:> ^ / a V'srwcouvor Commvnity Coilege C'fy C on fro _ l-ibioiy jflfc'8' 2,0 Wfsf Ponder Street Vnnroiivor, B r V611 159 u t p December 1991 Harassment policy implemented VCC is completing two years of research with the hiring of a professional harassment advisor and the implementa¬ tion of a new policy. City Centre participation soars for United Way KEC was tops in dollars while City Centre soared in participation during this year's United Way Campaign cent last year to a whopping 40% in 1991. KEC and Langara had participa¬ tion rates of about 10%. Preliminary figures show that KEC raised about $13,000, followed by City Centre at more than $9,000 and Langara at $6,300. City Centre had an astounding jump in participation from only four per "Even if it was just a few dollars, we wanted people to give something," explains City Centre United Way CoChair Don Hume. IFTHBISirT YOURIKAOFA QUIUNGING City bus stop posters are ask¬ The individual, who will be retained on a one-year, renewable contract, will develop an internal college awareness program, provide confidential guidance and information to employees and students on harassment policy proce¬ dures, inquire into and make recommen¬ dations for the resolution of harassment incidents, and assist in the further development of policy. The VCC Harassment Committee, which has developed the new policy, includes faculty, staff and students from all three campuses. The policy forbids harassment of any behaviour which constitute an offence. "The new policy defines harassment very clearly," said Ross Carter, VCC's harassment." He adds that once people are aware of what constitutes harass¬ enough from their careers. The posters do it with a sense of humour and a sense of determi¬ nation to let Greater Vancouver residents know more about City Centre. see page... 3 kind—sexual, racial, religious or political—and defines the types of former Acting President "It states very strongly that the college will not accept ing people if they are getting THE SMART ALTERNATIVE. ment, they are much less likely to engage in it. The advisor is expected to be on the job early next year. VANCOUVER 1 COMMUNITY | COLLEGE S J£ r1 r iA- J (f-' /—/ x> l) //! I don't know why the government kicked me off the College Board CV..M / 'Tis the season for a little folly — 4. 'HcnJb. 'Pth.. Update thanks just-retired Acting President Ross Carter for these cartoon offerings ...John Cruickshank thanks Ross for the tips on achieving supplemental funding. All the best in "retirement", Ross! PAGE 2 n City Centre launches "Smart' 'campaign IfTHIS ISN'T IF THIS ISN'T IFTHBISNT YOUR IMA Of fOURDEAOF YOURIDEAOF JOBSKURUl \WCOU\tR g femsg QP, CTNTKE COLLbGE tKmrnlmii rrMtp.ic \M_[ THE SMART A1TERNATIVE. I «jn m.rJ H f ! hv Ra n, - H VlhSuiru-s an-ITithrn-JPn A JUMBO SAlARt ONTHEJOB IRAINGl \VsC(XAER COSlMUNin , ,, , COLLEGE ¦¦KSriNiij COLLEGE BBBS THE SMART AinRNATIVE. THE SMART AITIRNAM. Cojwnin.TunvmirJHr.rJJn Bu r> >sH iJlhVi I K.hn.J Pn ) I wmsr IH .plJn Ri.iru^.H M VnnuMrvl T.vhmilPn f You may have already spotted them at bus stops: full size posters that make people question what they're really getting from their career. For those who don't like the answer, City Centre is "The Smart Alternative". "It's aimed at solving a bit of an identity problem," says David Wiebe, City Centre's Communications Officer. "People don't seem to know much about City Centre In many ways we're still seen as VVI. We needed to do some¬ thing to raise our profile and change our image." The particular approach taken was based on research that was con¬ ducted just prior to the campaign being developed. "A large proportion of our students come to City Centre to improve The posters are at bus stops until mid-February their job satisfaction and career options." The transit shelter medium was a natural choice as almost three-quarters of our students come to City Centre by public transit. The four part ad campaign will appear on bus shelters and display pillars until mid-February. PAGE 3 VCC student studies in the fast lane As part of his final year in the Computer Information Systems Co-operative Education Program at Langara, the 24year-old Chow was given a work The three scholarships, in a total amount of $10,000, will be named after Earl and Katherine Willmott. The endowments will provide funds for students regis¬ tered in Langara's Pacific Rim Transfer placement with Employment and Immigration Canada. There, he became heavily involved in the PACE project. Program, China Studies. PACE stands for Peace Arch Crossing Entry—an express lane system for border goods to declare can simply breeze through. Those with duty costs can pay them quickly and efficiently. "They're saying I should get started on version two, but I've got too much work right now" honours Two pioneering Canadian missionaries have been honoured with VCC endow¬ ment scholarships from the CanadaChina Friendship Association. about it. random check, users with no U.S.-bought scholarship missionaries Like the rest of us, Shane Chow doesn't enjoy waiting in line. Unlike the rest of us, Chow had the chance to do something crossings that is a first in Canada. It allows travellers with a $10 prepaid permit to bypass the usual line-ups at the border. Unless they are stopped for a Canada-China PACE also had to coordinate with a system for declaring and calculating travellers' duty costs. Fortunately, that coincided with an ongoing project for airport customs offices—Automated Letters and Forms (ALF)—that Chow had also been working on "Basically, we took the engine out of ALF for this system," says Colbeck. He makes it sound easier than it was For Chow and Colbeck, it meant countless hours in a small airport computer room—"more like a cave", The Willmotts served as United Church educational missionaries to China from 1921 to 1952 Earl Willmott worked as an English teacher and school principal and finally as Dean of Studies, West China University. Katherine brought a love of English literature to her students and translated Chinese poetry for the enjoyment of Westerners. "He went to bat for anyone he could help, disregarding personal risks, including an assassination threat." suggests Colbeck—trying out different methods and possibilities. "We literally Chow worked closely with David Colbeck, Senior Customs Inspector for Canada Customs."There were an awful lot of considerations," says Colbeck. Initially PACE was a joint program involving four separate agencies from the U.S. and Canada. For the sake of expediency, it was soon decided that each country would develop its system separately. Says Colbeck' "It still involved both Canada Customs and Canada Immigra¬ tion, yet it had to work as one system spent days in there," says Colbeck. "Shane and I sat and sat in that dungeon and said, "Let's try this idea, let's try that idea.' It wasn't much fun" But it was productive. It looks like PACE is here to stay. "They're saying I should get started on version two, but I've got too much work right now," Chow laughs. Since the "Earl was a true friend to several program itself works, any changes to a Chinese students who (previous to 1949) subsequent version would be "just to touch up on some of the miscellaneous things, nothing big," he says. were accused of crimes," writes Omar Welmsley, a contemporary of We needed two programs in one." Chow's success with PACE did not go unnoticed by Employment and Immigra¬ The system called for a data-storage capacity that could handle detailed personal and financial information for tion. He is now working full-time for the department and hopes to become more involved with microcomputers. thousands of individual users "Say there are 20,000 users," says Chow. "Each has two or three kids, .that means a lot of records and information in the data base." They were witness to the final stages of the Chinese Revolution, the collapse of the old order and the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949-50. Earl's newsletters provided graphic descriptions of the final days of the old regime and the liberating influences of change that followed for most Chinese. Willmott's in China. "He went to bat for anyone he could help, disregarding personal risks, including an assassina¬ tion threat." The Willmotts returned to Canada in 1952, determined to promote under¬ standing of the new China They first settled in Calgary and later in Vancou¬ ver where they helped to form the first Canada-China friendship group in this country. PAGE 4 Starting college...a step behind the rest Do you recall how intimidating your first day at university or college was? The college has implemented two committees on native education: an internal Cross Campus Committee and Or how daunting many of the expenences of a post-secondary education a Native Advisory Committee, chaired by VCC President John Cruickshank, which advises the college on program¬ ming and policy issues. In addition, could be9 Whatever traumas your studies might have brought to you, it was likely a walk in the park compared with the trials that are faced by the 200 First established to advance specific Nations' students at VCC. projects. Consider this composite description of Joseph's job is, in part, to co-ordinate support services, liaise with govern¬ there are numerous ad hoc committees an average Native student entering ment and Native groups, develop strategies for recruiting Native students and to identify internal VCC We'll call her Alice Alice arrives from a job entry program developed by her band. She is 33 and program and service needs has been away from a classroom since While that's her job according to the "book", reality has her spending much of her time in a counselling role. dropping out of high school in Grade 10 (four out of five Natives do not finish high school). She has two children and is now single. She has never had a job that pays much more than the minimum wage and thus has not been able to develop very many advanced work skills. She hopes to "I have to do a lot of crisis interven¬ tion because VCC is so underresourced in the area of counselling," said Joseph. "The original proposal to the Ministry requested two positions, a succeed at university transfer courses co-ordinator and counsellor. While the and seek admission to UBC. To assist those such as Alice, the Ministry of Advanced Education has funded a position of Native Education Co-ordinator, or Advisor, at each college in the province. "The participation rate for Natives in advanced education is very low—about three per cent compared with 15 per cent for the general population," says VCC's Native Education Co-ordinator Shirley Joseph "Many Native students are disadvantaged academically and arrive with the experience of a public educa¬ tion system which has previously failed Shirley Joseph counselling claims much of her time allocation from the Ministry allowed VCC to establish one position, it is now evident that the two positions originally requested are essential." to meet their needs. But although they often come from weaker backgrounds than other students, they're also very determined to change their situation." VCC has made a commitment to increase the participation, retention and success rates of Native students. Says Joseph: "The college can't do it all on its own, but it is still incumbent upon faculty, staff and administrators to give life to that commitment." Joseph adds that she has received a verbal pledge from the Ministry to support current positions beyond the original year-long term. "VCC is poised to make substantial progress in altering the profile of Native post-secondary education in this province. This joint venture of the college and Native community must also be matched with a more realistic budget from the province." New edition of Style Sheet out in February popular publication—the College Style Sheet—will be available in campus which is authored by VCC English Instiuctors Jon Furberg and Richard current conventions for leferencing and citing sources With the new edition, Hopkins, is expanded and redesigned—a book stores in February complete guide for students in setting up there will be 45,000 copies of the Style Sheet in print. The third edition of the Style Sheet, essays and term papers, including A new edition of VCC Press's most PAGES Christmas toys for tots rolling in Langara Accounting Clerk III Michael Mittendorff and his wife, Fran, were among 10,000 bikers who rode to the rescue of children during the recent 13th annual Vancouver Toy Run. The participants, members of various motorcycle clubs in the Lower Main¬ land, delivered the donated Christmas toys to the PNE. Langara Building Service Manager Mel Fearman also participated. photo by Jay Huffman, Langara Photography Student Montreal Massacre observed Each campus of VCC is planning events to mark the Montreal Massacre, in which 14 women died at the Polytechnique Institute on December 6, 1989. The activities include. KEC - A video will be shown on December 5 at noon in Room 2145, with a short dicussion to follow Langara - A candlelight vigil will start from the Student Union Building at How sweet it is! Young Chang Piano Company has donated 15 new pianos for use in the VCC Music Department The pianos, 14 uprights and one grand valued at a total of $140,000, will be sold to the public after a year for 45 percent of their retail value They will then be replaced with another entire inventory of new equipment KEC-City Centre Principal Lawrence Fast looks on as Rick Leblanc (left), Western Sales Manager for Young Chang, and Ward Music President Morn Mackun shake hands on the deal 4 p.m. City Centre - Several speakers will convey their thoughts during a noon- hour assembly, followed by a film in Room 237 You may wish to check your campus paper for more details. PAGE 6 Employment rate at 90 % for occupational graduates VCC's Office of Institutional Re¬ search recently completed its 1991 Graduate Follow-up Report which surveyed the employment situation of 1989-90 graduates from occupational employment. Graph 2 - Given the unstable economic situations in the past few years, finding a training related job does not always mean that the job can be kept for long. For all the 1989-1990 occupational graduates, the percentage of those who still held training related jobs at the time of the survey was 77.42 percent, down 12.78 percent from the 90.2 percent training related job finding rate. This rate is also lower than that (79.6%) of all B.C. colleges in the 1990 Ministry's report. Within the college, the best rate of maintaining training-related employ¬ ment is found among graduates from City Centre (81.1%), compared with 76.7 percent of the grads from Langara and 73 percent of those from KEC. performance. * The majority of the graduates who responded to the survey planned to take more education or training in the next * Most of the graduates (90.2%) who looked for training related jobs obtained related employment after leaving VCC. five years Training Related Employment * Nearly half of the 1989-1990 gradu¬ ates (42.4%) from the college's occupa¬ tional programs are aged between 21 and 30. Graph 1 - 90.2 percent of the graduates who were surveyed reported having had training related jobs This rate is slightly lower than that (90.5%) of the occupa¬ tional graduates of all B.C. colleges in the previous year as reported by the Ministry, probably reflecting the * More women (56.1%) than men (43.9%) graduated from occupational programs in the 1989-1990 school year. * For the majority of the graduates (56 9%), the main objective for coming to VCC was to obtain job skills. Maintaining Training Related Employment * Most of the graduates (90.8%) found their training useful for their work programs. Here are the highlights: * The majority of the graduates (71.1%) paid tuition on their own. * Most of the graduates (85.6%) gave VCC training the credit for obtaining continued economic recession in late 1990 and early '91. Within the college, occupational graduates from City Centre had the highest training related employ¬ ment rate (93 1%), followed by KEC (90.3%) and Langara (89.3%). 93.00% o -0 82.00% _ 92.00% 80.00% 91.00% 78.00% 90.00% 76.00% 1 89.00% 74.00% 1 88.00% 72.00% 87.00% 70.00% 86.00% 68.00% - KEC 19 1 VCC 19 1 average al BCcoleges in 1990 Training related employment rates, occupational graduates Langara 19 1 City Centre 19 1 Maintaining training related employment - a comparison PAGE 7 YCC in print, on the tube Truck luck hits well as faculty, staff and new members If you want to put the college's best foot forward in your relations with outside groups or individuals, you're reminded that VCC has produced a full-colour ment will be using them in the orienta¬ brochure and video. tion of new employees. Both of these impressive productions— entitled Education for the Real World— take an overview of VCC's people and the programs we offer. Both are tools that can be effectively used in the The 8 1/2 by 11 inch brochure can be obtained by phoning Public Relations and Development Secretary Cheryl Agoston at 871-7168. The 9 1/2 minute video is available on a loan basis from campus libraries recruitment of new program advisors as of the college's various boards. And, of course, the Human Resources Depart¬ Houston five Five residents of Houston, B.C. held the winning ticket in this year's VCC Educational Foundation Truck Lottery. Dale Baker, Darlene Lainchbury, Sheryl Smith, Dallas Townsend and David Townsend, all from the small town west of Prince George, were the instant winners of the $130,000 Freightliner Classic semi truck. The group hasn't decided whether to operate the truck or sell it back to Freightliner. The Educational Foundation raised $70,000 through the lottery. Honourary diploma for program advisor For only the third time in Langara's history an advisory committee member has been awarded an honourary di¬ ploma. John Dickenson, from Lens and Shutter, was given the honourary diploma in professional photography when he recently stepped down after 16 years of service. Photography Program Co¬ ordinator Lyle Larrigan said many of Dickenson's recommendations have resulted in improvements to the pro¬ gram. Spectrum is published for the faculty and staff of Vancouver Community College by the Public Relations and Development Department. If you have comments or ideas for stories, please contact: Brochure and video are available to VCC employees Chuck Poulsen (Editor-Langara): 3245475: Gayle Thody (Cont. Ed.) 871-7078 (767); Doreen Chui-Chai (KEC) 871-7010 (369): Constance Brissenden (Langara) 324-5433: Dave Wiebe (City Centre) 433-8459. Production by Instructional Media Services PAGE 8