APRIL 2020
Published since November 21, 1910 Circulation 3,500 ISSN 0845-356X Suite 3-04 8900 114 St. NW University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2J7
Editor-in-Chief Andrew McWhinney
News Editor Adam Lachacz
Managing Editor Christine McManus
Arts & Culture Editor Ashlynn Chand
Art Director Peter Elima
Opinion Editor Payton Ferguson
Photo Editor Helen Zhang
Staff Reporter Khadra Ahmed
Online Editor Advertising ads@gateway.ualberta.ca Tina Tai Website www.gtwy.ca
Director of Finance & Administration Piero Fiorini
Webmaster Hugh Bagan Director of Marketing & Outreach Pia Co
Contributors Ayesha Ahmed Nana Andoh Helen Aquino An Bui Katherine DeCoste Jonathan Hocnalon Bree Meiklejohn Colette Nadon Mitchell Pawluk Carla Soriano Jack Stewardson Harmon Tamura Kate Turner Cover Helen Zhang Peter Elima
Copyright All materials appearing in The Gateway bear copyright of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.
Volunteer Want to write, draw, or shoot photos for us? To get involved visit gtwy.ca/volunteer for more information.
GSJS The Gateway is published by the Gateway Student Journalism Society (GSJS), a student-run, autonomous, apolitical not-for-profit organization, operated in accordance with the Societies Act of Alberta.
Printing Printed in Canada at Capital Colour, on FSC‰ certified uncoated paper.
FSC CERTIFICATE
ILLUSTRATION CARLA SORIANO, “ELEVATED TO SUCCESS”
DEAR READER, This is it. As hard as it is to believe, this is the last issue of the 2019-20 academic year. The end of the year, much like the beginning, is a time of great stress and great possibility, and that’s what we wanted to capture with this last issue. Our contributors looked for ways to express themselves, practice self-care, and get excited for what’s on the horizon. Time marches on, after all, regardless of whether we can keep pace. As much as we may miss the past, the future waits for no one, especially not university students. After spending an entire year planning and producing eight magazine issues, we have a lot of people to thank. Thank you to the entire Gateway staff team, who all played important roles in making the magazine happen. Thank you to all the volunteers who wrote, made art, or took photos for the magazine this year — it’s been an honour to share your work. And thank you to everyone who picked up an issue off the stands and gave it a read. Have a great summer, and if you’re graduating, good luck out there (not that you’ll need it — you’ve totally got this). See you around,
Christine McManus Managing Editor
Peter Elima Art Director
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CONTENTS ILLUSTRATION AN BUI, “APRIL”
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Four-legged love De-stress with the Chimo Animal Assisted Wellness and Learning Society and their emotional support dogs!
Hitting the road
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Trapped in an elevator Will help ever arrive?
A waking nightmare Learn the unsettling truth about how insomnia wreaks havoc on the lives of students.
Next stop Journey through the past, present, and possible futures of Edmonton’s LRT system.
DIVERSIONS 32
Everyday superheroes Read about a new club that’s making student parenthood a little bit easier.
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As one academic journey ends, another life chapter begins.
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FEATURES
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Horoscopes Finals season is upon us — what does it have in store for you?
Crossword Think you’ve learned a lot this year? Test your trivia knowledge here!
Comic “Deference for Darkness,” A Fat Tire Vagabond Adventure
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idterms and assignments hounding you? The Chimo Animal Assisted Wellness and Learning Society (CAAWLS) has been bringing dogs around campus to give numerous stressed students pawsitive experiences. CAAWLS is a non-profit organization which offers visits from wellness animals, mainly dogs, to places like universities, elementary schools, and seniors places. Over the years, the U of A libraries have worked to increase the number of visits to places like Cameron, Rutherford, and Campus Saint-Jean, where they usually draw crowds of people. “It’s definitely one of our most popular outreach programs, and we see students and staff around the university come,” Erin Sanderman, a reference and collections assistant, said. “You notice students who open up the dogs and handlers and just sit with them for an entire hour. It’s always positive.”
OVE Posters notify students and so do advertisements on the U of A libraries’ website. Those who come and pet the dogs have said that they help distract and relieve their stress. “I look for generally friendly disposition, nice fur, cute face and inviting. Not every dog’s going to be like that, but most of the ones they bring in are,” Mark, a third year law student, said. “Dogs are pretty accepting and interact with people non-judgmentally, so it’s reassuring to a lot of people.” For CAAWLS volunteers, it’s all about sharing the joy of having a pet to students and staff, as well as bringing the campus community together. They are especially aware of how effective they are during stressful periods like midterms and finals. “Coming here, people are a little more responsive and say, ‘I’m struggling, I really needed this,’” notes Kelly, a one-year volunteer. “Everyone’s been super accommodating and welcoming, and it’s been a really great placement. That’s why I keep coming back.” In cases where a student is hesitant or nervous to pet a dog, the volunteer will wait for them to become more confident. Later, they may invite them to come over and ask if the person would like to be contacted. “Occasionally, some will come over and gently touch my dog’s back just to overcome their fear, and that’s very satisfying to see,” Stan, a six-year volunteer, said. “It took me having a dog myself to see that many of the things I was afraid of in other dogs, I didn’t need to be afraid of.” Other student groups have started using CAAWLS to help with their own wellness initiatives, such as the Business Student Association. With a wide variety of events and competitions business students have each
week, the association has been focusing on health and wellness initiatives that do not require much commitment. “A lot of students were requesting it last year,” Rachelle Gilbert, the Internal Vice-President of the Business Student Association, explained. “I think wellness is something a lot of students tend to forget, especially in business. It’s a very ‘work hard, play harder’ environment, and a lot of students don’t work on self-care.” Another student group who have used CAAWLS is the U of A’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity which not only invites CAAWLS
to their yearly philanthropic event, but also raises funds for them. In the future, the fraternity hopes that they can organize another yearly event with them in an accessible place like SUB. “They weren’t charging us at all for this service on campus, so what we wanted to do is give them a kick-back as a thank you and have them stay around or return to campus,” said Alex Coulton, the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter’s VP Philanthropy. “Having the animals there, they’re never judgmental and they’re friendly to everyone, so it puts people at ease.”
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Not all parts of the CAAWLS have worked such as a pilot project involving cats in Cameron, which failed due to a lack of suitable space. However, there are generally no major complaints from the volunteers or the organizations using them, and the U of A libraries have no plans to enact major changes with them in the future. Dates for CAAWLS visits in the libraries can be found on the U of A libraries’ website, while student group visits can be found on their Bearsden page or respective social media. “There’s a thing about companion animals where it doesn’t matter who you are, you very quickly develop a connection with them and get a little giddy when you sit around with the animals.” Coulton said. “We always get guys going out there and hanging out, so it’s a community thing. It’s been a great reaction.” g
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REQUIRED READING
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ccording to the 2018 Undergraduate Survey Report published by the Students’ Union, of the 5,042 respondents, there were 159 students (3.2 per cent of the sample) who have dependent children. However, in a 2017 survey conducted by the Office of the Dean of Students open to all undergraduate and graduate students, of the 238 responses, 41 per cent answered ‘no’ to campus being child-friendly, and another 34 per cent were ‘in the middle.’ One new student group on campus is hoping to change those numbers. The Student Parents on Campus (SPOC) student group was started in January 2020 by Anna Rosendahl, a third-year dietetics student and president of the group. She said she started the club because of the barriers she experienced as a student parent on campus, and has met other student parents with similar experiences. “[I said] you know what, I’ve been in this situation, I’ve experienced these things, no one else is doing anything, why not do something myself,” she said. Rosendahl outlined many of the common challenges student parents face on campus. The three most common barriers parents have identified during their meetings, she said, are a lack of policies applying to student parents, mandatory evening classes, and the “impossible” daycare system on campus.
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Campus policies do not say whether students are allowed to bring their children to class or not, Rosendahl said, so it is up to each professor to decide if they will allow it. When Rosendahl's own child was sick and Rosendahl needed to look after her, all of her professors and teaching assistants said no. While she has talked to students that say some faculties are different, such as Native Studies and Women and Gender Studies, lots of students she has talked to, she added, have just stopped asking. Evening classes that are mandatory for students’ programs are also an issue, she added, because most daycares close before night classes are over. This is especially an issue for international students, or any students who do not have family support to take care of their children during this time. This might mean they need to hire a nanny to look after them, which Rosendahl estimates would cost about $400 per month. She suggested a part-time or drop-in daycare for students who are in evening classes. For classes during the day, there is also the issue of the daycare situation on campus, she explained. The wait list is two years, a nd the daycare on campus is even more expensive than off campus daycare, which doesn’t make sense, as students usually don’t have income. The goal of Student Parents on Campus, she said, is simply to help student parents. “The main goal right now it’s to offer tangible help, because that's what student parents need the most,” she said. One of the activities SPOC has started this semester are one-hour student parent circles. They run about once a month, and student parents can bring their children, and get to know each other, which helps students’ mental and social health, she said. They also use this time to get suggestions and feedback, trying to make future services as useful as possible. Information on different topics, such as daycare, will also be sent to the university to give them first hand information. Everyone is welcome at the meetings, including students without children who want to learn more, and university staff. Student parents are often “time poor,” Rosendahl explained, because they are managing being a full-time student, which is a full-time job, being a parent, another
REQUIRED READING
full -time job, as well as potentially working. “We are trying to, through our services, through our events, give some time back to students,” she said. They are planning to start study sessions where student parents can come and drop their kids off with volunteers, and then stay and study, or go to another location on campus. It’s difficult for student parents to study at home for long periods of time, Rosendahl added, because they are looking after their children, making food and doing chores. For the moment, SPOC is fundraising for the cost of insurance to cover the volunteers. Scholarships, bursaries, and grants are another challenge student parents face. Many of them require five courses per semester, which is “impossible” with a kid, she said. She suggested removing the requirement for five classes, or to allocate some scholarships for student parents. “We have more expenses, we have less income, but then we have less opportunities to apply for scholarships because a lot of it we are left out of,” she said. Being a student parent can also be very isolating, she said, noting that other students who aren’t parents don’t always understand what they go through. Many have to leave campus after class to pick up their children, and so it’s hard to stay on campus to study, spend time with others, and join student groups. “They’re left out of a lot of the student life, and there are no other student groups that are trying to kind of gather all the student parents and connect them all together and support them and help them,” Rosendahl explained. The current focus of SPOC is their “Family Lounge Project,” she explained. There are currently no kid-friendly spaces on campus, such as a room to take your kids.. “We are trying to do all these events to give tangible help to student parents, but we are also just trying for everybody who is a parent on campus, not just student parents, but just trying to make it a little more family friendly and a little bit more acceptable of people actually having kids,” she said. They are looking for a permanent room on-campus to create a child-friendly room for everyone, with toys, children’s furniture, and a fridge, microwave and kettle. They already have everything donated, she added,
they just need a room to put it all in. This room would serve many purposes, including a safe space for mothers to breastfeed, to have study sessions, host their student parent circles, and so student parents can have meetings with professors where their children can play. Being a parent can be hard, and being a student parent is even harder. In the coming years, SPOC hopes to make changes to make the future more friendly for student parents on campus. “[The mission] is to break down enough barriers that parents out there dreaming about obtaining a post secondary degree, it allows them to think it’s possible,” Rosendahl said. g
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THE STUDIO
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THE STUDIO
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been six minutes and 13 seconds since the elevator froze midway to floor five and you called for help, and help still hasn't arrived. The buttons numbered five and seven on his side of the wall are still lit up, and if the elevator had just gone up one more floor you wouldn't be in here and you wish you'd taken the stairs instead because you're already late to class and it's been six minutes and fifty-seven seconds since you called and help still hasn't arrived. Your eyes are desperate for a distraction, and they wander to him, leaning sideways on the wall opposite of you, staring at the buttons and oh God he caught you looking and you avert your eyes and wish the buttons were in front of you instead so you could have something to look at besides your reddening self in the reflective walls and it's been seven minutes and 16 seconds since you called and help still hasn't arrived.
You're starting to question whether you'd really called or maybe it was your imagination and you should try again, but if you had called and they were on their way they might get annoyed so maybe you shouldn't and besides, you need to save your phone battery since it's at four per cent and it's been seven minutes and thirty-nine seconds since you called and help still hasn't arrived. You hear him sigh, and you think he's about to say something, so you look at him expectantly, but he doesn't – he's just checking his watch. Crap he saw you looking again and you avert your eyes but you can feel his gaze still latched onto you so you stare determinedly at your own reflection until you can feel him turn away and you still stare at yourself as if you're Narcissus when really you just want to disappear from this place and it's been eight minutes and two seconds since you called. And help still hasn't arrived. g
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PHOTO NANA ANDOH, “BLACK BEAUTY”
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t happened when I was about seven years old. It’s hard to recall what I was dreaming about, exactly. All I know is that when I woke up, something immediately felt… off. The room was shrouded in strange shadows that weren’t there when I fell asleep, and when I tried to reach for my lamp, nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing, not even a twitch of my fingers. I realized then that I couldn’t move, despite my Herculean efforts. As I stared at my ceiling fan, a block of ice forming in my gut, the surface of it changed. From the darkness emerged two empty voids for eyes and a seemingly bottomless mouth. A smile stretched across the ceiling fan as the shadows above my bed writhed and sprouted wings. Bats rained down onto my bed, creeping up the covers, pinning me down as the ceiling fan began to laugh. I was trapped like a rabbit in a snare: my uncooperative muscles just wouldn’t let up. For a long time, I thought that it must have been a dream. It had felt like I was awake, but I quickly dismissed the idea — I must have been dreaming, I thought, to see my bedroom twist into such menacing shapes. But as I would discover years later, sitting in a psychology lecture, waking nightmares are real and they have a name: sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is a type of sleep disorder, characterized by frightening hallucinations and an inability to move upon waking up. It may occur once or twice in a lifetime, or become a chronic issue. Scientists remain divided on the cause, but a number of studies have drawn a connection between sleep paralysis and not sleeping enough. Even as a child, getting to sleep was no easy task for me. There were books to be read and countless adventures to be played out in my imagination. If I wasn’t wandering through my own fantasyland, I was probably worrying about something instead. My conscious mind was like a treadmill I couldn’t step off of, until my body itself gave out to sheer exhaustion. Thankfully, I haven’t experienced sleep paralysis again since my first brush with it as a child. But my relationship with sleep remains as troubled as it was back then. I don’t remember exactly when, but sometime during my preteen years, midnight became an early bedtime. I would wake up after three hours of sleep with bloodshot eyes and a thick mental fog. Even today, I often find myself staring at the ceiling until 2 a.m., exhausted but simply unable to fall asleep. You’d think a sleep pattern as dysfunctional as mine would be relatively rare. You’d be wrong. As it turns out, I’m in very good company: sleep disorders and unhealthy sleeping patterns are quite common, especially in stu-
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dents. According to a campus survey conducted at the University of Alberta in 2016, about 30 per cent of us regularly sleep less than six and a half hours per night, well short of the recommended seven to nine hours. Furthermore, only 33.5 per cent of us think we’re getting enough sleep. But why does insomnia — defined by the US National Library of Medicine as an inability to fall and/or stay asleep — plague so many university students? Dr. Nancy Galambos, a U of A psychology professor who studies sleep patterns in young adults, says that unhealthy sleeping patterns in university students are caused by a number of problems. Individual factors, of course, do matter: if a person was already a night owl before starting university, it’s likely that this pattern will continue into adulthood. But the challenges of university life itself create powerful forces that keep us awake long after we should be sleeping. Not all of us are affected equally; some students are more likely to be swept up than others. “First-year students may be especially vulnerable,” Galambos notes, “as they are entering a completely new context.” There are a number of hallmark features of university life that lead to poor sleep, which first-year students may have difficulty initially adjusting to. The way learning is structured, according to Galambos, is a huge contributor. “The sheer amount of time that must be spent on classes in order to perform optimally is a challenge that can create stress and worry,” she says, “thus interfering with sleep.”
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New social expectations play a role too: if a student’s circle of friends like to spend their Friday nights at the club instead of at home, that student will be spending more time in the evenings outside the relaxing environment of the home. If consumption of new psychoactive substances increases, this can further complicate matters. While alcohol’s sedative properties may put a person to sleep, it actually interferes with the sleep cycle by disrupting the brain’s normal wave patterns. If you’ve ever woken up from an alcohol-induced stupor completely exhausted, this is why: you weren’t truly getting enough sleep.
“Puffy eyes and a few yawns here and there may not seem like a big deal, but the real cost of poor sleep is to our cognition.” But perhaps the most crucial factor is the pressure students find themselves under. The stress of moving away from home — possibly to an entirely new coun-
try — high academic expectations, and finding the time to build a strong resumé can drive students to pull all-nighters and drink copious amounts of coffee, both of which can throw a circadian rhythm completely out of whack. Assuming a full course load, most full time students spend 15 hours a week in class, and several hours a week studying or doing homework. If students are also working full or part time, as many do to afford their education, buy necessities, and pay off loans, that means school and work take up most of their day, possibly cutting into sleep schedules and interfering with other sleeping cycle-adjusting activities, like exercise. Even if students aren’t overloaded with coursework, however, the timing of it can also be a factor. Midterms and finals tend to pile up in the middle and the end of the semester, leading to all-nighters pulled in libraries and hours on end spent staring at screens. Galambos’s 2009 study about first-year sleeping habits found that sleep quality (assessed by how well-rested the participants reported feeling) and duration tended to drop on nights before exams. When three of those exams happen within the span of a week, these effects can be magnified; during my first season of university midterms, I ran on caffeine, hope, and not much else. All these hallmarks of the university lifestyle, according to Galambos, create a “perfect storm” that robs students of quality sleep — and has grim implications.
ot getting enough sleep is easy to justify to oneself, and easy to get away with. The faraway possibilities of poorer health seem like pinpricks on the horizon compared to the much closer threat of academic failure. My own first year of university was marred by long nights of staring at my open textbooks, hoping the knowledge within would seep into my brain through sheer force of will (not a very effective strategy, as it turned out). But Galambos argues that sleep deprivation will always catch up with us, whether we’re willing to admit it or not. “Many young people sleep longer on the weekends in an effort to catch up for poor sleep during the week, but that pattern is not optimal,” Galambos says. She describes a healthy sleeping pattern as seven to nine hours a night, with a consistent bedtime and wake up time. The “consistent” part of that statement is key. “Physiologically,” Galambos says, “it is not possible to make up for lost sleep during the week [on weekends].” Dr. Clayton Dickson, a psychology professor whose research revolves around the sleep cycle, agrees. Our
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“Our sleep time is some of the most valuable time we have, and we live in a world designed to take it from us.”
bodies thrive on a schedule, and going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, he argues, is absolutely key to getting quality rest. He calls this maintenance of one’s sleep routine “sleep hygiene.” Just as taking regular showers and brushing one’s teeth helps us maintain our physical well-being, getting regular sleep helps us maintain our cognitive functioning. But while a spotty physical hygiene routine has obvious markers, such as greasy hair or cavities, poor sleep hygiene’s effects tend to be less visible. Puffy eyes and a few yawns here and there may not seem like a big deal, but the real cost of poor sleep is to our cognition.
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One of the topics Galambos’s research focuses on is how a lack of sleep can affect students’ social lives. Her studies on U of A undergraduate students have revealed a strong connection between a lack of sleep and increased stress. “This association can work both ways, of course,” Galambos says. “Feeling negative emotions and experiencing stress can lead to poorer sleep just as much as poorer sleep can lead to a negative mood and feeling stressed.” If you’re in a feedback loop of exhaustion and moodiness, those around you may begin to suffer as well. “Such emotions can spill over into social relationships,” Galambos points out, “and negatively affect those relationships too.” Feeling tired and anxious drains us emotionally, leaving us with fewer mental resources to be caring friends or loving partners. Our friendships aren’t the only things at stake: our academic performance (which, ironically enough, drives a fair amount of sleep deprivation) is also largely influenced by the amount of sleep we get. “In our long-term study of University of Alberta students who we followed for four years,” Galambos tells me, “later bedtimes especially were associated with a lower GPA.” According to Dickson, whose sleep research specifically focuses on cognitive tasks like paying attention, choosing studying over sleeping is academic sabotage. “If you find yourself… in class, and it’s [easy] to fall asleep, that means you’re sleep deprived,” Dickson says. “You’re not operating at your best.” Learning while sleep deprived is like trying to run a mile through molasses: even if the task isn’t normally a problem for you, you’ll be slowed down and worn out more easily, making the same task take much more mental effort. “Operating cognitively becomes very, very difficult,” Dickson explains. “Things like your ability to focus, to pay attention, are really affected.”
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Worse still, sleepiness has been linked, time and again, to memory impairment. For instance, a study published by the American Psychological Association in 2018 found that sleep deprivation not only leads to a reduced ability to recall information, it alters the quality of the memories themselves, making them less detailed or — in some cases — even making subjects more likely to misremember information. So even if you do manage to pay attention in class, all of that effort may very well slip through your fingers once the midterm arrives. Most of the above difficulties, while frustrating to experience, are often written off as minor inconveniences. A slightly lower mood or a few more lapses in attention than usual after a night of poor sleep may not, in the moment, seem like causes for alarm. But our bodies do not so easily forget, and over time, inadequate sleep can be fatal. In 2015, a study examining the impact of shortterm sleep deprivation on the hearts of young adults with no known health conditions found that even one night of poor sleep was associated with stiffer arteries and increased heartbeat irregularities. Over time, these effects compound, leading to an increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, conditions that can kill if not properly addressed.
t isn’t all bad news, however. Just as a lack of sleep can profoundly hurt us, sleeping well can profoundly help us. In 2018, scientists at the University of Mississippi found that adults who slept 7-9 hours per night had a 19 per cent reduction in risk of premature death, even when blood pressure, diabetes, physical activity levels and smoking were taken into account. Getting enough sleep is, of course, easier said than done. But thankfully, there are a lot of changes we can make as individuals to sleep better at night. Dickson and Galambos both point to training your brain and body to associate your bedroom with sleeping, instead of homework or video games. This means that the bedroom should be used primarily for sleeping (and sex), and other activities should be done in other rooms as much as possible. If this is done consistently over time and your body learns to associate your bedroom with resting, you should become tired upon entering the bedroom and laying down in bed, making it easier to get to sleep. Eliminating light from the sleeping area is also important. Blue light, the kind that emanates from screens, is particularly detrimental to sleep because it mimics daylight, tricking your brain into thinking it isn’t nighttime anymore. So if your mind is restless and you need
a calming task to help you relax, that distraction will be more effective if it doesn’t involve a screen. Dickson recommends doing your homework. “Reading is perfect, especially if you’re reading a textbook,” he remarks, laughing. “It’s the best soporific ever, it tends to put me right to sleep and I imagine students feel the same way.” A regular exercise and mealtime routine is also key. According to Dickson, a regular exercise routine can help clear your mind and adjust your circadian rhythm. The same is true for eating meals at roughly the same time each day. Over time, these routines let your brain learn when to become alert and active, and when to start settling down for the evening. Cutting down on rhythm-altering drugs, like alcohol and caffeine, is another of Dickson’s recommendations. Different lifestyle changes will work for different people, and some things — like whether or not you’re stuck working a night shift — may be beyond your control. But these small steps are worth undertaking, because our sleep time is some of the most valuable time we have, and we live in a world designed to take it from us.
s suddenly as my childhood episode of sleep paralysis started, it was over. The shadows were back to their normal selves. My fan was just a fan. Most importantly, I could move. I tore across the hallway and ran to my parents’ bedroom, sobbing. While the experience was horror like my little mind had never known, it was a short-lived event, quickly soothed by gentle voices and loving arms. The sleep deprivation that could have caused it, however, has proven to be a longer, more gradual type of torture. I can only wonder how much of my life I’ve spent unable to think clearly because my brain and body were lacking in rest. Sleep deprivation is death by millions of lost minutes of rest, thousands of waking hours spent only half-aware. Dickson likes to describe our brains using psychologists’ favourite analogy: computers. We are processing machines that need downtime to update the software that is our memories and do maintenance on the hardware of our neural connections. “When [your brain is] sleeping,” he says, “you need it to be doing all kinds of offline processes that are really important for healthy brain function.” Our brains house our thoughts, memories, and feelings — they make us, us. We must treat them with care and allow them to rest. Otherwise, our lack of dreaming may lead to our real-world dreams disappearing, too. g
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owned a bike when I was a kid. It had a bunch of gears I didn’t know how to use and brakes that worked incrementally better than bailing out at the last minute. I loved it all the same, though because it could carry me all the way to the University farms — as far from home as I dared go. Skidding to a stop on the sidewalk at the edge of an unknown expanse of city blocks and busy roads, I would stand and stare at the towering Edmonton skyline far off in the distance beyond power lines and pine trees. I couldn’t imagine ever going farther. Then high school struck. Maybe it was because it seemed like a new and precarious path that timid precaution begged me not to walk, or because I had known the same people for all too long and needed a chance to be the new kid again. Reasons aside, I had come to the conclusion that a high school in the suburbs wasn’t the future for me. I was finally going to see what that skyline had to offer. The school of my choice was just off city center, an hour by car and farther than I could convince my parents to drive me every morning. I would have to learn how to take the train. It was rough at first but with time I started to get acquainted with my classmates and eventually with the skyline that turned out to be a bustling city after all. Just as faces and names became the familiar backdrop to my high school experience, so too did the buildings and streets of downtown Edmonton become like old friends. In isolation miles from my lifelong homebase, I felt neither lonely nor far from home any longer. The LRT changed my life, not only because it allowed me to explore the vibrant urban center of Edmonton when I was still quite young, but also because it provided me with a semblance of independence when I needed it most. Even six years on, riding the LRT still seems like a new and exciting part of my life. The LRT is a crucial public resource for a city such as Edmonton. It provides accessible and efficient transportation to major nodes of the city, and coupled with some of ETS’s social programs, is affordable to people who need it the most such as students and the elderly. Edmonton has long been shaped by all different sorts of rails. Edmonton rail history started not with intraurban rails, but with two Canadian lines: the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Calgary & Edmonton Railway.
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In 1883, the CPR was extended into southern Alberta followed by the construction of the C&ER eight years later in 1891. Edmonton, not even incorporated as a town yet, saw some economic stimulation due to the presence of these railways even though they weren’t bridged across the North Saskatchewan river and into Edmonton city limits yet. Edmontonians of the time mistakenly believed that the bridging of the CPR would come soon. When it became clear that this would not be happening, there formed some hope that at least the C&ER would eventually cross the river to meet them. The municipality of Strathcona flourished in the aftermath of this false hope providing a connection between the town of Edmonton and the two railways across the river. Initially, travel across the North Saskatchewan was conducted by ferry, but in 1900 the Low Level Bridge was constructed to facilitate a more direct connection between these two prospective cities. In 1902, the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway was extended across the bridge, finally connecting Edmonton to the rest of the country by rail. With a connection to Canada secured, Edmontonians looked towards the creation of quick and efficient transit within their own city and to Strathcona across the waters. Up until this point, travel around the city was facilitated by horse drawn dray or bus if one wasn’t walking. In need of an upgrade, Edmonton transportation planners were instantly attracted to the electric streetcar which was taking North American cities by storm. The first hint of streetcars on the policy track of Edmonton was the passing of an ordinance by the Northwest Territories government in 1893 back when Edmonton still sat in NWT land. It was called “An Ordinance to Empower the Municipality of the Town of Edmonton to Construct and Operate a Tramway” (with a catchy name like that, it’s a wonder it failed). Over the next 14 years, the Edmonton municipal council tried and failed numerous times to get a streetcar construction project off the ground. It wasn’t until 1907 that conditions were right to go ahead with plans for a streetcar system. Over the next few decades, the streetcar would grow to be a major mode of transportation in Edmonton. Jasper Ave and Whyte Ave would become even more important to Edmonton life due to the streetcar lines that ran down them. However, beginning sometime in the late 1940s, the automobile and widespread bus service would begin to supplant the streetcar as the choice way to get around Edmonton. On September 1, 1951, car 1 of the streetcar fleet made a final ceremonial run from 97 Street and Jasper Ave to 84 Ave and 109 Street, closing the streetcar chapter in the Edmonton story. However, shutting the book on streetcars wasn’t the end for rail based transit in Edmonton. When the last streetcar finished its final run, its spirit went into hibernation for a quarter-century before reemerging as Edmonton’s modern LRT system. Edmonton transportation planners needed a way to quell the constantly intensifying congestion caused by the growing population of
FEATURES cars on the road, and an LRT system fit the bill just right. The hope behind constructing an LRT in Edmonton for city planners was that it would make commuting easier overall. In theory, urban train service would do just that, but with so many moving parts the LRT was sure to be a source of problems all its own. In order to get an academic perspective on Edmonton’s LRT, I talked with transportation researcher and University of Alberta professor Dr. Emily Grise. Originally from Toronto, a city famous for its red streetcars, Grise is a newcomer to the city of Edmonton but not to the intricacies of light rail transit. We met in her office on the third floor of the Tory building. The floor is dedicated to the study of human geography and planning, a discipline that studies the built environment and the humans that live in it whether it be in regards to housing, infrastructure, demographics, or, in Grise’s case, transportation. In the halls outside her office, maps from as far back as 1882 illustrate the urban growth of Edmonton, the very same factor that gave rise to our modern-day LRT system. In 1962, talk began for a light rail transit system and in 1974 construction began. According to Grise, there was
considerable effort to ensure that the system would be operational in time for the Commonwealth games, which Edmonton was hosting in 1978. Edmonton would reach their goal, testing cars in 1977 and officially opening for regular service on April 22, 1978. Edmonton is unique in that it rolled out its LRT system before the urban population reached 500,000 people. “[This] is rather unheard of typically in the North American context,” Grise says. “So that was a very bold move.” Edmonton’s LRT is also special because of how it operates compared to other Canadian cities. “Edmonton is very unique in the fact that [it always has] exclusive right of way,” says Grise. “It operates like a heavy rail, whereas in Toronto, it’s more integrated with the street.” Toronto’s streetcars, much like Calgary’s LRT, follow traffic laws just like automobiles and pedestrians — even stopping for lights — which is unheard of in Edmonton. This works to make public rail transit in both cities part of the urban fabric. On the other hand, Edmonton’s LRT operates based on exclusive right of way, which does make it quite a bit more efficient — at the cost of disrupting traffic around it.
“The LRT is a crucial public resource for a city such as Edmonton.”
“For students who can't access [the UPass] during the summer because they don
hey don't take classes for those four months [...] that's a huge increase in cost.�
FEATURES The LRT therefore has a reputation among drivers in Edmonton for being the cause of long intersection wait times. Many people would rather the LRT be fully subterranean like the London tube system, or elevated above the street much like a monorail. However, Grise thinks differently. “For one, it’s far more economical,” Grise says, referring to building the LRT at street level (or at “street grade,” as it is referred to by urban planners). “When they’re at … street grade, it’s a lot easier for people to get on and off. For example, it takes a couple minutes to reach platform level at the university station, and if you have ability impairments and an escalator isn’t working … or an elevator, that’s a huge problem.” Grise also has concerns for when the City of Edmonton finishes construction on new lines and has to convert current stations into interchange stations — that is, stations where passengers can switch lines. With underground stations, passengers may have to travel between different levels in the same station or even surface and then descend into another station to catch their train. Students getting
off at University Station know the pain of taking three escalators to reach the surface personally. “If they were at grade,” Grise says, “it would just be a lot easier.” That still doesn’t change the fact that some unlucky drivers can get caught waiting minutes for the lights to go their way in particularly troubling LRT intersections. According to Grise, however, this problem is not caused entirely by the LRT. “The frustration about the waiting time is … something that can be changed,” she says. The problem has less to do with the LRT disrupting the traffic cycle, and more with the traffic cycle not adequately accounting for the presence of the LRT. “We have the skills,” says Grise. “Traffic engineers can improve that signalization.” Another major aspect of the LRT and ETS as a whole that Grise would like to see improved is the fare system. “We have got to get rid of these tickets,” Grise says. In their place, she looks forward to the implementation of an online smart fare system for Edmonton’s transit system similar to systems found in Vancouver and Toronto.
“It’s just so much more complicated than just
FEATURES Not only will smart fares do away with wasteful physical tickets, it will also make transit in Edmonton more flexible overall. According to Grise, travelling around town as a tourist is much easier if you can put funds into the system with just the tap of a credit card. ETS would see the benefits too, as the ability to put funds for their fare into the system online would allow transit to tap into a much greater market. Where tickets and change are unwieldy to carry around all the time, a transit card with a little bit of cash for the occasional bus or train ride is as slick as a credit card and just as easy to use as well. “The fare should never be a barrier for taking the bus,” Grise says. The modernization of ETS is necessary to allow it to achieve its fullest potential, and this potential is best achieved when the greatest number of people who rely on public transit are provided what they need. A further issue that comes up for Grise when considering fare is accessibility of bus passes to low income households. “Every month, they have to go get a new low income bus pass from one of… 11 different locations in
han just putting down the line and testing.”
the city,” Grise says. “I think that is quite unreasonable particularly because these are individuals who likely are commuting longer distances than average and maybe to multiple jobs. I think it’s unfair that they also have to go pick up a bus pass.” It is difficult to say what would be the most effective way to solve this problem. Increasing accessibility to these low income bus passes could be achieved by raising the amount of locations available for them to be picked up or mailing them out to households that qualify for them to avoid the trip altogether. The way forward isn’t clear, but something must be done in order to relieve the extra stress on low income households. Of course, there’s also an argument to be made for no transit fees at all. Free Transit Edmonton is an advocacy group focused on eliminating fees for all Edmonton transit systems. Juan Vargas Alba, a fifth-year political science student, arts councillor on Students’ Council, and member of FTE, thinks that transit in Edmonton can be both free and well-functioning. “Fares only take up
“Edmonton’s LRT system is far from perfect, but most things aren’t in their formative years.”
FEATURES about 30 per cent of the city’s actual [operating costs] of transit, so that means that the rest of it is, essentially, taxpayer funded,” they point out. FTE believes that removing the need to pay for fare enforcement and new electronic fare machines, among other measures, can reduce the cost enough that fares would no longer be necessary in the first place. For Vargas Alba, free transit is “an issue of economic justice” and would make a huge difference for students in particular. “We're lucky because we pay less [...] for transit,” they say, in reference to the UPass. For the 2020-21 academic year, the UPass will cost $158 a semester, covering four months of transit use. Regular adult fare bus passes, on the other hand, cost $97 a month, adding up to $388 over the course of four months. Vargas Alba sees this as a significant financial burden for students during the summer. “For students who can't access [the UPass] during the summer because they don't take classes for those four months [...] that's a huge increase in cost,” they say. There are no current plans to make transit free; in February, the City increased fees for a number of passenger groups and decreased fees for others. According to a statement from Brieanne Graham, ETS’s Acting Communications Advisor, there are a “variety of programs in place” to help low-income transit users get around. Low-income seniors (those who earn less than $28,513 per year) ride free, and low-income seniors who earn between $28,513 and $32,400 can buy annual passes for $136.50 as of March 30. The Providing Accessible Transit Here (PATH) program also provides roughly 600 free bus passes per month to those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Whether these programs will provide enough assistance for low-income Edmontonians in the coming years remains to be seen. All of these future possibilities aside, change is already on the horizon for the LRT, in the form of a new line. According to the city of Edmonton, the Valley Line Southeast is projected to open for regular service in the year 2021. According to Graham, the new line will “serve all major post-secondary institutions in Edmonton” by enabling the construction of a larger LRT station at NAIT and by connecting all quarters of Edmonton via rail, making train travel to the U of A easier. Valley Line will connect central downtown Edmonton to the neighborhood of Mill Woods through Bonnie Doon, further increasing the extent of the city accessible to the LRT. Extension of the Valley line to West Edmonton Mall is projected to be completed in 2026. Both deadlines seem unrealistic to Grise, who cites the multitude of difficulties that can spring up when constructing a line this extensive. According to Grise, “it’s just so much more complicated than just putting down the line and testing.” The fact of the matter is that Edmonton’s LRT system wasn’t built on these extensive line construction projects. “It’s kind of how Edmonton’s LRT has progressed,” Grise tells me. “They kept making these incremental extensions, with Health Sciences being one of the most recent ones. I think that was one of the best performing
extensions they made.” Health Sciences station met ridership targets almost immediately after it was opened to the public in 2006 and continues to be a strong addition to the LRT system due to the large volume of passengers it serves. The existence of Health Sciences station has made navigating the U of A campus significantly more convenient, especially for med students. Ridership is a distinctly important statistic when it comes to any form of transit, and Grise has concerns whether Valley Line’s stations will meet ridership targets. “It’s going through, for the most part, a very residential [area]. It’s very difficult to meet ridership targets with such a low population to draw from,” Grise notes. According to Grise, addressing an issue like this is a mixture of stimulating development around LRT stations so that they can become both origins and destinations in their own right, while also choosing locations for new LRT stations where this development has come about naturally in the first place. Determining these locations can be difficult, but Grise believes there is a best way to come up with proposals. “We should do a sort of proof of concept,” Grise says. “What I would like to see first is a high quality bus rapid transit system. As high quality of a bus system as possible, … frequent service, exclusive right of way.” As an example of this, Grise puts forward the 99 B-Line in Vancouver. The stops that this bus line serviced were so popular that the city of Vancouver simply could not meet demand any longer. Extensions of the Skytrain are currently under construction to help meet these high levels of passengers. In essence, the success of the 99 B-Line has made building a Skytrain line where it operates a safe bet for Vancouver. Meeting ridership targets is all but guaranteed. Edmonton’s LRT system is far from perfect, but most things aren’t in their formative years. These tracks have more than sixty years under their belt and have vaulted many hurdles already, but these are just the first steps towards becoming a complete rail system like those in more advanced cities across the globe. The future of the LRT will be one of extensions, careful urban planning, and, hopefully, more effective transportation of Edmontonians to all corners of our fair city. Ultimately, my hope, which I’m sure I share with many others who live and ride within Edmonton, is that the LRT will grow to better serve all Edmontonians, especially students and low-income families who rely on it for transportation. Edmonton is capable of being more than just a grid of roads encapsulating the concrete and glass buildings where people go to work or university. It is a place where cultures from all around the world can mix, where people can meet friends right on the street, where the downtown is a vibrant place not to be endured but enjoyed. The success of the LRT is one key to unlocking that Edmonton, because accessible connectivity is vital to the vibrancy of the city. I stand now on the edge of what is and what could be, gazing out on the skyline of Edmonton’s future. It is not within our reach yet, but I know someday it could be. g
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NOTES
TEXT KATHERINE DECOSTE PHOTO ILLUSTRATION HELEN AQUINO
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hat’s so terrifying about graduating? Winter semester flew by this year in a blur of existential dread. People keep telling me graduating must be so exciting. But all I can think is, “oh my god, I’m going to have to pay rent for the rest of my life.” In some ways, fear over leaving university is just part of our culture. What, getting a job with a BA? In this economy? But in other ways, it’s part of the way my life is moving forward at a pace I feel I’ll never be able to keep track of. I’m 21, and I’ve been a student since I was four. 17 years of sitting in classrooms, writing things down, memorizing, coming up with thesis statements, filling out flash cards and cramming for midterms. 17 years of praying for an A so I could get that brief hit of dopamine that told me what I was doing was worthwhile. In some ways, I’ve been in school so long, I’m not sure I have any other skills. So when people ask me what’s next, the only thing I can offer is, “grad school?” I don’t think the general anxiety of students in their final semesters has much to do with the economy at all, actually. Sure, job hunting is terrifying, and we all have copious amounts of debt looming over our heads as we make our start in the world. But I think the fear surrounding graduation has more to do with the fact that we’ll need to reshape our identities. We won’t be students anymore, our lives (and in many cases, our personalities) shaped by our classes, our degrees, what we’re studying. Some of us will get jobs that replace these things, and that’s fantastic. But most of us will get jobs where the primary purpose is to pay the bills, and that’s also good. We just have to learn how to be people now. It’s not about entering the “real world”— filing taxes (however you do that), making car payments, finding healthcare professionals outside the convenient university clinic. It’s about making a world for ourselves, a life for ourselves. I think for a lot of people the endless possibility presented by graduation is thrilling. You can go anywhere! Be and do
anything you want! But to me, it’s terrifying. I know how to write good essays, please professors, and rack up scholarships. But what my degree didn’t teach me is how I can value myself, and my skills, beyond an educational setting. Maybe this is a flaw in the system, or simply a shortcoming of having filled four years with five-course semesters and an Honors thesis. Regardless, I wish when my lower-year peers said, “wow! You must be so excited to get out of here!” it was socially acceptable to reply, “I’m filled with crippling anxiety. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what I’m doing.” Instead I usually say, “Yeah, it’s so exciting!” It does feel gratifying that my thousands of dollars, absurd coffee habit, and many late nights will amount to something, a slip of paper handed to me on a stage in a crowded auditorium certifying me a degree-holding adult human. The University of Alberta offered me a lot of things. Some of the best friends I’ve ever met, several new passions, a love of Edmonton I never thought I’d have, and a Bachelor’s degree, for starters. Also, at least one mental illness, my first real heartbreak (and my second), an autonomous ability to write in MLA format… the list goes on. It brought me the hardest years of my life, and some of its greatest joys. I smoked weed for the first time. I laughed harder than I ever have, and also cried harder. I figured out how to write in cheesy, parallel structure. It’s common, in today’s job market, to call a university degree — especially a BA — a waste. But I don’t feel that mine was. I’m a completely different person than I was in 2016 when I showed up in Lister. I’ve examined some of my most closely held beliefs. I’ve become more compassionate, more caring, more open-minded, more critical of the world around me. Mostly, I was privileged to take classes I loved in a subject I’m deeply passionate about. But if you asked me to tell you what’s next, I’m not sure I could. Maybe that’s the thrill of it all. g
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DIVERSIONS
HOROSCOPES TEXT MITCHELL PAWLUK VISUALS PETER ELIMA
ARIES
TAURUS
GEMINI
Despite your desire to leave campus and go to sleep, you will push forward towards the end of the semester. Caffeine, candy, and the fear of academic failure will greatly aid you here.
While your course load is intense, so is your desire to find work post-graduation. Remain steadfast in studying and you will be rewarded with a summer of slushies, late night drives, and relentless happiness.
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
You deserve a break. Spend your first day off binge watching Friends on Netflix until 2 a.m. After all, Jennifer Aniston never went to college PLLC Gateway Ad.pdf 1 and still found success.
CANCER Your closest relationships will test you during this season. Ignore the haters and remember: just like in reality TV, you’re not to make friends, 2020-03-10 9:31to AMwin. you’re here
ENHANCE YOUR DEGREE Skills
CMY
K
Credit Community
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uab.ca/pllc
lc
DIVERSIONS
LEO
VIRGO
LIBRA
SCORPIO
Inspiration will strike you during a late study session in a state of overtiredness. Follow this inspiration, as it will lead you to success during your exam.
Allow yourself to fully pursue your desires this summer. Stay up late, work hard, party harder, and have the Hot Girl Summer that you deserve.
During the hastiness of exams, you have become disconnected from your friends. Catch up with them at RATT over drinks, fries, and the sense of togetherness that only overworked students feel.
This finals season will bring many stresses with it. Find your favourite comfort food on campus and buy it regularly. This will fuel your studying, ensuring success on your exams.
SAGITTARIUS
CAPRICORN
AQUARIUS
PISCES
Now is the time for you to take risks. Stop worrying about failure, throw caution to the wind, and remember that your friends are there to support you.
Stay focused on studying and will be rewarded at the end of this semester. Remember, reading is fundamental, so hit the books!
Take as many notes as possible during your last week of class. It is in these notes that you will find all the answers on your exams.
You feel overwhelmed at this time. Put your earphones, blast some Rihanna, and refuse to let yourself get distracted. g
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DIVERSIONS
CROSSWORD TEXT & PUZZLE BREE MEIKLEJOHN
ACROSS 5. 6. 9. 11. 12. 13. 15.
Referring to your responsibility Point awarded in Judo or Karate Tools to trim a lamb’s wool Inlaying metals to make intricate patterns A kind of purple iris To hit hard Pokedex entry #61
Find answers on our website, gtwy.ca
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DOWN 1. 2. 3. 4. 7. 8. 10.
Facetiously mischievous Iridescent shells of a New Zealand mollusk The basic unit of money in the United Kingdom Western region of Czech Republic Greek Goddess of Spring Pagan celebration of spring Blue mineral containing sulfate, sulfur, and chloride 14. Genus of antelope native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
DIVERSIONS
1
2 3
4 5
6
7
8 9
10 11
12
13 14 15
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DIVERSIONS
“Deference for Darkness” A Fat Tire Vagabond Adventure You knew this was how it was gonna end... Abandoning me to pursue Running over people on a dumb looking Bicycles.
Hey,
Vagabond.
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Oh, Don’t Act So Shocked.
Sush Orlock... You’ll get your feast Soon Enough. I ant to wa savour his anguish before we he becomes a midnight Snack.
ACRYLIC PAINT AND INK ON CANVAS COLETTE NADON,“IN PLAIN SIGHT”