FOURPLAY BY STUDIO 56................1:::::4 Studio 58’s popular festival of one-act plays features four new scripts by current students and graduates of the program. ptt MEDIg Ny ) oS Students confused by U-Pass vote The referendum doesn’t convey that students could lose the U-Pass program By ALISON PUDSEY may not have been aware of the po- tential consequences of their vote. Voting ended on Tuesday, and the Langara Students’ Union said the re- sults could be released as early as Thursday. What the students may not have known is that a vote against the pro- posed fee increase of $3 over the next two years would lead to the termina- tion of the U-Pass at Langara College. “If they vote to reject the price in- crease, then they vote to eliminate the U-Pass program,” said Sonia Lowe, a public affairs officer at the Ministry of Transportation, who also explained the referendum would happen at 10 post- secondary institutions in Metro Van- couver. “Each post-secondary institution’s student association is required to hold a referendum for any increase in man- datory student society fees,” she said. Mia Sivic, a sociology student at Lan- gara College, said she wasn’t aware that voting against the fee increase would mean losing the program. She plans to vote for the price increase to keep the U-Pass at Langara College. “T definitely wouldn’t want the pro- gram to expire. That would mean a lot of money out of my own pocket and I’m already paying for tuition, so obviously I wouldn’t want to be paying extra mon- ey to get to school,” Sivic said. A media representative from the LSU, who wouldn’t reveal their identi- ty, said students have been informed about the consequences of the vote. “A team has been created by the LSU that informs students of this change. The team is handing out pamphlets and directing students to the LSU web- site to gain information and learn about the changes for the referendum.” There was no mention on the official LSU pamphlets or website that stu- dents risk losing their U-Pass if the ref- erendum fails to pass. However, the LSU did hand out slips of paper with grammatical errors and confusing lan- guage to explain the potential conse- quences of the vote. RS oy} |: this week’s referendum, students ALISON PUDSEY photo Students will lose the program if they vote against the fee increase. & By CHAHIRA MERARSI hen Rene Roger, a computer science student at Langara College, ordered a beer at the Langara Sushi Café, he was shocked the server wouldn’t ac- cept his Brazilian driver’s licence as a valid piece of ID. “She told me that they can’t sell any- more beers without a B.C. ID or pass- port,” Roger said. The Langara Sushi Café has adopted a stricter approach to liquor service policy by not serving patrons with for- eign IDs, other than passports. According to B.C. liquor laws, official foreign government-issued IDs such as drivers’ licences or passports are ac- ceptable if patrons don’t have a valid B.C. or Canadian ID. Roger thinks the policy is unfair. “It doesn’t make any sense. Their sales are going to go down a lot.” He doesn’t think bringing his pass- port to school is worth the risk. “If you lose your passport and you have your visa attached to it, who knows what you have to do to get a new one,” he said. Peter Lee, manager at the Langara Sushi Café, said the change in policy is an effort to make sure they don’t acci- dentally serve minors. “Drivers’ licences are usually print- CHAHIRA MERARSI photo Brazilian student Rene Roger had to show his passport to get a beer at the Langara Sushi Café. New barrier to booze International students must show their passport to be served liquor at the Langara Sushi Café ed in their own language. There’s no way we can be 100 per cent sure that this is their ID,” Lee said. Lee said the policy applies to all in- ternational IDs, whether in English or otherwise, in order to be fair to all. According to Janis Robertson, a spokesperson for the ministry respon- sible for the Liquor Distribution Branch, management at the Langara Sushi Café is within its right to reject some international IDs. “Servers have the right to refuse ser- vice if an ID contains text which the server cannot understand - such as text that is not written in a language they are familiar with - which prevents them from adequately verifying a birth date or name, or whether it is govern- ment-issued,” Robertson said in an e- mail. B.C. liquor laws state that showing two pieces of ID doesn’t guarantee ser- vice. Establishments have the right to deny liquor service if they have any doubts about a piece of ID. Ridley Wallace, an employee of Ma- rine Gateway Liquor Store, accepts for- eign IDs, but said the Langara Sushi Café is playing it safe by not accepting them. “Ultimately, the person who serves them loses their job so I think it’s safe for them to do that, but I think it sucks at the same time,” he said. 66 Drivers’ licences are usually printed in their own language. There’s no way we can be 100 percent sure that this ts their ID PETER LEE MANAGER LANGARA SUSHI CAFE Langara lobby-less Decision to not hire a lob- byist may hurt Langara College, expert says By JORDAN MACDONALD ists and likely never will, said Ian Humphreys, vice-president of busi- ness planning and strategic develop- ment at Langara College. But according to some experts, there are drawbacks to not having a lobbyist on payroll. Laurent Dobuzinskis, chair of the po- litical science department at Simon Fraser University, said, “Langara Col- lege would be somewhat at a disadvan- tage with its competition if they [the competition] are being better repre- sented by lobbyists in Victoria.” The issue of lobbying by institutions came to light in early 2015 when a Free- dom of Information request revealed that some publicly funded colleges and universities in B.C. have been hiring lobbyists to approach the government. The record showed that some institutions such as Kwantlen Poly- technic University, Royal Roads Uni- versity and Van- couver Communi- ty College hired Les College does not use lobby- lobbyists. Langara ANDREW WILKINSON College wasn’t on Advanced Educa- the list. tion Minister Langara Col- lege faces in- creased costs and decreased funding with no expectation that provincial funding will enable them to keep pace with growth. The college expects to re- ceive $44,207,000 in provincial funding for the 2015-2016 budget year. In an interview with The Voice, Ad- vanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson said post-secondary institu- tions shouldn’t hire lobbyists to try to influence the government. “In the past, there was a pattern of some institutions retaining lobbyists to get advice on how best to deal with gov- ernment. Last March, I made it clear to all institutions that we frowned upon this practice,” he said. Wilkinson, who once lobbied the government on behalf of SFU, said he doesn’t see why colleges and universi- ties need to retain government rela- tions specialists. “In my view, they should be able to talk to me directly rather than having some third party tell them how to talk to me,” Wilkinson said. The FOI request was filed by opposi- tion spokesperson for advanced educa- tion, Kathy Corrigan. “He says he frowns on it. I think it’s because they were embarrassed,” Cor- rigan said in response to Wilkinson’s condemnation of lobbyists being used by post-secondary institutions in B.C.