Cause of Utility Building Fir

Kent Aitken Reporter

If you remember, back in December - the 8, to be exact - there was a bit of a stir when half of campus shut down as the utility garage burned to the ground.

Since then, the debris has been cleaned up and a new building was constructed.

“We needed a garage to get us through the winter,” explained Greg Clayton, Director of Facilities Man- agement at UPEI.

The noticeably smaller replacement is only a temporary solution, and sev- eral different plans for a new utility garage ate being considered. The new building may or may not return to its original location.

Several options were considered to serve campus until a new perma- nent facility could be constructed, including the possibility of an off-site location. The smaller version was decided on as the most practical plan.

The*outside construction of the temporary garage is finished and the building will be “functional in the next week or two,” said Clayton on Wednesday, January 12. Clayton fur- ther explained that all that remained to be done is some systems work inside.

Construction continues on a replacement garage after a fire on campus Photo: Aitken

The previous utility building served three purposes for the day- to-day operation of UPEI: It func- tioned as a garage, a storage facil- ity for the biology program’s field equipment and a salt depot for winter maintenance of campus.

The construction timeline of the new building will depend on the final

decision of where and what to build, which hasn’t been finalized.

In terms of the fire itself, Randy MacDonald, who investigated the fire on behalf of the fire department, said that the cause of the fire was un- known. However, the investigation remains open.

e Still Unknown

Binge Drinking: Atlantic Canada Tops the List

Marcel Pellerin Reporter

A lot of students from Atlantic Canada seem to value party hardi- ness more so than other parts of Canada. The trend of binge drinking in Atlantic Canadian students is on average ten percent higher than other students around Canada.

CAMH,, the center for addiction and mental health, released a Cana- dian Campus Survey in 2004 that documents the trends of Canadian students and their drinking habits among other things.

CAMH published that nearly 90° per cent of Canadian students con- sume alcohol, with the Atlantic re- gion up at the top of the list. About 22 per cent of Atlantic Canadian stu-

dents were heavy infrequent drinkers, they drank more than eight drinks on two of more occasions throughout the month. Also, 24 per cent were heavy frequent drinkers compared

to the Canadian average of 13.6 per cent, excluding Atlantic Canada.

Although, a recent survey that took only university men into ac- count reported that instead of the average 8 plus drinks, men have been known to consume 24 drinks throughout one occasion.

Residence Life Coordinator, Donald MacLellan, thinks that UPEI has achieved a balance. “We try to promote a responsible environment in residence” he said, after acknowl- edging that yes students do drink

and the only thing that can be done . about it is to try the best they can to make sure no one gets hurt. RLAs are trained to handle people under the influence and are prepared to respond to emergencies. ~

Binge drinking can cripple a body if the consumer chooses to ignore the signs. Dehydration and lack of oxygen to the brain can not only lead to a severe hangover but also there is a possibility of brain damage. Every time a person passes out they are literally going into a comatose State.

Tissues in the organs start to break down and perform less than the norm, and even if a person doesn’t immediately suffer any health issues because of drinking too much;

then years from now their kidneys or

_ liver might give out on them.

Binge drinking can have a lot of harmful affects in the long run and to sum them up: liver damage, kidney damage, possibility of stroke and brain damage, it can lead to addic- tion, and with a recent swell in Chla- mydia and genital warts infection on campus it’s best to know your limits before you decide to have that one extra drink.

So is our status of holding the highest percent of binge drinkers something we really want to pro- mote? Already, Atlantic Canada re- tains a stigma of addicts in our older generation. Will ours be the one to take its place?