acasicoaii English literature student Amane Matsumoto studies in the Langara Students’ Union building. casrieite PLoNKA PHOTO LSU, union divided Collective agreement dispute still unresolved By GABRIELLE PLONKA n ongoing contract dis- pute between the Langara Students’ Union and its employees will not affect student services, according to an LSU spokesperson. Warren Williams, the president of CUPE 15, the union that represents LSU staff, said the goal is to have stu- dent services continue and to come to an agreement with the LSU. “It’s not in the best interests of the student union, or the union, for there to be job action at this point in time,” Williams said of the dispute that has being going on since the end of last year. “So we would rather work this out.” The collective agreement between the LSU and its employees was not re- newed when it ended in November of last year, leading to a brief lockout of employees in mid-December. Williams said they’ve been able to avoid job action since the lockout, but bargaining can last longer than a year in some situations. “The [LSU has] come in with some very stringent demands and we're look- ing at them and having difficulty com- ing to agreement on those demands,” said Williams, who would not elaborate on those demands. “We're willing to be at the table for as long as it takes.” The LSU media committee, which wrote an email to The Voice, cited “on-going issues” that “have not yet been resolved” but confirmed that, “student ser- : : Eva Turner vices will not be FrstyeaR HEALTH compromised.” SCIENCES STUDENT “We currently have no further comments to provide regarding the [collective bargaining agreement],” the LSU said. ‘The five-year contract was last rene- gotiated in 2012, at which time, LSU staff negotiated two new “floating” paid holidays per year at the employees’ discre- tion, as well as the requirement that ex- ecutive members of the LSU not “meddle or unnecessarily hinder staff members.” Currently, in addition to other benefits, the agreement provides for time off of up to 23 paid holidays, in addition to the two “floating” holidays and up to seven weeks of paid vacation, depending on how many subsequent years the employee has worked as regular staff of the LSU. According to B.C. Labour Relations, short lockouts of a small staff are un- common. The LSU could now imple- ment another lockout at any time in the next 90 days. If the LSU and CUPE 15 cannot come to an agreement, next steps will likely either include job action or the hiring of a mediator to guide the two organizations to renegotiation. Eva Turner, a first-year health sci- ences student, said, “I wasn’t aware of what [the LSU building] kind of did.” Turner said she was unaware of the services that the LSU is fighting to maintain. Langara late to the Strategy game The college's develop- ment of an interna- tionalization plan lags behind other schools By LISA STEACY ne of the last post-second- ary institutions in Metro Vancouver to develop an internationalization strategy, Lan- gara College is now asking students and staff for input in how to inte- grate an ever-increasing number of foreign students. In the last four years, the num- ber of international students at Langara has increased from 2,191 to 6,171. With now a third of Lan- gara’s students coming from abroad, the college established a committee to develop and implement an inter- nationalization strategy that held its first forum on Jan. 31. Langara communications officer Lynette Hawksley, who is part of the committee, said there are al- ready programs and initiatives in place at Langara. She said in an email that Langara needs an “in- tentional” strategy to measure how well current programs are support- ing the increasingly diverse college. “An internationalization strategy takes account of current initiatives and addresses the gaps,” she said via email. “Developing a strategy should be a unique experience for every institution.” In contrast, SFU implemented its internationalization strategy in the early 2000’s, UBC in 2011 and Douglas College in 2012. Much like Langara, BCIT is also current- ly working on a strategy. Internationalization strategies are meant to propose additional programs or services to support staff and students, consider how to infuse an international perspective into curricula and expand opportu- nities for international research and exchanges. ‘The committee didn’t provide ex- amples of new programs or services a strategy might create. According to the college’s internationalization strategy timeline, the practical im- plications of developing and imple- menting a strategy will not be clear until fall 2018. According to Kumari Beck, an associate professor and co-director of SFU's Centre for Research on International Education, enroll- ing more international students in order to increase revenue is not the same thing as having an interna- tionalization strategy. “Internationalization has been proceeding, much to the alarm of many who are involved in the field, as very much an economic activ- ity,” she said. “As institutions take on more inter- national activity, there’s been a recognition that you just can't have —_interna- tional activities without —actu- ally planning for then” 8 Kumari Beck Int tonal “Z-DIRECTOR OF nternational — sFu CENTRE FOR students Rei RESEARCH ON Nagaya and — INTERNATIONAL Sukriti Kalra at- EDUCATION tended the Jan. 31 forum and are on the interna- tionalization committee. Both said they would like to see more stu- dents—domestic and internation- al—participate in the consultation process. Nagaya’s advice for building a strategy was, “not to build a wall between domestic and internation- al students.” Additional feedback from stu- dents and staff will be solicited by survey later this semester. Inter- nationalization forums Langara com- munity online survey Focus groups Town hall to share data and gather feedback on the proposed strategy SOURCE: LANGARA.CA U-Passed the possible price increase Last week, Stu- dents voted yes to continuation of the program By AGAZY MENGESHA angara students voted last L week in favour of continuing the U-Pass B.C. program beyond the current Dec. 31, 2019 program expiry date. Automatically attached to the vote, was a poten- tial five per cent future fee increase, something other post-secondary institutions omitted from their TransLink agreement referendums. SFU and BCIT also renewed their respective U-Pass agreements without making students vote on a possible fee increase for 2020. Though TransLink has not indi- cated it would increase fees when the current agreement expires at the end of 2019, the LSU website states the transit company raises the U-Pass fee by about five cent every year. ‘This is why the LSU chose to have students vote on the potential increase instead of holding another referendum down the road. Should TransLink increase the cost of the U-Pass in 2020, other institutions will need to hold another referen- dum to approve the hike. “In the future, the LSU along with many other schools will be able to negotiate a price increase without having to go for referendum as long as it is a maximum of up to 5% increase,” the LSU said in a written statement. Rhythm Vashisd, a ‘yes’ voter, said he wasn't concerned about the in- crease. “Better a five per cent increase then a 100 per cent,” said Vashisd, who was unconcerned that SFU and BCIT had chosen to © delay its referendum on “i a possible price increase. While BCIT did not attach the price hike to the U-Pass renewal \ vote, the BCIT Stu- », dent Association vice \ president Timothy \ David said he un- < derstood and ap- proved of the LSU’s decision. “Referendums do take a lot of time, take a lot of resources,” he said. “It’s difficult to get student engage- ment, especially with such a topic, although it’s very well used. A lot of students don’t want to contribute the time to it.” The vote passed on Feb. 1, with 97 per cent of voters in favour of the renewal and possible hike. Students arriving to Langara College on the 49 Metrotown Station bus: a busy bus route for students. Ac4zy MENGESHA PHOTO.