Cws EDITOR BRONWYN SCOTT THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013 2 PORTRAIT: pect of a person's pir environment... a i PATRICK COLVIN photo Green Party candidate Regan-Heng Zhang of the Vancouver-Langara riding discusses his goals for the upcoming election. Green Party discusses goals Candidate Regan-Heng Zhang of the Vancouver-Langara district admits he doesn’t know much about government By PATRICK COLVIN reen Party MLA candidate Re- gan-Heng Zhang of the Vancou- ver-Langara riding sat down with The Voice last week to dis- cuss his goals for the upcoming provin- cial election. Zhang is also a co-founder of the Young Greens of BC and presi- dent of the UBC Green Party. The Voice: What do you think are going to be central issues in this elec- tion? Zhang: Post-secondary education is certainly one of the top issues for me. B.C. currently has the highest student loan interest rate in Canada — we would like to see that change. For this election we are proposing to lower tuition rates by 20 per cent and increase university and college core funding in the prov- ince by at least $200 million a year. The Voice: The three main goals listed in the 2018 Green Book, which outlines the party’s plans, are to cre- ate more affordable housing, to rein- vest in an environmentally friendly economy and to improve health care. Do you feel your party has the ability to create a balanced budget while still achieving all these goals? Zhang: The Green Party definitely believes in a balanced budget even though we are advocating for all these programs. We want a government that isn’t going to run into debt. It’s more difficult for the Green Party of B.C. to put down specifically when we can implement [our goals], when we can reduce tuition by 20 per cent. It’s very difficult for us mostly because we actually don’t get access to those num- bers; we’re not in the legislature yet, so that’s why this election is so crucial. The Voice: Those numbers aren’t available through freedom of infor- mation requests? Zhang: They are... but we’re not in the legislature to actually be involved in the process of how those numbers are made. And we have somewhat of a lack of knowledge on how things are actually run in the government cur- rently. The Voice: Last week’s issue of The Voice had a story about students being apathetic about voting How are you going to get students to vote? Zhang: That’s actually more impor- tant than me being a candidate. I think that getting youth to vote is more im- portant than getting youth to vote Green. ELECTION predictions 1 Based on a cam- paign research poll the Green Party will have 12 per cent support 2 The NDP will have 38 per cent support 3 The Conservatives will have 13 per cent of the voters’ favour 4 About 33 per cent will vote Liberal 5 About four per cent will vote for other candidates Source: B.C. Election 2013 Langara staff raise money for cancer Cathy Nishikawa sells flowers for cancer research By NIALL SHANNON raising money for cancer research and promoting cancer awareness, is approaching in April. This year the Canadian Cancer Soci- ety’s event features a personal touch from a Langara staff member, who will be raising money by selling flowers. Cathy Nishikawa, a data entry clerk working in the financial services de- partment, has been involved in sup- porting the fight against cancer for a number of years by raising money amongst staff for the Canadian Cancer Society. “Tt’s just a personal thing, it’s not an actual event that Langara hosts, but Langara benefits,” she said. Nishikawa’s annual sale began when a UBC employee had a surplus of daf- fodils six years ago and passed on the remainder to Langara staff. Nishikawa picked them up. Six years later, it’s still going strong. Nishikawa orders 50 flowers every Daf- fodil Month, taking a stock donation of five dollars and giving the revenue to the society. Last year she had several blossoms left over, but this year she has sold the lot. “T don’t make any money, but the cancer society always gets their $250,” added Nishikawa. In April the Canadian Cancer Soci- ety has a designated Daffodil Day to promote the organization’s message with the group’s logo, the daffodil. This year it falls on April 27. The society sells replicas of the flower to wear and show support in raising awareness for the disease. Donations received by the society are used in different ways, including funding support groups, running camps for children with cancer and easing the burdens of the disease, ac- cording to the society’s website. Efforts to make staff members’ con- tributions into a more publicly promot- ed event have not worked, said Nishika- wa, who tried to co-ordinate with Langara’s volunteer society, VOLT. “It’s really hard to [arrange], it has to be all scheduled out, and I guess the timing of it is hard,” said Nishikawa. April has additional problems with stu- dents writing exams and classes end- ing, she added. VOLT did not respond by deadline. DD: Month, a time dedicated to School study spaces Continued from page 1 But one student doesn’t think find- ing a place to study is too hard. “It’s not that bad,” said business stu- dent Kaitlyn Kuypers. “There’s always somewhere to sit, it’s not always the most comfortable but there’s always somewhere,” she said. In 2007, the library was constructed to provide “much needed study space that had been lacking at the college,” said Lannard. She claims the college is committed to continuing an increase in study space. Langara has a 18 to one student-to- study-space ratio, while Douglas Col- lege has a 22 to one ratio. Langara has 9,485 students enrolled this term, according to department of institutional research director Larry Xiong and 725 study spaces. Douglas, on the other hand, has ap- proximately 10,500 students and only 479 study spaces. Brainpower cashes in at scholarship event Langara’s scholarship ceremony will distribute a total of $70,000 to 115 lucky student recipients By JESSE ADAMSON emony will be doling out cash to students on Monday afternoon. The annual event is being held March 25 on the second floor of the school’s library. Langara offers two types of scholar- ships. General scholarships are avail- able to students currently registered in a minimum of 12 credits and who were enrolled in at least 12 credits in one of the previous two semesters. These are advertised online and in the financial aid office. Students can apply for them at the beginning of the semester. Departmental scholarships are GPA- based and program faculty recom- mends eligible students when they meet specific scholarship criteria. De- partments have their own application and selection process. T: Langara spring scholarship cer- At Monday’s event, organizers will emphasize the support from the people and companies donating money. “Without the donors we wouldn’t have all of these scholarships to offer so it’s really important to recognize them,” said Langara financial aid advi- sor Alexandria Everitt. “We want the students who are re- ceiving scholarships to be able to inter- act with them and to show their appre- ciation in person. Faculty are invited for the same reason. That’s what this event is about,” she said. Over 115 scholarships will be given out, totalling roughly $70,000. “IT applied for [a general scholar- ship] last year but I didn’t get it,” says Langara student Grace Bruce. “My marks were pretty good so I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get it...I guess it’s a numbers thing, not every- one can get one,” she said. JESSE ADAMSON photo Langara students Shantel Lietz, Corissa Epp and Hana Yakashiro by the financial aid office at Langara.