a J23 eae

y

Steve Brown, building mechanical specialist with Thermenex, testing the valve of the new heating system in room A225 on Nov. 3. ANA ROSE WALKEY PHOTO

New heating and cooling system still learning in Building A

By ANA ROSE WALKEY

midst upgrades and
renovations to Build-
ing A, some students
and faculty have been
wearing toques to deal with frigid
temperatures. Some are considering
wearing masks, worried about dust
and air quality in the old building.
A new self-regulating heating
and cooling system has been caus-
ing swings in temperature as the
system adjusts, according to Steve
Brown, building mechanical spe-
cialist with Thermenex, in charge of
checking up on the new system. The
system will heat individual rooms
only when people are in them, in-
stead of heating the whole building
as one unit.

‘The system will finish being in-

stalled by March 2018, and fully
callibrated a year from then, Brown
said.

“Once the project is completed,
from there we're going to move on
to have it understand the way your
guys building loads are,” he said.
“We do a four seasonal learning
process...for summer, fall, winter
and spring, they all have different
strategies that need to be created.”

Alexander Boston, Langara’s phi-
losophy department chair, said his
office got very hot last week, and
when he tried to adjust the tem-
perature, it didn’t work.

“I thought I could try and turn
the [heat] down ... but it didn't re-
spond,” Boston said.

As renovations to the vacated
chemistry labs advance, some fac-
ulty have been worried about air

quality.

One instructor said teachers are
continually cleaning dust covering
desks and floors.

“We are renovating a mid-70s
building...I don't see any external
ventilation,” said the instructor, who
asked not to be
identified for fear
of reprisal. “Have
we addressed that
situation? Do we
know if it's clean
or not?”

Langara’s — fa-
cilities director
Wendy Lannard
said there aren't
asbestos health or
safety concerns in Building A.

“Where asbestos has been noted
or suspected, it has been tested by

Alexander Boston
PHILOSOPHY
DEPARTMENT CHAIR

a testing agency and where find-
ings have been positive, it has been
abated by a professional abatement
company,” she said in an email, add-
ing WorkSafeBC visits the site and
monitors the abatement practices.

Lannard said the new heating
system has not involved any asbes-
tos, though some ceiling tiles on the
third floor might be tested and “if
necessary, removed following as-
bestos abatement procedures prior
to the work commencing.”

The concerned instructor said
while they are glad there is no as-
bestos, the college should have
comminicated that to everyone.

“T only wished we had known this
before the work had commenced,”
the instructor said. “[I] would like
to see some further communica-
tions to students and faculty.”

Hampers bring ease to students

Departments give
gifts to student-
parents in need
for the Holiday
Hamper program

By NICK VALKA

T he Student Services depart-
ment is trying to make the
holiday season less difficult
for some students in need.

The Holiday Hamper program
provides Langara student-parents
and their children with a package
during the holidays. Student-par-
ents get paired up with a depart-

Pe és
Re :
(Cm ae‘

; Pao al
‘s ve

sa

Z
- \ &
- ink x

Last year's hampers ready to be delivered to recipients. cH4gio7TE JURAS PHOTO

ment anonymously, then submit
a list of items they need or want
in their hamper. The hampers can
contain gifts or clothing items, but
no food.

Melia Fernandez, the operations
manager for
Student Services
at Langara, said

“We're really

Michael Lister, the vice president
of the Langara Business Associa-
tion, said they put on fundraisers
every year to raise money for the

program.
“Typically [the business asso-
ciation] raise

about $1,200 to

$1,500,” Lister

to be considered enthusiastic about said. “We're try-
for a hamper, a . ing to give back
student must be helping out our to our school.”

a parent whose d hi ”" The money
been approved stu ents t 1S way. raised goes to-
for _ financial — LOUISE REID, LIBRARY TECHNICIAN wards grocery
need by the Fi- store gift cards,
nancial Aid de- which — supple-

partment.

“We go through the list of all the
student-parents who have applied
for bursaries and we send them an
email. ‘Hey we've got this program,
we want to give you a holiday ham-
per, ” Fernandez said.

The library sponsors a family
each year and Louise Reid, a tech-
nician in the reference department,
said this is one more way that the
library can assist students.

“The library is very much service
focused, we're really enthusiastic
about helping out our students this
way,” Reid said.

ments the department’s hampers.

Supporting students in Youth in
Care Canada is a new addition to
the program this year. These stu-
dents are members of group homes,
or have aged out of the foster care
system. The program aims to pro-
vide 25 families with hampers and
support for 29 Youth in Care stu-
dents.

Fernandez also hopes that word
of the program will spread to newer
staff members.

“The more departments we have
sponsoring families, the better we
can support them,” Fernandez said.

Students
promote
chickens

Project promotes
benefits of back-
yard poultry in
the city

By LISA TANH

angara’s environmental stud-

ies students will be show-

casing their projects to help

Vancouver become the greenest city

in the world — one of which aims

to raise awareness on the benefits of
backyard chickens in the city.

Drake Carruthers and Allison
Robertson, are among the 14 stu-
dents who will be presenting their
projects at CityStudio Vancouver’s
ninth HUBBUB event at City Hall
on Dec. 1. Their project focuses on
chickens in the city since they be-
lieve not many people know about
it. In 2010, the city passed a bylaw
allowing backyard chickens to help
people become more involved in
their food production.

“We are urbanizing chickens, es-
sentially,” Carruthers said. “It goes
against heavy industrialized farm-
ing which I'm opposed to and I feel
like that's a jab at that industry.”

Mike Smith-Cairns, a geography
instructor at Langara, said the proj-
ect speaks to a much bigger issue
which is an overall disconnect from
the source of their food.

“The idea around this group's
project is that they want people to
have more of a connection with
where their food is coming from,”
Smith-Cairns said. “Hopefully, that
will spiral into something.”

Robertson said the project will
involve going to a farmer's market,
having a table with posters and bro-
chures and allowing people in the
city to meet chickens.

“We're just trying to promote lo-
cal food and educate the public,”
Robertson said.

CityStudio gives students the
opportunity to create projects with
faculty and City of Vancouver staff
that directly contribute to the city’s
Greenest City Action Plan and
Healthy City Strategy.

Improving disaster preparedness
by strengthening community.

Looking at new ways to address
negative feelings towards afford-
able housing.

Pairing seniors with youth to
create connections, and combat
loneliness.

Examining the effect of building
a new community within an old
community.

SOURCE: CITYSTUDIOVANCOUVER.COM