Computer lab controversy: Nowadays practically every student brings their own tablet or laptop to school to work on assignments, but that wasn’t the case back in 2001, as we detailed in our January 22, 2001 issue. Tensions were already high between Computer Science students and Camosun faculty over the lack of computer labs on campus, but the situation worsened when a Computer Science instructor had an altercation with a student over the usage of dedicated lab space in the Ewing building.There were guidelines in place to ensure students were only in the labs at their designated times, but they were never properly enforced or followed. Luckily, this is no longer a problem and students can easily access any computers they need, regardless of their program.
Textbook prices suck: The price of college textbooks has always been absurdly high, due to, among other factors, publisher markups. Required materials were costing students upwards of $300 a semester, and students were sick of it. Nexus writer Sarah Petrescu wrote in this issue that “for the amounts of cash I dished out for textbooks this year I could’ve paid a month’s rent. It hurts.” In a time before e-texts were common, students struggled to come up with alternatives. However, there were a few ways to save some money on books, such as trading with friends who had already taken the course or checking out the second-hand book market. With the rise of virtual materials and course packs fewer students today have issues gathering the books they need for their courses… and the internet is full of free resources.
Proposed free trade: The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was an attempt to unite the economies of the North and South Americas in order to, according to its website, “achieve an open and secure market for goods produced within the free trade area.” In this issue, we covered how this was perceived as yet another way for the US to dominate the global economy, which Canadians and South Americans alike were strongly against. Considering what the US is up to these days, we’re very fortunate that this proposal never got past negotiations.