DSU app soars 1n popularity

> BC schools are looking to Douglas for their own apps development

Jamal Al-Bayaa
Staff Writer

 

he DSU’s newest app is

gaining a strong user base
locally, and turning heads
elsewhere in the province.
Engagement on the platform is
at an all time high for Douglas.
Of 14,000 registered students,
2,400 are currently using the
app—a 17 per cent adoption
rate that staff and students
in the DSU are proud of.

“One of the things we
wanted was to make the app
functional for students,” said
Tracy Ho, College Relations
and Membership Outreach
Coordinator. One way they
did that was by adding a way
for students to upload their
U-Passes directly from the app.
“We guessed that students would
like that,” she said, and since
then it has become one of the
most universally used features.

Elim Ou, a student who
tried the app, said that what
she found most useful was the
study timer located in the course
schedule, and that it’s something
she sees herself using regularly.

Further, the app assists
students in accessing a
campus map, connecting with
representatives, and looking
at a full list of the school’s 56

available clubs. Outside of pure
college-functionality, students
have been using the app to
connect with extracurricular
activities at school, and perhaps
most of all, each other.

“What’s especially great
about the app,” Ho said, “is that
were facilitating these kinds of
campus-to-campus and student-
to-student interactions.” On the
DSU’s messaging board—which
is akin to a Facebook news
feed—students can be seen
reaching out to each other for
things such as textbooks and
course questions on one of the
platform’s six topic boards, which
include news, housing, and ride
sharing. When Ou discovered
the app’s social experience, she
quickly used the feature and
messaged friends with it.

In a survey conducted
with 475 students who use the
app, 91 per cent say they would
recommend it to a friend, 78
per cent agreed that the app
helped them learn about campus
services such as counseling and
peer tutoring, and 79 per cent
of students said that they felt
that the app gave them a louder
voice within their institution.
This is part of the DSU’s larger
plan of increasing student
engagement in the school as
engagement levels on average
mean more student feedback,

more student satisfaction, and
the ability to run more impactful
campaigns and events.

Those numbers are also
causing heads to turn elsewhere
in the province, as other BC
schools are looking to Douglas
as a model on how to move
forward with their own app’s
improvement. Camosun College,
Emily Carr University of Art
and Design, the College of New
Caledonia, and Vancouver Island
University have all reached out
to Douglas with at least one
or two questions about how to
improve their app. Specifically,
representatives from Victoria’s
Camosun College are coming
to New West to discuss with
student representatives how
they can better improve
their app and make it more
functional and relevant to
students. The meeting is slated
to take place mid-August.

In the future, the app will
likely have a feature enabling
students to share textbooks,
achieving similar results to what
an Open Textbooks program
would do for the school. While
Open Textbooks may take a while,
as that involves a significant
amount of contract renegotiation,
a textbook sharing feature may
be a faster and more organic—
although shorter-term—solution.

(YW Prime Minister's Youth Council seeking members

(¥ Admissions office adds options for gender identity

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¥ To full-serve or to self-serve... that is the question

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Frustrations continue despite new vacancy tax

> MLAs, realtors, and prospective owners upset at government and loophole

Mercedes Deutscher
News Editor

 

oreign buyers will now
have to pay an additional

15 per cent tax on Metro
Vancouver property, according
to new legislation passed by
the provincial government on
July 25. The legislation came
into effect on August 2.

In contrast, those living
in BC only pay a one per cent
tax on their property.

The fast track of the new
tax comes as a surprise to
some. While Vancouver Mayor
Gregor Robertson has been
advocating for a tax since May
2015, the BC Liberal government
has previously maintained an
opposition to enforcing one due
to a perceived lack of evidence.
That is, up until mid-July, when
Premier Christy Clark claimed

there was new data to support
the theory that foreign ownership
has contributed to the housing
crisis, according to CTV.

“I’ve been calling for years
now for the province to take
bold action to deal with housing
affordability, and the impact
of global capital on our market
here,” said Robertson to CBC.

An Angus Reid Institute
poll showed that go per cent of
respondents were in favour and
approved of the tax. However,
several parties have voiced
concern since the tax was
announced, including 71 per
cent of the poll’s respondents.

Many believe that the tax
will not be effective long term.
An email sent by Mike Stewart
of Century 21 advised potential
clients to invest in pre-sale
condo units under the names of
resident family and friends in

order to avoid the tax. Stewart
has since come under scrutiny
from both Clark and the Real
Estate Council of BC. Clark
responded with a warning that
there will be increased auditing
activity around pre-sale condo
units sold around and after the
implementation of the new tax.
Meanwhile, realtors have
expressed disapproval of how
fast the tax was implemented
and questioned how much input
was put into its development.
Dan Morrison, President of
the Real Estate Board of Greater
Vancouver, said in a statement
that the government “..has had
a long time to take action on
the affordability issue, yet they
decide to bring this new tax in ...
with no notice, and no time to
prepare.” Morrison expressed
disappointment at the fact
that seemingly few realtors or

    

housing experts were consulted.
Some, such as Stewart

and NDP MLA David Eby are

calling the tax unfair to those

still settling into the region.

Those who are not Canadian
citizens or permanent residents
can be taxed as foreign buyers—
including refugees, stateless
people, and new immigrants.

 

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