CELEBRATING 20 1 0
1910
YEARS
volume CII summer issue 3
the official student newspaper at the university of alberta
www.thegatewayonline.ca
monday, august 15, 2011
inside
A one-man amusement park David Jacobson takes audiences on a wild ride with his solo Fringe comedy Theme Park. A&E, Page 11
Aaron Yeo
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1969 Woodstock veterans such as Jefferson Starship performed at the first annual Edmonton Rock Music Festival at Hawrelak Park last weekend.
First spring/summer Power, water, services to U-Pass run a success be more accessible in SUB Alex Migdal Staff Reporter
Digging for green and gold The Golden Bears hockey team is on the lookout for a rookie to join their ranks in September’s open tryouts. Sports, Page 12
Summer of jerks This summer brought no shortage of jerkiness from around the world. The Gateway’s got beef with some of the biggest. Opinion, Page 6
More than 75 per cent of graduate students at the University of Alberta have been using the spring/summer U-Pass, indicating that its first implementation in the summer months has been successful. As of August 7, preliminary figures show that 3,937 spring/summer U-Pass stickers that have been distributed out of the total of 5,200 eligible grad students. It’s a number that the Graduate Students’ Association VicePresident (Labour) Tamara Korassa is pleased with. The U-Pass is only offered to research-based graduate students and those enrolled in a spring/summer course, and came about as the result of a survey of grad students done in 2009, where many showed support for a transit pass for May through August. In March 2010, students voted in favour of the pass in a referendum and the GSA worked with Edmonton Transit System to fully implement it as a pilot project for this summer. The cost was a mandatory fee of $91.67 to
Aaron Yeo
all those eligible, identical to the cost of the Winter 2011 U-Pass. “We were confident that the spring/ summer U-Pass would be successful,” Korassa said. “However, as we were the first group to try a spring/summer pilot program, we all had some concerns about the implementation.” Korassa explained that those concerns were primarily logistical issues, such as differentiating between eligible and ineligible students. “There are students from each group that want to use the pass and those that don’t,” she explained. “However, with the way the U-Pass currently operates and the way it benefits each of the stakeholder groups, it’s not possible to differentiate between students based on their preference for using the pass or not.” Korassa indicated that the majority of feedback about the program has been positive, although more formal feedback will be required for the U-Pass’ long-term prospects. That information will be collected through surveys once the summer term is completed, and will help them assess exactly how successful it was. Please see u-pass Page 2
News Editor
When students return to school for the fall semester, they may be welcomed with more power outlets, water-refill stations and better located services available in the Students’ Union Building. Vice-President (Operations and Finance) Andy Cheema has been busy this summer implementing changes in SUB, which will see the move of the Peer Support Centre and Campus
a problem that Cheema had experienced as a student, which is why he made it a priority on his agenda. “When I was running for this position, I did a speech in [the] Myer Horowitz, and one of the things I promised was that I would install more electrical outlets in SUB, and in fact there was cheering and applause when I said that,” Cheema said. “In today’s information age, [...] it’s somewhat ridiculous that it’s difficult to find places to plug in your devices on campus.”
“It’s somewhat ridiculous that it’s difficult to find places to plug in your devices on campus.” Andy Cheema Students’ Union Vice-President (Operations & Finance)
Food bank to more appropriate locations. Certain food and beverage businesses in SUB will also be providing GST exemptions to students with a meal plan, as permitted by national legislation to make food more affordable, a feature that’s already present in Lister itself. Lack of available power outlets was
To remedy this, the SU has installed what they call “power posts,” 3-foot tall brown towers, scattered around the area in front of SUBStage. Each power post supplies four times as many outlets as the floor sockets which they replace, and cost the SU $200 in parts and labour. Please see upgrades Page 4