The Argosy, April 3 2014

Mount Allison’s

THE April 3, 2014

ARGOSY Independent Student Newspaper

Not putting blackface on the cover since 1872

Vol. 143 Iss. 20

‘A Vital Force’ features paintings by Arthur Lismer, Emily Carr, Lawrence Harris, Paraskeva Clark, Prudence Heward, Yvonne McKague Housser, and other members of the CGP. (Chris Donovan/Argosy)

‘A Vital Force’ in Canadian history identify the commonality between the paintings.

But this fragmentation of style is wholly representative of the cultural milieu of the CGP’s heyday. Canadian modern artists were striving to piece together a new Canadian identity and aesthetic. Caught in the transition between a colonial past and an independent, industrializing present, artists attempted to reconcile these two identities through cultural production.

One of the fathers of Canadian modernist poetry, A.J.M. Smith, believed this identity should be formed by a union between the “native” and the “cosmopolitan,” the local and the international. This philosophy manifests itself visually throughout the exhibition, as many of the paintings borrow American and European techniques, like French impressionism and German expressionism, but incorporate distinctly Canadian figures and landscapes.

This trend of cultural diversity and borrowing persists in Canadian art today, and is perhaps our most defining characteristic. But rather than create a tension or competition between the various artistic styles, the

For many, the term ‘Canadian art’ is more or less synonymous with the Group of Seven. The group’s famed landscape paintings have become the face of Canadian culture in the twentieth century, and are still considered to be some of the country’s most important works of art.

However, the Owens Art Gallery’s newest exhibition “A Vital Force: The Canadian Group of Painters” challenges this idea, by turning the spotlight onto a different group of painters.

The exhibition, curated by Alicia Boutlier from the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, brings together forty-eight works by forty-eight members of the

Canadian Group of Painters (CGP).

This is the first major exhibition to focus exclusively on the seminal group of artists. The title, “A Vital Force,” signifies not only the group’s artistic relevance, but also their role in the formation of a Canadian cultural identity.

The CGP was formed in 1933, during a time of social and political change in Canada. The Group of Seven had recently disbanded, and the political landscape was wrought with the competing capitalist, communist, and fascist ideologies. Unlike the Group of Seven, this group of artists hailed from all over the country, and included influential female members.

Their aim was to expand upon the traditions established by the famous Group of Seven, while creating a more holistic and inclusive body of Canadian artwork that better reflected the cultural zeitgeist. The CGP represented modernist themes in art, turning an eye toward human subject matter and political concerns.

As Canadian studies professor Bart Vautour noted in his opening remarks, the group was formed out of a principle of generosity that valued collective

artistic practice over individual stylistic concerns. The political turmoil of the twenty-first century made it essential for these artists to work together in order to represent new Canadian culture.

“Artists who had previously squabbled in artistic ways over form, content, genre, and generational differences were now willing to adopt the model of a collective artistic organization,” Vautour said. “Nowhere do we see an affiliation across generations and style as prevalently as in the [CGP].”

These artistic differences were highly apparent throughout the exhibition.

Despite their categorical curation, the paintings feature no definitive cohesion of style or subject matter. This is perhaps the most interesting, yet the most puzzling, part of the exhibition.

The works range from impressionistic scenes of the Canadian pastoral landscape, to abstract expressionism, to realist portraiture, and political protest scenes. Even when the subject matter is similar, the styles are often drastically different. Without the explicit grouping of these works, most viewers would be hard pressed to

News

Sports

Arts & Literature Entertainment

Owens Art Gallery showcases the Canadian Group of Painters Julia McMillan

Arts & Literature Editor

Students protest for tuition rebate: Pg. 2

Intramurals from 2013- Lorne Street studio closes: Pg. 11 2014 recapped: Pg. 6

Trio bands show on Union Street: Pg. 12

collective work of the CGP identifies a certain harmony among the pieces.

The paintings in the exhibition aren’t contradictory, but are rather complementary in their differences.

As is frequently the case, by looking to the past, we’re forced to reflect on the present.

“Let’s ask ourselves what we can learn, both organizationally and aesthetically, from a founding principle of generosity,” Vautour said.

What we can learn from “A Vital Force” is that neither history nor art is created in isolation. Canadian culture has been, and continues to be, a collective undertaking that accepts and celebrates diversity and political consciousness. The exhibition gives viewers a rare look into Canadian history, and illustrates the CGP’s enormous contribution to the creation of a national cultural identity.

“A Vital Force” is organized and circulated by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and Queen’s University, in partnership with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. The exhibition will be on display at the Owens Art Gallery until June 1.

Inside...

News Ship’s Log Opinions Sports Centrefold Entertainment Arts & Literature Science Pg. Humour

2 4 5 6 8 10 11 13 915

ONLINE:

NEWS

LOCAL PAPER RUNS BLACKFACE COVER Tribune-Post draws criticism over photo of ‘Aunt Jemima’

April 3, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Students continue protests for tuition rebate Approximately thirty students march for tuition refund Kevin Levangie

Political Beat Writer Some students at Mount Allison University have refused to stay silent about the administration’s opposition to a tuition rebate.

Approximately thirty students gathered in front of the Ralph Pickard Bell Library, staging a protest against the President’s Executive Group’s decision to recommend against a tuition rebate for lost class time during the three week faculty strike. Holding signs and adorned with small blue cloth squares reminiscent of the red squares worn by the Quebec student protestors, the students marched around campus during the March 28 protest.

The march began at the library, and went across campus, around the Northside Quad, then took a quick detour through Centennial

Students march across campus demanding a tuition rebate from the administration. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) Hall, the building housing the majority of offices of the university administrators. The gathering ended on the steps of the student centre.

Conspicuously absent from the protest were any Mount Allison Students’ Union representatives.

MASU President Melissa O’Rourke told The Argosy, “It was something that took place during the middle of the day, so not everyone was able to go. There was not intentionally noone there.”

“With UNB students getting some

money back from their university it seems unfair that we won’t be compensated for our lost time” said Rob McDermott, a first year student who participated in the protest.

McDermott continued, saying he felt students needed to “make noise” if

they wanted a rebate.

“The administration wants us to think that their decision to deny students a rebate is final. It’s not final. It’s their recommendation to the Board of Regents, and this recommendation will be voted on in May,” organizer Alex Thomas told protesters on the library’s steps.

Thomas concluded that the purpose of the demonstration was to convince the Board of Regents to reject the proposal put forward by the President’s Executive Group, made up of the university’s top administrators.

In a March 24 email to students, Vice-President Student Affairs Ron Byrne wrote that the administration was recommending against a rebate because “it is most appropriate to concentrate on meeting individual needs and on providing enhanced services.”

Thomas said of the turnout: “This is a terrible time [to be protesting,] we’re dealing with a compressed semester, and we’re dealing with the end of the semester, so I totally understand why there are not 1,000 people here right now.”

Thomas and others have plans to continue protesting every Friday at 11:30 am until the end of the semester.

Students dine according Aboriginal Support Group officially off the ground to social class, gender Oxfam Mt. A highlights world inequality Miriam Namakanda News Writer

Guests at Oxfam Mount Allison’s hunger banquet were in for an unconventional meal.

Approximately thirty students ate according to randomly assigned socioeconomic classes, meant to reflect world inequality, at the Legion March 27.

Julia Duncan, an Oxfam member and one of the evening’s hosts, told guests at the outset that the event was not meant to “tokenize” the experience of poverty.

“It’s really about expanding people’s horizons,” Oxfam member Jeanette Carney said.

“There is a divide between those who want action and those who want awareness,” added member Zoe Luba.

She noted that “if you go to a hunger banquet you take away a new understanding—it can encourage you to not only donate but […] to actually change something.”

During the banquet the hosts explained how the service

reflects global inequality. High income, middle income, and low income groups are served at different times. High income participants were served first. Middle income and low income people had to serve themselves. In addition these groups were divided by gender, and women were forced to serve themselves last.

The vast majority of guests were assigned to the low income group.

“It’s also something that is hard to advertise for [since] most people think, well I don’t want to go if I get a four in five chance of not getting any food at all,” said Carney.

The Mount Allison hunger banquet also featured talks from Mt. A sociology professor Deatra Walsh, Catalyst Mt.A president Nicole Forbes, and the Centre For International Studies student coordinators Natalie Brunet and Rebecca Lockert.

For Carney, hunger is an problem associated with many other issues. This is why Oxfam invited Catalyst’s Forbes to talk about how poverty is experienced in the LGBTQ community. “[I] f you are in the lowest class and you are a homosexual [or] transgender your life is very difficult,” Carney explained.

Deatra Walsh examined the issue of local poverty, focusing

on the importance of milk in the average diet. She noted that people rarely donate milk to food banks, preferring to give cheaper perishables instead.

Luba said the group was inspired to have this banquet in Sackville after an Oxfam convention in Halifax. “[Other Oxfam campus groups] told us about their hunger banquets and told us strategies, it kinda inspired us to really actually push through with our own.”

The group received funding from Campbell-Verduyn fund and Centre For International Studies to host the event.

The event was also organized in partnership with Edible Ethics and Catalyst Mount Allison.

After demonstrating how class differences determine accessibility to food, students were allowed seconds and the indulgence of a dessert buffet.

“People bought five dollars worth of food so we had to provide enough food,” Penney said.

The group was happy with the banquet despite the small number of students in attendance. “I think the people who did come really enjoyed it. I had a lot of people […] asking me questions about what Oxfam does,” Carney said.

Group hopes to improve services Miriam Namakanda News Writer

“After Chris Metallic disappeared, his cousin Maddie Metallic [and I] started [the Aboriginal Support Group] in recognition that there are virtually no aboriginal support services or systems on campus,” Rebecca Watts said.

The Aboriginal Support Group had been in existence for around a year but was only officially launched last month, with an inaugural potluck.

Since then the group has been very active, having recently held a vigil for Loretta Saunders, and meeting regularly with Vice President International and Affairs Ron Byrne to lobby for aboriginal student issues.

“Basically in every other university across Canada there is aboriginal support. I don’t really think that its fair that Mount Allison doesn’t [have any],” Watts said. “[Mt.A] is in an area with a high population of Mi’kmaq people, so there should be some sort of aboriginal representative and services to make aboriginal people feel

welcome,” she added.

Watts said there had been previous attempts at creating similar groups at Mt. A before but these have “fizzled out” again and again.

Looking at the response from the university, Watts is optimistic about the program’s survival. “I think it’s being received really well this year by students, and we are receiving a lot of attention from the administration.”

Joining other Aboriginal student groups across the country, the organization held a vigil for Loretta Saunders last week. Saunders, a twentysix year old Inuk woman from Labrador, had been studying at St. Mary’s University in Halifax. Her body was found on a highway near Salisbury, N.B. last month. Two people have been arrested for her murder. Students gathered at the Mt. A chapel to pray for Saunders and her family.

Besides regular group meetings on the second Tuesday of every month, every three weeks the organization meets with Byrne to push their agenda. Right now they are aiming to create an aboriginal studies minor, and a check box on Mt. A applications for students to mark if they have aboriginal ancestry.

“We really made a lot of progress with [Byrne on] the aboriginal studies minor

and the check box,” Watts said, mentioning that past students have crafted an Aboriginal studies minor independently. After finding a lot of Aboriginal content in a number of existing courses they decided to make the minor a priority.

They are hoping to include an optional check box on Mt. A applications in order to understand how many aboriginal students are attending the university.

This would be useful because, “from that we would know the services we would need to provide,” Watts said.

Mollie McGuire, another group member, does not identify as aboriginal but said she still felt that there was a need for the group on campus.

“I think everyone stands to benefit from a democratic institution,” McGuire said.

Support services like those the organization hopes to offer are the subject of McGuire’s honours thesis. Her initial interest in the subject was sparked by an academic article she read. “It was basically about how culturally relevant curricula and aboriginal supports [have] a positive correlation with aboriginal students feeling supported [and performing better in school],” McGuire said.

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

NEWS

Sixteen candidates, nineteen seats No competition for seats in MASU election Kevin Levangie

Political Beat Writer All contestants who ran in the Mount Allison Student’s Union spring election won a seat due to a very limited field of candidates. Only sixteen candidates ran for nineteen available seats on council.

The election coincided with a referendum on the continuation of MASU’s Green Investment Fund.

The referendum failed to reach the two-thirds majority it needed to renew the $10 levy on students to fund environmental sustainability projects in the Tantramar region.

Some confusion was caused by the off campus councillor position elections. Six candidates stood for six seats, and unless a candidate garnered no votes at all, all would be elected.

“Because there were only six people running, when the voting system went through and gathered the

optional preferential voting system, it only took the first preference,” explained MASU President Melissa O’Rourke.

Vice-President Finance and Operations Josh Outerbridge was concerned that the preferential voting system had been compromised because of the small number of candidates, and checked with Simply Voting, the online voting service, to be sure the elections were legitimate.

Incumbent arts senator Piper Riley Thompson captured eighty one per cent of the 821 votes cast, with newcomer Alexandra MacLeod winning the other nineteen per cent.

Steven Black won sixty four per cent of the votes for social science senator, with Cora Leigh MacDonald capturing the remaining thirty six per cent.

Alaa Ratmi won sixty three per cent of the science senator vote, while sitting first year councillor Daniel Murphy will take a seat as a social science senator with thirty seven per cent of the vote.

The positions of faculty councillors will see those elected sitting both on MASU council and on the university senate. Student senators have traditionally voted in a bloc at senate, so as to ensure student concerns are

heard in a setting dominated by faculty and administrators.

Ian Nason was elected to the position of Board of Regents representative, with ninety one percent of those voting checking “yes.” The position will see Nason sit on both MASU council and the university Board of Regents, which concerns itself with the nonacademic aspects of running the university.

James Gorman was alone in running for one of three seats for South Side councillors. He received ninety one percent of “yes” votes as well.

Jen Frail received sixty six per cent of votes for North Side councillor, while Madeline Stewart captured the remainder. A third North Side councillor will be elected the fall.

The remaining North and South side council positions will be filled in the fall semester election, which will also elect the first year councillors.

The valedictorian election saw both the greatest voter turnout percentage, and the largest number of candidates coming forward. After five rounds of preferential voting, Thomas Williams was elected and will be delivering the valediction speech during convocation.

Cannabis Convention held Speakers issue call to action at advocacy event Christopher Balcom News Editor

Mount Allison University saw its second Cannabis Convention last Thursday. While the three guest speakers urged attendees to be outspoken in their advocacy, the event itself did not cause much of a stir on campus.

Hempology 101, a student group at Mt. A, hosted the event in a largely empty Wu Centre. Excluding the four-member executive, only four guests showed up for the event. Last year’s convention had about forty attendees.

Despite some disappointment with turnout, guests, organizers, and speakers alike were enthusiastic about the convention.

“I thought it was awesome,” said Hilary Cantin, one of the Hempology executives. Co-founder Rene Schuller agreed, adding that he felt the speakers brought “a wealth of knowledge” to the event.

“The attendance wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be, but that’s sort of expected for the time of year,” Schuller said.

The convention featured three speakers: Amherst-based Marcel Gignac, Communications Director for the Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Alliance of Canada, and Chris Enns and Jes James, a couple of Halifaxbased activists and co-founders of the Halifax Compassionate Club.

The club dispenses marijuana to chronically ill patients and provides free information on marijuana consumption.

Enns opened the event, sharing

3

This Week in the World Joanna Perkin

250 refugees die in boat accident More than 250 people have been confirmed dead after a boat capsized on Lake Albert, Uganda last Saturday. The vessel was ferrying Congolese refugees back home to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The official capacity of the boat was only eighty people, but the BBC reported that at least 300 people are believed to have been on board. A Congolese official said approximately fifty passengers survived. This type of overloading is common in both countries, which has caused many boat accidents in recent months. Poor safety standards are also a cause of capsizes. The tragedy came only days after the DRC launched a campaign to enforce the usage of life jackets on all boats in the country. The BBC noted it is rare for Ugandan and Congolese vessels to have an adequate number of life jackets on board.

Fire destroys Guatemala market A fire has destroyed the majority of a Guatemala City market, known as La Terminal. The fire, which began Tuesday, wiped out more than 1,000 stalls in Guatemala City’s main market, and left four injured. Dozens of others were treated for smoke inhalation. Thousands of traders from all over Guatemala earn their living at La Terminal, explained BBC News. The stalls are made mostly of wood and plastic, which allowed the fire to spread even more quickly. More than 700 police officers and firefighters fought the fire, alongside market traders who were eager to help, and worked for more than eight hours to stop the fire.

However, volunteers could not contribute much, because of lack of water and appropriate equipment.

Prisoners tortured in Egypt Thousands of people, including many teenagers, have been detained since in Egypt since last July. According to testimonies acquired by BBC News, brutal beatings, sexual abuse and electric shocks are being widely carried out on detainees. A growing number of prisoners are emerging from prisons alleging they were tortured by the police and military. The government, heavily backed by the military, has adamantly denied these claims. Teenagers who have been arrested for participating in or filming protests are speaking out, saying they were tortured for months and never received a fair trial. An estimated 20,000 people have been rounded up in since the army deposed Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi last Summer. Prisoners are frequently accused by the government of belonging to terrorist groups.

Britain holds first same-sex weddings

Marcel Gignac speaks at the Cannabis Convention. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) how he became involved with the medical marijuana movement—he abandoned his medical school plans after discovering a wealthy scientific research on the health benefits of cannabis, and eventually began producing marijuana for patients in need. He urged students to bring these issues into the university community.

James’ talk addressed some of the substantial legal difficulties the Compassionate Club has faced over the years. They were raided last March, and Enns was arrested for possession and cultivation of marijuana.

Gignac spoke on the present legal situation of medicinal cannabis, and the obstacles for the movement.

Gignac consumes roughly thirty grams of marijuana a day to treat his multiple sclerosis. “I’d be dead now if I didn’t break the law,” Gignac told guests.

All three urged attendees to be public about the subject. They noted that this could be difficult, as there is still a lot of stigma around the medical marijuana movement.

This is an issue the Hempology club has dealt with themselves over the course of their activity on campus. Schuller mentioned that it has sometimes been difficult to get students to publicly commit to the cause. For this reason, Hempology Mt. A operates a private Facebook page to accommodate members with privacy concerns.

“People have weird feelings about marijuana. We want to exist comfortably in people’s lives,” Cantin explained. “I personally don’t care.

I’m one of those people that wants to come out of the marijuana closet.”

While the speakers mostly addressed medicinal cannabis use, Schuller conceded that recreational use is probably of more interest to students. “I […] think that could be a good thing because it means we can come at the issue from a different angle,” he said.

In an interview with The Argosy Gignac said he enjoyed the event, adding that he felt Hempology Mt. A is one of the only campus advocacy groups that is “doing it right.”

Britain’s new marriage law came into effect last Saturday, allowing two people of the same sex to be legally married. The Associated Press reported that polls show that around two-thirds of people in the country support same-sex unions, and support is particularly visible among young people. Britain is the fifteenth country to legalize same-sex marriage, and rainbow flags went up over two government buildings on Friday, to celebrate this achievement. David Cameron’s Conservative government are reportedly enthusiastic supporters of same-sex marriage. By ten minutes after midnight on Saturday, many couples were pronounced officially married, with hundreds of onlookers cheering them on. The Associated Press noted that the changes would have been unthinkable only thirty years ago when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government banned schools and local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality—those laws were not repealed until 2003.

Syrian aid situation has not improved The UN has said there has been no improvement in the humanitarian situation for millions of Syrians, despite last month’s Security Council resolution to increase aid deliveries. The UN has pointed the finger at the Syrian government, who they accuse of refusing to grant aid convoys’ access to remote areas. Violence has actually been increasing since the resolution was passed five weeks ago. The UN reports that there are approximately 3.5 million people needing aid in remote areas of Syria. The Syrian government has said that they are doing the most they can to get food and medical supplies to people in less accessible areas, reported the BBC.

The Corrections Richard Kent

Editor-in-Chief

Xaverian.

“Has art gotten too weird?” (republished from CUP March 19) was initially miscredited. The author of the piece was Rachel Revoy of The

The Argosy regrets these and other errors. Errors requiring correction should be emailed to Editor-inChief Richard Kent at argosy@mta. ca.

ONLINE:

EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES ONLINE Follow us on Twitter @The_Argosy and @argosynews for breaking news and MASU updates from news staff.

SHIP’S LOG EVENTS International Centre Exam Preparation Wo r k s h o p Thursday April 3, 7 - 8pm WMSC Room 125 Academic skills workshops for international students.

Award-winning filmmaker Cara Mumford

Fr iday Apr il 4, 6:30 8:30pm Crabtree Auditorium Internationally renowned award-winning filmmaker and activist Cara M u m f o r d p r e s e n t s “A r t a s Activism: Exploring the I n t e r s e c t i o n o f G e n d e r, Race and the Environment through Film.” Cara will explore how film can be a vital and important way to address the complex inters e c t i o n o f g e n d e r, r a c e a n d environment.

Deadline for returning students

Tu e s d a y A p r i l 8 , 8 a m 4:30pm Deadline for returning students to apply to transf e r t o BA , B S c , o r B C om m programs.

A RT S & M U S I C Student Recital

Thursday April 3, 8 10pm Conservatory of Music Student Recital - Aude Urbancic, piano. Admission is free, all are welc om e t o a t t e n d . Fo r m o re information contact the music department at music@mta.ca or call 3642374.

Recital: James Kalyn, David Rogosin

Fr iday Apr il 4, 8 - 10pm Conservatory of Music

Facult y Recital: James Kalyn, clarinet; David Rogosin, piano. S olos de Concours Contest pieces from the Par is Conserv a t o r y. C o m p o s i t i o n s b y Fr anc aix, Gauber t, Mess a g e r, J e a n J e a n , Fr a n c o e u r, Ta i l l e f e r r e , P i e r n e , a n d Rabaud.

D a n c e S h o w - M TA D a n c e S o c i e t y ’s Spring Recital

Fr iday Apr il 4, 7:30pm & Saturday April 5, 1:00pm Convocation Hall Fe a t u r i n g p e r f o r m a n c e s f r o m : Va r s i t y D a n c e , C e l t i c S o c i e t y, L a t i n S o c i e t y, S w i n g S o c i e t y, a n d P e r petual Motion. Tickets are $7 for students and $10 for non-students. Tickets will be on sale in the MASU office from March 31st-April 4th and at the door (same price).

Mt.A Symphonic Band

Saturday April 5, 8 10pm Convocation Hall Mount Allison Symphonic Band, directed by James Kalyn. Convocation Hall, 8 pm. Admission is free, all are welcome to attend.

Fo r m o re i n f o r m a t i on please email music@mta.ca or call 506-364-2374.

Student Recital

Sunday April 6, 3 - 5pm Conservatory of Music Student Recital - Kirsten LeBlanc, soprano with Aude Urbancic, piano.

Admission is free, all are we l c om e t o a t t e n d . Fo r more information contact the music dept. at music@ mta.ca or call 364-2374.

April 3, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Conservatory of Music Student Recital: Hiroko Hanamura, piano. Admission is free, all are welc om e t o a t t e n d . Fo r m o re information please email music@mta.ca or call 3642374.

Mt. A Chamber Orchestra

Tu e s d a y A p r i l 8 , 8 - 1 0 p m Conservatory of Music Mount Allison Chamber Orchestra, directed by D a n i s e Fe r g u s on . Ad m i s sion is free, all are welc om e t o a t t e n d . Fo r m o re information please email music@mta.ca or call 506364-2374.

Student Recital

Monday April 7, 8 - 10pm

The Argosy’s Call for Nominations FUNDERS MEETING Crake-Sawdon Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Journalism Value $1000.00 Applications/nominations must include the following: • A letter of application/nomination indicating contributions and qualities that merit consideration in the area of student journalism (one page maximum) • A list showing involvement in print journalism at Mount A • An unofficial copy of the nominee’s/applicant’s transcript Applicants or nominees must also arrange for two letters of reference to be sent to Dr. Owen Griffiths by the due date. At least one letter must be from a person familiar with the applicant’s/nominee’s work in print journalism at Mount A. Applicants can include other relevant material if they so chose.

All materials must be submitted by April 4, 2014.

Completed applications should be submitted to Owen Griffiths, Department of History, Room 211, Hart Hall. Questions can be directed to: ogriffiths@mta.ca.

Date: April 11, 2014 Time: 5:30 pm Location: The Argosy Office, third floor of the Wallace McCain Student Centre

Agenda: - Editor-in-Chief year-end report - Business Manager year-end report - Motion to allow Argosy Publication, Inc. to raise its levy by $5 in 2014-2015

All funders welcome!

Tim Horton’s Timbits will be provided.

The Argosy is hiring!

To apply, send a cover letter and resume to argosy@mta.ca.

Applicants for editorial, production, and reporting positions should submit relevant samples of work with their applications.

Applicants can apply for up to three positions at a time.

All jobs are paid. Job descriptions and projected honoraria are available from Editor-in-Chief Richard Kent at argosy@mta. ca.

Applications due April 10, 2014 at midnight.

Positions:

Editorial: Managing Editor Senior News Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Arts & Culture Editor Sports Editor Science Editor Online Editor

Production: Production Manager Assistant Production Manager Photo Editor Photographer (2) Illustrator Copy Editor (3) Reporting: News Reporter (2) Politics Reporter

Arts & Culture Reporter (3) Sports Reporter Science Reporter Operations: Business Manager Office Manager Circulations Manager IT Manager Advertising Manager

ONLINE:

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

To the Editor I am writing in regards to campus and storm days. I realize that our education has been greatly disturbed by the strike (at no fault to the students) and I do realize that we have a lot of material to cover. That being said, I am very upset by the university’s irresponsibility in regard to student safety.

I have fallen on two separate occasions because the campus has not been well ploughed or salted, and yet we were still expected to be in class. The main sidewalks used to get to campus are never ploughed before our 8:30 am classes and to be honest, the campus isn’t usually either. In all seriousness, I have seen the Wendy’s drive-thru ploughed better than the path in between AVDX and Barclay. I urge you to take this into consideration.

UPEI closes during snowstorms because they realize that a large majority of their students drive from across the island and highway driving is dangerous. I would expect Mount Allison to take into consideration that a majority of their students have to walk to campus, which is just as dangerous if not more dangerous than driving.

I chose Mount Allison University because of its standing and respect.

This last year has shown me nothing in that regard.

- Samantha Bauer

GUNN: BANNING BOOKS NEEDS A GOOD REASON A curriculum should not shun controversy LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Enbridge pipeline HICKS: Read this week’s Bagtown Economics in full

Time to quit flip-flopping Mt. A strike marked by vague talk and confusion John Trafford Up is down, and little seems to make sense as I scurry about, attempting to complete my final assignments.

Throughout the entire process of the faculty strike and the ensuing fallout, I’ve heard no end to vague assertions and ‘abstract’ arguments that contribute little to a constructive discussion of the problems between our professors and our administrators.

Arguments based around questions like ‘how do you assign a dollar value to an education’ or ‘what is the nature of education’ were spouted by either side to justify a whole host of positions. At Mount Allison, we have a problematic lack of arbitrary rules and guidelines to coordinate our affairs.

Wait, a lack of arbitrary rules?

Answering questions such as ‘what is the value an education’ are practically impossible for anyone at Mt. A, or anywhere to answer. Truly

unanswerable questions are great for the classroom but when applied to policy at Mt. A the result is the ridiculous claim by the administration that we essentially did not lose anything of irreplaceable value during the strike.

The shroud surrounding the strike allowed the administration to cry and scream that students are losing their education during the strike, and then comfortably turn around and claim that students were essentially able to educate themselves with “enhanced services.”

So, what exactly is the ‘value of an education?’

My suggestion is an easy one. Simply take what each student pays in tuition (adjusting for full-time, part-time, and international fees) and divide that into the amount of classroom days the semester should have had and simply multiply that number by twelve (the amount of days lost).

This suggestion is arbitrary to the extreme but unlike the vague nonsense it would create a workable system. The administration would be forced to offer at least some sort of reimbursement because it could no longer use vague language to justify polar opposite policies. More arbitrariness would allow all of us, professor, student, and administrator to discuss the labour

problem at Mt. A on the same terms with each other. In the current rhetoric landscape Allisonians can hardly even discuss the strike with each other because the terms of the discussion remain vague and very much open to interpretation.

And besides, just because a a guideline or rule of conduct is an arbitrary one does not mean that it is valueless. A degree at Mt. A consists of 120 credits. Really, who decided that? Honestly, it does not matter who decided it or what kind of logic they used to reach their conclusion.

The traditional practice at Mt. A of granting a degree after 120 credits have been earned may be an arbitrary rule but it allows all to participate in the education process at Mt. A on an equal footing and understand the terms of a discussion around the granting of degrees.

We can argue ourselves into circles over assigning a value to education all day long. Or we can apply subjective arbitrary conditions that may not be perfect but at least allow us to all discuss the issue on the same terms.

I prefer this to faculty shouting passionately about oranges while the administration makes the case for apples.

A rebuttal to Mt. A’s no rebate decision

Jeff Hicks

The Mount Allison administration justified their no-rebate decision using three broad arguments. Below is a rebuttal to each of them.

1. “While the disruption in classes has been challenging for students and our entire community, the end goals have not changed.

“The University’s responsibility is to provide the high quality education and experience necessary to prepare students for the next step in their lives, whether that is employment or further education. This responsibility will be met.

“In addition, tuition fees are not set according to the number of hours in the classroom, but for the course delivered. A refund would only be applicable if a course or a term was cancelled.”

They claim that tuition fees are not set according to the number of hours in the classroom. This is nothing short of a lie. Tuition is very deliberately chosen so as to cover the costs of offering the university experience—of which the main component is courses!

The university saved money through forgone salary payments to faculty, precisely because the number of hours was reduced, and thus salaries were not paid. Alternatively, a 100 hour course will most certainly cost more than a fifty hour course, all else equal. Course length affects costs. Costs affect tuition—which the

They also claim that some of the strike savings have gone towards enhanced services to ensure a successful term for students. First, they are dubiously vague about what these are, and often inflate their significance—I will elaborate more on this in the next section. Second, I hazard to guess that these additional services are utilized by only a fraction of the university population.

Third, I highly doubt the cost of such services is even remotely close the amount of unpaid salaries during the strike.

Fourth, they say the University budget exists to serve the students.

This is vague and misleading. The university is a non-profit organization.

The purposes of the budget is to ensure that its revenues at least match its costs, in the long run. Let’s be accurate, and not use misleading oneliners to defend a decision.

3. Offering a tuition rebate to students now would mean decreased services in the future.

“The University wants to ensure the success of our current students. That is why there have been enhancements made in the areas of academic, wellness, and financial support.

“However, Mount Allison will not make a policy or financial decision that adversely affects the University’s future. Given budget realities, any rebate would eventually have to be financed by diminished student services or increased fees in the future.”

What are these enhancements?

The vast majority of academic services, such as those provided through the Meighen center, were already in place before the strike.

In the financial area, they have outright lied. The Financial Need bursary has always been available.

A RGOSY

THE

w w w. a r g o s y. c a

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday April 3, 2014 volume 143 issue 20 Since 1872 Circulation 1,700

62 York Street W. McCain Student Centre Mount Allison University Sackville, New Brunswick E4L 1E2

506 364 2236

Email argosy@mta.ca

THE ARGOSY is published by Argosy Publications, Inc., a student run, autonomous, apolitical not-for-profit organization operated in accordance with the province of New Brunswick.

THE ARGOSY is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national co-operative of student newspapers.

ISSN 0837-1024

The Underbridge Press is a student-run publishing organization at Mount Allison University.

editorialstaff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Richard Kent

NEWS EDITOR

Christopher Balcom­­­

FEATURES EDITOR

Tyler Stuart

SCIENCE EDITOR

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

­­­

Allison O’Reilly

Norman Nehmetallah

SPORTS EDITOR

OPINIONS EDITOR

Alex Bates ­­­

­­­

Ian Malcolm

­­­

John Trafford

ARTS & LITERATURE EDITOR

Julia McMillan

productionstaff

HUMOUR EDITOR

­­­

ONLINE EDITOR

Madison Downe

PRODUCTION MANAGER

PHOTO MANAGER

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

PHOTO EDITOR

COPY EDITORS

ILLUSTRATOR

Julie Whitenect Emily James

Nick Sleptov

Chris Donovan

Susan Parker, Kimberly Sayson, Lisa Theriault Rachael Hanakowski

writingstaff

Bagtown Economics administration loves to point out when defending their budget.

This is basic cost-accounting. While it is hard to fully account for where all tuition money goes, it is undeniable that courses (and everything associated with them) are the primary component of budgetary expenditure.

2. “While the University has determined a tuition rebate is not an appropriate response to the MASU proposal, a number of financial points are worth considering.

“The Mount Allison Students’ Union has stated the University saved $856,948 in unpaid salaries over the course of the strike.

“The final costs of the strike to the University are not yet known.

A number of financial issues will be settled during the binding arbitration process that both parties agreed to.

These are costs the University has to anticipate and plan for.

“The University also incurred extra costs in providing enhanced services to ensure a successful term for students. Services will continue to be enhanced for the remainder of the term in response to student need and demands.”

The University budget exists to serve students. If there is any money remaining in the budget, it will be used to benefit the education and experience of all students.”

We are paying customers who entered an agreement to receive a service. The customer is not responsible for the costs associated with labour action—the service provider is. Their logic here is parallel to transferring money from students’ budgets to university administration’s budget, by forcing students to shoulder the cost associated with the strike—by denying a rebate.

OPINIONS

NEWS WRITER

Miriam Namakanda POLITICAL BEAT WRITER

No other new financial support has been provided. More ironically, if they wanted to provide financial support, they would give us our tuition refund.

They conclude by saying that, given budget realities, any rebate would eventually have to be financed by diminished student services or increased fees in the future. This is a variant of the previous argument, where they insist that current students should have to burden the cost of the strike. Nowhere did I, or other students, agree to that. Nor do I consent to subsidizing future cost increases.

The most frustrating aspect is that students are not in a position to effectively oppose the situation.

The university knows this. University education is not like shopping for jeans. If I am upset with my jeans store, I can shop elsewhere. If I am upset with my university, I have no option available, except to make as much noise as possible—and I am not a very good noise-maker.

Students will be organizing weekly protests for the remainder of the semester. Other student leaders are speaking with news organizations.

And finally, pressure is being placed on the Board of Regents, who is yet to confirm the decision. Any student who is similarly frustrated should consider sending a letter to the Board of Regents, and if you are so inclined, attend a protest. I hate protesting, but I think it is one of the few options we have for having our voice heard.

In reality, the issue is not how much the university saved during the strike. Rather, the rebate is about the value of services that students did not receive (yet paid for). It is just easier to measure the latter using the former.

Kevin Levangie

FEATURES WRITER

Taylor Losier

ARTS WRITER

Daniel Marcotte

operationsstaff

ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

Cameron McIntyre SPORTS WRITER

Benjamin Foster

SCI/TECH WRITER

Martin Omes

BUSINESS MANAGER

IT MANAGER

OFFICE MANAGER

CIRCULATIONS

Megan Landry

Charlotte Henderson

contributors

James Isnor Sam Shury

Sue Seaborn, Janet Robinson, Sam Moore, Joanna Perkin, Anna Farrell, Pat Allaby, Allison Abernethy, Paul Del Motte, Emma Jackson, Keegen Smith, Jeff Hicks, Mitchell Gunn, Kory d”Entremont, Angad Singh Dhillon, Aneke Mendarozqueta, Allison Scott, JeanSébastien Comeau

publicationboard

Marilyn Walker (Chair), Dave Thomas, Dan Legere, Filip Jaworski

disclaimers and copyright The Argosy is the official independent student journal of news, opinion, and the arts, written, edited and funded by the students of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of The Argosy’s staff or its Board of Directors. The Argosy is published weekly throughout the academic year by Argosy Publications Inc. Student contributions in the form of letters, articles, photography, graphic design and comics are welcome.

The Argosy reserves the right to edit or refuse all materials deemed sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise unfit for print, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles or other contributions can be sent to argosy@mta.ca or directly to a section editor. The Argosy will print unsolicited materials at its own discretion. Letters to the editor must be signed, though names may be withheld at the sender’s request and at The Argosy’s discretion. Anonymous letters will not be printed.

Comments , concerns, or complaints about The Argosy’s content or operations should be first sent to the Editor-in-Chief at the address above. If the Editor-inChief is unable to resolve a complaint, it may be taken to the Argosy Publications, Inc. Board of Directors. The chairs of the Board of Directors can be reached at the address above.

All materials appearing in The Argosy bear the copyright of Argosy Publications, Inc. Material cannot be reprinted without the consent of the Editor-in-Chief.

ONLINE:

MT. A DANCES TO SECOND NATIONAL TITLE Varsity dance squad headed to international tournament FULL LIST OF INTRAMURAL WINNERS 2013-14 Details of champions in all ten intramural sports

SPORTS Solid 2013-14 intramural year ends April 3, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

125 teams register in ten intramural sports in 2013-14 Mt. A Athletics Department Press Release

2013-2014 intramural action came to conclusion with the completion of dodge ball and coed volleyball in March. The Harper Ball Dodgers became the 2014 champs in dodge ball, while the Blue balls successfully defended their title in the defeat of the Gold Diggers in coed volleyball.

For the past few years the program has had amazing total numbers of registered teams and this year, despite a loss of time due to strike action and lost class time, the number of team entries continued to be strong, with 125 teams registered over ten sports.

The most affected sports during the lost class time were hockey and basketball, but a shortened play-off schedule enabled the championships to take place. Numbers were also down in dodgeball and coed volleyball, but both sports enjoyed spirited play.

Special thanks to all of the intramural representatives, captains, officials and head referees and conveners who helped make everything work.

Despite a three week faculty strike, intramurals still took place second semester. Channel 4 News (left) took the Gold League Intramural Hockey championship after beating Dirty Mike & The Boys 8-3. The Ball Handlers (top-right) beat Sloppy Soccer 30-18 to take the Women’s Gold Basketball title. Harper Ball Dodgers (top-left) outlasted Rennie and the Jets 3-1 for the Co-ed Dodgeball title. Each year hundreds of students compete in ten different sports vying for various championships in every sport from golf to volleyball and curling. Intramurals are open to all Mt. A students and require no previous experience to play.

(Janet Robinson/Mt. A)

Better Know a Mountie Georgia Sibold Benjamin Foster Sports Writer

Georgia Sibold is one of the three players on this year’s women’s volleyball team who were part of the last Mount Allison Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) championship. Along with Erica Cronkhite and Caitlin Macdonald, Sibold will graduate after this semester with many great memories from her time at Mt. A. “I just love Mt. A, everyone is so close!” said Sibold. It has

“It has been amazing spending four years on and off the court with Erika and Caitlin” been amazing spending my four years on and off the court with Erica and Caitlin. I will be sad to leave here when we finally graduate.”

The fourth-year power

hitter started playing volleyball in middle school and moved on to playing club volleyball in grade ten. In grade twelve, she played on an elite team in her hometown in Calgary, Alberta.

“It was an incredible experience and we made it all the way. I won provincials with the elite team. We also won the high school championships that year so I ended my junior days on a high note,” Sibold said.

As a child, Sibold also played basketball, swam and played badminton, but volleyball was always her favourite sport. “I loved the road trips to tournaments and traveling with my parents.

There really was never a negative experience playing volleyball growing up.”

She decided to come to Mt. A because she wanted to be close to her family in Moncton and also to keep playing volleyball. In her first season she missed the ACAA championships in which Mt. A surprised the rest of the conference to take the title. “It was an amazing season. I got to go to Nationals and we all learned so much.”

Sibold has achieved 100 kills the last three seasons, with a high of 119 in 2012-13. (Sue Seaborn/Mt. A) You can call Sibold ‘Ms. Consistent’ as she has been extremely consistent and valuable to her team after the championship season. Each of the past three years, she has had over 100 kills and played over fifty sets in two of those years. Her most impressive year statistically was in 2012-

2013 when in just thirty-six sets and 102 kills. This past season she had her career high in digs with 119.

She was named most valuable player of this year’s Mt. A volleyball squad for her strong play. “This year was really good. I think that throughout the year we

progressed so much and I love what Paul [Settle] has done with the program. [It] was probably my favourite year yet.”

“One of my favourite memories playing volleyball at Mt. A is the game against Dalhousie AC this year. We were down most of the game

and it looked over down 13-9 in the fifth set. The team this year just never gave up and we ended up picking up the victory,” Sibold said.

Besides playing volleyball and completing her political science degree, she is involved in many things around campus. In her second year, she was on the house executive for Thornton as a social chair.

She took the skills she learned from that and has used them the past two years as the social chair of the Political Science Society. On top of that, she is the Academic Affairs Coordinator for the Mt. A Students Union, part of the ASCARS committee, and hosts a radio show for CHMA. Next year she is planning on attending a graduate school in the United Kingdom for her master’s program. “I have conditional offers to three different schools. I either want to study Public Relations or Information Media.”

Sibold’s talent on the court, and her contributions to the Mt. A community will certainly be missed in 20142015.

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

SPORTS

Botel, van Diepen take top honours

7

Mt. A celebrates a great year at athletic banquet Alex Bates

Sports Editor “Now we don’t show up hoping to win, we show up expecting to win,” Athletic Director Pierre Arsenault told the crowd as he closed the banquet part of the annual “Night of the Mounties.” And he’s right: this is from a university athletics department that went from the laughing stock of the Atlantic provinces, to hosting the Uteck Bowl in just two years. In 2011, the football team lost all of their eight games, including three losses to Saint Mary’s University (SMU) being outscored a combined 173-41; in 2013, Mount Allison beat SMU three times, twice in Halifax, and outscored the Huskies 76-56. Not bad for a team who’s home stadium is crafted from camp chairs behind the benches on game day.

A plethora of awards were handed out during the banquet. Both Arsenault and President Robert Campbell made fun of men’s soccer midfielder Sam Bliss, a Sackville resident who has played for the Mounties for as long as anyone can remember, or as Arsenault puts it, “Sam started playing for Mt. A when I was eleven.”

Jordan Botel (left) and Emily van Diepen (right), accepted Male and Female Athletes of the year awards respectively. (Janet Robinson/Mt. A) Awarded to any athlete who is graduating and has played with a varsity team for at least three years, longevity awards were given to thirtytwo different student-athletes for their commitment to university athletics.

The Alexander “Bubsy” Grant award is given to a “deserving individual who has, through time and effort, made a significant contribution to Mt. A athletics.” Grant, an employee of the athletics department for thirtysix years, was on hand to award the plaque personally to Sue Seaborn.

Seaborn, a member of the Volleyball

New Brunswick Hall of Fame, and the former Sports Information Director in the athletics department, retired earlier this year after thirty-two years of work with the university. It was an emotional moment as Seaborn raced up to hug members of the presentation committee as she accepted her award.

Finally, anticipation gathered as the hosts of the event, volleyball Mountie Caitlin MacDonald, and offensive lineman Jon Graves notified the crowd that the Athlete of the Year Award was to be presented.

The three finalists for the Female

Athlete of the Year award were Marya Peters, Emily van Diepen, and Gillian Tetlow. Peters represented Mt. A at Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) nationals in swimming, van Diepen and Tetlow were both two-sport athletes in 2013-14, soccer and hockey, and soccer and badminton respectively.

A large cheer from the women’s hockey and soccer section broke out as Emily van Diepen was selected.

The final award of the night was Male Athlete of the Year. Greg McGuire, Joe Blackwood and Jordan Botel were all nominees for the award.

McGuire, a two-sport athlete in soccer and badminton, Blackwood, an Atlantic University Sport (AUS) gold-medalist in swimming, and Botel, the AUS leader in rushing yards and a second-team CIS All-Canadian.

Botel, a name now known well around the Tantramar area, was chosen as the recipient.

With the awards distributed, Arsenault made one final speech before closing the ceremonies. It was evident how excited he was about the current state of the program, and deservedly so.

JOIN A BILLION

DOLLAR INDUSTRY. Build on your BSc or BEng and train for a career in the oceans sector with our Oceans Technology program. With over 200 companies in Nova Scotia’s oceans technology sector in need of qualified employees right now, this is your chance to join the blue economy. Get the skills you need for an in demand, exciting career in just one year.

Apply today. Spaces still available for September.

nscc.ca/oceanstech

8

MASU OVERVIEW

April 3, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Executive restructure turned down by MASU council Tension and frustration leads to proposal failure

Tyler Stuart

Features Editor By the time the secret vote was cast, executive members of the students’ union had lost their fervour, succumbing to the reality that their legacy proposal would not pass.

Council meetings in the weeks before the Dec. 5 vote were fraught with heated debates, frustrated gestures, and a procedure that led to the resignation of social science senator Hillary Thomson.

“I don’t think that there is ever a time to treat people the way people were treated in that room,” Thomson said.

The executive restructure proposed

by MASU’s executive would introduce changes in an attempt to streamline the union’s management.

The proposal would have cut the number of vice-presidents from six to four, dissolving the positions of external affairs, communications, and finance and operations. It would have introduced the position of vice-resident executive to oversee policy creation, among other responsibilities. The president and vice-president, executive would run on a slate. As well, the Shinerama

chair and entertainment director positions would be combined.

Executive members said that while the meetings were heated, they were not disrespectful.

“I think that there were a lot of people who were fighting for what they believed in, and as a result, things were tense,” MASU president Melissa O’Rourke said. “Do I believe the meetings were hostile?

No. I believe they were passionate.”

These proposals were challenged by council members looking to run for the threatened positions.

“It’s an awkward governance situation that every students’ association deals with, and I think that the restructure illuminated it,” said Ryan Harley, MASU’s vicepresident of academic affairs.

While council directed some of its criticism to the document itself, much of its reticence came from the process behind the restructure.

Students and council members questioned the extent of consultation behind the proposal.

While some councillors were surprised by the proposal in November, the executive had formed the proposal after researching other Maritime students’ union structures during the summer.

“This notion that six people sat down and came up with a new structure is a complete fallacy, and it’s [frustrating] this got so lost in translation,” Harley said.

Harley said that students’ focus should not be on the proposed executive restructure, but about

Three of the six executive members will hold positions in next year’s MASU executive team. (Kory d’Entremont/Argosy) the need for a change. Executive members said that because the current structure is organized by theme, it fails to capitalize on the skills, abilities, and talents of its members.

“The way the executive is structured right now is completely, in my mind, archaic to what our organization is actually in the business of doing,” Harley said.

O’Rourke campaigned on the promise of an executive restructure.

She and other executive members

said the failure was a disappointment.

Next year’s executive will try to pass a similar document in the fall. Harley, who will serve as vicepresident of communications next year, said that his goal is to increase transparency in the exec’s operations in the hope of creating trust with constituents and council members.

“Despite how the restructure was perceived, Melissa has been a very, very transparent President,” Harley wrote in an email. “For the first time, the President set public goals for the

organization, Council contributed to and approved those goals, and proposing a new staff structure was one of them.”

South side councillor Liam St. Louis said that the consultation process will be similar, but more visible.

“I think what we are going to see is a much bigger and much more visible consultation campaign, and in the end we’ll probably have a document that looks exactly the same as the current one does,” St. Louis said.

MASU’s neutral stance receives criticism, praise How the students’ union handled the faculty strike Jean-Sébastian Comeau During the faculty strike that put a stop to regular classes for three weeks, MASU found itself in a rather precarious position: representing the interests of a student body with diverse opinions regarding the conflict between MAFA and the administration.

Throughout the strike, MASU held a neutral position. Ryan Harley, MASU vice-president, academic affairs, said that this push-back from students was unfortunate.

“The conversation around neutrality was so misinterpreted,” Harley said. “Our neutrality extended only to the fact that we weren’t willing to endorse one negotiating party over another.”

A week into the strike, MASU released a statement that its neutral stance was “pro-solution,” which meant that they wanted a return to class as soon as possible. This stance resulted in a significant backlash against the association.

Alex Thomas, a founding member of the Student Strike Headquarters, said the neutral position of the MASU was unacceptable. Citing tuition as a central issue, he expressed his resentment toward the

MASU for not taking an early stance on the matter.

“I really wish they had taken a stance on tuition,” Thomas said.

“When the strike was on the horizon, they could’ve said ‘hold onto your tuition’ and that would’ve given us a lot more leverage when it came to a tuition rebate.”

While many students were not satisfied with MASU’s neutral stance, a number of students seemed to empathize with MASU, pointing to the difficulty of its position in the situation.

“I have to commend them for remaining as natural as possible,” said Martha Kerr, a third-year sociology student. “MASU made it clear that they were in favour of going back to classes as quickly as possible.”

Mélanie Leblanc, a third-year French student, said that MASU seemed too careful in choosing their stance.

“I think they really tried to follow what seemed to be right in the situation. However, I don’t think they did a bad job at representing us.”

While students criticized the union for remaining neutral, MASU claimed its stance was always in the best interest of its students.

“I’m confident that myself and my colleagues did exactly what we thought was best at the time. At the end of the day, all I could do was what I thought was best,” said Harley.

Heather Webster, vice-president, campus life (left) will serve as MASU president next year. (Chris Donovan/Argosy)

Once it took a pro-solution stance, MASU organized various student demonstrations on campus. (Chris Donovan/Argosy)

The Argosy

MASU OVERVIEW

www.argosy.ca

9

Angad Singh Dhillon I have not seen a MASU executive member present at any of the tuition rebate protests. There needs to be major introspection within the executive, and it need to come to the realization that it represents the current student body. Their only mandate is the welfare of current students. Not showing up to a protest and then publicly making snide remarks about the demonstration is unbecoming of student leaders. It results in a lack of faith in the executive members, and a belief that they are careerist politicians who do not want to get on the bad side of the university administration.

Aneke Mendarozqueta I’ve been pretty disappointed in the MASU’s actions during and after the strike as I feel their support of students was too little, too late.

It largely took advantage of Alex Thomas’s leadership, rather than starting initiatives of their own. That being said, I know the strike was stressful for a lot of us, and I can sympathize with MASU members if they were overwhelmed with school and union responsibilities.

Allison Scott

As we all know, this year has not been easy for anyone––especially the students’ union. MASU has been put under a large amount of stress, especially during the strike, and they have shown their ability to handle pressure and come out strong. Through the countless services they offer us and events they provide for us, the MASU works hard every day to make this school a better place for students.

They deserve nothing less than our support and respect. I strongly believe that the council have handled themselves extremely well this year and I am proud to have them representing the students of Mount Allison University.

Objectives President

Focus on internal governance and encourage participation; Weigh in on labour disputes.

Results

Other

Executive Restructure document passed, despite criticism; Remained neutral throughout most of strike, before settling on a “ProStudent” position

Attended CASA Advocacy Week to lobby for funding to create a mental health campaign; Improved MASU archiving; Faced accusations of bullying within council.

Raise awareness of housing options and renters’ rights; Address transportation needs; Fund a workable lobbying alternative to the New Brunswick Student Alliance.

Organized Mt. A’s first Landlord Fair; Fine-tuned Bike Co-Op; Mountie Money now accepted at the Pond.

Researching possibility of an oncampus Maritime Bus stop; Look into finalizing an airport shuttle service.

VP Campus Life

Improve mental health services; Continue the Security Project; Integrate various residences with MASU; Install condom dispensers at the Pond.

Safety and Security Report was released last semester with continued lobbying for its implementation; Condom dispensers were put in women’s washrooms at the Pond; Worked with Residence Execs & implemented 2nd AcMen in res.

Put together a report examining RA compensation; Winter Carnival referendum went to the students (again), and passed due to loophole in voting procedure; Continued lobbying for improved mental health services with other executive members.

VP Communications

Produce an orientation report to recommend potential changes; Work on MASU website; Increase MASU visibility.

Orientation issues addressed in Executive Restructure documents; MASU website in operation; Regular MASU reports emailed to students.

VP Academic Affairs

Address potential for reading week courses and fall reading week; Draft a Charter of Students’ Rights ; Look at grad school prep.

A draft of “Responsibilities of Academic Staff with Regards to Students” was due to be submitted to Provost; Several mock LSAT, MCAT, etc. tests over the year.

VP Finance & Operations

Review the student use of the health and dental plan, and look to improve on it.

Approved subsidization for Uteck Bowl tickets; Worked to streamline reimbursement process.

VP External Affairs

Restrictions implemented to what SAC members could and could not say via social media.

Passed policies that were in favour of creating a fall reading week and sought to increase the importance of Student Evaluations of Teaching; Opened MASU Online Bookstore.

Reviewing MASU budgeting processes and printing services; Conduct a structural review of union committees.

Compiled by Taylor Losier

Why I want a break from MASU

How MASU helped Mt. A students

MASU needs to rethink its methods

My year as MASU president

Dylan Wooley-Berry

Sitting on council over this past year has been very emotional for me, and has left me with many conflicting feelings about our union and the council that governs it.

One thing I dislike very much about council is the sheep-like mentality of my fellow councillors. I don’t know whether it is better described as indifference or aloofness. Many councillors seem to mindlessly vote ‘yes’ to whatever the executive proposes without any sort of critical analysis of the proposal. This is a huge

problem because in my mind one of the most important functions of council is to act as a check to the executive.

Frankly, council is not capable of holding the executive responsible for its actions.

The executive’s habit of attempting to steamroll over any and all obstacles, be it either dissent or concerns brought forward or by council, or our members, made many members and councillors uncomfortable.

The executive was inflexible and unwilling to change the direction that they had laid out for the MASU over the course of the year. Frequently, when councillors opposed a decision the executive made, executive members raised their voices, rolled their eyes, or committed some other act, voluntary or involuntary. This has the effect of intimidating

or shaming councillors into submission, although, to be fair, not every councillor is quieted by this action.

Lastly, there is a culture of ideas and policy being generated almost entirely by the executive. A group of predominately right-wing individuals from privilege who have made our union—an association with the objective to protect and further the rights and interests of the Mt. A students—a corporation.

A not-for-profit organization that turns a profit annually and whose executive members for the past two years have decided to increase their compensation while students struggle financially.

Next year, I have decided to hold the position of president of Harper Hall instead of trying to get re-elected to council.

Melissa O’Rourke Over the past year, I have had the pleasure and challenge of serving as the President of MASU. While there have certainly been obstacles, I come into the final month of my presidency feeling nothing but pride over our accomplishments.

Since coming into office, we have created an online used bookstore, implemented a graduate school preparation program, mandated the executive to work during the summer months, created a goals-based executive accountability system, began

the bike co-op, created a landlord fair, provided training to residence staff, initiated the beginnings of a human resource policy, created a union communications strategy, compiled a report on RA compensation, and executed aspects of an external organizational review.

For me personally, I ran on a platform promising internal review, new policies, and improved services. I believe the MASU’s actions this year reflect genuine improvements in those areas and deliver on those promises.

While I would not dispute that there have been naysayers in the choices we have made (the strike certainly provoked debate amongst members) I know all decisions have remained true to the vision of being the “most valuable

and meaningful resource for all Mount Allison students in enhancing their quality of life.” Ensuring the very best for Mt. A students has always been, and will always be, the guiding principle of the MASU. As I leave office, I think it is important to thank everyone who helped make the year a success. My sincerest thanks go to council, all our student staffers and office staffers, and the executive team (who have been more than supportive in everything I have done this year). As Bob Dylan once said, “take care of all your memories … for you cannot relive them.” I will always be thankful for the memories Mt. A students allowed me to have as president. The experience has been life changing and my gratitude is endless.

ARTS&LITERATURE

ONLINE:

FLOWER POWER: POSY LEGGE’S START SHOW New exhibition explores flower symbolism MILK BAR PREMIERES AT MT. A New contemporary Opera a success

Fresh soup for spring

Try Abernethy’s take on a classic chicken soup. (Jules/Wikimedia Creative Commons)

Allison Abernethy Spring may not have sprung quite yet, but this delicious and hearty soup will keep you warm during the remaining weeks of cold weather.

Chicken Soup This recipe is a new take on an old classic—it isn’t your grandmother’s chicken soup. Traditional ingredients bind together with kale and sweet potatoes, two of the healthy superfoods everyone has been talking about.

Ingredients: 1 cup frozen peas 6 cups on chicken stock (store-bought or homemade) 2 cups of cooked chopped chicken breast (dark meat also works if you prefer) 1 1/2 cups of carrots cut into bite-size pieces 1 cup of parsnips cut into bite-size pieces Small handful of parsley : 10.25 (W) X 8 1MT. cloveALLISON of minced garlic

4 cups of kale washed, chopped, and stems removed 1 large onion or 2 small diced and chopped 2 tsp olive oil 1 cup of sweet potato Salt and pepper 1) In a large pot, add olive oil and onions. Sauté for about 5 minutes until onions become translucent, then add dried basil and garlic. Sauté for another 30 seconds.

2) Add carrots, parsnips, and sweet potato. Stir together and add chicken stock. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer (about medium low heat) for anywhere between 1 to 3 hours.

Adjust seasoning to your preference and add parsley right before serving.

3) Once you have simmered the soup, add parsley, frozen peas, and fully cooked chicken. Simmer for another 20-30 minutes and serve hot with (D/H) your favourite crackers.

April 3, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

A feminist revisioning of William Shakespeare’s life Production offers insight into Anne Hathaway’s life Daniel Marcotte

Arts & Literature Writer

Unless you skipped the majority of your high school English classes, most of us know at least something about William Shakespeare and the bounty of plays he produced during the English Renaissance. Perhaps less known is his wife, Anne Hathaway, an individual whose life and experiences are explored and fictionalized in Vern Thiessen’s play Shakespeare’s Will. Last week, The Performers’ Company, under the direction of Steven Puddles, presented this speculative one-actressplay, with Alison Hart starring in the lead role.

The plot of Shakespeare’s Will details the memories and experiences of Anne Hathaway, the famous playwright’s wife and lover. Because historians know very little of this figure, Thiessen’s play is an attempt to creatively elaborate upon this underrepresented individual.

The play takes place after Shakespeare’s death, and details how she met and fell in love with the playwright, as well as the tragedies that befell the family as William became more and more distant from his wife and children.

The play ends with Anne recounting the horrible deaths of her mother and her son, and discovering that her husband left her nothing but “his second-best bed with the furniture” in his will. As Hart uttered her final despairing lines, a teary-eyed crowd leapt to their feet and erupted in applause to praise the actress’s incredible representation of this fascinating and dynamic figure.

By portraying this character, Hart transformed a mythic and mostly anonymous historical figure into a relatable, lovable human being. With the line “now it is time for my words,” Hart also encouraged a feminist revision of history by bringing to light the lives, experiences, and sexual identities of married women that are often left out of the history textbooks altogether. While Anne Hathaway may have differed greatly from the individual created by Thiessen and interpreted by Puddle and Hart, the very act of reconstructing this forgotten woman within an artistic

and theatrical medium is crucial to our understanding of women in history.

Hart’s outstanding performance can be attributed to her experience as an actress, as well as her personal passion for this character and the play itself.

In addition to working as a secretary in Mount Allison’s department of religious studies, Alison Hart has a long history of theatre performance.

Originally from Wales, Hart has been involved with numerous theatre groups in the United Kingdom, and studied the dramatic arts at the Rose Bruford School of Drama and the University of Manchester, where she earned her master’s degree in theatre and performance studies.

Puddle founded The Performers’ Company in 2007. The company is intended to appreciate and promote the dramatic arts within the Sackville community, and to provide creative opportunities for local actors, actresses, and production assistants. Regarding their most recent production, Puddle writes: “When I was first presented with the script of Vern Thiessen’s play Shakespeare’s Will, I suspected I had in my hands something of significant value.”

BE PART OF THE THINKING

THINKING ABOUT OUTPERFORMING THE COMPETITION? SO ARE WE. OUR WORLD-RENOWNED FACULTY BRING FRESH THINKING TO THE CLASSROOMS OF OUR GRADUATE PROGRAMS WHERE WE ARE PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF BUSINESS LEADERS.

YOU DON’T NEED AN UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS DEGREE OR ANY WORK EXPERIENCE TO STUDY AT ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S LEADING BUSINESS SCHOOLS OUR ONE-YEAR* GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION provides students with non-business backgrounds with graduate-level business skills: • Differentiate yourself from other graduates in your field • Learn about the latest modern business strategies • Expand the range of your career options * (two years, part-time)

ALL OF OUR PROGRAMS ARE OFFERED IN THE LEED SILVER-CERTIFIED JOHN MOLSON BUILDING, DESIGNED WITH THE NEXT-GENERATION BUSINESS LEADER IN MIND.

OUR ONLINE INFORMATION SESSION IS AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND AT JOHNMOLSON.CONCORDIA.CA/GDBA

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

ARTS & LITERATURE

11

Left: Electra consoles a despairing Orestes in Jake Planinc’s adaption of The Libation Bearers. Right: The gracefully satiric Clouds mock both the characters and the audience. (Paul Del Motte/Submitted)

Sackville Dionysia revives Greek theatre Student playwrights revisit classics Daniel Marcotte

Arts & Literature Writer

In the evocative and entertaining conclusion to Windsor Theatre’s winter season, fourth-year drama students Gregory McLaughlin and Jake Planinc teamed up to present Sackville Dionysia, an incredible back-to-back duo of traditional Greek theatre. Despite drawing upon material written thousands of years ago, these aspiring directors transformed two classics into modern masterpieces while still staying true to the essential elements of the Greek tradition.

The production began with the devastating second instalment of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, entitled The Libation Bearers, and lightened the mood in the second half with McLaughlin’s hilarious adaptation of Aristophanes’ intellectual satire, The Clouds.

Whereas McLaughlin’s comedy updated much of the political and sexual humour of the original piece to suit a contemporary audience, Planinc’s treatment of the classic tragedy was carefully calculated to maintain its gutwrenching power while still being accessible to those less familiar with the genre.

The Libation Bearers depicts a young Orestes and his sister Electra who plot revenge against their deceitful mother, Clytemnestra, and her new husband, King Aegisthus, who together murdered the legendary Agamemnon.

Despite believing that avenging his father is justified, Orestes is overcome by the horror of his crime and is eventually consumed by the weight of his violent deed.

Although many different translations exist of Aeschylus’ original text, Planinc chose Ted Hughes’s version as it preserves the play’s authenticity and emotional breadth.

“I think there’s something to be said for this play having lasted in its traditional form for thousands of years,” said Planinc. “I really like honouring the playwright’s intentions as much as possible.”

Growing up in Toronto with a father who teaches classics at McMaster University, Planinc admits that he was exposed to Greek theatre early in his life, and that it left an impact on him.

“I love Greek plays, especially the tragedy,” he explained, noting the emotional power that this genre is capable of producing.

“It’s a big goal of mine as a director to make people feel those same feelings that I had growing up.”

Planinc was particularly affected by the Oresteia due to its depth and difficulty.

For brevity’s sake, Planinc cut several parts from this second instalment, but aspires to one day direct and produce the epic trilogy in its entirety.

“I love this story,” he said.

“It’s often cited as a huge challenge for the director.

I took that personally and wanted to see how well I could pull this off.”

McLaughlin and Planinc worked together to reproduce the style and effect of the ancient Greek theatre. To do so, they created a semicircular

seating arrangement that faced both the stage and beyond into the seats of Convocation Hall, invoking the broad, open stages from ancient times.

“We wanted that huge depth behind the stage. That was really important to us,” said Planinc, also noting that this arrangement allowed for Aegisthus’ death cry to echo out from behind the stage.

“You hear it, but it also falls back into the emptiness of the hall.”

Planinc’s interpretation also stayed true to the Greek tradition by having both characters’ deaths occur offstage. “I think the Greeks had it right,” said Planinc, believing that this method preserves the emotional significance of the event. “If you leave the most intense, climactic moment of the show to the imagination, everybody interprets it in their own way. I think that it’s much

more powerful.”

While his production stayed true to many aspects of the original tragedy, Planinc tried to emphasize the more complex elements of Orestes’ character. “I didn’t want it to be a straight revenge story where the protagonist reigns supreme at the end,” he said, instead highlighting the tragic and morally ambiguous aspects of the character as he descends into madness. “It’s not a straightforward story; I didn’t want the audience to fully take Orestes’ side, I wanted the characters to be richer and deeper than that.”

Planinc looks forward to working with McLaughlin again this summer on a production that will appear in September at the Atlantic Fringe Festival in Halifax.

After that, he plans to remain involved with the dramatic arts both in Halifax and at Mt. A.

Art show celebrates the end of a well-worn studio One last hurrah for Claytor and Down’s Lorne Street studio Lisa Theriault Illustrator

Wind howled at over 100 km/h last Wednesday evening, but still a crowd filled the studio on 25 Lorne Street.

“I asked Jon if he wanted to cancel, he replied ‘no retreat, no surrender.’

I was surprised that so many people showed up despite the storm,” Chris Down said.

He and Jon Claytor had been using the space as a studio, but now they have bade their goodbyes with a celebratory art showing. The event also featured performances by Lucas Hicks, Jon Mckiel, and had a unique surprise led by Amy Siegel and Kevin Brasier.

Once a hardware store, the building became a multiuse space when it was rented out by Jon Claytor and Kallie Garcia in 2010. Claytor used it as an on-and-off studio while it took turns as the Little Armadillo Print Shop, the site of various camps, workshops,

and events, and artist studios. Down started renting the space in 2011 and has been working there ever since.

Claytor decided to let go of the space when it became too much to maintain.

“I was just ready for a change and with two small children at home during the day I realized I could get more work done working at home.”

It was the move that sparked Claytor’s idea for a show.

“When I decided to move out of the space, I realized it would be the perfect place for a show. And it would motivate me to clean up and pack up,” he said. He noted that he also wanted to have a last hurrah with studio partner Down. “We had been sharing the space for some time and it made sense to do something together.”

Bundled up, some even sporting skis or snowshoes, a respectable audience made it out to the event.

Claytor showed large oil paintings, half of which are recent works for an upcoming exhibition in Halifax.

Dramatically lit from below, the works featured portraits of animals and humans.

“They are all about confusing the line between beauty and ugliness, grace and ineptitude, dark and light, abstraction and representation. The combination of things done well and things done badly,” Claytor said.

Chris Down’s paintings were on display as he and Jon Claytor bade farewell to their Lorne Street studio. (Richard Kent/Argosy) At the back of the building, Down showed a series of oil paintings from a body of work called dust before the autumn. The paintings were based off of photographs taken around Sackville.

“I’m trying to get images of very ordinary things, in dialogue with the physical material of paint and the various ways it is applied, to work metaphorically, to point at something that I am trying to understand about my experience of the world,” Down said. “Hopefully, the work will be able to evoke similar feelings and questions

for people who see the paintings.”

Down will also show work in an exhibition next spring.

The festivities started with a short acoustic set from Hicks. The set was followed by a story about the silent communication of elephants from Siegel. With an unexpected turn, a painting was removed to reveal a secret room. The audience was directed to hum together and enter the room as Brasier played a haunting organ melody, channelling the unification of the elephants. A hard act to follow,

Mckiel was practically a one-manband on vocals, guitar, and drums with Brasier accompanying on bass. Other surprises that night included a smoke machine and mini half-pipe which was tested out near the end of the evening.

Altogether, the event was definitely worth braving the storm.

Claytor will work from home, and Down from his office/studio in Hart Hall for the time being. Despite his departure, Claytor hopes someone else is able to take over 25 Lorne to use it as artist studios.

ENTERTAINMENT

ONLINE:

VINYL, TAPES, AND GEAR FILL CHMA Radio station hosts its first record and gear swap

April 3, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

The Mouthbreathers bid Sackville a fond farewell Free show series at the Pond ends with a bang Cameron McIntyre

Entertainment Writer

A trio of Stereophonic alumni filled the campus pub last Tuesday. The event marked the last show in series that brought a couple of bands to the Pond once a month. It was also the Mouthbreathers last show in Sackville for the foreseeable future.

The free event, made less free by its two dollar drink deal, was the final performance for the Sackville regulars before their tour of the west coast over the summer and bassist Kevin Brasier’s move to Toronto.

They played alongside Nap Eyes and Monomyth, a pair of Halifax bands.

Nap Eyes started the evening off on the heels of an album release.

Back in town for the first time since their performance of the final night of Stereophonic, the trio showed off a bunch of songs off their new album The Whine of the Mystics, which was released that very day. The album, in it and of itself a great collection of songs, did not really translate

Nigel Chapman of Nap Eyes plays guitar while opening up for the Mouthbreathers and Monomyth at the semester’s final free show at the Pond. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) to a live setting. Like the album, their performance had some great moments where the music was really involving but, also like the album, there were moments of blandness that really stuck out in comparison.

Their rolling indie rock, with builds and simple but pleasing harmonies, came together nicely at times but risked being a little boring at others.

Monomyth, who are Sackville regulars, brought in a baroque and fleshed out garage rock. The

additional effects on each instrument ensured that there was not a moment of silence in the entire mix. Their tempo did vary though; it dipped from a slow rock beat backing to an upbeat punk. Even with that, the band did fall into the occasional bout of sameness. Their sound was so specific it made all their songs fall along the same track. This was not a big problem though because as a whole their sound is unique within the region—it is not often that

Three punk bands occupy a Union Street living room Groups play rambunctious house show

shoegaze is played in Sackville.

The Mouthbreathers’ final set lived up to their usual standard of excellence. The night had a sentimental air to it, made even more so by the song by song dedications that punctuated the majority of their set. There was a bit of moshing that half-heartedly started up throughout the set but it never really sustained itself. Their cheery pop fit in well with the general feel of the night.

They provided a middle ground, at

Sackville Film Society brings The Great Beauty

Italian Oscar winner earns coveted award

Cameron McIntyre Entertainment Writer

Sam Moore

Kappa Chow, Feral Trash, and the Nymphets played a house show on Union Street last Friday night. As the trio of bands managed to draw quite an audience over the course of the evening, the wooden floor of the living room creaked quite worryingly, calling the choice of the living room as a setting into question. It was a surprising choice of venue, given that punk shows are often better suited to basements. However, the room still served its purpose and the floor did not cave in, however close it came.

The Nymphets, a Halifax band with roots in both Montreal and Stockholm, had a lot of energy and a lot of variety in their set for a band of only two. They got the crowd up and moving, making it clear that this was not going to be a sitting down kind of show. They were erratic, loud, and fast throughout their set, with their early punk and Brit-pop influence clearly felt.

However, as their set wore on, their sound wore out.

After decades in the upper tiers of the social elite, rubbing elbows with princesses, prospective popes, celebrities, and all manner of prominent socialites, Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) is prompted to take stock of his life. So begins The Great Beauty, a film that follows Jep, a fictional one-time author and member of Rome’s rich intelligentsia.

We finds Jep at sixty-five, still very much caught up in the luxurious nightlife that attracted him to Rome in the 1970s. A journalist by trade, Jep wrote a novel that was, according to many around him, one of the most important pieces of Italian literature of the preceding fifty years. But he wrote it when he was a young man, and failed to write another. A tragedy forces him to examine his life, which he has come to regard with a sort of lazy disdain. Turning his acerbic and highly critical wit on his own life, as well as the lives of his friends, Jep attempts to bring some sort of meaning back to his life,

Show-goers pack the Union Street living room. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) Feral Trash continued the DIY punk trend with another particularly early sounding set—it seemed to be the factor that really tied the night together, carrying on into Kappa Chow’s mixture of rock ‘n’ roll and punk. Feral Trash’s addition to the overall mix was a haunting twist to each song they played.

There were also songs that brought Ennio Morricone to mind, a distinctively southern sound that not often heard in combination with punk but that was present nonetheless.

During their set, the night was at its most rambunctious and the wooden floor was stressed to an alarming point.

Kappa Chow took their places in the living room last.

Playing in a curious set up

that had the entire band facing one another, they rolled out a slew of crowd favourites. Their setup made the set look like a practice while still sounding like a performance. This new arrangement, combined with the informal setting, made it feel inclusive and added energy to the music.

The only problem: the set didn’t start until late in the night, due to earlier delays. It didn’t affect Kappa Chow’s performance, but it did affect the atmosphere and the audience size, about half having already moved on elsewhere for the night. It was a shame because the Sackville punks delivered yet another tight show that made the terribly rainy walk and seven dollar cover worth it.

least in terms of mood, between the sometimes moody Nap Eyes and the blissful Monomyth, with their overt and active happiness. Their old songs made the set easy to identify with while the ones, from their impending album, made it unpredictable enough to constitute a new experience.

The new Nap Eyes LP, The Whine of the Mystics, is available now on Bandcamp and the new Mouthbreathers EP, Corrupting the Youth, will be available soon.

which, at the beginning of the film, has devolved into a yearslong cycle of going to parties by night and sleeping by day.

Servillo is fantastic as Jep. He’s wryly humorous throughout, though he maintains a thin veneer of melancholy as well. Straddling the line between complete downer and self-deprecating comedian, Servillo maintains a quietly commanding presence in every scene.

The supporting actors are quite good for the most part, with highlights being conversations between Jep and his editor, a woman who completely owns her dwarfism, as well as the culinary-obsessed Cardinal Bellucci (Roberto Helitzka).

Despite these memorable performances, this really is Servillo’s, or Jep’s, show, a fact the actor and character are equally willing to demonstrate at more than a few points in the film (the most memorable instance being when he unsympathetically lists with sharply direct language all of a friend’s personal shortcomings in front of their friends at a party).

The film is beautifully shot.

Director Paolo Sorentino truly picked some of the most distinct parts of Rome in which to shoot. Jep’s lifestyle is reflected in the lavish architecture of the city;

he surrounds himself with beautiful things and people at all times, whether by attending the parties of his pretentious friends or strolling the streets of Rome early in the morning.

Regardless of the setting, he has little patience for anything that doesn’t appeal to his aesthetic ideals.

The Great Beauty is a deeply affecting film. It’s vivid and bright, yet deeply melancholic. The dialogue is elegantly written and, though it’s performed with the same intentionally plodding, almost lazy, delivery, that permeates the entire film, it remains quick and witty. The film seems, in many ways, like a half-hearted love letter to Rome. The city’s great art and architecture are displayed in spades; everything is bathed a warm, golden light, and the colours are incredibly vivid. Despite the great beauty of the city, though, the characters, Jep especially, all seem unfulfilled. Jep’s friend Romano exemplifies this feeling near the end of the film, when he says that “Rome has disappointed [him] greatly.” Jep spends the duration of the film, and it is a lengthy duration, looking for a different great beauty than Rome, one that seems a little less hollow. Whether he finds it or not, his search makes for a great movie.

ONLINE:

BEATING ARTIFICIAL HEART TISSUE ANNOUNCED Engineered tissue a major step towards creating artificial hearts

The Argosy

SCIENCE

www.argosy.ca

Scientists dig deep in search of dark matter Researchers at SNOLAB literally go the extra mile Keegan Smith Imagine starting every day with a two kilometre elevator ride and a hike of the same distance through a mine tunnel, before showering with your coworkers and putting on your lab coat, hairnet, and goggles. This is life for over one hundred researchers at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario, one of the world’s deepest underground physics labs.

The facility, sharing space with a commercial mine, is also one of the few places equipped to study dark matter, a hypothetical substance believed to comprise almost eightyfive per cent of the ‘stuff ’ in, well, everything. Dark matter is essential to our current theories of how gravity works, but there is one small problem: we’ve never detected it. And worse, we’re pretty sure it’s invisible.

It is believed to exist because there are places in the universe where something is exerting gravitational effects. We just can’t see anything there. Thus, the theory goes, dark matter must be able to interact gravitationally, but must not interact

The SNOLAB building in Sudbury, Ontario, which extends 6000 feet underground. (objnews/Flickr Creative Commons) with light. There is consensus among physicists, who are used to waiting decades before tangible evidence for their theories is provided, that it must exist. The question is how to catch it.

So dark matter is one of physics’ great white whales, and SNOLAB is their Pequod. The labs are full of incredibly sensitive experiments designed to detect the unbelievably

tiny effects of dark matter. The problem is that the universe is full of radiation that sets off the machines.

For a visual, imagine sitting in the library, putting on your headphones, and turning a microphone up high enough to hear a dust mite fart. You realize how loud the library actually is when someone orders a coffee from the Flying Bean and your ears

Unique chromosomes found in fern fossil Swedish researchers thrilled with discovery Allison O’Reilly Science Editor

Fossils are key in determining how past life existed. However, it is rare that a fossil is found that is so well-preserved, cell material remains in tact.

Researchers from Lund University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History have made a unique discovery in a well-preserved fern that lived over 180 million years ago.

Thanks to its burial in a sudden volcanic explosion, the fossil contains both undestroyed cell nuclei and individual chromosomes.

The fern was found in Skåne, a region of southern Sweden.

The plant lived approximately 180 million years ago during the Jurassic period, when the area had a tropical climate, and was dominated by dinosaurs.

Due to the nature of the preservation of the fern, the

area is now attracting attention in the research community.

Since its discovery, the plant has been studied using many different microscopic techniques, X-rays, and geochemical analyses.

Examinations have shown that the plant was preserved instantaneously following a sudden volcanic lava flow.

“The preservation happened so quickly that some cells have even been preserved during different stages of cell division,” said Vivi Vajda, a professor of geology at Lund University.

Due to the sudden preservation, the ‘sensitive’ components of the cells remained nearly intact.

Researchers found cell nuclei, cell membranes, and individual chromosomes—all structures that are extremely rare finds in fossils.

“This naturally leads us to think that there must be more to discover. It isn’t hard to imagine what else could be encapsulated in the lava flows [in Skåne],” Vajda said.

A farmer discovered the unique fossil in the 1960s, and then donated it to the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

The fossil remained untouched for over forty years before it

came to the attention of the researchers.

Vajda, along with two researchers from the Swedish Museum of Natural History, has also dated the rocks that were found surrounding the fossil by studying the spores and pollen preserved within them. The research showed evidence of varied vegetation that suggests a hot, humid climate at the time of the volcanic eruption.

Chromosomes carry the genetic information of an organism. By analyzing the fossil stem, measuring the dimensions of the nuclei during interphase (a stage of cell division) in the fossil’s pith, and the parenchyma cells (a type of cell that differentiates into other plant cell types), the researchers found that the chromosomes match those of its living relative, Osmundastrum cinnamomeum.

The plant, otherwise known as the cinnamon fern, is found throughout Canada and the eastern United States. Through this investigation, researchers have been able to show that the royal ferns have outstanding evolutionary stability.

implode. This is kind of like that.

That’s why SNOLAB has to be buried under 6,000 feet of rock—it blocks out the background noise of cosmic radiation. It’s also a ‘clean lab’, which is why you have to shower and put on special clothing laundered inhouse. Any dust (especially mine dust) in the facility could introduce radiation that could disturb the experiments.

One such experiment goes online this year—the DEAP-3600 dark matter detector, a massive acrylic sphere full of liquid argon, which will sit in a stainless steel housing.

As dark matter particles ‘jiggle’ argon atoms, they will produce a signal that can be read by scientists.

Over a period of time, the signals will pile up. If they can be shown to be significantly more frequent than random events, they’ll have the proof they need that dark matter not only exists, it also behaves as predicted.

The problem is that the equipment may not be sensitive enough.

“We could see up to a handful of events per month,” Mark Boulay, a physics professor at Queen’s University, told the Globe and Mail. “Or [we could] not see anything in three years.”

In the wake of the discovery of the Higgs Boson at CERN in 2012 and the recent discovery of gravitational waves from the Big Band at BICEP2 on March 17 of this year, the scientists at SNOLAB are looking forward with anticipation. “I think it’s the coolest question out there to be trying to answer,” said Kim Palladino of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Other experiments are already up and running at SNOLAB, so the race is on. Funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the current structure entered operation in 2011, and is open for tours from interested members of the public.

Facebook acquires virtual reality company in major deal Social media giant invests $2 billion in Oculus Rift Martin Omes Science Writer

Facebook has taken a major gamble this past week, investing $2 billion in Oculus Rift, a company that designs virtual reality headsets. During the Consumer Electronic Show in January, the company showcased a headset that features an all-encompassing virtual reality, which makes the user feel as though they are in a virtual world. With a head-tracking system, the gear is capable of letting you lean over ledges and peer around corners without causing motion sickness.

Oculus has been able to bring together a virtual reality world of a fast-paced spacefighting game, which felt extremely legitimate and could lead into how video gaming might be in the future. This excited Facebook executives, who jumped on the idea right

away.

“This is just the start. After games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences,” wrote Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as he announced the deal. “Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting a doctor face-to-face—just by putting on goggles in your home.”

Palmer Luckey, Oculus virtual reality’s creative, also sees a wider future for the headset since gaining the deal with Facebook.

“Right now, you have very abstract social networks. So it will be really interesting to see what happens if virtual reality ever progresses to the point where you can have a very realistic way of interacting.”

Many people already spend hours on Facebook every day. It will be interesting to see if they can incorporate the headset to an already engaging social media service.

Not everyone is happy with Facebook acquiring Oculus, and many companies feel as though Facebook does not care enough about the gaming potential of the virtual reality.

The founder of popular game

Minecraft Markus Persson was also in discussions with Oculus about making a version of the popular game for the headset.

However, once Facebook announced the deal with Oculus, Persson decided to cancel those talks for the future of Minecraft.

“Facebook is not a company of grassroots tech enthusiasts.

Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers and nothing but building user numbers,” Persson wrote in a blog post.

Oculus is not the only virtual reality headset on the market. As of last week, Sony unveiled is own headset for the PlayStation 4 (PS4), Project Morpheus. It is currently a prototype, working with the PS4’s Move motion controller.

It will be interesting to see which headset will make it to market first, and which one will be more successful, as there are a lot of challenges associated with building a virtual reality headset. If it works, users will finally be able to experience a world where they have entered a simulated 3D world, bringing many dreams to a reality.

14 SCIENCE

April 3, 2014

Call of Duty World Championships Competition challenges teams from across the globe

Environmental News Emma Jackson

Martin Omes After three gruelling days of action for $1 million, the Call of Duty: Ghosts World Champion was decided last Sunday in Los Angeles. When it was all said and done, Complexity (USA) swept EnvyUs (USA) 3-0 in the finals to continue the journey for one of the greatest franchises in e-sports. The world championships brought thirtytwo of the top teams from around the world to the one location through online qualifiers over the past couple months. The top two teams from Canada were guaranteed qualification to the world championships, but the top sixteen American teams had to go to Florida to compete on LAN for the eight USA spots. Teams from Australia, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Brazil were some of the countries that were also represented over the weekend.

Complexity had reached the finals of the last ten tournaments, winning eight of them, in preparation for the world championships. Meanwhile, EnvyUs came into the tournament as complete underdogs, and were overlooked by many on their journey to the finals. The team was otherwise known as a ‘misfits’ team, with three

argosy@mta.ca

Call of Duty: Ghosts is the ninth instalment of the series. (Allison O’Reilly/Argosy) players who were dropped or let go from their previous teams, and the coach of EnvyUs decided to come back into gaming to round out the squad. During the tournament, they were knocked out in the first round in the double elimination bracket, and had to endure going through the entire losers’ bracket to make it to the finals, where their endurance finally got the best of them as they were quickly defeated.

Canada was represented amazingly well, with the two qualified teams making it to the top sixteen in the world. Both Vexx Revenge and Wild Gaming, both from the Greater Toronto Area, showcased their skills, and surprised not only the powerhouse teams, but themselves as well.

“Coming into the championships, nobody really considered us as a threat, but as the weekend went on, teams started to see how dangerous we are,” Shane ‘Slumber’ Burnham said. Burnham is on Vexx Revenge, who shocked the entire Call of Duty community by finishing eighth and taking the last money spot, earning the squad a cool $25,000.

Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow from Ottawa is on team Complexity, which won the championship, making it the second consecutive year he has won the championship. Barlow had done so previously with Impact, who were shocked in the USA qualifiers by not re-qualifying for the world championships. Jevon ‘Goonjar’ Gooljar from Mississauga, Ontario finished in the top sixteen with Team Kaliber, and Raymond ‘Rambo’ Lussier from Montreal returned from coaching into gaming for EnvyUs and led the squad to their second place finish, receiving $200,000.

The final eight final teams included six from the USA, one from Canada, and one from Australia, who came out to prove that the Australians can keep up with the top teams from around the world. It was showcased on the Xbox, as well as Major League Gaming’s website, which drew hundreds of thousands of viewers from around the globe, as the best players from around the world were finally able to decide who is the best of the best.

It has been almost a month into the international search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and there is still yet a clue to be found. A lack of information and poor weather have both posed significant setbacks for air and sea search crews; however, it has been the ubiquity of garbage in the Indian Ocean that has stood out as one of the greatest timewasting distractions in the search.

As Conservation International senior scientist M. Sanjavan told CNN, “It isn’t like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s like looking for a needle in a needle factory.

It is one piece of debris among billions floating in the ocean.”

The search for any trace of the 240foot plane has led search crews to the edge of the Indian Ocean Gyre, an oceanic landfill holding Australia, India, and Indonesia’s trash. There are four or more of these gyres in the world’s oceans. They are the calm centres of rotating ocean currents that have become floating patches of garbage. The most famous among them is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which floats between Hawaii and California, and is said to be the size of Texas. In light of the recent search, sea captain Charles Moore, who is credited with discovering the patch in 2003, has insisted that “the ocean is like a plastic soup, bulked up with the croutons of these larger items” that are obscuring the search for the plane.

The larger objects tend to be fishing-related, but it’s not unusual

to see shipping containers and their contents floating at sea. No definitive records exist, but it’s believed that of the 100 million shipping containers that traverse the sea annually, anywhere between 700 and 10,000 end up overboard. According to Seattle oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, while the majority of them sink, other containers are able to float around for months, buoyed by trapped air or plastic goods contained inside. Many of the large objects that have been retrieved in the search for MH370 are speculated to have been shipping containers, however, they are still only one part of the distractions.

Various sources estimate that more than 10 million tonnes of debris washed into the sea following the 2011 tsunami, and much of this debris has become tangled together, forming rafts that attract sea life. Billions of people are currently living in lowlying coastal regions around the world in cities such as Dhaka, Bangladesh.

With sea levels expected to rise several feet by 2100, it is likely that garbage in these areas will be flushed out to sea more often than ever before, particularly during storm surges.

Ultimately, as the search for MH370 moves into the southern Indian Ocean, an area with weaker currents but more debris, the world will continue to be reminded that even the most remote stretches of the world’s oceans are littered with garbage.

ONLINE:

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

CROSSWORD ANSWERS You’ll be shocked and appalled at how little you know FINAL EXAM ANSWERS Nobody reads these teasers anyway, so why not!

HUMOUR

by Zeebee

Across 1. Monastery head 6. In addition 10. Information 14. Feudal lord 15. Period preceding Easter 16. Nile bird 17. Warning 18. At a distance 19. Dispatched 20. Vote 22. Home for a pet bird 23. A boat built by Noah 24. Chemical cousin

26. Order of business 30. The colour of most grass 32. Fretted instrument 33. Alone 35. Acclaim 39. Undeniable fact 41. Slang for “Head” 42. French for “Queen” 43. Series of connected rooms 44. They man a ship 46. Ritual 47. An Englishman 49. A developmental disorder

51. Overly diluted 54. French for “Wine” 55. Coloured part of an eye 56. Vitamin B2 63. Woodworking groove 64. Gait faster than a walk 65. Leave out 66. Streetcar 67. Solitary 68. Inscribed pillar 69. Fit as a fiddle 70. Concludes 71. Scattered seed

21. Memorable periods 25. Fortuneteller 26. Anagram of “Salt” 27. Expert 28. Decorative case 29. Irritating 30. A state of high honour 31. Gown 34. A single time 36. Fifty-three in Roman numerals 37. Picnic insects 38. Move in large numbers

40. Inheritor 45. Ragamuffin 48. Periwinkle 50. Except when 51. Breadth 52. Palm cockatoo 53. Like some currents 54. Ballots 57. Press laundry 58. 007 59. Countertenor 60. Scene 61. Doing nothing 62. Require

Down 1. Winged 2. A digestive juice 3. Meat from cows 4. Monster 5. Foursome 6. A length of sawn timber 7. Driven by lust 8. Central American sloth 9. Frustrate 10. Fluster 11. Plumb with the keel 12. Bit of color 13. Flower with a showy head

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

e r ’ e W ! g n i r i h argosy@mta.ca

To apply, send a cover letter and resume to Applicants for editorial, production, and reporting positions should submit relevant samples of work with their applications. Applicants can apply for up to three positions at a time.

All jobs are paid. Job descriptions and projected honoraria are available from Editor-in-Chief Richard Kent at argosy@mta.ca.

E d i t o r i a l : Production: Repor ting: Operations: Managing Editor Senior News Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Arts & Culture Editor Sports Editor Science Editor Online Editor

Production Manager Assistant Production Manager Photo Editor Photographer (2) Illustrator Copy Editor (3)

News Reporter (2) Politics Reporter Arts & Culture Reporter (3) Sports Reporter Science Reporter

Business Manager Office Manager Circulations Manager IT Manager Advertising Manager