DSU pub night draws a crowd.

> ‘It’s one of the best parties I've been to’

Colten Kamlade
Staff Reporter

 

he monthly pub nights hosted by the
DSU are off to a good start for the year.

Over 120 students had filed into
Pint 405 by 9 p.m.—only half an hour
into the event—and more trickled in
throughout the night, with the number
of students reaching up to 200. It’s not
hard to see why students are lining up
outside for these events. Pint 405 is likea
cross between your neighbourhood pub
and a nightclub. The music throbs and
the dance floor is packed, but a plethora
of craft beers are also served on tap.

Telka Pesklevits, the women’s
representative for the DSU, said
that the beginning of each semester
is often the time when students
participate most in pub nights.

“Tt always seems to be busier near
the start of the term,” she said.

There is still plenty of student
engagement throughout the term,
however, and the DSU hosts plenty
of other events, including movie
marathons and free food events.

A student at the event, Aldrin
Johny, seemed grateful for the work
that the DSU does, and expressed
his enthusiasm for the pub night.

“Tt’s one of the best parties
I’ve been to,” he said.

The DSU’s events weren't always
so well attended, but now that they
have a base, the DSU is planning on

making a difference. Aran Armutlu, the

director of finance for the DSU, said

that they were focussing on one issue

in particular over the next few terms.
“One campaign we're going to be

pushing quite hard is our open education

resources campaign. Open education

resources are anything, any sort of

course material that is developed to be

in the open, public domain,” he said.

“So, what it does is it makes it free of

charge for students ... it’s something that

students can really relate to. Sometimes
when you talk about tuition, interest
on student loans, it’s these grand issues
that can sometimes be hard to grasp.”
Armutlu went into detail about
open education resources and what it
means for students and professors. Open
education resources are more than just
free textbooks, but a way for students and
their instructors to engage each other,
often by creating and sharing their work.
“Open education resources are

 

fascinating because it opens up a
whole world of collaboration between
students and instructors,” he said. “I’ve
even heard of classes where students
have created study guides and given
it out for other students to use.”

To learn more about the DSU’s
open education resources campaign

visit: http://www.thedsu.ca/advocacy/
campaigns/open-textbooks-now/

Forum discusses New Westminster
waterfront redesign

> Professor urges consideration of marginalized populations

Colten Kamlade
Staff Reporter

 

Pens! social problems of
redeveloping New Westminster’s
waterfront were discussed at the most
recent Urban Challenges Forum, a series
of events hosted by Douglas College.

The City of New Westminster
has been working on a plan to
revitalize the old industrial part of
the city by making it more appealing
to businesses and residents. This
includes hosting festivals, creating
greenways and parks, and connecting
neighbourhoods to the riverfront.

Dr. Eugene McCann, a professor of
geography at Simon Fraser University,
raised questions of who might be included
or excluded from the re-imagined
riverfront. He discussed issues concerning
homeless people, youth, and other groups.
One of his central points was that public
space is a resource for some of the most
marginalized in society, and that it is
undesirable to exclude them from it.

“Public spaces are also spaces of
respite, they’re spaces of rest,” McCann
said. “I was working on a project over
the last couple of years with people
who were homeless and marginally

housed in Vancouver, and they talked
about how the parks and the beaches
of Vancouver were so important to
them as places where they could just
hang out and have a rest sometimes.”

McCann acknowledged some
people’s unease with the idea of
intentionally accommodating the
homeless when redeveloping.

“Should we design all the discomforts
out of public spaces, can we go too far in
trying to manage all those discomforts,
or is one of the fundamental aspects
of public space that it is a space where
we encounter difference?” he asked.
“Public space tends to be, again
ideally, a space where one encounters
difference ... whether that difference
be ethnicity, class, or whatever.”

McCann finished by showing two
pictures that epitomized two different
approaches to urban development.
One of a Camden bench, a piece
of concrete street furniture that is
impossible for the homeless to sleep
on, and a RainCity Housing project
that turned street benches into shelters
for homeless people to rest under.

McCann said he was not accusing
New Westminster city planners of trying
to exclude the homeless from public
space. He said his intention was only to

raise questions he thought were important

to keep in mind as the city goes through

the process of redeveloping the riverfront.
McCann finished by reiterating

his main point, that public space is

something that is important to everyone.

 
 

“Public space, in that sense, is a
resource for the most marginal, whether
it’s by doing something like collecting
bottles within the space, or doing other
things that are illegal, it is nonetheless
a resource, economically and socially.”

Photo by Telka Pesklevits

Photo of Eugene McCann by Analyn Cuarto