On the Right Path

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FIRST PEEK

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CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2013

FIRST PEEK

So, this is it — this is where I bid you all a fond farewell. I’ve decided not to reapply for my position as The Peak’s copy editor and this, my inspirational, insightful editor’s voice, is me saying goodbye.

I’ve been pondering what I want to write about, what I want to leave with you all: something personal and anecdotal, something cliché and ‘wise,’ something funny and light — luckily for me, however, I was inspired by two gentlemen who came into The Peak offices last Wednesday.

They were concerned, offended even, by an article that we had published the week before, and sought us out, in the bowels of the MBC, looking for answers.

Let me pause to say that confrontation is hard. Your voice starts to tremble, you feel that flush crawling up your neck, you second guess what you’ve said as soon as the words tumble out of your mouth — it’s a fucking miserable experience. But it’s a necessary part of life as an adult; things offend you, they hurt you, they piss you off, and you can either let those things fester and maybe dissipate, or you can seek out resolution.

November 10, 2014

Okay, back to the office.

These guys were clearly upset, they explained their multiple issues with the piece, and our Editor-in-Chief and myself were left to respond, to defend the article or to capitulate where necessary. They weren’t aggressive, they weren’t mean or hysterical, they made valid points, and as I listened to them speak, all I could think was . . . ‘Damn, these guys really, really care.’

Passion like that amazes me.

And it leads me to my first piece of advice: care. I know you’ve heard this one a million times.

But this time really hear it. We are young people, we are informed people, we are the people who must make waves, who must get riled up, who must seek out answers, who must demand answers because it matters and it makes a difference.

The concerns of those two gentlemen were heard and taken into account and will affect future decisions at The Peak, because they cared enough to ask, “Why?” Are you fired up? I sure hope so. But before you grab that torch and storm that gate, I’ve got a second piece of advice: be kind.

You care about something, you know your shit and this thing is extremely important to you, and then you read or hear an opinion that flies in the face of everything you believe, everything you know to be true. You feel it in your gut, as if someone’s punched you in the stomach. You are afraid because this wrong, misinformed, unclear (insert your adjective of choice) opinion is out in the ether, possibly swaying people in the wrong direction.

Before you rip into the person spouting off all of that figurative black smoke, take a breath and remember that that person is, in fact, a person. It seems simple enough, and yet our tendency to overlook the whole humanity thing continues to shock and awe me.

We’ve all seen enough comments sections to know that the flak received by purveyors of unpopular opinions is often personal and sometimes brutal. But it’s understandable. That feeling I described earlier — that punch in the gut feeling — is personal and can feel like an attack. We lose ourselves in our fear, and we lash out. We gather our arsenal of verbal sticks and stones and we let loose, forgetting (or ignoring) that there is a person somewhere in the midst of it all.

No amount of passion or outrage exempts you from being decent; take steps in your own life to make the change that you want to see rather than abusing others for their ‘misinformed’ opinions. Start dialogues, ask the hard questions, but be kind.

g n i r i h e r ’ e W

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NEWS

The Research Universities’ Council of British Columbia (RUCBC) released a report on October 24 titled Putting Degrees to Work, the findings of which indicate that a university degree from a BC institution has substantial value.

The report compiled survey data collected from the province’s class of 2008 two years and five years after receiving their degrees.

Findings showed that the overall unemployment rate for university graduates at the fiveyear mark (2013) was 4.7 per cent, compared to the provincial average of 6.6 per cent and the BC youth unemployment rate of 12.9 per cent.

news editor email / phone

November 10, 2014

In an interview with The Peak, SFU president and chair of RUCBC Andrew Petter said, “I was pleased that this [data], in fact, validated what I believe to be true about university education [. . . that it] is clearly

a pathway that will not only be beneficial to [students] as citizens, but will also help graduates in terms of securing good jobs.”

He continued, “If you compare the rate of unemployment of graduates five years out [. . .]

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Leah Bjornson associate news editor news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

it’s pretty obvious that university education is very much serving the needs of students.”

The report showed that BC university graduates are also garnering comparably high salaries, earning an average of $48,000 a year two years after graduating, and an average of $60,000 a year five years post-graduation.

In Ontario, home to some of Canada’s top-ranked universities, individuals with undergraduate degrees are making roughly the same amount as BC graduates two years after receiving their degrees.

According to a report published in November 2013 by the Council of Ontario Universities, graduates of the class of 2010 were earning a little over $49,000 annually, on average.

Putting Degrees to Work also reported that over 96 per cent of British Columbia grads from 2008 were working in fields requiring post-secondary education by 2013, no matter their field of study.

“In some disciplines, it takes a little longer sometimes to get into that career path than in others. And some career paths are likely to produce higher incomes, at least earlier on,” explained Petter. “But generally, coming out of a university with a degree puts you in a much better position in the labour market than if you hadn’t done that.”

Earlier this year, the provincial government revealed its BC Skills and Jobs Blueprint, which refocuses the province’s education

Melissa Roach

strategies to emphasize highdemand occupations, including many in the energy sector such as welding, pipe-fitting, and heavy machine operation.

This plan includes a redirect of 25 per cent of provincial operating grants, currently provided to post-secondary institutions, to training for in-demand jobs.

For Petter, however, the data showcases the continued success and importance of traditional education: “I think [this report] shows that universities are already very responsive to the labour market. [The] government can take some comfort from the fact that universities are already moving in the direction that they want us to.”

As to concerns that this funding shift might harm certain programs, Petter said, “Simon Fraser’s philosophy is one based on student-demand [. . .] The budget follows the students rather than the other way around.”

He continued, “If we can give students flexibility, some work experience, and support our faculties to respond to that student demand, we’ll be more successful in meeting the students’ needs in terms of employment.”

SFU’s president made sure to point out, however, that a university education is valuable for reasons other than simple remuneration: “I hope that universities are not just about preparing students for the labour market, [but] about helping people to be able to think critically in ways that will assist them, not only in getting a job and being successful in a career, but also in being contributing citizens, building a better society, having more gratifying lives for themselves, [and] making good choices.”

Chuckling, he added, “To the extent that there has been this myth out there that if you go to university, you’ll end up as a barista, serving coffee, it’s kind of nice to know that, even disciplines that some people have suggested [. . .] would [not] lead to a good career, in fact, do.”

NEWS

This past Wednesday, November 5, the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema showcased Miners Shot Down, a documentary film about the mineworker strike in South Africa last August.

The film followed the low-paid workers in their fight against the mining company and the government from the first day, documenting South Africa’s first post-apartheid massacre.

SFU president Andrew Petter hosted the Annual SFU Surrey Gala Dinner last Wednesday to thank the community for its support and to provide an update on SFU Surrey’s latest activities and achievements.

Numerous representatives who live and work in Surrey joined in the festivities, which included a performance by SFU’s Pipe Band and speeches from SFU faculty members.

Candidates running for mayor of Vancouver discussed notable issues facing the metropolis in the 2014 Mayoral Candidates Debate held at Harbour Centre on Tuesday, November 4.

Mayoral candidates Bob Kasting, Kirk LaPointe, Gregor Robertson, and Meena Wong were questioned by panelists Maureen Maloney, SFU professor of public policy, and Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun City Hall reporter.

November 10, 2014

SFU has once again snagged the top spot as Maclean’s number one comprehensive university.

Maclean’s compiles rankings of Canada’s best post-secondary institutions annually, and over the past 24 years, SFU has been awarded top comprehensive university 11 times.

The category compares universities based on their research, range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as their professional schools.

SFU president Andrew Petter noted the university’s significant development in recent years, saying, “I think our strength as a research institution has grown remarkably in the last 10 years.” He continued, “The success of our faculty in terms of their research productivity is showing up not just in Maclean’s.”

SFU was also recognized in the QS University Rankings, where the school placed 16th among universities under 50 years of age around the world. SFU was the third North American school down the list, below only the University of Calgary and UC Irvine.

SFU and the University of Victoria (UVic) have been jockeying for the Maclean’s top comprehensive spot since 2007, and even shared first place in 2008.

“It is gratifying to know that when you look at all the major indicators that Maclean’s looks at, that we’re not first in every category, but across the [Maclean’s] piece, we and UVic are really the two leaders in the country,” said Petter. UVic sits behind SFU this year, as the second best comprehensive university in Canada.

Petter spoke to the significance behind these rankings: “I think that our strength comes from the fact that we are a comprehensive university and that we offer our students such breadth in course offerings, and therefore our library holdings, and our programs reflect that breadth.”

The president explained that it is hard to know for sure what sets us apart from other schools, given that the rankings are subject to so many variables. He referred

to a familiar SFU theme, telling The Peak, “SFU is a different kind of university in a way that doesn’t show up in the rankings, and perhaps it won’t surprise you to know that I think it relates a lot to the theme of engagement.”

Petter went on to cite recent events in which SFU has engaged the community, such as the SFU Public Square community summit held two weeks ago around the topic of innovation and offerings to students for “experiential learning” through co-ops and semesters in dialogue.

According to Petter, SFU offers a “diversity of learning cultures and experience” in that it has “three campuses embedded in different communities.”

the part of government to deal with those issues,” said Petter.

Addressing those maintenance issues is only one way in which Petter hopes to see SFU grow and develop. He said he is looking forward to the completion of the BuildSFU project, since it will provide a space for students to “engage with each other.”

“A lot of learning takes place outside the classroom,” Petter added. He explained that he hopes that this will contribute to building better connections between domestic and international students.

Petter also pointed to the Surrey expansion as an exciting development in SFU’s not-so-distant future. The university plans to double the size of Surrey campus over the next five to eight years and has already procured the space, and is waiting now for approval from the province to proceed.

To conclude, Petter commended the hard work and enthusiasm of faculty and students that have added to the university’s current success.

“SFU has a wonderful energy about it. Students are the main contributors to that energy.”

2014 SFSS FALL REFERENDUM Question 1 Do you approve establishing the Business Administration Student Society (BASS) as the Faculty Student Union (FSU) of the Beedie School of Business as of 2015-01-01?

Question 2

Despite strengths, Petter admitted that SFU is not without its challenges. “As a large commuter campus university, we have some work to do. I think I would like to see much better performance in terms of students satisfaction than SFU has gotten.”

He mentioned that increasing residence on campus, and not only Burnaby campus, could play a part in building campus community.

The university also struggles with deferred maintenance. “It’s no secret that this is a campus that is almost 50 years old. It’s in need of some pretty significant tender love and care and we really need some investment on

Are you in favour of the Science Undergraduate Society (SUS) being established as the Faculty Student Union (FSU) for the Faculty of Science as of 2015-01-01?

Polling Electronic ballots will be sent out to students who are eligible to vote for these questions

Voting Period Wednesday November 19 at 12am to Thursday November 20 at 11:59pm.

ONLINE VOTING WILL TAKE PLACE ON NOVEMBER 19 & 20 http://elections.sfss.ca elections@sfss.ca

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6 NEWS

Gardeners and garden enthusiasts alike met last Thursday, November 6, to discuss the future of the Sustainable SFU Learning Garden.

The Learning Garden is currently located between the Academic Quadrangle and the Maggie Benston Centre, but as plans to build the Student Union Building in the same location progress, an initiative to relocate the garden is taking place.

Michelle Vandermoor, the evening’s facilitator, led 19 participants through each stage of the event. The discussion began with an introduction to the goals of the Sustainable SFU garden, which are to advocate for and put into practice sustainable economic, environmental, and social action at SFU. “The Learning Garden is a unique opportunity for the SFU community to engage in the

Candidates for political office must now be able to freestyle rap, have solid comedic timing, and be able to theatrically toss their hair around to impress a crowd — at least, these are some of the skills that were showcased on Sunday night at SFU’s Last Candidate Standing, in anticipation of the November 15 voting day.

Twenty-seven candidates in Vancouver’s upcoming municipal election used any means necessary to outwit each other and avoid elimination during

November 10, 2014

process of growing produce. It is a chance for people to see produce go from seed to crop,” said Vandermoor.

Throughout the evening, emphasis was put on the garden’s Spade to Spoon Club, whose members participate in the planning, maintenance, and harvest of produce in the Learning Garden. After crops are harvested, they are brought to the Community Kitchen in the Madge Hogarth kitchen space.

At the SFSS board of directors meeting on November 5, the board moved to take an official stance opposing the Kinder Morgan Pipeline expansion, which would run through Burnaby Mountain.

The board expressed their view that the construction of the pipeline would directly affect the SFSS membership and has decided to adopt this stance to support members in resistance to the project.

SFU president Andrew Petter released a statement on Friday, saying that he will not be taking an official stance.

Club members also plan the menu and supply the produce for the kitchen’s events. And of course, they eventually get to taste their hard work.

After an introduction to the goals of the Learning Garden, attendees were split into groups in order facilitate discussion.

At “three tables, three rounds,”

participants discussed three separate questions about the future of the Learning Garden.

Questions that were asked included what the learning garden is, what you or someone you know could do for the learning garden, and what the future of the learning garden should be.

Group discussion was lively, and one group even suggested remodeling the garden to be circular with a fire pit in the middle. However, a lot of the discussion among groups

dealt with possible ways in which the Learning Garden could be promoted through social media and other outlets.

The event came to a close with a raffle, the prize being dinner at Club Ilia. Smaller prizes were also given out to those participants who were lucky enough to have a sticker placed underneath their chair.

Construction of the SUB will begin in April, 2015, at which point the garden will be relocated.

the event, which was held at the SFU Woodward’s campus.

In a round-robin elimination style debate, which was judged partially by a Panel of Inquisitors and partially by audience approval, groups of three candidates were given 60 seconds to respond to a question posed by either the panel or a member of the crowd. The majestic crash of a giant gong on stage marked the time limit.

“We want[ed] to change up what is often a tired debate format, and have a bit of fun with it,” said Paola Qualizza, chair of the Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN), who helped organize the event.

All candidates running for positions as mayor, city councillor, parks board commissioner, or school board trustee were invited to participate. Questions covered topics such as voter turnout, transportation issues, homelessness, cost of real estate, bike paths,

and the construction of high-rise buildings in single-family occupancy neighbourhoods.

After a lively debate about whether information about private and corporate campaign donations should be made available to the public, a pizza delivery arrived for Cedar Party’s Nicholas Chernen. Free slices of pizza were handed out to audience members while Chernon got on stage for his next round of debate.

“I want to know who paid for that pizza,” said RJ Aquino, a city council candidate from OneCity, looking severely at Chernen. “I did not get a slice.”

Crowd-swaying tactics did not end there; mayoral candidate Maynard Aubichon won points for the Stop Party by spitting a freestyle rap about his plans for the city, while city council candidate Sid Chow Tan waved a bright yellow Coalition of Progressive

Electors (COPE) Party sign that matched his t-shirt. Independent mayoral candidate Cherryse Kaiser decided to forgo a t-shirt entirely, and instead exercised her right to bare her chest in public.

After four gruelling rounds punctuated by laughter, bantering, and the ever-present ringing of the gong, only two candidates remained in the running: Andrea Reimer from Vision Vancouver faced Pete Fry from the Green Party in a final round of debate,

beating him by a mere 0.1 margin on the decibel meter that measured the cheering of the crowd.

Reimer confided to The Peak that, while the event was fun to participate in, “it was a little terrifying to be up there,” saying, “there’s a lot of pressure to perform, especially since some people can get so theatrical.”

The friendly format of the debate was met with approval by participants, who encouraged students to attend political events.

“It’s a good way to learn about the political process, and figure out how you can make changes in your community,” first-time independent mayoral candidate Ludvik Skalicky said.

Incumbent Green Party city council candidate Adrienne Carr echoed the sentiment, saying that the event was “a good way to engage young people — it’s a little more fun.”

NEWS

Senate approved the proposal for the establishment of the Centre for Cell Biology, Development, and Disease (C2D2) as a centre for a five-year term.

The proposal was brought forward by Michael Silverman from the Department of Biological Sciences and Michel Leroux from the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, who offered to initially codirect the centre.

Although the name may remind you of the automaton from Star Wars , the centre will be geared toward establishing greater cohesion and visibility for researchers whose focus is on cell and developmental mechanisms of human, animal, and plant diseases.

Senate approved the creation of a Graduate Certificate in Science & Technology Commercialization based out of the Beedie School of Business.

The certificate will provide knowledge for research scientists during their PhD programs that will enable them to commercialize their work and prepare them to work as agents of commercialization in the industry.

The cohort of roughly 15 to 20 students who will take part in the program will attend class one evening a week at the Segal Graduate School of Business, downtown.

November 10, 2014

Their custom glassware may be clear, but SFU students Angela Wong and Nicole Ilagen are seeing life through rose-coloured glasses after their company, Thoughts On Glass, was declared the winner of SFU’s Next Top Product 2014.

At the competition’s final presentation event held on October 30, the glass-etching duo beat out two other student entrepreneurial teams to earn themselves a $500 initial purchase order for their product from the SFU Bookstore.

As “crafters that are inspired by your thoughts,” Thoughts On Glass works closely with customers to create one-of-a-kind stencils, which they use to etch logos and wordmarks onto a variety of glassware, including mason jars and wine glasses.

“All the products were high quality, so we couldn’t use that to differentiate them,” judge Iain Begg told The Peak moments after the panel of judges reached their decision. “[Thoughts On] just had an immediate appeal. It was just so tangible and really nicely packaged together.”

Begg, an executive with over 25 years of experience developing and commercializing software technologies, was joined on the judging panel by SFU Bookstore manager Mikhail Dzuba and half of last year’s winning team, SFU student Rachel Cheng.

Each team was given five minutes to sell their product before they faced questions from the judges.

Joining Wong and Ilagen in the finals were Koran Thukral, one third of the business team behind Make My Case, a company offering custom SFUbranded cell phone cases,

and Eric Hedekar of Grey Rock Acoustic, who produces speakers which offer high fidelity sound.

While Make My Case impressed with the saleability of their phone cases, and Hedekar had the room bumping with a demonstration of his speakers, the judges announced after some deliberation that Thoughts On Glass was the winner.

“It’s a little surreal, we just really took the leap for this competition not knowing exactly where it would take us,” Illagen explained, following their win. “It was a risk but we’re really happy that we went for it.”

For Wong and Illagen, this journey has been several years in the making, beginning when the two were classmates in high school.

“We kind of jokingly said that we wanted to start a business together,” Wong said about the origins of Thoughts On. “We both liked crafting and we finally came together and clicked.”

As for the long term future, the pair see endless possibilities to where Thoughts On could take them.

“We definitely want our products in everybody’s hands,” Illagen said. “It’s drinkware, it’s practical, but we have that sentimental touch.”

While there could only be one winner, the judges were impressed by all of the presenters, and by the competition in general.

“The quality of the products [is] just stunning for a bunch of students,” Begg explained. “They

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all really did their homework in terms of looking at this as a larger entrepreneurial business.”

For Dzuba, the event was a huge success for all involved, and he is keen to see SFU’s Next Top Product continue in the future.

“It’s really beneficial to have bookstore read as engaged for the community, that we’re here as the students’ bookstore,” he concluded. “[It’s important] that we represent what the community is about [and this event] works both ways for students and ourselves.”

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YOU COULD FILL ANY ONE OF THESE AMAZING POSITIONS: Although they admitted that they aren’t sure how their product will fair at the bookstore, as they’ve never gone retail before, they are confident that they can find an audience at SFU. “We’re targeting the unique, novelty, hand-crafted goods market,” Ilagen explained. “People want a sentimental gift, but don’t want to break the bank.”

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8 NEWS

The SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology recently unveiled SFUwarts, an exhibit based on the fantastical wizarding world of Harry Potter, which contains a wide array of magical creatures and Hogwarts essentials for visitors to peruse.

Melanie Hart, a collections technician in the Department of Biology, explained the inspiration behind the exhibit: “It seems fitting for Halloween to do something a little bit more fun to try and engage more people in the museum.”

Some exhibit items, collected with the assistance of the museum’s work-study student Denee Renouf, include sea stars, quills, and pickled millipede.

The display also features school supplies that might be required in one of Professor Snape’s infamous potions classes, with items such as griffon talons and flubberworm mucus.

November 10, 2014

The dragon blood, however, is fake. The museum’s curator Barbara Winter explained, “We don’t have any komodo dragons we could bleed, so I just made it up with corn syrup.”

Winter, who collaborated on this project with Hart, told The Peak that the whole thing began in jest: “I think as a joke, [Hart] said something like ‘Let’s do something on Harry Potter. I’ve got all kinds of weird stuff.’

“SFU is all about collaboration and it’s all about working with people in different areas,” said Winter.

“In archaeology [. . .] we are always trying to get that collaboration and work in a more holistic fashion.”

The exhibit quickly began to attract attention. According to Winter, the Facebook page for the museum usually sits at around 75 likes, but has now been liked by over 1,000 users. The uptick in popularity occurred after Winter posted a Harry Potter-themed photograph on the museum’s Facebook page.

Those who have dropped by to see the exhibit firsthand have had nothing but positive responses at seeing such outlandish specimens, such as a Great Horned Owl and several bats.

A group of Grade 10 students from Gleneagle Secondary School

enjoyed the exhibit, in particular the Snowy Owl. Hart and Winter said the students kept busy by taking “selfies with Hedwig.”

The bird specimens on display — which will later be used in science outreach programs — are strikingly similar to the real thing because they are, in fact, taxidermy samples.

Hart explained the general process of taxidermy: “It’s a bit gruesome. You take out the major bones, you leave in their legs, you

leave in their skull, and you take out all the meat, clean the remaining skin and tissue and stuff them [with cotton,] and stitch them up.”

She continued, “A well-preserved bird should last over 300 years.”

Hart explained the reason for choosing Harry Potter to showcase at the museum: “I think it makes it less intimidating for people if you can show that there is something familiar that they can come and look at and connect to it at a different level.”

Fun physical activities can improve children’s learning New dinosaur named by University of Alberta research team A new species of ankylosaur, an armored plant-eating dinosaur with a club for a tail, horns, and a distinctive pattern of grooves and bumps behind its eyes, has finally been given a name.

The species was discovered in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia in 2000 by a team of paleontologists lead by Dr. Philip Currie of the University of Alberta, but it was only this week that it was given the name Zaraapelta nomadis.

The name zaraapelta is a combination of Greek and Mongolian words meaning “hedgehog” and “shield.” Nomadis was chosen to honor the Mongolian company Nomadic Expeditions, which has helped paleontologists with evacuations in that region for two decades.

With files from Global News

A new study by Brendon Gurd, a Queen’s University researcher and professor of kinesiology and health studies, found that four minutes of high-intensity interval exercise can reduce off-task behaviour, such as inattentiveness, in primary school students.

This high-intensity interval exercise, or “FUNterval” as Gurd calls it, was given to Grade 2 and 4 students along with a nonactive break on alternative days during instruction. It was only after the “FUNterval” breaks that classroom observers noticed less off-task behaviour.

Gurd believes that the innovative exercise method tested in this study may make it easier and more effective for Ontario teachers to meet the 20 minutes of daily activity that is required for primary school students.

With files from Queen’s Gazette

Winter elaborated on the anthropological value of Harry Potter.

“It’s a huge field and it has connections with a lot of people, because they can see the symbolism and they can see the way Harry Potter has grabbed the imagination of many people,” she said. “They can apply that using anthropological theory and principles.”

The exhibit runs until November 14 and students can ‘slytherin’ during the museum’s regular hours.

Saint Mary’s University unveils social media telescope The Burke-Gaffney Observatory in Nova Scotia’s Saint Mary’s University presented its new telescope last month, which can examine objects 2.5 billion light years away.

The Planewave 0.6 metre CDK24 can also be synced to users’ social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, who will be able to move the telescope to an object and take a picture via remote control.

David Lane, the director of the observatory, hopes that this will get young people interested in science, math, and astronomy, and attract future students to the university’s science and math programs.

With files from CTV Atlantic

NEWS

Although Vancouver has become known as a cycling hotspot, cycling around the city is not without its risks.

According to Meghan Winters, associate professor of health sciences, cycling is a great way to get around, but when incidents and injuries do occur, they need to be better documented.

She emphasized the need to collect and understand data in order to keep people as safe as possible, given that cycling is becoming increasingly popular. Currently, only 30 to 40 per cent of serious cycling incidents are reported.

Despite the health benefits of cycling, road safety continues to be a concern for governments and decision makers. Winters recently led a study on the need for planning for active transportation

The surface of Venus may be more complex than previously thought.

Elise Harrington, an SFU earth sciences undergraduate student and intern at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, has made new discoveries as to how radar properties change along Venus’ mountain ranges.

Venus has been thought of by researchers as a very homogenous planet, but Harrington, who revisited spacecraft data collected

by Magellan two decades ago, noticed unconventional variations in the planet’s landscape.

Alongside her supervisor, Allan Treiman, she noticed unexplained dark spots present on

November 10, 2014

as part of Healthy Canada by Design — a Coalitions Linking Action and Science Prevention Project — and found that more comprehensive data is needed.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) only records cycling crashes when they involve a motor vehicle and when an insurance claim is made, but near misses and other incidents — such as swerving to avoid a vehicle, road obstacle, or pedestrian — typically go unreported.

As such, the ICBC data currently used by municipalities to highlight safe or unsafe intersections and address cycling safety is based on an incomplete picture. This insufficient data could lead to some areas being overlooked, said Winters.

“One of the big, active transportation data needs expressed by municipalities was for more complete data on cycling and pedestrian

injuries, and easier access to it,” explained Winters.

A potential solution to this data gap was launched this fall through the website Bikemaps. The site, built by Trisalyn Nelson’s Spatial Pattern Analysis & Research (SPAR) lab at the University of Victoria, displays ICBC and police-reported data, but, most importantly, allows cyclists to add information about incidents that typically go unreported. This includes near misses,

thefts, and hazards, all of which can be uploaded in real time.

Given that major crashes are far more rare than near misses, having information on these near miss incidents can contribute to developing a more comprehensive picture of road conditions and safety for cyclists in Vancouver.

The data contributed to Bikemaps will be used to produce maps and analyses, which will be shared with decision makers and

advocates. The website is also a great tool for cyclists to check in and be aware of any possible high or low risk zones near their local areas, according to Winters.

Winters said that she hopes SFU students will engage with the project as well: “My hope is that SFU students contribute data to this citizen-mapping project, whether they are regular cyclists, or whether it is just a trip around the seawall on a sunny day in the summer.”

diverged from the expected trend.

She explained that her research team noticed some anomalous dark spots occurring at the highest elevations. “We expected it to keep getting brighter and brighter, and then suddenly it got dark,” remarked Harrington.

Harrington explained, “[Metal Frost] theory would explain why the surface would get brighter, but not explain the dark spots we noticed.”

Later, her research team observed Maxell Montes, located in the poles of Venus, a very different area than Ovda Regio. They wanted to see if the Maxwell mountains were showing dark spots as well.

Using the same procedure, they noticed that there were no dark spots. The mountains on Maxwell kept getting brighter, eventually reaching a stable level of luminosity. Harrington said, “That is very different from what we saw in the first mountain range.”

Although the implications of the discovery are unclear as of yet, Harrington said that this new research may inspire greater interest in the planet: “The fact that we noticed something different [. . .] raises additional questions for future researchers.”

only one of two mountain ranges on the planet’s surface. The team thinks these new discoveries may inspire renewed interest in Venus, which has not been visited since the Magellan journey.

In conducting their observations, Harrington’s team used the property called radar reflectivity, rather than emissivity — which was used by previous researchers — in order to look at the ranges in higher resolution.

Although these radar properties are very closely related, the new method was able to provide a higher spatial resolution than that of the past.

In observing Ovda Regio, the mountain range near Venus’ equator, Harrington said, “We noticed that, like the previous researchers saw, the reflectivity increased with elevation [as expected].”

However, she said that there were some observations that

9

One theory to explain why the surface brightens as elevation increases is the metal frost hypothesis, which attributes the brightness to Venus’ metallic compounds. These metallic compounds are volatile in the atmosphere, but would condense on the surface like frost on earth.

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OPINIONS

November 10, 2014

opinions editor email / phone

Adam Van der Zwan opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Dear editor,

RE: “Your environmentalism is nauseating”

Sexual crimes are heinous, of that there’s no doubt. Not many things can threaten one’s personal sense of security and safety more than being sexually assaulted. Nevertheless, the hitherto approach of incarcerating offenders and blacklisting them upon release ought to be overhauled in favour of an approach which focuses on rehabilitating and reintroducing offenders into society.

On the surface, it is almost intuitive that the more morally reprehensible an act, the harsher the punishment. As an extension of the principle of representative democracy, we expect the judicial system to act on laws which represent our prevailing moral attitudes.

To this end, one would think it only appropriate that sex offenders — and criminal offenders as a whole — are punished in accordance to the severity of their crimes.

However, these standards are hedged when dealing with offenders who are judged not sound of mind. As opposed to the standard legal proceedings that involve jail time and other punitive measures, the

‘straightening out’ of offenders whose sanity cannot be legally proven is delegated to mental health institutions.

The punishing realities of an iron bar cell are traded in for a regimen of psychiatric evaluations and treatment, with an emphasis on mental health improvement so that the convicted no longer poses a threat to society.

Treating sex offenders as individuals who require medical aid instead of hard-hearted criminals deserving the full scorn of society, would, to an extent, be equating sex offenders to the clinically insane.

The problem here is that, while the clinically insane can be argued to be unable to comport their actions according to the dictates of what is moral, sex offenders are generally aware of why the act of sexual assault is criminal. So why should sex offenders be given the same legal treatment as those who are clinically insane?

The superior recidivism rates of Nordic countries could serve as a good reason. Compared to the rates of recidivism

in the US and the UK, which fall between 50 and 60 per cent, only 20 per cent of prisoners in Norway end up re-offending.

The effects of lower income inequality and a higher standard of living on recidivism rates is worth exploring.

In the US and the UK, the longstanding role of the judicial system — as legislators of retributive justice — means that those convicted of breaking the law are sentenced to punishments that are deemed equal in severity to the crimes committed.

Contrast this with the angle taken by the Nordic judicial systems, in which a stronger emphasis is placed on rehabilitating and reintegrating offenders back into society by providing educational and vocational opportunities.

This approach mirrors the current treatment of clinically insane offenders in that the focus is on building them up instead of tearing them down.

Perhaps the judicial system should continue to represent prevailing moral convictions, as there are other institutions in place that focus on rehabilitating individuals. But moral convictions are continually evolving, as evidenced by the history of what we thought was the right way to treat one another.

We are better off focusing on the flourishing of society as a whole, rather than bickering about what kind of hell a sex offender should be put through.

Miss Cassondra Lozynsky wrote a lovely piece detailing the failings of any and all environmental sentiment.

Allow me to paraphrase: “Jeez guys, how dumb are you? Our sweaters are made from oil, so duh, that’s just the way it is.” While I am floored by Lozynsky’s deep analysis, her emotive musings have left me far from convinced.

Planting greenery and picking up garbage are worthy endeavors, however, I’d hazard a guess that the economically astute Miss Lozynsky would head for greener pastures (pardon the pun) should the pay change at her current position.

All red herrings aside, the author lovingly reminds us that it is stupid to dislike pipelines, as they are inevitable. Similar arguments have been proposed whenever paradigm shifts are in the air.

In fact, not so long ago, some laughed at the prospect of the car. What a stupid idea? Where would that ever go?

Miss Lozynsky’s most egregious error was failing to mention climate change.

People are not opposed to pipelines because they are pipelines, they are opposed to the greenhouse gases that they will permit, allow, and foster. When large energy projects are undertaken it

isn’t for a couple years, it’s for 30- to 50-year time horizons.

What your fellow classmates, and others, are worried about is the pipeline putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and the economic necessity of using this expensive pipeline to regain its investment costs. In a world that must transition to something other than oil, creating a pipeline that will need to be used for the next half century is not a wise decision.

The Globe and Mail just published an article examining the United Nations’ statements on climate change. What does it say? Let’s see: “The world must wean itself off of fossil fuels, and soon, to avoid the most severe long-term consequences.” This doesn’t seem to support the building of a pipeline, does it?

I understand that we are currently addicted to oil. But to believe that this can never change is foolish.

Preaching a ‘reality’ doctrine prevents us from aiming for what could be attainable, not what is currently attainable. Miss Lozynsky attacks her classmates for not understanding the wider issues surrounding environmentalism, but I wonder: does she understand the wider issues herself?

Sincerely, Gabriel Roy-wright, SFU Student

OPINIONS

November 10, 2014

require copious amounts of energy. Furthermore, the production of plastic bags requires petroleum — 8.7 plastic shopping bags contain enough petroleum energy to drive a car one kilometre — as well as natural gas and chemicals, leading to greenhouse gas emissions.

When purchasing groceries at the supermarket, it seems natural to respond with a “yes” when the cashier asks, “Do you need a bag?” Whether we are purchasing one item or a refrigerator’s worth, at least one plastic bag always seems to make it home with us. Most shoppers are unaware of this habit, and must begin to realize the damage resulting from the consumption of plastic bags.

To tax shoppers for the use of these bags is a very plausible solution — one that is currently in effect at a few supermarkets.

A ‘plastic bag tax’ isn’t simply a way to collect more money, but is about recognition, education, and developing a culture of increased sustainability.

The production of plastic bags uses high amounts of energy and non-reusable resources. According to the Greener Footprints website, Canadians use nine to 15 billion plastic bags a year. To produce this number of bags would

Approximately 1.5 billion bags are distributed in BC annually. Most of these eventually end up in a landfill or the open ocean, as less than one per cent are actually recycled. Plastic bags are not biodegradable and could take hundreds of years to break down. Researchers estimate that one bag has the potential to kill one animal every three months due to unintentional digestion or inhalation.

While we may understand the damages caused by using plastic bags, this knowledge hasn’t spurred significant behavioural change. So how can we make change happen? A tax on plastic bags could save us

from plastic mountains and a garbage-laden ocean. Perhaps, a few cents charge on these bags could motivate us to pick up our cotton, reusable bags on the way to the supermarket.

In Toronto, retailers were required to charge five cents for every single-use plastic shopping bag requested by customers. The result led to an over 70 per cent decrease in the distribution of plastic bags, and diverted 1.3 billion plastic bags from landfill sites in 2009 — that’s almost the number of bags that British Columbians use every year!

Additionally, many large retailers in Toronto, including Loblaws, Metro, and Shoppers Drug Mart, continue to charge for plastic bags as a claim of commitment to sustainability.

Is money the only motivation for us to stop using plastic bags?

A five-cent tax may only cost the average shopper $10 a year, which may not be a significant enough amount to seriously consider.

However, one of the major components of a plastic charge is to increase awareness of our habits.

The tax asks us to pause for thought before deciding on plastic bags at the check-out.

Plastic bag charges could lead us to question whether we truly need to use a plastic bag at the supermarket, and remind us that we have the option to answer: “No bags please.”

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Remembrance Day allows us to reflect on what our Canadian troops gave and give for our country. As a result of their war efforts to ensure peace, we can exercise our rights and freedoms as citizens of Canada. On “the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” the honour and respect we have, not only

for our present-day troops, but for those throughout history, truly comes to fruition.

Although Remembrance Day does not involve festivities of merriment that you would find on Christmas or Thanksgiving, it reminds us to live our lives with love and respect, and to cherish the things we hold most important to us.

Though we honour our Canadian troops on Remembrance Day, one cannot help but be somber when considering the destruction that war brings to the world. While we may not fully understand the terrors of war, our veterans were there, and know firsthand what it was like to be amidst the violent, horrific battles that characterized both World Wars, as well as other conflicts.

The concept of war makes us

ponder the fragility of life, and the evil nature of people who are capable of relentless murder. Through our remembrance, we are asked to reflect on the damage that war inflicts on many people today, and unfortunately, on the wars that will likely occur in the future. But there remains the hope that we’ve learned enough from the past to take appropriate measures to prevent future wars.

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November 10, 2014

by allowing women to focus on their careers and to not “sacrifice the chance to have a family.”

In reality, however, this procedure doesn’t change the unfair social inequity associated with making women choose between having a family and a successful career.

Have any of you uterus-bearers ever considered freezing your eggs to keep the tick of the biological clock at bay? Facebook and Apple have decided to cover up to $20,000 of the cost for the expensive procedure as a part of the benefits package offered to their female employees.

This decision is in response to the exceedingly low number of women in the computer sciences; according to the Computer Research Association, less than 12 per cent of degrees in this field are awarded to women each year.

According to The Telegraph, by offering to cover the costs of the procedure, Facebook and Apple hope to increase gender equality in the workplace

While the companies may mean well, they are not sending the right message to young women in the industry. The unspoken pressure that women have to choose between motherhood and being a working professional has long been assumed as a valid concern. Unfortunately, by offering this benefit, Facebook and Apple are only perpetuating the problem.

For example, there is concern that this option could pressure women into delaying pregnancy. If a woman’s employer

generously offers to provide this resource so that she can focus on improving her career, I believe that she shouldn’t accept the offer, as upholding one’s career shouldn’t be the motivation to delay a pregnancy.

Egg-freezing, along with being a lengthy and invasive procedure, only succeeds in delaying the problems associated with balancing a high-powered career

and children. Whether a woman is in her 20s or 40s, giving birth to and rearing a child is going to require that she take time off of work and modify her priorities.

While this procedure supposedly allows a woman to prioritize her work without worrying about her depleting egg quality, it doesn’t change the fact that, at some point, she will need to make serious choices

mailbox every day will be difficult for him, as he lives in a part of BC that receives heavy snow during the winter. No one should suffer daily worries about how they’re going to receive their mail.

According to Canada Post’s Code of Conduct, serving Canadians with both passion and pride is at the forefront of the corporation’s values — though as of late, this service may not extend to your front door. Last year the Crown corporation declared that they would begin phasing out door-to-door mail delivery. Since then, workers of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have been fighting to save our postal services, and it’s high time more of us chimed in to lend our support.

Those who oppose the corporation’s decision emphasize its lack of public consultation.

According to the CUPW, federal politicians and upper management should not decide the company’s fate, but rather the

people should determine what services are needed. After all, Canada Post was meant to serve the people.

For some, the service cuts will have considerable consequences.

For many of us, making a trip out to a community mailbox may be inconvenient, but it’s doable. For others, however, this will become a daily obstacle. Eliminating

door-to-door service will put single parents, elderly, and disabled members of our community in an unfavourable position.

Earlier this year my grandfather suffered a stroke. It left him with balance problems and he often needs assistance when walking for long periods of time. As a 91-year-old who lives alone, getting to and from a community

On top of the inconvenience, an estimated 8,000 postal workers will lose their jobs as a direct result of the service cutbacks. While the digitization of our society certainly impacts the amount of mail being sent, calling the industry ‘dead’ is a massive exaggeration.

In 2012, Canada Post reported $98 million in profit — not bad for a corporation that is slashing services in the name of fiscal responsibility. The Conservative government has hit public services hard in recent years, and this is why we must

about how she is going to prioritize her time.

By making this option seem like a perfect solution for female employees, Apple and Facebook are contributing to the normalization of postponed motherhood, and subsequently, the practice of egg-freezing. The fact is, risks for a mother during pregnancy increase with age.

Furthermore, the procedure is far from perfect and does not guarantee conception.

If these corporations truly wish to increase gender equality in the workplace, then they should also provide options to women that make it easier to integrate being a working professional with being a mother. In combination with covering the cost of egg-freezing, they could provide free daycare in the workplace, or flexible hours to take into account the needs of raising a child.

Without making these other benefits available, Apple and Facebook do not improve gender equality, and are instead perpetuating a culture that places unfair pressures on women in the workplace.

take a stand if we are to save our valued Crown corporations like Canada Post.

Rather than eliminating services, we need to consider new options. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) recently released a report criticizing the current delivery cutbacks. In the report, researcher John Anderson suggests that reformation of the system would be a better idea than dropping door-to-door delivery entirely.

It remains unclear why Canada Post decided to eliminate instead of innovate, but if we are serious about saving door-to-door delivery, then we may want to consider alternative solutions. As the CCPA suggests, there are other options at hand.

The fact that neither the public nor Parliament were consulted before this decision was made shows that Canada Post is not following through on the promise that they made to Canadians. As the CUPW pushes forth a lawsuit against the Crown corporation, I hope that everyone takes some time to consider those most affected by this cutback. Write to your local MP or to Canada Post if you want to see this decision reversed.

FEATURE

At a September reception for SFU’s Centre for Dialogue, Shauna Sylvester shared a firsthand experience of the power of true dialogue and communication. She was meeting with two parties of powerful people holding vastly different ideologies — the goal was to find a way for them to work together in order to end a war and advance peace and development in their region.

It wasn’t until two members from the opposing parties realized that they were blood relatives that the tension between the groups faded and a dialogue began to emerge. Both parties were able to find a common ground and use it to create a platform for negotiation, acknowledgement, and resolution; this resulted in the 1999 Kathmandu Accord between India and Pakistan.

“My new motto became ‘walk to the opposition’ — talk to them and really understand their position,” she told the crowd. “It was at that point, I put away my debating robes and started to study dialogue as a tool for social change.”

Throughout most of her life, Sylvester has focused on promoting social change. She

November 10, 2014

helped to found Carbon Talks, — an SFU-based program that collaborates with local municipalities transitioning to a lowcarbon economy — as well as the Institute for Media Policy and Civil Society, a charity that promotes democracy and advocacy in Canada and elsewhere.

In 2003, she was named one of the country’s Top 40 Under 40 by The Globe and Mail.

Sylvester is a master of argument, having spent plenty of time on debate teams in high school and university. However, she eventually realized that she would rather encourage discussion than dominate it. According to her, a debating mindset will often deepen a conflict rather than resolve it — it emphasizes our differences rather than our similarities.

This September, Sylvester took over the directorship of SFU’s Centre for Dialogue.

She now oversees all programs relating to the centre, including its many fellowships with local educators and diplomats, as well as the SFU Public Square.

The Centre for Dialogue is unique in that it’s both a program and a physical space.

“[It] is a centre within SFU that promotes conversation on issues of concern for the public,” explains Sylvester. “So really, it’s a centre that supports difficult conversations.”

In particular, the Morris J. Wosk Centre, located in the Segal Building on Seymour Street, is a place where people can come together and hold a meaningful discussion on difficult topics in a safe environment. Opened in 2000, the centre regularly attracts hundreds of visitors from across the globe.

Having already introduced several new initiatives during her time at SFU, Sylvester has even bigger plans for the centre’s future — within five years, she hopes to turn it into an important global centre for knowledge and practice in dialogue, with a focus on international diplomacy, environmentalism,

features editor email / phone

Max Hill features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

cultural interpretation, and civic engagement.

It’s a large task, but Sylvester is up for the challenge.

In particular, she hopes that the international community sees the Centre for Dialogue as a space in which they can feel free to share and discuss ideas. According to her, dialogue is one of the most important practices one can have in our modern age; it begins with the establishment of connection, and finding common ground.

“Dialogue is about seeking the centre of a discussion, and trying to find those places where you can build on other people’s ideas,” she says. “[It] requires listening, understanding, having curiosity, having humility, and being aware of not holding all the pieces, that you have things to learn from others.”

Whenever groups seek out the centre to host dialogues, the discussion is specifically tailored to the people involved and the space in which it’s held. In the Morris J. Wosk Centre, parties are seated at a large round table; this enables speakers to be on even

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ground, where everyone is considered an equal.

Sylvester hopes that the centre helps students see the value of formal discussions and exchange of ideas. “It is formal [dialogue] that guides our policy and frames our public lives through regulation and legislation,” she says.

Sylvester’s connection to Simon Fraser goes back to her childhood; her father attended SFU as an undergrad, and she did the same. To her, there is something unique about our university; the need to be engaged within the community is, to her, “a part of [SFU’s] DNA.” It’s this quality that makes our university an ideal environment for initiatives which strengthen our democracy and advocate for environmental change.

Ultimately, she’s looking forward to increasing the centre’s reach, and introducing more students to the benefits of open dialogue. “I love to work at SFU, because I get to work within that framework and how many of us can actually say that we get to do that in our world. It’s a highly privileged position to be in.”

For those of you living in residence or spending the day studying on Burnaby Mountain, there will be a polling station conveniently set up at University Highlands Elementary School on election day.

The closest polling station to SFU Surrey on Election Day is Old Yale Road Elementary School. It’s about a 10-minute walk from campus.

For those of you attending classes at SFU Woodwards, your closest polling station will be at the International Village Mall on West Pender Street. Harbour Centre students, on the other hand, can head to the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, which is literally seconds away from campus.

T

his coming Saturday, November 15, voters across British Columbia will head to the polls to elect their next municipal governments.

Sadly, if past statistics are any indicator, very few people will actually exercise this right, which is even more tragic considering that elections at the municipal level may be more important than either provincial or even federal elections. After all, it is in municipal elections that we vote for the candidates who live and work in our communities — arguably, municipal candidates have more of an effect on our daily lives and communities than our prime ministers or premiers.

To become a registered voter, you must be 18 years of age and a Canadian citizen. In addition, you must have been a resident of British Columbia for at least six months prior to the election, and have lived in the municipality you are voting in for at least 30 days.

For some of you, this may be your first opportunity to join in the democratic process. If you are already registered to vote, you should have received your Voter Information Card in the mail, which you should bring with you on election day, in addition to a piece of photo identification with a signature and a second piece of identification that has your name and address printed on it. If you need to register on election day, you must bring at least least two documents with your identity and address — one of these documents must also have your signature.

In the interest of ensuring that we are all knowledgeable voters come Saturday, here’s a breakdown of the major players in the mayoral races of the three cities that house SFU campuses: Burnaby, Surrey, and Vancouver.

There are a grand total of six mayoral candidates striving for the top seat in the City of Burnaby, but it’s likely that only two of them actually stand a chance of winning — current mayor Derek Corrigan, and his main opponent, Daren Hancott.

To be fair, one of the independent candidates, Sylvia Gung, has made headlines with her promises to ban public displays of affection; the remaining three are relative unknowns.

HANCOTT IS THE MAIN OPPOSITION TO Corrigan’s continued incumbency, and he has his work cut out for him. In stark contrast to the sitting mayor, Hancott enters the race with a distinct lack of political experience. In its place, Hancott brings a PhD in business, which is coupled with a breadth of experience in that field, having conducted business in over 22 countries and been in several highpowered positions along the way.

CORRIGAN GOES INTO THIS ELECTION WITH quite a few advantages, the main one being his longevity, having first been elected in 2002 and reappointed in each subsequent election. In addition to his many years as mayor, Corrigan has also been a member of Burnaby Council for over 25 years. In both of these roles, Corrigan has consistently led the economic, social and environmental development of the city. He recently gained a lot of attention on a greater stage for his steadfast opposition to the twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which is only a part of his dedication to environmental advocacy. Corrigan has popular support both in and out of the city — enjoying a 67 per cent approval rating among Metro Vancouver mayors — and is recognized region-wide for his knowledge and leadership on transportation issues.

He also previously served as chair of the BC Chamber of Commerce, and has called for stronger relationships between the city and higher levels of government. Hancott plans on using years of business experience and management expertise in order to bring a high degree of responsibility to Burnaby City Hall.

THIS SECOND-TIME MAYORAL CANDIDATE IS well-known in news circles around the country, due to her, uh, interesting way of looking at things.

Gung’s official profile on the City of Burnaby’s website proclaims her as a candidate who desires to “empower citizens” and establish a “wholesome society.” Just in case you were wondering what that incredibly vague statement means, Gung has made it loud and clear — she’s plainly stated that she intends to ban public behaviour that hints at sex or sexuality, including public hand-holding and kissing at weddings. On top of that, she also plans to put those who are on welfare to work cleaning up garbage — welfare payments would be rechanneled to form their wages — along with abolishing the school board, and innovating what she describes as the “backwards organizations that are the unions and PACs.”

Surrey is currently in a state of confusion following the resignation of longtime mayor Dianne Watts, who announced last April that she would not seek re-election after holding the position for almost a decade — Watts is now seeking the Conservative nomination for the federal riding of South Surrey-White Rock. This bewilderment is easy to spot in the polls, as a full 32 per cent of Surrey residents are unsure of who they will vote for, while the leading candidate in the race has only 27 per cent of the popular support.

While seemingly worrisome, this confusion is perfectly understandable when you consider that Watts won the last election with an unheard-of 80 per cent of the vote. While there are several candidates vying for the position, there are three candidates who currently stand out from the pack: acting mayor Linda Hepner, former mayor Doug McCallum, and city councillor Barinder Rasode.

FORMER SURREY MAYOR DOUG MCCALLUM hopes to return to the chair he occupied from 1996 until his defeat at the hands of Dianne Watts in 2005. One of the biggest factors working in McCallum’s favour is his former position as the chair of Translink, and his promise to deliver much-needed transit upgrades to the city.

HEPNER IS CURRENTLY THE CITY’S ACTING mayor, having taken on Watts’ role following her resignation. Hepner was a member of the city council as part of the former mayor’s team, and is thus viewed by some as a natural successor to the popular leader. On the other hand, some critics have argued that Hepner is riding Watts’ coattails and endorsement, rather than presenting a clear plan for what her leadership will do for the city during her term as mayor.

While Hepner has accomplished much during her time on city council, her future plans are light on details, and she seems to advocate for merely continuing to support and build upon plans put into place during Watts’ time in office.

While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it doesn’t do much to show off her ability to form policy regarding the future direction of the city.

ANOTHER COUNCILLOR WHO STARTED OFF as part of Watts’ initial team, Rasode recently left in order to run her own mayoral race with her One Surrey team. Though she currently is trailing Hepner and McCallum in the polls, Rasode could still become a force to be reckoned with. In contrast to her opponents, Rasode has actually released details of her 10-point plan to make Surrey one of the safest cities in Canada; it features input from chief constable Jim Cessford — the longest serving police chief in the country — and professor Curt Taylor Griffiths from the SFU Police Studies Program. In addition, she has two former police officers on her One Surrey team, including a former staff sergeant in charge of community policing in Surrey, which is an integral part of her plan for the city.

Less inspiring is his promise to cut down on crime and improve public safety, as it was during his tenure that the city was dubbed the “Car Theft Capital of North America,” beating out both New York and Los Angeles in a per-capita comparison.

Though McCallum has referenced the experience he has gained since his defeat almost a decade ago, critics are skeptical, and believe he may simply try to reset the clock. Like Hepner, McCallum has been light on details, but that could change as election day looms closer.

As Canada’s eighth-largest city heads to the polls this weekend, the rest of the Greater Vancouver area will be watching in anticipation. The results of Vancouver’s election will likely have the biggest effect on the greater metropolitan area, if only because the city itself is so large. In terms of popularity, incumbent mayor Gregor Robertson is still topping the polls — it remains to be seen if his two biggest challengers can prevent him from securing a third term.

CURRENTLY SECOND IN THE POPULARITY polls with 32 per cent, LaPointe and the NPA are the biggest threats to Robertson’s third term.

Though he is making his first foray into politics, LaPointe is well-known in media circles, having served in a variety of senior positions at various news organizations, including the Vancouver Sun, the National Post, CTV, and the CBC. In these positions, LaPointe has been a long-time advocate for greater government openness, inclusiveness, and public access to information, which he plans to transfer into the political arena with a commitment to government transparency, fiscal responsibility, and meaningful community consultation. LaPointe envisions a Vancouver wherein citizenry would continue to have a voice, and would be kept in the loop on the activities of the municipal government.

FORMER NDP MLA GREGOR ROBERTSON IS nearing the end of his second term as mayor, and seems poised to enter into a third term if the polls are any indicator (he currently enjoys 46 per cent of support from decided voters). Despite some critics being upset with the influx of bike lanes into the city and the handling of incidents like the Stanley Cup Riot, Robertson managed to sweep the previous 2011 election — all of Vision Vancouver’s city council, park board, and school board candidates were elected.

Moving forward, Robertson has promised to “continue to address affordability and homelessness,” along with refusing Kinder Morgan’s proposal to “put 340 more oil tankers in our waters,” and advocating for a Broadway Skytrain line. Demographically speaking, Robertson currently has the edge among home renters, women, voters under 45, and those living in the Downtown core and areas east of Main Street.

COMING IN AT A DISTANT THIRD IN THE POLLS are Meena Wong and COPE. A former employee of the Toronto Star and an assistant to Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow back when she was a city councillor, Wong has been a COPE activist since 2005. No stranger to politics, Wong previously ran for the federal NDP in the last federal election, and has a vision for the city that is very different than those of Robertson and LaPointe. Committed to social reform and making Vancouver more liveable, Wong supports some very intriguing measures, including a tax on vacant properties (which she plans to use to fund affordable social housing), a $30 per month U-Pass to be made available to all Vancouver residents, and increasing the city’s minimum wage to $15/hour. While these all sound like great policies, Wong has been less open about how these goals will be accomplished, which may be partially to blame for COPE’s comparably low rating in the popularity polls.

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ARTS

arts editor email / phone

November 10, 2014

Tessa Perkins arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Dances for a Small Stage

Three Tall Women

Hunter Gatherers

The Four Horsemen Project

October 25, Ukranian Centre

October 23 to November 9, PAL Studio Theatre

October 30 to November 15, Havana Theatre

October 28 to November 2, The Cultch

Collaborating with Music on Main, Dances for a Small Stage presented an evening that celebrated interdisciplinary work and the intersection of dance and music. Toronto’s Cecilia String Quartet opened the evening and remained onstage throughout, as maestro Billy Marchenski performed his emcee role, inspecting the musicians and moving around the stage with interest as they played.

The first half of the show featured the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky along with four dance pieces. Marchenski’s maestro was first, followed by Makaila Wallace performing Karissa Barry’s choreography. Almost as a fifth member of the quartet, Wallace’s movements had a direct connection to their music.

Stewart Iguidez performed a piece inspired by street dance that was very popular with the crowd, and Vanessa Goodman’s piece was a unique interpretation of the music that emphasized its every note.

The second half of the show featured the music of John Oswald and performances by Holly Small, Jessica Runge, Vanessa Goodman, Sean Liang, and Stewart Iguidez. There was also great video footage playing on the backdrop of the stage, including a segment about Glenn Gould, and a video titled “paused on the threshold” that featured clips from many films and TV shows of people about to cross a threshold.

As part of Music on Main’s Modulus Festival, this show was a testament to the importance and benefit of interdisciplinary work, and it took place in the casual welcoming atmosphere of the Ukranian Centre, complete with perogies and a bar.

Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story impressed me so much during this year’s Fringe Festival that when I found out Three Tall Women was also written by him, I had to go see it.

I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as Zoo Story, but I could see the similarities in Albee’s style. This play also featured only one setting, and it wasn’t so much a story as an interesting conversation.

The first act was relatively banal with three women (simply referred to as A, B, and C in the program and never referred to by name in the show) in A’s bedroom as B, a lawyer, tries to ask questions about her finances, and C, her nurse, helps her answer the questions. We learn a lot about her history and what led her to this moment, but it isn’t until the second act that things get really interesting.

The second half was much more engaging, as the three women all became A at three different stages of her life. They talked to each other describing what was to come or what they would never become. Representing three stages of a woman’s life and reflecting with each other, many insights about aging, time, and the effect of our decisions on our later life were brought up.

The performances of Anna Hagan (A), Beatrice Zeilinger (B), and Meagan Chenosky (C) didn’t move me during the first act, but this probably has more to do with the play itself, as I thought they all gave nuanced, emotional performances during the second act.

Any play that reminds me of Yasmina Reza’s Carnage is doing something right.

Peter Sinn Nachtreib’s Hunter Gatherers begins similarly, with a calm household gathering that slowly descends into chaos. Pam and Richard invite Wendy and Tom over every year for an anniversary dinner to celebrate the day both couples got married. Their calm, upstanding dinner party gradually descends into an animalistic disaster as secrets and true personalities are revealed.

I first heard about the play when interviewing Pippa Mackie about another of her projects, and she said she had been thrilled to be part of a play with such a good script.

I couldn’t agree more that this is an extremely well-written play. Almost every line is punchy and unexpected, and hilarity runs through the entire play as things become increasingly strange.

Pam (Mackie) comes home from buying ingredients for the dinner to find Richard holding a knife and kneeling over a cardboard box containing a lamb. It has to be fresh, he explains. This bloody act sets the tone for what is to follow, and as tensions rise between the four friends, the dining room becomes a war zone.

Director Ryan Gladstone said before the show that, when describing the play to people, he would tell them “it goes there,” not wanting to give too much away, and I think that this is a good way to put it. This play is not afraid to take things to the extreme to get its point across. It’s bold, bloody, and brilliant.

Inspired by The Four Horsemen, an avantgarde poetry group that was active in Toronto from 1978 to 1988, this show is a tribute to their work and an extension of it. It’s about the power of poetry, its visceral quality, and the way it sounds and feels in your body.

As the group recited poems and said words so many times that they became abstract sounds, it became apparent that the sounds we make have no inherent meaning, but can still make us feel something. For example, Naoko Murakoshi began the show by saying “A drum and a wheel” in many different tones, speeds, and pitches, and then rearranged the letters to rotate through the whole phrase saying “d ruma nda w heela, r uman daw h eelad,” and so on as the words swirled around her on the stage and behind her on the screen.

There were solo recitations of poetry that seemed to have an orgasmic effect on the performer, and group recitations that turned spoken word into music. The way this group brought poetry to life is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Paying tribute to the original Horsemen, we were treated to video clips of their performances, as well as interviews. There were also very funny clips of a cheesy educational television segment about different forms of poetry. This show manages to combine elements of dance, music, literature, and film and make it come together in a way that increases your respect for and broadens your perspective of poetry. Like they said, “What is a poem is inside of your heart, inside of your body, inside your toes.”

ARTS

With almost 50,000 followers on Soundcloud, and almost two million plays of his official remix of “Best Day of My Life” by the American Authors, Just A Gent is going places fast. Currently on his international Stories To Tell Tour, this 17-year-old DJ from Newcastle, Australia is making a name for himself around the world.

In an interview with The Peak, Just a Gent described his live performances as eclectic, but directional. He said, “Basically, I like to take them on a journey — a progression through the whole set.

I play a lot of classic tunes in the mix, and a lot of unreleased music, it’s really ranged, but it’s still got a formula to it.”

But why the stage name? Just A Gent explained a little about his backstory, saying, “A few mates and myself used to go to parties dressed up as gentlemen, and we called ourselves ‘The Gents’ . . . it kind of evolved from my friendships.”

As to how he became a DJ, he said, “I was trying to be like my cousin. When I was 10, I DJ-ed my first ever gig, and it was for a group of disabled people for their Halloween party. It was fun, they made me sing Lady Gaga into the microphone.”

His Stories To Tell Tour has been extremely exciting and difficult for the young DJ. He

November 10, 2014

described the constant travelling: “It’s fun, it’s tough though.

It’s so hard, doing these late gigs then waking up so early to catch a flight, and then travel. I always end up getting sick when I tour — I call it ‘The Tour Cold.’”

For fans of Just a Gent, the year’s end will bring very exciting news. “I have an EP coming out soon, by the end of this year. It’s one of the funnest things I’ve ever done musically, and the fact that it’s my own originals as well is awesome . . . you kind of have more of a proud feeling.” His passion for his work was truly evident in the interview, as he stated “It’s good to be doing what I’ve always wanted to do — I’m only 17.”

I had the chance to watch his performance at Celebrities Nightclub on October 28.

His set started with an amazing remix of “Phantom of the Opera,” a personal favourite of mine. Just A Gent truly lived up to his name in a suit, top hat, and bow tie. The crowd seemed to be overtaken by the music; it seemed to have a life force of it’s own.

He read the crowd extremely well, knowing how to make bodies move on the dance floor. His transitions were varied, but excellent, rarely losing momentum. I heard numerous people in the crowd asking about the DJ, and where they could find his music.

Every so often, he would physically engage the audience, creating a connection to the crowd. At one point, he took the microphone and said, “I’m only 17 years old and I get to tour the world, it’s pretty awesome.”

At the end of the set, he played new mixes from his upcoming EP. The music was great, showing the amazing promise this young DJ has in store.

Virginia to Vegas is up and coming singer-songwriter Derik Baker, who was discovered when Wax Records saw his Youtube videos. Hailing from Ontario, the 24-year-old has created a name for himself across Canadian radio with his unique fusion of indie pop and feel-good electronic dance music.

With his first EP to be released on November 11, and currently supporting a crossCanada tour, Virginia to Vegas is poised to become a frequent guest on the airwaves.

Radio listeners may recognize “We Are the Stars,” featuring fellow Canadian pop singer Alyssa Reid, which was Virginia to Vegas’ debut single. Released in January

of 2014, the song has enjoyed radio play across Canada, earning Baker his first Gold single.

From the EP’s opening anthem, “Last of the Fighters,” to the gentle ballad, “Beautiful You Are,” the album sounds cohesive and positive throughout, though varying in tempo and instrumentals.

Listeners will hear a bit of everything on the tracks — whistling, pianos, acoustic vocals, and their synthesized

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counterparts. If you’re looking for happy music to brighten your rainy Vancouver days, this album is perfect for you.

Virginia to Vegas can be seen as part of Alyssa Reid’s Timebomb Tour, with stops all across Canada this fall.

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18 ARTS

Bright colours. Solo performers.

A serene stage that is a blank canvas awaiting rhythmic dancing. The Gait to the Spirit culture festival for classical Indian dance showcased these elements, and more. From October 31 to November 2, the Mandala Arts and Culture Society featured several renowned classical dancers from India, Canada, and the United States performing this beautiful art form.

Unlike bhangra, the folk dance of Bollywood, classical Indian dance is more reverent, deeply moving, and spiritual in origin. The festival’s artistic director, Jai Govinda, is also the founder of a dance academy that trains people in the art of bharata natyam, a classical Indian dance style.

He says of the festival’s poetic title, “Gait is a way of walking, and ‘to the spirit’ refers to [how] most classical dance

November 10, 2014

maintains roots in the temple and that spiritual connection [is made on] the dance floor.

Aficionados and people who are well travelled are attracted to the festival’s beauty.”

The October 31 show featured Meenakshi Srinivasan, a dancer from India who Govinda brought back because she was well-loved by audiences at the 2010 festival.

The November 1 show featured the talents of Janaki Rangarajan, while the November 2 show saw a double feature of performances by Sujit Vaidya and Nivedha Ramalingam.

Prior to the show, The Peak sat down with Nivedha Ramalingam to discuss the meaning and aesthetics behind her performance. Her feature was comprised of three parts: an opening offering to God called the pushpa njali, a worshipful dance called slokam, and a final pradosha number that paid tribute to the god of dance.

Ramalingam has been studying the art of bharata natyam

dance for nearly 15 years, and is currently pursuing her masters in the dance form at the prestigious Annamalai University in India.

“People can have a misunderstanding of Indian dance and will often relate it to Bollywood dancing,” she says, “[Classical Indian dance] is completely different.

People who watch the show will be able to see that distinction between the two. Arts is a dominant feature of Indian culture, and it is important for people to see and support emerging young artists doing this form of dance.”

I had the pleasure of watching Ramalingam dance for myself, and true to her word, her dance was definitely distinct from those associated with Bollywood and bhangra. Her feet moved quickly and gracefully, and an enchanting air of reverence shadowed her performance.

While her movements were certainly structured, a thread of grace was woven through them, and her passion and joy for her art was easily communicated.

Gait to the Spirit was a gem of a festival that shone light on an often underappreciated art form. It not only provided audiences with a scene of beauty and art, but also enlightened them on the many facets of Indian culture.

I’ll start by saying what a thousand think-pieces and reviews have spent bloated word counts tiptoeing around: Taylor Swift’s new album, 1989, is good. Like, really good. Not great, per se, but certainly much better than most well-adjusted adults would argue a T-Swizzle album has any right to be.

Coming off the heels of the commercially successful but wildly inconsistent Red, Swift’s newest LP is a confident and carefully constructed synthesis of everything that makes her brand of YA sugary-sweet pop irresistible. There are even moments where she hints at a broader, more versatile talent, one which could eventually propel her to Madonnaesque levels of superstardom — that is, if she isn’t there already.

The album falters a little at the start — the opening track “Welcome to New York” might be the most half-baked and grating of the bunch — but quickly picks up speed. The cheeky electropop of “Blank Space” and the cheesy synth party of “Style” (get it?

Style?) lead into the career high of “Out of the Woods,” which turns several Swiftian tropes on their

heads — the star crossed lovers, the nerdy girl who gets the guy, the diaristic specificity — along with what might be her strongest hook since “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

Admittedly, 1989 is a little front-loaded; there are several more memorable tracks peppered throughout the 13-song tracklist (in particular, sombre album closer “Clean” and unashamed earworm “Shake It Off”), but others, like the maudlin “How You Get the Girl,” feel a bit like retreads, as though Swift is afraid to alienate her countryfried fanbase through her aims for worldwide pop domination.

They’re not necessarily weak songs, but they miss the high bar set by the album’s series of high caliber singles.

It’s a shame, because so much of 1989 is funnier, weirder, and more creative than anything Swift has ever done. As much as she’s living up to her own standards, she’s also subverting them — songs that would have read as straight faced five years ago come across as tongue in cheek here. Not every idea lands, but that she’s willing to try at all is more than enough to convert staunch nonbelievers.

My advice to those who hate Taylor Swift is this: you probably don’t. You just think you do. 1989 is the kind of album where you’re bound to find something you like — there’s so much energy and vitality in these songs, so much willingness to make it all work, that it’s hard not to nod along and take Swift’s hand no matter where she takes you. The haters gonna hate, hate, hate.

ARTS

November 10, 2014

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Purple. So we decided to delve deeper into our older record collections to get more indulged in those styles, which I guess must have had an effect in our songwriting styles.

P: Sweet. So I heard you guys have reduced your band roster?

From their heavy-rock riffs and southern Tex-Mex aesthetics, to collaborations with famous Canadian artists such as Feist and Sloan, White Cowbell Oklahoma has proven to be a rock group like no other.

With a dedicated cult fanbase and over 12 years of critically praised shows, the recent release of their newest album Buenas Nachas sees them paving new style paths, while maintaining the classic rock style that has defined them to date.

Lead singer Clem Clemsen, in the midst of preparation for an upcoming headlining tour, took time to discuss the band’s newest addition during a phone interview with The Peak.

The Peak: Buenas Nachas seems very different from your old stuff.

What led you guys to record this album?

Clemson: Put it all down to LSD [laughs]. To be honest, we were heavily inspired by Bosch paintings and David Lynch. We noticed that in Europe, the audience would applaud after the guitar solos and riffs which we borrowed from older bands, such as Pink Floyd and Deep

John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” is rightly included in any anthology of poetry from the First World War. It alone has become required reading for most Remembrance Day memorials, and can also be credited with making the poppy the symbol for the butchering on the Western front.

But such a summary inevitably fails to communicate McCrae’s original intent when composing the poem in 1915.

C: Yeah, we reduced our lead guitar players from nine to three in order to focus more on the harmonies and guitar-monies. Nine players was way too much to handle.

P: What would you say is the aesthetic you were going for with Buenas Nachas?

C: Well, at the start we were heavily inspired by ZZ Top’s 1976 album Tejas and the whole southern, desert, Mexico vibe. So we were definitely trying to reference that type of desert imagery containing coyotes, cows, truckers on meth, etc.

P: What does the title of the album mean?

C: A literal translation would be “Good Evening” in Spanish. However, we intentionally misspelled the “Nachas” as a play on words that translates to “Nice Ass” in Spanish slang.

P: Nice. It seems like you guys took a more artistic, euro-prog rock approach compared to your previous [records]; should fans expect more of these styles in future albums?

This poem was not written to implore for the war’s end, or even to force the reconsideration of military strategy, but rather as a plea for more troops to enlist in the war, lest the sacrifices of so many be counted in vain.

Rupert Brooke best describes, in his poem “The Soldier,” what many saw as the true aim of the conflict, especially amongst those enlisted legions during the early days of WWI: “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.”

This view of the war would survive for many even after its end, but as the war years progressed, soldiers on the front lines began to doubt their eventual catapult over the trenches.

By the middle of the war, the

C: Yeah, definitely. Most of the members in the band actually have a lot of conceptual ideas that we sit around and discuss, while eating peanuts and dressing like the Illuminati.

P: Your shows have a reputation of being very energetic and spontaneous, i.e. strippers, pyrotechnics, etc. Should audiences still expect this energy during live shows?

C: Definitely! When it comes to live shows we want audiences to get what they pay for, when

pre-war years had already become immortalized for the lost innocence contained within their boundaries.

World powers used the Archduke’s assassination as the premise upon which to wage the First World War, readjust their own territories, confirm their countries’ boundaries, and assert their own power. The poetry of the latter war years embodies the notion that, because of this hunger for

they are paying all this money for tickets. We grew up in a time when artists such as Alice Cooper and Kiss were incredibly popular and very theatrical; we try to retain that classic show experience that is not only a reiteration of our recordings, but an all encompassing show. We want audience members to have that memorable experience of being at a White Cowbell Oklahoma concert, rather than simply any concert.

Last but not least, are you excited to come to Vancouver?

C: Very excited. We are really good friends with the co-headliner Big John Bates, so it’s going to be cool to get drunk and heckle them until they throw beer bottles at our faces. Overall, we are looking forward to it.

P: Wow, definitely sounds like an experience! Cannot wait to see it!

power, the youth of a new generation had to mature in the drudges of trenches.

It was this realization that would soon materialize, that would see Brooke’s poetry and the sentiments of McCrae replaced by sentiments of writers such as Wilfred Owen. Almost as if he was responding to the mentality, not only of Brooke, but of the many who believed in the war’s cause, Owen wrote in 1916, after watching a fellow soldier succumb to a German gas attack, a warning to those who believed in the idea that war would bring a soldier glory.

Owen, who would die before the signing of the Armistice, began the chorus of soldiers who felt themselves needlessly sacrificed and killed, sent out of the

trenches and into “no man’s land” to pay their share of the butcher’s bill. Horribly, history confirms just that.

For instance, the Battle of the Somme would see the death of 400,000 troops for 12 kilometres of territory, which when gained, added nothing to the prospects of Allied victory. Even that number is deceiving; the figure is only the British count, and is probably an underestimate if the casualties of the first day alone remained constant.

Owen’s apt phrase that the “poetry is in the pity,” seems to ask that, whenever one wears a poppy, or sits through a Remembrance Day memorial, they remember those troops and their suffering — something their poetry tried to give a voice to.

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SPORTS

November 10, 2014

sports editor email / phone

Austin Cozicar sports@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Some sports are team sports, and some sports are individual sports — wrestling is a little bit of both.

When a wrestler is training, they rely on their teammates as training partners. Typically, one doesn’t think of training as part of the sport, but in wrestling, athletes work at the same level and intensity in training sessions as they would in a competition.

In order to ensure that every member of the team is ready to compete, each athlete relies on their teammates to elevate their technique and expand their versatility. One member of SFU’s women’s wrestling team, who has become an essential member both in training sessions and in competitions, is 155 lb senior Bailley Halvorson from Thunder Bay, ON. However, her experience is not limited to the mats. She has also shown resilience in the face of injury, and knows the pain of having to sit by and watch her team compete without her.

During her second competition in the 2013/14 season, Bailley tore her ACL, with minor

tears in her MCL and meniscus.

Her injuries required surgery, which took her senior season away from her, and left her uncertain as to whether she would ever compete for SFU again.

“After not being able to compete last season, I was devastated because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to obtain a medical redshirt,” she explained, noting that redshirt status would allow her to play in her fifth year. “[However], I ended up getting it, and since then have felt more motivated than I ever have.”

Teammates — both past and present — have expressed excitement in seeing the elevation in Bailley’s performance since returning from knee surgery. However, it is not only her teammates who have noticed a change in her wrestling; Bailey

has also noticed a difference since returning to the mats.

“Since returning from my knee surgery, I have felt more motivated than in previous years,” she said.

Being a redshirt senior this year, Bailey discussed her feelings about being one of the captains and leaders of the team: “As a senior I knew I would have to take on more of a leadership role, especially at tournaments [. . .] initially I wasn’t too excited about it, but after our first competition, I really enjoyed my role as one of the captains.”

Now entering her fifth and final year as a university competitor, Bailey recalls her last year of high school and what drew her to SFU. “I remember coming to SFU for my senior high school nationals [in 2010], and getting to see the campus and meet the team.” She continued, “My high-school coach had also gone to SFU, and highly recommended it.”

When Bailley made the decision to attend SFU, she was also deciding to move away from home — over 2,400 km away.

Initially she felt nervous, but she quickly found a new home with her teammates.

“We have always had such a friendly and supportive team and coaching staff, which made it very easy for me to adjust even though I was so far away from home.”

Bailley’s teammates have also helped her develop as an athlete, acting not only as friends and teammates, but as teachers.

“I have learned so much from not only the coaches, but also my teammates,” she explains. “Although you are competing against one another in competitions, on the mats you work as a team to help improve one another’s technique and skills. [. . .] Even though we may inevitably wrestle one another in the future, you can rely on your teammates to critique and elevate your wrestling.”

Looking back at how far she has come, Bailley recalls her

decision to continue with wrestling after high school, noting that it wasn’t her first sport.

“It’s kind of funny, I swam my entire life, and both of my parents were swimmers,” Bailey explains. “However, I was really slow and enjoyed the dry-land training [. . .] so that, and seeing the SFU campus eventually helped me make my decision to continue wrestling.”

In the end, Bailley reiterated how the individual-team dynamic of wrestling suits her: “I love being in an individual sport because you inevitably control your result; you control how hard you train and whether or not you leave it all on the mat.

[On the other hand], as a team — especially in duals — you get to cheer on one another, and want the best for your teammates both on and off the mat.”

SPORTS

Last Saturday, the Clan faced the Humboldt State University (HSU) Lumberjacks, featuring the number one defence and second place offence in the Great Northwest Conference (GNAC). Despite this, SFU had the Lumberjacks’ number last season, winning two matchups 41-27 and 38-17.

This game, however, did not go in the Clan’s favour, with the Lumberjacks’ offence capitalizing on SFU’s early mistakes.

“We’ve just been suffering from slow starts for a lot of this season, that’s something we’ve got to change,” said offensive lineman Felix Gacusana Jr. “We need to start faster.”

On the first drive of the game, the Lumberjacks picked off an eight-yard pass from quarterback Ryan Stanford and completed their drive minutes later as Lumberjack running back Nick Ricciardulli — second in the GNAC for rushing yards — ran the ball in for a touchdown.

HSU, desperate for a chance to make the regional championship,

November 10, 2014

attempted a two-point conversion and missed, putting them up by only six points.

On the next drive Stanford threw another interception, but this time, the Lumberjacks could not capitalize. The Clan would keep the Lumberjacks off the board for the rest of the first quarter.

HSU scored a field goal next, but the Clan made big gains in their responding drive, taking the ball to the goal line, thanks in good part to Stephen Spagnuolo, who had 33 rushing yards on that drive alone.

However, this turned out to be the first of many missed opportunities for the Clan. At the goal line, they could not convert for a touchdown, and found themselves pointless after a 74yard drive, as Tiernan Docherty missed the 24-yard field goal.

“We had some good drives, and we had a chance, [but] when we get into a situation of opportunity, it just seems like it’s too big for us,” said head coach Jacques Chapdelaine.

Another turnover for SFU and a touchdown for HSU would mark the second quarter. The Clan did manage to put a field goal on the board off of an interception by linebacker Joshua Jackai as the clock went to zero in the first half, sending SFU into halftime down 16-3.

For some of the second half, it looked as if the momentum might swing in the Clan’s favour, as after only allowing a

weight class, while teammates Morgan Smith at 78 kg, and Ryan Yewchin at 125 kg would capture third-place titles. Also obtaining a third-place title was Ciaran Bell at 97 kg, competing in two weight classes.

The men’s and women’s wrestling teams hosted the Clan International on November 1 at SFU Burnaby’s middle gym. The Clan were among the top teams at this event, with nine members capturing top-three spots in 10 different weight classes.

Rounding out the first-place winners on the men’s side were Reid Watkins at 74 kg, and Ciaran Ball at 90 kg. Josh Kim finished second in the 86 kg

On the women’s side, freshman Payton Smith won the 85 kg weight class, while teammates Abby Lloyd at 48 kg, Jen

field goal, they scored their first touchdown of the game with 6:32 left in the third quarter.

21

The Clan scored two touchdowns on the night — the second in the fourth quarter — however, Humboldt responded immediately

to both with touchdowns of their own, negating any possible comeback for the Clan.

After the two seven-pointers, offence was non-existent on either side in the fourth. SFU had one last attempt, as Stanford threw a 21-yarder to Lemar Durant. However, his next pass was once again intercepted, and neither team could put up a drive of more than 10 yards.The game ended 33-17 in Humboldt’s favour.

“We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot, we have so much potential to be good, but for some reason we’re just not executing as well as we should be,” said Gasucana. “Today we had glimpses of us

reaching our potential but we’ve got to play a complete game.”

One of the positives of the game was Spagnuolo, who ran for 106 yards, including one touchdown.

Middle linebacker Jordan Herdman put up the standout performance of the game, with 27 total tackles, increasing his total to 159 on the season and breaking the current GNAC record of 158 with two games left in the season. For his effort, Herdman was awarded the GNAC defensive player of the week.

The Clan will look to win their remaining games at home; currently sitting at 2-3 in the GNAC, they will attempt to bring their record to .500 in the conference.

Anderson at 55 kg, and Bailley Halvorson at 63 kg captured third-place titles.

The Clan International was also the season opener for the men’s wrestling team, where Watkins was able to showcase his practice efforts, after having dealt with injuries during his first two years training as a university athlete.

“My first two years at SFU were dissatisfying because I felt my injuries were holding me back from my goals,” Watkins explained. “So finally going into my third year, I feel healthy and ready to train and compete at my full potential. [. . .

My coaches] Justin [Abdou] and Clete [Hanson] have been working with me, in practice, on my

speed and power to help me be dominant in competition, [and] I think this past weekend I did just that.

“The Clan [International] was just the tip of the iceberg of what my teammates and I can

do as athletes [. . .] I am super excited for this season, and have my eyes set on an NCAA title at 165 lbs,” Watkins concluded.

The men and women traveled to Forrest Grove, OR to compete at the Mike Clock Open.

22 SPORTS

November 10, 2014

After falling 8-3 in Victoria, SFU hockey had a rematch against UVic — this time at home — and won 6-3. Victoria scored first, but rookie Tyler Basham scored twice to give SFU the lead. SFU outshot UVic 34-20.

The Clan snapped a two-game losing streak on Thursday, defeating the Western Oregon (WOU) Wolves in their second-last home game of the season.

SFU took the first two sets, and looked primed to sweep the Wolves. The Wolves had other plans, however, and took the game to five sets.

Western Oregon scored the first point of the match and jumped out to the early lead.

SFU responded immediately, though, and came back from a three-point deficit to take the lead for much of the set, winning the first 25-22.

The Clan would take the next set in a close battle. Western Oregon scored first once again, but this time, SFU took the early lead with two straight points, the first off of an attack error by the Wolves.

At one point, SFU held a sixpoint lead, at 20-14, but the Wolves clawed their back into the match, tying the score at 24-24. The Clan

Over the last few weeks, there have been numerous lawsuits against the CHL — the umbrella company that overlooks the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL, and comprises a total of 60 teams — for its compensation practices.

Most notable, perhaps, is the class action lawsuit filed by former player Sam Berg on October 17 for $180 million. The suit asks for “back wages, overtime and vacation pay, as well as any punitive damages,” according to a report by The Globe and Mail.

Currently, players are paid a flat rate between anywhere from $35 to $125 a week.

battled back scoring the next two points to clinch the win at 26-24.

In the third set, SFU once again jumped out to the quick lead 8-3.

However, they would let this one slip, allowing five straight points for the Wolves. The Clan would nevertheless hold the lead for much of the set, looking to go home early.

At the 20-point mark though, the Wolves pounced and seized the lead, going on to win the set 25-22.

The Wolves would take the next one 25-20 as well, tying up the game, jeopardizing the Clan’s once easy victory.

SFU managed to achieve the elusive victory in the fifth. For a few plays, it looked as though they might once again blow the lead after allowing the Wolves notch a three-point streak.

Middle blocker Madeline Hait had other plans, however, and

closed the game with a kill — her 14th of the night — to win the final set 15-12.

Kelsey Robinson led the team with 20 kills, while libero Alison McKay led the defensive effort with 29 digs, and Brooklyn GouldBradbury put up a stand-out effort with 22. Robinson contributed significantly defensively as well, notching 15 digs.

With the win, the Clan improve to nine conference wins, and remain at fifth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

It’s important to note that this case will not be brought to court unless a judge first certifies it.

At the heart of the case is whether players in the CHL are considered employees or amateur student athletes. If a judge rules that they are the teams’ employees, they will have to be paid according to the minimum wage laws in the region where their team is located.

student athletes and said, in a press release, that they will fight “because this could not only [. . .] have a negative effect on hockey in Canada, but through all sports in which amateur student-athletes are involved.”

This situation can be compared to the ongoing NCAA-player debate in the States, whose big football and basketball programs are fighting to maintain the status quo.

One of the biggest draws of junior hockey, especially in Vancouver, is its affordability. I’ve got tickets to see the Giants play the Seattle Thunderbirds in February, and I was able to get tickets right behind the penalty box for under $30. If the players were to be paid more, I don’t think I could get those tickets for even $60.

Merchandise prices would also increase. Right now, you can get a Vancouver Giants home jersey for $105, which is still a bit pricey.

That number could increase to match its NHL counterpart, whose

jerseys sell online for anywhere from $175 to $249.

Associated prices would have to increase to match the new expenses incurred due to a successful lawsuit.

We could see a lot of the small town teams fold, as they rely heavily on ticket sales to keep the lights on.

Even in bigger market cities like Vancouver, the team draws in fans because of the cheap ticket prices — it’s cheap entertainment. But if you add in higher wages, we can kiss that goodbye. Higher prices meansfewer people will watch and, as a result, we could be talking about the death of junior hockey.

I’m not saying that the junior hockey players who are filing the suit aren’t right, but the bottom line is that if the CHL were forced to compensate players more than they already do, it could be very harmful to the league; the extra cost will go right to the consumer, and who’s to say that the consumer will pay that extra coin.

The suit puts forward the example that the average OHL player works 35 to 40 hours a week and gets paid, on average, $50 per week, which is clearly under the student minimum wage of $10.30 an hour in Ontario. The CHL argues that the players are amateur

In their second-last game of the season, the Clan men’s soccer team won 3-0 against the South Dakota School of Mines Hardrockers. Captain Jovan Blagojevic netted his 17th to open up the scoring, while Callum Whittaker and Callum Powell added tallies. The Clan are locked in third place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC).

Seven Clan soccer players were honoured with a spot on the GNAC Soccer Academic AllConference Team, for excellent academic performance: Olivia Aguiar, Aja Choy-Halo, Sophie D’Souza, Andrea DiLorenzo, Ryan Dhillon, Robert Hyams, and Brandon Watson. Watson and DiLorenzo led the list with 4.15 and 4.12 GPAs respectively, while Dhillon and ChoyHalo achieved the honour for a second time.

Men’s basketball scored 115 points in 139-115 loss to Division I University of Idaho in an exhibition game held in Moscow, ID. The Clan went into halftime with the lead at 70-64, but Idaho would prove too much in the second half.

Sango Niang led the team with 27 points.

SPORTS

November 10, 2014

With last Saturday’s 3-0 loss to the Western Washington Vikings, the Clan women’s soccer team closed their season. It was the second straight game where they were shutout, and the 10th time this season (out of 18 games).

However, this was to be expected; this season was a year of rebuilding and tempered expectations for the team. As head coach Annie Hamel told The Peak at the beginning of the semester, their goal for this year was to “[have] the best success that we can with the team that we have, build game-in and game out on

Austin Cozicar Sports Editor At the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship in Monmouth, OR, the women’s cross country team won their first ever NCAA conference title.

“It’s awesome, it’s a great feeling to [know] you made history,” said runner Rebecca Bassett.

“I’m really excited because it’s our first conference championship [. . .] since we’ve been in the NCAA, so hopefully it’s the start of bigger things in the future,” head coach Brit Townsend told The Peak.

Bassett led the pack with a time of 20:38.08, which netted her second place individually, while teammate Jennifer Johnson followed closely behind, placing fifth.

“I went out as hard as I could, I was going into my race hoping to make top three all conference, so I was looking for a higher positioning and hoping some other girls would come with me,” said Bassett.

The times of only five SFU runners counted toward the team’s total score, however, Townsend emphasized the effort of the whole team: “Our girls came through, all seven

of them mattered [. . .] it was really important that all of them rose to the occasion.”

The five whose scores did count finished within the top 20, with Miryam Bassett placing 17th, Kansas Mackenzie 18th, and Peggy Noel 20th.

The team as a whole finished with a time of 1:45:59.43 and 62 points, only one point ahead of second place, and two ahead of third — needless to say, it was a close finish.

“We were pretty unsure [if we were going to place first], they kept saying it was ‘very close’, ‘too close to tell,’ ‘we’re going to review the results’ and we ended up on top,” said coach Townsend.

The men put up a great performance as well, placing third in their tournament behind University of AlaskaAnchorage and Western Washington University; Oliver Jorgensen led the charge, coming in sixth.

The teams scorers all placed in the top 30 out of 82 runners, with Marc-Antoine Rouleau placing 13th, Cameron Proceviat 16th, Austin Trapp 25th,

and Travis Vugteveen 30th. SFU also had four more runners place in the top 50, a point of emphasis for the coach. “[ We need to] have our fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh runners go as close as they can to the lead runners, because if we can make that gap between our first runner and our fifth runner really small we’re going to have a better chance at performing well in three weeks.”

Townsend’s focus has already shifted from the teams’ performances at the conference championship to regionals, where both teams must place in the top 16 in order to move on to the national championship.

“I have to look ahead because the regional meet is how we qualify for the national championship,” the coach explained. “That is the most important meetup in the season.”

The women’s team qualified last year for the first time, but the men have not yet made the cut. Townsend is confident that this year could be the year: “I think we have a chance, a really good chance of making [the national championship] on the men’s side.”

The west regionals will be held Saturday, November 22 in Billings, MT. Should either team qualify for nationals, they will compete for the championship in Louisville, KY on Saturday, December 6.

23

our successes, and look forward to what the future holds.”

The team finished with a 2-16 overall record, with both of their wins coming in Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play.

Olivia Aguilar led the team with three goals, and keeper Priya Sandhu appeared in all of the team’s 18 games. Their big problem throughout the year was their decision making and composure with the ball, and they suffered too many unforced turnovers.

But this can and will be fixed with more practice and as the team builds more chemistry together heading into the next season.

The future is bright for this team. With eight freshmen on the roster, a handful of returning players, and surely a new recruiting class, the women look to continue to grow next season. The trick is to take another step to contention, and hopefully to eventually compete for a GNAC title.

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24 DIVERSIONS / ETC

November 10, 2014

CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA

Across 1- Vends 6- Picture puzzle 11- Block 14- Old French expression meaning “goodbye” 15- Happening 16- Altdorf’s canton 17- Device for measuring salt concentration 19- Mined mineral 20- British record label 21- Ancient Semitic for “Lord” 22- Aviator 24- Henry VIII’s sixth 25- Laborious 26- Callous 30- Stallion, e.g.

31- Road with a no.

32- Jack of “Rio Lobo” 36- GI mail drop 37- Debase 41- Man-mouse connector 42- Portable shelter 44- Scot’s refusal 45- Actress Sophia 47- Between 80 and 90 LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION

“I should have written for The Peak!”

years old 51- Tangle up 54- All ears 55- Plunder 56- New Mexico art colony 57- Actor Linden 60- Give ___ rest 61- Kill 64- Lion, tiger, leopard, or jaguar 65- Holmes’s creator 66- Where Hercules slew the lion 67- Draft choice 68- Tree of the birch family 69- Private Pyle Down 1- Freelancer’s encl.

2- Dutch export

3- Taylor of “Mystic Pizza” 4- Wreath of flowers 5- Dried by the sun 6- Comment 7- Daredevil Knievel 8- Stake 9- Undeserved 10- Walk with long steps 11- Cathedral 12- Chilean pianist Claudio 13- Bearings 18- Crew needs 23- Uncouth 24- IBM products 25- Architectural pier 26- Yonder thing 27- Expectant desire 28- Press 29- Like some vbs.

33- Actress Petty 34- Neighborhood

35- Jazz flutist Herbie 38- Mezzanine 39- London jail 40- Passing 43- Singer Braxton 46- Leftover 48- Alberta’s home 49- Rubber 50- Greek temple 51- “All My Children” vixen 52- Birth-related 53- Flood 56- Account 57- Soccer star Mia 58- Fit to ___ 59- Goneril’s father 62- Barrett of Pink Floyd 63- “The Matrix” hero

Hope to see you there!

HUMOUR

An SFU student took a dramatic stand Tuesday afternoon in favour of what she describes as her “inalienable right to make everyone behind her watch her browse Etsy.”

Despite being asked several times by her professor to move, in accordance with his rule that students with laptops sit near the back, third year student Madeline Wright remained front-row and centre for the duration of her American history class.

“I was standing up for what I believe in, just like we learned Mrs. Parks did,” Wright said, following her private meeting with the prof to discuss the incident.

“I’ve been forced to sit in the back my entire undergraduate life, just because of my laptop — I had to take a stand!”

Unlike her hero, Wright says that she was not arrested or even forced to leave the class, but claims that her fate was

November 10, 2014

almost as bad, as she was glared at and verbally abused by the pen-and-paper kids in the class.

“They yelled at me to ‘get to the back’ and to ‘shut that thing off,’ as if preferring to take notes on a computer was a choice or something,” Wright explained.

“I can’t believe this type of

humour editor email / phone

Jacey Gibb humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

discrimination still exists in the 21st century!”

While Wright admits to having faced far worse treatment — she isn’t even allowed to have her laptop out in certain classes — she says she won’t give up her fight until all those with open computers are permitted to sit in any seat, at any university.

When asked whether she could learn any other lessons from what she’s being taught in class, Wright responded “Well, we were learning about Rosa Parks and the whole ‘refusing to change seats when someone asks you to’ thing … but recently we’ve moved on to, like, ‘civil rights’ or something.

“I don’t know, it’s really boring so I just go on Facebook.”

• • • • •

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26 HUMOUR

November 10, 2014

room, so I tried impressing them by pointing to my Tapout Tshirt,” said Thompson, “but that didn’t work. I thought to myself ‘Which group of people would really make these dudes think I’m a tough guy too?’ and I was like ‘What if I told them I was part of the SFU Clan football team?’”

its diversity in the kitchen. As part of a salad, blended into a smoothie, on its own as kale chips — these are all ways in which you’ll fantasize about using kale before inevitably throwing the wilted leaves away after weeks of neglect. Luckily kale already tastes like dirt, so the transition from produce to compost will be even more seamless.

With schoolwork ramping up and the holiday season creeping closer, it’s easy to put your health on the backburner while you try to juggle everything at once. Even if you don’t have the time to exercise regularly, maintaining a proper diet is key to maintaining your overall health — which is where superfoods come in handy.

What is a superfood? It’s a term invented by people in marketing who want you to buy a product, even if the logic behind the word is unsound and often has no basis in reality. But none of that matters, because anything with the word “super” in it has to be good. (Like Superman. Or the hit CW show Supernatural !) Help combat winter flab with these six superfluous superfoods!

1) Kale: Loaded with calcium and antioxidant-boosting vitamins, kale has become the go-to superfood for

2) Beetroot juice: A simple combination of juiced beets and a few other added citruses contains 80 per cent of your daily vitamin A and 40 per cent of your daily vitamin C, which you’ll never actually get because beet juice is awful. It also never stops being alarming how red your pee gets after consuming a bunch of beets.

3) Cauliflower: Ignoring for a moment that it looks like terminally-ill broccoli, the internet was abuzz back in January that 2014 was the year of cauliflower. I could list off all of the reasons why the vegetable is great for you — and there are a lot of them — but it won’t matter.

Four out of five times you’ll go for something that’s more convenient, doesn’t look like brains, and isn’t nearly as good for you. Like carrots.

Have you actually ever stopped to think about what carrots taste like?

They’re bland as shit, but people

love them because they’re brightly coloured and come in smaller ‘baby’ form. You’re pathetic.

4) Acai Berry: Achee? Ahsee?

No one really knows how you’re supposed to pronounce acai, which means it’s even healthier for you.

Full of antioxidants and hearthealthy fats, acai berries are the perfect superfood to impulsively buy without any real understanding about what they are or what they taste like.

5) Quinoa: Sure, why not? Are you really going to argue with me on this one? Do you even know what quinoa is? You probably thought it was a pasta until someone had to correct you. Quinoa is high in protein, an ideal source of dietary fibre, and is gluten-free — which we all know is supposed to be good for you. Quinoa is as super as superfoods come.

6) Yard trimmings: If you’re lucky enough to have a yard, then you have ready access to this incredible superfood. Yard trimmings are organic, ready to eat, and come in a variety of flavours, depending on the conditions under which they were grown and what kinds of life forms were living on them when you mowed the lawn.

Plus they’re dirt cheap!

A severely hungover Coquitlam man awoke last Sunday to discover that his previous night’s drinking companions were, in fact, not attendees of a belated Halloween party, but rather members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter.

Despite it being well into November, 25-year-old Mark Thompson failed to recognize the red flags around his Saturday night drinking buddies.

Prior to the incident, Thompson had been partying at Caprice Nightclub in the Granville Entertainment District, but was kicked out after trying to fight the DJ for “glancing” at him “all funny-like.”

After hailing a cab, Thompson’s night should have ended, but he encountered a minor setback by forgetting where it was exactly that he lived. Attempting to play off the gap in memory, Thompson suggested several fictional addresses (including 123 Fake Street) to the driver, who became increasingly irritated by the clearly phony addresses.

When Thompson tried apologizing for his forgetfulness by vomiting in the backseat, the cab driver forced him to leave the vehicle.

“Luckily he kicked me out right in front of another bar,” said Thompson, “so I was able to go in and have a couple of beers while I tried to remember where I lived.”

Once safely inside the bar, Thompson planted himself next to a booth of men dressed in pale white robes, recalling they “looked weird as shit” and “everyone else looked afraid of them.

“I wanted to show them they weren’t the toughest guys in the

After explaining that he played on the Clan football team, the robed men immediately warmed up to Thompson and said they were Clan members themselves.

When asked how the robes were not an immediate indicator of their KKK status, Thompson defended his ignorance by claiming he thought they were celebrating Halloween posthumously: “It seemed kind of weird that the football team was celebrating Halloween in November, but hey, YOLO.” Thompson’s new acquaintances eventually offered to take him back to their clubhouse, where Thompson passed out fairly quickly. It wasn’t until the next morning, when Thompson had called a friend for a ride home, that he became aware of where he’d spent the night.

“When my friend arrived at the clubhouse, he looked really nervous and asked me what I was doing there,” recalled Thompson. He asked what the problem was and Thompson’s friend pointed to the clubhouse sign, which read “Kanadian Knights of the Ku Klux KlanLower Mainland Chapter.”

They proceeded to flee the clubhouse before any of the KKK members noticed.

HUMOUR

November 10, 2014

27

28 LAST WORD

features editor email / phone

Max Hill features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

November 10, 2014

It’s official: after years of careful planning and budgeting, SFU’s Student Union Building (SUB) is going to happen.

At the recent Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) Annual General Meeting, students gave Build SFU the green light to pursue a loan for its SUB and stadium, which means the $65 million project can now begin preparations for the actual construction of the building.

But what has your student levy actually bought you? We’ve crunched the numbers and brought you the inside scoop of what’s in store for the SUB.

Par-tay! On the top floor of the SUB, there will be a large multipurpose room with glass windows and hardwood floors. The SFSS is pitching it as a space for community events such as dances or job fairs, though we can’t help but imagine it would make a good spot for a drink (or three).

On weekends, it’ll likely be rented out to external parties, the same way the pub is now.

The SUB will feature a total of seven different offices for student organizations — three large, two medium, and two small. Each office will feature an open space and three individual rooms. Who gets the big offices, you ask? Only time will tell.

The club centre is a large, open space, meant as a resource room for the hundreds of clubs, departmental student unions (DSUs), and organizations across Burnaby campus. It’ll include a staffed information desk, computer stations, printers, and photocopiers, and will be among the largest spaces in the SUB.

In the SUB’s many corridors and lounges, there will be multiple spaces to display student artwork.

They’re designed to showcase different types of art from the student body, from paintings to sculptures to video installations. No word yet on crude, graffitied juvenilia — fingers crossed.

Of course, the SUB will include a large space for the society’s own offices. There will be six individual offices and a meeting space, a larger administrative office, and a huge boardroom which looks like something a James Bond villain might plan for.

Throughout the SUB, there will be a series of rooms suited for smaller (team rooms) or larger (meeting rooms) groups. They will be free to reserve for student groups and organizations, and can be used for other activities such as yoga classes.

On top of the building’s many open lounges, the SUB will offer amenities for students in the arts: a workshop for carpenters, rehearsal spaces for dancers, and hell, even a gamer’s lounge. This is assuming, of course, that Woodward’s students will make the trip out.

The majority of the SUB will be made up of large, open communal lounges. They’ll feature couches, chairs, desks, and plenty of outlets, as well as wifi connection and lockers. One of of these lounges, called the ‘nap room,’ will be reserved for students who need to catch up on sleep — others are separated into ‘active’ and ‘quiet’ lounges depending on your study style.

The dining area of the SUB will connect to the food court in the Maggie Benston Centre, and will seat approximately 200 people. Included in the plans are 14 microwaves and a new home for the Mini Mart. Elsewhere, there’ll be a community kitchen, as well as another coffee shop, with seating space for about 15.