The Cascade Vol. 24 No. 7

MARCH 2 TO MARCH 8, 2016

VOLUME 24 ISSUE 7

Dreaming up new names for fees since 1993

What would an earthquake do to UFV? SUS ELECTIONS 2016

EDITORIAL 路 YEAR IN REVIEW 路 INTERVIEWS p. 2, 7, 11-14

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

CONTENTS

U F V

News

Opinion

Debate! Debate! Debate!

Gazebos!!!

SUS elections officer holds pleasant, calm, orderly all-candidates meeting

Take a look around you — things are happening under those conical roofs

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10

Culture & Events

Arts in Review

Twelfth Night, Burning Man-style!

Three directors take Shakespeare to the Nevada desert

One last gasp of winter horror!!

The Witch trades in shock for suspense and historical fear

15-16

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CONTRIBUTORS

STAFF Editor-in-Chief Michael Scoular michael@ufvcascade.ca

Opinion Editor Alex Rake alex@ufvcascade.ca

Illustrator Sultan Jum sultan@ufvcascade.ca

Managing Editor Valerie Franklin valerie@ufvcascade.ca

Culture Editor Glen Ess glen@ufvcascade.ca

Webmaster (interim) Michael Scoular michael@ufvcascade.ca

Business Manager Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts jennifer@ufvcascade.ca

Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro martin@ufvcascade.ca

Multimedia Editor Mitch Huttema mitch@ufvcascade.ca

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca

Production Manager Brittany Cardinal brittany@ufvcascade.ca

Staff Writer Sonja Klotz sonjak@ufvcascade.ca

News Editor Vanessa Broadbent vanessa@ufvcascade.ca

Production Assistant Danielle Collins danielle@ufvcascade.ca

Advertising Rep Kayla Schuurmans kayla@ufvcascade.ca

Ekanki Chawla Remington Fioraso Jasmine Hope Silva Megan Lambert

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA @UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE INSTAGRAM.COM/THE.CASCADE

Joel Robertson-Taylor Pankaj Sharma Terrill Smith Rachel Tait

Volume 24 · Issue 7 Room S2111 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Cover Design: Sultan Jum Cover Photos: Mitch Huttema Printed by International Web exPress

The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It originated under its current name in 1993, and achieved autonomy from the university and the Student Union Society in 2002. This means that The Cascade is a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published in an entirely student-run setting. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds, and is overseen by the Cascade Journalism Society Board, a body run by a student majority. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a print circulation of 1,500 and is distributed at Abbotsford, Chilliwack (CEP), Clearbrook, and Mission UFV campuses and throughout the surrounding communities.

The Cascade is open to written, photo, and design work from all students; these can come in the form of a pitch to an editor, or an assignment from an editor. Writers meetings are held each Monday at 2:00 p.m. in The Cascade’s office on the Abbotsford campus.

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In order to be published in the newspaper, all work must first be approved by The Cascade’s editor-in-chief, copy editor, and corresponding section editor. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. Letters to the editor, while held to the same standard, are unedited, and should be under 400 words. As The Cascade is an autonomous student publication, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, The Cascade’s staff and collective, or associated members.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

EDITORIAL

NEWS BRIEFS New student fee proposed for 2016-17 budget Budget planning documents show UFV administrators are looking to introduce a new fee that would come into effect for the next academic year. Dubbed the “Student Experiential Learning and Wellness fee,” the additional cost would add on two per cent of all tuition students pay — for a student on-track to complete their degree in four years (30 credits per year), this would mean an addition $83.70. The document describes the use of this fund, which is estimated at a total of $540,000, as for “the development and support of experiential and co-curricular learning opportunities, health and well-being services and programming, and expanded peer mentoring and peer tutoring opportunities.” Questions about the budget will be open to students at two consolidated budget forums to be held Monday next week, 9:30 a.m. in Chilliwack (A2428), 3 p.m. in Abbotsford (A225).

International tuition raised again, with a new fee UFV’s Board of Governors voted in favour to raise international student tuition for the next academic year at their meeting this past December.

The decision was made in private (in camera). “While we have increased our fees steadily over the past few years, we are consistent when compared to other universities,” the rationale reads. Tuition will rise 3.2 per cent, from $7,800 to $8,050 per semester, and an “International Administration Fee” of $700 per semester will now also be charged to first-year international students. As well, an application fee of $100 was added for students wishing to study abroad.

SUS sets date for AGM SUS set a date for their Annual General Meeting (AGM) at their recent board meeting on February 29. The meeting will be on Tuesday, April 5 at 4 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Student Union Building. “If we go any later and we have to go to a second meeting, we’ll be hitting exam period,” said SUS president Thomas Davies.

Choosing a date for the AGM was the only item of business for the meeting, as SUS decided to delay all of their other business until their next meeting on March 14, where they will also announce the results of the upcoming SUS elections.

EDITORIAL

Does SUS have your back?

Also: what’s SUS? As elections open, a messy year at the student union spills over MICHAEL SCOULAR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

“As soon as we grasp something … it’s gone! See?” — Jacqueline Bisset, La nuit américaine This week, UFV’s Board of Governors just happened to mention, in the minutes for its next meeting, that it decided to raise tuition for international students next year by 3.2 per cent. Oh, and there’s a new $700 fee each semester for international first-years too. The reason? Well, UFV has to stay competitive, and everybody else in the province is doing it! This isn’t much of a surprise — there was a raise last year too, and for all the homeowners thinking, “Glad that isn’t me!” well, you can expect word of the regular annual two per cent raise in a month or two — the maximum allowable by the province.

And there’s another fee they’re considering adding as well (see the news briefs to the left).

UFV, we hear all the time, is stuck in a difficult position. It has to please many masters, and finances won’t grow on their own. But there is a voice in here that’s suspiciously silent: the student union.

Many students are familiar with the SUS because it provides several useful services: the U-Pass, the Campus Connector shuttle, a coffee shop, a health and dental plan. But as a union that represents UFV’s student population, when those students are directly affected by changes, the SUS is more notable for flying to Ottawa, talking to politicians, and posing for photo ops with Justin Trudeau than it is for standing up, or even giving the impression it will stand up to UFV’s administration.

It isn’t easy being a student politician — the second anyone has enough experience to know what to do, how to crack through legal language and a history of shaky finances, how to truly help students, as the line goes, they’ve graduated (or left). There’s only so much you can cover in a year, a year still full of courses and exams — this means every year at the SUS, goals will be left incomplete, promises unfulfilled, hard lessons learned. But it’s possible to empathize with the task of reaching a dispersed, commuter campus while also finding fault with SUS’s leadership — run less like a union, more a business, and not necessarily a well-oiled one.

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As a union that represents UFV’s student population, when students are directly affected by changes, the SUS is more notable for flying to Ottawa, talking to politicians, and posing for photo ops than it is for standing up to UFV’s administration.

The structure of SUS, currently, is equipped to handle the millions of dollars of student fees paid into its accounts every year, dispersing them to enterprises, filling in gaps left by administration’s priorities.

But its purpose ends there — are you hoping for a culture of determined, passionate support for all students, not just the handful that volunteer and buy-in to SUS’s current direction? Would you like for the SUS to let students know what it’s working on, maybe inform students in a timely, detailed way what it is spending money on? Or maybe you don’t care that much about any of this — but a moment comes when you need to find out something about a fee or a club, and you’d like to navigate a regularly updated website. In the past year, SUS has kept to its policies and standards, which say: no one at SUS is allowed to speak publicly except for the president. Information is available, they say, if you request it at the front desk, where you can expect to be handed a business card or two and referred to an arcane procedure — exactly the kind of welcoming, open approach you’d want from your union.

And so transparency has become one of the talking points in this year’s SUS election campaign. Because of regular turnover, none of

Photo: Sultan Jum

the three main executives will be returning to their 2015-16 positions.

Several staff, both permanent and student positions, resigned during the past year. And, as the voting period opens, a significant amount of work is left to do: hirings, potential restructuring, addressing a financial situation where multiple lines are already over-budget.

Are the candidates up to it? Do they have any idea what they’re getting into? I’ll say this: some of the responses from the interviews we conducted (which begin on page 12) are not promising. There’s a candidate for president who clearly has no clue what SUS is (hint: it isn’t all-powerful); multiple candidates who think SUS is just fine as it is; and echoes, regarding the endlessly complex business of getting students to care, that students will somehow automatically listen to whatever SUS says so long as a new, idealist candidate is saying it.

Now, realism is boring, but this group of candidates (which, at least, is larger than in past years) is a sign of something: SUS has not paid enough attention to what students think or know about it. SUS’s shying away from sharing news with the student population, its ignoring of its purpose as something students are supposed to be able to gather with and be represented by, means that any first-year with a few ideas left over from high school can suddenly be 200 friend-votes away from being in charge of an executive portfolio (the usual margin of victory, or total vote-count, depending on the year).

SUS, to many students, is irrelevant — but so long as the fee list students pay into every semester goes to them, they will remain one of the most important figures on campus. Do you have the time to read through candidate statements? Maybe not. But consider this: over the years, a few votes in another direction means there isn’t a Student Union Building, or there isn’t a connector shuttle, or there’s someone working to reverse the incoming tide of additional fees. A student with little more experience than your friend taking ECON courses is about to gain responsibility over millions of dollars in student funds. Whether it’s a vote, or a word sent SUS’s way (a small step forward: most candidates are promising to instate office hours, or something close to it, when they will be reachable by students during the week), it’ll affect a new, impressionable leadership group. As politics, it might not be great, but it might be the kind of nudge they need to figure things out, the way this past year’s group never did.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

NEWS One debate runs, one cancelled, in last week before SUS election

U-House now rentable as “flexspace” SONJA KLOTZ THE CASCADE

After nearly a year of sitting vacant, U-House on Abbotsford campus sits as a building in transition — no longer a student hangout space, but not the site of a major makeover either.

In April 2015, Student Life moved out of the U-House and into the Student Union Building along with many of the student service related departments on campus.

As a result, only half of the U-House space has been utilized by the Centre for IndoCanadian Studies, leaving the other half completely empty. Although there have been various proposals brought forward to the campus space planning committee, none of them came into fruition. One of the proposals discussed the possibility of turning the space into a conference centre for external organizations and companies.

“About this time last year, with the help of the architects that were involved, [we] took a look at the bones of the building and the age of the building and … it doesn’t really have the potential for a big addition,” says Craig Toews, executive director of campus planning and resource development.

Instead of turning U-House into a conference centre, the university decided

to clean it up and do a paint and patch job after Student Life left. Currently, it is being used as a flexspace — rentable for events, but otherwise closed.

“The university doesn’t have a lot of space outside of classroom schedule,” Toews says.

“So students, faculty, departments, and people can book it as flexspace.”

Toews adds that there is a priority list for the building. “There may be some smaller groups that get bumped by larger functions because of the space’s size and configuration,” he says.

In addition to this, UFV has recently hired a conference coordinator, Karen Robey, who will be working primarily out of the U-House space. Her position is to oversee all conference and event planning engagements that will be taking place on the university campuses, including the flexspace.

Robey’s is a new position at UFV. “It centralizes the services,” Toews says. “It leverages our space to make revenue for the university, but it also provides a much better community experience when they come on campus.”

For Toews, the number one priority is education, and if outside rentals help with operational costs, Toews thinks this would not only be beneficial to students, but to UFV as a whole.

VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE / PHOTO

With less than a week until the voting period for the upcoming Student Union Society (SUS) elections, two all-candidates meetings were held on campus.

The first, on February 24 at Baker House, was cancelled after only five candidates attended.

The second meeting, held February 29 in the atrium of the Student Union Building, saw all of the candidates attend except for Sahil Chawla and Rooiana Alizada.

The meeting began with opening statements from each of the candidates, which was followed by a question period. Each candidate was asked a question by Gurv Brar, the event’s moderator and SUS’s chief electoral officer. Their opponent was then given the opportunity to present a rebuttal to their answer.

Questions for the executive candidates included how to improve circumstances for clubs and associations, improving transparency, and what the candidates saw as most important in their portfolio.

Faculty representatives were all asked the same question: what their experiences were in the faculty they are representing, and how this prepares them to represent students. While each candidate had their own response to each question they received, there were overarching themes of student engagement and increasing transparency.

“The fact that you guys showed up is great,” vice president external candidate Panku Sharma addressed the crowd, “but as you know, most people don’t know what their union’s doing or what it offers.”

Vice president internal candidate Cameron Stephen commented on the lack of communication between SUS and clubs and associations.

“A lot of those communication barriers are existing with various clubs and associations I’ve talked to,” he said. “They’re not made aware of what access they have to various things, or even what events are going on.”

Before ending the meeting, candidates were given 30 seconds to present a closing statement.

Voting takes place from March 7 to 10 on myUFV.

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Photo: Mitch Huttema

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

NEWS Chilliwack North campus nears potential sale JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR CONTRIBUTOR

Chilliwack North campus has been for sale for seven years and mostly vacant since 2012, when its programs and classes moved to the new building at Canada Education Park.

The only remnant of university activity is the theatre program, which operates out of the still very active theatre. Currently, negotiations that could lead to the sale of most of the property are underway and are expected to be wrapped up by mid-summer of this year.

Previously, fluctuations in the economy had created turbulence in the market for the selling of the property.

“We’ve had numerous leads and interested parties. I’ve toured all sorts of people though there, realtors and such, but not really anything [significant] until this year,” says Craig Toews, executive director of planning and resource development at UFV. “This year we have one developer who’s interested in about 13 acres of residential development and another group who’s interested in using the front piece of our property for a private school.”

The front piece includes the existing C building, formerly health sciences. The potential buyers, the Cascade Christian School and Van Maren Group, a Chilliwack development company, are both interested in pieces of the property, but neither has committed yet. While the private school attempts to raise enough money for the purchase, the Van Maren Group has been working on negotiations with the city for development approval.

“We’re selling them the land, but it’s the city they have to convince to allow them to build

what they’d like to build on that property,” Toews says.

The sale of Chilliwack North is actually part of an earlier and greater plan to fund other projects.

“The importance of the sale of the campus is to pay down the debt we incurred in building CEP,” Toews explains.

While the $2.5 million purchase price may seem like a welcomed addition to UFV’s bank accounts, it has been purposed since before the initial marketing of the property. “A lot of people think, ‘Oh we sold it, we’re going to have money to do things’ — no, it’s to pay down the debt,” Toews reminds.

When the property is sold, the theatre department will continue to operate out of the Chilliwack North theatre for approximately five years.

Plans exist to ultimately bring the department to Abbotsford, however a timeline for this hasn’t been concretely established.

“The long term plan is that they would get a new theatre space within the digital hub project,” Toews says, referring to the proposed building that exists as a large capital project.

This would potentially be located on the Abbotsford campus as part of the Abbotsford campus master plan, though funding for the project is not secured.

As the deal stands now, it’s a “hurry up and wait” kind of situation. UFV is hopeful of the sale, to both of its interested buyers, but nothing is set in stone, and marketing will continue until a deal can be reached.

“In the middle-end of summer we’ll have a lot more to report on in terms of finality,” Toews says.

Photo: UFV Flickr

Men’s soccer holds open tryouts for the first time VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE

With six months until the start of their new season, the Cascades men’s soccer team has already started their recruitment process. On March 6, the team will be hosting an open tryout at W. J. Mouat Secondary School — the first time the team has done so.

Head coach Tom Lowndes explains that this is unusual for the team, as most recruitment is done by scouting players from other leagues.

“It’s the first year that we’re doing an open tryout where anyone can sign up. In years past it’s been by invitation.”

Lowndes hopes that the tryouts will help bring in players that aren’t spotted during recruitment.

“I wanted to just have a night that was purely devoted to interested players,” he says.

The tryouts will focus on technical elements, as well as game situations.

Recruitment isn’t always the easiest task for coaches, but Lowndes is slowly seeing some improvement.

“As a smaller school, we’re going up against some of the bigger power houses in Canada West: UBC and UVic,” he says. “It’s tough sometimes to compete with that, but I think people have seen we’re starting ourselves as a strong program in Canada West. It’s getting easier to recruit players, and it’s getting easier to recruit quality players to do well for us.”

Having recently signed three Surrey United players (Ryan Donald, David Parfett, and Jesse March), Lowndes notes that regardless of the results of the tryouts, he is content with his roster.

“I’m happy with where we’re at. I’ve typically done a good job of recruiting years in advance,” he says. “We lose one player — it’s a big player, Colton O’Neill — but with the quality of players we’ve got and have signed, I’m more than happy.”

Regardless, Lowndes hopes that the tryouts will bring in some new faces.

“It gives them the chance to come and show us what they can do and see if they’re fit for the program,” he says.

Photo: UFV Athletics

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

NEWS Peer Resource and Leadership Centre moving, slower than expected, towards completion MEGAN LAMBERT CONTRIBUTOR

If you’re curious about the bright orange corner beyond the glossy lounge in the Student Union Building, it’s intended to be a directory of UFV where you can ask questions or find support if you’re having a tough time.

The Peer Resource and Leadership Centre (PRLC) opened in August 2015 and is available to students — but isn’t operating at full capacity yet.

It was based on a report by UFV student Jasper Moedt, who saw a couple of universities in Alberta host a peer-topeer referral service. The idea was picked up by Student Life and, with some additions to Moedt’s original idea, received funding last year and was able to materialize.

The centre is funded by a renewable grant from Coast Capital Savings. UFV received $50,000 for one year and can apply for that same amount again for another three years — a total of $200,000 over a four-year period.

Student Life recently sent in their application for the second year of funding. Director of Student Life and Development Kyle Baillie says that even though the centre has been held up by the process of training and hiring staff, he believes that the application will be approved.

“We’re a bit delayed,” he says, “But I think we’re doing what we said we’re going to do.”

He says other than some extra start-up costs for this year, roughly half of the grant is spent on staff and the other half on training.

Staff at UFV have so far been trained in suicide prevention, conflict resolution, and mental health first aid — but more training in Positive Space for LGBTQIA students, first aid, and Food Safe will be available to them. Baillie says that

sending a few people to training will allow them to teach those at the centre and is also cost-efficient. “Rather than just sending a bunch of people for training, we’re trying to send people to be trainers in that skill” he says.

Baillie says that students are already coming to the PRLC to seek support and that the centre is planning to record its usage rates to see the services that are in demand. “We’re starting to get a sense for what types of questions we’re getting [and] types of places we’re referring to commonly.

We’re starting to track data,” he says.

He then notes that the collection of PRLC data will respect student privacy and confidentiality.

To oversee some of the operations at the centre itself, PRLC Assistant Ashley Hayes was hired in December and will work with two paid work-study students and student volunteers.

The work-study students were hired at the end of January and are gathering research material for the centre. “They have been working on finding and creating content for our webpage,” Hayes says.

“Both work-study students have also been doing research on similar programs so we can see the various training models being used across North America as we develop our own.”

Currently, University Relations is developing a website for the PRLC. Once the website is active (Hayes estimates a few weeks), the centre will start recruitment for 20 to 30 student volunteers and accept applications until the end of August.

“We expect to be fully operational for the start of the Fall 2016 semester,” she says.

Photo: Michael Scoular

With files from Michael Scoular.

Contract negotiations resume between faculty-staff union and UFV First meeting since faculty and staff voted “no” on deal last summer MICHAEL SCOULAR THE CASCADE

After a lengthy delay, the union representing UFV’s faculty and staff met face-to-face with administration to resume contract negotiations last Thursday.

The meeting, in which the faculty-staff association (FSA) submitted a proposal, beginning a new round of negotiations, is the first following last summer’s vote to not ratify a tentative agreement. Faculty and staff have been working under the terms of their previous contract since it expired at the end of March 2014.

Labour disagreements are not the norm at UFV — FSA president Sean Parkinson is quick to point out that past negotiations typically have been ratified by an overwhelming majority. But last year’s round of negotiations concluded with an agreement many felt was full of problems — 62 per cent voted against.

“If it was just one thing you could take off the table and say, ‘Now the deal will be fine,’ then we’d be in a much easier position,” Parkinson says. “[But] there were almost as many

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complaints as there were articles.”

New limitations on department head choice, sabbatical approval, and the removal of faculty input on class size numbers, to name some of the complaints, contributed to an overall sense that to approve the agreement would be to give up part of each employee’s say in what happens at UFV. Leslie Courchesne, the director of university relations at UFV, says that the negotiation process is designed to work for both sides.

“Clearly something didn’t quite work last time,” she says. “[But] UFV and the FSA intend to bargain in good faith with each other to reach an agreement that we both feel will serve the institution well and will be ratified.”

English professor John Carroll is the chief negotiator for the FSA, and summarized the priorities for this round of contract talks in a letter to faculty and staff.

“We have specifically made decisions that should send a strong message to management that we strongly resist any tampering with faculty autonomy or workload issues,” he writes. “We cannot control what management puts forward; therefore, we will have to remain vigilant and strenuously resist any efforts to erode working conditions of staff, to chip away at faculty

autonomy, or to incrementally increase workload.”

One difference for this negotiation period is that the FSA is working with Lesley Burke-O’Flynn, a labour relations representative from the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C. “Having an expert at the table is likely to make the process go a lot faster,” Parkinson says.

Burke-O’Flynn worked in a similar capacity for the faculty association at Kwantlen Polytechnic University last year — negotiations there resulted in a five-year contract that included no concessions on class size or faculty autonomy, and added health benefits and professional development funds, including a 5.5 per cent salary increase over the length of the contract.

For now, Courchesne says that at this point, the beginning of negotiations, the length of the process is unpredictable.

“I’m sure everyone is very eager to see this concluded and a successful agreement in place,” she says. “But it’s very hard for me to estimate how long it may take for us to get to an agreement ... one that everyone feels will be ratified by the membership.”

UFV’s contract negotiation team, led by Diane Griffiths, the associate vice-president of human resources, is currently reviewing the FSA’s proposal package. The two groups’ next meeting is scheduled for March 8.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

OPINION Look upon SUS’s works, and despair Awards are nice, but funding matters ALEX RAKE

THE CASCADE

Remember Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias”? If you didn’t read it in a high school English class, it’s that poem Walter White recited in that one trailer for Breaking Bad. Anyway, it’s about a king who brags about this statue that he thinks will remind the world of his greatness for the rest of eternity, but at the time that the poet’s writing, the statue’s in ruins. The irony is that the poem, the idea, will last longer than any old physical statue.

SUS, like Ozymandias, has the most beautiful intentions with their Student Awards. Students and organizations who do good work at this university deserve to be recognized. And so they will, with plaques and $500 cheques.

The Student Awards are a good idea because they give back to the students who pay their student fees. Ideas like this also promote ambition and a sense of belonging in a university so full of apathetic students. And, perhaps years from now, students will look on the plaque with the names of all the recipients, and actually feel a sense of history at this place. All these things are indeed very important components of the university experience many of us imagined before coming to this little, context-free UFV. However, the awards seem to me like unwise spending while SUS is unable, unwilling, or hesitant to fund student groups this year as much as they have in the past. One significant example is the Louden Singletree, UFV’s literary magazine, which in the past seven years has relied on SUS funding in order to publish

and distribute physical copies, but is currently facing difficulties receiving anything close to the requested amount for this year.

The Louden is currently one of the few institutions UFV has going for it in terms of creating a historical context and culture at UFV, and so deciding not to support it for the first time in nearly a decade seems counter to the purpose SUS proposes to drive towards in their Student Award nomination package: awarding students and groups that have “been integral to enhancing the UFV community” and “improved the experience at UFV for members and/or the broader student body.”

As a member of the Louden Singletree board this year, my frustration is perhaps a bit particular and biased. SUS’s caution with their funding is sort of understandable as they approach the end of their financial year. They have already spent $33,000 of their $50,000 budget for student organizations funding (according to their most recent financial report) and most large events happen near the end of the year, which approaches quickly. But my opinion still stands that the money reserved for the Student Awards could be better spent.

Besides the reception they have planned, the SUS Awards will cost three $500 cheques and three plaques of unknown price, each for a leader, volunteer, and student group, as well as an additional plaque to be displayed by SUS. Their budget has a line of $2,500 reserved for “Leadership Recognition,” as well as a $1,250 line for “Volunteer Recognition & Appreciation,” making for a total appreciation budget of $3,750. If I’m not mistaken, unless the reception planning is included with this and not with SUS events, and unless this appreciation budget refers to something other than the Student Awards, that leaves

about $1,500 of unspent appreciation money. If SUS insists on offering these awards, could this remaining amount not go towards other, broader initiatives instead?

The SUS Awards only reward particular students, which I don’t think contributes to a better university experience for students in general. Certainly, the students who will end up receiving the awards will deserve it, and so I do not mean to dismiss whatever their contributions to the university have been, but let’s be real: awards are fundamentally political, and plaques are superfluous.

What I mean is that whoever gets chosen will get chosen according to the preferences of SUS’s Awards Committee, not necessarily according to who will make best further use of the award, and that SUS’s current affinity for plaques is dumb.

Less hesitance to fund student endeavors would be much more useful for this place than directing money at students for things they have already contributed. The idea would really be better if there wasn’t such a crunch for funding; $3,750 could fund a lot of small projects, let alone contribute significantly to larger ones It’s probably too late to back out of offering these awards now, sure. But for next year, the focus should be less on creating official-feeling awards and more on creating a universityfeeling university, which includes student-run clubs, events, and publications. It is these things, and not plaques, that will grant UFV a more engaged campus life, and therefore a stronger sense of belonging, of context.

In summary, let’s have fewer statues, Ozymandias, and more poems.

Mayhem in lot C Until cars gain autonomy, we have to do our part MITCH HUTTEMA THE CASCADE / PHOTO

The parking lots of UFV tend to fall into the category of “severely lacking.”

I’ve heard people complain about the potholes, the lack of convenient space, and the precariously angled inclines.

(That’s you, C building side-lot.)

Here’s another one: the lack of stop signs and stop lines.

Last Wednesday, two students, one driving a large truck and the other a small hatchback, collided head-on.

The truck was largely undamaged with only a dent in its front bumper, but the whole front end of the hatchback was destroyed. The fire department was called in, and the car was removed from the scene via a flatbed tow truck.

We know standard procedure in parking lots: drive slowly, signal, and stop at the end of each row. But these rules are rarely obeyed by the 18-to-24 year-old demographic that makes up a majority of the students at UFV. Being late for class or in a rush to get home or to work, as well as a general tiredness from sitting through lectures and classes contributes to this disobedience. When there are no clear markings prompting drivers to stop or at least to slow down significantly, situations like the accident in question are bound to occur. The lot surrounding the gym in Abbotsford is the one that is particularly bad.

The accident occurred at the intersection directly behind the Student Union Building (SUB); this intersection is completely unmarked from every direction, which I think played a role in why these two students’ cars collided.

In this case, while not seriously physically harmed, the driver of the hatchback was significantly shaken up and needed to be cared for by the firemen that arrived on scene.

As a driver on UFV campus, I too have been in many close calls in the parking lot around the gym and the SUB. When the stalls are packed and we are all racing around to find a last minute spot before we’re late for class, ripping up and down the rows and around the corners, near misses (and a few not misses) are bound to occur.

Painting lines at the end of each row won’t solve the issues, but it’s a step towards promoting responsible driving. Ultimately the solution lies with us, the late-to-class, irresponsible drivers. But to tell a student to be on time or a bad driver to just be a good one is like trying to stop the producers of the Fast and Furious series from making another movie. So UFV, take it from me: paint those lines, and at least a few drivers will feel stop-sign guilt and slow down enough to avoid an accident.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

OPINION

S

Too flashy ads, too many clicks Remington Fioraso

Thanks, custodians Rachel Tait

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Having taken countless media and communications studies classes and looked through many online platforms, I understand that online advertising is the norm for publishers to make a profit while offering content for free. While accepting that I am essentially being sold to organizations, I have found that advertising is typically not incorporated well on websites. There are simply too many on a page, or in the case of YouTube, the advertisements are too long to wait for in this world of instantaneous gratification.

When I heard about Adblock, I was excited to avoid continual ads on websites (with the exception of sponsored content on social media networks). Yet, when researching news articles for inspiration for an assignment, I had my first Adblock ‘block’ experience; the website would not allow me to read the article without turning off the extension.

With it being more work to turn Adblock off, I simply went to another website that contained the same information. If integration of advertisements was done well rather than being overly flashy and slowing down the website, or if YouTube ads were merely 10 to 30 seconds long, I would not feel the need to use the extension in the first place.

Every day the Abbotsford campus is kept immaculate, but I don’t think there is enough gratitude for the custodial staff ’s efforts to keep UFV clean. I was talking to a few members of the custodial staff, who said that no one seems to understand or appreciate all the hard work it takes to clean the floors, keep the bathrooms tidy, wax the floors, and so on. They don’t ask for much.

A simple thank you brings a smile to their faces, and it will make you feel good inside when you say it.

Driving to school, rushing to classes, or hanging with friends in the SUB, we often take for granted what is being done behind the scenes. In that respect, a huge thank you is overdue. Hopefully this will let the custodial staff know they are appreciated for what they do here at UFV. It is definitely humbling to realize that we’ve overlooked the value of another person’s job. So, thank you!

Curtailed commentary on current conditions Illustrations: Danielle Collins

Prayer to a little golden idol Alex Rake

Conservatives still playing games Mitch Huttema

I rarely buy into the mythology of Hollywood. Movies are wonderful, but the public struggles of actors and other industry professionals don’t interest me. The whole pantheon of celebrities is a drag to keep track of. Gossip is stupid. Awards shows are boring.

But when Leonardo DiCaprio finally got that Oscar, I felt genuinely emotional.

That’s my son! I caught myself thinking. I’m a part of this somehow!

Obviously, his success has nothing to do with me. I know this rationally, but I just don’t feel it. I think the fact that I, so incredibly indifferent to celebrity culture, felt such feelings about something so devoid of meaning suggests that perhaps the excitement of celebrity culture can’t be escaped. I suppose we lack a shared pantheon of spirits that we can revere; we know better than to personify the unconscious forces of nature. Modern religions are also so diverse and divided that they barely function as a way of uniting everybody.

The only place where we gather today to share and experience stories is the theatre, and it’s impossible to ignore those giant, beautiful faces. Celebrities are essentially gods. O! Excuse me while I sacrifice a bear for Leo’s blessing.

As if being voted out of power for playing games with the country’s politics was not enough for the Conservative Party of Canada, several members of Parliament have been called out for playing bingo during question period.

Kerry Diotte, the representative for Edmonton Griesbach, posted a photo to his Twitter account of a bingo card featuring a bunch of liberal buzzwords. He, along with several other Conservative MPs, had been playing bingo with the commonly repeated phrases from the Liberal Party of Canada.

This kind of clowning around is representative of adolescents in middle school, not the leaders of our government.

It may have been funny to come up with as a joke, even to make the scorecards, but to actually play the game in an active session of Parliament is downright unprofessional and, as Diotte said in his follow-up apology tweet, “juvenile.”

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

STUDY BREAK Crossword

Last week’s answers

A Tisket, a Tasket

Across

Across

3. Take one, they’re free. (3) 7. The ... end. (7)

3. BASKET

8. The four step. (5)

4. CASKET

9. A composer’s favourite game. (9)

7. DRASTIC

12. Train boss. (9)

8. CLASSIC

14. Pluck it, strum it, hit it, tune it. (6)

9. PLASTIC

15. If you want to sing a song with your friends, please refrain. (6)

10. BRISKET 12. GRASSCUT

Down

13. BLASTIT

1. Good night! (7)

Down

2. Two can play at that game. (4) 4. “Masked phantom seeks creepy auditorium. Skills include: singing to beautiful ladies to secret

1. MASKIT

caverns.” (5)

2. STRAITJACKET

5. You know I’m all about that _ _ _ _. (4)

5. ASKIT

6. Sopranophone, altophone, tenorphone. (9)

6. GASKET

10. A short letter. (4)

11. RACKET

11. Open up! (3) 12. A bunch of people in robes holding up big black books. (5) 13. Musical silence. (4)

Horoscopes

Star Signs by Sybil la Clair

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 Cleanse your classroom this week by burning sage and splashing water from the bottle on your classmates.

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 Don’t trust that ladder in A building this week. It’s up to something.

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 The barista won’t put milk in your coffee this week. How dairy!

Virgo — Aug 23 to Sep 22 If you find yourself on a desert island, make sure you pack a volleyball.

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 The doughnut you choose will be tastier than a bagel today. But if you’re worried about carbs, don’t eat the hole thing.

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 If rain drops keep falling on your head, take heart. Maybe those plastic rain caps from the 80s will come back in style soon.

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 Beware: people who come to help you garden this week might not turnip.

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 Don’t wait to join that sign language class! It’ll come in handy.

Cancer — Jun 21 to Jul 22 If you’re on the fence about that free lobotomy from the science department, they’ll soon change your mind.

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 You’ll get hit by a pop can, but at least it’ll be a soft drink.

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 You might have a fear of speed bumps, but you’ll soon get over it.

BY ANTHONY BIONDI

SPACED

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 Are you tired of feeling fatigued, drowsy, and exhausted? Try “sleep,” a product available to you at the low cost of your social life and good grades.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

OPINION Illustration: Danielle Collins

Attention: gazebos exist ALEX RAKE THE CASCADE

Here’s a strong opinion for you: the gazebos on the Abbotsford campus don’t get enough love. Every day, students walk past them, thinking “Oh, a gazebo.”

Do they not deserve more? They are fortresses against the rain, protectors of the smokers, little architectural wonders that ask for nothing in return but that you stand beneath them.

And did you know that there was more than one of them?

The first gazebo you all know well. It sits beside the path connecting the library to the cafeteria. It is the stopping point between knowledge and food, the two

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things that keep a student living. It’s also where the people are — but who are they? Mysterious strangers, holding mysterious conversations, smoking mysterious cigarettes.

But the mystery isn’t exclusive; it is your world, too, and you may join them.

There is also the gazebo in the middle of the Devil’s Triangle formed by the library, U-House, and the athletics centre. How rarely this one is given the time of day! Perhaps it is cursed; I once heard a couple arguing beneath it. One of them was shouting, the other holding back tears, and many students passed the scene pretending to look away. I wonder if they’re okay. I wonder if the negative energy of this gazebo would be alleviated if we all just paid it more attention.

Finally, the gazebo tucked away beside Baker House is

the most wonderful gazebo of all. By day, security uses it as a hang out. They talk about their wives. They talk about the big game. They laugh, they cry, they do their jobs. The gazebo is their world.

But by night, it becomes a haven for those students with particularly mysterious cigarettes. They too laugh. They too cry. Will they and security ever meet? Will their two worlds ever collide under the wooden canopy?

We need to explore our university. We need to tell its stories. We see these gazebos every day, but do we ever appreciate how wonderful and strange they are? So many beautiful stories unfold beneath them, and they are our stories. Fuck apathy in a world like this.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

Your guide to the Student Union Society elections Interviews with executive candidates p. 12-13 Interviews with representative candidates p. 14

What SUS did in 2015/2016

What is SUS? SUS is a student-led organization that provides services and support for students, and operates on student fees.

SUS is run by their board of directors, which is made up of the president, vice president external, vice president internal, student representatives from each of UFV’s faculties, an aboriginal representative, and a senate representative.

Representatives from CIVL Radio and The Cascade are also present, but do not have voting rights.

A breakdown of your student fees per semester General SUS fee - $30 Student Union Building fee - $35 U-Pass fee - $43.13 Campus Connector - $27.23 IT tech support fee - $4.98 Health and dental plan fee - $215.59 (full-time students only) Total - $140.34 / $355.93

Who’s who on the SUS board President — the president is responsible for overseeing all of SUS’s operations and acts as a spokesperson for the organization Vice president external — focuses on student engagement and advocates on students’ behalf provincially and federally Vice president internal — manages SUS’s finances and oversees clubs and associations Student representatives — student representatives from each of UFV’s faculties, as well as the aboriginal community, Senate, CIVL Radio, and The Cascade discuss and vote on policies, bylaws, and SUS initiatives, and act as a voice for the students they represent

SUS services U-Pass program Campus Connector shuttle bus Health and dental coverage Food bank IT tech support Emergency student grants “Premier entrance scholarship” Funding for clubs and associations The Canoe restaurant Fair Grounds coffee shop

March 2015 — AfterMath, the former campus pub, closes permanently as SUS prepares for the Canoe, the new campus restaurant in the SUB, to open.

April 2015 — SUS moves into the SUB. The building saw the relocation of many student services, including CIVL Radio, The Cascade, Student Life, the Career Centre, and academic advising.

May 2015 — SUS announces plans to open an equalities resource centre in the SUB. The centre was scheduled to open in Fall 2015, but the plan was dropped before a concrete opening date was ever set.

June 2015 — SUS discontinues their littleused mobile app, originally licensed for $12,000/year as a replacement for free student agenda notebooks. No alternate service has been planned.

October 2015 — SUS begins plans for an on-campus health centre in Abbotsford. It is scheduled to open in Fall 2016.

November 2015 — Vice president internal Ricardo Coppola announces his resignation at SUS’s November board meeting.

The position has been vacant since.

January 2016 — Services director Shane Potter leaves his position with SUS. Potter was the president of SUS from 2012-14 and was the services director (restaurant, coffee shop, connector shuttle, IT desk) at the time of his resignation.

February 2016 — SUS hires Alberto Cortes as the new food and beverages director. No plan has yet been disclosed regarding the management of SUS services beyond the food services in the SUB.

Interviews and transcription by: Vanessa Broadbent, Ekanki Chawla, Alex Rake, Michael Scoular, Terrill Smith Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

SUKHI BRAR ­­— PRESIDENT

Study area: Third year, kinesiology major Experience: Student representative on Senate and Board of Governors, Student Life volunteer, resident assistant at Baker House, current SUS VP external

What are you hoping to accomplish as president?

I want to be engaging with our membership a bit more next year. I recognize that one of our weaknesses is that we struggle to put information out and rely a lot on our social media and press releases. I think we need to explore other avenues to do that effectively.

To be fair, over the course of this term, we have improved from where we were. We’re much more prominent in new student orientation.

Something I really want to see is a regular president’s table weekly through next year. I’m committed to bringing that out, but also I’d really want to vlog or blog or some sort of communication like that, either through our social media network or our website.

conclusion, you respect that conclusion, you respect that process.

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

Because I’m engaged in the process and I’m engaged in discussions, I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying, “Oh, this call is wrong.” If you have people sitting around a table that are always just agreeing with everything, that’s not a good thing. That means there’s no discussion happening around the topic. But, once a debate has happened and there’s been healthy debate about something and you arrive at some

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

Nothing specific comes to mind in terms of policy revisions. Anything that has come up, we bring it to governance committee to discuss. So I think that’s one of those things that if I come across a policy that I think needs revising or we need to discuss, that would be brought to governance committee. I definitely see us revising policies, just nothing specific right now.

How are you planning to improve communication with the student body?

Having weekly info tables where our membership can come and ask questions, or get to know how they can get involved or get on committees, or applying for jobs or whatever is happening at the time.

I want to do more classroom presentations. That’s been neglected this year. We’ve primarily used it for campaigns — Get Out the Vote. We were actually able to get 1,000 pledges from students that were eligible to vote, partly because of tabling, and so we saw how that was effective in that context.

MANMEET SEKHON — ­ PRESIDENT

Study area: First year, horticulture diploma Experience: No previous campus experience

What are you hoping to accomplish as president?

As president, my first priority is to solve the problems of students.

After winning [the] election, I’m not sitting in my office. I’ll walk around to the students and ask them if they have any problems, or if they have a better idea to bring to our university so we can improve our university status.

Right now, our current rank is 56th among all the North American universities, and I want to improve our rank so we can proudly say, “I’m from UFV.” My other specific goal is to promote Student Union among all local governments so we can get more money from them, grants from them, so we can expand.

The third one, we have to make our university smoke free, even if we have to do more efforts to bring a smoke-free university. So if someone wants to quit smoking, we should provide them nicotine patches.

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

No. I’m really surprised. When I’m talking with students about the Student Union, they don’t know anything. We have to make aware

to the students that they are paying money to the Student Union, so they have the right to know what they are paying and what services are provided by the Student Union, what kind of help they get from the Student Union.

How are you planning to improve communication with the student body?

My first focus, we have to promote our university everywhere to bring more students to our university. So more students, more money, so we can expand. By communicating students to be a part of Student Union, we are providing bus services, food services, health services — that’s our main focus.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you want to change?

Everything is fine, but we have to promote our university worldwide.

That’s our main focus first. And the second one, we have to solve the student’s problems at priority, because they are paying a lot.

ASHMEET KAUR — VP INTERNAL What are you hoping to accomplish as VPI? What I have in mind is that currently we have a lot of clubs that have been emerging. What I actually have in mind when I get elected is that once our base has been established through these socials and workshops, to take it further in the following year, where now clubs can organize such events for people.

Apart from that, the finance aspect of my role looks at everything to do with budgeting. We have a really huge budget, but just being able to spend it in the most sustainable way, that’s going to be the biggest thing. Also trying to increase funding for clubs, because this year I feel like clubs have taken a giant leap from where they were before. They’re doing so many things and I feel like they need to be provided with more money so that they can do more stuff.

Study area: Second year, finance and accounting major, economics minor Experience: SUS finance assistant, member of SUS finance, budget, and clubs and associations committees

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Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

I’ve been supportive of everything. When I hear that something is coming up, I feel like, “What is happening?” But then when I find out what exactly is happening, I feel like that’s a really, really good thing. So nothing yet.

How are you planning to improve communication with the student body?

The biggest thing that I have faced as a student is that there’s a bridge between SUS and UFV students, and some way that bridge needs to be crossed. The best way to do it is to create more awareness about ourselves on campus. I think that’s the biggest thing. Once we create our awareness, we let people know where we are, what we do, why we’re called a “student union society,” I think automatically wherever else we’re having problems, if there are any problems, those will automatically be sorted out — just getting the word out that we’re here for students.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

There are a lot of policies that come under my job role. I wouldn’t pick just one or two policies to work with, I actually want to look at every single policy. But it doesn’t mean that I want to waste time, just focusing on one policy because I feel there’s a little bit that we can improve from one type of policy, another thing we can improve from another one. I just want to give all policies in focus, not just focusing on one and leave the rest.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

CAMERON STEPHEN — ­ VP INTERNAL What are you hoping to accomplish as VPI? I would definitely want to assist with lots of the clubs and associations and make it easier for them to do their jobs. It’s definitely a big thing I’ve noticed, especially when I was a faculty of science rep: some clubs and associations just didn’t know what options they had for them. I noticed there was a lot of information that was lacking that should be obvious to people.

The main thing I’d want to do is find ways to improve the website.

Right now it’s pretty bad. I think I’m still listed as being staff there, and I haven’t been there for about a month now. Definitely improving stuff with the website, making sure information is up to date.

Study area: Second year, biology major, kinesiology minor Experience: Former SUS restaurant manager, former faculty of science rep, vice president of eSports Valley, member of clubs and associations committee

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

Nothing that I’m unhappy with, just not necessarily the methods through which it was done. I’ll use the equality resource centre as something. I definitely think it was something that was a good idea to look into, I just think there wasn’t necessarily enough research done ahead of time to make sure that it would work properly. I would say more research on these big initiatives to make sure that it is going to be feasible and is going to work properly, and that the proper

people are communicated with and talked to. That way, we don’t get the big drama issue that ended up creeping up.

How are you planning to improve communication with the student body?

For VPI, a big thing would be the website, as mentioned before, making sure that information is there, and making sure that all those channels of communication are frequently updated and kept up to date.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you want to change?

Nothing comes to mind immediately, aside from what I’m currently dealing with right now. Some of the elections stuff — I’ll be really careful with certain things I say here and there because the rules are really vague and unclear on some stuff. So I’ll probably take a look at that first and be like, how can we fix these for future people that come through? Because a lot of things are really vague and unclear on what you can and can’t do.

THANH MA — VP EXTERNAL What are you hoping to accomplish as VPE? One of the things that I’m looking towards is trying to increase the funding for the SUS emergency grant. I had no idea that there was such a thing as student emergency grants, because it wasn’t well advertised, and that’s one of the things I want to change.

Another thing is that for the new health centre that’s going to be built, I’m going to be helping with the implementation of that. Not just basic general physician care, but also mental health, and psychological and sexual health as well. Us teenagers, it’s really important for us not only to have a general doctor there, but little tidbits here and there as well.

Study area: Second year, general studies, triple minor in business, criminology, and communications Experience: Student disability volunteer, Student Life ambassador, SUS food bank volunteer, member of advocacy, engagement, and clubs and associations committees, SUS equalities officer, Oxfam secretary

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

I think one of the only things is the lack of awareness and the voice that students get out. Sometimes, they don’t realize how students don’t know that we’re there for them. I want for SUS to actually represent and actually give students the ability to approach them and to help them, because lots of people don’t actually know that we have SUS emergency grants, or that there was a $10,000 scholarship, or that there were SUS awards. Nobody actually knows until you voice

them.

How are you planning on improving communication with the student body?

Basically, just to talk to them. Not by website, but to actually talk with them, sit down with them, personally communicate with them.

Talking personally, you actually retain a lot more. I really am trying to focus on personal communication rather than just emails back and forth.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

I really want to increase volunteer opportunities and job opportunities. Right now, one of the bylaw policies for the committees is that it’s a 10 max capacity, and I really want to amp it up. There’s about six committees, so that’s only six people that get to volunteer in that specific genre that they like, and I really want to amp it up it to a higher number so that students have the opportunity to come and volunteer.

PANKAJ SHARMA — VP EXTERNAL

Study area: Fourth year, political science major, English minor Experience: One of the founding members of eSports Valley, former Aftermath employee

What are you hoping to accomplish as VPE? I’d hope to work with the board, work with the other execs, to turn SUS into what I needed in my first couple years here. So more outreach and getting students more engaged. For students who, maybe they have a family, they just don’t have the time, they work full-time and take evening classes, I think SUS should also work to give them opportunities if they have any issues that are hindering their university experience or learning experience. I think SUS should be an avenue for them to help.

I feel like the way a lot of students end up getting truly engaged here is because we build personal relationships. Doing outreach sessions after board meetings. Maybe going into classrooms and doing more presentations throughout the year.

those issues out. So, I feel like it should be more open, I should feel more comfortable going to them. I feel like a lot of other students feel the same way.

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

I know personally that I’ve felt not recognized before, I’ve felt unappreciated before, as both a member of a club and a member of their [food service team]. If I have issues in my workplace or within my learning experience, I feel like SUS needs to be more approachable and they need to provide more of a supportive role for me to figure

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

I know there was talk at board meetings about mandating that execs do tabling sessions, and they’ve done that this semester, and I think it’s really great. Some of the portfolios really need to be cemented.

People need to know who’s responsible for what, and that accounts for the officers as well as the permanent staff.

How are you planning on improving communication with the student body?

A lot of SUS decisions are going to be made at board meetings, and I know that I’ve gone to a few in the past year and I’ve had a very hard time getting the minutes for those meetings. The website’s not regularly updated. I’ve had to send emails to get them. Just being more open about the decision-making process, and being more open about what exactly SUS wants and is committing to, I think would really help their image and really improve their transparency.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

Sahil Chawla — faculty of science rep

Study area: Second year, biology major, chemistry minor Experience: Circle K club president, member of engagement and clubs and associations committees, Student Life ambassador

What are you hoping to accomplish as faculty of science rep?

Basically, I’m going to be sitting on the board and I’m going to be representing science students. If the science students have any questions, they can bring them to me and then I can go and bring them to the board, or if they have questions about certain SUS policies or UFV policies, I can help delegate that. I can help ask those questions and make sure those get answered.

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

To be honest, I’m really involved with SUS. I have a SUS scholarship and I’m on two of the committees, and I’m working really closely with Meghan [McDonald], so I kind of know that back end and the front end of what things happen and why they happen.

I wouldn’t really say that I wasn’t too happy with anything ... when I wonder why [something] happened, I know exactly why it did

happen, and I can ask them right away.

How are you planning on improving communication with the student body?

I was thinking about this since last year.

What I actually want to do is have a weekly or bi-weekly session and just book a room or book a space at UFV somewhere, and then any science students, or any students at all, can come and ask me any questions — kind of like what SUS does. They do SUS tabling.

It would probably be in the SUS building and basically any student can come up to me, they can come up to me any time, but I would be booking a room for a specific time and advertising that, so if any students have any questions that they want to address, they can either email me, Facebook message me, or we can meet in person.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you want to change?

At the moment, no. I haven’t looked at too many.

Arashpreet Tamber – faculty of science rep

Study area: First year, bachelor of science Experience: Oxfam and Circle K volunteer, member of SUS equalities committee, and finance committee

What are you hoping to accomplish as faculty of science rep?

This being my first semester here — my first year I came out of high school — and for me it was a huge transition from high school to university, and a lot of kids, older kids especially, helped me settle in and get comfortable with the university environment, and I hope I’m able to achieve that with other kids who come from either high school or who are coming back.

I think it’s important that kids are comfortable with the environment here because it’s a huge transition to university, even if you’re coming back or you’re coming from high school. I think that’s what’s important, knowing that there’s someone that can comfort you who’s been through the same struggles as you and can guide you and make the experience at UFV better.

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

No, I’m happy with everything so far.

How are you planning on improving communication with the student body?

Well, getting students involved and making sure that students know what’s going on around campus. What types of campaigns are there? What type of events are happening?

That’s really important, making sure that all the students get all of the information. I feel like if the students are involved, the university becomes a better place to be.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

So far, no. Maybe in the future if there is something, yes. But so far I’m happy with everything.

Dong Wook (Sunny) Kim – faculty of arts rep

Study area: Third year, criminology major, communications minor Experience: Student Life and UFV International volunteer, executive of the Criminal Justice Student Association, former SUS equalities officer, current SUS clubs and associations officer What are you hoping to accomplish as college of arts rep?

I want to represent the College of Arts. I want be able to liaise between the students of the College of Arts and the Student Union, and try to bridge that gap, try to bring some of the concerns that they have, try to speak on their behalf, try to have a voice. It’s the highest governing body of the Student Union and it’s good to be able to sit at a table where your voice matters.

at that level on how to be more transparent, how to create policies surrounding that. In terms of how to communicate with students, I would say at [the board] level, talking about what the executives and the officers can do in their strategic goals and how they can communicate with students. The board reps, I don’t necessarily think they communicate with students directly, but I think they have a voice where we can collaboratively create those bridges.

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

In my personal experience, there wasn’t too much that I felt backlash on necessarily. I had a good experience working with SUS. I do think that every organization needs some improvement and growth.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

I would say communicating more with students — I think that’s a good policy to improve on because they do a lot of good stuff, it’s just not advertised as much. I think that could be one thing.

How are you planning on improving communication with the student body?

As a board rep, it’s about making decisions

Tanya Vanpraseuth – faculty of professional studies rep

Study area: First year, bachelor of business administration Experience: Member of SUS finance, advocacy, equalities, and engagement committees, UFV Oxfam and Circle K volunteer, communications assistant in Chilliwack for Student Life, Fair Grounds employee What are you hoping to accomplish as faculty of professional studies rep?

I would like to be more involved in school and create a positive environment for UFV students, and just generally help people — meet their needs, get more involved, improve clubs and associations and events, and just uphold the values of our school: academics, succeeding in anywhere that you would like at school, finding your true direction, your true passion, getting more involved, and just growing to be a more respectful, responsible person.

Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently?

No, I’m pretty happy with the Student Union Society this year. They’ve been pretty great towards me.

munication with the student body?

Definitely having better communication with students through myUFV, online, just word-of-mouth, and just having people be more aware of what’s going on here with promoting our events, our committees, and just anything that students read online should be truthful.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

Not at this moment, but if there are any policies or bylaws that I come across, then I definitely want to be a part of the process to making them very positive for students.

How are you planning on improving com-

Rooiana Alizada – faculty of health sciences rep Study area: First year, nursing program Experience: Nursing student association volunteer

What are you hoping to accomplish as faculty of professional studies rep?

My goal for this position is to get involved with every department in health science, so that’s dental, nursing, kinesiology, and then there’s also the different branches of nursing and health care and all that, and pre-med and also pre-dental. I want to go and meet up with all the clubs or the students in those areas, and ask them what they would like to achieve, what they would like for their school, if they want more involvement, stuff like that, and then somehow bring their ideas to the meetings here, and then they can help them, and help me achieve their goals.

I’m kind of new to it, so I don’t really know [everything]. But I’ll be in the meetings with business and arts and all those, and I’ll see what their plans are and I’ll follow their footsteps, but in the health science faculty.

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Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you would've done differently? I’m new to the school and to everything, so not really.

How are you planning on improving communication with the student body?

Within each department within the health sciences, I want to get the students within each faculty together, meeting so they can share their ideas, and then bring all those ideas together to the board meetings.

Are there any specific policies or bylaws you’re wanting to change?

Not yet. I haven’t really seen anything I don’t agree with. It’s pretty straightforward.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

CULTURE & EVENTS

Not your parents’ Shakespeare UFV Theatre sets Twelfth Night in a wild, dreamy world inspired by Burning Man

GLEN ESS VALERIE FRANKLIN THE CASCADE

A shipwreck, lost twins, true love, and — art bicycles? With a setting inspired by the desert art festival Burning Man, UFV Theatre’s upcoming Twelfth Night won’t be your average Shakespeare production.

The final production of this year’s theatre season, the play features a large cast of almost 20 students, as well as three directors: Bruce Kirkley, Raïna Von Waldenburg, and Rae MacEachernEastwood, an upper-level student. This is the third time the university’s theatre department has produced Twelfth Night, which was first performed in 1988 and then in 2002 — but this new performance promises to be the most experimental of the three, both in its theme and its directorial choices.

—continued on page 16

Photograph: Mitch Huttema

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

CULTURE & EVENTS

The final production of this year’s theatre season, the play features a large cast of almost 20 students, as well as three directors: Bruce Kirkley, Raïna Von Waldenburg, and Rae MacEachern-Eastwood, an upper-level student.

This is the third time the university’s theatre department has produced Twelfth Night, which was first performed in 1988 and then in 2002 — but this new performance promises to be the most experimental of the three, both in its theme and its directorial choices.

Twelfth Night is a comedy of mistaken identities about two twins, Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Lost and alone, Viola disguises herself as a boy and adopts the name Cesario. She soon falls in love with Duke Orsino, who is himself in love with the beautiful but grieving Countess Olivia — who in turn falls in love with “Cesario,” believing Viola to be a man. Although it’s a comedy, the play also features tragic elements — and, of course, plenty of romance.

“It’s a play about love, but all different kinds of love,” Kirkley says. “Some of the scenes are hilariously funny ... they get you, down in the belly. And other scenes are incredibly tender, and even bittersweet.”

But what does Burning Man, which is famed for its radical art installations and open-minded attitudes to sex, nudity, and recreational drug use, have to do with Shakespeare?

“One of the reasons we’re doing Burning Man is that the theme fits Twelfth Night so well,” says Russell Blower, who plays Malvolio. “You already have people who are pretending to be others, and love is a huge part of Burning Man.” As well, the script provides plenty of opportunities to play with gender and sexuality — which also fits perfectly with the Burning Man theme.

“Twelfth Night is probably the [Shakespeare] play with the most female characters, and particularly good, interesting female characters — lots of possibilities for doing some sort of cross-gender casting, or gender-blind casting,” says Kirkley.

Jessi Fowlis, who plays Maria, explains that all of the costumes and themes in the production are based on the aesthetics and principles of the festival.

“Our set is essentially painted to look like the dry desert landscape, and like Burning Man, all the props are brought in at the beginning of the play, and when the festival is over everything is taken away,” she says, adding that one of Burning Man’s traditions is to leave no trace that anyone was ever there after the festivities are over.

Rather than going all-out with the set and props, the production’s scope was limited to a few select art installations, all of which can be carried on and off stage without difficulty — but that hasn’t put a damper on the show’s artistic vibe.

“They walk around [at Burning Man] with these crazy rigged-up vehicles and pieces like that, and we did the same,” Blower says. Highlights include umbrella fights, flashing lights called “blinkies,” and enormous silverpainted block letters, which actors often clamber over and deliver speeches from.

The production isn’t shying away from Burning Man’s controversial aspects, either. Fowlis describes Burning Man as a festival that is ultimately about freedom of

16

expression.

“No matter how you express yourself, whether positive or negative, it’s something that needs to be accepted … There’s cross-dressing, there’s some gender fluidity, there’s a couple of things to do with the differences between gender and sexuality as well,” she says.

This focus on self-expression is also continued in the costumes, hair, and makeup design; Kirkley says that while the crew had plenty of freedom, they also consulted the actors about creative decisions.

“Hair and makeup [artists] Heather Littlejohn and Ayla Hinds had interviews with each one of the actors to talk about what sort of look they were going for,” he says.

“Same with costumes — [there was] that bit of interplay with the actors for what kind of details they wanted.”

Although the setting is a departure from tradition, the script will still be Shakespeare’s words. Most of the original text has been kept, with only two or three pages cut.

“We wouldn’t have had to cut them, either, if it weren’t for the amount of singing and dancing,” Blower says.

“We have so much song and dance in this production, it’s almost a musical at this point.”

“It’s definitely cardio,” adds Ashlyn Tegg, who plays Olivia.

To create the songs, music director Emily EggertBotkin set lines from the original script to music, many of which are sung by the character of Feste, a mischievous clown, played by Reilly Ellis.

“When he starts singing the songs, it’s sad and sweet — and then he starts torturing Malvolio, and you have no idea what to think about this motherfucker,” Blower says. “I think people are going to love him, and then hate him, and then love him, and then hate him.”

“One of the reasons we’re doing Burning Man is that the theme fits Twelfth Night so well. You already have people who are pretending to be others, and love is a huge part of Burning Man.”

The production’s approach to directing is just as unusual as its theme. The production was originally co-directed by Von Waldenburg and Kirkley, but MacEachern-Eastwood’s involvement as assistant director quickly grew beyond her original remit.

“As the process went on, Rae’s role and contribution was just clearly so integral to everything we were doing,” Kirkley says. “Within the first week or two of rehearsals, it was clear that she was one of us. It just evolved that way.”

While the play’s mistaken identities, dances, songs, and psychedelic themes may give audiences an impression of chaos and revelry, its direction and choreography are carefully structured, much like Burning Man itself.

“When you look at Burning Man, one of the things they have is very specific rules and safety standards,”

Blower says. “And then you look at an overhead shot of a Burning Man festival and it is laid out on a very strict grid and pattern. It looks more organized than most actual cities … and that is exactly what we’re doing with the acting.”

One such aspect is the incorporation of viewpoint theatre, an approach to acting that was created in the 1980s by performer and choreographer Mary Overlie.

Viewpoint techniques create a middle ground between a strict, structured performance and improvisation.

“It’s an approach to performance where actors are given very clear structures to work with, and then within those structures they create the performance spontaneously within the moment of the performance,” Kirkley explains.

Blower describes it as improvisation within a set structure: “Freedom, but within a very tight space.”

“We can do what we want, but only if we do the three set moves we’ve been given,” Tegg says.

“Which, as an actor, is fantastic,” Blower chimes in, “because generally when the director tells you to just go ahead and do anything, you’ve got all that freedom, and it’s a little too much … But when you take it down to, ‘You have to walk along this line and you can only turn your head,’ suddenly you have the freedom to do anything within that space.”

Delaney Bergstrom, who plays Olivia’s servant and a dancer, agrees. “It’s crazy and terrifying ... but it’s really exciting to be on the forefront of these changes and see how we’re changing all together,” she says.

Because the viewpoints techniques allow the actors some freedom to improvise, no two performances will be quite the same.

“Not everything is completely different [from performance to performance], but you’ll definitely notice significant differences and changes in how the actors are working the material,” Kirkley says, adding that the viewpoints structure will allow the comedy of Twelfth Night more room to flourish. “They [the actors] are hilariously funny because they are working so spontaneously with whatever each other is doing.”

This year’s performance of Twelfth Night is also a landmark in UFV’s theatrical history — it will be the last year the department will end the season with a Shakespeare play. While Kirkley says this certainly won’t be the university’s final Shakespeare production, it will be the last year that the department will uphold this tradition.

“Shakespeare is wonderful — it’s wonderful material to work with for actors,” he says. “But we’ve been doing a Shakespeare production every year for the last 37 years now, [so] we’re trying to do something new.”

UFV Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night will run from March 3 to 20 at the Chilliwack North campus theatre.

Performances run at 7:30 pm on March 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, and 19. Student matinees run at 12 p.m. on March 8 and 9, and Sunday matinees run at 2 p.m. on March 6, 13, and 20. Tickets are available online at www.ufv.ca/ theatre, by email at theatre@ufv.ca, or by phone at (604) -795-2814.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

CULTURE & EVENTS Yellow Umbrella Project spreads some sunshine with Create-a-Vision mental health event GLEN ESS THE CASCADE

Photograph: Mitch Huttema

It’s that time again, when the end of the academic year looms on the horizon, when midterms, papers, and projects pile up. It’s understandable that stress levels are starting to increase; grumpiness is almost inevitable at this point of the year.

But if you were at the Abbotsford campus this past Wednesday, then it’s quite possible that you saw a group of students under a canopy just outside Tim Hortons. Those students were members of the mental health awareness club (MHAC), and they were hosting their first ever Create-A-Vision event in the spring sunshine. The event, which involved the creation of several, simple collages from magazine pictures, allowed students to express their more creative sides; after all, it’s not every day you can superimpose Robert Downey Jr.’s face on top of picture of Halle Berry.

Create-A-Vision was part of MHAC’s ongoing campaign to allow students to relieve stress levels

at this crucial point of the semester. According to MHAC president, Harshraj Sidhu, Create-A-Vision is all about getting students to relax. “It’s about destressing, getting creative, making a collage — it kind of gives them a break from school.”

He then went on to add that they’d purposely chosen collage making as it is a simple activity. “It’s a nice way to relax; you don’t have to do too much thinking. All you have to do is cut and paste.”

The MHAC’s event is part of a series brought to UFV through the Yellow Umbrella Project, a national campaign to bring mental health support to post-secondary institutions. “The umbrella represents shelter, and the yellow colour represents happiness,” Sidhu says. “Pretty much creating a happy environment for people to come and talk under, and not having to worry about the stigmas around mental health. Because we all understand.”

So next time you’re starting to feel stressed out by school, keep an eye out for a bright yellow umbrella — there’ll almost certainly be students nearby who can offer a sympathetic ear and help you relax for a moment.

BELOW THE BELT

Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder PROFESSOR XXX SEXPERT

“Beer Goggles”: a common form of inebriation in which the attractiveness of those around the drinker increases with the more alcohol that is imbibed. It’s a commonly referenced phenomenon, and is often attributed to the decrease in cognitive function caused by excessive consumption.

Basically, the drunker you are, the hotter people around seem. But what exactly is it about alcohol that can give us the impression that the regular Joe at the bar is actually a dashingly handsome hunk? How exactly does alcohol affect our libidos? These are important questions, and thankfully there’s been a recent spate of research into it.

A recent survey published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour found that almost 61 per cent of university and college students included alcohol in their latest hook-up, meaning that they’d had a few drinks to embolden themselves, releasing their more flirtatious sides.

After a few drinks, it’s very common for people to report feeling confident, comfortable, and less shy about flirting and engaging in sexual behaviour. These feelings aren’t caused by the alcohol itself though, instead it’s believed that this overconfidence is actually a form of the placebo effect, where the drinker believes that slight intoxication can make them bolder.

In actuality, there is little evidence that would support the idea of alcohol as some sort of confidence boosting drug. Alcohol is actually a depressant, and the more that’s consumed, the more likely it is that

negative responses will occur. This is often cited as a possible reason that so many drunken hook-ups result in feelings of regret. Such sexual encounters are often recalled in a negative light, and a 2012 study, centred on Canadian university students, found that the overwhelming majority of students who had participated in “uncommitted sexual encounters” had reported feelings of regret afterwards.

The study went into more detail and uncovered the fact that women reported feeling stronger levels of regret and shame than men, though men reported feelings of regret that were more linked to physical attributes. Both men and women cited intoxication, by both alcohol and drugs, as a source of regret.

Many of the studies’ subjects cited the fact that inebriation had led them to approaching people they normally wouldn’t have been attracted to, thus leading them to being unhappy with their partners after hooking up.

Other studies, from several different publications, have demonstrated that sexual satisfaction is much harder to derive from drunken or intoxicated liaisons, whereas participants in sober sexual activities often report higher levels of enjoyment and satisfaction, and these uninebriated hook-ups have been linked to increases in both self-confidence, and a decrease in body-image dissatisfaction.

So the next time you’re at a bar or party, be mindful of how much you’re drinking. If you’re looking for a more satisfying, enjoyable, casual one-night stand, then perhaps put down the alcohol and stay sober.

You’ll have more fun, and you won’t go to bed with someone you think looks like Adonis only to wake up next to Freddy Krueger the next morning.

Illustration: Brittany Cardinal

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

CULTURE & EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS MAR 7

MAR 8

Network Coalition multi-band concert highlights Fraser Valley music scene

Open Mic at O’Neill’s 6 to 10 p.m.

O’Neill’s Home Cooking

Writer-in-residence reading with Jen Sookfong Lee

12 to 1 p.m.

Great Hall, Abbotsford campus

International Women’s Day Celebration 4 to 6 p.m.

SUB, Abbotsford campus

MAR 9

President’s Lecture series: Dr. George Lopez 7 to 9 p.m.

SUB, Abbotsford campus

6th Annual Arts Expo 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

SUB, Abbotsford campus

English Student Association presents: The Salon of Shame 7:30 p.m.

Location TBA

MAR 3 TO 20 MAR 4 TO 6 MAR 8 TO 10 18

Twelfth Night

7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

UFV Performance Theatre Chilliwack North

Fraser Valley Women’s Expo Chilliwack Heritage Park

Spring Fling @ Rivers Dining Room 6 to 8:30 p.m.

UFV Trades and Tech Centre

JASMINE HOPE SILVA CONTRIBUTOR / PHOTOS

Regime Live hosted the Network Coalition, a concert designed to bring together as diverse a bill as possible in the Fraser Valley, on February 27 at the Phoenix Ballroom. The event showcased nine local rock bands, such as The Sylvia Platters, Atodaso, Molly Be Damned, and headliner Liars and Lions.

“Maybe it’s about boats ... Maybe it’s about pirates?” Molly Be Damned started off the show with hot tracks from their album Dead Housewives.

The band definitely had a lot of fun opening the show; I can’t say that I’ve ever been much of a fan of post-rock, but that all changed when the vocalist and drummer doubled up on the drums to engage the crowd and show off how passionate they are about their sound. Lou Danger and the Thrills followed them, replete with exceptional bass riffs. These boys had most eclectic ‘90s vibe threaded through their punk rock harmonies. If you like leather jackets and Ray-Bans, they’re for you.

10 Ton Tiger were my favourite performance of the night. The duo consisted of a bluesy keyboard and a set of drums: simple, but danceworthy. Their instrumental, reflective rock was hypnotizing and exquisitely performed. Two songs that really stood out were “Swagger” and “Speed of Life,” and they proved to be crowd favourites. Afterwards, Atodaso stepped up and caught the crowd’s attention with their captivating stage presence.

Langley artists the Sylvia Platters followed Atodaso, performing their slick brand of power pop. The Platters were cool, collected, and comfortable on stage; interestingly enough, they would insert climactic breaks at the height of their songs, and often end a major song on a minor chord, or vice versa. Melodically different, they reached beautiful falsettos

with a soprano lead. One of their songs, “Summer Dreaming,” from their debut album, Make Glad the Day, brought the audience back to a more psychedelic period; they had a taste of the Beatles in their string work.

Echo Nebraska was next, decked in flannel and sunflower guitar straps.

They offered a different take on soul-strung alternative rock. Turning the mood of the evening towards a more soothing tone, their full set included a violinist, tambourine, and shakers, alongside strings and drums.

The next band, straight from New Westminster, Marry Me, proved to be a crowd favourite. They hit the stage full throttle, packing every song with as much energy as they could. The crowd liked them because they were the most charismatic in supporting the other local artists. In advocating for the love of music, they threw out free EPs for dancers.

One of the boys from Syd Perry, a reggae band who followed, further engaged with the performance with poi lights. Syd Perry themselves brought out Rastafarian vibes: mellow, calming, and with bluesy acoustics.

It felt like a perfect performance with the rest of the evening’s ensemble.

Liars and Lions finished off the evening with a collection of metal songs, offering a blood pumping, exuberant finale to the night.

The Network Coalition made for a great way to meet local musicians.

Experiencing so many different kinds of music, from metal, to punk, to pop-rock, and so many other genres in one room in one night goes to show that you cannot quantify the diversity of music here in the Valley. Each band had a phenomenal way of amplifying and adding texture to their individual sound. Local music is easily attainable: albums are inexpensive, and you can always pop over to a showcase of local bands whose music is creative and free-spirited — and far more closely connected to and welcoming of — their hometown audiences.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

CULTURE & EVENTS Women’s basketball season ended by Thunderbirds Cascades eliminated in overtime after stirring six-game winning streak to end schedule GLEN ESS THE CASCADE / PHOTO

Last weekend the women’s basketball team hosted the UBC Thunderbirds in the first round of CIS playoffs. Having come third in the Explorer Division on the back of a sixgame winning streak — a streak that had included big wins over the likes of Mount Royal University (82-54), and UBC-Okanagan (90-44) — the Cascades were in fine form going into the weekend against a UBC team that had gone 5-5 in their last 10 games.

Game 1: Friday, February 26 The Cascades took an early lead, scoring with their first two possessions. But that sprightly start was quickly stopped, with UBC’s defence holding the Cascades at arm’s length. The Cascades wouldn’t score again until five minutes passed.

The second quarter was much of the same, with both sides taking their time with scoring. UBC’s defence in particular looked extremely organized, and the Cascades offense struggled to make clear-cut opportunities. But UBC’s offence also struggled — the teams went into the halftime break with UBC only up 25-24.

This low scoring, cagey aspect of the contest would be a hallmark of the night, with several members of the audience, as well as announcer Tyler Dyck during the halftime break, bemoaning the low-scoring nature of the tie in its early phases. Almost predictably, the second half saw both sides go on offensive streaks.

Roughly half way through the third quarter, the Thunderbirds started to pull away from the Cascades, helped by an uninterrupted nine point streak. The Cascades would match that with a nine point run of their own, scoring three triples in a row (two coming from Sydney Williams and Hailey Kendall scoring the third).

That thrilling run brought an end to the quarter with that single point still separating the two teams at 42-41. Sadly, that short lived burst of point scoring was as good as it got for the team, as the Thunderbirds took control and firmly established their lead in the final quarter.

Despite the loss (62-48), Cascades forward Kayli Sartori led both teams in points with 17; she was joined in double digits by Shayna Cameron, who netted 10. In comparison, UBC’s scoring was spread more evenly across the team, with four players getting to double digits. It was this efficiency in offensive output, coupled with a tight defence, that saw UBC go into the second game with a chance to close things out.

Game 2: Saturday, February 27 Going into this game, it was obvious how pumped the players and the audience were. After all, if the Cascades were unable to win this game, the series would be over— with this in mind, the Cascades put up one hell of a fight.

This second game of the series was far more intense, far more physical, and much faster than the previous night’s had been.

The Thunderbirds continued in the same form that they had ended the last night. It took them under two minutes to establish a seven-point lead, establishing an imposing 15-5 lead within the first half of the period. But the Cascades dug deep and went on a fine run, initiated by rookies Kate Head and Taylor Claggett. The duo helped the Cascades close in, ending the first quarter with a 21-19 lead.

The attack emphasis continued in the second quarter, as

the Thunderbirds once again went on a scoring streak to establish a large lead. With an eight point lead at 31-23, it looked like the Cascades were heading into the half with some work to do. But the Cascades restored a little hope by cutting down the gap once more, as the half ended with the Thunderbirds up 41-38.

In the third quarter, the two sides traded blows, scoring point for point, before a late 6-0 run put the T-birds up 61-55.

The Cascades may not have been able to end the third by closing the points gap as they had in the second quarter, but they made up for it by doing so in the fourth. But the women weren’t done. Opening the fourth with a pair of three-pointers from Sydney Williams, the Cascades launched attack after attack, with Shayna Cameron prominent in driving towards the hoop. Cameron’s crosscourt, lung-bursting sprints had the Thunderbirds defence unraveled time after time. The Cascades traded point for point with the Thunderbirds deep in the fourth, setting the game up for a nail-biting finish.

Thirty seconds on the clock, Kayli Sartori gave the Cascades a bit of breathing room, muscling past the Thunderbirds defence to give the Cascades a 76-73 lead.

It looked pretty good: the Cascades could draw the series at 1-1 and require a third game to be played on Sunday.

Cruelly though, the Thunderbirds were awarded a pair of free throws within those last few seconds. With the clock running down, UBC’s Shilpa K hanna scored with her first free throw, levelling the game at 76-76. But she still had one more, and if she were to score, the Cascade’s season would be over.

She missed.

An audible sigh was released by the crowd, and several in attendance spent the short break before overtime outside getting some fresh air.

Once the overtime period began, UBC reasserted their defensive credentials. The Cascades struggled to penetrate, once again stif led by the Thunderbirds. Sadly for the Cascades, the Thunderbirds were able to marry their strong defence with an efficient offence, scoring eight points in the overtime period to win the game 84-78.

The Thunderbirds win means they’ll be facing the Saskatchewan Huskies in the Canada West quarter-finals Friday in Saskatoon. Meanwhile, the Cascades season has come to a close, having put up a proud fight against an obdurate UBC.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

CULTURE & EVENTS Global Lounge hosts weekly international music video event

Photo courtesy of Columbia Bible College

Volleyball teams come up short in PacWest playoffs GLEN ESS THE CASCADE

ALEX RAKE THE CASCADE / PHOTO

For the last two weeks, the Global Lounge in Abbotsford has been host to UFV International’s World Music Videos Fridays. Open to anyone who wants to stop by, the event features music videos from around the world selected by students.

Anoop Dhaliwal, international student staff assistant, says the purpose of the event is “to provide an opportunity for students to share in cultural diversity here at the university.” It is also “an opportunity to provide a stress-free event, just for people to get together, to take a break, whether that be from their office or from studying.”

“My main purpose is to bring people together,” she says.

Dhaliwal is the mastermind of the event, though she credits students for inspiring the idea. “I noticed that in Friends Without Borders, which is a

20

program I coordinate, students quite enjoyed sharing and having dialogue about music videos,” she says. “And I thought it would be great to bring people together to do that on a weekly basis. So that [idea] comes from the students.”

The event requires very little to run, beyond a television and access to YouTube. “I thought: what is something that we can sustain, so the costs of resources and that kind of thing are low?” says Dhaliwal.

“Most of our cost is just in snacks, but everything else is all volunteer.”

She adds that, “We’re very fortunate here at UFV International to have the biggest television on campus.”

The Why So Serious club, a club dedicated to promoting positivity on campus, is also involved with the event. “We take [video] requests from people,” club president Mithat Singh says, “so they don’t feel left out and so they get a chance to show their culture, and talk about it.”

Singh expects the event to get even

larger each week. “We are looking forward to an increase in the number of people showing up every week, by word of mouth,” she says. Indeed, turnout for the second Friday was larger than the first, and extra chairs had to be set up to accommodate the growing audience.

Besides the Why So Serious club, UFV International has several other partners involved with developing, promoting, and executing the event: CiVL Radio, the Centre for IndoCanadian Studies, UFV Latin club, UFV Arab club, the Circle K club, and Friends Without Borders. The event has been attended by students from a wide range of cultural and geographic backgrounds, and the featured music reflects that.

“We have such a wide diversity here, so why not have that cultural exchange?” Dhaliwal asks.

World Music Videos Fridays will continue weekly until the end of term in April.

Both men’s and women’s volleyball teams entered the playoffs as underdogs. At the first round of competition, held at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, both of UFV’s teams tumbled out early, but not before giving a good showing of themselves.

Thursday night saw the men’s team in front of a very supportive — and loud — crowd. The team drew the College of the Rockies Avalanches as opponents, a side the Cascades beat three times over the course of the regular season. This time, however, the Avalanches were able to take two of the first three sets, and despite UFV establishing a lead of 24-19 in the fourth set, they were unable to prevent the Avalanches from launching a stunning comeback that saw them score seven uninterrupted points to clinch the tie and move ahead into the semi-finals against the first-seed Camosun Chargers.

Where the men’s team stumbled in the quarter-finals, the women’s team was able to push deeper into the tournament.

Up against the Douglas College Royals, undefeated against UFV in the regular season, the Cascades broke that ultimately meaningless record in a tense, topsy-turvy match. After a grueling first-set win, a heavy loss in the second, and a much more emphatic third set victory, the women’s team capped off the match with a clinical fourth set to seal their first playoff win since 2013.

The women were then matched against the division’s topranked team: the Vancouver Island University’s Mariners, who entered the tournament boasting a 20-4 regular season record.

Friday night’s semi-final was a hard fought match. Following a first set victory, the Cascades established a heavy lead of 13-7 in the second set, but the Mariners were able to catch up, winning the set 25-23. Their comeback victory gave them the momentum to win the next two sets 25-17 and 25-10. Despite this loss at the semi-finals stage, the Cascades season wasn’t quite over just yet. They still had a bronze medal game to come, and the chance to end their season with some accolades.

But up against yet another higher seed, the Cascades weren’t able to find a way past the Capilano Blues, who won three straight sets against the Cascades.

Despite coming in fourth, the women’s team put up a good showing against three sides who had ended the regular season ahead of them. And it can only be hoped that their experiences over the weekend will serve them in good stead going into next season.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 02, 2016

ARTS IN REVIEW MOVIE REVIEW

The Witch sneaks under your skin and stays there for days

Shuffle AARON LEVY CIVL STATION MANAGER

Longing for Calgary? Good thing Aaron has curated this selection of tracks for you.

Corb Lund "I Wanna Be in the Cavalry" Corb Lund is not my favorite artist. I'll be honest, I don't really like his music at all. He is, however, a platinum-selling artist in Canada, and I had the privilege of coordinating on site the interview whereby he learned of this fact! This song is popular in Calgary.

Grown Ups "E.T. Phone Home" Grown-Ups is a little known, well-travelled, and highly respectable Abbotsford-born, Calgary-based, now-defunct punk band. Descriptive enough? Leader Josiah Hughes is a writer for Exclaim!, doing a great job of covering scene stuffs, and they used to cover loads of Blink 182 tracks live. Good times, kids.

Braids "Miniskirt" Instant classic. Now relocated from Calgary, Braids' feminist anthem here subtly yet directly evolves the casual music fan into a social justice ponderer. This song helps to remind us that acting based on our pre-conceived notions of what others want and what we are allowed only pushes us further back.

Jordan Klassen "Go to Me" Now based in Vancouver, Klassen spent his formative years right here in Stabby, eventually relocating to Calgary in order to lay the groundwork of what is now a successful psych-folk career of Peak Performance Project-supported progress. A beacon of accomplished Valley ex-pats, he curated Jam in Jubilee once, too.

CHARTS 01

Library Voices Lovish

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Jordan Klassen Javelin

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Foreign Diplomats Princess Flash

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You Say Party You Say Party

05

Dodgers Orphans, Fools, and Thieves (single)

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Open Letters 10-23

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Basia Bulat Good Advice

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Oh Village Ocris

09

Ra Ra Riot Need Your Light

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Black Fast Terms of Surrender

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El Vy Return to the Moon

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Deerhunter Fading Frontier

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Tokyo Police Club Not My Girl

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Breakbot Still Waters

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Zuzu's Petals At Long Last

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Hyperthrash

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Gomorrah The Harusprex

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Rebecca's Room S/T

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Striker Stand in the Fire

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Whetherman Seeds for Harvest

Nylithia

TERRILL SMITH CONTRIBUTOR

Set in early 17th century New England, The Witch follows a family of Puritans who are exiled from their community for heresy and forced to live alone on the edge of a large, ominous forest. One day when the eldest child, a daughter named Tomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), is playing with the infant child of the family, Samuel, the baby inexplicably disappears.

Almost immediately a series of increasingly devious events begin to occur, culminating in claims of sorcery and witchcraft against Tomasin that threaten to unravel the family.

This debut from writer / director Robert Eggers works on multiple levels, notably as a slow-building horror film and faithful historical drama, centering on both the religious hysteria and madness associated with witchcraft and superstition in colonial America. Although marketed as pure horror, Eggers’ concerns are with recreating, in painstaking detail, a God-fearing New England decades before the Salem Witch Trials. To this end, the 17th century clothes, lodging, and period-accurate vernacular are employed with historical authenticity, while cheap tricks and jump scares are eschewed in favour of the types of meditative visuals and insidious encounters found in New England folk tales.

Indeed, shortly after Samuel disappears, the family’s crops begin to fail, a large rabbit starts wreaking havoc, and young twins Mercy and Jonas (Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson) begin talking to their menacing farm goat, whom they call “Black Phillip.” While these events are not immediately horrif ying, the way in which Eggers situates them

within an oppressive atmosphere serves to create a constant feeling of dread. The grey New England skies become darker, Black Phillip starts acting wildly, and the woods take on an evil presence, indicated through menacing music and austere cinematography.

In essence then, what scares the viewer is not the things that are seen, but those dreadful elements which remain hidden, creating an under-the-skin type of horror. Why is Black Phillip acting so wildly?

If he actually is speaking with the children, then who or what is he, and what is he saying? This is good horror — akin to recent critic favourites The Babadook and It Follows, The Witch generates fear through the unseen. While the film could thus elicit criticism for being too uneventful or slowmoving, the nature of fear is fundamentally primal, most effectively triggered by the unknown and unexplained.

The eldest son, Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), eventually becomes possessed after being lured by a mysterious young woman into her woodland home.

By this time, the audience feels the family’s terror, desperation, and yearning for absolution, and this is what makes the film such an effective piece of horror cinema. That is, the family’s shocking heights of suspicion and paranoia are echoed in those same feelings encountered by the audience, creating a truly immersive cinematic experience. Ultimately, while mainstream horror offerings like Sinister and The Purge provide audience-pleasing shocks and resolutions, The Witch offers neither. And it is for this reason that the movie is so great, since it quietly gets under the skin of viewers and lingers there for days afterwards.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 02, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

ARTS IN REVIEW ALBUM REVIEW

On In My Mind, BJ the Chicago Kid enters the storm of the R&B genre MARTIN CASTRO THE CASCADE

BJ the Chicago Kid’s first full-length project is a bit of an oddity. It ref lects his struggle to carve out an identity, and while it does an adequate job of that, it’s more of a success in how it reclaims an aesthetic as opposed to creating another one.

The aesthetic in question is R&B. R&B has gone through some pretty dramatic changes these past years. It was once well known as the stomping ground of artists like Stevie Wonder, who took funk aesthetics and blended them with soul. Later, R&B morphed once more, this time turning into the funky rock of Earth, Wind & Fire. Fair enough.

And then came R. Kelly. Through him, R&B was redefined into the smooth, silky, pillow-talk soundtrack it has come to be known as. Even now, the R&B aesthetic has further moved away from its roots, as artists like The Weeknd and Drake further muddy the waters.

And In My Mind seems to be the latest in a series of albums that come off as a cultural backlash against this bastardization of R&B. Although not as rooted in the inception of R&B as Leon Bridges’ Coming Home, In My Mind is definitely a step in the right direction. And it’s much more accessible to mainstream audiences.

The Weeknd is on the far left of the nu-R&B aesthetic spectrum, all hedonism and sex and drugs and parties and sex and sex. Leon Bridges is the diehard conservative: his music is all gospel and redemption and spirituals. Each has its appeal.

In My Mind is an amalgamation of both extremes of the

spectrum. “Shine Bright,” for example, is a more hopeful track than what I’d expect The Weeknd to ever produce, but it’s still all about a couple’s relationship, and there are definitely sexual tones throughout. It’s not as overtly pornographic as The Weeknd, though. (Although there’s nothing wrong with The Weeknd’s brand of auditory pornography, it’s just different is all.)

“The New Cupid,” for example, is one of the best tracks on In My Mind; it blends BJ’s smoothly-delivered chorus with a more laid-back instrumental that actually incorporates strings, a kit, and guitar, as opposed to the neat synths we’ve become so accustomed to. And it’s a track much more focused on the emotional aspects of relationships than the physical ones. Is it as radio-ready as “Can’t Feel My Face?” No, not by a long shot, but it’s smooth and funky and features a kick ass little verse by Kendrick Lamar. We get the sense that BJ turns more to God than he does to physical pleasures in his times of doubt, and his music is all the more interesting because of that.

And so it’s no surprise that the best track on the record starts with: “She say she wanna drink, do drugs, and have sex tonight / but I got church in the morning.” Overall, the track is pretty much a thematic carbon copy (although a damn catchy one) of tracks that highlight the disconnect between our society’s predominantly Christian religious ideologies, and our hedonism and focus on sex. (At least insofar as how it applies to BJ as an artist.)

It’s Chance the Rapper’s feature that makes this track stand out.

I can’t even begin to express how f loored I am with the music that Chance has been putting out lately, but his guest verse on “Church” is the best part of In My Mind. That’s not

a dig at BJ, but rather an acknowledgment of how much Chance has grown as an artist since his appearance on Donnie Trumpet’s SURF. In My Mind adds to a mosaic that includes SURF, as well as records released by a myriad of other artists over the past couple of years, and if the tide moves in the direction of these two records, then R&B is finally taking a step back in a direction not as dominated by vaguely-defined instrumentals and ever-present sexual innuendos.

ALBUM REVIEW

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis serve up a predictably lackluster sophomore record PANKAJ SHARMA CONTRIBUTOR

Sometimes, if you dig deep enough, a person’s opinion on Macklemore (usually through his collaborations with Ryan Lewis, as few have bothered listening to his solo material) is often in and of itself a statement of some kind. It’s a meaningful one that describes more than just one’s taste in music as art or distraction. Hip-hop purists decry the Mack Daddy as an example of white privilege, that a mediocre rapper by any other standard has the advantage of not scaring mainstream audiences: “The Eminem Benefit.”

Others position him as the perfect poster boy for hip-hop that can bring it to a wider audience. But will that wider audience dig any deeper?

This Unruly Mess I’ve Made is at the very least an enjoyable listen, but like many sophomore efforts it faces an uphill struggle to reach the standards the duo set for themselves with The Heist. Like their first effort, there is a mix of upbeat and serious efforts on this album, although the more pop-oriented tracks feel like they are trying a little too hard

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to get radio play. “Downtown” is especially irritating. I’ll give “Brad Pitt’s Cousin” and “Dance Off ” a pass, as they are a little more authentic in their silliness.

Macklemore’s self awareness has always been one of his strengths, although his Kendrick text incident shows that it can often delve into a sea of corniness and grandstanding.

When he gets introspective and serious, like on “Light Tunnels” or the Atmosphere-inf luenced “Growing Up,” Macklemore is at his best.

On purely technical terms however, Macklemore often falls back into a monotone and boring delivery, more talking lines at you than rapping. An exception, and perhaps one of my favourite moments on the album, comes during his second verse on “White Privilege II.” There he is energetic, passionate, and actually uses an original and entertaining f low.

Overall, what can I say? The lows are boring and the highs are meaningful, but only because of the platform they’re presented on. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made is a solid effort, but not groundbreaking. It’s exactly what you might expect from Macklemore.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 02, 2016

ARTS IN REVIEW ALBUM REVIEW

ALBUM REVIEW

The Rocket Man takes off again GLEN ESS THE CASCADE

I’ve found these last few months inundated with musicians from the past crawling out of the woodwork and releasing new albums: David Bowie’s final work, Blackstar; Suede’s latest, Night Thoughts; and now Elton John releasing his 32nd album, Wonderful Crazy Night.

I don’t know about you, but I was never much of an Elton John fan; I never went looking for his music, unlike Bowie, Suede, the Smiths, and several other British musicians whose music I would relentlessly hunt down.

The most exposure I had to Elton John would have been as a result of his work in animated films, creating magnificent soundtracks for The Lion King and The Road To El Dorado.

Armed with this minute amount of musical information, I gave Wonderful Crazy Night a listen.

From the get-go, Elton John surprised me with how groovy, how funky he sounded. From the album’s opener, I couldn’t help but nod appreciatively.

John may be 68 years old, but his voice hasn’t changed a bit, with a soulful rumble to it. I couldn’t help but feel slightly astounded, because while the music is upbeat and optimistic, John’s vocals are a little restrained, which is something I hadn’t thought him capable of. After all, this is the man who performed the almost sickeningly happy soundtrack for The Road to El Dorado, as well as the man who sang “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.”

As it turns out, he remains firmly in control of his emotions across the opening half of Wonderful Crazy Night.

The opening half wouldn’t be out of place alongside blues rock artists like Gary Clark Jr. and the Stone Foxes. It’s clear that he’s holding himself back — he’s not as explosive as he’s obviously capable of being. For me, there was

a sense of anticipation just bubbling beneath the surface as I waited for John to let his emotions explode outwards, for his voice, which is already a strong one, to really let loose.

Thankfully, it does. After that opening half full of slower ballads, the Elton John I grew up listening to finally comes out to play. “Looking Up” signals this shift with a bouncy piano and an old school rock-and-roll feel to it. John’s voice morphs into a more theatrical, more emotive style of singing. If it wasn’t for the gnarly guitar, you could picture “Looking Up” in a Disney movie.

The following track, “Guilty Pleasure,” tops its predecessor and is by far the album’s standout song, with a jangly guitar line reminiscent of the La’s and a poppy bassline all overlaid with clapping and John’s voice demonstrating both power and an infectious verve. This is the most fun song on the album, featuring incredibly silly, yet endearing, lines like, “I can’t whistle, never really could,” and, “Am I the lover you’d like my love?” This is the song that really made me fall in love with Wonderful Crazy Night, and with Elton John in general.

Sadly he returns to the slower paced, bluesy realm of the opening half. Being even more balladic isn’t a problem in itself, it’s just that his more expressive songs, particularly “Guilty Pleasure,” are so much more entertaining.

While the album isn’t perfect (pacing issues mean John’s restrained performance in the opening half and the tail end can make the middle of the album seem a little jarring), it’s still a very good introduction to Elton John, as well as proof that musicians from the past are just as capable as any of entrancing and attracting a new generation of listeners today.

You Say Party releases first studio album since death of drummer MITCH HUTTEMA THE CASCADE

You Say Party (YSP), formerly You Say Party! We Say Die!, is one of those few Abbotsford bands to escape our Bible belt. Playing shows across Canada and internationally, the group has been performing since 2004 (with a hiatus from 2011 to 2012). The band has had a tough history, with their drummer, Devin Clifford, collapsing on stage on April 16, 2010 and passing away two days later due to an unpredictable brain hemorrhage. This was a huge blow to the psyche of the band, leading to their hiatus. It was at this time the group changed their name out of respect for their band mate.

This tragedy seems to play an important role in the tone of their latest self-titled release. The record is beautiful, yet haunting and atmospheric while still feeling incredibly personal. Upbeat drum rhythms penetrate each track, offering direction and momentum to the rest of the production which is predominantly synthy and mellow with lo-fi vibes. The prominence and consistency of the drumbeat in every track contributes to the overall vibe that the record is a sort of elegy to their late friend.

Stylistically, YSP’s new album is far different from their earliest releases. Much of their music was punk rock with strong themes of political and economic activism — dissatisfaction with current social conditions. This new release leaves those themes behind, instead resonating with a more contemplative tone. YSP has f lirted with this approach before; the last half of the last track on the band’s first two albums dabble with synthy melodies and electronic

drumbeats, and now this continues to their new release — the band decided to not replace Clifford and instead rely on a drum machine.

This album has been a long time coming.

Their last live performance was in 2013 (for the CIV L fundraising gala) and their last studio album release was X X X X from 2009. In an article from Exclaim! in 2013, Kristina Loewen, the band’s keyboardist at the time, talked about plans to release more music later that year — this did not happen as planned.

Two previously-released tracks, “Friend” and “Heading in the Direction of the R ising Sun,” which bassist Stephen O’Shea talked about back in 2013, do appear on this new album. These tracks seem to have been produced with much thought and intention over the years as the band came to terms with the tragedy and began to become at peace with it.

While the feeling of sadness penetrates the whole length of the album, there are strong emotions of hope and peace as well. These two emotions live together most prominently in the harmonies of “Fortitude,” the sixth track on the record.

The synthesizer glows with a high-pitched, cheery, yet melancholy melody as the bass and other instruments weave a mellow undertone. This album is YSP’s most introspective and exquisitely layered release to date. Not the kind of album to be listened to lightly, YSP’s attentiveness and care needs full consideration and respect from the listener in order to be accurately mined from its depths.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 02, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

Photograph: Mitch Huttema

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