Surrey and downtown residences

Facilities Services is working in conjunction with Student Services to plan the development of student residences at SFU’s satellite campuses. The report reads, “A student survey has been completed and work is now being done on a market survey.”

SFU is in conversations with the City of Surrey to discuss property transfers for the planned changes to the bus loop and road configuration.

Meanwhile, a construction agreement was signed with the developer of the Vancouver Student Residence project in August and the project has received a “favourable response” from the City of Vancouver’s Urban Design Panel. The Vancouver building is due to be completed in May, 2016.

Textbook affordability

The board discussed the possible implementation of the SFU U-Read program at the SFU bookstore. This initiative would work to acquire content licence from publishers in order to provide more course materials digitally.

The program would save students up to 50 per cent on what they currently pay for printed textbooks, and would ensure that materials are available to students by the beginning of each semester; the concept is currently undergoing a consultation process.

The bookstore also plans to reduce costs for students by ordering books earlier so as to receive a 20 per cent shipping discount.