The Argosy, January 23 2014

Mount Allison’s

THE Jaunuary 23, 2014

ARGOSY Independent Student Newspaper

Running unopposed since 1872

MASU executive election nears Nine candidates vie for four positions, Pres. runs unopposed Kevin Levangie

Political Beat Writer

Nine candidates have emerged to stand in the Mount Allison Student’s Union upcoming executive election. Voting will take place on Jan. 27 and 28, ending three weeks of campaigning.

The candidates are contesting the four elected executive positions, with the remaining council positions to be filled in a later election. The other two executive positions, vice-president, finance and operations and vicepresident, communications will be

hired later this term.

Heather Webster, a third-year psychology student and this year’s vice-president, campus life is running unopposed for president.

Running unopposed, Webster will need a simple majority of ‘yes’ votes in order to be declared the winner.

Should she fail to reach this threshold, nominations will reopen for five days before a second presidential election is held.

Kyle Nimmrichter, a third-year philosophy student and incumbent arts senator, is running for vice-president, academic against first-year philosophy student Agamemnon Kattis.

Andrew Johnston, a secondyear commerce student and current president of Hunton House, is running for vice-president, campus life against Curtis Gibbs, a second-year science student and current assistant don of Windsor Hall.

Four candidates are running for

the vice-president, external affairs portfolio. Annie Sherry, a second-year sociology student and off-campus councillor is running for vice-president, external affairs against Rayan Bouhlel, a third-year chemistry student and current off campus councillor; Noah Entwisle, a third-year international relations student; and Zhanshua Ma, a third-year commerce student and vice-president, external affairs of the Chinese Student Association.

Just four days before the deadline for students to announce their candidacy, it looked as if three candidates would be running unopposed, while the vicepresident, external portfolio had no candidates declared. This changed rapidly, as six candidates entered the races before nominations closed Monday at 6 pm.

The number of candidates this year stands in sharp opposition to last year’s lack of people willing to run: Last year’s executive ballots saw the president,

vice-president, academic, and vicepresident, campus life positions run unopposed, while two people ran for vice-president, external.

The executive candidates face a number of issues likely to manifest again next year. The candidates addressed a number of these in interviews with The Argosy, and summaries of their answers can be found in this week’s centrefold.

The Jan. 13 MASU council meeting saw the executive restructure punted to next year’s executive, meaning the candidates are signing on for another attempt at redesigning a structure often decried as broken by current executive members, councillors, and MASU members alike.

Councillors will also have to make difficult budgetary decisions due to an enrolment decline at Mt. A, a demographic loss that will be hard to reverse over the next few years.

Compared to the 2012-2013 year,

Vol. 143 Iss. 14

enrolment at the university, and consequently MASU membership, is down by nearly 190 students. Difficult decisions about raising student fees or cutting student services will await whoever wins the elections.

The executive, particularly the vicepresident, external and the president, will have to decide on a strategy for political lobbying in the upcoming year. A provincial election is projected for September 2014, and the parties have already been vying for student and parental support with educational initiatives.

Thursday, Jan. 23 will see the candidates engage in an Argosy and MASU co-sponsored Q & A from 7-9 pm in Crabtree M14, to be broadcast online. Students will be able to submit questions posed to the candidates either in person or via Twitter using #masuelxn.

NEWS

TEDx features local speakers physically be there listening to their words.” All TEDx talks are made publicly available online. Jawed added that “getting to go up to [the speakers] afterwards to ask them questions” enhances the experience.

Justin Ryan of the Multicultural Association Miriam Namakanda of Greater Moncton Area News Writer spoke on the importance of unconventional thinking, tying it into his experiences A group of Mount Allison of helping immigrants settle University student volunteers in the area. held the university’s second “Convention is how we annual TEDx event last operate and how we get weekend. through most of the time; it’s The event was themed just not how we should get ‘Thinking Outside the Box’, through all the time,” he said. and featured five speakers Kylie de Chastelain gave the from within the Mt. A first address, her second TED community as well as from talk. This time, de Chastelain surrounding areas, including shared her experience from a Moncton and Halifax. recent summer course taken Among the speakers was Mt. through Trent University that A alumnus and entrepreneur took her to the Northwest Rivers Corbett, physics Territories. Like Ryan, de professor Dr. Catherine Chastelain used the theme Lovekin, and fourth-year of thinking outside the box student and Rhodes Scholar to positively Kylie de reflect on Chastelain. the crossThe event ...it is [a] completely cultural a l s o experience featured a different experience of studying performance being able to watch in Trent. from Inthese speakers and “ T h e F l i g h t cultures Safety, a physically be there are just so H a l i f a x - listening to their different; it’s based group so important that formed words. to have at Mt. A. the chance R o n Jeehan Jawed Byrne, Mt. TEDx committee to talk to people here A’s viceabout it.” president “We are just hoping to get bigger international and student and better every year and affairs, moderated the event. have nationally recognized With five speakers, the speakers come in,” Jawed event featured two fewer told The Argosy. She said that speakers than the 2013 event, attendance was up from the but the event managed to previous year, and that the attract a larger audience: Over group has been approached by eighty tickets were sold of students who would like to join the hundred available, while the organizing committee. roughly sixty tickets were sold Though the speakers are not last year. supposed to be paid under Jeehan Jawed, viceTED guidelines, Jawed noted president of Mt. A’s TEDx committee and speaker cobesides hopes for expansion ordinator founded the group that the group is hoping for with Phil LeBeouf as a more funding in the future Leadership Mount Allison to pay technicians and other project.

They developed helpers who have been a committee to work on providing free services. getting a license with TED, TED began as a conference organizing logistics and nearly thirty years ago. TEDx preparing speakers, and events are independently received close cooperation organized by local committees from the alumni office. but must adhere to some “It was a lot of trial and guidelines provided by TED. error,” said Jawed.

Second-year student Jawed, a second-year Mt. Franziska Glen attended A student, said she was Saturday’s event. “I had pretty interested in bringing a TED high expectations this year, event to Sackville because some of the speakers I think “it is [a] completely different I could relate to their topics experience being able to more than others.” watch these speakers and

Event themed ‘Thinking Outside the Box’

ONLINE:

MASU SUBMISSION ADDRESSES FACULTY EVALUATIONS Community Forests International holds public contest CFI HOLDS PUBLIC CONTEST Contestants asked to design backwoods cabin

January 23, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Mansbridge Summit, round two Students participate in interactive event Jean-Sébastien Comeau For the second year in a row, students hailing from the various disciplines offered at Mount Allison University had the opportunity to participate in the Mansbridge Summit, where they spent a day working with three guest panellists and the university’s chancellor, Peter Mansbridge.

In keeping with Mt. A’s Year of Global Engagement, this year’s summit required students to conceptualize a worldwide water shortage and to come up with a plan of action for Canada. With a particular focus on the “ethical considerations at play as they make decisions in the areas of business, health/development and environment/ecology,” as stated by Mt. A’s webpage, the panellists were chosen in order to reflect those considerations.

Panellist Jeremy Schmidt of the department of anthropology at Harvard University and expert in the areas of health, development, and ethics, described his role as such: “It’s essentially to offer background information and knowledge to the students when they were working their way through the scenario … the students asked me questions on a broad range of issues that were related

Peter Mansbridge leads a panel discussion at the summit last weekend. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) [to the fields of health and development].”

Piper Riley Thompson, a returning participant in the Mansbridge Summit, added, “summit participants enjoyed lunch and breakfast as well as interviews with the panellists.

To have face-time with these extraordinarily accomplished and inspiring individuals was an unparalleled experience.”

When asked about the origins of the Mansbridge Summit, the chancellor, who also occupies the position of Chief Correspondent with CBC, saw it as an opportunity to “do something that is directly related to the students … give them a sense of what I’ve got to offer in terms of my journalism career.”

The summit is funded by the family of the late John E. Irving, who built his fortune with the Irving group of

companies.

“We were looking for something at the same time as the Irving family thought they wanted to fund something … we put the two together, sat down, and brought in some students … to talk about their ideas,” Mansbridge said. “We wanted [students] to be the driving force behind this.”

This year’s summit saw Mansbridge taking a much more active role within the process. “Last year, I wanted to watch them do things, not impose my journalism on them. But this year, we found a middle ground which was to let them do the debriefs with the panellists, formulate some questions, then I would sit down with them and go through those ideas and tell them where they could improve or structure things perhaps a little differently,”

Mansbridge said.

The work accomplished by students during the day ultimately led to a panel discussion moderated by Mansbridge, where the questions formulated by the groups were passed on to the chancellor and would help him moderate the panel. This was the only event open to the public.

Tony Maas, a prominent figure in the advocacy for the health of Canada’s waters, and expert in the areas of environment and ecology, shared the same enthusiasm that could be seen in Riley Thompson’s comments: “looking at it from the perspective of someone who’s been a student, it was a pretty amazing opportunity.”

MSF worker speaks at Mt. A Alumnus has worked in Congo, Iraq Brandon Williams Former Mount Allison University student Phil Blanchard delivered a talk to an audience of roughly thirty people last Wednesday in the Wu Centre, discussing his experience working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the Congo and Iraq.

The event was scheduled to coincide with a presentation by Richard Heinzl, the founder of the first North American MSF chapter. Heinzl was scheduled to deliver a talk the previous evening as part of the President’s Speakers Series.

But Tuesday morning, an

email from Mount Allison University President Robert Campbell informed the university community that Heinzl’s talk was cancelled due to illness.

Blanchard’s presentation was organized in part by Mt. A’s international centre.

Manager of International Affairs Adam Christie introduced Blanchard at Wednesday’s event.

“We are very disappointed that Dr. Heinzl could not make it. He is an inspirational speaker and was looking forward to informally interacting with Mt. A,” said Frank Strain, a member of the President’s Speaker Series Committee. “With luck we can reschedule.”

Blanchard graduated from Mt. A in 2012, where his interest in MSF took form.

“I attended a lecture by James Orbinski, former president of MSF, here at Mt. A in my

second year, and after that lecture, and having read his book An Imperfect Offering, I knew what I wanted to do.”

Blanchard was hired to do logistical work with MSF. He worked for the organization in transportation, construction, communications, and a variety of other capacities.

“I knew about [MSF] for a long time, but I didn’t know they didn’t hire non-medical doctors,” Blanchard said.

He said it was a combination of his international relations degree and life experiences that made MSF a perfect fit for him. “[Mt. A] is good at piecing together poverty, economics, resource extraction, consumption and getting to understand how these things are all connected.”

After graduating in 2012, Blanchard immediately became involved with MSF, first being placed in the

Democratic Republic of Congo, then in Iraq. He returned to Canada this past December. Blanchard said MSF was relatively well known in the Congolese city of Goma, which it made the transition to a Third World country a lot easier.

In places like Iraq however, MSF was not as well known, which had its challenges, including not being able to leave the camp in which they worked. He said that previous travel experience made the transition much easier.

Blanchard also said that he gained new insights through his work. “You really start to understand why countries like Iraq were at war. They have a much more complicated history and society. Even being in Iraq for six months, you hardly scratch the surface.”

The Argosy

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Faculty association sets strike deadline University has until Monday to prevent strike action Chris Balcom News Editor

Faculty at Mount Allison University may be walking off the job Monday morning.

On Tuesday, the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) issued a press release announcing that the union has set a strike deadline for 12:01 am on Jan. 27. If a new collective agreement is not reached by Monday, faculty will strike.

The deadline was issued “in a continuing effort to resolve [MAFA’s] dispute with the administration over the terms of the next collective agreement,” according to the MAFA release.

The decision came following two negotiation sessions Monday morning and afternoon.

“We were hoping for more [from Monday’s negotiations],” MAFA President Loralea Michaelis told The Argosy.

MAFA’s bargaining team is scheduled to meet with the

administration on Friday, Jan. 24. Negotiation times have also been scheduled for the weekend.

“We’re doing everything we can to reach a deal,” she said, “but there are certain proposals on the table that constitute unacceptable concessions that we are unable to make.”

“Academic control of teaching and research … is our core issue,” Michaelis said. She said the university proposals aim to increase administrative power over faculty teaching and research, while neglecting faculty decision-making ability over academic resources and funding of academic programs.

MAFA represents approximately 154 fulltime and fifty-six part-time professors, librarians, and archivists. Their previous collective agreement expired June 30, 2013.

Michaelis said the strike deadline is intended to motivate the university to reconsider their proposals, and send a message that MAFA members cannot wait indefinitely for an agreement.

Mt. A’s Provost and VicePresident Academic and Research Karen Grant said she was surprised to learn of the strike deadline through a

press release.

“I would have thought that [the university negotiating team] would have found out yesterday when they were meeting with the faculty association at the bargaining table,” Grant said.

Grant said the university’s team presented some revised proposals on Monday and is hoping that the faculty association will have some responses to said proposals at the Friday negotiations.

“There was a slight change in the monetary offer,” Grant said. For instance, the university has increased the 5.5 per cent raise over four years that was previously on the table to six per cent.

Grant said “a number of other minor changes” to university proposals in other areas were presented on Monday.

Michaelis said MAFA members are unsure what kind of conditions to expect in the event of a strike, given that the university has not negotiated any strike protocol.

Strike protocol would establish the terms under which a strike would take place, addressing issues such as the salary status of members on leave, and faculty access to Mt. A email.

“When and if the faculty goes on strike, the terms of

that process will be dealt with at that time. It’s not something we would negotiate,” Grant said.

Michaelis said MAFA has tabled strike protocol during negotiations on two occasions.

In early January, the university announced it would not lock out faculty until after May convocation.

“I don’t foresee any change in that strategy,” Grant said.

“If any member of the bargaining unit chooses not to go on strike, they’ll continue with other responsibilities,” Grant said.

“We’re doing our due diligence to prepare for every eventuality … As far as we’re concerned, we’re committed to getting an agreement at the table.”

The Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) continues to maintain a neutral stance. “We don’t think it’s [in] the best interests of students to side with either of the parties,” said MASU President Melissa O’Rourke.

O’Rourke and MASU Vice-President, Academic Affairs Ryan Harley said that the MASU executive is preparing a proposal to lobby the university for a tuition rebate for students to make up for missed instruction time if a strike occurs.

Town reaches IT agreement with Mt. A Local business owner upset with agreement Miriam Namakanda

News Writer

Last Monday during a town council meeting, five votes of support finalized a oneyear information technology agreement with Mount Allison University worth $66,000.

Through this contract, the Town of Sackville will receive consultation services from the Mt. A IT department.

This agreement was reached following a series of private discussions. Local businesses such as Downtown Digital were unable to compete to provide the services. Though Mt. A and Sackville’s Chief Administrative Officer are happy with the agreement, not all the councillors are in agreement about this decision.

Bruce Phinney was one of two councillors who voted against the agreement.

Phinney has served on council for ten years and has worked for Mt. A for over thirty years. He cited his experience at the university as one of the

reasons he was against this decision.

“It takes three to six months to get an upgrade,” said Phinney of the service at Mt.A. He added that he felt “it was too big a price, and I don’t feel that Mt. A can really do a good justification because they are overwhelmed with the amount of work they have at the present time.”

Phinney was also concerned about the costs. “If they take $66,000 and hire another IT person at $41,000, that’s $25,000 left,” he said.

In stark contrast, Mt. A Vice-President Administration David Stewart said that “this agreement is going to increase our ability and improve our ability [to perform IT services].”

Stewart added that “we have a very superior computing services department [and] have a long history of working with other public bodies.”

Chris Harborne, owner of Downtown Digital, was more concerned that the process through which the contract was reached did not allow him a chance to provide a competitive offer. Instead, the agreement was made through private negotiations.

Harborne said, “[I have] done work with the town for about three years, and while I can appreciate the need to

develop a strategic plan going forward, I do wish that I had been afforded the opportunity to bid on [the] project.”

Harborne voiced his concerns and said, “I have received assurance from council that any and all service-related contracts will be put to tender, and I would expect them to honour that commitment.”

Usually, under By-Law 150, if the contract does not deal with highways and is over $6,000, it should be put to tender. The new Chief Administrative Officer Phil Handrahan said that an exception can be made when the town is dealing with other public organizations like the university.

This exception is the product of the Atlantic Procurement Agreement which “supersedes all municipality created by-laws” so that “governments may acquire goods and services from other governments or government-affiliated institutions,” said Handrahan.

He added that the town did not make an “RFP [request for proposal]” since “at this point in time we are not in a position to tender … I cannot write specifications around what it is I need.”

This means that the town is only seeking advice at this time and will later provide a

request for proposal after the consultation has outlined the specific services needed, such as new computers or a server upgrade. Still, Harborne insisted that Downtown Digital could have competed for consultation services, and that their team does more than just technical work.

“We have to find means of delivering services in ... an efficient manner,” said Councillor Shawn Mesheau, justifying his vote of support.

Despite the exclusive nature of the agreement, Stewart insisted that “Sackville and Mt. A go together, we are bound together in an inextricable way; we need to work together in order to make [sure] that both of us are as successful as we can be ... if we can help the town and the town can help us, we are both better off.”

Councillor Phinney characterized this partnership as unequal and said that “my colleagues have this idea that we need to create a partnership with Mt. A; I would love to see that happen [but] if that’s the case, why hasn’t it happened by now?

We have been trying for years.” Phinney said he feels that the town often bends over backwards to please the university.

3

Week in the World Joanna Perkin

Man-eating tiger hunted in India Seven people have been killed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the past few weeks, after a tiger prowling for food in the area attacked them. The Associated Press reported that three hunters been hired to find and kill the tiger, which has become as the ‘Man-eater’. Wildlife activists have asked that the tiger not be killed, but instead captured, and transported to another region where it can find food in its natural habitat. The tiger has been prowling the area since Dec. 29, 2013, when a sixty-five-yearold man was mauled. Since then, the tiger has been circulating without adequate food or rest. People in the area have been told not to go near forests, and not to leave their homes alone.

Canadian anti-cyberbullying campaign The federal government is launching an ad campaign aimed at putting a stop to cyberbullying, headed by Justice Minister Peter McKay. The first phase of the campaign is called Stop Hating Online, and will include television and Internet ads that focus on when cyberbullying crosses the line to criminal activity. McKay announced the campaign at Fairview Junior High School in Halifax, and referred to the cyberbullying related suicide of seventeen-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons in April as an impetus for the campaign. The government introduced a related piece of legislation in November that would give courts the right to seize computers, cellphones, or any other devices that are used in a cyberbullying offence, and help victims recoup part of the cost of removing the images from the Internet. The bill applies to young people and adults alike who have been victims of online harassment.

Uganda president blocks anti-gay laws Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, has refused to approve a bill to toughen punishments for homosexuals. However, the reasons for his decision have been very controversial. The bill would make homosexual acts punishable by life imprisonment, and makes it a crime not to report gay people. The president’s spokesman has said that the president believes that homosexuality is an illness, but that this does not mean that they should be jailed or killed for it. The president goes so far as to say that to be homosexual is to be “abnormal,” saying that it is not a form of alternative sexual orientation. Gay rights activists say that while it is a good sign that homosexuality will not be prosecuted, the way in which the president is addressing it will encourage the community to continue discriminating against homosexuals.

Central African Republic genocide?

Senior United Nations officials have said that if there is not an international response to the crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR), that there will be a genocide situation. In the last month in the capital alone, over 1,000 people were killed. There have even been reports of cannibalism in the clashes between Christian and Muslim armed groups. The UN has described the crisis state in the CAR as one of the top three humanitarian emergencies, after Syria and the Philippines. Peacekeepers in the country are said to be having a positive effect, but were stretched thin, causing the conflict to continue. The UN said that if this conflict does not go up on the priority list, then it will quickly become genocide.

Man sent ricin-laced letters to Obama James Dutschke, a man from Mississippi, has pleaded guilty to sending letters laced with ricin, to President Obama, as well as a Republican senator and a Mississippi judge. Ricin is said to be 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide. The letters to the president and the senator were both intercepted; the Mississippi judge received her letter, but was not harmed. Initially, the police arrested an Elvis impersonator for the crime, but it was later discovered that Dutschke had framed him. The two had known each other and had developed a sort of rivalry. Dutschke is expected to be sentenced to twenty-five years in prison.

Corrections

impacts students, Mt. A” (Cover).

Editor-in-Chief

Richard Kent

Last week’s cover photo was taken by Chris Donovan.

Facilities Management director Rob MacCormack’s name was misspelled in “Volatile winter weather

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

ONLINE: Exclusive online articles at argosy.ca Twitter: The source for campus and community news from Mount Allison,

SHIP’S LOG EVENTS G B M TA - N a t i o n a l Exchange

Jan. 25, 9 am - 9 pm; Jan. 26, 9 am-12 pm Crabtree M14 All Global Brigades student leaders and volunteers are welcome as we look to share this experience alongside Canadian Advisor Ona Dunn and Global Brigades CEO Steve Ata m i a n . Fo r m o re i n f o r m a tion contact Alex Whynot at gbrigadesmta.pres@ gmail.com

P F LAG M e e t i n g Parents share stor ies

Jan. 27, 7:30-9:30 pm S t . A n d r e w ’s P r e s b y t e r i a n Church Sackville P F LAG p ro v i d e s s u p p o r t , education, and resources on issues of sexual orientation a n d g e n d e r i d e n t i t y. E m a i l sacknb-amns@pflagcanada. ca for more information.

Everyone is warmly invited to attend all meetings.

M t . A Fa r m Fo r u m Jan. 28, 7 pm

Sackville and beyond. Follow @The_Argosy and @argosynews for breaking news and MASU updates from news staff.

Crabtree M14 The forum is open to Mt. A s t u d e n t s , f a c u l t y, a n d m e m bers of the public to disc u s s t h e f u t u r e o f M t . A’ s farm and its direction.

Student Success Course Jan. 29, 6-9 pm Crabtree M14 The Student Success Course is designed to help students succeed in their courses.

Classroom Accessib i l i t y Fo c u s G ro u p s

Jan. 24, 3 pm.

Wa l l a c e M c C a i n 1 2 4 Confidential peer-led focus groups looking at what w o r k s a n d d o e s n’t w o r k i n the classroom.

Information will be used for helping professors make their courses more accessible.

Please come if you are a M e i g h e n o r We l l n e s s s t u dent, or identify as having specific learning needs.

A RT S & M U S I C Wa i t i n g f o r t h e m u s i c Jan. 29, 4- 5 pm

Conservatory of Music C o l l o q u i u m M u s i c u m D r.

K e v i n M o r s e , “ Wa i t i n g f o r the Music: Anticipation and Expectation in Cont e m p o r a r y C o m p o s i t i o n” .

Brunton Auditorium, 4 pm.

Fre e, a l l a re we l c om e. Fo r more Information please e-mail music@mta.ca or call 506-364-2374.

Home

Entre Amis

Saturday Jan. 25, 4 pm Mt. A vs. UNBSJ

We d n e s d a y J a n . 2 9 , 8 - 1 0 pm Conservatory of Music Entre Amis, featuring student performers from Mount Allison University and l’Universite de Moncton. Admission is free, all are welcome. for more information please call Mt.A Music at 364-2374 or email music@mta.ca

S P O RT S Wo m e n ’ s Vo l l e y b a l l Away Fr iday Jan. 24, 7:30 pm Mt. A vs. MSVU

Wo m e n ’ s H o c k e y -

January 23, 2014

Fr iday Jan 24, 7 pm TVMCC Mt. A vs. Moncton

Wo m e n ’ s B a s k e t b a l l Away Saturday Jan. 25, 2 pm Mt. A vs. UNBSJ

M e n’s B a s k e t b a l l Away

Badminton - Home Saturday Jan. 25, 10 am McCormack Gym ACA A E ve n t

Wo m e n ’ s Vo l l e y b a l l Home Sunday Jan 26, 12 pm McCormack Gym Mt. A vs. STU

Wo m e n ’ s B a s k e t b a l l Home Sunday Jan. 26, 2:30 pm McCormack Gym Mt. A vs. HC

M e n’s B a s k e t b a l l Home Sunday Jan. 26, 4 pm

argosy@mta.ca

McCormack Gym Mt. A vs. HC

Wo m e n ’ s Vo l l e y b a l l Home Sunday Jan 26, 12 pm McCormack Gym Mt. A vs. STU

Wo m e n ’ s Vo l l e y b a l l Away We d n e s d a y J a n 2 9 , 7 p m Mt. A vs. HC

Wo m e n ’ s H o c k e y Away

We d n e s d a y J a n . 2 9 , 7 p m Mt. A vs. UPEI

CLASSIFIED We e k e n d H e l p e r N e e d e d

We a r e l o o k i n g f o r a w e e k end helper for our son with A u t i s m . I d e a l l y, w e w o u l d like someone to come to our house and work with our son or go on outings to develop social and life skills. Enjoyment of outdoors/physical activity is a m u s t . We a r e l o c a t e d o u t side of Sackville in Upper D o r c h e s t e r.

P l e a s e c o n t a c t Ta r a a t tbemills@yahoo.ca or 506.334.0222 if interested.

2014 Stereophonic

(Lisa Theriault/Argosy)

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The Argosy

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ST. LOUIS: CANADA’S MATH EDUCATION NO LONGER ADDS UP Reform is needed or kids will begin to fall behind DIXON: PROSTITUTES ARE ENTITLED TO HUMAN DIGNITY GUNN: GUN CONTROL TREATS SYMPTOMS, NOT THE DISEASE

Students shouldn’t be bargaining chips Nobody negotiates on behalf of students Colin Rennie With the Mount Allison Faculty Association’s overwhelming eightysix per cent in-favour strike vote last week, a clear message to the university administration was sent, a party who seems to me to be nearly oblivious to the fact that there could be a work stoppage even before this article will be published.

While the two sides strive to negotiate, the one group who actually holds the biggest stake in the outcome of the entire process and will be severely impacted by a potential strike has absolutely no representation in the negotiations: students.

Mt. A students are shelling out

thousands of dollars annually with many of us becoming riddled with crushing debt simply for the privilege of being here, and having classes cancelled because certain groups cannot be bothered to actually sit down at the negotiating table and work out a solution is absurd and reflects very poorly on the administration and the school.

Many of the core issues at the heart of this bitter disagreement are not based off of salaries and instead concern important changes in avenues such as creative control and property rights, teaching evaluation, and hiring protocols. Indeed, drastic departmental cutbacks stand out in sharp contrast to the repeatedly inconsistent spending habits demonstrated by this institution.

All of these factors ultimately have a major impact upon students and the educational experience offered here at Mt. A, yet we have no say in the resolution of these issues and are, in my view, being kept largely in the dark.

The fact that the administration seems to be perfectly fine with having the faculty walk out on them is absolutely egregious. It seems as though they are merely toying with our semesters and the time we pay for out of our own pockets for instruction in and outside of the classroom.

Yet, no one seems willing to take a stand for students, or even discuss what a strike or changes to the collective bargaining agreement and other regulations could mean for us.

There is no independent body that is fairly and adequately representing the ones who most of these issues really concern. We have little information to go off of other than biased and doctored press releases and scant emails coming occasionally from the school’s administration. In turn, this leads to rampant speculation among the student body as people try to understand what is going to happen with the future of our education at what is supposedly Canada’s number

one undergraduate university.

Simply put, our education is being used as a bargaining chip without our consent.

The issues that are dividing the two parties are ones that directly impact the quality of our education and how we are taught and evaluated here at Mt. A, yet we hold no voice and no power in the process. Furthermore, a prolonged loss of class time due to a strike stands simply to weaken the integrity of the education we are receiving this semester and puts a major dent in our school’s nearly impeccable reputation.

Strike or not, the way that the administration has conducted themselves, using the quality of our education as a poker chip, demonstrates a complete disregard on the part of university administration for the concerns and priorities of the student body and the overall educational process and framework at this school.

OPINIONS A RGOSY

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

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday January 16, 2014 volume 143 issue 8 Since 1872 Circulation 1,700

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

506 364 2236

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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

FEATURES EDITOR

Tyler Stuart

SCIENCE EDITOR

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

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Alex Bates ­­­

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Ian Malcolm

John Trafford

ARTS & LITERATURE EDITOR

Jeff Hicks I’m writing this week about an often misunderstood issue: that of using student evaluations to judge the performance of professors. The university administration has proposed to make these student evaluations a mandatory part of annual performance reviews of faculty, and furthermore, the Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) has officially supported this proposal. In fact, MASU has boldly claimed that “student evaluations of teaching are a widely recognized metric and tool for ensuring that course material and instruction is of high quality.” However, there is significant evidence to refute that claim. I present some of that evidence here because it will better inform the debate, and it is actually quite amusing.

Let’s start with the most cynically entertaining. There is some evidence— albeit conflicting—that gender and attractiveness affect student evaluations. Specifically, that female instructors receive lower evaluation scores from male students, and that unattractive professors are evaluated more poorly, all else equal. Not all research has found similar effects, but the issue is certainly not settled. Given this, it may be awkward to use students’ evaluations in the performance review of an unattractive female professor who teaches classes to predominantly male students.

Furthermore, I imagine that professors stuck teaching a required course—say, statistics—are evaluated more poorly. It can be hard for students to separate their dislike of a topic from their perceptions of the

Having student evaluations part of annual performance reviews aren’t worth having a faculty strike over, like at UNB. (Karsten Saunders/Brunswickan) professor’s performance.

However, for argument’s sake, let’s discount the previous two arguments— that student evaluations suffer from a number of significant biases. What about the argument that students’ are just poor judges of professor quality? While I do not fully endorse this argument, it is not unfounded. I present two pieces of evidence: Researchers at the University of Southern California and Southern Illinois University hired and coached a confident and articulate actor to present a university-style lecture to eleven trained psychologists, physiatrists, and social work educators.

The actor was presented as an expert on the application of mathematics to human behaviour, with an impressive imaginary resume. The lecture was specifically designed to include “excessive use of doubletalk, neologisms, non sequiturs, and contradictory statements to be interspersed with humour and meaningless reference to unrelated topics.” At the end of the lecture, the eleven ‘students’ completed an evaluation of the actor and the content of the lecture. In comical fashion, the participants reported a high degree of satisfaction with the lecture, despite it being completely fictitious and

HUMOUR EDITOR

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ONLINE EDITOR

Madison Downe

PRODUCTION MANAGER

PHOTO MANAGER

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

PHOTO EDITOR

COPY EDITORS

ILLUSTRATOR

Julie Whitenect Emily James

Student evaluations can often be misleading

SPORTS EDITOR

OPINIONS EDITOR

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illogical. A paid actor had duped eleven trained professionals. While Mount Allison likely never hires fraudulent professors, it is certainly plausible that a room full of eighteenyear-old students can be impressed by charismatic yet unsubstantive lectures.

The Journal of Political Economy recently published a study that followed the performance of 12,597 students over three semesters of calculus at the United States Air Force Academy. They tracked the performance of students across all three levels of calculus (1, 2, and 3), and similarly followed the student evaluations of professors for all course sections. Their results were twofold: First, high-performing students were associated with highly evaluated professors—potentially implying the students reward good teaching. But here is the concerning second finding: Students taught by a positivelyevaluated professor in the original course performed worse in followup courses. If you studied Calculus 1 with a positively evaluated professor, you would perform more poorly (onaverage) in Calculus 2. Think about that: students rewarded professors that failed to prepare them well for further coursework. This study is widely respected, and was conducted in an environment that eliminated typical statistical issues found in other comparable studies.

Student evaluations are not widely recognized as a metric and tool for professor performance, as the MASU has claimed. We ask our students “how would you describe the effectiveness of the instructor,” on a scale of one to five, yet provide no definition or guidance as to what “effective” means. Would students be content to have their performance in a course measured by one test with eighteen multiple choice questions and two open-ended questions? The real discussion should focus on how to better solicit valuable student feedback. I hope that other contributors to The Argosy will accept the challenge, and start this discussion.

Allison O’Reilly

Norman Nehmetallah

Julia McMillan

Bagtown Economics

NEWS EDITOR

Christopher Balcom­­­

Nick Sleptov

Chris Donovan

Susan Parker, Kimberly Sayson, Lisa Theriault Rachael Hanakowski

writingstaff

NEWS WRITER

Miriam Namakanda POLITICAL BEAT WRITER

Kevin Levangie

FEATURES WRITER

Taylor Losier

ARTS WRITER

ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

Cameron McIntyre SPORTS WRITER

Benjamin Foster

SCI/TECH WRITER

Martin Omes

Daniel Marcotte

operationsstaff

BUSINESS MANAGER

IT MANAGER

OFFICE MANAGER

CIRCULATIONS

Megan Landry

Charlotte Henderson

James Isnor Sam Shury

contributors

Keegan Smith, Michael Dover, Sarah-Anne Steeves, Ali MacLeod, Pat Allaby, Anna Farrell, Sam Moore, Austin Landry, Mike Roy, Tyler, Ferdinand, Célina Boothby, Liam St. Aluis, Tessa Dixon, Mitchell Gunn, Jeff Hicks, Colin Rennie, Brandon Williams, Joanna Perkin, Simon Murray, Jean-Sebastien Comeau

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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.

ENTERTAINMENT

ONLINE:

LINDSEY STERLING’S SELF-TITLED ALBUM IS RELEASED Martin Omes reviews the hip-hop violinist’s debut LP MASTERS AND JOHNSON’S SEMINAL SEX WORK TURNS INTO TV Allison O’Reilly reviews the new HBO series Masters of Sex

January 23, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Her, Spike Jonze latest, breathes much-needed life into cinema Academy snubs both leads for this year’s Oscars Austin Landry E.M. Forster said to “only connect,” but how far did he expect us to carry that? Spike Jonze, the director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, answers with the best film of 2013. In the age of blockbusters and sequels, here is a movie so original that it surprises us as much in its last thirty minutes as it does in its first.

Jonze’s latest work concerns

itself with Theodore Twombly ( Joaquin Phoenix), a writer for BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com.

He has an immense knack for what he does simply because he, like Jonze (who also scripted the film), has a keen eye for human nature.

Twombly is a lonely man, and much like Jack Lemmon in The Apartment, when left to his own devices, his thoughts linger on how he longs for more connection with those around him. This is a Spike Jonze script, though, and he doesn’t explore just the longing most of us encounter at one point or another. He asks the questions “How can one approach relationships differently?” and “How does one process heartbreak?”

Joaquin Phoenix has exceeded

expectations with the astounding variety of work he’s done, from Gladiator to Walk the Line to The Master, but nothing he’s done approaches his performance here.

He is flawlessly endearing and just subtle enough when delivering the lines which channel his deepest, most tender meditations on love. Most actors I can think of would see such raw dialogue and be unable to resist the temptation of playing them up; however, that would result only in contrived melodrama. Phoenix wisely maintains the right amount of restraint that his very introverted character requires.

Scarlett Johansson voices Samantha, an operating system whom Twombly develops a relationship

with. More than holding her own, Johansson gives the best, most nuanced vocal performance I’ve ever heard, though unsurprising on the whole, the fact that neither she nor Phoenix received Oscar nominations for their work here is nothing short of highway robbery.

Working with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (The Fighter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Jonze bathes his quasi-futuristic Los Angeles scape with warm, serene light, that seeps out from the screen like an embrace. The popular Quebec indie band, Arcade Fire, scored the film with music that never distracts but only ever dances gracefully alongside its poetic settings.

Her is a movie that examines love

in a way we’ve never seen before, but it’s also one of the funniest of the year. Jonze throws one original concept after another into his film.

For instance, early on in the film, Twombly is playing an interactive video game that requires him to more or less “play along” with the game’s character in order to move forward.

Have we ever thought of video games in such a way? Jonze explores this possibility as well as a dozen others in Her. Whether or not we find these concepts intriguing, confusing, offputting, honest, or forward-thinking, we can at least admire Jonze’s ability to move through them with such mastery that it seems effortlessly achieved. That is a mark of a great filmmaker.

Wolf of Wall Street is a decadent movie Sex and drugs fill Scorsese’s latest offering Sam Moore The Wolf of Wall Street is a story of excess. Above all else, it is about one man’s seemingly endless greed and his drive to see that greed fulfilled. It’s also a damn good time. The film, which is based off American motivational speaker Jordan Belfort’s autobiography, follows the rise and fall of Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Belfort’s story begins on Wall Street where he learns the ropes of the stock market.

He is quickly taken under the wing of Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey), an eccentric senior broker at the firm. Hanna gives Belfort what would be one of his most valuable assets in his meteoric rise to prominence: drugs. The lessons that Belfort learns from Hanna on debauchery and opulence inform his decisions throughout his journey. When the stock market crashes in the mid1990s, Belfort decides to strike out on his own, selling dime stocks (stocks of little value typically sold to people with little or no experience investing) and quickly goes from being an earnest, greenbehind-the-ears stock broker to being a money-hungry, Quaalude-fuelled, sexaddicted, multi-millionaire.

The Wolf of Wall Street is over three hours of straight debauchery. Belfort is under the influence of multiple narcotics at once at any given moment throughout the film. At one point in his narration he talks about

consuming enough drugs daily to sedate Manhattan, Long Island, and Queens; this is an exaggeration, of course, but one gets the picture. The film includes a fifteen-minute scene where the merits and mechanics of throwing midgets at a bullseye like lawn is discussed; on the night of Belfort’s bachelor party, he takes one hundred of his friends and as many prostitutes on a plane to Vegas in a self-described bacchanal.

At times it’s too much to take in; that someone could be so medicated, so self-centred, so thoroughly despicable at all times to the degree that Belfort is, is absurd. The craziest thing about it is that most of the escapades shown in the movie either happened to the real Belfort or, at least, weren’t far off.

The acting in the film is tremendous. DiCaprio is awesome as Belfort.

McConaughey, though he is only in the film for around ten minutes, is hysterical. Jonah Hill might have put out the best acting job of his career as Donnie Azoff, Belfort’s righthand-man and co-founder of Stratton-Oakmont (the brokerage firm with which Belfort makes his millions), yet again proving that he can do more than stoner comedies. All of these actors put out solid performances.

The problem is that they all play greedy, irredeemable, conniving jerks and after a while it becomes very tiring.

The Wolf of Wall Street offers a long look at men at the height of their depravity. It’s like any other Scorsese film, so long as you go in with the understanding the violence normally in his films has been substituted for sex and drugs.

If you can stomach everything the film throws at you, you are in for a great time.

Dark For Dark play a jubilant set at the Vogue after the Radio Girls Rock camp showcase on Saturday afternoon. (Lisa Theriault/Argosy)

Stereophonic shows its soft side Local festival showcases folk music Cameron McIntyre Entertainment Writer

The eleventh Stereophonic was a tale of two festivals.

As expected, there were the evening shows, filled with everything from punk to altcountry. But there was also a string of singer-songwriters who were featured in the earlier sets each day.

The first of these primarily folk shows was on Wednesday in the university chapel.

Michael Duguay and Nick Ferrio played to basically empty pews and their music suffered for it. Folk music relies on an emotionally reactive atmosphere, as its formulaic nature does not try to excite through being progressive

or blatantly exciting, but rather through establishing a sense of shared feeling and building off of that. Without this atmosphere, Duguay’s songs came off as thin in places, and his frequent double entendres fell short of hitting their intended marks. Ferrio’s set did not fare much better, ultimately coming up hollow despite emphasizing the strong traditionalism of his songs.

The second of these sets, fortunately, managed to draw a bigger portion of the Sackville community. Pat LePoidevin, fresh off his nation-spanning album release tour that brought him to Sackville in October, was no doubt a huge part of that draw. The central theme of his new album, American Fiction, is small towns and the obvious relevance to Sackville was clearly grasped by the audience. LePoidevin cleverly looped his own voice, which allowed the music to take on

the triumphant tone of his album and songs that were actually about Sackville drove home this point, causing the emotional crowd’s attention to spill over into the next set as well.

Steve Lambke, of the Constantines, did a solo set under his moniker Baby Eagle. His lyrics were smooth and tightly knit, resulting in a clean performance, despite a misbehaving guitar. The show in the Vogue ended off on a sombre note with Jennah Barry providing a counterbalance to the triumphant tone of LePoidevin’s set that went over well. Employing the stage as a large kick drum, Barry brought a large sound that ended the night well despite a waning number of attendees.

The last of the distinctively folky shows got off to a great start despite not being folky whatsoever. The final product of the week long Radio Girls Rock Camp was a trio of rock

groups that did just that: rock.

The performance brought out parents and much of the Sackville community that gave the girls their much deserved applause for the effort they had spent learning the ins and outs of musicianship in the past week. It featured workshops on song writing, stage presence, and gear management run by CHMA, local artists, as well as Simone Schmidt, who was in town for a performance later that evening at George’s as Fiver.

The afternoon show at the Vogue ended off with the allgirl trio of Dark for Dark, who maintained the already jubilant atmosphere despite their slow pace in comparison to the girls who had preceded them. This discrepancy was rectified as they transitioned from a single acoustic guitar to two guitars and a bass and brought the folkier side of the four day festival to a climatic end.

The Argosy

ENTERTAINMENT

www.argosy.ca

New year to feature many old favourites Six established artists to release new material Norman Nehmetallah Entertainment Editor

From the beginning of December until the end of January, pop culture publications in print and on screen publish litanies of lists. Although ‘best-of ’ and ‘worst-of ’ lists can become tiresome when they dominate social media, they are useful to casual consumers of media who may not have as much time as they would like to scour the endless internet looking for music, movies, and film. Here are a few albums and films, compiled with the help of the AV Club and Pop Matters, slated for release in 2014 that are generating excitement.

2013 ended with a surprise, and critically lauded, eponymous release from Beyoncé, which ensured that

the music world, although not a homogenous entity by any measure, had momentum going into 2014.

On Jan. 21, the popular punk band Against Me!, of punk hotbed Gainesville, Florida, released their first full length album in four years.

The album, entitled Transgender Dysphoria Blues, is the band’s first release after singer and guitarist Laura Jane Grace came out as a transgender woman in 2012; it will be released via their own record label, Total Treble Music. The concept album is about a transgender prostitute and will be one of the first punk records to discuss transgender experiences.

In the world of hip-hop, anticipation has been rising for the collaborative LP by Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs and California producer Madlib. The duo have released a few singles, most notably “Deeper,” from the album, entitled Piñata, which is slated for release on Feb. 4. As is the case with Against Me!, the highly anticipated album will be released via Madlib’s own label, Madlib Invazion.

Damien Jurado, the Seattle, Washington folk artist whose works oscillate between spare acoustic songs and lush orchestral arrangements, released his eleventh studio album, Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, on Jan. 21 via Secretly Canadian.

Although it is technically his eleventh album, the prolific Jurado has released dozens of EPs, singles, and collaborative efforts; most recently, and notably, Jurado appeared on two tracks from electronic musician Moby’s 2013 release Innocents.

In the world of film, three veteran auteurs are slated to release movies this year. Wes Anderson, whose The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore have been rereleased by the esteemed Criterion Collection, will be seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel hit theatres on March 7. The film, which revolves around a friendship between a hotel concierge, his friendship with a young colleague, and a bequeathed painting, features Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, and Jude Law, among many others.

Paul Thomas Anderson, director

of such acclaimed films as The Master and Boogie Nights, will be releasing his adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s detective novel Inherent Vice. The novel has been called one of the most accessible pieces to come from Pynchon, who is notorious for his long, complicated works. Joaquin Phoenix, who worked with Anderson on The Master, will be featured in the film.

Finally, Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave director who has been frequently cited as one of the most revered filmmakers of the twentieth century, will be releasing a film entitled Goodbye/Farewell to Language. Although Godard has been actively engaged with experimental and progressive film techniques since the 1960’s, this will be his first feature film in 3D. The divisive film technique may finally be embraced by critics and auteurs alike, depending on the success of Godard’s film, which is about a couple who suffer from communication issues that are mitigated by their talking dog.

Stereophonic brings four days of music and fun CHMA’s festival fundraiser hosts successful shows Cameron McIntyre Entertainment Writer

Shows that ran through the evenings this past week marked the main portion of the Stereophonic Music Festival. Although the odd set came off as not quite right for its context, the local festival was on the whole well organized and the evenings proved memorable.

On Wednesday, the festival began in abrupt fashion with Lucas Hicks’ short fifteen minute set at the Legion.

The lo-fi indie rock was up to his usual standard but there was simply not that much of it and the set as a whole had a feeling of hurriedness about it. B. A. Johnson was, as usual, quirky and unique. The Hamilton native, Sackville regular brought back a collection of his old songs that remain funny even after repeated performances, while songs off his new album added some diversity, and a string of new antics to loosened up the Legion crowd before ending his set in the guy’s bathroom with a quick song atop the sink. Max Grizzly and the Entertainment managed to maintain the excitement level through to the end of the night even bringing about a surprising mosh pit.

The surprise was due to the folkier aspects of their music but lessened as the folk elements of the total sound faded out to be replaced by something closer to alt-rock.

The second night featured Good Things, Walrus, and Grease Beast at The Pond, which followed an uncomfortable set in the chapel.

The bands, despite being a diverse matching of genres, really worked well together. The speedy punk of Good Things was tempered by the marching psyche punk of Walrus, and led perfectly into the large and heavy hardcore punk of Grease

7

Reviews

True Detective HBO Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson star as detectives Rustin “Rust” Cohle and Martin Hart in HBO’s latest crime procedural, True Detective. Set in Louisiana, the series takes place over the span of seventeen years as the pair attempt to solve the murder of a local prostitute, while also combating their own personal demons. Though the premise sounds tired and well-worn, what pushes this series above other similarly-themed shows is the beautiful direction of Cary Fukunaga (director of 2011’s Jane Eyre) and the standout performances of McConaughey and Harrelson. Fukunaga’s vision focuses on the gritty and gothic locales of the southern state, and each of the major characters feel well-established and fleshed-out by the pilot’s conclusion. With this much potential packed into only the pilot episode, HBO could very well have one of the best new shows of 2014. True Detective airs on Sunday evenings at 10:00 pm on HBO Canada.

- Mike Roy

Christian Vincent Haute Cuisine

Max Grizzly & The Entertainment play after Lucas Hicks and B. A. Johnson on Wednesday evening. (Lisa Theriault/Argosy) Beast. The sets were a constant build that gave a real sense of progression, although each individually stood out with highlight moments. Good Things were remarkable in their dedication to having fun; Walrus had a good measure of balance between the explosive punk and the builds in between; and Grease Beast demonstrated masterful screaming and terrifyingly amazing musicianship.

Friday night featured a massive five band show at George’s Roadhouse.

Halifax’s The Grubbies began the night with pop-punk that started off predictable and formulaic, but quickly evolved into some catchy songs with unique, fast-paced lyricism. Weird Lines, a Sackville super group featuring Julie Doiron and Jon McKiel to name a few, set didn’t really eclipse the individuals on stage but nonetheless was exciting to watch if not for the amount of

Sackville star power that was on stage. Construction & Destruction had a typically good set but stood out in the night as slower paced and more careful than the rest of the performances. The Mouthbreathers, who played the penultimate set, were an especially odd juxtaposition with the previous band but the songs that everybody knew the lyrics to quickly erased all chance of the night feeling out of whack. Julie Doiron and the Wrong Guys ended the night on a loud and heavy note, acting as the synthesis of the two previous bands.

The final night had two evening shows. In the first, Boxers put on a great show with some masterful work on a looping pedal giving them the sound of a huge band at points.

Wooden Wives’ set opened up with fast and relentless hardcore punk that tailed off toward the end, only to set up an explosive final track that stood out because of the addition of

saxophones to the fold. Jerk Damaged finished off the show at Struts with punk songs that went far beyond the typical three chord stuff in complexity and depth. The party then proceeded down Lorne Street to George’s Roadhouse for the second show.

Kappa Chow kicked things off with a great set that included a fantastic, solo driven rendition of their well-known “Punk as Fuck.”

Nap Eyes’ laid back alt-rock slowed things down, nicely transitioning to the slow and melodic alt-country musical mosaics of Fiver. Schmidt’s set was layered with effects and emotionally pervasive, with a strong voice running through the abstract stories her lyrics express. It all ended with a second set from Steve Lambke, who played again under the name Baby Eagle, and was backed up by a trio of local artist presenting his varied, yet palatable, indie rock.

I cannot remember the last time I left a theatre with as strong an imperative to eat food as I did after Haute Cuisine. The film stars Catherine Frot as Hortense Laborie, a farm owner and well known traditional French chef. It focuses, through a series of flashbacks, on her time cooking for the President of France.

Hortense runs the private kitchen of Élysée Palace, which handles the meals of the President of France and visiting foreign dignitaries. During her tenure she butts heads with chefs of the main kitchen, the large scale kitchen in the basement of the palace that handles catering for the entire staff of the building, as well as the ailing president’s dieticians and state accountants trying to cut costs. The characters are charming and Frot does an admirable job, but the real star of the show is the food.

Every other scene has some new and delicious dish to feast your eyes on. Watch on a full stomach or risk being incredibly hungry by the end.

- Sam Moore

8 MASU ELECTIONS

Jaunuary 23, 2014

THE CANDID

th

V o

te

J

27-28 . n a

PRESIDENT $12,000

Heather Webster Mental health advocacy at federal and provincial levels. Designated student space for studying and clubs and societies. Internal governance work, mainly the executive restructure.

Platform

argosy@mta.ca

VP ACADEMIC $7,900

Kyle Agamemnon Nimmrichter Kattis

VP CAMPUS $7,900

Curtis Gibbs

Twenty-four-hour study lounge on campus. Reading week courses. More summer student research awards.

Student experience survey, improving the ombudsperson office. More student study space.

Refine the current house executive training and house points system. Clubs and societies executive training, as well as emphasizing health and wellness and a psychiatrist/psychologist in the student centre.

Background

Hunton SAC councillor, senior resident assistant in Hunton, current vice-president, campus life.

Three years experience on student council experience in high school.

Competitive group discussion and debating for five years.

Arts senator, worked under vicepresident, academic this year.

Windsor Hall councillor, entertainment and Ascars committees. Assistant don of Windsor Hall.

Restucture

Start from scratch, with the executive committee coming up with a clear timeline, to be approved by council for consultation, education, and discussion about the document.

Start from scratch. Ensure that every step is given sufficient attention.

Make slight alterations to the existing document.

Intends to mostly overhaul the document, in particular the combination of orientation chair and entertainment director positions.

Funding

Not inclined to raise student fees. Wants to examine solutions involving the surplus and investment.

Cut programs before raising student fees.

Academic enrichment funding could be changed to a need-based system.

Suggests the Allisonian could be paid for.

Says he would research the issue more once in the position.

Key Point

Role as representative of students and the union while interacting with the university and the rest of the world.

Process of beginning a creative idea, and ensuring that you follow through.

Says academic advocacy is the most important aspect.

Clubs and societies is the most important aspect of portfolio, says extracurricular involvement “makes or breaks� the university experience.

Referendum

Approximately once a year, but ultimately up to council.

Not more than once a semester for a specific question.

Once every academic year, unless the question was worded poorly.

Once every academic year, and only once again in a consecutive year.

LAST

ELECTION

45%

OF STUDENTS VOTED

THERE IS

NO QUORUM

FOR MASU EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS

FROM 2003-2014

40%

OF PRESIDENTIAL C A N D I D AT E S RAN UNOPPOSED

The Argosy

MASU ELECTIONS 9

www.argosy.ca

ANDIDATES VP EXTERNAL $7,900

P CAMPUS LIFE $7,900

Andrew Johnston

Rayan Bouhlel

Clubs and societies support through executive training, increasing RA compensation, and improving the ombudsperson.

Make campus “more vibrant, lively, and accessible with services,” improve town-student relations, make MASU a leader in provincial and federal advocacy.

Would work to foster a more inclusive environment, particularly for international students. Aims to bring creative thinking within MASU.

Mental health advocacy at CASA, voting station accessible to students either by shuttle or walking distance. Business owners downtown working with MASU job advertising and such.

Summer employment for students, increasing effectiveness of New Brunswick Student Alliance, improvement and consolidation of student services.

Hunton’s SAC rep, sat on athletic affairs and Ascars committees.

Current president of Hunton House.

Bennett’s secretary treasurer, and off-campus councillor.

Chinese Student Association, vice-president, external affairs.

MASU off-campus councillor, sits on the off-campus and entertainment committees.

Student senator and president in high school. International relations degree providing an understanding of the Canadian political landscape.

Keep the document and build on it, but the decision is ultimately up to council.

Keep most of document, and consult with students. Says it is “not perfect, but very good.”

Make alterations to the existing document.

Some adjustments to the existing document.

Keep the foundation of the document and build on it.

Depends on how much money needs to be saved, and would work closely with vice-president, finance and operations to decide.

Believes external portfolio services are essential. Would rather see fee increase than a loss of any given service.

Would not raise fees, and would cut selectively if necessary.

Would prefer to look for outside sources of revenue.

Rather than raising fees, finding savings in services like the Allisonian.

A balanced approach, including a small increase in fees if necessary.

Acting as a resource for student concerns.

Says the services provided to students are the most important part of his portfolio.

MASU should not endorse a provincial political party. Main concern is student life on campus.

Mental health advocacy at the provincial and federal level.

Says political lobbying is the most important part of his portfolio.

Once every academic year.

Once every academic year, and not exactly the same question twice.

Depends on the situation. Always important to ask student opinion.

Once every academic year.

If a question is to be put to referendum for a second time, there must be a “reasonable degree of new information.”

1908 Founding of the Mount Allison Students’ Union

Noah Entwisle

Annie Sherry

Zhanshuo Ma

Gender of Executive Candidates (2003-2014)

Gender of MASU Presidential Candidates (2003-2014)

1936 Women are allowed to join the Students’ Union 1954

The first Students’ Representative Council was established to deal with governing matters of the Students’ Union

1966 The Union elected its first female Students’ Union President, Leva Lessens

All info compiled is approximate

ONLINE:

WEEKLY WELLNESS Don’t diet and lose weight: Why dieting doesn’t work.

SPORTS Mounties take ten medals at Dalhousie January 23, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Loewen strikes gold at meet, team sets sights on the final event Alex Bates

Sports Editor

The Mount Allison University swim team went into the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Invitational tournament with one goal: continuing to develop their form for the AUS Championship next month at Memorial University. This would mean that they would not be swimming at their top fitness until the next tournament. This unfortunately hindered the team’s ability to show their true abilities in the pool at the Dalhousie meet.

Despite the circumstances, the team was still able to collect ten medals, highlighted by Allison Loewen’s gold in the 50 m freestyle.

The men’s and women’s team worked hard up until the day before the meet. This meant that the team didn’t engage in a practice style known as ‘tapering’ which would have provided sufficient rest for the event.

This didn’t stop the Mounties, as they were flying into their lanes early.

Marya Peters, in the third event of session one, finished second in the women’s 50 m backstroke with

The men’s and women’s 4x100 m relay teams take time to pose for photos after a successful weekend at the AUS Invitational. (Taylor Losier/Argosy) a time of 31.42. This looked to be a very good sign for the team, though the team would not medal until the women’s 200 m medley relay. The team of Peters, Laurel White, Léa Raiche-Marsden, and Allison Loewen finished with a combined time of 2:06:04, which was good enough for a bronze medal.

The men’s team would not get on the board until the very last event of the weekend in session three. The

team of Joseph Blackwood, Dylan Wooley-Berry, Colin Vale, and Jeff Loewen would finish second in the 4x100 m freestyle relay to take the monkey off the back of the men’s side.

“It was a tough meet and we had some really difficult races, however, we came through when it mattered on the last relay,” said Loewen, who swam the final leg of the relay.

The highlight of the weekend was the 50 m freestyle race,

where Allison Loewen finished first with a time of 27.04.

“I’m really proud of the team for performing as well as they did on so little rest,” said third-year swimmer Léa Raiche-Marsden.

With ten medals in total, the team will have to be impressed with their efforts considering their fitness levels going into the meet. “The team swam as expected, and I’m looking forward to faster swims

Bell scores in overtime to secure the two points Mt. A splits games, hold down fifth in the AUS Tyler Ferdinand The women’s hockey team hit the road this past weekend for games versus Saint Mary’s University Huskies and St. Francis Xavier University X-Women (St. FX).

The weekend started in Halifax with a tightly contested game against the Huskies. The scoring was opened by the Huskies’ Kaylan Palsat at 2:02 of the first period, and it was assisted by Huskies forward Megan Pollsano. The Mounties quickly replied with a marker from Emily van Diepen at 6:20, with Courtney King recording the assist. This concluded the scoring for the rest of regulation.

Shots heading into the extra period favoured the Huskies 29-20. Tight checking hockey continued into the extra frame until Jennifer Bell slid a pass

“It was great to get the two from Emily van Diepen home points off Saint Mary’s. We at 2:27 to secure the two worked hard, points. especially K a t e O’Brien got “It was great to get the in the small against a the win in two points off Saint rink tough team,” goal with thirty saves. Mary’s. We worked said veteran She has been hard, especially in the M o u n t i e Emily van devastatingly small rink against a D i e p e n . good as of “It was a late, and tough team.” this was her - Emily van Diepen disappointing eighth win of Defenseman result against [St. FX]. the season.

Women’s Hockey I think S ienna everyone C o o k e believes we countered could have played a better O’Brien’s play with twentygame. There is a lot from that one saves of her own for the game that we can learn from home side. Both teams were and move on to our next unable to convert on the game.” powerplay, combining for zero You can see the women goals on five chances.

Mounties hit the ice this To conclude the weekend, Friday at the Tantramar the Mounties made a trip Veterans Memorial Civic to Antigonish to visit the Centre against the Université first placed X-Women.

Moncton Aigles Bleus. Puck Unfortunately penalties were drop is 7 pm. costly, as the X-Women scored two powerplay goals en route Tyler Ferdinand is a member of to a 5-0 victory. the Mount Allison golf team and O’Brien and back-up Keri a contributor to The Argosy.

Martin combined to stop twenty-five of thirty shots sent their way.

at the AUS Championships once we’re well-rested and prepared,” coach John Peters said afterward.

The solid performance, given the circumstances, will be a good rallying point for the team. They will continue to prepare for the AUS Championships, which will be held in St. John’s, Newfoundland at Memorial University from Feb. 7 to 9.

Better Know a Mountie Mackenzie Gray Benjamin Foster Sports Writer

Mounties basketball forward Mackenzie Gray has been a dominant player since she stepped onto Mount Allison’s campus four years ago. Her trophy cabinet is packed with awards. In her rookie season, she walked away with the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) Rookie of the Year. Just last season, she made the ACAA allconference team at forward for the first time as well as being named the Most Valuable Player of the Mounties.

Unfortunately in a game just before the Christmas break, Gray was injured and after an MRI it was found that she had a partially torn ACL and a torn meniscus, which requires surgery. This leaves her on the sidelines for the rest of the season to watch what was supposed to be her last season playing for the Mounties.

“Because of the injury, I am considering coming back to Mt. A for one more season because I love playing ball

and I do not want to go out like this. The team is young as well so that factors into my decision,” Gray said.

Gray started playing the game in grade four in Woodstock, New Brunswick because of her role model, her father, who would become her mentor and coach.

Throughout high school she played basketball for not only her high school team, where she made multiple all-star games, but also provincially for Team New Brunswick. She also was on the swim team, ran cross-country, and played volleyball. Gray never missed an athletic opportunity.

“I was recruited to many schools for basketball but I chose Mt. A because I wanted to play basketball, but also get the best academics as well.”

Whether or not the commerce major’s lucky number is three or not, the Mounties have finished third every year she’s played with the team. That is just where they are this season, but Gray thinks that this team has the potential to beat anybody if they stay positive.

“We just need to keep our heads up and not get down like

we have earlier this season; our positivity has gotten better and [head coach] Matt Gamblin has really helped us with his calm and cool demeanour,” Gray said.

Gray has enjoyed playing with Brooke Kelly, who transferred from Guelph for this season. The combination of the both of them makes the Mounties a major threat.

The Woodstock native wants to pursue a master’s of business administration or become a chartered professional accountant to accompany her commerce degree. The Mt. A community will be proud of what she has done both academically and on the court. Mounties fans would be delighted to see Gray reunited with Kelly and her teammates to try to go for an ACAA title next season.

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SPORTS

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Mounties eye Holland College matchup Kelly thriving even with injury-riddled roster

Volleyball win seventh straight game The Mount Allison women’s volleyball squad travelled to St. Thomas University (STU) in Fredericton, New Brunswick this past Sunday looking for revenge on the Tommies. Two years in a row the Mounties had their hopes of a championship ended by STU in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) semifinals. This time the Mounties defeated STU in what is their seventh straight regular season win.

Mt. A dominated the match, losing just the second set. This is the first time that any Mountie player on the roster has beaten the Tommies. “After having lost to STU in the beginning of the season, now coming back to win

Circulations Manager

Maddyson McDonald dribbles past an opponent in a loss to UKC. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) disappointing for the Mounties as they fell to the UKC Blue Devils 64-50. The Devils’ Breagh Moore put in a topnotch performance. The star guard, who leads the ACAA in scoring this season with 16.5 points per game, had seventeen points, ten rebounds, and four steals. On the Mounties’ side, Brooke Kelly led the way with sixteen points and six rebounds.

The games over the weekend may be a sign that the Mounties are missing Mackenzie Gray, the star forward whose season ended before Christmas after suffering a torn ACL. The team has clearly been forced to make adjustments with Gray

out of the lineup, as they try to replace a player who gave the team just over fourteen points and six rebounds per game.

“Our team dynamic has changed,” responded Kelly when asked how her team has dealt with Gray’s injury. “Losing a captain and a leader on the team is very hard on the team individually and dynamically.”

Even in the two losses, the Mounties showed some resilience. “We always continue to fight,” said Kelly, “each game from here on out is going to be a close winnable game, and our ability to fight for the win will benefit us.” The Mounties are going to need that type of fight

for the remainder of the season, as the team undoubtedly still has its sights on making an extended post-season run.

The Mounties will be tested again next weekend in games against the Holland College Hurricanes and University of New Brunswick Saint John Sea Wolves. The Hurricanes will be a very tough test, as they currently sit second in the ACAA and are ranked eighth in the country. The Sea Wolves, on the other hand, are below .500 on the season, but are one spot, and four points, behind the Mounties in the ACAA standings.

Sackville might be small, but that doesn’t mean you can’t run ‘The Mile’

York Street One of the more prominent streets in town, this route is

against them, not only made me proud of how far we’ve come, but it showed STU that we are not a team to be taken lightly,” said setter Jasleen Singh.

Coach Paul Settle’s side are currently in second place with a record of seven wins and two losses, trailing only the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics, who have won all nine of their games.

“I think this win really helped to establish our team as a dominant force in the league. It showed that we have improved and developed since the beginning of the year, and that we are still building up to our best in time for playoffs next month,” said team veteran Georgia Sibold.

Bedard scores career-high 29 in win

Sex Bomb

Urban Dictionary defines a “Naked Mile” as “An event held at some colleges where the students get naked and run along a route that is one mile long,” the creation of which was allegedly in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in collaboration with the University of Michigan.

You might be more familiar with the naked mile after losing a bet, or not sinking a cup in beer pong. Don’t be nervous; the experienced writers of Sex Bomb are here to try our best to make sure that your sprint onto the pages of the sex offender registry (see section 174 of the criminal code for more information) is as pleasant as possible.

Sports in brief Compiled by: Benjamin Foster, Sam Shury

Sam Shury

The Mounties women’s basketball team played three games this past week. The team won against the Crandall Chargers on Wednesday, but lost back-to-back games over the weekend against the Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) Mystics and the University of King’s College (UKC) Blue Devils.

The Mounties displayed their defensive prowess on Wednesday, holding the Chargers to forty points, and just five in the fourth quarter.

They were able to pick up the win easily by a final score of 61-43.

The weekend was certainly a disappointment for the Mounties, and one with significant standings implications. The Mounties went into the weekend third place in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA), but were passed in the standings by both teams they played, falling to sixth place.

Saturday, against MSVU, was a close match with the Mounties making a late fourth quarter charge that came up just short. Behind a very balanced scoring attack, the Mystics came out on top 5854. The Mounties were led by guard Maddyson McDonald, who scored a season-high twenty points in the game.

Sunday was equally

11

for the dangerous ‘miler’. As a member of the prominent York Street Miler club, you’ll have to start from one of Sackville’s only traffic lights, and hope that you’ll have enough stamina to make it up the gruesome hill that connects York with Salem. Finally, wave to the friendly visitors at the Owens Art Gallery. Who knows, you might be the next Owens resident performance artist.

Bridge Street Starting at the traffic light, you’ll have to pass the boisterous night life of downtown Sackville. Once clear of the three licensed establishments of downtown, you can run until your heart desires. The best place to cap your mile is at the NAPA Auto Parts. You’ll be able to

determine your proximity by the flashing yellow crosswalk light. Once you have arrived, you’ll really ‘know how’ the naked mile works.

Salem Street An alternative mile could be the Salem Street run. One of the longer streets in the bustling metropolis of Sackville, you should agree on an end point for the mile. Otherwise, you could find yourself halfway to the Dorchester Federal Penitentiary—which wouldn’t be a terrible thing, considering you could be spending the night there if the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spot you on your trek.

Lorne Street Arguably the best location

to run a low-profile mile, your biggest task will be passing by Sackville’s other post-secondary institute. The Tantramar Seniors’ College is home to students aged fifty and over, and offers classes such as investing and colourful fall hikes for seniors. Fortunately, all classes are on weekdays and end by 5 pm. It’s good to be weary of the night owls though, as rumour has it that some students like to stay late.

Whether you make your run through a high-traffic street, or on a smaller side street, we will still love you in the name of pride. The writers of Sex Bomb advise that you remain three sheets to the wind during your bolt. May quickness and agility be with you in your jaunt.

The Mount Allison men’s basketball team had a busy week, winning only one of the three matchups. They played against the Crandall Chargers, Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) Mystics, and University of King’s College (UKC) Blue Devils, respectively.

On Wednesday, the Mounties played the Crandall Chargers, the fourth ranked Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association team in the country. After keeping the game close through three quarters, Crandall utilized their size advantage down low and pulled away with a 102-88 win.

On Saturday, Kaleefah

Henry scored twenty-three points for the Mounties against MSVU, but the Mounties fell 95-76 in what senior guard Jordan Bedard described as a “very off game.”

The Mounties capped off their busy week with a decisive 84-57 win over the UKC Blue Devils. Bedard led the way in the win, scoring a collegiate career-high twenty-nine points on 13-16 shooting, adding seven rebounds and three steals.

The Mounties will play twice next weekend, taking on the University of New Brunswick Saint John on Saturday before playing at home against the Holland College Hurricanes on Sunday.

Mt. A’s men’s basketball team now sits fourth in the ACAA. Last year, the team finsihed fifth in the league, but lost ACAA Player of the Year Ben Chisholm. Coach Duane Starratt has rallied the team with a new set of players including Chisholm’s brother Alex. Catch the team at McCormack Gym as they continue their hunt for an ACAA title.

(Chris Donovan/Argosy)

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ARTS & LITERATURE Art shop and studio opens downtown A PROLONGED HOLIDAY SEASON WITH SUZIE LEBLANC Soprano’s guest recital celebrates Acadian winter traditions EXTENDED ARTICLE: THE HISTORY OF 7 MONDAYS Recalling the history of Mt. A’s oldest literary journal

Earth features artwork from local artists

Keegan Smith Darin Bavis gets his inspiration from nature. That’s why, when he and his wife Michelle Beaulieu opened their new art shop—and Bavis’s new studio—they chose to name it Earth. Situated beside Pridham’s Studio on York Street, the shop is an outlet for several local artists, all of whom are personal acquaintances.

“Every single artist that’s in here is someone we would consider a friend,” Bavis said.

“We have connections with a lot of them.” That sense of connection is important for the couple, having moved to Sackville just over a year ago to be closer to the community.

Looking around the store, it’s not hard to see where that importance comes from— members of his network even provide the raw materials for Bavis’s mushroom art.

“People bring me in here,” says Beaulieu, “The mushrooms all the time,” shelves, the painting… he’s he says. “It beats going to very handy.” The sense of Michael’s for art supplies!” inclusion, too, is palpable—in Sustainably the short har vesting time it took tree fungi I’ll take pieces from to gather f r o m information this shop and promote around the for this p r o v i n c e , shopping in Sackville, article, I met Bavis then to send people this way. several local dehydrates artists and and inks the browsing Darin Bavis p a t r o n s , mushrooms Co-owner of Earth art B e a u l i e u ’s to produce intricately shop mother, a detailed dog, and pieces. He shared a also keeps birthday some on hand—a basket with five-year-old Oliver of chaga mushrooms sit on (who was excited to have his picture taken before the counter, where their going home to his presents). potent anticancer properties Bavis trades some of their are proudly proclaimed art at the Moncton market. (“They make a great tea!”

“I’ll take pieces from this remarked a visiting artist). shop,” he says, “and promote While their shingle and shopping in Sackville, to send window display are lovely, people down this way.” While it’s when standing inside using the space as a live studio and talking to the pair for his own work, he also that you can really sense wants to hold demonstrations their creative energy. That of live art in the open space energy has already been beside Earth. “I’m inviting invested into the space itself.

Nick, the guy who does the “Darin built everything

glassblowing for these pieces,” he says, gesturing to a nearby collection of glass jewelry.

They’re also interested in making connections with Mount Allison’s vibrant young artists. This is the kind of relationship that is encouraged by the university.

“It really is about the network, and making those connections,” says Rebecca Blankert, this year’s Owens Gallery intern. “And I think that’s a really important part of being an artist…

I think Mt. A, Sackville and the local community is really unique in that we have an abundance of that.”

Bavis and Beaulieu’s desire to spread their roots into the soil of Sackville is matched by their friendliness, and their optimism. They say that they’ve enjoyed their time in town so far, and look forward to the future with Earth.

“I’m sure that as time goes along, we’ll just keep meeting more of these incredible people with incredible talents,” says Beaulieu.

January 23, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Darin Bavis, Michelle Beaulieu, and son Oliver at Earth. The new shop features unique work from local artists. (Keegan Smith/Argosy)

Head à Tête not your average children’s play Bilingual play entertaining for all ages Michael Dover Last Saturday the familiar marble clad lobby of Convocation Hall was transformed into a barren, post-apocalyptic hellscape replete with haunting winds and howling wolves. This was the setting of Head À Tête, Windsor theatre’s latest production. The ambitious one act play explores the enduring power of friendship through the characters Yves and Adam, two isolated survivors of an unexplained armageddon who are drawn together over the miraculous discovery of a living tree.

Yves, a francophone performed by Victoria Vallier, and Adam, an anglophone performed by Natalie Walsh, are forced to reconcile their differences and work together despite the language barrier that divides them. The resulting script is a touching, bilingual commentary on the enduring power of compassion and empathy in the face of greed and desperation. Clearly, Head À Tête is not a typical example of children’s theatre, but that is something director Gregory McLaughlin is proud

Windsor Theatre innovatively staged Head à Tête in the lobby of Convocation Hall, transforming it into a minimalist post-apocalyptic setting. (Paul Del Motte/Windsor Theatre) of.

Head À Tête, written by David S. Craig and Robert Morgan, is described by McLaughlin as a “rare gem” among children’s plays that is able to “connect with all audiences.”

McLaughlin’s production certainly proved its versatility, captivating a room full of fifth graders at Sackville’s Marshview Middle School before it was unveiled

to a more mature audience at Mount Allison on Saturday afternoon.

Vallier and Walsh both appreciated the opportunity to perform before such a large group of children. “It was so much fun,” Vallier said. “There was constant narration from the audience—just so much reaction that we could build off.”

McLaughlin was equally

excited by the children’s reactions, explaining that, “with so much of the grown up theatre we see, you go in, you sit down, you applaud when it’s appropriate and then you leave; but with children that format just doesn’t work.”

The interactive nature of the play was further evident in the set designed by Jeanne Fries and Jasmine Keillor.

The audience had the option

of either sitting in folding chairs or reclining on pillows arranged before the stage for a truly immersive theatrical experience. The stage design was minimalist, which both emphasized the importance of the single warped tree that drove the conflict between Yves and Adam, and also helped to create the image of a bleak world devoid of life. The costumes, designed

by Kendrick Haunt, were artistically tattered and complimented the play’s hostile setting.

Head À Tête was an enthralling production that was alternately funny, heart warming, and inspirational.

It is a play that, while written for children, can truly be appreciated by all audiences, regardless of their age.

The Argosy

ARTS & LITERATURE

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Social change through theatre Theatre of the Oppressed to visit Mt. A Daniel Marcotte & Julia McMillan Arts & Literature Staff

Mount Allison’s Centre for International Studies (CIS) will present a workshop with Theatre of the Oppressed director Luciano Iogna at the end of the month, an event that hopes to explore creative methods of engaging with global issues. Though the workshop will focus primarily on theatre’s role in political activism and deconstructing power systems, Iogna’s broader goal is to help students consider how different disciplines can be combined in order to precipitate political and social change.

Originally founded in Brazil

in the 1960s as a response to the military dictatorship, Theatre of the Oppressed is an organization that exists worldwide to bring national and international voices to the stage and foster education and community building around the globe. The workshop will be led by Luciano Iogna, a Toronto-based director for Theatre of the Oppressed who has worked in India, China, Turkey, and other countries to discuss issues of poverty, health, discrimination, and inequality through the medium of dramatic performance. He has recently been nominated for two Dora Awards for his plays Showdown and How Can You Tell? that were produced

by Mixed Company Theatre in Toronto, both of which have been translated into several languages and continue to gain acclaim around the world.

“My goal in this brief talk,” Iogna said, “is [...] to recognize and appreciate the power of theatre as a wonderfully

potent tool for positive social change.”

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of Theatre of the Oppressed, many have praised its productions and participants for their ability to borrow elements from the Arts, the Sciences, and Social Sciences, and forge them into a new method of combating global injustice.

In this way, all students can benefit from Iogna’s workshop by experiencing one successful example of how these areas of study can instigate tangible and positive effects.

“For people with a theatre background, I think it will be an exciting experience to be able to tie their creative pursuits into real-world scenarios,” said Becky Lockert, the Co-Coordinator of CIS. “For people with a development, sociology, or other more academicallyminded background, I think that they will be challenged with considering alternative

forms of engagement.”

Lockert also said that this collaboration across disciplines has recently become an increasing priority for the CIS, and that this opportunity is one that strives to meet those goals.

“By reaching out into the arts community in Sackville, I think we are able to help bridge the gap between disciplines and perhaps introduce people to new ideas and collaborations that they otherwise would not have thought of,” Lockert said.

Students expect to expand their repertoires in this way and ultimately attempt to answer his definitive question: “Are you willing to put yourself in harm’s way to stand with that [oppressed] community?”

Students can sign up for the workshop on the CIS website.

The workshop is limited to twenty-four individuals and takes place on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, with a one-hour public talk at 5 pm on Jan. 31.

Comfort food for winter Italian chicken chili with pancetta coutons Allison Abernethy As a student, it’s not always easy to buy local, or cook the kind of meals we really want to eat (hence the Kraft Dinner we find hiding away in our cupboards). But this year, let the The Argosy’s food column take care of all your culinary needs!

Cooking healthy meals shouldn’t have to cost a fortune, and so we’ll help you learn to make easy and affordable meals that support local businesses. Try these recipes for yourself—and don’t be afraid to get creative! This was one of the first dishes I ever made for my family. It’s comforting, warm and perfect for this cold time of year.

Italian Chicken Chili with Pancetta Croutons This dish tastes better the longer it simmers, so feel free to make it on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It tastes even better as leftovers, if there are any!

This recipe uses lots of easy to find ingredients, takes very little effort, and it tastes fantastic. Your roommates will be begging for the recipe!

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 lbs. ground chicken/pork* Salt and pepper 2 onions, chopped 2-3 carrots, peeled and grated 1 bay leaf 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar 4 jarred roasted red peppers

This winter, try to incorporate local, seasonal produce into your cooking routine. This chili recipe provides a great opportunity to experiment with new flavours and ingredients. (Rachel Ray) (found near the pickles) 4-5 sprigs or 1 tbsp. dried thyme 2 tbsp. chili powder 2 tsp. sweet smoked paprika 1/4 tsp. ground allspice 1 32 ounce container (4-5 cups) chicken broth (depends on desired thickness) 1/3 pound pancetta or thick cut bacon, finely chopped** 3 tbsp. butter, cut into pieces 1 loaf crusty bread, cut into one-inch squares (day old sourdough/baguette is best) 6 large cloves garlic, crushed 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano (or Parmesan) cheese 3 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary In a large pot heat ¼ cup olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until lightly browned, and season with salt and pepper for

about five minutes. Next, add the carrots, onions and bay leaf and cook until browned, which will take another eight minutes. Add the balsamic, chicken broth and keep pot on simmer. In a blender or food processor, blend red peppers into a smooth paste (puree) and add to the pot then add thyme, chili powder paprika and all spice, simmer on low heat.

Meanwhile, heat a small frying pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook pancetta until crispy about three to five minutes, and transfer to a small plate. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and add the butter to the pancetta drippings. Place bread and garlic into a large bowl, and pour the butter mixture evenly over the bread.

Proceed to add the pancetta,

cheese, rosemary and lots of pepper. Coat the bread and place it on a baking sheet, and bake for ten to fifteen minutes, flipping the bread around every five minutes.

Once the chili is ready to be served, remove the thyme springs and bay leaf. Serve the chili in bowls and top with the pancetta croutons; serve with a simple salad and a great red wine. *Substitute a mix of kidney beans and sautéed mushrooms and vegetable broth for a vegetarian alternative **Pancetta is the Italian cousin of bacon— it is cured like bacon but not smoked.

Tip: This works in a slow cooker: Brown ground chicken and vegetables then add spices and liquids, and cook on high for at least four hours.

13

A literary journal with a legacy Recalling the history of 7 Mondays Julia McMillan

Arts & Literature Editor

What’s in a name? The question, as it pertains to 7 Mondays, Mount Allison’s oldest student-edited creative journal, is one that has been thrown around by students for years. Is it an obscure literary reference that no one recognizes? Is it a club that meets at 7:00 pm on Monday?

Or is it perhaps just an arbitrary title for a magazine? In fact, none of these theories are correct. Rather, the origin of the journal’s name is indicative of its twenty-year long history, and its beginnings as a journal born out of administrative controversy, student initiative, and the need for a creative outlet on campus.

As we know it today, 7 Mondays is a society that produces the university’s annual literary and photography journal, which features works of poetry, prose, playwriting, and photography.

It is produced through Anchorage Press, a Jolicurebased printing press run by fine-arts professor Thaddeus Holownia. Holownia is also the journal’s designer and manages photo submissions.

7 Mondays serves as an outlet for budding writers and photographers to publish their work in a supportive, professional, and creative environment.

However, as 7 Mondays prepares for a students’ unionsponsored referendum asking the student-body to restore their former three dollar student levy, the question that students are being asked is: Why should we care?

As it turns out, the answer to this question is intimately linked to the question regarding the origin of the journal’s name. In 1994, after a group of students and faculty began to notice a void in the campus’ artistic landscape, they too began to wonder if they should care more about the literary arts.

They decided they should.

In an effort to build a stronger artistic community, the idea to create a literary journal was already in the works when, in 1995, former university president Ian Newbould abruptly cut funding for the English Department’s writerin-residence program, without explanation. Poet Elin Elgaard had been hired for the position just before the program was discontinued.

However, Elgaard was married to Michael Thorpe, an English professor who

publicly opposed many of Newbould’s policies. The connection between the discontinued program and Elgaard’s relationship to the outspoken Professor Thorpe was viewed as more than coincidental.

With that in mind, Elgaard brought the case to the Human Rights Commission, where she filed a complaint of marital status discrimination in employment against the university. After a drawn out process, Elgaard won the case against the administration in 2000.

In the meantime however, Elgaard began to act as the unofficial writer-in-residence, and together with a group of dedicated students they produced the first volume of 7 Mondays. It took seven weeks of Monday night meetings to produce the journal—hence the name 7 Mondays.

“Elin’s choice [to become involved with the journal] was, I think, a way to respond positively to the Administration’s [sic] fiat,” Thorpe wrote via email.

In a way, that is the answer to the question ‘why should we care?’ As students, we should care about artistic endeavours because we—like the first group of editors—have the ability to create a positive and meaningful legacy that builds an enduring creative community.

7 Mondays has been published annually since 1995, and has been funded by a three-dollar student levy from the students’ union since 2000.

This funding continued until last year, when students voted against a referendum to renew the levy.

Although 7 Mondays did not receive financial support from students in 2013, the journal will still be produced as usual, due to a budgetary surplus that had been building over the years.

“One of the problems with the old system is that the way the referendum question was worded, there were sharp restrictions with what we could do with that money,” said 7 Mondays editor Sean McDonell. “We were only allowed to publish the magazine and buy ourselves dinner to celebrate.”

The editorial team hopes to change this system so that any left over money can go towards presenting more public readings and events that continue to foster an artistic legacy that answers the question, ‘why should we care about funding the arts?’

On Jan. 27-28, students can vote online either for or against a three dollar per annum student levy to continue supporting 7 Mondays. To submit to the journal, email 7mondays@gmail.com by Jan. 27.

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SCIENCE

PHYSICS WEEK HITS MOUNT ALLISON Students flock to celebrate all things physics ROGERS TO RELEASE STREAMING SERVICE Canadian media giant to compete with the likes of Netflix, Hulu

Honours Profile Maggie MacKinnon

Degenerative eye disorders could soon be treatable

For a select few, gene therapy is improving sight. Thanks to research out of Oxford University, the vision of six patients has improved significantly. Their research is based on renewing the dying cells along the back of the eye.

At the moment, gene therapy is only being used to treat choroideremia (an X-chromosome-linked degenerative disease in the eye). Nevertheless, it is looking hopeful that it will be able to extend further and have the potential to attack multiple roots of blindness.

Allison O’Reilly

Science Editor

Maggie MacKinnon is a fourth-year biology honours student working with Matt Litvak. Her research involves embryonic development of the zebrafish species Danio rerio.

MacKinnon’s thesis is entitled “Zebrafish and chicken yolk injections in early embryonic development and its effects in zebrafish larvae.” Her research involves collecting zebrafish embryos and administering microinjections.

Microinjections involve using a micropipette to manipulate the volume of an embryo’s yolk sac.

By making various changes in the embryo’s yolk sac, MacKinnon will track the development into larvae, and observe what changes occur from having more, or less, yolk. By conducting these manipulations, McKinnon can discern the potential benefits (or detriments) that arise with having yolks of different sizes.

MacKinnon’s research aim is to look at early life strategies in the zebrafish.

This is important in terms of conservation, as climate change can have a significant impact on the early life stages of aquatic life.

In zebrafish embryos, wide ranges of sizes are observed. Bigger is often considered to be better, but that’s not necessarily the case; MacKinnon aims to shed light on why variability on yolk sac

sizes exist.

Working with Litvak was considered a natural choice for MacKinnon. One of Litvak’s areas of expertise is aquaculture (the farming of aquatic organisms), which fits with MacKinnon’s study. “[Litvak] developed the microinjection technique,” MacKinnon said. “I found his research extremely interesting.”

By manipulating yolk sac size through microinjections, one can determine a diet needed in order to achieve that size by observing the structures within the sac, such as fatty acids. This is a more efficient way compared to other diet studies, which involve manipulating fish diets, followed by yolk sac measurements.

After larvae development, MacKinnon has been taking several measurements, such as duration to hatching, standard length, body area, and yolk sac utilization efficiency.

MacKinnon has been interested in biology for as long as she can remember.

“Both of my parents are biologists,” MacKinnon said, “so when you live with two parents who are [biologists], you are always aware of what’s going on in the science world and the environment.”

As for her current research, MacKinnon is enjoying the work she’s doing.

“I like working with things that you can see. With my project, you can actually see the embryos grow and develop,” MacKinnon said.

argosy@mta.ca

Gene therapy used to cure eye disorders

Sarah-Anne Steeves

Biology honours student Maggie MacKinnon working in her lab.

(Maggie MacKinnon/Submitted)

January 23, 2014

The treatment works by injecting working genes into the dying cells that line the back of the eye. Those who have choroideremia have a faulty gene that causes the light detecting cells at the back of the eye to gradually die with time. Gene therapy works by injecting a functioning gene into the cells, and once these new functioning genes are integrated into the cells, further degeneration is prevented.

Patient Jonathan Wyatt said that the surgery was like he had “come to the edge of an abyss.”

The effects are instant.

The patient’s sight begins to improve immediately upon completion of the operation.

For many who suffer from vision loss, it is an unthinkable reality to reverse the devastation caused by the lost sense. Over the past twentyfive years of gene therapy,

patient Wayne Thompson’s life has been shadowed by an impending blindness. Now after receiving the life altering surgery, he says “I hope I’ll see my grandchildren grow up.”

Those who suffer from choroideremia begin to notice difficulty seeing at night at some point in their teenage years. Their diagnosis is confining. They will gradually lose vision until they lose it all sometime during their forties.

This new research is promising a very different life for those who suffer from the genetic disorder. In the early stages of the disease, the operation is not only stabilizing the patient’s vision but improving it. With a degenerative disorder such as choroideremia, the earlier the treatment, the better the potential recovery is.

The potential of the operation is extending beyond the treatment of

choroideremia.

Macular degeneration, a common disease that affects one in four over the age of seventyfive, is next to get the gene therapy treatment. Macular degeneration affects the same cells as choroideremia, and although the implanted genes would be different, it is hopeful that this technique will one day cure this and many other causes of blindness.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People claims that this may not be the cure to blindness.

“It is at an early stage at the moment, but it does offer hope for other conditions that have a genetic basis such as macular degeneration and glaucoma,” she said.

While it is still impossible to say where this technology will lead or even whether or not it will cure blindness, the future is looking promising.

Mt. A professor receives grant MacCormack granted CFI funding Keegan Smith Mount Allison biochemistry professor Tyson MacCormack has received research funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for a new study he is leading on potential toxic impacts of nanoparticles on aquatic ecosystems.

First described scientifically

by Michael Faraday in 1857, nanomaterials are widely used in an emerging manufacturing sector. A nanoparticle is defined as any object with at least one dimension of less than one hundred nanometers.

“Nanoparticles are now being released into the environment in significant quantities, and have unique properties compared to chemicals traditionally used in consumer products,” says MacCormack. “We are hoping to test for nanomaterial toxicity in fish, determine what nanoparticle characteristics lead to these effects, and what it means for our aquatic environments.”

Research on nanoparticle environmental impact is limited—something MacCormack’s team hopes to change. In particular, their CFI funding will be used to acquire an instrument to characterize nanoparticles produced and studied in the lab. The instrument will allow researchers to examine the reflectance patterns of

Student Kathryn Butler attaching ECG electrodes to a white sucker fish. (Keegan Smith/Submitted) a nanoparticle suspension in order to determine the stability and behaviour of the materials.

Once the particles are characterized, they will then be tested on fish in a swim-tunnel respirometer—a device used to assess the metabolic activity of the fish, and monitor changes that could indicate a potential toxic reaction. The ultimate goal is to connect biological effects with molecular structures in order to predict a nanoparticle’s impact.

“The idea is to find a set of general properties, and then provide this to industry,” says MacCormack. “They can say, ‘If we change the shape from this to this, the toxicity will decrease, but we’ll retain these

important properties.’”

One key difficulty is disentangling complex systems, inherent to both the natural environment, where a variety of toxins may interact, and the chemistry of the nanoparticles themselves.

“In general, the impacts are quite complicated, mainly due to the complex nature of the structure of nanoparticles,” says Peng Zhang, whose group is studying the structure and biomedical properties of noble metal nanoparticles at Dalhousie University.

“For instance, the biomedical activities of metal nanoparticles sometimes were found to be sensitive to the size, shape, and composition of the particles. In order to

thoroughly understand these impacts, it is important to understand the structure of nanoparticles at atomic level and then correlate such structural information with their biomedical performance.”

MacCormack’s group is hoping to do just that, because for all their potential impacts, nanoparticles also hold considerable promise.

Advancements in fuel efficiency, water filtration, and drug efficacy are all examples of ways in which nanoparticle research has already begun to improve our society.

“The idea isn’t to slow down industry,” says MacCormack, “Just to make sure that things happen responsibly.”

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January 23, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

The Argosy is hiring its

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF for the 2014-2015 publishing year

Qualifications:

Excellent leadership skills Interest in student journalism Experience in editing and design an asset Must be a Mt. A Student

Term: May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015 Honorarium $5000 paid quarterly

Please submit a cover letter and resume to:

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Feb. 6, 2014