ampus hews EDITOR ALYD LLEWELLYN THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 13,2016 3 Students seeking change from LSU election Quiet study spaces and more water fountains among requests from students By BONNIE LEE LA MADELEINE student union election will provide opportunities for change around campus. The Langara Students’ Union offi- cially kicked off election season on campus in the second week of Septem- ber. Since those elected will advocate for all Langara students over the next year, The Voice asked students what would make their experience on cam- pus better. “Td like a quiet place to study,” said Isabel Nwangi, a mathematics student who arrived on campus in January, and who spends most of her time in the new science building. “There is no place to go that is quiet and doesn’t smell of food.” Other students, who spend their non-class time in the LSU, are con- cerned about a lack of space and water fountains. Danson Jin, a second-year general arts student, said, “More water foun- tains. I don’t see any in the LSU and that’s a problem.” However, the space and layout of fur- niture is a bigger concern for second- year student Pushpinder Budhiraja. “With more students, the space, it’s getting compact. Look, the foosball ta- ble is stuck between those chairs and sofas. “So, its kind of like a lot of things in a small place,” said Budhiraja while pointing at the furniture in the LSU. Students can visit the LSU offices on the second floor of the Students’ Union Building to share ideas, opinions, and suggestions about the LSU and Langa- ra. They can also go online to the LSU “Contact Us” page at www.lsu.be.ca, or students can email their suggestions to the LSU at Isu@Isu.bea.ca. Thirteen positions are up for grabs in this fall’s election, and the campaign period runs from Oct. 22 to Oct. 28. Stu- dents can vote from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 in the Langara Students’ Union Building. cee students hope the upcoming ALYD LLEWELLYN photo Langara Students’ Union Building, where students can vote in the upcoming LSU election. ere should be equal fees" BALA YOGESH photo Langara targeting international students with 2020 Strategic Plan. As of spring 2016, there were 3,055 international students at Langara International students can pay up to six times as much per credit By BALA YOGESH s Langara College is targeting more international students as part of its 2020 Strategic Plan, ome feel their tuition fees are too high. While Langara’s tuition fees for in- ternational students are comparable to other colleges and some other post- secondary institutions in B.C., many students from abroad would like to see more services and benefits available to them. “We, coming from an international place, are facing more struggles, more hardships, and living in worst condi- tions, and are working the hell of it, and we're still paying much more,” said Tanvir Kaur, a kinesiology student at Langara. “I believe there should be equal fees for everyone because we all are studying the same class, and in the same course, and we’re not given a spe- cial kind of treatment or anything like that.” Ajay Patel, associate vice-president of international and external develop- ment at Langara, said the college’s prices are actually cheap compared to some other schools. “Given we are a university transfer institute, our fees are considerably less than UBC, and other major B.C./Canada universities,” Patel said in an email. International students can pay up to six times the fees of domestic students depending on the institution, and de- pending on the number of credits need- ed. At Langara, international students pay $590 per credit, while the fees for domestic students start at $93.69 per credit. Douglas College charges $520 per credit for international students while Kwantlen Polytechnic University charges $561 per credit. In contrast, at UBC international students pay $1,011.97 per credit for most undergrad- uate programs. At Langara, some of the services available to international students in- clude workshops to help students tran- sition into Canada’s post-secondary education system, as well as private counselling. As part of the 2020 Strategic Plan, Langara is targeting more internation- al students to help increase total reve- nue generated independently from 60 per cent to comprise 75 per cent over- all. In the spring of 2014, Langara had 1,474 international students, a number that has more than doubled over the past two years to 3,055. According to B.C.’s Ministry of Ad- vanced Education, international stu- dents spent $2.3-billion in the province in 2012/2018. Student nion ees 1 Langara College fees per credit: $3.90 2 Douglas College fees per credit: $23.55 3 Kwantlen Polytech- nic University fees per credit: $9.35 Source: University websites and student union websites New labs benefit staff and students Langara students think the Science & Technology Building’s new facilities are a huge improvement over the old ones By CAITLIN O’FLANAGAN Building has been a success, espe- cially for students and staff of the biology program. The new building, which incorpo- rates many green building features made from sustainable and local mate- rials, is home to state-of-the-art labs for a number of programs at Langara, in- cluding biology, physics, and nursing. Even the roof is being utilized, with two greenhouses and an observation deck for astronomy. Biology department chair Mario Moniz de Sa, is excited about what the new facilities bring to his department. “I think the greatest benefit has come to the students,” he said. “We have more specialization within our labs which means there’s less courses sharing the same lab, so with prep time Lisitne new Science & Technology and takedown time of labs it means you can actually offer more sections.” Mackenzie Edgar, a second-year bi- ology student, appreciates the large study spaces in the new building be- cause it gives him the luxury to work alongside like-minded people. “TThe] labs are bigger here, every- thing is updated,” said Edgar in com- parison to Building A, where he was studying last year. He also believes the new labs pro- vide a safer work environment for stu- dents. “We didn’t have sufficient fume hoods so it wasn’t the safest thing in the world, and now we have personal fume hoods that come down,” said Ed- gar when comparing the old labs to the new ones. One of the labs is open to students so they can work on experiments and projects in their free time. “Tt’s where I spend most of my time,” said David Nguyen, a microbiology stu- dent at Langara. The new building is five storeys tall with over 12,000 sq. m of space, and the total estimated cost of construction is $48.9-million. CAITLIN O'FLANAGAN photo Microbiology student David Nguyen peers through a microscope in one of Langara’s new labs.