A new year begins and a fee increase is born.

Student fees have once again risen by $150 for the fall semester, with students now paying $450 to attend the University of Calgary in addition to their tuition, Students’ Union membership dues and other fees. The fee is part of an increase that was passed in April 2010 by the U of C’s board of governors when members voted to charge more fees to students to pay for services previously covered by tuition.

Derek Beaulieu is a Canadian poet who has published nine books of poetry. His most recent book Please, No More Poetry was published in February from Wilfred Laurier University Press’s Laurier Poetry Series. Beaulieu is the first poet under 40 to be published as part of the series and the first Albertan.

Hopefully by now, students have heard of the deep cuts to education funding that Premier Allison Redford’s government announced in the spring provincial budget. Across the province, seven per cent was cut from post-secondary budgets, for a total of $147 million. This cut has affected schools differently. Mount Royal University was arguably hit the hardest, with a budget shortfall of $14 million, having suspended eight programs and looking to cut 600 full-load equivalent spots.

It wasn’t the Final Four, but Calgary basketball fans were nonetheless treated to a taste of American college action August 15–17 at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium, where the Dinos hosted two Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association teams in the 2013 Battle of the Border preseason tournament.

The four-team tournament featured men’s teams from Arkansas State University and University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who made the journey north for some exhibition matches against the Dinos and the University of Alberta Golden Bears.

Despite the inherent corruption of our financial and political systems and the rapid decline of Western civilization, first-year political science student Darren Spinner is convinced that he will be able to affect a positive change in the world around him.

As a new student at the University of Calgary, Spinner is eager to begin making his community a better place, even though we live in a world that has been irreversibly poisoned by apathy and distrust.