An innovative new program in the Downtown Eastside has residents bubbling with excitement.

Enactus SFU, a student entrepreneurial group, hopes to make a difference for the residents of the area with their Soap for Hope program.

The initiative was founded in early 2013 and focuses on recycling lightly used soap bars from hotels and turning them into liquid soap, which can then be used at local businesses in the community.

Revenue generated from this exchange is then used to employ individuals in the Downtown Eastside.

“Soap for Hope will impact the Downtown Eastside community as it will provide marginalized individuals with employment opportunities,” said Dorothy Ng, Enactus SFU’s marketing director. “There is a negative stigma associated with the Downtown Eastside, and we want to work towards reducing this by working with restaurants and individuals from that area.”

Enactus SFU currently has a partnership with Mission Possible, an agency dedicated to improving the lives of those who are homeless and living in poverty. The group collects used soap bars from hotels, which they boil and sanitize in order to produce its liquid state.

A stipend generated from the revenue is paid to community volunteers who participate in the production of the liquid soap.

“We decided to implement this program because we found a need for jobs for people who do not have the opportunity to find one, and to find a solution to the vast amount of soap being discarded,” said Hangue Kim, Enactus SFU’s director of external relations. “We found a need for students at SFU to get involved in the community, to develop a program that benefits others and brings students together.”

Enactus SFU is a student-led organization that allows students to make an impact in their community through the use of entrepreneurial skills. It was established as a part of Enactus, a worldwide community of over 66,500 students in 36 countries working to address the social, economic, and environmental needs of their communities.

By connecting students with business leaders, the organisation’s projects are designed to create a long-lasting social change in local communities. SFU’s Enactus team currently has over 100 active members.

Looking forward, the team is working with SFU’s Chemistry Student Society to make their production process more efficient, and to improve the quality of their final product. They are also looking for more volunteers in order to develop the project’s production and distribution practices.

“Success [for the project is] dependent on the end goal, which is for Soap for Hope to become self-sustainable,” said Madhev Menon, the project’s Program Manager.

By bridging the gap between Downtown Eastside residents and students who wish to get involved in the community, Soap for Hope is looking to make a change for years to come.

The BC Minister of Advanced Education, Andrew Wilkinson, made controversial comments about student debt on February 23 on CBC Radio’s The Early Edition.

The Minister said that “70 per cent of students go through their higher education with no debt whatsoever.” The comments garnered criticism from a number of groups, including the Canadian Federation of Students BC (CFSBC).

CFSBC chairperson Zachary Crispin told The Peak that Wilkinson had “misrepresented the fact that we have a student debt crisis in our province.”

Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) president Chardaye Bueckert also commented on Wilkinson’s statement: “That statistic isn’t in line with what the government’s own data says, but it also doesn’t necessarily look at all the factors that should be considered when one looks at student debt.”

Minister Wilkinson sat down with The Peak to clarify his comments, saying that his statistics referred to the number of people indebted through provincial loans only. He clarified, “We don’t know what student’s credit cards say. We don’t know what their relationship is with their parents financially. We only have the comprehensive datasets for provincial student aid.”

The 2013 BC Outcomes Survey indicated that 51 per cent of students leave post-secondary debt-free. In addition, Wilkinson pinned the median amount of student debt at $20,000 (for university programs). For comparison, the BC Outcomes survey indicated that 37 per cent of students owe more than $30,000.

Additionally, aw 2012 SFU survey of 15,000 graduating students found that the average amount of debt totalled $24,600.

Substantial increases in international student tuition have been the cause of much anxiety over student debt at SFU. Unlike domestic student tuition, which is capped at two per cent per year increases, there are no such caps for international fees, which have risen by 10 per cent each year since 2013.

According to the SFSS website, an international undergraduate student who began studies in 2012/2013 now pays $2,143 more in tuition per term than when they began.

“International students are a large international market in which we compete,” Wilkinson argued. “Universities and colleges have clearly found their niche in the international marketplace and the pricing of the product they are offering is up to them.”

Crispin disagreed. “It’s pretty clear in the government’s plan [that] the government sees international students as a revenue source more than students who are here to be educated,” he stated.

President Bueckert noted that while there are no further raises planned for international fees, the university has “respectfully declined” a proposal by the SFSS to freeze international undergraduate fees for five years.

When asked about methods to address student debt, Minister Wilkinson argued that interest-free loans and grants form part of a “pretty thorough program of student support.”

However, as Bueckert noted, BC has the highest student loan interest rates in the country. She also pointed out “only 39 per cent of assessed need for bursaries is met through the current [SFU] system.”

Manoj Bhakthan, director of SFU Financial Aids and Awards, explained, “We’ve looked at providing further opportunities in terms of bursary funding for international students.” He also added that more funding for financial aid could “increase the dollar value” of opportunities like scholarships, awards, and bursaries.

Bhakthan urges students to use the financial aid advising office to get more information on opportunities. “The more information a student has, the more they are empowered,” he said.

U of T TAs underpaid and overworked

On Monday, 6,000 University of Toronto teaching assistants (TAs) went on strike after having rejected a last-minute deal from administration with proposed wages still below inflation.

“Members are tired of living in poverty and precarity,” said Erin Black, CUPE 3902 chair. “The package has not increased since 2008 and, as costs of living have increased, this means a decline in real income.”

TA Lama Mourad added, “Under these conditions, where we have to work an excessive amount of hours to be able to live at the poverty line, we won’t be able to teach students well or dedicate time to our research.”

With files from The Varsity

U of M gets out in the snow, plays

Students in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at University of Manitoba organized an informal winter carnival as part of the Developmental Games and Activities course.

The event, called UMWinterFest, was meant to celebrate Manitoban culture. The event included snow-centric traditional indigenous games like snowshoeing, sloosh boarding, a snow snake toss, and snow sculpting. It also featured a high kick competition and a tag game called Métis wheel.

“It’s a bit of a break — when you’re playing these games you kind of forget everything going on around you. We live in Winnipeg. It’s a cold place, so let’s get out there and forget about winter and let’s just have some fun,” said U of M student Alex Park.

With files from The University of Manitoba News and Events

US university offers Harry Potter sex ed

Our neighbours to the south have figured out a way to make learning about safe sex a bit more magical, taking inspiration from J.K. Rowling’s popular Harry Potter series.

“At this event, half-bloods, house-elves, and muggles [sic] alike will learn the proper way to get consent to enter one’s chamber of secrets and how to snog without getting hogwarts,” so said the event description, offered at Boston University.

Graduate student and organizer Jamie Klufts explained that the theme was simultaneously a way to tap into a new audience, and to address issues that Klufts feels Rowling did not adequately cover in her novels.

With files from Huffington Post