Happy Dalloween!

I love Halloween/Dalloween! It's a great time of year to take a break from everything crazy and let yourself be creative with your costume and have a good time with friends.

Tonight there are two parties that all Dalhousie students should head out to (and I'm not just saying that because of my position with the DSU - I am saying it because both parties are amazing and I know from several years of experience!).

Tonight the Grawood will be celebrating 'Dalloween'. The annual Halloween party that will be at capacity all night with a wide range of costumes. It's a huge bar with great music and dance floor. So if you want to go out dancing tonight make sure you head to the Grawood!

The TRoom is also hosting a Halloween party tonight! There will also be trivia (Friday staple), and a costume contest. The TRoom is great for anyone who wants to go out but doesn't want the typical club scene (dancing and laser lights).

So whether you want to kick up your claws and dance the night away or take your fangs out for a fun night with friends the DSU bars have something for you!

For more information on the events check out our facebook groups:

Grawood Halloween Party

TRoom Halloween Party

Hanging out on Sexton Campus

I am here!

As you can see from my post below I was unable to make my office hours yesterday for Sexton Campus (and was very upset about that!). But today I feel much better and am currently sitting in the DSU's brand new Sexton Campus office!

It's been a pretty slow morning - I have had one student come in to see me (to borrow scissors to help make her Halloween costume). But I am expecting things to pick up this afternoon when Engibeering starts.

I'm very happy to see that the office hours of all the folks that will be using the office have been posted on our whiteboard. The sign outside the office (which matches the DSU signs in the SUB) is fully completed. I was also speaking with our Director of Facility Operations yesterday and he let me know that we have ordered 4 chairs for the office to allow for guest seating.

We are also waiting for the new door to come in - the new door will be more accessible because it will allow for a wheelchair to get through (the current door does not allow for this).

So all in all the office is doing well and I am very happy to be here for our Sexton students.

Wisdom Teeth Troubles

I want to start off by apologizing for not being on Sexton Campus this morning for my office hours. I had my wisdom teeth out last week and have been having a very slow recovery. I woke up this morning with a pounding headache and was not able to come into work until around 1:30 this afternoon.

I am holding office hours on Sexton Campus at our new office tomorrow.

I have also passed along my Sexton office hours to our VP Internal to post so that our Sexton students know when they can reach me.

Again my sincere apologies for not being able to make my office hours this morning.

Recycling in the SUB

It had been brought to my attention a little while ago that there was not proper recycling outlets in the SUB, there was no receptacle for paper to be placed in to be recycled on the ground level of the SUB.

I took a look at the bins on the ground floor and quickly realized that we did have the recyclabes, compost, and garbage sections but nothing for paper. I forward my concern along to our Director of Facility Operations and asked him to consult with facilities management to see if we could add a bin for paper.

I am proud to announce that today we now have 2 bins for paper to be placed into - one is in the Tim Horton's area of the SUB and the other is by the Grill area.

It's great that students are bringing forward their concerns and that we (the executive and staff) are able to work towards making life at DAL better for them.

UPass Access

Today Mark Coffin, VP Education, and myself attended a meeting with members of Dalhousie University, Halifax Regional Municipality, and Metro Transit.

Several issues were discusses such as possible ways to have more people riding public transportation, the need for more money for Metro Transit to add services (this could come from a number of sources), route enhancements, having a report on service enhancement for our students, and the stickers.

Curerntly Metro Transit is waiting to add more to their service due to money and space constraints. MT needs more money so that it can add services and also sustain them over time. It is easy to say that money can just come from more people using the service but there are many other costs that cannot be covered from just the fare money. The space constraints are related to bus storage spaces. They are waiting for a new facility to be built which will allow them to store more of their buses and then they are looking to see if they will be add more.

Halifax students that are part of the UPass system are currently contributing approximatley $1.5 million to Metro Transit. We are now looking to receive reports from Metro Transit on a regular basis that will show the service enhancements that are being made.

But the most immediate piece of information that I have to pass along to our students is that the UPass sticker that was placed on your Dalcard in September is most likely going to fall off. There have been numerous issues with the first sticker that was placed on and the University has acted quickly to fix this via a new improved sticker. If your sticker has fallen off please visit the Dalcard office, Student Services (Killam Library), or Student Accounts and they can place a new and improved sticker onto your Dalcard.

Celebrity in Haliwood

Tonight Matt (VP Finance and Operations) and I went out for supper to get caught up on everything from budgets to executive goals.

We went to a fabulous restaurant in downtown Halifax (and we did pay for our own meals). The dinner was going great and then Matt turned to me and asked me if I recognized the gentleman that had just walked in. I said that I thought he looked like Tom Selleck. Matt told me that it was rumored that Mr. Selleck is in Halifax currently filming another movie. So we called our waitress over and she confirmed that it definitely was Tom Selleck.

On top of the night being great to catch up with Matt it was crazy that we ate supper at the same place in Halifax as Tom Selleck - so make sure to keep your eyes open in Haliwood, celebrities could be anywhere!

Up, Up and Away!

Enrollment at Dalhousie University is up! 

It was estimated last year that Dalhousie would see a decline of approximately 100 students for the 2008-09 academic year. However, the university has since seen an increase of approximately 170 students.

The grand total of Dalhousie students (not including Kings students) as of Oct 15 2007 was 15,205 the grand total of Dalhousie students (not inclusing Kings students) as of Oct 15 2008 is 15,382.

Here are some interesting statistics:

The total number of maritime students that are currently attending Dalhousie is 8827 or 57.4%

The total number of Ontatio students that are currently attending Dalhousie is 3360 or 21.8%

The total number of international students that are currently attending Dalhousie is 1168 or 7.6%

40th Anniversary of the Student Union Building

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Student Union Building.

On November 8th 1968 the SUB opened its doors to students. There was a great celebration that spanned the entire weekend. Over the years we have been fortunate to receive wonderful gifts such as the signage on the building and the wall of nostalgia (located on the second floor of the SUB).

This year we are hoping to have a facelift to the building and have the exterior of the SUB worked on (not overhauled because that would be expensive but just touching up a few areas and washing the walls so they are restored to look how they did 40 years ago).

Our Vice President Student Life, Kris Osmond, and his Events Committee have been working very hard at planning a giant birthday celebration for our wonderful SUB. The event is taking place on Friday November 7th and will end at 1am in the Grawood (we plan to do a New Year's Eve type countdown to ring in the actual birthday - November 8th).

For more details on the event please visit our facebook group.

ANSSA Student Assembly

This past weekend (Oct 24-25) the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations held their fall 2008 student assembly.

Each of the four member schools (DSU, SMUSA, ASU, St,FX SU) selected 5 students to attend the student assemblies. The DSU's delegates were:

Amy Florian (VP Education Commissioner)

Kaylyn Fraser (DSU Councilor, Student Senator)

Yannick Tremblay (DSU Councilor, Graduate Student Senator)

Robert LeForte (member of the DSU)

John Hillman (member of the DSU)

The student assembly covered several policies that the ANSSA executive director and the board have been working on. The student assembly is in place to approve policies and the direction that they would like to see the ED and board members take.

The policies and strategy topics that were discussed were:

- differential tuition policy

- international student policy

- election strategy

- plan or perish campaign

We also were given a presentation on the new ANSSA website (to be launched soon) and how it will be much more interactive for board members, student assembly delegates, and member schools' students.

For more information on ANSSA please contact our Executive Director:

Kelly Wilson - ed@anssa.ca

NEW Sexton Campus Office

The DSU is proud to announce that we have opened our NEW Sexton Campus office!

The grand opening took place on Friday October 17th at 1pm (I have pictures but my camera is having some issues so I will have to post them later).

There were about 20 students, staff, executive, and even the Vice President Student Services (Dr. Bonnie Neuman) came to the event. We had an official ribbon cutting and snacks for everyone.

The office will work to provide a space on Sexton Campus for students to be able to find out what the DSU is doing, to bring their concerns to the DSU, and to benefit from several of our services such as the Dalhousie Student Advocacy Service and the DSU Health and Dental Plan.

The TRoom, Sextant, Sexton Campus Entertainment Director, Sexton Campus Director, Sexton Campus Office Manager, and the DSU Executive will all be having office hours out of the new office as well.

The office is located in the J Building just across the hall from the gym and the new DSEUS office, inthe link between the security desk and the TRoom.

I have committed to working at least 5 hours a week at the Sexton Campus office (goal #8).

My office hours for this week on Sexton will be:

- Thursday: 10:00am - 1:00pm

- Friday: 11:30am - 1:30pm

If there are any DSU services or anything else that you would like to see provided in the office please contact our Sexton Campus Director, Janet Conrad.

Presidential Review Committee

Dalhousie University's President - Dr. Tom Traves, is currently in the process of being reviewed by the Presidential Review Committee. Dr. Traves has been with the university for 13 years. He is currently in his 3rd term of being President and when he started this terms he decided not to do it for the full term. However, he has recently brought it to the attention of the Board of Governors of the University that he would be interested in extending his term by 2-3 years.

I have been selected by the student Senators of the university to be the student representative on this committee. At the last council meeting, councilors were asked to go back to their constituents and gain feedback on what they would like me to take forward to the committee in terms of the student opinion on if the President should have his term extended.

I am waiting for feedback to come in from our councilors and will be attending my first meeting of the committee on Friday.

If you have any comments you would like to bring to my attention on this subject please contact me asap!

Health Professions Lounge

Few students actually know this, but the DSU does operate the space known as the Health Professions Lounge (4th floor of the Dentistry Building on Carleton Campus).

It has been brought to my attention that this space has quite a few concerns around it such as how late it is open and that renovations need to happen in order for it to be effectively functional.

I did have a brief conversation with the President of the Pharmacy society about the concerns that some Carleton students have with the space and what could be changed to make it better for them.

I am working with our VP Internal and some staff members to look at what the history of this space has been and where we can go with it in the future. It is my hope that this space will be able to be used by our Carleton Campus students in a way that benefits them but also so that the DSU has a presence on the campus and that students can get information (brochures, events information, executive contact information, etc) about the DSU.

If you have any ideas on what could be improved with this space please do not hesitate to call (902.494.1277) or email me (dsupres@dal.ca).

Buying Local is Important!

I have been meeting with Soedxho and also the Grawood Kitchen to ensure that when possible we are buying local. There are two main reasons that I would like for us to be buying local - (1) it help supports our local economies and (2) it has a lower impact on our environment when we do not need to transport in products from far away.

Soedxho has forwarded along to me a list of the items that they are buying local and they have also placed a sign down by the Grill in the SUB to let students know which items are being purchased locally. Some of the items that Sodexho is purchasing from the Annapolis Valley are: raspberries, apples, beets, cauliflower, eggs, potatoes, and mushrooms.

The Grawood also purchases many of its products from Nova Scotia such as pepperoni, bakery items, and fish.

Environmentally Friendly Packaging

This year one of my goals (#3 in fact) is to move the DSU into providing more sustainable packaging through our food service providers.

Last year Sodexho switched from using the plastic take away containers to using recyclable containers. This year I have worked with the Grawood kitchen and now the Grawood is proud to announce that they too have switched from using the plastic take away containers to using the recyclable ones. It should also be noted that the liners in the take away containers (checkered paper) is also recyclable.

The next step that I am working on is to replace the plastic utensils being used by both Sodexho (the Grill and Tim Hortons) and the Grawood to recyclable ones. There is a product out now that we could switch to and both groups are looking into it.

Sodexho is also looking into having sustainable cups being introduced to Booster Juice - this change is expected to happen in the next few months.

If there are other sustainable steps that you would like to see the DSU take in terms of environmentally friendly packaging please let me know and I will make sure to pass along your concerns. 

Looking Fabulous!

On Thursday I had a meeting with the University's Career Services Center to which they announced that they were hosting..... What Not To Wear (the Dalhousie version) and that they would like for me to be one of four panel judges in selecting which students will receive the makeover. Seeing as how I think that this is a great opportunity for students, it's fun, and I love the actual show I agreed to be a part of it.

All Dalhousie students are eligible to enter the contest - http://careerservicescentre.dal.ca/default.asp?mn=1.13.1212 - and the winners (four students) will receive a $500 makeover.
The purpose of the contest is to bring awareness to students about what is appropriate to wear in the workplace.

The reveal of the makeovers is taking place on November 6th.

Check out the website link above for more information on the event.