Pll teach you how to Dougie See what you can find at the Douglas Student Union By Julia Siedlanowska, Arts Reviewer uring my first few days as a Dee College student, I found the Douglas Students Union to be a fun and helpful information resource. I was first lured into the DSU when I heard I could receive a free planner. Free planner?! It has since never left my side. Next it was the International Student Identity Card. The ISIC gives you access to discounts on travel, museums, accommodation, and cultural attractions in over 120 countries. So if I ever decide to actually fulfill my dreams of backpacking around Europe, I’ve got my ISIC card to help me out (instead of just looking cool in my wallet). My knowledge of what the DSU could provide grew from there: dental cleanup, locker rentals, information on the health and dental plan, and so much more. Such as monthly pub nights! I was first convinced by my friends at the Theatre Program to go out on St. Patty’s Day. No doubt about it, the beer was cheep and it was a wild night. The DSU is a great place if you’re looking to dance, make new friends, and play some pool. It definitely beats the downtown route if you’re tight on cash; after all, entrance is free. You can follow a fun night at the DSU lounge with a morning at the newly instated Dougout Cafe (or lunch, depending on what time you'll be able to stomach food by). Last week, after running out the door late and without breakfast, somewhere in my subconscious I remembered hearing about the Dougout. So I decided to check it out, and let me tell you, the Dougie Breakfast Sandwich combo, including hash browns and a drink, for five dollars (including tax) did not disappoint! Highly recommended, “The DSU is a great place if you’re looking to dance, make new friends, and play extended health and dental plan: You can even use your benefits right at the DSU. Soheil Iravani of Healthy Smile Mobile Dental Hygiene Inc., is on campus every Wednesday from 9:30am- 3:30pm, and appointments can be made through the front desk in the DSU office. It’s also worth checking out the DSU website (www.dsu18.ca) for more useful resources. With the ever astonishing prices of textbooks, you may be able to save some some pool. It definitely beats the downtown route if you’re tight on cash...” All that said, the Student Union is not all just fun and games. The DSU is currently fighting to reduce tuition fees. It’s because of the persistent effort of the students there that Douglas College had the honour of hosting the launch of the new U-Pass BC program. After years of struggle, a referendum was held and, with ninety-four per cent of voting students choosing “Yes,” we are now among the first to have Canada’s only provincially funded and standardised U-Pass program. In 2003, students voted to increase the DSU membership dues for full-time students by $260 per year to provide students with an money through the DSU Book Exchange. There is no cost to sell your books using their online auctioning system. The Students Union provides the forum for the sale with no fees for any participant, so you can buy and sell used books freely and keep your profit in your pocket. It’s super easy! There are also similar systems for Tutor and Housing Registry, where you can post a listing to connect with tutors and negotiate prices. The Housing Registry can help you find affordable housing near Douglas College, or any other campus you may be heading to nationwide. Instead of opting for your usual L ars route of ignoring your impulses to get involved, try something new. Getting involved doesn’t always have to be a huge commitment, and it’s usually a lot of fun. Check out the services offered at the DSU, and you may find extra ways to save money. Keep an eye on their student voted representative positions; you never know what opportunities may come your way. Or, just go over to the building to get some free pins and party. All the world’s a stag A look inside the 2011 Fringe Festival with Executive Dir. David Jordan David Jordan e By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor he Vancouver International Fringe [ssa is back and, this time, it’s sensational! Of course, the Fringe is always sensational, but only partly due to its fantastic variety of theatre performances. The rest of that credit goes to those working around the clock behind the scenes. One such person is the Fringe’s Executive Director, David Jordan. Just hours before opening night, David took some time out to talk with us about his time with the Fringe, how the festival has grown, and what’s to come. How long have you been with the Fringe Festival? How has it changed? David Jordan: This is my seventh festival with the Fringe. I think we’re much more organized now. We’ve got this very chaotic festival, but behind it there’s some meticulous organization and some control of the chaos. When I first came on we had shrunk the festival back quite a bit, and now it’s grown to be much bigger than what it was. There are more shows, more attendance, so [we’re able to] give more money to the artists. We’ ve always given [them] one hundred per cent of the box office, so that hasn’t changed. Last year we gave over $200,000 back to the artists. What is the key to getting performers? DJ: Well, we don’t “get” performers; the beautiful thing is we just wait and they come to us. We’ve been doing the festival for so long, everybody knows about it locally, especially in the artists’ community, and internationally, so people come from Australia, the U.K., Israel, all over the world. How do you go about selecting performances, then? DJ: We pull our main stage shows out of a hat; we had about 120 people apply for around 54 spots this year. We also have a Bring Your Own Venue category, [where the artists] find their own venues. We do those on a first-come, first-serve basis, as long as they’re within reasonable distance of our festival centre at Granville Island. : Is there anything that’s been added since last year’s Fringe? DJ: We created a new program this year called Fringe Onsite, so those are the site- specific shows created specifically for Granville Island. We actually supported those [site-specific] groups during their creation phase, which is something we’ ve never done before. We’ ve also got a lot more music on the Wild Horse Canyon Stage [at Agro Café] — that’s an outdoor stage — with local indie music there every night for free. What would you say are your highlights of this year’s festival? DJ: I’m really looking forward to seeing how the Fringe Onsite program plays out. I’m also looking forward to seeing a show coming from Edmonton called Big Shot. I’ve already seen Grim and Fischer; it’s a super, physical piece with huge masks. There are so many though, it’s really hard to choose. Personal taste really is a big part of the festival; it’s up to the individual audience member to choose something that suits them. Where do you see the Fringe headed while you’re with it? DJ: I don’t plan not to be with it (laughs). I really love this job, it’s such an exciting thing to be in the middle of this wonderful community of artists and volunteers; it’s a very rich place to be. For the foreseeable future, we’re planning to create more outdoor performances on Granville Island, to increase the presence of the outdoor stage, and to create new opportunities for artists with the Onsite project. So again, those are our plans for now. The Vancouver International Fringe Festival runs from September 8—18. Check out their website (www.vancouverfringe. com) for the full schedule of performances. If you’d like some more insight on this year’s Fringe, be sure to check out the feature article on page 11! Don’t forget to pick up next week’s issue of The Other Press, where we'll get a chance to talk one-on-one with the masterminds behind Grim and Fischer.