News

College to Sponsor Student Bloggers

Team will document the life of a first-year

JJ McCullough, OP Editor

A team of first-year Douglas students from varying walks of life have been given an ambitious assignment from the College administration— document the full experience of being a new student on campus.

The initiative is part of a new public relations program known as “Candid Transitions” designed to highlight the diversity of the Douglas student body and encourage enrolment. The project is being co-sponsored by two community newspapers and the Pentax camera company.

College administrators in the Office of New Students have been taking applications for the program since the summer, and so far four students have been selected, leaving only two spots still vacant as of press time. Those chosen so far represent a diversity of ages, interests, experiences, and cultural backgrounds, attributes purposely chosen to represent the uniquely eclectic nature of the Douglas student

body.

The participants will draft blog essays on their experiences as new students, which will then be posted on the “Candid Transitions” website, and occasionally in the pages of the Tri- City News and the News Leader, based in Burnaby and New Westminster. In addition, Pentax will be supplying each participant with a free digital camera, with the hope that photography will also play a large role in the students’ mini- documentaries.

The first major update to the website, showing off what the students have produced so far, is expected sometime next week, according to program directors. Interested readers should visit www.douglascollege.ca/ candidtransitions

Second Week of Welcome Continues at Douglas

JJ McCullough, OP Editor

E.. the second consecutive week, the Douglas College Student Union hosted a variety of entertainment events for new students as part of their official “welcome week” festivities. Compared to the previous week of welcome— which saw the New West Douglas concourse consumed with near-constant activity —events of the second week were noticeably less high-profile.

Of the various events, the most popular was easily the DSU’s traditional pancake breakfast, hosted at the DSU lounge on September 12. Dozens of students lined up for the free food, which was prepared and served by DSU board members for over three hours straight. So successful was the event, in fact, that a second pancake breakfast is already being planned for October.

The DSU’s other second week events, such as a “climate change forum” hosted by the campus branch of the Canadian Green Party and a Monday night showing of Batman Begins drew decidedly smaller crowds. DSU officials blamed poor advertising for the weak showing, claiming that a

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better awareness campaign would have likely improved turnout. More successful

was the Wednesday night showing of Conrad Schmidt’s politically-charged anti- Olympics documentary Five Ring Circus. Co-hosted with the Douglas College library, the screening featured the presence of Schmidt himself, who led a discussion after the show.

Thursday night once again saw the DSU building packed, as students crowded in to view a high energy “battle of the bands.” Two rock groups (The Best Revenge and Enlisted) and one rapper (MC Gasface) squared off against each other, with The Best Revenge ultimately being crowned the winner. Though the event was largely orderly, campus security did have to be called at one point to escort some unruly students off DSU premises.

The members of Enlisted rock out at the DSU Battle of the Bands