ampus hews EDITOR VINCENT MATAK THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEB. 4,2016 3 Petition against college gains traction Two animal rights groups call on Langara to stop dissecting animals in biology class By CHANDLER WALTER n online petition calling on Lan- gara College to stop dissecting animals as part of a biology class has gone viral. The petition, addressed to Langara administrators including college presi- dent Lane Trotter and members of the biology department, has received over 2,500 signatures on Change.org since it was created last week. It is the latest act by animal rights groups to protest dissections at Langara. Last Tuesday, the Animal Defense and Anti-Vivisection Society of BC (ADAV) and the Stop UBC Animal Re- search Organization protested outside the college’s front entrance to pressure administrators to stop the practice. Only one class, Biology 2350, dissects animals, including cats. The class teaches comparative anatomy. “The use of animals in dissection has been shown to desensitize students to the suffering of animals and erode their natural sense of empathy, com- passion, respect for life and critical thinking,” the petition reads. At last week’s protest, Laura-Leah Shaw, the executive director of ADAV at the protest, said the practice is “just inappropriate.” Universities and colleges should switch to humane alternatives, she added, including computer simulations and plastic models. She claims these methods provide better learning opportunities than tra- ditional dissection. Administrators, however, are stand- ing firm behind the practice. Margaret Heldman, dean of the fac- ulty of science at Langara, said in an CHANDLER WALTER photo Taylor Freedman, left, and Beth Stacks, right, protesting dissections at Langara last Tuesday. email the biology department has looked into virtual dissection technolo- gies, but will continue using dissec- tions because “they are necessary to achieve the learning outcomes of the course and prepare students for more advanced study at the many institutions our programs trans- fer in to.” She added the course is optional. Mario Moniz de Sa, instructor and chair of the Biology Department at Langara, explained, “In many cases [dissections] are irreplaceable.” The University of British Columbia has also received criticism from the groups for in-class dissections. But according to an email sent by Matthew Ramsey, strategic communi- cations director at UBC, teaching protocols, including those that deal with in-class dissections, are rigorously reviewed. “In this review the benefit to the stu- dent learning objective must far out- weigh any harm to the animal,” he said. “As part of the review it must be demonstrated that there is no alterna- tive available to achieve the same teaching objectives.” 66 [Dissec- tions] are neces- sary to achieve the learning outcomes of the course and prepare students for more advanced study at the many institu- tions our programs transfer into MARGARET HELDMAN DEAN OF SCIENCE Third time a charm for election Voting for LSU spring by-election began Monday and ends Thursday By JENNA TYTGAT fter a four-month delay and two Jhisconvcc elections, Langara students should have voted in a new student government this week. The election was held to fill three va- cant positions - international students’ advisor, student affairs officer and sec- retary to council — that weren’t filled in the fall. The by-election was originally set to take place in October, but was cancelled due to “numerous irregulari- ties.” Two of the three candidates, all of whom are running uncontested for the remaining positions, presented their platforms last week. Sukhmanjit Singh campaigned for international students’ advisor and Harsimran Malhi cam- paigned for student affairs officer. Vot- ing began Monday and ends Feb. 4. Singh, an international student in his fifth semester of business manage- ment, said his goal is to help others in- ternational students. “I don’t want them to go through all that I have been through,” he said, re- ferring to difficulties finding housing, work, and meeting people. He also said he’s organized “many events for international students” at the college. He declined to comment further after the forum. Malhi, a second-year business stu- dent, said she wants to bring new hope to the union. “T have volunteered for two years,” she said, “I have found myself really good at it, and I have enjoyed it.” She also said she wants to bring more organized events to the LSU. She listed mental health, mentorships, and promoting academic excellence as her areas of focus. “T haven’t gone through in detail yet, but I will,” she added. Malhi also de- clined to be interviewed after the event. The Voice journalists attending the forum were asked to refrain from tak- ing photos or videos due to building policy. Students line up to vote for LSU candidates on Tuesday. ELECTION timeline OCT. 8: ORIGINAL ELECTION; POSTPONED DUE TO “NUMEROUS IRREGU- LARITIES” NOV. 4: ELECTION HELD; POSTPONED DUE TO LACK OF CANDI- DATES FEB. 4: VOTING FOR THE REMAINIG POSITIONS BEGAN MONDAY AND ENDED THURSDAY Alert: cyber security at risk Langara IT notifies stu- dents and faculty after online learning system breached By CHANDLER WALTER ty are being urged to change their Pearson Canada Higher Education account passwords after a security breach left them vulnerable to cyber at- tacks. On Jan. 26, Langara information technology services sent an email alert to students that their user information for the online learning too] had been compromised. The alert warned that other personal accounts could be in danger if protect- ed with a similar password. Ahacker could potentially figure out the identity of the Pearson account holder, and try that user’s password on online banking and other personal ac- counts. “Statistically, over 80 per cent of peo- ple repeat the same password for mul- tiple sites,” stated the email from IT to Langara students. Mike Schmid, a computer support technician at Langara, said the IT de- partment was notified of Pearson’s lack of encryption and issued their own alert as soon as they learned of the breach. “That’s something that we address pretty quickly and take pretty serious- ly,” said Schmid. Pearson’s MyLab online tool is an in- tegral part of her classes, said Erin Skinner, instructor and assistant chair of the Langara psychology department. “Pearson is a huge company, incred- Ls College students and facul- ibly professional, so ’'m surprised that this type of security risk would come up,” said Skinner. Langara student Dave Ryan, who had to create a Pearson account after purchasing an online textbook, also no- ticed the IT alert. He was unhappy with the lack of en- cryption on Pearson’s website, and as- sumed many students would be impact- ed because online textbooks through Pearson are much cheaper than print versions. “If the workaround for paying such a high cost for your textbook is to have your personal information eventually compromised, the school or the system needs to figure out something better to serve its students,” said Ryan. Vanessa Karmazyn, a learning solu- tions manager at Pearson, told The Voice via email that the company is working on implementing a new sys- tem that will include case sensitive passwords to “further secure user cre- dentials.” CHANDLER WALTER photo Langara IT said they take the threat seriously.