Archive for the 'education' Category

UPASS for BC Colleges/Universities

Published on June 9, 2010 in ams, british columbia, sfss, sfu, translink and ubc.

The Upass pro­gram was started by VanCity and Translink in part­ner­ship with the UBC AMS and the Simon Fraser Stu­dent Soci­ety at SFU. The Upass pro­gram was later expanded to Capi­lano Uni­ver­sity and Lan­gara Col­lege. UBC stu­dents cur­rently pay $23.75 per month for the Upass. SFU stu­dents cur­rently pay $26.09 per month for the Upass. Capi­lano Uni­ver­sity stu­dents cur­rently pay $32.00 per month and Lan­gara Col­lege stu­dents pay $38.00 per month for the Upass. Stu­dents who attend other post sec­ondary insti­tu­tions pay $81.00 for a one-zone bus pass, which can be used in all zones with their stu­dent card.

In the 2009 provin­cial gen­eral elec­tion, the BCLib­eral Party promised to deliver the UPASS to all post-secondary stu­dents in British Colum­bia. The BCLib­eral Party will be deliv­er­ing their promise this September.

Gor­don Camp­bell made an impor­tant announce­ment at Van­cou­ver Com­mu­nity Col­lege (VCC) today — an announce­ment that pro­vides afford­able uni­ver­sal tran­sit to all post-secondary stu­dents in British Colum­bia. The pre­mier announced today that schools will be able to hold ref­er­en­dums to opt into the Upass program.

Your stu­dent union (ie, Dou­glas Stu­dent Union, Kwantlen Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion) will be able to hold ref­er­en­dums before Sep­tem­ber to opt into the upass pro­gram. Suc­cess­ful schools will be able to take advan­tage of the $30.00 per month Upass for all the students.

The Cana­dian Fed­er­a­tion of Stu­dents in BC have reacted to this announce­ment. This is likely the first time in years where the CFS-BC have praised the work­ing of Pre­mier Gor­don Camp­bell and his exec­u­tive min­is­ters. The CFS-BC chair­per­son Nimmi Takkar said“the province and TransLink are to be con­grat­u­lated for imple­ment­ing a com­mon U-Pass pro­gram at an attrac­tive price.”

This announce­ment affects stu­dents of SFU and UBC! The con­tract between UBC AMS and SFU SFSS will be expir­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2011. Instead of using the old pric­ing, stu­dents at both schools will be pay­ing $30.00 for the Upass as well. This means a total increase of $6.25 per month for stu­dents of UBC ($25 per term, $50 per semes­ter) and a total increase of $3.91 per month for SFU stu­dents ($15.64 per semes­ter). The prices will need to be passed through a ref­er­en­dum next Spring.

Your cur­rent UBC AMS and SFU SFSS rep­re­sen­ta­tives will most likely be nego­ti­at­ing with Translink and Translink is most likely going to offer stu­dents the $30 Upass. I encour­age stu­dents from SFU and UBC to email their exter­nal rep­re­sen­ta­tive (UBC AMS VP Exter­nal Jeremy McEl­roy and SFU SFSS Exter­nal Rela­tions Offi­cer Kyle Acerino) to tell them that you do not want a fare increase to hap­pen. I also rec­om­mend you to email your local MLA, the BC Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion Shirley Bond, and the BCNDP Trans­porta­tion Critic Harry Bains to tell them that you do not want your bus fares to increase!

SFU Senate By-Elections Info

Published on June 2, 2010 in election, senate and sfu.

Ear­lier this year, we had nom­i­na­tions and elec­tions for SFU Sen­ate Stu­dent Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. We are hav­ing a by-election for Fac­ulty of Applied Sci­ence, Fac­ulty of Sci­ence, and Fac­ulty of Envi­ron­ment. On June 7 to June 9, stu­dents of the fac­ul­ties of Applied Sci­ence and Sci­ence will be head­ing to the polls to vote for their rep­re­sen­ta­tive. No nom­i­na­tions were received for the Fac­ulty of Envi­ron­ment so they will remain vacant.

Con­tinue read­ing ‘SFU Sen­ate By-Elections Info’

Upcoming Goals

Published on December 14, 2009 in education, life and politics.

Thanks to Raul Pacheco on Twit­ter, I have decided to set my own goals for 2010.  In addi­tion, thanks to Tay­lor “Loren” on Twit­ter, I have decided to use Lul­ule­mon Goal­tender to set my goals.

Accord­ing to the web­site, “a goal is a writ­ten, mea­sur­able state­ment with a spe­cific sub­ject and a dead­line.  A goal is a mile­stone in the cre­ation of [us] ideal life.  A goal is what inspires [us] to do the work every­day.” Con­tinue read­ing ‘Upcom­ing Goals’