SCIENCE & BIZ Tree trouble Wild and windy weather forces Langara to take a second look at weak trees on campus. P6 Switching Lanes Langara administrators and students prepare for a new era of presidency. P3 Video mania Blockbuster died off long ago, but these local video stores are still thriving. langaravoice.ca x>Y, YF oseN / \ \ ’ a —a PRODUCED BY LANGARA JOURNALISM STUDENTS | WWW.LANGARAVOICE.CA NOVEMBER 25, 2021 * VOL. 55 NO. 3 * VANCOUVER, B.C. Mental health letdown Counselling under pressure from pandemic By CLARISSA KURNIAWAN s mental health issues have worsened during the pandemic, Langara College students are increasingly turning to the school’s free counselling sessions. Some are saying the quantity and quality of the services are not meet- ing expectations. Fephi Kagan Dumlu, a second-year computer science student at Langara, was struggling with anxiety during his first year and decided to see a school counsellor. His first experience did not go very well. “Honestly, it felt like they didn’t really care about it,” Dumlu said. “They didn’t do much progress on my following session.” Despite his bad experience, Dumlu connected with a different Lang- ara counsellor and has since joined a group session. His second time around proved to be more helpful. A pre-COVID-19 Statistics Canada report said youth aged 15 to 24 were already the least likely to report excellent or very good mental health. In July 2020, they reported the greatest declines, down to 40 per cent from 60 per cent. One Langara physics student, who asked not to be identified due to the stigma, said that although her expe- riences with the Langara counsellors were pleasant, the department is in much need of extra help. “Counselling services are hugely overbooked. You can only sched- ule a month later even if you are in a mental emergency,” she said. “They need a larger department and a bigger staff.” A 2017 Voice article outlined similar issues facing the counselling department. Langara's counselling department chair Kerri Janota said although the department is making efforts to streamline the counselling services, wait times are inevitable due to the increased demand. “While we have worked tirelessly to diversify our services and expand our team to better meet the growing demand for appointments, there are however high demand times where students may experience wait times to see a counsellor,” Janota said. Neate oe Tim Voss, owner of Lucky's Exotic Bodega, holds some of the specialty items his store sells. | AuREN VANDERDEEN PHOTO Dont sweat the bell curve Langara instructors Say grade SCa ling is rare in small classes By HOLLIE MCGOWAN angara College students have been voicing concerns in online chat rooms regarding a marking strat- egy used by some instructors known as “grade scaling.” Langara teachers say that it is not often used. Taking to the online chat plat- form Discord, several students over the past month have been express- ing fear that their chances of getting into other post-secondary programs might be damaged if their grades are changed because the class aver- age is too high. “Mannn I'll be so mad if I get this and can’t get into UBC [because] of the scaling,” said one Langara student in the Langara student Discord channel. Grade scaling, also known as “grading on a curve,” is sometimes used by instructors when the overall average grade belonging to a class is extremely high or extremely low. For example, if the class average is 90 per cent, an instructor might lower the average to be equivalent to 70 per cent instead. “I disagree with it,” said Brian Lesmana, a business administra- tion student at Langara. “The main reason there’s curve grading is for teachers to know if the exam was too easy or not. I think the teacher “T've never been pressured into any passing rate.” — BRYAN BREGUET, LANGARA ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT CHAIR should know their exams quite well and how difficult it is for the students.” Some Langara instructors said it is not a widely practiced system at the college. Bryan Breguet, chair of the economics department at Langara, said the grading system tends to be used in academic institutions where class sizes are larger. At Langara, where class sizes are much smaller, he is only getting a few students every semester who perform poorly and a few who perform exception- ally well. “T haven't seen the rationale to standardize my averages and distri- bution,” Breguet said. According to instructors, pres- sure at larger academic institutions to produce successful students and fill classes has pushed some to use curve grading. At Langara, teachers claim to not be pressured to boost their students’ marks. “I’ve never been pressured into any passing rate or anything,” Breg- uet said. “But I had a colleague who was teaching at SFU [and] they were literally given a spreadsheet with their scaling. “So, you enter the actual grade and the spreadsheet does all the calculations for you to get the perfect normal distribution, no matter what your original distribu- tion is.” Kevin Koonar, a Langara school of management instructor, said he used grade curving during his early days as an instructor. After gaining more experience, Koonar stopped using curve grading as his teaching style became more refined. “As you get more experienced, you get a better feel for what the students are unable to do,” he said. “And also [if] you’ve done a good job at preparing them to answer those questions for the exams.” Although many instructors use it to the benefit of students, it is still widely disputed in the academic world. According to Through Educa- tion, an online resource for educa- tors, “Used correctly, curving can benefit students and ensure that all students receive the same stan- dardized scores. [Used] incorrectly, however, and there will be a sense of increased competitiveness among students (even to the point of some students sabotaging other students just to get ahead) and unfairness.”