Eco club shows free movie Thursday

Garbage Warrior!, the movie that won the Audience Award at last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, will be shown Thursday, Oct. 16, in room 2550A at the Richmond campus.

Garbage Warrior! is a documentary about the work of radical eco-architect Michael Reynolds and his efforts to build off-grid self-sufficient communities.

The free screening is courtesy of SAFE, the Kwantlen students’ environmental club.

Eagles outlast Quest in rough, rowdy tournament action

The game was rough and the crowd was rowdy as the Kwantlen men’s basketball team beat Quest University 65-58 at the Blues Classic Basketball Tournament, hosted by Capilano University, on Saturday night.

Eagle Sam Asiedu, a first-year guard called it an ugly game. “There were bodies flying everywhere…it was scrappy, really scrappy,” said Asiedu.

The score was tied 50-50 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, and with three minutes to go and a score of 58-52 for the Eagles, the tension was palpable. 

Nick Lefleur, a guard for the Eagles, was able to bring up the score two points to 62 with 44 seconds left in the game to the delight of the cheering crowd.

Kevin Van Buskirk, one of the Eagles three assistant coaches, said the team “played alright.” The first five minutes were a struggle, but after that the men “picked it up,” according to Van Buskirk. 

Quest scored the first five points of the game but by the end of the first quarter the Eagles were one point up. 

The second quarter saw big gains and the Eagles were up eight points after a series of quick breakaways, but Quest came back, adding five points in a matter of minutes to chants of “defense” from the Kwantlen supporting crowd. Kwantlen then finished the period off with a shot, adding three points in a matter of two seconds. 

The third quarter saw a spectacular fall by Omid Davani, a first-year guard, and ended in a 46-46 tie after Quest added three points in the last 18 seconds. 

Coach Van Buskirk was hoping for three wins in the tournament, but the Eagles lost their game against Columbia Bible College, 71-64, Sunday morning.

The Eagles had won the first game, against Camosun College, by a one-point margin, 62-61.

Next week the men are off to the Douglas College Tournament.

Galled by apathy, instructor pushes voting

Paul Richard, the chair of the environmental protection program at Kwantlen, was appalled when he read that Kwantlen students weren’t planning to vote in Tuesday’s federal election, so he decided to do something about it.

Richard wrote an email to members of the Kwantlen faculty, urging them to encourage their students to vote.

“It really galled me,” he said of students’ responses when the Kwantlen Chronicle asked whether they were voting. Five of the eight students polled said they were not.

The students seemed to be saying “I’m ignorant and proud of it,” said Richard. He says the ignorance in North American society is dangerous. If it is culturally acceptable to dumb things down, the government could have a “large mass of people that are easy to manipulate.” 

Students need to learn not just the facts and the figures through their education, said Richard, but learn about their role in society as a whole. The excuses for not voting were not good enough and “it shows that something is wrong with all of us.” The first step is to engage students in discussion so they are “simply thinking about it,” said Richard.

Profile: Taminder Dhaliwal

(First in a series of occasional profiles of Kwantlen Eagles’ team members.)

Name: Taminder Dhaliwal
Number: 15
Position: Point guard
Age: 20
Zodiac: Cancer
Favourite basketball player: Michael Jordan. “I like Jordan because he makes everybody around him better.”

 

Taminder Dhaliwal of the Eagles basketball team is a third-year criminology student at the Surrey campus. Like every student athlete, she combines post-secondary learning with a demanding sports time table.

“I really don’t know how I do it, but I guess you have to take it day-by-day,” said the 20-year-old point guard, who worked vigorously on her game in the off-season.

“Our goal this season is to make a difference,” she said. The team looks to improve this season to match Kwantlen’ new university status, and improve on its record from last season.

Asked what to expect from her this season, No. 15 said fans should look for her jump shots and passing. “I have been working on my jumpers, and definitely would be setting up plays.” She also talks about being vocal and more aggressive on the floor to help her team. “We have a pretty good team, and if we continue to do the little things, there is no doubt we will go very far.”

She’s also looking forward to finishing her degree in criminal justice. “I want to work with the criminal justice system, and help shape the future of our youth.”

40 attend first-ever Green Wednesday

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Langley campus held the first official Green Wednesday this week, drawing 40 people, most of them residents in Langley.

The environmental movie King Corn was shown. It tells the story of two young men, fresh out of college, who move to Iowa, the “corn capital of the world.” The movie shows that basically everything western civilization eats is made out of corn: corn is fed to the animals we eat, as well as made into corn syrup, which sweetens everything from pop to spaghetti sauce.

The event was co-hosted by the Green Ideas Network; Doreen Dewell, a biology teacher in Whatcom County; and Kwantlen’s Kent Mullinix from the Sustainable Horticulture institute. When picking films for the series, Dewell wanted to have “films on edge rather than only informational.”

Dewell and her sister Joyce Roston are among the founders of the Green Ideas Network, which is a non-profit organization. The network is designed to teach local people about sustainability and raise awareness about environmental issues.

Dewelll says that she basically runs the series like an educational class. “What I do in class, I do in public,” she said. The Green Ideas Network is a fairly young organization, which started about three years ago with environment displays at local fairs mostly in Burnaby, Langley and Surrey.

Wednesday, after the hour-and-a-half movie, door prizes were given out and those on hand were offered refreshments and coffee.

Green Wednesdays are being held at the Langley campus on the second Wednesday of each month. Details of next month’s event are not yet available.

Inaugurating the university’s new leaders

David Atkinson and Arvinder Bubber stood proudly in flowing robes as they were inaugurated into their new leadership roles during a ceremony at Kwantlen Polytechnic University on Oct. 3.

The ceremony was held at the Surrey campus, and began with a march-in of Kwantlen leaders, board members and prominent members of the community, such as Mary Polak, MP for Langley, and Russ Hiebert, MP for South Surrey, White Rock and Cloverdale.

The installation of Atkinson as president and vice chancellor, and Bubber as chancellor, involved them being asked series of questions and having them respond with “I will so do” to each. Following that, the two were stripped of their purple and red robes, and re-dressed in black and red ones.

The convocation wrapped up with a blanketing ceremony which was carried out by members of the Kwantlen First Nation.

Taking it to the streets

Reporter David Pires was on his way to a soccer game when something else broke out — an exuberant, street-smart demonstration in favour of public play in public spaces.

British guitarist tapped for Oct. 17 concert

British guitarist Jason Carter, renowned for his combination of Middle Eastern and Indian music, and an artist who has performed in over 70 countries, will perform Oct. 17 in the auditorium at Kwantlen’s Langley campus.

A largely self-taught guitarist, Carter has performed at the heart of international conflicts in countries such as North Korea, Iran, Northern Ireland and Saudi Arabia. Carter has been active for almost 30 years and has recorded 11 albums.

The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17; tickets ($20/15) are available at www.TicketWeb.ca.

Faith renewed, Muslim students return to regular student life

After a month of fasting during Ramadan, Muslim students at Kwantlen are returning to regular university student life and diet, refreshed and purified for the coming year.

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, started at the beginning of September, just in time for the fall semester.

“Its like a renewal of your faith and a time of self-purification over the span of a month,” said 21-year-old Kareem Elmassry, KSA’s Richmond campus council director. “You go through this one month period of fasting, extra prayers and abstaining from sin and at the end of the month you’ve kind of refilled your faith. It’s like renewing your soul.”

On a typical day during Ramadan, a Muslim student would get up before dawn to pray and eat, then headed to school as normal. Throughout the day they would pray five times and abstain from any food or drink. As dusk approached, they would the head to the mosque where they would then break their fast, with a fig, when the sun went down, then eat a normal meal and head to bed.

During Ramadan, it’s more than abstaining from food and drink – smoking, drinking alcohol, having sex and all other sins are prohibited during daylight hours, more specifically one to two hours before sunrise until sunset.

Rituals are important in the Muslim faith, and Ramadan is a training ritual, one in which the key word is abstinence. Another requirement is prayer five times a day, one of the five pillars of Islam.

“It’s a time when we can feel what it’s like to be hungry, and to understand that no everyone has the privilege of food and water everyday,” said Inam Qureshi, a 20-year-old Kwantlen business student. “You have to understand that Ramadan is about building up discipline and it’s a time to be thankful.”

The five pillars of Islam are: that there is one God; prayer; charity (all Muslims are asked to donate 2.5 per cent of their annual income to charity if they can afford it); fasting, especially during the month of Ramadan; and pilgrimage to Mecca. The first two pillars are compulsory; the others are optional but recommended.

There are exceptions during Ramadan. If you’re sick, traveling, menstruating or in another situation that prevents you from being able to fast, you don’t fast during Ramadan. You are, however, required to make up the month, weeks or days missed at some point before the next year’s celebration of Ramadan.

“I broke my fast for six days this past month while I was sick, but I’ll be making it up soon,” said Elmassry.

“It’s a little painful sometimes when someone is sitting next to you eating a burger, but you get used to it.

“It’s hard, for sure. I’ve been doing it for 10 years, so I’m used to it but I can understand how it can impair some student’s performance, but with practice you get used to it. It’s meant to be a time where all of your good deeds count for more, we can build up some credit in case we screw up later on.”

For most Muslims, the combination of fasting and studying present a few challenges.

“I have an exam on Eid, the final day of Ramadan, which will be a little difficult, but after fasting for eight years, I am used to it by now,” said Saima Iqbal, a 21-year-old Marketing student at Kwantlen’s Surrey campus.

Panteli Tritcher, chair of applied communications and teacher at Kwantlen Surrey’s campus, said “It’s funny because I hadn’t noticed a change in my students whatsoever. I never do. They seem to know how to get through each day as normal during this time.”
By the time students enter into university, they’ve normally been fasting for a number of years, and have practiced so many times that their bodies don’t show reaction.

In Islam, God is thought to be full of knowledge and therefore students are expected to be the same.

“Studying is a part of life that builds character and discipline, the essence of Ramadan,” said Atiq Rahman, a member of the B.C. Muslim Association. “Ramadan is about building up that said character, a relationship with God and bringing God’s attributes and qualities into your life.”

“At the end of the day we are so thankful for our bounties from God,” Rahman.

Richmond, Surrey drivers get vandalism warning

This just in from campus security:

The Surrey and Richmond campuses have seen a number of instances of vandalism to cars over the past few days. Security was informed immediately and has increased patrols at both campuses.

If you see unusual or suspicious behavior in the parking lots, contact Security immediately.

Cloverdale: 604.598.6076
Langley: 604.599.3276
Newton: 604.599.2976
Richmond: 604.599.2676
Surrey: 604.599.2076

« Previous Page — Next Page »