ampus hews EDITOR NICH JOHANSEN THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEB. 19, 2015 3 Bullying still exists after high school With Langara set to host Pink Shirt Day events, staff say bullying is still a real issue in the post-sec- ondary environment By TANYA COMMISSO s Langara College gears up for Ae Shirt Day on Feb. 25, the school’s administration is empha- sizing that peer bullying and harass- ment still affect students beyond the elementary and secondary levels. The Langara Students’ Union part- nered with the college’s Office for Stu- dent Engagement to hold its third an- nual Pink Shirt Day event. The three-day fair from Feb. 23 to Feb. 25 will promote bullying awareness and will feature inspira- BULLYIN tional, self-esteem a boosting activities. what Is it? The distinction 1 ; between anti-bully- Physical ing and bullying A person or their awareness is key, propertyis damged a oegrding to student 2 Verbal engagement —_ pro- grams coordinator are hurt through Reba Noel, who be- insults lieves bullying be- comes subtler, but 3 Social not non-existent, at A person is the college level. shunned or ex- “At post-second- cluded from groups ary, students aren’t 4 ; beating each other Cyberbullying down for their lunch A form of verbal money or. getting or social bullying . using technology shoved into a lock- er,” Noel said. “But I Source: Newfoundland Labrador think as people be- Department of Education come more mature and astute, the bullying becomes the same.” Michele Bowers, chair of Langara’s counselling department, said most stu- dents who seek counselling have a his- tory with bullying. She considers Pink Shirt Day a relevant event, regardless of the institution or age group. “Many of the kids who were bullied or who bullied others in grade school or high school] now find themselves in post-secondary,” Bowers said. “These behaviours and the injuries from these behaviours do not magically stop once students reach post-second- ary.” Though Bowers finds the student code of conduct around bullying A person's feelings and harassment to ee a be adequate, the ment programs: Office of Student coordinator Conduct and Judi- cial Affairs at Lan- gara was unavailable for an interview to discuss the current code in place. The document describes bullying and harassment as any aggressive or un- welcome behaviour meant to hurt or cause discomfort to another person. With a full roster of student volun- teers, involvement in this year’s event seems to indicate a strong sense of support, said Noel. “The fact that [students] are eager and willing to volunteer without a whole lot of solicitation shows us, I hate to say that we’re winning, but that we're making a difference,” Noel said. “Happy Lunar New “year a. & § JULIA WICKHAM photo Jen Ko, a Langara College nursing lab demonstrator, shows how to use a human simulator in the Nursing Simulation Centre. Nursing seeks accreditation Representatives from Canada’s governing body on nursing educa- tion will be visiting Langara to evaluate its three nursing programs By JULIA WICKHAM Ihe association that has the pow- er to accredit Langara College’s nursing program will be visiting the college this week to evaluate the program. If accredited by the Canadian Asso- ciation of Schools of Nursing (CASN), graduating Langara nursing students will be more appealing to universities that offer nursing master’s degree pro- grams instead of needing to take up- grading courses. “Three site reviewers, all nurse edu- cators from post-secondary institu- tions from across the country will be on site all week,” said Janine Lennox, nursing department chair. They will be reviewing all aspects of the bachelor of science in nursing, nursing transition program and post degree diploma in nursing practice in Canada, Lennox said. The representatives will be touring the campus as well as visiting support- ing departments and interviewing both students and faculty. One of their main stops will be the Nursing Simulation Centre, where students use human simulators to practice their skills. The nursing program hasn’t been ac- credited since the program was part of the collaborative curriculum in B.C., a curriculum that was shared amongst many post-secondary institutions. The program now offers the bachelor of sci- ence in nursing curriculum indepen- dently. The new curriculum includes a closer look at global health, aboriginal health care and community and mental health practices, said Lennox. Cassandra Goh, who is working to be accepted into the nursing program by January 2016, thinks that accreditation will gather more interest from poten- tial nursing students. “T think it is a fairly big deal and it definitely adds something more to the already appealing program,” said Goh. Lennox agreed that the accreditation could make the program more attrac- tive. “Tt is possible that the program will attract more students with CASN ac- creditation but we already currently receive more applications than there are seats,” Lennox said. “Successful ac- creditation is a mark of excellence in nursing education.” Students feel that accreditation of the nursing program will help them af- ter graduation. “It’s important to be at a school where a nursing degree counts,” said nursing student, Jesse Sparks. 66 Successful accredita- tionisa mark of excellence in nursing education JANINE LENNOX NURSING DEPARTMENT CHAIR Paper dresses moving into mall Students’ projects to be displayed at Oakridge By TONY SU students’ eyes next to Langara Col- lege’s Students’ Union Building have disappeared, but will resurface at Oakridge Centre on March 3. The dresses were made by first-year students in the design formation pro- gram to gain experience in making props that are used in places like store- front windows. “We're building props for window displays, store interior and themes for special events,” said Kevin Smith, the design formation instructor at Langara. T: paper dresses that have caught Smith said he doesn’t want people to think the class is about fashion, but about making displays in general. This will be the second year that Oakridge Centre will display the dress projects. “We're looking to make a bigger splash this year,” said Erica McIntosh, marketing coordinator for Oakridge Centre. Following the success of the show- case last year, Oakridge Centre’s man- agement contacted Smith to bring more dresses this year. Aline Rocha, a design formation stu- dent, modelled her dress off of a Prada design with a 1920s dress inspired by The Great Gatsby. The making of the dress was not an easy task, she said. Students were not shown in detail how to piece together the dress because they were meant to learn it on the fly. “T didn’t expect how hard it would be to fit paper onto the body, because it doesn’t curve like fabric,” Rocha said. “T [like] the look of it, as far as we could take our ability with paper.” She was also limited in what she could use to assemble the dress: paper, glue and tape. The showcase at Oakridge Centre will allow students to show off what they have learned in the program to a broader audience. “Tt’s a good chance for us to show ev- eryone what we’re doing and be proud of what we’ve done,” said Rebecca De- larue, a design formation student. See langara.ca for exclusive video TONY SU photo Aline Rocha’s paper dress.