After 16 fire alarms since September 1, Campus Housing and Maintenance have finally addressed the issue plaguing Fraser Hall apartment residents: inadequate kitchen ventilation.

On Saturday, November 3, residents received notice that a cooking ban had been put in place while maintenance installed new ventilation systems. Three of the four ventilation units were up and running by Tuesday, November 6.

“Maintenance and Housing were equally frustrated,” said Scott Henderson, Director of University Enterprises, regarding the fire alarms. He added that the two departments “jointly decided to ask the students not to cook.

The Trinity Western University campus will be buzzing with activity in just a few weeks as more than 5,000 people are expected to visit the school’s second annual “Spirit of Christmas.” The event, running from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, is among one of many taking place this year throughout the Fraser Valley as part of “Christmas in the Valley,” hosted by the city of Langley for the community.

Why is sex used to sell everything from cars to toothpaste? Entire industries thrive off of the idea that “sex sells”, and it is more than true. But why is sexy so physical? Advertisers don’t use well reasoned arguments to sell their product - they use a provocative human body to visually blast you with desire.

Tada Mu – the Karen Weaving Women Cooperative – will be selling their hand-woven bags, scarves, table runners, shirts and other products at the Spirit of Christmas Community Event Craft Fair at Trinity Western University on Friday, Nov. 30 and Saturday, Dec. 1.

The Tada Mu (translated as “Weaving Women” in the Karen language) are part of the Karen refugee families from Burma who have resettled in Canada. There are a total of 110 Karen who have arrived throughout the past 12 months in the Langley and Surrey areas.

Photo: Wes Moerman

Fraser Hall is getting yet another makeover, this time in the first floor lounge. Construction began in October for a Resident Assistant office, better known as the “hub.”

RAs of Fraser and Douglas take shifts as an “RA on duty” in their respective lounge each evening.

“Having an RA on duty adds to community life because it means that there’s someone who is intentionally creating a space that is welcoming,” said Juliet Teeter, Resident Director in Fraser. “We encourage the RA’s to plan random events and invite their students down to study or chill or watch movies. It’s another safe and relaxed place for people to build relationships.”

Photo Credit: Tasha Reifschneider

A dark hallway full of Disney characters welcomed Trinity Western University students to Hootenanny, the bi-annual talent show put on by the TWU Student Association.

John Voth and Dan Cloake hosted the evening, providing the audience with a Disney film-noir themed show. Performers faced a packed gym, presenting acts that included singing, unicycle jousting, rapping, dancing and a Matrix ping-pong game.

Rose Collins, TWUSA’s executive director of events, said she was “really happy with how it went; all the acts were superb and John and Dan put a lot of work into it; [they] raised it up a notch.”

The term “friends-with-benefits” sounds like a phone plan rather than a type of relationship. Frankly, the analogy seems to work through and through. These days, how we choose to conduct ourselves relationally, or sexually, is considered in much the same way we choose the right phone plan for us. When birth control first appeared on the scene there was great concern, among some, about the consequences of separating what were formerly inextricably linked activities: having sex and making babies. That conceptual severing was but the beginning of the fragmentation we see today.

On November 5, I found myself, along with approximately 100 other Trinity Western University students, inside the Fort Langley Community Hall. No, we weren’t going over appropriations for another unsightly subdivision; it was the Sadie Hawkins Dance.