Vol 36 issue 20

UTM Division 1 Eagles defeat UTSC 56-52 PAGE 11 Monday, March 8, 2010

Volume 36, Issue 20

To renew or to unite

Food Bank pays for face time SAALIHA MALIK NEWS EDITOR

Henry Ssali, UTMRENEW

Vickita Bhatt, Students United

“Our team is inspired by regular students to advocate for Democratic Renewal in their students union. Our platform focuses on UTM First. We will organize around the fundamental issues that are affecting students on a regular basis such as constructing a warm bus shelter by the end of the first semester for students who stand in the cold waiting for their buses. We are lobbying for support from administration to work with us in bringing a GO bus route at UTM, which will help students who come from Brampton, Markham, Burlington and other parts of the GTA to have an easy commute to school. This will reduce the time spent commuting and it will help in environmental sustainability.

We will renew grassroots consultations to help the student union understand what students need and will encourage them to participate.

We will ensure that all students have the opportunity to participate in their students union not because of who they know, but because we’re all students and paying members to the union. We will do this by ensuring that we empower students by renewing grassroots consultations and reforming the caucus system.

We will renew conversations and implement the Students Center Expansion to accommodate the grow-

“Our team’s name, Students United, says it all. We are running on a platform of uniting the student body, because we believe that united we stand, divided we fall.

My team and I are very clear on one point: we are here to represent the students. We will communicate with the administration at meetings and try to resolve all issues at these forums, to fight for the services that students deserve. But if these forums are not successful, if we are being stonewalled by the administration, we will take the issue back to the students at commission meetings and townhalls, so that the entire student body can determine the path that the student union should take.

Our entire campaign is based on the idea that a Student Union is nothing without the involvement of the students. If elected, we want to create a new communications strategy to outreach to all students. This includes, but is not limited to, advertising all meetings of the UTMSU, further collaboration with clubs and academic societies to reach out to more students, and holding bi-weekly Commission Meetings to make sure that every student participates in the UTMSU’s decision making system.

Something new that we are bringing to the table is an idea of how to

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ing number of students on our campus, offer more study and office space both to individual students and active clubs on campus and negotiate with the administration to allow us a studentrun food court in our student centre.

We will work with the Career Center to introduce an Electives Fair, which will educate all students regardless of their programs or years of study on the numerous options they have out there.

This will save them not just time wasted in taking electives they don’t understand but the money they spend taking and dropping them as a result of lack of awareness.

In order to introduce the GO bus route at UTM and construct a warm shelter for commuter students, we have already started the conversations with the GO bus administration and the university to evaluate the feasibility of implementing such a service on our campus. York was able to do it… we can too because we are U of T. Our team, UTMRENEW, is giving students a chance to choose who will serve their best interests for the next 12 months. This time students don’t have to just vote YES/NO. Students have a chance to ask the important questions and elect the right team that is willing to empower them and that team is UTMRENEW.”

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deal with tuition fees. We want the administration to split tuition fees payments to a per semester basis, so that students aren’t burdened with having to pay for both semesters upfront. We also want to work with student unions across Ontario to reform OSAP, to increase the share of the loan converted into a grant and to increase the amount of time after which your loan starts incurring interest.

Every year, the enrolment at UTM increases, yet infrastructure expansion is not keeping up. Students want and deserve more space. We want to ensure that a 50 cent to every dollar match from the university to go towards expanding the Student Center, so that there is more space for food options, clubs offices and a convenience store.

We want to increase the academic services that students receive from both the students’ union, as well as from the university. A new initiative that we will produce is an Academic Advocacy Service. This is an office that is run by the students union, where students can come to if they feel that they have been wrongfully accused of academic misconduct. At this office, they can receive advice as well as representation for meetings with administrative members.”

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During an emergency UTMSU Board of Directors meeting that took place last Tuesday, several board members voiced concerns about the recent “midterm destressor” event, which was organized and carried out by UTMSU VP Equity and current presidential nominee Vickita Bhatt.

Questions were raised over the role of Bhatt in administrating the event, a role that should have fallen under the portfolio of VP Campus Life Andrew Lalla.

Moreover, the Board of Directors questioned the UTMSU executive committee over its decision to hold the event without obtaining funding approval from the Board of Directors or providing meeting minutes to confirm passing funding at the executive committee level. The timing of the event was also questioned as it coincided with Silent Week, when nominees are supposed not to campaign.

The official aim of the de-stressor event was to distribute food and coffee to students. To pay for it, UTMSU used the UTMSU-operated campus food bank. The cost amounted to $440.

The Chief Returning Officer of the elections, Kenny Lee, cited an “abuse of [current union] position” by Bhatt, which results in a penalty of 15 demerit points (Lee later lowered the penalty to 10 demerit points). Along with Bhatt, Grace Yuen, Gilbert Ceaser, Kumari Giles, Munib Sajjad and Marium Chowdhry, all of whom are members of Bhatt’s “Student United” team, were given five demerit points for “abusing union resources” due to their participation in food distribution at the de-stressor event.

Face time continued on page 2

Islam Awareness Week PAGE 3 Chat Roulette PAGE 7 Ten things to do before you graduate PAGE 8 Olympic funnies PAGE 12 w

2 THE MEDIUM

NEWS

MONDAY, MARCH

8, 2010

ELECTIONS, RENEW, UNITY

Meet the executive candidates President

President

VP Internal

VP Internal

VP Internal

Vote Vickita Bhatt for PRESIDENT from the team STUDENTS UNITED! Last year, as VP Equity of UTMSU, I helped organize numerous events like Take Back Your 24/5 Library and the first ever Taskforce on Campus Racism. If elected, Students United wants to work on splitting tuition fee payments on a per semester basis.

We also want to extend the UPass to parttime students, and Expand the Student Center, to ensure more space for all students.

So come out and vote for Students United, because United we stand, divided we fall.

VOTE Henry Ssali! Vote for RENEWAL. As your President, I plan to put UTM First. In building a strong grass roots connection with UTM students, I plan to implement changes that you want to see. By listening to the needs of the students I will be better suited to advocate for your needs. Vote Henry Ssali, VOTE UTMRENEW!

Vote for Sunil Shah! An experienced and knowledgeable candidate Specializing in Accounting with Business Administration background. As VP Internal, I will work to recreate the UTMSU spending structure.

Introduce Value for Money Audit, where money spent would be proportionate to the amount of students participating. I will ensure that funding is budgeted per semester, so that there is minimal waste of money. Numbers are my passion.

Accounting is my specialty. Vote for Sunil Shah for VP INTERNAL!

VP External

VP External

Vote Gilbert Cassar for VP-INTERNAL from the team STUDENTS UNITED! I have been President of the Caribbean Connections for two years and was an organizer for Black History Month 2010. If elected, Students United wants to create a Ministry of Services, to get input on services you want from UTMSU. We also want to create a better communications strategy to outreach to more students, and reintroduce the Wall of Transparency, and publish our actuals every month.

So come out and vote for Students United, because United we stand, divided we fall.

VOTE Marc Bressler! Vote for RENEWAL. As your VP Internal I plan to put UTM First. By maintaining a deficit free budget, I will ensure that the allocation for student money is dictated by your needs..

I will push for more transparency not only with club and academic society funding but with all aspects of Union business. As current Residence Council President I have gained experience in recognizing student needs and working with students to address the issues with administration.

Vote Marc Bressler, VOTE UTMRENEW!

VP Equity

VP UA

VP Part time

VOTE Stefanie Marotta! Vote for RENEWAL. As your VP External, I plan to put UTM First. As former Assistant News Editor to The Medium, I have covered a diverse range of events and issues that directly affect the UTM campus. I will advocate for transparency to facilitate inclusivity between the UTMSU and students. Through civic forums and town halls, I will involve students by promoting political activism and awareness.

Also, I will work to improve service for international students. I want students to have the opportunity to engage in activities that will enhance their university experience. Vote Stefanie Marotta, VOTE UTMRENEW!

Vote Munib Sajjad for VP-EXTERNAL from the team STUDENTS UNITED! Last year as the Minister of Social Justice, I helped organize Step Up: A Poetry Slam, and Expression Against Oppression.

If elected, Students United wants to work to reform OSAP. We also want to establish a UTM Think Tank which will provide a forum for UTM students to discuss the changes they want to see in society, and fight for OHIP for International Students.

So come out and vote for Students United, because United we stand, divided we fall.

Vote Kumari Giles for VP-EQUITY from the team STUDENTS UNITED! Last year, as President of OUT@UTM, I organized the first ever UTM Pride Week. I was also an organizer for the Taskforce on Campus Racism. If elected, Students United wants to conduct an accessibility audit of our campus, to make this campus a space where all can participate. We also want to fight for more multi-faith space on campus, and make this campus a safe space for all.

So come out and vote for Students United, because United we stand, divided we fall.

Vote Nabeel Jafri! Vote for RENEWAL. As your VP University Affairs and Academics, I plan to put UTM First. I will lobby to secure offices for all academic societies in their respective departments, work on creating more study spaces on this campus and have the anticalendar up and running. I will work to improve the Campus Agricultural Project, renovate the Waste Management System and increase the Green Grants. Vote Nabeel Jafri, VOTE UTMRENEW!

Vote Marium Chowdury or for VP Parttime from the team Students United.

I have been a Class Representative for the Erindale Part Time Undergraduate Student Association, as well as an Executive for the Debating Club. If elected, Students United wants to introduce a Bursary for Part Time Students. We also want to work with the Career Center to have more part-time specific events. Finally, we want to fight to make On Campus Child Care More Affordable.

VP Equity

VP UA

VP Part time

Vote Amreet Kaur! Vote for RENEWAL. As your VP Equity, I will engage with the whole community on campus to promote diversity and combat discrimination. t I will work vigorously to ensure that no group on campus will be marginalized. As a coordinator of the UTM Women's Centre, I have worked passionately to promote equality for women on campus. I have extensive experience, including being President of Amnesty International at UTM . Vote Amreet Kaur, VOTE UTMRENEW!

Vote Grayce Yuen for VP-UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS AND ACADEMICS from the team STUDENTS UNITED! I have sat on the Board of UTMSU, as well as been the Associate to the President, for 2 years now. If elected, Students United wants to introduce an extra-curricular transcript, to record all your volunteer hours.

We also want to introduce a student run Academic Advocacy Service, and lobby the University to establish a Sustainability Policy.

VOTE Ali Karim! Vote for RENEWAL. As your VP Part-time Student Affairs, I plan to put UTM First. By creating a strong network for part-time students, I will renew the part-time student involvement within the UTMSU. I will also advocate for OSAP reforms and a UPASS for part-time students.

Vote Ali Karim, VOTE UTMRENEW!

Board of Director candidates Division 2

Division 3

Andrew Hamilton Smith Elizabeth Smurlick Farhan Lodhi Gustavo Gutierrez Joyce Tshiamala Khalid Wakeel Mazin Hassan Hamzah Husain Nimra Hason Noelia Hernandez Nourah Irfan Sitara Chaudhary Razmin Said Stephanie Gouthro

Amna Noor Cara Habayeb Celina Ip Farhad Haider Mariam Sheikh Mariya Hassan Mercy Lilian Gichuki Natasha Shaikh Olivia Costantini Peter Buczkowski Peter Gaye Taylor Robert Ciszek Ruba El Kadri Shahid Hassan Thomas Kristan

Division 4 Harla Receno Hattem Mohyeldin

Voting days are March 16, 17 and 18.

Is Teaching in Your Future?

the

1) Careers in Biology

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Visit the Career Centre website for details, dates & times

panel

Hear from professionals who have launched their own businesses!

March 10 | 6 - 8 PM| SE 3140

Upcoming Events for BIOLOGY STUDENTS!

March 10 | 11 am - 12:30 pm | SE 3130

2) Further Education for Bio Students March 12 | 11 am - 1 pm | SE 3140

TO REGISTER FOR EMPLOYER EVENTS, WORKSHOPS AND MORE, visit www.utm.utoronto.ca/careers

MONDAY, MARCH

8, 2009 THE MEDIUM 3

FOOD BANK AWARENESS

Former UTM student blogs about anti-Semitic views YANIQUE BIRD

A second hate crimes investigat i o n h a s b e e n l a u n c h e d a ga i n s t former UTM student Salman Hossain for his writings on a website called Filthy Jewish Terrorist.

Police are probing Hossain’s postings on the Arizona-based site on which he insults Jews, Christians, and moderate Canadian Muslims.

The Bangladeshi-Canadian blogger claimed that “terrorism is typical Jewish behavior.” He also blamed Jews for attacks such as the Toronto 18 bomb conspiracy (which was planned by Islamic extremists), and used terms such as “diseased and filthy,” “the scum of the earth,” “psychotic” and “mass murderers” to describe the Jewish people as a whole. Hossain also wrote that “a genocide should be perpetrated against the Jewish populations of North America and Europe” and urged for this to be done soon.

Hossain first came under investigation in 2008, when he wrote that “Canadian soldiers on Canadian soil who are training to go to Afghanistan or Iraq are legitimate targets to be killed [...]

If we could have enough of our soldiers killed, then we'd be forced to withdraw from

Afghanistan.”

Accord ing to poli ce, Hossain also claimed he worshipped at a Mississauga mosque with the ringleader of the Toronto 18 terrorist group, reported the National Post newspaper last Wednesday.

Charges were laid against Hossain, but Ontario officials decided not charge him with hate crimes partly because he was undergoing r ehabilitation, said the same National Post article.

Hossain’s 2008 call for the death of Canadian soldiers caused quite a stir at UTM, where students clamoured for his dismissal from UTM and formed a Facebook group to that effect. A panel composed of UTMSU members, UTM professors and officials and UTM students met to address the controversial writings and the issue of free speech.

Hossain is now a student at York University, a place he describes as having “tons of Jews.”

York University announced last week it was taking steps that could result in Hossain’s suspension.

Canada’s hate crimes law prohibits supporting or promoting genocide, as well as the communication of statements—other than in private conversation—that willfully promote hatred against an identifiable group.

MSA hosts annual awareness week KATHERINE LUCYZNSKI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Last week, the Muslim Students’ Association held its annual Islam Awareness Week at UTM. Islam Awareness Week is the MSA’s largest event and includes a different theme every year. Titled “The Point of Origin,” this year’s theme examined the identity of God in religion as a whole.

For this purpose, Islam Awareness Week included lectures from leading Muslim academics.

One of the more publicized lectures was that of Dr. Hisham Mahmoud from Princeton University, who spoke on “The Gospel of Jesus According to Muhammad.”

Throughout the week, displays educating students about the Muslim faith and the importance of religion in daily life filled the CCT atrium. Volunteers sported T-shirts with phrases ranging from “I am Muslim when I study” to “I am Muslim when I save the environment.” Lastly, drawings of people with cutout faces allowed students to take pictures with their faces on the caricatured bodies, which sported the same slogans as on the T-shirts.

“We live in a society where atheism is prevalent. If you trace

our existence back, it always comes back to religion. It’s important for people to start thinking about the point of origin, religion,” said MSA president Fahad Tariq.

The official invitation to Islam Awareness Week stated that the week’s events were important in order to recognize and appreciate the ideals shared by UTM students, such as compassion and mercy.

“Instead of always focusing on the ‘how’ of situations, we want students to stop by the CCT atrium to see the displays and to try to understand the ‘why,’” said Tariq.

One of the MSA’s goals this year was to provide more learning opportunities for Muslims and non-Muslims on campus.

According to its website, the MSA’s aim is to serve the best interests of Islam and the Muslim community at UTM. The MSA endeavors to make Islamic teachings known to interested nonMuslims. It also promotes friendly r e l a t i o n s b e t w een Mu s l ims a n d non-Muslims, encouraging Muslims to contribute individually and collectively toward meeting the human needs in conformity with the teachings of Islam and strives to create a feeling of brotherhood and sisterhood on campus.

NEWS

Food Bank fees misused Face time continued from cover After Marc Bressler, an ex-officio member of the board, asked why the invoice for food during the event was paid for by the food bank, executive director Mohammed Hashim replied that the food bank had a surplus of around $6,000 left in the budget after last spring’s referendum, when the food bank received funding of $10,000. Hashim also said the executive committee had held this event to promote the food bank.

The UTMSU, however, did not mention the food bank in any of the Facebook messages they sent to promote the event or in the posters they posted around campus. And in a Letter to the Editor that Bhatt sent to The Medium last week, she wrote that the UTMSU would host the event, making no mention of the food bank and adding that she would be there to speak to students and answer their questions, should her nomination for presidency be accepted.

Bhatt claimed that the food bank was not promoted at the de-stressor event due to the absence of VP Campus Life Andrew Lalla, who was bringing flyers for the food bank. Lalla subsequently cited technical problems with the printer as the reason why the flyers were not printed for the destressor event.

Although the CRO has ruled and given Bhatt a penalty for abuse of position and has given each member of “Students United” demerit points, Bhatt said she will appeal his decision and was confident in the outcome.

facebook.com

Bhatt promotes the midterm de stressor.

Bhatt further stated that members from UTMRENEW, UTMSU board members and VP University Affairs Maria Pilar Galvez were also present at the event.

“It is sad that my team and I are being accused of abuse of position at this event,” said Bhatt.

VP External Henry Ssali said that he attended the event “as a volunteer

who was kept in the dark regarding the facts pertaining to the event. I left after realizing that my help was not needed.”

Ssali further stated that he supported the idea of a de-stressor for students “but the dynamics in which it was organized were wrong and need to taken as such. The CRO has ruled on the matter.”

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Correction Notice Last week’ s issue of The Medium Re: Little Mosque on the Prairie visits UTM

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Professor Pierre Yves Robin did not give the opening remarks to the lecture “ Little Mosque on Campus.” It was the Chair of the Snider Lecture Committee, Professor Darryl Gwynne.

The lecture was organized by the Snider Lecture Committee at UTM and was instead CO SPONSORED by the Faculty of Historical Studies and the University of Toronto Religion in the Public Sphere Initative.

Live Webchat! on Sheridan’s post-grad programs March 16 at 6 p.m.

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4 THE MEDIUM

MONDAY, MARCH

OPINION SEE NO EVIL

8, 2010

Letters to the Editor

Turning a blind eye?

ALAIN LATOUR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

eading the statements, if they can be so called, by Salman R Hossain, the former UTM student and Islamic extremist who in 2008 called for the death of Canadian soldiers on Canadian soil, and who more recently (see article on page 3) called for the extermination of the entire Jewish race, I was tempted not write about him more than what’s strictly necessary. Mr. Hossain, after all, has gotten his fair share of attention, which is what people like him crave. Besides, Mr. Hossain doesn’t seem to have raised a single valid point—if he did, it was lost amid his insults, his radicalism, and his swearing.

Two things made me change my mind and prompted me to write this editorial. Firstly, Mr. Hossain has not really received as much attention as I expected. When his first outburst was reported, UTM students did rush to Facebook to demand that the university expel him, and an event was held on cam-

pus to debate the limits of freedom of expression. Moreover, on the comments section of the newspaper sites that reported on the original event, many readers vented their anger and disbelief at Mr. Hossain’s words. But the fact remains that his 2008 outburst was not very widely reported, and that his latest tirade, on a website charmingly called Filthy Jewish Terrorist, has so far only been covered by the National Post, despite the fact that it prompted an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police, the Toronto Police Service and possibly the RCMP. I find this lack of exposure disturbing, and hope that our own coverage, however negligible versus a paper, say, like The Toronto Star, will help make the public more aware of not just anti-Semitism but hate speech in general, which we should condemn with equal vigour regardless of who is being victimized.

The second reason I decided to write these lines is closely related to the first one. Because if The Medium, the official newspaper of the campus where Mr. Hossain began his incendiary online career, does not report on this, then who will?

NOTICE Stefanie Marotta, who is running as UTMSU VP External, submitted a resignation letter from her position as Assistant News Editor two weeks ago. She was not inmediately removed from the masthead by mistake.

The Medium regrets the error.

Values and issues Dear Editor, With the student union elections around the corner, it is important for everyone to ask the tough questions. These questions should not be limited to the candidate’s qualifications, vision or most importantly, his or her commitment to work in the best interests of the students at UTM. These questions should also focus on the candidate’s character.

Are these candidates honest?

Are they committed to working with others? Will they commit to expand on the vision of current and previous student leaders?

Before we ponder these questions, it is important to first address an accusation made by Henry Ssali, the current VP External and the author of last week’s Letter to the Editor “Premature campaigning indeed.” Mr. Ssali has repeatedly denied participating freely in a process that he now conveniently rejects, which he refers to as the caucus. This could not be further from the truth, because Mr. Ssali was an integral part of the process that he now professes against. Mr. Ssali has made his intentions clear from day one. He will be seeking elected office for the second time, an intention welcomed by some, but not all. However the most important opinion will be that of the students, when they finally cast their ballots.

Unfortunately, last week he made another accusation, one that confused if not alarmed many.

His accusation was centered on my leave of absence as speaker of the Board of Directors, which he categorized as “fishy.” What is fishy about taking precautions in avoiding a conflict of interest by holding yourself accountable to your colleagues? Mr. Ssali might not understand that notion, but he does however believe he can have two different positions at the same time.

The facts are simple. Mr. Ssali sought the endorsement of the individuals that he now accuses of being fishy. He failed in his bid and now parades as a champion of reform. I would urge Mr. Ssali to come forward and admit to his full and unsolicited involvement in the process he now conveniently rejects.

Honesty and integrity are important, but so are the issues.

This year, the cost of education has increased significantly.

Tuition fees rose by an average of 5-8% and residence/parking and other ancillary fees were also increased. There were changes made to academic policy. These are the issues that students care about.

In this year's election cycle, I would like to encourage all candidates to discuss most importantly the issues. Students at UTM need representatives that will work together to accomplish the successes like previous councils.

Students were not divided when they won a Tuition Fee Freeze, 24/5 Library Hours, the UPASS, Student Center, Childcare and much more. We were able to accomplish those goals because the students were united.

Ms. Bhatt's commitment to those values is important to highlight. She has stood fast and strong in supporting everyone that needed help. She worked closely with her executive when they required her help. She has put the students first and hardly took any credit for her contributions to important campaigns such as Nov 5 Day of Action, organizing speaker events and many more. We need representatives that put UTM students first while committing to working with others. We also need representatives with vision, so let’s all explore the candidates’ vision in the next two weeks.

Next year’s council cannot afford division. Students deserve better. With important campaigns such as lobbying for a reduction in Tuition/Parking and Residence fees as well as negotiating the expansion of the Student Center.

It is also important to have a team united to overcome these and other challenges. UTM students deserve leadership with a common vision, commitment and inspiration to bring forth progress. We have accomplished and overcome tremendous obstacles in the past, but there is more that needs to be done. I am proud that there are plenty of individuals ready to bring forth new ideas that will take our union to new heights.

In student Solidarity, Walied Khogali

Back to UTM Dear Editor, As a UTM grad who still reads The Medium (occasionally), I wanted to thank you for emphasizing coverage of UTM. This has not always been the case in the past. Many students, including me, felt they wanted to write or read about international events. But the reality is that no university newspaper will ever have access to the same resources as, for example, The New York Times, so their articles will inevitably suffer from a lack of interviewees, budget restrictions, and travel limitations, to name a few. Even when I was a student, I relied on national and international newspapers to inform myself about what was happening in the world. Looking back, I don’t know what motivated me to want The Medium to focus on international events so much.

Maybe it was because I was on

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campus most of my time, so it didn’t matter too much whether The Medium covered many campus-related events—I was here, so I always had an idea of what was going on.

Now that I’m far away, I find it relishing knowing that I can go back to this site and stay in touch with my university. Thank s for that!

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8, 2010 THE MEDIUM 5

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The turning tides of television Two students take a look at the ever changing nature of viewing television MARY DYTYNIAK AND DAVID ESPOSTO

When was the last time you sprawled on your couch on a Friday night and tuned in to watch what clumsy stunt Steve Urkel was up to on Family Matters? Whether Cory and Topanga were together or had split on Boy Meets World?

What magic spells Sabrina the Teenage Witch was concocting to deal with the problems of teenage angst?

It’s been ten years since the decline of family-geared, sitcom line-ups such as ABC’s TGIF. Children, teens and parents rarely watch television in the same room anymore, let alone the same show.

Ever since the premiere season of Survivor in 2000, reality TV has been monopolizing the airwaves with shows allowing anyone and everyone to earn some dough, get a glimpse of the spotlight and entertain the masses.

Richard Hatch running naked around Bornea Island is now considered tame compared to the sensationalizing of human relations through the chaotic combination of sex and seduction on shows like Tila Tequila, The Hills and Jersey Shore. People doing stupid things to garner attention isn’t new, but the freedom and ability of networks to market such behaviour through reality TV certainly is.

The innocence which once fuelled family shows such as Full House has yielded to a bolder, edgier content norm. Streaming, downloading and multiple TV sets grant us the privacy to watch what we want, where we want.

Technological innovations such as Rogers on Demand, Personal Video Recorders and online streaming and downloading are killing the idea of communal couch-sitting. From catching the

patrickdonohue.freedomblogging.com photo

Mr. Feeney and Shawn Hunter pose with the Matthews family. latest clips on YouTube to streaming episodes of Gossip Girl, television viewers are becoming more and more isolated. Socializing in between commercial breaks and grabbing a bite to eat in the kitchen isn’t necessary.

Booting traditional television watching isn’t all bad. Friends can get together and watch back-toback episodes of their favourite shows on DVD or simply hook-up an s-video cord and transfer videos from a computer to the television set. Students at most university and college campuses have gone so far as to create residence servers to facilitate the convenient and fast transfer of shows, movies and music.

The implications of technological advancements stretch beyond the ability to catch the latest in entertainment media within seconds.

The explosion of user created con-

tent has transcended boundaries that stretch beyond the once-communal activity of television viewing. Even mainstream news, which has for decades been a staple of the medium, is feeling the brunt of the digital explosion. Programs such as CNN’s iReport and blogs drastically change what we see and how we see it. Whereas we were once solely subjected to a singular view of the global events, we can now investigate and interpret the world through many sets of eyes.

The powerful persuasions of news media are no longer as allencompassing as they once were.

With access to dozens of sources from a variety of media outlets, consumers are proactively questioning and challenging the information they are given. It was once believed that what we saw on television was the be all and end all.

Leading news sources such as

CNN, the BBC and CBC no longer harness the power of discretion.

Viewers are inching closer and closer to the driver’s seat of public broadcasting. Allvoices, an outlet that links to the citizen journalism community, has sparked a freedom and pro-activeness that has forever changed the way we acquire our news. We no longer take things at face value. We now have the power to challenge the norm and speak

out.

We are becoming masters of our own domain. Society is now exposed to things which were once deemed inappropriate to broadcast on television. Google searches and videos that are instantaneously cropping up all over the internet have led to an information revolution. While television was once a source of solace, it is now secondfiddle to the on-demand individual.

The all-encompassing liberty of social media has led to the demise of television. Changes in lifestyle and cultural habits have made the act of sitting, waiting and watching irrelevant. From smart phones to download servers, the landscape of entertainm ent a nd infor mation gathering have turned the tides of television.

As we move forward and continue to push the endless boundaries of content-creation and distribution, we must remember the compelling power media continues to hold over us regardless of who distributes it and how. As noted by American novelist and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky: “It’s the menace t h a t e v e r y on e l o v e s t o h a t e b u t can’t seem to live without.”

Even though television may be a menace, it comforts the soul and offers a gateway into a world other than our own. The longing to be entertained and informed will continue to shape the public sphere and its obsession with popular culture.

Stay tuned.

check it out at

niagara.edu/graduate Graduate Degree Programs

Graduate Open House

April 17, 2010 Niagara University Campus Lewiston, NY 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Want a degree that will make a difference in your life?

Then check out the outstanding graduate programs at niagara.edu/graduate.

Master of Education The areas only private university that’s both NCATE accredited and recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Training. Niagara offers programs in Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, School Counseling, School Psychology, Mental Health Counseling, Special Education and Literacy.

Master of Business Administration With a nationally acclaimed faculty, practice-oriented curriculum and AACSB accreditation, Niagara lets you complete your MBA in as little as sixteen months with convenient weekday evening or Saturday classes.

Master of Criminal Justice A traditional master’s program and the area’s only five-year BS/MS program in Criminal Justice Administration lets Niagara meet the needs of both incoming freshmen and working professionals.

Master of Arts-Interdisciplinary Studies An innovative curriculum that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries allows each student to design his or her own degree. If you’ve always wanted to pursue a Master’s degree but have been unable to find the right program, we can help you meet your goals.

premierechannel.files.wordpress.com photo

Chace Crawford, Blake Lively and Ed Westwick—the Gossip Girl triumvirate.

To see how Niagara can make a difference in your career, visit www.niagara.edu/graduate 1.800.462.2111 e-mail admissions@niagara.edu

Education That Makes a Difference

Office of Graduate Admissions Bailo Hall PO Box 2011 Niagara University, NY 14109-2011

6 THE MEDIUM

MONDAY, MARCH

8, 2010

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

OSCAR COMEBACK

Reunited at last

Pavement ends their hiatus and embarks on their first tour in ten years COLLEEN MUNRO

There has been no short supply of 90’s rock acts reuniting over the past couple of years. No Doubt has picked up where they left off, touri n g s t a d i um s a c ro s s t h e w o rl d , while smaller acts like Sunny Day Real Estate and Dinosaur Jr. have found second lives playing for old a n d n e w f a n s a l i ke . A n d a f t e r lengthy speculation, seminal indie rockers Pavement will reform for a series of summer tour dates. They have a new two-disc greatest hits album, Quarantine the Past: the Best of Pavement, to be released this Tuesday.

Frontman Stephen Malkmus and guitarist Scott Kannberg formed Pavement in 1989. After releasing a couple of EP’s, the band released its debut full-length album, Slanted and Enchanted, in 1992, immediately striking a chord with music criti c s. Wi t h n ew m e m b er s Bo b Nastanovich (who replaced original drummer Gary Young) and bassist Mark Ibold, Pavement cemented their line-up and went on to release four more albums throughout the 90’s. 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain helped introduce them to a larger audience thanks to singles such as “Cut Your Hair.” But after a ten-year run, Malkmus announced d u r i n g a s h o w in 1 9 9 9 t h at t h e

group was breaking up (though their record label, Matador, claimed that the band was merely on hiatus). The members went their separate ways, apparently ending an often tumultuous but always interesting career.

Malkmus’ post-Pavement band, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, have remained active since their inception in 2000 and released four albums. Kannberg also started a n e w p r o j e c t , P r e s to n S c h o ol o f Imagery, and released a few albums i n th e e a r l i e r p a r t o f t h e p as t decade. He also released an album under the name Spiral Stairs last year.

After nearly ten years of solo proj e c t s , i t wa s a nn o u n c e d in S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9 t h a t P a v e m e nt would reform for a summer tour.

As the list of dates was slowly revealed, it became clear that this w a s a f u l l - b l ow n w or l d t o u r .

Pavement kicked off their reunion just a few days ago in Auckland, N e w Z e a l a n d a n d w i ll t o u r t h e United States, Australia, Japan and Europe this summer. So far, the lone Canadian date is the Toronto I s l a n d Co n c e r t ( a ls o f e at u r i n g Broken Social Scene and Band of Horses, with possible future additions to the line-up). If you’ve spent the past ten years basking in 90’s nostalgia, it’s shaping up to be a pretty good summer.

Revisiting classic Pavement fare

Slanted and Enchanted [1992]

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain [1994]

Wowee Zowee [1995]

Pavement’s debut album is still considered their best work by many (Rolling Stone Magazine placed it at #134 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time).

“Trigger Cut: Wounded Kite at :17” introduced the loping melodies and twisty wordplay that would become the band’s signature, while songs like “No Life Singed Her” showcased an energetic, spastic style. In spite of the raw production, it still sounds great eighteen years later and has become a defining album in indie music history.

Pavement brought a tighter sound to their second album, leaning more heavily on melodies than noise. While not as well-known as their debut, 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain offers some great songs. The huge chorus in “Unfair” provides one of their best melodies to date and the band even dabbles in country on “Range Life.” Compared to their previous work, it’s a far more accessible album, but it doesn’t feel like they sacrifice the quality of their music.

Still on a streak, Pavement released their third album, Wowee Zowee, in 1995. The 18-track album isn’t as concise as their previous albums and sometimes feels scattered in comparison. But it’s still a worthwhile effort, offering many good moments such as the lovely ballad “We Dance.”

“Grounded” may be one of their more conventional songs, but the straight-ahead rock sound suits them well. It’s worth investing the time that it can take to appreciate this album’s less immediate mix of songs.

The Oscars The Academy awards the most distinguished films and makers of the year

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It has been a big year for the film industry. From the monstrous success that was Avatar to the indie underdog The Hurt Locker, it seemed as though more people were paying attention to movies than usual.

And they were. Not only did the past year produce the highestgrossing film in history (not counting inflation), but it was also one of the most successful years ever

for the film industry—and in a recession! It seems that people are turning to movies more and more, and with the advent of online streaming, people can watch whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.

That’s what made this year’s Oscars so interesting. These films are why Hollywood is currently bathing in success. Here’s a look at some of the winners.

Best Picture: The Hurt Lockerr Directing: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) Actress in a Supporting Role: Mo'Nique (Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) Animated Feature Film: Up Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire adapted by Geoffrey Fletcher Writing (Original Screenplay): The Hurt Locker written by Mark Boal Music (Original Score): Up Music (Original Song): "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett Visual Effects: Avatar Costume Design: The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell) Foreign Language Film: The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) (Argentina)

Want to know more about the Oscar winners? Check out mediumonline.ca this week for detailed reviews of films, actors and more.

MONDAY, MARCH

MEET AND GREET

8, 2010 THE MEDIUM 7

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Style @ UTM

Speed dating, speed hating

Lysan Sequeira picks out three UTM students who stand out for their fashion sense

Chatroulette connects you via webcam with random people around the world. Including the weird ones

Who: Alicia Santos What: First year management stu dent Where: Oscar Peterson Hall Wearing: H&M blazer, garage leg gings Style Inspiration: Lauren Conrad, Kelly Carlson, Julianne Hough, Blake Lively I love the way Alicia pairs something casual and everyday like leggings with a dressy boyfriend blazer. This is the perfect combination of classic wardrobe staples with updated twists.

The grey boots are a fun add-on and they give the outfit that extra oomph.

Who: Ansin Zhou What: First year commerce stu dent Where: Roy Ivor Hall Wearing: Pride&Glory bomber vest, Zara plaid shirt, red Adidas Classic sneakers Style Inspiration: Pharrell, Jay Z

chatrt.com photo

KJARTAN HEWITT My favourite thing about Ansin’s outfit is the fun sneakers. Adidas Classics have been around for many years now, but they always seem to be in style. I love the playfulness of the bomber vest and how it matches the shoes.

Who: Adwoa Asare What: Third year political science and Italian student Where: Colmon Commons Dining Hall Wearing: patterned scarf from Rome, Boho handbag from Winners Style Inspiration: Rihanna, any thing tribal/ethnic Adwoa mixes a Bohemian purse with studded flats for a surprising combination. It’s a challenge to successfully blend different textures when dressing, but she does it with confidence and ease. The beanie hat and patterned scarf are great additions.

Know a UTM student who should be featured in this column? Email us at arts@mediumonline.ca

If you haven’t been privy to the Internet-phenomena that is ChatRoulette.com, I’d recommend giving it a look. The website, which has been up and running since November 2009, was created by a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow as a way for him and his friends to randomly meet strangers online.

Using it is simple. Press “Play,” and you’re automatically connected via webcam with a stranger, anywhere in the world, to (ideally) have a conversation with. Outside of the obvious appeal of an opportunity to meet people, Chatrt.com offers an interesting self-sociological experiment: how do you behave when you’re anonymous and free from the standard constructs of social repercussion?

Even if you don’t take anything away from the upwards of 20,000 potential webcam chat-mates that are online at any given time, you might just learn something about yourself.

Just so you aren’t shocked, or if the potential of a site like Chatroulette hasn’t already occurred to you, be warned: many people use chatrt.com as a venue

to act out sexual compulsions.

Many young men, in an effort to inspire more intimate conversation with the opposite sex, exercise their keenest circumlocution and fine-tuned flattery—“Show me your boobs!” being a staple of this sort of courtship. Many others don’t even wait for a visual queue before beginning their partly-autoamorous-endeavor. They just troll along, mid-effort, waiting for that special someone to not hit the “next” button.

The voyeuristic appeal has a marked effect on the patronage of the site. Like most pornographic Internet sites, its fan-base is largely male. That’s not to say that Chatroulette is a pornographic website, but to ignore the fact that in using this website you will see a certain amount of penises would be a glaring oversight.

While some seek cyber-promiscuity (or, depending on how you look at it, true love), others satisfy different means of catharsis.

Yesterday, while researching the site, I was told by a young man in the United States mid-west that, based on the fact that I was on my computer talking to people over the internet, I would die alone. He then “nexted” me as he laughed to his friends.

This sort of random verbal violence can be jarring, but the whole experience did help me consider the appeal of this site. It is addictive. I sat there for two hours playing with it. (The website). And after my brief altercation with the rude Midwesterner in the River’s Cuomo glasses, stewing and wondering why a person would be such an ass to a stranger, I considered my own behavior. The only reason I stopped to talk to those people was because the two girls he was with were cute. I had been “nexting” all the men that appeared on screen as soon as their pictures rendered. What, then, were my intentions, if not purely analytical?

There are raw animal impulses that exist in each of us, which for the sake of social boundaries, we restrict. How much of our natural existence is shaped by this? And, how much can we safely realize these impulses, if we so choose to, through something like Chatroulette? I can only deduce that this is the main appeal of the site.

Furthermore, why is it that mostly men seek out this sort of outlet? Is that societal, or a reality of natural male/female sexuality?

Maybe I’ll get online and ask somebody.

Erindale College Special Response Team Referendum Notice:

ST. JOHN AMBULANCE

The Erindale College Special Response Team (ECSpeRT) is a division of St. John Ambulance that was founded in 2003 at the University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM). With its motto being “pro utilitate studentum e hominum,” or “in the service of students and mankind,” ECSpeRT’s primary function is to provide a volunteer medical first response service to all faculty, staff, students, and visitors on the university campus.

ECSpeRT currently receives a levy of $0.20 per student per semester from the University of Toronto at Mississauga Student Union (UTMSU), which amounted to $4,200 for the 08-09 school year based on a 10,500 student enrolment. ECSpeRT is proposing a thirtycent increase it its levy for a total of $0.50 per student per semester.

Question:

Are you in favor of an increase to the ECSpeRT (Erindale College Special Response Team) levy by $0.30 per semester, to a total of $0.50 per semester?

“IMITOSIS”

BY ANDREW BIRD VISIT MEDIUMONLINE.CA/SONGOFTHEWEEK

DATE: March 16th – 18th 2010 TIME: 9 am – 6 pm LOCATION: South Building, CCT, North Building BRING YOUR T-CARD

8 THE MEDIUM

MONDAY, MARCH

8, 2010

Amir Ahmed, Editor | features@mediumonline.ca

Night owls NORA EMAD

In the February 2010 news feature of The Science Daily, a research project regarding the sleep habits of adolescents was reported as discovering a potential link between the amount of time spent indoors, the amount of morning light and the delayed sleep cycle of teens.

In the study, which was recently published in Neuroendocrinology Letters, Dr. Mariana Figueiro, assistant professor and program director at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center, discusses the results of her experiment conducted on eighthgrade students from middle schools in North Carolina and New York.

During the experiment, Dr. Figueiro gave a test group specialized glasses that prevented shortwavelength, blue spectrum morning light from reaching their eyes.

She found that the lack of morning light delayed the participants’ sleep cycles by 30 minutes at the end of a five-day study. Dr. Figueiro also investigated the amount of light obtained inside schools where the design of the school dictated how much morning light students experienced.

Dr. Figueiro found that a lack of blue spectrum morning light causes a delay in the release of the hormone melatonin, which is in charge of letting the body know that it is night time. This delays the overall sleep cycle of adoles-

cents. As a result, teens sleep later and experience what Dr. Figueiro refers to as “night owl syndrome.”

Dr. Figueiro suggests that schools should ensure that the right amount of morning light reach teenage students so they can help stop this cycle of delayed sleep. This is to make up for the school schedule that disrupts the “biological rhythms” of teens, in which they are asked to get to school very early and stay indoors before they receive any exposure to the required blue spectrum morning light. Such sleep patterns have been shown to hinder performance abilities of students both in the studies conducted and in school.

So, does this mean that university students who pull all-nighters and sleep in, if they have the chance to, are experiencing the same pattern? Have we adopted the ways of the owl, in which our peak functio ning occur s l ate at night and our rest is during the morning, when the blue spectrum light awaits?

Dr. Figueiro and her colleagues have to do further research to show the extent of the effects of blue spectrum morning light on university students. But it is good to know that our poor sleeping habits are not entirely due to our own neglect and abuse of caffeinated drinks. Maybe it is the timing in which we must attend class that clashes with our opportunities to absorb the morning blue light and is shaping our owllike ways.

What would you do?

DERIC VARCOE

There’s no doubt that every student at UTM—or any university for that matter—can’t wait to graduate.

Whether you’re reaching that milestone this year or four years from now doesn’t matter; the last test, the last exam, the last lecture and the last time you’ll ever have to spend money to go to school are circled on our calendars. When the day finally comes, however, what will you look back on and regret not doing? Maybe you’ll wish you had tried out for more sports teams, ran for student council or acted on a crush you had from afar for the last four years.

We all plan on leaving UTM with no regrets, and for that reason, I present you this list of things we have all thought about doing but never followed through on. Think of it less as an elderly Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, and more The Buried Life of your undergraduate career. I’ll use this as my checklist while I still can, while the rest of you can use it as motivation to get off your asses and make the most of your time here.

• Conduct a study to find out the exact time it takes the average student to travel the Five Minute Walk and have it properly renamed the “6-Minute-37-Second Walk.”

• Spend a night alone in the basement of South Building with a camera and a voice recorder. This has nothing to do with loving the

building or wanting to spend more time at school, but has everything to do with verifying what we all know: the South Building is haunted. I’m scared for my life when I’m walking to my locker in the middle of the day.

• Push all the tables on the fourth floor of the library together and have the world's largest group study session. Subsequently, partake in the largest group plea as we beg the security guard not to kick us out.

• Buy an Argo's jersey and sneak into a practice. I might not make it out alive, but at least I’d die knowing the Argos are actually capable of playing rough football.

• Organize a campus-wide game of manhunt involving the entire student body, designating all the professors as "it.” Not only would it be fun, but it would give our professors the chance to see how stressful it is searching for us all over campus.

• Sit down and have a hot dog with Mike the hot dog guy. Discuss the ins and outs of the hot dog business and finally see how he moves the trailer. The myth is that he drags it with his teeth.

• Demolish the North Building to ensure no future students ever have to endure a university lecture in a high school classroom. With the dim lighting, lack of windows and its seclusion on the north side of

campus, students should be getting paid to attend their classes there.

• Play ice hockey on one of the two gi ant ponds o n ca mpu s. P eopl e already do it, but with the way global warming has changed our weather, it may never be frozen again.

• Buy an HB number one pencil and use it on a University of Toronto scantron just to see if they really do make a difference. I’ll save this one for my last test, so it won’t really matter if I fail.

• Befriend one of the many deer on campus and ride it like a horse for my own personal form of transportation. When the animal rights activists get angry, the environmentalists will support me because my transportation emits no emissions.

• Gather 499 Leafs fans and watch a playoff game in CCT 1080. This one is farfetched, not because we can’t get into the lecture hall, but because the Leafs may never again make the playoffs.

Some of these may apply to you and many of them might not, but the point is that we should all take our time here. We all want to graduate and move on with our lives, but when the day comes, do you want to look back and wish you had taken it slower? I don’t. So make your list and enjoy being young and stupid while you still can.

Do you have your own UTM bucket list? Comment online at mediumonline.ca

Music with a mission New online music publisher lets buyers choose the price IOANA GHEORGHIU

Pay Who You Want Online is a volunteer and contractor-run website on which musicians can post their music and fans can pay how much they want for a given download. The site was founded by Kim Le founded in March of last year as a means to generate profit for musicians and raise awareness of social issues affecting the community.

On the website, artists are offered promotions through print, online and college radio stations. The site also provides venues across Canada for artists to hold their concerts at and so increase their number of fans.

“At PWYWO, we ensure fair compensation and treat artists with the dignity and respect they deserve. We provide them with opportunities to showcase, promote and distribute their music online as 100% legal mp3 downloads. We do not force exclusivity and we claim no rights to the artist’s material. There is no fee for them to register or upload their music for distribution,” says Le, adding that

international submissions are also accepted.

This nontraditional form of selling records is not exclusive to indie artists. When popular band Radiohead offered its third album, In Rainbows, at a pay-what-you-want rate, the album went on to become the band’s most successful. Le first came up with the idea for PWYWO from world-renowned Canadian musician Jane Siberry, who offers her music on a pay-what-you-want or can afford basis.

“I was at one of her concerts and I heard her express the same sentiments as other musicians about being undervalued and being treated unfairly,” says Le. At PWYWO, musicians are guaranteed a base amount for every song that they sell and full control over their account, with no administration, registration or setup fees. Neither are they expected to satisfy any requisites for the kind of music that they submit.

“Music is subjective and what one person may deem to be good music may not be so to another,” says Le. “As long as a musician has CD quality

music, and if they can carry a tune, we will accept it.”

A fan has full control over how much they pay and who they pay to.

With no required membership and no obligation to buy, one can also listen to music before buying. Minimum amounts are set at CAD$7.00 per album and CAD$0.99 per song. Le attributes a deduction of 10-15% from each paid song as PWYWO administrative fees. Fans also have the option to support a local cause in their community with their purchase.

On January 23, PWYWO officially launched its first social initiative to raise $100,000 for UrbanEx and SKETCH to support youth at risk and homeless youths, using music and art.

UrbanEx (www.urbanex.org) is a local Toronto nonprofit organization founded by Em Johnson and codirected by long-time independent artist lobbyer Alan Waugh. Johnson and Waugh bring awareness and advocate for those at risk on our streets and in our communities.

SKETCH (www.sketch.ca) is a community arts initiative for youth age 15 to 29 who are homeless. The

paywhatyouwantonline.com

Pay Who You Want Online may reflect the future of music distribution. organization is directed by Rudy Ruttimann.

PWYWO is also holding a $10,000 contest for the top-selling artist on the site, who is determined by the most number of songs sold. According to Le, the inspiration for the award was “to motivate artists to participate, to help ensure artists are able to continue to make music for everyone’s enjoy-

ment and a way to encourage artists to work more closely with [PWYWO].”

The contest will end when PWYWO reaches the $100,000 goal for the fundraiser to support homeless youths.

More information about the fundraiser, contest and artist submissions can be found at paywhatyouwantonline.com.

MONDAY,MARCH

8, 2010 THE MEDIUM 9

PATH TO LEARNING

FEATURES

The pressures of learning MARIANA COMITO

At a very young age, children are confronted with a question that, even as adolescents, some cannot answer: what do you want to be?

Some dream of becoming singers, doctors, actors and or even astronaut. Nevertheless, as the year’s progress, the same question rattles the brain for most adolescents.

Parents and teachers ask this broad question to children, expecting a realistic answer, and as those children become teenagers and enter high school, the pressure of choosing a career path builds. At the age of 15, teenagers are expected to choose particular courses in order to have prerequisites for their college or university programs.

If a student wants to receive an undergraduate degree in life sciences, then during high school, they must take every available science and math course, leaving no room for electives. However, many university students change their majors and minors to different fields in which they have no particular background or experience.

In 2005, Statistics Canada reported that 90 per cent of students who graduated from university had a full-time job within two years. Those who had a master's

or a doctorate made more money than those who only graduated with a bachelor's degree.

Even though choosing a career path at young age may be a beneficial step for the future, students continue to feel the pressure.

“There’s tough competition. I’m trying to get my undergrad done, and take it one step at a time.

Maybe I will go to law school, or become an accountant,” said Sarah Severino, a third-year business student. “It’s hectic, because students are immediately put under immense pressure to choose a specific career path and sometimes you don’t even know if you would truly enjoy doing that job for the rest of your life.”

When entering university, many students have a plan to achieve success in a specific field.

However, after their first year, these students may realize that their plans have to take a different route. They switch from one major to another, and lose time in finishing their undergrad because they must start all over in a new career path.

Perhaps high schools could avoid this by offering co-op to all of their students. Usually, co-op p r o g r a m s ar e i ntended for stu dents who choose a career in the tra de in dust ries . However, this could be a useful tool for those who are interested in the medical or business field. Learning about

a type of career ahead of time may be useful for students to experience different job opportunities that seem interesting, and thus, pursue them with confidence and determination.

Some of us stay confident and fulfill their childhood dreams of becoming doctors and lawyers, but others realize that the competition is just too much. In order to get into graduate school, GPAs must be high and with the steep competition, the minimum acceptable CGPA just does not cut it. Continuing her thoughts about university and the competition among students, Sarah Severino says, “grad school is really important for a lot of people and creates a lot of competition amongst students. Not only do you need to have a high GPA, but you also need extracurricular activities and volunteer hours.

You have to be a good, all around student or else you won’t have a chance.”

However, is it possible for students to attend university just for the opportunity to gain new knowledge and experience a higher level of education? Many people become successful without having a degree. Perhaps if students attended university simply to learn new material and broaden their knowledge, the pressure of pursuing a future career will be a little less stressful.

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business.humber.ca

10 THE MEDIUM MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010

FEATURES CREATIVE CORNER

Mooncakes AMIR AHMED

She tried to kill me with a mooncake mould.

It didn’t work, of course. That’s why I’m able to talk to you. My name’s Eric by the way, and I don’t think I have much longer to live. My head feels like a mosquito bite after you scratched it too many times and the gentle depression on my right temple—the one that makes me black out if I touch it—doesn’t bode well for anything.

There’s blood everywhere. I wish it wasn’t mine. I had such a nice kitchen too. White granite tiles, white counters with dark green stone countertops. The appliances are only a few years old and they gleam like tarnished silver in the evening. Of course, fate wouldn’t let me have such a nice kitchen for more than a year. Granted, I thought it would get ruined from the warranties running out, not from my blood staining everything.

It’s night now. The only light comes from the fluorescent bulbs overhead—the ones that flicker every five seconds to let you know they’re saving energy—and the brief, flaring mote of the streetlamp in the window. I don’t know where Nicole went.

I’m not surprised she didn’t manage to kill me. She’s not a killer. She’s an arts major. A graduate student actually, getting her master’s at York.

Her entire perception of death has

been shaped by movies and books. In her world, death comes right away.

One minute it’s there, and one bash later, it’s gone. She doesn’t know how long it takes a man to die. I’m about to find out and you get to watch.

Lucky me. Lucky you.

The blow didn’t kill me. It knocked me unconscious. When I woke up there was blood everywhere. It’s caking my hair. It’s stiffening my shirt.

It’s staining my eyes and no amount of crying is getting it out. I don’t have time to waste on crying anyway. I have work to do.

Parts of my body shut off every other second and I lose feeling and the ability to move. I’m like a broken computer, or a broken engine with too many parts yanked out. It’s hell to move even when I can. My breath drains out of me just from thought of moving, and my depth perception is gone; the countertops seem like mountains that go up to heaven. I’m trapped in the strange wide expanse of cold, white tiles.

My sense of smell is haywire too. I smell fresh, cold water, not the salty, copper smell of blood, or the buttery, warm smell of baking moon cakes.

Do you know what mooncakes are? I’ll tell you as I push myself to the end of the counter at the corner of the room. Oh god it’s hell to move.

Did I tell you that? Sparks are going off in my head and I don’t know when I’ll faint. I can’t faint yet. So let me tell you about moon cakes.

A mooncake is sort of like a Danish, eaten during the New Year

and the mid-autumn festival celebrated across Asia. Regional recipes differ, but the recipe I use calls for chewy, buttery crust, surrounding a whole egg yolk and lotus seed paste.

When I make them, I don’t use the yolk or the lotus seeds. I fill them with sweet red bean paste. If you’ve never had it before, red bean paste sort of tastes like chocolate and coffee that’s been dunked in red bean paste.

There’s nothing like chewing through a moon cake, feeling the buttery, almost flaky dough give way to the dark, bass tones of the beans. Can beans taste dark and bass? They must. Or maybe my brain’s playing tricks with me.

My lungs are heaving. They feel wet, on the inside. Like they’re sweating or I’m drowning. …

Oh God. Ohshitohfuck. I just coughed up a wad of blood. The effort it took nearly killed me. I’m still in the kitchen. That’s surprising.

I thought Nicole would be back by now to deal with my body. I wonder how long I was passed out.

The alarm on the oven timer woke me up. It’s only been two minutes.

Thank goodness. I have a job to do.

So let me tell you more in the meantime.

The thing about mooncakes, the defining feature really, is their appearance. Mooncakes have designs stamped onto their crust. Usually it’s a bunch of Chinese characters. I don’t read Chinese so I don’t know what they mean. Benevolent things, proba-

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bly. My mooncakes are square, with a floral design and a small fish curling up on themselves in each corner.

When they come out of the oven, they gleam like brass.

The mooncake designs aren’t made by hand; no baker could do that. To get the design on them, bakers need to use a mould. They’re made of wood—dark, heavy wood perfect for bashing brains—with the design chiselled into the bottom. Usually they’re shaped like a paddle. When I make moon cakes, I hold the paddle in my left hand and the handle in my right.

I push down on the unformed block of pastry, already containing its neat, secret paste, and really, really push. If I tried to push like that now, I’d probably cough up some more blood.

I’m moving again. Oh God, it’s hard to move. I need to get to the end of the counter. That’s step one of my plan. I have to finish my plan. My plan is all that I have left to do in life, and I don’t have a lot of that left.

I hit my chest when I fell, that’d explain why I was coughing up blood.

No, that’s a lie. Nicole bashed me in the chest a few times. I can’t remember.

No—that’s a lie too. I remember it was three times exactly. She didn’t bash me with the mould once I was on the ground either. She threw it aside and stomped on me. How could she have been so strong? It must have been adrenaline.

Nicole’s a sweetheart. Or at least I thought she was. The crater in my head might tell a different tale. She’s beautiful, with sort of a nerd-girl look going on. Thick, black glasses, snub of a nose, dark brown hair cut above her shoulders. Teeth like baby’s toes, all neatly lined up together, all the perfect size. She has a tiny scar on her right earlobe. It’s nothing, just a tiny crease running from her ear piercing to the tip of the lobe, but she was always insecure about it—still is I imagine—and always brushed her hair to cover it up. She got the scar when she was seven; her little brother Steve, who was four at the time, tore her earring out in a fight. Steve’s a good guy. I’ve met him, drank beers with him, did the entire boyfriendbonding-with-younger-brother-toget-in-older-sister’s-pants thing.

I wonder what Steve’s up to now. I wonder if he knew his sister was going to try and kill me.

Was it something I did? I never cheated on her. I never hit her. I tried to never make her cry but, you know, I’m a guy and do stupid things sometimes.

Maybe it was a sudden urge. That’d explain why she tried to murder me with the mould. We have so many other objects in the apartment that’d kill someone faster and quicker. She could have used the poker from the fireplace, or she could have smothered me. Hell, we have some bad meat in the fridge; she could have just fed me that.

What did she feel when she clubbed me? I remember how I felt.

Everything else about my life is hazy right now but I remember the pain of that blow clearer than anything My hands are so sweaty. When I try to push myself to the end of the hall they just slide over the tiles like penguins on a snow bank. I have to use my elbows, shuffling them forward like I’m climbing up a mountain. I wish I had worked out more; maybe it would have been easier now.

Okay. I’m halfway to the end of the counter. I’ll just rest here for a minute or so. I’m really tired, and I deserve a break.

Do you know what’s at the end of the counter? Don’t laugh. You’ll laugh at me if I tell you. I know you will. Fuck you. Fuck you and your sick voyeurism.

Fine I’ll tell you. But don’t laugh.

I was making mooncakes when Nicole came in and cracked my head.

You know that already. I had just finished the second batch. The first batch was in the oven. It’s still in the oven.

The oven is at the end of the counter.

Get the picture?

It’s hot down here. It’s because of the baking oven and the poor circulation here. When I bake, the air takes on the humidity of a swamp in Florida. I enjoyed the heat, but now it reminds me of hell.

I wonder if they let you bake in hell. I’m guessing no. Heaven probably reroutes the heat to use in its own barbecues though. So if you act virtuously in this life and enjoy a hot dog in the next, just remember that you’re probably also tasting a hint of my roasted flesh. Enjoy buddy.

I never had many goals in life.

That’s what attracted Nicole to me.

She wanted someone to coast with while she played around in graduate school. She’s smart. She’s really, really smart. She treats the classes like jokes, writes off papers the day they’re due and still gets great grades.

She went to graduate school because she didn’t want to work. I’m not a fan of work myself, so I can’t blame her. I am a fan of living though, so fuck her.

I’m dead now. Not in the biological sense, but there’s no way I’m going to get out of this kitchen alive. So before I go, I just want to do something you know? I have to do something.

I could try to set up a trap for Nicole, maybe write out her name in blood or some creepy shit like that.

But I don’t have the energy and I don’t want her caught anyway. It wouldn’t serve much of a purpose in the long run. But maybe if I take out the mooncakes, the paramedics and forensics team will get a little snack.

They deserve it, working in such a bleak job all day.

If I can pull open the oven door, I’ll have actually done something good in this world. Mooncakes don’t breed hate, no pastry does. They just make people feel better. I want to make people feel better. I just want to do something good before I go.

Please let me finish this. Please just let me do something before I die.

When I was young, I thought I’d do great things, make lots of money, maybe be an astronaut. I never made a plan on how to get there though. I guess that’s the difference between Neil Armstrong and me. I was ridiculous as a kid. I still am, I suppose. But it doesn’t matter. I’m willing to forgive myself. I’m willing to forgive Nicole and Steve and everyone on the planet if I can just turn the oven off so the mooncakes won’t burn.

I’m nearly there. Sweet zombie Jesus, I’m nearly there. The oven is right there, like the monolith from 2001, like the burning bush from the Ten Commandments. I’m actually going to do this.

I don’t know if God’s out there. If my murder was part of his plan or if he just really doesn’t like mooncakes.

I don’t know if there’s justice or love or any of that immaterial crap out there that people die for. If there is though, if there’s anyone out there, please just let me lift that door off. I have to do this.

But it’s so far away…

MONDAY, MARCH

8, 2010 THE MEDIUM 11

Andrew Tysiak , Editor | sports@mediumonline.ca

Eagles advance to finals UTM defeats the UTSC Maroons 56 52 in men’s division 1 basketball semi final action KEITH SHANKAR

Last Wednesday, the UTM Eagles built off their perfect 9-0 regular season record by holding onto a victory in their semi-final matchup against the UTSC Maroons.

After the Maroons squeaked by Law last week with a 72-71 victory in the quarterfinals match, both the Maroons and Eagles delivered excellent defensive efforts that made it difficult for either team to build momentum at any point of the game.

Despite the Eagles’ undefeated record, the two previous regular season matches against the Maroons indicated that the UTSC team is capable of challenging the Eagles, as it only lost by the close scores of 58-57 and 47-45.

“The closest they have ever come to us was this season, when I hit a buzzer beater to win by two,” said Ambrish Patel, who led the Eagles with 13 points.

“Nonetheless, it means a lot for us to pull out a win against this team because we have always seen each other as rivals.”

Aware of this fact, coaches Ammer Askary and Anish Bhalla adjusted their strategy for this game.

“We usually run a nine man rotation,” said Patel. “But since it was a playoff game, the coaches wanted to assure a victory and stuck with the starters for most of the game.”

Despite the Eagles’ notoriety for quick starts, the UTM team came out of the gate particularly flat. With the match tied at eight, strong defensive

Brendan Fifield/The Medium

Eagles #33 Andre Woodroffe goes for an uncontested lay up against the UTSC Maroons. coverage by the Maroons limited Eagles’ Patel from completing a jump shot, transitioning the game in the Maroons’ favour as they immediately scored on their next possession to take a 10-8 lead.

The Eagles rebounded with a 6-1 run, blocking shots from the Maroons and pinning them in the offensive zone.

The Maroons didn’t fall behind for long and capitalized on several foul shots to tie the game. The two teams traded points for the rest of the first half, and continued doing so in the second.

With both teams stuck at 36, the Maroons broke the scoring rut and went on a 6-0 run. The Eagles respond-

ed with a 5-0 run of their own, starting with a swift defensive steal by Andre Woodroffe that led to an attempted layup that had the basketball stuttering on the rim before Patel finished the play with a tip in.

The Maroons were guilty of repeated turnovers. This began to cost them

halfway through the second half.

Following a timeout, Woodroffe broke through the Maroons defence once again and made the breakaway shot to bring the Eagles within one point. The Maroons took a defensive foul and allowed the Eagles to capitalize on a three point play that resulted from a missed second foul shot attempt, and saw Eagles Jordan Nazarene gather an offensive rebound and hit the basket.

The Eagles eventually gained a four point lead and never looked back. They maintained their four point lead into the final minute of the game, solidifying an entry into the division 1 championship match. The active UTM crowd serenaded the victory with chants of “Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye.”

“It was great seeing our fans come out and showing school spirit,” said Petal.

In the championship match, the Eagles will face either Woodsworth or FPEH. Considering that the Eagles defeated both teams during the regular season, winning 76-64 against Woodsworth on October 21 and 78-62 against FPEH on October 28, they should have no problem capturing their second straight division 1 title.

To find out more information about the championship match, visit the Department of Physical Education’s website at http://www1.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3p hysed/ or contact Program Coordinator Jack Krist at (905) 569-4607 or via email at j.krist@utoronto.ca.

NHL trade deadline: quantity over quality Assistant Sports Editor William Robertson recaps the best and the worst transactions of an otherwise lacklustre 2010 NHL trade deadline WILLIAM ROBERTSON ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

On March 3, the NHL trade deadline day set an NHL record for the most transactions ever made in one day. It ended with 31 trades made and involved 55 players and 25 draft picks. It also disappointed hockey fans, as no big names swapped teams.

The Medium recaps the best and the worst transactions of the 2010 trade deadline: The Good: One of the biggest names to be traded was Carolina Hurricane defensemen Joe Corvo, who was shipped over to Washington to add depth to their defensive core. In return, Carolina acquired Brian Pothier, Oskar Osala and a second round pick. This trade will help Mike Green tally the points in the playoffs and prove to help the goaltenders in Washington.

Not only did the Washington Capitals add depth on defence, but they also improved their size and strength on offence with the additions of Scott Walker and Eric Belanger.

Michael Martin/Getty Images

The addition of Wojtek Wolski (right) should help the Coyotes make a strong playoff push.

When the Caps roll into the playoffs, these players will add both physicality and veteran leadership. The trades will greatly improve Washington’s chances of winning the Stanley Cup. For proof, fans need only refer to the Capitals game on Thursday night, when Scott Walker scored two goals, including the game-winner in the

third period, in his first game in a Capital uniform.

Phoenix has been an unexpected playoff contender this year, and were very active at the deadline as they tried to solidify their existence in the NHL and put together a successful playoff run. They added scoring depth by picking up sniper Wojtek Wolski from Colorado for Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter. Scoring 18 goals so far this season, Wolski will prove to be an offensive force, especially if the Coyotes make the playoffs.

Another forward they added was Lee Stempniak, formerly with the Maple Leafs. He may have been a flop in Toronto, but Phoenix management believes a change of scenery will do the NHL veteran well, especially considering he will now be surrounded by a more talented crop of players.

Not only did they address their scoring blunders, but Phoenix also added veteran defenseman Mathieu Schneider to solidify their blue line.

The two-time All-Star has tons of playoff experience and possesses the grit and determination needed to win a Stanley Cup. Expect the Coyotes to surprise critics if they manage to

make the playoffs.

L.A. made a small deal picking up Jeff Halpern. Known for being a tremendous penalty killer, the 33year-old will help the young and inexperienced squad in the playoffs. If goaltender Jonathan Quick plays well, the Kings could be an unstoppable force come playoff time.

The Bad: The goal for the Vancouver Canucks this year was to make a push for the Stanley Cup. The deadline did not prove to be exceptional for them, as their only addition was Andrew Alberts on defence. With Canucks defensemen Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa out due to injuries, Alberts certainly won’t be able to fill the void. They also added Yan Stastny, but he is not a top-six forward by any means, so their offensive skill essentially stayed the same.

The Boston Bruins desperately needed a high scorer to fill the void left by the Phil Kessel departure in the offseason. Unfortunately, they were unable to acquire a top forward during the trade deadline. They did acquire a solid defenseman in Dennis Seidenberg, but their goaltending has

been shaky this year and they sit dead last in the league in scoring, averaging only 2.32 goals per game. This will prove to be detrimental to their playoff run.

The Chicago Blackhawks were relatively quiet on deadline day, which was a message from the management in the organization. They believe the team they have is the team that will take them to the Stanley Cup finals.

However, goaltending has been an issue this year and will continue to be.

The Blackhawks should have made a strong push for a true number one goalie and try to strike a deal with the Islanders for Martin Biron or Dwayne Roloson. Unfortunately, they did not and the Blackhawks goaltending could be their downfall come playoff time.

The verdict: The ultimate winner of the overall trade deadline is the Washington Capitals. They are in first in the East and still made trades to improve their team by addressing all of their needs.

Expect them to be in the finals this year. If they play the way they are capable of, they could be the next Stanley Cup champions.

12 THE MEDIUM MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010

SPORTS

OLYMPICS AND WORLD CUP

The other Olympic news Now that the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games are over, The Medium looks back on headlines that weren’t related to athletics MICHAEL DI LEO A&E EDITOR

While several large mishaps took place during the Games (from the malfunctioning Olympic Flame cauldron to chain-mesh enclosure surrounding the outdoor Olympic fire), these were not as controversial as other unsavoury, yet lesserknown peccadilloes of the Vancouver Olympics.

Emergency Condom Shipment: The athletes that participate in the Olympics are some of the most potent individuals on the planet— they are in the best shape of their lives and have aggressive instincts, which helps explain they’re so competitive.

These athletes are housed in one giant complex (the Olympic Village) where no one else is allowed into. It is freezing cold outside. How are they expected to stay warm?

Since the 1992 Barcelona games, the host country has taken the initiative to distribute condoms to all the athletes and officials who participate at the games (about 7,000 this year). With an original stock of 100,000 condoms, this meant that there were around 14 condoms p er p ers o n, includi ng females.

But as event organizers discovered, supplies were running low by the end of the games and the

Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research had to step in and send an emergency shipment. This was the first condom shortage at an Olympic Games.

Toronto Maple Leaf jailed for night: Followers of the Toronto Maple Leafs are probably aware that Mikhail Grabovski is not the most sportsmanlike player—on or off the ice.

Vancouver locals got a taste of his antics during the games when Grabovski was arrested and jailed after a 2 a.m. street fight.

Grabovski, who came to the Olympics to cheer on the Belarusian men’s hockey team (he couldn’t play due to an injury), was later released to the custody of his parents.

Olympics. An hour after beating the United States 2-0, the team stormed back onto the ice and celebrated with champagne, beers and cigars. One player tried to drive the ice-resurfacing machine.

At the time, several of the players were below the legal drinking age.

The IOC condemned this exuberant display, and the team later apologized.

American Snowboarder leaves Olympics after racy photo: American snowboarder Scotty Lago, w ho won a bronze in the men’s halfpipe competition, left the Olympic Games voluntarily after a racy photo of him surfaced.

The photo in question featured a woman kneeling by Lago’s waist to kiss the bronze medal.

yobeat.com

American snowboarder Scotty Lago (above) and Belarusian hockey play er Mikhail Grabovski (below) were both involved in controversies.

Bobsledder arrested for attacking fiancée: American bobsledder Bill Schuffenhauer was arrested by the RCMP after an argument with his fiancée. According to a news release, the RCMP are recommending charges of assault and of uttering threats.

Schuffenhauer will appear in court in Vancouver on April 21.

Canadian women’s hockey team party hard: The Canadian women’s hockey team stirred some controversy after their gold-medal win at the

Reuters

The promise of success If Canada qualified for the World Cup, would you support them?

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MARIANA COMITO

During the 2010 Olympics, many Canadians proudly held red and white flags as their country won one Olympic medal after the other. But if the FIFA World Cup had replaced the Olympics, would Canadians have been as supportive of their country?

During the last World Cup, chaos hit the downtown area.

Sections of St. Clair were closed to motor vehicles and opened to the walking public. As cheering fans swamped bars, soccer became the most popular event during the summer. But instead of waiving the maple leave flag, the se fans brandished the flags of Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Greece and Spain.

Canada’s small chance of even qualifying for the world cup (let alone winning it) was probably the reason for such a lukewarm support. Indeed, since many of the same first generation Canadians who would cheer for Canada during the Olympics now rooted for their ancestral countries, a skeptic might wonder whether people are prone to supporting their country only when they know it’s more likely to win.

“Everyone wants to win. That’s why people choose to stay faithful to Canada during the Olympics.

We have a chance of winning and bringing home medals. During the World Cup, everyone chooses to cheer for their ancestral country

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Canadasoccer.com

Despite the rising popularity of the sport in Canada, the men’s national team ranks only 62nd in the world. because we all know Canada has no shot in winning the World Cup,” says Vanessa Micheilli, a third-year Geography student.

So if Canada had a chance in wining the World Cup, would people cheer for their home country?

“Canada does not invest in soccer programs as much as European countries. Our main interest is hockey, hence our gold medals,” says Sarah Severino, a third-year business student.

“Canada does not have a chance to win the World Cup, and if they did, I don’t know if I would cheer for them. I cheer for Canada during the Olympics, and I cheer for Italy during the World Cup. That’s just the way it is.”

If that really is the way it is, then perhaps Canada will have to wait until it gets its first generation of star players. Until then, soccer events, even those which are hosted in Canada, will not see much support for our players.

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