WN Students’ Union holds first pub night since big fight By Matthew Steinbach News Editor n February 5", the Douglas Students’ Union (DSU) held its first pub night since October due to some rather extraordinary events. Geoff Lenahan, treasurer for the DSU, explained that the last pub night in October of 2008 saw a group of non-students crash the party. When these non-students were asked to leave, they went out to their car and came back with empty beer bottles and mace and began attacking members of the college’s baseball team. At the same moment there was another incident inside that required the party’s own security to deal with, so campus security had to deal with the situation until the New Westminster police force could arrive. Lenahan reported that about five a car and came back with empty beer bottles and mace” ind Tin Soldier played at the latest DSU pub night police cars arrived. At this point the DSU suspended both groups “When these non-students were asked to leave, they went out to their from the building for the ruckus, however, the baseball team’s suspension has since been overturned when it came to light that they were attacked first. The DSU also began filing a formal report to determine what actually occurred at the time. According to Lenahan this process dragged on and when they were ready to begin planning their next pub night they waited until January because of the weather. The DSU has a long history of providing cheap pub nights at Douglas College even before they had their own building they used to host them monthly in the school’s eon This tradition died off in recent years because of the DSU’s financial woes. These woes have been exacerbated by the fact that MTR TUCO AMEN HCO) CeO DLO SIT OR and so the group no longer controls their finances. Pub nights have only returned in the last couple of years to Douglas College. Winter Grad a time for students, a time for the college By Matthew Steinbach, News Editor n February 10", over 550 students graduated from Douglas joining a total of about 33,000 people who have finished their degrees and diplomas at the institution over the years. One of the College’s staffers on hand was Kyle Baillie, manager for the Office of New Students. His office is responsible for recruiting many of the students who graduated on the 6 10". Baillie explained that “seeing students moving along... is gratifying and our reason for being here.” Susan Witter, president of Douglas College, spoke directly to the graduates. She took a more critical view of what graduation means. She explained that upon their graduation that grads need to commit to being “social[ly] responsible citizens.” She also used this chance to discuss the current dire economic situation and how this will affect the college system in the future. Witter states that this school is “committed [financially] to students,” and that the system will now be even more “crucial” in helping local people suffering job loss become retrained and better educated. She expanded on this to by explaining that these changes will make the college stronger in the future as it will mean more financial assistance from the provincial government for education. The next graduation is set for June of 2009. News Shorts By Matthew Steinbach, News Editor British Columbia Bute Inlet Environmental group opposes Plutonic Power project The BC Creek Protection Society wants British Columbians to band together to temporarily halt the Plutonic Power project. The project would see a new dam built at Bute Inlet on the BC coast. In a recent press release by the group they state that this plan “would dam and divert 17 streams and rivers.” Currently the project is going through an environmental assessment; however, the group is concerned about opportunities for BC citizens to have their voice heard on the matter. They’re concerned that “the remote locations of the meetings will discourage public participation in the assessment process.” SFU to ditch buses? According to a recent report on Global BC, SFU may no longer use the public transportation system to bring students to the Burnaby campus. Instead they are investigating the possibility of creating a gondola system similar to the Peak to Peak system at Blackcomb/Whistler, which would take students from the Production Way station all the way up to the top of the campus. This is currently just a proposal but it has gained support from some local area politicians including Burnaby’s mayor. However, specific details such as cost and feasibility are yet to be worked out. The goal of the gondola plan is to stop snow closures of the campus, which occurred most recently on the last day of exams during the fall semester.