The Martlet's Hugo Wong slips into a Cretaceous world for an afternoon. To read about the exhibit, check out Wong's article "Dinosaurs: a warning about warming."

Jennifer Dalton is the survivor development chair for Relay for Life Victoria. Last year's Victoria Relay raised more than $90 000 ($55 million was raised by relays across Canada). Dalton says that survivors are integral to Relay for Life, which is the Canadian Cancer Society’s largest fundraiser.

If a picture says a thousand words, people said a lot about climate change on May 5. Through the environmental activist website 350.org, concerned citizens from around the world took part in a day of climate action called Connect the Dots. Participants from hundreds of cities on nearly every continent posed for photographs in which they highlighted ways that climate change has affected their communities — and the ways it will affect them in the future.

Donning white cotton gloves, Richard Hebda carefully plucks a fossil from its sterile foam nest. Inside the rock is the jaw of a flying reptile found here on Vancouver Island not long ago. This fossil is one of many exciting new discoveries in B.C. as more and more of the province is explored by professional and amateur paleontologists alike.

Ask a student to describe UVic’s Diana M. Priestly Law Library, and they will often use words like “beautiful,” “new” and “quiet.” Thanks to some complaints about disruptive students in the law library, however, another word has been bandied about: SNAILS. The acronym stands for “Students Not Actually In Law School.”

On Saturday, April 21 people in Victoria walked and talked for Mother Earth. Earth Walk 2012 started on the lawn of the B.C. Legislature, and then marched to Centennial Square for speeches, dancing, and other festivities in the afternoon sun. The event holds a record of endurance for being the city’s most longest-running community event since its kickoff in 1982.

Enbridge must know something we don’t. Despite efforts the Martlet was unable to hear or find anyone at the March 31 Comox Joint Review Panel (JRP) hearings for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project who was in favour of the pipeline project that would send oil tankers out of Kitimat, B.C. to Asian markets.

The UVic Sustainability Project (UVSP) held a solidarity event on April 2 to oppose the proposed Enbridge Pipeline. UVSP members handed out information about the Northern Gateway Pipeline project, and engaged in discussion on how people can foster a greater connection with the earth.

Studies in Policy and Practice (SPP) is a small, activist and critical analysis–oriented MA program at UVic that draws top-notch practitioners from across the country with a commitment to social justice. Last month, students and faculty were surprised to learn that intake to their program had been suspended, and that it may be completely shut down by next year. Many note that this is just the most obvious example of a shift towards administrative rationalization at UVic, where processes and programs are being standardized in the name of efficiency and cost-effectiveness

UVIC FAILS TO PROTECT EMPLOYEE INFO

B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner released a report on March 29 saying that UVic failed to protect personal information as required by law after a break-in at the administrative building earlier this year. On Jan. 7, a USB drive was stolen from UVic containing the personal information of almost 12 000 current and former employees. Commissioner Elizabeth Denham called the theft both “foreseeable and preventable,” and criticized the University for not implementing basic safeguards to protect personal data. The report acknowledges that UVic responded appropriately to the break-in. The commission makes several recommendations for increased security, some of which UVic has already implemented. Although some of the equipment stolen has since been returned, the USB drive has never been recovered.

For years, students, faculty and staff have been worrying about corporations taking over the university. Turns out the real problem is that the university has become a de facto corporation. If we want to understand how this came to be, we need to examine a seemingly small change in how the government funds the university.

Sifting through back issues of the Martlet clearly shows the strange and ridiculous side of our West Coast corner. UVic has played host to relics of the 1960s LCD psychedelia, artistic tributes to Prince Charles featured as a sex icon, a Michael J. Fox fan club, and a surprising amount of aliens. All manners of eccentric, bizarre and alternative have always called Victoria home.

A debate has simmered in our extended community for the past eight months, over UVic’s proposed new Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities (CARSA). Saanich council refused a request for variances to height limits and parking requirements for the facility last August, questioning whether UVic undertook appropriate consultation in the project’s planning stages. The accompanying parkade UVic would build to comply with Saanich’s minimum parking space bylaw seems to be the point of highest contention.

The university of Arizona is currently conducting investigations of the funding of its professors by the controversial Heartland Institute. UVic has yet to begin investigations of similar funding to one of its own professors.

On April 2, students will hunger strike to oppose the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. This event is hosted by the UVic Sustainability Project (UVSP) in solidarity with a hunger strike in Bella Bella and will run from 9 a.m.–6 p.m. in 110B in the Upper Lounge of the SUB.

UVic Students for Reproductive Justice (SRJ) want to expand the dialogue of reproductive justice further than what first comes to the minds of many: abortion.

DUCT TAPE DEVICE

Campus Security was evacuated and buses re-routed from the bus loop Sunday, March 25 after a suspicious device wrapped in duct- tape was discovered.

Local Vancouver Island activists and con- cerned citizens are gearing up for the first southern British Columbian Joint Review Panel (JRP) hearings put on by the National Energy Board to determine if the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is in the Canadian public interest.

The Victoria Regional Transit Commission (VRTC) has restored 7000 hours of lost transit services — something the UVic Students’ Soci- ety (UVSS) says will help relieve pass-ups.

This M21 (March 21), the Students of Colour Collective (SOCC) is re-centring the margins through conversations about anti-racism and anti-racist organizing.