ampus news EDITOR DUSTIN GODFREY THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT'8, 2015 3 BRIEFLY on campus Campus voting vanishes from main foyer Election page on website apparently defunct, as voting booths missing from Building A main foyer Student democracy was missing in action Wednesday at Langara College, with no voting booth in Building A. Similarly, clicking on the ‘Elections’ tab on the Langara Students’ Union website yielded little help, redirecting users to the home page. The four-day voting period was scheduled from Oct. 5 until Oct. 8. Stu- dents conducted regular checks for a voting booth all day Wednesday after- noon without any luck. Ballot counting for the LSU election was scheduled to begin on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in the LSU’s boardroom, im- mediately following the voting period. Sixteen candidates vying over 10 councillor positions in the LSU. The LSU was unable to comment by deadline. Tatum MacLean, psychology student and councillor candidate spoke to stu- dents at a candidates’ forum. “We are the ones that make up the community,” she said. Headway made with flooded rooms One room open, with two more, including Mac lab set to open next week Langara College classroom back in working order, after several rooms were damaged when a sprinkler went off on the second floor of Build- ing A last month. Two more rooms are expected to be back in use next week. Room A211 was returned to service on Monday. Room A212 and the A110 Mac lab will be in use next week, direc- tor of facilities Wendy Lannard said. Despite water pouring into the com- puter lab on Sept. 22, no computers were damaged, said associate director of information technology Justin Yau. Design formation instructor Marcela Noriega, who teaches a class in the lab, noted the rapid set up of a temporary lab in the library with the same com- puters following the incident. “Students were really pleased and happy, since they had to finish a project that week,” Noriega said. Lannard said the flood affected 10 faculty offices, two classrooms, a com- puter room and two additional rooms. “We're not sure how it exactly hap- pened, but (the sprinkler) most likely was accidently hit,” she said. Reser services have got one — Compiled by Julia Wickham JULIA WICKHAM photo The affected hallway was cleared out as restoration crews worked on repairing the office rooms. ilize your Kential at Pr o + a" SAYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI photo Maggie Stewart said she was informing students of the new program during Langara College’s volunteer fair. VOLT puts ‘Cin community C-Change to offer broader community volunteering opportunities FALL at VOLT By SEYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI s a way to expand Langara Col- lege’s volunteer program, VOLT is piloting a new project this se- ester to bring student volun- teers beyond school grounds. VOLT volunteer program coordina- tor Maggie Stewart said that C-Change has been in the works for the past year, and aims to bring volunteers more op- portunities to work in the communities of Vancouver. She said that students indicated desire for a greater role in community volunteering. “The C in C-Change stands for com- munity; the tag line is: ‘Do you want to C Change?” Stewart said. “We know a lot of students are coming to our office to volunteer and be able to have an im- pact in their community.” C-Change will kick off by taking Lan- gara volunteers tree planting in Pacific Spirit Regional Park on Oct. 17, with the Metro Vancouver Regional Parks Ecological Restoration Team and their EcoBlitz campaign. In November, C-Change will launch a clean-up event in the community sur- rounding the college and in December, C-Change will launch Christmas Ham- pers 2015 in collaboration with Marpole Oakridge Family Place. Alisha Samnani, health science stu- dent, said she spends most of her free time at The Hub, which houses the VOLT program. “T am participating in C-Change,” Samnani said. “We are going to plant trees in a park and it will be beautify- ing our community.” Ivy Han, psychology student, said volunteering both at the college an in the community hold value. “Tf you do it in Langara, you are more engaged on campus, but outside the campus your engagement is with big- ger community,” Han said. “You get en- gaged with the community and you get experience.” Stewart said she sees community volunteering as a way to apply the skills students learn in class to work outside the college. “The indirect goal of C-Change is to send students to the community,” Stewart said. “So they have some sense of stewardship of our community and through that process, develop some so- cial awareness skills.” 1 2 3 Position: Youth workshop Facilita- tors. Organization: West Coast LEAF. When: Oct. 12 Position: Volunteer Tutor. Organization: Frontier College. When: Nov. 25 Position: Graphic Designer Organization: What's Your Impact When: Dec. 12 Source: langara.ca Aboriginal transfer program cemented Langara, UBC hopeful program will expand aboriginal enrolment By ANNE-SOPHIE RODET transfer program between Langa- ra College and UBC hope its im- plementation will boost enrolment from the aboriginal community. The UBC-Langara Aboriginal Trans- fer Program, which was formalized on Sept. 25, aims to support aboriginal stu- dents in their transition to UBC through mentorship and financial aid. The announcement comes after a three-year pilot, which took 12 Langara students through the program. Linc Kesler, director of the UBC First Nations House of Learning, said there is an “underrepresentation of aborigi- nal students in higher education.” However, Langara dean of student services and registrar Clayton Munro said he expects the new program will Qi: of aboriginal student increase aboriginal representation in both schools. “We are very optimistic that this will have a significant impact on enrolment of aboriginal learners at Langara and significantly increase the number of aboriginal learners transferring to UBC,” Munro said. As long as the students meet the re- quirements of the participating depart- ments, admission is guaranteed “re- gardless of the amount of competition,” UBC director of undergraduate admis- sions Andrew Arida said. Although some students hadn’t yet heard of the program, it has been well received. “It definitely opens possibilities for us,” first-year health sciences student Angeline Day said. “Why not access my opportunities?” first year psychology student Jeana Poorman said. In an effort to inform students, eight UBC advisers came to an Aboriginal Feast on Tuesday at the Gathering Space, a dedicated place for aboriginals at Langara. ANNE-SOPHIE RODET photo Gail Sparrow (left), Elder-in-Residence at Langara Col- lege, said she was pleased to see a large attendance at this year’s Aboriginal Feast.