APRIL 20 1995 VOL 1 NO 1 5 VANCOUVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE Simulation tests VCC Hospitality Students Inside r ollegegate Hotel is going down. The service is slack, customers are complaining, the owners are antsy, the staff reluctant to change their ways, and the union defensive. Operations Council formed When many hotels are recycling, reducing and reusing, Collegegate is stuck in wasteful practices. Environmentalists are pressuring for change and disgusted guests are writing terse letters to the harassed management. A record Notable Event ACCC Conference Seems like a handful? Hotel management is challenging and the graduating students from the Hospitality Administration Program at VCC were handed that challenge. It was only a simulated exercise, but one that was realis¬ Safer Campus Initiative The Internationals are here! tic of the day to day pressures hotel manage¬ ment teams experience, says John McBride, a VCC Instructor coordinating the exercise. The day-long scenario that took place on April 6th, at VCC City Centre, called for a new management team to begin to turn things around. In reality, the 72 second year students 30 Years for support from the community. The student teams had to establish priorities, manage their time and delegate efficiently and effectively to meet the rigors of hotel management. According to McBride, the exercise created an opportunity for the stu¬ dents to integrate many of the skills and knowledge gained through the two year pro¬ gram. The students also experienced how they performed under pressure; how well they worked as a team and provided and accepted leadership. In the middle of this day-long simulation the students attended a hotel association lunch¬ eon, prepared and served by the faculty and complete with a guest speaker. This lunch¬ eon was part of the game. The speaker, Ian Powell, G.M. Hotel Vancouver, discussed the importance of networking around issues fac¬ ing hotels.He also provided some timely ad¬ were divided up into 8 teams, each with their vice to the students who are about to take on own office, phone and computer. Through the the demand of management in the hospital¬ ity industry. day they received by telephone and courier: Celebrating a letter in Chinese from a guest and requests requests from owners for plans and strate¬ gies to improve service, demands for change from an environmental group, inquiries from the press concerning the hotel's wastefulness, a sexual harassment complaint from a guest, At the end of the day the students evaluated their performance and the exercise itself. Al¬ though student teams were created out of groups who rarely work together, the students Continued onn page 2 Simulation (Continued from page 1) remarked on how efficiently and effectively Connections Editor, Design and Layout: the groups operated. They used the words de¬ pendable, team spirited, enthusiastic, and hard working to describe their colleagues. The exercise was described as very realistic. Dale Rasmussen, Students felt the stress of making decisions quickly. On the evaluation sheet students PR Dept rated the usefulness of the exercise at an av¬ Campus Contacts erage of 90%. The simulation was designed by the Hospi¬ tality Administration faculty and was part of Open House. Support was received from the GVRD Solid Wastes Department, the Min¬ istry of the Environment's Municipal Waste Reduction Branch and City Centre, VCC. For mor e information, contact John McBride or Carmine Morelli, 8376 Vickki Montigny (CC), Manijeh Golkhizi (KEC) Communications Coordinator: Sarah Lucas, local 7158 Connections publishes every Thursday, and the deadline for submissions is 3:00 pm on the previous Friday. Please supply your article to Manijeh or Vickki in a simple,wordprocessed format Operations Council formed X ie new VCC Operations Council has been formed and its first meeting was held on Tues¬ day, April 11,1995. This Council has a simi¬ lar mandate as the former Joint Council, and will deal with policies and decisions concern¬ ing general College business. The Chair of Operations Council is Linda Martin, and the membership is as follows: (text only is best) Brenda Appleton Deena Bowie on an IBM- Cassandra Crooks compatible disk. Please include a hardcopy. John Cruickshank Dale Dom Jim Goard Please recycle Janice Hansen Jo Ann Hansen this newsletter. $ Mary Hoekstra Wynn Keenan Karen Kelly David Kolot Lyn Lennig Moira Macleod Bob Malone Wayne Martin Dana Merritt Lilli Milder Laraine Niewinski Gail Rochester Jackie Sandy Casey Sheridan Linda Thomas Larry Waddell Min Yao Each month, a list of the last meeting's ac¬ tion items and the agenda for the next meet¬ ing will be printed in "Connections." Any PAGE 2 member of the College community is wel¬ come to attend as a guest. Outcomes from the meeting of April 11, 1995 A sub-committee was formed to compose a draft Terms of Reference for presentation to the Council for approval. A revised VCC Human Rights Policy was approved in principle, pending legal review. This draft revision #5 is now the operative policy. (Copies of this policy will be distrib¬ uted shortly. If you do not receive one in the mail, there will be extras available in the CC and KEC mail rooms and the reception areas of KEC North and West.) The Council will normally meet every sec¬ ond Tuesday of the month at 1:00 p.m., with possible exceptions during the summer months. The next meeting is at 1:00 p.m. at King Edward Campus in Room 4043. Linda Martin APRIL 20 1995 Record fundraising event for VCC Educational Foundation The Lhe VCC Educational Foundation raised over $44,000 for music scholarships and bur¬ saries with the The Notable Event '95 on Fri¬ day, March 31. The Westin Bayshore was filled to capacity. Over 400 people enjoyed VCC Music Department's presentation of jazz and dixieland music, fitting the theme "A Night in New Orleans." Throughout the evening, guests generously bid on over eighty donated items. The Silent Auction alone raised close to $12,000. Funds raised will be matched by the Provincial Government College and Institute Matching Endowment During the evening, the Foundation honoured Quebecor Printing, The Truck Loggers As¬ sociation, Vancouver Business and Profes¬ sional Women's Club, Western Star Trucks and Orion Western Star and Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Woodward's Foundation for their committment to education. The Foundation would like to extend its thanks to David Branter and the exception¬ ally talented music faculty, students and staff as well as others who volunteered to help make this evening a success! Don't hide Fund. your talent! ACCC Conference open to interesting story eligible VMREU member to share with everyone, or an If you have an idea for a regu¬ T Xhe Lhe Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) will hold its annual con¬ ference in Victoria on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, June 4-6. The theme of this year's conference is "STRATEGIC ALLIANCES." The College will pay the registration fee and one half of the return transportation cost for one Vancouver Municipal Regional Employ¬ ees' Union (VMREU) member wishing to at¬ tend. The Union will pay one-half of the transportation and hotel, and the individual Selection criteria 1. The successful candidate must be selected by the VCC Shop Stewards and through a recommendation from the Executive Board. The selection will be based on the candidate's activism and length of membership in the VMREU. 2. The candidate agrees to advocate Union positions while participating in the Conference. 3. On their return, the candidate reports must pay for meals and one-half the accom¬ modations. back to the Executive and Membership Anyone wishing to be considered as a VMREU representative should contact Vickki Montigny, 443-8589 by May 1,1995. Conference brochures are available from the President's Office. VOL 1 NO 1 5 lar column, let us know! about the conference. PAGE 3 tm Help to keep VCC a safe place A ls part of the Safer Campuses initiative, personal safety questionnaires are being dis¬ tributed within the next two weeks to em¬ ployee mail boxes and the following return Switchboard, Second Cup, Continuing Education • Canadiana Centre: Penny Sou, Program Assistant questionnaire box locations around each Campus: Please help us by completing and returning a • KEC Broadway: Cafeteria, Student As¬ sociation Office, Counselling, Adminis¬ tration Switchboard, Student Associa¬ personal safety questionnaire and encourag¬ ing your students to do so as well. tion, Women's Centre • KEC West: Reception uick uote British Columbia is a large body of land entirely surrounded by envy. —Eric Nicol • KEC North: Reception If you would like to give out questionnaires to your students please call Janice Hansen at local 7040 or Steve Traviss at local 8603 for extra copies. • City Centre: Cafeteria, Student Associa¬ tion Office, Counselling, Administration You can help us to keep VCC a Safe Place! The Internationals are here! p lie; . lease excuse our expropriation of the Staff Cafeteria over the next two weeks, but the intake for our International Education stu¬ newest students who, no doubt, will be wan¬ dering somewhat confusedly around the cam¬ pus for the next week. dents for the Summer Term was a little larger than anticipated. In total there will be ap¬ proximately 121 new I.E. students starting Steph Jewell on May 1,1995. That's a 64% increase over Bored? In a last summer's intake of 74 students! Happy rut? Feeling news! PAGE 4 chained to your desk? These 121 students come from a wide range of countries. For example: China (3), Korea : Then come celebrate "Springtime (6), Fiji (1), Nigeria (1), Germany (1), Sin¬ in Victoria" with International gapore (1), Hong Kong (7), Taiwan (55), In¬ Education, Saturday, April -29, dia (1), Vietnam (1), Japan (44) 1995. Even more surpising is the fact that of these new students only 65 are from overseas! All Cost is $64,75 adults 18 yrs+. Prices for children vary. Payment the rest have applied from other schools in can be made with the KEC cash¬ British Columbia. So, please welcome our ier, 4th floor. Call Steph at 7010. APRIL 20 1 99S We are very pleased to announce the re¬ cent appointment of Doreen Sharan to the position of Confiden¬ tial Secretary to the Vice President, Fi¬ nance and Administration in the Execu¬ tive Office. Doreen has worked at the Col¬ lege for seven years in a variety of posi¬ tions. For the past six months she has been Acting Confidential Secretary to the VP Finance. Prior to this she was secretary to the Director of College Services. Doreen can be reached at local 7163. Please welcome our new KEC contract librarian, Melinda Baranieski. Melinda received her M.L.S. from UBC in 1994 and has been working on an on-call basis for us for over a year. Melinda's core respon¬ sibilities will include liaison with the ESL-College Pre¬ paratory English Department, reserves coordination, and general library instruction and information desk duties. She is knowledgable and a valu¬ able addition to our team. Mark Goertz Telephone/UNIX/ INTERNET ; access unavail¬ able Sunday, April 23, 1995 This Is a result of a scheduled power shutdown at City Centre. There will be no tel¬ ephone service available at City Fest: upcoming fundraising events This year's City Fest will again take place at King Edward Campus, on May 19,20 and 21. The following fund raising events are planned and we invite you to participate: 1) A Contradance Benefit 3) Vancouver Folk the campus from approxi¬ mately 7:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m. There will also be no dtaiup access to the Unix Compu¬ ter at City Centre for E-mail access, etc during this time. Both campuses will be unable to access the Internet as the connection to BCNet is lo¬ cated at City Centre. • Friday, April 21st, 9:00 p.m. onward • estimated cost: $8.00 - $10.00 • Capri Hall, 3925 Fraser St. Song Society—a family event for all ages, featuring a variety of musical styles. • Saturday, April 29th, 8:00 p.m. 2) Ethiopian Buffet at the Nyala • $10.00 adults Restaurant, featuring an evening of music and fun! • Tuesday, April 25th 6:00 p.m. • Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, • $20.00 per person (drinks extra) • Nyala Restaurant, 2930 W. 4th Ave. VOL 1 NO 1 5 2325 W. 7th Ave. Please call Molly Beth Metcalfe, local 7194, if you would like tickets. PAGE 5 w vcc Coordinator I (Beginners Level) and Coordina¬ tor I (Intermediate Level), English Language Skills Department, King Edward Campus. These are three-year appointments, commencing July 1, 1995. Closing date: April 30, 1995. Vehicles ;needed! VCC-KEC Automotive Technician Dept. Currently needs vehicles 1984 or newer. We need , clutch work, Instructional Assistant (d), Retail Meat Depart¬ ment. Closing date: April 25,1995. Food Services Cashier, City Centre Campus. Closing date: April 26,1995. work. Requests Will be filled as details. Sessional Instructors, Department of Geography, Simon Eraser University. Closing date: April 28, 1995. ESL Instructor, Anshan, China. No closing date available. Call Cecilia at local 7416, For information on job postings, contact the Em¬ ployee Relations Department. able May 1,1995. Call Judy Ellis at 877-1124 for KEC Teacher looking for someone to dog-sit and sublet room in character house (Commercial Drive area). Cheap rent for responsible dog lover. MidJune to end of September, 1995 (flexible). Call Tobi at 251-6271. Interoffice envelopes are in short supply. If you have any spares on hand in your department, please return them to the campus mailroom. Statistics Canada to conduct student telephone survey Statistics Canada, in partnership with the B.C. Ministry of Skills, Training and La¬ bour and 19 colleges and institutes in B.C., is conducting the B.C. Survey of Former College and Institute Students. The survey's goals are to produce statis¬ tical information on what has happened to the former students of B.C. colleges and institues, to get the students' opinions PAGE 6 SM0I3SIN