News Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor and Monica Carino, Associate News Editor news @theotherpress.ca New West campus evacuated after false alarm By Siavesh Rokni A, unexpected fire alarm at Douglas College’s New Westminster campus last week led students and faculty to evacuate the building at approximately 9:20 am on Wednesday, February 20. The students were instructed to wait outside of the college for about 40 minutes before being directed back inside by authorities. Due to the missed time, many of the College’s 8am classes were cancelled for their last half hour. “The alarm was triggered by of one of the College’s water pumps due to a system failure,” said Sean Kelly of the Douglas College Nikalas Kryzanowski news editor communications department during a phone interview. The college’s alarm system is programmed to react to unexpected changes in water pressure in the school’s water pumps, and in this case, the alarm was triggered after the pressure of the water coming from outside the building was reduced to a level where it set the alarm off. “Change in the water supply coming to the college changes the pressure in the system, which can lead to a drop in water pressure and set the alarm to reactive mode,” Kelly said. When problems such as this strike, Douglas College is able to fall back on its effective crisis management plan. The plan outlines a number of possible emergency scenarios and prescribes effective ways to handle them. “The college has a crisis management plan that gets worked on regularly by the communications department,” said Kelly. Student Union nixes free ad-supported photocopying By Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor Ie Douglas Students’ Union has rejected a proposal from a private company to provide free photocopying for Douglas students on that grounds that stopping someone from photocopying a 200 page textbook,” said Geoff Lenahan, DSU Internal Relations Co-ordinator. “It’s predatory and distracting,” said another board its advertisements are distracting, and could possibly "member. lead to copyright infringements. The start-up company recently presented a contract to the DSU regarding its ad-supported photocopying system. Students would be able to make unlimited free, one-sided photocopies while the backs of each printed page would contain bright, full-colour advertisements. The company would have provided the union with special photocopying machines and paper, which would come from recycled materials and be slightly thicker than regular paper. Because all photocopies: would be only one-sided, such prints would be intended for use mainly as rough notes or class handouts during presentations, and not for more formal graded assignments. At last week’s board meeting, the DSU Representative Committee debated the ethics of subjecting students to such, advertising during their educational time at Douglas. “We could be dealing with the potential for copyright infringement. There would be nothing 4 The company also requested that there be no other free photoc: rvice made available on campus. Free ad-supported photocopying on college _ Campuses is a relatively new idea, especially in the Lower Mainland, as businesses try to find new ways to reach students. The company that consulted the DSU is in the process of soliciting several schools to sign up for the program, and will need to secure a certain amount of support in the region to make the plan economically feasible. This method of advertising “is apparently very popular in Japan. The Japanese company Oceanize started offering the service to students in April, 2006, and has since seen great success, with long queues of students now lining up to make use of the service known as “tadacopy.” Students could soon enjoy more discounts with Student Saver cards Nee Douglas College “Student Saver” program could be set to expand next semester following a recent vote of the Douglas Students’ Union to pursue geting more area businesses to provide discounts to Douglas College students. The initiative, which will be directed by DSU External Relations Coordinator Ally MacGrotty, will focus on Columbia St. and the IGA Plaza. She claims that as New Westminster expands, so does the potential for new discounts for the Student Saver Card. The Student Saver has been around since 1981 and is made up of two different cards: the International Student Identity card (ISIC) for full time students, and the Student Saver card for both full and part-time students. Both are offered through the Canadian Federation of Students and represent the only student discount service in Canada run for students, by students, which enables the students’ union to seek out new businesses for the program. It is hoped that businesses will respond positively and welcome an increase in traffic volume to their locations and that it will increase and nurture college/ community relations. MacGrotty hopes that new businesses will be on board for the April 11 deadline. This would have the new discounts active for the summer session. The minimum discount value must be 10 per cent unless approved in writing by the provincial discount coordinator, which she states, “will result in all discounts being of quality and value.” She initially plans to solicit businesses at the Downtown New Westminster Improvement Society’s Annual General Meeting on February 26. She claims it will be a great opportunity to meet and network with local businesses owners and managers and to explain the benefits of the program. “I take on this initiative because I feel it is of utmost importance for students to utilize the benefits and enjoy their post-secondary experience. The Federation and the Union are here to provide those resources to students and play an important role to help them get what they need and often enough, what they want,” said MacGrotty.