the new year. PHOTO BY SASHA LAKIC

Smokers jeer hut removal

Demolition of the smoking hut is scheduled for January ‘18

By TARAN GILL

mokers at Langara College

are upset over the scheduled

demolition of the smok-

ing hut outside Building B,
which they consider to be a place to
socialize not just for themselves but
for non-smokers, too.

A survey conducted last spring
semester showed 74 per cent of
Langara students, faculty and staff
in favour of a smoke-free campus,
while 39 per cent supported cre-
ation of designated smoking areas

(DSA’s). Despite the latter statis-

tic, the college’s smoke-free com-
mittee has decided to get rid of
the two smoking areas on campus,
including the
removal of the
smoking hut in

“Tt's going to be

smoke and that removing it won't
change his habits.

“We are not close to doorways,
or the daycare;
we're not close to
other students,”

January 2018. unfair to everyone King said, adding
Austyn ” that he has yet to
King, market- else. see a non-smoker
ing and BBA | —JorDANV.D. SCHAAF-GRANT, BUSINESS | at the hut convert
student and a STUDENT to smoking.
smoker, said “All the research
that it is wrong and work they put

for the school to remove it because
they dont realize that it is also a so-
ciable place for people who do not

into it was someone simply trying
to find a problem, and when you
look for a problem, you're guaran-

teed to find one.”

Jordan van der Schaaf-Grant,
business student and a non-smoker,
does not think that it is fair that
smokers are losing the hut.

“They should have a _ choice,
otherwise they would just smoke
around everyone else,” Schaaf-
Grant said. “It’s going to be unfair
to everyone else who does not want
to be around it.”

Dawn Palmer, co-chair of the
smoke-free committee, did not re-
spond in time to queries regarding
the impact of the hut demolition on
smokers’ behaviout.

Robbery
Sparks
little fear

Students are unfazed
by campus robbery
thanks to quick action

By LISA TANH

? 4 hough students were sur-
prised that a robbery took
place at Langara College

last July, they have trust in the cam-

pus security protocols after a quick
arrest by Vancouver police.

On July 21, during night classes,
two students were robbed at gun-
point. Security personnel initiated
a lockdown and informed the po-
lice, who arrested the robber a short
while later close to Main Street and
East 17th Avenue. Within an hour
the lockdown was lifted and stu-
dents were free to leave classes.

Nainpreet Uppal, a bioinformat-
ics student at Langara College, was
surprised that a robbery had hap-
pened on campus.

“These things can happen, but
I don't doubt the security system
here,” Uppal said. “This [incident]

proves the system is quite good and

Langara College's campus security team was on guard on the night of July 21, when an armed robber took off with two

students’ electronics. PHOTO BY LISA TANH

fast, and the best thing was that no-
body was hurt.”

Constable Jason Doucette, media
spokesperson with the Vancouver
Police Department, could not com-

SUBMITTED PHOTO

BIO-INFORMATICS STUDENT

ment on the robbery as the case is
now before court, but said that the
security firms on Vancouver's cam-
puses are crucial during security
incidents.

“They

assist

a * us in allocatin
These things can our resources in
happen, but I don't a way that can
: get everyone
doubt the security safe and come
” to a success-
system here. ful resolution,”
— NAINPREET UPPAL, Doucette said.

“They are our
eyes and ears.”

Michele Bowers, chair of Langa-
ra College’s counselling department
said she is not aware of students
wanting to talk about the summer
incident, and that generally campus
security is not a frequent topic of
discussion.

“Events in the world have raised
our concerns and hyper-vigilance
around safety,” Bowers said, refer-
ting to high-profile shootings and
other security incidents across the
world over the last decade. “I think,
there is more of an institutional
level of concern around safety and
responsiveness to critical incidents.”

Langara
Arts move
in question

Department move to
Granville Island faces
competition

By NATALIA BUENDIA
CALVILLO

fter spending the last year

A trying to secure the recent-

ly vacated South Building

at the Emily Carr University of Art

+ Design campus on Granville Is-

land, Langara College may be out
of luck.

Rodney Porter, _communica-
tions director at the B.C. Ministry
of Advanced Education, Skills &
‘Training, said “in the coming weeks
we will be reviewing the next steps
to determine the future usage of the
space.” The ministry, and long-term
leaseholder of the South Building,
cannot disclose who has shown
interest or what type of institution
will occupy the space.

Porter could not say whether the
space would, in fact, be used by an
educational institution.

Ajay Patel, vice-president of ex-
ternal development at Langara,
said via email that the college has
reiterated its interest to take on the
available space to Minister Melanie
Mark during her visit last August.

News reports have speculated
that Kwantlen Polytechnic Uni-
versity, Capilano University, Arts
Umbrella, and even the U.S.-based
organization Delancey Street
Foundation are among the insti-
tutions said to be interested in the
space.

Some 2,500 Langara Creative
Arts students from departments
such as web development, photog-
raphy, aboriginal carving and other
fine arts would be the potential new
users of the facilities.

Under Langara’s plan, the poten-
tial Granville Island location would
house the art departments of Lan-
gara. Prerequisite electives, such as
mathematics, English and history,
would still have to be taken at the
main campus.

Alston So, a first-year fine arts
student, said the commute between
campuses would be difficult if elec-
tives were still at Langara.

“T really don’t think I would like
that,” he said. “If so, I would defi-
nitely like the courses to be sepa-
rated by day.”

For other students, it is the atmo-
sphere at Langara that makes them
hesitant to change campuses.

“It wouldn't be the same vibe as
Langara, I like it here,” said fine arts
student Miho McLaughlin.

“Different people getting togeth-
er. If it was just going to be for cre-
ative arts then it would be kind of a
small school vibe."

Artful lockers may soon be a thing of

the past at Langara College. eHoT0 sy
NATALIA BUENDIA CALVILLO