ampus hews

EDITOR BRENNA BROOKS

THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2013 3

Craig Keating, Langara history instructor and BC NDP candidate, lectures his students in class at Langara College.

Langara instructor aims to become BC NDP president

History instructor and North Vancouver councillor Craig Keating hopes to apply the lessons of the past to his BC NDP campaign

By ANDREA ANTHONY

orth Vancouver city councillor Craig Keating will be adding BC NDP president to his resumé if elected this November.

Current NDP president Moe Sihota announced last month that he would be stepping down once his term ends in November.

If elected president of the BC NDP, Keating said he would have to take a look at his workload. “It’s a lot of balls in the air, you’re trying to balance things and still do a good job in every realm, and hopefully so far so good,” said Keating. “This is, at this stage of my life, something I can still handle.”

Keating said he hopes his generation can find a way to bridge what he calls

“an obvious gulf between our current political system and youthful desire for change.”

Keating got his start in politics as a teenager in Peterborough, Ont., when he worked on the campaign for his high school teacher and NDP candidate, Paul Rexe in 1981.

Keating ran for the NDP in 2005 and again in 2013 in North Vancouver-Lons- dale, coming in second to the BC Lib- eral candidate both times. Keating is now running for what he calls “a bit less glamorous” job, the president of the BC NDP.

Keating earned a degree in history from Trent University, and subse- quently a PhD in history from McMas- ter University, but he’s lived in North Vancouver since 1991. “Never going

back,” said Keating. “’m a refugee from Ontario.” Keating has been a pro- fessor at Langara for 22 years, and a North Vancouver city councillor for 14 years.

Keating said his background in his- tory helps bring perspective to what he is doing in council by using the histori- cal process to think about the modern world today.

“Knowledge about the past helps to decode the world in which you exist to- day,” he said. “I have to control myself from making historical analogies when I talk politics, because it marks me as a dweeb who people should beat up and throw in their lockers.”

Despite running for a less glamorous job, Keating says that “the aim is to win a friggin’ election.”

ANDREA ANTHONY photo

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Knowledge about the past helps to decode the world in which you exist today

Craig Keating

Interne privacy is vital

Google developer advocate

Tim Bray talks internet safety at Langara

By KENDRA WONG

priority list and they are a few

clicks away from making the Inter- net safer for billions of users, a Google employee said last week at Langara.

Tim Bray, a developer advocate at Google, said the answer to preserving Internet privacy lies in what he called “federated identity.”

For example, when you log on to a website, instead of creating a new pass- word, you can sign in using Gmail, Facebook, or Yahoo.

Users enter fewer, more complicated passwords at the beginning of the day rather than several poor passwords throughout the day to login to their fa- vourite sites.

Bray encourages more companies to use this no-password system.

“This kind of thing that cuts down the number of passwords is probably one of the single biggest steps that we can take to make the future of the In- ternet safer,” said Bray.

He admitted you cannot stop govern- ment agencies and social media sites from peeking at your Internet activity, but you can use strong passwords to avoid having your account hacked.

“Bad guys are not imaginary .. . there are monsters under the bed and they are out to get you and they can make a lot of money doing it,” Bray said “The Internet is not necessarily a safe place.”

Fridrik Jonsson, a fan of Bray’s blog who attended the event, agreed with his suggestions.

“He really is an expert about privacy and security,” he said. “This is a really important problem ... it’s a brilliant idea and is going to solve a lot of prob- lems if it’s adopted.”

Bray said his views do not necessar- ily reflect the views of Google.

The presentation kicked off this year’s CS Computer Tech Meetup, a networking group for computer tech-

Pres is the at the top of Google’s

Fowl play ruffles feathers at Langara

Continued from page 1

“At this stage they are too young to be on their own,” said Brennan. “They need to be fed and kept warm, other- wise they'll die. It won’t be a good death and they will suffer.”

According to Section 34 in the B.C. Wildlife Act, it is an offence to destroy a nest “when it is occupied by a bird or its egg.”

An email received from the Depart- ment of Communications and Market- ing at Langara stated that the contrac- tors, Coastpro Contracting, “were not aware of a birds nest on the roof when the work began” and had only discov- ered the nest after removing the air- conditioning unit.

When the contractors came back the next day and saw that there were no birds “they proceeded to remove the nest.”

Henczel thought the nest was moved. “They are sitting there for a reason, it’s their home,” he said.

TAMMY ENGLISH photo Brad O’Hara, Vice President, Academic and Provost, will lead Langara’s first academic planning process.

First ever academic plan

Planning committee looks for campus perspectives

By TAMMY ENGLISH

tence Langara College is develop- ing its first academic plan.

“The academic plan will define a set of priorities within which we will oper- ate for the next 5 years,” said Brad O’Hara, Vice President, Academic and Provost, who is leading the planning process. “I could see that the plan would be a catalyst for some new pro- grams and certainly could be a catalyst for taking existing programs and re- shaping, revamping.”

Langara has contracted consultant Glenn Harris, of Harris-Gray Associ- ates Corp., to facilitate the plan. Harris will compile campus opinion regarding student expectations and potential con- cerns throughout the fall.

Julie Longo, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and a member of the planning committee, said faculty, staff, and stu-

Nic: twenty years into its exis-

nologists at Langara. ae

dent opinion will be gathered through focus groups and open forums.

In addition, she said the academic planning committee “would be happy” to directly accept student feedback. “What really works for them at Langa- ra? It’s important to hear that. What do they want to make sure Langara con- tinues to do?”

Longo also encourages students to be critical, and “tell us what the institu- tion needs to do better for them.”

O’Hara points out that students have more alternatives for both private and public post-secondary education than they’ve ever had, despite budget cuts. “The resources aren’t there to support organic growth. We have to be strate- gic.”

Last February, the B.C. government implemented three years of cuts to all post-secondary institutions. This translates to a $400,000 cut to Langara’s current budget, with a further $600,000 reduction expected for 2014-15, said O’Hara, in an email.

The Academic Plan is scheduled for implementation in mid-2014.

recently

HI Bachelor of Performing Arts, a 9-month degree- completion pro- gram for students with credit in the performing arts. Offered jointly with Capilano University, Douglas College and Vancouver Community Col- lege.

HM Bachelor of Health Sciences. Offered in conjunction with SFU, students can take the first two years of courses at Langara, with the final two years at SFU. SFU confers the degree.