KSA Spotlight: Nate Huggins

There are some pretty amazing people that work to support students at the KSA. Every month we'll feature a staff member (and occasionally Council member) so you can actually put a face to the name/event/project. This month, I invite you to meet our Active KSA Specialist, Nate!

Here are a few things about Nate… 

1. How did you come to work for the KSA?
I came to work for the KSA by joining the Grassroots team last September to pay for my tuition. It was my first job and I was welcomed into it with open arms by both the staff behind the counter as well as the folks down at the KSA. I'm really glad I worked at the Cafe first because not only did I get paid but I also got to meet so many cool new people within my first year at KPU.

2. What is your position and can you provide a brief summary of what you do?
My position is the Active KSA Specialist. So at Active KSA we organize events for students, and we give them an opportunity to explore and play within the community as well as go out and do things they normally wouldn't get to do on campus. We get to do all sorts of outdoor events such as canoeing, bike riding, hiking, stand up paddle boarding, and later this summer we plan to have a game of Quidditch at Stanley Park. 

3. What is your favourite thing about working here?
My favorite thing about working here is the people I work with on a daily basis, but also the people I get to meet on the events we run. Each event is different. The organization and execution of the event is more or less different each time, so it keeps me on my toes.

4. Best activity to do on the weekend?
My favorite activity to do on the weekend is hang out with friends or play video games with my brother.

5. What is something that makes you unique?
Something that makes me unique? I genuinely love to make people smile and laugh. Not to sound too cheesy, but I love to play in all aspects of my life. Be it on a screen, with cards, on a field with a ball, or just playing with different voices in an attempt to make people giggle. I've got a surplus of energy so this job is perfect for me. 

6. What is your favourite food?
My favorite food is Burgers. I could eat them for breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

7. What is one of your best memories at the KSA?
One of my best memories at the KSA was doing Open Mic Night with my Supervisor. We sang "This Kitchen is Not a Home" from SpongeBob. It was hilarious, I hope to be there for the next Open Mic as well. 

Want to do more with the KSA? Volunteer with our START Program, Peer Support or the KSA Street Team. Looking to do more as a student? Consider attending a committee meeting or running in election next Spring. Want to work for us? Check out our job postings here.

Waste Audit Part 2

In January, I introduced the idea of a waste audit and wrangled some of my coworkers into doing audits to share with you.

Waste isn’t exciting but plastic waste is leading to big problems. Just in the past few weeks, CBC found microplastic in Canadian bottled water, China doesn’t want our materials for recycling, and Canadians create a lot of garbage. Combating our reliance on plastic and getting away from the idea we can just throw things ‘away’ is getting more important every day.

We had three KSA staffers audit their homes for a week to look at the waste they generate. All of our auditors are recent graduates or current students living with a roommate in Metro Vancouver and have municipal or building wide recycling services available to them. As a comparison, we’ve included the USA average figures from the EPA (they’re newer), but in 2013 Canadians generate waste at the same, or higher rates!

Now, let’s talk numbers. (Or at least, read the nice chart).

The average American creates 1.9kg (about four pounds of butter) of waste each day. Of this, 0.68 kilograms (about 1.5 pounds of butter) is recycled or composted and the rest is sent to landfill. For a duo, as in our auditors case, this would be doubled to nearer 4 kilograms a day with 1.37 kilograms going to recycling and compost. Our auditors calculated over one week and we included everything even if it wasn’t typical of their weekly waste.

• Nicki’s household generated an average of 1.07kg of waste each day. Over the week their waste broke down as 25% for the organics bin, 19% for paper recycling, 47% for their recycling bin and most of that was heavy glass bottles. Nicki’s landfill amount was very small at only 0.77 kgs. They’re looking for ways to reduce plastic food wrapping. 
• Steph’s household generated more landfill bound waste, about 84% of their weeks waste, though they acknowledge that they had some things this week that wouldn't be in their usual week’s waste. Steph found the biggest challenge knowing what went where and has set out to set up a recycling station at her place to make sure what can get recycled does. 
• Tonya’s household generated 7kg of waste, but 65% of this was recyclable glass containers and more than 80% of their weekly waste was recycled or composted. One of their biggest changes is eliminating single-use coffee cups. 

If you haven’t done an audit yet check out our last post to find out how to do your own!

Okay, math over. Now, what can you do?

Don’t stress or panic! Making changes towards reducing the waste you create shouldn’t make your life miserable. Some things might happen easily and others might take some trial and error. Still, other things you might decide not to change and that’s okay. What works for you and your roomates or family is where you should start. Our auditors sat down and we talked through their burning questions.

1. What can I do without changing how I shop or eat?

• Make sure you’re properly sorting what waste you do generate and recycling as much as possible by looking at your Municipality’s website, using tools like Metro Vancouver Recycles. 
• When you go out, stop and make sure you’re sorting you waste correctly. If there’s no compost bin, take your compost home to your bin. 
• What small changes can I make when I grocery shop: 
• Purchase whole fruit and veggies without plastic wrapping, and reduce your reliance on processed (pre-packaged) foods. 
• Bag your groceries (and any other shopping) in a reusable tote bag. 
• As you run out of things, look for a lower waste alternative like a bar of unwrapped soap instead of a plastic pump. 
• What else can I do? 
• Drink tap water and use a refillable bottle. On campus, the Waterfillz machines filter the water so it’s cool, clean and tastes great. Metro Vancouver has good tap water. 
• Avoid purchasing items wrapped in plastic. 
• Eat your leftovers and store them in reusable containers. 
• Get in the habit of carrying a reusable bag. 
• Ask for no straw when you’re out for drinks or getting a smoothie. 

There are loads of folks on social media sharing the changes they’re making to reduce their waste. They share about making DIY cleaning products and makeup, tricks for eating out, and making a paper sack for your compost bin. To find resources that work with you, find someone whose voice resonates with you, who has a similar lifestyle, or whose advice meets your needs most.

• Ree’s candid blog has tons of advice about reducing waste when going to events, festivals, making your own body products and even videos with tips for ways to use cloth napkins. https://www.fortnegrita.com/pages/start-here
• Gitte Mary is a young woman living in Denmark. She blogs about her zero waste challenges and goals. http://www.gittemary.com/
• Cassie Vee makes videos about zero waste living and fighting racism. She’s got great videos on make up remover and hair care. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCznqMUWYyOVwJ04x8tPLOQ/featured
• Megean is a mom with a young family and her 30 day challenge is a great way to get started if you love challenges where you can tick things off the list or have a different task everyday https://zerowastenerd.com/beginners-guide
• Plastic Manners started as a year long project to live without plastic and has great ideas for reducing plastic in your life: https://plasticmanners.wordpress.com/tips/
• The Clean Bin project was based in Vancouver so the film is both interesting and useful as they created a list of local resources. It’s not perfect but it can be useful. https://cleanbinproject.com/takeaction/resources/

You’re going to have loads of questions so look for groups on Facebook, ask the companies you buy things from if they can reduce the waste they create or for solutions like makeup or grocery shopping. There are also quite a few good books that most libraries have that can help you out. Find us on Twitter (@sustainableksa) or comment on the blog to ask questions or share things you find help reduce your waste at home!

--Mairi

Club of the Month: Kwantlen Music Students Association

Every month we (try to, yes sometimes it just doesn’t end up happening, we’re sorry, please forgive us) feature a KSA club and highlight the fun/cool things that make their club different from the others. It’s a chance to get a little inside information, and see what events and meetings they have coming up.

Our April Club of the Month is the Kwantlen Music Student’s Association. Hear more about the club from the Club President, Emma.. 

Club Executives:  Amy Wack (Treasurer), Alexa Reimer (Coordinator),
Emma Dotto ( President / Founder), and Jeremy Laity (Vice President).

“I started the Music Students' Association because I had a real interest in musician's health as I was dealing with some performance injuries myself. While researching musician's health, I happened upon the McGill University's Musician's Health Club Instagram account and realized that this was something I could bring to KPU. 

From there, the club has grown into a multi-faceted association targeting not only musician's health, but also funding masterclasses, organizing social events and providing performance opportunities for the music students. 

Some events the KMSA have hosted include an Alexander Technique workshop, a Performance Anxiety Workshop, a Spring Formal (featuring the KPU Music Big Band and Jazz Combos), a Jazz Jam night, and, a Piano Masterclass with one of KPU Music’s top 25 alumni.”

 "All You Gotta Do Is Swing" Night    

“What makes the KMSA unique is that it is a club that recognizes the areas in which music students need more support and then takes action to help that by hosting workshops, masterclasses, social events, and jam nights. The executive team is compromised of music students helping music students.”

 "All You Gotta Do Is Swing" Night    

“We are currently getting our monthly Jazz Jam Nights off the ground! These nights are the best because it gives everyone a chance to let loose and just play music with friends and have a good time.”

 "All You Gotta Do Is Swing" Night    

“As the semester is winding down, so are we. However, we have some big plans for the next Fall and Spring semester! Some more masterclasses, workshops, and hopefully another Spring Formal!”

Learn more about the Kwantlen Music Student’s Association or join as a member by checking out their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/kpumusicstudents/. 

Amazing Race Video

March was a special month for us because we held our Amazing Race: KPU Edition event! It was a part race, part challenges event hosted by Active KSA and KPU Sport & Rec. Teams competed against each other for the best finish time and the winners won cash prizes!

Here’s a little recap of what went down...

Want to know more about Active KSA events? 

Council Recap: April 6, 2018

The incoming KSA Council met twice last week, on April 2 and and April 6.  The incoming councillors swore their oaths of office, and voted on the new Executive at the first meeting, and the second meeting was primarily taken up with appointing councillors to various committees.
Here are the FIVE things you NEED to know from this week's’ Council:

#5
One of the first orders of business for the new council is to appoint councillors to the various committees of the organization.  Committees are where new ideas are developed, and recommendations made for the Council to vote on. The committees of Council are the Appointments committee, the Environmental Sustainability committee, the External Affairs committee, the Finance & Operations committee, the Governance committee, the Social Justice and Equity committee, the Student Life committee and the University Affairs committee.  All of the committees have seats reserved for students - apply at kusa.ca/committees

#4
Murdoch de Mooy was elected VP University Affairs.  While de Mooy previously held the position of Arts Faculty Representative, he was defeated by Jazicka Rai in the 2018 General Election for Mature Students Representative. He continues to hold his seat on Council because he is a student representative on the University Senate.  If the Bylaw changes been approved at the 2018 AGM, senators would no longer be on Council, but the meeting did not have the required 200 people for quorum, and the bylaws were not changed.

This is not the first time that a student senator has been elected to an executive position.  
Christopher Girodat, appointed December 2011 as Director of Student Services and Executive Chairperson, was recently made an honourary member of the association for his contributions to the organization. Girodat is most well-known for his role in organizing students to introduce unprecedented levels of accountability in the society. Chris’s other accomplishments include replacing the entirety of the KSA bylaws, implementing accounting best practices, hiring a new general manager, increasing trust in the student body, as well as inspiring generations of KSA council members. Steven Button, appointed November 2013 as Director of Student Services and Executive Chairperson, was a quiet and stately presence at the KSA during his term, preferring to take care of the behind-the-scenes work so critical to the workings of the student association, and largely leaving the spotlight to his colleagues.  

#3
David Piraquive was appointed VP Student Life. Piraquive has been involved with the KSA as a student member since he was appointed to the External Affairs committee in September 2014.  He was elected as a Arts Faculty Representative in the 2017 general election, and successfully re-ran in the 2018 election. You might’ve met Piraquive collecting signatures for the Grants Now! campaign this past spring.

#2
Joseph Thorpe, the new VP Finance & Operations, is the ‘newest’ member of the executive team.  He was appointed as the Queer Students Liaison at the 2017 AGM, and continued to hold the position after the by-election, as no one ran to replace him.  He successfully ran in the 2018 General election. Thorpe has been working at Career Services at the University, and is an HR student. He was very involved in the Pride float for the 2017 Pride Parade, and we are excited to see what he has planned for this year!

#1
Caitlin McCutchen was re-elected Vice President External at the Council meeting on April 2, and following that was elected President by the Executive Committee.  McCutchen first got involved with the KSA for the 2015 get out the vote campaign, and went on to serve as a student at large, and then a Senate representative, before running as women’s representative in the 2017 election.  She is no stranger to leadership, having served as the Chairperson of the Alliance of BC Students since June 2017. In her first term as VP External, McCutchen oversaw many campaigns, including the a more mindful U campaign for mental health, and a campaign for student housing with the ABCS, which influenced the government’s commitment in the 2018 budget of $450 million dollars over three years to build student housing.  

You can keep track of what the new Council is doing here on the blog, and in the meeting minutes of KSA Council and Committees, which are available after approval on kusa.ca/committees.

Life on Campus

The Provincial budget was presented on February 20th and it was a really exciting day for everyone at the KSA who works on campaigns. We have been pushing for more student housing since 2016 and this year the government announced $450 million for on campus housing in the province! This is huge, and it means that institutions across BC can now propose housing projects and borrow money directly from the government to build them.

This is really exciting, and we can’t wait to see where housing ends up being built. So, just in case we get housing here, here are some tips from the pros, or at least from some people I know who have lived on campus before:

1. Open your door. If you stay in your room with the door closed, you’ll miss out on the best part of residence, the lifelong friendships with all the people on your floor. Casual interactions with everyone wandering by are a great, no pressure, way to meet people, get invited to things, and signal that you want to chat.

2.  If you share a shower, bring flip-flops. Also if you have never had a roommate before, mentally prepare yourself for sharing a shower with a bunch of people.

3.  On the subject of roommates, set rules with roommates up front. It might seem weird to do at first, but if you never tell your roommates that you hate being the only person to take out the trash then you will resent them for months, and they will be surprised when you finally explode. It’s way easier to be able to say ‘Hey, I think it’s your turn this week’ because you already decided to share that task.

4. Bring a fan (and a space heater if you’re allowed). There is a very low chance that the temperature the building happens to be is the temperature that you want it to be.

5. Go to the orientation. You meet a whole bunch of people right at the beginning, and go into the year with so many new friends. Also you almost definitely get free food (to the right you will see me, eating all of the free food at our welcome week).

6. Staying on campus late and just hanging out without a set activity in mind is a super good way to get involved with things that are going on at your campus. Several people in our office said they entered campus life because they lived on campus, and described it as the best part of their university experience (pro tip, you don’t have to actually live on campus to do this).

7. Plan something for your first weekend. Lots of people visit home the first or second weekend, and if you stay on campus without any plans it can be quiet and feel a little lonely. Find some other people who are sticking around, or explore the neighbourhood around campus.

8.  Late night fire alarms. This is an experience that is pretty well universal, I have heard from people at UBC and Uvic where fire alarms get pulled as a practical joke (at 3am on a Wednesday… not cool) or SFU where the fire alarms get set off in old buildings because of the steam from showers (also at 3am..whyyy) and basically everywhere that there is residence because people think they can get away with smoking in their rooms. Because residence buildings are so densely filled, firefighters have to respond to a fire alarm immediately, even if they need to leave an actual fire to do this.

9. Expect some level of nonsense. One of our staff knows someone who lived on campus at Uvic, this was back when the campus was covered in bunnies. Her dorm was on the ground floor, and one night someone dropped a bunny into her window. Chaos ensued while the little bunny jumped around looking for an escape route, and the bunny, while alarmed, was fine. This exact thing will not happen to you, but you can probably expect to leave with at least one good story.

We don’t know if KPU will be one of the institutions that gets to build new housing, but just for fun, let us know what your ideal student housing situation would be in the comments.

Thanks for reading

Nicki