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Students support the national movement Pink Shirt Day to raise awareness about bullying

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SERA AKDOGAN photo

Nursing students Kefa White and Deanna Raedeke work on a “patient” at Langara as part of their clinical practice for the program.

Nursing department wins award

Nursing students’ association calls Langara “school of the year”

By SERA AKDOGAN

fter just over a year in the Cana-
dian Nursing Students’ Associa-
tion, Langara’s nursing school
as been recognized as tops in
the country.

The association awarded Langara’s
nursing department “school of the
year” after hosting the largest West-
ern/Prairie Regional conference in the
association’s 41-year history. The col-
lege was presented with its award at
this year’s national conference in Janu-
ary.

“We work very, very hard hosting
this conference, trying to get people to

involve a lot into this organization and
encouraging students to get involved,”
said Sandy Gum, a conference delegate
for Langara. “We put a lot of effort into
this business.”

The conference was held at Library
Square in late October. Approximately
300 nursing students had the opportu-
nity to showcase their work and listen
to experts speak about harm reduction.

“The success of the Western and
Prairie Regional conference in October
brought schools of nursing from across
the province together and opened our
eyes to this organization and what it of-
fers to our students,” said Janine Len-
nox, chairwoman of Langara’s nursing

department in a statement.

Langara also won its bid to host next
year’s national conference in Vancou-
ver.

“This national conference will es-
tablish the voice of the [association]
across the country,” said Lennox.

Langara’s program is very practical
because students spend time in a clini-
cal setting, said Kefa White, a confer-
ence delegate for Langara. “I find this
experience invaluable as it helps solidi-
fy what we are learning in the class-
room and in the lab,” she said. “We all
want each other to succeed in the pro-
gram. That is something you wouldn’t
see in many other institutions.”

AWARDS

for Langara
Nursing

1 School of the year,
Canadian Nursing
Students’ Associa-
tion, 2012

2 Outstanding

partnership award,
Canadian Diabetes
Association, 2010

Source: Langara College

Langara
gets new
security
phones

Code blue phones are being
installed around campus

By PUNEET DHAMI

the evening might soon feel safer
as they cross the dark, deserted
campus late at night.

Langara is installing 11 new code
blue phones outside to help improve
campus safety as part of an upgrade
funded by the Ministry of Education.

Code blue stations have a phone line
that is wired directly to the security of-
fice.

“Security incidents have a high im-
pact on people and serious consequenc-
es for organizations,” said Dan Kreft-
ing, Langara’s campus _ security
manager.

“We want to bring our security up to
par with everybody else.”

The phones are more of a precau-
tionary measure because the college
hasn’t had any major security incidents
in the last year, Krefting said.

Although most students carry cell
phones, the code blue stations will help
security immediately identify a per-
son’s precise location if a problem oc-
curs. Because many people don’t have
Langara’s security phone number pro-
grammed into their phone, the stations
will also provide them with a way to
promptly contact security.

Security upgrades were approved a
year ago and started around October.

UBC has had code blue stations for
almost 17 years.

“There were two purposes to why
the stations were put in: emergency as-
sistance of any kind and for interna-
tional students who were lost,” said
Paul Wong, acting director at UBC se-
curity.

Wong said that although the system
is effective, the university doesn’t track
how often the stations are used.

Ste who are studying well into

Translink's Compass card system delayed until fall

New transit system will
require users to tap a card
at start and end of journey

By WARREN JANE

tem won’t be introduced until this

fall.
The company is installing fare gates
and card readers for a new system that
was supposed to be getting tested this

&

Tin new Compass card sys-

spring.

Skytrains and buses will still be un-
der the current fare zone system, but
riders will be required to “tap in” and
“tap out” with pre-loaded Compass
cards at the beginning and end of their
trip.

Information about commuters’ trips
will be collected and used to make im-
provements to transit services.

Translink expects the Compass
cards to eliminate the inconvenience of
monthly passes, said Derek Zabel,

Translink’s spokesman.

“Tf you’re getting ready to go to work
or school in the morning and you’re at
the end of the month, instead of scram-
bling to get that monthly pass you can
go to your bank account and add value
onto your card,” he said.

Students will need to carry a Com-
pass card to tap in and out at fare gates,
but the U-Pass program will still be in
place, said Zabel.

See New Compass cards, page 3

WARREN JANE photo

New gates have been installed at most skytrain stations.