ampus hews EDITOR CHRISSLATER THE VOICE, THURSDAY, NOV. 6,2014 3 CHRIS SLATER photo Many Langara students said they’ve noticed crows pecking at the grass on the school’s front field in recent weeks. Don't blame those crows Crows not the primary culprits in damage to Lower Mainland turf By KERA SKOCYLAS Ithough crows appear to be system- atically destroying Langara’s front field, one expert said these plumed pests aren’t the only guilty party. It turns out it’s not beaks, but paws and claws causing the initial damage to local turf. Over the past few weeks many Langara students said they have noticed dozens of crows around campus, pecking holes in the grass. According to the City of Vancouver's website, the damage caused to local turf is attributed to the European chafer bee- tle dirst discovered locally in 2001) and the wildlife tearing up the turf to feast on them. However crows are not really to blame according to a UBC applied biology pro- fessor, Murray Isman, who explained that the damage caused to area turf is a chain reaction of raccoons and skunks tearing up the grass to feast on the beetle and crows coming to scavenge what’s left. Langara health science student Char- lene Puche said she has noticed a lot of crows on the field at Langara. “If the fields look weird, it’s probably because of the crows,” she said. Isman said the damage caused to lawns he’s seen, both around his neighbourhood and UBC, are likely attributed to this par- ticular beetle. However he said he believes it’s not crows that are actually physically tearing up the turf. “T actually think it’s raccoons and skunks that are ripping up the lawns and the crows are just going up and cleaning up the debris.” Isman explained that he doesn’t think crows are physically capable of being able to tear up turf. “T don’t think the crows could rip up a square foot of turf, but raccoons and skunks certainly can. I don’t think the crows are quite the culprits in this one,” he said. 66 Derek Matthews, chair of the Van- I don’t couver Avian Research Centre ex- think the plained that crows are scavengers and that when they’re digging in the crows are ground, they’re searching for various quite the invertebrates for food. e, 8 He said that crows in groups ex- culprits mn change information to one another this one about where to find food. Matthews said that at this time of year, crows congregate in large num- bers to sleep in communal groups called roosts which can range in size from a few hundred to millions, which is why they are so visible right now. “Crows are not evil, they are just try- ing to live their lives and feed their families just like we are,” he explained. MURRAY ISMAN UBC APPLIED BIOLOGY PROFESSOR Langara key in Nunavut project LARRY RAILTON Nunavut education minister praises program created in | conjunction with Langara By NICH JOHANSEN N unavut’s education minister recently Manager, servic- praised a training program devel- es for aboriginal oped in conjunction with Langara to students at fill the urgent demand for school counsel- Langara lors in the territory, where the the residu- al effects of residential schools are still 4 r4 felt today. Paul Quassa spoke in the legislature We have on Oct. 28 and described the program so many as a “valuable training program” in Nunavut schools. He described Lan- y outh gara College as a “leader in counsellor comitting _ training in Canada.” Quassa expects oe the program to produce 17 graduates in suicide February 2015. LARRY RAILTON Larry Railton, manager of services for aboriginal students at Langara, was inte- MANAGER, gral in developing the training curricu- SERVICES Jum. FOR ABORIGINAL With negative impacts of residential STUDENTS AT schools still present in the North, there is LANGARA a drastic need for trained counsellors, Railton said. “You have gas sniffing, you have alco- hol, you have drugs, the whole gamut that’s going on,” Railton said. “We have so many youth that are committing sui- cide.” According to the government of Nuna- vut, 80.1 out of 100,000 people committed suicide in 2012, nearly eight times the rate of the Canadian average. People un- der the age of 20 committed 41 per cent of these suicides. An understanding of culture is impor- tant for counsellors in many northern communities, where the population has been ravaged by addiction. “How can you counsel people without culture?” Railton said. “Imagine growing up as a teenager or preteen with nothing to do other than watching a community struggle with addiction. We can’t under- stand that.” Due to geography and harsh weather conditions the program faced many logis- tical challenges. “We deliver the programs in Iqaluit but those [schoo] community counsel- lors] are from all over the Baffin Region,” Railton said. “In the winter time we'll be subject to blizzards so it could be that some of the students may not even get out of their communities ... it’s a logisti- cal nightmare.” Nunavut’s District Education Authori- ty (DEA) chose Langara to help develop the curriculum from a shortlist of ten uni- versities and colleges across Canada, starting in 2012. The 28 month program trains what the Inuit call, [inniarvimmi Inuusilirijiit, a school counsellor that “promotes person- al guidance and counselling to students” according to Quassa. “When the representative from the de- partment of education from Nunavut called, I was the point of first contact,” Railton said. “We had a relationship with Native Education College in terms of the com- munity social work program and they liked that model.” Funding for the development of the curriculum was paid for by Nunavut’s DEA. “It’s a big deal, it’s a big program,” Railton said. “A lot of work but at the end of the day, very, very satisfying.” Research showcase ears Up Upcoming showcase will have a variety of research exhibits on display By MEL EDGAR entering the third annual Langara Research Showcase is tomorrow, Nov. 7. The showcase will be held on Nov. 19 and 20 in the breezeway between Build- ings A and B from 11:00a.m. to 1:30p.m. Margaret Heldman, dean of science at Langara, said the showcase is held so the college can exhibit something re- ally flashy, exciting and engaging. She said everybody is welcome because re- search is being done in every depart- ment at the college in every way. Criteria for what constitutes schol- arly research are very open, and every- body from science to arts students are welcome to participate, said Tomo Tanaka, division chair of creative arts at Langara. There’s a couple ways students can participate, said Tanaka. “They can simply be a volunteer and help set up and take down, or if they have research that they would like to showcase they can come direct to us or through their instructor.” Research is more than just people with lab coats and microscopes, ex- plained Tanaka. “Artists do applied re- search every day when they create something.” Examples of research projects en- tered this year include a book about Nunavut, Canadian history and climate change, a presentation about the Euro- pean fire ant invasion of B.C. and an audio/visual presentation about the ap- plications of biochar, a form of carbon made from biomass. Giselle Lemay, a Langara publishing instructor said, publishing students are currently designing infographics, popular data visualizations in maga- zines, books and newspapers. “[This] will be a great opportunity to show what publishing students have done to present research data in a highly visu- al and attractive way.” Kathryn Taylor, a third-year science student at Langara said, students get a lot out of participating in the showcase and get to share what they’ve been working on, with others. “We also get a sense of accomplish- ment by putting together all the data we have found and seeing the project as a whole.” He: up students, the deadline for MEL EDGAR photo Margaret Heldman, dean of science at Langara, said students from ev- ery department are welcome to take part in the research showcase.