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Students examine flyer seeking others for shared accomodations, posted on the Student Life bulliten board outside the cafeteria. 241.4« KLAIRE PHOTO

Students: school lacking support for those seeking housing

By PALAK KLAIRE

ith no campus
housing nor college
website to help
find housing, many
Langara students find they are fork-
ing out more rent than they can
afford or living far from campus.
While BCIT and KPU offer off-
campus housing communication
platforms for student-to-student
housing options, this same kind of
information is unavailable on Lang-
ara’s website, frustrating many who
come from abroad or outside the city.
“It’s really hard to find accommo-
dation,” said Ekroop Kaur who stud-
ies web and mobile development at
Langara. “Being a student you have

to take care of many things; it should
be in (your) budget.”

Reba Noel, the manager of
student engagement at Langara
said the demand
to provide this
kind of infor-
mation on the
website is not
high enough.

“Personally
and profession-
ally I would refer
people to UBC’s
site because that encompasses a close
geographic area,” said Noel, adding
that students must ensure online
housing advertisements are reli-
able, and that safety and security of
students must be a priority.

Many Langara students look for

“Sometimes finding a
place to stay without
knowing about it isn't
safe.”

— KESHAV RAI, LSU INTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT

accommodations on third-party
websites.

“There are some greats risks about
that,” said Noel.“When you go about
that kind of
service you
have to make
sure there
are mecha-
nism or prac-
tices in place
where you
can mitigate
with that
risk.”

Using websites or social media to
find rental accommodations is a great
way to connect people, but they can
also be a hotspot for fraud, accord-
ing to the Langara Student Union
Internal Vice President, Keshav Rai.

“Sometimes finding a place to stay
without knowing about it isn’t safe,”
Rai said.

On the BCIT website a disclaimer
says they do not “assume any respon-
sibility for agreements made between
the student and the landlord.” The
site also states they do not “screen,
inspect, warrant or approve,” any
agreements or accommodations.

“There are other ways students
can find a trustworthy place when
it comes to shared and affordable
accommodations, said Himanshu
Gautam, a student-elected member
of the Langara College Board of
Governors.

“Some of my friends have pages on
Instagram, where they provide infor-
mation about jobs and accommoda-
tion,” Gautam said.

Punjabi Market revamp taking

Motion has yet to show
improvements or
increase foot traffic
By HENRI NGIMBIS
unjabi Market venders in
Pp Vancouver are migrating to
Surrey on account of better

business opportunities, leaving the
culturally unique South Vancouver

counter. PHOTO HENRI NGIMBIS

area fighting for its existence.

In an effort to revitalize the
epicenter of the city’s South Asian
community, Councillor Pete Fry
successfully passed a motion entitled,
Punjabi Market at Fifty: Celebrating
the Past and Planning for the Future
in June 2019.

“I know that things have really
started to slide and deteriorate.
We've lost a lot of that cultural
component,” Fry said.

Shops that have left the Punjabi

Market are being replaced by fran-
chises such as Tim Hortons and
Freshii Inc. Shop owners say they
have fewer customers than before
and are struggling to keep their busi-
nesses alive.

"Many

too long

In order to help the market survive,
the proposal of the India Gate was
first introduced by the Gordon
Campbell administration in 2008.
To this date, it has not been executed.
Since then, residents find themselves

betrayed by

Indian families “Many Indian su sed politicians.

have moved . . Section 6 of
te s urrey to live over here. This the, Panj abi
where Indians . arket at 50,
have opened | Market wasthe firstto | motion states
new shops,” | onen inthe whole B.C.” | thats new
said Inderit construction
Bunwait, —HARINDER TOOR, PUNJAB FOOD CENTER and residential
part owner development

of Amrit Fashions. “In addition,
charges over here are becoming very
expensive,” he added.

Others simply lament the loss of
the neighbourhood’s rich history.

“It is true that when the Punjabi
Market opened 50 years ago, there
were mainly food and clothes stores
for Indian customers,” said Harinder
Toor, who opened the Punjab Food
Center in 1981.

Toor said customers visiting the
neighbourhood’s new franchises
arent shopping the older shops that
still remain in the market.

“Many Indians used to live over
here. This market was the first to
open in the whole B.C.”

has the potential to transform the
area.

Pardeep Kohli, owner of Kohli
Men Hair Stylist Ltd and Kohli’s
Mastercuts Hairstyles said with or
without the government’s help he
remains optimistic about the future
of the market and sees the city with
a mentality of globalization which is
a quickly changing city.

“The city administration thinks of
bringing back customers over here
by modernizing the infrastructure
around the market. But it takes too
long,” said Kohli.

“We have more and more mixed
communities than before with new
business ambitions,” Kohli said.

Tims
Kiosks
a hit
Students say self

service reduces
wait times

By LINA CHUNG
wo new kiosks installed to
improve wait times at Lang-
ara’s Tim Hortons, have left
some waiting.

Chartwells, the company that
manages the food services at Lang-
ara, worked with the college to install
two Tim Horton's self-serve kiosks
in an attempt to alleviate long line-
ups. The units became functional at
the end of August.

Langara student Nabi Akhtar,
who frequents the kiosks, said one
has often been
out of service and
is semi-satisfied
with wait times.

“There could be
some improve-
ments, especially

4

if they fixed the :
other kiosk,” Anh Nguyen
Akhtar said.

Rizwan Bandali, STODENT

Chartwells’ Food Services Director,
said they have keys to open the kiosk
and do a reboot. If a reboot doesn’t
correct the error, the next step is
to contact SyCom Technologies, a
third-party tech support company,
to troubleshoot.

Anh Nguyen, an accounting
student, who for the past two weeks
has exclusively used the kiosks, said
she is happy overall with the short-
ened wait time.

In regards to lining up for the
counter, “I don’t want to waste my
time,” Nguyen said.

Eva Hartkopf, a women stud-
ies student, said she believes many
customers don't use them because
they simply don’t know about them.

According to Mark Adams, direc-
tor of ancillary services at Langara,
two locations were considered for
the kiosks. They chose the current
location due to cable and network
connections and avoiding potential
hallways congestion issues.

For customers not wanting to use
the kiosks or stand in line to order
from the counter, there is another
option. Tim Hortons launched their
own App for mobile purchasing in
July 2017, which can also be used for
pickup orders at Langara.

Canadians drink more than 14 bil-
lion cups of coffe a year. Enough to
fill more than half of Lake Superior.

Tim Hortons remains at the top of
Canadians fast food chain, outsell-
ing every other fast food restuarant!

"Double Double" is so entrenched in
our language, it officially was
added to the Canadian Oxford
Dictionary

SOURCE: NEWS OUTLETS