THE Thursday, September 24, 2015 Volume 53, Issue 4 NAIT YOUR STUDENT NEWSPAPERNUGGET FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS, EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA AN ARRR-SOME TIME! NAITSA hosts annual Pirate Party, Page 21 Photo by SL Studios Students ham it up, pirate style, Friday night on the Edmonton Queen Riverboat. 2 The Nugget Thursday, September 24, 2015 NEWS&FEATURES What happened to debate? ence between grape and raisin juice boxes. How did it come to be this way? In an age where so much information is (I will never claim to be good at funny Debates used to be productive discus- readily available at our fingertips, how can metaphors). sions, where the ideals of different pos- it be that there is so much misinformation We live in a time where people are itions were discussed and consensus and apathy in the public domain? We have increasingly identifying themselves by could be reached. Politics wasn’t about progressed to a point where individuals can what cause they support and what polit- which side has the most money or the have a significant global impact through ical “leaning” or stereotype they feel they most freedom (’Merica!). We don’t go their actions and yet too many are focused align with. Debates, political or otherwise, to the lengths of US politics but even in on disagreeing over a political party’s pos- are slowly devolving into shouting matches Canada we have our own version, where ition on the slide scale of politics. where the loudest wins and the virtues of parties argue over who cares most about Post-secondary is supposed to be an NICOLAS BROWN either side are never considered. This is Canadians rather than discussing the environment to foster practical critical Issues Editor exemplified perfectly in the election cam- merits of their platforms. thinkers. Maybe in the long-run, we can @bruchev paigns both in Canada and in the US right We do have some outliers, however. move away from the 15-second sound bite How you view the world dictates the now. Bernie Sanders has continuously proven back to the era of discussions and com- path you choose to take in life. But some- We have pundits greedily using sound that he doesn’t fit the modern mold of promise. Dogma and dramatics do little to times, your world view doesn’t quite match bites to justify whichever argument they popular politics. We are starting to see pro- help build a better world and all it takes is up with the direction society is moving want to make and candidates are all too gressive municipal politicians across the for people to start standing up and demand- towards. Having the ability to accept other happy to provide them with all the material country who no longer run on the corpses ing real change. I’m not talking about Que- people’s perspectives and perhaps change they need. Air time is all that matters, pub- of their rivals’ failed dreams. I wouldn’t bec “orange crush” change either, I mean your own at times is a sign of maturity. licity is king and, depending on where you doubt that NDP party insiders are still mis- effective change. Change where political That being said, it would appear our pol- are, bad publicity is just as important as sing the charismatic Jack Layton, who was parties don’t take shots at each other but iticians are about as mature as a bunch of good publicity – take the Rob Ford saga in as principled as Harper is robotic (if you work together and compromise on their fourth graders arguing over the differ- Toronto as an example. believe the Twitter feeds). individual political positions. Volunteer opportunities By DANIELLE S. FUECHTMANN on the year and brushing up on a resume is a breeze! NAIT’s new Campus Activities Board (CAB) has been Jennifer Grundke, NAITSA’s Campus Culture Direc- busy planning events that will make your time at NAIT the tor, explained that providing this service and making mean- best it can be. Board members were hired in the spring to ingful volunteer opportunities easy to access was something work with NAITSA’s executives and full-time staff to help that NAITSA and the Campus Activity Board was eager to develop and promote campus programing. achieve. CAB’s current board members are divided into three Volunteering and networking in the greater community subcommittees, working with full-time staff members in offers students a chance to “[gain] skills that they need in events, marketing and communications, and volunteer- the workplace and these might be skills that are hard to get ing. Each subcommittee works closely with appropriate in the classroom, so getting out there and applying what you NAITSA staff members; the Campus Activity Board acts as learn here at NAIT and receiving feedback ... provides life the bridge to the student body, finding fun and novel ways to skills, [you’ll] build your resume, and you’ll stand out from share information with students and make NAITSA events some of the other students in your program.” Often, volun- bigger and more memorable. teering can even provide a chance to combine your studies with your personal interests. Virtual volunteer centre The Volunteer Initiative Program is currently still in the One of the projects CAB has been passionately work- process of being populated while CAB is reaching out to ing to build this year is the new Volunteer Initiatives Pro- organizations in the community in order to provide a diverse gram. The program will act as a virtual volunteer centre for range of opportunities to NAIT students. the campus, allowing NAITSA to provide more opportun- ities for students that are looking for volunteer opportunities January launch both on and off campus. They’re allowing the program to grow organically dur- The Volunteer Initiatives Program takes advantage ing the fall semester but they have an official launch planned of OrgSync’s capabilities to post volunteer opportunities for January. offered by community not-for-profits and charity organiza- Board member Joel Benitez says that “[they’ve] started tions who can then manage their own postings. Added bene- adding organizations and different positions” and “it’s pretty fits of OrgSync is the value it can add to students who par- neat, connecting the students with organizations in the ticipate – in addition to making the opportunities easy to community.” access, it provides an easy way for the Volunteer Initiatives He also mentioned that in addition to the hard launch in Program and NAITSA to follow up with students and make January, students will have the opportunity to meet repre- sure that their experience was valuable. OrgSync allows vol- sentatives from a variety of local not-for-profits and char- Photo by Lauren Hucal unteer hours and campus participation to be tracked so stu- ities on Nov. 3 in the South Lobby. You can view opportun- Jennifer Grundke, Campus Culture Director dents can log in and print a co-curricular record that has all ities already posted from the Volunteer Initiatives Program with the NAIT Students’ Association, says vol- of their involvement over the year, including who they vol- by logging into your OrgSync account; there’s a convenient unteering provides life skills for students. unteered with as well as the events they attended. Reflecting link under the “Featured” list on the left column of the page. Thursday, September 24, 2015 NEWS & FEATURES The Nugget 3 The Nugget Room E-128B 11762–106 Street Edmonton, Alberta T5G 2R1 Production Office 780-471-8866 www.thenuggetonline.com Editor-in-Chief Taylor Braat [email protected] Issues Editor Nicolas Brown [email protected] Sports Editor Josh Ryan [email protected] Entertainment Editors Connor O’Donovan [email protected] Photo Editors Lauren Hucal [email protected] Online Editor Taylor Braat [email protected] Photo by Lauren Hucal Production Manager Students have to double and triple up on computers in the The Common Lab, Room (T007) in the Business Tower since 30 computers were removed in a pilot project to test a bring your own device plan. Frank MacKay [email protected] Submissions encouraged: [email protected] The opinions expressed by contribu- Tower tech shortage? tors to the Nugget are not necessar- By NICOLAS BROWN Testing the system on existing hard- recent move to merge the Project Factory ily shared by NAIT officials, NAITSA Issues Editor ware may reduce technical mishaps once with the library has increased the num- or elected school representatives. (@bruchev) the CAT building opens, but it does leave ber of available computers in that area of As students, we rely heavily on tech- the fate of “The Common Lab” in limbo. campus to 95, and the HP Centre has 111 For advertising, call 780-264-9900 nology to complete our studies. Whether The removal of computer workstations workstations available for students. How- or e-mail: it’s to research a project, write an essay or has effectively turned most of the lab into a ever, the loss of 30 workstations in the [email protected] prepare a presentation, computers are rather new study space on campus. Although study tower is being felt by business students. ingrained in the way we pursue our educa- space is always a desired commodity on NAITSA President Justin Nand says, “I’ve tion. Sometimes, that reliance can present campus, computers are in high demand and had a few students complain to me about a challenge. some students are starting to feel the pinch. the lack of computers in the basement of Business students are experiencing Third year business student Kyle Duckering the business tower.