Photo credit: Danny Albert A grey parking lot sits in the middle of the campus. For one day of the year it gets to shine and yesterday (September 22nd) was that day. I don't know if you had a chance to pass by and see the Car Free Day (CFD) festivities but it was something to look at. There was a dunk tank featuring the boys and girls of the Protection Service, and two SFUO executives (Ted Horton and Tyler Steeves). There was a barbeque, information tables, bike repairs, free yoga sessions, and a farmer's market to top it all off. Unfortunately there wasn't very much traffic moving through the event, which was incidentally held in Parking lot K just beside the residences. There was one other very special thing at the CFD that I was particularly happy about. For this occasion we actually took a parcel of the parking lot and laid down some sod, effectively creating our own new green space. "Destroying a parking lot to create a green space" is what we called it. I e...

uPass! Whoo! Wait, what? Well, let me tell you. If you’re currently not aware, the uPass pilot project will be implemented on uOttawa’s lovely campus this coming September (i.e. next month). It’s an 8 month bus pass being offered at a greatly reduced price to full-time students of the University. The cost is included in your tuition, and you can pick it up starting the 23rd of August, at 9 am, in the couch lounge of UCU. Alright, now you know all the bureaucratic details; what about the practicality? The fact is, with two major bus stops on campus, it’s incredibly easy to get anywhere in the city using public transport. This is useful for running errands, accessing more of the city, and most importantly, getting to and from home. Many students have a lengthy commute to and from campus, so they have no choice but to have a bus pass to begin with; however, now it comes with their tuition! For the others that think this is a bad idea because they live near or on campus, consider this: you...

With the fall term just around the corner (I also shuddered involuntarily; it’s okay), it’s time for us students to slowly begin preparing for the intellectual onslaught of our coming courses. We have a lot to prepare, what with textbooks, notebooks, pens, pencils, binders and highlighters to buy, in addition to finalizing course selections, OSAP, and other bureaucratic nightmares. The major problem with this time of the year is that most people go out and buy a new set of EVERYTHING, despite the fact they have a majority of last year’s supplies left over. Not only is this bad for your wallet, but it greatly increases the amount of waste being spewed out into our environment. Here are some things you can do to lessen your Back-to-School environmental impact: Buy used books! Not only are you saving tons of money, but you’re also reusing books that are made from many a paper. Reuse notebooks, but if you must buy new ones, buy recycled paper notebooks. Also ask your profs if you can use l...

Êtes-vous au courant du programme intitulé écochampion? Même si ce dernier ne s’adresse pas aux étudiants, mais plutôt aux employés de l’Université, je pense qu’il en vaut certainement la peine d’en parler. Cet été j’ai travaillé au bureau du Développement Durable de l’Université d’Ottawa et j’étais surprise d’apprendre que ce programme date seulement du 22 avril 2010. Lorsque j’ai eu l’occasion d’assister à une des rencontres trimestrielle des participants, appelés les écochampions, j’ai remarqué une bonne énergie aux près des écochampions et tout le monde était très à l’aise avec le programme. En plus, l’équipe du bureau du Développement Durable, (Marc Pandi, la personne ressource), qui se charge de ce programme, interagissait clairement avec les participants comme si le programme lui-même existait depuis belle lurette. Comme vous le verrez sur leur site web (voir adresse du site ci-dessous), le concept de cette initiative est simple : créer un réseau de personnes motivées à changer...