2 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2014 EDITOR AMY JONES Cws LAUREN COLLINS photo Charlotte Coleman, Langara general arts and science student, enjoys a beers at the pub in the Langara Students’ Union building. Neknominations get a shot of kindness with new fad Random acts of kindness replace weird and dangerous drinking stunts By LAUREN COLLINS rinking stunt videos, also known as neknominations, have gone viral, but recently people have changed the fad into doing ran- dom acts of kindness. Starting in Austrialia, neknomina- tions quickly spread to Europe and North America, becoming dangerous when people tried to outdo each other by performing reckless drinking stunts, like drinking rubbing alcohol or jump- ing off bridges. Videos of the stunts fin- ish with a nomination to friends to per- form a stunt of their own. A friend of University of Victoria stu- dents Jordan Houston and Austin Coutts died of heart failure. Along with drinking a beer, the two donated money to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada as part of their neknomination hoping it would encourage people do something positive with theirs. Coutts said neknominations can be fun if you don’t “drink yourselves into oblivion.” The new neknominations have caught on, being dubbed “raknomina- tions” since they involve random acts of kindness. “Tf people are going to be mature and responsible about it, then it’s not the worst idea in the world, but obviously that’s not what happened and people keep trying to take it to the next level,” said Langara criminal justice student Tara Nordin. Nordin posted her neknomination on Facebook and for every “like” the video got, she donated a dollar towards buy- ing tokens from Save On Meats down- town to hand out to homeless people to redeem for sandwiches. “T thought about not doing anything at all because it just would have been re- ally easy to ignore it. I decided that since I had the opportunity, to do it and people probably would pay attention to something like that,” said Nordin. “May- be I had influenced at least one person to do something better or at least not do something they’re going to regret.” Langara psychology student Eric Xu said he’s heard of “raknominations,” but he’s sticking to the original drinking version. “Tm going to nominate friends I have who are overseas. It’s kind of a way that I connect with them,” said Xu. “You just need to know what your limit is and then you'll be safe. Not safe, but safer.” ERIC XU Housing trumps parks in Marpole Marpole community plan is heavy on new housing developments but some residents feel their desire for parks has been ignored By LESLIE KAM arpole’s community plan focus- M: on new housing develop- ments, but residents want more park spaces. Over the last two years, city plan- ners have worked with residents, busi- nesses and other stakeholders to cre- ate a plan that will help Marpole to meet the growing demands of the pop- ulation. Throughout the process residents asked for new parks, but despite their push there are few concrete plans for parks in the draft, says one resident. “In my view, there has been no genu- ine Marpole community plan process,” said Don Larson, a lifelong Marpole resident. “The first Mar- pole plan and all revisions since have been top down, developer driven,” he said. “There have been 80 meetings but the people have re- ally not been heard.” The current draft seeks to re- new a few of Mar- pole’s older parks and to create a new park on the Pear- son Dogwood lands. 66 There have been 80 meet- ings but the people have really not been heard DON LARSON Marpole resident “We set out to deliver on council pri- orities and address local issues in the community,” said Lil Ronalds, Vancou- ver city planner. “Eighty-five per cent of the existing single-family-zone areas will remain unchanged.” “This means focusing growth along The majority of the growth will take According to the plan, an increase of accommodate major streets where transit and ser- r suchology vices are available,” she said. r4 4 place near the proposed underground Canada Line station at 57 Avenue and Know Cambie Street, she said. what your housing options in the area as well as limit is potential residential use of the Pearson ; Dogwood lands will and you ll community growth as Marpole’s cur- bes afe rent population of 24,000 is expected to grow to 36,500 by 2041 Research funding to increase Canada First Research Ex- cellence Fund to give $1.5 billion over next 10 years By JEREMY MATTHEWS getting additional research fund- ing thanks to a newly announced federal investment plan. Over the next 10 years, $1.5 billion will be distributed through the Cana- da First Research Excellence Fund to Canadian post-secondary schools on a “competitive, peer-reviewed basis,” according to a government press re- lease. Langara is one of the schools in contention, and its level of funding will be based on the merits of its re- search. Langara’s Lin: science students may be science department would benefit from additional fund- ing, according to both present and future science students. “We need more funding,” said physics and chemistry student Vivi- enne Lu. “Langara is not as up to date as UBC.” Liu said that Langara does not have sufficiently modern lab technol- ogy for its scientific research. Prospective kinesiology student Hassan Haque said this lack of up-to- date facilities causes some students to change schools. “I heard a lot of science students transfer to UBC,” he said. However, students were positive about what the program achieves with its current funding. Liu said that “she learned a lot” in her science courses. Haque expressed excitement about the reputation of the school’s kinesi- ology department. The funding program is one of the biggest new initiatives in the Stephen Harper government’s Economic Ac- tion Plan for 2014. It is intended to enable Canadian post-secondary institutions to work on research projects that benefit the country, specifically in the interna- tional scientific arena. The funding is scheduled to in- crease from $50 million in 2015 to $200 million in 2019. 66 We need more fund- ing. Langara is not as up to date as UBC VIVIENNE LU Langara chemistry student