial need, and positive impact to both the UNBC and Prince George community. NUGSS is working hard to improve our communications with clubs beginning this semester. We have established a NUGSS Clubs Facebook group, we are sending out scheduled updates to clubs every few weeks, and we are actively meeting with club executives twice a semester to improve how we can better help clubs to succeed. In the works for later in the semester, we will be hosting a Club President’s Luncheon following the winter break, as well as a Club Pub Night on March 20, 2015. Are you interested in working for NUGSS? Our nomination period has officially started, and we encourage everyone to submit a nomination package. Our succession practices are meant to ensure that each new director and volunteer can feel confident in their position and the responsibilities associated. We will support you to the best of our ability to make sure you are successful. Please stop in and chat with us if you would like more information. An interview with UNBC Confessions Kelley Ware Multimedia Coordinator onfession-style Facebook pages have become very popular recently, allowing people to confess and share their secrets while remaining completely anonymous and giving each of us the chance to read the anonymous confessions of others. UNBC is no stranger to failed attempts at confession pages, the most notable being Twolf Confession. However, UNBC Confessions has managed to both stay relevant for a longer period of time and be far more popular than any of its predecessors. Twolf Confession was followed by 333 people, while UNBC Confessions has 1988 likes, which is pretty impressive considering that is nearly half of the UNBC student population. Over the Edge metaphorically sat down with the administrator of UNBC Confessions (we talked over Facebook) to see exactly why they can boast this kind of success, as well as what it is like running a confessions page. Relating to their success, UNBC Confessions tied it down to both inclusiveness and research. “Lots of other schools had confession pages that seemed to bring a sense of community. I knew there had been a couple of other pages for UNBC, like Twolf Confession, that never really took off like other schools did. I wanted to make a page that wasn’t tied specifically to sports teams, but was more open to the school as a whole.” Research over what works for confession pages and what doesn’t was also vital to UNBC Confessions’ success. The administrator looked up confession pages for different schools and cities across Canada and the United States to find the recipe of success. Unlike Twolf Confession, which was set up as a personal profile you needed to befriend, UNBC Confessions was a page that simply required a like to participate. It is also more anonymous this way. Being a friend allows people to look up Twolf’s followers with relative ease, something that is not accomplished with a simple like. UNBC Confessions uses a Google Doc approach for submitting confessions, meaning that even the administrator does not know who posted what. UNBC Confessions’ administrator also makes sure to remove many identifying characteristics of the original poster and the person they are confessing about. Running confession pages is a lot more work that one might suspect. The administrator can receive up to 30 confessions a day during midterms, and recently received 90 submissions over a weekend. The more popular the page becomes, the more work it is to maintain it. Typically, the administrator of UNBC Confessions spends about an hour each day sorting through confessions, comments, and suggestions. If a day or two is missed, complaints roll in. Staying anonymous has not been a challenge so far. “I have a couple [of] close friends who know I run the page.” The administrator told OTE on Facebook, “I've had a couple other friends who ask if I saw post X or whatever and I just try to play along. I try to do all my posting and checking the page UNC Life For those students graduating this May, the Valedictorian Selection Committee will be accepting nominations until February 27, 2015. If you know of a friend or classmate who has made a difference in your education and has made a lasting positive impression on you, feel free to submit their name to the committee. We are looking for students from both CSAM and CASHS. Nomination forms are located in the NUGSS office and at the convocation office. when I'm at home to avoid any chance of people seeing what I'm doing. I'ma pretty boring admin for the most part.” Regarding the popularity of confession pages, the UNBC Confessions administrator said: “As much as people say they don't like gossip and drama they can't help but feel the need to get involved anyways. People get a feeling of satisfaction from knowing other peoples secrets even if they don't know whose secret it is. I think it is just a natural thing for humans. It's exciting for some people to be able to reveal some of their secrets but retain that anonymity. I think it's also about their post being recognized by their peers in the form of likes, comments, and shares.” The anonymous administrator also believes that pages such as these can bring a sense of community to people who may otherwise not necessarily interact. We are all part of the UNBC community and every once and a while, we just want to be entertained.