Vol 41 issue 21

THE VOICE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA

March 16, 2015 Volume 41, Issue 21 themedium.ca

Unit 1 puts forth new proposal Bargaining team brings proposal to U of T despite dissent by just under half of members MARIA IQBAL NEWS EDITOR The Unit 1 bargaining team has brought forward a controversial proposal to U of T administration following a meeting on Friday that left members divided.

The proposal, which was narrowly passed by members after limited debate, mainly rearranged the numbers from the agreement that Unit 1 previously rejected, with some additional funds, according to online posts following the meeting.

Details about the meeting and the proposal were leaked online through social media and a blog post by a Unit 1 member, which was briefly removed from online amid comments that the author was giving administration the opportunity to prepare a response to the proposal before the meeting.

Social media blew up after the meeting as members expressed dissatisfaction with the proposal and the way the three-hour meeting was conducted, particularly since members were not given advance notice that they would

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

The union is said to be preparing to ramp up its strike tactics, including possible walkouts. be voting on a motion.

A petition was also launched calling for Unit 1 to hold another meeting to discuss the proposal before presenting it to the administration.

According to social media posts by members of the Unit 1 bargaining team, the bargaining team brought the proposal to the mediator on Sunday

and had not as of press time received a response from U of T. The Medium was unable to reach Unit 1 vice-chair Ryan Culpepper in time for comment.

STUDENT WORKERS According to Unit 1 member Milan Ilnyckyj in his blog, the proposal

presented to members at the meeting was mainly an effort by the bargaining team to “reorganize” U of T’s last proposal, which was rejected by Unit 1 members.

The agreement would increase the minimum funding package from $15,000 to $17,500 while also reducing tuition for both domestic and

international Ph.D. students in their fifth and sixth years by half, according to the post.

“The big gain […] is getting tuition and the funding package explicitly incorporated into the collective agreement,” wrote Ilnyckyj.

In a phone interview earlier this month, Culpepper told The Medium that Unit 1 members rejected U of T’s last offer because it failed to recognize the dual role played by Unit 1 members at the university.

“Members of Unit 1 are all student workers and it’s really hard to draw a divide between […] when you have your student hat on and your worker hat on,” he said.

“The contract that was recommended and then voted on as strictly an employment contract was a good offer […] but our members aren’t just workers, they’re student workers,” he said, adding that the rejected agreement did not increase the minimum funding or tuition relief for graduate students.

Strike continued on page 3

Elections rife with allegations end Unofficial results of two-slate student union election to be released today NICOLE DANESI ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR The unofficial results for UTMSU’s elections are expected to be released today after two weeks of campaigning involving conflicts of interest, numerous allegations, demerits, and an incident involving Campus Police.

On Wednesday at approximately 2 p.m., a female student was allegedly grabbed by the arm by a UTM Rise campaigner near the polling station in Davis.

The student, who asked to remain anonymous, phoned Campus Police to report the incident but chose not to press charges. The incident was later confirmed by Campus Police.

According to the student, the campaigner involved in the incident was a student from York campaigning for Rise. Rise’s presidential candidate Ebi

A more ROSI outlook The outdated web platform is to be replaced, possibly as early as this spring, by one currently in beta.

Medium News, page 2

Not limited to elections Sure, some absurd things happened during this latest round of Predict the Winner. But they always do.

Medium Opinion, page 4

Because I’m happy Tours for Yan Wu’s Comfort Zones project begin with a magical trip down memory lane with Linda.

Medium Arts, page 5

Imaginary boyfriends MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

The Wall of Transparency has not been updated since March 4.

Agbeyegbe was not able to confirm the identity of the campaigner, but did not believe the individual was a York student.

Following the incident, polls were reportedly closed for approximately 15 minutes while Campus Police and UTMSU’s chief returning officer Ashley

Toste spoke with both Rise and UTM Reform in response to the incident.

Elections continued on page 3

For women who work with older men, the need to protect yourself from unwanted advances is real.

Medium Features, page 8

Soccer and OCAA mix Varsity soccer team took baby steps in the new level of competition this year, but they’re pretty happy.

Medium Sports, page 11

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«NEWS

THE MEDIUM 03.16.2015

ROSI reborn as ACORN Student Web Service soon to be replaced by new system FARAH QAISER STAFF WRITER March 5, 1:17 p.m.

Medical call A student slipped and fell while walking on icy pavement outside the CCT Building. She was seen by UTM Health Services.

March 5, 4:47 p.m.

Personal safety concern A student left a note that caused concern in the CCT Building. The student was located off campus by Peel Police. He was taken to hospital for an assessment.

March 6, 3:00 a.m.

Noise complaint Campus Police attended a unit at MaGrath Valley after a noise complaint was received. Tenants of the unit were cautioned about the noise level.

March 6, 1:20 a.m.

Causing a disturbance Campus Police intervened to quell a disturbance during an event at the Blind Duck Pub. Two men involved in an altercation were cautioned.

One person was trespassed from the pub.

March 6, 12:25 p.m.

Assault and Mischief under $5,000

Campus Police investigated a complaint about an assault and property damage at a unit in McLuhan Court.

A student was arrested and charged.

March 8, 12:45 p.m.

Library Code of conduct offence Campus Police investigated a complaint by library staff about a person not abiding by library regulations. A woman was removed from the library and given a 24-hour trespass notice.

March 9, 3:50 p.m.

Motor Vehicle Accident Campus Police investigated a motor vehicle accident in parking lot 1.

Damage was minor.

March 9, 4:10 p.m.

Personal safety concern A female student reported to Campus Police being harassed by a man. The man was identified and investigation is continuing.

March 10, 11:10 a.m.

Assault A student reported being assaulted by another student inside the Instructional Centre. One student was arrested.

ROSI is expected to be replaced by the new “ACORN” system as early as this spring.

ACORN (Accessible Campus Online Resource Network) has completed its first round of beta testing, in which a sample of the intended audience, about 25 U of T students, tried out the new system.

According to Mark Johnston, the ACORN product manager and a member of the user experience design team, the main features include an updated look, redesigned course and program enrolment sections, and a better connection to Portal, the Degree Explorer, and services like career planning, health and wellness, housing, and international opportunities.

The updated course enrolment section includes a cart that helps plan a timetable and allows sections to be saved before the enrolment period, and will include warnings about en-

rolment controls, conflicts, space availability, and prerequisites.

It will also have a quick course search where students can start typing out a course code or title and the system will autocomplete their query.

Over 1,000 students have participated in consultations for this project through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and usability tests.

The second round of beta testing is expected to take place in the coming weeks and is expected to be complete by early April.

Student feedback on the first round has reportedly been positive.

“Students have highlighted the overall modern look and feel of the site and the new course enrolment screen as being a great improvement over their current experience with ROSI,” said Johnston.

The move to replace ROSI-SWS with ACORN follows feedback received from both students and staff through the Next Generation Student Information Services program.

According to Johnson, the feedback

provided through NGSIS was that “the ROSI-SWS system is outdated and does not provide an optimal experience for students”.

NGSIS works with students and faculty in order to provide accurate information about their postsecondary careers. The program is responsible for services such as Degree Explorer, the co-curricular record, Course Finder, and MyRes. According to the NGSIS website, ROSI-SWS was implemented in 2002. The technology used to build the current Student Web Service is no longer supported, which is why new services, such as Course Finder and CCR, cannot be integrated into ROSI. An “Introducing ACORN” site is now live at introducing.acorn.utoronto.ca and offers screenshots and information. An update is expected soon with more information about the design process behind ACORN and the changes it will introduce.

According to the NGSIS website, ACORN is currently 70% complete.

Dialogue on extremism

These reports are those that have been released to The Medium and do not necessarily constitute an exhaustive list.

Students can contact the UTM Campus Police at 905 828 5200, Peel Regional Police at 905 453 3311, or Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222 8477.

Students compete on sustainable proposals NABEELAH SHAIKH/THE MEDIUM

The panel consisted of speakers representing Islam and Christianity.

MARIUM FAISAL

FACEBOOK.COM/SHOWMETHEGREENUTM/PHOTO

The Show Me the Green conference was held in IB. SHANNON SCHILLING Finalists from student teams across Ontario met at UTM with competing sustainability proposals this month.

Over 30 teams competed in the eighth annual Show Me the Green Conference in the Instructional Building on March 7. Competitors rose to support modern, cost-effective environmental sustainability and development.

The morning began with a reception to welcome the delegates, followed by challenge rounds and interactive workshops before lunch and the Gold Sponsorship speech.

The winners of the popular vote were chosen by the audience through

a text message tally. A finalist was chosen for each of the five rooms.

In the lecture hall afterwards, the five finalists presented the potential implementations of their plans to reduce waste before the winners were chosen. Six judges picked the winner, OIKOS, whose plan focused on investment and cost-saving in environmental projects.

Green Tech Consulting, which placed second in their room, focused on streamlining The Medium.

According to SMG promotions associate Victoria Nader, this year’s conference attracted almost 200 people.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie also spoke at the event.

People of various faiths gathered in the Presentation Room last week for an evening of interfaith discussion.

The MSA, Amnesty International, Power2Change, U of T Hillel, the Equity & Diversity Office, and the Indigenous Centre collaborated to bring this interfaith dinner and dialogue to the Student Centre on Tuesday.

The topic chosen this year was “Extremism in Religion”, considering the recent political and religious issues occurring around the world.

Rachana Sai, president of Power2Change, said that due to “the [rise of] ISIS, we contact[ed] the MSA and they were just as interested as we were in hosting such an event”.

“Considering the current political structure and turmoil occurring in the world today, in regards to the spread of religious violence, [this dialogue] would benefit the UTM community,” added Maleeha Baig, president of Amnesty International at UTM and external relations director for the MSA. The event started out with a panel.

Originally, there were three panellists representing Islam, Christianity, and

Judaism, to facilitate the discussion.

However, the panellist representing Judaism had to leave shortly before the event due to unforeseen circumstances.

Amjad Tarsin, the president of the Muslim Chaplaincy at U of T, was the Muslim voice on the panel and George Simopoulos of Power2Change conveyed the Christian opinion on the questions asked. History professor Ken Derry was the moderator.

When asked why an interfaith dialogue was chosen, Baig said, “Since religions are constantly put in the spotlight where they are made to appear against one another, a dialogue instead of a debate would create this sense of unity and togetherness that we need more now than ever.”

Questions from Derry touched on multiple sides of the topic, such as the main reasons for violence, which the panellists argued out are driven by psychological and political factors rather than religious factors.

They were asked to express their views on secularism and ways to curb violence done in the name of religion.

“We have to be careful not to fall into that trap of ‘us versus them’, even as a minority, that just because you

did this to me I can do it to you,” said Tarsin. “We all have to be committed to securing everyone’s wellbeing in this broad system of values. We’re looking for a solution, not blame.”

Simopoulos added, “Oftentimes religion is misused, but I think that our goal is not to explain away violence from religion but to first understand what that religion states and to understand what it says about violence.”

Another concern from specifically Muslim students in the audience was the reasons behind the constant spotlight on Islam and not on any other religion when it came to extremism and hands-on ways to tackle these issues.

Sai commented on what she hoped the dialogue would achieve. “I am hoping people would reconsider their thoughts and opinions they might have about a particular faith and come to the realization that very often a religion doesn’t seek to promote violence, hegemony, or patriarchy, but it is media who promotes these ideas using incidents around the world whilst reinforcing these beliefs,” she said.

The panel was followed by dinner.

03.16.2015 THE MEDIUM NEWS

Students call for refunds Strike continued from Cover A source who attended the meeting reported that the union discussed strategies for escalating the strike, including by shutting down classes, targeting departments that have employed other labour or strike breakers, and becoming more aggressive with picketing.

The same source also said that the union spent $10,000 to host the meeting at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“BASIS” FOR BARGAINING In a memo dated Wednesday, March 4, Angela Hildyard, the U of T VP human resources & equity, said that the administration was in contact with the provincial mediator “and are advised that as soon as he thinks there is a basis to return to the bargaining table he will invite the parties to do so”.

The negotiations between CUPE 3902 and U of T are currently being mediated by Peter Simpson, a representative of Ontario’s Ministry of Labour.

Although Simpson was unable to disclose details about the specific bargaining relationship between the two parties, he talked to The Medium about the “basis” of the negotiations. “[In] every round of bargaining, the parties have conversations with

one another […] they’re usually very open about the things they’re unable to do completely, or the things that they want the other side to consider,” Simpson said over the phone on Friday.

“As a mediator [...] you’re always listening to both sides, [trying] to figure what can and can’t be part of a solution,” he said.

Asked whether there were any legal issues preventing the two parties from continuing their negotiations, he said, “There is no legal impediment […] to parties returning to a bargaining table.”

Last week, The Medium reported Provost Cheryl Regehr’s position that all 6,000 Unit 1 members should have a chance to vote on the rejected agreement.

Simpson could not comment on whether U of T had requested the ministry to direct a full membership vote on its last offer, but said that usually the ministry aims to hold the vote within five to six days of the request, notwithstanding “mitigating circumstances”.

STUDENTS DEMAND REFUNDS Last week students began signing a petition asking U of T to refund tuition fees paid in the winter term. As of press time, the petition had over 1,800 supporters.

Hildyard did not directly respond

to The Medium’s request for an interview; U of T news & media relations director Althea Blackburn-Evans only said a phone interview with Hildyard was “not possible” and that she could not give a timely response to questions later sent by e-mail.

On its online FAQ, U of T posted updates on Friday pertaining to the strike’s impact on the length of the term, the exam period and the summer session.

According to the webpage, “the great majority” of exams are expected to be held as scheduled and U of T aims to “adjust” courses affected by the strike “to stay on track for the normal exam period”.

The same day, there was an additional posting saying that summer courses are also expected to continue as planned.

Earlier this month, CUPE 3902 starting compiling reports of complaints against U of T for “unfair labour practice[s]”, including instances where striking members’ work was changed or eliminated due to changes to course syllabi or marking schemes, according to an e-mail sent by Culpepper to CUPE 3902 members.

Unit 1 is the only unit currently on strike. It was announced last Tuesday that Unit 3 had successfully ratified its agreement with U of T.

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»THOUGHTS ON THE UTMSU ELECTIONS?

Victor Komadina 2nd year, geography

Rebecca Tunney 1st year, forensic science

I think it’s a hive mentality that excludes exterior critical thinking.

I heard nothing from Reform. I agree with Rise, especially the healthy eating.

Pasha Pasag 3rd year, physiology

Cherry Salib 3rd year, biology

There wasn’t really that much of a difference between the platforms.

I like their ideas but I’m just thinking how realistic some of them will be.

Non-UTM campaigners used Lifeline recruits stem cell donors at UTM MALEEHA IQBAL STAFF WRITER

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Both slates admitted to using volunteers from outside UTM to help them campaign.

Elections continued from Cover Assisting the Rise slate was current UTMSU president Hassan Havili, who was one of three campaign managers for the slate.

According to a Facebook post by Rise VP internal candidate Naveed Ahmed, Havili, current UTMSU VP equity Melissa Theodore, and former UTSU president Munib Sajjad were the three campaign managers for Rise.

In an email to The Medium, Toste confirmed that Havili “[took] a leave of absence during the two weeks of elections”.

Over the phone, UTMSU executive director Walied Khogali alluded to a “conflict of interest” as the reason for Havili’s leave, but refrained from pro-

viding details, instead directing questions on the topic to the chair of the Elections and Referenda Committee, current UTMSU VP internal Bryan Chelvanaigum.

As of press time, Chelvanaigum had not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Havili also did not respond to The Medium’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, the use of outside campaigners has been a highly contested issue in UTSU elections, as previously reported in The Varsity and The Medium.

Reform also commented on the issue.

“We felt it was an unfair advantage because [members of Rise] were using [...] the relations from the union to bring people in,” said Maaham Ma-

lik, Reform’s presidential candidate.

Malik informed The Medium that Reform expressed concerns over the use of outside campaigners to Toste, although the UTMSU Election Procedural Code does not prevent a slate from using outside volunteers to campaign for a slate.

According to Agbeyegbe, he estimated that four or five non-UTM students were involved with his slate’s campaign.

For Reform, Malik accounted for one non-UTM student involved in the campaign. According to Malik, the individual is a family member and U of T alum, and assisted behind the scenes.

Unofficial election results were not available by press time, but are expected to be announced today.

Lifeline: UTM Blood & Stem Cell Society collaborated with Canadian Blood Services’ OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network last Tuesday to recruit donors at UTM. Held in the CCT Building, the aim of the event was for students to learn about stem cell donations and register with OneMatch in order to be matched with potential patients. “[For] patients with leukemia, aplastic anemia, or any blood cancers, the only hope that they sometimes have is a stem cell transplant,” said Lilet Raffinan, who works as a territory manager for Canadian Blood Services. “When they need a stem cell transplant their only hope is to get that from people, [whether] unrelated or their siblings.”

However, Raffinan explained that patients’ chances of finding a match in their own family is only 25%.

When there is none, the best chance for patients to find a match is from within their own ethnic background.

“We are really engaging and encouraging all ethnic backgrounds to come and join,” said Raffinan. “It’s like winning the lottery for the patient if you are matched.”

According to the CBS website, patients are more likely to find a stem cell match from within their own ethnic group. The Globe and Mail reported earlier this month that 71% of the current registrants are Caucasian.

“I feel it’s important to spread

awareness of stem cell donation because it’s a small gesture that could save someone’s life,” said Saamia Siddiqui, a volunteer at the event.

“I myself didn’t know much about it until my close family friend was diagnosed with leukemia and was in need of a donor.”

When individuals register, they do not immediately become a donor.

They make themselves available in case they can be found to be a match.

Currently, there are nearly 1,000 patients waiting for stem cell trans-

Patients’ chances of finding a match in their own family is only 25 percent.

Otherwise, their best chance is from within their ethnicity. plants in Canada. While the registry holds 350,000 donors willing to donate and Canadian Blood Services’ national network allows them to access 27 million donors, they still can’t find a match for all patients.

By 3 p.m. on Tuesday, OneMatch had approximately 70 UTM students registered.

“I am so glad many people came out to learn and register,” said Siddiqui.

If students are still interested in registering, they can do so through onematch.ca, whereupon a swabbing kit will be delivered to their home.

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03.16.2015

MASTHEAD EDITORS Editor-in-Chief Luke Sawczak editor@themedium.ca News Maria Iqbal news@themedium.ca A&E Maria Cruz arts@themedium.ca Features Madeleine Brown features@themedium.ca Sports Jason Coelho sports@themedium.ca — Photo Mahmoud Sarouji photos@themedium.ca Design Mubashir Baweja design@themedium.ca Copy Akshaya Sharma copy@themedium.ca Online & Blog Michelle Bonsu Safia Amin blog@themedium.ca online@themedium.ca Video Russell Wu videos@themedium.ca ASSOCIATES News Nicole Danesi Menna Elnaka A&E Kathelene Cattell-Daniels Features Andreea Mihai Sports Eric Hewitson Sihan Zheng Photo Christy Tam Zara Rizwan Nicole Raquinio Copy Tanya Decarie GENERAL STAFF Distribution Manager Ifunanya Paulinus distribution@themedium.ca Comic Artist Corey Belford BOARD OF DIRECTORS Christine Capewell, Larissa Ho, Saima Khan, Denio Lourenco, Jaime Pokhoy, Obaid Said, Ajay Sharma, Luke Sawczak

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Reform is indeed needed Whatever becomes of the race, one slate’s name says it all for UTMSU This was the first year since 2010 in which there were two (nearly) full competing slates for the UTMSU executive committee, but from the outset it’s always clear that “competition” is a little too positive a word for what really happens. It took us a few days to determine which slate was the favourite of the incumbents, because surprisingly, both slates had members who currently have various roles in the union. But it quickly became clear.

Did you know that your president Hassan Havili, VP campus life Francesco Otello-DeLuca, and possibly VP equity Melissa Theodore have been on leaves of absence? Otello-DeLuca was running, but Havili, Theodore, and student union classic Munib Sajjad (he ran in the 2010 elections) were the campaign managers for Rise. Havili’s leave was two weeks long.

Meanwhile, the Elections Procedure Code says candidates are not allowed to benefit from any help they get solely as a result of their position in the union—including the help of staff. I’m sure our hardworking representatives will argue, as has been done in the past, that friendship alone motivated their temporarily putting aside their jobs to help the next slate get elected.

I doubt the Elections and Referenda Committee will take issue with that.

Just remember: a vote for president is a vote for his friends the year after next!

Of course, let’s not kid ourselves.

These are really the friends of a much wider circle. Presidential candidate estimates that oh, only four or five people from other universities decided to come campaign and help poor UTM Rise get elected. It’s tradition. After all, if they don’t, the slate might lose.

Another stipulation of the EPC is that any decisions about violations have to be posted in the UTMSU office. For a while they used their “Wall of Transparency” to post these things.

The last notice there is dated March 4.

I guess it’s possible there have been no violations since then, but with the Campus Police–reported incident of a Rise campaigner grabbing the arm of a student as she walked by in the hall, I’d be just as surprised if there hadn’t been one. The official violations list in the code includes “breaking university, municipal, provincial, or federal law or regulation”, an offence for which the CRO and the Elections and Referenda Committee determines the number of demerit points. It may be that no law has actually been broken, but surely behaviour like that merits a response...

It doesn’t matter much, anyway. The CRO and the Election and Referenda Committee don’t even have to assign demerit points if they don’t want to.

They can instead fine the offender no more than $20. That’s the equivalent of a few demerit points’ worth of fines,

but could be handed out instead of an offence worth up to 35 points. And they can increase or decrease demerit points at their discretion. Both teams had enough to be disqualified earlier in the elections but were conveniently forgiven some of them, because there has to be some election, right?

Actually, besides the difficulty verifying whether any punitive action was taken here or for any other possible offence that hasn’t been posted on that wall, there’s plenty else that we’ve had trouble verifying. There isn’t even any accessible proof that the CRO was hired by the appropriate committee and approved by the board, since those minutes are not posted online. When we ask for them we rarely get them.

(We did actually get a set recently and should be thankful for that.)

Even the past minutes that were up for years disappeared with UTMSU’s website change in September, replaced with the message “Details to come!” I don’t know if you know this, but that’s an outrage.

These observations are just from one election. A lot more has to change.

One question I hope The Medium of next year, not to mention the average student, pursues is what can be done with the stockpile of $1.1 million.

Actually, we got an answer on that recently from presidential candidate and current VP external Ebi Agbeyegbe.

He says it’s there in case the university ever withholds UTMSU’s student levy.

That’s among the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. For one thing, no such threat has been made to UTMSU lately. For another, if it had been, it would likely be because the union would have failed us in some way. For another, the annual student fees are currently over $800,00, but are not $1.1 million, so I don’t know how much they plan to accumulate or for just how many years they would hunker down and spend their (read: our) savings. Finally, students simply didn’t have any say in this self-preserving, not service-providing, use of their money.

UTM Reform might have lost.

We’ll find out later today when they release the vote counts. And maybe they wouldn’t have made a difference either. But reform, however it might come, is needed.

YOURS, LUKE SAWCZAK

CORRECTION NOTICE The March 9 article “Scarlett Johansson is no role model” stated that SodaStream had dismissed Johansson, but she has merely not been cast for any ads since the controversial one.

03.16.2015

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Tour from the heart and soul of UTM “Comfort Zones” project wraps up with tours by Linda Stroble, Paul Donoghue, and others LUKE SAWCZAK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Last week I took two of the unique Behind the Scenes tours, the second half of St. George curatorial master’s student Yan Wu’s project “Comfort Zones”. We covered her research process in an article called “Discovering UTM’s comfort zones”.

She also worked with Cohabitation Strategies, whose hypothesis, to be explored by the tourists after each event, was that the increasing corporatization of postsecondary education makes it essentially less comfortable.

Before I start, a disclaimer. Part of the point of the tours is that the experience is not the same on paper as it is being there. So you are getting a watered-down version.

The two I took were Linda Stroble’s and Paul Donoghue’s.

They were both enjoyable, but they couldn’t have been more contrary.

Everyone knows Linda. She currently works at the Circuit Break Café in CCT serving up cookies and other things, but she’s worked in food service at UTM for 25 years in various outlets. If you’ve met her, though, you know her day is not just about the transaction. It’s about the interaction with the people who come see her. Linda is very quick to make friends, accepts everyone no

RUSSELL WU/THE MEDIUM

Linda Stroble has been on campus for the past 25 years. matter who they are, and will never hesitate to ask what you’re looking so happy or sad about. She genuinely cares, and I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love her back.

I couldn’t say no to a tour of UTM from Linda’s perspective.

We met with her, Yan, Blackwood staff, Lucina Babina and Miguel Robles-Durán from CohStra, and a few others in the Blackwood Gallery to be introduced to the project. Then it

was off to the greenhouse, which is on the mysterious fifth floor of Davis, only accessible by elevator. Why the greenhouse? Because it houses a few tropical plants, including some from Bermuda, where Linda grew up. She introduced us to technician Susan Dixon, and then showed us around a little inside.

Some of the stories: There was a “match me if you can” plant with green and pink-speckled leaves.

When Linda was 11 or 12, an uncle said he’d give her 10 pounds if she found two leaves that matched. After she’d been searching for a while, she overheard someone say to him, “You know she won’t find no two leaves alike!” and realized a joke had been made at her expense. There was another plant whose bristly, mint-tasting leaves the children of Bermuda used to brush their teeth with on their way to school, just by

rubbing. One other tourist bravely tried it out.

There was a papaya tree; a neighbour used to grow prize papayas and Linda would eat them as a child.

One day years and years later she happened to meet him in an airport in Toronto.

“You know who I am, don’t you?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she replied; “you were my neighbour. I used to eat your papayas.”

“Linda, you ate the one that was meant to be first place!” he said, comically angry.

The scene could have been in a book or movie. But it was just part of the fabric of Linda’s life. It was really touching to be let in on memories like this.

The rest of the tour passed by the temporary office of Keith Nablo, another vibrant person whom most of us will know from the times when our profs can’t manage classroom tech, the Faculty Club (which someone had apparently, sadly, booked over the tour), and Spigel Hall.

What was amazing was that these various places were largely lifeless in themselves except for Linda and the people she wanted us to meet. She brought the life in them with her.

Tours continued on page 7

Student fashion show rocks Hart House Rock on Runway has come a long way since last year, both in venue and quality of design MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR This year’s Rock on Runway fashion show by UTChinese was a huge improvement over what I heard of last year. The venue was larger, the designs were of higher quality, and there was a bigger turnout. Walking in, I immediately felt like I was in a scene from The Devil Wears Prada.

Chic remixes and mainstream songs blared through the Grand Hall of Hart House, a carpeted catwalk took up the centre, and photographers and journalists were all seated in the front for the best seats in the house.

After 20 minutes of mingling, the emcee walked out to give the introduction. He welcomed the four judges: Adrian Wu, a celebrated Canadian designer who has been featured in ELLE, The Globe and Mail, and CBC; Hilary MacMillan,

MARIA CRUZ/THE MEDIUM

Rock on Runway impressed a nearly sold-out room. a Toronto womenswear designer who has been featured in FLARE and NOW magazine; Som Kong, an award-winning recent Ryerson

graduate who’s a Toronto-based womenswear and menswear designer; and lastly, Lu Ann Lafrenz, program director of fashion design at Ryer-

son. He then went on to explain that the seven designers will be showing off the work they did in pairs as well as work they did on their own in

hopes of scoring the titles of Viewers’ Choice and/or Judges’ Pick.

The paired designs came up first, the theme being angels and devils.

Designers Melissa Williams and Fong Ki Wan went first, earning praise from the judges for the individuality of Wan’s piece. The dress was made from shower curtains, garbage bags, and a material used to tarp furniture before you paint a room.

Next was Serean Bechara and Wesley Tang, whom the judges deemed the best pairing. Their pieces were elegant and original, which brought positive comments from the judges. What impressed them most was how, for Tang’s piece, he said he had used real Swarovski crystals on his model’s dress and sewed them on one by one.

Runway continued on page 7

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THE MEDIUM 03.16.2015

Grief’s hidden beauty Artist Erika Defreitas’ AGM exhibit explores mourning

Autobiography in song Mat Kearney’s upbeat personal album DANA BRITTON

NICOLE RAQUINIO/THE MEDIUM

Defreitas posed in 64 different positions to represent different kinds of grieving.

MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR I am the kind of person whose emotions are based on what I see others doing. Unfunny movies become funny when I hear a few people laughing and a funeral is only made worse when I see people crying.

For artists like Erika Defreitas, studying how people mourn and being immersed in dozens of obituaries from The Toronto Star leads to powerful art. Her recent exhibition, The Work of Mourning, focuses on exactly that.

I went on a Friday morning. On entering, I was greeted by an introduction on the wall with two quotes: “To weep is to make less the depth of grief ” by William Shakespeare, from Henry IV, and “and every tear is from the other, the friend, the living, as long as we ourselves are living, reminding us, holding life, to hold on to it” by Jacques Derrida, from The Work of Mourning.

I was immediately drawn to the 64 photos plastered on one of the walls.

In this installation Defreitas depicts the various aspects of grief through many different poses. I felt that some were more powerful than others; the most evocative were the ones where she’s covering her face and hiding it behind her hands and the ones where she’s staring off into the distance with a hand over her heart. Some were stunning and they all told a story.

Defreitas described this part of the exhibit, “A Visual Vocabulary for Hands in Mourning”, as having stemmed from an interest in body

language and gesture with public mourning. “When the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il passed away, I was really inspired by the images that I saw of the people mourning his death,” she says. “I started to collect images that I found online or in newspapers of people mourning and started to then re-enact their hands as a way of highlighting how one’s body reacts to grief or through grief.

The 64 images on display are from 64 different individual acts of mourning.”

Towards the back of the room there was a piece called “So Buried in It that We Only See Them when Pulled out in Abstractions”, which consisted of abstract, embroidered bodies inspired from actual crime scene photos. Defreitas says her interest in this began a few years ago when she read the newspaper and saw the image of a young person who had been killed in Scarborough.

“After seeing this image I became curious about the other images of crime scene photos of bodies under blankets. I started to embroider these images as closely to the original image as possible, but ensuring that the body was covered,” she says. “It was a process of meditation, a process for me to think about the person underneath the blanket and those that are left to mourn them.”

Another exhibit was several glass cases with tissues inside. At first glance I had no idea what I was looking at. White thread ran through some of the tissues and more lay off to the side. But this work, “and every tear is from the other”, is also a

personal act of grieving. “Each individual Kleenex is my response to maybe some of the work that I’ve created or personal moments of sadness,” she says. “As I cried, I kept the Kleenex and embroidered with white thread around a single teardrop.” On the plaque to the side was a quote by Derrida: “While tears are a manifestation of the grief brought on by the death of a loved one, they are also an affirmation of life. If we can still weep, we are not dead, and must live on to honour those we have lost.”

The final part of the exhibition was one of my favourites. “In lieu of ” consisted of what must have been hundreds of obituaries stacked on top of one another and glossed over with beeswax. Before I knew what was laminating them I thought they looked soaked and withered. They appeared as though people had been holding onto them, wearing them out, and sobbing all over them. It resonated with me.

Defreitas explains that the cutouts are from an earlier work of hers, “Death, Memorials, and Births”, created in 2007. “I had kept these cutouts after reading each and every entry. They were kept in a little black box that I had in my studio. Seven years later I decided to use beeswax because of its connection with Greek and Egyptian mythology and how bees bridge our world and the underworld,” she says. “Wax for me was a way also to increase the preservation of these very delicate newspaper strips.”

The Work of Mourning will remain at the AGM until April.

Chances are you’ve heard Mat Kearney playing in a TV drama and attempted to find the song on Shazam, but some actor talked over it and you missed it. Maybe you heard it playing in some hipster cafe and tapped your foot along to it, but never found out who was singing.

Mat Kearney is pervasive but doesn’t receive the recognition he deserves. He sounds like Chris Martin of Coldplay, but his songs are more upbeat and tend to have deeper meanings. His fourth album, Just Kids, was released this week, and it shows just how much he has developed as an artist.

Kearney’s music is the upbeat cure to any bad day. His music is like a vacation—there’s a lot going on but every part of it is fun and memorable.

Each song on the album has a different vibe. His single “Heartbeat” is catchy with an electronic feel. “One Black Sheep” demonstrates more of a folk vibe and “Let It Rain” feels like an old-school ballad. The album also features elements of ’80s and ’90s pop coupled with contemporary electronic sounds.

Kearney surprises me in each song.

His previous albums were good, but Just Kids is where he has really found the right mix of spoken word and alternative, the guitar work blending the two together. “Billion” is another

strong one, demonstrating a return to Kearney’s roots with spoken word art and hip-hop verses. I really wasn’t a fan of the hip-hop type of song on his first album, Bullet, and the ones on Nothing Left to Lose were a little too cheesy for me, but by combining spoken word with alternative choruses he makes the songs flow together much better this time.

Each song also tells a story. This is especially true of the title track, “Just Kids”, an autobiographical song about Kearney’s life whose name, he says, is a shout-out to his hometown and childhood. “One Black Sheep” is also about his life growing up in Oregon and the journey to his present situation. When asked about the song, Kearney said he wanted it to have an “autobiographical Paul-Simon-meets-hip-hop” feel. The album continues through the events of his life, exploring topics like questioning his faith, meeting his future wife, and his dreams and aspirations.

I found a few of the songs a little more preachy than I’m used to, particularly “Let It Rain”. Kearney’s album would have felt incomplete without these songs, though; a few references to his faith filled the gaps in his autobiography.

This upbeat but honest album is a definite must-have for your library on those days when you need a simple pick-me-up. Give it a listen any time you want an album that incorporates a wide range of musical genres.

Home for video art ELEANOR NDAIGA Where would you go to view a collection of contemporary and historical video art? Your local DVD store wouldn’t make the cut. (Besides, is renting DVDs still a thing?) In the heart of downtown Toronto, a space called Vtape is a much better shot.

Their collection of video art and media works is accessible to anyone and everyone, from cultured curators to the average person with an artistic curiosity.

Each year, Vtape hosts a slew of exhibitions ranging from performancebased works to social issue documentaries. One of their renowned programs is the Curatorial Incubator.

Now in its 12th year, the Curatorial Incubator encourages curators to create a program around a certain theme.

This year, three emerging curators were given the opportunity to create a program on the theme “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Brat”. The program is composed of three instalments, each of which relates to the central theme. The curators pored over pre-existing video art and developed a narrative around that central idea.

I had the chance to attend the screening of the second instalment, “Bad Timing”, curated by the Ottawa-based Adam Barbu. His instalment was a series of six videos, each of which embodied some aspect of self-doubt by looking at misbehaviour from the mundane and awkward. One

of the videos resonated with me in a way I was not prepared for. It was a 2001 short video by Steven Eastwood entitled I Make Things Happen.

In it, the camera follows a young person through South London and films them as they “make things happen”. From the belief that if they touched their hair a certain way a stranger across the street would eat a sandwich to the belief that eating an apple in the train station would cause someone to fall, the spurious correlations reminded me of how the superstitious people inside us come out to play when we doubt ourselves. Listening to the irrational connections the young person made was a welcome reminder to be more aware of my own doubt when it creeps in.

The five other videos in the instalment were intriguing in their own right and raised poignant questions: What is the role of an artist in the state of tension between action and inaction? When is it appropriate to laugh at a joke made in bad taste? What is said about the self when you do laugh?

The third instalment, “In Perpetual Search for the Self ”, is currently being screened. It was curated by recent OCADU graduate Shauna Jean Doherty. Her program analyzes performance for the camera, with a critical look at Rosalind Krauss’ 1976 text on video art and narcissism.

This year’s Curatorial Incubator runs until April 9 at Vtape on 401 Richmond St. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

03.16.2015 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 7

Dresses of garbage bags,

Looking at the human

fur, and shower curtains

aspect of our campus Tours continued from page 5

MARIA CRUZ/THE MEDIUM

The winning designer was given a trip to Paris for Fashion Week.

Runway continued from page 5 Following them was Tashana McDonald and DaThao Chu. Chu explained that the inspiration for her piece, the angel piece, stemmed from her belief that not every angel is perfect. She used bits of red in the dress to symbolize this and it worked quite well as a whole. The judges commended both works as being the most wearable of the ones they’d seen.

Finally was Nusrat Hossain, who designed both pieces on her own due to her partner, Sarah Arruntegui, having to drop out for “unforeseeable reasons”. For her devil dress she used red lace on the bottom, claiming that her choice stemmed from wanting to choose a colour that was feminine but also powerful. Wu loved the angel dress but hated the top of the devil one, telling her he was angry just looking at it. MacMillan chimed in to say that there was no cohesive theme but applauded Hossain on having completed both works solo.

The designers then had the chance to showcase their individual works. The audience was shown the inspiration for their collection, which was a short film by UTChinese, Jamais Vu. The designers were to create something based on the theme of “true love”.

Up first was Williams. Her dress’s most standout feature was the fur sleeves, which she explained came from her desire of wanting to capture the “fuzziness” of what was going on in the film.

The judges commended her choice and the audience praised her work as well.

Next was Wan, whose dress consisted of intricate paper patterns inspired by Chinese culture. Kong mentioned how she was the thriftiest of the night because when you work with less, you’re more creative. However, Wu told her he thought the dress looked cheap but he liked the paper cut on the top.

Bechara was next with her model

wearing a black dress covered in buttons and a corset top. She mentioned that she understood that everything in fashion had pretty much been done before so she wanted to take these well-known elements and make them new. She added a lot of detail that forced the audience to pay attention to the detail. Lafrenz admitted she didn’t even see these intricate details before they were pointed out to her.

MacMillan and Wu also applauded the intricacy but Kong made note of how there seemed to be a lot going on.

Next was Tang, whose dress was easily one of the most appreciated of the night. His model wore an asymmetrical silver dress with incredible draping, which was one of the details most commented on by the judges. Tang explained that his design came from what he took away from the film, which was two people coming together. He used two different pieces in his dress to symbolize opposites attracting.

LaFrenz loved it, Wu adored the draping and said it was his favourite dress of the night, MacMillan said it was one of her favourites of the night, and Kong said he liked the fit, calling the finished work “beautiful”.

McDonald followed, having worked with a heavier, deep red upholstery material for the jacket.

Kong loved it and said he’d wear it because the stiff material makes it more menswear. The judges commended McDonald for her choice in fabric, commenting on how difficult they know it is to work with upholstery.

Chu was next with a jumpsuit style piece in a mostly floral pattern with a white belt and white trim on the sleeves. She explained that she didn’t want it to be too serious and the contrasting fabrics symbolized the relationship of the couple in the film. Lu commented on how it was very wearable and youthful while also being consistent. He also drew attention to the

Japanese inspiration for the kimono-style sleeves. Kong appreciated that it was a jumpsuit, applauding her for being different and thinking outside the box. However, Chu wasn’t satisfied with her piece, admitting that she would shorten the bottom by two inches if she could.

She added that she wasn’t happy with the design, but MacMillan said she should stick by her piece despite her own criticism.

Hossain was last with a dress she explained was inspired by old Hollywood glam. Her main idea behind the dress was to capture what the female protagonist felt along with how Hossain felt after watching Jamais Vu. LaFrenz commented on how the dress seemed “very Audrey Hepburn”, while Wu admitted that he didn’t like the fabric choice.

While the votes were being tallied, 2014 Rock on Runway winner Lesley Hampton returned to show off 12 new pieces and give a small interview. After her pieces were shown, a series of emerging designers showcased their work.

Charlotte Brownies, Fresh Collective, Shelfies (the first menswear to be present at the show), Runway Luxe, and a collection of six pieces from Kong entitled “My Heart Is Turning Grey” were all shown.

They were also the pieces that were available for purchase on the spot.

The emcee then returned to present the awards. Viewers’ Choice went to Bechara, which earned her a Polaroid camera. For the Judges’ Pick, Wan was second runner-up and Tang took home the main prize for his draped dress, which earned him the incredible prize of a trip to Paris for Fashion Week.

This was my first fashion show, and I must say I was thoroughly impressed with the designs, especially since they were made by students in less than 13 days. With it having been such a drastic change from last year, I look forward to what UTChinese will expand on next year.

We went to the TFC. Linda read us a short poem she had written almost at random the other day. It wasn’t high literature, but it was powerful. It was about how the Bermuda of her youth was deeply segregated between black and white, and now she meets people of every background freely interacting every day.

“Boy how time changes; you meet people from all walks of life,” she read. “We all meet at the round table.” The realization that what you and I take for granted, what has become almost invisible to us, was something rare and beautiful to her—that was deeply moving.

Then the actual moving began. Her husband, who was along for the ride, busted out a stereo from a plastic bag and turned on Pharell Williams’ “Happy” at full volume. Heads turned to watch Linda dance, gracefully, unabashedly, slowly, out of the cafeteria.

Most of the group was half-dancing along, but to see Linda in her element was something else. She led us right into the Meeting Place and went out into the tables as the music blasted. People began applauding. I kept imagining that some nervous official would appear and tell us this was a disruption, unprofessional. I would have told him he was trying to put out one of the few truly bright lights on campus.

A quick Zumba dance followed with Brenda Mazur, who leads a secret double life as assistant to the chief administrative officer, Paul Donoghue (so maybe my characterization of officials is unfair). Maybe I was the only one not to dance in front of the mirror. Maybe I should get unrepressed. Whatever. It was good just to be along for the ride.

Then we headed back to the gallery for the analytical part of the tour. The two good folks from CohStra had a map of UTM with a plastic sheet on top that we were supposed to paint and mark up with our impressions of the tour.

Sounds fun. But first they had Linda point out on the map everywhere we’d been. She found it hard, but they wouldn’t let anyone help. It was excruciating. She doesn’t think in terms of the abstract, looking down from an aloof place, as we learn to do in our courses. Instead she inhabits places and indeed makes them what they are. That’s her strength and it’s why she’s such an amazing person. As for this part of the project—maybe it would have been better left to the other three tours.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience. But it wasn’t about the places. It was about the person.

Paul Donoghue’s tour was good, too. Now here’s an abstract thinker who can look at a building and see everything that went into its making. He started off with a presentation on the master plan: the incredible growth of the campus in the last decade or so alone, the delicate balance between green space and

the need to expand growth, complications like avoiding tall buildings that would obscure our views of the surrounding nature, and the sudden flashes of artistic inspiration that lead an architect to redesign a building. It was very intellectually interesting.

We walked around campus in the cold—I’d never seen the CAO in a rather stylish coat and beret till now and kind of wished I’d brought something warmer, too. As he gave fascinating details on the buildings’ histories, we took a look at the subtly expanded Davis Building; CCT, whose green glass in imitation of the London Plane trees in the courtyard was eventually taken out because the light made anyone it shone on look sick; the library; IB, about which there has supposedly never been an official complaint; the soon-to-be demolished North; and finally Deerfield Hall.

The naturalness of the materials in Deerfield was surprising to me, actually. You know that cladding that looks kind of like plastic? Turns out it’s clay formed through quite an intricate process developed in Europe. The library’s wood panelling is from Spain, by the by.

Then the actual moving began. Heads turned to watch Linda dance, gracefully, unabashedly, slowly, out of the cafeteria.

I asked about roofs. Why don’t we make them more usable, grow gardens or solar panels or something on them? Paul said one reason we don’t let people walk up there is that we have a young population, and the thought of open roofs keeps him up at night. Very fair. It was only a few years ago that a student died at St. George while trying to jump from one roof landing to another.

Paul said that the copper cladding of IB gets that green, speckled look by being chemically treated, accelerating a process that normally takes place over decades. No two panels are alike, he said. A big match-me-if-you-can plant.

The enthusiasm was high throughout, and the analysis at the end fruitful and varied, with a long, highly insightful, and retrospective talk on the four tours by the two CohStra folks. I really enjoyed it.

All in all, the tours I went on were a careful, lively look at our campus through eyes that, I would argue, are rarely open to what actually makes this place special and worthwhile. No, actually. It made me wish I’d been able to go on Wednesday’s tours: a behind-the-scenes look at EDSS’s film projects and an archaeology tour by Michael Brand. They both sounded cool.

Even if they were unlikely to include spontaneous dancing.

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03.16.2015

The cultural worship of marriage The second instalment of a four-part series on feminism questions our obsession with “I do” VALERIA RYRAK I’m sure many members of all genders would be quick to pointedly ask: why do we still need feminism? What are women lacking anyway? Allow me to provide my own answer to this question through two recent anecdotes.

The first involves a friend of a friend whom I met at a lunchtime gathering. She was stylishly dressed and seemed to have an open, congenial nature, so I struck up a conversation with the recent chemical engineering graduate. I was quickly initiated into the sexist world of the modern job search. My acquaintance was one of only a handful of females to have graduated from her program, and would often encounter people who questioned the veracity of her resume. During job interviews potential employers, all of whom have thus far been men, would often have a difficult time reconciling her striking manner of dress—high heels, a pencil skirt and blazer, red lipstick, and an oversized designer bag—with the qualifications on her resume, which presents her as someone desperately interested in, not to mention excelling at, all things math and science. The cognitive dissonance demonstrated by these men is clear

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Don’t be fooled by the rocks that she’s got. as day: chemical engineers cannot perform expertly while dressing like supermodels. You can’t be both smart and girly; something has to give, and if you happen to have come from a country in the Middle East where no one bats an eyelid at women in serious professions dressing like Amal Clooney, well then, tough luck.

My second anecdote involves a good friend who works as a legal secretary at a reputable personal injury

law firm. She also takes private ballroom and Latin dance classes. I was stunned when she told me that from now on we must pretend she has a long-distance boyfriend. I was against the idea and I asked her to explain her decision. She told me she wanted to prevent the various sexual innuendos, unpleasant propositions, and downright inappropriate remarks she frequently encounters both at work and at dance recitals. Her solution

was to present herself as “already taken”. Dumbfounded and naïve, I volunteered the fact that nothing of the sort has ever happened to me, to which she replied: “As a private tutor you work with people younger than you. Try working with someone much, much older next time, and you’ll see what I mean.”

The other issue I have in mind is marriage, or rather our cultural worship of the institution. I’m turning 25

this week, and am slowly becoming aware of a cultural litmus test that categorizes women into two groups: those who are married or in relationships and those who aren’t. Despite what we tell ourselves in our supposedly sexually liberated society, if you’re a woman of a certain age and you have a ring on your finger, you have it more together than someone who doesn’t. It’s as simple as that. What I’m saying is that there’s more harm done to women by our collective obsession with the bride who’s found the happily-ever-after in her prince than just the fact that the average wedding in Canada costs about as much as an undergraduate degree.

By no means am I against marriage; I’m against my own socially conditioned reflex to meeting a new woman and taking a quick, covert glance at her left hand to see whether and what kind of a diamond is sitting there. The size of his wallet is supposed to be equated to the size of his love—jewellery stores have this measurement down to the hundredth of a carat—and by extension to her success in life.

Marriage continued on page 9

Chef and students cook up a storm Workshop shows students how to make delicious dishes in only 20 minutes NATASHA HARTONO Amid essay deadlines, tests, and group projects, it can be difficult to eat healthy. Thoughts about food are often pushed to the bottom of our priority list as we channel all our time and energy into classes and assignments. But Chartwells and Hospitality and Retail Services have tried to draw the focus back in that direction by partnering to create a unique cooking class experience for students.

Everyone is welcome to join and may come and go when they please.

The workshops allow students to participate in cooking classes, mingle with professional chefs, meet new people, and enjoy food afterwards.

And they’re free.

Last Wednesday, the workshop’s theme was “Cooking in 20 Minutes”.

The Faculty Club in the Davis Building was transformed into a cooking show set. Rows of chairs lined the room, equipped with recipe cards, white aprons, and survey and sug-

FACEBOOK.COM/UTMDINING/PHOTO

Nothing eases end-of-term stress like a good old bowl of stew. gestion sheets. Three small round tables were ready with portable stoves, spoons, gloves, chopped vegetables, spices, and saucers of sauces. Along the back wall, covered trays of hot

food simmered on tables.

“Cooking is a science. But it has showmanship,” said chef Sandeep Kachroo, UTM’s culinary director.

Kachroo began cooking at age 17

and has since studied at culinary school and worked in luxury hotels all over the world. He has travelled to Luxembourg, Shanghai, and the south of France, to name a few

places. With a lifetime of experience under his chef ’s hat, Kachroo has worked in food and dining at UTM for almost a year.

“Not all mistakes are mistakes.

Some mistakes are inventions,” Kachroo said with a grin. “Recipes are only a guideline.” The group made bread pudding, a classic dessert of stale bread and baked custard, first. Kachroo showed the group of 20 students how to crack an egg with one hand. We helped butter the bread and crack the rest of the eggs.

After preparing dessert, we moved onto cooking the main course. Students split into three groups and picked a table with either beef, chicken, or vegetable stew. All the meat was halal and the vegetable option was also vegan. Kachroo went from table to table to check up on progress, provide cooking tips, and verify that we had correctly identified the ingredients on the table.

Chef continued on page 10

03.16.2015 THE MEDIUM FEATURES» 9

Let me pick you up Consider Ken UTM students launch carpooling app BlancRide

What is a healthy male body image?

SAIMA KHAN

ZARA RIZWAN/THE MEDIUM

The student creators didn’t know one another before enrolling in ENV332.

FARAH QAISER STAFF WRITER It’s a daily struggle. I suppose many of us can imagine our wallets emptying as we pay for gas, insurance, and parking, or feel the cramps in our legs as we march back and forth between the relocated bus stops.

One alternative (besides moving into residence) is carpooling.

I know what you’re thinking: if you or your friends don’t own a car, how on earth do you find a reliable stranger who just happens to go to UTM every day and who will agree to drive you? This is where BlancRide comes in.

BlancRide is a carpooling app available to students at UTM, York, and UOIT. Five UTM students created it: Mishal Arif, Ahmad Khan, Teri Elizabeth Fallowfield, Jenny Pan, and Zehra Ramsha.

These five didn’t know each other when they entered the ENV332 course together last fall. “Three of us were waitlisted, so we all formed a group together as we were the last

to enter the course,” says Arif, a fifthyear environmental management student. At the end of the course they presented their idea for a carpool prototype app that would reduce UTM’s collective carbon footprint.

In the course, taught by Monika Havelka, students work on an environmental project on campus or in the area. The five brainstormed topics from food to cars to parking. “We’re all environmental students, so we thought, why not help address the issue of cars on campus? Our parking lots are really full—so how can we decrease the number of cars?” says Arif.

“We also wanted to do something that was feasible that we could leave on campus after we graduate this year.”

Before they could move on to the design stage, the group approached students face-to-face to gauge their interest in carpooling. “We did surveying around the bus stop and around the parking spots to get responses from both commuters and student drivers,” says Fallowfield, a fourth-year double major in environmental management and physical

geography. They found that very few people were aware of the carpooling service provided by the Transportation Office, whereas about 40% would use a carpooling app. “It was more than we expected,” says Fallowfield. “I feel like it’s hard to change people’s attitudes about carpooling.”

Even after the course had finished, the team wasn’t done. “We still wanted to take it further. We were a good team, we had a carpool app prototype and we had the power to make this happen,” says Khan. “But we didn’t have the money or the coding expertise.”

The group did some research online and found an article about a similar app that had recently been released.

They made contact and realized that they had the same concept, so the two groups merged. Initially the five UTM students had called themselves “Miles for Smiles”, but they are now a part of BlancRide. The five students have the sole property and right of the app for the UTM campus.

Carpool continued on page 10

Every time we hear about body image, we instantly think of models or bulimics. It’s woven into our minds that body image is only a concern for women and how they should be a replica of what we are exposed to on a daily basis in movies, TV ads, billboards, and fashion shows.

But what about the plus-size man?

Or the scrawny adolescent who is too afraid to enter the gym because other boys his age are fueling up on protein shakes and dead lifts? Why do we fail to acknowledge the issue when it comes to the other gender?

Perhaps it’s just as hard being Ken as it is being Barbie. Calvin Klein’s new campaign with Justin Bieber showing off his white CK briefs demonstrates that men too are packaged in different sizes, heights, and shapes. But it was only a matter of days before images were leaked showing that the Biebs’ thighs, biceps, facial anatomy, and more had been edited to attract society’s approval and amazement.

It’s not surprising that healthy male body image has not seen the same amount of campaigning as the opposite sex’s. Female body image campaigns have become advertisement staples, such as Dove’s “Real Beauty” series, even by corporations that essentially traffic in false ideals of beauty.

Kimberly Green, the registered dietitian at the Health and Counselling Centre, says there has lately been an increase in concern for male body issues.

“I am definitely seeing more and more male students with body image issues,” she says. “Guys today are feeling the pressure to ‘get big’ and conversely ‘be lean’ at the same time. I think a lot of students are really confused about the difference between ‘healthy eating’ (e.g. a nutritious, varied diet, grounded in good science) and what is mar-

keted to our insecurities—for example, supplements, foods, diets, and other products that will help us ‘reduce belly fat’ or ‘get ripped’.”

She says these regimes create more problems instead of tackling the insecurities. In Green’s opinion, because males are known to be less likely than females to seek advice, they are more likely to rely on unhealthy coping mechanisms.

And in many cases their money and efforts are wasted.

But can we really blame men for chasing what they are encouraged to strive for and reinforced to believe?

“A lot of students are really confused about the difference between ‘healthy eating’ [...] and what is marketed to our insecurities.”

Abdulla Khatib, a fourth-year criminology and legal studies student and men’s fashion blogger at musclesandtussles.com, also calls out the discrepancy between what males are taught to see as an ideal body type and how they actually feel. He believes that the “man up” mindset inflicted on men from a young age can only be changed when they truly feel comfortable and confident in what they wear and appreciate how they look in it.

Having attended high-end fashion shows and most recently participated in the famous Toronto Men’s Fashion Week, Khatib urges the fashion industry to accept different body shapes and embrace them, rather than excluding those who do not fit industry standards.

For Khatib, the change takes place on an individual level by first experimenting with styles before finding what makes you feel best.

Women face discrimination, pressure to date Marriage continued from page 8 I write this because more and more of my girlfriends—especially those nearing 30—are increasingly concerned about missing out on their fairytale day. As one friend put it, not having had a boyfriend in three years makes her feel “like a failure”. I remind her that divorce rates in the western world hover around 50%, but it’s a poor consolation; the heart wants what it wants. Unless it’s a phenomenon largely influenced by the mind, which has been moulded to believe that one needs the love of a man in order to be a complete woman.

Chimamanda Adichie was referencing her native Nigeria when she spoke the following words, but I believe they’re as applicable to North America and other parts of the world: “Our society teaches a woman at a certain age who is unmarried to see it

as a personal failure, while a man at a certain age who is unmarried has just not come around to making his pick.”

Similarly, in her book Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert researches the question of love and marriage, and thus details her friend’s experience: “Another single friend replied, ‘Wanting to get married, for me, is all about a desire to feel chosen.’ This friend’s desire for a wedding would ‘unequivocally prove to everyone, especially to [herself], that [she] is precious enough to have been selected by somebody forever.’ ” Meanwhile, Nancy Leong, professor of law at the University of Denver, writes in The Huffington Post about the discrimination that western society has against those who remain single. She mentions one study by social psychologists Bella de Paulo and Wendy Morris, which revealed that “single people were viewed more neg-

atively across a wide spectrum of personality traits”. This study concluded that members of the general public are more likely to use adjectives like “mature, stable, honest, happy, kind, and loving” to describe those who are married, while singles are likelier to be labelled as “immature, insecure, self-centred, unhappy, lonely, and ugly”. Almost 50% of the study’s respondents described married people as “caring, kind, and giving”, but only 2% said the same of single people.

All this eagerness to tie the knot, despite the fact that marriage continues to benefit men far more than it benefits women. Guardian columnist Louise Carpenter writes in “The myth of wedding bliss” about how sociologists have termed this the “Marriage Benefit Imbalance”, which is a broad name for the results of countless studies conducted over the years on singles and those who are married, all

of which conclude that married men are wealthier, live longer, excel more at their careers, suffer less from alcohol, drug addiction, and depression, and generally report greater levels of happiness when compared with single men. For women, the statistics are reversed. Currently in America, married women do not live longer, do not accumulate more wealth, do not achieve as much or more professional success, are more likely to be depressed, and are more likely to die a violent death than single women. In fact, women on average are paid 7% less if they’re married, and as far as violent deaths are concerned, they are usually perpetrated by a husband, former boyfriend, or jilted lover, making a woman’s entering into a relation one of the most dangerous things she could do.

Another example of Leong’s is a series of studies that found that 80%

of landlords would prefer to rent to married couples, and another study that found that “participants rated a male job applicant as more ‘suitable’ if he was married and rated a male employee as more dedicated if he was married” than if he was single. As you may guess, “[t]he opposite was true for women, which suggests that in some instances, perhaps due to stereotypes about gender and childrearing, women suffer a marriage penalty,” writes Leong.

This is why we still need feminism, even today. As much I as love attending weddings and watching Tiffany & Co. commercials, it’s hard to keep reminding myself that one can be a happy, self-actualized woman who does not need a man, or a woman whose love of fashion and math will not be judged incompatible, when input from the outside world always seems to confirm the opposite.

10

«FEATURES

THE MEDIUM 03.16.2015

Got a club for that?

Is there a food more beloved than noo-

the recipe originated: meatless.

dles? From spaghetti to egg and udon

“I invented this dish when I was veg-

to chow mein, they are an integral part

an. It’s still a weekly staple in my house,

of the world’s favourite dishes. They’re

even with my meat-loving husband and

an unstoppable force overcoming any

fickle kids. Try it on a meat-free Monday

gluten- or carb-free dieter’s no-no list—

and give your body, farm animals, and

be it a blend of gluten-free grains or

the planet a break,” she says.

finely sliced veggies. They’re as wel-

But she goes on to explain that if the

come on the table of any Michelin star

tahini doesn’t provide enough protein,

restaurant as they are doused in some

you can sauté it in sesame oil before

cheap tomato sauce straight out of the

adding the garlic. She recommends

pot in a university dorm.

firm tofu, chickpeas, or tempeh.

Laurel Waterman, a professional

Whatever variation you take, the final

writing lecturer (this semester of the

consideration when digging into a big

food and writing course), has shared

bowl of noodles—and this goes for any

her own noodle recipe with me. Her

noodle recipe, really—is the weapon of

noodle of choice? Soba.

attack. For her recipe Waterman opts

“This is my healthy substitute when I crave the comfort of Kraft Dinner. Only

for chopsticks, but says that “forks give it a more mac ’n’ cheesy feel”.

a few ingredients are stalwarts. You

But what about the classic fork and

can add, subtract, and substitute oth-

spoon twirl? Or for those who lack of

erwise,” says Waterman. For example,

clean cutlery, how about the ultimate

she suggests a sprinkling of seaweed

challenge of just a spoon? Or if you just

strips and pickled ginger as a garnish

can’t wait to get into those delicious

for any sushi-lover.

noodles, throw all table manners to the

And it’s a recipe that pleases time

wind, firmly place a hand on either side

and time again—no matter what the di-

of the bowl, and slurp. Why let anything

etary requirements. At the moment for

get in between you and the world’s

Waterman and her family, it’s the way

most trusted starch?

Soba Noodle Surprise MAKES 2–4 SERVINGS INGREDIENTS • 1 kg 100% buckwheat or wheat blend soba or rice noodles • 5 bunches baby bok choy, spinach, kale, or swiss chard, chopped • 2 garlic cloves, minced • 1 tbsp sesame oil

heat at medium-high. If using olive oil, heat at medium.

3.Toss in garlic. Simmer for 2 minutes or until the first hint of brown appears, then add greens. Stir and reduce heat to medium-low. Keep stirring so the garlic doesn’t burn.

• 2 heaping tbsp tahini

4.In a measuring cup, small mason jar,

• 2 glugs maple syrup

or glass, mix the tahini, maple syrup,

• 1 tbsp Braggs or soya sauce

Braggs or soya sauce, rice vinegar,

• 1 tbsp rice vinegar • juice of ½ lemon • Sriracha hot sauce, to taste (optional) • handful of sesame seeds, to garnish METHOD 1.Prep greens and garlic and set a

and lemon.

5.When the greens are wilted and soft, reduce heat to low, add noodles and sauce, and stir.

6.Serve in bowls and garnish with sesame seeds. You may toast the

large pot of water to boil. Boil soba

sesame seeds in a toaster oven or in

noodles for 5 minutes, following the

a frying pan, but sesame seeds burn

instructions on the package. Drain,

easily, so if you’re a scatterbrained

rinse, and set aside.

cook (like me), use raw sesame

2.Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. If using sesame oil or another nut oil,

seeds.

7.Add Sriracha to taste.

Start up a club and cater to your personal interest FARAH QAISER STAFF WRITER There are over 100 recognized clubs at UTM, but some of us still find no place for our interests. Personally, I’d love to see a club dedicated to the TV show addicts hiding around on campus. Where’s the support group for the House Stark fans suffering through every episode of Game of Thrones? Everyone has their own passion, but most of us who don’t have a group with whom to share our own shrug and accept the selection of clubs that are already established.

But a group of first-year students refused to in this case.

Aida Jahjah, Amara Malik, and Myra Farooq have banded together to form the UTM Scribes, a club preparing to be officially registered. The idea for the club, initially called the Writer’s Club, was developed last summer. But as the fall term started, they encountered a lot of discouragement from both students and their own members.

“There’s a lot of negative energy around at UTM,” says Jahjah, the president of the club. “You need to not get discouraged—forming a club cannot be done alone, so you definitely need to find people to help you out.”

The Scribes have had a rough go of it. The last two presidents have stepped down to focus on their studies. But today the Scribes are now on ULife and hope to meet the summer deadline for UTMSU approval.

“We’re currently working on our blog, which we plan to have up and running within two weeks,” adds Jahjah. The blog will feature categories such as poetry and riddles.

They intend to show off our cultural diversity and perhaps offer a behind-the-scenes view of UTMSU. Jahjah also plans for a magazine next year. “People are claiming that a magazine won’t work out, that not many people will read it, but I’m not going to get discouraged again,” she says. “I’m a dreamer, and I’d say this to anyone: stick it out and find people to help you, and you can form your own club too.”

Another new club this year is the Islamic Relief Chapter, under the leadership of Sania Shenwari, a first-year life sciences student. The club was recognized in January.

Shenwari’s biggest obstacle was being unaware of the procedure for gaining club recognition. But since being recognized, the Islamic Relief hasn’t slowed down. Within a month they held their first event, Lend a Hand, during Alternative Reading Week, where 20 volunteers spent a day at the St. Felix Centre in downtown Toronto cooking and serving lunch at a soup kitchen.

They then distributed care packages known as “Happy Kits”.

Shenwari’s motivation came partly from the organization of the same name. Islamic Relief received its first ever donation from a 12-year-old boy. The donation of 12 pence was a spark that set off the entire charity. This story is an important inspiration to Shenwari: her club is small, but they have big plans.

“I love what Islamic Relief stands for: the empowering of communities,” she says. “It’s where people respond as one to the suffering of others, and are ready to answer the call of anyone in need. We can all be that 12-year-old boy too, and it’s our actions, big or small, that

can have a positive impact on this world.”

The third club I’ll discuss wasn’t created by a passionate first-year, but took time. Ongelle-Lise Burnett, a fourth-year double major in biology and classics, knows that good things come to those who wait. Burnett has been nurturing her love of squash—the sport, not the vegetable—for years. When she first arrived at UTM, squash was only available at St. George.

“I made dozens of excuses,” says Burnett, for not starting a squash club. She didn’t believe that she could lead one, nor that she could balance her time between it and her course load. “But then from first year to third year, I was able to strike off my excuses and then last July I thought, ‘What’s my excuse now?’ ” Back home in Guyana, there were only two rather exclusive squash clubs. “It wasn’t expensive to play— the equipment itself was affordable.

It was just that the membership was hard to gain,” says Burnett. “Last summer, I was playing squash with my friends and I was teaching them also. I realized I wanted to have the same environment here, and that’s probably what helped motivate me.”

Burnett and her team of executives working together over the Internet over the summer rushed to meet last summer’s deadline for UTMSU approval. Thanks to their efforts, today the UTM Squash Club is open to all for no fees whatsoever. The members will attend their first tournament later this month.

Next time you wish you had friends you could practise your hobby with, why not take the first step like these students have done?

Carpool instead Possible celebrity chefs Carpool continued from page 9 They are currently involved with outreach and promotion for the app while it undergoes open beta testing. Meanwhile, they face the prospect of competing with popular apps like Uber. “Uber is a forprofit taxi organization,” explains Khan. “What we’re doing is carpooling, and it is a not-for-profit organization. We try maintaining our costs below the standard that is claimed as profit by the Ontario government.”

What I particularly like about the app is that it eliminates the hassle of bargaining; fare rates are calculated beforehand BlancRide, which is available for iOS and Android, has an elegant interface. The drivers’ verification

includes their car information, a credit check, and a criminal record check. After that, drivers simply select their pick-up and drop-off points, and BlancRide handles the matching. Both passengers and drivers have the chance to view each other’s rating and profiles before agreeing to a ride.

What I particularly like about the app is that it eliminates the hassle of bargaining; fare rates are calculated beforehand and are affordable, too. “Generally, within Mississauga, it’s no more than $5,” says Fallowfield. “When you get a little further into Toronto or Oakville, it goes up to $7 to $8 and that’s GO train rates right there.

“We have some students who commute from Thornhill and Vaughan, so this is definitely a good option for commuters who have to cover long distances daily,” he added.

BlancRide plans to improve their service at UTM before expanding elsewhere.

Chef continued from page 8 Each group plated their meals and garnished them for a little extra presentation. We sat back down and each group informally presented their dish and explained what they learned. The beef students explained that if a recipe calls for rosemary, the spice should be crushed first and then tossed into oil, or else it will be bitter instead of sweet. The chicken students joked that Kachroo had caught them right before they tossed a bowl of tomato sauce into their stew.

The workshop ended with a feast of ready-made trays of the food that we cooked with sides of rice, lentils, beans, and garlic bread. The bread pudding was also hot and ready to eat.

“Learning how to cook is a valuable life skill and it’s something that can help you save a lot of money,” said fourth-year biology specialist Wayne Ferrao. “I learned

about flavour profiling—flavours that work well together or flavours that don’t.”

“I walked in all tense, expecting a lightning-fast cooking round, and was completely surprised to discover how fun and relaxing the Chartwells staff and event coordinators made the whole thing out to be,” said Sophia Luo, a thirdyear art and art history and French student. “It was effortless learning—you could try what you were taught as soon as it was taught, which is so refreshing after hours of sitting in lectures.”

“We want students to come in and be able to take something away they didn’t know before.

Chartwells is not just here to provide food. We can teach people as well as […] the thought process and everything that goes into healthy cooking,” said Michael Jeronimo, the general manager of Chartwells.

He added that the workshops double as an alternative venue for

student feedback on menus.

“There are real chefs, there is real menu-ing, and there are real thought processes that go into the meals on campus,” said Eli Bamfo, Chartwells’ manager of campus engagement and sustainability.

“I enjoy just being able to engage with students on food literacy. The more that students know about food, the more they’ll care about it and really appreciate all the work that goes into food services on campus.”

He said that Kachroo would “probably do most of the workshops”, but that they hope to bring in Canadian celebrity chefs and other chefs “from the Chartwells world”.

The first workshop, “Healthy eating on a budget”, was held on January 26. Students can expect one more before the school year is over. It will be at the end of the month; UTM Dining’s social media accounts are to announce the exact date.

03.16.2015

»

11

Varsity soccer ends first OCAA year Men’s and women’s teams unable to qualify for provincial championships in OCAA regional SIHAN ZHENG ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR The UTM Eagles men’s and women’s indoor soccer teams travelled to the Ontario Soccer Centre on March 3 to contend for a spot in the OCAA Indoor Soccer Provincial Championships.

Both the men and the women qualified for the regional tournament after a fantastic showing at a Sheridan invitational. Both teams failed to qualify for the provincial championships, but they performed admirably and set up a good foundation for the future of the UTM varsity soccer program.

The Eagles were seeded into pool B. Each pool had five teams, with the top two teams advancing. Centennial, St. Chair, St Lawrence-Brockville, and Sault College were drawn against the UTM men, while the women had to play Conestoga, St. Clair, and St. Lawrence-Brockville. The Eagles were up against some very tough competition, and qualifying for the provincial championships was going to be a challenge.

CALEB SIU/PHOTO

The teams will enter UTM’s first full season in the OCAA this fall.

The men started strong, with a 1-0 win against Sault. It was followed up by a 0-0 draw against Centennial and a 3-0 loss versus St. Clair. The men finished the tournament with a very strong showing against St. LawrenceBrockville, dominating the match and winning 4-0, but unfortunately,

Shine a spotlight on the sidelines ERIC HEWITSON ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR Sitting on the bench, observing your teammates compete in passionate battle against another university squad, isn’t the favourite activity of many Varsity Blues athletes. But for backup women’s hockey goalie Katey Teekasingh and men’s football receiver Chris McDonald, the bench is where they get inspired, a place they feel privileged to be.

Typically, when you read a sports article, listen to sports-talk radio, or watch the morning highlights, you’re battered with the accomplishments of renowned athletes and performers. As you hear about these players more often, you start to think everyone else on the team must be short on skill or drive, but the opposite is true.

Every year varsity coaches recruit new players from all across the country in the hope of eventually replacing the graduating athletes with equally competitive and skilled ones. Not every recruit is a born superstar with a sense of entitlement; they’re aware that they will have to work diligently on their craft and progress throughout their career.

Katey Teekasingh, a second-year sociology student at UTM, knows this very well. Teekasingh is backup goaltender to a starter who is an all-star in CIS woman’s hockey. Nicole Kesteris is her name; she posts statistics ranked in the top three in many goaltending categories.

Teekasingh has developed, over time, a unique set of qualities that give her the motivation to practise every day and rival Kesteris.

“I’ve still been able to support my team in the dressing room and on the bench by offering insight on what we can improve on and being an active influence,” says Teekasingh, now in her second season with the Blues. “I work hard in practice to not only make myself better but to help make my team better as well. If I make it hard for them to score in practice, then they have to work harder to score on me.”

Teekasingh believes she’s set herself for a starting spot next year by the way she’s carried herself on and off the ice. “I’m very happy to have been given the opportunity to play in six games this season,” she says.

Bench continued on page 12

it was not enough to advance. St. Clair and Centennial advanced to the OCAA Championship.

The women started off with a very hard-fought 2-2 draw against Sault and a narrow 2-1 defeat against St. Clair. They were able to bounce back with a strong 3-0 showing against

St Lawrence-Brockville, but unfortunately, a final 1-0 defeat against Conestoga meant that they too were unable to qualify for provincials.

Overall, as a young program, the Eagles performed very well. They were able to play and fight against strong established programs with

long histories of success while displaying confidence on the field. They had what should definitely be considered a very successful season— especially the men’s team, which defeated the overwhelming favourite, Sheridan, to win UTM’s first trophy in soccer earlier this season.

The UTM women’s coach Damian Yearwood believes that the Eagles were extremely competitive at the regional level and only narrowly missed out on advancing. The men failed to qualify on goal difference, and the women would have qualified if they had been able to score a single extra goal.

As for the future of the program and outdoor soccer, Yearwood is “looking forward to the challenge” but admits that transitioning to a full 90-minute outdoor game would be tough for them, especially since the Eagles have been placed in the “group of death” with traditional powerhouses like Humber, Seneca, and Sheridan.

Soccer continued on page 12

UTM volleyball reborn

CALEB SIU/PHOTO

The team will compete in a tournament at Mississauga Secondary this Friday.

ADAM PENKUL Out of all of the sports offered at UTM, volleyball is one of the most active sports around the RAWC, although it is not always the most advertised. Despite this, the various volleyball programs are increasing in popularity every year. The most notable of these is women’s tri-campus.

The tri-campus women had a very exciting season this year from start to finish and managed to fight their way into a playoff position in a must-win final regular season game, beating Scarborough 3-0. The team worked hard throughout the year, and their

appearance in playoffs for the first time in six years demonstrated the women’s confidence and how well they worked as a team. It showed that UTM volleyball is on the rise and finally ready to compete with the best after rebuilding for the past few years.

The Eagles ended their impressive season with a heartbreaking semi-final loss to St. George. The game was a five-set thriller that the women really deserved to win, in which they dominated the play and only small mistakes kept them from advancing. The final set, decided by a margin of just two points, showed how determined the Eagles were.

Despite their early exit in the semifinals, coach Alex Singh was very happy with his team’s success this season. “This is the first year I’ve had this squad, so making it to playoffs for the first time in six years was a big achievement,” he says. “The team is still new and they are learning, but it was definitely a successful season.”

The volleyball program at UTM is currently in a transition period, with plans for the men’s and women’s teams to join the OCAA league in the coming years.

Vball continued on page 12

12

«SPORTS

THE MEDIUM 03.16.2015

Wins begin to spike for UTM Vball continued from page 11 This league represents a level of play higher than what any UTM volleyball team is used to, and the team is excited and ready to compete.

“We’re constantly trying to push the volleyball program at UTM to a higher standard to get ready for varsity play,” says Singh, who took over the coaching position looking to emphasize skill development and teamwork. “The team has expressed their faith and belief in me this year, and I intend to continue to work my hardest [and be] as positive as possible.

“The coaching this year has been more strict and to the point, and we’ve played good volleyball as a result,” he adds. “For this year, we were trying to change it around and have a proper coaching aspect. It’s very rewarding when you’re playing and you see what you’ve been practising being translated onto the court, resulting in success. It’s the best part [about coaching].”

Captain Jessica Silva is also excited for the upcoming seasons after working very hard to lead the women into playoffs. “Although we were a new team, the one thing that made this team do so well through this season would be our strong mentality,” she said. The women’s resilience was particularly evident in their final two

games, when they overcame several deficits to push their opponents for every point, no matter the score.

Looking ahead, the Eagles seem to be in very good shape. After the success of this season, it is clear that the women have developed a very strong sense of teamwork and their morale is high in practices and games.

“I’m really excited about next season because we’ll have a majority of the same girls coming back,” says Silva.

“It’s about time that volleyball is taken seriously at UTM. Our chemistry is there, so all we need to work on is our technical skills in order to be prepared for the varsity level.”

The team is clearly very close-knit, with small mistakes being their only weakness throughout the season. Because of this, Singh believes that by focusing more on technical aspects, they can go further and possibly even win the Tri-campus Cup in the near future.

“They’re good at working together, so we just need to practise skills a little more and we then we can look at tactical plays to help us become an even stronger team,” she says.

Although the season is finished for the Eagles, they are back in action on Friday in a tournament at Mississauga Secondary. The women will be looking to show that volleyball is back and better than ever at UTM.

Views from the sixth Bench continued from page 11 Many other U of T athletes are in the same position. Second-year political science student Chris McDonald knows these struggles well.

Even though he has made his way up an extensive list of wide receivers on the men’s football team to impress coaches, when a player competes for a position held by veteran players, it’s difficult to push ahead.

At the beginning of the 2014 season, there were over 20 wide receivers on the depth chart and only a quarter of those players dress in a game. McDonald made the most of his situation last year by making

great plays in an exhibition game against McGill and showing signs of brilliance during practice.

McDonald is still pushing for that level he knows he’s able to get to. “[I want to] prove to everyone

“I work hard in practice to not only make myself better but to help make my team better as well.”

—Katey Teekasingh on the coaching staff that I belong as a starter in this league,” he says.

To make matters complicated for McDonald and other receiv-

ers, the team doesn’t have a specific receiver coach. But despite the frustration, drive is never hard to find. “My motivation comes from the family and enjoying playing football. What brings me to practice every day is the guys and proving those who think I don’t belong wrong,” he says.

The superstars on a team aren’t the only reasons why teams have the success they do—their success depends on the competitiveness and leadership of the entire unit.

Players from the bottom of the chart can have as much influence in the room as the guy at the top.

And you always have to work hard to get where you want to be.

Varsity soccer’s future Soccer continued from page 11 There is a positive attitude in the locker room, though, and both teams are looking forward to next season.

As for what the team needs to improve on for next season, women’s striker Katerina Savin mentioned that cardio and match fitness were a concern.

They would often “get gassed from running so much”. Rebecca Victor-

atto agrees that fitness is a challenge for UTM, adding that as a new team, the Eagles were relatively underprepared for the unique challenges of indoor soccer, such as the artificial grass and the fast-paced tactics.

Veteran striker Sheri Veibl says UTM performed very well and had a good first season at this much higher level. “We were able to make some noise this season and give teams that have been playing together for years

a run for their money,” she pointed out. Defender Kojo Awuah shares similar sentiments for the men’s team.

Despite failing to qualify for provincials, the Eagles performed very well for a first-year team at the varsity level, and with this current pool of talented players, the Eagles are well-prepared for the next season and beyond in both indoor and outdoor soccer.