The Queen's Journal, Volume 142, Issue 22

F r i d ay , F e b r u a r y 6 , 2 0 1 5 — I s s u e 2 2

j the ournal Queen’s University — Since 1873

Melody Torcolacci was absent from the first HLTH 102 lecture since slides emerged showing that she taught anti-vaccination material in the class.

ACADEMICS

Admin aware of Torcolacci problems in 2011 Former student says faculty and department “stonewalled” him B y C hloe S obel News Editor Though Principal Daniel Woolf was unaware of complaints against Melody Torcolacci’s teaching until Wednesday morning, a former student claims the University was made aware of the complaints he filed in 2011.

Chao Gu told the Journal via email that he’d complained not only to Torcolacci but to many members of the faculty and administration: the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies (SKHS) Undergraduate Chair Kathy Jackson, SKHS Director Jean Côté, then-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science Alistair MacLean, Associate Dean Bob Lemieux, Associate Dean of Studies Hugh Horton, Acting Associate Dean of Studies David Pugh and then-Senior Associate to the Provost Charles Sumbler.

He also said he lodged complaints with 2011-12 AMS Academic Affairs Commissioner Mira Dineen.

“All of them had stonewalled my issues, and [had] done nothing to help me,” said Gu, ArtSci ’12.

Photos from ice level of hockey’s oldest rivalry page 14

“The claims that the administration was not aware of the issues are false and absurd.”

Gu provided the Journal with various items of correspondence, including his first complaint, a Sept. 29, 2011 email to Jackson.

His initial complaint regarded Health 230, “Basic Human Nutrition”. He listed five concerns: Torcolacci’s PowerPoints didn’t include citations; her notes cited secondary reference sources, including Wikipedia and Mercola; she misrepresented some of the studies cited; she showed the class a video that didn’t disclose conflicts of interest; and because she said she’d test the class on viewpoints that are sometimes contradictory, she might not be able to separate these effectively when marking tests.

Gu told Jackson he’d spoken to Dineen, as well as “numerous” other students who shared his concerns, about Torcolacci’s performance.

Gu spoke with Jackson and Côté on Oct. 3, 2011. They told him the first two issues would be resolved.

After receiving a PowerPoint that See Harrison on page 5

DIVESTMENT

Queen’s looks at divestment Campus groups, student voters push to divest from fossil fuels B y J acob R osen Assistant News Editor Following a push from students and campus groups, the University has launched discussions on fossil fuel divestment.

In last week’s AMS winter referendum, 4,127 students — or 73.5 per cent of voters — voted in favour of the AMS assessing the feasibility of divestment from fossil fuels from its Restricted Funds portfolio and the Queen’s University Pooled Endowment Fund. 1,488 students, or 26.5 per cent, voted against.

“Because students have given us such a strong mandate, we will be definitely looking into feasibility of fossil fuel divestment,” said Tuba Chishti, the student representative

on the Board of Trustees Advisory Committee on Fossil Fuel Divestment.

Chishti, ArtSci ’15, said she couldn’t discuss specifics about the committee because of the confidential nature of the University’s financial investments, but added that the committee has to consider various factors that would be affected by divestment before making any decisions.

She said the committee will create a website within the next two weeks to keep the public informed on its progress.

The committee, which was struck in late December, plans to present an official report to the University Board of Trustees by June in order for the Board to make a decision before the next

fiscal year.

The referendum question also addressed the AMS Restricted Funds portfolio, which is a separate issue from the University’s Pooled Endowment Fund.

Chishti, who chairs the AMS Board of Directors, said the Board has yet to hold a meeting discussing divestment.

The push to divest from fossil fuels began before the referendum question was proposed to students, when Queen’s Backing Action on Climate Change (QBACC) presented a formal proposal to Principal Daniel Woolf and the University Board of Trustees.

The proposal contained a petition of roughly 500 student, faculty and alumni signatures

QTV alumni talk Studio Q benefits and losses page 8 ReUnion in admin’s best interest page 7

See QBACC on page 6

ARTS: New beginnings for the Tett Centre

page 11

News

2 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, February 6, 2015

MENTAL HEALTH

AuthenticallyU smashes eating disorder stigma Campaign is Queen’s first Eating Disorder Awareness Week; will end by smashing scales on Friday B y M ishal O mar Assistant News Editor The first Eating Disorder Awareness Week (EDAW), hosted by AuthenticallyU, started with personal stories and will go out with a smash hit.

The week, which began Feb. 2 and ends Friday, ran in alignment with the Canadian National Eating Disorder Information Centre’s (NEDIC) campaign of the same kind.

EDAW began with an “Education and Experience Evening” on Monday, which featured a presentation by a clinical psychology PhD student Alison Lynne and two student speakers, Leandra Keren and Erin Roach, who shared personal stories about their own experience and recovery from eating disorders.

On Wednesday, AuthenticallyU held a talk titled “How to Help a Friend With an Eating Disorder”, which featured presentations from Peer Support Centre Director Cara Chen, social worker Cathy O’Brien and

student speaker Daniel Meyers.

The final event will be an all-day “[weight] scale smash” on Friday, which Meyers said would be a step in breaking the tie between negative body image and a resulting negative self-worth.

Daniel Meyers, AuthenticallyU’s sponsorship coordinator, said the committee’s goals are to create awareness about eating disorders and reduce associated stigma, while promoting body positivity in general.

“Whether or not you have an eating disorder, you have a body image, you have perceptions of yourself and you’re either happy about that or not happy about that or somewhere in between,” said Meyers, ArtSci ’15.

“I guess its goal is not trying to quantify yourself numerically, by the weight on the scale, how tall you are, how strong you are — that type of thing.

“We’re having a scale-smash so that people who are really attached to their scales and are using it to measure their weight literally,

but their self-worth figuratively, have the opportunity to bring those in and physically destroy them so they’re releasing that tie they have to their scale,” he added.

The committee had a booth on campus each day of the week with a poster and pamphlets to give students information about AuthenticallyU and EDAW. The group is also running a photo campaign.

Meyers said that so far, AuthenticallyU has received a lot of positive feedback from students.

“People are coming by and saying ‘I really appreciate what you’re doing here’ and offering their help in any way,” he said.

“We’ve actually hired a number of volunteers based off people’s interest just from seeing our booth, so I think the response has been really good.”

Keren, who was responsible for marketing EDAW, told the Journal via email that she sees both men and women engage in disordered

eating and negative self-talk on a regular basis, and would like for that to change.

“We already speak about what we eat, how we exercise, and what we don’t like about their bodies,” said Keren, Comm ’17.

“I think the point of AuthenticallyU is to change that dialogue to one that honours our bodies, allows people to feel comfortable in their own skin, and, even better, feel confident in it.”

Keren said the great thing about EDAW is that it’s effective in educating people without eating disorders about what it’s like to live with one, and how they can help those who do.

“I want to see the conversation continue and see people continue to educate themselves,” she said.

“Most importantly, I want to see that girl or boy I saw at the gym yesterday, or at CoGro, feel like they are not alone, and that something is being done to help.”

Speakers at the talk discussed how students can help friends with eating disorders.

PHOTOS BY ALEX PICKERING

ENROLMENT

Aboriginal numbers up Community says there’s still more Queen’s could do B y M ishal O mar Assistant News Editor

Peer Support Centre Director Cara Chen speaking at the AuthenticallyU talk on Wednesday.

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Though new resources and initiatives at Queen’s have led to a 93 per cent increase of Aboriginal students over the last three years, members of the Aboriginal community say the University could still be doing more.

According to the 2014-15 enrolment report released in December, applications from Aboriginal students have increased 30 per cent since 2011, and this year’s incoming undergraduate class had 52 self-identified Aboriginal students.

Since 2011, Queen’s has initiated a number of mentoring and leadership programs that target elementary and secondary school students.

The new programs implemented in 2014 include Aboriginal Access to Engineering, Katarokwi Aboriginal School Mentoring Program, Engineering Week for Aboriginal Youth and Medical Week for Aboriginal Youth.

Other outreach initiatives include the Aboriginal Postsecondary Information Program, career and education fairs and various on-campus events.

One initiative implemented this year was a webinar, titled “Applying to Queen’s University, Aboriginal Applicants”, for Aboriginal applicants living in remote communities. According to the document on these outreach initiatives, this webinar had 27 registrants as of Jan. 9.

Ann Tierney, vice-provost and dean of student affairs, wasn’t available for comment before press time.

Ashley Maracle, the Aboriginal community liaison in charge of outreach, recruitment and admission at Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre (FDASC), said in the last four years there has been more support for the centre and for Aboriginal students and applicants at Queen’s.

“I think that we have more support at the centre now so I think that they have really improved. There’s a lot more communication with self-identified students and we also work really closely with the registrar’s office,” she said.

“So that’s beneficial for the applicants because we’re making sure to have open communication and it benefits the students.”

Maracle said lack of resources and visibility are some barriers that Aboriginal students may face at Queen’s.

“I think that [Queen’s has] been doing quite a bit, especially the past four years,” she said. “In terms of what more we could be doing, I think that that’s something that every institution runs into. Having limited resources is kind of the only thing.”

She added that Queen’s could increase Indigenous faculty, giving students representation “across a number of avenues” and not only through FDASC. Darian Doblej, ArtSci ’18, visited Queen’s the summer after grade nine through a program conducted by the Enrichment Studies Unit. After the program, he said he knew he’d apply to Queen’s.

Doblej said he thinks the University’s currently doing a great job, but there’s room for improvement.

See Students on page 6

Friday, February 6, 2015

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FEATURE ELECTIONS

Students campaign against voter apathy Smaller student societies experience higher voter turnout in 2015 elections B y L aura R ussell Features Editor Some students and professors believe that voter turnout in student government elections will never improve.

Last month’s AMS winter referendum saw 34.6 per cent voter turnout — a 1.46 per cent increase from 2014. Only 29 per cent of ASUS members voted in the 2014 ASUS elections, with an increase of 11.2 per cent in 2015.

In the Engineering Society (EngSoc) election, though, 53 per cent of students voted — 13.2 per cent higher than last year, after a concerted awareness campaign to drive turnout higher.

Political studies professor Heather Bastedo said voter turnout on university campuses is typically low, because the majority of the student body isn’t necessarily involved in politics.

“There’s been a history on campus politics from what I understand, that they’re busy with their studies and the stakes are relatively low on their life,” Bastedo said. “They don’t see how it affects them.”

Bastedo has taught at Queen’s for two years, with a focus on youth voter engagement and specializes in youth politics.

She said younger people who are less engaged with national politics generally look for politicians to engage with citizens, and for elected representatives to have a basic idea of the issues they face.

Bastedo added that the same phenomenon likely persists at the university government

level. Student leaders, she said, are fighting to get the attention of students that are busy with school, extracurricular activities and jobs.

Since the 2009 AMS fall referendum, students have been able to cast their votes online, with the purpose of increasing turnout.

Bastedo said the introduction of online voting isn’t enough to engage students.

“If you’re not interested it doesn’t matter whether it’s a click of the button. You’re just not interested,” she said. “If human beings are interested in something, they’re going to engage, and if they feel like they have an impact, they will engage.”

Unlike Bastedo, AMS Commissioner of Internal Affairs Claire Cathro said online voting is what will help draw in more student voters.

The AMS changed to a new online voting system — from VoteNet to SimplyVoting — last summer. Cathro said this made voting more accessible and allowed all ballots to be in one place.

“Students were allowed to sign in using their NetIDs and password, which made a big impact with the ease for students to reach the ballot,” said Cathro, ArtSci ’15. “[It] probably had a large impact in voter turnout in both referendums.”

With 34.6 per cent turnout, five of six opt-out fee proposals passed in the winter 2015 referendum.

MUSE Magazine was the only group that was unsuccessful.

Cathro said there needs to be more of a collaborative approach to advertising the referendum between the AMS and the clubs

Editorial illustration from the Jan. 28, 1986 issue of the Journal.

that propose fees.

These groups, she added, need to demonstrate how important these elections are to students and how winning their opt-out fee could positively influence the Queen’s student body.

“We’re competing for students’ attention when there’s a lot of different things that they’re passionate about and care about,” she said. “What needs to be done is make students understand how relevant the voting process is to their day-to-day lives at Queen’s.”

Cathro said some smaller faculties — like Concurrent Education and Engineering and Applied Science — have the advantage of being a more cohesive unit, making it easier to reach out to prospective voters.

“You can tailor a message, demonstrating to students that it affects their lives,” she said.

Alex Blaine, ConEd ’15, said voting campaigns are an effective way to grab the attention of the everyday university student.

“I remember a few years ago the AMS put out a video about voting using the idea of ‘My First Time’,” she told the Journal via Facebook.

“It was creative and entertaining, which I think made the voting process more appealing.”

Although she’s graduating this year, Blaine said she voted in both the CESA and AMS elections last month.

She said one way to engage students in student government elections is to create a presence on campus and on social media.

“I have never been involved in student government, but I like seeing students sharing their ideas

JOURNAL FILE ILLUSTRATION

EngSoc’s Alexander Savides and Stephen Penstone with their “5-OH and Go Vote” campaign poster.

and commitment to it.”

The message EngSoc relayed this year was “5-OH and Go Vote” — a campaign launched with the goal of convincing 50 per cent of engineering students to vote in the society’s executive election.

EngSoc Vice-President of Student Affairs Alexander Savides and Director of Communications Stephen Penstone both said they were excited to reach 53 per cent turnout.

Penstone, Sci ’15, said it’s the first year the society has advertised the elections on that large a scale.

Voter turnout for EngSoc has gradually increased in recent years — from 32 per cent in 2012 to 35 per cent in 2013 and 39.8 per cent in 2014.

“If you let the information become available and make it clear, people will go out and look it up,” Penstone said. “It hasn’t been clear a lot in the past.”

EngSoc advertised their voting campaign with three different kinds of posters, placed all over engineering buildings and classrooms. They also pushed the “5-OH and Go Vote” slogan on social media, created a promotional video and live-streamed the executive debates.

Savides, Sci ’15, said EngSoc harnessed the “collaborative and competitive spirit” of engineering students to push them to vote.

“Finding a message that resonates with the group that you’re targeting really helps a lot,” Savides said. “Targeting the demographics that you’d like to vote really helps with the correct message to help them engage.”

To increase turnout in larger-scale elections, Savides said, “You would have to target the demographic and almost challenge the Queen’s community — like a call to action.”

But even a call to action won’t attract all students.

PHOTO BY ARWIN CHAN

Dan Le, Sci ’15, said he has never voted in an EngSoc election and doesn’t care about voting.

“It might be that I’m lazy, or even that I just don’t have that big of an opinion on things,” Le said. “The only time I’ve voted for anything was for mayor of my town.”

Le said he wasn’t aware of the EngSoc voting campaign because he doesn’t tend to notice posters in classrooms and hallways.

“I think there was a better turnout because they set a goal of how many students they wanted to vote,” he said. “With a goal in mind, there is more initiative to get the word out and the people running and that are in EngSoc are very determined people.”

Danielle Bengall, ArtSci ’15, said it’s difficult to attract more voters because students are often invested in their own lives. She added that it’s difficult to assess how to make them more interested in elections.

“Especially with the increasing number of first year students, I think it’d be increasingly difficult to cater to them,” Bengall told the Journal via email.

“I mean some of them have never been able to vote in an election period, let alone one that could actually shape their experience.”

Presenting positive changes the student government has made in the past and how it has benefitted students, she added, would be effective in spurring turnout.

Bengall said she voted in the winter referendum because she sees voting as an important way for people to have their say.

“Every vote counts and it wouldn’t be fair to eliminate the worth a voter has in the future of his/her school,” she said. “People like knowing they have a voice and say in their own future.”

News

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Friday, February 6, 2015

ACADEMICS

Women underrepresented in technology fields Data published by mapping blog shows low ratio of female professors in tech fields at Queen’s

B y N atasa B ansagi Assistant News Editor When Faculty of Education Professor Lynda Colgan asks young students to draw a scientist, they usually draw a character with a lab coat, glasses and “crazy hair”.

It’s also always a male.

“The stereotypes around who scientists are and what they do linger in the public eye, and because those linger, we also are not attracting young women into these fields,” Colgan said.

Colgan’s point is bolstered by recently published findings on The 10 and 13, a blog that uses maps, data and visualizations to tell “compelling and unusual” stories.

The blog’s authors — Michael Kuzmin, Arik Motskin and Zack Gallinger — examined the proportion of tenured or tenure-track women professors in technology-related fields at twenty Canadian universities.

Results placed women professors at Queen’s at 16, 13.6 and 13 per cent in math, computer science and electrical/computer engineering departments, respectively.

Queen’s ranked 15th out of 20 universities for math and 14th of 20 for computer science. For electrical/computer engineering — a category in which only 18 universities were ranked — Queen’s was third after Simon Fraser University and the University of Calgary.

Trends in the data are also supported by figures from Google, Facebook and Twitter.

While 30 per cent of Google’s employees are female, only 17 per cent of women make up its tech sector. 31 per cent of Facebook’s employees are female, but only 15 per cent are in its tech sector; 30 per cent of Twitter’s employees are female, while only 10 per cent are in its tech sector.

Colgan said the issue begins in elementary school.

“By the time children are in

grade three, 50 per cent of our students in Ontario are saying they don’t like math, they’re not good at it and they don’t see any purpose to doing it,” she said, adding that fewer than 50 per cent of secondary school students complete grade 11 and 12 math and science.

“All universities across North America are going to face the same problem if we don’t turn around student interest in these subjects earlier on,” she said.

Citing a study by the University of Missouri and the University of Glasgow in Scotland, which found that girls outperform boys in overall academics, Colgan said girls are less confident than their male counterparts. This can cause girls to drop courses like math, science and engineering or choose not to take them at the post-secondary level.

“This leads to underrepresentation, the kind of underrepresentation you see when we don’t have faculty, graduate faculty and professors who are female in those areas,” she said.

She added that mindset is important for success, and students who maintain a passion for a subject “are not going to be intimidated by anything.”

“Again, what we have to remember is that that kind of confidence, mindset, passion, doesn’t start at university — it starts many, many, many more years earlier and it is developed over time,” Colgan said.

President of Queen’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Rebecca Lang said “the amount of self-doubt” and “low confidence” in females must change, and WISE is trying to aid in this.

“I’ve heard a woman once tell me that if a guy has an answer to a question, he thinks it’s right until proven wrong, whereas a woman would be more, think they’re wrong until proven right, or not be sure of their answer until proven right,” said Lang, ArtSci ’15.

Wendy Powley is an adjunct professor in the School of Computing and founder of Women in the School of Computing (WISC). Powley, who founded WISC in 2003, organized the first Canadian celebration for women in computing in 2010, set to become a national celebration next year.

Despite a 247-person growth in enrolment from 2009-14, she said the school is in a “fight” with the University over hiring faculty members for the School of Computing.

“We’ve been begging, begging, begging for a position — for a single

position — and the University says said women currently make up no,” Powley said, adding that the 24 per cent of those teaching in University is using statistics that the School of Computing. This is don’t reflect the school’s increased approximately 10 per cent higher enrolment to justify its stance. than the data from The 10 and 13, “How can we hire female which did not include adjuncts. professors when we can’t hire “It’s good that we have these any professors?” adjuncts that are teaching and Powley said female role providing the role model, and models are really important for providing the teaching and “getting women into the field”, everything to the students,” and hiring female adjuncts in the she said. school — particularly for teaching “But we do need more female first-year courses — is one step the professors who are actually doing School of Computing has taken to research, supervising students, increase female engagement. things like that.”

Including adjunct professors — men and women — Powley

Queen’s has low percentages of tenured or tenure-track female professors in tech-related fields.

GRAPHIC BY MICHAELLA FORTUNE

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Friday, February 6, 2015

queensjournal.ca

Harrison was unaware of 2011 complaint Continued from page 1

still failed to cite sources and notes that cited Mercola, he contacted Arts and Science Director of Student Services Sue Blake, asking to meet with Horton in order to file a complaint against Torcolacci, Jackson and Côté.

In his meeting with Horton, which Gu described as “extremely confrontational”, Horton was “very dismissive about the issues that I raised”.

On Dec. 6, 2011, Gu sent a letter to the Faculty discussing his experiences, asking that it be passed on to MacLean before a Dec. 8 meeting.

In the letter, Gu said he’d been dismissed by Côté, Jackson and Horton for his concerns; they told him “repeatedly” it was up to Torcolacci to teach whatever she wanted. When he later met with MacLean and Lemieux, MacLean admitted that his concerns were valid “to a certain extent”.

When Gu received his midterm from Torcolacci, he said, he’d disagreed with her grading. She “stood fast on her position”, so Gu took the issue to Jackson, where he was informed he had to file an appeal with the Faculty — specifically with Horton, which he felt would be a conflict of interest.

Gu said Torcolacci told him that the only reason she was teaching HLTH 230 was due to budget cuts.

After speaking with Sumbler, Gu was told Pugh would preside over the appeal. Pugh granted the appeal, but Gu found the language of a letter he received regarding the appeal to be condescending.

Pugh told him that the instructors felt the paper was marked fairly and didn’t see a justification for an appeal, and added that even though he’d treated the appeal “generously” he wouldn’t do the same with any others.

“I feel that with my dealings with the Arts and Sciences Faculty administration have systematically been unreceptive and been very hard to deal with,” Gu wrote.

MacLean told Gu he’d look into the matter.

Torcolacci didn’t respond to multiple interview requests from the Journal.

Dineen confirmed via email that she’d received a complaint in 2011 from a student taking a class taught

by Torcolacci, and said she’d met with Côté to relay the student’s concerns. She said she was assured that “steps would be taken to ensure that learning outcomes were met”.

Provost Alan Harrison told the Journal via email that he’d never been made aware of Gu’s complaint.

“Charles Sumbler, who was a senior associate in the Office of the Provost in 2011, does recall that, at that time, a student raised concerns about a professor teaching another course in Kinesiology and Health Studies,” he said, adding that Sumbler referred the student to the Faculty of Arts and Science, and the student met with the then-Dean.

“Given this, Mr. Sumbler felt there was no need to inform me of the student’s concerns.”

Woolf released a statement via the Queen’s Gazette Wednesday, in which he said he’d become aware of the situation that day and had asked Harrison to work with the Faculty of Arts and Science to gather more information and see if he could substantiate the claims against Torcolacci.

“The university is committed to the academic freedom of our faculty members,” he wrote.

“At the same time, the university expects that faculty members will present intellectually rigorous research and course material and that they will present available scientific evidence objectively and

declare their biases.”

Isabelle Duchaine, 2012-13 Academic Affairs Commissioner, said she’d received three complaints about Torcolacci, and that to receive more than one individual complaint about a professor was unusual.

Duchaine, ArtSci ’14, said she’d encouraged the students who complained to contact the SKHS, but now feels she should have been more aggressive.

“I’m not sure how many of [the complaints] were translated up into the Faculty of Arts and Science and how many of those were translated up to the provost or the principal,” she said.

After seeing a tweet from a student on Wednesday expressing disbelief that Torcolacci was teaching anti-vaccination views, she thought something needed to be done.

“If students are making complaints for years about a course and it’s not being taken seriously by whichever administrator should be tackling it on the ground, then we need to look at alternative methods,” Duchaine said.

“To me, that was making it public.”

Duchaine’s Storify that showed screenshots from Torcolacci’s slideshow on vaccination was picked up by media outlets across Canada.

“Unfortunately, if that’s what it takes to get some attention to what I see as a serious academic failing, then I think that’s really, really too bad,” she said.

“As an institution, we wouldn’t accept a professor in physics saying that gravity doesn’t exist, or a professor in astronomy arguing that the earth is the centre of the solar system, and we shouldn’t expect anything less from the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies.”

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News in brief Vol. 143 Editors in Chief elected Journal Features Editor Sebastian Leck and Editorials Editor Anisa Rawhani were voted in as incoming Editors in Chief for Volume 143 (2015-16) of the Journal.

Leck and Rawhani, who ran as a team, won with a 91.3 per cent vote of confidence. The team received 21 votes for and two against, with a 48 per cent voter turnout.

The team has committed to three key points: education, outreach and design. They hope to increase training and transition of staff, increase engagement and expand digital content.

They plan to change the position of Marketing Manager to Outreach

Manager, and add a Digital Editor position. The Digital Editor will act as a resource for other staff members on digital initiatives and work on building web elements and microsites.

Although they were the sixth team in a row to run uncontested, Rawhani, ArtSci ’15, said the vote of confidence still means a lot to them.

“That actually means a lot that people feel [that] confident in us,” she said.

Outgoing editor in chief Vincent Ben Matak said the two are very well suited for the role and did well in their campaign.

“They answered questions very well during the Q&A and I’m very

EVENT COORDINATOR, SPECIAL EVENTS ORGANIZER, ACCOUNT

excited to see what they have in store,” said Matak, ArtSci ’14.

Both incoming editors say their focus now will be on figuring out the hiring situation.

“Right now we’re looking at hiring and basically figuring out who’s going to be on the Journal for next year, and try to create some preliminary plans for what we’re going to start doing this summer,” said Leck, ArtSci ‘15.

The two said they were very overwhelmed and excited by the vote.

“Right now, I’m just thinking about QP,” Leck said.

— Jacob Rosen

REPRESENTATIVE, CORPORATE MEETING PLANNER AND MANY OTHER EXCITING CAREER OPTIONS.

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Friday, February 6, 2015

Students concerned about feeling accepted Continued from page 2

“Aboriginal students who are looking at applying to universities, they’re really concerned about the ‘whiteness’ of the school and feel as if they might not assimilate well into the school or they might not feel accepted,” he said.

“That on its own I think needs to be addressed before they [Queen’s] expect more Aboriginal students to come.”

Doblej added that while Maracle does a great job as community liaison at FDASC, the University could use two recruiters instead of one. He also encouraged Aboriginal students to go to FDASC. “To any other Aboriginal student coming in, I urge them to reach out to Four Directions and use what they have — they have great resources there,” he said.

QBACC led divestment push last fall Continued from page 1

requesting the divestment of fossil fuels in the interest of avoiding social injury to agriculture, Aboriginal land rights and climate change.

“We didn’t want to be too aggressive with it at first,” said Emily Graham, co-president of QBACC. “We wanted to see what the Board would think.”

QBACC organized a march on the last day of classes in November, starting at Summerhill and marching to Richardson Hall, to present the proposal to the Board.

The main purpose of the march

Aboriginal enrolment at Queen’s has increased by 93 per cent since 2011.

GRAPHIC BY MICHAELLA FORTUNE

was to raise awareness of the issue, said Graham, ArtSci ’15.

She said Principal Woolf was busy when the march ended, but he did email the group back thanking them for their hard work.

“We still want to keep the pressure on them,” Graham said, adding that she’d like to see an update from the committee soon, since the global fossil fuel divestment movement has started to gain more attention.

She said QBACC will be creating social media “buzz” on Feb. 12 for Global Divestment Day. She added that the group plans to have a “visual action” sometime in the afternoon in the ARC to show solidarity with the global movement.

Even with the success of the referendum question, Graham said she’s still skeptical the University will take action.

With seven QBACC organizers graduating at the end of this year — the majority of its organizers — Graham said their main focus this semester is to find passionate individuals to pass the torch to, so that this issue isn’t forgotten in coming years.

“Our reason for it and what we need to prove is the social action side of it,” she said.

“It’s the only reason I need

Emily Graham, the co-president of QBACC.

to fight for it. But there’s the financial reason, too — that could persuade people.”

David Allgood, who chairs the Advisory Committee on Responsible Investing, told the Journal via email that the committee was established by Woolf in accordance with the University’s Statement on Responsible Investing in order to examine QBACC’s divestment request.

“Over the coming months, the committee will carefully consider QBACC’s submission and will consult broadly, both within

PHOTO BY ARWIN CHAN

and outside of the university community,” Allgood said.

“It aims to make recommendations to the Principal regarding what actions, if any, should be taken in response to the request by June 30.”

He added that a website will “soon be created” for the committee and that the committee only recently held its first meeting.

“There is still a great deal of information to consider and many stakeholders that we want to hear from,” he said.

Friday, February 6, 2015

queensjournal.ca

•7

DIALOGUE Editorial Board Editors in Chief

Nick Faris Vincent Ben Matak

Production Manager

Sam Koebrich

News Editor

Chloe Sobel

Assistant News Editors

Natasa Bansagi Mishal Omar Jacob Rosen

Features Editors

Sebastian Leck Laura Russell

Editorials Editor

Anisa Rawhani

Opinions Editor

Olivia Bowden

Arts Editors

Olivia Loncar-Bartolini Kashmala Omar

Sports Editor

Sean Sutherland

Assistant Sports Editor Lifestyle Editor

Brent Moore

Chloë Grande

Assistant Lifestyle Editor Photo Editors

Kate Meagher Arwin Chan Alex Pickering

Assistant Photo Editor

Michelle Allan

Graphics Editor and Editorial Illustrator

HOMECOMING

Admin, support ReUnion Tip your

Leigh Cameron

It’s in the University’s best interests to help establish the ReUnion Street Festival as a new Homecoming tradition.

The inaugural festival — held in October — proved to be a great success, with roughly 5,000-6,000 people attending. 94.3 per cent of students who participated in the AMS fall referendum responded “yes” to a plebiscite question asking if they wished to see the festival established as an annual Homecoming event.

The 2014 festival cost $250,000 and was paid for primarily by the AMS. For future Homecomings, the AMS is lobbying the University to provide at least $75,000 to fund the festival.

Despite the AMS’s efforts and Principal Daniel Woolf ’s verbal support for the festival, the University is refusing to cover any costs.

Queen’s administration set a precedent of paying for Homecoming when they agreed in

2013 to pay the City of Kingston $100,000 annually for three years for extra police costs. The University should also be investing in an event that directly benefits alumni and students.

The best way for Queen’s to deter students and other revelers from attending Homecoming street parties is to support proactive initiatives like the ReUnion festival, which will draw crowds away from Aberdeen St. and promote responsible drinking.

Alumni should have a space to mingle with current students during Homecoming weekend, and the festival fits the bill. Improving the Homecoming experience could encourage alumni to donate to the University.

The AMS covered the majority of the inaugural festival’s costs.

While the University provided a significant amount of in-kind support — such as staffing and security — it should also cast its financial support behind

Michaella Fortune

Web Developer Copy Editors

Karen Chen

Leigh Cameron Christine Ellis Chandra Erickson

Contributing Staff

Staff Writers and Photographers Caela Fenton Mitchell Gleason Sam Kary Mohammad Kasraee Adam Laskaris Lauren Luchenski

Contributors

Katherine Kopiak Madeleine Leisk

Business Staff Business Manager

David Worsley

Marketing Manager

Hayley Square

Sales Representatives

Fraser Bruce Katelyn Martinko Jacob Rumball Teddy Taggart Friday, February 6, 2015 • Issue 22 • Volume 142

The Queen’s Journal is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Alma Mater Society of Queen’s University, Kingston.

Editorial opinions expressed in the Journal are the sole responsibility of the Queen’s Journal Editorial Board, and are not necessarily those of the University, the AMS or their officers.

Contents © 2015 by the Queen’s Journal; all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the Journal.

The Queen’s Journal is printed on a Goss Community press by Performance Group of Companies in Smiths Falls, Ontario.

Contributions from all members of the Queen’s and Kingston community are welcome. The Journal reserves the right to edit all submissions.

Subscriptions are available for $80.00 per year (plus applicable taxes).

Please address complaints and grievances to the Editors in Chief.

Please direct editorial, advertising and circulation enquiries to: 190 University Ave., Kingston, ON, K7L 3P4 Telephone: 613-533-2800 (editorial) 613-533-6711 (advertising) Fax: 613-533-6728 Email: journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca The Journal online: www.queensjournal.ca Circulation 6,000 Issue 23 of the Journal will be published on February 12, 2015

HEALTH

this venture.

AMS President Allison Williams said the festival could become self-financing in five years through sponsorship, meaning Queen’s support could only be needed for the short-term.

The University hasn’t given a clear reason why they’re refusing.

If it’s due to financial constraints, they could run an advancement campaign to garner funds.

The University has run successful campaigns for capital projects that alumni might never directly benefit from, including the Isabel Bader Centre and the new Richardson Stadium. It shouldn’t be difficult to raise $75,000 for something alumni can directly enjoy.

The AMS has done their due diligence. While they would still be paying for the majority of the festival, they shouldn’t be the only ones to shoulder the responsibility.

I watched the two men I was serving pass the debit machine back and forth, talking in what they thought was a whisper.

“Option three, right?” “Yeah, no tip.”

I was crushed. Without the tips of these men, my total tips from what was already a dead shift wouldn’t match my daily goal.

A hard lesson I learned while working as a server last summer is that the world of waitressing is frustrating, competitive and unstable.

Tipping your server at least 15 per cent on a meal is a well-known custom. Still, many people only feel obligated to tip a server if they’ve done a great job serving them. This sounds correct in theory, but restaurants and government regulations, — Journal Editorial Board unfortunately, have a different idea.

Many people don’t realize that servers work under a different minimum wage system than other workers. In Ontario, a server’s minimum wage is only $9.55 an hour, unlike the $11 an hour wage most other employees receive.

This leaves a significant dent in a server’s wages — especially for those who live off that wage alone.

Assuming that every customer will tip 15 per cent or more isn’t fair to servers who take care of customers who don’t realize they have a lower minimum wage.

Servers aren’t even allowed to keep all their tips. Many restaurants require servers to “tip out” to the bartenders and kitchen staff, which is a nice way to reward their non-serving co-workers for their hard work.

Some restaurants, though, take the tip-out percentage from a server’s overall sales — not from their tips. This means servers have to pay out of pocket if a customer ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAELLA FORTUNE doesn’t tip them.

Watching the two men deny me a tip meant I had to pay out of my own, hard-earned tips in order to compensate for the tip-out I owed. This happened to many of my co-workers as well, creating an uncomfortable, competitive legalization of marijuana. environment between us to serve The campaign’s intended the customers who do tip. audience was parent-age If your server isn’t great, then adults — the demographic it’s fine not to tip a lot — but at most likely to vote, but not to least give enough to compensate for use marijuana. their tip-out and the reduction in There’s little point in targeting their wage. Everyone deserves to go a parent audience unless it’s home with a fair amount of money. to explain how to talk to their children about drug use, which the Leigh is one of the Journal’s Copy ad didn’t do.

Editors. She’s a second-year While $7 million isn’t much English major. considering the general costs of widespread ad campaigns, it was $7 million of taxpayer money that Canadians that an informative did nothing to benefit Canadians. It campaign could help alleviate, was instead a gross abuse of power including alcoholism, malnutrition on the part of the Conservative and domestic violence. It’s government, as they dipped into concerning that Health the government’s purse to fuel Canada instead went big on their campaign. slagging marijuana.

There are far more pressing health and safety issues facing — Journal Editorial Board

Anti-pot ad just fear mongering Health Canada’s anti-marijuana Despite this, the campaign was campaign was little more than a released because of the strong poorly disguised political ploy. reaction it received from a focus The Conservative government’s group of parents, who were 12-week advertising campaign described by the interviewers as launched in October and cost over “generally uninformed regarding $7 million — significantly more marijuana health risks”. than what Health Canada has This cherry picked and spent advertising other health and misleading information preyed on safety issues. the fears of “uninformed” parents, One ad claims that “the science who understandably wouldn’t is clear” on the dangers of cannabis be critical of Health Canada as a use, but the information presented source of information. is anything but. The ads displayed The timing of the campaign a lack of genuine concern for the can’t be overlooked, with a federal health and safety of Canadians. election slated for no later than The “facts” presented in the this October. ad — that cannabis use can result Health Canada’s in decreased IQ, learning problems anti-marijuana campaign ran and loss of memory in teenagers parallel to a Conservative-funded — were premised on a study radio campaign that attacked that has been widely contested Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau by researchers. for his endorsement of the

server

Dialogue

8 • queensjournal.ca

Opinions — Your

Friday, February 6, 2015

perspective

PANEL

Studio Q: gains and losses Two QTV alumni discuss the amalgamation of three campus services

JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

On Jan. 19, the AMS announced the amalgamation of three campus services — Queen’s TV (QTV), Yearbook & Design Services (YDS) and Convocation Services — into a collective service: Studio Q. QTV will lose its mandated editorial segments, although it will retain editorial autonomy.

Studio Q has the opportunity to innovate media services Katherine Kopiak, MA ’16

than both QTV and YDS each had to begin with.

For instance, if someone only followed YDS’s Facebook page for pictures of Queen’s events and had never watched QTV — or vice versa — they’d then go to Studio Q for both. There, they might find more than what they were initially looking for. This will benefit both students and the service.

Both services also produce excellent media content, with YDS specializing in photographic publication and QTV with video production.

Studio Q will release the same high-quality content, but in a way that’s more multi-faceted. A news segment — via film — could also be accompanied by photographic and written documentation.

There’s more to be gained than lost. The content each service produces and the people that produce it won’t disappear. Instead, there will be more creative individuals under the same roof, and therefore more room for innovation and development.

A student initially interested in photographic design might learn and benefit from video editing, or vice versa. Studio Q will allow students to maximize their creative potential and produce top-quality content.

Amidst my teary and nostalgic eyes, I see promise, and promise only. I wish Studio Q the best of luck — though I’m confident it won’t need it.

Studio Q should retain the pursuit of journalism Mohammad Kasraee, ArtSci ’14

Queen’s TV was a vital part of my four years When I started working at Queen’s TV, I as an undergraduate student. instantly fell in love with the service.

For years, QTV has provided invaluable During my fourth year at Queen’s, I opportunities for students to experience had the pleasure of working as QTV’s and produce hands-on broadcast business manager. Even though I had media — from segment creation to online no previous experience working with marketing, blogging, interviewing, filming, the service, I was warmly welcomed by live-streaming, reporting and editing. returning volunteers and managers. I met QTV has the added opportunity to talented individuals who were motivated to address several different aspects of the gain experience in the fields of film, media Queen’s community: arts and entertainment, and journalism. sports, student life and the Kingston area.

The recent amalgamation of QTV and The service’s volunteers work alongside and YDS into Studio Q will have many benefits, learn from each other in a collaborative, but there are certain losses that need to be encouraging and positive atmosphere. taken into consideration.

Though I’ll look back at the days of The new service will have a much larger “Queen’s TV” with nostalgia, I believe budget to work with, which is much needed the amalgamation of two strong media on a campus that requires an expansion of services — QTV and YDS — will strengthen its media outlets. We had a large number them both. of volunteer applicants in my year, and we With proper planning and useful insight unfortunately had to limit the number of from previous and current QTV and YDS Katherine Kopiak is a Master’s student in volunteers we could take on. volunteers, Studio Q should take off running. cultural studies at Queen’s.

One of the reasons for this was the As a young student wanting to enter the field of media, I received incredible opportunities with QTV in both media production and management – opportunities I wouldn’t have received otherwise. I learned the process, importance and impact of sharing stories.

We thrived on creative freedom. My adventures with QTV ranged from things as light-hearted as documenting pet goats in the University District to learning about and sharing the stories of new and old businesses in Kingston.

During my time at QTV, I watched the service grow extensively from one year to the next. By 2014, it was releasing more content and receiving more views than ever before.

The service not only provided a phenomenal experience for its volunteers, but also for the Queen’s community at large.

It brought people together, online and off.

Though I’ll miss these experiences, I’m excited for what Studio Q will introduce.

QTV and YDS already have great reputations within the Queen’s community.

Some QTV videos have received thousands of views on YouTube. Both services have large Facebook followings: QTV with 2,126 Facebook likes as of this week, and YDS with 4,055.

JOURNAL FILE PHOTO Studio Q should have a larger following Studio Q staff in 1985. The service’s name was changed to QTV in 2007.

budgetary constraints we had on buying more equipment, such as higher quality cameras, computers and editing software.

Not only will Studio Q be able to purchase more equipment, it will be able to provide volunteers with better and more diverse options, which will improve their overall experience.

With a greater variety of opportunities, the service will also attract a larger number of volunteers, whether they join to create a yearbook, cover an event, work with a client, produce live sports coverage or make creative, entertaining videos.

But there are certain aspects of the new service that I’m wary of — especially the long-term effects of removing its mandate to cover news. I saw countless hours put in by volunteers to create news pieces, and believed QTV had real potential to expand its news segments.

Studio Q will have better resources, but it’s important to dedicate a segment of the service to journalism. Otherwise, the amalgamation will strip the service of its journalistic component, and push away potential volunteers looking to gain experience in video and photographic journalism — which are skills that are becoming important for those pursuing such careers.

QTV has a long history of bringing news to students. Previous managers and volunteers have made countless efforts to expand and increase the service’s abilities; one major success has been QTV’s current relationship with Queen's Athletics, where we’ve provided live coverage of Gaels games.

While in recent years QTV has struggled to be taken seriously — because of student interest in sharing funny video content, rather than our news videos — its managers and volunteers put significant effort into creating legitimate news segments for students.

One shouldn’t be quick to peg the service as a dying news outlet. Studio Q has an even stronger chance of becoming a multi-faceted media outlet — one that can include news coverage. It’s important for Queen’s to have a variety of news outlets in order for students to be more aware of what’s happening around them, and to keep up-to-date with issues that directly affect them.

I understand that the amalgamation is a work in progress, but I urge the incoming managers of Studio Q to attract volunteers who are interested in creating news.

Rather than abandoning the service’s pursuit of journalism, they should take the next year as an opportunity to create a better-structured system that will have the ability to reach more students with campus news.

Mohammad Kasraee was QTV’s business manager in 2013-14.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Dialogue

Opinions — Your

queensjournal.ca

•9

perspective

YEMEN

Don’t ignore the unknown “Smaller” countries shouldn’t be ignored by Western policy-makers

Sam Kary, ArtSci ‘16 We can’t ignore “smaller” countries when it comes to international security.

This “Ostrich School of Thought” — where we put our heads in the sand and ignore places we don’t understand — isn’t working. Some politicians and academics are still using this paradigm, dividing the world into places that matter and places that don’t.

This worldview is already setting us up for failure in a small country a hemisphere away: Yemen.

By ignoring countries that aren’t considered world powers, we miss key information that could help foreign policy makers avert international crises and preempt security threats. Failing to identify growing threats in marginalized areas before they mature puts our national interests at risk.

In September, I watched as conservative realists, who have studied international relations their entire lives, struggled with questions about the Islamic State (ISIS).

Where did it come from? How do we make it go away?

These same people flew their attention out of Iraq a year before the Americans did in 2012.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq cost the United States capital and lives. After it became clear the U.S. would be able to pull out of Iraq with relative success, the need to care about the country was gone.

When not considered in relation to the United States, Iraq lost importance.

Corruption, poverty and the ethnic inequality that has since led to the rise of ISIS weren’t analyzed because those things were happening to Iraqis, not Americans.

We can see the same mistake being made in ignoring Yemen.

On Sept. 21, 2014, a rebel group called the Houthis took control of Yemen’s capital city, Sana’a. Last month, the group abducted the government’s chief of staff, demanded changes to Yemen’s constitution and took the President captive after laying siege to his palace.

A ceasefire between the two sides has since been established, but the Houthis continue to capture weapons caches and cities, disregarding the agreement. Yemen’s southwest has declared independence, engaging in skirmishes with government forces. The Prime Minister and the President have both resigned, leaving the country without a leader.

It’s impossible to sum up Yemeni politics in a single article. The country is chronically unstable and divided along more lines than a cracked egg, with a handful of factions struggling for power.

It’s precisely this complex nature that caused me to fall in love with Yemen in the first place — yet so many have written Yemen off because of it.

In the 16th century, Renaissance cartographers filled unexplored areas on maps with drawings of serpents or monsters, and labelled them “hic sunt dracones” — Latin for “here be dragons”.

This signified the area was unknown,

uncivilized and basically irrelevant. They didn’t know much about it, so it must have been unimportant.

While the implication is outdated, the title remains appropriate. There are definitely dragons in Yemen, if you look for them.

Since the mid-2000s, Yemen has been home to Al-Qaeda’s most dangerous regional branch. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) membership reads like a who’s who of the movement’s best and brightest.

This includes Ibrahim Al-Asiri, an explosives expert, who uses Yemen as a safe haven to stage international attacks.

Artfully disguised explosives designed by Al-Asiri have made it on to planes before being detected on two occasions — once on Christmas Day in 2009 and again in October 2010. Al-Asiri is why the TSA makes you take off your shoes and pass through body scanners before boarding a flight.

AQAP has consistently influenced and trained individuals to carry out attacks in the West. These individuals include Charlie Hebdo attacker Chérif Kouachi, who received training in Yemen before returning to France.

AQAP controls a significant amount of territory in Yemen, regularly defeating the military in battle.

If AQAP were able to transform this territory into a pseudo state, they would have enough resources and stability to stage sophisticated attacks against the West — attacks capable of harming large numbers of people. The time would

PHOTO BY ARWIN CHAN

eventually come when this pseudo state posed such a large threat toWestern governments that military intervention would be necessary to deal with it.

The threat of terrorist attacks has in the past caused the Canadian government to implement increasingly stringent domestic security measures, costing millions of dollars and threatening civil liberties.

We aren’t insulated from the problems facing Yemen, or the criminals and terrorists operating there.

The U.S. and its allies used to be able to work with the Yemeni government to tackle these problems. With the government’s collapse and the rise of new threats to split the local military’s attention, they’ve lost that capability.

When Yemen descends even further into chaos and begins to threaten Western interests, the same people who ignored it will stare quizzically at their televisions and ask themselves again: how did this happen?

It’s because those same people dismissed a country that was experiencing violence and instability, instead of assuming that this was indicative of a developing crisis.

We shouldn’t be surprised when the ball we took our eye off of hits us square in the teeth.

Sam Kary is fourth-year political studies major and an intern at the Centre for International and Defence Policy.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Queen’s should be “for” vaccines Dear editors,

history, and are well supported by modern scientific research.

Regards, As deeply concerned as I am that a professor has been allowed to teach misinformation Colin Sutherland regarding vaccines to students since Sci ‘09 2011, I’m also quite disappointed to read Provost Alan Harrison's comments on the Re: Let’s Talk Binge Drinking issue in the Toronto Star article "Students raise concerns over Queen’s professor’s Dear editors, anti-vaccine teachings," published Wednesday, Feb. 4.

In reading your latest edition’s article In the article, Harrison is quoted as saying “Let’s Talk Binge Drinking”, I wanted to that Queen’s does not have a position on express my complete agreement on being “for or against” vaccines. the arguments presented, and let you A university is supposed to represent know about the initiatives that both higher education and research, and students and administration have been I can’t fathom why Queen’s would not pursuing to deal with this prevalent and often be “for” vaccines, which have been one of alarming situation. the greatest medical inventions in human As of this year, myself and

three other Queen’s students were hired to form a committee within Queen’s University Health Promotion that’s focusing exclusively on alcohol education on campus. Your article hits the nail on the head — one-time campaigns have not proven effective, and there’s much work to be done with regard to orientation programming around drinking.

These two issues have been highlighted as key areas of reform, along with a complete review of the alcohol education materials used across campus and the creation of new learning opportunities.

The goal of these reforms is to bring evidence-based social norm strategies to Queen’s in order to change the drinking culture.

Our project is in its initial phases, currently focusing on an empirical research review

(including the NCHA survey you discussed) to put forth recommendations for change on campus.

While we hope to have a concrete and valid plan of action to implement beginning in the next school year, we understand that change will ultimately require the collaborative and cooperative effort of the entire student body.

As a result, we want to thank you for taking the time to bring this issue to students’ attention and we hope our positions demonstrate that it is one for which we’re working towards drastic improvement.

Best, Alissa Klingbaum ArtSci ’16

10 • queensjournal.ca

Friday, February 6, 2015

ARTS

CAMPUS ART

Painting in positive spirits Profile of fourth-year fine art student Francesca Pang PHOTO BY OLIVIA LONCAR-BARTOLINI

Francesca Pang has been painting since she was three years old.

B y O livia L oncar -B artolini Arts Editor Fourth-year fine art student Francesca Pang uses art as a means of emotional expression, and also as a way to let loose and have fun.

“The fact that I get to make art is a fun thing to be doing,” Pang said. “And I love the fact that I get to go to my studio and paint in my

space and blast music.”

Her work — which hangs in her Ontario Hall studio — is big and bright. Showing elements of fantasy and symbolism, such as a colourful rooster-headed human in a dining room, there’s an eye-catching exploration of interior space. It seems to provoke the viewer to wonder what’s really inside.

One element of Pang’s work that really stands out is the lightheartedness. Much like Pang herself, the artwork is thought-provoking, but playful. It doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Pang said she’s still finding her voice as an artist by experimenting with different themes that fascinate her.

One theme she’s particularly

drawn to is the concept of space and location.

“I like to look at spaces and how we fit into them and how each person can perceive a place differently,” Pang said.

“I think a lot about interiors, and I start with from somewhere familiar like and indoor environment and then add elements of the outdoors.”

A theme Pang said she started exploring last year is the idea of “things on display”, with a strong emphasis on depicting windows in her work.

“I like to show things inside and outside through different layers of paint,” Pang said. “And layers which aren’t possible in the real world.”

Window imagery evokes her sense of curiosity, she said. She always finds herself wanting to look into other people’s windows, wondering what they’re doing.

Pang considers herself foremost a painter and a printmaker — although she’s relatively new to printmaking, having only started experimenting with the medium last year.

When it comes to painting, Pang works mostly in oil paints.

She said her expertise comes from her having started painting at three years old.

What she’s gained the most from her time in the fine art program is a greater ability to think critically about art, she said.

“I’ve learned a lot more about research as an artist, and putting thought into developing a work instead of just painting to make it look pretty,” Pang said.

“Now I really think about different periods in art and how I fit into that place, and also trying to see how my work is going to be different from what’s already been made.”

FUNDRAISER

QHOchella sees a strong turnout Queen’s Health Outreach hosts event for eager crowds at Clark Hall Pub B y M adeleine L eisk K ashmala O mar Journal Staff

and

QHOchella brightened up Clark Hall Pub on Tuesday with friends, conversation and superb music.

The event was established last year by Queen’s Health Outreach (QHO) to raise funds for needs-based peer education nationally and internationally.

The event opened with North of Lawrence, a Kingston-based pop-to-acoustic-music cover band consisting of members Rob Lannan, PheKin ’15, Arisa Valyear and Andrew Mansfield, both ArtSci ’15.

They were followed by Joseph Kotze and the Spirit Animals and The Attic Kids.

Comm ’15 musician theO — who played bass in a hardcore band for four years before transitioning to R&B music — was scheduled to attend, but couldn’t due to sickness.

North of Lawrence entertained the crowd with a lively rendition of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song, a cult classic. The talented trio’s covers of 2014’s top hits were a crowd pleaser and ended with an updated version of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”.

The band met at Queen’s, and started playing together in their

third year after they collaborated for a cover of pop song “Timber”

by Pitbull.

North of Lawrence was followed by Joseph Kotze and the Spirit Animals, who provided their own twist on contemporary music as a cover band.

Joseph Kotze — ArtSci ’13 — and the Spirit Animals use the term “band” loosely, and are a group of friends that jam together for campus events.

The Attic Kids — another student band that’s currently comprised of Nick Castel and Fred Kwon, both ArtSci ’16, Adam Noble-Marks, Sci ’16 and Kyle O’Shaunessey, Sci ’17 — turned the night up with lighthearted indie rock.

The band formed in 2013, and released their first EP Where We Belong last summer. They draw inspiration from bands like Tokyo Police Club and Said The Whale.

While the Tuesday evening time slot made it difficult for some students to attend, Clark was full of over 100 students, anticipating a night of great music.

Students assisting with the event expressed the importance of the presence of students like Conley and the role of events like QHOchella in bringing together a variety of students.

Marni Elman, ArtSci ’17, and

PHOTO BY ARWIN CHAN

North of Lawrence performing at QHOchella on Tuesday.

Casey Goheen, MSc ’16, were inspired to join QHO after a trip to Guyana this past summer and support the diversity of their club and QHOchella.

“What makes this unique is that we have a wide variety of students,” Elman said. “Tons of

people volunteer to donate their time and perform.”

The amount fundraised wasn’t disclosed by the directors, but the total will be split evenly among the six QHO initiatives in Belize, Guyana, Kenya, Northern Canada, Kingston and the

Northwest Territories.

The presence of a diverse student group at events like QHOchella is what makes the proactive community at Queen’s great, Goheen added.

Do you have a passion for fine art, theatre or music?

E-Mail: journal_ae@ams.queensu.ca to contribute.

Arts

Friday, February 6, 2015

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FUNDRAISER

Campus musicians perform for a cause Queen’s Rotaract Club hosts euchre tournament at The Grad Club to help trump poverty B y L auren L uchenski Staff Writer Queen’s Rotaract Club hosted their event “Trumping Poverty Through Euchre” featuring resident student musicians Devan & Khalid.

The club’s mandate focuses on humanitarian work through putting youth in action, said Cindy Lang, Queen’s Rotaract Club co-director.

“Essentially the goal is service above self,” said Lang, ArtSci ’16.

Hosted at The Grad Club on Monday, the event was a euchre tournament — a type of competitive card game — accompanied by mellow music from Devan & Khalid.

“I think [Devan & Khalid] are really talented,” Lang said before the show. “I’ve listened to their songs probably 10 times today, they’ll do a good job.”

The club’s decision to feature Devan & Khalid as musical entertainment after the tournament was a good one — the band brought a good amount of energy to the venue without being overwhelming.

ARTIST SPACE

Tett Centre opens doors New space is now home to eight art organizations B y O livia L oncar -B artolini Arts Editor After 18 months of preparation, the J.K. Tett Centre is ready to be utilized by both Kingston residents and Queen’s students as a multi-purpose community arts space.

Opening its doors for the first time on Jan. 31, the Tett hosted a three-hour multimedia arts event entitled “The Whole Shebang”. It was here that attendees could experience firsthand what the Tett Centre will offer.

Andrea Nann, artistic director of Dreamwalker Dance Company and key organizer of “The Whole Shebang” event, said the goal for the event was to show how future tenants of the Tett will “collaborate creatively” in the shared space.

“We went through an extensive collaborative process with community members who all represented different members of the Tett organization,” Nann said.

Eight arts organizations in total will now call the Tett Centre home.

These include The Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners, The Kingston Potters’ Guild, Theatre Kingston, Kingston School of Dance, Kingston Arts Council, Modern Fuel, Joe’s M.I.L.L. and the Kingston Lapidary and Mineral Club.

Modern Fuel Artist Run Centre, who have now moved their space to the Tett Centre, were previously located at 307 King St. W. Modern Fuel’s open gallery student volunteers, Abby Abric and Brittany Oates — both ArtSci ’16 — said the event was a success for Modern Fuel.

“It’s been steady and really busy,” Oates said. “People are getting up close with the art and really taking the time to look at it. We’ve had a lot of people come through today.”

Both students said the Modern Fuel gallery will continue to display local and regional artists’ work.

The event showcased the organizations and provided interactive activities for guests.

Each of the eight organizations took up a room in the Tett as a station, allowing visitors to stop by and participate.

Attendees were able to get involved with shadow puppetry, performance art, finger-painting, interactive dance, photography, drumming and a chance to view Modern Fuel’s contemporary art exhibition.

Information about the new space and

its tenants — available in the form of both pamphlets and volunteers — was available to visitors as they walked through the space.

The event was packed with over 200 people.

Another one of the Tett’s new collaborative members is Theatre Kingston, a production company that puts on three plays annually at the Grand Theatre.

Brett Christopher, artistic producer at Theatre Kingston as well as the treasurer on the Tett Centre’s board, said he believes the opening of the Tett Centre will positively affect Kingston’s art community.

“Bringing all of the creative groups together in the Tett Centre will put Kingston on the map for arts and culture,” Christopher said. “The whole reason this space was redone is so that it can be a companion to the Isabel Bader Theatre.

“That way, the two together can be combined to form a strong hub of power for culture in a way that’s educational and has a performance component, which is really cool.”

PHOTOS BY ALEX PICKERING

Devan & Khalid performing at The Grad Club.

The duo, Devan Glover and Khalid Yassein, are originally from Toronto but are both fourth-year students at Queen’s.

They released their new EP This Town on Bandcamp in February 2014 and have been playing shows in the Kingston and Queen’s community.

Devan & Khalid’s indie folk sound fit in perfectly with the vibes at Queen’s Rotaract Club’s event.

The duo played their music for forty-five minutes, creating a relaxed atmosphere at the event.

“I figured that their style is very relaxed, so it’s a good follow up to [the tournament],” said Paige Mackinnon, the organization’s other co-director.

The club is a younger chapter of Rotary International, an international organization that participates in local and global volunteer initiatives.

The event was held in order for the club to raise money for their annual two-week long outreach trip to Prince Edward Island.

In partnership with Habitat against Humanity, Queen’s Rotaract Club used an intensive application and interview process to select 13 students to travel to rural P.E.I.

Queen’s Rotartact Club has chosen to go to P.E.I due to the shortage of local volunteers. The area has seen an increase in poverty rates following a downturn in the local economy, coupled with a lack of infrastructure.

These students will build a home for an eligible family determined by a separate screening process by the club.

Their tournament-style event was inspired by the club’s travellers as they brainstormed ideas for campus fundraisers to fund their trip.

“A couple of travellers knew how to play euchre and thought that would be a good idea,” said Mackinnon, ArtSci ’15.

Although Queen’s campus has seen euchre tournaments before, this is the first time this event has been held for the sake of charity.

“We know that there have been a couple on campus before but never for charity,” Mackinnon said.

In total, the fundraiser brought in about $650 for the club.

Queen’s Rotaract Club will continue to have fundraisers throughout the year to fund the remainder of their trip.

Tournament participants playing euchre.

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12 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, February 6, 2015

SPORTS Carr-Harris Cup Queen’s 5 RMC 1 Go to queensjournal.ca/sports for our full game recap.

PHOTO BY MITCHELL GLEASON

COACH PROFILE

Eyes on the big show Lack of on-court experience hasn’t dampened coach’s ambitions B y B rent M oore Assistant Sports Editor Had it not been for his deteriorating eyesight, Michael Ling may have never gotten involved in high-performance volleyball.

The women’s volleyball head coach didn’t play the sport competitively growing up, instead harbouring dreams of a career as a jet fighter in the military.

Now, he finds himself at the helm of the Queen’s varsity program, after spending over a decade with one of Canada’s top university teams.​ Ling started coaching the Gaels this season, having served as an assistant coach with the Alberta Pandas since 2000. He won a CIS national championship with the Pandas in 2007.

Born in Malaysia and raised in Edmonton, the self-professed “bookworm” became interested in volleyball by watching his friends who played in high school.

“I was always a small boy in a big man’s sport,” Ling said.

Instead of athletic pursuits, he had aspirations of joining the military as a young man. He joined the Loyal Edmonton Regiment reserve unit after high school and entertained the idea of signing up with an airborne regiment, but financial and political developments cast a negative light on joining the Canadian Forces, he said.

Instead, he pursued a Bachelor of Education at the University of Alberta — and began volunteering at a local high school, working with the senior boys’ volleyball team.

The next year, he was invited to take over the girls’ team, and succeeded despite his admittedly limited knowledge.

“I came up with this simplistic system, [and] we ended up being really successful — went to city championships, went to provincials two or three years in a row,” he said.

Ling eventually went into

coaching at the club level, opening a door to join Alberta as an assistant in 2000. When Pandas head coach Laurie Eisler called Ling with an offer of employment, he accepted without hesitation.

“I just thought to myself, when the University of Alberta Pandas come calling, you really don’t say no,” he said.

“It was a very scary experience.

I was basically a glorified ball-shagger for many years before I even had the courage to say anything technical.”

The Pandas are a force in women’s volleyball. Ling joined on as an assistant coach just after the team was coming off a string of six straight CIS championships, won between 1995-2000.

“We were in a rebuilding phase at that time. Still had a very good team, but it wasn’t a national championship team at that point,” he said. “I came in as a club coach, a high school coach — not really knowing much of anything.”

The Gaels (11-6) will likely face the Toronto Varsity Blues (17-0) in the first round of the playoffs.

PHOTO BY ALEX PICKERING

PHOTO BY ALEX PICKERING Michael Ling joined the Gaels as head coach this summer after 14 years as an assistant coach with the Alberta Pandas.

Fourteen years later, the father of two has come to Kingston with a little more confidence and a clear vision for the Gaels.

“I came into this program and heard a lot of talk about [how] the goal is to win OUAs,” he said. “I said, ‘what about the national championship?’ That’s the pinnacle. That was always our goal at U of A. You’re going for everything.”

The first-year head coach said he’s driven by a particular will to win — and to win soon.

“People have told me that takes time, and I know it does take time, but there’s always a level of impatience,” Ling added. “That pushes me, and I want to instill some of that drive and that motivation into these young women that are coming into university volleyball.”

No longer the timid assistant coach of yesteryear, Ling has developed a hands-on style of coaching.

“I like to bang balls and I’ll toss balls in. I’ll control the tempo of the drills,” he said. “In many ways I think coaching is that — to create situations for your athletes such that they’re feeling pressure … or

dialing it back a bit so they can actually get some good quality reps to really see how it should look.”

In games, Ling said he focuses much of his attention on the opposing team.

“I know my team, because I spend every day with them so I’m pretty confident what package we bring in,” he said.

The Gaels are 11-6 with two games left in their season: one tonight against the McMaster Marauders (14-3) and tomorrow against the Guelph Gryphons (9-8).

The women sit fourth in the East, which would mean a tough first-round playoff matchup against the Toronto Varsity Blues (17-0).

Ling said he’s optimistic that some of the athletes who pass through his program will continue to play competitively.

“My hope and my goal is to not just give them the university experiences, but to set them up to go to the national team or to find a pro contract in Europe,” he said.

“Work will always be there, career will always be there — but volleyball as a capable athlete won’t always be there when you’re a 30-something.”

Friday, February 6, 2015

Sports

queensjournal.ca

• 13

ATHLETE PROFILE

Gaels’ sabre savant Two-time OUA medalist sparks fencing renaissance B y S ean S utherland Sports Editor Lily Jiang’s second OUA medal was a little bittersweet.

The second-year Gaels fencer captured bronze in the individual sabre at last weekend’s OUA championships in Toronto, a year after winning gold as a rookie in the same event. She also spearheaded Queen’s to their second consecutive provincial team championship.

While bringing home the banner required a team effort, fencing remains a solitary sport — and at events like the OUA championships, the individual competitions can even see fencers from the same school go up against each other.

Jiang found herself in that situation this year; she defeated Gaels captain Julia Meerakker to win the sabre bronze. It was the last match of Meerakker’s OUA career.

Because fencing is inherently individual, Jiang said, there’s an increased desire to win for the team as a whole.

“There’s just so much more emotional support, because you’re no longer competing on your own, but you’re just carrying your whole team forward and everyone’s helping each other out,” she said.

“You’re cheering them on and there’s just a lot more at stake, I’d say, because you just feel the responsibility to do well in order for your team to do well.”

Winning has come often to Queen’s since Jiang arrived in 2013-14. Before last year’s championship, the Gaels hadn’t captured an overall OUA title since a run of four straight from 2001-04.

Jiang said she was confident heading into

this year’s event that the Gaels would be able to repeat.

While she has seen success at the OUA level, Jiang got her start in fencing under the tutelage of an even more acclaimed athlete.

When Jiang was 12, her parents suggested the self-described “introvert” take up fencing, in part due to their admiration for Jujie Luan, who won the 1984 Olympic gold medal in women’s foil for China.

Luan had since moved to See Tight-knit on page 15

Before coming to Queen’s, PHOTO BY ARWIN CHAN Lily Jiang trained with 1984 Olympic gold medalist Jujie Luan.

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14 •queensjournal.ca

Sports

Friday, February 6, 2015

GAELS 5, PALADINS 1 Queen’s routed the winless RMC Paladins in the 29th Carr-Harris Cup at the K-Rock Centre on Thursday night, redeeming their 2-1 loss from last season.

Photos by Mitchell Gleason

Sports

Friday, February 6, 2015

queensjournal.ca

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Crucial points at stake Gaels renew rivalry with Golden Hawks with playoffs imminent B y S ean S utherland Sports Editor When women’s hockey hosts the Laurier Golden Hawks tomorrow, memories of last year’s OUA finals won’t be on their mind.

The Golden Hawks captured the provincial championship at the hands of the Gaels in a three-game series last March.

The two teams have since met once, with Queen’s prevailing 5-4

in overtime on Nov. 22. Gaels head coach Matt Holmberg said that victory removed any weight on his players’ shoulders.

Instead, he said his team is focused on the points up for grabs in a tight OUA playoff race. Seven points separate the league’s top six teams — including Queen’s (14-3-3) and Laurier (12-5-4), who sit fourth and fifth.

“In terms of the game itself, it’s a big two points for us as we

Five of the last eight meetings between the Gaels and the Golden Hawks have gone to overtime.

JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

Tight-knit club Continued from page 13

Edmonton — Jiang’s hometown — and started coaching in the city.

“She was really, really friendly and encouraging, and even though I didn’t have that athletic gene in me, she really helped me get my start in fencing and I just kind of grew to love it from there,” Jiang said.

Jiang was coached by Luan for two years, switching to a new coach after changing weapons from foil to sabre. She made the leap to competing at the national level when she was in high school; since then, she has competed at a number of Canadian and international tournaments, including events held in Moscow and Puerto Rico.

In her final tournament before starting at Queen’s, Jiang won an overall silver medal in sabre with Team Alberta at the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke.

She finished sixth in the individual event.

Because of her prior experience, Jiang came to Queen’s with a greater skill level than many of her teammates, who tend to have picked up the sport recently. She said coming to Queen’s forced her to adapt to different types of fencers.

“It’s not just me fencing and training on a one-on-one basis with a coach anymore,” she said, “It’s me interacting with a whole

bunch of students from a variety of skill levels and us helping each other develop.”

While women’s fencing has seen a great deal of success during Jiang’s time at Queen’s, they’ve done so without garnering much attention from the student body.

As a varsity club, fencing doesn’t get the same recognition as varsity teams and has to operate under a smaller budget. While financial constraints require the team to run fundraisers to help subsidize competitions and buy equipment, Jiang said, there’s a benefit to club status.

“I know for one thing that we’re put under a pretty tight budget,” she said. “At the same time as a club, it alleviates the pressures of a team, because we’re a lot more relaxed and there’s not that much of a pressure to do well. It’s more about having fun and meeting new people and helping each other grow.”

Though fencing isn’t as well known on campus as other sports, Jiang said the camaraderie she has with her teammates makes up for it.

“It really helps that everyone is really open and friendly with each other so I can actually go to practice expecting to get part of this social compartment of my life where I interact with people,” she said. “I help them develop and I know that they’re going to help me back.”

battle for playoff spots,” Holmberg said. “With Laurier in the mix, you know they’re going to be looking for two points. Failure to pick up two points at this point of the season could drop you from second to sixth, almost. It’s a big, big two points.”

The game should be exciting, if history is any indication. The teams have needed overtime to decide five of their last eight meetings.

Holmberg said the Gaels aren’t viewing this weekend’s game as a potential playoff preview — even though Queen’s and Laurier would face off in the first round if the proceedings started today.

“We’re looking at this game on Saturday as a standalone game,” he said. “Obviously, it could be a bit of a precursor to a playoff match, but we’re treating it as what it is, which is a very important league game.”

For the Gaels to come away with the win this weekend, they’ll need to get pucks to the net and beat the Golden Hawks’ stingy defence. Laurier has allowed the fifth-least goals against per game in the OUA. Holmberg said Queen’s penalty kill must also step up. The Gaels’ unit is currently the OUA’s worst, while Laurier boasts the second-best power play.

“Our penalty kill is going to be called upon from time to time,” Holmberg said. “We’re going to need to make sure we get out to their point, to their D [defence] and try and prevent those shots from getting through.”

The contest will also see the OUA’s top offences go at it; Queen’s has averaged 3.1 goals per game and Laurier is just behind them at 2.95.

Both teams boast multiple players among the OUA’s top scorers. Gaels winger Taryn Pilon sits third in the league with 22 points, while captain Shawna Griffin has racked up 21, tying her with Laurier captain Laura Brooker for fifth.

Brooker will miss tomorrow’s contest, as she’s representing Canada at the Winter World University Games. While she’s a major piece of the Golden Hawks’ offence, Holmberg said Laurier’s depth should compensate.

After facing the Golden Hawks, Queen’s will host the ninth-place Waterloo Warriors (9-8-4) on Sunday in a matchup Holmberg said is just as important for the Gaels. Waterloo is just one point out of a playoff spot, with three games remaining on their schedule.

The weekend will take on a special meaning for the Gaels — it’s their final homestand of the year, and the final pair of regular season games at the Memorial Centre for the team’s graduating players.

The Gaels will honour those veterans — including Griffin and assistant captains Mary Coughlin and Chelsey Verbeek — before puck-drop against Laurier.

Holmberg said it’s a tilt he’s anxiously anticipating.

“It’s always an exciting game against Laurier, and I always get pumped up for games like that,” he said.

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16 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, February 6, 2015

LIFESTYLE STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Campaign chaos Running for student government can be draining, but a supportive team helps B y K ate M eagher Assistant Lifestyle Editor If you’re planning on running for student government, you may as well plan to sacrifice sleep, school work and any downtime.

Incoming Undergraduate Trustee Jennifer Li lived this reality in the weeks leading up to her victory in last week’s election.

Li, ConEd ’17, described the first period of her campaign as particularly chaotic. After deciding to run on Jan. 6, Li had just 10 days to put together her campaign.

One of the first things to lose priority for a candidate in a student election is their studies.

“I think I went to maybe one class during the first 10 days,” Li said.

Things didn’t calm down once

campaigning began. On a typical day, Li woke up at 7:30 a.m. for class talks, which were held every half hour between 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. She would also take a shift manning her campaign booth between 12-4 p.m., while updating social media throughout the day.

When time allowed, she would eat.

For Li, it came down to prioritizing what had to be done now over what could be done later.

PHOTO BY MICHELLE ALLAN “I knew that this was a once in a Carolyn Thompson volunteered as a campaign manager for a team in this year’s ASUS election. lifetime opportunity that I would never get again and I knew that strong web of support in her team having somebody that’s reminding Beyond providing the fuel academics I can catch up on and that kept her going throughout the you to eat, having somebody that’s and reminders necessary to keep ... I can ask for an extension, I can campaigning period. calling you at 8 a.m. and making going, Li’s team was also integral to get notes from someone, but it’s “The biggest thing is definitely sure you’re awake and having keeping her driven and confident. not like I can get an extension on having that team so that you don’t somebody send you funny videos “You need people around you this campaign,” she said. have to stress about the little things,” so that you’re not too overwhelmed that wholeheartedly believe that Getting notes from classmates Li said. … I could not have done it without you can do it so that you don’t was just the beginning. Li found a “Having that campaign team, support like that.”

See Success on page 17

COLUMNS — QJ SPORTS

Super Bowl hate

This year’s big game drew an audience that loves to hate on NFL players B y A dam L askaris Staff Writer

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is known as a big trash-talker.

SUPPLIED BY JEFFREY BEALL

COLUMNS — QJ HEALTH

The side effects of sitting Sedentariness is the latest health concern for Canadians

B y C aela F enton Staff Writer You won’t want to sit down when I tell you the latest health scare, because that’s exactly the problem — sitting.

This unhealthy habit hits close to home for university students who spend many hours a day sitting in lectures or studying at the library.

According to an Oct. 2014 report by The Conference Board of Canada, based on Statistics Canada research, experts warned that sitting is the “new smoking.”

Some dangerous effects of prolonged sitting include an increased risk in diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

Our current culture has taught us that as long as we drag our butts to the gym or occasionally go jogging, we’ve checked the box in terms of protecting our physical health.

This new research shows that

getting up and doing a lap around the library every few minutes might be even more important than that 30 minutes of cardio every other day.

Yet the research also shows that only 15 per cent of Canadian adults get the recommended 150 minutes a week of vigorous physical activity.

Does the 150 mark ring a bell?

You might recognize it from the ARC’s recently-launched “Get your 150” campaign, an initiative to encourage students to be more physically active.

What we need to remember though, is that movement needs to be interspersed throughout our days — not just limited to the time we spent in the gym.

Here’s what you can do to keep on your feet.

Sit less at the library Fill your water bottle up only halfway when you go to the

fountain. You have to get up twice as often to fill it and also do a lap around the floor.

Visit a washroom on a different floor. This way, you’ll get in a flight of stairs — just remember to ask the person beside you to watch your things.

Use movement as a reward.

Every time you finish a reading a chapter or an article, get up and do a full body stretch.

Sit less at home Consider wearable technology.

There are tons of different options on the market right now that allow you to track the number of steps you take, stairs you climb, calories you burn and so much more. Having a goal to reach, like 10,000 steps a day, can be a great motivator to move more.

Walk instead of taking public transit. With the Kingston winter flexing its muscles at the moment, See Stand on page 17

It’s amazing how much the word “hate” gets thrown around when talking about the NFL. Super Bowl XLIV — the game’s most recent instalment, played last Sunday in Glendale, Arizona — might as well have been dubbed the “Hate Bowl”.

It’s hard to find two teams who get more animosity directed towards them than the Seattle Seahawks and the NFL champion New England Patriots.

The game’s two quarterbacks were far from the cause of the hatred. Russell Wilson of the Seahawks is renowned for his poise, character and charity work.

New England’s Tom Brady has upheld a similar reputation for years. Of course, every star athlete will still have their detractors, but the two are among the sport’s most respected leaders.

But there are other personalities on both sides that drive the hatred.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick employs a permanently cold and unwelcoming approach to nearly everyone in the public sphere, and has been questioned repeatedly for his involvement in various “cheating” scandals.

Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has had several issues with the media, often repeating the same monotone sentence in press conferences without allowing the possibility of open questions.

Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, meanwhile, epitomizes every stereotype of a high school jock grown up. Photos

of his partying exploits emerge every off-season, and he was recently quoted saying he hasn’t read a book since grade nine.

And then there’s Richard Sherman, leader of the “Legion of Boom” Seahawk defence, who is known for being one of the game’s biggest trash-talkers. Everywhere you look on these teams, it seems you’ll find controversial personalities.

As much as these teams and players are hated, many also love them, too. They’re currently among the league’s most popular teams.

Wilson had the NFL’s highest selling jersey in 2014, while Brady ranked fourth, according to the league.

Lynch has been one of the game’s best running backs for nearly his entire career, and has done tremendous amounts of charity work for underprivileged youth.

Belichick is in the conversation for best NFL coach of all time.

Gronkowski has set new standards for tight end play in the NFL, having established single-season records for both receiving yards and touchdowns by a tight end in 2011.

Sherman graduated from Stanford University and consistently challenges stereotypes, despite growing up in a city with one of the worst reputations in America: Compton, California.

Twitter and other fan sites were running amok during the Super Bowl, pointing fingers at every error and making fun of any minor mistake.

Sherman’s bewildered reaction to Wilson’s late interception was See Love-hate on page 17

LIFESTYLE

Friday, February 6, 2015

queensjournal.ca

• 17

Stand up, don’t sit Continued from page 16

this can seem unappealing. But if you check the weather and bundle up, you may be surprised by how much more refreshed you feel when you arrive in class.

Study with cue cards. Since these are less bulky than a book, you can pace while you study. Cue

cards can also be taken to the gym to use while on a stationary bike or stretching your lower body.

Ask a housemate or friend to go for a walk. The Kingston waterfront is just as breathtaking in winter as it is in summer, especially when it’s frozen. You can also offer to walk a neighbour’s dog to sneak in some extra fresh air.

Love-hate relation both teams lose.

That’s the beauty of one of the one such moment, spawning world’s most violent pastimes. memes, GIFs and Vine videos New England’s eventual 28-24 spread all over social networks. win was one of the most exciting But no one would care if the games in the sport’s history, only players weren’t among the best at escalated by the two teams and the their jobs. Both New England and personnel involved.

Seattle are fantastic football teams In the words of James Franco’s filled with stars. character Dave Skylark in The The hype around the game was Interview: “They hate us, cause bigger than usual because of the they ain’t us.”

ILLUSTRATION BY ARWIN CHAN personalities involved. And for Kudos to both teams for Sitting, like smoking, poses serious health risks, although it lacks social disapproval. many people, they’d have preferred providing a spectacle to remember nothing more than somehow seeing on the sport’s biggest stage. keep the team’s spirits high. volunteers need their own support.

“Having a moment to laugh and “I have two Bop Its at home. So, “I’m lucky that I have my smile with your volunteers or with I think it was day two that I was like, housemate in my politics classes your candidates is something that ‘Okay, if volunteers are coming and so she got my notes for me is really important.” helping us out with this, they might and everything and really just as well have something fun to do,’” catching up,” Thompson said.

Continued from page 16 manager for the incoming ASUS Thompson said.

The support from an executive, Brandon Jamieson and “You need things to enthusiastic team is key to a doubt yourself.”

Andrew DiCapua. stay light-hearted and you successful campaign, but also to Carolyn Thompson had the In addition to logistical concerns, need things to stay kind of maintaining everyone’s academic opportunity to provide that support like making sure everyone was relaxed during it, because it is a performance and emotional wellfor a candidate team. Thompson, awake when they needed to be, stressful time.” being outside of the campaigning ArtSci ’17, was the campaign Thompson made it her mission to But even a candidate’s period, she added.

Continued from page 16

Success with support

Follow @QJLifestyle.

LIFESTYLE

18 •queensjournal.ca

Friday, February 6, 2015

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ACROSS 1 Pale 4 Cornfield invader 8 Send forth 12 Comedian Philips 13 “That hurts!”

14 Disarray 15 Annual celebration 17 Entangling weapon 18 Genealogy chart 19 Not so high 20 Pale 22 Null and — 24 Optimistic 25 Pretend to sing, maybe 29 Larry’s pal 30 Raise a price at auction 31 Water (Fr.) 32 Laws 34 Pierce 35 Reverberate 36 Suburbs, usually 37 Require, a re-test,

Test Drive Your Career

perhaps 40 Missile shelter 41 Reindeer herder, often 42 Begin a journey 46 Con 47 Classroom VIP 48 Early Grey, for one 49 Drudge 50 Some evergreens 51 Chop DOWN 1 Symbol of intrigue 2 Parisian pal 3 Arm of the Atlantic 4 Actor Sacha Baron — 5 Discourteous 6 Goose, in Guadala jara 7 “What for?”

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16 Deuce defeater 19 Speech impediment 20 Weaponry 21 Chimney dust 22 YouTube offering 23 Piece of work 25 Rock (Suff.)

26 Assets minus liabili ties 27 He played Sonny Corleone 28 Wheel centers 30 Dollar 33 One of a group

standing in an alley 34 Unaccompanied 36 Envelope part 38 Dianne or Nathan 39 Doing 40 Pack away 42 Agent 43 Before 44 Ball-bearing item 45 Hem’s partner

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Please see your Career Centre for more details and to register.

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Friday, February 6, 2015

LIFESTYLE

queensjournal.ca

• 19

www.CityofKingston.ca/getinvolved

Have your say.

What was your experience of the 2014 municipal election?

The City of Kingston is currently undertaking a review of the 2014 municipal election and is seeking input from residents on their voter experience. We want to improve our election process, and increase voter participation.

There are several ways that you can participate in this review: • At a public meeting of the administrative policies committee 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12 in Council Chambers at City Hall, 216 Ontario St. • Through an online survey at www.CityofKingston.ca/getinvolved.

Council members and City staff will be at the public meeting, which will be chaired by councillor Peter Stroud, chair of the administrative policies committee.

Wish to speak at the meeting? Register at the welcome table ahead of the meeting. Speakers will be chosen in random order and offered a maximum of five minutes to present.

Written submissions are also being accepted and can be sent to: John Bolognone, city clerk City of Kingston, 216 Ontario St., Kingston, ON K7L 2Z3 electionsurvey@cityofkingston.ca All feedback will be considered in developing a final report that will be presented to the administrative policies committee no later than March 12.

20 •queensjournal.ca

LIFESTYLE

Friday, February 6, 2015

POSTSCRIPT

Too close for comfort

Whether you’re living with close friends or strangers, first-time housing situations can be unpredictable B y L eigh C ameron Copy Editor Our kitchen counter hadn’t been wiped in weeks, over 40 pairs of shoes covered the front hall and the compost bin was overflowing.

That was the moment when my housemates and I realized it was time to dole out responsibilities.

Choosing your housemates can seem like one of the toughest decisions you’ll make at Queen’s.

Some housemate stories make you feel as if you’ve walked into a horror movie, complete with an evil roommate and a creepy, decrepit home. But it’s important to know that not every housing situation has to end in a dramatic fight between you and your housemates.

Many housemates are able to comfortably stay together during their time at Queen’s. Even if you do have to move out, there are always better housing situations close at hand.

I’m fortunate enough to live with five great girls in a spacious house. I love living in a house of six because there’s always someone at home to chat or watch Netflix with.

Our landlords are very friendly and attentive to problems in our house, and we communicate well as a house.

No house is perfect, though, and we’ve had our share of problems. We began the year with no chore schedule, which was a big mistake. When things started to get bad, we realized it was time to do something.

The rotating chore schedule has made a huge difference in the state of our house, as we now all have specific responsibilities each week instead of the more laissez-faire style.

Our house communication has also improved after the looming tension over whose duty it was to clean the kitchen counter disappeared. We still have slippages sometimes, but overall we have a good system that keeps the house clean and our friendships healthy.

Despite our ups and downs, we’ve never had to bring matters to the Housing Grievance Centre (HGC). The Queen’s-based centre offers advice on anything from

housemate conflicts to finding that [they’re] the bad person,” affordable, safe housing. he said. “Just make sure you’re HGC Co-Directors Jennifer concentrated on what you want Williams and Albert Kwan have resolved. That tends to get the seen their fair share of broken best results.” locks, bug infestations and Confrontations can be housemate drama. intimidating, but the HGC offers According to Williams, mediation sessions between ArtSci ’16, the more people you live housemates to make sure with, the more housing conflicts everyone’s voice is heard. you may see.

Even if your housemate “[W]hen you get those situation goes downhill, it’s not the large groups of five or six-plus end of the world. students joining together, you “There’s always this idea that tend to see differences in sleeping ‘We’re going to run out [of houses], patterns, whether or not they use we’re going to run out. Let’s find substances, if they have girlfriends some place, it’s okay and we’ll take or boyfriends,” Williams said. it because we might not be able “Things like that start to pop out to find somewhere,’” Kwan said. which you may not have seen “Don’t worry about that. Find a in first-year.” place that you’re all comfortable Level of cleanliness is also a and happy with.” common cause for dispute. I’m Nicole Costa’s housing situation sure most of us are familiar with last semester was far from ideal. the passive-aggressive “please clean Her biggest takeaway from the your dishes” note that can lead to experience was realizing you don’t bigger blow-outs. truly know someone until you live Houses that don’t operate with with them. similar belief systems can create Costa, ArtSci ’17, moved into similar strains on a student. For a house in May with three friends example, a non-drinker living with from first-year. Her problems a house of party animals isn’t the began in the summer, when her best idea. first paycheque didn’t coincide “It can affect their academic with the rent due date. situation, their financial situation.

“I told my landlords that [and] Any sense of beliefs not matching they were perfectly fine with it with up or those rules that you might me paying rent the next week. But have not matching up, that would apparently my housemates didn’t be a huge red flag.” trust me after that even though I The HGC co-directors told them and disclosed everything recommend signing a housemate about my financial situation with agreement before entering into them,” she said. a lease with someone. This way, Costa was the only one of her when issues arise, housemates housemates using OSAP, which can bring out the contract as a made her housemates uneasy, reminder of previous agreements. she said.

But it’s important to remain flexible and open to making changes or compromises to the contract, Williams added.

Face-to-face contact is always more beneficial than sticky notes or Facebook messages. If conflicts occur, the best bet is to have a conversation.

Kwan, ArtSci ’16, recommended not being too accusatory. “[W]hen you’re having that open conversation, it’s very important to separate the person from the issue. Don’t say anything that might have the implication

Small arguments over cleanliness and noise can easily escalate and lead to bigger blow-outs among housemates.

“They would ask me if I was able “They’re completely to pay rent and utilities on time understanding, they’re very open and each time I would say yes, but and friendly and they’re fantastic. they would continue asking me They like to have movie nights and these questions and it made me they like to sit at the table and talk really uncomfortable,” she said. after class,” she said.

Costa had to live with her Like Costa, Diahanna boyfriend for almost three months Ramadhar, also lives with someone in order to avoid the mounting she had never met before. After her tension in her house. When she housemate left Queen’s, Ramadhar, finally announced her intention to ArtSci ’17, welcomed a stranger to move out in second semester, the the house. house meeting turned nasty.

Her old housemate had “It was really explosive — interviewed several people to everybody was yelling, I was ensure the new tenant’s personality crying,” she said. would mesh well with Ramadhar Her biggest problem was the and her other housemates. lack of open communication “It helped that I was able to get and trust between herself and in contact with her prior to moving her housemates. in. She was especially kind as to “They really, really did hurt my reach out and introduce herself, feelings … a lot of what they said providing a short biography and did have to do with me and my offering to answer questions we financial situation and that’s really might have about her,” she told the personal to me, because it’s money Journal via email.

I worked hard for and money my Bonding with her new parents worked hard for.” housemate, similarly to Costa, was Luckily, Costa has found a new done through friendly chats and housing situation more suited to movie nights. her relaxed personality. One of “The little things you do together the best parts of her new home is are the most valuable,” Ramadhar the designation of roles within the said. “We started bonding by house, a system not present with sitting in the living room after her past housemates. classes every couple of days.”

“Having that one person in It’s risky to live with someone contact with the landlord or the you don’t know well, but common one person in contact with the interests can help ease the transition. internet company is a lot easier A stranger with a similar lifestyle than everybody trying to be that may even work out better than a one person to do all the jobs,” notoriously messy friend. she said.

“Honestly, this could’ve gone Although Costa was worried one of two ways: very well or very about living with girls she had badly,” she said. Fortunately for never met before, a combination me, it went well — I gained a really of movie nights and open cool new friend, a supportive peer communication alleviated her fears. in my program and really great company in our house.”

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX PICKERING