Election ’99: As the scripture published in Nexus tells us, Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) elections have been a lasting democratic affair for several millennia (well, since 1990). In our October 18, 1999 issue, we highlighted the six candidates hoping to win power over the Camosun campus, a tradition the CCSS sustains today (see pages 3 and 5-8 of this issue), although without the tacky, indecipherable fonts and inexplicable formatting methods of 1999. Unfortunately, only one of the candidates had a platform statement that year, and two other candidates displayed no photo. Sounds like partisanship to me; I demand a revote.
S(tudent)&M: Another story this issue, which included several photos of elaborately lewd poses, featured a variety of ways that BDSM enthusiasts explore their wildest fantasies. In the eye- (and leg-)opening article, which was hoping to end stigma around fetish, Nexus writer Lisa Worth detailed extensively what it means to sexually liberate the tabooest of desires and explore the depths of pleasure in the underground dungeons of Victoria. Bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism are just the beginning, as it turns out: Worth goes on to reveal that bureaucracy is the key element to experimentation in a safe and secure environment. Ooh la la, paperwork has never been so sexy.
Deep Thought supercomputer: In the newborn baby technoscape of the digital age, the federal government poured $60 million into SMART cities, a technological revolution of Canadian communities. The acronym stands for Services through Multiple, Accessible, Responsible, and Transformative technology, which I can only imagine took some workshopping to fit into a clever title. In this issue, we covered how Camosun took to this idea, shaping a super electro-pedagogy with the ability to email instructors with assignments and post homework via the web. Who could have imagined? Former Camosun president Liz Ashton even hoped to “make Web registration kiosks available throughout the city.” The paperless days of virtual modernity are alive and well today, thank you, SMART city.