Vol 39 issue 16

February 4, 2013 Volume 39, Issue 16 www.mediumutm.ca

UTM asks for student feedback on Co-Curricular Record Co-Curricular Record will require U of T employees to validate students’ activities next year Larissa Ho News Editor The Office of Student Life at U of T held town hall meetings on all three campuses to solicit input and answer questions from the U of T community about the development of the Co-Curricular Record, expected to be made available to students in September.

The UTM town hall was held last Thursday in the Kaneff Centre with less than 10 people in attendance. Dale Mullings, the director of residence and student sife at UTM, and Kimberly Elias, the program coordinator of the CCR initiative at the Office of Student Life at St. George, led the one-hour town hall.

The CCR is an official U of T document that recognizes students’ involvement in extracurricular activities. Students can link the skills they gain from each activity with those that employers and graduate schools look for.

Elias, who spoke for the majority of the town hall, said that the

Jasmeen Virk/The Medium

Dale Mullings and Kimberly Elias explain the developing Co-Curricular Record, available in fall 2013. intent of the CCR is to “encourage involvement while acknowledging barriers to participation”.

This relates to one of the ques-

tions asked at the focus groups held last December: “What are barriers to your participation in extracurricular activities?”

“The CCR helps you see the connection between engagement and the skills you are developing,” said Elias. “It helps you

market your experiences and skills to employers and graduate and professional school programs.”

Elias presented the criteria for the activities to be included in the CCR. Among other criteria, activities must meet the validation process and involve active engagement and a reflection component, whereby participants reflect on the competencies they developed.

The quality of the engagement is important, according to Elias.

“We want each of these activities to be valuable,” she said. “If it becomes a list of every single thing you did, it will be a 30-page list no one wants to look at.”

Activities on the CCR must also be affiliated with U of T, so community-based activities may not be counted. For example, volunteer work with the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentorship program would not make it into the record unless it was done through U of T’s own BBBS program.

CCR continued on page 3

SEC gives students tools for relationships Students come together to brainstorm solutions for bad relationships jai Sangha associate news editor Referendum passes The UTM Sexual Education and Peer Counselling Centre held the “Healthy Relationships” workshop last Thursday in the Davis Building to give students a better understanding of what constitutes a healthy relationship and how to overcome relationship roadblocks.

James Boutilier, the external education coordinator at SEC, and Gina Cellucci, the peer counselling volunteer at SEC, led the workshop, which focussed on a type of relationship they defined as “consensual, monogamous, and romantic”.

“I designed this workshop with the goal of giving people the tools to have healthy relationships,” said Boutilier in an interview.

Students vote in favour of expanding the Student Centre.

Medium News, page 2

Bang for your Tim’s buck UTM’s director of hospitality and retail services talks Tim Cards.

Medium Opinion, page 4

Music Club open mic Student musicians play covers and original material at the UTM Music Club’s latest open mic night.

Medium A&E, page 5

You will always what?

Google Translate just ain’t right for your French paper. It might never be.

Medium Features, page 9 Jasmeen Virk/The Medium

SEC executives present the “Healthy Relationships” workshop in the Davis Building.

Participants worked in groups and generated ideas about the differences between good and

bad relationships, brainstormed some common relationship roadblocks, and role-played various

relationship scenarios.

SEC continued on page 3

UTM wins soccer tourny Six teams battle for indoor soccer supremacy at the RAWC. Medium Sports, page 11

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«NEWS THE MEDIUM

02.04.2013

International Centre pilots peer program Students get one-on-one mentoring Jai Sangha Associate NEws Editor The International Centre at UTM piloted a peer support program for first-year international students in Januar y to help them transition into Canadian lifestyle and culture.

The peer program, known as “internationalLIFE”, is facilitated by peer leaders who are themselves international students, and focusses on life skills, social transition, conversational English, and one-onone mentoring.

The program complements other peer programs on campus, like rezONE and genONE, to provide a support network for first-year international students without family and friends in Canada, said Joanna Mackie, the international student development officer at the IC. “All students face a shock when they come to university.

International students deal with a more profound series of shocks, because not only are the expectations from high school to university different, you may be away from your family for the first time, or your home countr y,” said Mackie in an inter view.

Ever y first-year international student is put in one of 11 international cohorts under a peer leader. The leaders hold work-

shops to assist students in developing life skills, social events to help students build networks and relationships, English conversation sessions to help overcome language barriers, and one-on-one mentoring to address individual needs.

“It’s not necessarily the content of these experiences that will attract students, but the relationships that they will form and are forming that will encourage them to come out,” said Mackie. “Even for those students that are perhaps less inclined to participate in the workshops and activities, at the ver y least they have the name of the peer international leader.

They have a name of somebody they can approach and say, ‘I’m over whelmed. I’m experiencing this issue and have no idea how to deal with it.’ ” The program is intended to familiarize international students with campus resources related to their careers, health, and other aspects of university life to help them have a more meaningful university experience, said Mackie.

The IC provides advising, transition ser vices, and programs for both international and internationally-minded students at UTM, according to their website, and is part of the Office of Student Affairs at UTM.

Referendum for Student Centre expansion passes Over 2,000 students voted in the referendum last week

UTMSU volunteers campaigning for “yes” votes at UTM last week.

Larissa Ho News Editor UTMSU released the unofficial results of the referendum they held on a levy increase to expand the Student Centre.

According to Chief Returning Officer Babatumi Sodade, 2,258 full-time students, approximately 18% of the student population, voted in the referendum from January 29 to January 31.

Of these, 1,368 students (approximately 60% of the total votes cast) voted yes, 881 students (approximately 40% of the total votes

cast) voted no, and nine ballots were spoiled.

According to UTMSU policy, only 5% of the student population, or about 600 of the 12,000 students at UTM, need to vote in order for a referendum to be valid.

The results still have to be presented to UTMSU’s Elections and Referenda Committee for final ratification.

The Student Centre expansion is a cash-in-hand project to be funded dollar-for-dollay by the university. Since student commitment to support the project was needed before going forward, a referendum

Ayman Khan/The MEdium

was required.

Now that the referendum has passed, students can expect a fee increase starting next fall. Their yearly fees to UTMSU will see a temporary increase of $54 per fall/ winter year for the first three years, as well as a permanent increase of $21 per fall/winter year (including the first three years). This yields a total fee of $100 per year for the first three years and $46 afterwards.

The project is expected to cost $4 million, which is to be split equally between the student union and the university.

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we make taxes painle$$ hrblock.ca | 800-HRBLOCK (472-5625) © 2013 H&R Block Canada, Inc. *$29.95 valid for student tax preparation only. To qualify, student must present either (i) a T2202a documenting 4 or more months of full-time attendance at a college or university during the applicable tax year or (ii) a valid high school ID card. Instant Cash Back is included in the price. Students pay $79.99 for Complex/Premier return. Expires 12/31/2013. Valid only at participating locations. Additional fees apply. Instant Cash Back valid only on the federal portion of tax returns filed in Quebec. Some restrictions apply. SPC cards available at participating locations in Canada only. Offers may vary, restrictions may apply. For full terms see www.spccard.ca.

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02.04.2013 THE MEDIUM NEWS

Call for electoral reform of UTSU UTSU is holding a Special General Meeting on Tuesday Larissa Ho News editor UTSU’s Special General Meeting, a replacement for November’s Annual General Meeting whose agenda was rejected by union members, is set to take place on Tuesday, February 5.

The new agenda includes proposed amendments that failed to make the agenda at the AGM. Four amendments in particular, proposed by the opposition, have been submitted for inclusion, along with routine business carried over from November’s failed agenda. These four amendments, submitted by Trinity College co-head Samuel Greene and seconded by Benjamin Dionne, the president of the University College Literary and Athletic Society, address procedural issues, such as reducing the number of signatures required to run for executive office at the union and ending the practice of proxy voting on the union’s Board of Directors.

Proxies are forms enabling students who cannot attend the meeting to have other students vote on their behalf. A fully completed form can confer on one student the votes of up to 10 others. Perhaps the most prominent proposed amendment is to implement online voting.

UTSU’s Annual General Meeting at St. George in November ended abruptly after the attendees failed to

approve the agenda, which was defeated by an unofficial tally of 999 votes against and 905 in favour.

The meeting ended just after the reform-minded Greene urged members not to vote in favour of the agenda because, he said, it had been created through an “unfair, untransparent, and undemocratic” process and did not truly reflect student concerns.

These four amendments address procedural issues, such as reducing the number of signatures required to run for executive office at the union and ending the practice of proxy voting on the union’s Board of Directors.

Several proposed reforms to UTSU’s policies were quashed a week before the AGM because, it was announced, the amendments had been submitted too late to be vetted by the Policy and Procedures Committee and the Board of Directors. Before

receiving a hearing at a general meeting, amendments must first be approved by the Policy and Procedures Committee, and then by a supermajority of the union’s Board of Directors.

According to some, including Greene, the deadline was purposefully not advertised in order to prevent the proposed changes from coming up in time for the AGM. On the Monday before the AGM, the Trinity College Meeting unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in UTSU. The motion was moved by Greene and called for the resignation of UTSU’s VP internal, Corey Scott.

In response to growing calls for electoral reform, the union opted to hire a lawyer to conduct a review of current electoral procedures and policies.

Shepherd has repeatedly promised to implement electoral reform before this year’s UTSU election.

The Special General Meeting will be held on February 5 at 6 p.m. in room 2158 of the Medical Sciences Building.

All UTSU constituents are eligible to attend the meeting. UTM full-time undergraduate students are members of UTSU, paying $60 per year to the organization. UTSU provides the health and dental plan for students at the Mississauga campus.

Extracurriculars on record

»

3

»What’s your favourite campus grub?

Syed Gilani 4th-year, political science

Corey Belford 4th-year, CCIT

Pub food or Oscar Peterson Hall food. Almost daily.

I hunt and eat my own venison.

Stephanie Boaventura 3rd-year, criminology

Abdu Gassim 4th-year, commerce

Usually I bring something or I go to Second Cup for coffee.

When I buy something on campus, I buy Subway. Maybe once or twice a week.

Workshop emphasizes healthy relationships

The goal is to include all valid activities in the CCR, which could mean tweaking an activity so that it will match the criteria of a rec-

ognized activity, said Elias. This could mean adding a reflection component to activities that do not already include one.

The CCR will not be retrospective—that is, activities that students participated in before the 2013/14 year will not be included in the record. Activities that students participated in before that will not be included. However, Mullings said, students’ résumés will suffice to reflect participation in extracurricular activities from before the launch of the CCR, which is designed to complement a résumé and official transcript.

The CCR will be available to both undergraduate and graduate students.

U.S. Department of Agriculture sets rules on snacks

Nine-year-old boy thrown off of roof, fighting for his life

Study: every day, 22 military veterans commit suicide

UBC gives all female tenure-stream faculty a 2% raise

Scientists to reveal whether skeleton is that of King Richard III

The Obama administration proposed regulations on Friday that would prohibit U.S. schools from selling unhealthy snacks. The proposed rules would replace traditional potato chips with baked versions and candy with granola. The rules are a product of the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. They would apply to every school, public or private, that participates in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. All snacks must also meet a set of calorie and nutrition requirements.

Freddy Martin, nine, clings to his life after being thrown off of a Bronx apartment building roof. He desperately pleaded, “Stop! Stop!” as his teenage neighbour, Casmine Aska, 17, dragged him to the roof of their five-storey building and chucked him off the ledge, sources said. Once the child arrived at the hospital, doctors placed him on life support. He was still in grave condition with severe body trauma on Saturday. Aska was arrested on Saturday night after telling the police conflicting stories.

The results of a recent study indicate that the suicide rate among veterans in the U.S. is increasing. An estimated 22 military veterans take their lives every day in America, according to the study helmed by Robert Bossarte, an epidemiologist and researcher who works with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “A majority of veteran suicides are among those age 50 years and older. Male veterans who die by suicide are older than non-veteran males who die by suicide,” say the study’s findings.

The University of British Columbia is promising all tenure-stream female faculty a 2% pay hike by the end of the month—an uncommon approach to resolving gender inequity in postsecondary institutions. The increase is expected to cost the school about $2 million this year, and will be retroactive to 2010. The move follows a series of internal equity studies that found female professors of all ranks were paid $14,000 less on average, and after accounting for all factors besides gender the discrepancy was pegged at $3,000.

Scientists will announce on Monday the results of tests meant to determine whether a skeleton found under a parking lot in central England belongs to the 15th-century King Richard III, the last English monarch to die in combat. The skeleton showed signs of Richard’s famed spinal curvature and of fatal battle wounds. The location of the monarch’s grave has been the subject of speculation for centuries. Archeologists, historians, and local tourism officials are all hoping for confirmation that the monarch’s long-lost remains have been located.

Source: The Hill

Source: New York Daily News

Source: CBS Washington

Source: The Globe and Mail

Source: The Toronto Star

CCR continued from Cover Mullings addressed questions at the end of the presentation. People wanted clarification on who would have the ability to validate a student’s participation in a particular activity. Mullings made it clear that only U of T employees would be able to validate participation at this stage in the development of the CCR. In an early phase, students gave feedback to the CCR coordinators saying that they would rather not have the ability to validate activities, as it would make it possible for people to ask their friends to validate them even if they have not participated in the activity, devaluing the

records of those who actually put in the work.

Mullings made it clear that only U of T employees would be able to validate participation at this stage in the development of the CCR

These scenarios included relationship problems stemming from financial differences, infidelity, neglect, and pressure to have sex or to not use contraception.

The groups then presented how they would resolve the issues: by opening communication, listening patiently, establishing trust, and setting boundaries.

The workshop also emphasized the importance of having a healthy relationship with oneself, the lack of which can be the root of problems in interpersonal relationships.

“You cannot be lonely if you love the person you’re alone with,” said Cellucci. She encouraged people to respect themselves, follow their instincts, and understand their emotions in order to foster healthy relationships with others.

SEC held a raffle for participants at the end of the workshop and gave two free tickets to Sex Pub as prizes.

SEC takes a non-judgmental, objective approach to educating and counselling people about issues of human sexuality, and is welcoming to all backgrounds and sexualities, according to their website.

SEC continued from Cover

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« 02.04.2013

Editor-in-Chief » Stefanie Marotta

Student voice For the last few months, I’ve been faced with a dilemma in the opinion section: should I push back a letter to the editor to make space for my own editorial? The editor-in-chief’s editorial in The Medium is tradition. For the last four years, I’ve eagerly looked to the opinion section every week to see the editor’s take on the latest news affecting UTM students. This year, that portfolio was passed on to me.

The growing interest in the opinion section this year makes me optimistic about the growing spirit at UTM. Your letters show that more students are not only paying attention, but gaining the courage to voice their opinion on a professional platform. Last week’s letter “Helpless at Tim Hortons” from Sami Karaman received a response from UTM’s director of hospitality and retail services.

The Medium will always be a platform for student voice at UTM. Stay informed and spark debate.

YOURS, STEFANIE MAROTTA

Making things right at the Tim Hortons queue Dear Editor, The following letter is in response to the piece entitled “Helpless at Tim Hortons—Locations at UTM don’t accept the Tim Card” submitted by Sami Karaman.

The letter was very well written and clearly expressed frustration for the situation that currently exists at the full-service Tim Hortons outlet in the Meeting Place. For this frustration, both Hospitality and Retail Services and Chartwells are sincerely sorry. For the answer you received regarding the lack of acceptance, we are equally sorry and please be assured that follow-up training will take place to reduce the chance of such an answer being provided in the future.

Additionally, I would like to acknowledge that it is true the Tim Hortons cards aren’t accepted at this location at the current time. I do want to reassure you, though, that we have been working towards a solution that

enables the implementation of the Tim Card in this location in the very near future, a solution that provides an appropriate service speed at UTM. This plan has been in the works since before the outlet opened.

The self-serve Tim Hortons kiosk was opened with the Tim Card as per the Tim Hortons standard program implementation. This results in the Tim Card (and the debit and credit card transactions for that matter) in this location being processed over telephone lines. This solution—the solution Tim Hortons uses in all outlets across the country—contributes significantly to the speed of service issues that we experience at UTM, in my opinion. For certain, the Tim Card transactions at the self-serve Tim Hortons are the slowest transaction type on our campus. UTM took the stand that this is not acceptable and we demand better.

So we opened the full-service Tim Hortons with debit and credit card ma-

chines that were network-based and asked that Tim Hortons follow suit to improve the speed of service with their Tim Card. At first they were not willing to do so, but they came around and we are jointly planning the implementation of network-based Tim Card devices for UTM. The UTM Tim Hortons site in the Meeting Place will be the test site for this Tim Hortons program change. This enhancement should be arriving shortly. Please watch for notifications at the Meeting Place Tim Hortons.

You may say that is all well and good for the future, but what about now, you ask—“What about the inconvenience suffered by your faithful customers?”

You are absolutely right in taking this stance. We do need to make it right and this is what we are prepared to do.

Hospitality and Retail Services will open a UTM Campus Value Plan in the amount of $5 for any UTM community member not having an existing

Campus Value Plan upon presentation of a Tim Card. All you need to do is visit the Meal Plan Office located in the Davis Building, room 2098, and show us your Tim Card during the month of February. We will set you up with a Campus Value Plan to make purchases at any food service outlet on campus— including the Blind Duck. You also receive a 5% discount on all campus purchases—yes, again, even at the Blind Duck.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for this issue and please know that it was a setback along a path while UTM was advocating for better service on campus. It is also my hope that you will see the benefits in the Campus Value Plan and the positive impact it has on the speed of service and its contribution to shorter lines.

Bill McFadden, Director, Hospitality and Retail Services, UTM

Let religious adults do as religious adults see fit Dear Editor, A few weeks ago my friend shared with me a most worrying revelation: as a religious person, he feels that secular society is becoming intolerant of his religious rights as it moves farther away from the traditional assumptions that have informed it in the past. Though not religious, I was nonetheless horrified. Horrified because, as a perpetual student of this thing called life, I’ve come to understand that my own freedom of expression comes from the same principle that guarantees the freedom of expression of my friend here, regardless of whether I agree with him.

Unfortunately, this sentiment of “we’re being discriminated against” I’ve been hearing more and more from various members of the religious community, and this has led me to try and uncover the evidence for their claims. Not being a member of a religious community myself, it was a difficult thing to do. I mean, sure, before Dalton Mc-

Guinty resigned from office the papers were full of his fight with the Catholic District School Boards of the province, vis-à-vis the introduction of gaystraight alliances in Catholic schools.

Okay, I thought to myself, here we have the province’s new protocols on antibullying pitted against the Catholic Church’s catechism. But is the Catholic School Boards’ religious freedom really being curtailed by the demands of the government? Are the school boards not implicitly agreeing to follow the rules set out by the province by accepting government funds, paid as taxes

by Ontarians—sixty percent of whom support gay marriage? And what about the overwhelming support of both parents and students in certain Catholic schools for gay-straight alliances? This tug-of-war remains inconclusive, and in any case, has now been overshadowed by the havoc caused by Bill 115.

Two news articles caught my eye recently. The European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that British Air-

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Stefanie Marotta editor@mediumutm.ca

ways discriminated against a Christian employee, Nadia Eweida, who refused to remove her crucifix at work. At first, British courts backed BA, but then Eweida went to the European Court of Human Rights, and I’m glad she did.

“It’s a vindication that Christians have a right to express their faith on par with other colleagues at work visibly and not be ashamed of their faith,” she was quoted as saying, and personally, I’m glad for the ruling. Seeing your flight attendant wearing a cross, or a hijab, or a turban, for that matter, should not send you into an apoplectic fit, being the mature, intelligent, cosmopolitan person that you are.

In two other cases, the Human Rights Court struck down claims by Lillian Ladele, a local authority registrar who refused to oversee same-sex civil partnerships due to her Christian faith, and marriage counsellor Gary McFarlane, who said no to offering gay couples sex therapy due to his beliefs.

Okay there, folks; it seems to me that

SPORTS EDITOR Isaac Owusu sports@mediumutm.ca

you cannot work for your municipal government in Britain without being expected to abide by the law of the land, and civil partnerships between members of the same sex have been legal there since 2005, Ms. Ladele.

Moreover, entering the profession of marriage counsellor might not be wise for you in wild-child Britain, Mr. McFarlane, where gays have been accorded honorary, even mythical status ever since... oh, let’s see, Edward II. May I suggest a Christian marriage counselling program where you could perhaps offer your services?

To wrap this up, I’ve one last but equally fascinating story of tolerance to share with you. There’s a parish on the University of Toronto campus called the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, located at the Newman Centre, and they’ve recently instituted (seemingly at the request of students) a peculiar program called Courage, a support group for homosexuals in the Catholic Church that counsels them to remain celibate.

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Various complaints from the parish members have reached U of T, which led to both the university and the Newman Centre publicly stating that they are independent of each other, though the centre is technically part of the U of T campus given its location. Sure, 50 members have already left the parish in protest, but I rather think there is value in how the university has handled the situation. The Newman Centre is a Catholic organization, so you let religious adults do as religious adults see fit, in their own environment, and let everyone else choose for themselves whether to say or leave.

I’ve walked by the Newman Centre a million times in my life, and although now there’s to be a slight scowl on my face the next time I do, there’s still something to be said for the tolerance of others’ beliefs—especially when they contradict my own.

Valeria Ryrak Fourth-year, english

DISCLAIMER

Opinions expressed in the pages of The Medium are exclusively of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Medium.

Additionally, the opinions expressed in advertisements appearing in The Medium are those of advertisers and not of The Medium.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the editor will be edited for spelling, grammar, style and coherence. Letters will not exceed 700 words in print. Letters that incite hatred, violence or letters that are racist, homophobic, sexist or libelous will not be published. Anonymous letters will not be published.

02.04.2013

«

5

Editor » Colleen Munro

Student musicians show their stuff The UTM Music Club hosts a laid-back night of song, originals add some unconventionality ANDREEA MUSULAN From the smooth sound of the guitars to the moving melodies, the UTM Music Club’s latest open mic night was infused with talent. This came through not only in covers, but also in original material. The audience’s warm reception of the performers added to the comfortable atmosphere UMC created for the event, which was held in the Faculty Club in Davis.

The peppy persona of Zain Ali Shah, who hosted the night, brought out the courage of the performers. At each intro and exit, Shah amused the audience and provided a running commentary on the evening.

One first-year UTM student and his friend were an excellent example of the originality of the night: the covers were inspiring, but their original work surprised the audience with its unconventionality. The guitarist’s talent resonated in the sparse riffs and rhythm dips he played on his acoustic guitar. the singer’s raspy voice added to the depth of their music. Their

UMC’s open mic night provided a supportive environment for performers one original piece, “Highwayman”, felt professionally composed and

left the audience in awe.

Many of the performances fea-

JOE MEASURES/THE MEDIUM

tured acoustic guitars. Carl Doe performed for the first time, sing-

ing a couple of covers, including “Better Together” by Jack Johnson. His voice was perfect for the playful tone of the songs he selected. Despite warning the audience that he was shy, he approached his music very confidently; it was impossible not to tap your toes to the strong rhythm. The adage about not judging a book by its cover was proven several times throughout the night: many performers looked shy, but brought so much excitement to the stage.

UMC executives Joe Measures and Ronny ElShabassy, under the name “Yalla Yalla”, performed some beautiful covers. The harmony of their voices gave the songs personality and distinguished the duo as unique.

Shah himself also performed towards the end, and the night concluded with a sing-along that got everyone on their feet and moving to the beat. All in all, the performers’ passion for their performances was reflected in the audience’s reactions—proof that the night was a success and an experience to remember.

A play for all eras The UTM Drama Club takes on Stoppard’s Arcadia KATE CATTELL-DANIELS Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is a play of words and ideas. This is all very well sitting in a chair with a book in hand, but to lift those words off the page and put them in the mouths of real people is another challenge altogether. The play is a combination of genius and sex, two ideas that drift together, apart, and back together for the duration of the play. In a way, it’s perfect material for U of T students looking for the balance between academia and fun in their own lives.

Arcadia takes place in two eras: that of Septimus Hodge (Stuart Hefford) and Thomasina Coverly (Olivia Orton) in the early 1800s, and the present day, in which we follow Hannah (Roxhanne Norman) and Bernard (Tom Ketchum) as they research the people who lived 180 years ago. The setting is the same throughout: a period room with a couch and a table covered in books and papers.

Some of the strongest moments are those in which the two periods overlap; a present-day character will, for instance, pour tea from a teapot first requested by someone from 1800s.

The props required for this sort of action are very specific. Every-

thing from huge volumes of gaming records, notebooks, sketchbooks, letters, collected poetry, and even a pet tortoise clutter the world these characters inhabit.

And the props, too, are what make the world inhabitable.

Directed by Owen Fawcett, the UTM Drama Club’s production of Arcadia is incredibly well cast.

The character of Thomasina, for instance, undergoes a fairly dramatic change throughout the play.

She grows from a troublemaking and curious but brilliant 13-yearold to an equally brilliant but newly aware young woman. Orton makes this journey without losing the playfulness of the younger Thomasina, keeping her centre intact while her maturity changes.

Norman portrays Hannah with equal dexterity, clearly articulating all her excitement, anger, and vicious sarcasm.

The cast works well as an ensemble, creating not characters but human beings. They do this not through their lines but their reactions, each roll of the eyes or private giggle making them real.

It is precisely because we all react like this every day that it is so fundamental to the development of relationships not only between the characters, but also between the cast and the audience.

My favourite moments are those in which the contemporary and the Victorian coexist without acknowledging or refuting each other. Since both time periods are seen in the same location and the props and set overlap, so does the action. One scene has Valentine, Hannah, Septimus, and Thomasina onstage together. Although neither pair acknowledges the presence of the other, there are moments of near-magic when they come close to touching but do not, or when one character looks straight at another without seeing them. This type of interaction is the realization of Stoppard’s desire to show just how close the past and present are.

The actors and director play a huge part in this, though; it is up to them to convey what they can see and whom they can hear.

The UTMDC has chosen to tackle a difficult but engaging play, and they do so with great success. The cast and directorial team have lent Arcadia the energy it requires in order to keep from getting bogged down in a lot of ideas and relatively little action.

Arcadia runs in the MiST Theatre from February 7 to 9 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for students and seniors, $15 for adults, and $5 for Drama Club members.

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«ARTS THE MEDIUM 02.04.2013

A theatrical night with the UTM Drama Club Performance night offers musical performers and a preview of UTMDC’s upcoming plays

MARIAM AHMED/THE MEDIUM

Josh Wiles performs for the crowd at UTMDC’s performance night.

ALEXANDRA BALAJ On Friday, the UTM Drama Club hosted a performance night, partnering for the first time with the Accessibility Committee on the theme of physical and mental challenges.

The show featured three solo musical performances by Rachelle Goebel, Alice Li, and Josh Wiles, who provided his own guitar accompaniment to the Steeldrivers’ “If It Hadn’t Been for Love”.

The night featured a preview of Marianne, Are You Asleep?, one of three student-written plays chosen to represent UTM at Drama Fest 2013

(the annual four-day U of T drama festival). Marianne, written by Nicolas Potter (who also attended and performed on Friday), “tells the story of a young woman obsessed with communicating with the spirit of her deceased mother”, according to the UTMDC website. In the preview, a sole actress in vintage dress and red lipstick performed a poetic monologue scene. According to the emcee, Marianne is “the perfect Valentine’s Day treat”.

You can catch all three studentwritten plays—Marianne, Are You Asleep?, Bruised Porcelain, and The Gully—at the U of T Drama Festi-

val from February 13 to 16 at Hart House. Performances begin at 7:30 each night. Tickets are available at the door for $12, or for $10 online at UofTtix or through the UTM Drama Club. The Drama Club indicated that it’s best to buy tickets through them, both to get better discounts and because the money comes back to them to fund the Drama Club’s future performances.

The highlight of the night was the cast of the Drama Club’s production of Arcadia, who managed to slip away from rehearsal for a few minutes to present a preview of the show.

Set half in the present and half in

the early 1800s, Arcadia follows two modern-day academics bent on discovering the facts about Lord Byron’s stay at Sidley Park in 1812 and simultaneously features the real events of the celebrated English poet’s life.

In a short scene, the audience got a glimpse of five very different, very animated characters. Bernard, clad in a suit and spectacles, exuberantly read his upcoming lecture on Lord Byron to three colleagues while pacing about. One listener slouched and occupied himself with a Rubik’s Cube while his neighbour fed his pet turtle some sandwich pieces. But the third listener sat upright on the

edge of her seat. She sent Bernard proud smiles and intense stares expressing her undivided interest in everything he was saying, but when he turned away from his barely listening audience, she too leaned back and started texting. As if this hilarity wasn’t enough, in came the second academic, Hannah, with a document that needed the group’s attention.

After she made several objections to Bernard’s speech, Bernard threw a tantrum. The scene ended with Bernard storming off-stage followed by the two protesting women.

The Medium’s full review of Arcadia appears elsewhere in this section.

Worth going to class for Does required reading always have to be a chore?

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Every high school English class had that one skeptic. As the teacher carefully laid out his intricate theory about why J.D. Salinger decided to have Holden Caufield wear a red hunting hat in The Catcher in the Rye, this budding contrarian would strike: “Why couldn’t he have just given him a red hunting hat because he thought it was cool?”

Literary dissection and wild goose chases for metaphor may be the lifeblood of every English major, but that smart-aleck from grade 10 has a point. Who’s to say a book can’t be enjoyed purely for its story? Isn’t that kind of the point? Does every name and object need to have a deeper thematic meaning for a book to be an enriching read? Probably not.

So here are some recommended reads from English class that offer entertaining stories and are accessible enough for anyone to enjoy. No eight-page follow-up essay required.

What We All Long For Dionne Brand’s 2005 novel tells the story of four friends in their 20s living in downtown Toronto.

They are all second-generation Canadians, and the novel tracks

their struggle to feel as though they fully belong in Canadian culture. From a free-spirited Vietnamese artist whose parents lost a child on their boat journey to Canada to a young biracial woman still reeling from her mother’s suicide, Brand paints complex portraits of four young people on the fringes of society. What We All Long For tackles heavy subject matter, but Brand brings a thoroughly modern and humorous touch that makes the story a relatable, enjoyable read.

1984 George Orwell’s classic 1948 novel is a still a staple in English classes, and for good reason. His tale of government control and declining free will presents a terrifying world that, in some ways, has started to manifest itself in our own society. As you follow Winston’s mission to fight against extreme government surveillance and mind control, it’s hard not to cheer for him, even though you know his rebellion is not likely to turn out well. 1984 preys on the fears that many of us have, and the result is an unsettling but exciting read.

Wuthering Heights It may have been written over 150 years ago, but Emily Bronte’s

classic gothic novel still feels relevant and surprisingly modern.

This is not your typical love story, and as characters make increasingly dark decisions, the novel unravels into something far less cozy than the “classic romance” it’s often made out to be. That is to say, things get pretty weird.

Catherine and Heathcliff are perfect early examples of the antihero so prevalent in books and movies today, and while the novel was too dark and shocking to be fully appreciated in its day, it has since become celebrated for those very reasons.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon’s charming 2003 novel follows a teenage sleuth, Christopher, as he attempts to uncover the murderer of his neighbour’s dog. Christopher is a meticulous and eccentric young man who appears to have Asperger syndrome (a mild autism spectrum disorder), and the book documents his attempts to function in the sometimes overwhelming world around him. Writing in first person, Haddon brings us right into the mind of Christopher, offering lots of humour and perfectly capturing the feeling of being a teenager and struggling to fit in with the people around you.

02.04.2013 THE MEDIUM A&E

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All flash and no substance Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters opts for gore instead of quality filmmaking MARIA CRUZ STAFF WRITER Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters follows the same basic storyline as its fairytale source material, but director Tom Wirkola adds an action and horror spin to this classic tale in an attempt to make it a viable movie. However, Hansel and Gretel will likely disappoint every type of moviegoer. Whether it was meant for horror enthusiasts (who’ll be unimpressed by the portrayal of the evil witch) or action-lovers (who’ll be bored), this movie could have been a straight-toDVD release with nary a peep from the public.

The only noteworthy thing about the plot is that Hansel and Gretel grow up to become bounty hunters rather than damaged children. They hunt witches. There’s gore. There’s action.

There’s random swearing that confused me a bit. There’s gunfire. And yet I still wanted to walk out. Funny how some movies threaten to erase your memory of every good piece of cinema by scarring you with their own

PARAMOUNT PICTURES/PHOTO

Fairytales are serious business in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. attempt.

The visuals in this movie are hit-and-miss. One serious miss is the filmmakers’ failure to construct a decent-looking witch. If you’re unlikely to frighten even

Local Natives get reinventive California quartet returns with Hummingbird JOE MEASURES Four years after their debut with Gorilla Manor, Local Natives released their second album, Hummingbird, last week. The fiveman group was cut down to four when bass player Andy Hamm left the band, and his absence had a noticeable effect on the sound and tone of this album.

I wouldn’t recommend going into Hummingbird expecting something similar to Gorilla Manor. Most of the songs feel much more emotional and atmospheric. The upbeat rock songs on the first album—like “Sun Hands” and “Warning Sign”— are nowhere to be found this time around. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; Hummingbird proves that this band is capable of creating a new sound for themselves.

The album opens with the lead single “You & I”, a great indicator of what the rest of the album will be like. One thing that makes Local Natives stick out is their incredibly unique percussion. Every beat solely fits its own song. Further into the album, “Three Months” kicks in. It starts with a beat using only the bass drum and hi-hat. Reverberating piano fills in the spaces.

Once the chorus starts, singer Kelcey Ayer puts on an incredibly haunting falsetto reminiscent of (and almost rivalling) the Antlers’ album Hospice and Radiohead’s In Rainbows.

Another impressive aspect of Local Natives is their vocal arrangements. The lead vocals are traded between Ayer and Taylor Rice. On top of that, all four members sing harmonies, which really fills out their sound.

The ninth track, “Mt. Washington”, is another standout. It opens with a single acoustic guitar—a first for the band. Instruments are gradually added to the mix as the track progresses, each one complementing the last.

It felt as though something is missing from the lyrics throughout the album. There didn’t seem to be as much creativity as there was on Gorilla Manor. Most of the songs here are romantic and focus primarily on relationships.

Although part of me misses the attitude of the previous album, the romantic style is a welcome change. It sounds as though there is a lot of meaning behind what they sing, and in that sense, the band earns some extra respect.

The difference between the two albums is similar to that between Bon Iver’s first and second albums. Although it is almost a complete departure from what they did at first, the change shows their adaptability and range, while also keeping the elements that made me fall in love with them in the first place. I highly recommend giving Hummingbird, with its haunting, mellow tunes and unique drums, a chance to fly. MMMM

a 10-year-old girl, then it’s safe to say that something is wrong.

A small hit, though, is that the candy house in the movie looks incredible. (Wondering what I’m talking about? Don’t bother, be-

cause you don’t want to see this movie. Trust me.)

A pang of guilt does push me through the temptation to just insult this film, though. Mainly because the actors deliver

enough star power to barely keep the whole film afloat. The good news is that Jeremy Renner (The Avengers, The Hurt Locker) steps out of his usual “tough guy” act to play the handsome Hansel, who does indeed charm the audience. (Then again, that could just be my nine-year crush talking.)

That being said, that Renner wasted his time on this movie is heartbreaking. Mea Gemma Arterton (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) is a good sidekick/sister as Gretel. She has the whole beauty and brawn thing— you know what I mean. And with Famke Janssen (X-Men) in this movie, I could almost tolerate it all.

Almost.

The sad thing about this movie is that there is really nothing to report. I feel it is my duty to warn any potential viewers to steer clear of this film and watch something good instead. The same old action sequences with what I assume were supposed to be “scary” witches evoke nothing more than an eye-roll—if viewers could even care enough to muster one. M

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« 02.04.2013

Editor » Carine Abouseif

Fight, flight, and french fries Does our perception that we live in a harsh environment influence our food choices?

JILLIAN LIM ASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITOR “Suicide bomber strikes US embassy in Turkey. Greece protestors storm labour ministry. Threat of identity theft leaves Canadians feeling vulnerable.” These are just some of the headlines this morning. They’re pretty standard headlines, but they conjure up a difficult, harsh, and scary image of our world. How’s a person to cope? How do you cope? A recent study suggests many of us handle harsh headlines by shuffling over to the pantry and scarfing down a chocolate bar, or by switching our breakfast orders from oatmeal to an Egg McMuffin (“Extra bacon, please”).

But if our brains know we should make healthy choices, why do we tend to fill up on anything fried or cheesy? Dieticians have hypothesized several internal reasons for which people choose high-calorie foods. Maybe they’ve underestimated the number of calories in the food.

Maybe they’re just tempted more than they can resist. In contrast, one study focussed on the external reasons—in particular, a harsh environment.

Researchers Juliano Laran and Anthony Salerno suggested that we indulge in more filling and

VIVIAN WONG/THE MEDIUM

calorie-packed foods when we perceive our immediate environments as especially harsh or unpleasant. We subconsciously look for cues in our environment that tell us our survival resources are scarce. When we get these cues,

our instincts kick in and we indulge in the most satisfying food available.

“People make a deliberate decision to go with something more filling or higher in calories when they perceive that resources are

scarce in a certain moment of time,” said Salerno.

In their study, Salerno and Laran set up what students believed was a booth for taste-testing chocolate on a college campus. They invited passersby to

sit down and provided them with bags of M&M’s. The researchers gave half of the volunteers bags they described as “high-calorie, highly rated imported ingredients”. The other half of the volunteers received bags described as “low-calorie, highly rated imported ingredients”. The researchers further divided the volunteers into a harsh environment condition and a neutral environment condition. They placed posters with the words “survival”, “adversity”, “shortfall”, “persistence”, and “withstand” directly in front of those in the harsh environment condition, and posters with neutral words “the”, “cat”, “ran” directly in front of us the neutral condition volunteers.

Salerno and Laran wanted to see which group ate more M&M’s, and within that group which type of M&M’s (high or low calorie) was eaten the most.

They discovered that in the neutral condition, participants who thought the M&M’s had lots of calories ate the same number as those who thought the M&M’s were low in calories. This means that in a neutral, non-harsh environment, the choice between high- or low-calorie versions is arbitrary.

Calories continued on page 10

Careers and can-do clichés

Positive writing and employment guides CARINE ABOUSEIF FEATURES EDITOR So, you have no idea what you’re doing after graduation? Well, six months from now, you might find people around you saying things like “Never give up!”, “You can do it!”, “Get out of your comfort zone!”, and “When life gives you lemons…” Then you’ll start reading various career publications and subscribing to their social media outlets. There you’ll find iffy motivational quotes from Albert Einstein and Mark Twain.

The message will start to become clear: if you’re not where you want to be right now, it’s completely your fault.

A healthy dose of motivational support is great, but when does it get to be too much? When do career publications and motivational speakers hit a point where they begin to disillusion applicants with their can-do attitude?

Statistics from the last two years show that youth unemployment isn’t as bad as we think it is—especially when compared to mature unemployment. In 2011, 46.8% of young people looking for a job found one in four weeks, but only 27% of mature searchers found a job in the same amount of time. The bigger problem, a CBC News article explains, is youth underemployment. Underemployment means having a part-time position when you need a fulltime one, or being overqualified for the position you’re in. We’re all familiar with the story of the U of T graduate who works a parttime retail job. A report by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada says that youth underemployment has been static since 1990, even though today’s Canadian youth are generally more educated.

Careers continued on page 10

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02.04.2013 THE MEDIUM FEATURES

VOL 2 EP 13: LUKE SAWCZAK COPY EDITOR Good morning to you! Or, if you prefer to be greeted in the French supplied by Google Translate, bonjour à vous!

That may have seemed like a pleasant greeting, but it’s actually the introduction to today’s topic, namely computer translation. It’s a topic dear to many linguists’ hearts, especially syntacticians, since computer science and modern syntax kind of shared a cradle.

But it’s so far from perfect. To give you an idea of what we’re in for, I’ll point out two things that the Francophones will already have noticed: “bonjour” means “good day”, not specifically “good morning”; and “vous” would be inappropriate if you were a close friend and not a reader I pretend to be familiar with in the hope of being charming.

Oh, and when you translate it back to English, you get “Hello there!”

Machine translation has been around for the last half-century, and it’s really been exploding over the last two decades. There are a few reasons it took so long to get in gear. One is that you need some serious financing and expertise to construct the resources needed to do it. Another is that we didn’t have a great idea of how to do it.

Actually, we still don’t. At present, there are two broad ways to translate. The first you might reasonably have expected; it’s called rule-based

You will always what? translation. There’s the morphological dictionary for both the source and the target language, with all kinds of information about how each word is used—its part of speech (noun, verb…), its conjugations and declensions (run, runs, ran…), the domain of its meaning, and so on. Then there’s the bilingual dictionary to give the equivalent in the other language.

Then there’s the grammar that deconstructs a sentence and figures out how to put it in the right order it in the other language. Getting complex already? Okay, now we need a set of those for each pair of languages we want to translate to and from.

But in the end, it’s effective, right? Well, up to a point. One of its strengths is that to some degree it’s actually understanding what it’s doing. You can trace the logic of the program and figure out why it made the choices it did, and you can then alter the rule or update the dictionary entry. But one of the shortcomings is that it’s really, really hard to capture the grammar of a language. You need a linguist to analyze it. And worse, not all the finer points of a language are easy to express; one of the major areas of research in linguistics is accounting for abnormalities. Language is one of the most complex things our brains do, and until we understand how we ourselves understand it, it will be impossible to simulate the process.

So there’s an alternative: statistical machine translation. It was thought of as early as the rule-based stuff was, but it only really became feasible with

the computational power and the digitalization of corpora we’ve had since the nineties.

Here’s how it works. The Canadian government publishes its proceedings in English and French. That’s a corpus.

A programmer sets up the software to align each English sentence with the French one occurring at the corresponding place in the corresponding document. For example, the sentence “We need to get started as soon as possible” might line up with “Il faut commencer dès que possible”.

Google Translate turns the English “I write for fun, and I believe I always will” into the French “J’écris pour le plaisir, et je crois que je t’aimerai toujours”.

That is, “I believe I will always love you.”

Now, imagine some grade nine student taking French against her will who wants to translate the sentence “We need to get started as soon as possible”. She types it in. The machine doesn’t understand the sentence at all, but that doesn’t matter. It can just hand her the professional human translation of her sentence. Nice.

Okay, now take the scale of the corpus Google’s got. One of its sources

is the 200 billion words of published United Nations proceedings it acquired in 2006, which are in six languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Just in case you missed it, that’s 200 billion words. And the machine is going to translate it using the biggest pieces it can find matches for, performing a probabilistic analysis of the many contexts each term appears in to find the most likely equivalent.

It’s inhuman, and it’s brilliant.

Of course, it has its shortcomings too. For one thing, such huge corpora don’t exist between all languages.

This can be partially resolved the way Google does it: if there’s no corpus of, say, Belorussian to Arabic, first translate to English and then to Arabic. But with every step you lose a little more accuracy and flatten more nuances.

And the corpora you do have will be specialized (the UN mostly talks about politics), and some terms will be better represented than others.

Consider the phrase “Japanese prisoner of war camp”. Is it (a) a Japanese camp for prisoners of war or (b) a camp for Japanese prisoners of war?

It’s only through seeing it translated in our corpora that we can guess.

Google Translate’s attempt to render it in French is “Camp japonais de prisonniers de guerre”, which is meaning (a). But try “Russian prisoner of war camp”, no doubt much less frequent, and it yields “Prisonnier russe du camp de la guerre”, which means neither (a) nor (b) but the unlikely “Russian prisoner of the war camp”.

And sometimes the sheer weight of how frequently a phrase is used overrides what the phrase actually means.

Google Translate turns the English “I write for fun, and I believe I always will” into the French “J’écris pour le plaisir, et je crois que je t’aimerai toujours”. That is, “I believe I will always love you”. What?! you say. Where did “love you” come from?! Simple. All the machine knows is that the phrase “I believe I always will” is mostly used in this context. Therefore, the probability that this is the right translation is very high.

The way rule-based translation understands what it’s doing as it goes word by word through the phrase seems kind of better now, don’t it?

Of course, there are many more fascinating problems with both approaches, and many more variations of both approaches, that I’d love to talk about. Some people even propose that automatic translation is impossible in principle: Can machines ever properly choose between truly ambigious meanings? Does everything in every language have a guaranteed equivalent in every other language?

(Puzzle over that for a while next time you’re bored.) The best summary is that no approach so far quite captures how humans translate.

And for those of you who were hoping I’d argue that you should indeed use Google Translate for your French composition—sorry, but the verdict is still no. That is, unless you want to accidentally tell your prof that you’ll always love him.

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Clichés in career-building

Big fear, big burger Calories continued from page 8

VIVIAN WONG/THE MEDIUM

and “success”, you’ll come up with at least three articles titled “Positive thinking—the key to success”. Google will also spit out a bunch of other articles like “Nine ways positive thinking leads to success”. Many Internet articles on success ask the reader to picture where they want to be—and this goes for any type of success. Job seekers picture their dream jobs.

People looking to lose weight picture looking fabulous.

But a 2002 study led by psychologist Gabrielle Oettingen found that this kind of motivation may actually work against us. Oettingen asked a group of NYU students to record how much time they spent fantasizing about their future success. The scary result was that those who reported fantasizing more ended up with fewer offers and lower salaries. A similar study in 1999 used high grades instead of dream jobs and confirmed the same results: students who visualized their success

Careers continued from page 8

The report goes on to talk about the adverse effects of underemployment (other than the obvious reduction in income): “loss of skills, knowledge, and abilities”, as well as “job dissatisfaction and emotional stress”. This, perhaps, is where all the demotivation stems from. And this is the place where hearing things like “Never give up!” makes you cringe.

But unemployment and underemployment statistics also tell us something else. They explain the drastic increase in career publications and career motivational speaking in the last few years. If everyone were satisfied with their work life, would there be a need for these outlets?

Fine, the job market sucks. So what’s new? What are we supposed to do? “Think positive!”, your family says. If you Google “positive thinking”

Students’ Union University of Toronto of Students

more often studied less and did worse.

The problem with much of this motivational talk is that it put the onus on the job seeker—and on nothing and no one else. But telling young job seekers that they are where they are because they just didn’t try hard enough goes against even what many psychologists believe about personal beliefs and stress. Studies show that people who believe that they alone are in control of their future become much more stressed and much more likely to sabotage themselves by procrastinating and purposefully underperforming. On the other hand, those who believe that environmental factors affect their success tend to be more relaxed. They also tend to finish the projects they start and base their self-worth on other factors.

As with everything else, we know that environment plays a part. We know that the decrease in job satisfaction isn’t just in our heads.

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But in the harsh environment condition, the volunteers given highcalorie M&M’s ate much more than those given low-calorie M&M’s.

Why did more students eat more high-calorie M&M’s when they saw the posters designed to trigger their survival instincts?

Salerno and Laran turn to what’s called “life history theory”, which looks at the observed patterns in the survival mechanisms, growth, and reproduction of animals, and can be useful for understanding the behaviour of humans. Two patterns are recognized in life history theory: slow life history, where you live life thinking of the future and saving resources up for it, and fast life history, where you choose instant gratification no matter the longterm consequences.

An individual’s environment determines whether their behaviour reflects slow or fast life history. In harsh environments of competition and scarce resources, there is immediacy and urgency in every decision because the future is uncertain. In such cases, people resort to a fast life history, or the instant gratification of their desires.

When it comes to environments

that are more stressful than they are scarce in resources, does our instinct to seize our chance and save our own skins kick in?

Salerno and Laran acknowledge that their theory is debatable. Other reasons have been posited as to why we overeat and choose chips, cheeses, and hamburgers when we’re surrounded by stressful news headlines, term papers, and exam deadlines. It may just be that we’re stressed, and hormones associated with stress prompt our bodies to crave high-calorie and fatty foods.

Or it may be that high-calorie foods are simply more appealling to our senses. Whatever the reason, Salerno and Laran’s study seems to suggest that understanding the thought process behind our choices can lead to adopting healthier eating habits.

Salerno recommends using this information to become more aware of your environment and the influence it has on you. He also talks about being aware of the subtlety of the power of these influences.

Then again, like the stereotypical woman in a romantic comedy who gulps down chocolate ice cream or guzzles whipped cream straight out of the can, we all have our favourite high-calorie foods that we just need to get us through a rough time.

tes at St. all full-time undergraduaservices such ts en res rep ion Un ts’ The U of T Studen ga campuses. UTSU provides important ted TTC George and Mississauns, book bursaries, clubs funding and discouncentral U of as Health & Dental Pla ents’ Union also represents students to the d connects Metropasses. Your Studvernment, advocates for students’ rights, an and social T administration and go uses to work on common goals, campaigns students across all camp programming.

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To run for a position, pick up a nomination package during the nomination period at the UTSU or UTMSU office.

Please keep in mind the dates and deadlines.

For more information, visit our Students’ Union website at www.utsu.ca or contact cro@utsu.ca Please note that, at the time of this publication, “University of Toronto Students’ Union” and/or “UTSU” refers to the Students’ Administrative Council of the University of Toronto, Inc. (“SAC”).

02.04.2013

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11

Editor » Isaac Owusu

Homecourt advantage UTM overcomes five other teams in front of a crowd at the RAWC to win Friday’s six-team indoor soccer tournament EBI AGBEYEGBE ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR The UTM men’s indoor soccer team took part in a tournament last week at the RAWC. This tournament also featured teams from Humber, Lakehead Orillia, Durham, and two from Sheridan. Pool A consisted of UTM, Sheridan (T) and Durham. Pool B consisted of Humber, Sheridan (D), and Lakehead Orillia. Coming into the tournament, many of the spectators felt that Humber was a shoo-in.

Each team was to play each other once, with the winner of each pool going to the semifinals, and the second and third of each pool playing the second and third from the other pool.

UTM drew their first two games against Sheridan (T) and Durham, 1–1 and 0–0, and ended second in Pool A. UTM then played the quarterfinal round versus Sheridan (D), who had lost their first two games versus Lakehead and Humber.

UTM started the game slow, as they had their first two games, and Sheridan took an early 1–0 lead. This

AYMAN KHAN/THE MEDIUM

UTM’s Thomas Bordere handles the ball at midcourt. sparked the UTM players into action, and they started passing the ball more and pressuring Sheridan on the ball.

This pressure paid dividends when

UTM scored two quick goals that put them up 2–1. A defensive lapse allowed Sheridan to equalize again by halftime. During the half, the UTM

players could be seen trying to rally their spirits to play better. Something about it worked, considering UTM scored five unanswered goals in the

second half and the game ended 7–2 in their favour. UTM advanced to the semifinals to play against Humber.

The semifinal game versus Humber was very competitive right from the start. Both teams put up a solid defence and both goalies tried their best to keep their teams in the game. UTM played the better offensive game, passing the ball smoothly and getting their players one-on-one chances with the Humber goalie, which they made good on. UTM took a 3–1 lead into the half. This lead didn’t last long; in the second half, UTM gave away two penalties that allowed Humber to tie the game at 3–3. By this time a small crowd had gathered by the bleachers behind each goalpost. The fans cheered every time UTM got the ball and made a pass, and jeered every time Humber touched the ball.

UTM pressured the ball, and with 10.2 seconds left in the game UTM was awarded a penalty when a Humber defender slid in the penalty box (which isn’t allowed in indoor soccer).

Soccer continued on page 12

The grass is always greener Logistical issues at the Rogers Centre create uncertainty for the Argos JASON COELHO ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR A landmark of Toronto and home to two of the city’s most beloved sports teams, the Rogers Centre has become a tourist attraction and a favourite venue for sports games at reasonable prices.

As the Argonauts enter the new year rejuvenated from their victorious season in 2012 and the Blue Jays get their many off-season acquisitions settled in, 2013 looks like it will usher in a new era for the Toronto sports world.

The Jays are preparing to take to the diamond in April against the Cleveland Indians, and the team’s management is concerned with exactly what type of field the boys will be stepping onto. Paul Beeston, the president of the Jays, has expressed an interest in laying real grass in the Rogers Centre instead of sticking with AstroTurf. The decision may seem insignificant, but it creates some major logistical issues regarding the Blue Jays sharing the stadium with the Argonauts.

This obstacle has opened the possibility of the Argonauts relocating to a new stadium as early as this summer. BMO Field and U of T’s Varsity Stadium have been identified as potential new homes for the football team, but BMO Field was recently ruled out due to an official report from 2009 that found the

field unsuitable for football.

The main reason why the Argonauts want to move is issues of audience size and revenue stream at games. As the MLB flexes its superiority over the CFL in the hierarchy of leagues, it has become clear that the Blue Jays are much more likely to fill the Rogers Centre’s 50,000 seats than the Argonauts, whose crowds usually range from 20,000 to 28,000. Retrofitting Varsity Stadium is a possibility for the CFL, considering the Montreal Alouettes have found a home at McGill’s Percival Molson Memorial Stadium, sharing a field with the McGill Redmen.

As the Jays are one of only two teams in the MLB that still play on AstroTurf (the other being the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field), it is clear that optimal playing conditions are a necessity for a team poised to become a World Series contender.

“The Blue Jays deserve to have the Rogers Centre due to the revenue stream they will be able to rake in,” says Christopher Autuchiewicz, a second-year political science major. “It seems unfair that a team which has over $150 million [in] payroll would have to fight for something like this. And improvements made to Varsity Stadium would benefit more than just the teams involved in this debacle. It would improve the sports program

at U of T by [giving] access to a world-class stadium.”

The switch to real grass at the Rogers Centre would prevent the Argonauts from hosting the annual CFL Labour Day Classic at the stadium this September. Instead, they would have to play in Hamilton against the Tiger Cats, who are currently awaiting the opening of their brand-new Ivor Wynne Stadium in June 2014, with an estimated construction cost of $102 million.

Since Toronto does not have the real estate to provide the Argonauts with a new stadium in a prime location to match that of the Rogers Centre, retrofitting an existing stadium seems like the best possible solution.

“I think it’s good for both teams,” says second-year English major Antonio Fernando. “The Blue Jays will be able to play in the Rogers Centre, a stadium that the Argonauts will not be able to fill, and the Argos can play in a stadium with an appropriate capacity for a CFL football team.”

Both teams are bound for success this year as two of the most thriving sports teams in Toronto.

Though it is unfortunate that factors like revenue, crowd size, and status have made the negotiation process a competition in itself, it’s certain that these teams will have the support of Toronto fans wherever they end up.

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12

«SPORTS THE MEDIUM

02.04.2013

Div 1 Blue edges out victory Overcoming the odds

AYMAN KHAN/THE MEDIUM AYMAN KHAN/THE MEDIUM

Osama Abdelkader drives for a score against a tough Woodsworth defence.

INGRID MELDRUM The UTM Division 1 Blue men’s basketball team played against Woodsworth on Tuesday for the second week in a row. When the teams faced off last week, Woodsworth beat UTM by a whopping 60–34.

The Eagles were determined to redeem themselves, but started off the game slowly, allowing their opponents to get a good lead. The game looked like it was going to be a blowout, until UTM players Jonathan Harvey and Faiz Ahmed started hitting all of their shots.

The Eagles picked up their pace once the crowd, which was larger than usual, started cheering them on.

The cheering seemed to add to the players’ confidence, which translated to better defensive play. UTM proved that they were not going down without a fight and began closing the gap in the score. Woodsworth became

frustrated and took a few timeouts to recuperate.

The Eagles’ bench was lively and players were encouraging their teammates. By the end of the first half, Woodsworth’s players were tiring (they had only one substitute), and the Eagles tied the score at 26–26.

Harvey had racked up nine points, while Ahmed had eight.

The intensity continued in the second half and the score stayed close throughout. The rivals were hungry for the win and it showed in the last few minutes of the game. Both teams committed many fouls and were in double bonus. Woodsworth’s players intentionally fouled UTM’s to get possession. Unfortunately for Woodworth, UTM was almost flawless from the free-throw line; the Eagles netted 10 out of 11 foul shots, while Woodsworth only scored on five of their 11.

In the last minute of the game, the

Eagles were up by three and just had to keep their opponents from scoring again. The players on the bench were yelling and the crowd was on the edge of their seats. The last 60 seconds of the game were played, and the Eagles kept Woodsworth from scoring. The final score was 63–60.

The players and fans were rewarded with free pizza ordered by UTMAC. Harvey was the top scorer of the game, with 27 points—half of UTM’s total. He wowed the crowd in the second half, scoring three threepointers, seven foul shots, and a bucket.

“We were feeding off the crowd a lot and we really wanted to win this game, because last time [Woodsworth] beat us by 20 points,” said Harvey after the game.

“This was a win we had to have, because they disrespected us when we played [on their court],” said Osama Abdelkader, a team veteran.

UTM’s defence came up clutch leading to their victory on friday Soccer continued from page 11 The crowd was ecstatic after the penalty was awarded and kept screaming after the penalty was scored. This screaming must have gotten under the skin of the Humber goalie; after the game, he rushed towards the crowd in an attempt to start a fight with someone out of frustration. He had to be held back by his coach and teammates.

The final was between UTM and Durham. Both teams had met earlier in the day and drew 0–0 in a defensive battle. This game was much more like the first game; the pressure advantage alternated from team to team and yielded a 0–0 tie by halftime.

In the second half the game opened up a little bit more, and UTM took a 2–0 lead. Durham pulled a goal back late, but it wasn’t enough. After the final buzzer, the UTM players congratulated each other and shook hands with all the teams who had played in the tournament.

Afterwards, championship t-shirts were presented to the players. Assistant coach Jordan Stinson, who had been by the bench for all three games, commented, “The whole tournament was an uphill battle from the start, but as we played more games we got used to each other and started playing better on all phases of the game. The guys played really well close to the end of the tournament.”

“Humber was the team to beat in this tournament, and after we won that game we felt like we could win it all,” said UTM central defender Eddy Dabire. :The whole tournament was tough because we had limited time between games, but I’m happy we won.”

UTM started the tournament off slow but finished strong. They passed the ball well and played well together at the end. Their confidence grew as the players began to trust each other more. The crowd came out to show their support, which is needed at more UTM games.

Having a Gay old time KAREEM RAMADAN The Toronto Raptors made the first blockbuster trade of the NBA season on Wednesday evening when they acquired the young, talented small forward Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team trade.

In exchange for Gay, the Raptors dealt veteran point guard José Calderón, a second-round pick in 2013, and promising power forward Ed Davis. Calderón was subsequently dealt by the Memphis Grizzlies to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for forwards Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye. Also coming to Toronto is centre Hamed Haddadi, though analysts believe that the Raptors will waive Haddadi in the coming days to create some payroll flexibility under the cap.

Gay had long been rumoured to be on Memphis’ chopping block, and had been linked to the Raptors as early as last summer. The Raptors had long coveted the young forward, and the Grizzlies direly needed to shed cap due to the NBA’s new salary cap restrictions.

The acquisition of Gay resolves the Raptors’ long-standing need for a starting-calibre player at the small forward position, and gives the team a legitimate shot creator on the perimeter. Over the past three seasons, Gay has averaged 19.8, 19, and 17.2 points per game respectively.

More importantly, Gay is a legitimate closer capable of making big shots in the fourth quarter and beyond. The inability to maintain leads and overcome small deficits in the fourth quarter has been a weakness

of the Raptors’ since Vince Carter departed. Gay’s presence in the lineup will no doubt assist the team in that regard.

The three-team trade is not without risk for the Raptors, however.

Gay is set to earn $19 million in each of the next two seasons, the maximum allowed under the salary cap.

That amount severely limits the Raptors’ financial flexibility and their ability to make further additions to the team.

There are also concerns about Gay’s value. He is undoubtedly a talented forward, but his production in points per game, field-goal percentage, and three-point percentage is at a six-year low this season. At 26 years of age, Gay still has untapped potential, but he will need to fulfill it as soon as possible to earn his contract.

Since news of the trade broke, fan reactions have been generally positive. “Rudy Gay gives the Raptors a legitimate three and scoring option, but more importantly makes them a legitimate playoff contender. I love the trade,” said Kemal Kemal, a UTM alumnus. “It also doesn’t hurt that Gay is one of the most exciting forwards to watch in the NBA.” “This was a good trade for the Raptors organization,” said Jack Stuart, a first-year life sciences student.

“They needed a scoring forward and they went out and got one of the best young scoring forwards available.”

The consequences of this trade remain to be seen, but one thing is certain: the Raptors will be a different team come Sunday night when they host the Miami Heat. It will be Gay’s first game in a Raptors uniform.