UBC Reports | Vol.
51 | No. 6 |
Jun. 2, 2005
Highlights of UBC Media Coverage in May 2005
Compiled by Brian Lin
High Price of Flying to Toronto
For the second consecutive year, Toronto’s Pearson International
Airport has ranked second in an annual survey of the highest
landing fees at airports around the world.
UBC air transportation expert Tae Oum from the Sauder School
of Business, told The Globe and Mail that Pearson should restrain
any further future increases in landing fees to ensure that
foreign airlines maintain Toronto as a North American gateway.
Oum added that Pearson needs to diversify its revenue stream
into areas such as retailing, fast food, car parking and leasing
space to airport users.
UBC Building a Model of Sustainable Architecture
In Canada, composting toilets have made their way into retail
and academic buildings.
Since its completion in 1996, the C.K. Choi Building for
the Institute of Asian Research at UBC has remained a model
of sustainable architecture, reports The Chicago Tribune.
The three-story, $4.5-million building features five composting
toilets, functioning completely off the sewerage and power
grids. The building’s five compost bins only need to
be emptied every 10 years. Ninety percent of the waste is
urine, pumped out and treated in a constructed wetland, and
red wriggler worms digest the solid waste.
Learning Exchange Cultivates Global Citizens
Since the UBC Learning Exchange set up shop in Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside in 2000, the number of student volunteers
has grown from 30 to 800 last year, reports The Globe and
Mail.
With programs and resources including women’s centres,
community kitchens and inner-city schools, the Learning Exchange
is a great example of Trek 2010, the university’s mission
statement which vows to produce graduates who are global citizens
and contributors to the well-being of society.
Prof Rocks Wall for Safer Schools
UBC earthquake engineering professor Carlos Ventura is pleased
at the results of a recent test where a 4.5-metre-high brick
wall was put through a simulated magnitude seven quake.
The wall, restrained at the top and bottom and representative
of many old B.C. schools, showed Ventura and fellow researchers
the stability of such a structure in a strong earthquake.
The results will help them find ways to strengthen B.C.’s
large inventory of unreinforced brick schools in an economical
fashion, Ventura told Maclean’s Magazine.
