Over the Edge + October 14, 2009

Where are

buckets?

SHELBY PETERSEN NEWS EDITOR

UNBC is widely known as the Green University and rightly so, Recently, our halls have become

rowded with sophisticated recycling recepticals, allowing the students to recycle everything from energy drink cans to failed midterms. However,

pon returning this semester, many of you may

ave noticed the absence of a UNBC staple. The colourful and uniquely decorated industrial sized

mayonnaise buckets that PGPIRG uses to collect ompost across the campus have been notably ab- ent.

For the past couple of years you would be hard pressed not find one of these compost bucks tanding next to the university's trash cans, com- pelling the student population to consider the environment. However, for the past month and a half, students have had no other choice than to discard their apple cores and banana peels in the rash cans!

‘The reason behind the missing compost buck- ets, as explained by a PGPIRG representative, is hat the original compost site had to be moved to a more secure site near parking lot C. The process of moving the compost site from its previous location behind the UNBC residence building to parking lot C took months longer than expected and thus, delayed PIRG’s ability to set up the and collect he compost buckets as scheduled.

Fortunately, however, the compost site has now been successfully transported to parking lot C and it fully operational. The compost buckets are now being dispersed across the campus and collec-

ion will happen daily between 3pm and 4pm.

With the return of the compost program, stu- dents can now refrain from disposing of their fruits and vegetables in the trash can and help large quantities of organic and useful matter from entering the landfills. And, just as a reminder, the

ompost buckets are good for disposing more than] just your leftover fruits and veggies. Compostable materials include, cardboard, coffee grounds/filters, egg shells, feathers, teabags, and sawdust. However, meat, dairy, feces, and diseased plants are not wel-

‘ome in the compost process. For more information of the compost program or 0 find out how you can help contact PGPIRG ai

gpirg@unbe.ca or stop by their office in room 7- 34A (just down from the Over the Edge office).

Attention!

A UNBC Student is probably look- ing at this spot right now and this could have been your ad space.

e have distribution to over 4000 students with various ages, interests, and backgrounds and we have reasonable rates so investing in our advertising could

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Email over-the-edge@unbc.ca

News 3

University services in the palm of your hand the com post Mobile phone apps are downloading on campuses across the country

BY DANIELLE WEBB CUP ONTARIO BUREAU CHIEF

TORONTO (CUP) — One in nine students at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) own an iPhone

lor an iPod Touch, and students elsewhere across Can-

lada are embracing the technology with open arms.

(With smart phones reaching more and more students, universities are taking advantage of the trend.

At least four Canadian universities have introduced mobile phone applications designed to enhance the student experience, putting everything from a person- alized class schedule to the ability to reserve comput- lers or study space in the palm of students’ hands.

Eric Neufeld, computer science department head land a developer of the U of S app iUSask, recognized this niche market as he watched students leave his classroom day after day.

“I saw students flipping open their cell phones when they would leave class, and I wanted my depart- ment on that phone — to show students that we're out there, that we're a part of the current wave of technol- logy and can get things done,’ he says.

César Mejia, manager of information technology at the University of Toronto's Mississauga (UTM) cam- pus and app developer, agrees.

“Our students rely heavily upon all sorts of devices to access and share important information, and we Ineed to meet their needs. We're well-equipped to do so, since virtually all of our routine business with students is conducted online,’ said Mejia in an e-mail interview.

At Ryerson University in Toronto, Ont., a simple survey aimed at enhancing library services turned out results the team wasn't expecting,

“From our point-of-view we wanted student feed- back on library services and scheduling, In reality, students wanted to be able to check their own sched-

ules,” says Graham McCarthy, innovative technologies librarian at Ryerson.

‘The library team took this feedback and turned it into a full-blown tech initiative that included involve- ment from students in a summer work-study at the university in an effort to better-serve students as a whole with a variety of campus services turned mo- bile.

The Ryerson app — like the UTM app, both of which went live in September — is web-based, which makes it available to any cell phone with an Internet connection,

“Tt looks best on the iPhone and the Google An- droid phones, though,” McCarthy says.

iUSask, however, is currently only available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

“One of the things that makes [the app] so popular on our campus is the campus-wide Wi-Fi, so the iPod Touch works anywhere on campus,’ explains iUSask developer Chad Jones.

The development team is looking to expand their support in the near future to include BlackBerry, as well as adding to the existing features, says Jones.

“We want to get a lunch button on there,’ jokes Neufeld.

Common through all the apps are features like var- sity sports stats, class schedules, campus maps and directories, and information on upcoming campus events,

“We really had to get in the mindset of the aver- age student — what information do they want on their phone? .. . We wanted to know what they wanted to have to manoeuvre through the institution,” says Neufeld.

So far, in-house teams have developed all the apps, but U of S is beginning to offer their development team to other institutions. They are currently in talks

to develop a mobile app for a large university in Cali- fornia, though they declined to specify which institu- tion.

‘The iUSask team believes that the key to their suc- cess was having students involved throughout the whole development.

“Students are really driving the development,’ says Jones.“ We had undergrad and grad students working directly with the project all the way through. [They] gave daily feedback on features they liked and didn't like.’

Students across these campuses are embracing the new technology, with 7,512 uses by 1,477 students at Ryerson since the Sept. 14 launch, and over 2,400 iUSask downloads out of 18,000 students since its Aug, 2 release. UT M's web app had more than 20,000 hits in its first three weeks.

“Students are really impressed that we are able to get all this information to their mobile devices,’ says McCarthy.

The University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alta. has also produced iUAlberta, an iPhone app that provides information on university athletics, campus food ser- vices, and links to useful websites.

While mobile phone application development is more or less in its infancy, Neufeld sees an incredible future for it.

“There's a lot of positive social potential with the iPhone,’ he says. “You have your day book, your phone, there's the entertainment aspect, I dont see why you couldn’ carry all your medical records for your life on your phone.’

Global Climate Action on October 24

Prince George's climate crusaders,

THOMAS CHENEY STAFF WRITER

PHOTO SUBMITTED BY THOMAS CHENEY

young and old, information booths, and community building for climate action!”

Students for a Green University, one group that is organizing the event in

UNEC students are planning to be part of the biggest climate change related event in the history of the World for Saturday, October 24 in conjunction with 350.org International Day of Action on Climate Change. According, to Nadia Nowak, the Associate Director of Campus Sustainability on NUGGS and an organizer of the event “So far more than 100 nations are taking part—it’s shaping up to be the biggest day of grassroots action on global warming ever.’ Some of the more innovative events include 350 divers diving around the Great Barrier Reef, which considered by many scientist to threatened by climate change.

In Prince George, the events will begin downtown on October 24" in front of CIMO Mediterranean Grill on Victoria Street at 10:00 AM on October for a march through the city centre to Civic Centre at 11:00 AM where Nowak invites all people of the planet to“ Come to the Civic Plaza for a rally, fun activities for

Prince George is having a variety of events in the week to build up to the rally on the saturday including a free showing of the recently-released film the Age of Stupid, a film starring Pete Postlethwaite set in a future where climate change has devastated the world. Nowak wants everyone “come to the (FREE) screening of the Age of Stupid at 7:00 pm in the Canfor ( on Wednesday, October 21*).”

Nowak states “If we are silent we will not be heard and if we don't stand up we will not be seen. This is your opportunity to do something meaningful for the future of all life on earth’ Nowak argues that making a difference is easy, “It’s not hard—the event is already organized for you, all you have to dois show up’. For more information people can go to 350.org or if they have “Got Questions? Wanna Help Out? Wanna Learn More?” to e-mail nowakn@unbe.ca.