Vol. 4 Issue 16

THE VOL. 04 ISSUE 16 05.08.2012 NEWS AND CULTURE FOR THE STUDENTS OF KWANTLEN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

SOUTHLANDS REPORT BURIED TSAWWASSEN LAND DEAL CONTROVERSY PAGE 7

NEW KWANTLEN PREZ ALAN DAVIS TAKES THE HELM PAGE 3

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page two | May 08 2012 | vol. 4 issue 16

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NEWS

www.runnermag.ca | The Runner

vol. 4 issue 16 | May 08 2012 | page three

CAMPUS NEWS

The Runner Roundup A brief run around the latest news from the world of Kwantlen and beyond.

New student senators elected Two new faces will join the Kwantlen board of governors (BOG) in September, after winning a decisive victory in the March 19 online election.

Iman Ghahremani and Jared Penland won the two student seats on the board with 25.7 and 25 per cent of the total vote, garnering 183 and 178 votes respectively.

Turnout for the board election increased by 31 per cent from last year’s election, with 710 votes cast.

The senate results were even higher with 887 cast votes, a 59 per cent increase over 2011.

Veteran student politician Robert Mumford was soundly defeated

in both the senate and board races.

In addition to his current one-year term on the board, Mumford was previously an elected student member of the BOG from 2008-2010.

Kassandra Linklater, the other current student board representative, did not run for reelection.

Penland and Ghahremani were also elected to the Kwantlen senate, joining re-elected incumbents Kari Michaels and Christopher Girodat as the four student respresentatives.

All newly elected persons will take office on Sept. 1 for one-year terms

Kwantlen picks new president

PHOTO COURTESY OF KWANTLEN

Kwantlen has a new president. On April 2, the board of governors announced the appointment of Alan Davis as incoming president and vice-chancellor effective Sept. 1, 2012.

Davis has studied and worked at institutions in the U.K., United States and Canada, including the British Columbia Open University, Athabasca University, Niagara College, Douglas College, Fraser Valley College and Vancouver Community College.

Most recently, Davis was the president at State University of New York, Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, NY. A native of Reading, England, Davis has been a resident of North America since 1972, and spent the majority of those years in British Columbia.

“Coming back home to B.C. to lead Kwantlen Polytechnic University is a dream

come true,” said Davis in a released press statement.

“It is one of the most interesting and important universities in the province and the country, serving a growing and diverse population with its dedication to teaching and learning, scholarship and service.

Kwantlen has established a bold vision and made serious commitments to the communities and students it serves. It is an honour to be asked to further define that vision, and to join this outstanding university community as it fulfills those commitments.”

Davis is also a published playwright who has worked extensively in community theatre. He is married with four children.

Davis takes over for John McKendry who has been serving as acting president since July 2011.

NEWS

page four | May 08 2012 | vol. 4 issue 16

The Runner | www.runnermag.ca

UNIVERSITY

Cloverdale admissions moving to Langley I

MATT DIMERA SARAH SCHUCHARD

More than two dozen faculty and students confronted university administration last month after receiving an April 13 memo outlining changes to student services on Kwantlen’s Cloverdale campus.

Most of the Cloverdale admission staff will be moved to Langley in May, leaving only a single person at a counter to deal with students, according to the memo. It also explains that Cloverdale will be turned into a cashless campus at an unspecified later date.

Anne Lavack, Kwantlen’s provost and vice president – academic, and a phalanx of administrators, met with the informal group Thursday, April 19, to quell concerns over the alleged cuts.

In the meeting, Lavack repeatedly insisted the changes were not cuts and would actually expand the total hours of frontline service from 33.5 hours to 40 hours.

She also fired back at the crowd, criticizing Kwantlen faculty for their “culture of grumbling.”

“If you notice something that’s amiss that needs to be fixed and has to do with some other part of the university, don’t just grumble among yourselves at coffee, go and talk to [your dean],” she said. “You need to kind of change this culture of grumbling and turn it into an action-oriented culture where you work with your dean to get things changed. That’s the way to get things done.”

Faculty members also expressed concerns at the seeming lack of consultation and notice, upon learning that the plans

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had been in the works since 2010. Several faculty also asked if there were plans to cut other services, such as the bookstore, the library, food services or counselling.

Lavack would not rule out the possibility of more cuts being made to Cloverdale services in the future.

“Things are tough all over the university and they’re not going to get any easier,” she explained.

“There’s always ideas floating around,” she said. “I’m not saying that there won’t be changes in the future to try and create some economy, but we want to try and maintain as many services as we can here at Cloverdale.”

Lavack did not respond to a request for an interview from The Runner before deadline.

Kwantlen’s provost Anne Lavack says that things are tough all over the university. PHOTO COURTESTY OF KWANTLEN

www.runnermag.ca | The Runner

NEWS

vol. 4 issue 16 | May 08 2012 | page five

POLITICS

Board members could be ousted at B.C. universities as Bill 18 signed into law I

ARSHY MANN CUP WESTERN BUREAU CHIEF

VANCOUVER (CUP) — A bill that would allow post-secondary boards in B.C. to oust governors has become law despite stringent opposition from student, staff and faculty organizations.

Bill 18, which amends a number of laws that govern post-secondary institutions, has received royal assent in the province. Since it was first brought to the legislature last autumn, critics have alleged it undermines the role played by those who work and study at B.C. institutions.

“This is absolutely anathema to what a university is, to be shutting down contrary points of view,” said Robert Clift, executive director for Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C.

The act allows post-secondary boards to oust a member with a two-thirds vote and bars elected representatives from serving as the chair of a board. It also restricts members from sitting on both the Board of Governors and a union or association that engages in collective bargaining with the institution.

While the Ministry has said that these changes are necessary to prevent conflicts of interest, these groups argue that this is a blatant attack on students, staff and faculty.

“It’s remarkable that we’re seeing this bill … be an act of the legislature now, despite the fact that every key stakeholder group — students, staff and faculty — are adamantly against [it],” said Kyle Warick, vice-president external of the University of British Columbia’s student union, the Alma Mater Society.

Since the bill was tabled in November, an amendment was made to it that allowed provincially appointed board representatives to also be voted out by a two-thirds majority. However, Clift argued that because the elected representatives of most boards usually make up less than a third of the total members, this means little in practice.

“It’s not possible for the elected members of the board to get together and oust an appointed member of the board, but it’s still possible for the appointed members of the board to get together and vote out an elected member. So that dynamic hasn’t changed.”

Both Clift and Warwick claim that when their organizations sat down with the Ministry to discuss the bill, their concerns were largely ignored.

“When we brought forward logical arguments, they haven’t been taken into consideration fully, even when we have met with the minister,” said Warwick.

According to Clift, the Ministry ignored many inconsistencies within the bill. For instance, although a faculty or staff member can’t be an executive of a group negotiating with the university, they can still sit on the bargaining committee.

Clift said that if any university, college or institute board used the new powers to oust an elected member, it would create discord.

“Clearly they want to pick a fight, and they’re going to get a fight if any faculty member, student or staff is affected by these changes. I think the government is going to see something that they didn’t anticipate,” he said.

ENVIRONMENT

York phases out plastic water bottles from campus I

LEE RICHARDSON CUP ONTARIO BUREAU CHIEF

TORONTO (CUP) — Plastic water bottles are set to be phased out at York University as part of a campus-wide sustainability drive.

In an effort to reduce the environmental footprint of both campuses, a plan to replace all plastic water bottles with refillable bottles and refill drinking stations is being set.

This follows similar eliminations of water bottles at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University.

“We’ve done a bit of research on what other universities have done,” said York environmental studies professor Ilan Kapoor, who is also chair of York’s sustainability council.

“I know certainly at U of T and Ryerson they found that there was a bit of a backlash

because there weren’t available alternatives to water bottles, and that’s why we wanted to call ours a phase-out rather than a ban.”

That means a predicted doubling of refill water stations over the next three years, for when the complete phase-out is completed

by September 2015.

“It’s something that has to be supported as a whole across a campus,” said Beth Savan, sustainability director at the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. “What happened [at the University of Toronto] is that first it was initiated by students, it was picked up on by staff and it also has the support of the facilities.”

The decision to phase out water bottles was reached by a committee that consists of student, faculty and staff representatives from across the university, according to Kapoor.

“This is a kind of a collective decision making process,” said Kapoor. “We wanted

to take kind of a holistic and a sustainable approach.”

Kapoor added that he acknowledges that while bottles will be cut from campus vending machines and food service areas, there is still the fact that students can simply bring in their own from off campus.

“At some point, we have no control over what individuals choose to do,” said Kapoor, adding that there will be educational drives to promote awareness of the phaseout. “All we can do is inform them so they have some choices,” Kapoor said.

Other issues raised against the practicality of cutting water bottles from universities include the consumer right to choose what they want, and the idea that instead of buying water, students in a rush will simply choose less healthy drinks from vending machines or food service areas.

According to McGill medical and law faculty member Margaret Somerville, there

is also an ethical debate surrounding the eliminating of water bottles.

“People with small-L liberal values who are usually the politically correct crowd, they are very pro-environment and they’re very pro-individual autonomy,” said Somerville. “They’ve got a conflict of values within their own values because banning plastic water bottles is contrary to individual autonomy and individual rights to decide.”

Somerville added that renaming what is effectively a ban on water bottles could lead to different results. According to Kapoor, both U of T and Ryerson felt a backlash from students when they both imposed what they called a ban. Calling it a phaseout, according to Kapoor, will hopefully stop this backlash.

page six | May 08 2012 | vol. 4 issue 16

EDITORIAL

The Runner | www.runnermag.ca

OPINION

Where are all the female writers for TV? I

LEAH SCHEITEL CAPILANO COURIER (CAPILANO UNIVERSITY)

VANCOUVER (CUP) — There seems to be an uprising of TV shows featuring one girl amongst the ranks of men (The Big Bang Theory and Zooey Deschanel’s New Girl, to name a few). These shows are likely representations of the offices where many TV shows are written, with one quirky female amongst an entourage of men.

In a book about the history of Saturday Night Live (SNL) called Live From New York, political satirist and one of the original writers of SNL Al Franken is quoted as saying, “Saturday Night Live was a very positive experience for all of us. It was really just a wonderful fucking thing for everybody.”

“All of us” was apparently non-encompassing. Men have a very different experience working at SNL than women. On the next page of the same book, Janeane Garofalo, who worked on SNL from 1994–95, explains her reason for leaving the show, stating, “life is a boy’s club. So SNL is a reflection of that. I’ll admit that I was not ready to deal with that wall of resistance.”

This boy’s club scenario is not specific to SNL. In 2009, there were no women writers on the The Jay Leno Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. There was one on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: his younger sister, Lynn Ferguson. The lone female writing for Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the host’s girlfriend.

Late night TV isn’t the only sector of television that suffers from a lack of female writers. Amongst prime-time TV writers, a mere 15 per cent are female, down from 35 per cent in 2006. Since the writers’ strike in 2007, the female writer has become a dying breed — and apparently to be a female writer for late night TV, you may have to be related to the host or sleeping with him.

The main detriment of losing female writers is that female characters are being primarily written by men, and therefore can be easily misrepresented. Men will be more inclined to write their ideal female characters instead of more realistic females, as a

woman could write from experience. This may fuel the demeaning ideal of the “perfect female,” which is already a symbol in mass media: a size-four woman who can eat endless amounts of potato chips and not get a belly, who looks perfect in the morning and wakes up without morning breath, and who never suffers from PMS. If young females see these characters, they may strive to be more like them, creating a new kind of Barbie syndrome.

In an article in the Huffington Post, Maureen Ryan pinpointed advertisers as one of the main reasons why the female writer is becoming increasingly rare. “We’re not making art out here, we’re making programming that allows networks to sell ad dollars,” says Jill Soloway, one of Ryan’s sources and a writer for Six Feet Under and How to Make It in America. “The only ad dollars that appeal solely to women only are diapers and cleaning products.”

Male writer Kurt Sutter echoes that view in an interview on Vulture.com: “Just look at the primary measuring statistic for a viewing audience; the only statistic that matters financially — males 18–49. Networks demand that shows be aimed at that target audience. They have to. That’s what advertisers demand of them. No ads, no TV. So by default, for the most part, we are creating television for white guys,” he says.

And who better to write for white guys between the ages of 18–49 than white guys in that exact age bracket?

With advertisers meddling in the creative process of television writers, the chance of seeing an increase in females writing for network television is slim. As Jill Soloway explained to Maureen Ryan, “Sometimes I watch Louie, which, for my money, is one of the best shows I have ever seen on television, and wonder if … a network would air a show where a woman was talking about masturbating and farting (in an awesomely deep way, mind you). The answer is no — not because networks hate women, not because studios refuse to hire women creators — but because there is no brand that would be willing to be associated with the idea of such an antiheroic woman.”

You can help fix the root of the female

ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH VITET/CAPILANO COURIER

writer problem by supporting stations that support female writers. That might mean donating to a public broadcaster.

The chances of seeing more female writers on programs created for publicly funded television, such as PBS, are greater. Maybe, instead of tolerating “ideal” female characters written by men, we should contribute to ideal television networks that have creative control without interference from

advertising bullies. Such networks can foster female writers and their realistic female characters.

We know that there are good female writers. They just need a broadcaster that won’t be prejudiced against the type of women they represent and write about. Until men and advertisers are comfortable hearing about strong women who menstruate, we won’t be seeing it on network television.

www.runnermag.ca | The Runner

FEATURE

vol. 4 issue 16 | May 08 2012 | page seven

SOUTHLANDS

Kwantlen buries review of alleged ethical violations

I

MATT DIMERA NEWS EDITOR

Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) quietly buried a review into allegations of ethical violations by the school and two researchers, despite earlier promising to make the results public.

In July 2010, then-KPU-president David Atkinson ordered a probe after local media outlets, including the Vancouver Sun and the Province, reported that two Kwantlen researchers had promoted the proposed Southlands development to a Tsawwassen

land-planning committee without disclosing that the university had received $50,000 from the developer of that project.

The university also stood to gain use of a new research centre and a reported $100,000 additional endowment if the development was approved.

“Kwantlen Polytechnic University regrets any confusion or misunderstanding generated from its involvement with Century Group’s Southlands project,” Atkinson wrote in a July 20, 2010 press release announcing an official review into Kwantlen’s dealings with the development proposal.

“The results of the review will be made available to Kwantlen’s board of governors and subsequently made public.”

However, records obtained by The Runner show that report was completed by September 2010, but was never released.

An Oct. 5, 2011 Freedom of Information Act request submitted to Kwantlen for all records relating to the review referenced in Atkinson’s press release turned up a report titled Kwantlen Role in Southlands. The report has no attributed author.

The Southlands review was apparently completed and presented to Kwantlen’s

board of governors Sept. 29, 2010 at an incamera meeting held behind closed doors.

Although a copy of the report obtained in 2011 says that it was released, no mention of the report or its release is made in the public minutes of that meeting available on KPU’s website.

No one from the university was available to answer before deadline as to why the report had never been released.

Continued on next page

FEAT

www.runnermag.ca | The Runner

SOUTHLANDS

University refuses to answer questions about Southlands review The Controversy In December of 2009, two directors from Kwantlen’s Institute for Sustainable Horticulture (ISH), Kent Mullinix and Arthur Fallick made a presentation to the Tsawwassen Area Plan Advisory Committee about urban agriculture and the proposed Southlands project.

According to minutes from that meeting, Fallick introduced the presentation, talking about “a vision for B.C. which involves creating sustainable agriculture and sustainable communities.”

In 2010, “Southlands the Facts,” a vocal opponent of the Southlands projects, filed a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered the Century Group had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with KPU, agreeing to pay $50,000 for consulting fees and if the development was approved, to provide more funding for research and to build and provide access to a new onsite research centre.

The Century Group hoped to build a 1,900-home development on 218 hectares of agricultural land, while integrating 40 per cent of the land into an urban park and farm.

The contentious development encountered strong opposition within the community and has still not been approved.

When the news first broke in July 2010, Jason Dyer, Kwantlen’s executive director for research told the Province that “it is not normal for us to disclose our financial agreements.” He also insisted that Mullinix and Fallick had not been lobbying.

“Just because somebody pays the cost of research doesn’t mean the research is not independent. Costs have to be paid by somebody,” he said at the time.

Atkinson commissioned the review of Kwantlen’s actions shortly after.

David Atkinson, former Kwantlen president and current president of Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, declined to be interviewed for this story. RUNNER FILE PHOTO

The Conclusions The 1600-word Kwantlen Role in Southlands report was commissioned to address the public allegations that the university had acted as an undeclared paid lobbyist, engaged in unethical behaviour, failed to disclose the funded research agreement with Century Group, and sought to benefit financially from an approval of the proposed Southlands development by the city of Delta.

It completely exonerated both the university and the researchers, saying that

none of their actions were problematic on their own, but that it was their combination that had “left the impression that Kwantlen researchers were acting as paid advocates for the Century Group further to its Southlands Project.”

The report mentioned that the university knew that Kwantlen’s involvement with the Century Group might prove to be controversial. It referenced a report Atkinson made to the board of governors in May 2009, saying the Southlands project had a “troubled history.”

“While there are very definite advan-

tages in Kwantlen participating in a major project focusing on urban agriculture and sustainability, we are aware of the potential political liabilities,” said Atkinson.

“Accordingly, we have discussed this project at length with the Delta Administration, and will continue to exercise very careful diligence as the project evolves over the next several years.”

According to the report, the media reports were unfounded and all three elements of the controversy could be explained: the MOU, the $50,000 research contract and the alleged lobbying of the land committee.

TURE

vol. 4 issue 16 | May 08 2012 | page nine

Why wasnt the report released publicly?

Who authored the report?

have a set of proper rules about externally funded research at the time. It suggested that KPU had therefore been “left exposed to the kind of criticism it eventually experienced.” It also said that hiring a dedicated research administrator would prevent future problems.

The report further concluded that the December 2009 presentation by Mullinix and Fallick had been strictly objective, and that according to the minutes of the meeting the two researchers had not claimed to be advocates for the Southlands project.

While it found that no one at Kwantlen had done anything wrong, it offered suggestions how to avoid similar situations in the future. The university now says that future memoranda of understandings will be more fully investigated, future research contracts must be approved by its internal research office, and new financial procedures have been implemented for externally funded research.

John McKendry, acting Kwantlen president, declined to answer questions about the Southlands report. PHOTO COURTESY OF KWANTLEN

It suggested that the $50,000 research fee was unrelated to the agreement between Kwantlen and Century group to provide the university with a research centre for urban agriculture and dedicated funds for a permanent research endowment, and that the presentation made to the planning committee was not a lobbying effort.

The report stated that the MOU was not a legal contract but a signal of “a genuine desire to work together on issues of common interest.” It suggested that the funding agreement was a normal part of being

a university: “universities today routinely pursue such activities as a way of supporting their research activity. It might also be said that this sort of arrangement was implicit in the concept of ISH in the first place.

It was further understood that, should the Southlands project go ahead, the University would benefit from a research facility to be built as part of the project.”

According to the review, the researchers had not properly informed Kwantlen about their research project, but it concluded that it wasn’t their fault because Kwantlen didn’t

Blame The Media The Kwantlen Role in Southlands report absolved the university of any wrongdoing and instead laid the blame for the alleged scandal on the media.

According to the review, the news reports were “unfortunate” and had “insisted on telling only one side of the story.”

It concluded by suggesting that the situation could have been avoided if the university had only had better public relations procedures in place. It said they needed to be better equipped to handle that level of media attention, but that they had just hired a new director of communications and marketing who would help Kwantlen “imple-

ment some much needed changes.”

Silence Nearly two years after the original allegations surfaced, many questions about Kwantlen’s involvement with the Southlands development and the subsequent report remain unanswered.

Why wasn’t the report released publicly? Who authored the report? Was Atkinson involved in the probe?

None of the involved parties from Kwantlen were available or willing to comment for this story.

Neither of the two Kwantlen researchers involved in the Southlands project agreed to be interviewed. Mullinix declined to comment on the record when reached by phone and email. Fallick did not respond to an emailed request for an interview.

Dyer, who is now the associate vice president of research at Kwantlen, referred a request for an interview to the university’s spokesperson, Joanne Saunders.

Saunders, KPU’s director of marketing and communications wrote in a Dec. 16 email to The Runner that she didn’t have information to questions about the Southland’s report but would review with the president’s office. In mid-January, Saunders told The Runner that the university had no comment.

Former Kwantlen president Atkinson declined to be interviewed for this story. He left his post at Kwantlen in June 2011 and is now the president of Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton. According to his office, Atkinson didn’t feel it was appropriate for him to comment.

page ten | May 08 2012 | vol. 4 issue 16

CULTURE

The Runner | www.runnermag.ca

FINE ARTS

Fine Arts students put best feet forward at Grad Show 2012 Graduating students from Kwantlen's newly-established Bachelor of Fine Arts program presented their best work during last month's Grad Show, which took place on Cloverdale campus. The show ran from April 13 to 17.

Emily Jae Young Han, Grounded Ungroundedness (2012, 6ft. x 6ft., metal pipes and wires). CHRIS YEE/THE RUNNER

Debbie Langtry, Muscle Memory (2012, video installation). CHRIS YEE/THE RUNNER.

www.runnermag.ca | The Runner

CULTURE

FINE ARTS

>>

GRAD SHOW CONTINUED

Clockwise from top left: Kelsey Lacroix, Drifted (installation, mixed media), Debbie Langtree, Self-Portrait (sculpture, wax and mixed media), Kimberly Roseweir, Endangered Animals Series (2011, 8 2in. x 3in., oil on canvases), Wei Heng Liu, Obsession Series (oil on canvases), Andres Salaz (oil on canvas/mixed). CHRIS YEE/THE RUNNER.

vol. 4 issue 16 | May 08 2012 | page eleven

page twelve | May 08 2012 | vol. 4 issue 16

CULTURE

The Runner | www.runnermag.ca

ARTS

Kwantlen’s Moving Images art festival: the winning entries I

TINJA BERG, AND ROXANNE CHARLES, “THE BRA”

CHRIS YEE SENIOR CULTURE WRITER

The inaugural Moving Image Festival took place at Kwantlen’s Surrey campus on April 20.

The festival, organized by Kwantlen student Shelly Leroux for a class project, showcased dozens of video artworks, from experimental video art pieces to music videos and fake movie trailers.

At the end of the event, a panel of students in the Fine Arts program picked the top three videos in two categories, videos by youth and videos by Kwantlen students.

The creators of the top three videos from Kwantlen students talked to The Runner about their winning entries.

What is this video about?

Our video is a reinterpretation of [the] children’s story The Hat, by Jan Brett. We created a humorous adult version of this story about pop-culture where the main character, Hedgie the Hedgehog, ends up setting a trend by defending his new look. The story begins with a bra blowing off of a clothesline nearby, which [then] randomly lands on Hedgie and gets stuck on his prickles. All the other animals [who] know him make fun of him and question his taste in (accidental) style. He [then] sets the trend of rocking lingerie. The video... comments on how pop-culture drives the trends of society today.

FIRST PLACE: CHELSEA LAWRICK, “UNTITLED”/”MUSIC VIDEO FOR THE ‘MOLDY PEACHES’”

What were your inspirations for this video?

We really wanted to create a more raw and traditionally artistic stopmotion video out of magazine cutouts. We [also] wanted to incorporate animals and humour with narration.

What song is in this video?

Chelsea Lawrick: The song is called “Jorge Regula” by the Moldy Peaches.

I always thought the song was simple and sweet, and as I had not done very much video work prior to this video, I recognized that the song would lend itself to a simple, amateur-looking filming style.

What were your inspirations for this video?

CL: A few years ago, I remember being shown a video art piece where the artist just filmed peas in a pot from a still state to rapid boiling, and I thought it was really beautiful, so I wanted to put in a quick reference to that.

What was it like making this video? Did you work with anyone else?

CL: My friends Mo Quotob and Holly McKinney are the two people who are in the video. Another friend, Charity Stelmacker, also helped out. It was basically storyboard-

A still from third-place winner, The Bra, by Courtney Burt, Kelsey Lacroix, Tinja Berg and Roxanne Charles. CHRIS YEE/THE RUNNER.

ed over a couple days and it was just a few friends hanging out for a few hours doing fun things and laughing. Little ideas developed as we were filming were included, like using pink lemonade instead of wine. It was just an easygoing process that yielded a simple, laid back video.

SECOND PLACE: KENNY CHUI, “MR. ROBOTO” What is this video about?

Kenny Chui: My video is basically about a curious robot sneaking around at Kwantlen, especially in the Fine Arts department building.

What are your inspirations?

KC: My videos are often inspired by Pixar shorts and films. I really admire the way

Pixar is able to give character and life to everyday objects such as toys, insects, cars, etc.

What was it like making this video? Did you work with anyone else?

KC: The entire video was done by myself, I have always done CG animation for fun, but I have never used CG animation in my artwork before. This video was the first time that I really get to apply CG animation techniques into my artwork. And in some ways, this video helped define my artistic “style” in the following years here in Kwantlen.

From then on, I always make sure there is some sort of CG animation influence in my artwork.

THIRD PLACE: COURTNEY BURT, KELSEY LACROIX,

Who did you work with to make it?

Kelsey Lacroix, Tinja Berg, Courtney Burt, [narration by] Jason Lee

What was it like making this video?

This video was very fun and laborious! All of the imagery, the scene and characters were all made from magazine cut-outs.

Our stop-motion [animation] encompassed a still frame for each movement. We took hundreds of pictures. Getting the right lighting was our biggest challenge. Once the pictures were taken, after many retakes, we also had to edit [the footage], which took countless hours. Although I think there is always room for improvement, I think that hard work and teamwork create amazing outcomes. I am extremely happy with my team and what we were able to create and accomplish.

www.runnermag.ca | The Runner

CULTURE

vol. 4 issue 16 | May 08 2012 | page thirteen

FILMS

Burton barely strays in period-piece Dark Shadows I

KRISTI ALEXANDRA CULTURE EDITOR

WITH FILES FROM WARNER BROS.

Johnny Depp plays a master of a 1700s manor who gets transported to 1972 in Dark Shadows. COURTESY OF WARNER BROS PRESS.

FILMS

Summer sneak preview in stills

Clockwise from top-right: Julianne Hough as Sherrie Christian and Diego Boneta as Drew Boley in New Line Cinema’s rock musical, Rock of Ages Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne in action thriller, The Dark Knight Rises. Zach Galifianakis as Marty Huggins and Will Ferrell as Cam Brady in the comedy, The Campaign. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES.

Director Tim Burton brings the cult classic series Dark Shadows –– the television series created by Dan Curtis –– to the big screen in a film featuring Burton’s usual suspects, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter.

In the year 1750, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from England to start a new life in America, where they build a fishing empire in the coastal Maine town that comes to carry their name: Collinsport.

By 1770, Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet.

As the master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy –– until he makes the grave mistake of falling in love with a beauty named Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote) and breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green).

A witch in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than

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death — turning him into a vampire, and then burying him. Alive.

Nearly two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972, a stranger in an even stranger time.

Returning to Collinwood Manor, he finds that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin, and the dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets.

Family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the one person Barnabas entrusts with the truth of his identity.

His rather odd behavior, however, raises the suspicions of the live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), who has no idea what kind of problems she’s really digging up.

As Barnabas sets out to restore his family name, one thing stands in his way: Collinsport’s leading denizen, who goes by the name Angie, who bears a striking resemblance to a very old acquaintance of Barnabas Collins.

Dark Shadows opens on May 11, 2012, worldwide in theatres and IMAX.

page fourteen | May 08 2012 | vol. 4 issue 16

CULTURE

The Runner | www.runnermag.ca

OPINION

The subliminal side of family game night I

JACEY GIBB THE OTHER PRESS (DOUGLAS COLLEGE)

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. (CUP) — Everyone knows that kids are a bunch of impressionable sacks of flesh. They’re so eager to absorb new information that a lesson’s content is often unquestioned. In the midst of a recent board game session with my little brother, I began to realize just how many alarming lessons can lie within a game’s instructions.

The most obvious example of this is in The Game of Life (made by Hasbro), which is specifically designed to walk you through the successes and failures one can expect over their lifetime. Nowhere else are society’s basic norms laid out so blatantly for you. STOP! Get married. STOP! Buy yourself some real estate. Both are unavoidable in The Game of Life, even though real life quickly teaches us that not everyone has

a ring and a mortgage to their name. The game enforces a traditional lifestyle, without much room for individuality. At the game’s end, it doesn’t matter how many kids you had, that you won the Nobel Peace Prize, or that you enjoyed everything along the way; the winner is whoever has accumulated the most wealth — because everyone knows that money is the most important thing in life.

The same can be said about Monopoly, everyone’s favourite form of capitalism in a box. Your goal is to buy up as much real estate as possible, build up an empire on your monopoly of properties and force your competition into declaring bankruptcy. Sounds a bit like the Vancouver or Toronto scenes, doesn’t it?

While we’re on the topic of games that take an eternity to play, Risk, the game of strategic conquest, revolves around players’ abilities to dominate their opponents

and wipe out armies until they’ve successfully conquered the entire world. I’m not a fan of war glorification and war in general, so that might explain why half of the times that I’ve played Risk have ended in myself and another player simply declaring world peace. Either that or the game takes an unbearably long time to finish.

My favourite board game of all time is 1313 Dead End Drive. Rich Aunt Agatha has recently passed away, and your goal is to murder everyone else and escape with the most money. While everyone starts with $1 million, that’s not considered a sufficient sum to be a winner. Greed is incredibly prominent in the game, while homicide is strongly encouraged.

There are a few games that actually endorse healthy habits and reward ethical qualities. Scrabble encourages proper spelling and rewards people with extensive lexicons, while Scattergories forces players to

think creatively. Even Sorry found a way to incorporate proper manners instead of just having players massacre each other until there’s only one person left.

People may argue that these are all just games and shouldn’t be considered influential, but if violence and mature subject matters in other media are considered dangerously suggestive, then aren’t board games also agents of influence?

IMAGES_OF_MONEY/FLICKR

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www.kwantlen.ca/doeswritingmatter RSVP "Writing Symposium" at PDReg@kwantlen.ca

PROCRASTINATION

www.runnermag.ca | The Runner

STARS

vol. 4 issue 16 | May 08 2012 | page fifteen

SMART ZONE

LIBRA Sept. 24 - Oct. 23

ARIES March 21 - April 19 Irony is dead. Pick a new trope and grow a metaphoric moustache.

Spend your summer living on the sunlight-only diet. I hear it’s green.

TAURUS April 20 - May 20

SCORPIO Oct. 24 - Nov. 22

Mars is transiting your sign this month - wait, what does Mars have to do with...?

Ceci n’est pas un homard. Idiot.

SAGITTARIUS Nov. 23 - Dec. 21

GEMINI May 21 - June 20 Your sign shares a name with my favourite project in the space program. Go you.

Call me Ishmael.

CANCER June 21 - July 23

CAPRICORN Dec. 22 - Jan. 20

Cats are known as “catties” from now on. Use babytalk whenever possible is what I always say.

LEO July 24 - Aug. 23

AQUARIUS Jan. 21 - Feb 19

Whatever I said last time, times a million.

I don’t think you understand the seriousness of this situation.

VIRGO Aug. 24 - Sept. 23

PISCES Feb. 20 - March 20

Wanna sell your U-pass? I only have pennies...

All we are saying is give peas a chance.

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.

Across

Down

1- It’s a wrap; 6- Snack in a shell; 10- Drinks (as a cat); 14- HI hi; 15- Poet Pound; 16- A dish with many ingredients; 17- Extra-terrestrial being; 18- It’s got you covered; 19Commendably; 20- Seaport in S Crimea; 22- Be of one mind; 23- Heating fuel; 24Historic county in E Scotland; 26- Actress Peeples; 29- Switch ending; 31- Genetic material; 32- Aries or Taurus; 33- Depilatory brand; 34- Cash in; 38- Eastern nanny; 40- Become an ex-parrot?; 42- Canadian gas brand; 43- Flowering; 46- Goddess and sister of Ares in Greek mythology; 49- Loss leader?; 50- CD forerunners; 51- Sled; 52Charged particle; 53- Small fish; 57- Votingpattern predictor; 59- Commerce; 60- Gus McRae’s occupation in “Lonesome Dove”; 65- Architect Saarinen; 66- Prefix with meter; 67- Angry; 68- Again; 69- Defense grp. since 1949; 70- Taboos; 71- Mend with rows of stitches; 72- Ollie’s partner; 73- Huge;

1- Swedish auto; 2- _ breve; 3- Agitate; 4- Lots; 5- Durable yellow fabric; 6- Resembling a monster; 7- Northern arm of the Black Sea; 8- Frog sound; 9- Bumbler; 10- C or D, for example; 11- Olds model; 12- Heaps; 13- Mends a shoe; 21- Zhivago’s love; 22- Actress Heche; 25- Discount rack abbr.; 26- Final Four org.; 27- Metrical foot; 28- Asian sea; 30- Bay window; 35- Actor Morales; 36- This, in Tijuana; 37- Complain; 39- Limitation; 41- Outburst; 44- Mayberry moppet; 45- AOL alternative; 47- _ Rhythm; 48- Marketing; 53- Lieu; 54- Boxing venue; 55- Less common; 56- Acclaim; 58- Vive _ !; 61- Kofi _ Annan; 62- “Give that _ cigar!”; 63- Lots and lots; 64- Hotbed; 66- Ques. response;

page sixteen | May 08 2012 | vol. 4 issue 16

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