Directors discussed the issue of renewing the lease for the UNA’s administrative office during May’s board meeting.
The UNA currently holds a lease from UBC Properties Trust at 5923 Berton Avenue, where the non-profit society’s operations, finance and IT staff work. The lease expires on July 31, and the UNA has asked the board to approve a five-year extension.
A UNA operations department report submitted to the board for discussion includes details on the extension and the organization’s needs for a larger office space than the one currently leased. Staff are currently spread out over three locations: the offices at 5923 Berton Ave., Wesbrook Community Centre and the Old Barn Community Centre.
The proposed lease contains provisions that enable the UNA to move its offices if a larger and more suitable location be found.
In the meantime, the renewal of the lease agreement for the current office could entail a nearly 29 per cent increase in base rent, from the current $28 per square foot and increasing to $36 in the last year of the proposed fiveyear lease term. The common area management expense portion of the lease agreement has also been estimated to rise between 5-10 per cent.
During discussion on the matter, UNA Directors requested additional information regarding the proposed increase in the lease rate and specific provisions of the lease agreement before they move forward with the proposal.
They also made a request for more research into comparable rates being paid by other commercial tenants on campus.
Newspaper expansion
Following a request from the board, the UNA’s communications manager Glenda Ollero presented the board with two options on expanding The Campus Resident’s print edition.
The paper is currently printed on a quarterly basis; however, strong interest from community members prompted directors to ask UNA staff to explore increasing the number of print issues. The paper is also available online, and the website is updated with a new monthly edition on the first Thursday of every month.
The first option proposed that The Campus Resident would publish print editions of the newspaper six times per year on a bimonthly basis, while the second option would have the newspaper print twelve monthly issues.
Both options included a recommendation to separate the currently combined UNA position of Newspaper Editor & Social Media Specialist into two distinct roles and expand both into full-time positions to handle the increased workload of producing additional print editions.
The board declined to take any action on the proposal and requested more information on how the UNA’s social media would be affected if the newspaper’s printing schedule were to be expanded.
UNA Guidebook going online
The UNA Guidebook – a booklet which includes a summary of information on services and recreation programs – will be offered as an online resource soon and will be available to read in multiple languages.
The move to digitize the guidebook comes as demand for printed versions continue to rise. The UNA also hopes that the new multi-language online guidebook, which is targeted as a resource for residents who are new to the community, will be more accessible to those who prefer to read in a language that is not English.
The printed guidebook will continue to be released, but Ollero said she expects that implementing an online version will help ease demand for it.
It was also noted in the report that having an online guidebook would allow for instant updates and that it could be easily translated via web plug-ins and apps to more languages to improve accessibility.
DANIEL LI IS A GRADE 10 STUDENT AT UNIVERSITY HILL SECONDARY