Foundation boosts bursaries Since COVID-19, the Langara College Foundation has kept financial aid donors engaged by hosting unique funding events By NICOLETTE COLOSIMO angara College surpassed its goal of raising $1 million in bursaries in an effort to help students who need support because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2015, the college set a goal of raising its yearly bursary funding to $1 million by 2020. The executive director of the Langara College Foun- dation, Moira Gookstetter, has changed the way the foundation raises money. Fundraising events, which were previously done in person, have moved online, which has unexpectedly been beneficial in widening the pool of donors. “Moving the auction online, we've actually raised more money because more people have been part of it online,” said Gookstetter. “Every student has a need and every donor has a cause they want to support.” This fall, the foundation held an auction for the Support Our Students campaign, known as SOS, with 165 online items, and raised over $12,000. Langara staff, such as Gerda Krause, dean of the faculty of science, donate money to the SOS fund to ensure every student has COLLEGE FOUNDATION support. “There are a lot of avenues for students to get help, and I think I put that down to the people who work here. There is a strong commitment to helping students be successful and that means in the classroom, but it also means helping them with their day-to-day strug- gles,” Krause said. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE LANGARA “You can't fix everything, but if you have the opportunity to fix something it’s important to step up.” These funding initiatives have become a necessity, with an increasing demand on the Langara programs which dispense grocer- ies and provide hampers of school supplies and necessities for students. ii “Every student has a “Since the start of the Aq school year we distrib- X ; need and every donor eat ae eunrTy — = has a cause they want bags, which averages " out to be about 85 bags to support. per week. This has more — MOIRA GOOKSTETTER than doubled since last year,” Gookstetter said. “In September 2020, we distributed 279 hampers to students and this year we supported 511 students.” In the wake of COVID-19, the number of students applying for bursary funding increased from 338 in 2020 to 439 in 2021. Jordan Berger, associate registrar for the financial aid department, encourages students to visit the registrar's office. “We do have a lot of bursaries and a lot of funds that can help students out,” Berger said. “You just need to seek it out, find it and apply.” While some bursaries have specific qualifications, general bursaries only require applicants to be full-time students with good academic standing and financial need. Second-year theatre student Brian Martinez applied for general bursa- ries, which he said made a difference after losing his job. “When COVID hit, my cashflow instantly halted. I had no idea what to do,” Martinez said. “I was frantically trying to apply to any and every bursary, so that I could at least go for a year or two.” Martinez received $1,050 in bursary funds. “Although it’s not an enormous amount. I used $500 for five months of groceries,” Martinez said. “Getting the bursary assured me that I was on the right track and allowed me to not feel even more stressed than I already am with COVID and schooling.” Number of students who applied for bursaries in 2021 Bags of groceries handed out to students per week, on average, since the start of the school year Hampers with supplies and necessities have been distributed so far in 2021. SOURCE: LANGARA COLLEGE FOUNDATION Plastics plan unclear Langara 2025 Strategy is vague about the future of single-use plastics By ASHLEY BURGOYNE angara College has saved over 2.2 million plastic bottles with the addition of water filling stations on campus, but specific initiatives to eliminate single-use plastics are vague in the school’s strategic plan. Many students returning to campus have noticed a change in the amount of single-use plastics at the college. Some changes, like the wrapping of fruit in plastic and the removal of plastic cutlery from dispensers, are due to COVID-19 safety measures. Campus vending machines continue to offer beverages in plastic bottles as other post-secondary insti- tutions have begun phasing them out despite the pandemic. Fourth-year student Tanja Jancic-Turner, who coordinates the Sustainability Student Ambassador program at Langara, is disappointed to see plastic bottles in the vending machines. “You can see certain areas where improvements are already happening and then there are other areas that we need to attempt to address some- 7 - how,” Jancic-Turner said. In 2020, The Voice reported that the school was looking into ways to reduce single-use plastics on campus. In its sustainability policy dated 2017, Langara pledged to “demonstrate its strong commit- ment to environmental sustainabil- ity through its operational practices and initiatives.” The college has echoed this in its 2025 strategic plan, stating that its priorities are to “enhance and report on campus sustainability (sec. 4 4.7),” as well as to “contribute to climate action by increasing sustainability on campus (sec. 4 4.14).” SFU in Burnaby has made prog- ress on reaching specific goals to eliminate single-use plastics on its campus. In 2021, the school phased out single-use plastic bottles on campus with accessibility consider- ations in mind. It now offers reus- able water bottles for sale in vending machines and at the campus book- store. The Langara cafeteria, in A Build- ing, sells fruit, desserts and sand- wiches packaged in plastic. Chartwells, the company that provides Langara’s food services, follows the school’s policies as well as its own when implementing a plan for sustainability. “We try to use as much recycled [packaging] as possible,” said Chart- wells general manager Kenneth Lee. He said the individual wrappings are due to COVID-19 protocols to avoid cross-contamination. In an email to The Voice, Langara facilities director Dwayne Doorn- bosch said, “We are working hard on our sustainability initiatives.” Langara is on par with the Univer- sity of California, Davis, with the installation of water filling stations to encourage usage of reusable bottles. UC Davis, located in northern California, is considered a global leader in sustainability. According to the University of California policy on sustainable practices, “the university is commit- ted to the reduction and elimination of single-use items in line with the university's and the state of Califor- nia’s zero-waste goals and in recog- nition of the severe environmental impact single-use products have globally.” The school had a goal to elimi- nate all plastic bags in retail and food establishments by January 2021 and is working on phasing out all single- BURGOYNE PHOTO use plastics across its campuses by 2023. Langara and UC Davis are part of a sustainability tracking and rating system run by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, which works on initiatives on campuses across 20 countries. UC Davis received a gold rating in March 2020 and Langara achieved a silver rating from the program in June. Some students recognize Langa- ra’s efforts to become a more sustain- able school. Student Olivia Whitelaw praised the recycling station located in the school cafeteria and said Langara is doing a good job. “T’ve never seen such a huge recy- cling station,” she said.