Our course enrolment system is broken

our enrolment system is

January 25, 2016

PEAK SPEAK

Q: Is yoga cultural appropriation?

The BC Supreme Court recently overturned the Law Society of BC’s decision to exclude graduates of Trinity Western University (TWU) from reaching the provincial bar.

The original decision came on the heels of controversy over TWU’s community covenant, a document that incoming students are required to sign, which, among other requirements, calls for students to refrain from all sexual relations outside that within heterosexual marraige.

The decision, which was was mainly due to issues of procedure that led to the Law Society’s ban, has just been appealed. The issue is likely to reach the Supreme Court of Canada, and it wouldn’t be the first time.

In 1997, the university filed suit in the Supreme Court of Canada over the BC College of Teachers refusing the university accreditation for similar reasons. The court sided with TWU. Law societies around Canada have revolted against accreditation applications for its future law school — and for good reason. Homophobic policies belong in the dustbin of history along with Jim Crow laws, and not in 21st century Canada.

TWU’s supporters often argue that the university’s policy has no impact on the quality of their

graduates or their preparedness to enter the job market. They’re dead wrong. Teachers who graduate from a school that punishes LGB students cannot be expected to create a safe environment for these students in their own classrooms.

Similarly, we cannot expect lawyers who graduate from TWU to have respect for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms when their own school goes against its basic principles of equality and nondiscrimination. The Law Society’s mandate should be to protect the integrity of their profession and this is, no doubt, threatened by TWU’s homophobic policy.

What troubles me the most is the message TWU sends to its students, young adults, many of whom may be struggling to accept their sexuality. What TWU says to youth is that their moral code represents the highest standard of integrity, and that LGBTQ+ individuals are precluded from that standard by virtue of their nature. That message is not only a blatant lie — it’s also dangerous.

The claim that TWU is legally exercising its freedom of religion is as morally vacuous as asserting the

personhood of corporations; institutions should not be able to claim freedom of religion.

Let’s be clear: TWU is not a church nor is it a theological seminary. It is a place of higher education. The charter grants freedom of religion so that citizens can feel safe from religious persecution. However, TWU enforces a theological regime against its students, ignoring not only the religious beliefs of many students who are not Christian but also those Christians who do not share TWU’s homophobic views.

TWU argues that students affirm their support for beliefs by simply enrolling as a student. Since when does wanting a university degree mean that you have to subject yourself to religious beliefs that aren’t yours?

BC and the Supreme Court of Canada should follow the example of an Ontario Superior Court in 2015, when they approved TWU being excluded from the Ontario Bar. Said the court, “One of the central issues that arises from the Community Covenant is the prohibition [. . .] against (quoting TWU) “‘sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman’ [. . .] Despite some efforts

by TWU to contend that the Community Covenant does not operate in a discriminatory fashion, it is selfevident that it does.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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NEWS

January 25, 2016

news editor email

Jamal Dumas news@the-peak.ca

associate news editor Nathan Ross

On January 26, noted academics and researchers Alexandru Balasescu and Apurv Jain will present the lecture “Financial Bubbles and their Magic: Asset Price as a Heroic Journey in the Financial Markets” at Harbour Centre.

The lecture will use examples of human behaviour, mythology, and economic models to explain why financial crises happen when they do.

A recent addition to the curriculum at SFU’s Beedie School of Business grants students a firsthand glimpse of just what working in the business world is like.

The Bookstore Product Management Experience, or BPME, is a “business challenge” that has been implemented into BUS 202 (Foundations for Collaborative Work Environments), currently in its fifth semester. In approximately 15-person teams, students work alongside the SFU Bookstore to manage, market, and do accounting work for a Beedie-themed product.

“They’re learning about collaboration, [so] they need to have something to collaborate on. That’s the venue [in] which they do that,” said Shauna Jones, professor at Beedie and

co-instructor of the class. “It’s very experiential.”

Students make pitches to the bookstore regarding their intended strategies for marketing their product, use funds granted by the bookstore to achieve their objective, complete assignments relating to their teamwork and performance, and make recommendations to the store for how to improve their sales of the product in the future.

different projects that they’ve had in class, they’ve done a bit on teams and volunteer work, but they’ll take teams to a certain level. Most teams — and this is also true for the workplace — will not actually get to that high performance stage, because they don’t want to work through the conflict,” said Jones, referring to the early stages of developing the bookstore challenge.

“What we’re doing in this is saying, ‘this is a course that’s related to teamwork. We want to take it up a notch. We want to take it to - Sean Brown, Beedie student a level where they’re actually In lieu of exams and papers, being collaborative.’” the BPME favours coursework Jones describes the BMPE as that allows Beedie students to improving with each iteration, work in a “real-life” business set- based on feedback from students ting. In particular, the curriculum and teaching assistants alike. places a strong focus on students Although Jones acknowledged assessing and developing their that not all students “see the ability to work in a team. value right away,” she concluded “People [have] been on sports that those students often come teams, they’ve been in teams in to appreciate the experience and

“We weren’t perfect by any means, but I think we definitely grew.”

understand its worth after completing the project.

Indeed, many former participants in the BPME consider the course to be a powerful lesson in coordination and group skills.

Sean Brown, a current Beedie student, reflected on his experiences with the bookstore challenge: “We weren’t perfect by any means, but I think we definitely grew. We definitely learned, and understood what it actually entails to be in a [big] group, to work with 15 other people who have 15 different opinions and 15 different motivations.”

Brown elaborated on the particular skills the BPME taught its participants. “You learn what drives people to be the way they are. You learn how to work with other people [. . .] you have to understand where everybody comes from.

“Dealing with conflict is something that really arises from it. Everyone sees conflict as this negative thing [. . .] but a lot of the time, conflict is a way of getting better. If you’re not constantly facing opposing opinions, you can’t progress.”

Andrew Nikiforuk, investigative journalist and author of Slick Water, will present at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts on January 28.

He will speak about the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing, a method for extracting crude oil from the ground. Nikiforuk will draw on the 20 years he has spent covering Canada’s energy sector and will look at specifically what how “fracking” could trigger seismic activity.

NEWS

Former SFSS president and SFU alumna Chardaye Bueckert has been selected from among 3,000 applicants to receive a Schwarzman scholarship to study at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The scholarship, which has an acceptance rate of 3.7 per cent, will fund a one year master’s program in geopolitics. The Peak sat down with Bueckert to discuss the scholarship, her time at SFU, and what advice she has for SFU students.

January 25, 2016

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Bueckert: I knew I was interested in politics coming into university, but took a wide variety of classes at first. After completing Poli Sci 101, I knew I wanted to pursue it as a major, even though I received my lowest grade of the term in that class!

Bueckert: Geopolitics can be used as a synonym for international relations, or more specifically, as the study of political events and foreign policy in relation to geographical regions and their history. These regional relationships impact economics, military arrangements, and diplomacy between and within regions. Geopolitics is therefore important to understand if one is interested in participating in efforts towards global peace and prosperity.

Bueckert: I applied for the Schwarzman Scholarship to gain a better understanding of China, while also receiving a high caliber graduate education.

Bueckert: I submitted an online application which included an essay on the state of Canadian cyber-security, an introductory video, and a personal statement discussing my interest in developing further relations between Canada and China as a young leader. Based on my application, I was one of 300 selected for an interview from amongst 3,000 global applicants.

Bueckert: That is a big question. My primary goal is to ensure that all Canadians have access to resources like clean water, food, and shelter. Canada is a wealthy country with more than enough

Are you an art lover who wants to change the world? SFU’s new master’s degree in Art for Social Change (ASC), the first of its kind in Canada, is the program for you.

The new Master of Education in Art for Social Change will offer training in group facilitation, project management, communication, and ASC processes. The two-year program will launch this fall, with cohort-based classes to be held on Saturdays at the Harbour Centre campus. The degree also includes internship opportunities with local community organizations.

Judith Marcuse, an Artist in Residence and Adjunct Professor at SFU, explained that art for social change takes two forms.

In the first, artists create pieces that contain content about social

change and are intended to start a dialogue around specific issues. In the second, groups of people produce artwork about a subject that matters to them, with the help of an artist or facilitator.

Despite being the first formal graduate program in Canada, Marcuse said that art for social change has been used in a wide range of contexts all over the world including HIV and AIDS stigma reduction through puppet shows and other forms of performance, and hospital policy change through a play created by former patients.

“Because the range is so vast, it’s difficult to pigeonhole it,” said Marcuse. The interdisciplinary program has taken a long time to find a place at SFU; Marcuse started working towards the creation of this master’s program seven years ago.

Marcuse believes formal training will help provide the specific skills necessary to do ASC work as safely and richly as possible. Producing art for social change includes both communication and exploration. She created a five year project that explored teen suicide,

in which 400 youth used art to explore their own experiences around teen suicide.

The results of the project, she said, were powerful. “It becomes personal and it becomes a feeling, rather than just information,” said Marcuse.

ASC can have very different results from more analytic forms of activism. Marcuse said forms of art such as photography, storytelling, dance, and theatre, have the ability to affect people at an emotional and intellectual level.

“You can read all kinds of statistics about a certain subject, but then if you see a film about it or a play or you read a poem, it’s a very different experience,” she said.

Art for social change can be used for a wide variety of agendas, including education, policy change and conflict resolution. “So it’s not just for artists,” Marcuse stressed.

Who is the ideal applicant, in Marcuse’s opinion? “Anyone who wants to make change in the world and who sees the integration of the imagination as an integral part of that change-making.”

to go around: we have an opportunity to ensure everyone has their basic needs met. There are obviously complexities involved in doing so, but I plan to always keep this simple truth in mind.

Bueckert: Get involved in extracurricular [activities] as much as possible. I am biased towards student government and debate, but there are so many different options available at SFU to suit any interest.

I know it is hard for many students who brave two hour commutes, have jobs to pay their way through school, and/or are raising children.

But even an hour or two a week volunteering at the SFU Women’s Centre, sitting as a Department Student Union Representative on Council, or getting involved with the SFU Anime Club could mean meeting your best friend or gaining the experience and connections that will help you land your dream job.

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6 NEWS

January 25, 2016

Rising sea otter population signals major ecological changes SFU biology prof studies the effect sea otters could have on coastal ecosystems Amanda Smith Peak Associate Sea otters are returning to the coast of British Columbia and that means that dramatic ecological changes are about to occur.

A research initiative has been formed to study those changes.

One leading scientist on the project is Anne Salomon, an Associate Professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. She, along with her students, has studied kelp forests since 2010 to learn about changes to these forests over time.

With this information, they hope to make predictions about how the kelp forests will change in the future with the return of the sea otters, and in particular how this will affect coastal communities that depend on these resources.

However, the reestablishment of the sea otters along the coast is not a simple conservation story. According to Salomon, “it’s a conservation conundrum, and yet it is also something that people have been worried about and thinking about for thousands of years.” The documentary Coastal Voices: Navigating the Return of the Sea Otters showcases a workshop in 2014 that brought together indigenous leaders, elders, resource managers and scientists to discuss these complex challenges.

These include fundamental issues of food security, food sovereignty, along with issues of indigenous rights, title, and self-determination.

Human interactions with sea otters and kelp forests span millennia. This is evident in the archeological, ethnographic, and oral histories that persisted through time. However, the species was almost eliminated by the Pacific maritime fur trade in the 18th and 19th century and the effects of colonial settlement, both of which changed the way

coastal systems were managed.

The elimination of the sea otters resulted in an increase in their prey including sea urchins, abalone, clams, and crabs. Since these are popular food sources for humans, the return of the sea otter means taking into account the decline of these shellfish for food, and subsequent impact on local economies.

As outlined in a media release, a rise in sea otter populations will indirectly decrease the number of sea urchins, a decrease which aides in the recovery of kelp forests as sea urchins are voracious grazers. Therefore, sea otter recovery has been associated with increased catch rates of fish that feed off of kelp, and enhanced settlement of baby rockfish. However, Salomon went added that their return also means that the endangered abalone will be preyed upon.

The media release also explained how before colonization, the interactions between humans and sea otters were more balanced; indigenous people maintained sea otter populations at numbers that allowed them to thrive, while also protecting their food sources.

Janis McMath / The Peak

Sea otters are back to stay after nearly becoming extinct 100 years ago.

Salomon shared that based on these complexities, there needs to be collaboration between individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences working together to manage the return of sea otters.

This project hopes to give coastal communities and policy makers the resources and shared knowledge required to manage the reestablishment of sea otters from

an ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural perspective.

Salomon and her partners will carry on this project into this summer to continue helping coastal communities to prepare for the sea otters’ return.“We all view systems through different lenses, and we all have different ways of knowing, so when we put that together we can only learn more.”

Are SFU students #textbookbroke?

SFSS launches campaign to show how much students spend on textbooks Rumneek Johal SFU Student What would you do with a couple extra hundred dollars a semester? A pipe dream for most students, it’s a question the Simon Fraser Society is starting to throw out there with the interest of helping students save a bit more money.

During the first few weeks of school, SFU students scavenge to find a copy of their required course materials, only to be met with the heartbreaking realization that the class has upgraded to the newest, shiniest, and most expensive version of the textbook.

The #textbookbroke campaign has found a home at SFU after popping up across various postsecondary institutions, and is being championed by the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS). Students

across campus are being asked how much they’ve spent on textbooks in a campaign to petition for the use of Open Educational Resources at SFU by demonstrating the amount it truly costs to purchase mandatory course materials.

Hundreds of tweets displaying the hashtag #textbookbroke show students in schools across the country and even beyond Canada demonstrating their support for the movement for open source textbooks. Various university and college student societies are asking students to join and pledge their support, while also including how much they’ve spent on textbooks.

Some of the images posted on the SFSS Facebook page show how much students are really spending, ranging from $12 to $780.

The movement took up their fight across the hall from the SFU Burnaby bookstore at the start of this semester, encouraging students to leave post it notes with their stories for all to see.

Said one arts student, “I could’ve bought groceries for the whole month with the $300 I spent on

Ariel Mitchell / The Peak

There are serious efforts to keep this from being a reality for students. textbooks, and that amount is almost half of my rent for the month.”

Another note left by a sciences student read, “[If I didn’t have to pay for textbooks] I would feel a lot more freedom to take classes with extra costs or where I need extra supplies.”

Open Educational Resources are “freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching,

learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes.” The goal is ultimately to offer students affordable and accessible educational resources that don’t break the bank.

VP University Relations Brady Yano explained that the provincial government has in the last year invested in 40 educational resources that could be used for “up to 40 undergraduate first- and

second-year courses at postsecondary institutions.”

Said Yano, “The number has now grown to 150. If adoption [of these resources] took place in larger first- and second-year courses it could save them up to $100,000.”

Yano went on to say, “over the past two weeks the student society has been tabling outside of the bookstore educating students on the availability of these [open education] resources, and we started a photo contest on the SFSS Facebook, and whoever got the most likes will get their textbooks paid for by the SFSS, in this case saving the student $410 and hopefully generating more buzz and support for this campaign.”

In addition, the Library and the Teaching and Learning Centre will fund three grants of $5,000 to incentivize faculty to use open educational resources.

For more information on how you can get involved, sign your pledge at sfss.ca/OER, search the hash-tag on Twitter, or contact VP of University Relations Brady Yano.

NEWS

January 25, 2016

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SCIENCE RULES

Workshop offers potential hint of future for First Nations academics Sixth annual Math and Science workshop sees Aboriginal researchers pass down their passion Quang Vinh Peak Associate In an interview with The Peak last week, Director of the Office for Aboriginal Peoples William Lindsay mentioned that there was a lack of Aboriginal academics at SFU. However, there are initiatives in place to fix it for the future.

The sixth annual Aboriginal Students in Math and Science workshop was held on Jan. 14 at the IRMACS presentation studio building at the Burnaby campus under the guidance of professor Veselin Jungic. Over 70 First Nations students gathered to be inspired and

indulge in their passion for math and science programs by four prominent math, biology, and astronomy presenters.

One of those researchers was Dr. Edward Doolittle from the First Nation University of Canada, whose aim was to help the students see that they actually have some news or values that they learned in high school can be used in something interesting.

“Ever since I have been in university at the age of 18, I have wondered about what I can do for the people,” said Dr. Doolittle. “I have been interested in math for most of my career. It seems that math is a major problem since not many Aboriginal students enjoy mathematics.”

For his part, he brought forward activities and education on string theory, which included making different shapes and figures from a string, realizing a string figure from

Photo courtesy of University Communications

Kyle Bobiwash (left) and Veselin Jungic (right) were two of the presenters. a random drawing. String figures have been used throughout many culture groups and each of them contains cultural heritage from which students can learn.

Professor Veselin Jungic from SFU’s Department of Mathematics added that the meeting is also a way to promote scholarships, careers in math and

UBC aims to reduce animal use for research purposes [VANCOUVER] — The University of British Columbia achieved a 16 per cent decrease in its usage of animals for teaching and research experiments in 2014, as compared to the statistics from 2013.

Most of the animals used (62.5 per cent) were rodents, with over half subjected to minor or no discomfort, and each receiving individual veterinary care. Although animal research still continues to attract strong criticism from various animal rights activists, UBC is one of only two Canadian universities to disclose statistics for animals used for research.

With files from The Ubyssey

U of W’s graduates make it to Forbes list [WATERLOO] — Apoorva Mehta and Peter Szulczewski, both graduates of the University of Waterloo have been listed on Forbes’ “Top 40 richest entrepreneurs under 40” list.

Mehta is the founder of Instacart, an app which allows users to grocery shop online and have it delivered to their homes. Szulczewski is the CEO of Wish, an online shopping app which tracks user preferences and sends them customized suggestions for purchasing.

By Levin C. Handy (per http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04326) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

UNIVERSITY BRIEFS

science, and that the four eminent Aboriginal researchers invited to the meeting could serve as new role models.

The workshop reached a wider scope than just students at SFU, as some of the conference participants came from outside the Lower Mainland. Jungic says he is proud that SFU welcomes many

Aboriginal students each year.

Furthermore, according to SFU institutional research and planning, 7.6 per cent of SFU undergraduate students come from communities outside Metro Vancouver, and over 120 courses that focus on Aboriginal knowledge and issues are offered at SFU as stated by SFU Office of Aboriginal people.

The reaction from students was very encouraging, with those who attended showing fascination and excitement. Students tackled the problems given by the presenters, and worked on new mathematical puzzles that arose over the course of the day. They said the activities were very fun to do, easy to understand, and caught their attention.

Programs like this could be one of the major keys to fighting lack of Aboriginal academics currently in Canada.

You don’t have to sit in school to stand among greatness.

With files from The Imprint

Western alumni honored with Order of Canada [LONDON] — Richard McLaren and P. Kim Sturgess, two alumni of Western University will be awarded with the Order of Canada, for contributions to Canadian society. McLaren is being honored for his work in the field sports law and arbitration.

Sturgess is being recognized for work empowering women engineers and for her company WaterSMART, which focuses on improving water management in Alberta.

› Thomas Edison:

With files from Western Gazette

By Amanda Rachmat

The world’s most extraordinary failure never gave up.

Thank goodness.

open. online. everywhere. go.athabascau.ca/online-courses

8

OPINIONS

January 25, 2016

opinions editor email

Adam Van der Zwan opinions@the-peak.ca

Nearly one in five female students will experience sexual assault while at university, according to U of Windsor professor Charlene Senn.

Despite sexual assault being a huge issue at Canadian universities, there is very little data regarding university assaults. As reported

by Maclean’s, this is because Canadian universities are not required to “make public or even keep track of the number of sexual assaults reported.” Many have no policy on sexual assaults at all and often will discourage survivors from reporting their case to police for fear of garnering a bad reputation.

A notable example of this is the ongoing scandal at the University of British Columbia, where the faculty’s failure to respond to reports from multiple women against a single student led to “additional harm,” according to an open letter from UBC published on January 7.

Just 45 minutes away lies our own university. When searching SFU’s website for a policy on sexual assault, the only information to be found is on what to do if you’re assaulted: don’t shower, don’t douche, tell a friend, the list goes on. While important, it’s concerning that there’s no assurance on what will become of the attacker. While no

scandal has yet taken place here, something else concerns me: SFU doesn’t have a sexual assault centre.

Sexual assault centers offer a plethora of services that other university resources, such as the Women’s Center or SFPIRG, are simply unable to do. Examples include, but are not limited to: accompaniment to the hospital, assistance in filing police reports and with the court process, accompaniment to the court, and personal counselling.

These resources would not only provide indispensable support for survivors, but the presence of a center could have major influence in decreasing the frequency of assaults.

There are two main arguments against such centers. The first is that it would be too expensive. To respond to this, one should examine the overall cost of sexual assault to begin with. According to the website Canadian Women, medical costs to victims can be calculated at roughly $113 million per year. Upon considering lost productivity, an additional $211 million is lost, and when putting a price on “pain and suffering,” the number skyrockets to $4.3 billion.

These are just the costs to survivors. The annual cost for taxpayers to fund the criminal justice system’s prosecution of these cases, social services to victims, and employee losses is estimated by Canadian

Women to be $200 million. The economic toll is significant, and nothing compared to the cost of a sexual assault center.

The second argument against a centre is that many opponents also claim that upon the arrival of such centers, assaults actually increase.

What is true is that reports of sexual assaults have increased. According to the CBC, many universities report between zero and five assaults per year; SFU reported three on the Burnaby campus for 2015, and zero on both the Vancouver and Surrey campuses.

This seemingly positive low number should not be regarded as such. Statistically speaking, it’s impossible for the number of assaults to be this minor.

What’s actually happening?

Survivors aren’t reporting — by no means a local problem, but a problem all the same. What a sexual assault center would do is make survivors feel safer in filing a report. This is not only extremely important for survivors, but also the university as a whole. After all, in order to alleviate the risk, SFU needs an accurate scope of the issue at hand.

As a university that shouts its progressive and radical nature from the top of its concrete rooftops, I am, quite frankly, appalled that SFU has yet to take this simple step forward to lead universities across Canada in the fight against sexual assault.

I remember when ‘90s TV shows used to made fun of matchmaking services. They would show various scenes of men introducing themselves in their best outfits to potential mates that left my braces-laden teeth exposed as I sat cringing, wondering if people really took part in those dating videos.

Now that I’m all grown up (and with straight teeth!) I find

myself, and the majority of my friends, signed up for the online version of these dating technologies. It is no longer taboo to use dating apps for help finding someone to get to know, but is this advancement necessarily a good thing?

Various dating apps make it easier to find people who are close to you that are — more often than not — single. Some argue it’s taking all the fun out of dating. Countless couples now have stories in which they openly admit meeting on Tinder. Or better yet, they come up with a half–assed lie, remarking that they met at The Keg. Some people even go on to get married.

Are we all going to be 80 years old

telling our grandchildren that we met their grandpa or grandma by swiping right?

The concept of talking to someone based almost entirely on his or her pictures is allowing us to become more superficial than before. To compare and contrast men and women’s dating habits on Tinder, it has been found that women are very selective, declining nearly every opportunity, whereas men barely even look and swipe right until a match is formed. Is selecting a partner based entirely on the quality of a few pictures really an adequate way to approach dating?

Without these apps, however,

one really has to put oneself out there to swing a date. Tom Greaves, a man in Britain, documented his adventures in approaching women on the streets to ask them out on dates in The Daily Mail. Most women laughed and declined, not because they were being rude, but because they seemed almost embarrassed.

A personal friend of mine admits she appreciates when someone puts the effort in the traditional way. She tries to make the experience positive for both parties while being polite and courteous to the one putting themselves on the line. I since have adopted this ideal and if someone has the gusto to appropriately approach me on the

street, I give them the benefit of the doubt and don’t simply blow them off. If women keep rejecting men in the physical realm, why would there be any reason to keep trying?

No matter how you feel about dating apps, the truth is that everyone is using them now. Once a technology is put in place, it’s very hard to retract it. I doubt anyone would be in favour of the messenger pigeon in a time when the telephone took off.

That being said, I think it’s important to uphold the sanctity of actual spontaneous human interaction. You never know who you’re going to meet when you turn off your phone and leave the house, and it is guaranteed to

OPINIONS

Beginning next August, Norway’s Garnes High School will be offering students gaming classes in place of gym class, including only 90 minutes of exercise optimized for their favourite game. This is not the first time a school has made this decision, as other schools in Norway and in Sweden also offer eSports classes.

However, this decision shows an unsettling shift away from the obvious purpose of gym class: exercise.

One thing can not be denied — eSports are a large, growing industry expected to be worth about $2 billion dollars by 2018.

If schools mean to prepare our young people for the future, then it makes sense that we teach them about new, emerging industries.

However, eSports are simply not an appropriate substitute for traditional physical activity.

Some eSports players take home six figures in earnings, or competition earnings and

It’s Monday afternoon, and a hot batch of freshly printed Peak issues stares right back at me as I prance haughtily through the motioncensored doors to the AQ. Ugh, I think. I can’t believe they print that old, meaningless tabloid.

In fact, I can’t believe that people even write for it, much less read it and enjoy it. Anyone who even looks at the cover can plainly see that it’s just loaded with uneducated gossip, that’s it just a dramafilled rag, that it’s replete with socialist garbage, that it’s a failed attempt at being progressive. Did I just contradict myself there? I don’t even care. I just hate The Peak!

Here I go, picking up this week’s issue off the stands. God, I haven’t even opened it and I hate it. I hate it so much that I think I’m going to

January 25, 2016

sponsorship. UBC’s esports team won a $180,000 scholarship last May in a video game competition. Many universities and colleges across North America now offer scholarships for eSports.

Students should absolutely learn about these opportunities while in high school. Who doesn’t want to get paid to play video games?

Garnes High School says that these classes will train “[young] eSports pros bodies as well as their minds.” They will learn teamwork, sharpen reflexes, as well as build focus and endurance for long tournaments.

Truly, a training session for video games would likely aid in all those categories. However, the issue here is that you cannot substitute video games for physical exercise.

The benefits of gym class simply cannot be taken away from students. Just 30 to 45 minutes of moderate exercise per day has been shown to enhance memory, concentration, mood, cardiovascular endurance, and self-confidence. These are things that teenagers probably will not get out of an eSports class.

I’m not intending to bash video games. Personally, I have logged an embarrassing amount

tell all my friends! I think I’ll go online and type furiously about how this paper sucks in as many public chat forums as I can find! I’m going to pick up this shit-stain every single Monday, read it from cover to cover, just so I can protest my head off to everyone I know!

How could anyone write about how environmentalism is nauseating? Or that marijuana shouldn’t be legalized? My god!

This paper presents me with views that differ from my own! I should burn it.

In fact, we should all burn it! But wait, first let’s steal all of them, spit on them, pee on them, and then burn them! I can’t believe my tuition money is going to this blasphemous trash! Oh! Oh god, there goes my hernia . . .

WOOHOO

maintaining a healthy body, and, sadly, sitting does not contribute to health maintenance.

Perhaps, it would be better to offer eSports training as an extracurricular opportunity, so as not to diminish the importance of physical exercise.

Students deserve the chance to pursue their interests, especially

when it has the potential to earn them scholarships.

The fact of the matter is that the benefits gained from the two different types of classes are not identical, or even similar. A healthy body as well as a healthy mind is vital to ensure that students live a good life during and after high school.

NOTICE OF STUDENT ELECTION SPRING 2016 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Students have an opportunity to become involved in the governance of SFU by submitting a nomination form for positions on Senate, the Board of Governors, and the Senate Graduate Studies Committee.

COMMITTEE

POSITIONS

TERM OF OFFICE

Senate

Sixteen students, elected June 1, 2016 by and from the student to May 31, body, with at least one 2017 student elected from each faculty and at least three undergraduate and three graduate students.

Senate meets once a month and is responsible for the academic governance (all matters that bear on teaching and research) of the University. www.sfu.ca/senate.html

Board of Governors

One undergraduate student, elected by and from the undergraduate student body.

June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017

The Board of Governors meets six times a year and is responsible for the business (property, revenue and policies) of the University. www.sfu.ca/bog.html

June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017

SGSC meets once a month and is responsible for making recommendations to Senate concerning graduate programs, courses, regulations and policies. www.sfu.ca/senate/ senatecommittees/sgsc.html

One graduate student, elected by and from the graduate student body.

Senate Graduate Studies Committee (SGSC)

Four graduate students (2 regular, 2 alternate), elected by and from graduate students.

INFORMATION

Nomination Deadline: Friday, January 29, 2016 @ 4:00 pm Campaign Period: February 1, 2016 to February 18, 2016 Online Voting: February 15, 2016 to February 18, 2016 Nomination Forms and Candidate Info: http://students.sfu.ca/elections/students.html

Complaining in The Peak

Don’t like what read? Write about it. In fact, write an article about how much you hate us!

of time playing Call of Duty, Age of Empires, and numerous Fallout games. I enjoy them as much as the next person. However, it doesn’t seem right to allow students to opt out of gym class in order to play video games.

The entire purpose of physical education is to teach students the benefits of

9

Seriously. We’ll print it. With love.

Questions may be directed to the Electoral Officer, Senate & Academic Services at 778-782-3168 or senate@sfu.ca.

10 OPINIONS

However, when you consider the debate on cultural appropriation, the issue becomes much larger than a yoga class. Cultural appropriation occurs when one culture takes and uses elements interpreted as a way of diminish the elements of distinct cultural identity. In this particular case,

reimagining an originally Indian practice as a Western activity mirrors the colonialist idea that certain groups of people can take whatever they want from others without permission.

So, am I supporting colonialism by taking a yoga class? It is wrong to explore cultures outside my own?

No. I am not accusing anybody of being a thief. I am not calling you a racist. I am saying, however, that people should take more seriously the cultural origins of whatever they do. People should think more about the sacred activities they engage in beyond the idea that “they are fun.”

If you are not going to respect the people that created a cultural practice, do not bother participating in it. A simple yoga class may mean much more to you than to another person.

These classes are symbols of a culture that belongs to someone else. Your lack of understanding does not give you the right to forego empathy, compassion, and respect, and to me it does not matter if the activity is as benign as a yoga class or as serious as a traditional headdress.

At the end of the day, we have to come to terms with the fact the yoga belongs to India. It should therefore be practiced according to the rules and regulations set by India. You

If 2015 ended a little bit more hopeful with regards to media representation for minorities, given the release of a Star Wars sequel featuring a black man and a woman as the main characters, as well as Viola Davis’s Emmy, the 2016 Oscar nominations managed to crush that hope.

This year’s Academy Awards continued last year’s pattern with zero non-white actors nominated for any of the four categories available. Similarly, no women were

nominated for Best Director and Alejandro Iñárritu was the only non-white director on the list.

More surprising was Sylvester Stallone’s nomination for his supporting role in Creed while actor Michael Jordan was left out entirely. Likewise, Straight Outta Compton’s white screenplay writers were acknowledged while neither black director F. Gary Gray nor any of the film’s actors were. This is not to mention the LGBTQ+ actors who have yet to be cast in a large-scale movie (most recently, the missed opportunity to allow a trans woman to play Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl ).

As expected, the overall lack of non-white nominees and other minorities has generated harsh retaliation. Celebrities Jada Pinkett

At the University of Ottawa last November, a yoga class was cancelled due to concerns that it was culturally appropriated from India — a culture that “experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy.” At first, the story seems ridiculous and inconvenient. How did a simple yoga class become a political issue?

January 25, 2016

cannot claim rights to something that does not belong to you.

I have read many online comments that claim these views as too politically correct or restrictive. Unfortunately, minority groups have been increasingly painted as the villain in these situations for being ‘annoying’ and ‘overly sensitive,’ so I’ll offer up an alternative reason for this saturation of political correctness: nobody truly listens to each other.

Minority groups try to be understood while dominant groups accuse them of oversensitivity. We are not connecting. We do not understand one another. It is ridiculous that some people believe they have all the answers and cannot be bothered to learn more.

I do not have all the answers.

You do not have all the answers.

No particular culture has all the answers. We owe it to each other to listen and try to empathize with the other. If we do not find

a way to communicate, we will continue to hurt one another.

I’m incredibly disappointed that yoga has been culturally appropriated due in part to this lack of communication between cultures, and I’m happy to see University of Ottawa take action against this. While it may take a while, I’d like to see some more public respect for the traditional roots of this sacred activity that has been ransacked

by Western ideals.

Smith, Rashida Jones, and Martha Plimpton, as well as Straight Outta Compton producer Will Packer, have openly expressed their disap-

an awards ceremony that doesn’t even acknowledge the actors and filmmakers who represent it?

Not only this is the second year in a row that the Oscars failed to feature actors of colour, the Academy votership is 94 per cent white, 77 per cent male, and has a median age of 62 years old. Thus the Oscars are just a consequence of an overwhelming lack of diversity in the Academy.

Simply put: old white men pick white people to represent the ‘best of the best.’

While it’s easy to assume actors of colour were simply not ‘good enough’ to be nominated for the 2016 Oscars instead of holding the Academy accountable, this year

featured countless amazing performances that were oddly forgotten — Will Smith’s role in Concussion, Jason Mitchell’s in Straight Outta Compton, and Idris Elba’s in Beasts of No Nation. This pattern repeats itself across filmmaking categories in which the work of coloured people are under-recognized and undervalued.

The fact that the Academy continues to exclude different ethnicities and other minorities amplifies the notion that to be predominantly straight and caucasian is all it takes to be noticed in the film industry. It’s no wonder celebrities like Spike Lee are encouraging a boycott of the ceremony. It might be time to seriously re-think Hollywood recognition if it continues to perpetuate this exclusive environment.

pointment. While the backlash the Academy continuously receives for their lack of diversity is unlikely to destroy the Oscars entirely, the awards’ reputation is certainly diminishing among people from all ethnicities. After all, who cares for

OPINIONS

11

January 25, 2016

Bernice Puzon Peak Associate When we think of someone who is homeless, we tend to have this image of a scraggly man with an unkempt beard, pushing his belongings in a shopping cart. While this image may certainly be a reality on Vancouver’s streets, another facet of the homeless population is largely ignored and unaddressed.

These are the homeless youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or various other identities (LGBTQ+).

These are people that look like the classmates and friends whom we see everyday, but are going through struggles that most of us cannot even begin to imagine.

The very first transitional shelter for LGBTQ+ youth in Canada is set to open at YMCA’s Sprott House in Toronto on February 1. The shelter will provide safe, respectful housing for LGBTQ+ youth ages 16 to 25, supporting them in their transitions to their next steps in life. This is an important milestone for a population that has traditionally been marginalized, ridiculed, and shunned by society.

A study conducted in 2013 on Toronto’s homeless youth population found one out of five of them identified as LGBTQ+. Several had experienced abuse and discrimination within Toronto’s current shelter system, suffering homophobic abuse at the hands of fellow shelter residents.

Unfortunately, the world is still coming to accept the LGBTQ+ community. While major steps, such as the legalization of gay marriage, have been made in many countries, these are only small victories in the

heteronormative world that we live in. To identify oneself on the LGBTQ+ spectrum immediately distinguishes someone as being ‘other’ than the norm, a point of difference that will sadly be contested and judged by many.

It is no small wonder that LGBTQ+ youth, who are already going through the challenges of their formative teen years and have to cope with society’s stigma against their sexual orientation, need spaces of acceptance and respect. Trans folk also often have the added physical challenge of transition combined with the social pressures of people trying to define them according to their terms.

Locally, Vancouver has a prominent shelter in the Downtown Eastside called Covenant House, which provides shelter for young people who have experienced trauma or abuse. Social housing and program provider Rain City Housing also dedicated a two year pilot project in 2012 to providing housing and employment for LGBTQ+ youth ages 18–25, on the basis of not only respecting young people’s identity and life choices but also providing them with a community of care.

We at SFU are also lucky enough to have Out On Campus, an organization that facilitates dialogue and education regarding

the spectrum of gender identity and sexual orientations, while providing valuable resources and lounge space.

However, more of these transitional shelters should be opened across Canada in order

to not only provide shelter and relief, but to create a space for dialogue and awareness about the LGBTQ+ community. Positive and open spaces like these can only serve to benefit everyone, and are a small step

towards acceptance, rather than simply tolerance, of a community that has been marginalized for far too long.

Most importantly, in spaces like these, people can finally feel at home.

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“

Course enrolment pisses me off. If seats are full we should have the option to either stand or bring our own stool to class,” read a recent comment posted on the SFU Confessions Facebook page.

After 20 minutes, the comments had received 40 likes; after an hour it had over 100. By the next day, it had garnered almost 1,000 likes, making it one of the most popular comments on the group in the past year, by far.

The message conveys a distinct frustration that SFU students experience while registering for courses each semester. SFU’s annual undergraduate satisfaction surveys routinely cite encountering full courses, scheduling conflicts, courses not offered frequently enough, students’ late scheduling dates, and courses reserved for other students. These frustrations have students — predominantly from the Arts and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology, and the Beedie School of Business — pulling their hair out in anger.

“The course selection process is extremely difficult and

frustrating,” said third-year criminology major Yvonne Hanson in a video by The Peak. “I’ve been struggling with it the whole time.

If you haven’t declared your major yet, you can’t get into any classes you need. So you wind up with the most bullshit little courses.”

“I had a horrible time with enrolment this year,” said second-year IAT and Business major Gabriel Yeung. “I wasn’t able to get into most of my [IAT] major courses [. . .]

I tried for eight courses, and I didn’t get into them. Now I’ve ended up with a semester of electives.”

“When I get [an enrolment] date I can already tell that I’m going to have a disadvantage,” responded Christina Valenzuela, third-year health science major. “I’m looking at the availability of courses, and then once my [enrolment date] reaches, the majority of them are already closed.”

These negative sentiments were reiterated in last year’s SFU Undergraduate Survey “course availability” section. Popular comments including “offer more courses” and “better class availability” further confirm student frustrations.

Issues with course enrolment have affected SFU students for years, as indicated in the 1998 Undergraduate Student Survey, which conveys that only 60 per cent of undergraduates were able to register for the courses they wanted. Since then, student satisfaction with registration in the courses they want to complete their degree has not improved. In fall 2005, only 56 per cent could enrol in the courses that they wanted; in 2008, it was 54 per cent; most recently, in 2014, it was 58 per cent.

Furthermore, in 2005, just over half (53 per cent) of the undergrad population found they were taking longer than expected to complete their degrees — a

number that hovered around 57 per cent in 2013, before jumping to 64 per cent in 2014.

SFU’s 2010 Degree Completion Experience Survey shows that students complete their degrees overall 2.1 years past the traditional timeframe (defined as “less than 5 years for Secondary students, less than 4 years for Transfer students, and less than 3 years for Second Degree students”), a statistic which must have come as a surprise to the 69 per cent of students in the same survey who said they expected to complete their education in explicitly four years or less, and the 85 per cent from the Fall 2013 Undergraduate Student Survey who claimed graduating within their expected timeframe is important.

SFU’s Institutional Research and Planning (IRP) office conducts an annual undergraduate student satisfaction survey

to “[provide] essential feedback on academic experiences and concerns,” which usually garners roughly a 20 to 30 per cent student response rate. They also publicly provided a variety of indepth studies specifically into resolving course availability issues from 2007 to 2011.

The 2007 study states on its first page that “Course Availability at SFU has been deteriorating,” and that “compared to other British Columbia universities, students at SFU experience considerably more problems with course availability and timely degree completion.”

Despite several reports, surveys, and recommendations, the statistics in student satisfaction have remained very similar since the first online report was posted in 1998.

Many students at SFU clearly have trouble enrolling in many of the courses they want — an issue that is caused by multiple facets of the university system, and which could ultimately increase student attrition rates and damage the school’s reputation.

“We’re working on it,” Gordon Myers, SFU’s Associate VP Academic, explained to The Peak in regards to students’ enrolment concerns. “We know that course access is a serious issue.”

Myers directly oversees all enrolment planning at SFU, and keeps in contact with SFU’s IRP office for patterns in course access research findings. He sits on the Senate Committee for Strategic Enrolment Management, which reports to SFU’s Senate with findings and proposals regarding course registration.

A major factor contributing to SFU’s budgetary constraints is its unique trimester system, a way of operating that Myers acknowledges is more expensive than the traditional semester system, but one that is not without benefits.

“The trimester system was [established] so that we’d use our buildings for the full year, and we can therefore save resources,” Myers explained. “We don’t need as many buildings to educate the same number of students if we’re running all year round. It also provides additional flexibility for students — for example, you can start any semester.”

While these factors have merit, SFU’s trimester system

SFU’s course registration issues are caused by a variety of interconnected problems, all of which are related first and foremost to the ever-looming budgetary constraints that every university faces.

Myers mentioned that once government funding (which decreased another 1 per cent for the 2014/15 fiscal year) has made its way to SFU, the money is then dispersed among the faculties in accordance with how many enrolments each faculty receives.

has been mired in controversy from its very origins.

In his 2005 book Radical Campus, Hugh Johnston details how, during the university’s construction, higher education was being given an infusion of public money while members of the public and politicians alike criticized universities for expecting this increased funding yet operating only on a semesterly (fall and spring) basis.

While university presidents tried to explain that summers were coveted by professors to keep their research current, SFU delegated academic planner Ron Baker to examine the question of whether or not to open the school year-round.

According to Johnston, while extensive evidence from

“It’s a student-centred budget,” stated Myers. “If a faculty gets more students choosing courses from that faculty, they’ll receive a bigger budget. [. . .] This gives [faculties] the resources to solve course access problems because it gives them the money to put on those extra courses.”

When Aoife Mac Namara began her position as the Dean of the Faculty of Communications, Art, and Technology (FCAT) in August 2015, she revealed that “the bottom 10 per

American universities proclaimed a year-round system to be more expensive than the traditional route, Baker hurriedly calculated SFU would save costs within the trimester system. Johnston writes how “after the university had been running for a few years, [Baker] could see that the savings were not there,” and in fact, “[by] 1972 a management consultant firm calculated that the trimester system was costing SFU an extra 19 per cent per full-time student.” But by this time the system was so ingrained in the school’s culture that the administration “[expected] that SFU would lose students without it.” Baker himself soon grew to dislike teaching within the trimester system.

Back when the system was implemented, the idea was that schools operating yearround would be more deserving of additional government funding, but currently SFU is given more or less the same amount as its comparative universities that operate on a traditional academic calendar.

SFU received a grand total of over $293.5 million in government funding for its roughly 35,000 students for the 2015/16 year — around $8,400 per student. Similarlysized schools such as Ryerson received a close-figured $7,500 per student, while the

cent” of the faculty’s funding is used for administrative-only use, which means that the top 90 per cent of her resources are pushed to teaching and research.

Mac Namara did state, however, that she feels her faculty could prioritize its budget differently. “I want to see, this year, that all the [departments] show in their budgets how [they are] being used to improve course access. It’ll be quite definitive.”

Though, the problem seems to lie not in the allocation of

University of Victoria, a smaller school, received roughly $12,250 per student.

This means that while students at UVic or Ryerson have a certain amount of funding for them for the two thirds of the year in which they are open, SFU must use a similar amount for the entire year. The significant difference is stretched over to operate the third semester while keeping all expensive facilities fully operative.

Johnston also states that Baker incorrectly assumed the trimester system’s advantages for students, as “he calculated a decided financial gain for students heading into professional careers if they decided to forgo summer jobs so they could start their careers a year earlier.” Johnston suggests that taking three full course loads per year isn’t practical for most students, who take part-time jobs to support themselves while in school.

As it stands today, a significant population of students work part-time while attending SFU. According to the undergraduate enrolment report for Fall 2015, SFU enrolled 13,160 full-time undergraduates along with a striking 12,161 part-time.

Moreover, the previous summer semester saw 4,163 fulltimers dwarfed by over 12,000 part-timers.

The Canadian University Survey Consortium (CUSC) states that 37 per cent of SFU’s first-year students in 2013 worked off-campus while attending school as opposed to the average 25 per cent from comparative universities, while those mid-degree from 2014

government funding, but in an overall lack of it. In fact, in its most recent five-year academic plan, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences states that one of its weaknesses is how “insufficient base funding has [. . .] created significant and sustained losses in research expertise in a number of our departments and schools,” and that “these losses threaten the quality of our undergraduate programs, our graduate programs and our international reputation.”

and graduates from 2015 work 46 and 49 per cent respectively.

Comparing this with the 40 and 41 per cent comparative averages, SFU definitely has a higher than average number of students who are employed while completing their educations.

Though while SFU may provide educational flexibility for students who work part-time, the trimester system may actually be influencing students to find a means to finance their own education while they attend school.

SFU’s 2010 Degree Completion Experience Survey confirms one third of delayed graduates actually reduced their course load because of course availability issues, and not because of part-time work, thus prolonging a degree that becomes more expensive as the trimesters add up.

As such, SFU’s administration faces difficulties of scheduling classes in accordance with the times students are available and not at work, which could further limit the quality and diversity of course options during registration.

This is especially tough for students interested in co-op — a paid work-only semester — and frustrates their schedules further if they choose a co-op term that conflicts with preferred or required courses.

Difficulties also arise for students who have yet to declare a major, and thus aren’t given priority registration dates.

The trimester system is uncommon in Canada, and, in addition to SFU, has only been adopted by the University of Waterloo and the Université du Québec.

When it was adopted, the trimester system was supposed to use classroom space more efficiently than a semester system since the university was in operation year-round. But the overall growth of enrolment at SFU outpaced the creation of teaching space, and the year-round system causes special problems for building maintenance.

According to Rella Ng, the Associate Registrar at SFU, spatial constraints play a large part in whether or not courses are offered. Ng works at Student Services and makes sure that the course schedules submitted by the faculties can be properly implemented into the scheduling system in a way that allows for the class capacities to be assigned to the appropriate rooms on campus.

“We only have a certain number of large classrooms and theatres,” Ng said.

Ng is not the only SFU employee to vocalize spatial problems. Dean of FCAT, Aoife Mac Namara, expressed her concern that “the biggest resource we don’t have is space.

So even if we had 10 faculties and whoever to teach the course, there wouldn’t be any room for it.”

SFU has also grown in population over the past few years, and the school’s most recent Five Year Capital Plan released last year indicates that total full-time undergraduate enrolment “has grown by 59 [per cent] during the period from 2001/02 to 2012/13,” and that “space inventory during this time has not kept pace, increasing by only approximately 47 [per cent].”

Moreover, Beedie School of Business’s Five Year Academic Plan states as one of its current “threats” that “space limitations across all three campuses compromise the effective delivery of undergraduate and graduate business programs, and future program opportunities.”

SFU is especially struggling to accommodate the exponential student growth at its Surrey Campus, which places further constraints on courses offered due to increased competition at this location.

“Surrey’s FTE [full-time enrolment] is over capacity by a long shot,” explained Elizabeth Starr, development planner at SFU Facilities and Services, and co-writer of the university’s Five Year Capital Plan.

“FTE capacity in Surrey is 2500 [. . .]

And we know we’re incredibly underserviced in Surrey,” she said.

SFU’s most recent Surrey enrolment report confirms that FTE for Fall 2015 was at 3,380 — placing SFU Surrey’s population at 35 per cent over capacity. Currently, SFU plans to expand the Surrey campus to allow for 5,000 FTE students, but this project has yet to be officially approved.

In addition to spatial constraints, SFU also has maintenance problems that affect the number

of course offerings. As an associate registrar, Ng said she “quite often” removes classes from the registration system entirely due to the abundance of deferred maintenance issues plaguing this half-century old university.

The Five Year Capital Plan states that out of SFU Burnaby’s 35 academic buildings, only 10 are in “good” condition, while 13 are in “fair,” and 12 are labelled as “poor.”

Because of this, the plan has made restoring the school a priority.

Ng said that because there are fewer courses offered during the summer, SFU can make efficient use of this time to take classrooms offline in order to make the necessary repairs, but many times this isn’t the case.

“In fall and spring we get calls from Campus Planning and Facilities who say, ‘this room needs to be taken offline because it’s leaking,’” Ng explained. “Then we struggle to find [new] classrooms,

and sometimes we [visit the departments] to discuss moving these classes around.”

SFU relies on government funding for the major maintenance repairs it needs, and would take an estimated $532 million to make all the necessary upgrades to SFU Burnaby’s “poor condition” buildings. In an email, Associate VP of Finance Alison Blair stated only “$3.9 million [was given] earlier this year, and $3.3 million more recently.”

Mac Namara does claim that a “big deferred maintenance [deposit]” from the provincial government is likely heading toward SFU, which “will be the first in line given the state of [the] facility.” An email message to The Peak from the Associate VP Academic did not indulge in the rumour, stating that while there are “indications that the sector will receive additional deferred maintenance funds [. . .] there is currently no certainty.”

Despite the web of interconnected systemic factors contributing to the growing dissatisfaction with SFU’s course enrolment system, the Dean of FCAT feels that the issue really isn’t that difficult to solve — it simply requires a culture change in student course planning advising.

Mac Namara stated that fixing FCAT’s course enrolment is her top priority, and that she has a threepronged plan.

The first prong is to have the university uniformly understand what constitutes a full course load.

SFU currently labels a minimum of nine credits (usually three courses) as “full time,” a number Mac Namara alludes is too low.

“What I hear all the time is that students can take only three [courses] because the workload

is too high, and that shouldn’t be the case. [. . .] Ideally, we should be able to tell students that if you come and do a full course load the whole way through, then you should be able to finish [a degree] in four years or five with coop. [. . .] When you don’t have a full course load it’s much harder to predict how many people are going through at what time.

“The first thing we need to look at is what workload is involved in our courses, and then we need to ask students and advisors why we keep encouraging people to take fewer courses,” she said.

The second prong would require first-year students to sit with an advisor and fill out a planning sheet for their entire four- to five-year degrees. This will force them to understand

from the beginning that there’s a relationship from one course to another, which will give them a better understanding of the prerequisites they’ll have to meet to take the courses they’re really interested in.

Dean Mac Namara believes that “there has to be a social contract between the students and the administration [stating] that we’ll both work together to help the student progress in a timely way.”

The third prong is to construct better networks between the advisors and different faculties in order to broaden faculty knowledge of similar course offerings.

“For example, if you wanted to do a course and it got cancelled there [will] often [be] courses [in other faculties] that are similar,” she explained. “[They probably won’t

be] the same — but they might give you something from another faculty [to substitute].”

Executive Mark Roman, who took his position as SFU’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) in September 2015, echoes Dean Mac Namara’s notion of strengthening administrative relations, and reveals that there is large disconnect between the faculties. Each currently uses their own computer systems to plan and manage their own sectors.

“For example, Beedie School of Business has a system called Tracs, which [allows] them to see the faculty visually, to see what course they’re teaching and in what term, and they can start to plan for faculty workload.

“There’s a number of systems out there, and they’re all different.

[. . .] Once faculties receive a system they have to change large percentages of the system’s code to adapt to their own particular needs.”

Roman currently has a vision for a “one Information System” in which SFU’s systems behave cohesively and the people work more collaboratively. He relays that SFU will soon be receiving $75 million dollars from the Canadian government to set up one of Canada’s four high computing data centres.

Integrating SFU into one system will take at least a couple of years, but Roman hopes that a unified information system will allow the administration to work cohesively, and that SFU “can start to do more integrative planning with [this] data,” in terms of not only smoothing out course access issues, but all facets of administrative systems.

Both Gordon Meyers and Rummana Khan Hemani, Director of Student Success and Strategic Support, sit on the Senate Committee for Strategic Enrolment Management. Currently, they are reportedly attempting to determine ways to improve course access and are “constantly looking at survey data” from the Institutional Research and Planning (IRP) office.

“We look at which classes are full at the end of week one during

class registration, [and] one of the first things Rummana and I did was simply send a list of courses that were full to the deans and associate deans to have them tell us what the deal was,” said Myers.

Myers said that through the process of relaying course statistics to the faculties, they feel they’ve recently noticed some improvements in course registration data. “[We’re] leading a joint project where we’re studying the question

of course access,” Myers continued.

“A year ago, the former registrar and I went to talk to the Chairs and Directors, and asked them questions.

[Because] we got some sense in the last couple years that things have been improving [. . .] we’ve decided to sit down and see if that’s actually correct by doing another study, rather than just being satisfied with the one from five years ago.”

This study reportedly involves a new data capture method.

Hemani said that, along with examining course enrolment data from students with undeclared majors in order to better understand what students are interested in, Student Services have begun to capture data from students’ course planners, located on the Student Information System, which allows students to place potential courses in lists for future semesters as a means of helping them plan their degrees.

“Students are actually starting to tell us through the system [. . .] ‘well, I want to take this in the Spring,’” Hemani said. “We’re not using the data right now, but we’re starting to capture it. There’s a lot more I think we can do just through mining our own data and actually using it a bit more effectively. We have the capacity now with the system to do that sort of thing. It’s just [a matter of] figuring out the best way to do it.”

One of the most prominent challenges SFU’s administration currently faces lies hidden behind the obstacles of the trimester system — it’s difficult to learn, analyze, and provide resources for student educational preferences when courses are selected on a term-by-term basis.

According to Rummana, at a university with a two-semester system — such as UBC — students plan and lock in their courses a year in advance, allowing the institution to effectively schedule and provide resources for those courses, as well as to predict future

course offerings, thus leaving students more satisfied overall.

SFU does not currently have this advantage and is left navigat-

ing other less concrete or effective routes in order to understand what students want.

To further complicate matters, a number of SFU students

themselves don’t know what they want because they have no idea when their preferred classes will be scheduled, thus further influencing constant switching and dropping of courses — combine this with part-time employment, and SFU is left with a steady cycle of confusion, frustration, and inefficient planning.

Hemani indicated the possibility that administration would consider allowing students to

schedule two or three semesters in advance.

“We’ve talked about it a number of times. [. . .] Departments are actually scheduling a year in advance. They know what to offer, and they adjust and adapt. [. . .]

But what is preventing us from allowing students to enroll for the year? I don’t know the answer to that. It’s an important perspective, and we can probably start to gather that information from students in terms of asking whether that would be helpful.”

But what if SFU were to rid itself of the trimester system

entirely to potentially alleviate many of the university’s problems, including course enrolment frustrations?

“My personal view is that [the trimester system] is likely something that needs a study to know whether it’s a smart idea or not,” said Myers. “I hear discussion about it with the faculties, but the building thing is big and there is a loss of flexibility.

People don’t really take a full course load so [a student] ends up taking more than four years.

It’s been a long time — 50 years since we’ve adopted it.”

The numerous studies that SFU’s Institutional Research and Planning office has conducted over the last decade clearly indicate SFU has long had a major course availability problem that threatens the integrity and efficiency of the institution.

This university seems to be an anomaly within a society that has distinct cultural and financial expectations when it comes to post-secondary education. A trimester education, as opposed to the semesterly one, defies the cultural standard, inconveniences students, and ultimately burdens the administration — a notion enhanced by the fact that SFU only allows its students to pick courses one semester in advance.

It might be best for this university to consider switching to a semester system, which would ultimately save resources, provide students with

access to more courses and professors, and provide the institution with concrete knowledge on students’ preferences.

Structurally, SFU’s internal operations could run more efficiently.

As Dean Mac Namara expressed, faculties should consider establishing consistent, detailed communication with each other and the rest of SFU regarding what they’re doing to improve courses access within their faculties and departments.

Further, faculties should be encouraged to make their actions publicly transparent; while many of the faculties cite course access improvements in their academic plans published every five years, preparing a yearly public report on course access improvements within their sector would further enlighten and ensure the public that actions are being taken.

In the short term, it may be in students’ best interests to login to the Student Information System (SIS) and add prospective classes to their course planners. If SFU is truly beginning to capture and analyze this data, then, apart from visiting an advisor directly, this could prove a useful option to help administration. Conversely, SFU should seriously consider allowing students to enrol multiple semesters in advance, given that departments are reportedly churning out their schedules as such.

While it may be perceived to have taken far too long, it’s refreshing to see that the administration has this complex problem on its priority

list. Perhaps if SFU’s developing system technology proves itself, as Hemani expressed, progress just may move at a swifter pace.

In order to capture the data they need, the executive should increase their efforts to encourage the faculties and departments to make the SIS course planner more transparent. Additionally, executives should also make their specific actions and progress more transparent altogether — perhaps through more frequent meetings and reports from the Senate Committee on Enrolment Management and Planning.

And in order for the school to establish much-needed consistent relationships with students, the executive should expand departmental advising staff, and request that advisors work longer hours during the high-demand periods of

the semester, as the current FCAT five-year academic plan cites “inadequate advising” as one of its internal weaknesses.

In the end, communication and understanding is key; the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences has transparently recognized in its academic plan that it has “been largely ineffective in communicating its [. . .] needs to develop an effective communication strategy with clear goals for success,” and that “inadequate [. . .] communication with Student Services has resulted in errors and frustration for students and advisors.”

Because course access is a such a multifaceted issue, it’s crucial that all components of the administration, and the students alike, work together to improve the student experience as much as possible within the unique constraints of this institution.

ARTS

arts editor email

January 25, 2016

Whoever says that the cuisine of Ireland and Britain is boring must have some other deepseated issues they need to work through. Irish Heather Gastropub, on Carrall St. in Vancouver, has a menu and overall feel that is strongly inspired by these locales, and the food is anything but bland.

While the menu is not fully Irish or British — it features an amazing perogie poutine — the influence can be felt throughout. This came through strongly in their charcuterie board. Featuring both local and imported meats and cheeses, along with warm crostini, fresh baked bread, and a perfectly cooked Scotch egg, the overall feel of the board was that of the traditional ploughman’s lunch.

The size of the board may have been smaller than that of the traditional ploughman’s, but the flavours were not lacking. The condiments, while

bold, did not dominate, they worked to create balance — something I always welcome with any charcuterie board.

Aside from the Scotch egg, the Irish sting and duck prosciutto were standouts on the board.

An Irish sting is a toast point — made of the same fresh baked bread — that has a white Irish cheddar drizzled with truffle honey. While the truffle flavour of the honey was not strong, it kept the honey from dominating the medium flavoured cheddar. Proscuitto is typically made from pork, but the decision to make it using duck breast is ingenious. The lean meat of the breast coupled with the fat cap makes for an improvement over the traditional pork.

While some restaurants only have either a strong appetizer or entrée section, Irish Heather has both. The entrées are just as diverse as the appetizers and the influence of Irish and British cuisine is prevalent in the selections of a steak and ale pie, fish and chips, and bangers and mash.

I knew that these menu items would be amazing based on how delicious the appetizers were, so I chose the mac ‘n cheese with pulled lamb. I will be the first to admit that I am insanely picky when it comes

Based on the 1988 cult film Heathers starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, and Kim Walker, this dark comedy musical about high school life is outrageously over-the-top and deliciously daring. Think Mean Girls , with a lot less pink and a lot more murder.

Veronica Sawyer (the hugely talented Christine Quintana) is a nerdy teenager with a middleof-the-road social status. She dreams of having the power and untouchable quality of the Heathers, the three most popular and cruel girls at school — all named Heather. After they learn of her excellent forgery skills, they bring her into the group to use and abuse her.

Meanwhile, Jason “JD” Dean (Kamyar Pazandeh), the mysterious, trench coat-wearing new kid, has Veronica preoccupied. He notices that Veronica doesn’t really like her three new friends, and decides that a little justice is in order.

Before she knows it, Veronica is an accomplice to murder and things get way out of hand.

I never thought a show with so much inappropriate,

to mac ‘n cheese. The toppings are either too soggy or a brick-like layer of cheese, the sauce is never cheesy or creamy enough, and the pasta is often overcooked. Irish Heather ad-

Jess Whitesel arts@the-peak.ca

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dressed all of these issues to create hands down one of the best mac ‘n cheeses ever.

The bread crumb topping was made using the same fresh bread

that was feature on the charcuterie board. It was crunchy, buttery, and tasted like bread instead of sand like most bread crumb toppings. The pasta was perfectly al dente, and the sauce was cheesy and creamy without being too much of either. It didn’t overpower the bites that had lamb, but heldup solidly on its own.

The Irish and British inspiration could be felt in the overall decor of the restaurant and food menu, but also the drink

menu. They feature one of the best offerings of cider that I have come across — including BC’s own Left Field Cider Co.’s The Bunk House dry hopped cider — as well as one of the most comprehensive whisky offerings that I have seen.

Irish Heather Gastropub does all that it can to dispel the myth that Irish and British food is bland and boring. It is one of the best restaurants that I have been to in Vancouver, and as a bonus to the amazing food, it features friendly and knowledgeable staff to round out the dining experience.

disturbing content, like suicide, sexual abuse, and brutal violence, could be so entertaining, but Heathers has catchy songs, sharp dance numbers, and a stellar cast that gave this littleknown ‘80s film a new life at the York Theatre.

Arts Club’s new production In a Blue Moon by Lucia Frangione is touring the Lower Mainland until January 30. This show is a much more serious family drama, and though I felt satisfied by its end, it took a while to pick up speed.

After being widowed by her diabetic husband, Ava (Anita Wittenberg) decides to move to a family cottage near Kamloops with her Vancouverite daughter. When they arrive, they find that her husband’s brother, Will (Brett Christopher), has

been calling the place home.

Frankie (Emma Tow) is only six, and she and Will develop a cute relationship while Ava struggles to find her feet and open her ayurvedic massage clinic.

All kinds of tensions between the three characters brew throughout the first half of the show, but are only hinted at; it is during the second half that the story picks up steam, conflicts come to a head, and we learn a bit more about each character. This is where I felt the show really came together.

Ava and Will develop an attraction for each other, but they both agree it’s probably best to avoid that complication. Not to mention the fact that Will has an on-again-off-again girlfriend, as well. My favourite scene features Ava chugging

a bottle of wine and trying to calm down while she waited for his girlfriend to leave.

Although it took me a while to become invested in this story, it wasn’t any fault of these actors, who all gave very sincere performances. I was especially impressed with Emma Tow who played Frankie at both age six and 13, switching between the two with ease. The photos projected on the giant moon behind the cottage also added a nice, nostalgic feel to the show — they were used to fill in some plot details and were effective at shifting between scenes.

With strong writing and characters, In a Blue Moon is a complex, authentic story about three people learning how to live with each other after such a profound loss.

18 ARTS FF

January 25, 2016

FOOD FIGHT

The Templeton is a nostalgic diner that functions as a novelty museum exhibit for the ‘50s and ‘60s. Their motto is “Quality Food, Snappy Service,” and they’re known for serving up organic comfort food with lots of vegan and vegetarian options. My friend and I met up here for brunch — our meal of choice — and left entirely full of regret.

Their menu is extensive and impressive, and I applaud their effort to make it a vegan-friendly

restaurant with options such as veggie bacon, veggie ham, and tofu scramble. It’s too bad that it was downright awful.

I ordered the Tofu Scrambler with veggie bacon. The dish including the veggie bacon was $12 and not worth it in the least. Its description on the menu is “medium tofu sautéed with veggies, lightly seasoned with curry and nutritional yeast, rosemary potatoes, and toast.”

How do I put this. . . the tofu was more “food processed” than “sautéed.” The end result was

something that visually resembled luminescent yellow eggs and tasted like mushy wet sand.

I can’t forget about the awkward hint of curry in there — even if I wanted to — which wasn’t entirely enough to be effective in annihilating the horrifying texture and blandness of the tofu.

All in all, the Tofu Scrambler portion of this dish was offensive to the senses.

The veggie bacon was just plain uncomfortable to eat. I felt that it could have been cooked better, but that could just be my general pickiness with fake meats. The rosemary potatoes and toast were alright, nothing to praise or to complain about.

My friend ordered the Blueberry Banana Pancakes, which she said were very bland. Again, not enough care was taken to make the dish presentable in any way.

The pancakes were slightly b u r n e d , “charred” if you will, and she had no will to finish eating.

The restaurant itself was styled in a charming retro theme. However, I feel like they try a bit too hard to keep it “vintage,” resulting in booths that are falling apart and tables that are a little too sticky for my comfort. If they renovated a little bit, it would be a more successful escape to the ‘50s and ‘60s, and add to the feeling that you have turned back time and entered into a retro diner.

The Templeton may be worth the gamble if you are strolling Granville Street, but steer clear of the scary tofu.

Death of a Bachelor is Panic! at the Disco’s fifth album, and the only one so far to have the band consist solely of lead vocalist Brendon Urie.

Urie plays all the instruments and sings all vocal parts on this record, harkening back to his youth where he played any instrument he could get his hands on.

While Death of a Bachelor is more of a lateral move from 2013’s Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die, Urie has held his word to not get comfortable or repeat sound and content. To that end, Urie cites Frank Sinatra as inspiration for the entire album, as is discernible from the horns and melodies throughout.

The Sinatra sound is especially notable on “Impossible Year,” which is full of rounded Ol’ Blue Eyes’ vocals — it’s pure Sinatra magic — and the title track. Urie described “Death of a Bachelor” when it came out on social media as “the bittersweet (but mostly sweet) end

of an era. . . an It’s a Wonderful Lifeesque look into a possibly different future.”

The Sinatra vibe is dulled down and mixed with others for “Crazy=Genius.” It’s almost the album in a song, going from swinging jazz to the more contemporary feel of Panic! at the Disco’s style.

There are more than just the tributes to Urie’s hero, with the chorus of “Victorious” posed to become a sports-arena refrain: “Tonight we are victorious/ Champagne pouring over us/ All my friends were glorious. . .”

“Hallelujah” is in a tie for my favourite song on the album. It’s rooted firmly in gospel, but the message very much reflects past work, like Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die’s “This is Gospel.” It’s all about being who you are, embracing it, and not changing for others, “All you sinners stand up, sing hallelujah.”

Its competition is “The Good, the Bad, and the Dirty,”

a composition full of swaggering attitude with a healthy dash of “I dare you” to boot. It’s super catchy, “If you wanna start a fight/ You better throw the first punch/ Make it a good one,” and an apt anthem anytime someone’s trying to show you up. I guarantee that if you launch into this song, your foe will hightail it in the opposite direction.

Another song worth mentioning is “LA Devotee,” an up-tempo power pop track that’ll get your head bangin’. The harmonies on it are amazing, too. Pro-tip: great harmonies make great songs.

All in all, Death of a Bachelor is an excellent showcase of musical ability. From sweeping jazz and ‘50s/‘60s swing, to the anthem rock of Queen, and Panic! at the Disco’s more contemporary work, the latest record from the band is full of an appreciation for the present.

Whether you’ve lived a life similar to Urie’s youth, full of breaking the rules and firsthand experimentation, or not, there’s something personally relatable in their music.

ARTS

Clara Chow Peak Associate XXXX Topography, pronounced “sexy, sexy, sexy, sexy topography,” is a new work by The Party — creators of imaginary theatre — that transforms a familiar space into a bizarre and immersive environment. Where a bar is readily at hand, and the exploration of the “perceptions and sensations of objects” is encouraged, and unavoidable.

Kyla Gardiner and Layla Marcelle Mrozowski, co-creators of The Party, are both current Master of Fine Arts students at SFU. They build all their work collaboratively — the entire creation process from beginning to end, the writing, directing, design elements, and choreography. Together they have created a strange world of objects, exploring the idea of assemblage and the subjectivity of objects and gender, using elements from within the realm of science fiction.

Divided into two portions, XXXX Topography will begin with a fixed length improvisation by the performers — Andrea Cownden, Emmalena Fredriksson, Deanna Peters, Rianne Svelnis, and Lexi Vajda.

Through this bizarre and improvised beginning, a special space bar owned by Beta Pink (a.k.a. Andrea Crowden) is convinced to pop into existence for two days.

January 25, 2016

Objects that were not there before, along with several high-top tables, materialise to fill the space. It would not be surprising to find objects that can move, or have a voice, a sound, or a narrative attached to them. Imagine “a pillow telling bedtime stories, or a sarcastic couch misunderstanding the talking cure, or love letters that go missing.”

In this second portion, the audience is invited to take part in this world for a while. They are free come and go, to mingle and interact, and to discuss the ideas, the same way you would if you were going to a bar.

Enriching the same space is Paul Paroczai, a fellow MFA student and sound creator, who will be improvising a soundscape throughout the evening to suit the shifting atmosphere of this eccentric bar.

“We’re working really hard to do something kind of impossible,” said Gardiner, “which is to get inside of object, inside the agency and the subjectivity of objects [and] we’re doing that through the approach of assemblage.”

Assemblage, which can include human subjects as well,

describes objects in relation to each other that have a certain kind of agency that an individual object does not.

From the ideas of assemblage in Jane Bennett’s book, Vibrant Matter, Gardiner brings up the author’s use of an electrical blackout and all the different elements that have to be in play, or rather required to “go wrong,” before a blackout could actually happen.

“The performance [of XXXX Topography] stages this kind of world-building that our performers do, through a language of improvisation,” Gardiner explained.

The Party was created by Gardiner and Mrozowski back in 2014.

They have since then created several works together, including “How I learned to stop verb-ing and blank the object,” in which they explore a world where gender is entirely absent; “Fake Gems,” presented at the Interurban Gallery in August 2015; and most recently, a published ‘performative theoretical text’ called The Party Manual.

After two years in the creation process, XXXX Topography continues its exploration over the course of two days.

The performance will take place at 8 p.m. on January 29 and 30 in Studio T at SFU Woodward’s. You can purchase your tickets in advance at the SFU School for Contemporary Arts website.

Since 2000, the Toronto International Film Festival has selected the top 10 Canadian films of the year, touring them across the country and giving Canadians another chance to see our best cinematic offerings. These are the three best feature films that were showcased at this year’s festival.

Hurt: Alan Zweig’s documentary about the infamous Steve Fonyo, a former national hero who has since been charged and convicted of various crimes, is a testament to the continual power of cinema vérité — the camera’s unique ability to document and engage with spur-ofthe-moment reality.

Hurt is an empathetic portrait of Fonyo’s mundane routine, evoking complex and heartbreaking psychology in the process: his hunger for attention, complex feelings towards the Canadian public, and the cycle of dysfunction within which he appears trapped. This is a pure film. The camera looks without judgement, asking us to empathize with Fonyo before forcing us to engage with any of our own conflicted sentiments towards him.

The Demons: Some parts of The Demons are so uncomfortably tense, so masterfully conceived to provoke unease, that they are nearly unwatchable.

The fears of a paranoid young boy, the detached visual style, and the ominous narrative about child abductions in a suburb of Montreal, come to a quietly harrowing conclusion.

First-time director Philippe Lesage has crafted an assured and meticulous coming-of-age thriller where almost every formal choice is horrifyingly evocative: the slow zooms on kids playing in a swimming pool, the lengthy takes after a child has been abducted, and a masterful dolly shot at the end of the film, which teases a tragic event off-screen.

Similar to the great Michael Haneke, whose work profoundly influenced this film, Lesage is nearly flawless at deciding what to depict and what to leave to the

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imagination, what to linger on, engraving the ideas in our mind, and when to quickly cut away, transmitting only a shocking impression.

The Demons is a wrenching film you will immediately want to forget — it’s too disturbing, upsetting, and unnerving — but by the quiet and unresolved coda, it has slowly engraved itself into your long-term memory.

Our Loved Ones: A delicate portrait of a father’s shifting relationship with his daughter as she matures, and an epic narrative about depression in a family over decades, Our Loved Ones is at once small and colossal, a film so grounded in little moments of the present that also considers their impact over an extended period of time.

By observing milestones big and small, the film isn’t structured loosely like Boyhood or rigorously like The Place Beyond The Pines, striking a perfect balance between being a realistic slice of life and a timeless lamenting poem. In terms of experimental and empathetic storytelling, Our Loved Ones is the strongest Canadian film of the year.

This year’s Canada’s Top Ten film festivals provides insight on a diverse range of Canadian history: documentaries about the rise and fall of one of our national heroes (Hurt), a pivotal incident that changed the course of race relations in our country (Ninth Floor), and the recent scandal over Omar Khadr’s release from prison (Guantanamo’s Child).

Ironically, the weakest films in the festival come from acclaimed veterans: Guy Maddin’s tiresome The Forbidden Room, Philippe Falardeau’s repetitive My Internship In Canada, and Patricia Rozema’s contrived Into The Forest.

The most subversive films on the list — Sleeping Giant, Closet Monster, and The Demons — are all coming of age stories from first-time directors, who draw from a wide range of influences to express similar stories about the suppression of childhood and adolescence.

Fittingly, these films also hint at a coming of age for Canadian cinema, a group of spurting, young filmmakers that are quickly evolving into worldclass talents.

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SPORTS

January 25, 2016

sports editor email

Nick Bondi sports@the-peak.ca

The SFU men’s basketball team lost on Thursday to Central Washington University, 82–69. The loss was the team’s 13th straight.

Michael Harper led the game in points, scoring 26 points in 36 minutes of action. JJ Pankratz was second on SFU with 15 points, and freshman Oshea Gairey had 12 points.

Wrestling is a unique sport, and requires a unique set of skills.

It is like golf, highly individualistic, but much more physically demanding. It is as physically taxing as football or rugby, but you sink or swim entirely on your own abilities.

Sean Molle possess all these attributes. He wrestles in the heavyweight class, has an impressive mentor who has taught him how to come back from two different injuries, and has become an integral part of the SFU wrestling team.

“Sean is a pleasure to coach because he is super committed to the sport,” said his coach Justin Abdou. “He will do anything you ask him to do, and of all the heavyweights I’ve coached, he’s one of the most committed to fitness. He runs hard with the team, he’s good shape, [and] he can push the pace.

“He’s got a youthful energy.

He’s like a big kid. He’s someone that everybody likes, and he’s a good teammate.”

“The first time I was out for six months,” said Sean to The Peak about his injury. “The second time I was out for nine months. [The first one] was during a practice. I just twisted it the wrong way and the knee popped. The second time was during a match.”

Molle started wrestling in high school, and hasn’t looked back. “My junior high coach got me into it, and I had had some family ambition to get into it. I thought it would be something to try out.”

Family ambition is an understatement. Molle’s father, Robert Molle, was an extremely accomplished wrestler, competing for SFU in the 1980’s and winning four NAIA championships, and also winning a Silver Medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“Oh yeah. He shows it all the time,” said Sean commenting on his Father’s Silver Medal. “The match is on YouTube and I’ve seen it multiple times. I’ve seen multiple videos of him wrestling.

“I [learned] a lot from him, and he did teach me a lot so I tried to take advantage of that.”

Molle tried to follow in his father’s footsteps by playing football here at SFU as well. Robert was a dual sport athlete, and actually went on to play in the CFL, winning two Grey Cups with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“I tried out for defensive line, and then they put me on the offensive line. But I think I was a little too small to compete for offensive

line,” said Sean. “I thought I could try it out. But it was too much work, especially with school. I wasn’t enjoying it, so I just put my eggs in one basket.”

That is because school for a wrestler is a unique balancing act.

Unlike sports such as football, basketball, or soccer — which all have a fair amount of home games — wrestlers compete primarily on the road. Of the 23 meets that the men’s wrestling team will participate in, only two are in Burnaby. This means many nights on the road travelling and away from school.

“Being on the road you kind of have to just pick and choose,” explained Sean. “You have to make sure you’re done your assignment before you leave, because you’re not going to get much work done on the road, and you’re not going to have WiFi everywhere you go. You’re going to have to make sure you’ve done all your readings or make sure they’re all saved on your computer.

“I usually try and avoid Friday classes, [. . .] and distance courses are always a must when it comes to being an athlete, especially on the road.”

Days where the team is not travelling are very demanding; it’s no wonder why distance courses are very valuable to any student athlete.

“We are at the mats probably five times a week, probably six times depending if we have a tournament,” explained Molle. “Monday we go hard, we run in the morning,

and then practice in the afternoon.

Tuesdays we usually go at 7 a.m, and then a lift in the afternoon. Then [it’s] the same thing for Wednesdays [as it is Monday], and Thursdays is the same thing as Tuesday. Friday is the same as Mondays [and] Wednesdays, or it’s usually a travel day for the tournament.”

Molle is also very happy about the International Olympic Committee reinstating wrestling for at least the next two Olympics. The sport was originally going to be out of the 2020 Olympics, but was reinstated after complaints from various groups.

“It’s great,” said Molle. “It’s another reason to compete.

Wrestling is not a very professional sport; there’s not a lot of money involved. With football you get to go pro, with hockey there’s the NHL. In wrestling, the Olympics is a big deal. It’s the big show.”

With the Olympics as the ultimate benchmark for success, Sean hopes to become an All American for this season and win the NCAA in his final year next year.

Head Coach Mike Renney has added another new recruit; as Dallas Tilley has committed to join the Clan for the 2016–2017 season.

A transfer student from Douglas College, Tilley batted .537 in conference play during the 2015 season, and was selected as a North Region Second Team All-Star. The team starts their season Spring Hill Invitational tournament February fifth in Alabama.

Head Coach Brit Townsend has been nominated as a finalist for Sport BC Female Coach of the Year. Last season, Townsend led her team to the NCAA West Region Division II and the GNAC women’s cross country titles. The award will be handed out March 10th.

Lauren Swistak and Adrian Vanderhelm have both been named CollegeSwimming.com National Swimmers-of-the-Week for NCAA Division II. Swistak was victorious in four individual races and three different relays, while Vanderhelm won six individual races and one relay.

SPORTS

The SFU Men’s Wrestling team took to the mats and faced the Southern Oregon University Raiders last weekend. It was a successful meet for the Clan. In one of the few times the team has been able to compete on the Burnaby campus this semester, they came away with a 23–20 win over a team they had not beaten in three years.

“Well, as a whole it was a success, because we got to wrestle at home in front of a pretty big crowd,” said Justin Abdou, head coach of the men’s wrestling team. “A lot our supporters got to come out and see our better guys compete, and our best wrestlers wrestled very well. Some of our younger guys showed that they still need more matches, more experience, [and

January 25, 2016

that] has given us something to build on.”

“It was the first time we’ve beaten those guys in three years, so that was nice as well.”

One of the stronger performers of the day was Cruz Velasquez. He was able to easily defeat Matt Peterson of SOU, improving his record overall to 25–8.

“He’s one of our leaders,” said Abdou on Velasquez. “I would say he’s more of a silent leader than anything. He leads through his preparation and work ethic. He’s having a very successful season after a disappointing end to last season, where he went academically ineligible second semester and didn’t get to compete. This year he’s taken care of everything from academics right through preparation for every meet.

“I couldn’t be happier with how this season has gone so far. I think he needs to diversify his attacks a little bit more, and he’s going to be a real threat to contend for an All-American honour and a berth at the NCAA tournament.”

The meet was the second of only two wrestling meets the team will host here on the Burnaby campus this season. From now on, the team will be on the road. Despite that, coach Abdou relished the opportunity to play in familiar surroundings.

“I think it’s important because it gives us a bit of an advantage being here,” he said on the importance of wrestling at home as opposed to on the road. “We’re in our own building, we don’t have to travel, everything is comfortable to us, so we have an advantage over our opponents when they come here. And I think it’s also great because they’re is a very rich tradition with Simon Fraser University wrestling. A lot of alumni live in the area and it gives them a chance to feel connected to the program and see our up and coming athletes compete.”

So what does the team need to improve on heading into the final stretch of the season?

“I think that a couple of our guys need to wrestle with more confidence, go out and try to

impose their style and their will on their opponents instead of waiting to see what’s going to happen, and letting the other guy control the pace of the match,” elaborated Abdou. “I think in our wrestlers that are doing well, they’re going out and taking control, and some of

our wrestlers that are struggling are taking more of the wait and see attitude out there.”

The team’s next meet will be Tuesday, January 27th against North Idaho College. The NCAA Division II Nationals will be March 11 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

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Cheer Up … For God’s Sake

A

s you go through college, take comfort in the fact that there is nothing new under the sun.

While there is never going to be anyone with identical genes who will experience life exactly as you do, your feelings, good and bad, emotions, good and bad, are universal. Life as you know, comes in phases, getting a college education is one phase. This is around the time in which your prefrontal cortex is fully developed and when you become more aware, emotionally, that your behaviour affects others. It is a time of greater self-awareness, particularly awareness of a moral conscience. Up to this point your behaviour has been mostly shaped by fear of punishment, or what you can get away with.

With a moral appreciation of consequences, your behaviour should be shaped by a desire to pursue goodness, for goodness’ sake. This is a narrow road, but it brings peace of mind, success and happiness. It is also the surest road to wisdom. So try not to despair when the day seems dreary or the task seems impossible. Bad times never last, and you will adjust like you’ve always done. Don’t be hard on yourself, after all, you did not make yourself and you are not responsible for the factors that shaped you up to this point. Never forget that we live in our minds and so just as negative thoughts bring you down, positive thoughts will lift you up. And so it is important to control your thoughts.

This, by the way is one of the triumphs in life – the control of what we allow our mind to dwell on.

No one knows where thoughts come from, but thank God that we can shut out the bad ones and nurture the good ones. Work hard, and try to remain honest, so you can keep growing in your ability. You are capable of much more than you realize. Learn self-discipline and organisation so that work doesn’t spill into play, and your play is not spoiled by guilt from work left undone. Try never to panic. Better to seek help and buy yourself precious time to recover from trouble. Offer good advice and don’t hesitate to seek counsel. We are all in this together. Don’t be embarrassed to embrace faith but do not become self-righteous or a hypocrite. Your friends may not tell you so, but they will respect and admire you as a spiritual person. After all, true spirituality is about learning to love others. You will find that the more you pray, the better you know yourself and the less mistakes you make. Pray for those you don’t like and forgive others so that it is easier to forgive yourself.

Overcome your shyness, not by heavy drinking or by using drugs, but by reminding yourself that we are all shy more or less. In fact, shyness tends to be a function of self-awareness. You are about to come into your own so learn to pick up after yourself and hang in there. You have yet to taste the best that life has to offer.

– Compassionate Listening Society of Alberta

WeDareToListen.com

21

22 SPORTS

January 25, 2016

with Jesse Mysiorek, Jesse Williamson, and Michael Sandor scoring for SFU after two to make it 3–3.

In the third period, SFU looked like they were off to win another. Mysiorek and Sandor both added their second scores

to make it 5–3 with just over 10 minutes to go in the third. However, EWU scored two in quick succession to tie it up. That set the stage for Tyler Basham to score with just over one minute left to give SFU the win, resulting in a third consecutive

victory over the Eagles 6–5.

“It was just a two-on-one play,” explained Basham afterwards on his winning goal. “I had [Matt] Luongo driving to the net and he took the [defender] with him. I was able to beat the goalie low blocker [with a] quick shot, right against the post [. . .] it was kind of a dagger to the other team, those are the types of goals that just take a team out of the game.”

The game the next night was against defending champions Selkirk College. It was a pivotal match of first versus second.

Since SFU was two points up on Selkirk, they had the chance to go four points clear with a win in regulation.

Jono Ceci scored SFU’s first two goals to give them a 2–0 lead early in the second, before Ryan Edwards and Jamie Vlanich scored twice to give Selkirk the lead, the second time in as many games SFU had blown the coveted two goal lead. But Tyler Basham saved the day once

probably not a household name here in Canada, the J.League is one of the strongest leagues in Asia, and has produced a plethora of talent over the years. In 2011, Kudo was a big part of Kashiwa Reysol capturing the league title, and Whitecaps fans will be hoping that Kudo can replicate that winning form here on the west coast.

Kudo’s stats definitely deserve kudos. In 189 games, he has scored 66 goals, for an average of just over one goal every three games. If he could continue that from here, it would really help solidify Vancouver’s attack, and give some needed experience to the Caps’ up and coming forwards such as Kekuta Manneh and Octavio Rivero.

When it comes to players from the other side of the Pacific, the Vancouver Whitecaps have a long history of successful signings. The most prolific player of Asian descent to play for Vancouver was Y.P Lee. A legend back in his home country of South Korea, he was part of the national team that came fourth in the 2002 World Cup.

In his prime, he played for European giants such as PSV Eindhoven, Tottenham, and Borussia Dortmund before signing on with the Whitecaps.

The first Asian player to play for Vancouver was China’s Long Tan back in 2011. In fact was the first ever Chinese-born player to play in the MLS. More recently, Iran’s Steven Beitashour was a solid part of Vancouver’s back line before being traded to Toronto FC this offseason.

The Asian country most represented for Vancouver is actually Masuto Kudo’s home nation of Japan. Tokyo born Jun Marques Davidson played 50 games for the Whitecaps in the 2012 and 2013 seasons, before moving on to play for Carolina and eventually in the Thai Premier League. A Vancouver alumnus who still plies his trade in the MLS is Daigo Kobayashi, who, after playing for the Whitecaps in 2013, was traded to the New England Revolution and remains a key part of their squad.

No other team in the MLS has had as many players from Asia as Vancouver, with six. In the past most of these signings were integral parts of the team, and Masato Kudo will be looking to add on to

Nick Bondi Sports Editor It was another terrific weekend for the SFU men’s hockey team.

After sweeping the road games against Eastern Washington the previous weekend, the Clan were back home at Bill Copeland for another set of back-to-back games. The team was able to defeat Eastern Washington and fellow contenders Selkirk College, extending their winning streak to six games.

The first game was the type of high-scoring, offensive game you’d expect to see in the 1980s.

Both teams combined for a total of 81 shots, and 11 goals were scored between the two teams.

Jesse Collins of EWU scored two goals in the first, and the always Beau Walker added another,

Bartosz Wysocki Peak Associate For the past five years, the Vancouver Whitecaps have been on an upward trend. After their abysmal debut season in 2011, the boys in white have been getting slowly but steadily better.

The past season the Whitecaps were a defensive juggernaut, letting in the least amount of goals in the league. What prevented a run at the MLS cup, though, was their inability to score up front. Coach Carl Robinson addressed that issue over the winter break by signing Japanese striker Masato Kudo.

Kudo’s previous club was Kashiwa Reysol, in Japan’s J.League. Though this team is

again for SFU, scoring with over eight minutes reamining to tie the game up at three. Matthew Berry-Lamontagna would score the only shootout goal for either side making the final score 4–3. “[It was] a desperate Selkirk team against an SFU team that won five in a row,” said assistant coach Tom Spencer after the game. “We got outplayed for forty and found a way to win.”

The big story of the game, however, was the loss of Jesse Williamson. One half of the top defensive pairing for the Clan, Williamson took an awkward hit near the end of the second period to his head and did not return. He was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons, according to Spencer.

The win in overtime, along with Selkirk’s win against UVic the next day, means SFU is only one point up on the champs.

With the loss of Williamson, the Clan’s defence will have to step up to fill the void left by him down the stretch.

these previous successes. Right in the prime of his career at 25 years old and with a long history of goal scoring, he just might be the spark that sets off the Vancouver Whitecaps on their best year yet.

HUMOUR

humour editor email

January 25, 2016

23

Justin Stevens humour@the-peak.ca

This is a column dedicated for questions for SFU directors to dispel fears regarding the new school government. Have an SFU question? Send it to copy@the-peak.ca!

Hi SFU, Longtime student, first time writer. I’m wondering if someone can make the water refill stations pour a bit faster. When I refill my bottle, it always makes me late for class! Can’t the stations fill a bottle in a bit less than half an hour?

Kai Lau Hi Kai,

Wear deodorant!

And I don’t mean just under the arms, either. Wear that stuff like perfume: on your wrists, neck, tummy, pretty much everywhere. Smelling like clean laundry is a clear sign that you’re an adult who’s got it together.

Memorize the name of as many cheeses as you can.

The class keener might know every line of the textbook by heart, but can they name three different types of cheese that aren’t cheddar, mozza, or swiss? Looking Gouda, girl.

Carry something leathery.

May I suggest a good leatherbound journal. You don’t have to use it for class or anything; just scribble in it every once in a while and carry it around like a trophy. Not only does it make you look educated, it also makes you look like a sophisticated human.

Borrow the oldest book you can find from the library and flip through it when you’re at the coffee shop.

Nothing is more alluring to the opposite sex than wellread coffee drinker caked in the scent of Dove deodorant.

TOUGH MEDICINE

Dear Chad, Your actions are proof alone that love makes idiots of the best of us.

I would advise against going after Dmitri. Any person that finds a man bun sexy sounds basic as fuck. I would suggest putting your energy into brainstorming up something to cover up that tat. May I suggest a singing cheese burger?

– Dr. Breakup

Dear Priscilla, You’re a woman with high standards and you deserve nothing short of the best. In celebration of your new single status, I prescribe the “Basic B” spa day. It starts with you getting your alignment re-adjusted so your cranium will sink less within your anal cavity. It then finishes with an invigorating high colonic that will purge you of all that shit you’re full of.

Treat yourself and do it twice.

–Dr. Breakup

Dear Carol, So do I. –Dr. Breakup

Dear Brandy Jay, If you’re looking for cardio, walk your drunk ass in any direction that isn’t mine.

–Dr. Breakup

I’m glad to see that you’re using water bottles, instead of those nasty plastic bottles! The system is working!

I’m also glad to see that our new refill/relaxation centres are slowing down your perception of reality. The system is working!

The refill breaks actually only last 25 minutes, but also temporarily inhibit your striatum, as well as your prefrontal cortex, leaving you feeling refreshed.

Breaks are both necessary and too often neglected by those of us in the university setting. A stressed student is unhappy, and an unhappy student who isn’t a team worker isn’t living up to their fullest potential, Kai. We have a system that needs your support, Kai, and no one would want to be ostracized from the community for asking too many questions.

What do you want to be, Kai? When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a community leader, a painter, and, most importantly, chief water fountain consultant at a mediumsized university. I kept my head down, I worked hard, I did what my university asked, and I got all three! Even though being a community leader is, I admit, more of a hobby. Haha.

You worry too much about being punctual, Kai. Stop and smell the roses. Stop asking questions. The 25-minutes breaks are a much-needed respite from your busy day, and you love the relaxation time.

Nothing gives you more satisfaction than working your hardest for SFU, Kai. Paying your tuition is a close second.

You’re feeling really nice now.

Feeling heartbroken? Send a message to Dr. Breakup today at humour@the-peak.ca!

Sincerely, Yulis Everbleed, SFU Chief Water Fountain Consultant, Ranking Wizard to the Grand Order of Narfinschmell

24 HUMOUR

January 25, 2016

HUMOUR

January 25, 2016

25

Dear Guadalupe burritos, You don’t know me, but boy, do I know you. My name is Max Hill. I’m the editor-in-chief of the very newspaper you are currently reading. And I have a favour to ask of you.

Rejuvination is just one “tasty” sip away.

Warning: cases of both heightened flammability have been reported.

Tip: Mix with coconut oil for maximum flavor and health benefits!

From the moment you opened your doors in the Maggie Benston Centre of SFU’s Burnaby campus, I knew things were about to change at The Peak offices. For too long, we had argued ceaselessly over dinner choices for our Friday production nights. There was the one editor who always wanted pizza.

The one who pined for the sushi place that doesn’t deliver. The one who loved the burgers at the Highland Pub, despite our two vegetarian staffers. I thought we would never be able to find a dinner choice that we could all agree on.

Then you came along, Guadalupe. You changed everything. For the first time, my staff was happy.

They had found a food they could all agree on. Chicken, steak, grilled vegetables, guacamole. You had it all. Finally, the only beefs in my office weren’t between co-workers — they were folded between generous helpings of lettuce, sour cream, and shredded cheese.

But you weren’t open for dinner. You provided us with lunches, the lifeblood we needed to make a newspaper on deadline with three hours of sleep, five cups of coffee, and about four computers that actually worked. I didn’t want to be greedy — as the great rock group Poison once sang, every rose has its thorn, even the most beautiful rose of all. In my heart, I knew we would never sample the sweet taste of carnitas past four o’clock, and I had made my peace with that. We all had.

Until one day, you announced you had extended your hours.

Feeling bloated? Never fear!

These simple juice cleanses will help you unclog your body and open your mind.

The nutritional properties of your urine are almost magical. This cleanse is simple and cheap! Every time you go to the washroom, bring a cup to catch some of your golden goodness. After you have about five fluid ounces, you are ready to enjoy!

Tip: Best served warm.

We’ve all heard that techron can be good for your car, but did you know it also purifies your pores from the inside out?

This cleanse won’t be cheap, but if you can afford to consume one litre of gasoline a day for nine straight days, then this is the cleanse for you! While you will probably die during this cleanse, at least the gasoline will scrub away unwanted cloggage.

Grab a shot glass and a timer, because to complete this juice cleanse you will need to take a shot of Frank’s Red Hot sauce every hour! This cleanse will literally set a fire in your belly and burn away unwanted fat. Your bowels will literally explode as your body removes old waste from your system.

Tip: Avoid all other natural laxatives while doing this.

There is only one cleanse that can give you immortality and a beach-ready bod — and that’s this! A unicorn’s thick and silvery blood is rich in Vitamins E and will help remove all unwanted toxins from your body. You will instantly stop aging while the rough fibre cleanses your colon! (Available for purchase at most drugstores and online at darklordinc.ca) Tip: Mixes well with Mott’s Clamato juice!

My joy upon hearing this news was quickly replaced by reckless, explosive anger when I learned you would remain open until 7 p.m. every day except the one day we needed you: Friday. Production day. Our day, Guadalupe.

I know I have no right to ask you to change this policy. Surely you’ve done your research and concluded that staying open late on Friday is not economically feasible — after all, the only kids on campus late Friday night either live here or have devoted their weekends to working on a campus newspaper barely anyone reads. Why stay open just for their sake, you may ask?

When I became editor-in-chief of this newspaper, I knew I would have to fight for my staff. For my paper. I knew there would be challenges, and that it would be up to me to advocate for the freedom of the press. And that includes the freedom to sample delicious, delicious burritos on Friday nights.

It’s not an easy road — no one ever said that it would be. But at the end of the day, I know in my heart that it will all be worth it.

So I’m asking you, Guadalupe, to reconsider. I know our paper doesn’t always seem like much. We may struggle to appeal to our readers, and we may not always make the best choices. But at the end of the day, we’re passionate students who are working tirelessly to make a difference on this campus.

And part of that difference is making sure that we, and all others at SFU, have access to your burritos on Friday nights.

Please remember that, the next time you close your doors early on a Friday night, that grumbling you hear isn’t just the sound of your ovens powering down. It’s the sound of all of our stomachs, yearning for a taste of freedom. A taste of Guadalupe.

Cordially,

Max Hill Editor-in-Chief of The Peak

January 25, 2016

26

COMMUNITY PHOTOS June 29, 2015

photo editor email

Lisa Dimyadi photos@the-peak.ca

DIVERSIONS / ETC

January 25, 2016

27

sudoku

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION

EVENT LISTINGS ARE FREE FOR SFU STUDENTS AND STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS. SEND THE DATE, TIME, LOCATION, NAME, AND A 15-WORD DESCRIPTION TO CLASSIFIEDS@THE-PEAK.CA

28 LAST WORD

Editor-in-Chief email

Tamara Connor features@the-peak.ca

January 25, 2016