Archive for the 'ubc' Category

Education Tip: Post-Secondary Success

Published on September 5, 2010 in education, sfu and ubc.

Over 440,000 will be attend­ing a post-secondary insti­tu­tion on Tues­day. Some may have already attended ori­en­ta­tion. For oth­ers, ori­en­ta­tion starts in a few days. Here is what you should know for uni­ver­sity or college.

  1. Be orga­nized. Use sched­ules or cal­en­dars of your reg­u­lar rou­tines to help you stay on top of things, and pre­pare as far in advance as pos­si­ble. Your stu­dent union (UBC Alma Mater Soci­ety, Simon Fraser Stu­dent Soci­ety) will have stu­dent hand­books and agenda avail­able for your daily use.
  2. Get sup­port from fam­ily and friends. They are an impor­tant part of your sup­port sys­tem, and shar­ing the chal­lenges of the upcom­ing aca­d­e­mic year can help to reduce your stress levels.
  3. Healthy, well-rested stu­dents make bet­ter learn­ers. Make sure your well-being is a priority.
  4. Intro­duce your­self to other stu­dents. It’s always help­ful to have some­one in your classes with whom you can com­mis­er­ate or get notes from if you have to miss a class. Do not be shy to talk to the per­son sit­ting next to you. It turns out that you might become best friends with the per­son.
  5. If this is your first year, attend a new stu­dent ori­en­ta­tion so that you can become aware of processes and pro­ce­dures. Take a cam­pus tour, and learn where your classes and the key facil­i­ties you’ll need to use are located. Ori­en­ta­tion is required for stu­dents at the Uni­ver­sity of British Colum­bia and will hap­pen on the first day of school.
  6. Con­nect with the resources in your school, such as your admis­sions coun­sel­lor and aca­d­e­mic advi­sor, and estab­lish a good rap­port with your instruc­tors. They can bet­ter sup­port your goals and sit­u­a­tion by being on your edu­ca­tion team. Please feel free to visit the Irv­ing Bar­ber Library at UBC or the Stu­dent Learn­ing Com­mons at SFU for assis­tance when you need peer-review or study­ing workshops.
  7. Sched­ule weekly reviews and updates. Experts sug­gest review­ing notes and read­ings just before class and lec­ture mate­r­ial imme­di­ately after class.
  8. Pri­or­i­tize assign­ments by start­ing with the most dif­fi­cult sub­ject first because it will be the most time-consuming and attention-absorbing.
  9. Man­age your time effec­tively. Set aside fixed times for study, and when­ever these times are unavail­able, be cre­ative and flex­i­ble by fit­ting it in when­ever you can.
  10. Stay safe. Become famil­iar with your cam­pus, and learn about avail­able cam­pus secu­rity services.
  11. Got more? Please feel free to com­ment below!

Adapted from the BC Min­istry of Advanced Edu­ca­tion and Labour Devel­op­ment “KICK-START YOUR SEMESTER FOR POST-SECONDARY SUCCESS” Infor­ma­tion Bul­letin (2010)

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!