The Cascade Volume 25 Issue 12

MARCH 29 TO APRIL 5, 2017

VOLUME 25 ISSUE 12

Didn’t need that elbow anyways since 1993

Textbooks are expensive pg. 8-9

SUS election results SUS elections happened. People won.

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Daffodil Days UFV Circle K Club raising funds for Canadian Cancer Society.

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Get Out Brilliant filmmaking coupled with great narrative.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

EDITORIAL

C’s get degrees and jobs Is a dropping GPA really that big of a deal?

VANESSA BROADBENT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

When I was in high school one of my teachers told me that I was going to go far, not because I was willing to work hard and go above and beyond what was necessary, but because I, according to him, had mastered creating the best outcome with the lowest amount of effort. “You know what you need to do, and what you don’t need to do. Most people just think they need to do everything,” he told me.

He gave me an A, because I did a great job of doing the bare minimum.

I was in class last week when my professor put us into groups with a list of discussion questions. But it was our third to last week of classes and none of us had done the readings, so instead of discussing the questions, we complained about how much homework we had to do.

I don’t remember exactly what sparked it, probably one of us saying that we were debating just not doing an assignment or skipping studying for a final, but one of my groupmates responded with a chuckle and “Hey, C’s get degrees,” to which I laughed and responded with “and I’m pretty lucky that they do.”

While neither of us were serious, it did spark a much more interesting group discussion than whatever is was we were supposed to be talking about could have.

I’m in the group that, while not necessarily encouraging it, agree that C’s do in fact get degrees. At UFV (and most universities), you need to maintain a GPA of 2.0 to graduate — a C average. But the intent behind the statement isn’t that graduating with a C average means you still get handed a piece of paper

when you walk across the stage, it means that you can become a successful university graduate, regardless of the grades you received.

I’ll be the first to admit that I won’t be graduating with a

“The more relevant work experience you have in a particular area, the less important grades are.”

4.0 GPA, and maybe I should, but I don’t really care. I’ve had multiple jobs that I’ve only gotten because of the program I’m in and the education I’ve received so far, and never has an employer asked me what my grades were in the hiring process. Rather than focusing on the marks I was getting, it was about the hands-on experience I gained — which, coincidentally, was the reason my grades were slipping below the A-average I was originally striv-

ing for.

This is obviously different if a masters or PhD is in your future plans, but for those of us that are content with getting our bachelor’s and only need that, unfortunately, there just doesn’t seem to be enough of a reward in striving for the highest grades possible.

So despite the fear of mediocre grades that’s instilled in us since grade school, does our GPA really matter?

It doesn’t look like it. In an article published by the New York Times, Abby Ellin quotes Sheila Curran, president of Curran Career Consulting, who explains that “the more relevant work experience you have in a particular area, the less important grades are.”

This is dependent on the profession but think about it: your doctor could have been the worst in his grad class, and the person teaching your kids could have completed their undergrad just above the 2.0 requirement. But it’s not something you’re going to ask them, and nobody probably has.

So what’s the motivating factor in aiming for a flawless transcript when after graduation you’ll be the only one that cares?

Well, it should be a sense of personal accomplishment, wanting to graduate university knowing that you did the best you possibly could have done, and be able to look back knowing that you’ve put in your best effort. Or you could look back knowing that you stuck it to the man and are now a college graduate although you cheated the system and got by with minimal effort.

It’s really all in how you look at it.

STAFF Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Broadbent

News Editor Joel Robertson-Taylor

Varsity Writer Harvin Bhathal

Illustrator Amara Gelaude

Managing Editor Joel Robertson-Taylor

Opinion Editor Panku Sharma

Production Manager Brittany Cardinal

Photographer Alexandrah Pahl

vanessa@ufvcascade.ca

joel@ufvcascade.ca

harvin@ufvcascade.ca

joel@ufvcascade.ca

panku@ufvcascade.ca

Business Manager Quintin Stamler

Culture & Events Editor Jeff Mijo

Production Assistant Molly Jones

quintin@ufvcascade.ca

jeff@ufvcascade.ca

molly@ufvcascade.ca

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak

Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro

Features Editor Bradley Peters

kat@ufvcascade.ca

martin@ufvcascade.ca

CONTRIUBUTORS Mitch Huttema Aman Bhardwaj Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts Tara Quist Jessica Johnson Cover: Molly Jones Back Cover: Brittany Cardinal

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brittany@ufvcascade.ca

brad@ufvcascade.ca

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Distributor Griffy Vigneron

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Ad Rep Kayla Normandeau-Cowan kayla@ufvcascade.ca

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 1,250 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 12:00 p.m. in The Cascade’s office on the Abbotsford campus.

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.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

NEWS NEWS BRIEFS

Sus election results announced

UFV looking for feedback on policies UFV’s Secretariat is asking the UFV community for feedback on two policies: the prevention, education and response to sexualized violence policy, and the safe student learning community policy.

The prevention, education and response to sexualized violence policy is new and is required by the B.C. provincial government. The safe student learning community policy is a revision of the current student non-academic conduct policy. The policies can be found online at ufv.ca/secretariat/ policies, and feedback can be send to jody.gordon@ufv.ca by March 31.

SUS to hire for centre coordinators At their board meeting on Tuesday, the Student Union Society discussed hiring employees to staff their upcoming pride and gender equality centres. The gender equality centre coordinator and pride UFV coordinator responsibilities would include providing support services and resources and connecting students to campus and community resources, as outlined in the proposed job descriptions. Both positions are 10 - 20 hours weekly and work directly with SUS’ executive director. A motion to approve the positions was presented, but tabled until the next SUS meeting in April.

UK soccer recruits signed The UFV Cascades men’s soccer program has added three recruits from the U.K. to its roster for the upcoming season. The recruits include 5’10” forward Shaun Cavanagh from Caernarfon, Wales, 5’8” midfielder Spencer Williams from Tenby, Wales, and 6’0” forward Charlie Lovell from Billericay, England. The three will be joining five already announced recruits: John Kasper from the Vancouver Whitecaps FC youth residency program, and Surrey United’s Noah Da Silva, Tré Spedding, Karan Kular, and Sammy Kajzerek.

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR MANAGING EDITOR

The election results for the Student Union Society’s (SUS) annual elections were presented at the SUS board meeting on Tuesday.

Gurvir Gill was elected as president with a 58.5 per cent of the vote. A total of 540 people voted in the presidential poll. Gill was elected on a platform of making “positive change” by creating a “student day,” a day of free food and positive messages, and “creating traditions” unique to UFV on campus. Gill was running against one other candidate, Cameron Stephan.

Alyson Gher-White was elected as vice-president external receiving 65.9 per cent in favour, out of 525 voters. She campaigned uncontested on issues of student outreach, promoting Student Union functions, and making sure that students feel safe and have fun.

Jaleen Mackay defeated Manbir Sandhar and was elected as vice-president internal, receiving 45.5 per cent of 536 votes. Mackay presented a comprehensive plan to revise Student Union policies, improve budgeting, as well as advocate for “open education” and student engagement.

Only three of the eight available representative positions had candidates running for them, each uncontested.

Cody Dumas was reelected as aboriginal rep and received 61.6 per cent in favour, running for college of arts rep; Andrew Stahl was elected with 62.5 per cent voting yes; Ekanki Chawla was elected as faculty of sciences rep, receiving

64.7 per cent voting yes.

The election saw a total of 540 students participate by voting, a significant decrease from last year’s voter turnout of 1350.

Sevrina Sharma, the chief electoral officer (CEO) was supposed to present the results at the board meeting on Tuesday. However she wasn’t able to be there and the report was instead presented by vice-president internal, Ashmeet Saran. In the report it was highlighted that multiple candidates received warnings for policy violation offences.

On March 25, Sharma received two complaints from a candidate, one was about another candidate having their Facebook promotion page running during the voting period. This complaint was overruled.

The other complaint was that the candidate had posters still up on March 20th, after the campaigning period had closed. This is a violation of election policies and SUS election rules that say that candidates cannot “campaign during any part of the election that is not the campaign period.” It was explicitly stated that the campaigning period ended on the 19th. However, the electoral committee decided that this was a “grey area.”

Other warnings took place on March 9, when Sharma was informed that two candidates were being promoted by a current SUS board member on Facebook. The candidates were given their first warning.

On March 13, Sharma was informed that a current SUS board member was promoting a candidate.

On March 21, Sharma received a complaint about a candidate’s Facebook page sending notifications encouraging someone to vote for them.

This candidate was given their second warning.

Sharma also provided SUS with a list of recommendations for following elections, including requiring candidates to delete the social media platforms after campaign period, and accept late nominations for vacant positions.

As written in her elections reported presented to the board, she suggested that nomination packages be accepted for vacant positions after the nomination deadline. “The CEO received emails from two different individuals who were interested in running for board positions. They understood that they had missed the nomination period, but hoped there was a way for them to still run in the election since no one else had applied for the position,” the report read.

The exact same recommendations were brought to the board by last year’s CEO Gurv Brar. Then SUS president Thomas Davies told The Cascade that the incoming SUS Board “would have to put some work into this over the summer in finding the best way to incorporate that into our policies.” However, the policies were never updated to include the recommendations.

The new board will fill their positions in May.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

NEWS

UFV signs block Granting students a transfer agreement with way to pay off debt Catholic Pacific College JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR MANAGING EDITOR

VANESSA BROADBENT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Students in Catholic Pacific College’s (CPC) new liberal arts diploma will now be able to transfer their credentials to UFV to finish a bachelor’s degree.

“It’s a block transfer agreement for students from Catholic Pacific College’s liberal arts diploma to transfer to UFV’s bachelor of arts or our bachelor of general studies,” Alisa Webb, UFV associate dean of students, college of arts, said.

The agreement will allow students in CPC’s program transfer to UFV either halfway through their program after their first year, or after completing the two-year program.

“The agreement includes course-to-course articulation so they can bring those courses into the program, or they can finish there and then come here for their last two years,” Webb explained.

Students don’t need to be in a university that has a block transfer agreement to apply to transfer to UFV, but Webb said that the agreements streamline an otherwise daunting process.

“All of this is currently possible, it’s just so much more work,” she said. “If it’s not within the B.C. public school system then that students has to provide a course syllabus, for example, to have their courses evaluated. So it makes it a very onerous process for students to get credit for the work they’ve done.”

The block agreement isn’t UFV’s first, and a

similar one was put in place last year with Columbia Bible College, but as a new college, this is the first agreement for CPC. CPC is a partner of Trinity Western University and this is the first year the liberal arts diploma program has been offered.

“They came looking for partners where they could send their students other than just Trinity Western, and approached UFV,” Webb explained. “They had spoken with the president and the vice president a couple years ago and then met with myself and our associate vice president academic and I started working on the agreement.”

Webb noted that CPC’s program aligned with UFV’s recent revisions to the bachelor of arts.

“The liberal arts diploma at CPC really mirrors the direction we’ve taken the BA in: a lot of emphasis on community engagement, intercultural, critical thinking,” she said. “It’s a lovely program: quantitative and scientific literacy, philosophy, lots on English literature, media and communications. It’s a really exciting diploma so it fits well with what is here.”

Since the program is currently wrapping up its first year, students from CPC will be able to transfer starting in September.

“They’re in their first year so we would just be seeing the first crop that might want to transfer early, otherwise next year will be the big push,” Webb said. “What this does is it ensures the courses that they’ve already taken are recognized within the system.”

The Cascade is hiring an

Editor-In-Chief

If you’re an excellent writer, thinker, and leader (or can fake the apprearance of those things), you might have what it takes to be the next editor-in-chief of The Cascade.

To apply, send a resume, a sample editorial/ opinion piece, and a written manifesto of what you would like to see The Cascade become in the next year.

Applications and questions can be sent to vanessa@ufvcascade.ca.

Deadline for applications is April 14.

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Student debt keeps rising. The average postsecondary student in B.C. with a student loan now graduates with $35,000 in debt.

In an attempt to call attention to the severity of student debt, the UFV faculty and staff association is giving away $1,000 to 30 current or former UFV students — whoever has the most student debt.

The money will be given away through their contest, “30 drops out of the bucket.”

Sean Parkinson, president of the faculty and staff association, helped organize the contest.

“As many people as possible can apply, but what we’ll do is for the sort the applicants and the 30 applicants with the most debt will get $1,000 each,” said Parkinson.

Once the contest closes next week, all the applications will be looked at, but only for how much debt they have. The applications don’t require any story or essay, only that at least one course has been taken at UFV since 2005 and proof of student debt is provided.

The money for the contest will come from the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators.

The program is based off a similar campaign that was done last year at Okanagan college — where it was found that some had debt well over $60,000.

Although the campaign will give away the $30,000, its other purpose is to increase awareness about the high costs of student debt.

“Giving the money is the hook. What I really want is people just to talk about this,” said Parkinson.

Government funding of post-secondary education has been declining, Parkinson said. When UCFV became a university in 2008, 28 per cent of the operating budget came from students. Now, students pay about 40 per cent of the operating budget.

The cost burden students face continues to grow as education becomes increasingly more important.

“Tuition has gone from $2,500 to $5,500 and is 220 per cent more now, while minimum wage isn’t 220 per cent more,” Parkinson said. “It takes a lot more hours at a bad job to pay for a course today than it did 15 years ago.”

After the winner is announced April 10, a spreadsheet of all the debt will be published to show that total debt of those who entered the contest.

“I think the financial burden that students face today, it’s just untenable to leave with that kind of debt,” Parkinson said.

“I’ve got strong personal feelings but I don’t know how young people get a leg up in life when you’ve got that big anchor around your neck.”

The contest closes April 6, applications can be sent to FSA.Info@ufv.ca.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

NEWS

Neutralizing washrooms SUS board of directors approves gender neutral washrooms in Student Union Building

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR NEWS EDITOR

You may have heard it referred to as the “gender neutral project,” the “washroom ungendering project,” or you may not have heard anything at all. Officially, it is now called the “multi-stall gender neutral project.”

At Tuesday’s Student Union board meeting, the board unanimously voted to have the second floor washrooms in the Student Union Building made gender neutral.

A multi-stall gender neutral washroom is a washroom facility that is open to anyone, regardless of gender identification. The women’s washroom on the SUB second floor will only see signage changes. However, in order to make the men’s washroom gender neutral, the urinals must be removed, a project that will cost $3,000.

The motion to vote on the proposal was put forward by Student Union president, Sukhi Brar.

“We’ve talked to UFV students, stakeholder groups, social work students, both working groups for feedback,” she said at the meeting.

“What was identified for this as the best place is the second floor washrooms.”

In summer of 2016, a group of students expressed an interest to the Student Union to

have all the washrooms of the Student Union Building made to be gender neutral.

Over the last year, the Student Union decided that it would make the most sense to change only the second floor washrooms, primarily because they’re on the same floor as the women’s and pride centres. Brar mentioned that there are also building codes that require a certain amount of male gender and female gender designated washrooms across all floors and it would not be possible to make the whole building gender neutral.

A few other universities across Canada have created multi-stall “allgender” washrooms, including University of Victoria, University of Ottawa, and McGill University.

At the meeting, board of governors representative Robert Pedersen asked if there was an increase or decrease of risk in safety once the washrooms at other universities were made gender neutral.

Brar responded saying that UVIC, the closest school who has also made the washroom changes didn’t observe any changes.

“I reached out to their student affairs to ask if they’ve seen any conduct issues … based on the data, there’s been no change that came with the washrooms changing over,” said Brar.

Now with board approval, the conversion of the washrooms will take place this summer.

“We’ve talked to UFV students, stakeholder groups, social work students, both working groups for feedback.”

The Cascade is hiring an

Managing editor

The Managing Editor works in tandem with the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) to manage staff and ensure a smooth editorial workflow.

The Managing Editor oversees the human resources operations of The Cascade, as well as scheduling, but also assists with editing and writing duties.

Email a resume and cover letter to vanessa@ufvcascade.ca by April 14.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

NEWS

New coding program provides post-graduate training for programming students VANESSA BROADBENT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There’s nothing quite as daunting as the thought of having to enter the workforce after graduation, but UFV and the Ministry of Advanced Education’s new coding training program is working to make the transition a little smoother for computer information systems (CIS) and computing science graduates.

Gabriel Murray, a professor in UFV’s CIS department, will be instructing the full-time fourweek-long program which starts in May. “The idea is that it’s a program to help our students who are either about to graduate or are just graduating transition into the industry,” he explained. “It will be teaching them advanced programming skills. It might be stuff that they’ve encountered before but maybe need a refresher; some of it may not have been included in their undergraduate.”

Along with programming and coding skills, the program, which is also open to physics and math graduates, will incorporate skills necessary for entering the workforce.

“We’ll be teaching them things like professional standards, professional ethics, topics like that,” Murray said. “It should be very practical, very much trying to help them hit the ground running when they get a job.”

To help students prep for job searching, Murray is incorporating coding interviews, which are required for most programming job

applications.

“It’s a type of job interview where they give you a problem and you have to write code to solve the problem,” he said. “That’s the kind of situation where students haven’t really practiced that. They’ve done lots of programming but they haven’t really done a coding interview.”

While the program is full-time, only three of those days will be spent in a classroom. The other two will be working in the field, placed with local businesses in the Fraser Valley.

This component was incorporated as a way for students to get hands-on experience that just isn’t available in classes.

“It’s always different in a lab compared to when you’re actually doing it — having to write something on a deadline to get this product finished and sent off to a client,” Murray said.

Exactly what the students will be doing in their placements is flexible, and will differ with each employer — but all will involve some form of coding or programming.

So far, the participating employers include Cnawlece Incorporated, Multapplied Networks, SRCTec, and Kerkhoff Technologies.

For Kerkhoff Technologies, the involvement extends past taking on students, but president Wim Kerkhoff was also involved in the development of the program, along with Murray, Susan Francis and Lisa Boldt from continuing education, physics professor Derek Harnett, and CIS student Elizabeth Klassen.

The idea for the program was born out of a $50,000 donation from the Ministry of Ad-

vanced Education as part of the BC Tech Strategy.

“There are a lot of high-tech computing jobs in British Columbia and basically there’s more positions than companies can fill,” Murray explained. “It can be hard to find qualified people because so many companies need computer-literate programmers, so there’s a lot of competition for programmers out there.”

With an open-ended requirement for exactly how to use the funding, UFV and the Ministry worked together to develop the program.

The funding allows for the program to be offered for a $100 fee.

“That funding allows us to do this as a pilot program,” Murray said. “There’s only a $100 application fee if they get accepted into the program, and really, that $100 is only to give them a sense of commitment to the program.”

Since the funding was offered as a one-time grant, it’s unsure if the program will be offered again in the future.

“If we want to offer this on an annual basis, then we would need to either find alternate sources of funding to do that or charge on a cost recovery basis in the future,” Murray said.

“We’ll see how that goes.”

Regardless of whether the program will be offered in the future or not, the information included in it could end up being incorporated into the CIS degree.

“I think we’re really filling a gap for some things that aren’t covered in the undergrad program,” Murray said. “What I envision as a

strong possibility is what we learn from this pilot program will kind of be wrapped into our undergrad program in the future. It will help us identify things that we’re not covering and we’ll add those either to existing courses or possibly create new courses to meet those needs.”

However, the program is open to all graduates in the past five years, not only recent grads, and can offer those already working in the field the opportunity to brush up their skills.

“We’ve also heard from local tech employers that there might be some employees who work for tech companies who’d be interested in doing this just as a way to brush up their skills,” Murray said. “Maybe they’ve been working in the tech industry for a few years but they want to just get a refresher on some concepts because it’s been a few years since their program.”

Currently, the program is still accepting applications.

“We’re trying to get the word out to as many students as possible,” Murray said. “I think the students who do it will be really glad that they did and it will give them an edge. I think it will really help our computing students land a job and succeed at the job.”

The program will be running out of UFV’s Five Corners campus in Chilliwack from May 1 – 26.

Students can find more information on the program, or apply, at ufv.ca/cis until March 31.

Stories worth paying attention to ##EasyToSpendOthers’Money Liber subsidies for LNG, oil, and gas firms With the B.C. Elections approaching, Sierra Club B.C.’s March report lends perspective on planned subsidies for LNG related firms.

According to the report, British Columbian’s will be paying for tax breaks, subsidies, and reduced electricity rates given by the B.C. government to the oil and gas industry.

With two LNG terminals having been approved, and another 18 proposed, the dollar figures are in the hundreds of millions, with the potential for very high valuations.

The Sierra Club B.C.’s report touches on multiple topics, including the Site C dam, alternative energy, and the recently approved Trans Mountain project.

Sierra Club claims the subsidies span across more than the LNG industry and most likely had implications in Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.

The subsidies across a 20-year period for the Trans Mountain pipeline will have a price tag of $540 million for British Columbians.

-The Tyee

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#BlazingThroughLegislation The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq may not be be helping

#MoreHarmThanGood Marijuana Legislation Delayed

civilian casualties in the city of the U.S. led coalition is lacking for appropriately aiding Iraq State, according to Amnesty

The country holds its breath after Ottawa says it will drop legislation for the planned legalization of marijuana by April 20, 2017, a significant date for marijuana enthusiasts. Legalization is now reported to be scheduled for July 1, 2018.

After the March 17th airstrike in west Mosul, Amnesty claims more than 100 civilian were killed.

The government, to date, has nodded to provincial regulation, indicating that provinces and territories will be given the ability to slow down the process, as well as be able to control sales locations, distribution channels, and tax rate.

The recent uptick in Mosul suggests that the care required combat the Islamic International.

A second air strike only a week after is said to have left more than 150 casualties. As evidence is gathered, it reveals a pattern of strikes that have destroyed homes and taken more civilian life, reports Amnesty.

The Islamic State is said to have used civilians as human shields in a building near the explosion according to Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, and Iraqi military spokesman. A least 307 deaths were tallied between the dates of February 17th and March 22nd..

- The Globe and Mail

The federal government has stated that it plans to give the the provinces and territories.

Calls for more details of legalization included, among other things, how much people should possess, whether edibles should be sold, and how to tackle drug-impaired driving.

The issues that provinces and territories will face in regards marijuana will be the trickiest says Simon Fraser University’s criminology head, Neil Boyd.

-The Globe and Mail

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

OPINION

Got a Degree? Need a Job? Too Bad! TARA QUIST CONTRIBUTOR

Get a degree. From the moment we are capable of comprehending the value in education this is the mantra that we are taught to obey. Degrees, they are like the master key to unlocking the doors of future success. According to a firstyear university survey by the Canadian University Survey Consortium in 2016, 44 per cent of students chose to attend higher education because they believed it would help them prepare for more advanced jobs and careers. Once upon a time, university would have done just that. After all, a degree was all you needed; just three to four years of hard work and dedication to achieve that stamp of approval guaranteeing you a place in society. Our society is changing

though, and with it, its standards.

Finding work in your related field after graduation has become less of a hardship, and more of an impossibility. Now-a-days, employers want more than just students with the proper education and the right motivation, they want experience. But not just any kind of experience, no, they want professional, on the job, two to three years experience minimum. For some fields, such as medical, where there are ample opportunities for volunteer and university placement, that isn’t much of an issue. But for others, it can be an almost impossible obstacle to overcome. In today’s market, to graduate without any volunteer or work placement experience in your relative field is like not even having a degree in the first place. So then what can you do? What is there to do?

You get creative.

While it is true we graduates are entering an ever-evolving work market, we are also entering a world with the kinds of opportunities never before imagined, and each field has its place.

For developing writers, artists, and animators, there is an entire world of self-publishing opportunities available to help hone your craft and gain experience. For writers: join a newspaper, school, or freelance, start a blog, self publish a creative work, volunteer. For artists and animators: create your own website and design your own brand of art. Utilize websites like YouTube to your own advantage.

As students, we can’t just walk out of university expecting our employers to take our word when we say we know what we are doing; we have to prove it to them. Don’t just waste your

four years studying, but develop a portfolio of your development. Take the time to invest not only in your schooling, but also in yourself and your experiences. Take the time to travel, study abroad, sign up for an overseas volunteer experience and gain some real workable knowledge.

Volunteering is not just for medical students and charities. Organizations such as GoEco cater to a variety of experiences such as education, wildlife, humanities, medical, and internships across the globe. You just need to invest the time into finding the one that suits you best.

The fact is having a degree is no longer good enough. You are one of a thousand applicants gunning for the same position. So do yourself a favour, and use your time at university to make yourself the best option they could pick.

False Alarm What are we supposed to do in case of an active shooter?

PANKU SHARMA OPINION EDITOR

I have an evening class in D building Thursday nights, and partly because for once it was nice out and not pitch black or raining (and also because D building always smells) we decided to have the windows open when the class began. A little after 8 p.m., once we had settled back in from the break, we heard two loud bangs coming from what I believe to be the direction of McKenzie Road.

I’ve been in west Abbotsford my entire life, and between people finding any excuse to blow off fireworks and the occasional townline conflict news story, the sounds aren’t exactly normal, but at the same time they’ve never been a direct cause for alarm.

Somewhat bewildered, a student in the class remarked that it sounded like it could be gunshots.

Now, I’ve never grown up around firearms (although I don’t have any principled or moral reason to avoid them either, I just think bow and arrows are more badass) but my initial thought brushed aside the assertion because there were only two shots with less than a half-minute gap between them. I’m used to hear-

ing about would-be gangbangers and their terrible aim, and I assumed if it was a handgun that there would be more shots. But I guess I also dismissed it because this is UFV and things like that don’t happen here.

(Gunshots anyways; we have tons of issues and ongoing concerns as last week’s security notice about campus creepers should remind us.)

The idea was out there, and a few more students — whom we afforded credibility on the subject because they’ve mentioned having been around guns and rural life — chimed in with an affirmative. At this point, the professor grew concerned and proceeded to put us into lockdown while he went out to call security. We closed the windows, drew down the blinds, turned off the lights and our laptops, and discreetly checked Twitter for any news. It felt like a middle school safety drill, and I think we were all over the spectrum in terms of how seriously we were taking this.

Even after security did a lap of the campus, we were the only ones to have reported anything. A guard even dropped by to clarify the situation, saying there wasn’t presently anything to be worried about. We laughed it off, a group sigh of relief and reflection on our overreaction.

However it did bring up the question of what exactly the lockdown procedure is supposed to be, or how classes would be alerted were there an actual active shooter situation: a megaphone? A siren? I vaguely recall a drill done a few years ago (and I can’t say I saw many people participating) that said to seek shelter until an all-clear notification was given, and the emergency procedure section of UFV’s website doesn’t provide much else on this scenario. I wonder where administration stands on the “Run, Hide, Fight” protocol adopted by other universities, such as Ohio State which had its own violent incident this past fall, and developed by the Department of Homeland Security. It emphasizes trying to evacuate if possible, hiding if not, and taking action as a last resort.

Even though we knew logically there was nothing to be concerned about, that sinking feeling you get when someone brings up the idea of a gunman on campus didn’t leave us immediately. I noticed my professor glancing towards the doors, which faced the foyer in the teacher education wing, whenever we would hear someone pass by or enter the building. Others, including me, did the same, and quite a few even changed

how they sat so they had a better view of the door. A student admitted to me that he did that purposefully in case he would need to duck under a table or throw one up in front of himself.

I’m not saying this was traumatic (at least for me) but it was definitely surreal. It also makes me think about what has changed in the world; I wonder if we would have had the same reaction a year ago — or five.

I’m glad nothing really happened, but it’s probably a good thing we got this spooked because now is the time to figure out how we should be

responding, whether that is a more clearly defined and implemented Emergency Management Plan, or UFV adapting steps taken elsewhere, or the annual round of suggestions from CMNS 480: Crisis Communications. Whatever our policy is, this might be a good time to put it into practice and make sure it’s communicated. There is a well tread proverb about hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, and the way things are now I don’t know if that is being too alarmist.

7

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

OPINION

SNAPSHOTS

Curtailed commentary on current conditions Jar Jar Binks was a Senator

Summer Selection

Quintin Stamler

Over the past week I have asked around among friends and fellow students about how they felt about the course selection this summer. The sentiment was of let down; most students felt they weren’t able to take courses that applied to their program, or that they had already taken the offered classes. Unless you are looking to take English 105 you are probably hard pressed to find a real variety or challenge. But maybe that’s the point?

This summer I am able to take the courses I wanted: moderately challenging ones that don’t require much time but still apply to my degree.

The summer is a time for rest and relaxation, it’s a semester, but fall and winter are where the bulk of variety can be found. The summer is meant for that one calculus course you dropped in the winter semester because you realized there was no way you were walking out of it with anything higher than a C. I am committed to sunshine and beer throughout the summer and really can’t be bothered with massive term projects. I want to show up, learn something (maybe), and leave without having to slave over studying and assignments between classes.

Summer is the time to dabble, to volunteer, to get involved in our communities or around campus. Do something different, because the fall semester is coming and we’re going to be right back into the four or five course overload just trying to keep our heads above water.

Panku Sharma

Quran Concern

Panku Sharma

Illustrations: Amara Gelaude

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So you might have heard of a recent uproar in a school district in Ontario, led by the surprisingly diverse coalition of both white Canadians and the group Canadian Hindu Advocacy.

From what I can understand, the core of the issue revolves around accommodations the school gives for Muslim students to practice Jummah, a prayer that usually happens around midday on Fridays. For the last 20 years, students who wished to pray were supervised by a volunteer in a provided empty space during lunch breaks or other free time.

Recently, there’s been torn Qurans, marches, and yelling at board meetings citing both terrorist attacks and targeting specific people.

Of course, in their flyers and material the parents against the prayer try and say this is about keeping the education system secular. (No one made a fuss about Bible study at my high school.) As someone whose worldview is heavily influenced by the fact that I don’t believe in God or an afterlife, I’d agree if it wasn’t just a self-righteous cover for a crusade rooted in xenophobia, old-world trauma, and bullying children.

We want to have real conversations about state, religion, and freedom? Let’s talk tax exemptions, let’s talk policies on religious symbols, let’s talk how far we’re willing to go interfere in people’s lives and beliefs. Let’s start talking what it means to be neighbours, and stopping putting up artificial barriers or choking on the word values.

A government needs to reflect the people not only in who leads, but in how. We’ve seen the failings of the colossal cluster muck that is the structure of the United States government (an electoral vote that disproportionately values low population states based on antiquated maps and politics, not to mention two-year congressional terms), which is itself rooted in the belief that we should stick to the literal definition of the ideas put in place hundreds of years ago.

But once again, let’s stop kicking them when they’re down and instead show some humility for once and look over to Ottawa. Now of course, there is going to be a whole new set of problems with an elected senate (if we were to reform it) as politics and popularity contests don’t necessarily mean you get the best people, unless we as a cultural and society can start thinking more critically and changing what we value in leaders. However, as it stands we have an appointed and unaccountable group made up of residential school proponents, sexual predators, and fat cats who are limited by such stringent and common sense rules such as owning property “of the Value of Four thousand Dollars.”

Who is Leon Trotsky?

Martin Castro

Why do I know who Serena Williams is? I mean, I’ve never watched a tennis match of hers and yet you can whip out a picture of her and ask “Hey, who is this?” and I’ll be able to tell you: “That’s Serena Williams, Grand Slam champion.”

What’s a Grand Slam? I don’t even know. I don’t think it’s a tournament. Is it an amalgamation of tournaments? I don’t even know.

Anyway, the point here is that most people will recognize her.

Pull out a picture of Leon Trotsky. Or anyone, really. I’m not saying more people should be aware of key Menshevik leaders. And, I mean, Trotsky’s been dead for a really long time. But the thing is, why does anyone know who Serena Williams is? Because she’s good at hitting back balls?

I don’t mean to disrespect tennis or Williams or sports fans or fans of balls. (Dogs are fans of balls and I love dogs.) But it’s weird to me that sports stars have reached such a high level of image-saturation in our society that they can be used to market random drinks or shoes.

This wouldn’t be the case if Nike or Coca-Cola weren’t absolutely sure they would get a return on their licensing of Williams’ image.

I guess what I’m saying is that we’d be better off if the people at the heights of academia had as high a position as sports stars and celebrities.

At least give Zizek a car ad placement.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

OPINION

To the Editor; This letter is in response to your editorial from volume 25, issue 11 (March 22-March 28, 2017). I read your editorial and wanted to respond with a few thoughts; 1. I felt the same way you did when I graduated. I even had a job lined up that I thought I would love, and I left it three months later! Don’t worry, I ended up finding my passion shortly afterwards, and you will too.

2. We wouldn’t let you out of here with a degree if you weren’t ready to take on the world, and win. All of the things we have made you do in your time here have been with an educational intent. You may not have seen it at the time, but you are well equipped to be successful in the world.

3. We are proud of you. You may not know it, but we take so much pride watching you walk across the graduation stage. You have changed, and grown, and had success and failures, and become the person we hoped you would be when you walked in, on day one.

You are the reason we do this work.

4. Your relationship with us doesn’t end at graduation! If you need information, support, or a place to just be, we are here for you. All you need to do is ask.

There are may official ways to be an alumni, but at the heart of it, we want to hear about your success.

5. D.F.T.B.A. (Don’t forget to be awesome). You have worked hard, you deserve this. Celebrate it.

Sincerely, Your Super-Proud Administrator Person

You’ve got to spend some green to go green JEFF MIJO

CULTURE EDITOR

Right as I drove past Baker House last Wednesday, about to park and running late for some work at The Cascade’s office, something went wrong with my car. First I heard a hissing noise. Then I smelled a sweet smell that reminded me of baked goods my grandma makes. And then I saw something that looked like either steam or smoke coming out from the space above my stereo controls. I rolled down the windows and hurried to a parking spot, but by the time I found one the air had cleared. Some research told me that it’s probably coolant leaking onto something hot and evaporating, and it (hopefully) won’t blow up in my face. It’s probably going to cost me a few hundred dollars to order the parts to fix it, and the better part of a day to install it, but that’s just part of the cost of driving a car older than some UFV students.

I’m not a car guy by any means, and the choice to drive an old one had a lot more to do with the $1,000 price tag than anything else. But this isn’t the first problem

it’s had, and some of the recurring issues do wrack the environmentally-conscious millennial inside me with guilt. I’ve had power steering fluid leaks dripping all over the ground, oil burning and shooting out in thick blue smoke, and now antifreeze steam blowing out of my dashboard. But what can I do about it? I live in a rural area, even if I wanted to take the bus to school, I’d have to drive 20 minutes to reach one.

The obvious answer to appease my inner-environmentalist seems to be that I need an electric or hybrid car, but again, the issue comes down to money. As much as I want to cut down on my emissions, the cheapest options I can track down still start at around $20,000, which no amount of tax credits or savings on gas can incentivize me to spend at this point in my life. Having a reliable, green, cheap to run car would be fantastic, but it’s a luxury. And that’s not even accounting for the lack of charging stations in some areas (though they’re certainly becoming more common) and limited battery life restricting travel options, and the cost of insuring a new or almost new fancy electric car is

no doubt going to be a lot more than I pay for my late-‘90s Volvo.

We’re surely nearing the year early adopters of electric vehicles will start to upgrade, and those first models will start to slowly fall in price at the used car lots.

Sure, the early models won’t be as good as the state-of-the-art ones, but that’s something those of us who drive older cars are used to. But it won’t be until the first widely accepted electric cars start to age that they’ll really be in the price range of broke university students.

What’s interesting, though, is that this seems like a massive untapped market. If even half the generalizations about my generation are true, we’re certainly more concerned with the environment than older demographics, and it’s also an age where a lot of people are buying their first cars. If some genius can come up with a way to undercut the market and sell electric cars at a bargain price, they’ll be a billionaire in no time. I know I’d buy one to avoid spending the next weekend tearing apart my greasy old car’s engine and fumbling around trying to stop this leak, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.

IS HOLDING AN

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Wednesday, April 4 April 11 @1 pm S2111

WE HAVE PIZZA 9

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

FEATURE

WIDE OPEN TEXBOOKS

THE BURDENING COSTS OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Written by: Joel Robertson-Taylor Illustrated by: Molly Jones “The world of the academy is built for people of leisure, and this remains an unacknowledged yet intrinsic part of established success in academia today.” Alyssia Fogarty, University Affairs.

The problem with textbooks is that they’re expensive. They’re sort of a hidden educational fee.

Like a lot of students, James Tait was supposed to buy the online component to his textbook. Buying used to save a bit of money, he didn’t get the online access code that comes with a new book.

“I needed it for my chemistry class, it was called Mastering Chemistry, but I never bought it,” he said.

The online component is an addition to the textbook, for homework, selftests, and tutorials. Textbook companies include these platforms with the sale of new textbooks as an additional service, but also to reduce used textbook sales.

The access code for Mastering Chemistry is about $70. “$50 to $100 may not seem like a lot compared to hundreds of dollars for a class, but $50 for me, it’s eating for a week,” Tait said. “And I can’t really afford to go to school as it is, so I try to reduce my costs as much as I can.”

Tait spends a lot of his time looking after his dad. So between time spent at school, on school work, and trying to pull in any extra money, there isn’t a lot left to blow on educational luxuries.

“It’s between an extra four per cent in my chemistry class and eating. So for me it was eating.”

Textbooks may not seem like a big deal to anyone not paying for an ongoing education. For those who got educated in a time when a summer job at the grocery store paid for a year of school, and making six figures working at a university is no big deal, textbooks don’t sound like a concern. If paying only the online component of a textbook means not eating for a week, maybe the model should be rethought.

There’s something to be said about the simplicity of a textbook. As if it were the sum of all necessary knowledge. As if, when asking you to buy the textbook for my class, I’m saying, “Here in my hand, I hold everything you’ll need to know,” and for some reason that’s less intimidating than online content — where does it begin, where does it end?

One of the big problems with textbooks is it’s a closed market. The student has only one option to choose from, and the choice is made by the course instructor.

“The way it really works is the publishers talk to the faculty and say, ‘Hey you should use our textbook, here are all the great benefits of it,’” said Martin Warkentin, copyright librarian at UFV. “And faculty will make decisions based on a number of reasons, and if they chose to take a textbook then it’s the student that pays for it.”

The reason that any particular textbook is used in any particular class is because the instructor thought it would work best for that class. It might be that the book is accompanied by a package of course ma-

10

terials — pre-written tests and quizzes, PowerPoint presentations, or other material to make the instructor’s life easier.

Other times the textbook may really be the best option for teaching that class.

Either way, the textbooks are sold to professors, but paid for by students.

“The analogy you could look at is the pharmaceutical industry, where the pharmaceutical companies talk to the doctors and say ‘Hey we’ve got these great treatments’ but then it’s the patients who pay for it, or the health care system,” Warkentin said.

Depending on what’s being studied, textbooks usually cost around $1,000 per year. Some of these bad boys go for more than $300.

UFV tuition fees for full-time Canadian and international students in an arts and humanities program at the undergraduate level was $4,182 for domestic students, and a whopping $16,100 for international for the 2016-17 year. Add the cost of textbooks and domestic students nearly pay 20 per cent more than what’s advertised.

International students pay less than five per cent more but only because their fees are so ridiculously high already.

Troubling stats show that B.C. students now work 180 per cent more hours than in 1975. That’s how today’s students keep up with the unchecked costs of economic and educational inflation.

The cost of textbooks has increased by 812 per cent over 30 years. Dropout rates rise as student debt increases, according to Simon Fraser’s Open Textbook Summit 2015 Conference Report. When debt reaches $10,000, program completion drops from 59 per cent to 8 per cent.

Perhaps the retention rates that UFV has been concerned about — around 60 per cent — relates to the cost of university education.

The book publishers industry generated an operating revenue of $1.7 billion in 2014. In 2016 they operated at $1.9 billion. They’re moving a lot of money. Imagine about 1.5 million full-time students in Canada paying anywhere between $600 and $1,500 a year for books. That doesn’t even include part-time students.

No one will deny the overwhelming costs of education. But the chances of finding a real job without any post-secondary education are bleak. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, the average student in Canada graduates owing about $28,000 to someone else. What a way to create opportunity. The student gets an undergraduate degree to get a reasonably well paying job so they can pay off the debt they owe for trying to get educated to get a reasonably well paying job. You might think of it like this: we’re playing Monopoly, but instead of traditional rules we’ve modified gameplay so that you simply can’t win.

Facing an adverse, seemingly antagonistic system, students get pretty creative to avoid having to pay full price for textbooks. Whether it’s torrenting E-books, swapping “used” stickers onto new books, buying from other countries, or the old “buy-photocopy-return” trick. Or simply

going without buying the text because any way you slice it, textbooks are expensive. In some classes, textbooks aren’t used enough to justify any cost. That’s why 38 per cent of students opt out of the textbook market.

One of, if not the biggest wave maker in the world of textbooks is the open textbook, or open education resource (OER).

It’s like open source software such as Firefox or Linux operating systems but in textbook form.

According to Wikipedia (another open source), “Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes.” The term was first used at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on Open Courseware. It refers to material that has been created for free use by anyone. It’s democratized information. The idea isn’t merely to replace bulky, expensive textbooks, although someday soon it may do just that. OERs are popular amongst teachers, students, and self-motivated learners. It effectively brings information into the hands of anyone who’s interested enough to look for it.

“It’s about equity in education and access. It’s not just about saving people a buck, but about making sure everyone has a chance. It’s leveling that playing field,” said Warkentin.

“Open textbooks in general is kind of a movement or initiative that started at a few different places in the United States and it has gradually moved north,” said Warkentin. “B.C. is kind of ahead of the curve on a lot of these initiatives.”

The Open Textbook Project was launched in 2012 as a B.C. governmentsponsored initiative with an initial $1 million. BCcampus was created to oversee the project. And although this is by no means the only large initiative to bring open textbooks into post-secondary institutions, it’s an interesting one because it’s government funded.

BCcampus claims they’ve saved students between $3,412,621 – $4,094,204 since their inception. Of course, these are best-educated-guess numbers. They also don’t seem as impressive when divided across the 35,024 students who are using the textbooks. On the low side of things, this has on average saved students $97.43; at the higher end, $116.89.

This is better than nothing, but still far less than what the the B.C. government estimated, stating the project could save students up to $1,000 per year, according to the previous minister of advanced education, John Yap. The high end may be somewhat misleading because it assumes that every student buys a brand new textbook. In an attempt to balance the range, the low end figure assumes the cost of a textbook is averaged at $100 per student — an increasingly more common way to calculate savings in the OER community. With that said, it’s also difficult for BCcampus to track who’s using their resources. Right now they rely on instructors who have adopted an open textbook for their class to report back to BCcampus. Not all instructors do.

If you want in on the savings, your best bet is to go to one of the top five adopting institutions: Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Douglas College, Langara College, Camosun College, Northwest Community College, respectively.

Regardless of how large of savings the BCcampus project has secured, the province has apparently put $2 million over the course of a few years into it which means the investment has at least doubled.

BCcampus has gained a lot of attention for being a government funded attempt to encourage open textbook usage. But it might be the wrong tree to bark up. As written in Macleans, the whole plan is seemingly half-baked. If the government wants to help offset the costs of education, they might have been better off dumping that $2 million into subsidizing tuition. Or not behaving so antagonisti-

“Textbooks are designed to be sold to instructors, because they’re the ones that chose the book, not the students” cally towards teachers and educational institutions.

Current minister of advanced education Andrew Wilkinson said in a press release, “Open textbooks are one way that our government is putting students first.

These textbooks offer students at universities and colleges throughout British Columbia the chance to save a lot of money on their path to success.” They are one way, they’re one of the few ways our government gives any thought to students.

BCcampus is sort of an arm of the government, as described by Maureen Wideman, director of teaching and learning at UFV. But the problem with the OERs is in quality of the text and getting payment for the authors.

“So you are a university professor and you’re going to write a textbook but if it’s an open textbook nobody is going to buy it, it’s going to be free,” said Wideman.

“How do you get paid for all the work that you’ve done to pull this textbook together?”

The reality for someone who wants to write a textbook for open usage is that they likely won’t be getting rich off their benevolence.

Enter Ian Affleck, department head of mathematics and statistics at UFV. It’s true that a lot of OERs don’t provide the same level of clarity, quality, or visual appeal that a published textbook would. Affleck said he has come across a few okay open textbooks for math, but nothing he would trust to his students — yet.

The problem with a lot of what’s currently out there as far as open textbooks for math goes is they’re too “mathy.”

“And everyone says ‘Of course it’s a mathy book, it’s a math course,’” said Affleck. “But we have students coming in from high school and if the first thing they see is nothing but ‘Y is a function of X, say Y equals X, consider Y = 25-X^2’ — come on, that’s no way to start discussing a really important concept. Yuck, no one wants to see that, that’s just intimidating.”

Affleck spent a lot of time combing through alternatives to replace traditional textbooks. Some are better than others, but at the end of the day there isn’t anything he sees as worth bringing into his classroom. A lot of the open math text-

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

FEATURE

books aren’t much more than compiled course notes from math professors, and course notes don’t make ideal textbooks.

But it gave Affleck an idea.

“Back then I thought, hey, that’s a good sabbatical project for me. I’m going to go make my own.” So he did that. Affleck took a year of leave from the university and set to work on making the best calculus textbook — a book that would cover two four-credit courses.

“I had some grand ideas of what I would do differently and what I would bring from what others have done and how mine would feel different, and I got a decent start on it but it did make me realize, my gosh this is huge.”

If Affleck was going to write a textbook, it would have to be something that would actually do students a service. And naturally, it would be free. “If I’m recommending this thing that I make commission off of every time it’s sold, there’s going to be an obvious skepticism about whether it’s the best thing,” he said. But if it’s possible to make a book that doesn’t cost anything, and that the students like, why wouldn’t other professors take interest in looking at it? And then maybe implement it in their courses, whether supplementally or to replace their existing books. It would have a clear benefit not only pedagogically, but financially.

“It’s a big factor that you can't ignore that this movement towards open textbooks can save students a ridiculous amount of money.”

When it comes to open textbooks, Affleck acknowledged that you’ve got people all along the opinion spectrum. There are those who will look at a few free online textbooks and make up their mind that there’s nothing out there, they sign off, check out, and go back to their traditional books. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum where it’s believed that open textbooks are the be-all and end-all answer to textbook woes. But both extremes can be harmful. Pushing sub-standard textbooks into classrooms before they’ve been tried and tested is equally as counterproductive as refusing to ever spend time looking at the options.

“I sometimes feel like I am reinventing the wheel because I’m not leaning heavily on previously built open texts, and I start to worry about that; am I crazy for not using more from what else is out there?”

But there always has to be people willing to bring new and different material into the university. Perhaps Affleck is reengineering the wheel, but there’s a reason we don’t drive on wood spindled chariot wheels anymore.

Affleck’s textbook project is ongoing.

He didn’t finish it during the sabbatical year and now, as department head and teaching three courses, there doesn’t seem to be as much time.

The way OERs work is, let's say one professor writes a textbook, then other professors use it and think they can improve on it. It’s not only possible but encouraged that elements from various open sources will be taken and improved on. If everyone collaborates to make a better product, eventually it’ll be just that.

Zoe Dennison is an associate professor at UFV. She’s another supporter of open texts.

“For me I have always, for most of my courses, stayed away from textbooks anyways,” she said. “Because, particularly at

the upper levels, I don’t really like what a textbook does to a course.”

Dennison teaches psychology, and has for close to 30 years. You might say she knows her way around a psychology class.

The problem with textbooks in general, according to Dennison, is that they only provide an immense surface coverage of many topics. And this is actually problematic.

“They just summarize all this stuff like it’s an idea that we all agree on.” She says the contents within the textbooks are often written in a way where the language assumes that we all agree that the info is straightforward and true.

“I don’t want my third- and fourth-year students to think in summaries and I don't want them to think that we all know this stuff and we all accept this and we all go on from here. It’s not accurate and it’s also not how research in psychology works.”

Dennison’s contentions with textbooks go further beyond their death grip on the information industry. Why bother even thinking about the cost when the very content isn’t worth using?

It’s not a secret that most psychology textbooks are in the $200ish range. More often than not, she said, her students aren’t reading them — if they even buy them. And when they do, a lot of students experience studying-induced anxiety because of the inaccessibility of textbook material: “I also just don’t want them to pay $200 to be bludgeoned with content.”

Instead of textbooks, Dennison teaches from the Noba project. Noba is one of the many high quality open resources for teaching, but it currently only covers psychology. It’s a free online platform that offers education resources through customizable, modular based courses.

Using the Noba project doesn’t make Dennison’s life easier. It’s actually more involved. Because Noba offers a wider variety of “modules,” to shape the class, she goes through and selects which ones she wants to use. She also writes her own quizzes, a luxury not provided when students aren’t paying for the course’s content. The modules might take different directions than what Dennison referred to as the set textbook formula: “You can give me any psych textbook and I don’t have to open it to tell you what they cover and when in the chapter.”

Even though the Noba project does what Dennison wants, online content can be unique for some students, and sometimes a bit of a learning curve. Part of teaching the class from online material is ensuring that it’s still delivered in a meaningful way.

“I think it’s one thing for me to assume that this is good for our students, but I'm not a first-year student so it’s really important in moving forward that we make sure that as we go along, that we look at what students are doing with this, seeing what they’re actually doing, asking them

how it works, looking at things like how it works on mobile devices.”

Regardless of Noba’s quality and the service it provides, the end goal is to educate students.

Despite her aversion to them, at any given time there are stacks of psychology textbooks sitting around Dennison’s and her colleagues’ offices. Textbook publishers frequently send them their latest and greatest updated books. And if the publishers were to find out that some of the professors are currently looking to change one of their standard textbooks, they’d have a pack of textbook reps circling the department, each bringing every instructor and every ancillary a copy of their latest book.

“Then they’ll make students pay for that because that’s who’s paying for the free textbooks. I don't want a free book that my students have to pay for,” Dennison said. “In my office right now there’s probably a stack of about a dozen intro textbooks I have received this year alone.”

In Dennison’s case then, it’s not just the cost of textbooks that makes her uncomfortable. Buying into the system is supporting a marketing model that really isn’t ethical.

“Textbooks are designed to be sold to instructors, because they’re the ones that chose the book, not the students,” she said. “It’s not necessarily designed for the good of the average student who is taking intro to psychology, who is not necessarily a psychology major.”

The unethical model that textbook publishers use isn’t the only option. And according to business professor Mike Ivanof, it’s actually outdated.

Open textbooks are a bit like Uber, Ivanof describes, “Two to three years ago, all the taxi drivers in Vancouver said they didn’t want Uber, it was taking their jobs.” The City of Vancouver responded to taxi-driver concerns and banned Uber from being used in the region. But now, Uber is back.

“What happens is, interesting and irrespectively of the will of the taxi drivers, technology is going to replace them.

Whether it’s Uber today or the Google self-driving car 15 to 20 years from now, these people are dead.”

One of the main and obvious problems with the textbook industry is the way they profit. Selling books to instructors to be paid for by students is an unsustainable model. E-readers and the accessibility of resources online will bring in a major shift in how information is disseminated.

It doesn’t matter how hard the publishing companies hold onto this bygone era, the times have changed. And Ivanof thinks we need to catch up to the 21st century.

“We can be against technology and technological advancement as much as we want but at some point in time it’s like the train leaving the station, we either hop on board or we are left behind,” he said.

There are other ways of paying for high quality content, and it comes down to changing who pays.

“I understand that the guy who writes the textbook needs to make money be-

“We can be against technology and technological advancement as much as we want but at some point in time it’s like the train leaving the station, we either hop on board or we are left behind.”

cause he’s put time and effort into it, but you need to shift the revenue model from the students paying for it,” Ivanof said. “What you do is start inserting some advertisement, now you’re shifting the revenue stream from the students onto a potential user of that student later on.”

It’s similar to what Google does. Nobody pays for their search service. But advertisers pay lots of money to Google to have their ads shown to you. A website called Bookboon does something to this effect. They offer thousands of textbooks for free, but every several pages has an ad. It’s a newer model, but one that Ivanof thinks can solve a lot of the financial issues with the current system.

Several years ago Ivanof proposed to UFV that the institution take steps towards introducing and encouraging the use of more open texts. The effort to garner interest is ongoing.

The open textbook movement still has a ways to go before replacing traditional textbooks — if it ever even will do that.

But if the cost of textbooks really are too much, it’s something that will gradually change. It’ll just take time before students and instructors warm up to the idea.

OERs are by no means the solution to the high costs of education. They’re not yet a complete solution to the relatively high costs of textbooks. But the trend shows that they will keep improving if interest keeps growing.

And even if open texts do become widespread throughout Canadian universities, certain books just won't be accessible online and for free. Contemporary fiction, poetry, or recently published works of philosophy won’t often be put out for free.

Perhaps, as Zoe Dennison believes, the reason that open educational resources haven’t been adopted in a broader sense is because of the security the textbook gives both instructors and students. The current model is one where there’s an expected way to transfer information. The textbook, print copies of readings, anything that can be held in hand is safer than online content, where the boundaries are unknown and the responsibilities of learning are seemingly limitless.

“I think if we open it up … in the long term it would save students quite a bit of money,” said Ivanof.

The textbook industry is really an oligopoly. Only a few businesses control the market. It’s a system that’s really an industry that profits off the need for education. But if students want a change in the material used in class, it’ll be up to them to make it known.

“If you think that students are the customers and the customers want a certain thing, there’s no business if you don’t supply that,” said Warkentin. “That’s where the student initiatives with the open textbooks will come in. That’s going to get more traction than a group of librarians that make guides and try to form committees. Students approaching faculty in a respectful way saying, ‘Hey, can you try this out?’”

Textbook publishers are in a worse place than they’d like us to believe.

They’ve been aware of the stats for a lot longer than any advocacy group. An organized push-back is all it’ll take to send the message that ransomed educations won’t be tolerated.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

SPORTS

Halen Davis on his Spring Invitational victory

Image: UFV Cascades

HARVIN BHATHAL VARSITY WRITER

Fresh off a victory at the UFV Spring Invitational for the men’s individual category, Halen Davis talks with The Cascade, shedding light inside his life on and off the golf course, as well as if he plays mini golf.

There’s a story that you were named after the band Van Halen. With that being said, what does your music taste look like?

My music taste is all over the place; it goes anywhere from country to rap to rock and roll. I don’t necessarily have a favourite type of music, I like any music that has meaning behind it.

You ended last season strong and have begun this season on a positive note winning the men’s individual title at the UFV Spring Invitational.

What are your expectations for this season?

My expectations are to contribute to the team; I know our team has a lot of big goals and we want to win the national championship at the end of the spring season. My goal is to contribute to the team and keep doing what I’m doing.

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You moved to Canada three years ago from the United States. What stands out in the differences between living in both places? Which one do you prefer?

I’ve been asked that question a lot and there’s not really much of a big difference, especially since I grew up only two hours south of the border. The biggest difference is terminology, the way girls pronounce the word “sorry.” Some of the stereotypes are accurate but at the same time, there really isn’t too much of a difference.

People are still people. If anything, I find that the Canadians are a little bit more sarcastic and friendly.

Out of all the sports, how did you get into golf?

I grew up on golf course in the United States.

It’s called Kayak Point Golf Course in Stanwood, W.A. My dad, he’d come home from work and we’d play nine holes at six o’clock at night so I caught onto playing golf from him.

How do you separate yourself from the rest of the competition?

That’s a hard question because our team and the competition is so good. But I find for me, I spent a lot of time approaching the mental side of the golf game; more time than people are aware of. I have an [instructor] that I get golf lessons from, but it’s funny because the golf lessons aren’t really anything technical like a golf swing or how to play the game. For the most part, he knows I know how to play. We just work on situations like really reflecting on past situations. If there was a tournament that I had a lead on and I ended up losing that tournament by two strokes, we would evaluate that and where I lost those two strokes, or losing myself because I can’t control what others do. How would I react, how could I change that? Being able to acknowledge from past experiences that I’m in that same situation and improving from the past, is what separates my game from everybody else’s.

Out of the current golfers on the PGA tour, who do you model your game after? And who’s your favourite to watch?

I’d like to model my game after someone like Zach Johnson. I find that he’s not the longest

hitter, but he’s in control of his game and he gets the most out of his game that he’s able to.

My favourite to watch is Dustin Johnson, I mean that guy is crazy. He hits so many unbelievable shots.

Is the plan to pursue golf professionally?

I’m going to see how far it takes me. If not, I’m going to get a degree at UFV and we’ll see where that goes.

What are you studying at UFV? Economics right now.

How often do you play mini golf? And are you any good?

I don’t play it all that often, but when people are around and we’re at a theme park, we’ll play it.

I wouldn’t say I’m the best at it because I find that my friends talk me into doing stupid stuff and I end up losing golf balls.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

CULTURE

Life is a Box of Swiss Chocolates: Really long distance relationships and friendships JENNIFER TRITHARDT-TUFTS CONTRIBUTOR

Life is a Box of Swiss Chocolates is a weekly column showcasing the life of a UFV student studying abroad.

Jennifer is in Lucerne, Switzerland at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts this semester, and documenting the process as she goes.

I‘ve been in Switzerland for two months now.

I have gotten to know a lot of great people and experience a bit of traditional Swiss culture. I really lucked out and got an amazing Swiss buddy through the university, whom I meet for coffee every Friday morning before class. She helps me read German correspondence I receive in the mail, and gives me suggestions on where to visit and where to buy certain things. She has really been like an instant friend. I can honestly say I have never really taken much interest in the international program at UFV so when I had an exchange student in my class or group I never really went out of my way to get to know them, but now that I am in that situation I will definitely be signing up to be a buddy at UFV. I have been thinking lately about the relationships and friendships you make, as well as the relationships and friendships you keep back home, while travelling.

First of all, I don’t think there is any one right way or single rule to follow when it comes to any sort of friendship or relationship. I can just speak from my experience.

Everyone on my exchange has such different experiences they come from and relationships they left back home. I really think that it is all based on personal preferences and how you are personally able to handle the distance and hardships of a break up.

My ex-boyfriend and I decided to break up right before I left, which worked for us because there were no hard feelings, and he was very encouraging of my desire to travel. But I did spend a lot of the first month questioning that decision and feeling very lonely. I made a lot of major changes all at once and was essentially alone for almost two weeks. Because I was so uncomfortable not being able to speak the language, I felt extra awkward going out and trying to talk to people. This left me with a lot of time to myself to reflect... maybe too much time. I’m not the type of person that easily admits my faults and I always saw being sad over another person as a major fault. Once I started meeting more people and my flatmates moved in, I started opening up, building friendships, and I wasn’t as sad about it anymore.

I felt comfortable enough to share my feelings and experiences with them and it was a huge relief.

A couple of my friends on the exchange have broken up with their significant others back home since they arrived here. I don’t know if that is better because you are distracted and you already have all your new friends established and around you. I feel like having that conversation long distance could be even more difficult because you can’t properly register the body language and you can easily switch

off an electronic device, but sometimes walking away can be harder. Also, I was a bit distracted at the beginning of my exchange before academic stuff really started to matter but I don’t think I would cope well with school if I was constantly thinking about my break up. I really had an opportunity to heal before class got intensive.

Some friends on the exchange have stayed with their significant others, but most of them are from Europe, so it’s not a big deal for them to come over to visit once a month. But I know for the couples who are cross-continental it is especially challenging because of the time difference. Sometimes I even miss activities in the evenings here because I want to Skype or call family members and friends back home.

I think that I would find it too hard to disconnect from my phone and computer and be here, present in this incredible experience, especially if I felt like my significant other was feeling rejected or ignored.

Another aspect I’ve been thinking about is doing your exchange with a friend. Typically, I like to travel alone — I enjoy the freedom — but sometimes it’s nice to have a picture that isn’t a selfie and to not have to drag all your luggage or backpack into the bathroom stall with you because your friend can watch it. When I backpacked across Eastern Canada, I really enjoyed being solo because I got to do my own thing and hang out with people I wanted to hang out with in hostels. And then I got to thinking: if I were to go on another exchange would I do it with a close friend? I don’t think I would.

However, I have had friends who choose to do it with someone they already know quite well and they have had a great time! Plus, they can constantly reminisce about the different experiences they had together. And don’t get me wrong, there are some days where I want nothing more than to go out dancing with my best friends or share an art exhibit I’m at with them because I know they would appreciate much more than I ever will. But I also feel that because I’m doing this alone I’m more likely to get out and do things and meet people, not just stick to who and what I know. It can be difficult to tell a friend you want to do something without them. I think that I’d feel too tied down.

I am really grateful for the way my experience here has turned out so far. One of my flatmates is also a student from UFV, so we are able to relate on some things and talk about home, but we don’t do everything together. We look out for each other and check in once in awhile, but nothing overbearing.

For me that is perfect.

Maybe it is the only child syndrome starting to set in again. Or maybe I am just becoming more comfortable being alone again. Either way, to each their own. I am really focusing on not judging people as hard as I used to, but really trying to understand why they do what they do — it’s just something you need to consider before you leave on your study abroad semester.

ART

OF THE

MONTH Submissions are due Friday, March 31st

Limit of three submissions per person, per month

Submissions must have been created with in the last year

Accepted mediums: painting, drawing, print, photography, digital art, sculpture, 3d work Include a 50 word bio, 150 word artist statement, and image list with titles, mediums, sizes, and dates of creation Send to artofthemonth@ufvcascade.ca

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

CULTURE

Daffodil days arrive at UFV UFV Circle K club to raise funds for Canadian Cancer Society JEFF MIJO

CULTURE & EVENTS EDITOR

From March 28 – 30, UFV’s Circle K club will be raising money and awareness for the Canadian Cancer Society with Daffodil Days, their contribution to the month-long fundraising effort put forward by the charity. For those three days, members of the club will be on the UFV green from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. selling freshly cut daffodils and daffodil pins.

This is the second year UFV Circle K club has participated in the fundraiser. Last time, in 2015, the club raised $1,171.74 over the course of three days. While they were not able to attempt again in 2016, this year they hope to raise at least $1,000 from sales. “Honestly, we

had never thought we’d raise the amount we did — especially since it was our first year as a club and our first time organizing such a large event!” explained Ekanki Chawla, UFV Circle K club’s vice president.

In addition to the fundraising, they plan to engage students with a contest. “Something new this year is that we’ll have a Snapchat filter available for the event,” added the club’s secretary, Harman Waring. “If attendees use the Snapchat filter, they will be automatically entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card to Tim Hortons.”

The club also hopes that their efforts will inform and educate the university community on several forms of cancer, particularly those caused by frequent habits of university students.

The Cascade is hiring a

Production Manager

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Specifically, they will be providing information on the risks of smoking and tobacco products, alcohol consumption, and tanning.

Chawla also mentioned the support they received from UFV’s community in 2015. “The faculty was very supportive, and many brought out their colleagues and even informed their classes. Students were also very excited to help support this cause and were amazed by the energy and capacity of our club in the first year.”

As part of an international collegiate organization with over 13,770 members, UFV’s Circle K club is focused on making a positive impact on UFV and the community around it. According to Waring, “Some events we’ve organized are the annual Halloween bash, campus-wide Easter egg hunt, street cleanups,

and random acts of kindness. We’re involved around the community too, and help out at the local food bank, assist with soup kitchens, sing Christmas carols at seniors’ homes, and volunteer at the Abbotsford Bloom Tulip Festival.” They plan to host movie nights throughout the summer, as well as participating in adopt a street and helping students through exams by handing out chocolates.

With over $5,000 raised for various charities since 2015, the club anticipates they’ll add more to that during Daffodil Days. Chawla says they’re “super excited to be putting on this event, and can’t wait to see how it turns out.” Daffodil Days will take place on the UFV green from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. from March 28 – 30.

The Cascade is hiring a

Production Assistant

The Production Manager is responsible for the design, layout, and illustration of The Cascade. The Production Manager edits final proofs of The Cascade before sending them off to the printer.

The Production Assistant is responsible for designing and laying out sections of The Cascade as directed by the Production Manager.

This includes but is not limited to: - managing photos - caption spaces - insertion of text in sections as assigned

Email a resume, cover letter and portfolio to joel@ufvcascade.ca by April 21.

Email a resume, cover letter and portfolio to joel@ufvcascade.ca by April 21.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

CULTURE

CIVL Radio hosts veteran radio producer Scott Carrier Scott Carrier speaks on journalism, radio, and his life.

Image: Facebook/Civl Radio

HARVIN BHATHAL VARSITY WRITER

Hosted by CIVL Radio as the first of a threepart event series to coincide with the CIVL Mini School, veteran radio producer Scott Carrier was invited to deliver a talk on his experience as an independent journalist over the past three decades, reflecting on his favourite stories and how to make it in radio, as well as offering a Q&A session following the talk.

One of the radio pieces that Carrier played for the attendees was about his journey hitchhiking across the United States, and interviewing people from all walks of life as he went. Published by NPR as a part of their All Things Considered program, it was the work that acted as a base for the rest of his career and propelled him to future success. Part of the reason was his voice, calm and soothing, with an innate ability to pull the listener in with his excellent sense of timing and efficient tone. According to Carrier, the biggest takeaway from hitchhiking across America was that “Americans are crazy, they are batshit crazy.”

While discussing that piece, Carrier mentioned that when first starting in journalism or radio, you should do the story and then present it rather than pitching ideas and then proceeding to do the story. There is a much better chance of that story being accepted or received well compared to ideas, because the finished story shows a sense of commitment to your abilities and togetherness. Additionally, when it comes to radio and / or journalism, the key is stick to your gut as everyone has an opinion that is unique unto themselves.

During his talk, Carrier cited his experience interviewing people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities, emphasizing that one of the most important things he learned in his career is to never change the way an interview is going to be based on the person or people being interviewed.

Whether the person is a doctor or a homeless person should not act as a bias to the interview.

When genuine care and interest is exhibited

by not allowing a person’s occupation, ideologies, etc. to influence the tone, the best responses are elicited.

Furthermore, he mentioned that no matter the experience one has in interviewing people, it’s almost always difficult and that it’s a much better experience having a person there for moral support.

When the interview is finished editing — to which Carrier added that 70 per cent of radio and journalism is editing — the key is that without context, there is no meaning. An interviewee could have the best responses, but without the context to provide a background and a clearer understanding, the responses have no meaning.

To hear his fascinating takes, listen to Home of the Brave, a podcast produced by Scott Carrier where original stories are played along with stories that have aired on NPR and other radio shows.

After the talk, The Cascade caught up with Scott Carrier to learn more about his career in radio and journalism, including a look into his personal life.

In your journey as an independent writer and radio producer, would you have changed anything along the way?

Knowing things now, I probably would’ve done things differently. I mean, I feel alright about it.

It’s really important to meet people and develop a network of friends and relationships, and I think I would have put more energy into actually reaching out and meeting people whose work I loved. I can still do that and I don’t; I live in Salt Lake City and I’m a relatively private person. I don’t reach out enough and try to meet people, so coming to these things is really good. I wish I would’ve done it better when I was younger, been more gregarious and more confidence socially because then I would have a bigger network, and the network is the whole thing, the network of friends and relationships. I know now that that’s how things happen.

How do you separate looking for a story in your

life from your regular life? Are they one and the same at this point?

It’s kind of the same thing; right now it’s all I do.

I do try to do stories I’m interested in, and now there’s no one telling me what to do or how to do it. I mean, there is a difference; I can’t weep and moan on my radio program, no one’s going to tolerate that. You have to stay on subject because the listener doesn’t want to believe all of the problems, they just want you to tell you the story.

I’m a different character on the radio program than I am in my real life. I think it’s always like that, you have to have a persona because otherwise you torture your audience with all of your bullshit problems. I leave that out.

What are your thoughts on the state of journalism?

It’s not very good, it’s pretty bad right now.

It’s mainly [because] of the consolidation of different companies. There used to be around a hundred and now there are six. That’s a sick, dangerous scenario, and that’s the main reason why journalism is not very good right now. If you’re going to make money, you’re going to be working for one company, the corporate power structure. And the corporate power structure wants to maintain and promote the corporate power structure, which is detrimental to most people on the planet except the rich fuckers.

How do you convert a radio piece to a writing piece and vice versa?

It’s hard. Sometimes with a news story, you can just transcribe and it’ll work but as far as trying to get someone that vicarious feeling, you really have to start over and work the whole story. You use the medium to achieve that effect in the audience. [For writing], you have to set up and explain a lot more, and then in [radio], you use audio and you have all of this information and you can hear it, you don’t have to say it in the narration. You can hear a person is old and about to die by the sound of their voice. In print, you have to learn that you have to say everything; anything you want the reader to know, you have

to say it because there are no voices, it’s just the words you put on a page. You also have more control in print as you can limit the information you want. People are talented in one area and not in others; a really good editor is not necessarily a good writer. It’s good to have a good writer and a good editor if they work together. That’s how the best work is done, through team effort, a bunch of specialists coming to work together. That’s how you get the best product.

During your talk, you discussed your childhood. Being in grade one at the time of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, did that affect you in any way, whether in the moment or the future?

I was six and what affected me was how scared all of the grownups were. When you’re six, you don’t really know that much, but you notice the behaviour of your parents and other grown-ups.

You could feel it. I remember staying outside, looking at the other kids and saying, “What the hell? What’s going on?” I didn’t understand it, but you could feel the emotion, fear, and being lost. Everybody, regardless of how old they were, remembers that.

What’s the biggest advantage of being in the media?

Meeting people and travelling. Being able to pursue your own curiosities is probably the biggest advantage. You can answer questions you have by going to the experts in the field or actually going to the place for yourself. If things go right, you can get paid and survive doing that.

That’s wonderful compared to working a job you don’t like in a place you don’t like. It’s a trade off, because you don’t make a lot of money much of the time.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

STUDY BREAK v CROSSWORD ACROSS

DOWN

1. ¿Cómo se dice “excuse me” en español?

1. Central American country divided by a canal

3. “¡Feliz _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !”

2. Cold soup made of tomato and other vegetables

6. Driver’s license: “licencia de _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .”

4. Opposite of “siempre” 5. Another word for “lengua” in Spanish

9. Currency of Nicaragua 10. Spanish word for what you need to drink coffee

7. Nationality of Steve Nash in Spanish

12. Capital of Spain

8. “Thank you” in Spanish

15. “Welcome” in Spanish

11. Phrase to ask a price: “¿Cuánto _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ?”

17. The formal form of “tú” in Spanish

13. Colours of the Canadian flag: blanco y _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

18. Capital of Colombia

14. ¿Cómo se dice “backpack” en español?

16. Currency of Mexico

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS: Across: 1: paperboys 4: eyebrow 6: Orion 8: NYC 9: III 10: disco 11: defects 12: nauseated

Down: 1: premonition 2: rerun 3: star-crossed 5: wings 7: Iliad 10: dafoe

Made by Jeff Mijo

v HOROSCOPES

Astrological mysteries interpreted by Master Moji

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 The end of the semester is getting close, so start planning a new hobby to take up over the break! I’d suggest full-contact curling or no-contact isolation.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 Hey, I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but please remember to stay hydrated.

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 You’re clearly the best astrological sign, right? I mean, there’s two of you, so you’re twice as good. Probably four times as good as Scorpio, since they’re just kind of scary and gross.

Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22 Adjust your backpack straps properly, it’ll save you a lot of pain down the road.

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Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 Think carefully on this choice: would you rather have a robot butler, or a monkey butler? One works with cold, tireless perfection, the other with impressive but still fallible adorableness, but an unreplicable cheery enthusiasm for its profession.

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22 You will be within 20 feet of Nicholas Cage this week, but if you’re not careful, you won’t even notice. To be sure you get to meet your idol, make sure to ask every person who

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 In Jupiter Ascending, Sean Bean plays a half-honeybee man named Stinger, but he just looks like himself with a tiny yellow streak in his hair. The film would have been significantly better if he looked more like a bee and went around calling people “honey.”

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 Gemini might be two people, but you’re a creepy little arachnid that can just sting them if they get on your nerves. That’s gotta count for something.

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 Your super power: being able to believe it’s not butter.

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 It’s high time to spend five minutes and clean up your desk/table/floor/workspace.

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 April showers may bring May flowers, but you don’t want to know what happens if you see flowers when it’s only April. Be vigilant, or our entire ecosystem may be in trouble.

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 Your week will be haunted by a mysterious ticking noise. It’ll be kind of catchy, though!

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

ARTS IN REVIEW v MOVIE REVIEW

CHARTS

SHUFFLE

1

B.A. Johnston Gremlins 3

AARON LEVY

2

The Courtneys II

3

Jenn Grant Paradise

4

Feist Pleasure

CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy previews each of the four tracks off of the upcoming Blessed EP, II, Untitled, or as he likes to call it, Fuchsia. Grab it May 5 at the Captain’s Cabin CD Release in Mission with Jenny Banai, Western Jaguar, and Loans.

5

Gregory Pepper And His Problems Black Metal Demo Tape

6

Obituary Obituary

7

Michael Snow Live @ The National Art Gallery

8

Perfume Genius No Shape

9

Low Level / I Hate Sex Blessed Headache Lost In The Trance

10 11 12 13

STATION MANAGER

An introduction to the next “phase” of this “staple” Fraser Valley band, as described by this publication’s own Martin Castro. The production is richer, the texture thicker, everything longer. A distinctive lead guitar recalls the now classic Dave Longstreth riff of Bitte Orca’s own lead single, “Stillness is the Move.”

The first proper single of this sophomore EP; it’s hard to tell how much local band Loans, with original Blessed bassist Corey Myers, is evoking his former Rob Montgomery And band, or vice versa, but Drew Friends Riekman mirrors Loans’ Alexx Guitar Stories Smith’s shouting staccato for this Constantines-meets-Can refrain of rolling rhythmic caApril Verch dence.

The April Verch Anthology Blessed Body Chastity Belt

14

Spoon God Hate

15

Strange Things God Hate

16

Dumb Mustang Law

Seeing this song performed live for the first time in Chilliwack, it was clear that the introduction of drummer Jake Holmes’ utilization of a drum sequencing pad during the breakdown would solidify the effectiveness of the band’s “body” of work going forward. Holistically boundary pushing in masterful ways, no doubt.

Evil Ebenezer Cultus

Blessed Endure

17 18

Lindi Ortega Til The Goin’ Gets Gone

19

Weed Born Wrong Love

20

Austra Future Politics

A dark comedy that addresses the racism inherent to our culture

Blessed Phase

Cheap High Subterranean Suburbia

I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone

Get Out only really scares you once you get out of the theatre

I’ve described this as the most “weird” selection, and it closes the record with more Zappa than ever before, pulling off a display of drum and bass interplay that firmly establishes Holmes and Mitch Trainor as the best combo in the Mainland.

AND the band has Open Letters songwriter RUBY!

MITCH HUTTEMA CONTRIBUTOR

Get Out has been touted as a horror film crossed with a comedy. More accurately, it’s a dark comedy or a thriller. The reason I argue this is because the film spends less of its time trying to scare you than it does focusing its energy on following you out of the theatre, into your life where it unflinchingly compels you to notice the casual racism you witness and take part in.

Directed by Jordan Peele (of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele), the film feels like an extension of one of the show’s sketches, but focused more on their convicting and provocative brand of humour, and less on the simpler, whimsical tone it sometimes turns to.

Unlike most horror films, Get Out doesn’t try and fail to hide a story’s mystery, it lets it seep all the way through the film and uses this to take the edge off of the scares. To call the film scary by any means is inaccurate, at its worst it is disconcerting (definitely unnerving at times), but it was also always possible to determine what the scare was going to be. Peele makes sure that when we are at our most

tense or frightened, instead of breaking the tension by screaming in fear, we start to laugh. By foiling its own scares, Get Out lessens the possibility of its audience getting distracted and seeing the film as typical horror. It’s obvious that the absurdity of the racial tension throughout the film is the main subject of focus.

Chris Washington, played by Daniel Kaluuya, is an aspiring photographer from New York who faces racism in all his interactions throughout the film. At his girlfriend’s parents’ upperclass estate for a party, he stumbles through awkward conversations with the hosts’ “very white” friends and even attempts to cut the visit short due to the tension. His only relief from the casually racist encounters comes by way of frequent calls to his other black friend (notably a TSA agent) back home in New York. Despite the distance between them, both commiserate together.

The only encounters Washington has that are free of racism are with his girlfriend and with a man who also happens to be blind, but even these characters turn out to be something darker altogether. A common theme runs through this film: you can’t really trust anything at all. I suspect this

mistrust isn’t entirely new to most who encounter racism must experience.

Get Out is well made and technically very well done. It uses all the classic lighting and technical tricks that the horror genre usually invokes and none of it felt cheap. Most of the rising action of this film lulls the audience into compliance; it mildly sets the stage, but drives the plot home with force.

Once relaxed, the audience is slowly lowered into the horror that sits waiting at the heart of the film. The miseen-scene of the film was fairly sparse, which made it easy to watch but at the same time charged any obvious object as a semiotic beacon for meaning, creating tension in every scene. This is most cleverly exemplified by Washington when he stuffs bunches of cotton (brilliant!) into his ears to avoid the hypnotic trigger he is regularly subdued by, avoiding his likely demise.

Get Out is reminiscent of Hitchcock’s Psycho in that it wasn’t actually all that scary, nor was it really meant to be, it was just brilliant filmmaking coupled with a great narrative. Get Out, however, adds a good dollop of truly crucial social commentary on top of being a well made, well played film.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

ARTS IN REVIEW

SOUNDBITES Mini album reviews

Thalab

Priests

A Good Swim

There have been a lot of artists trying to jump on the whole “minimalist, instrumentally electronic yet still vaguely R&B” train over the past couple of years, and most of them have simply added a thin, carbon copy layer of what’s come before them onto the top of what’s now just this black hole of faux-pop that gets played endlessly in boutiques and (I imagine) nowhere else.

Anyway, A Good Swim takes up the mantle in that it’s also minimalist, also instrumentally electronic but somehow vaguely R&B. However, it’s not mindless. “Good

Nothing Feels Natural

Swim” reminds me of the kind of work that a much more nuanced Glass Animals might have put out if they had continued the trend they set out in their debut instead of trying to emulate the ‘70s in their sophomore record. What that means is that “Swim Good” is both a hazy little cloud of white noise and a great collage of the kind of markers that modern pop writers try to hit on every song.

The EP’s strongest point is that all of its four tracks manage to be obviously related, while still retaining a distinct flavour.

There are tracks on Nothing Feels Natural that are serious as heck. “No Big Bang” is more prose performance than punk rock, and “Pink White House” is the sort of shoegaze, “We’re sad but also we’re angry we just don’t know which one to be right now” kind of punk. It’s cool. Not great, but alright.

Priests are at their best when they’re having fun, though. Opening track “Appropriate” ends in a dissatisfied and dissonant mess, but it starts of like a good quasi

surf punk jam. “Jj” also highlights vocalist Katie Alice Greer’s lower register in a more playful (yet still energetic) romp. Also the chorus of “I thought I was a cowboy because I smoked grass!” is delightful as heck.

We’re having fun but we’re still angry.

Or, more accurately, we’re still angry but we’re having fun.

Naturally, Nothing Feels Natural is as abrasive as it is danceable, and it’s so much better off for it.

Martin Castro

Martin Castro

v BOOK REVIEW

Get Out only really scares you once you get out of the theatre JESSICA JOHNSON CONTRIBUTOR

Joseph Boyden’s Wenjack is a simplistic but poignantly written novella on the end of 12-yearold Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack’s life. A member of the Ojibwa First Nations people, Chanie Wenjack ran away from his residential school near Kenora with two other boys in late October, 1966. But unlike the two boys he left with, his father’s home was nearly 400 miles away, something he was unaware of. And also unlike his companions, Wenjack died shortly thereafter, freezing to death on railroad tracks on October 23 of that same year.

The publication of this book, October 18, 2016, comes just four days shy of the 50-year mark to signify Wenjack’s passing. The publication was deliberately scheduled to coincide with the release of Secret Path, a record by Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie who timed

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it to be released that same day, also written in dedication to this small but significant child.

Inspired by Ian Adam’s 1967 article in Maclean’s “The lonely death of Charlie Wenjack,” Boyden sought to revive the memory of this sweet boy by detailing, in achingly straightforward language, the last moments of Wenjack’s life. It’s fair to say that no one knew his death would force the first of many public investigations into the residential schools; indeed, little did anyone know the cultural impact his passing would leave on indigenous and non-indigenous culture alike. In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Boyden cites that before his friend Mike Downie (Gord’s brother) introduced him to the article, he knew the story of Chanie through Willie Dunn’s song “The Ballad of Charlie Wenjack.”

In Wenjack, we follow Chanie’s escape in two narrative modes: as Chanie himself, and as the animals who bear analytical and occasionally

mocking witness. It’s established early on that Chanie is broken in both spirit and mind. Before he leaves his uncle’s house to make his final trek down those railroad tracks, we hear his cousin mentally observe that, “Someone hurt him bad… So bad that it is stuck inside him and he’s so scared of it but more scared to let it out.”

Like many children who left their homes to attend residential schools, Chanie’s was not a voluntary participation. Forcibly taken from his home two years earlier, at the time that he left Chanie still had the barest of grasps on the English language, often being beaten and abused for mistakenly slipping into his own tongue. This very language, of his Ojibwa people, is what Boyden depicts as comforting him in his final hours. “Speak your words,” Chanie tells himself. “Father. Nindede. Heart. Ninde.”

Repeating this over and over again to himself, Chanie eventually falls backwards off the tracks

into the snow, and witnesses the near-full moon smiling down on him as he slips away. It is in this position that a train engineer, and eventually local authorities, find his frozen body, still hundreds of miles away from home.

In an author’s note, Boyden refers to the residential schools as a “grotesque social experiment,” and makes no bones about the slow progress made to shut them down following the first inquiry; the final school closed its doors in 1996, nearly 30 years later. In the meantime, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has spent many years and many man-hours in order to reveal the horrendous, uncomfortable truth of the residential school system. He closes out the book by saying that the hard-hitting portion of our cultural dialogue, the reconciliation, is only about to begin.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017

ARTS IN REVIEW v PODCAST REVIEW

Chapo Trap House: Angry and Absurd PANKU SHARMA OPINION EDITOR

Chapo Trap House is an American politics and humour podcast that in the past year has enjoyed enough success to garner over $50,000 in monthly Patreon contributions, as well as feature prominent guests such as Adam Curtis (director of the recent documentary HyperNormalisation), Jeremy Scahill (founding editor of The Intercept), and @PissPigGrandad (San Francisco-based Twitter Bro who dropped his life to fight ISIS with a socialist Kurdish group). Yet the show is also extremely divisive, even among the people who share in some of its left-leaning politics, mostly because the characters they play and the tone they set is so extremely toxic.

Of course, I mean toxic in the best way, or else I wouldn’t have listened for this long or paid as much as I do for access to their premium feed, but I am keenly aware that this podcast is not for everyone and that there is a good chance much of my personality and morals are already being judged by people in the know. The hosts are loud and abrasive, as are most worthwhile commentators trying to get their voices heard

from within the crowd, but there is also an irony-filled malice and glee at the heart of their program. The more popular segments throughout the show are reading series where they mock the work of conservative writers such as Ross Douthat, Ben Shapiro, and Jeff Jacoby (a little-known columnist who writes annual letters to his son Caleb as an annual column — it’s one of the best recurring bits).

They also routinely take aim at liberals, media and hollywood elite, and campus activists as often as they do Republicans and MAGA chuds. The form this takes isn’t pretty: the language is strong, the disdain is palpable, and their jokes will definitely not be acceptable for anyone who has used the term “woke” seriously.

Yet in its own way, the vigour and crassness of the podcast is rooted in a politic that is trying to redefine the role of “sensibility and civility” within political discourse. People live, bleed, and die under policy MAGA chuds, why take out the human element and leave it dour, humourless, and cold? That’s not to say there aren’t moments of levity, premium content includes deep dives into the political and sexual pathologies of works such as 300 or the new GhostBusters, or seriousness; between Will Menaker, Matt Christman, Felix Biederman, and co-hosts Amber A’Lee Frost and Virgil Texas you have background and experience not only in trolling Twitter but in Marxist academia, activism

by way of the Democratic Socialists of America, and the media industry at large.

Basically, what do I like about Chapo Trap House? There is a catharsis in listening to the show (which started in March of last year) critique the downfall of a political class that for too long has only played lip service to shaping public good. They are opinionated, funny, and absurd. (Fans of the show are referred to as “Grey Wolves” — that is, members of the Turkish Deep State.) Sometimes it can cross the line or come off poorly (both in effect of their statements and also in the fact that the audio quality while much improved can’t make up for the fact that guests and some of the hosts often aren’t recording from the same room) but at least it can keep your attention. It’s hard to recommend how to jump into something that is nearing its 100th episode (although if you are starting fresh, finding a guest you like or skip straight to episode three when they start the reading series and have a sound editor) but at the least this will put them on your radar; at the rate they’ve grown I’m sure you’ll hear about them again.

v ALBUM REVIEW

Drake breathes new life into his career with More Life AMAN BHARDWAJ CONTRIBUTOR

Drake’s latest effort, More Life, successfully combines grime, dancehall, pop, R&B, and hip-hop, among other genres. The result is a sprawling album (which Drake calls a “playlist”) that gets better with each listen. It draws you in with its upbeat, infectious, and smooth production. In a number of ways, More Life is similar to Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo in that it draws from different eras of Drake’s music and contains certain tracks of a certain aesthetic that appeal to every type of Drake fan.

However, there are some differences as well. Whereas Kanye frequently shifts from one extreme to another, intentionally disrupting the flow of The Life of Pablo, Drake curates a 22-track playlist that somehow manages to flow together. Tracks transition quite well, despite drawing influences from a number of different genres.

More Life simply reaffirms how eclectic Drake’s musical taste is.

There are many different sounds and

genres blended together with Drake demonstrating his ability to fit in just fine with any type of production style.

More Life is highlighted by some of the best songs of Drake’s career thus far. My personal favourite is “Blem,” a Caribbean-influenced cut that finds him completely self-aware and direct, acknowledging his own imperfections and expressing his love for the woman he desires. It is a subject that Drake has explored numerous times, but it is the production, the vocals, and the beautiful songwriting of the track itself that really shine through: “Who keeps bringing more? I’ve had too many / This Virginia done me off already / I’m blem for real, I might just say how I feel.”

It is simple, yet captivating. Drake may not be considered the de facto best lyricist or rapper in the hip-hop world, but songs like “Passionfruit,” “Madiba Riddim,” and “Blem” are strong arguments for his incredible songwriting abilities.

Other highlights are the braggadocious tracks, such as “Free Smoke,” “No Long Talk,” and “Portland,” in which Drake sounds as confident as

ever, content in knowing that he has fully cemented himself as the biggest name in hip-hop music at this point.

“KMT” is an aggressive and energetic track that details Drake’s power and dominance in terms of hip-hop music, with a strong and hard-hitting guest verse from U.K. rapper Giggs.

It is one of the strongest tracks on More Life, as is “Skepta Interlude,” which of course includes Skepta himself, who still appears to have not missed a step since 2016’s critically acclaimed Konnichiwa, delivering power-packed verses throughout the entire track. He details his rise from the bottom to now being seen as one of the top grime MCs in the U.K. That said, More Life does have certain flaws.

With every Drake project, there are always a few songs that just feel out of place or are generally weaker than most of the tracks on the project itself. More Life is no exception, as tracks such as “Nothings Into Somethings” and “Since Way Back” contribute almost nothing to the playlist and just disrupt the otherwise seamless transition between each track.

“Glow,” featuring Kanye West,

is slightly underwhelming in that it plays like a tale of two halves. The song itself deals with both of their experiences within the industry and reinforces the ideals that through hard work and dedication, you can reach higher levels of success. The first half attempts to intertwine Drake’s vocals with Kanye’s to the point where it just feels contrived and does not seem to mesh well with the overall vibe of the track. In comparison, the second half brilliantly samples Earth, Wind &

Fire’s “Devotion,” ending on a high note, while containing slightly better verses from both Drake and Kanye.

Drake’s latest effort is a combination of his previous solo efforts, packed with a wide range of influences that offers variety and substance over style, while still being fresh and new. Simply put, More Life is a testament to Drake’s versatility as an artist.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2017

MAR

29

REMEMBERING VIMY

@ UFV Abbotsford 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

OUR UKRAINIAN ADOPTION: BRINGING ZHENYA HOME

@ The Reach 10:30 AM

APR

6

STUDENT RESEARCH DAY

@ UFV Five Corners 1:00 – 5:00 PM

TRUMPED UP IN THE ASHES OF NEOLIBERALSIM

@ B101 (UFV Abbotsford) 2:30 – 4:30 PM GAMES NIGHT

@ Global Lounge — B223 (UFV Abbotsford) 4:30 – 6:30 PM

MAR

3RD ANNUAL CYC SLEEP OUT

APR

PUBLIC TALK BY JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN

APR

4

@ B101 (UFV Abbotsford) 7:00 – 9:00 PM

WHAT IS CANADIAN CUISINE?

@ UFV Abbotsford Library 2:00 – 3:00 PM

CANADIAN FEDERATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN MONTHLY MEETING

GLORY (SHOW)

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM

5

7

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:00 – 11:00 PM

FRASER VALLEY SYMPHONY

@ Matsqui Centennial Auditorium 3:00 – 5:00 PM

8

BC GEM SHOW

@ Ag-Rec Building (Abbotsford) 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM OPEN MIC POETRY AND BLUE MOON READINGS

@ Clearbrook Library 6:30 – 8:30 PM

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM

@ The Reach (Abbotsford) 7:30 – 10:00 PM

APR

10

CAMPGROUND: A MURDER MYSTERY IN THE WOODS

GRAND THEFT TERRA FIRMER (UFV THEATRE)

@ Bookstore parking lot (UFV Abbotsford) 7:00 PM

@ F124 (Abbotsford Campus) 7:00 – 10:00 PM

APR

APR

@ UFV Abbotsford 1:00 – 5:00 PM

@ The Reach (Abbotsford) 2:00 – 4:30 PM

APR LION KING

REMEMBERING VIMY

GRAND THEFT TERRA FIRMER (UFV THEATRE)

@ The Reach (Abbotsford) 7:30 – 10:00 PM

@ A305 (UFV Abbotsford) 1:00 – 2:00 PM

@ Ag-Rec Building (Abbotsford) 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 2:00 PM

GRAND THEFT TERRA FIRMER (UFV THEATRE)

MESA LATINA (SPANISH LANGUAGE GROUP)

BC GEM SHOW

CAPTAIN FUTURE SAVES THE WORLD

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:00 – 11:00 PM

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:00 PM

2

@ Global Lounge — B223 (UFV Abbotsford) 4:30 – 6:30 PM

9

LION KING

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (PLAY)

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GAMES NIGHT

@ Centre for Indo Canadian Studies (UFV Abbotsford) 7:00 – 9:00 PM

LIVING HEALTHY BEYOND YOUTH

30

@ A305 (UFV Abbotsford) 1:00 – 2:00 PM

APR

LOUDEN SINGLETREE LAUNCH PARTY

@ SUB (UFV Abbotsford) 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM

MAR

MESA LATINA (SPANISH LANGUAGE GROUP)

MARCH & APRIL

LAST DAY OF CLASSES BC GEM SHOW

@ Ag-Rec Building (Abbotsford) 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM FRASER VALLEY FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL

APR

EXAM PERIOD BEGINS

APR

PYSANKY: UKRANIAN EASTER EGG MAKING

11 13

@ Mission Library 7:00 – 8:30 PM

@ Thunderbird Square (Abbotsford) 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM FMX WORLD TOUR

@ Abbotsford Centre 6:30 PM – 12:00 AM LION KING

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:00 – 11:00 PM MOZART’S REQUIEM

@ First Ave. Christian Assembly (Chilliwack) 7:30 PM

APR

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10TH ANNUAL CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE BUSINESS SHOWCASE

@ Ramada Plaza and Conference Centre (Abbotsford) 3:00 – 7:00 PM LET YOUR TASTE BUDS BLOSSOM AT RIVERS DINING ROOM

@ Trades and Technology Centre 6:00 – 8:00 PM

CAMPGROUND: A MURDER MYSTERY IN THE WOODS NURSING & DENTAL INFO SESSION

@ UFV Chilliwack Campus 6:00 – 8:00 PM

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM GRAND THEFT TERRA FIRMER (UFV THEATRE)

@ The Reach (Abbotsford) 7:30 – 10:00 PM

HOSTING ANY EVENTS YOURSELF? WANT TO SEE THEM POSTED HERE? Send the date, time, location, and any relevant info for the event to: jeff@ufvcascade.ca