News Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor and Monica Carino, Associate News Editor news @theotherpress.ca Student union elections loom on the horizon Nikalas Kryzanowski news editor We the Conservatives’ recent federal budget survived another confidence motion (largely thanks to an absent Liberal caucus), elections are gearing up here at Douglas College— again. Recently, the student body was eligible to vote fora student representative in the College Board By-Elections. This time however, it is the Douglas Students Union that is preparing to hold its annual election at the end of March, with all positions on the representative committee up for grabs. The nomination process runs until March 11 and voting will take place from March 26 to 31, 2008. “We've had a good amount of interest during the nomination process,” said Jessica Magalios, DSU election organizer and Chief Returning Officer. Though she was mum on specific nominees to date, the list of candidates is set to be released this week. Candidates will then (a attend an “orientation 3 session,” to learn the election rules, with §& formal campaigning | beginning on Tuesday. Sitting members of the DSU were also quiet about whether they would seek re-election. ® Currently on the schedule are two all candidate forums Tuesday, March 18 from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm in the Atrium at the David Lam Campus, ™ and Wednesday, fra March 19 from 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm in the Concourse at the New Westminster Campus. Elected members will hold office from May 1, 2008, until April 30, 2009. Environmental Action Team to hold water taste test on campus By Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor ec Environmental Action Team (EAT) at Douglas College met last week to discuss several upcoming campaigns. 4 They discussed participation in such initiatives as Earth Hour, the Commuter Challenge, and a Douglas _College- wide water taste test. The water taste test will be held all day on the concourse of the New Westminster campus on Thursday, March 20. Students will have the opportunity to take a blind test of different types of water. To be tested are distilled water, Dasani bottled water and regular tap water from the fountains at Douglas College. The program is being run to find out whether there is a discernable difference between the types of water students commonly drink on campus. If it is found that tap water is indistinguishable from bottled water, the EAT hopes it will cause students to think twice before shelling out up to $2 for a bottle of water— while helping the environment. According to Metro Vancouver, the Lower Mainland committee in charge of delivering public utilities, thousands of plastic water bottles wind up in BC landfills every year, adding the destruction of the environment. The EAT would like to students to refill reusable bottles with tap water. Members of the EAT said the idea for the taste test stemmed from a report by the Polaris Institute, a social organization dedicated to “enabling citizen movements to re-skill and re- tool themselves to fight for democratic social change in an age of corporate driven globalization.” They recently published an article that suggests that one in five people are “slightly nervous” or “too scared” to ask for tap water in a restaurant. The taste test also happens to coincide with a recent victory for the tap water of Clearbrook,-BC. Clearbrook’s municipal water system won first place at Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting competition in West Virginia, which featured separate categories for sparkling, bottled, and tap water from around the world. Back to normal at David Lam By Monica Carino lea routines are on again at the David Lam Campus of Douglas College and Pinetree Secondary school after both facilities were closed two weeks ago after a threat. Despite the reopening, there have still been scant details released about the nature or source of the threat made to the RCMP that resulted in the closure of the two schools on Friday, February 29. “Investigators are still looking into it,” the Coquitlam RCMP stated, but added that they found it “encouraging” that a 19-year-old UBC student has been charged in relation to some recent threats that shut down UBC’s biological sciences building twice this year, as well as the fact that Hwi Lee of Coquitlam, a former Gleneagle Secondary school student, has been charged with mischief. “Nothing out of the ordinary happened at David Lam campus Friday,” added Coquitlam RCMP. A School District 43 spokesperson said that this week has been “business as usual” at Pinetree Secondary and students will have to make up missed classes and tests as they would for any other closure. Last week’s threat was one of many made against local schools in the last year. In September, Centennial Secondary was locked down and then evacuated on two separate occasions following bomb threats. And in December, a threat forced the evacuation of Dr. Charles Best Secondary school. Last September, disturbing, cryptic messages were left in secured areas of Douglas College’s David Lam Campus, prompting an investigation by the school’s security and RCMP.