Checking out campus libraries 16
Feature
Opinion
Sports
Backup plans for flunking out of school 12
Bears look to build on close game 29
gateway September 19th, 2012
Issue No. 3
Volume 103
THE
TH E O F F IC IA L STUDE NT NE WS PA P E R AT TH E UN I V ER S I T Y OF A LBERTA
future of arts
Arts Dean remains hopeful for faculty despite budget cuts Katelyn Hoffart
staff reporter @katelynhoffart One year after extensive budget cuts shook the Faculty of Arts, Dean of Arts Lesley Cormack gave a public address Monday Sept. 17 to talk about its current state.
“In the midst of the budget woes and the reorganization … we’ve continued to work hard towards a shared goal of excellent teaching and research.” lesley cormack dean of arts
Around 100 people came out to a busy Tory lecture theatre, curious to hear the faculty’s current condition and anxious to voice their concerns. Cormack kicked off her nearly hour-long address by bringing up some accomplishments the faculty and its students have
seen since the budget cuts came into effect. This included creating two new certificate programs in International Studies and European Studies, initiating discussions on creating a Bachelor of Economics degree and creating new graduate student professional support. “In the midst of the budget woes and the reorganization … we’ve continued to work hard towards a shared goal of excellent teaching and research — work that I really want to say matters more now than ever,” Cormack said. She also said the November Plan of Teaching, drafted in Fall 2011, and the four point plan aimed at engaging students in their studies through opportunities such as CSL, were being implemented successfully. The new plan incorporates aspects such as enhancing communication, further expanding research networks and funding, fostering collaboration and making structural adjustments to the faculty.
PLEASE SEE arts PAGE 7
arts state of mind Dean of Arts Lesley Cormack delivered the State of the Faculty address on Sept. 17.
dan mckechnie
theatre preview
MFA candidate offers new take on Strindberg’s Ghost Sonata Paige Gorsak
arts & culture staff @paigegorsak Some directors would be content to present an exact rendition of a classic or well-known script. But for Studio Theatre’s production of The Ghost Sonata, director Jessica Carmichael had a vision for the play that involved drastic changes like cutting the cast in half, adding new characters and contemporary music and challenging playwright August Strindberg’s original beliefs. “With The Ghost Sonata, I wanted to cut — I wanted to reimagine,” she explains. “I like to do that where I’m putting different texts into the script. It’s like having a conversation with the playwright through materials that are contextual to the play or more contemporary.”
As an MFA directing candidate at the U of A, The Ghost Sonata is Carmichael’s final project before presenting her thesis and earning her degree. It was her choice to conclude her time in the program with Strindberg’s well-known modernist chamber play, which explores the notion of non-reality and humankind’s struggle with nostalgia. “I think the biggest reason I chose The Ghost Sonata was because I was interested in the idea of illusions in our world and the idea of coming to the end of your life,” Carmichael says. “Because I’m older now as well, I could empathize with Strindberg in coming to the end of your life and wondering about the world that we are living in and what we are connected to.”
“I know they’re called “freshmen”, but boy do they smell bad. It’s green and gold, not B and O, guys.” yifeng liu
PLEASE SEE ghost PAGE 19
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