Anew and improved Douglas

> Renovations near completion, including gender neutral washrooms

Mercedes Deutscher News Editor

fter an entire semester filled

with blocked-off hallways, students can expect an entirely new south side of the New Westminster campus.

The renovations, which began in mid-February, were completed just in time for the Fall semester. They will allow the New Westminster campus to provide space for engineering courses, which will be part of the college’s new Engineering Diploma program.

The differences made by the renovations are already noticeable when entering the first floor hallway in the South building. The grey of the old carpets was replaced by a vibrant black and green. Formerly windowless classrooms now have access to natural lighting. Five new classrooms were installed, and another 22 classrooms were renovated, according to a Douglas news release.

All renovations managed to be completed on schedule, and managed to keep to its $9.3-million budget.

However, it did require

the college to request the city of New Westminster to allow an exception for

late night construction.

While Douglas is now better

equipped to accommodate engineering students, it

Illustration by Ed Appleby

is also better equipped to accommodate students from all areas of the gender spectrum. The college announced on August 16 that it would be converting all single-stall washrooms at both New Westminster and David Lam into gender-neutral ones. Most off these washrooms are wheelchair accessible as well. Two former Douglas students—Milo Leraar, former DSU Pride Liaison; and Brett Collins—helped to bring the change, along with Jamie Yard, who instructs an Anthropology class on gender and sexuality. All three were inspired to push for the gender-neutral washrooms after hearing the demand firsthand from other Douglas students. “Students, faculty, and staff need to know that they can get their biological needs met on campus without hassle. This is a big piece in making our campuses safe and inclusive places to learn and work,” Yard said to Douglas is Here.

Committee formed to create sexual violence and misconduct policy

> UFV student union looks to other campuses for guidance

Vanessa Broadbent The Cascade (University of the Fraser Valley)

Forewing the recent passing of Bill 23, the provincial government’s Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy Act,

all post-secondary institutions

in BC are required to create

an official sexual violence

and misconduct policy.

As stated in the bill, the policy needs to include procedures for making, and responding to, complaints or reports of sexual violence.

While the bill is already in place, institutions have one year to create and implement a policy.

In order to create the policy for UFV, a committee will be formed, which will be co-chaired by UFV’s vice- president students Jody Gordon and Student Union Society (SUS) president Sukhi Brar.

“We're just in the phase of putting that team together, but in preparation for that, Sukhi and I have sat down and looked at a number of best practices,” Gordon said. “There’s some good work that’s been done throughout Canada that we have been reviewing.”

While the committee will not be in place until the fall, Gordon noted that it will include faculty and staff with related research

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backgrounds or work experience.

The bill does not specify how the policy should be formed and Gordon saw this as an opportunity to include student feedback by involving SUS.

“Just from the conversations Pm having [with other student unions], we're definitely helping a lot more and have a lot more student involvement and input,” Brar said. “Having us involved from the start in shaping this policy helps students

understand how this serves

our student population best.”

While Gordon also noted that including student feedback helps students learn outside of the classroom, she saw student input as a way for the university to be open with their intentions on the issue.

“It needs to be very transparent,” she said. “This is not work that’s done at all in secrecy; it needs to be work that is out there for people to see

what stages we're at, and when various consultations will occur’

While the writing of the policy won't be starting until the committee is formed, Brar noted that there are already challenges that she is anticipating.

“It’s a very complex topic and there’s a lot of opinions and a lot of different approaches that people have taken in approaching how this policy might look,” she said. “It’s going to be challenging to identify

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Image via Wikimedia

what works for our campus.”

“At the end of the day policy is just paper,’ Gordon added, “but it’s really what it will mean to us in terms of how we approach it, how we talk about it, how we engage with these very difficult issues.”

After the committee has drafted the policy it will be sent to Senate for consultation and the Board of Governors for approval, with a tentative implementation date of April 2017.