By contributor Chantelle Spicer
Many questions and concerns are being raised regarding food security on a global scale, as well as on our Island. With the costs of fruits and vegetables noticeably on the rise, it is becoming a reality affecting our diets and wallets. More and more, people are beginning to realize that the value of food lies not only in the fact that it keeps us alive—though that is very important. Food systems not only keep us healthy, but also, if done in non-industrial methods, increases the health of the land and communities who use it. It is really a whole new way ...
Inspired by VIU’s Model United Nations (MUN) club, students will soon have the opportunity to earn academic credit from a new MUN course.
Dedicated to training students to participate in conferences, as well as develop attributes such as public speaking and diplomacy, MUN encourages students to engage with topics of global politics and develop skills for further studies or professional work.
The new three-credit course will begin in September, as the MUN executive team has been working with Political Studies professor Mark Williams over the past several months to develop the ...
It could be considered a miracle that all 193 countries at the September 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit agreed to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 sub-targets. Maybe, if that is possible, is it possible to actually attain all these goals by their 2030 deadline?
Highlighting the new political landscape in Canada, members from the BC Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC) asked VIU students and members of the public this question after their presentation during VIU’s International Development week on February 1. The BCCIC is a civil ...
By contributor John Hill
The Indian Residential School (IRS) system has become more familiar to Canadians in recent years, but the terrible aims of the schools, the abuses that occurred there, and the sheer scale of the project remain hard to grasp. At 10 a.m. on February 19 in the Malaspina Theatre, Professor Laurie Meijer Drees of VIU’s Department of First Nations Studies will give a presentation on residential schools as part of the Arts and Humanities Colloquium series.
For more than 100 years, continuing until the 1990s, over 150 thousand First Nations, Métis, and Inuit ...
Nestled in the back, past the Bathtub Race relics and the First Nations art display, lives the Nanaimo Museum’s latest exhibition: Characters, Con Men, and Celebrities. Featuring 30 historic Nanaimo residents in 200 words or less, the exhibit has all sorts, from the prominent, like Mayor Frank Ney, to the lesser-known, like early 1900s brothel madame Millie Clayton. The exhibit, running from February 1 to May 7, hopes to inspire museum-goers to draw their own conclusions.
“It’s about the people that didn’t make it in traditional exhibits,” says Aimee Greenaway, Nanaimo Museum’s ...
The VIU Board of Governor’s proposed ancillary fee, which will cost students $6.27 per credit, and up to a maximum of $188 per 30 credits, is causing disputes among the VIUSU.Designated to provide “enhanced services in the Health and Wellness Centre,” “experiential learning for all,” and “access to a Technology Lending Library,” this fee is expected to create a total of $1.3 million of additional student fees in the 2016-2017 year.
Increased services at VIU’s Health and Wellness Centre will include things such as increased hours of service and psychiatry professionals to deal with ...
Sweet Dreams Norma Jean is a short film set to screen at the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival in February. The short was directed by Dave Hamilton and written by B.J. Mason. The movie runs only six minutes and 24 seconds, and attempts to communicate a pretty complex story in that time. The plot, taken from their film’s page, is as follows:
[The film] follows a girl seeking revenge for the terror brought forth upon her family. Being the lone survivor in the brutal aftermath of her [family’s] murder, she seeks out the man responsible and takes justice into her own hands. Eager to find ...
By contributor Brynn Joyce
Some people claim they work best at 3 a.m., pumped full of caffeine, writing a paper on a book they just bought that same morning—but that is something I avoid at all costs. So I’ve created a system to keep myself from falling apart (at least until exams start).
The following lists five tips to become a more organized and less stressed student. This system works for me; let’s hope it works for you too.
1. Write everything down
Face it—your memory is garbage. You can’t even remember what your professor lectured on two hours ago. Don’t let your brain ...
This is the latest in a contributor column by Zoe Lauckner. Check back next issue for the latest in mental health issues.
On January 8, students at VIU received an email from the school advising them of a deadly overdose alert. The lethal drug, fentanyl, which is 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine, has been sweeping the local media lately with the number of deaths and overdoses consistently on the rise. Despite hearing a lot of buzz about this drug for the last few months, very few of us know much about it and how it affects the individual and, consequently, the community. In ...
By contributor Danielle Cunningham
As a full-time student, I know the stress that comes with meeting due dates and cramming for exams. I also know the toll this stress can take on my health. Last April, in the midst of final exams, I fell ill with mononucleosis (mono), which doctors first misdiagnosed as a seasonal virus.
At first, my symptoms were much like any run-of-the-mill flu: sore throat, dry cough, aching muscles, and the token runny nose. It didn’t surprise me when my first visit to the doctor’s office resulted in little more than an apologetic shrug and a peek at my ...
At the end of the fall semester this year, my stress levels were off the charts, and when I get anxious or stressed, my brain goes a million miles a minute and I can kiss my recommended eight hours good night.
Needless to say, a stressed out student and lack of sleep do not go hand-in-hand when it comes to being productive.
I found out about weighted blankets purely by chance.
I was feeling cold one night and decided to grab an extra blanket I had laying around—the green thing is completely the wrong size for my bed, with the corners spilling off the sides onto the floor. I ...
It was a scorching hot day in Toucacas, Venezuela. Local women in colourful dresses chattered in Spanish as they prepared a local favourite. Through the language barrier they managed to teach me how to make these healthy, satisfying dishes which I found to be just as good at home as they were abroad.
“Re-Chicken” salad
Surprisingly, this salad is completely vegetarian. Similar to coleslaw, it contains cabbage (repollo in Spanish), and the Venezuelans enjoy poking fun by combining re and pollo (chicken). Creamy, filling, and easy to make, this “re-chicken” salad is a winner in my ...
By contributor Reid Eccles
The British Columbia Hockey League’s (BCHL) trade deadline came and went on January 10, and the Nanaimo Clippers were actively involved in one of the day’s 10 trades.
The Clippers acquired forward Gavin Gould from the Merritt Centennials in exchange for rookie Clipper forward Zach Court, as well as a future draft pick—a pick Nanaimo received in exchange for goaltender Jonathon Reinhart in a trade with the Brooks Bandits of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) back in early December.
North Vancouver native Gould comes to Nanaimo seated 10th in the ...
Noor Mohamed Maalim, 23, breezes in two minutes late in a crisp, white button-up shirt. With an easy grin and friendly greeting, he plops down two boxes of pizza on a table before his fellow club members. He grabs a marker and struts to the whiteboard where he jots a list of priorities to be covered at the VIU World University Service of Canada (WUSC) meeting. He has obviously done this before.
WUSC is a Canadian non-profit organization working in international development. They collaborate with a unique network of post-secondary institutions, private-sector partners, and volunteers ...
On Google, the word “blocking” is defined in a few different ways. As a noun, it is “the action or process of obstructing movement, progress, or activity,” as in a “failure to recall or consider an unpleasant memory or train of thought.” As a verb, it is to “design or plan the movements of actors on a stage or movie set.” Oxenfree, the inaugural title from Night School Studio—a team of talents formally of Pixar and Telltale Games—is best considered with the word blocking in mind.
Oxenfree opens on a small boat, where it introduces you to its equally small cast of only five characters. ...
By contributor Sacia Burton
On a brisk evening in mid-January, Nanaimo musicians and Radiohead fans alike bundled up for a quick boat ride in the name of nostalgia, nachos, and dreamy music. Together we were ferried across the harbour by our captain, Bernard, to the Dinghy Dock Pub on Protection Island. Amidst adornments of seaglass, life preservers, and the odd mermaid, the crowd was serenaded throughout the night by six acts covering their favourite Radiohead songs.
Paul Mitchell kicked off the show with a crowd-pleasing rendition of “Karma Police.” A quick survey showed many ...
This article may contain spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Get over it, and read it anyway.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the third highest grossing film of all time. Sitting pretty at more than $1.75 billion, the movie has smashed through records and proven that the Force is strong in fans of the franchise. On top of its financial success, The Force Awakens has proven that a genre dominated by white, male heroes can flip that paradigm on its head by casting a woman as not only the main character, but also as the hero of the story. It’s easy to say that this isn’t, or ...
By contributor Brady Tighe
Ziggy played guitar. Bowie played Ziggy.
Bowie is dead and the world suddenly credits him for everything cool, everything uncool, making everything uncool into something cool, inventing the very idea of cool, the very idea of everything to ever exist, and possibly a few things that aren’t included on that vast list. They forget that the song “Heroes” is all Bowie needed to contribute to forever be worthy of monuments and monoliths. He’s chain-smoking, with one eye brown, and one eye blue. He’s the eternal star man, and there’s something wrong, and this ...
In the summer of 2015, as part of a marketing campaign for Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of The Martian, 20th Century Fox launched a series of YouTube videos which chronicled fictional events leading up to the film. Fox then teamed up with NASA itself to bring an added sense of realism to The Martian’s backstory—the space association triple-checked author Andy Weir’s science, hosted a “Mars Day” to raise awareness of NASA’s ambition towards a manned Mars mission, and, as the Hollywood Reporter called it, launched a “PR stunt far greater than anything Hollywood could concoct” when they ...
The Canadian prairies is a decrepit gold mine of photo opportunities. While navigating the maze of gravel roads outside my hometown of Regina this Christmas, it didn’t take long to find abandoned houses circa 1880 and old train cars emblazoned with rust. I started to wonder: What is the Vancouver Island equivalent to exploring gravel roads in the prairies? The ocean, the forests, the mountains—it’s all stunning—but sometimes, it’s almost too pristine. Where could I find some rot and destruction mixed in with the natural wonders of the Island? When I arrived back in Nanaimo, I found my ...
By contributor Chantelle Spicer
Water is wonderful in all of its forms, whether I am taking a hot shower after a long day, or swimming in the Nanaimo River on a sparkling summer day. Most of my favourite childhood memories come to me while standing in the creek near my house, noting the seasons change in the trees surrounding it. Water is all around us every day, especially here on the coast, taking the form of dense fog that moves like ghosts in trees, and crashing waves against rugged shorelines. Many creation stories, from the Indigenous to the Christian, begin with water. It ...
The “spring” semester actually takes place during winter—the time of the year when it may be dark whether you’re heading to class in the morning or leaving campus at night. There’s also a higher possibility of snow or other extreme weather forcing the university to close. These are some of the reasons VIU has created a safety app for students and staff.
The VIU Safety App posts current and expected weather conditions daily, and will alert you when campus is closed unexpectedly. In the event of a campus emergency, such as an earthquake, power outage, or fire, the app walks you through ...
By contributor Chantelle Spicer
In light of the Syrian civil war, many of the country’s citizens now find themselves seeking sanctuary in other countries, with millions of people now separated from their homeland and culture. Under the new Liberal government of Canada, we open our doors to those seeking refuge from this crisis, offering a doorway into a new kind of life for many. This is not an easy thing for those new to Canada, who are submerged into a new culture, for many a new language, and exponential financial burdens.
In November of 2015, VIU announced that the institution ...
While the BC government is still refusing to fund Adult Basic Education (ABE), the VIUSU has been making steady progress in gaining support from several city councils.
ABE programs provide high school equivalent courses for citizens returning to school for retraining and upgrading, which include adult special education and basic literacy programs. ABE has been tuition free in BC since 2007, and more than 25 thousand British Columbians—about 800 at VIU—use this program each year. However, the 2015 provincial budget eliminated funding for the program, which allowed ABE institutions ...
