AUSU Election!
It’s here! The Election for your 2010-2012 Council. AUSU is looking for interested individuals who believe they can speak for the students of AU. To be eligible, you need to have completed at least one course, and be currently enrolled in a course. Self-nominations will be accepted until February 15th. Voting starts on March 7th and runs until March 11th. For more information, see our election page.
New 2010 AUSU Handbook/Planners ? Delayed!
We know you want them, trust us, we want them too! Unfortunately, our printer has informed us that there was a problem with the paper order for our planner cover, and so there’s going to be a little bit more of a delay. don’t worry though, we’ve been assured they’re doing everything they can and we want to be getting these planners into your hands as soon as possible! If you haven’t already pre-ordered your planner, now’s as good a time as any to do so. You can reserve your copy here: http://www.ausu.org/handbook/index.php
Remember, we only print a limited number of these each year, so when they’re gone, they’re gone.
SmartDraw Program Renewal
Some of you who took advantage of our program to provide SmartDraw software to members have been getting notifications that your software license will soon be expiring. Fortunately, AUSU will be continuing this program, so if you haven’t already, go to the AUSU home page to download the newest version.
SmartDraw allows you to create a wide range of graphics for your assignments and submit them electronically in a Word file. You can also place your graphics in Excel or PowerPoint files, or export them as TIF, GIF, or JPEG files to make a web graphic or even a logo. Just a few of the graphics you can make include Venn diagrams, genetics charts, graphs, organizational and flow charts, and Gantt charts.
For any course that requires charts that cannot be easily created in Word or Excel, this should be a real time saver and make it easier to submit all portions of an assignment by email.
Remember, though, that you should always check with your tutor to find out if there is a specific format he or she prefers. Your tutor does not have to have SmartDraw to view these graphics, however. Installations under this program are good for one year. The package includes both the Standard and Health Care editions of SmartDraw.
Let ?em Know who Represents for You!
AUSU logo mugs, hoodies, USB keys, and much more are all available for sale from our office. Also, used locks can be purchased at half price! Check out our merchandise catalog on our front page. You should check out our hoodies in particular?made in Canada and 100% bamboo, we’re offering them for just barely over our cost, and they’re both durable and comfortable.
AUSU Council Down to Seven
Lonita Fraser recently tendered her resignation to Council. Lonita’s gotten busier and realized she wasn’t really keeping up with what it meant to be an AU Student any longer. As a result, she chose to step down from Council, saving AUSU some money. AUSU extends its thanks to Lonita for her service, and wishes her well in her ongoing endeavours. This brings us down to seven just before the election.
AUSU Scheduling Meeting with Tutors? Union ? Update!
we’re still waiting for a response from the Tutor’s Union as to when we might be able to meet with them to discuss ways that AUSU and the Tutor’s Union can work together to ensure that students are getting the contact they need. Unfortunately, they haven’t yet replied, so we’re stepping up our campaign to get in touch with them. If you want to help, the next time You’re talking to your tutor, ask them if they know when the Tutor’s Union will meet with AUSU so that the groups can work together on common issues.
Tuition Increase Upcoming
Recently, AUSU Executive met with the university executive to discuss the new year’s tuition. AU, like all other Alberta universities, is raising tuition by the maximum of 1.5%. For AU that increase works out to only $7 per three credit course. Even better, unlike U of A which is considering a mandatory annual fee of $500, the other mandatory fees at AU?your Learning Resources and Lab Fees?will remain where they were last year, meaning that the $7 per three credit course is the only increase you’ll have to see this September.
It’s not all roses, however, as every university is feeling the crunch. For AU, they will be increasing many of the non-mandatory fees. For instance, the late exam and exam rebooking fees are both going up to $100. While they had concerns that some students were abusing these opportunities to take exams beyond the course contract date, we convinced them to investigate this issue further, and possibly move to a graduated fee that would increase the more times you used the option. Of course, with some planning, you shouldn’t have to pay these fees at all, so That’s an even better option.
In addition, PLAR costs will be going up by $250 to a total of $750 to better represent the amount of work they have to pay for to carefully evaluate your PLAR, and the Write Site has proposed a fee of $50 for students who need to take an online assessment and $100 for non-students who want to use AU’s expertise. In their discussion with us, however, they agreed to remove the Write-Site planned fee for students, and to slightly reduce the fee for non-students.
So while perhaps not perfect, we think it was a successful meeting, and we hope you do too!
