Students bubbling for business practicum idea

Students at the Richmond campus no longer have to trek to Lansdowne Mall to get their bubble tea fix.

Fourth-year business students Patrick Wong, 23, Seulki Kim and Stephanie Sun, both 25, launched their own bubble tea stand in the rotunda of the Richmond campus in mid-February.

The three-person team was taking part in a project for a practicum class, and planned to run their small business until March 26. “We’ve been through so many years of education,” said Wong. “So, we are trying to put everything that we learned today to try to apply it to a mini-business.”

Wong, Kim and Sun said that they first had to go through several business launch presentations and get approval from their instructors. “We’ve gone through all the health inspections. The inspector came and looked at the sealing, drinks and the fridge,” said Wong.

The students got ingredients and supplies through connections with a vendor at the Richmond Public Market and were offering several popular flavours of the pre-made and sealed beverage, with prices starting at $4.

While bubble tea cafes have become common throughout the Lower Mainland, the first stores only started showing up in the early 2000s Vancouver. The beverage originated in Taiwan, and is distinguished by large tapioca balls, which are mixed with either hot or cold tea.

“Bubble” refers to the way the tapioca is cooked, since they balloon into chewy balls after being boiled. The tapioca is called “pearls” after the cooking process. The pearls are tasteless and colourless until they are soaked in a brown-sugar-and-water solution. Vendors usually offer two types: milk tea and fruit-flavoured tea.

There are also choices between natural tea and fruits or the sweeter, powder-flavoured slush drinks. Wong and his team are offering powdered taro and original flavours as well as a natural mango flavour.

Traditionally, students in Asia consume bubble tea during breaks and after school as a snack or dessert. Half way around the world, students at the Richmond campus will have the opportunity to do the same.

Mature Spirits event postponed

The Mature Spirits event that was to be held on March 6 at the Surrey campus has been postponed to March 27.

The event will be an open forum for the mature students at Kwantlen to share opinions, concerns and recommendations with the Mature Students Commission. Wine and cheese tasting in the GrassRoots Lounge will start the night off and the Kwantlen Jazz Combo will also be present to entertain guests.

The event will be held in the G building conference centre and the KSA will be offering a babysitting area. According to Kwantlen’s general admissions, a mature student is considered to be anyone 19 years and older who is not a secondary school graduate.

KSA uses breakfast to promote petitions

Students may have been hoping for a free breakfast of sausage, eggs and stacks of pancakes early last Thursday, as members of the KSA set up tables for an early-risers’ breakfast in the rotunda of the Richmond campus.

However, it became readily apparent that the KSA intended the breakfast for on-the-go students preparing for final exams. Coffee, quarter-slices of assorted muffins and half granola bars were served on ready-to-snatch napkins as 19-year-old Meirna Said and other KSA members readied petitions that called for more student space on campus. The goal for the breakfast was to get the attention of students and have them sign the petition, explained Said.

“In Richmond, what we’re looking at the spaces next to the KSA lounge, specifically the meeting rooms not being used frequently and other rooms in the campus that aren’t being used to its full potential,” said Reena Bali, Richmond campus representative. “The main goal for the petition is for the Richmond campus to have more social space and lounges for individual faculties and departments, and for more improvements made to existing lounges.”

Bali does recognize the limited space in the campus, however she points out that many of the meeting rooms on campus aren’t being frequented enough. “We want to sit down with the president and have the chance to talk to him about making those spaces into lounges for students and faculty members as well,” said Bali.

Thursday morning’s breakfast, though, failed to garner the attention Said had hoped for, with many students overlooking the snack-sized portions of food. However, the KSA did receive 108 signatures on the petition during the breakfast alone.

“We wanteded to see what kind of response the petition would have on students, so we kind of introduced it quietly during the breakfast,” said Bali. “Because right now, I don’t want to harass students into signing the petition during exam week.”

Both Bali and Richmond campus director Kareem Elmassry will be putting out the petition officially during Welcome Week in the beginning of the Spring Semester in the new year.

 

KSA has answer to winter blues

As the crisp November air nips at your nose, you are reminded that winter is just around the corner, and with it, images of snow, family, friends and freedom from homework run through your head. With only six weeks of school left, the KSA wants to take students’ mind off of assignments, projects and exams by offering ski and snowboard trip packages during the holidays.

Three packages, courtesy of Destination Snow, are available from December to February, and all include two nights accommodation, two-day lift tickets (with night skiing at Big White Ski Resort), a round trip in a coach, discounted rentals, lessons, and daily mountain tours, among other things. Social activities will also be planned every evening at local pubs and nightclubs

Discounted prices are available only until tomorrow, when the $100 deposits are due. Full payments for the Dec. 5-7 Big White Ski Resort trip is due on Nov. 10, the Jan. 16-18 Big White trip is due Nov. 28 and the Feb 20-22 Sun Peaks Resort trip is due on Jan. 26. Early payment prices range from $265 to $335 for each package. Tickets can be purchased from any KSA office.

Are you voting in the KSA by-election?

Five students at the Richmond campus, where a polling station was open in the rotunda from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, were asked if they were going to vote in this year’s KSA by-election. Langley students will be the last to cast their votes Thursday, Oct. 30.

Gary Wong, 20, taking ESL courses
“No, I don’t know the difference, which group and the different groups.”

Christine Tseng, 22, Public Relations
“No. I didn’t even know it was happening before I saw [the polling booths]. I wouldn’t know what I’m voting for.”

Alyssa Smith, 24, Public Relations
“I’m not planning on voting in the KSA by-elections because it’s so wrought with controversy and bad leadership and our fees are going nowhere. I just don’t really feel like I need to participate in something like that.”

Carling Hind, 21, Public Relations
“To be honest, to be perfectly honest, no. I don’t know enough about them and I also believe that it’s a little bit isolated, like every time I go to the KSA office its very group orientated and it feels like isolated from the group.”

Sean Kramer, 23, Business
“No, I just haven’t really thought about it.”

Parking fees hiked to ‘keep standards,’ promote transit use

Kwantlen students who drive to school but don’t have parking permits have seen a small hike in parking rates.

Both daily and four-hour parking fees have increased by 25¢, with daily parking costing students $4, and a four-hour fee now $2.75. Weekly e-permits are now $13, up $1, and carpool semester permits have risen $5 to $82.50. Unreserved and reserved semester permits have been increased $5 and $10, and now cost $95 and $165 respectively. There have been no changes made for two-semester permits.

“Comparative to all other colleges around the area, like BCIT, Capilano, Douglas and Langara, we are still relatively low with the parking rates,” said Sandy Kwan, reporting and systems accounting analyst in Kwantlen. “Just because our rates are relatively cheaper compared to all other colleges…that was the main reason [for the increase].”

Even with Kwantlen’s new status as a university, Kwan explains that the institution was comparing parking rates with other polytechnic universities, such as BCIT, rather than larger universities like UBC and SFU, whose rates “are still quite a bit more.”

“We want just to keep our standards with all the other colleges, too,” Kwan said.

Kwan said another reason Kwantlen decided on the increase was the number of students who park without paying. “[Students] would just park without a parking ticket or without a parking pass and they would probably get one ticket every few months. So in relation, it was still cheaper to get the ticket rather than buy the parking pass,” said Kwan.

Kwantlen is also hoping increased parking fees will promote public transportation. “By increasing the rates, people will more likely be taking transit…there are more and more cars each year on the road, and if some were to take transit, that would free up space,” said Kwan.

The increased rates will also help pay for parking improvements in the Surrey and Cloverdale campuses, Kwan said.