Sven Bellamy
Features Editor

Another summer has come and
gone; too quickly perhaps. Summers
seem to go by faster each year. Now
it’s time to buckle down, and attend
classes—attempt to look interested.

Over the summer your anony-
mous school paper has been.
wrestling (did you notice the sumo
suits?) with ideas on how to include
you, as a Douglas College student,
in your student paper. Well, we
haven't finished the debate yet, but
as the features editor, I thought a
feature welcoming you was a good
start—so welcome back to all
returning students, and welcome to
all you new students.

This article is probably more for
you if it is y ur first semester at
Douglas, because it will focus on
some different aspects of the school.
I wish I had such a considerate fea-
tures editor back during my first
semester (patting self on back). If
you are attending Douglas at either
the David Lam or Thomas Haney
campuses, please accept my apolo-
gies for the New Westedness of this
article (I would be happy to accept
submissions from you, and we are
still looking for a Coquitlam corre-
spondent).

The Physical Structure

Douglas is a well-organized col-
lege. I would like to take you on a
quick mental tour. Hopefully as you
walk through the building, you will
notice some of the places mentioned
here. Let's start by standing in the
main concourse facing the security
booth and the fourth floor catwalk
(we can leave our cats at home). In
the concourse you will find access to
the bank machine, the registration
office, the cafeteria, and a lot of
stairs. There are lots of stairs in this
school—you can sell_~—your
StairMaster now. OK, keep looking
up and two large labels are readily
apparent: North on one side, and
South on the other. The college is
divided into these two blocks—
remember this for later.

The South

In the South building are the
offices, classrooms, and labs for the
physical sciences and quantitative
studies. There are also offices of the
humanities and modern languages
along with classroom language labs
for accompanying language cours-
es—that’s just the third floor.

One floor down, on level two
(also known as the concourse level),
the offices for the department of
psychiatric nursing, nursing, and
dental programs are located along
with the learning center and finan-
cial assistance office. Just to the right
of where I had you initially standing
in the concourse, the admissions
office and cashier are located.
Admissions is also where the aca-
demic advisors are located. Not a
bad place to stop if you are not quite

sure about what you want to declare
as a major field of study (I was never
one to want to study fields).

Jumping back up to level four.
Along with the First Nations office
and the Women’s Centre, you will
find the Student Services office,
which houses the Student Employee
Centre, the Career Resource Centre,
and the Centre for Students with
Disabilities. All of the higher admin-
istration exists up there as well—the
top of Mount Olympus.

The North

Now, shift your gaze to the North.
This side of the college houses the
departments for the arts. English lit-
erature, creative writing, communi-

 

cations, music and theatre all share
relatively close space on the third

floor. The offices for business
administration, social sciences (psy-
chology, geography and sociology, to
name a few) are also located on this
level.

Moving up to the fourth floor
now, we can find the offices for ESL
and DVST programs. The fourth
floor also houses the Amelia
Douglas Art Gallery and the offices
for international studies and the
Douglas College Foundation. There
is also a large theatre for music pre-
sentations and a smaller theatre for
drama productions (I realize as a
write this that I am out of touch
with the arts scene at the college—
note to self: see more school produc-
tions). The fourth floor also pro-
vides access to your Student Union
building. Back on the concourse
level, you will find the library and

computer labs.

The Bookstore Level

Let's skip now to the bookstore
level (ok, maybe not skip). This is
level one of the college. It is not
divided the same way as the upper
three levels, so let’s use the bookstore
as a dividing marker. To the south of
the bookstore are classrooms and
lecture halls, used mostly by
Business, Print Futures, and
Nursing students. Towards the back
of the college (the East side, if you
like) on the first level is the mail-
room; and next door to the mail-
room, the office of the Other Press.

The building to the left of the
bookstore, the North side, houses
the athletics and coaching programs,
gym and weightroom facilities (and

I have never actually found them,
but I hope, showers). Deep in the
back, the North-East corner of the
first level is the Douglas College
print shop where all the program
brochures and information booklets
are brought to life.

On this North side of the first
level are more small classrooms and
offices, as well as lower access to two
small lecture halls (Jean Chretien
gave a campaign speech to Nursing
students in one of these small lecture
halls in 1993. Representing the OP,
I proudly asked if he would provide
more money for health care and
education, and if he would consider
reducing the size of the Canadian
senate “to trim some fat.” Yikes, did
I just date myself?)

There is also a nice little café on
this level of the college. It is located
just North of the bookstore. It is
small, usually quiet, and yet this
year, unfortunately, I have not seen
it open (do I smell a news story?).

The Dungeon

Ah yes, every institution has a
dungeon. Located in the bowels of
the college, cramped nicely between
the parking garage and the South
side of level one, are some small
classrooms and access to the college’s
large lecture theatre. This area of the
college also houses systems support
for the college’s computer network.

A Note on Room Numbers

Well that’s it, a rough, whirlwind,
mental tour of Douglas College.
Although, I skipped out on the
smaller details, perhaps it is worth
mentioning something of the way
classrooms are numbered. I see peo-
ple unfamiliar with the layout of the
college wandering lost in its many
passages looking despairingly for
some seemingly non-existent class-
room number. This is how the num-
bering system works: All even num-
bers are located towards the
Southern side of the college; the odd
numbers towards the Northern side.
The first number indicates the level
the room is located on (no breaking
with convention there).

As an example, room 3343, is
located on the third level of the col-
lege on the Northern side. Room
1808 is located on the first level of
the college on the Southern side. If
you already knew this little piece of
trivia, I commend you, but as I
mentioned, there have been many
poor souls who didn’t find their way

to class because of this numbering
system.

Some College Organizations

Within any college, there are sev-
eral important organizations, which
I feel are worth mentioning here.
Perhaps you figure, “oh, it’s just
school; I want to show up, do my
assignments, and get out.” It’s sad
really, but many students choose this
road. Consider getting involved in
something during this time at
Douglas. Make it a better place
(Okay, I'm finished my lecture).
What follows are a few organizations
that I am aware of, but many more
exist.

The DSU

The Douglas College Students’
Union—Local 18 is part of the
Canadian Federation of Students,
and serves to better the experience of
students at the school. Some are
activists in other parts of society, but
all contribute time and energy into
ensuring education is affordable and
accessible to all people. The DSU
website is located at the following
address:www.douglasstu-
dentsunion.ca

Look for a feature article later this
month on the DSU. The office is on
the second floor of the Student
Union building, which is located at
the back of the college, and is easily

 

accessible by the rear entrance of the
fourth floor, just past the Amelia
Douglas Art Gallery. Accessing this
building in the way just described,
places you just outside of the
Union’s Market (pick-up a fast-trax
transit sticker, transit passes and
schedules, consign your used text-
books, rent lockers). There are also
two pool tables, a few arcade games
and a collection of tables for meet-
ings. Not a bad place to study if you
like background ambiance.

The Language Partner Program
This program is set up to assist
ESL students with learning English,
and learning about Canadian cul-
ture. It also makes for terrific volun-
teer time and offers a chance to learn
about another culture. I have prom-
ised Gail Johnson a feature article in
coming weeks, so please stay tuned.
If travel and culture interests you,
and you like working with people,
this is a great opportunity to get
involved in your college. There is an
application and screening process,
which can be started by approaching
the staff at the ESL department,
located in room 4232. If you prefer
to call ahead for more information

you can call 604-527-5569.

Centre for Sport Recreation &
Wellness

The CSRW offers programs,
which allow the students at Douglas
College to become active while pur-
suing studies. Forming healthy
lifestyle habits can be started any
time, but the sooner the better. The
CSRW offers programs such as
intramural sports, yoga, martial arts,
and now belly dancing (yeah, like
I’m going to expose my belly—Does
high-albedo mean anything to
you?). If you are interested in down-
loading their program guide, use the
following address, and download the
pdf file: http://www.douglas.bc.ca/

csrw/recreation.htm.

the Other Press

My colleagues would never for-
give me if I failed to mention the
school paper. As a collective, we are
hoping to recruit a whole group of
new and aspiring writers into our
ranks. As I write this, we are cur-
rently scouting for a sports editor, a
photographer, as well as several assis-
tant positions. If you are interested,
even just a little curious, we would
like to leave you with an open invi-
tation to drop by one of our meet-
ings, held every Thursday from 6 to
6:45pm; we always meet just before
6pm in room 1020 at the New West
campus. Alternatively you are wel-
come to drop by room 1020 any-
time. If there is someone in the
office, please come in, the door will
be open for you. Feel welcome to
visit our website as well: http://oth-
erpress.douglas.bc.ca.

 

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