Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre might be a rite of passage for first-year English students at VIU. I’ve seen the university edition being read on the number 40 bus and in the hallways of building 345 before classes start. There are upwards of five copies sitting on the bookswap shelves in the Student Union building—it’s hard for to avoid that nineteenth century governess.
I read all the Brontë sisters’ novels as a pretentious preteen. Flash-forward a few years and I felt like I knew what I was getting into when Jane Eyre was assigned in my ENGL 135 class. I was wrong in the most ...
Fall has finally arrived.
The transition from summer to autumn can be a shock, especially for out-of-town students from sunny and warm climates. Below are reasons why you should embrace it, and a few suggestions on how:
The Sights
The official markings of fall is when leaves start turning red, yellow, or brown. It comes gradually, but within a few weeks, the entire tree is bursting with colour. It looks absolutely gorgeous. Plus, who doesn’t like raking leaves and jumping in the piles?
To Do: Your eyes are tired, you’re stressed with school, or you’re just antsy. You need to ...
VIU Creative Writing and Journalism professor Robert Hilles has a book launch coming up this Sunday, October 3rd. The event will be for not one, but two new books: a novel called Don’t Hang Your Soul on That and From God’s Angle, a poetry collection. The launch will take place virtually, via a Zoom webinar available through the Vancouver Island Regional Library website.
Set in Thailand, Hilles says Don’t Hang Your Soul on That examines “the unique way that Thais look at life and love," as well as a few Buddhist tales he's heard from his wife. He adds that From God’s Angle, made up of ...
The provincial government has taken another step to protect postsecondary students from illicit and potentially lethal drugs.
The BC government announced that it was extending its Toxic Drugs Are Circulating campaign on Thursday, September 9. The campaign ran provincewide in August, but it will now specifically target students on university and college campuses across BC. The campaign seeks to provide a barrier between students and the drug supply that is ever-increasingly cut with lethal drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanil.
Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila ...
The Vancouver Island University Library has become a home away from home for generations of students throughout their educational journey. It is the go-to place for researching topics ranging from ancient history to modern medicine, using the library’s printer to shoot out dozens of essays, or to lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling to unwind after a midterm.
After spending the past year and a half tucked away inside dark bedrooms taking online classes, students will finally be able to continue with these traditions, though they may notice something new in the otherwise familiar ...
While all departments suffered from online and distanced learning during the academic year of 2020-21, VIU’s Theatre Department was struck a unique blow when the university was closed in March 2020. Students performing to live audiences from Malaspina Theatre’s stage could not be easily replicated over a Zoom call.
Despite the circumstances, the department rose to the challenge in characteristic style. It’s impossible to talk to one of VIU’s theatre professors for more than five minutes without being struck by how innovative they’ve been in the face of the pandemic and how much they ...
We rummaged through slash piles, meticulously picking the biggest, most sturdy logs. We grabbed boulders and discarded culverts—anything that would hold them off for even a minute longer. Quintessential Pacific Northwest clouds settled low among the towering western redcedars and Douglas fir. At the other end of the valley, clearcuts nagged the mountainside like an open wound, unable to be soothed. The heartbreaking dichotomy of the two views served to fuel us and everyone else at Ada’itsx, now globally known as the Fairy Creek Blockade.
With our arms full of old logs and debris, we ...
A new school year is stressful at the best of times. During a pandemic, it’s especially challenging.
As classes resume at VIU for the 2021-22 academic year, both in-person and online, the focus is on mental health—especially for students.
Prior to the pandemic, counselling was available in-person through Student Affairs and the former faculty of International Education. Students could see domestic or international counsellors, or an Indigenous counsellor. They could access walk-in crisis counselling or book an appointment.
Counselling transitioned to virtual formats after ...
Are you a VIU student who wants to be closely connected to your community? Maybe you’re wondering what more the university environment can offer you and what you can contribute to it. The Navigator Student Press is looking for journalists and creatives who want to inform themselves and their peers through storytelling. If you strive to meet deadlines and have taken CREW 100 Introduction to Journalism or a relevant media studies course, then one of The Nav’s upcoming positions might be for you.
Below is a list of positions that are becoming available at The Nav in the 2021 Fall ...
The other day I opened Instagram on my phone and on a whim searched “selfcare.” I was surprised to see that 44.1 million posts had tagged #selfcare, and 1.4 million posts tagged #selfcaresunday. While scrolling through the vast array of photography associated with these hashtags, I found a post offering virtual healing (20 minutes for $20), one woman boasting about her new Manolo heels and another about her new hairstyle, empowering quotes, depressing quotes, and an aesthetic assortment of beauty products such as body scrub, body oil, lip gloss, and lotion. This made me wonder—have we ...
The halls of VIU have long been haunted by student debt, late assignments, and bad grades, but the Student Residences have an extra guest that continues to haunt the hollow halls.
Every year, first-year students moving into Student Residences are told the urban legend of a ghost who haunts the halls of one of the biggest buildings on residence–Building Two.
In recent years, he has been given the name Henry. Henry is rumoured to live only in Building Two, as he is most often seen on the third floor of the building, but sightings of the ghost have allegedly popped up elsewhere on ...
Now that spring has sprung, the time for obsessive spring cleaning and gardening is upon us. One of the things I love to do to keep my brain entertained while performing tedious tasks is listen to podcasts. I have been a long-time podcast listener, and I love finding new podcasts that will make me laugh and think. The best part is that podcasts cover a wide variety of topics.
Want something to keep you updated on current events? Try listening to Front Burner or CANADALAND. Interested in true crimes that have taken place in Canada? Look into Dark Poutine. Missing your sense of ...
A Vancouver Island-based electric vehicle company has received nearly $300k in government funding through the CleanBC Advanced Research and Commercialization (ARC) program.
Canadian Electric Vehicles (CanEV) is a Parksville-based company that specializes in designing and producing electric vehicles (EVs) and converting vehicles from combustion to electric systems. The company has converted a wide variety of vehicles to electric power, including skid steers, ice resurfacing machines, and more than 60 aircraft refueling trucks.
CanEV currently produces the Might-E Truck—a low-speed, ...
Thanks to the VIU Eco Club, those looking to help out their local pollinators can get some native wildflower seeds for free at the VIUSU Pub.
“[We] wanted to give wildflower seeds out, but just didn’t know how to get them to people,” Haley Andersen, event coordinator for the Eco Club, said in an interview. “So, then I thought, 'Hey, why don’t we put them at the pub?' Because everybody loves the pub, and it’s one of the few places on campus where people are actually going.”
Andersen will be putting a basket containing several varieties of pollinator-friendly wildflower seeds at the ...
Aries (March 21 to April 19)
With only a couple more weeks left of the school year, this is your time to shine. As a sign that is focused and hardworking, you'll soon be rubbing it in all your friends' faces that you were the first person to hit the “submit” button on the last assignment.
Taurus (April 20 to May 20)
As spring gets closer and flowers start to bloom, you will probably find yourself pulled into nature's beauty and spending more time outside. This is a great time to start stocking up on allergy medicine.
Gemini (May 21 to June 20)
If you Geminis could be ...
If you haven’t heard the news, everybody’s favourite plastic potato is getting a rebrand. Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head products will be sold as just Potato Head in the near future.
Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head as characters will still be available for purchase, just sold under the brand Potato Head.
This news came as part of an announcement of the brand’s new Create Your Own Potato Head Family product. The product comes with two large potato bodies, one small potato body, and an assortment of accessories. According to Hasbro’s announcement, the product “is a celebration of the many faces ...
Exactly one year ago, on March 15, 2020, VIU's University Relations team sent every VIU student an email with a subject line reading, “COVID-19 UPDATE: VIU transitioning to alternate course delivery and assessment.” VIU, along with other post-secondary institutions around the province, had finally decided that, for the safety of students, staff, and faculty, all classes would transition to an “alternate course delivery.”
I was in the parking lot of the Nanaimo Chapters when I first read the email. Before I could even get to my car, my phone started blowing up with friends, coworkers, ...
The elegant boardroom on the fifth floor of VIU’s library is where the school’s board of governors usually meets. It’s empty these days, but on February 27, 2020, the room was packed. The board members sat in their usual places at the long table, ready to begin. At the back of the room stood concerned international and domestic VIU students and VIU Students’ Union representatives, some forced to line the walls due to the lack of space.
The board of governors had to decide whether to pass a proposed restructuring to VIU’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, which it ...
The southern Salish Sea is a network of sounds and channels weaving in and out of craggy islands. Forests of Douglas fir and native arbutus trees sweep over mountains big and small. Above, bald eagles glide through salty air. In the water, pods of orcas search for schools of Pacific salmon to fill their bellies. Sailboats, fishing vessels, and the occasional ferry ebb and flow with the tides.
It is home to the southern Gulf Islands, an archipelago between BC’s lower mainland and Vancouver Island, dubbed by the New York Times as one of the top 50 travel destinations in the world. The ...
No matter who you are or where you come from, food is a part of life—a big part. Everybody, everywhere, eats.
Some people have too much food, some not enough. Some people die because of its unavailability, and food production is one of climate change’s leading causes. In fact, the primary driving force behind the deforestation of the largest rainforest on Earth, the Amazon, is cattle ranching; I'll bet you can guess what the cattle are used for.
Since it is such an important aspect of everyone's life, one might think that many people are producing food. However, the percentage of ...
From Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman to travel to space, to Nobel Prize recipient Donna Strickland, women have always been on the front lines of great discoveries and groundbreaking works of science.
While studies repeatedly report that STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are predominantly male dominated, there has been a rise in women in STEM, making space for young girls to dream of one day becoming the next Jane Goodall or Marie Curie.
Post-secondary institutions are one of the first places that future thinkers find ...
Perseverance, NASA’s fifth Mars rover, successfully landed on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021.
The newest Mars rover is a product of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. The mission’s primary goal is to investigate astrobiology by searching for signs of ancient microbial life in Martian rock and soil. Perseverance is the first Mars rover equipped with a drill to aid in sample collection. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA, said in a press release, "We don’t know what these pristine samples from Mars will tell us. But what they could tell us is monumental—including ...
Registrations for the City of Nanaimo’s Parks, Recreation and Culture spring programs will open Wednesday, March 3.
If you find yourself feeling a little cooped up after a winter amid a pandemic, Nanaimo’s spring programs are a good solution. “If anything, this pandemic has shown us how important being active is for both physical and emotional health,” said Lynn Wark, Nanaimo’s director of recreation and culture services.
The programs take place between April and June, and will provide individuals with a chance to get out, socialize, and learn—all while following COVID-19 ...
Emerging filmmakers and storytellers will soon be able to dust off their cameras and start working on their creative endeavours again as the provincial government announces the Reel Focus BC program.
Through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, the Province will be launching its first development program with $200k targeted to up-and-coming and/or equity-seeking filmmakers in BC. Creators will be able to receive up to $10k to cover concept development and scriptwriting costs.
The grants are available for any type of film media, including television shows and series, ...
![[I.D.: Three freighter ships with red and black hulls float ominously in the blue ocean behind green islands.]](https://thenav.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Anchorages-5-1024x1024.jpg)
