Olympic road closures at UBC have already begun, effective this past Monday. Were you unaware of this? You aren’t alone.

UBC is doing a terrible job at communicating the impacts of the Games to students and residents. Quite a number of students undoubtedly tried to access Thunderbird Parkade via car on Monday just realized they could only do so along East Mall.

Sure, UBC has a website, ubc.ca/2010, and you can sign up for a “Games Time” newsletter for Olympics updates. But how many students know about it or have signed up?

The university has a broadcast e-mail system, which they can use send out notifications and updates. However, this e-mail system has not been used nearly enough to communicate to students the impact of the Olympics on campus.

In September, VANOC held an open house to inform students about the Olympics. VANOC representatives estimated a total of about 150 people attended throughout the day. This open house was the only information session that VANOC has held at UBC for the general student body. A lot of changes have been made since then and an update would seem appropriate—but we haven’t heard a peep.

The AMS University and External Relations Committee is looking to write a report that will hopefully be a comprehensive look at the impacts before, during and after the Olympics, including road closures. It’s a great initiative, but it comes a bit too late. The Olympics are a few weeks away, and creating and disseminating the report to students in such a short time seems almost impossible.

Where can I park? What if I’m staying on campus? Will the libraries be open? What are the hours for food outlets? The list of questions goes on and on. The word “due diligence” has been thrown around a lot lately—let’s see some on this campus.

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