Issue 12, Vol 142, The Brunswickan

PSE // discussions, responses, and a whole lot of debt >> PAgE 3 Volume 142 · Issue 12 · November 19, 2008

thebruns.ca

the brunswickan canada’s oldest official student publication.

One Month, One Book 30 days to make a masterpiece

ARTS / PAGE 10

UNB still on top

A Modest Proposal

Two In A Row

OPINION / PAGE 7

SPORTS / PAGE 15

What if we closed the SUB?

UNB defeats UPEI and UdeM in men’s hockey

ACTION LOUDER THAN WORDS

Sarah Ratchford The Brunswickan

Maclean’s magazine has released its 18th annual university rankings, and for the second year in a row UNB has made the top five of comprehensive universities.

Comprehensive universities are those that have a significant amount of research activity as well as wide range of programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels. They are rated on thirteen different measures of aptitude. Rankings are weighted by a number of factors, including Students/Classes, Faculty, Resources, Library, and Reputation.

The Memorial University of Newfoundland tied with UNB for fifth place.

UNB Student Union President Bethany Vail is excited about the ranking.

“I’m super excited that we’re in the top five.

I think students need to be more pumped.

It’s pretty awesome,” she says.

Vail says the faculty to student ratio is excellent at UNB, allowing for smaller class sizes and thus a better learning environment.

“We also have amazing library facilities,” she adds, seeming proud of the university’s assets.

“There is always room for improvement with Student Services, but that’s good too.”

On behalf of the university’s administration, UNB Communications Manager Dan Tanaka released the following statement, “John McLaughlin has been clear about his belief that UNB can be the top public university in the country and that is what we will continue to work toward.”

In a recent press release, McLaughlin also expresses that he is very proud of the university. He makes reference to the fact that UNB has “continued to rank amongst much larger institutions.”

He also points out that while the university has done well to maintain a position within the top 5 universities in this country, there is always work to be done.

The university “cannot lose sight of the work ahead to find better ways in which to serve our students and community.”

The people who seem to be least enthusiastic about UNB’s rating, according to Vail, are ironically the students – and she’d like to change that.

“A few years ago, the student senators tried to start a charter day in celebration of UNB. We should work on this. We’re the oldest English-speaking university in Canada and the first public university in North America.”

Vail says students should be proud of their school, and refers to the fact that aside from orientation week and graduation, there are not many events which bring the entire university together in school spirit.

She plans to work on changing this at the next student senators meeting, which she says will occur in the next few weeks.

Macleans’ rankings for other comprehensive universities are as follows: Simon Fraser (1), Victoria (2), Waterloo (3), Guelph (4), Memorial (5), New Brunswick (5), Carleton (7), Windsor (8), Regina (9), York (9) and Concordia (11).

UNB was ranked number 1 in the categories of Faculty/Staff ratio, as well as in library holdings per student.

Josh O’Kane / The Brunswickan

The UNB Student Union held a Day of Action student rally last Thursday to reach out to the provincial government and prove that students loaded with debt are more than just statistics. The SU found $8 million of debt over the last week. Above, VP External Jon O’Kane, who holds the SU’s government relations portfolio, speaks at the rally.

Hilary Paige Smith The Brunswickan

In a search for one million dollars in student debt, the UNB Fredericton Student Union found over eight million in their student body last week.

On Thursday, Nov. 13, campuses across the province participated in a ‘Day of Action,’ where debt-laden students spoke out against the increasing costs of post-secondary. Students sent a strong message to the government of New Brunswick by building a shanty town at

Mount Allison, constructing a wall of debt at St. Thomas and rallying around the Student Union Building at UNB Fredericton.

At UNB’s Day of Action rally, a massive red “debt-o-meter” was unveiled, providing attendees with visible proof that students are carrying a debt load of millions. Evidence of debt was collected throughout the week on postcards addressed to Premier Shawn Graham. Dozens of people gathered at the base of the SUB as SU VP External Jon O’Kane provided the crowd with a student voice.

“We are just one of seven schools sharing in similar demonstrations to this across the province of New Brunswick.

The New Brunswick Student Alliance,

which spans from Mount Allison, to l’Université de Moncton’s three campuses, to the University of New Brunswick Fredericton campus, St. Thomas University and even CCNB Dieppe are all united in the cause today to make sure that we can send a message to our provincial government, ensuring that we address our high needs students,” echoed O’Kane across the crowd.

Stress rose among post-secondary education students in New Brunswick when the Millennium Scholarship Fund was terminated, which resulted in a seven million dollar loss for students.

New Brunswick has the highest tuition costs in Canada with an average of $34,000 in debt per student.

The NBSA and its member campuses are advocating for three key policy changes. They begin with the abolishment of the provinces current first year $2000 bursary for New Brunswick students choosing to continue their education here and the $10,000 tuition tax rebate for students that live in NB for five years following graduation.

A major aspect of the policy change recommendations is a student loan debt cap. This ensures that New Brunswick students receive no more than $6000 per year in loans, with the rest of the government’s financial aid coming in the form of non-repayable bursaries, resulting in no more than $24,000

SEE ACTION PAGE 3

Women’s Volleyball go 1-1 Alex Wickwire The Brunswickan

In the seven sets played by the V-Reds this past weekend, UNB took four. That’s a slanted way to say that the team went 1-1 against their Nova Scotia competitors this past weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, UNB meant business as they took to the court to face Dalhousie. Cruising through three

straight sets (25-20, 25-13, 25-21), they defeated Dalhousie in timely fashion. Their dominant front court was led by Tanya Paulin and Barb Vriends who combined for 15 blocks on the day. Vriends’ shoulder was being held in place by a few strands of black athletic tape, but anyone watching saw that whatever soreness was there did not hinder her game. Another player with an obvious ailment played a great game as well. Melanie Doucette’s hamstring was kept intact with some of the same athletic tape, and she contributed a game high, 26 assists.

The Dalhousie match was a complete team effort on behalf of the Reds. Seven ace-serves were recorded along with 24 blocks. DAL recorded six total blocks and had no answer for UNB’s power game.

UNB head coach John Richard was pleased with another team effort from this squad. “I thought against Dalhousie our middled played well on both sides of the ball and as a team, we blocked and served well. I thought our wing players have scored more especially once we forced the

SEE V-BALL PAGE 12

Sandy Chase / The Brunswickan

The Reds defeated DAL 3-0 on Saturday before falling 3-1 to St. FX on Sunday.

brunswickannews

2 • Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • news@thebruns.ca

A painful stance: Waxing for aids $100, 000 greener Sarah Ratchford The Brunswickan

Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan

Last week’s “Wax For Aids” event left a lot of students a little sore, but it was all for a good cause. The UNB faction of the World University Services of Canada put on the event to raise money for the “Bike for AIDS” campaign. The campaign raises money to purchase specially outfitted bicycle ambulances for African regions that have been affected by AIDS. The bikes consist of a lightweight trailer and a removable stretcher that are attached to the bicycle frame. These bikes are used to transport people with HIV/AIDS who cannot walk. Several UNB students helped out the cause and got their bodies waxed for pledges. Wednesday. Despite the often-heard screams of pain, many turned out to show support.

Here and abroad, in brief Leaves getting left alone The combination of rain and an influx of fallen leaves have been causing problems throughout Fredericton. Many homeowners have neglected to rake the leaves in front of their houses. Some of these uncared for leaves have been finding their way into storm drains and sewers, creating some localized flooding when met with rain. The city will use its two vacuum trucks to suck up leaves if temperatures stay above freezing, but citizen help is needed to avert the problem.

Too big for jail A 430-pound convict is out of a Canadian prison because the facility could not accommodate his frame.“Big Mike,” as he is known, was serving time in a Quebec prison for conspiracy and drug trafficking.The Quebec Parole Board cited Michel Lapointe’s health and good behavior as reasons for his early parole.

A concerned community The Department of Health held a public consultation session in Fredericton last Thursday afternoon.There was overwhelming discussion about the state of help for the mentally ill in the province. Front-line workers and concerned citizens voiced their concerns. It was stated that New Brunswick’s new mental health strategy needs more resources before it can close the system’s gaping holes.

Daredevil stunt causes train crash Two young men from Grand Bay-Westfield were sent to hospital late last Monday after the truck they were riding in collided with a train.

The injuries are non-life threatening.The railway is blaming a “game of chicken” for the accident.Allegedly, the men were trying to race the train across the track when the accident occurred.

The TD Canada Trust “Go Green Challenge” is currently in the works. The contest awards a total of $100,000, which will be divided up between four winners. Winners will receive $25,000 dollars each, $12,500 of which will be donated to their respective universities to help out with environmental sustainability projects. The remaining money will belong to the students who win, and it can be used however they like.

Fourth year biology student Brian Koval is spreading the word about the contest throughout the UNB campus.

“Basically it’s an environmental competition where students make teams of at least two people, and they submit an idea that will help out the environment, or inspire others to help out the environment, and they have to write an essay that has to be at the most 4,000 words – so nothing ridiculously huge, basically just portraying the idea and saying how they’ll go about doing it,” he says.

Winning projects from last year’s contest include a variety of ideas. One such project was called the Paper Cut program, which Koval calls “a pretty simple idea.”

“University campuses go through a lot of paper, which the group aimed to fix through a number of paper reduction strategies.” Koval says the techniques used in the project could easily transfer over to other universities who wanted to do their part. The project involved such practices as stronger enforcement of paper recycling programs as well as the implementation of technology to reduce paper use.

Competitions were also held throughout the school to see who could save the most paper. This particular project was carried out in Alberta.

A more eastern winning idea came from the University of Waterloo. The group proposed a bicycle sharing program which was inspired by cities such as Paris, Barcelona and Brussels, where the majority of people use

bicycles to get around.

“They found a practical and viable bicycle sharing program for their city.

I’m not going to lie, I’d probably ride a bicycle if it was there for me to ride,” Koval says.

He also points out that with use of a bicycle sharing program, students who may not be able to afford a bicycle would have one available at no cost.

The program works like a rental system. All citizens, not just students, are able to sign out bicycles, but payment is not required.

Koval says contestants can start planning their projects at any time.

Essays are due Jan. 16, and judging will occur March 16, 2009.

Koval says UNB has not been invoved in past years. “That’s why I’m trying to push this competition.

There has been no real participation at UNB, and it’d be great if we got our name out there for sustainability.

If we win this competition, that’s money towards the environmental faculty at UNB.” Koval says the main merit of this competition is that “once these proposals get out there, they’re not just words on paper.” Rather, the best ideas will actually be carried out and help to improve the state of our environment.

To enter the competition, groups must be comprised of either part time or full time students. Submissions must be original. The idea has to be realistic and viable, and it has to integrateelementsofenvironmentallybased community design. Some examples are transportation, energy efficiency, water conservation, ecosystem management, air quality, and basically anything along those lines, says the biology student.

Structures and mechanisms needed to carry out the idea must also be described. The idea must be presented in such a fashion that it can be put to use right away.

Koval says the contest is quite accessible, as essays are not judged on grammar, but rather on the value of the idea.

Koval will be addressing classes to get the word out. Any questions about entering the contest can be directed to Koval at a0uvv@unb.ca.

brunswickannews

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 3

PSE plan reiterated $8 million of debt found Sarah Ratchford The Brunswickan

What’s old is new again.

New Brunswick’s new Deputy Minister of Post Secondary Education, Training and Labour Byron James gave a public lecture on Monday at UNB outlining the province’s PSE action plan – which was initially released on June 26.

The plan consists of some thirty three “actions” which the government is claiming that they will carry out to better the postsecondary situation. The proposed actions cover everything from the tuition freeze of 2008-09, to increasing the number of locations offering university courses, to increasing apprenticeship opportunities.

James’ talk was advertised as a discussion during which he would expostulate the plan.

The discussion came in a form of a lecture, however, as James reiterated the entire plan, which has been available to the public for nearly five months.

The Deputy Minister asserted that the government means to move forward with its decisions within the current fiscal year.

Jon O’Kane, who sits as VP External of both the UNB Student Union and the New Brunswick Student Alliance, was in attendance.

Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan

Deputy Minister of Post Secondary Education, Training and Labour Byron James spoke at UNB on Monday, outlining the province’s PSE Action Plan.

He says that it brought a lot of stakeholders together, including students, faculty members and members of government.

“It gave stakeholders a chance to ask questions specific to their needs, and have them addressed so that everyone could hear the response.

I would say it was the creation of a dialogue,” says O’Kane.

It was effective in that way, he believes, but in terms of producing new information from the government, he says it was it was not effective.

One aspect of the plan will require post secondary institutions to submit five year strategic plans to government for review. This practice, said James, will be in place as of 2010-11.

As VP External of both student

organizations, he says the official stance of both organizations to that recommendation is that “we do not support government control over what is taught in the classroom.”

However, O’Kane does say that it is feasible for institutions to create a long-term plan in order to secure funding.

James met with the UNBSU before last week’s Day of Action, which O’Kane says that he hopes is the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship with the provincial government.

How effective that relationship will be in aligning the priorities of student groups and the provincial government, he says, is unsure.

“We have until the budget to find out.”

NBSA unveals PSE response Hilary Paige Smith The Brunswickan

Thursday’s Day of Action began with a press conference by the New Brunswick Student Alliance.

NBSA President Duncan Gallant and Vice President Operations of the NBSA André Cormier spoke to the media about the post-secondary policies that the student-driven organization is lobbying for.

The Day of Action was born of the ideas of the NBSA. The NBSA advocates for an affordable, accessible, high-quality education.

The policies that the NBSA is lobbying for were born from the release of the New Brunswick government’s post-secondary plans earlier this year, which were found by many students to be unsatisfactory.

“While the NBSA is encouraged to see the Government of New Brunswick concerned with postsecondary education and students,

any changes that they make without addressing the financial barriers and growing student debt is just ignoring a key point. There is no post-secondary education without students,” said Gallant.

The NBSA and its member organizations, including the UNB Student Union, are fighting for the implementation of a student loan debt cap that ensures that New Brunswick students pay no more than $6000 dollars per year of study, therefore accumulating no more than $24,000 in debt for an undergraduate degree. They are also fighting for an Income Contingent Loan Repayment Program, which dictates that a student pays no more than they are able to per pay period and loans that have not been paid within fifteen years will be absolved.

The NBSA is also lobbying for targeted grants that will direct money at students that need it most, such as students from low income families.

“The Government of New Brunswick currently has some student financial aid initiatives that are misguided and inefficient. The NBSA is proposing new programs based on previous research to reallocate money the government

thebruns.ca

is already spending in a more targeted and efficient way,” said Gallant.

As Gallant conveyed the financial woes of New Brunswick students to the press, booklets were passed around containing the information of Day of Action events happening across the province. Students at Mount Allison University were building a shanty town and dressing as 30’s-eqsue hobos, as well as collecting money through the event for local food banks.

At l’Université de Moncton, students dressed in red and marched to City Hall to signify being “in the red.” Students at St. Thomas each wrote their total debt on “bricks” and steadily built a wall of debt. Seven campuses in total participated in the day’s events across the province Each of the demonstrations was meant to send a message to the government of New Brunswick and influence change in the favour of high-needs students.

“Post-secondary education should not be a debt sentence for life,” said Gallant.

Josh O’Kane / The Brunswickan

The Debt-o-meter reached two stories high, but only $1 million in debt – one-eighth of the debt found among students last week. Pictured above are SU VP Academic Greg Melanson and VP Student Services Stephanie Lord.

FROM ACTION PAGE 1 total in debt over four years.

This number is the national average for accumulated debt upon graduation. The policy also includes an Income Contingent Loan Repayment Program, which states that loans that have not been paid after fifteen years will be absolved.

Neil Cole, VP External for the UNB Graduate Students’ Association and New Brunswick representative for the Canadian Federation of Students supports the Student Union’s efforts in the Day of Action, but feels that the policies they support may not be the answer.

Cole feels that the money from the $2000 first year bursary and the tuition tax rebate would be better spent if given directly to universities to lower their tuition costs.

“If you bring tuition fees

3 on 3 Basketball Sunday, November 30

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down, debt doesn’t become unmanageable,” said Cole. “It shouldn’t be about managing debt. It should be about reducing and eliminating debt.”

Cole added that his student debt is over $40,000 and that post-secondary costs may be crucial in a student’s choice to pursue graduate studies.

Vice President Academic, Anthony Secco provided the

crowd with the administration’s outlook on the situation.

Secco says “When I see an indication like that one on the debt-thometer behind me and the numbers that Jon has given me; they truly are staggering. It’s one thing that the government should recognize and that is an investment in post-secondary education is truly a fantastic investment.”

brunswickannews

4 • Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12• Volume 142 •

An evolution in biology class Concordia alumnus faces beheading

Clare Raspopow The Link

Doug Estey / The Brunswickan

UNB marine biology professor Dr. Gary Saunders, left, demonstrates techniques to students in the lab. Biology students now have the opportunity to take whole classes in block format, two intensive weeks at a time.

Sarah Ratchford The Brunswickan

The biology department at UNB is offering a new format for some of its classes. Since the beginning of this term, it has been possible for upperyear students to take classes called marine blocks.

The blocks are essentially classes which last for a two week period, ending after the two weeks to start something new. Only one class is taken at a time.

“Classes are pretty intensive,” says Dr. Gary Saunders, Professor & Canada Research Chair in Molecular Systematics & Biodiversity and Coordinator at CEMAR. Saunders is a professor at UNB’s Department of Biology.

“We have a number of professors in the marine biology department who teach in the standard Monday, Wednesday, Friday blocks, which I don’t think is a very effective teaching vehicle,” says Saunders. “I’ve done a lot of teaching in marine stations

which involve block teaching, which means that you teach one course for a few weeks and then the students move on to the next course.”

Saunders has worked at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where the entire honours program for biology was completed in block format.

Saunders says that he has wanted to implement the marine blocks program since he came to UNB 14 years ago.

Once the university decided to give it a try, Saunders says it was simply a matter of ensuring that there was enough interest in both faculty willing to teach in a block format and students interested in learning that way.

Currently, there are 15 undergraduates enrolled in the program,aswellassomegradstudents with more flexible schedules.

“The upside of block learning is, I think, that it’s a better learning vehicle for the students. They really focus on one subject at a time and tend to work harder because they’re not trying to balance their time,” Saunders says. “They really get immersed in the subject.”

“Courses go from field stuff through more physiological

oceanography.”

As a downside, the professor cites the fact that block-style classes “buck the entire system.” It needs to be understood that at the end of the two weeks, courses are over and new ones are beginning.

Because the block takes up so much of a student’s time, Saunders says it’s an all-or-nothing program.

If a student were to sign up for one block course and the rest regular format, he or she would miss 2-3 weeks of their other courses.

This year, blocks lasted for two weeks. Students participate in six two week blocks, which make for five structured courses plus a two-week research experience.

“This year’s group is really enjoying it. I feel like they’re getting a quality learning experience. That’s what’s important,” says Saunders.

Each block course taken earns the student 4 credit hours.

Students face a number of situations which are unconventional for the classroom, including field trips which last for a few days at a time.

Saunders says that next year, classes will ideally last for three weeks “just to take a bit of the strain off.”

The professor says that the

Canada’s most vital grads are heading south of the border While not as many graduates are leaving Canada as many people think, the ones who do leave tend to be some of the brightest—or so one study finds Kirsten Goruk

CUP Alberta Bureau Chief

EDMONTON (CUP) – A new study shows that Canada is losing fewer graduates to the United States than anticipated, but it’s the smarter students who are taking off in search of greener pastures.

The study by David Walters, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph, examines the current state of Canada’s labour market and whether or not graduate trends have changed over time.

“The purpose was to investigate labour-market outcomes of postsecondary graduates, and also to compare graduates of Canada with the U.S.,” he said. “I think much of the inspiration was [that] most of our knowledge was guided by media reports, for example, largely of medical doctors leaving for the United States because they’d been

attracted by high wages.”

With the most recent data dating back to the mid ‘90s, it was no surprise when Walters discovered a difference from today’s graduates.

“The good news that we found is that graduates aren’t leaving, not nearly as many of them as we had anticipated before the actual study. Based on the media reports, we found that lot of what we were anticipating had been sensationalized somewhat, or that the labour market was different before,” he said.

But the downside is that Walters realized Canada was losing some of its brightest students to its southern neighbour.

“The bad news is that of those who are leaving, they generally tend to be the better students.

They’re the ones who generally are more likely to get scholarships, and if they get scholarships, they’re more likely to get more money in terms of scholarships.

And they generally tend to be in the fields that are considered vital to this new knowledge-based economy,” he said.

While engineers, computer science graduates, and those in help-related fields are at the top of the list, Walters also uncovered a noteworthy statistic about those in the medical field.

“What was interesting is that we also found that of those helpfields who are leaving, it wasn’t the medical doctors, it was the nurses,” he said.

In fact, a Statistics Canada survey of 6,700 graduates showed

that about 6.9 per cent exported their labour to the U.S., and very few were medical doctors.

The study itself excluded those from the survey who were graduates of a trade program or a community college, as well as those from social sciences and arts programs, as they’ve been shown to remain in Canada for their employment.

Despite the somewhat positive results, Walters is adamant this research could be used to influence the role of employers and the government when it comes to graduate retention.

He believes the government might want to look into providing tax incentives for particular types of graduates, or making additional efforts to keep them in Canada. He also feels that businesses could profit from this new information.

“Businesses might want to consider, for example, recruitment strategies to keep the more qualified graduates in the country. They might also want to consider providing competitive wage rates or other incentives that may not be related to wages,” he said.

Regardless of what actions may or may not be taken in light of the study’s findings, Walters is confident the knowledge will have an encouraging effect.

“I think that the importance of it is to be reassuring in the sense that people are worried that the best people in our country are leaving – and that’s true – but not as many of them as we thought.”

program is “educating the university” that there doesn’t necessarily have to be set-out rules for classes, and that new methods of learning can be put in place alongside the old ones. This is especially pertinent to those who have different learning styles than the ones often used in a typical classroom setting.

A variety of topics were covered this semester, including Marine Plants, which was taught by Saunders himself. Others included Marine Birds, Marine inverts and Ecology, Biological Oceanography, the research experience, and Aquaculture as the final course.

Saunders calls the block format a “huge experiment.” Although he says it’s not certain that it will stick, he seems to have high hopes.

“It was a really positive experience from a teaching perspective,” he says.

“It’s our intention to keep doing it as long as there’s student interest.”

OtheruniversitiesintheMaritimes, such as Acadia, have successfully implemented the block program as well.

This is the first year that UNB has offered the block format. As long as students have their prerequisites out of the way Saunders says they are welcome to take block style classes.

MONTREAL (CUP) – Mohammed Kohail, a former Concordia University student, finds himself one step closer to execution as the Saudi Arabia Court of Appeals has decided his original sentence should be upheld.

Kohail, 23, was convicted in Saudi Arabia for the murder of 19 year-old Munzer Hiraki, in schoolyard fight. The penalty is public beheading.

The Court of Appeals, which had rejected Kohail’s sentence three times since it was originally announced in March 3 of this year, made a complete about-face in supporting the call for execution.

“This has never happened before,” said Mahmoud Al-Ken, the Kohail family’s friend and spokesperson. “That the Court should rule three times one way and then change their verdict like that.”

“In a way, this is worse than the original verdict in March,” added

Al-Ken. “At least in March, there was a glimmer of hope for the appeal. We’ve now exhausted all legal avenues. The only hope now is high-level diplomacy.”

Last week, before the verdict had been handed down, Lisa Monette, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, remained noncommittal about what steps the government was willing to take on behalf of the Canadian man, telling CBCNews.ca in an e-mail that the Canadian government “has and will continue to pursue all avenues.”

Monette has, however, assured the media that Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has directed his officials to meet with the Saudi Charge d’Affaires in Ottawa and raise the issue again.

The Canadian embassy in Saudi Arabia has denied the verdict is final, despite statements from government officials and reports from several media outlets, and is working on getting clemency for Kohail.

Al-Ken and the Kohail family have yet to hear from the government since the verdict was announced but hope to hear from them “in the next few days,” says Al-Ken.

send us news tips to news@thebruns.ca, or drop by SUB room 35 anytime and we’ll help you through writing a story yourself.

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 5

brunswickanopinion

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 6

editor@thebruns.ca

Students issues: The here and now Rousing the Rabbles

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief • Josh O’Kane Managing • Tony von Richter News • Sarah Ratchford Arts • Doug Estey Sports • Mitchell Bernard Photo • Andrew Meade Copy • Dan Hagerman Production • Christian Hapgood Online • Dave Evans Staff Advertising Sales Rep • Bill Traer Delivery • Dan Gallagher

Nick Ouellette

Contributors Ashley Bursey, Chris Cameron, Sandy Chase, Alison Clack, Josh Fleck, Nick Howard, Brandon MacNeil, Cameron Mitchell, Nick Ouellette, Hilary Paige Smith, Bethany Vail & Alex Wickwire.

The Brunswickan relies primarily on a volunteer base to produce its issues every week. Drop by SUB room 35 to get involved.

About Us The Brunswickan, in its 142nd year of publication, is Canada’s Oldest Official Student Publication.

We are an autonomous student newspaper owned and operated by Brunswickan Publishing Inc., a nonprofit, independent body.

We are a founding member of the Canadian University Press, and love it so. We are also members of U-Wire, a media exchange of university media throughout North America.

We publish weekly during the academic year with a circulation of 10,000.

Josh O’Kane / The Brunswickan

Only about 50 students showed up at UNB Fredericton’s Day of Action last Thursday, which prompts columnist Nick Ouellette to wonder how important long-term issues are to students. in the long term or whether the effect is in the “here and now.”

When we speak of pocketbook issues and those that affect today’s choices and options, we can expect student support, but when the problem is months or years down the road, and especially where there is a hope that somebody else might fix the problem, it is difficult to expect success. As cheerless as that sounds, the evidence is all around us.

Contrast last week’s rally with demonstrations held last fall, around the same time, in the face of recommendations to convert UNBSJ to a polytechnic.

Hundreds of students turned out to rally for a united UNB, even though the Student Union itself was not very effective in efforts to promote the event.

The difference between that rally and the one held last week lies in the reality that the conversion of UNBSJ would have had a real impact on the lives of current UNB Fredericton students—in terms of accreditation of degree programs, the suitability of UNB as a “national” university, and the level of tuition paid this year.

Unlike those considerations, students at university today are already saddled with a heavy debt load, and reforms to the system are unlikely to affect current students. Reforms to our postsecondary education financial aid systems are considered overwhelmingly with an eye to helping future students, not current students.

Here and now: save UNBSJ to keep our degree current and our tuition down. Long term: let those future students and other actors—anybody but us—worry about how high tuition will be five, 10, or 15 years from now.

Sure, we’ll sign a postcard, but don’t expect us to show up at a rally.

This is disappointing in an environment where we are taught to consider critically the effect and outcomes of our actions and those of others, to thoughtfully evaluate programs, policies, and politics. A university education teaches more than what it takes to start a career; students are UNB are meant to appreciate the nuances and subtleties of real world problems and proposed solutions as much as they are expected to understand the theories behind those applications. But when it comes to considering what this and other campuses will be like after graduation, students generally miss the mark For instance, it is agreed that there is a deferred maintenance issue on campus because we see the evidence around us in broken classroom seats, defective heating systems and windows, and cracking walls. But these problems are not something

that will be fixed in the short time that most students spend at UNB, so convincing the student body that this is a real issue to be addressed today is a hard sell.

It’s for tomorrow’s students to solve—it’s in the long term.

On the other hand, proposals to close residences on our campus have been met with swift and strong opposition from a broad base of students—most of whom would not actually be affected if the plans were carried out—because the change would immediately affect the plans and interests of the students currently living in that particular residence, including where they will live in the following year, how they will organize themselves, and the benefit they will earn from the residence community.

send your letters to the editor by friday at 5 p.m. to editor@thebruns.ca. maximum 400 words, please.

Thursday, November 13, 2008.

1:00 p.m. The scene was set in the SUB quad for what was billed as the largest Student Union event in years. It was conceived by the SU as a joint effort with other schools in its provincial lobby group and intended to raise awareness of the need for accessible and affordable postsecondary education.

The Day of Action aspired to unite hundreds of students behind a common cause. SU Councillors were asked to bring 10 students each. E-mails were circulated. Media were contacted.

Postcards were handed out.

The Student Union sought an ambitious show of political force that would be sure to catch the attention of both the public and the provincial government.

Students would dramatically paint the side of the SUB with the Debt-o-meter, a gigantic thermometer modified to show the current level of debt weighing on the shoulders of UNB students. The impact of the message carried by the Debto-meter would rely on a large student rally with an important purpose: to make clear that UNB students were united behind its Student Union in tackling this issue.

After all, this was the one critical area that the provincial government failed to address in its post-secondary education action plan when it was released in the spring. Since the government hadn’t acted, students would— and their action, the Day of Action, would be something to reckon with.

Well, the Day of Action certainly did make clear where UNB students stand on the issue of student debt, but I doubt it was message student leaders were hoping to deliver. Despite claims by guest speakers that they were thrilled to see “so many students turn out,” the event failed exceedingly to meet expectations.

Only a few more than 50 people bothered to show up, not all of whom were students. In fact, glancing around the crowd, it seemed that many of those in attendance were media and the preached-to choir of Student Union Councillors and staff members.

The poor showing by normal, everyday students was especially surprising in the face of hundreds of postcards from students attesting to more than $8 million in debt on this campus alone.

Apparently, it was easy enough to write down a number on a simple postcard but too onerous to show support publicly when the time came around.

This begs a concerning question. The SU Council motion that endorsed the Day of Action set out “to draw governmental attention to student issues, emphasizing that UNB students are more than just statistics of student debt to be discussed behind closed doors” (emphasis added), and students who signed the postcards did so under the statement, “I am more than a statistic.”

But, as I stood there at the rally, I couldn’t help asking myself: if you don’t show up to the rally, isn’t the act of signing a postcard to help tally up the statistic of more than $8 million in debt an explicit endorsement that you are nothing more than a statistic?

Maybe students just couldn’t be bothered to show up because the problem isn’t immediate enough.

It seems that when it comes to political action, the question whether the movement will gain visible, active student support turns on whether the problem is

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It’s the here and now, it affects today.

It’s so much easier to worry about today and forget about tomorrow. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to separate the long term from the here and now, and it is not always enough to passively sign a postcard without actively showing up to support the rally.

When it comes to issues like this, an absence of a large student turnout is an easy out for government and other actors. The issue of student debt is not a good selling point to a public which suffers from a failing health care system and a struggling economy. Without a wave of grassroots support for study lobby organizations when they attempt to take a stand, one

can quickly dismiss this as a real issue for society and classify it instead as a concern of an issue group.

The next time an event like this comes around, let us not sell ourselves so short that the only things we can point to is yet another statistic of our debt and a showing of only a handful of students. Our system is approaching its breaking point, and student support is the linchpin of achieving a real solution.

That includes your support.

Nick Ouellette, a UNB law student, has served on the UNB Student Union Council and the UNB Board of Governors, and now serves on the UNB Fredericton Senate. He is the Don of Neville/Jones House, one of UNB’s residences.

Letters Must be submitted by e-mail including your name, letters with pseudonymns will not be printed. Letters must be 400 words maximum. Deadline for letters is Friday at 5 p.m. before each issue.

Editorial Policy While we endeavour to provide an open forum for a variety of viewpoints and ideas, we may refuse any submission considered by the editorial board to be racist, sexist, libellous, or in any way discriminatory.

The opinions and views expressed in this newspaper are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Brunswickan, its Editorial Board, or its Board of Directors.

All editorial content appearing in The Brunswickan is the property of Brunswickan Publishing Inc. Stories, photographs, and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the express, written permission of the Editor-in-Chief.

21 Pacey Drive, SUB Suite 35 Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3 main office • (506) 447-3388 advertising • (506) 452-6099 fax • (506) 453-5073 email • editor@thebruns.ca www.thebruns.ca

brunswickanopinion

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 7

A modest proposal: What if we closed the SUB? Bring it on home Josh O’Kane The Student Union Building is old and run down.

So let’s close it.

Sounds like a ridiculous proposition, right? Or is it?

It’s a proposal that’s been made before in similar situations at UNB. In fact, it was proposed by the same wing of university administration that manages the SUB – Residential Life, Campus & Conference Services.

In the face of financial burden in early 2007, Res Life threatened to close Aitken House to restore budgetary balance. The house, the oldest in the central residence cluster, was to be “rededicated” into a Student Services building – this later happened with Jones House when Aitken was left to stay

open as a residence.

So why not close the SUB? After all, it’s been argued before. Maybe it can be turned into a parking garage to solve UNB’s parking woes.

Just like turning Aitken House into a consolidated Student Services building – which the campus certainly needs – turning the SUB into a parking garage would solve the woes of parking for students.

Everyone would win.

Or maybe not.

Res Life is one wing of the administration that has, in recent history, relied far too much on quick fix-it band-aid solutions to solve the problems it encounters.

When faced with a $770,000 deficit and declining residence enrolment in February 2007, Res Life tried to shut down its secondoldest residence.

While Res Life hasn’t proposed to close the SUB, its executive director, James Brown, proposed a $25 annual SUB fee this fall for students to pay for the maintenance of the building.

It sounds better than closing the SUB, but it’s still a bandaid solution that directly hurts students.

The SUB fee concept has died down over the past month or so. The UNBSU council voted against supporting any levy on Oct. 2, and it could only come back as a possibility if the UNB Board of Governors goes over the SU’s heads. The Board of Governors will not be reconvening until Feb. 12, 2009. Regardless of pertinence, the big picture needs examining.

The SUB, like many buildings on campus, is showing signs of wear. Look closely and you’ll find marks on the floor noting where buckets must go when it rains too hard. Tiles are coming off the floor.

Some walls have needed painting for years.

Implementing a fee to pay for these downfalls, though, isn’t the right course of action. The cost for this shouldn’t come out of the hands of students. The SUB will be looked after, there’s no doubt about it – it just requires UNB to allocate

the funds to do so. Eventually, UNB will be forced to pay for the maintenance of its building – unfortunately for students, we just don’t know when that would be.

(The school’s deferred building maintenance is a problem all across campus, and to talk about that would merit a whole separate column.)

What hasn’t been examined is what can be done to deal with the SUB’s problems now. If things are as really as bad as Res Life is proposing – by re-instating a $25 fee originally imposed to be large enough to cover the SUB atrium’s mortgage – then they should be lobbying further up the administration to fund the maintenance now, and not putting the problem in the hands of students.

Speaking of responsibility, it would be interesting to question the university administration’s motive to, after all the budgetary problems surrounding residence closures, give Res Life greater financial responsibility around campus.

Within months of admitting the

major deficit Res Life had already incurred, the department acquired the responsibility of running the SUB and Aitken Centre. Both buildings are currently in shambles, with leaking roofs being the most obvious and intrusive problems in each case.

The apparent reasoning behind the responsibility shift, which took place last fall, was to alleviate the direct duties of the VP academic by passing responsibilities down the chain.

Was this the case? Or was it to hand off the responsibilities to a different wing of the administration for damage control? It doesn’t make sense to give more responsibility to a company department whose financial decisions have been so questionable in recent times.

It’s become apparent that the flawed decision-making process hasn’t changed much either, given the choice students have been given: either pay up for something you don’t need to, or live in filth.

This is the message given by Res Life, the same wing of the

administration that publicly downplayed the presence of rodents in meal halls last November and claimed it would not be improbable to find mice in any residence on campus.

It’s the same wing of the administration that, despite declining residence enrolment from 2006-2008, has not opted to instate a marketing campaign on a key selling point of UNB: its proud, tradition-filled residence system.

It’s also the same wing of the administration that won’t talk about the mysterious disappearance of its former Associate Director of Finance & Operations, Ed Reid.

How responsible was he for Res Life’s recent budgetary decisions?

Why is he gone? It would be interesting if there were some connection. It would be more interesting if he wasn’t.

However, just like with SUB repairs, it’s not likely that we’ll find a definite answer anytime soon.

Josh O’Kane is Editor-in-Chief of the Brunswickan. He can be reached at editor@thebruns.ca.

A capitalist’s nightmare Where is the school spirit? before Christmas The Opinionator Nick Howard

Toronto’s Santa Claus Parade took place on the 16th of November.

Though it takes place in November every year, the advertisements caught me off guard this year.

Is November too early to be advertising for Christmas?

In my opinion, yes.

Christmas seems to be a phenomenon in our capitalist culture. It is a monolith of consumption; the mother of all shopping sprees. It is enough to make Milton Friedman delirious with delight. No other holiday occupies as much sheer calendar time as Christmas, and the songs are simply incessant. Bear with me now as I delve into that new social phenomenon – the nauseated Christmas-hater rant.

I won’t talk about the good old days of Christmas, as I am admittedly far too young to go that route. However, as I am

bombarded with guilt trips from faceless companies reminding me to buy gifts for loved ones, I simply have to ask why.

Why am I a bad person, a spoil sport, if I believe that presents are about as meaningful as a prewritten letter from a politician?

In fact I see many similarities between the two. We have lost all connection to holiday meaning, so Christmas has turned into an opportunity to send out generic cards to people with whom we have lost complete contact. Imagine how much more meaningful a letter from a forgotten friend would be, if received on July 2. Christmas is an opportunity to gift each other things that we could easily obtain on any of the other 364 days of the year. The modern conception of Christmas is idiotic. It falls flat on its face, speechless when faced with the question: why?

I relish Christmas – just not the gift-giving or receiving. I love the ability to make my time my own again. To do things, and see people I don’t at any other time of year: pantomimes, concerts, parties, and turkey. I relish the discussions and time with people who matter to me.

Yet, this year is different. This

year I have to shop, and I have to start now. Why, you may ask?

Because it’s for the common good; we all have a responsibility to save the economy.

That’s right readers, we are being told that our Christmas shopping will save us all from the economic doom that awaits. CTV is telling its internet readers that, “the Christmas shopping season will determine whether or not Canada slips into a recession.”

Not that the irony needs to be pointed out, but wasn’t it spending that got us here in the first place?

Sub-prime mortgage rates, massive debts and credit burdens; are these not the marks of a society addicted to spending? Does more heroin help a heroin addict?

We hear it every year, but this time I’m serious. Go cold turkey over the holiday (pun most certainly intended), and cut the meaningless spending. Discover real meaning in your holidays, I promise you won’t have to look far.

The Opinionator is a weekly opinion column by UNB student Nick Howard, presenting a no-holds barred approach to current events or anything that smacks of unquestioned perspective. He can be reached at nphoward@gmail. com.

Student Beat Bethany Vail

Recently, MacLean’s magazine released its annual rankings on nationally comprehensive universities in Canada. This is the 18th year for its rankings, which MacLean’s calls their “exclusive evaluation of university excellence.”

The rankings are meant to help students choose the university that is right for them, focusing on the “undergraduate experience, and an intent to offer an overview of the quality of instruction and services available to students at public universities across the country.”

Our very own University of New Brunswick is among the top in the country, ranking fifth this year in a two-way tie with Memorial University. This is the same ranking we received last year.

Given that UNB has consistently been ranked at the top of the list of nationally comprehensive universities, you would think that students are happy and excited to be here. Instead, one big ticket item that is keeping us from ranking any

higher on the scale in my eyes is the lack of school spirit. Shouldn’t we be proud that MacLean’s has consistently ranked our school in the top five institutions in the country? Doesn’t that give us something to celebrate and make us walk around with smiles on our faces? Instead when people ask us students where we go to school, often you hear dismayed tones and mutterings of, “Oh, just UNB.” Part of the problem perhaps arises from some local students who were born and raised in New Brunswick, who attend UNB because it is close to home, and within their comfort zone.

These locals feel they know the school because they’ve seen a UNB presence around in their high schools. They feel there is no mystery or challenge because they can walk onto campus anytime they like, which is something you can’t do with Queens University which is a province away. So by the time a local comes to UNB, they feel like they know this school and there is nothing special about it.

How wrong they are.

Landscape is something that you can tangibly see. Academic integrity, fantastic student services, excellence in teaching and research is something you feel and experience only once you arrive. These are things that we have here at UNB that are taken for granted.

Last year I wrote about the need to celebrate UNB. That need still exists. In a time where the nation is headed into recession, and New Brunswick’s self sufficiency agenda is weaning, we need it more than ever. Locals need to step out of their comfort zone and explore UNB outside of the traditional classroom. Go to a hockey game in the evening. Join a club or society and explore new opportunities.

In order to celebrate our national comprehensive status, we need to firstly recognize it. We need to celebrate that we are the centre of research for New Brunswick.

To realize what we have, we need to dig our heads out of the sand and investigate the world around us. We need to be proud of our history and realize that it is a great feat to be the oldest English language university in Canada and the first public university in North America.

It’s time that students take responsibility for the lack of school spirit. It’s time to get engaged and start caring about the past, present and future of this institution to make UNB’s school spirit as “nationally comprehensive” as the school itself.

Bethany Vail is President of the UNB Student Union. Student Beat is a weekly column by UNB’s student leaders examining issues pertinent to students.

Sex and the economy: the disturbing connection Shannon Tien

The Xaverian Weekly

ANTIGONISH (CUP) – It turns out that failing to launch, softening up, crashing, and losing firmness are terms that not only apply to Wall Street, but also to the current state of North Americans’ sex lives.

It’s a correlation that’s easy to understand. Studies show that with bank accounts dwindling,

people are anxious, depressed, and stressed. Therefore, they have virtually no sexual libido.

Our pre-historic ancestors probably dealt with the same problem when times got tough, concentrating on hunting and gathering to survive the winter instead of making more babies.

Just last week, Salon’s Sarah Hepola wrote about the onenight stand she fell in love with, but who couldn’t love her back because he lost his job, all his money, and his mom. At first suspicious, Hepola concluded that he was being honest, because, realistically, times are tough.

But it’s not even singlesand-looking who are the most

affected.

According to a recent article in Forbes, there is definitely less of “it” going on in America, but, interestingly enough, those involved in couple situations are suffering the most dramatic sexual recessions.

The theories around economic recessions and couples’ sex lives are incredibly numerous – the main one is that nothing is more of a buzz-kill than depression.

The theories are also based on the assumption that good sex is the basis of a good relationship.

Another theory, entitled the therapist theory, suggests that misunderstandings occur in relationships when

the breadwinning partner feels pressure to remain the breadwinner, even though external forces are making it slightly impossible.

The fear of losing this title then causes the partner to feel pressure to perform in the bedroom, which doesn’t lead to exceptionally great times. The other partner then misunderstands this inability to perform as a lack of desire, and thus, they drift further and further apart, eventually deciding that they were never meant for each other in the first place.

Even harder to believe is the lawyer theory by Time Magazine’s Belinda Luscombe.

This theory states that money is

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the soft pillow foam mattress of the relationship bed. Without it, couples get to look at the skeletal bed frame of their relationship – the thing that’s holding it all together.

Most of the time, the bed frame is disappointing, and they want out.

Depressing.

Finally, there is the bickering theory, which simply states that couples that never used to argue begin to argue over their dwindling financial resources.

Because of the recession, it’s not an issue that can be resolved right away. With no experience in the realm of resolving arguments, the members of the relationship

again decide that something bigger must be wrong.

Now, if it was just sex that had such a close connection with money I wouldn’t be so concerned, but unfortunately, these theories suggest that the economy is also getting in the way of love. People are failing to realize that profits made on the stock market don’t compare to the profits gained from being in a loving relationship.

My love-makes-the-worldgo-‘round worldview is being shattered. Has society actually reached a point where “all you need is love” has changed to “all you need is money”? If so, I’m an arts major, and I’m screwed.

if you don’t volunteer, our editors will fail out of school. please volunteer. 447.3388 / SUB room 35 / editor@thebruns.ca

iewpoint V

brunswickanopinion

The old man rant

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a satire by Dave Evans

Question: Have you ever heard of Citizen Cope?

“No.” Daniel Ventimilla

“Yeah, I would definitely go see him.”

Emily Hawkins

“No, I haven’t.”

Joel Powers

“No.” Nick Kozinsky

“Is he a Leafs fan?”

Raphael Rabalone

“Never heard of him.”

Shane Campbell

“No I haven’t.”

Travis Alton

O

ne of the great things about our glorious capitalist society is something I like to call “private property” rights. What does that mean? It means that, when you own something, you should (in theory) be able to do whatever you want with it. For example, let’s say that I own something, I don’t know; let’s call it a “woodlot”. This woodlot is my property, so according to my theory, I should be able to do what I want with it, right? I could keep the trees, cut down the trees, make a tree house; I don’t really give a damn, because I OWN it, and no one else does. Next, let’s say that someone who has nothing better to do with their time decides to raise up a stink and try to tell me that I can’t do what I want to do with my property. Dear readers, I think you can see where I’m going with this.

I’m really getting tired hearing about the UNB Woodlot and the tree huggers who want to protect it. Fact is, UNB holds the title to the woodlot; this (again) means that the university owns it, and grubby bleeding heart liberals who eat too much granola don’t. If you’ve read my column before, you’ll know that I have a personal enmity for the environment, hippies and ridiculousness; thus, this issue puts me on super ultra attack mode. How is this even an issue?

We have men and women dying in Afghanistan, we’re facing the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, but these so-called “friends” of the woodlot want people to pay attention to them instead. No one gives a damn if you make yourself look foolish by trying to save beavers. No one cares about frogs being squished on the road. In fact, I had to recently get winter tires put on my car. I asked them at the shop to put on the widest tires they could; that way I can get as many frogs as possible when I drive down that road (which is wonderful, by the way).

So, I’m going to sum up this column in six words: screw the environment and screw you hippies. Maybe that’s seven words, but I’m so blinded by inconsolable granola rage I don’t really care. Back in my day, if someone decided to put on a useless protest like this, the police showed them the wrong end of a billy club. We can’t do things like that anymore, so I propose a challenge; an eye for an eye if you will. For every frog you save, I will eat one. For every tree you save, I’m going to buy a case of loose-leaf and throw it straight into the garbage. For every beaver you protect, be damn sure I’ll buy a nice warm fur coat. You want to make crazy demands? Then it’s about to get all crazy up in here.

Dave Evans is Online Editor of the Brunswickan. Feel free to contact him at online@thebruns.ca.

letters

“No, I don’t know him.”

Dan Hines

us

“No I haven’t.”

Ashley Hayes

send

8 • Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12• Volume 142 •

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Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 9

Citizen Cope isn’t sure if he’s coming or going Doug Estey

The Brunswickan

Whenever you’re watching TV, an MTV movie, or maybe even a Pontiac commercial, you might catch a drift of a catchy song or melody that you just can’t put your finger on – you know you’ve heard it somewhere, but you just aren’t sure, and you don’t have a name to attribute it to.

There’s a chance Citizen Cope may be just the name you’re looking for.

Clarence Greenwood, or Citizen Cope as his pseudonym suggests, has been making music for a long time – but in an interview with the Brunswickan, he said he really “just wants to talk about my three records that I’ve done as Citizen Cope.”

Likewise, he wasn’t very interested in talking about his beginnings as a DJ for Basehead, an American hip hop group that saw its rise to popularity in the early ‘90s, especially when confronted about the fact that the genre seems to have had an influence on modern hits like “Let the Drummer Kick.”

“I really don’t think it has an influence. The time had an influence, but the music didn’t.

“You know, Basehead was a long time ago. I don’t even know if anyone knows who Basehead is any more. Like if they were to play a show no one would come. That’s not really - it’s like something that’s on the internet,” he struggled to say.

Citizen Cope is taking his music on the road throughout North Americabefore heading up another tour in February before taking “a couple of months off to do [his] next record.”

As an artist that is potentially

Submitted

Citizen Cope, with three studio albums under his belt and several singles that have appeared in everything from feature films to car commercials, will be appearing at the SUB on Nov. 27. more recognizable through the various forums of pop culture in which his music appears rather than the record releases themselves, Greenwood claims that his career has progressed “just one step at a time.”

“I mean, nothing happened, I mean – it’s crazy. I’ve done a bunch of records, I’ve done a lot of touring, it’s just one step at a time.

There hasn’t been anything that – I never had no radio head, radio thing, but you know – I had some licences, and I have, you know – people just identify with the music, and I have a lot of word of mouth

going, a really strong tourbase, everything.”

Whatever that means.

Earlier this year, Citizen Cope parted ways from RCA Records (a division of Sony BMG). Th is was notably the second time the artist has been dropped from a major record label over the course of his three studio releases. DreamWorks Records produced his first album, but the deal ended unfortunately after, claimed Greenwood, the label “mishandled” the album’s release.

When asked about how he planned to release his next

album – either independently or through another potential record label – Greenwood surprised the Brunswickan by completely slamming the conversation into reverse.

“Yeah, this is probably my last.

[I’ll be] moving to an island or somewhere probably.”

When asked which island he would move to, Greenwood claimed Hawaii as his destination of choice. As such, it is unclear as to whether Greenwood plans on writing another album or not.

Greenwood’s history with record labels has inspired some sound

advice to young artists possessing little to no experience in working with them.

“Well I’d just tell them you know you have to do all the work yourself.

As long as you can do that, you’re good. You know, if you expect them to like, magically make your career, that’s not going to happen, you still have to do what it takes.

You gotta make your records, you gotta tour, you gotta sleep on couches, you gotta – you know, do things you normally wouldn’t do.

You know, give up the 9-5, all this other stuff – security, you know you gotta dig deep into whatever

you believe in artistically.

“If you think it’s going to change your life in any great way, it’s not.

You know, what changes your life is when people start listening to your music, and when, you know, you start being a value to someone else’s life in music. So really it has nothing to do with record companies really.”

Citizen Cope is appearing at the Student Union Building on Nov. 27. The event is 19+, with tickets available at the Paper Trail for $20 in advance, or $25 at the door.

Check out thebruns.ca for the full interview with Citizen Cope.

The ultimate zit remedy Time for a reality check Alison Clack

The Brunswickan

Internet

Degrassi:The Next Generation is the modern, somewhat watered down version of the hit 90’s classic TV show.

Pop Tart Ashley Bursey I happened to come across a recent episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation when flicking through the channels a couple of weeks ago.

I guess it was a Halloween-themed episode, because the premise was downright ridiculous: a dead former student was possessing the bodies of the student council as they prepared to get the gym ready for the big autumn dance.

Several of them fell to their deaths from a catwalk over the stage; a few others had their mouths sealed shut and suffocated. And, to cap it all off, one of the characters was dumped with, all originality aside, a steaming bucket of animal blood as she stood centre-stage before the dance.

I snickered, but for some reason, kept watching as another rerun came on TV right after it.

Now, I didn’t watch the original Degrassi. At one point, I happened to chance across a paperback from the series (yes, they had books, too) and remember reading about some mousy brown-haired girl sewing a great outfit for her first date, but that was as far as it went.

I know there are legions of oldschool Degrassi fans out there who swear by the words of Snake and Wheels, but I’m not one of them.

And this “modern” version of Degrassi makes me wonder if they should have reinvigorated the show in the first place.

I suppose back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, there weren’t many television shows that talked about the touchy subjects: racial profiling, date rape, losing the V-card. Maybe the original Degrassi was avant-garde for its time.

But this Degrassi seems like a watered-down version of my eighthgrade health class: a set of preachy sermons and thinly-veiled safe sex lessons.

In an era of racy magazine ads for tween show Gossip Girl, or where lines of 16-year-olds giggle in excitement as they wait for the opening of the Sex and the City movie, Degrassi just seems stale; more suited to elementary-school health classes than its intended demographic.

But maybe its demure nature - or at least, its distinctly educational plot lines - are actually better for us than we think.

According to a recent study by Pediatrics Journal, sexually active teens who watch shows rife with sexual innuendo are twice as likely to get pregnant than those who don’t.

A lot of it, the journal explains, has to do with the burgeoning number of shows that treat sex as casual and commonplace – without actually featuring any of the boring stuff, like using birth control or whipping out a condom in the heat of the moment.

(A side note here: that episode of Degrassi, where a willowy redhead tried to seduce the school’s rebel artist

to lose her virginity, did feature this line, from the redhead: “I brought a condom.” Awkward and clunky, yes, but at least someone thought of it.)

More shows than ever before have sexual content, according to the study, with little to no emphasis placed on safer-sex practices. A lot of it, in my opinion, has to do with the target audience: shows like Friends were never intended for 11-year-olds, but they’re some of the ones who have started watching that sort of thing in recent years.

But the study does have some limitations, and here’s where it gets tricky. It’s likely that teens with advanced sexual attitudes (i.e., the ones who are first to jump in the sack) are more likely to seek out shows with sexual content, which skews the results a bit, but the point is still relevant: sex sells, but the niceties of it don’t make for great Sunday night television.

It’s not that shows like Degrassi should be wiped from the slate completely. I appreciate what they’re trying to do, but they’re tired; they need to revamp their plot lines and revisit their target audience. They’ve got some good messages, but coaching them in something that reflects the intended demographic would be a step in the right direction. Sex and the City meets Nickelodeon, maybe.

Velcro Manolo Blahniks? I think we’re onto something here.

Ashley Bursey is a former Arts Editor of The Brunswickan.

No one would voluntarily submit themselves to listening to spoiled rich girls, steroid-riddled jocks, and whining emo kids all at once – or would they?

Today’s reality television shows are not that much different from the scenario described above.

Where did the idea for this genre of show come from and why do people watch them?

One of the first reality shows is a far cry from the drama-filled antics featured in today’s. Candid Camera was one of the first realitystyle television shows. The show revolved around the reactions of people to pranks filmed by hidden cameras.

This idea of “real” emotions and reactions to stressful situations evolved over the years to the reality shows we think of nowadays.

Think of shows like Survivor, Wife Swap, and The Real World; all have been hailed as social experiments. The creators say the shows demonstrate the real emotions of people; however none of the scenarios reflect real situations, so how can the emotions be real?

Think of The Bachelor; how is someone supposed to find someone they love out of a pool a dozen unnaturally pretty girls? Not to mention the fact that it’s basically watching STIs being transferred before your eyes. According to The Bachelor, normal relationships are now, “Oh hey, I love you but wait a second while I go sleep with this other girl”?

The main draw of these shows

on our population is the idea of voyeurism. When it comes down to it most people find it amusing to see other people freak out. Don’t you feel a little justified about being mad at your roommates for not doing chores when you see someone throwing dishes over one wrong word – hey, at least you’re not a complete spazz!

These shows revolve around the fact that people don’t want to be as stupid as the people they see on TV. The newest batch of reality television shows; however, have been pushing the opposite idea.

MTV has dozens of shows featuring rich kids and the drama they get into. Laguna Beach, The Hills and My Super Sweet Sixteen all revolve around a life that people seem to aspire to.

The instant star style show has also been pushed. Shows like Paris Hilton’s My New BFF and America’s Next Top Model revolve around the idea that one, after going through a series of trials, can become famous – in theory anyways, when’s the last time anyone heard from an ANTM winner?

The concepts for these shows are incredibly uninspired, (there are multiples of shows like Wife Swap/Trading Spouses and Nanny 911/Super Nanny). Not to mention the fact that many of the concepts that do work are recycled to the point of nausea. There are more cycles of American’s Next Top Model and Survivor than there are Rocky Sequels.

Despite the lack of creativity in these shows they have inspired creativity in traditional, scripted-shows.

A few new series have adopted a mockumentry style in order to poke fun at

the reality TV craze.

Television shows like The Office and the Maritimes’ own Trailer Park Boys revolve around supposed documentaries and the “real” problems and situations the characters get into.

On the opposite side of things reality TV has also been stealing from scripted television. Shows like The Real Housewives of Orange County attempt to capitalize on the popularity of, in that case, Desperate Housewives.

Despite the frequency of mindnumbing reality television some shows have been created to educate its audience – shocking, I know.

Television shows from channels like TLC have attempted to follow unique families.

Little People, Big World documents the lives of a dwarf couple and their children (three of which are average sized and one who is also a dwarf). Rather than capitalize on the family in the manner of 19th century sideshows, the show actually tries to show how one family copes with being different.

No matter what kind of show viewers need to think about what they are watching. I’m not saying that we eliminate all reality TV watching – we all have our guilty pleasures – but maybe cut down on watching the 15th season of The Amazing Race, because in the end your own life is probably more interesting.

arts@thebruns.ca

brunswickanarts

10 • Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12• Volume 142

Writing competition hits halfway point Alison Clack

The Brunswickan

NaNoWriMo is not the latest iPod variety.

The odd abbreviation stands for National Novel Writing Month, a writing contest that was created 10 years ago. The competition was the brain-child of Chris Baty, a freelance writer.

The goal of the competition is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words (roughly 175 pages) in one month. This year’s contest started on Nov. 1 and ends on Nov. 30 at midnight.

In its first year the contest was held only in the San Francisco Bay area. Twenty-one people participated in the competition which took place throughout the month of July.

Over the years the competition grew and the founders created the non-profit group, The Office of Letters and Light. The group now oversees the project in addition to a handful of other events that encourage creativity in children and adults.

Internationally the NaNoWriMo

competition has over 100,000 participants this year. Provincially, there are approximately 100 participants. A little closer to home, in Saint John, there are about 10 people participating in this contest.

The person responsible for keeping potential novelists on track is the municipal liaison. In Saint John, the municipal liaison is NaNoWriMo veteran, Victoria Bridges.

“It was probably about five or six years ago now,” says Bridges about when she first heard of the competition, “I heard about it from one of my friends on LiveJournal who had mentioned it. It was too late for me to sign up at the time but I decided I would do it the year after.”

Since then Bridges has done it every year, writing stories with numerous topics.

“One [story] was, and I’ll be perfectly blunt, Little House on the Prairie fan fiction. Last year I wrote a personal reflection on what could have happened in my life if it had gone a different way. This year I’m doing vampire crime fighting,” says Bridges.

Despite the tight time limit on the competition Bridges says she has never felt too much pressure.

“[The stress level was] not really high, at least for me personally. I usually find enough time in the day to write a couple of thousand words. Most people tend to laugh more about it than really feel the crunch,” says Bridges.

“Bridges also dispenses some advice on reaching the competition’s goal: “It seems stressful at first but when you break it down into daily goals it gets a lot less hefty.”

One of Bridges’ responsibilities as the municipal liaison is to motivate the local writers.

To promote creativity and inspiration she organizes meetings regularly.

“The municipal liaisons tend to organize meet-ups maybe once every week or every two weeks through out the month. These are sort of a check-in; we go get a coffee or something and maybe just relax and have fun; we sort of detox a bit,” says Bridges.

To help the perspective novelists with their writing, Bridges organizes games that promote creativity. “[The game] is a little bit difficult to describe; my friend taught it to me. Basically one person writes a sentence on a piece of paper, the next person at the table draws and the person after that writes down

Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan

Participants in NaNoWriMo have only one month to come up with a full-length novel of approximately 50,000 words. NaNoWriMo runs internationally each year. what they see. We just go around like that and see how messed up it ends up being; it’s kind of like Chinese telephone,” says Bridges.

Some critics have argued that NaNoWriMo promotes quantity versus quality; however, Bridges says that is not necessarily true.

“From what I have seen most people, on their first attempt, try and see if they can do it.

Usually if they try and do [the competition] again after that they try and writing something a bit better; they try and improve on what they did before,” says Bridges.

Bridges believes that the

competition acts as a motivation for those who would not find the time to write a novel otherwise.

“I think the deadline helps a lot of people. Give people a goal and a deadline and people tend to be a lot more willing to push themselves than just ‘someday I’ll write a novel,’” says Bridges, “[Competition] is definitely a driving thing. Not unhealthy competition but a little bit of friendly competition: maybe having word count wars and trying to get ahead of the next person.”

Over the course of the competition 24 writers have had their work published. One of these

writers, Sara Gruen, had a New York Times Bestseller with a novel she wrote during the competition, Water for Elephants.

Achievements like this are exactly what the competition is about. NaNoWriMo is a competition about potential; the creators recognized the potential or the average person to be able to create something interesting. The deadline simply serves to motivate people who would not write otherwise.

Anyone looking to sign up for NaNoWriMo next year can visit their website, http://www. nanowrimo.org.

get involved with the bruns! story/photo meetings are wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. in SUB room 35.

brunswickanarts

Hagerman’s “hippy” horrorscopes

Aries (March21st - April 19th)

You will sense an increased feeling of aromatic karma this week, dear hippie Aries. If you smell something that interferes with your inner spirituality, be sure to breathe through your mouth and keep on truckin’.

Your lucky flower is a plaid daffodil.

Taurus (April 20th - May 20th)

Your commune may begin running into difficulties this week, dear hippie Taurus. By smoking more of your vegetables than you’re actually eating, you are forcing yourself into starvation. Bummer. Your unlucky man is The Man.

Gemini (May 21st - June 21st)

Chaining yourself to a tree will have unexpected consequences this week, dear hippie Gemini. You may be sending a message to the corporate machine that you won’t tolerate their blatant exploitation of nature, but on the other hand, where did your wooden crack pipe come from? Your lucky kaleidoscope is like, whoa!

Cancer (June 22nd- July 22nd)

You may feel regretful for your decision to not vote, dear hippie Cancer. Not because you feel like the message you sent may have been the wrong impression, but because the Canadian Action Party was on the ballot. Your lucky pipe is made out of ivory, you killer, you.

Leo (July 23rd - August 22nd)

You may feel hurt and misunderstood this week, dear hippie Leo. Why people don’t understand you for choosing a lifestyle that goes against and constantly berates societal norms, you will never know. That and tie-die was SO 1970s. Your lucky concert was at Woodstock.

Virgo (August 23rd - September 22nd)

Your drug-fueled escapades will take an unforeseen turn this week, dear hippie Virgo. Instead of debating the poetry of William Carlos Williams as you had planned, you will instead be debating the poetry of William Shatner. It will be equally as good. Your lucky movie is Across the Universe.

Libra (September 23rd - October 23rd)

You will feel especially free this week, dear hippie Libra. You will be flying around town, feeling the wind across your body. Then you will discover you are entirely naked. But because you’re a hippie, you won’t care. Your lucky colour is the wind, man.

Scorpio (October 24th - November 22nd)

The semi-recent funds cut from Canadian arts will make you feel more upset than usual this week, dear hippie Scorpio. You will in fact be so upset that you will explode into a puff of smoke. Coooooooool.

Your lucky name is Moonbeam.

Sagittarius (November 23rd - December 21st)

You will feel a little embarrassed this week, dear hippie Sagittarius. Instead of showing up at a rally to protest clear cutting, you will show up at a student rally.

Your “Stop all of the cutting” sign will not appease the students wishing to cut their debt. Your lucky sunglasses are rainbow-coloured.

Capricorn (December 22nd - January 20th)

Your old hippie van will be in need of repair this week, dear hippie Capricorn. The only way you will be able to raise the money to fix it, you will have to get a job.

Ironically, it will be at a corporate-owned hippie fashion company. Your lucky hair is long.

Aquarius (January 21st - Febuary 18th)

Getting clubbed by police will be less hurtful than usual this week, dear hippie Aquarius. Due to mass ingestion of LSD, instead of hurting, every hit will make you see stars and rainbows and green clovers! Far out! Your lucky clown is Wavy Gravy.

Pisces (Febuary 19th - March 20th)

You will discover the best business venture ever, dear hippie Pisces. Simply start up a ‘60s and ‘70s reenactment society and charge $5 per visit! You’ll never run out of hemp blankets again! Your lucky food is granola.

want to be a bruns arts contributor? email us at arts@thebruns.ca and we’ll get you started.

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 11

Obtain your daily dose of zombie The Final Score Dan Hagerman There are not enough games out there with zombies in them. There, I said it.

Left 4 Dead is a recently released first person shooter for the PC and Xbox 360. It is not a hard game to summarize, which makes it inherently awesome.

Picture any zombie movie you’ve ever seen, particularly 28 Days Later or the remake of Dawn of the Dead. You have four survivors: a grizzled veteran, a biker, a teenage girl, and a computer store manager. Between these survivors and their escape from an infected city?

Zombies.

The game has you choose from one of these four characters (the only difference between them being their appearance and voices) and joining with up to either three friends online, three strangers online, or three computercontrolled survivors. The goal is to work in tandem with your teammates in order to blast your way through hordes of zombies - or “Infected,” as the game calls them – across 20 levels of gameplay.

You begin the game with a single pistol and first aid kit, as well as your choice of a shotgun or submachine gun. From there, you have to advance to the next safehouse while blasting anything undead along your way.

This gets tricky, however, because not only are there a lot of zombies, but they’re randomly placed in the game by what the creators of Left 4 Dead calls “The Director,” an A.I. system that places zombies in the game according to how you’re performing, to give the game a flowing sense of tension. So, what was once a room full of zombies in one playthrough of the game might be completely empty the next time you play. Musical cues and

Screenshot

The Source engine in Left 4 Dead delivers massive waves of zombies with relative ease thanks to its renowned scalability. The last thing you want is your PC taking a dump when you’re trying to frag these things. special effects are also employed by this mysterious computer-controlled Director.

At first, the zombies will likely be shambling around mindlessly until you make your presence known, in which case they will rush you will the sole intent of beating you to the ground. Other times, you will hear a musical cue and, seemingly out of nowhere, a rush of dozens of zombies will converge on your locations.

On the easier difficulties, the game will seem like any child can blow their way through it, but on the Expert difficulty level, you’ll be lucky if you only die 5 times trying to get through one level.

To make matters worse, in addition to the regular Infected, there are also a few Boss Infected that are designed to ruin your day even worse.

There’s the Boomer, a giant bulbous thing which spews liquid on you and explodes when you kill it. It’s pretty easy to kill, but the liquid it vomits onto you not only blinds you temporarily, but also acts as a beacon for pretty much every zombie in a kilometre radius to converge on your location and start wrecking your body.

There’s also the Smoker, which has

what seems to be a 30-foot tongue that can lash out and wrap around you and drag you away, either up buildings where you’ll choke to death, or at the least scare you silly.

The Hunter lurks in the shadows, growling menacingly, until you get too close. Then it shrieks and lunges at you, pinning you to the ground, unable to get up until your teammates can save you.

The Tank is as fearsome as it is large. Imagine the Incredible Hulk.

That pretty much sums it up. It is very angry and likes beating things to death and throwing rocks at them, and it takes a ridiculous amount of firepower to kill.

Finally, there’s the Witch. The Witch doesn’t stalk you, it just sits in place and cries until you get too close.

Word of advice: don’t get too close.

Turn off your flashlights and walk around it slowly, making as little noise as possible. If you don’t, you’ll “wake it up” and it will rush you and very likely kill you in one hit. Again: don’t wake up the Witch.

The game gives you a little help in beating these monstrosities. You can pick up Molotov Cocktails and pipe bombs to deter your opponents, and

even if you lose all of your health, you’ll enter into a state of being down but not out where you can whip out your pistols and shoot everything around you as your health fails. If your friends can get to you in time, they can even get you back on your feet, but this can only happen 3 times before you’re done for.

Blasting zombies wouldn’t be much fun if they weren’t awesome to look at, and thankfully your assailants all look pretty varied. Blood spatters and realistic physics also lend an entertaining, if gratuitous, nature to the game, making it feel more arcadelike than a straight-up shooter.

It’s better to play the game with friends, but the computer-controlled teammates are surprisingly useful, only occasionally wandering into the crosshairs of my shotgun.

Overall, Left 4 Dead might not be for everybody, but I bet it’ll be for a lot of people. There’s been a distinct lack of zombie shooters lately (Dead Rising notwithstanding), and Left 4 Dead will most certainly fill the void, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s ridiculously fun. Get to da choppah!

Dan Hagerman is Copy Editor of The Brunswickan.

Laying off the crackberry in the modern world From The Tubes Doug Estey You’ve probably heard more than your fair share on president elect Barack Obama in the last few months. Something you probably aren’t aware of – or haven’t thought of, at least – is that the future president is an avid fan of his beloved BlackBerry.

What’s more is that Mr. Obama may have to put an end to his addiction very soon, thanks to White House concerns about e-mail security and the Presidential Records Act (which puts all of his correspondence in the official record).

No big deal, r i g h t ?

Everyone g e t s addicted to gadgets (phones first and foremost) and everyone has to deal with losing those items at some point in time. I won’t try to pretend I didn’t cry the first time my younger siblings tried to flush my Gameboy down the toilet.

The issue at hand is that it is a big deal, for reasons that extend much further than simply enjoying the use of such a device. It’s a principle of being connected; connected to the news, the world, and to people who can quickly lend you advice and interacting with people the moment something happens, whether it’s the second that a bomb goes off or the minutes following an important global event.

In today’s age, it’s increasingly important for someone of the president’s stature to have direct access to unmediated information. At least, more so than the average RSS junkie.

How many times in the last eight years have we heard something like “the president is on vacation and has yet to issue a statement”? Better yet, how many times have people wondered just what the heck their president (or prime minister) is up to?

All of these things are luxuriesturned-necessities that separate modern North Americans from those of the past generation. So let’s go ahead and strip the next president of those things and see how things work out.

Does this sound like a great idea to you, too?

Pardon my enthusiasm, but this is an ongoing problem.

Obama isn’t the first person to experience the wrath of U.S. presidency severing his personal connection to the tubes.

That’s right. Love him or hate him, the (in)famous President George W. Bush went through the same dilemma eight years ago.

Proof of this lies in an email he dispatched to his close friends and relatives.

“Since I do not want my private

conversat ions looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace,” Bush wrote. “This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you.”

Of course, details such as these are among the select few that fail to trickle down through the media filters in place in today’s society.

Instead, we’re among the first to criticize Bush via social media tools such as Digg that he didn’t know how to send an email.

How interesting.

Alright, so what’s going to happen to Mr. Obama? Are we never going to hear from him again? Time will tell, but regardless of the situation, he’s more than likely to lose that BlackBerry.

Despite all of this, it’s safe to

say that we can be sure to see him sporting some other kind of device in the near future.

He’s the first president with plans to implement the usage of a laptop in the Oval Office. That’s more than can be said for good old

G.W. In this day and age, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page, especially the politicians looking out for the rest of us.

Doug Estey is the Arts Editor of The Brunswickan.

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brunswickansports

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 12

sports@thebruns.ca

Women’s volleyball digs deep

V-Reds Results Thursday, November 13th Hockey UNB - 3 UPEI - 1 Friday, November 14th Women’s Basketball UNB - 58 St. FX - 75

FROM V-BALL PAGE 1

Men’s Basketball UNB - 78 St. FX - 96 middle and established some seams on each side. Dalhousie came at us real aggressive, after wining their previous four matches, and I liked how we responded most of the match,” said Richard.

The second match of the weekend was on Sunday afternoon in the Pitt. St. FX was in town, and the Reds were looking to finish their weekend with a clean record.

The first set was more of the same for the V-Reds. Barb Vriends and Tanya Paulin were dominant at the net, helping UNB to an early lead that they didn’t give up. The only problem was that the X players adjusted to UNB’s strong presence and started attacking the back of the court. Early errors in set two saw the V-Reds fall into a hole they couldn’t quite dig their way out of, and after that it seemed as though their momentum was gone. St. FX took the match 3-1 (25-15, 18-25, 19-25, 21-25) despite UNB keeping pace the entire way.

Statistically speaking, both teams were close to even, but UNB made a few too many crucial errors. Jill Blanchard led the team with 11 digs, but surrendered the final point on an attack error that took an awkward bounce and ended up out of play.

Following their first loss of the season, Richard wasn’t pleased with his team’s passing as they look to improve for the future. “On Sunday, things were much different and full credit to coach Aucoin and her team for playing so aggressive and being prepared. They deserved the win and we deserved what we

Saturday, November 15th Swimming UNB - 135 Mt. A - 90 Women’s Basketball UNB - 67 SMU - 57 Men’s Volleyball UNB - 1 DAL - 3 Hockey UNB - 5 UdeM - 4 Women’s Volleyball UNB - 3 DAL - 0 Men’s Basketball UNB - 65 SMU - 86 Sunday, November 16th Men’s Volleyball UNB - 1 DAL - 3 Sandy Chase / The Brunswickan

UNB’s Barb Vriends (#12) and Erica Hay (#2) go up for the block against a St. FX attacker during AUS league play last Sunday. The Reds dropped the match 3-1 to St. FX for their first loss of the season. The Reds season record now sits at 5-1. got. You can’t pass 1.78 for the match, including passing 1.45 in one set, and expect to win many matches,” said Richard.

The Reds now sit with a 5-1 record in season play, sitting four points behind UdeM for first place in the AUS conference.

Up next, the Reds will head to

One-on-one with...

Kyle Van Genne

UNB Media Services

Monica Jones

UNB Media Services

Sport: Men’s Volleyball Yr: 3

Sport: Women’s Volleyball Yr: 1

Why did you choose UNB? I was a product of the FHS volleyball program and I had a fairly good knowledge base with coaches in the community. Once I was approached by Dan McMorran, I couldn’t say no.

Why did you choose UNB? I came to UNB because of the volleyball program and the impressive coaching staff. I also chose UNB because my Dad came here on a hockey scholarship when he was attending university.

What was your first job?

I was a landscaper in grade nine, and I was damn good at it. I could dig a hole like nobody’s business.

What is your desired profession?

I want to teach Law in high school, as well as coach after playing in Europe.

What’s the one thing you can’t go on the road without?

Barbeque/dill pickle Spitz.

Nothing passes the time like a good ‘ole bag of seeds.

Who was your childhood idol?

Vanilla Ice - I was young and confused. Al Coulter, if I had to pick an athlete.

McGill for the Quebec-Atlantic interlock tournament. This will be the Reds first opportunity to see their competition that will be vying for the CIS championships to be held at the Aitken Centre early next year.

As well, it was announced last week that UNB third-year left side

attacker Jill Blanchard has been invited to attend the Canadian National Beach team tryouts in Toronto next month. The camp’s purpose is to identify, select, and train a group of athletes that have potential to compete in the future Olympic Games for Canada. There will be a total of 25 athletes of

each gender vying for a spot on the National team. Blanchard will be one of two players from Atlantic Canada attending the camp.

Last May, Blanchard along with middle Tanya Paulin were invited to Winnipeg to take part in the Canadian Senior Indoor National team tryouts.

Blown out of the water Chris Cameron The Brunswickan

This past weekend saw the UNB women’s and men’s swim teams travel to Sackville for the Mt. A quad swim meet – their second meet of three this month.

The women were victorious as they defeated the Mounties 69-44.

The Red’s swimmers that won their individual events were Danielle Merasty (50 breaststroke and 50 freestyle), Shannon Donnelly (200 freestyle and 400 freestyle), Jennifer Acheson (100 freestyle), Veronique Legere (100 butterfly), Alyson Moore (800 freestyle), and Katelyn MacDonald (100 backstroke). The women’s team of Natalie Doucette, Jen Acheson, Katelyn MacDonald, and Shannon Donnelly also won the 4 x 50 freestyle relay.

The men joined the women in defeating MTA with a 66-46

victory. UNB winners included Rene Boudreau (200 freestyle and 100 backstroke), Patrick Adam (50 breaststroke and 100 breaststroke), Morgan Millard (800 freestyle and 400 freestyle), and Richard Macauley (100 freestyle), in their respective events. The group of Rene Boudreau, John Barton, Brian Beaudette, and Morgan Millard also won the 4 x 50 medley relay.

When asked about how the meet went, coach Paula Crutcher had nothing but positive things to say.

“The meet was a week out from our first big competition for the season so the group performed very well especially where they where not in a race ready state,” said Crutcher. “We are gearing up for the Dalhousie Invitational this coming weekend. This tournament is the first major competition, and the group will be rested. People will be looking to perform lifetime best times and qualify for CIS championships.”

The AUS Invitational this weekend upcoming at DAL is

the last competition before the Christmas break for the Reds.

The remaining competitions after the break include the Double Dual meet hosted by UNB in January, the AUS Championships at DAL in February, and the CIS Championships hosted by UBC in late February. As of right now, UNB has one athlete, Shannon Donnelly, qualified for the CIS. Crutcher stated that the Reds are anticipating more qualifiers after the competition this weekend.

UNB will have a steep hill to climb when competing against the powerhouse teams from schools such as the top three in both men’s and women’s: U of T, University of Calgary and UBC. Achieving goals set early in the season this weekend will be a key step in preparing for the CIS championships, as well as guaranteeing their spot in representing UNB in February.

After next weekend the Reds will have a better outlook on what to expect for the rest of the season, as well as a better look at where they stand in the AUS.

Upcoming V-Reds Events Friday, November 21st Women’s Volleyball UNB @ Laval 5:00 p.m. @ McGill Hockey DAL @ UNB 7:00 p.m. @ Aitken Centre Men’s Volleyball UNB @ Sherbrooke 8:00 p.m. @ Montreal Saturday, November 22nd Men’s Volleyball UNB @ Sherbrooke 11:00 a.m. @ Montreal Swimming AUS Invitational 11:00 a.m. @ DAL Women’s Volleyball UNB @ McGill 1:00 p.m. @ McGill Men’s Volleyball UNB @ Laval 6:00 p.m. @ Montreal Hockey ACA @ UNB 7:00 p.m. @ Aitken Centre Women’s Volleyball UNB @ Montreal 7:00 p.m. @ McGill Sunday, November 23rd Swimming AUS Invitational 10:00 a.m. @ DAL Men’s Volleyball UNB @ McGill 11:00 a.m. @ Montreal Women’s Volleyball UNB @ Sherbrooke 1:00 p.m. @ McGill Women’s Basketball DAL @ UNB 1:00 p.m. @ L.B. Gym Men’s Basketball DAL @ UNB 3:00 p.m. @ L.B. Gym

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from a coach?

Play like you’re in first, practice like you’re in second.

What was your first job?

I was a coach/counsellor at Olympia Sports Camp back home in Ontario, coaching a variety of sports each week.

Women’s Volleyball UNB - 1 St. FX - 3

Sandy Chase / The Brunswickan

UNB swimmers combined together to defeat Mt. Allison at a recent quad swim meet, held this past weekend in Sackville. Next up, the Reds will travel to Dalhousie for the AUS Invitational this weekend.

brunswickansports

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 • 13

Lesnar crushes Couture In a league of their own Alex Wickwire The Brunswickan

Randy “The Natural” Couture is without doubt one of the most famous mixed martial artists in the world. Winning titles in multiple weight classes, appearing on Pros vs. Joes and even acting in The Scorpion King 2, Couture is known worldwide.

Anybody who has ever watched World Wrestling Entertainment casually has likely heard of Brock Lesnar. Known for his fireman’s-carry facebuster “F5” finishing move, Lesnar wore the championship belt in the WWE for some time. Eventually, he left pro-wrestling and had a stint in the NFL, but shortly after he was cut by the Minnesota Vikings.

Lesnar was a Big-10 champion NCAA wrestler when he went to university at University of Minnesota. He also shared a room with current WWE wrestler Shelton Benjamin.

Both of these fighters have incredibly storied careers, and when they clashed for the UFC Heavyweight Title this past Saturday, it was billed as the biggest fight in the history of the Ultimate

Fighting Championship. This kind of hype will attract a huge mosaic of fans, from the hardcore supporters of mixed martial arts, to the guys who want to see Lesnar fight in something real. And of course, me.

The UFC has become so popular in recent years, I’ve heard of people I knew in high school abandoning things like university and career opportunities in trades so they could attempt to make it as MMA fighters.

Being relatively clueless about the sport, I decided to pester anybody I knew who watched professional cage fighting on a regular basis.

Any true MMA fan knew that this fight would be a clash of style.

Couture has been busting people up in UFC pay-per-views since I was in high school. That simply made it extremely easy to determine how he fights. Any fight junkie or Randy fan will tell you that his style comes from wrestling, where he likes to shove opponents against the wall and re-arrange their faces with “dirty boxing” techniques.

“Dirty boxing” simply means throwing huge hook punches that your opponent cannot see coming with peripheral vision.

So 220 lb. Couture was going to try and shove 276 lb. Lesnar around, as well as out-wrestle him and punch a few new eye sockets into his face. Lesnar was the top

wrestler in America at one point, and with such a weight advantage it was hard to fathom a Couture victory.

Even with odds against him, it was apparently a dumb idea to pick Lesnar to win the fight. Pre-fight fan polls gave the edge to “The Natural” and people pointed to Lesnar’s only MMA wins coming against unprepared opponents.

I went in thinking Brock Lesnar all the way; because he’s basically a modern-day ogre. Couture looks like a back alley brawler, while Lesnar resembles the closest thing to a monster I’ve ever seen outside of a movie.

Any fight fan reading this that has not yet turned away because of my blatant ignorance must be able to understand what I’m getting at.

Lesnar was born to destroy people, plain and simple. Everything from the way he’s shaped to even his strange and evil-sounding voice makes me think he was put on earth to hurt things. Now, after a mere two years in mixed martial arts, Brock Lesnar is the heavyweight champion of the most prestigious fight organization on the planet.

Love him or hate him, Big Brock is not going anywhere. I truly never would have thought after watching him cut promos and suplex people as a professional wrestler that he would become arguably the best fighter in the world.

Internet

UFC veteran Randy Couture was taken down by former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight title this past weekend.

Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan

Student athletes, with a tight schedule, are forced to study on the road or where ever they can to stay atop academics while still focusing on the game ahead.

Balls to the wall Mitchell Bernard

The hectic school term is slowing coming to a close. We are only a few weeks away from the end of the semester and the beginning of finals. And, as per usual, many professors are making last ditch efforts to get in a assignment or a test before the semester closes.

Many of you are snuggled up in your comfy clothes, clutching a warm cup of coffee, ready to dive into a thick textbook. Others may be lying awake in bed at night, shaking nervously as you think about the work load which lies in your future.

We’re all busy. We all think that we don’t have time for anything else. You hear it all the time people complaining that they don’t have the time to do anything else besides school work and that school is taking over their lives.

Students feel overwhelmed with the workload, and can’t deal with the lack of down time.

What if you never had the downtime? What if you were

Get high, but not on the podium Allie Laurent The Meliorist

LETHBRIDGE (CUP) – In the world of professional, semipro, or even varsity sports, bans on all types of drugs, including marijuana, are becoming stricter.

One negative effect of marijuana is that it slows perception and co-ordination – two things that almost all elite level athletes work towards improving.

This is why bans on marijuana use for elite athletes are useless; if an athlete want to perform their best, it is doubtful they would take a substance that could make this more difficult.

Drug testing in sanctioned sports is designed to monitor and fight doping in all its forms, according to the World AntiDoping Agency website. Doping regulations are also designed to regulate drugs meeting any two of the following three criteria: they enhance performance, they pose a threat to athlete’s health, or they violate the spirit of sport.

Then why is pot listed as a specified substance on the WADA list of prohibited substances? Pot use is actually shown to reduce athletic ability because it slows reaction time.

If marijuana reduces reaction time of those under its influence, then it does not enhance ability, but rather reduces it. If enhanced performance is the key issue, then

pot should never be banned.

Why not let athletes smoke pot if they so choose? If someone decides to smoke pot while in competition, they are really only hurting themselves and giving their opponent a better chance.

Also, the effects of smoking marijuana only last a few hours, depending on the amount smoked, though this varies greatly, depending on the method of ingestion and the amount used.

It is estimated that it would have the greatest effect on sporting performance for one-and-a-half to four hours.

To drug tests, this doesn’t matter, because marijuana can stay in a person’s system for about a month – meaning an athlete could smoke 27 days before competing and not feel any effects from it, but then test positive. If a concern for other competitors is in question, then marijuana can be banned during competition, but recreational use on an athlete’s own time should not be relevant.

Rather than focusing on substances that have little, if any, effect on athletic performance, doping agencies should be concerned with research and education about performanceenhancing drugs, like steroids.

These are the drugs that enhance performance and are dangerous to use.

The use of pot by athletes does not need to be monitored any more closely than pot use by anyone else; in sports, there are bigger drugs to smoke out.

the brunswickan.

Annual General Meeting November 24th, 2008 at 4:30 p.m.

constantly busy, with your daily schedule laid out in front of you each morning? What if you couldn’t go out on the weekend, or that you could no longer sleep in until noon?

It’s not something we think about everyday, but just for this one moment, think about what it would be like to be a student athlete. Most teams have morning practices, running through the drills and developing their skills while other students may be nestled up in bed. Many athletes hit the gym daily, building up strength to give them a competitive advantage over their competition. Meanwhile, other students may be hitting the bed for a nice afternoon nap.

On weekends, teams pack up and head out on three or four hour road trips. They have to keep up with the school work provided as well as stay focused on the game.

There isn’t much room for 3 a.m. runs to the nearest pizza place in that schedule.

Perhaps we don’t give them enough credit. Of course, they are gifted. To play at this level of sport, you must have the will to work hard and continually improve. You must contain the necessary skill to perform at one of the highest levels of amateur sport. But as well, you must perform well in the classroom.

A few weeks back, I attended an

all-Canadian banquet, a conference to celebrate a number of academic all-Canadians. I was astonished by the number of athletes who were to be presented with their certificate. As they called out each athlete, they would also announce the athlete’s faculty of study, as well as their grade-point average. I sat in awe as I listened to their merits – a science student with a 4.0, a business student with a 3.8, or an engineering student with a 3.7.

It’s difficult to be on the road and still keep up with school work.

I know when I venture home for the weekend or take a road trip somewhere, school is the least of my worries. Yet, student athletes somehow keep up with it all on the road, and it’s apparent in these grade point averages.

It’s a busy life, but that’s what they choose. Student athletes are striving toward their goals each and every day, and they can be great role models. To succeed on and off the court takes skill, determination, and a will to learn.

So this week and in the upcoming weeks, if you get that nervous twitch thinking about the upcoming exam season, just remind yourself that you do have a little downtime - and that you don’t have to be up at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning for a light skate.

Mitchell Bernard is Sports Editor of The Brunswickan.

brunswickansports

14 • Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12• Volume 142

V-Reds fall to tigers in AUS finals rematch Josh Fleck

The Brunswickan

It is common knowledge amongst the UNB student body that whenever the men’s volleyball team hosts Dalhousie, its going to be a rocking time at the L.B. gym.

This past weekend, there was no exception.

The Pitt was packed all ready for the opening serve in the weekend opener on Saturday night. It didn’t take long for the Reds to pump the crowd up even more as the opening few points as Kyle Van Genne, the KVG assassin as V-Reds announcer Eric Moffat calls him, threw down a massive solo block, which set the stage for how the first set would go.

Despite some shaky serving, the Reds were helped out by some timely kills and great blocking which gave them the edge going into the second technical timeout.

Between Van Genne and South Branch, Nova Scotia’s Tyler Veenhuis, there was enough kills to put DAL down 25-23 in the first set.

However, things were drastically different in the next two sets, as it seemed UNB had difficulties finding a rhythm. When they seemed to get on track, DAL would derail them. This is to be expected from the sixth ranked team in the nation.

After dropping sets two and three, 25-12 and 25-10, respectively, UNB came out with some fire in the fourth set. It looked like set one all over again. UNB’s third year libero, Mike Johnson, was all over the court looking for digs wherever he could find them.

That intensity rubbed off on the rest of the Reds and the crowd as you could barely hear the official’s whistle. Thanks to the help of some of UNB’s soccer players, the crowd was chanting and cheering.

Basketball battles racism at McMaster McMaster prof launches program to educate students and parents

Andrew Dawdy The Silhouette

File / The Brunswickan

In a rematch of last year’s AUS finals, the UNB Varsity Reds dropped two games in a row to the highly ranked Dalhouie Tigers over the weekend.

The fourth set was possibly the best of the night as it was back and forth up to the finish. With DAL up late in the set, UNB put on a run to send it past the usual 25 points.

Despite the best efforts from both the crowd and the V-Reds, DAL proved to be too much on Saturday, pulling out a 28-26 victory, and taking the match 3-1.

In Sunday’s rematch, the Reds started off very similar to Saturday.

Early in the set, UNB fourth-year setter Greg Halley was getting a good mix of hitters involved which threw off the DAL blockers. His go-to guy Sunday was Veenhuis, who was mashing the ball early and often. This led to a UNB opening

set win, 25-23.

With the same result in the first set as Saturday, the players and coaching staff were hoping for a better result in sets two and three.

The end result wasn’t quite what they were looking for, but the sets were a lot tighter. DAL seemed to know exactly what was coming because at times there were three man blocks. All of this resulted in DAL victories of 25-19 and 25-21.

In the final set, it was DAL flexing their muscles as they took the deciding set 25-11. Leading the Reds in kills for the weekend was Kyle VanGenne with 23 kills, followed by Tyler Veenhuis with 16. Mike Johnson had 22 digs on

the weekend while Greg Halley piled up 53 assists.

Prior to Saturday night’s game, the first annual Dirk Kiy award for leadership was handed out. Dirk Kiy is a former V-Red from the 70s. He was on hand to give out the award and received a rousing ovation as he came on the floor to give the award to fourth year player Ryley Boldon. On Sunday, Jacob Kilpatrick of Saint John was presented with the Malcom Early award.

Next action for the V-Reds will be this weekend when they travel to Montreal for a tournament to take on various teams from the Quebec conference.

HAMILTON (CUP) – One of the greatest aspects of sport is its ability to bring people together and break barriers.

People from all social and ethnic backgrounds can come together to form a united front that can hurdle obstacles together and explore the ways that athletic fellowship can enrich one’s life.

This concept was live-inaction a few weeks ago when the Hoops Against Hate: Faces of Racism group performed at the McMaster Marauders men’s basketball game in Hamilton, Ontario.

McMaster triumphed over the opposing Bishop’s Gaiters from Quebec, but by the end of the night, a greater cause was served.

The presentation included multiple guest speakers, including former Hamilton Tiger-Cat Orlando Bowen, and retired McMaster professor Gary Warner.

Each speaker taught students how to deal with and recognize racism, but also encouraged them to actively prevent it.

Denials of racism, reverse discrimination, and exclusion are some of the lesser-known elements of racism that Warner elaborated upon.

Warner hopes to see students embrace all races and reduce exclusion. Warner’s vision is one shared with former McMaster professor Tracy Vaillancourt, who began organizing these presentations several years ago.

“Canadians have made great strides in reducing overt racist behavior, but racist attitudes still exist,” said Vaillancourt.

Nearly five years ago, Vaillancourt launched the precursor to Hoops Against Hate – Basketball vs. Bullying.

The show boasted basketball trickster and motivational speaker Q-Mack and was run through the CommunityUniversity Research Alliance, as is Hoops Against Hate.

The presentations provided a relaxed environment for the discussion of a serious subject that eased the message to students in a way that was fun and interactive.

Over 2,000 high-school students attended the awareness event last Thursday, and appeared captivated by the guest speakers.

Vaillancourt says that parents and children alike find it difficult to talk about bullying, and since racism is a major category of bullying, the same can be expected for it.

Nevertheless, the concepts Vaillancourt used with Basketball vs. Bullying have remained present in Hoops Against Hate, only now the presentations take direct aim at racism and its prevention.

thebruns.ca

brunswickansports

Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142 •15

SPORTS BRIEFS

Women’s Basketball Return with Weekend Split

Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan

UNB fights for the puck against the UPEI attackers in AUS league play last Thursday at the Aitken Centre.

File / The Brunswickan

Men’s basketball woes continued over the weekend as they dropped two in a row in a their weekend play.

V-Reds hockey win two in a row The Varsity Reds put themselves back in the win column over the weekend.

Thursday night, the Reds hosted the surprisingly hot UPEI Panthers. After going down 1-0 less than a minute into the game, UNB controlled the rest of the game.

John Scott Dickson started the scoring midway through the first period.

He fired home a pass from Hunter Tremblay and Dave Bowman while on the power play. Forty seconds later, Lachlan MacIntosh followed suit, also on the power play, from Kyle Bailey and Kevin Henderson. Early in the second period, MacIntosh netted his second of the game, from captain Dustin Friesen, and rookie Bretton Stamler. UNB cruised the rest of the way to a 3-1 victory, outshooting their opponent 39-19.

On Saturday, the V-Reds were in Moncton, taking on les Aigles Bleu.

Moncton was sitting atop the AUS standings going into the game, with only one loss all season.

Moncton came out strong, putting the Reds down 2-0 early in the first frame. Early in the second period, Dave Bowman fired home another power play marker, bringing UNB within one goal. Soon after, Moncton restored their two goal lead. Kevin Henderson had a rebuttal of his own however, bringing the game within one going into the final period.

Late in the game, after falling down by two goals again, UNB cued the comeback. With 1:45 remaining in the period, John Scott Dickson found a loose puck and was able to bury it. With goaltender Derek Yeomans on the bench, and an extra attacker on the ice, Dickson registered his second goal in under two minutes, tying the game with three seconds remaining.

After overtime solved nothing, the game went down to a shootout.

Neither goalie was beat on the first four attempts for each team. When chosen as fifth shooter, the stage was set for veteran defenseman Bowman. The V-Reds completed the comeback on his shootout winner, handing Moncton their second loss of the season.

Up next for the V-Reds is a two-game home stand, as they host Dalhousie and Acadia, this weekend at the Aitken Centre.

Men’s Basketball Slip to 0-4

The UNB Men’s Basketball team’s losing woes continue, as they drop two important games this past weekend.

The Reds travelled to Antigonish last Friday to face the 2-0 St. FX X-Men. Once again, the team came out with a poor performance. The X-Men handily defeated UNB 96-78. On the bright side, the offence began to click as they scored their highest point total for the season.

However, the much needed defensive presence is still missing. Top scorer for UNB was Colton Wilson with 25 points.

The following day the Reds visited the 1-1 Saint-Mary’s Huskies with hopes of winning their first game. Unfortunately, it was déjà vu all over again. That first win would have to wait as the Huskies beat the Reds 86-65. Michael Anderson, David Anthony and Wilson each scored 15, 14 and 14 points respectively.

At the end of the trip through Nova Scotia, the Reds have a record of 0-4 and have been outscored 357-267. New coach or not, this has been a problem plaguing the UNB men’s basketball program for years. Their combined record from the previous four seasons is 23-57. The question is how can they turn it around and salvage the season?

File / The Brunswickan The Reds will play host to Dalhousie next Sunday afternoon in an The Varsity Reds dropped their first game of the season over the weekimportant four-point game. end to St. FX. UNB went 1-1 over the weekend.

Shooting for more Tony von Richter The Brunswickan

Just in time for the holidays, a group of UNB Kinesiology grad students is trying to raise money for a local child in the Children’s Wish Foundation with a three-onthree basketball tournament.

The tournament, taking place Sunday, Nov. 30, is being organized by students in the faculty’s Special Event Management course and is based off of a plan created by members of last year’s class.

“Everyone was enthusiastic about running a tournament,” said Brad Duquette, one of two students tasked with handling the logistics of the tournament. “The class being special event management, the option was obviously there to run a tournament.”

Students in the course decided

if they were going to hold a tournament and raise money it was important that it benefited someone in the local community, hence the selection of the Children’s Wish Foundation.

Gerry Beresford, Director of the New Brunswick Chapter of the Children’s Wish Foundation, was excited when he learned that the class had decided to raise money for the organization.

“Being that there are so many charities out there, the fact that they’ve chosen us we think it’s very special. They’re going to do some good things, and it’s a very well organized event.”

“They sat down, and they called us and said ‘we want to do something for you’ which makes this even more special,” said Beresford. “It’s a good thing, it’s a real good thing that these kids are doing.”

The Foundation, which has been around since 1984, is the top wish granter in Canada granting over 15,000 wishes. They recently celebrated an important milestone

The UNB women’s basketball team travelled to St. FX and SaintMary’s this past weekend with an unblemished record. Unfortunately, there will be no Tennessee Titans-type season for the Reds as they suffered their first loss in a weekend split.

The squad were not their usual self as they took the floor against St. FX last Friday. Poor defensive play coupled with bad turnovers left the Reds trailing the X-Men for most of the game. At the final buzzer, the final was 75-58 St. FX. UNB’s Angela Aydon and Amanda Sharpe each recorded a double-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 14 points, 11 rebounds respectively.

“We had way too many turnovers and if you are going to give away the ball, you need to get a lot of stops on D,” said UNB coach Jeff Speedy. “We didn’t do that and as a result, we pretty much got blown out.”

The Reds came out playing poor basketball once again and were down by 15 at one point. However, the team came to their senses and mounted a comeback. At halftime, the score was 34-33. UNB came out with great intensity in the final two quarters and completed the comeback by defeating the Huskies 67-57. Sharpe recorded her second double-double on the weekend with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Jessi Bradley, Aydon, and Jessica Steed all scored double figures in points.

“This was a huge win for us. Any win on the road in the AUS is big but to do so with this amount of travel and after a very disappointing effort on Friday night makes it even sweeter,” said Speedy at the end of the roadtrip.

UNB now sits at 3-1 and is looking forward to their home game against Dalhousie this Sunday.

approving a wish for a child in the Fredericton area, their 600th wish in New Brunswick.

It’s not only the Foundation that is offering their support to the event as members of the local business community have stepped up to offer prizes to the top two teams in each division.

“We’ve got some great prizes from some of the restaurants and bars around town,” said Alyson Chambers, one of the students tasked with marketing and promoting the event. “All the proceeds from the event are going to the Foundation and we’ll be taking cash donations at the tournament as well.”

The tournament is open to all students at both UNB and STU and offers both men’s and women’s divisions.

Registration ends this Friday, Nov. 21, and is only $50 for a team of three or four. To register, go to the UNB Campus Recreation office in the LB Gym or online at http://campusrec.unbf.ca/online_ registration/temreg.php.

brunswickan house ads: taking up the ad space we’ve lost to economic downfall and the decline of print media since 1867. editor@thebruns.ca

16 • Nov. 19, 2008 • Issue 12 • Volume 142