The Argosy, January 30 2014

Mount Allison’s

THE Jaunuary 30, 2014

ARGOSY Independent Student Newspaper

On strike since 1872

Vol. 143 Iss. 15

Faculty strike at Mount Allison Professors picket to ‘protect the academic mission’ Christopher Balcom News Editor

Classes have been suspended indefinitely at Mount Allison University, as professors and librarians began picketing outside entrances to campus Monday morning. The strike deadline set last week by the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) expired following a series of lastminute meetings over the weekend.

“We had hoped that there was a possibility of getting a settlement this weekend,” MAFA President Loralea Michaelis told The Argosy.

“The employer is still sticking to proposals that our members have told us are unacceptable,” she said.

Michaelis said that the university proposals regarding faculty concerns about workload, support for the academic mission, replacements for leave, salaries, pensions, benefits, and pay for part-time faculty remain virtually unchanged.

Only one major proposal, restructuring the sabbatical decisionmaking process, was taken off the table, Michaelis said.

But the university’s administration sees matters differently.

“The faculty association has said that its core issues are academic control and freedom,” wrote Mount Allison’s vice-president Karen Grant in a Mt. A press release.

“The university has not put forward a single proposal that restricts, inhibits, or compromises academic freedom or

the control of individuals’ teaching or research in any way. We have repeatedly asked the faculty association to tell us which proposals they take issue with.

They have not responded,” read the release.

Michaelis challenged the factuality of the press release. “[The university’s negotiators] have been told over and over again, since negotiations began, why it is we find their proposals objectionable,” she said.

“I am disappointed. I was very hopeful that we’d be able to get to a settlement,” Grant told The Argosy.

“I think that the university team was very eager and committed to trying to get to a settlement over the course of the weekend,” she said.

“Our team presented different proposals trying to find a way to address concerns that had been expressed by the faculty association.”

Grant said the university is doing

the best it can under the circumstances to ensure students are able to stay focused on their studies.

There are no plans for negotiations to resume at this time.

On Sunday night the administration sent out an email to students through vice-president Ron Byrne. All classes, labs, and tutorials at Mt. A have been suspended until further notice.

Other university services will continue to operate as normal.

Mt. A faculty learned at the end of last week that they would continue to have access to their university email throughout the strike. The university issued a memo to the faculty association on Thursday, outlining the conditions of strike action.

Michaelis described the memo as unusual. She said strike protocol is generally negotiated in advance with both parties, but this time, the university simply issued a decree.

“The university said at the table quite explicitly that a protocol under the conditions of a strike would not be subject to negotiation,” Grant said.

MAFA felt the memo was ambiguous in some respects, and met with Grant to discuss their concerns.

They were mainly concerned with access to university buildings.

Grant responded to MAFA’s concerns by clarifying that there would be no additional restrictions on access to the daycare, residences (for faculty who have children living on-campus), and faculty who worship at the campus chapel.

Michaelis said MAFA is still hoping for additional clarification from the university for professors, and lab researchers in particular, who need

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Mt. A faculty and librarians hit the picket lines Jan. 27 as negotiations for a new collective agreement between MAFA and the university stalled. (Chris Donovan/Argosy)

News

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Counselling not for Marcotte on mental ‘serious’ illness: Pg. 2 health at Mt. A: Pg. 6

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Volleyball still strong Meth won’t give you despite loss: Pg. 11 super powers: Pg. 14

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GLOBAL BRIGADES SPARKS DISCUSSION LEAD CONTAMINATION ON CAMPUS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & MAFA STRIKE FULL ARTICLE: NEW MASU EXECUTIVE ELECTED

NEWS New MASU Executive elected

7 Mondays referendum result unclear Kevin Levangie

Political Beat Writer

The Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) executive election has concluded.

In May, Heather Webster will assume the office of president; Kyle

Nimmrichter that of vicepresident, academic affairs; Annie Sherry that of vicepresident, external affairs; and Andrew Johnston that of vice-president, campus life. A vice-president, finance and operations and a vicepresident, communications are to be hired to fill the two remaining executive positions.

As of press time, confusion surrounds the 7 Mondays referendum, which asked for a three-dollar levy to

support operations.

The MASU email sent at 9:43 pm on Jan. 28 indicated that the referendum failed to pass, only garnering 64.8 per cent of votes in favour, failing to reach a two-thirds majority.

MASU Chief Returning Officer Erika Maxwell said that she and Vice-President, Finance and Operations Josh Outerbridge needed to consult the constitution as they were uncertain if the referendum needed the twothirds majority or a simple

majority of fifty per cent plus one.

Karissa LaRocque, the president of 7 Mondays, indicated at 10:30 pm that Maxwell contacted her before the results were released, informing her that the referendum had failed to pass. Speaking to The Argosy, LaRocque said, “What I am trying to figure out now is do we fall under a constitutional change, or do we fall under all other questions? Are we a part of the constitution of the

MASU pledges neutrality during strike Student Unions at both UNB and MTA not taking sides Kevin Levangie

Political Beat Writer The Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) has elected to remain neutral during the ongoing contract renegotiation and recent strike at Mount Allison University.

“We think that it’s important that in the event of a strike and when that concludes that we be able to continue to work with both parties, both the administration and the faculty. For that reason we felt that it was in the best interests of students to remain neutral,” MASU President Melissa O’Rourke told The Argosy.

O’Rourke pointed out that despite the University of New Brunswick Student Union advocating for students to avoid paying tuition until a settlement is reached, they still maintained a neutral stance throughout the negotiation.

UNB’s administration pushed back tuition deadlines.

MASU did not take a position on Mt. A students paying tuition. A Jan. 14 email to the student body from MASU Vice-President Academic Affairs Ryan Harley read, “the Mount Allison Students’ Union has no intention of taking a stance on whether or not tuition should be paid on time.”

While some students have not paid, the deadline for tuition payment was last Monday.

Mt. A students Erik Sin and Alex Thomas are among those who have refused to pay tuition. They had planned to attempt organizing students to withhold tuition proportionally to the amount of class time lost.

“We were wondering what we as students could do about an impending strike. [We decided that] if we could get enough people not paying their tuition, we could force the university and faculty to negotiate more quickly,” Sin said.

Sin and Thomas met with O’Rourke about the issue, and were disappointed with the MASU decision to remain neutral on tuition non-payment. Thomas said: “The neutrality seems like a big avenue lost. […] They

never said, ‘here are the pros and cons of taking this kind of a stance.”

O’Rourke said that when Sin and Thomas had spoken with her the tuition deadline had passed, and no news of the strike had been confirmed. “Who is a six-person executive to tell students not to pay their tuition when the university has blatantly told us that they won’t extend deadlines?”

Given the roadblock in negotiations at UNB, UNBSU voted on Jan. 19 to stage a demonstration on behalf of student interests, asking the two sides to return to the table. O’Rourke said that there are no plans for a protest until the situation develops further.

The MASU executive has been researching and contacting other university student unions concerning lobbying the administration for tuition rebates for students to make up for lost class time, though O’Rourke said “it honestly depends on the length of the strike,” concluding “at the end of the day, students are providing money for a service they are not receiving. With that in mind taking a look at a tuition rebate doesn’t seem like an unreasonable thing to ask for.”

O’Rourke said the MASU executive will compile the student questions gathered at the Jan. 29 Q & A session and submit them to both MAFA and the administration, saying, “We’re hoping both sides will provide answers, and then we’re hoping to make those answers public.” MASU also plans to meet with the administration and MAFA, who have both agreed to meet with the MASU executive daily if they so wish. MASU will also help organize student study groups with student life to help students keep up with their studies.

MASU’s lobbying efforts during the negotiations have focused on the usage of Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) in the hiring and promotion process of professors, consisting of a submission to both negotiating teams in November.

“My immediate impression is that I think that students were initially relieved. We were wondering if it was going to happen, so when we had a definite answer it brought a level of relief,” O’Rourke said, also speculating that such relief is “unlikely to last long.”

January 30, 2014

MASU? I asked Erika what she thought, and she said ‘I’m not sure, I’m looking into it.”

Voter turnout, sitting at thirty-nine per cent, was similar to last year, despite concern that students would neglect voting because of the strike. Last year 43.4 per cent of students turned out for the various votes. 970 students voted, either online or at a polling station on campus.

39.6 per cent of students voted for the position of president, thirty-nine per cent for the

Continued from cover

argosy@mta.ca

position of vice-president, academic affairs, 39.2 per cent for vice-president, campus life, 39.3 per cent for vicepresident, external affairs, and 38.2 per cent for the referendum.

MASU President Melissa O’Rourke said a lower turnout was expected: “Given the circumstances with the strike, I don’t think it is something that is particularly surprising.”

Read the full article online at argosy.ca.

body.

The Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) continues to maintain a neutral position. to access time-sensitive “At the end of the day, experiments. we feel that being neutral “The union doesn’t want […] is in the best interests it’s members crossing the of students,” said MASU picket line, but there are some President Melissa O’Rourke. circumstances in which that “For us to be able to has to happen in order for continue enhancing the people’s long-term research student experience at Mt. projects not to be capsized,” A, it really is important that Michaelis said. we’re able to work with both A second memo issued parties,” O’Rourke said. from Grant’s office stated that “[W]e want to see this MAFA’s other queries were resolved as quickly as possible, covered by we want to see the original the parties document. return to F a c u l t y “This is our the table as may be able education, and we quickly as to access they can, and c a m p u s really want to see a we want to b u i l d i n g s solution found.” see a minimal between disruption 3:00 and of classes for 4:00 pm Melissa O’Rourke students,” she Monday MASU President said. to Friday, “This is our with prior education, and permission we really want from Grant’s office. to see a solution found.”

The university shows no “Students […] need to sign of reneging on its earlier try to find a place in the promise not to lock out conversation we’re having, faculty until after convocation with the administration, but in May. The administration also with the public, about the requested that faculty who do future of Mount Allison as a not plan on striking inform university,” Michaelis said. the university within twenty“We hope for a settlement, four hours of the strike. and we also hope at the end They would resume other of all this we will all have responsibilities, but would not a better understanding of be able to teach. what’s at stake than we did The strike also raises when it began,” Michaelis questions about the impact said, adding that the strike on other stakeholders in the was a “last resort.” process, namely the student

The Argosy

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NEWS

Mental health acknowleged in MASU election Concerns over Mt. A’s mental health services Miriam Namakanda News Writer

Mount Allison University recently announced that its counselling services are not intended to help students with mental illnesses, but rather to meet short-term guidance needs.

Last week Mt. A’s Director of Student Life Gayle Churchill issued an email to students that explained the university is undertaking a “mission to adopt a systematic approach to mental health” and can assist students with “guidance for personal concerns.” The email also explicitly stated that the university would not be able to assist students with their severe or chronic mental

illness issues.

Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) VicePresident Campus Life Heather Webster focused on improving mental health services throughout her past term and during her successful presidential campaign. She said that since the inclusion mental health services in her presidential platform she has received some feedback from students. “I have had a few people come in and tell me stories [like] last term [they] had to go home because there is nothing here in Sackville.”

MASU’s Vice-President External Affairs-elect Annie Sherry also gave the topic special attention during her recent campaign.

Sherry hopes to lobby the government at the provincial and federal levels in her new position. Sherry said Mt. A “taken so many steps forward over the past year on addressing mental health issues/services and I would love to see it continue and enable our service to flourish.”

Wellness Centre services have been clarified. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) This sentiment was echoed

by Webster who said “Mt. A is pretty good, there’s not a lot of stigma around mental health, and the general services around mental health are good.” Webster hopes to continue working with the administration to provide more mental health services on campus. She hopes to continue trying to organize “a psychiatrist to come in once every week or every two weeks” as she had been in her

term as vice-president.

Sherry will focus on lobbying for mental health services outside the university as vice-president external.

“My goal is to work with our federal and provincial lobby groups to get our government to realize how truly integral mental health is to university student’s lives,” she said, noting that she does not see the issue as specific to Mt. A. MASU is currently organizing a shuttle to help

student reach appointments in surrounding communities.

Ron Byrne, Mt. A’s vicepresident student affairs, said the university looks forward to engaging in a discussion with MASU representatives who identified mental health services in their election platforms. Byrne pointed out that through the university’s initiative a student mental health intern and mental health educator are working on campus around mental health awareness.

Churchill’s email stated that students in need of ongoing treatment for issues such as severe depression, severe anxiety, addictions, eating disorders, panic attacks, and sexual assault would have to seek treatment elsewhere. The list provided hotlines and contact information for mental health practitioners in surrounding communities.

“The university is concerned with helping students be proactive in meeting their mental health needs,” Byrne

3

said of Mt. A’s approach, adding that, “we will work with the student to help transition from counselling centre care to more suitable longer-term/chronic care resources.”

But this approach is not only unsatisfactory for those running for MASU positions: Among them is Sarah Collier, a first-year student at Mt. A. Her sister had been using the Wellness Centre but found that when she needed to visit during times of emergency no counsellors were available.

“She finds it is helpful to have someone outside her circle of friends, she just needed to talk to someone and often they weren’t available,” Collier said. Collier said that “Mt. A as a school in general does a good job,” noting that there are not many support groups in the area though there may be “things like The Elephant in the Room [awareness campaign], but with people who are really closed off,” this sort of group might be difficult to join.

Back to bargaining AUNBT and UNB to resume negotiations Cherise Letson, The Brunswickan FREDERICTON (CUP) — The University of New Brunswick and its professors are heading back to the negotiating table—because the government is telling them to.

Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Jody Carr announced Monday that the provincial government is directing the university and its professors back to the negotiating table under a provision in the Industrial Relations Act. Both parties will be working with a special external mediator appointed by the province.

The mediator—Brian Keller, an expert in labour law—will be meeting with the parties on Wednesday and Thursday.

“This appointment obliges the parties to return to the table, and underscores the new level of urgency to the process,” Carr said.

“This intervention demonstrates that the provincial government is actively trying to help the parties without interfering in, and respecting the collective bargaining process.”

Carr didn’t comment on what would happen if both parties don’t reach an agreement after this week, but said back-to-work legislation would be a last resort.

“Our focus for this week is to give both parties an opportunity to find the solution at the table,” he said.

“As for next steps and into the next weeks, that will be for another day.”

As for the situation with nursing students, Carr said they are hopeful

nurses will be able to complete their clinical hours by the end of February to complete their program.

“We’re still in that time frame and we’re hopeful as priority remains … that all students will not lose their term,” Carr said.

“We’re not certainly there yet.

We’re still hopeful that nurses will be able to complete their clinical hours, though time is certainly pressing on.”

Mount Allison University’s faculty also went on strike Monday, making it two New Brunswick universities with a faculty strike.

Carr said Mount Allison’s strike is being treated as a separate case.

“Each situation is unique.

Certainly we will monitor the Mount Allison situation and provide support under the Industrial Relations Act,” Carr said.

“We encourage for both parties to find the resolution for their situations and we’re hoping it will be with the most minimal impact for students.”

UNB Student Union president Ben Whitney said the announcement was welcome news.

“Any way that we can get them back to the table to get a hopefully fairly negotiated collective agreement is good,” Whitney said.

Though still worried for students, he said he supports anything that will get them back to class.

“I’ve been worried since day one about that,” he said. “But at the end of the day our main goal is to get students back in class and any way we can do that is good.”

UNBSU vice-president external Greg Bailey said he’s glad the government is stepping up to the plate.

“Right now for students, I guess it’s nice to know that we’re not alone.

Last week we got out and protested the fact both sides were not back at the table. So it’s nice to know that government has our back.”

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

SHIP’S LOG EVENTS

L o c a l Fo o d Night-C3 Launch!

Thursday Jan. 30, 5 – 8pm Jennings Hall Join us to kick off the 2014 Climate Change Challenge scheduled at Mt. A and other participating Maritime univers i t i e s f o r Fe b. 1 - 1 4 .

The dinner menu at Jennings Dining Hall will feature many locally sourced foods.

Cost for anyone without a full meal plan is $7.00 (HST i n c l . ) a t t h e d o o r.

All university community members are welcome!

C a t a l y s t ’s a u d i tions for drag show S u n d ay Fe b. 2 , 1 – 5pm WMSC Multipurpose Room

Pe r s o n a l f i n a n c e Q & A session

M on d ay Fe b. 3 , 4 – 5pm Avard Dixon Room 111 Learn about borrowing, saving, budgeting, and the associated lingo from a non-expert (examples like secured vs. un-

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

secured line of credits, tax free savings account, prime rate, credit scores, and reports). One hour long conversational meeting for banking beginners.

Facult y Council We d n e s d a y F e b . 5 , 3:30 – 5pm Flemington Auditorium 116

Student Success Course

We d n e s d a y F e b . 5 6 – 9pm Crabtree Auditorium Designed to help build the research, writing, critic a l t h i n k i n g , s t u d y, note-taking, and time management skills that will help students succeed in their courses.

A RT S & M U S I C P a v e l K o l e s n i k o v, piano

Fr iday Jan. 31, 8 – 10pm Conservatory of Music 2012 Laureate of the Honens International Piano Competition.

Brunton Auditorium, 8 pm. Tickets are $10 adults, $5 for students/seniors, $25 for f a m i l y. S u b s c r i p t i o n s for recitals are also

a v a i l a b l e. Fo r m o re information please email us at music@mta.ca or call 506-364-2374.

Pavel Kolesniko v masterclass S a t u rd ay Fe b. 1 , 10am – 12:30pm Conservatory of Music Admission is free, all are welcome to att e n d . Fo r m o re i n f o r mation please e-mail music@mta.ca or call 506-364-2374

C a n a d i a n Wr i t e r Reading Kim Thuy

Tu e s d a y F e b . 4 , 4:30 – 5:30pm Owens Art Gallery K i m T h u y ’s e n o r mously successful debut novel, Ru, a story of migration from war-torn Vietnam to settlement in Montreal, won the 2010 G o v e r n o r G e n e r a l ’s Award f or Frenc h language fiction, and its English translation was shortlisted for the 2012 Giller Prize. Co-sponsored with the Canada Council for the Arts.

Everyone welcome.

Light refreshments.

Fubuki Daiko

Tu e s d a y, F e b . 4 , 8 – 10pm Conservatory of Music M t . A Pe r f o r m i n g Arts Series presents Fubuki Daiko Japan e s e Ta i k o E n s e m b l e : Blizzard Drums.

Experience the highpowered style of Fubuki Daiko! This Winnipeg-based ensemble reinvents traditional Japanese drumming with their eclectic and energetic performances, part martial arts, part dance, and all rhythm. Numbers are limited, so order t i c k e t s e a r l y ! Fo r additional informat i o n , v i s i t w w w. m t a . c a / d e p a r t m e n t s / Pe r formingArts. Contact: Margaret Ann Craig, 364-2662, performarts@mta.ca.

Collegium Musi cum

We d n e s d a y, F e b . 5 , 4 – 5pm Conservatory of Music Collegium Musicum - Pe r f o r m a n c e s by the students of the Department of Music. Held weekly in Brunton Auditorium.

4 pm. Admission is free, all are welcome.

Fo r m o re i n f o r m a t i on

January 30, 2014

call the Department of Music at 364-2374 email music@mta.ca

Va g i n a Monologues

T h u r s d ay Fe b. 6 S a t u rd ay Fe b. 8 , 7:30pm Dunn Presenting Eve Ens l e r ’s c o l l e c t i o n o f stories from women from all around the wolrd aimed at bringi n g w o m e n’s s e x u a l health and gender issues to the spotlight.

Tickets will be sold in the Student Centre and in Jennings starting on Monday Fe b. 3 . T i c k e t s c a n also be reser ved by e-mailing vaginamonolgues@mta.ca.

Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for general community members. All proceeds will be donated to Autumn House, a w o m e n’s s h e l t e r i n Amherst, and the V Day Spotlight Campaign.

argosy@mta.ca S P O RT S

Wo m e n ’ s Basketball Away Game

S a t u rd ay Fe b. 1 , 1 pm Mt. A vs. CU

M e n’s B a s k e t b a l l Away Game S a t u rd ay Fe b. 1 , 3 pm Mt. A vs. CU

Wo m e n ’ s Basketball Home Game

S u n d ay Fe b. 2 , 1 pm M t . A v s . DA L AC

M e n’s B a s k e t b a l l Home Game S u n d ay Fe b. 2 , 3 pm M t . A v s . DA L AC

Wo m e n ’ s H o c k e y Home Game

S u n d ay Fe b. 2 , 3 : 3 0 pm Mt. A vs. SMU

Wo m e n ’ s Vo l l e y b a l l Home Game

S u n d ay Fe b. 2 , 5 : 3 0 pm M t . A v s . DA L AC

Submit to the Ship’s Log If you have a non-profit event that you need to publicize, The Argosy can help.

Submit an event to argosy@mta.ca For further information, visit www. argosy.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:

argosy@mta.ca Applications due:

Feb. 6, 2014

ONLINE:

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RENNIE: MT. A NEEDS TO RETHINK ITS SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES The university trails behind leaders in the field GUNN: BEFORE JUDGING BIEBER WE SHOULD LOOK AT OURSELVES Pop star was set up for failure from the start

Now is not the time for a neutral MASU

OPINIONS

A RGOSY

THE

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

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday January 30, 2014 volume 143 issue 15

The MASU is not a leader in this trying time

Since 1872 Circulation 1,700

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

John Trafford

506 364 2236

Opinions Editor

Email argosy@mta.ca

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

I’m not angry; I’m just disappointed.

In my four years at Mount Allison, I’ve seen a lot of issues and controversies unfold, and I’ve even had the pleasure to write about a few of them for The Argosy. Now though, as I see the ongoing labour negotiations at Mt. A, arguably the biggest issue in my time here, has been met by the Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) with a neutral and lacklustre response.

To be fair, the executive of MASU did submit a report to both the university’s administration and the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) with its recommendations for the next collective agreement between the two parties. But to be honest, these recommendations amount to a token statement, with vague language and an uncontroversial tone, that do almost nothing to advance the interests of students.

What is worse, however, is that the MASU executive has chosen to adopt an officially neutral position on the issue of whether or not students should pay their tuition during the ongoing labour dispute. Paying tuition is not exactly stress-free at the best of times and right now students need advice on how to proceed with tuition payments, whether they choose to make or ignore them. Neutrality in this manner reflects a student union that is more concerned with not rocking the boat than actually giving students guidance when they need it most.

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.

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A neutral stance is inappropriate for the MASU to take during a strike that affects all students. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) At last week’s question and answer session for the MASU executive election, I directly asked all nine candidates if MAFA’s grievances were severe enough to warrant strike action.

The vast majority of respondents said that they should remain officially neutral, and one candidate stated his opinion but only as a personal opinion separate from his capacity as a candidate.

This is unacceptable.

Like it or not, MASU is a political organization, and during times of stress and conflict it is a political organization’s job to take a stance.

It would have been better if I heard erroneous and uninformed answers to my question; anything is better than what seems to be awfully close to apathy.

MASU acts as if it has a monopoly

on advocating for the interests of students. Nay, I say! MASU is not the only tool that students at Mt. A can use to advocate for their interests.

Form an alternative union, or maybe a student group that lobbies government on only one particular student issue; the possibilities are endless. The idea that an institutionalized organization is the only body that could possibly represent student interests needs to go the way of the dinosaur.

Indeed, an institutional approach to advocating for student interests may actually be very inefficient in carrying out its mandate. Governments and administrators become used to students filling the same positions with mandates that change little from year to year. Positions being held by different students each year like clockwork does little to add to

a sense of vigour to advocacy when governments and administrators have heard it all before, except out of a different mouth.

Need an example? Look to 2012’s student protests in Quebec. The movement was marked by a fluid structure, not hierarchical positions or an institutionalized way of tackling the issue of tuition increases. The result: tuition froze in Quebec. The result of MASU’s model of student advocacy: tuition continues to rise.

As long as students continue to assume that only an organization like MASU can represent them, they will continue to see lacklustre results and advocates that believe that neutrality on extremely important issues somehow advances the cause of students.

frustrating times, times of grave concern for colleagues with chronic illness or family problems, and many anxious moments. Job action involves a real financial sacrifice for many: currently, a considerable number of faculty are teaching part-time or came here as sessionals, on contracts that end in April. This is one added uncertainty none of them needs.

Not only is teaching affected, but also scholarly activities that are an essential part of the faculty’s responsibilities, indeed, of their lives. Science faculty lose access to their laboratories, where important research is being conducted requiring supervision and involving deadlines; instructors and professors in fine arts, drama, and music have no access to their spaces, instruments and materials to meet their deadlines (plays, exhibitions, recitals). Projects involving students are affected, to the detriment of the faculty as well as the students. Faculty lose access to the university libraries, so essential in many fields in the arts and social sciences. They cannot consult with colleagues in non-striking units who might be able to help out on those projects, and they cannot supervise their student assistants.

Many faculty members whose research and creative projects are funded by grants with strict conditions attached may even see significant aspects of their careers in jeopardy.

These are real professional sacrifices that will set back a person’s scholarly and scientific work, and this reality should give pause to people who think that faculty are only giving up their classroom responsibilities (affecting mainly students).

It is unfortunate that under this province’s restrictive labour laws there is no ‘wiggle room’: it’s all or nothing, work or strike, no middle-way options once negotiations have reached a dead end. And students, who are the raison d’être of the university, have no place at the bargaining table, which brings together only the staff or faculty representatives (the employees) and the representatives of the Board of Regents (the employer). One way for students to avoid being totally frustrated with the situation is to take some time to study that labour legislation as well as the governance issues that have led to this latest unfortunate breakdown in negotiations.

One galling historical fact bears noting: every one of our strikes has

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ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

Cameron McIntyre SPORTS WRITER

Benjamin Foster

SCI/TECH WRITER

Martin Omes

CIRCULATIONS

Sam Shury

IT MANAGER

James Isnor

Célina Boothby, Tyler Ferdinand, Jean-Sébastien Comeau, Ali MacLead, Keegan Smith, Michael Dover, Austin Landry, Sam Moore, Jenna Gauet, Mitchell Gunn, Coline Rennie, Patrick Allaby, Sarah-Anne Steeves

Letter to the Editor This letter is from a retired professor who taught at Mount Allison for thirty-three years and lived through four previous strikes between 1989 and 1999. It was a shock to hear that the Mount Allison faculty are officially on strike for the third time in twentytwo years. This is in fact the fifth strike at this university, if we count the strikes of the two Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) locals. In every case, I know that the faculty and staff negotiating teams struggled to reach a compromise, to avoid causing hardship to their members and to the students.

I would be very happy if this letter is made irrelevant by a quick resolution of this strike, but whether it is a short strike or a long one, some things need to be said.

The news of the walkout has undoubtedly stirred up mixed emotions in my former colleagues who went through previous strikes. It is true that those experiences helped to consolidate a sense of unity and purpose and we learned a great deal; they presented an opportunity to look out for colleagues we already knew and others we were getting to know on the picket line. There were, however,

NEWS EDITOR

Christopher Balcom­­­

publicationboard

taken place after negotiations dragged on for months, well into winter and in the middle of the academic year (in 1992, on the eve of finals in the spring) with no movement for weeks and weeks on the part of the university’s negotiators, who waited until the eleventh hour to agree to compromise on a few key issues, with proposals or counter-proposals that were too little, too late. The attitude of the university’s team leading up to the eve of all our strikes tended to be intransigent and their negotiating style was often confrontational and unyielding, even contemptuous.

I cannot comment on this latest round of negotiations, but I feel it is useful to recall that Mount Allison’s previous four strikes—the 1999 CUPE strike of office staff and technicians being the cruelest in my memory— formed a pattern that no one wanted to see repeated. I am confident—or at least, hopeful—that the current strike is going to be different and that a satisfactory resolution will be found soon.

Judith A. Weiss, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Hispanic Studies Mount Allison University faculty member 1975-2008

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.

6

OPINIONS

January 30, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

A lack of aboriginal support Don’t go down in the

on campus and always welcomes new members. Aside from aiming to raise awareness about aboriginal issues, the group has many other goals for improving the support aboriginal students receive while at Mt. A. One of the group’s overarching goals is to implement an aboriginal support centre on campus: a space that would act as a place of support Jenna Gaudet where aboriginal students could go to find additional resources, host Leaving one’s home in search of activities, and socialize with other higher education can be a very students of similar backgrounds. different experience for aboriginal But the space would also be more students.

As than that. many aboriginal “Having a sense a sense of of students have “Having aboriginal e x p r e s s e d , aboriginal community is community is feelings of very important, very important, even just even just for a isolation and h o m e s i c k n e s s for a sense of solidarity sense of solidarity can interfere with and support, so you have and support, so academic success. you have others M a n y others around you who around you who e d u c a t i o n a l can relate to you.” can relate to you institutions in coming from a the Atlantic Rebecca Watts small aboriginal region—such community …

Mount Allison Aboriginal but, if there is a as St. Thomas Support Group co-founder space, it doesn’t U n i v e r s i t y, Cape Breton have to be just University, and for aboriginal Université de Moncton—have been students, it can be open for others,” hiring aboriginal recruitment officers, group co-founder Rebecca Watts directors of aboriginal education said. initiatives, and aboriginal student An aboriginal support centre advisors to provide adequate support would not only provide aboriginal to aboriginal students. Unfortunately, students with a centre to connect Mount Allison has fallen short with fellow students—much like in its support for these students; the function of Mt. A’s existing only recently have students taken international lounge—but the space the situation into their own hands would also encourage others to come and learn about aboriginal issues and in search for better resources for cultures. aboriginal students.

Aside from providing a designated The Mount Allison Aboriginal space, the Mount Allison Aboriginal Support Group was formed in 2012 Support Group has argued that after the disappearance of Mi’kmaq the centre would also help improve student Chris Metallic by students aboriginal student enrolment and Madelaine Metallic and Rebecca retention rates.

Watts explained that Watts. It is still gaining its footing

Aboriginal students need more from Mt. A

many other aboriginal students she knows chose their post-secondary institution based on whether or not they had supportive services for aboriginals. An aboriginal support centre would show that the university welcomes students of aboriginal backgrounds.

Small changes can make a big difference.

After meeting with Ron Byrne, Mt. A’s vice-president in charge of student life, it was decided that the 2015-16 university application will include a self-identification check box for aboriginal ancestry. This will help the university identify its aboriginal student population, helping them to better support these students.

Another initiative the group has suggested is the creation of an aboriginal studies minor. This would be a fundamental step if Mt. A is to show support and educational diversity. Recently, the Mt. A’s vice-president academic Karen Grant called a meeting with several faculty members from different departments to discuss its formation.

A multidisciplinary program based on existing courses that will hopefully be implemented in the near future.

On top of increasing the aboriginal student recruitment and support, Watts also made it clear that “there absolutely needs to be recognition of aboriginal students on campus.” By recognizing the aboriginal student population—something Mt. A has thus far failed to do—and providing them with necessary extra support, the university experience would be more enjoyable and comfortable for aboriginal students, yielding higher student success.

The Aboriginal Support Group always welcomes new members.

Email aboriginalsupport@mta.ca or check out their Facebook page “Mount Allison Aboriginal Support Group.”

sixth round again Now is the best time for needed reform in Ukraine

Alex Bates

Sports Editor In June 2003, Vitali Klitschko fought Lennox Lewis as the 4-1 underdog for the World Boxing Council heavyweight title. Klitschko, came out strong and looked poised to take the title, but Lennox opened a cut over Klitschko’s eye, and the referee stopped the fight in the sixth round. The Ukrainian had been winning the fight on points 58-56, and the audience booed Lewis as he celebrated.

Fast-forward eleven years, and the citizens of Kyiv, Ukraine have been holding a peaceful protest in Independence Square for two months. Through freezing temperatures and no signs of remorse from President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, the citizens have stood in groups of hundreds of thousands to show their support against the current regime.

The protesters have built barricades to keep the riot police, or Berkut, from dispersing the protestors.

My question is, who will lead the protesters in their battle for a new government, and a potential agreement with the European Union?

In the blue and yellow corner, ‘Dr. Ironfist’, Vitali Klitschko. Klitschko is the current leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, which advocates for a westernized culture and ending Ukraine’s ties with Russia.

When Yanukovych pulled out of a deal with the EU to sign a deal to reestablish ties with Russia, the citizens revolted in the capital city, and they have continued to cause civil unrest in the capital since late November.

Klitschko, the only heavyweight champ to hold a Ph.D., will have to use his head and not his fists to win the fight to restore democracy.

Despite his part-time residence in Kyiv, and his mediocre political record, the Ukrainian fighter will need to restore that fire that was present on that disappointing night in June 2003.

Millions of people adore Klitschko and seek his guidance for their country. In response, Klitschko has gotten nowhere with the Yanukovych regime. He was unable to persuade Yanukovych to avoid the deal with Russia, and he wasn’t able to talk the government out of enacting dictatorship-like laws in the country.

I believe that if Klitschko is willing to work day and night, he will be celebrated like Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Taras Shevchenko, nationalists who have come before him in Ukraine.

Yanukovych has already shown signs of remorse and has begun talks with the opposition, and has asked for a cease fire from protestors in exchange for hearing their demands. With Klitschko’s close connection to the citizens of Kyiv, I believe that he will rise to the chant of ‘slava ukraini’ and will overthrow the government.

Just like against Lewis, the people are on his side. If Klitschko wishes to cement his figure in Ukrainian folklore, he should move now, or fate could strike twice, just like his 2003 title bid.

Mt. A’s Wellness Centre has too little to offer Forcing students to go to Moncton for care is unacceptable Daniel Marcotte Arts & Literature Writer

Even without a strike to worry about, many students eventually feel the burden of stress, anxiety, and even depression while they attempt to tackle the many difficult academic tasks and emotional challenges that come with university. However, many students may also find themselves faced with a much larger challenge: chronic mental illness. Despite gradually gaining attention from universities across Canada in recent years, many schools still fail to provide adequate services for students requiring ongoing treatment, including our own beloved ‘number one undergraduate university’.

With the growing popularity of peer-run help groups like Change Your Mind and the Elephant in the

Room speaker series, it is evident that Mount Allison students are working hard to extinguish the stigma related to mental illness and assist others in seeking ways to overcome the challenges associated with these concerns. Unfortunately, Mt. A does not appear to offer much in the way of support on this front; on Jan. 7, Gayle Churchill sent out an email to all students clarifying the extent to which the Mount Allison Wellness Centre can assist with mental health—which is to say, not much at all. While the centre does offer limited counselling services, it can take weeks to finally land an appointment, and nearly every student suffering from ongoing mental health concerns, eating disorders, or addictions will be referred to a hospital in Sackville, Amherst, or in most cases, Moncton.

Why does Mt. A not provide more support for students requiring more than basic counselling? Admittedly, part of this problem is the size of our university: even some larger schools do not boast on-site psychiatrists, but they are often located within or near larger cities where these services are only minutes away. However, it is obvious that Mt. A does not fall into this category, as one or more

half-hour drives to Moncton for more specialized treatment can be frustrating at best, and expensive or icily treacherous at worst.

As many studies indicate, mental illness is most often identified in individuals in their late teens and

early twenties, the age that the majority of people begin attending university. In addition, the process of adjusting to campus life and the pressure to succeed either socially or academically in a post-secondary institution are just two more factors that contribute to an increasing

prevalence of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and even thoughts of suicide among university students.

Given this information, it would seem only logical that universities make it a priority to provide more accessible and extensive services that help students overcome the challenges of mental illness—but it appears that landscaping projects outside Crabtree are more important to the Mt. A administration than working to improve the mental and emotional well-being of students.

At the very least, the Wellness Centre should provide an easy and inexpensive method of transportation for students being referred to the Moncton hospital. While we obviously cannot expect an extensive psychiatric treatment facility to suddenly materialize at Mt. A, it is clear that our university could be doing a lot more regarding the growing demand for student mental health services that exists locally, provincially, and nationally.

ARTS&LITERATURE

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DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR EXPLORES “NATIVE HUMOUR” First Nations author and playwright speaks at Mt. A A LIGHTER TAKE ON TAIL-GATE CLASSICS Recipes for quick and easy Superbowl snacks

January 30, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Garnet and Gold presents a tale as old as time Beauty and the Beast comes to life at Con Hall Keegan Smith The annual Garnet and Gold production is always a major event, and this weekend was a reminder of why that is: they never fail to bring an audience to standing ovation.

This year’s show—Disney’s Beauty and the Beast—was no exception to that rule. Garnet and Gold’s production made for a stunning rendition of the familiar story: a pair of outcasts living on the fringes of their society, who discover that inner beauty and strength can defy even the cruelest of circumstances.

Even before the lights came up for the prologue, it quickly became clear that Director Karen Valanne had prepared a masterpiece; the silhouettes of a noble prince and an aging crone were projected forward onto five long, white curtains

Garnet and Gold brought the Disney classic to life through their innovative staging, strong theatrical and musical performances, and creative costume design. Pictured here is the entire cast and crew of Beauty and the Beast at Convocation Hall. (Justin Thomas/Submitted) in front of centre stage. This was to be the first of many elegant (and often creative) reflections of familiar scenes from the Disney animated film that is widely familiar to the audience—in this case, the stained glass windows from the movie’s own prologue.

“You’re the generation that saw this when you were little,” said Valanne. “You’re the perfect audience.”

Meghan McLean shone in her role as Belle, a beautiful and imaginative young woman ostracized by her sleepy French community for her free spirit and bookish intelligence.

As Belle supports the antics of her aging father Maurice (played by Nick Vince) and rejects the romantic advances of village bully and pretty-boy, Gaston (a confident He-Man portrayed by Ben Winn), she finds herself at the mercy of the Beast (Odum Abekah).

Abekah’s performance, exuding a quiet confidence in his spoken lines and a personal flair in his singing, was all the more noteworthy for the fact that it was his first theatrical performance.

“It was very scary,” he admitted after the show. “But I had a lot of encouragement

from the others, and that was really helped.” That feedback and support between actors proved invaluable in developing his role. “My biggest challenge was letting myself really get into the character,” he said.

Odum’s quiet delivery could occasionally be lost in the music, however, and this wasn’t helped by Garnet and Gold’s chronic problem of overly quiet microphones for the leads.

“The show went well,” said Sound Technician Sam Magee, “But it’s difficult to solve problems when you

A walk down memory lane Rosie Butler reconstructs childhood memories Michael Dover Fourth-year fine arts student Rosie Butler was intrigued by her some of her earliest childhood experiences growing up in Whitehorse, Yukon. Butler was interested not only in the content of her memories, but also in their form: the curious ways in which the exaggerated reality of youth mixed and merged with her childhood biases, dreams, and fears. It was this whimsical combination of extravagant realism and fantastical surrealism that inspired Butler’s ongoing mixed media exhibition 1206 Elm Street, which is currently on display at Sackville’s START Gallery at 7 Lorne St. The exhibition is composed of five untitled projects: three oil paintings that form the backdrop for a series of projected animations, and two dioramas. Together, the pieces embody Butler’s assertion that “[C]hildhood is a strange and fantastic time. It is a time when the truth is what you make it, and coupled with the extravagance of memory it becomes even more bizarre,

Above: Viewers examine Butler’s work during her opening reception.

(Chris Donovan/Argosy). Below: A still of one of Butler’s mixed media pieces. (Rosie Butler/Submitted). embellished to your liking, and floats back to the surface at the most unexpected of times.”

Like fragmented childhood memories, Butler’s work is haunting, fleeting yet somehow enduring, and endlessly captivating. The three oil paintings featured in the exhibition make use of vivid colours and simple compositions to depict everyday locales from Butler’s childhood: a single story house, the interior of a church, and a stark bedroom with a

blue wooden bed. Viewed independently, these oil paintings are straightforward and accessible, even simplistic, and act as an interesting exploration of the ways in which we shape our memories over time, condensing and smoothing them as they are pared down to their most basic ideas.

However, the black line animations projected onto these canvases add a second paranormal element to Butler’s work, melding dreams

with memories to create a provocative visual experience.

The formerly unassuming house is transformed into a haunting dreamscape inhabited by a menacing spider and its unsuspecting victim, while the modest church is reinvigorated by the addition of a feverish figure trapped in a loop of unceasing prayer, and the stark bedroom is haunted by a disembodied shirt that drifts rhythmically through the canvas’s negative space. These otherworldly images are engaging and unique, contrasting the kinetic with the static and the old with the new.

Butler’s paintings were complemented by a set of dioramas, the first of which depicts a leafy, luxurious landscape, while the second is an interactive representation of Butler’s titular childhood address, 1206 Elm Street.

The latter is encased in an unadorned wooden silhouette of Butler’s home with small, circular peepholes that allow the viewer the opportunity to examine the elaborate, miniature rooms within.

These rooms explore the use of depth and space, shifting perspectives by layering materials and images in novel and unexpected ways. The resulting sculpture is playful and imaginative, a visual treat that must be experienced in person to be appreciated.

Butler’s exhibition can be viewed until Tuesday, Feb. 4.

have twenty microphones to monitor.” While this was arguably the main complaint from audience members, it was nonetheless a minor detraction from an otherwise widely enjoyed musical.

“At parts, they sounded just like the movie,” commented Nick MacLeod, who was working security. “It was almost eerie.”

The live orchestra, conducted beautifully by Musical Director Dylan Maddix, provided a flawless score throughout the production. While their performance of the classic

songs was phenomenal, their talents were best, if perhaps subtly, demonstrated through their use of underscoring—a technique often used in film, when music is softly played under dialogue, or alongside a visual scene in order to set a mood or emphasize a theme. Uncommon in traditional musical theatre, the choreography of stage actions, combined with the more subtle thematic music of underscoring, makes pacing incredibly difficult. “Compared to The Sound of Music, which had a more traditional structure, underscoring was definitely a big challenge here,” said Valanne.

Actors and crew members also noted the requirement for careful coordination.

“We all had to work hard together,” said Vocal Director Colin Frotten. “But it was amazing to see the finished work.” This sentiment was echoed by graduating student Jessica Sharp (Mrs. Potts). She reflected fondly on her final performance with the theatre society, saying, “At the end, you have all the emotions… the adrenaline… it takes every single person to make it work.”

‘Present’-ing Friday Night Live Improv and sketch comedy at The Pond Ali MacLeod Presents, Mount Allison’s improv group, is great at making things up on the spot, but Friday night they reintroduced Friday Night Live, a scripted and rehearsed sketch. With student union president Melissa O’Rourke as host and Max Grizzly and the Entertainment as musical guest, the evening at The Pond proved to be a success.

The show included a wide variety of comedy sketches.

It incorporated a video with Beyonce’s “Partition” playing in the background, and satires of contemporary and relevant cultural and political subjects like Justin Bieber and Rob Ford. The show also made light of Sackville, as one cast member joked, “if you smell bad and have a beard, there’s a place for you in Sackville.”

FNL was reintroduced this semester after having been used by the group in the past.

Cast member Tom Hearn said, “FNL is something that Presents has done before. I

decided to take it under my wing and mount it again this year. The sketches were written by myself and other cast members, so it was a group effort.”

Although the sketches were well done and there is no doubt that they were thoroughly enjoyed by audience members, the four students who performed off-script at the end of the show really stole the show. They proved that improv really is their forte. Asking the audience for suggestions of where to begin, they came up with “eating at a buffet.”

From there, the four students worked off of each other’s ideas and came up with some very interesting, very absurd, and very entertaining sketches.

From being at McDonald’s, to a dinner theatre, to shooting ducks, and talking with fake French accents, they definitely got the audience’s attention.

Among the four students stood Tom Hearn and Andrew Johnston—both cast members who were strong performers and comedians, and left audience members on the edge of their seats.

Presents host improv shows every Wednesday at 9:30 pm at The Pond, so make sure to stop by and check them out. If you missed this Friday Night Live, make sure to catch the next two shows they have planned for the semester.

8

STRIKE

Jaunuary 30, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Faculty strike over pay, copyright, and evaluations MAFA strikes following failed negotiations Tyler Stuart & Taylor Losier

Features Staff

The collective bargaining process between the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) and Mount Allison University culminated in a faculty strike on Sunday night.

The strike came after six months of negotiations between the two sides on issues such as salary, compensation, tenure, and evaluation. The university claims that faculty is fairly compensated for its services. MAFA claims the current climate threatens the academic mission of Mt. A. Many of their public claims, which can be found on their respective websites, point fingers, often accusing the other of dishonesty.

With the negotiations kept private, uncertainty has led to speculation amongst faculty and students.

While MAFA’s stance largely revolves around academic freedom, the public discourse has followed the rise in salary—a more salient subject. The discussion on campus has focused on salary as one of the primary reasons for the strike.

The university has pointed to the fact that Mt. A professors are, on average, paid more than those at “comparable universities,” which includes St. Thomas University, Université de Moncton, Mount Saint Vincent University, Saint Mary’s University, Cape Breton University, St. Francis Xavier University, Acadia University, and University of Prince Edward Island.

These universities are selected according to their mandate, size and location, according to Karen Grant, the vice-president of academic and research of Mt. A. Grant is also the official spokesperson for the university on all strike-related issues.

MAFA maintains the strike is about the academic mission at Mt. A, not just salaries.

“It bears on issues of respect,” MAFA President Loralea Michaelis said. “The faculty salary proposals are not all that substantial; they aim at nothing more on making sure that we don’t fall behind.”

Michaelis said that if salaries do not improve and stay competitive, the university will have trouble retaining faculty.

With the last amendment to its proposal, the university administration offered a 6.25 per cent wage increase over four years to both full-time and part-time faculty.

MAFA countered with a wage increase over two years, which was declined.

MAFA claims that a wage increase is necessary due to an increase in workload, which they attribute to larger enrolment over the past ten years.

The university points to a decrease in student enrolment of 180 students this year to counter MAFA’s claim that faculty have experienced heavier workloads. But even with the drop in enrolment, Mt. A has seen a net increase in students of 151 since the

Faculty members walked the picket lines on Monday, the first day of the MAFA strike (Above, Chris Donovan/Argosy). MAFA held a grand opening of its strike headquarters on Friday evening, two days before the strike was announced (Top right, Richard Kent/Argosy). Picketers receive food from Mt. A students (Bottom right, Chis Donovan/Argosy).

2003-2004 academic year.

The number of tenured and tenuretrack faculty has also increased in the last ten years from 117 to 134. MAFA claims that the use of the term “tenure-track” faculty is questionable, and that an increase in part-time faculty has created more uncertainty for professors.

Another issue in the negotiations is compensation for faculty who take on honours students and independent studies and for contract professors.

Grant says that professors at Mt. A are fairly compensated. MAFA disagrees.

Contract faculty members are paid $5,900 to $6,300 per three-credit course. No additional compensation is offered to faculty who supervise an undergraduate honours student, even though honours students do not count toward teaching loads.

In the negotiations over the weekend, the university offered a compensation of $400 per honours thesis taken on and completed. Michael Fox and other faculty members called the offer unacceptable.

“It’s insulting and degrading for someone with a Ph.D. who has spent their entire young adult life and hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars of debt to be paid basically minimum wage on a one-off basis,” Michael Fox, the vice-president of MAFA said.

MAFA’s main protest is what it calls the “defence of the academic mission” at Mt. A. On its website, MAFA claims, “the current priorities of the administrators do not appear

to include increasing support for the academic mission.”

MAFA claims a combination of current administrative practices and new proposals have threatened and eroded the academic environment at Mt. A. The administration, on the other hand, claims every aspect of their proposals adhered to the values outlined in the strategic plan: quality and sustainability.

Tenure is considered by faculty as one of the most important aspects of academic freedom. The university has proposed changes to the process by which tenure is acquired. MAFA claims that the new tenure process proposed by the administration threatens academic freedom by instilling fear in faculty members.

“It seems as if the university is adjusting tenure promotion because they think that people are getting tenure who ought not to get it,” Michaelis said. “And they’re adjusting it with a view so that fewer people get tenure. It’s that clear.”

Grant claimed that the objective of the proposed tenure process is to reduce faculty workload by rotating members through the tenure committee.

“Intellectual work, cognitive work, in order for it to be productive, in order for it to realize its full potential, requires very particular conditions,” Michaelis said. “Freedom from fear is one of its principal conditions, which is why academics place such a premium on academic freedom.”

Michaelis said there has been a change in the administration’s articulation of priorities for research

over the past few years.

Michaelis said that there is an increased incentive for professors to pursue research eligible for tricouncil grants. Grant rejected the notion.

“The incentive ought to be the pursuit of knowledge—full stop,” Grant said.

Michaelis agreed, but said that the pressure to find and conduct funded research is palpable.

“The climate that we’re seeing here is a shift away from publications to grants,” Michaelis said. “Funded research is regarded more highly and is seen as more valuable than unfunded research, even to the point where it seems as if the world has turned upside down and the purpose of research is not to discover new ideas, it’s to generate grants.”

MAFA claims that the administration’s erosion of academic control can also be seen in the proposals on evaluation.

Grant said that there is room for improvement in the way Mt. A evaluates faculty.

“The proposals that they have tabled on evaluation would vastly increase the power of deans,” Michaelis said.

According to the administrations, this proposal would create a higher level of accountability for faculty members, holding them to a high standard.

The tenure process currently operates in an annual step process.

According to Michaelis, the current university proposal would give more power to departmental deans,

thereby increasing their influence on evaluations vis-à-vis faculty.

“If you don’t get a satisfactory mark in all three categories of the evaluation by your dean, you will lose a step,” Michaelis said.

On its website, the university referenced certain budgetary restrictions such as government funding and tuition.

“Here’s the bottom line: we have a finite amount of money in our budget,” Grant said. “If we are going to spend more money on one aspect of the budget—in this case, academic salaries—what it means is that we’ll have less money to spend on other things. That’s the whole issue about sustainability.”

MAFA pointed to an increase in the budget for buildings from two per cent to four per cent as evidence of Mt. A’s financial stability, and that it has the capacity to compensate faculty.

“We spend money on buildings,” Grant said. “Those buildings are used by people who work in and study in our various academic programs. That’s spending money on the academic mission.”

While Michaelis accepts the importance of infrastructure, she said there is a clear distinction between buildings and faculty.

“You can see the paint peeling, you can see the bricks chipping off, but it’s much more difficult to measure and much less tangible to see the erosion of the human resources that are required to adequately support the academic mission of the university.”

The Argosy

STRIKE

www.argosy.ca

Mt. A Admin

MAFA Wage Increase

Full-time: Want increases averaging 4.9 per cent per year over two years and various other increases to salaries, benefits, etc. (exact demands have yet to be released)

Pension Other Compensation

Part-time: want increases to salaries and benefits of approximately fifty per cent over two years (exact demands have yet to be released)

6.25 per cent wage increase over four years (full-time and part-time faculty)

Offered to increase the employer contribution to the pension plan to eight per cent in the first year Pay $400 to supervisors per thesis Reimburse professors for relocation fees Added prescription drug coverage for professors past retirement age Increased tuition fee discount

Budget & Support

More money to fund research and teaching Increase funding for tenure-tracked professors Transparent budgeting

Workload & Retention Rate

Believe retention rate is affected by overworked professors

Cites decrease in enrolment Claims that retention rate for faculty is high

Performance Evaluations

Against proposed changes by administration, seeing it as giving too much power to university They want evaluations to remain fair and equitable Two year contract rather than four years

Maintain the linkage of student evaluations to performance evaluations, which in turn will help decide tenure and promotion reviews

Sabbatical Tenure Intellectual Property

9

Defends budget, saying allocations are equitable and stable since 2004

Withdrew modification to sabbatical leave process Modified proposal on tenure process for professors and librarians

Want rights to intellectual property

Want to clarify what is considered university resources in relation to intellectual property

56

154

Negotiations were open for

198 days

Part-time

Full-time

before the strike

Faculty, librarians, and archivists

STRIKE VOTE

Avg. salary

110,849

Tenure track position

Floor salary

$66,386

Contract instructors on stipend

$5800-$6300

for a 3 credit course

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WOMEN”S BASKETBALL LOSE FOUR IN A ROW Team drops to .500, sit fifth in ACAA WEEKLY WELLNESS IN FULL Read Célina Boothby’s full article on the Aamodt TED Talk

SPORTS

Tetlow takes the ACAA title Mt. A scores eighty-nine, win ACAA event Sports Editor Last Saturday’s Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) badminton tournament lasted just over six hours and is by far one of the longest events in club and varsity sports that Mount Allison competes in.

That’s not the only thing that sets it apart from other the events. There are no referees, competitors keep score, and everyone is very friendly with the other teams.

Mt. A’s own Greg McGuire faced University of King’s College (UKC) rookie Spencer Armsworthy in the men’s singles division. The two had won their first two matches, and faced off for the title in their third match.

What turned out to be a very entertaining match ended in displeasure for McGuire.

He dropped the first set 2111, and then could not force the winner-take-all third set, and lost the second set 21-19.

Armsworthy was awarded the title.

Later in the day, another incredible match was played between Mt. A’s Gillian Tetlow and UKC’s Maddie Alvarez. Both women battled hard throughout the match

Célina Boothby Sandra Aamodt, a neuroscientist who spoke at a TED Talk in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2013, has revolutionized many opinions on dieting, and you guessed it: Dieting does not work! It often does more long-term damage to your body and psyche than it will ever do to the number on the scale.

The first concept to understand is that the brain controls hunger and energy use, not the stomach.

Your brain is the executive controller on when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat. This is where the difficulty occurs when dieting, as our bodies have created a ‘set-point’ which defines the weight at which our bodies feel comfortable.

Aamodt explains that this is

Tyler Ferdinand

fell to sixth place behind St. Thomas University (STU).

Three of the four weekend games went to extra time, including a 3-2 shootout win for STU. Amherst native Kristin Wolfe was spectacular in net, rejecting thirty-nine of forty-one shots in regulation, along with all five St. Francis Xavier attempts in the shootout.

The Mounties travel to the University of Prince Edward Island Jan. 29 for their next game, while you can catch them on home ice next on Feb. 2, when they host the second place Saint Mary’s University Huskies.

Tyler Ferdinand is a member of Mt. A’s golf team and a contributor at The Argosy.

The men’s doubles B team in action. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) and it appeared that they were very evenly matched. Without a referee or scorekeeper, onlookers could only guess based on who was taking more serves, who was winning the games. As the two changed sides for the second set, a score was still unknown, but both were beginning to break a sweat. Finally the match ended, and as Alvarez walked over to the scoring table, she announced she had fallen in defeat, and that Tetlow had taken both sets, 21-15, 21-18.

This awarded Tetlow the women’s singles title in the A division. At the previous two ACAA events, she had been competing in the B division, and had not been facing Alvarez. This was her first singles match against Alvarez, and she did not disappoint.

Following the match, the crowd that had gathered around the Tetlow-Alvarez title-match moved toward the court where mixed doubles A was taking place. The team of Rachelle Ann Tan and Michael Miller donned the

garnet and gold as they took on the Dalhousie Agricultural College (Dal AC) team of Luke MacKinnon and Erica Jackson.

It was both teams’ second match of the round-robin, but it looked as if it could be the match that would decide first and second place.

As one of the only games of the day to go the full three sets, the Mounties lost the first set 22-20. A cheer rose as Michael Miller dove to the ground to attempt to return what would prove to be the point-clinching game of the first set. The team rallied to take the second set 21-18, but succumbed to the Dal AC tandem 21-17 in the final set.

They would go on to finish third in their division.

Mt. A scored eighty-nine of a possible 100, good enough for first place. UKC came second with a score of seventytwo points. The teams will now look forward to the Dal AChosted tournament on Feb. 8.

not so much of a point but a range of ten to fifteen pounds that your body will fluctuate from. For the most part though, your body struggles to surpass this limit.

Your body may recognize dieting as starvation. This will force your body to quickly gain this weight back.

The second concept is whether you are big or small, your body can’t recognize the difference. When you attempt to implement a diet routine, you may find yourself extra hungry because you’ve breached the body’s set-point equilibrium. The inconvenient truth is this predisposed setpoint rarely goes up or down.

Aamodt explains that this really is the epitome of ‘why the world isn’t fair’. Don’t fret too much; you can still be extremely healthy while bearing ‘extra’ weight.

Aamodt’s research has shown that there are four healthy habits that define a healthy lifestyle: regular fruit and vegetable consumption, consistent exercise, not smoking, and moderate

alcohol consumption. This is something that is very important to consider when you are draped over the scale in tears due to a number.

Just remember that the more healthy habits you implement, the healthier you are, regardless of that death glare from the number on the scale.

In summary, eating must be mindful. It’s a simple rule to follow and allow yourself to eat as much as you want based on what makes your body feel good. If you feel energetic and happy after a meal of salmon, quinoa, and broccoli, stick with it! Ditch the meals that put you in a slump afterwards.

If your New Year’s resolutions are still in full swing, try implementing these four health habits more strictly into your routine. Remember, diets may appear to be the right choice for weight loss, but every body is different.

Stay healthy folks!

Don’t diet to lose weight Sandra Aamodt explains why

argosy@mta.ca

Mt. A now sixth with a game in hand This past Wednesday, the women’s hockey Mounties were scheduled to host the Moncton Aigles Blues. Due to inclement weather, the game was postponed. While this gives the Mounties a game in hand on the other teams, they

Alex Bates

January 30, 2014

Célina Boothby is Mount Allison University’s Health Intern.

PoliSci Student

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

SPORTS

Better Know a Mountie Greg McGuire Benjamin Foster Sports Writer

Greg McGuire is known to many as the ‘Black Stallion’ after an incident at the Prince Edward Island provincial soccer practices where he donned black clothes from head to toe. His teammates made a wise crack that he was the ‘Black Stallion’, and the nickname hasn’t left him since.

McGuire is a third-year biology student who still finds time to be a two-sport athlete at Mount Allison playing on the soccer team as a keeper and playing with the badminton club. “I love playing two sports; it keeps me busy and the day soccer ends, badminton starts.

You do not have too much down time but I would not want to be doing anything else anyways. All the time and focus invested is definitely worth it.”

McGuire started playing badminton at the age of ten after some good fortune. “We were playing badminton in class in grade four and my gym teacher approached the class about a tryout for a team. Me and a few buddies went and it stuck, so here I am,” McGuire added.

He started playing soccer shortly after badminton when he decided to play for the team his dad was coaching.

His father is a former soccer player for the University of New Brunswick Saint John and Concordia. “Midway through my first year, one game our goalie did not show up and I was kind of lazy so I jumped in net, and I have been there since,” said McGuire.

The Summerside, P.E.I. native started playing on provincial teams in his underthirteen season. He made nationals in his under-fourteen season when Summerside won the provincial championships.

“There were only about thirty kids at tryouts in P.E.I. compared to hundreds in other provincial programs,” McGuire commented. “It was very beneficial as you got to spend a lot of time with coaches.”

He has played for both sports teams every year he has been at Mt. A. He started off as fourth string on the soccer team but has moved up since then. He has now been the back up for the past two seasons and is hoping to become the club’s starting keeper in 2014.

“This was a tough year for the team but I think we did [well] with what we had. I played four and a half games.

My best memory from soccer as a Mountie is winning against University of Prince Edward Island. I think I made a few nice stops against them and I shared the shut out.”

McGuire has been part of a very successful badminton program at Mt. A that is currently on a streak of five consecutive Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association titles.

“I expect we will be dominant this year once again.

If we [are] not it would be a disappointment. Hopefully we can improve on our showing in nationals this season,” McGuire commented.

Besides being very busy getting his science degree and playing two sports, McGuire is involved with Mounties in Motion. He also has a keen sense of humour. “My role model growing up was Lance Armstrong, but needless to say, he screwed me over.”

McGuire is a very valuable member to the Mounties athletic community but his personality and hard work is also appreciated by everyone at Mt. A and wherever he plans to go in the future.

11

Mounties get seventh win, sit fourth in ACAA Mt. A sitting above .500 as playoffs loom Sam Shury

Circulations Manager The Mounties men’s basketball team picked up a win and a loss over the weekend in their games against the University of New Brunswick Saint John (UNBSJ) Sea Wolves and Holland College Hurricanes. The competition level was essentially night and day between the two games; UNBSJ is one of the worst teams in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) with a 3-9 record, while the Hurricanes came in ranked sixth in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association national rankings.

Against the Seawolves, the Mounties cruised to a 90-63 win. Bradley Fuller led the way in scoring for the Mounties, finishing with twenty-four points and eight rebounds. Adam Spurrell also had an impressive game for the Mounties, as he is settling in to his new role in the starting lineup. He finished with a near triple double at eight points, fifteen rebounds, and eight assists.

The Mounties did not fare

as well against the Hurricanes them in the ACAA standings, on Sunday, falling 88-66 to the their only win coming against highest scoring team in the the Mount Saint Vincent country. The Mounties were University Mystics in the first simply outworked in the game. game of the season. If the The Hurricanes’ intensity only Mounties hope to make a run seemed to ramp up as their lead in the playoffs, they will have grew throughout the game, and to match intensity against the Mounties struggled to keep the league’s most competitive up with their up tempo offense. teams.

“The biggest thing is mental,” Alex Chisholm and Kaleefah Henry were the only two players Jordan Bedard said simply when asked to score as to how the in double figures for “They wanted it a team would the Mounties; little more than we match their competitors. they finished did, and that’s why “Don’t let with sixteen and thirteen [Holland College] is them push us p o i n t s one of the best teams around.”

Although respectively. the Mounties T h e in the conference.

Andrew Staley w e r e n ’ t Hurricanes were led Assistant Coach n e c e s s a r i l y b a c k i n g by a huge down from twenty-three point and twenty-one rebound physical play in the open court, performance from forward the Mounties were exposed Chase Bowden. As a team, the when the game was played Hurricanes out-rebounded the in the paint. The Hurricanes just seemed to wear the Mounties 56-32 in the game.

“They wanted it a little more Mounties down physically than we did, and that’s why and emotionally. Their highthey’re one of the best teams in octane attack never seemed to the conference,” said Mounties’ slow down for any stretch long assistant coach Andrew Stanley enough for the Mounties to after the game, “Bottom line, compose an attack of their own.

The Mounties take on the they outworked us.”

Being outworked by the Crandall Chargers in Moncton ACAA’s best teams is becoming on Saturday, and finish up the a trend for the Mounties. They weekend against the Dalhousie are now just 1-4 against the Agricultural College Rams at three teams that sit above Mt. A at 3 pm Sunday.

Mt. A split games against top-ranked ACAA teams Mounties handle STU, falter against MSVU Benjamin Foster Sports Writer

The Mounties women’s volleyball team went into this weekend with a seven game winning streak where they had dominated opponents and proved they were one of the best teams in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA). This weekend they faced off against their two hardest conference opponents, the unbeaten Mount Saint Vincent Mystics (MSVU) and the St. Thomas Tommies (STU) who they had beaten in Fredericton just last weekend.

But Mt. A’s winning streak came to an end quickly Friday night in Halifax against MSVU in just three sets. The team competed hard, but could not counter the Mystics’ attack, losing all three sets by scores of 25-13, 25-18, and 25-19. MSVU has only lost one set this season, in the Mounties home opener just three months ago.

“We did not match up that well against MSVU and we are one step behind them. But if there is a team in this league that can play with [MSVU], I think it is us,” said coach

Mt. A’s seven game win streak ended in MSVU on Friday. (Chris Donovan/Argosy)

Paul Settle. “We have a few things to figure out defensively and we will work on that and the other things we saw in the next three or four weeks.”

The Mounties made errors defensively that cost them the Friday night game that they cannot afford to make against such a complete team like the Mystics. “We tend to get in ruts that Paul would call ‘mistake-itis’, which is something as a team we must overcome and then we should compete pretty well with them,” libero Erica Cronkhite commented.

This is not the first time the Mounties have faced this situation.

In 2011-12 the Mounties had not played well and were handed a bad loss in January to the Mystics, only to come back and lose in five close sets in their final home game at McCormack Gymnasium that season. Mt. A ended up beating MSVU on their way to an ACAA title that season.

The Mounties will get another opportunity to battle the Mystics in their last home game of this season Feb. 15. The loving feeling coming out of Valentine’s Day will not be shown by the Mounties that day. “That will be Caitlin Macdonald’s, Georgia Sibold’s, and my last home against in our careers here and we look forward to playing them in that and having the home court advantage at the ACAA playoffs,” said Cronkhite.

“I look forward to playing them again in my final regular season

game as a Mountie in our home gym and hope we can capitalize on that opportunity to send them a message heading into playoffs at our own gymnasium,” added Sibold.

At home on Sunday it was a different story for the Mounties who got back on track with their second straight victory over STU in four sets. The Mounties had fewer miscues against the Tommies and got great blocking all match from Sydney Umlah and Caroline Tremaine.

“We match up very well against STU; I think we outplay them in certain areas. It is a big win to stay in second place,” Settle said after the game.

Another story in the match was the battle of the Cronkhite sisters. Erica’s sister, Emily, also wears number one and plays for libero for the Tommies.

Emily is two years younger than Erica and will now have to wait and see if she can get pay back in the playoffs.

“In the end, it’s not about consecutive wins. It’s about the ability and the will to learn from your mistakes and improve on them. Tough losses like the one against the Mount teach us these lessons,” MacDonald commented.

The Mounties will travel to Holland College Jan. 29 to play the Hurricanes.

They are currently in second place in the ACAA with eight wins and three losses.

ENTERTAINMENT

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GRAMMYS DISAPPOINT VIEWERS AND PERFORMERS ALIKE Reznor tweets about “music’s biggest night...to be disrespected” MEDIA REVIEWS The Armstrong Lie and Silver Mt. Zion’s new album

January 30, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Sackville’s second RPM Challenge begins Feb. 1 Participants to make an album in only a month

Cameron McIntyre

Entertainment Writer

Saturday marks the beginning of Sackville’s RPM Challenge (RPM stands for ‘record production month’).

The challenge asks local musicians and music enthusiasts to take up the recording of an entirely new album within the confines of the month. Over the course of February’s twenty-eight days, participants are encouraged to write and record a ten song or thirty-five minute long album. It requires absolutely no prior experience and can be done alone or in band in the style of any genre imaginable.

“I think the challenge of having a deadline tends to give a boost to creative output, and the noncompetitive nature of the RPM challenge makes it accessible to anybody, so I’d like to think that it encourages everybody to be as creative as possible,” said Brendan Allison, who is organizing the challenge in Sackville. “Even though most people work on their projects

A member of the audience crowd-surfs during last year’s Sackville RPM band showcase at the Legion. (Phil Mercier/Submitted) independently, there is a collaborative aspect to it wherein everybody is working towards the same goal. Each individual project contributes to making the experience more valuable for all involved.”

The original RPM Challenge was posed by The Wire magazine to their hometown of Portsmouth, N.H., in 2006 and since then the challenge has been opened up to the entire world. In 2007, participation jumped from 165 albums to 850 completed

albums produced by over 2,400 acts from places like Tokyo, Auckland, Montreal, Antarctica, and Olso. With no prizes except for a completed album to call your own, the challenge simply wishes to encourage the creation of music for music’s sake.

“Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when recording music at home is that it’s going to be hard to make things sound like you want them right away,” Scott Royle, who organized the Sackville challenge

last February, said last year. “But it’s within these limitations that really brilliant moments of inspiration and artistry can come about. This is your chance to experiment and be crafty.”

Help is readily available from across the community and can be found on the RPM Challenge website as well.

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help on a project,” said Allison. “There are plenty of people around town with experience recording who are willing to help out. The most important thing

is just to have fun with it and not worry about making a perfect album as much as trying new things and learning from the whole process.”

Recording can be done through laptop microphone, answering machine, or professional equipment; the only requirement is that the record is completed by the first of March. Meaning, it has probably never been easier to come away with a physical copy of your music.

“Last year was the first year that we did the RPM challenge in Sackville,” continued Allison, “so we didn’t expect a huge amount of people to take part, but by the end of the month there were around 10 completed projects.

Everybody who took part had a great time doing it and there were some really cool songs recorded. I think the crowd favourite was “Things to Take” by Andrew, Phil and Friends.

The release party at the Legion was a really good time as well.”

A compilation album of the standout songs produced from last year’s RPM Challenge can be found at sackvillerpmchallenge.bandcamp. com/album/Sackville-rpm-challenge.

Further details can be found on the Sackville RPM Challenge event on Facebook and questions can be directed to sackville.rpm.challenge@ gmail.com.

With files from Scott Royle.

Fiver rolls back to town Tarantino cancels new

film after script leaks

Schmidt plays acoustic sets at Jazz Guys

Director feels ‘very, very depressed’

Cameron McIntyre Entertainment Writer

Saturday evening, Simone Schmidt, playing under her moniker Fiver, reprised her Stereophonic performance before a hushed crowd in the comfortably full Jazz Guys.

Returning after a trip to Nova Scotia to play Halifax’s In Dead of Winter festival, she played a two set show that consisted of much of her new album, Lost the Plot, and a few tunes from her other project, The Highest Order.

Unlike her last appearance, there was no full band and smoke machine to support her, and Schmidt relied only on two guitars for instrumentation.

The result was a less formal affair that allowed the short introductions that led into a couple of her songs more weight and space. The songs that benefited from this treatment included “Rage of Plastics,” a story of woman who works in the plant that she believes gave her husband cancer, being asked to run a marathon to support the search for a cure and a ballad about the WWE wrestler, the Undertaker, dealing with self-

Austin Landry

Schmidt returned after her Stereophonic set . (Jeff Bierk/Submitted) doubt after the re-emergence of his half-brother, Kane.

The dimmed light of the venue added a degree of warmth to the already potent mix of the forlorn but adaptive alt-country instrumentation, which adapted itself to accentuate Schmidt’s dark and poetic lyricism. The event provided great contrast to the one that had occurred in George’s Roadhouse the week before, which itself had a feeling of cold to it that emphasized the loneliness found throughout Schmidt’s music rather than the small triumphs that Jazz Guys brought out, resulting in decidedly different experience.

The songs Schmidt played from another project, The Highest Order, also shared in this warmth. Stripped of many of their psychedelic

elements, they were much more in line with the work of Schmidt’s solo project, making songs such as “Two Hundred Pounds” and “Rainbow of Blues” brighter and less mediated. The stripped down instrumentation gave the lyrics a more pronounced leading role and granted them a heaviness that made up for the absence of effects typical of The Highest Order’s music.

The gap between the first and second sets was responsible for a good deal of the ambience. A hurried birthday party, which included a cake and a small fireworks display, established a sense of togetherness in the tiny bar. As this is something that festivals seem to miss quite often, no matter how phenomenal the line-up, it was nice to return to what Sackville does so well.

Quentin Tarantino shelved his latest project, a Western by the name of The Hateful Eight, early this week after he distributed the first draft to a small circle of actors. The film would have followed the enormous critical and commercial success of his Django Unchained, which grossed $162.8 million domestically and earned the writer-director his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Initial photography for the film was planned to begin in just under a year’s time.

“I’m very, very depressed,” Tarantino told Deadline last week. “I gave [the script] to six people,” he continued, claiming that of those six, the only person he knows did not cause the leak was his longtime collaborator Tim Roth. The other five names include two actors he’d been considering casting in the film, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern, as well one of the producers who

composers to score his movies worked on Django Unchained, because he trusts only himself Reggie Hudlin. Tarantino said to find ‘the’ song that belongs that “one of the others let their in a particular scene. While it agent read [the script], and may be nice to be able to read that agent has now passed it this new script, the sadness on to everyone in Hollywood. of knowing one may never […] I’m not making this next.” be able to see it come alive Instead, Tarantino will take The onscreen will eclipse it.

Hateful Eight to a publishing Furthermore, the everyday company and release it in text person must ask themselves format. if they will actually read the Something of a tragedy leaked The Hateful Eight script has occurred here. Tarantino until it has been released is a phenomenal writer, yes, on his terms. Here is a man and he’s able to create living, who enjoyed making Django breathing, idiosyncratic Unchained so much that he characters out of the depths of decided to make his next his imagination with seemingly project take very little place in effort.

“I’ve got ten more where the same But he genre and is just as that came from.” skilled Quentin Tarantino era. With that, as with the well as the camera as knowledge that a brilliant he is with the pen. His films artist’s work has been treated are meant to be seen and with pure malice, what heard on the biggest, baddest, enjoyment can be salvaged loudest screens available. He from reading the script? makes movies so entertaining However, the prolific that they all but announce Tarantino will surely land on themselves as they begin to his feet. Discussing the leaked play. There are only a handful script, his film cancellation, of living people who speak and and what his next project comprehend the language of might be, he said, “I’ve got ten film as fluently as he does. more where that came from.”

Think, for instance, about You’ll be able to find me the amount of care he places at the midnight opening of into the soundtracks of his whatever it may be. films. He almost never uses

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SCIENCE

January 30, 2014

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Streaming website attracts gamers worldwide

Twitch.Tv hosts millions of gamers each day Martin Omes

Science Writer

How many times have you searched through television shows, unable to find something good to watch?

Well gamers, you are saved! There is a website where you are able to tune in to watch gamers play your favourite games, and even learn from professionals on how to improve your game. One of the rising websites on the internet right now is Twitch.tv (a subsidiary of Justin.tv), where people are able to video blog on the internet live. Co-founders Justin Kan and Emmett Shear wanted to produce a platform where gamers could do the same thing that Justin.tv did for people, only with a focus on video games. In June 2011, Twitch.tv was born, to give gamers an option to be able to stream their gameplay live on the internet.

As streaming technology was very expensive only a few years back, the site struggled at first to gain its viewers. Only a few people were able to stream at various times, and content

The Twitch.tv booth at PAX East 2012 in Boston, MA. Twitch.tv has gained a large fanbase of gamers in recent years. (Tommy Leunen/Flickr Creative Commons) was limited. However, with the introduction of dedicated software to the Xbox One, Playstation 4, and the Ouya, gamers are able to stream their gameplay from their very own system without requiring a capture card to produce their gameplay. With the drop in prices for capture cards, this has led to many PC gamers investing in cards to capture gameplay from games such as Hearthstone, Starcraft, and League of Legends.

With the eventual close of its closest competitor Own3d.tv

early in 2013, the website rose in popularity. With the new consoles, a mass-outbreak of gamers streaming gameplay on Twitch.tv has begun.

Many of the top professionals in videogaming have begun to produce streaming content for their fantasies.

According to Internal Analytics, there are over 35 million viewers on Twitch every month, with the average viewer watching an hour and a half a day.

With gamers streaming from all over the world and providing content, this has led to many gamers being able to

Work to resume on the Experimental Lakes Area

No research has been conducted on the site in five months Allison O’Reilly Science Editor

During an era of increased federal cutbacks to scientific research programs, a glimmer of hope has come out of Ontario. The Ontario provincial government has proposed regulations that would allow for experiments to be conducted at the Experimental Lakes Area, an outdoor freshwater laboratory near Kenora, Ont. No new research has been conducted in the area since the federal government pulled funding five months ago.

The Experimental Lakes Area is unique, not only in Canada, but also internationally. The site, which comprises of fifty-eight small lakes and their drainage basins,

is a dedicated research facility for ecosystem-scale experimental investigations, as well as long-term monitoring of ecosystem processes.

The ELA is relatively unaffected by human influences and industry, which makes it an ideal location for the study of natural and biological processes.

In the summer of 2012, the federal government announced that it would close the facility by 2013.

This decision struck many as odd, as the ELA only costs $2 million a year to operate. The timing was also seen as odd, as the ELA shut down decision occurred at the same time the federal government was striking down laws and regulations that were designed to protect freshwater and marine habitats.

On May 25, 2012, the North American Lake Management S o c i e t y (NALMS), which represents almost one t h o u s a n d scientists, administrators and citizens, wrote a letter of concern regarding the imminent closure of the ELA, arguing that their work depends on findings from the ELA. They argued that the ELA was a rare resource, and that it has led to many important

The Experimental Lakes Area, previously run

by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, was established in 1968.

discoveries over the past forty years.

In March 2013, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans began dismantling cabins that have been used by ELA project scientists, with no advance notification. This had led scientists to seriously doubt whether the government would transfer the facility to another operator.

A public policy research group based in Winnipeg called the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) hopes to take over the management of the ELA. Negotiations are ongoing.

The IISD insist that new rules were needed in order to continue work without breaking environmental law. This led to a set of proposed regulations intended to authorize experimentation to be released by Ontario’s Environment Ministry.

The proposal outlines criteria that have to be met for experiments to be carried out. This includes monitoring plans, and controls in order to prevent off-site impacts and minimize hostile effects.

Before the ELA turmoil, a wholelake experiment was conducted to assess the effects of silver nanoparticles on freshwater ecosystems. Silver nanoparticles are found in many household products, including clothing—these nanoparticles are increasingly being introduced to waterways. The regulations set forth by the Environment Ministry would allow for that research to proceed.

tune into the website at various times to see top-notch gameplay or even great entertainers. Many of the most popular gamers were able to turn into another income service with Youtube, where gamers offered incentives to donate to their stream, such as being able to communicate in their stream, play-time with the pro gamer itself, or even giveaway in prizes.

Recently, when the game The Last of Us launched, I was unsure if I was going to buy the game, so I did the next best option: I tuned into the

website to see other people play the game. After several hours of watching gamers who bought the game at the release, I got an opportunity to see how it played first-hand. For many gamers, this has led to a excellent opportunity to figure out first-hand if they should buy a certain game or not.

With the rise of Twitch.Tv and E-Sports, the website is on pace to continue to grow into one of the top websites on the internet.

Environmental News Olivia White As the world awaits the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Russia is struggling to deal with the criticism regarding the treatment of the environment in preparation for the games. The euphoria that characterizes the Olympic games has long since turned to anger for the smaller communities that are paying the environmental costs for Sochi. President Vladimir Putin promised that the Sochi Olympics would be the cleanest games ever, though many incidences coming to light cast major doubt on this claim. As a centrepiece of its bid for the Olympics, Russia declared a ‘zero-waste’ program in an effort to create the cleanest games ever. The hosts claimed they would rely on reusable materials in the construction of buildings for the games, as well as refraining from dumping waste from this construction.

The village of Akhshtyr has been plagued by waste from Olympic construction sites, where an illegal dump has been set up. For over three months, trucks bring in construction waste throughout the day and night. The dump is operating without a license by a state-owned Russian enterprise. The area where the dump is located is particularly environmentally sensitive because of its proximity to local water supply.

Moisture from the landfill seeps through porous rocks and into the underground springs that connect to the Mzymta River, which is a source of water for the city of Sochi. Local

officials have tried to clean up the illegal dump, but they lack resources to dispose of the waste correctly.

The reckless dumping is cause for concern in this region, known for its floods and landslides. The landfill in Akhshtyr is just one of many that dot the landscape surrounding the Sochi area.

Many other environmentally sensitive areas have been disturbed in preparation for the games. Damage in the Mzymta River Valley is particularly severe. Around 5,000 acres of forestland that was formerly home to certain rare species has been completely destroyed. Damage has been extended to wetlands areas where migrating birds once lived.

Even national park sites were not safe from environmental destruction. Russian authorities have reversed legislation that limited new construction in national parks. As well, soil, a by-product of massive infrastructure projects, has been dumped in Sochi National Park.

Environmentalists claim that the development of infrastructure projects in these areas, as well as the construction of new sports venues, is threatening to irreparably damage the Sochi region’s natural environment.

According to United Nations experts, this is unprecedented for an Olympic host country.

14 SCIENCE

January 30, 2014

Honours Profile Neal Callaghan

argosy@mta.ca

Dalhousie professor delivers biology talk Science of gnathostome jaws explained Sarah-Anne Steeves A Dalhousie biology professor explained the science behind building a gnathostome during a talk to Mount Allison's biology department this past Friday.

Andrew Gillis's seminar centred on how the mandibular jaw is developed

in cartilaginous fishes. By looking at cartilaginous fishes, such a sharks, rays, and skates, Gillis hopes to gain better understanding of the changes that occurred during evolution. Cartilaginous fishes uniquely share primitive aspects that may other species have lost over time; this makes them prime candidates for observation on how the lower jaw is formed.

In the past, scientists had observed that both the lower jaw and paired fins shared a similarity to the gills on cartilaginous fishes. While the idea was intriguing, there was no way to say whether this was anything more than a

coincidence.

This is where Gillis comes in. Using today's modern research methods, he is able to map the development of the embryos. It is possible to watch the development of the jaw using dyed cells. As it turns out, the development of the jaw does stem from the gills in cartilaginous fish.

Gillis now wants to look closer to the relationship that the gills and paired fins share. So far he has received promising results but it is still too soon to draw any conclusions.

Gillis began his career in biology aspiring to become a medical doctor. It was only

after taking a course from professor Vett Lloyd (who now teaches at Mt. A) that he decided to pursue a career in research, quipping that he became an underpaid doctor instead of a highly paid medical doctor.

Upon completion of his undergraduate degree, he continued on at the University of Bristol where he completed a master’s in archeology. For his doctorate, he retreated back to biology, and studied at the University of Chicago, with a following post-doctorate fellowship at Cambridge.

Meth-addled man fights police, resists taser in a feat of strength Neal Callaghan in his Barclay laboratory. (Allison O’Reilly/Argosy)

Allison O’Reilly

Science Editor

Neal Callaghan is a fourthyear biochemistry honours student working with Christopher Dieni.

His research involves nanoparticle exposure in white suckers (Catostomus commersonii).

Callaghan’s thesis is entitled “regulation of lactate dehydrogenase in response to zinc oxide nanoparticle exposure in the white sucker.”

His research has been ongoing for two years, under the supervision of biochemistry professor Tyson MacCormack.

Dieni, a biochemist and comparative physiologist, studies the similarities and differences in the metabolism across model organisms.

Presently, his research focuses on enzumes that are likely to be phosphorylated (or dephosphorylated) in response to nanoparticle toxicity.

“This ties into the research I’ve done with MacCormack,” Callaghan said. “[MacCormack] focuses on a specific aspect and sees how it affects the fish as a whole— an ‘inside-out’ approach.”

White suckers are freshwater fish that inhabit the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America. The sucker is aptly named due to its fleshy papillose lips, used to suck up organic matter from the bottom of rivers and streams.

In order to study the fish, Callaghan places them in a feeding tank. From there, the fish are exposed to zinc oxide nanoparticles in the water. Different tissues are then tested for signs of stress and toxicity.

Nanoparticles are a billion dollar industry. Zinc oxide

nanoparticles in particular are used in numerous products, including plastics, electronics, sunscreen, and various cosmetics. However, zinc oxide is insoluable in water, and through means of production, has been introduced to waterways. Research on zinc oxide nanoparticle exposure has only began in recent years—long term effects of exposure, especially on fish and other aquatic life, is still relatively unknown.

Preliminary results of Callaghan’s research is showing that most aren’t affected, but high responders are shown to downregulate their own metabolism— primarily in the muscles—to allow for their eggs to grow.

At first, Callaghan was unsure of what to study at Mt. A. It was only after taking an introductory biochemistry course that he realized how interesting it could be.

“Biochemistry answered a lot of questions that I had about biology,” Callaghan said.

Following his undergraduate, Callaghan plans to stay at Mt. A for another two years to pursue a Master’s under the supervision of Tyson MacCormack.

Callaghan’s research will take another route, as he plans to study glucose metabolism in fish.

“Fish are diabetic by nature,” Callaghan explained.

“I’m interested in how they stay healthy through stress and variations in diet.”

Callaghan intends to use fish as a model for humans, as his future research could provide insight into diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Meth may not have been a factor in the outburst Keegan Smith A thirty-seven-year-old man was arrested Dec. 21, 2013 following a period of methamphetamine use and civil disobedience that ended in violence. Andrew Frey, after an afternoon of theft and loitering, entered Iggy’s Bar and Grill in Salem, Oregon, and began masturbating in front of the bar. He soon retreated to the bathroom to continue pleasuring himself.

In his attempts to arrest Frey, and stop him from masturbating, the responding officer shot the man with a taser, but this had little effect.

As Frey became physically hostile, the officer called for backup, and eventually, fifteen officers were able to subdue

Frey and arrest him. Let that sink in for a second—fifteen.

Frey later admitted that he had used meth, saying that he had no memories of his actions.

When you get past the mental image that this story conjures—and what an image it is: a crazed man punching cops with one hand, the other shoved furiously into his pants, resisting taser blasts and presumably shouting obscenities—you begin to wonder how such acts of strength and endurance are possible. Was it the drug?

Should we be worried that our friendly neighbourhood tweaker is going to start racing trains or leaping buildings in a single bound?

Mount Allison psychology professor Daniel McGrath says no. “Methamphetamine is a very powerful stimulant with a lot of long-term, chronic effects. However, super strength as a result of

meth use is really a myth.”

While stimulants do induce a physical response (caffeine has been found to improve athletic performance in moderate doses) nearsuperhuman endurance is extreme and unusual— suggesting that labelling Frey’s actions as a ‘methfuelled rampage’ is inaccurate.

Having said that, a recent study found that about fifty per cent of chronic meth users believe that the drug made them more violent.

With side effects including hallucinations, paranoia, and aggression, meth certainly plays a role in outbursts like Frey’s. “We don’t know a lot of the details of this particular case,” says McGrath, a specialist i n

addictions and personality.

One alternate explanation for Frey’s behaviour could be a psychotic break.

While there is no definitive information to suggest that this occurred, “it’s probably not a stretch to say that chronic users could find themselves out of touch with reality in a psychotic episode,” says McGrath. Aside from the likely adrenaline rush in such a situation, there are also case-specific factors at play: whether Frey was a particularly strong person, whether he was naturally aggressive, even the potential for overblown reporting of the altercation. McGrath cautions against drawing conclusions about drug effects from stories like this one.

“Something like this would obviously get a lot of media attention,” he says, and this might lead to members of the public jumping to unrealistic conclusions about drugs and their users.

The bottom line, though, is that drugs are a serious social issue, and events like this should be viewed as the anomalies that they are.

HUMOUR

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Eliminate pesky student debt with ONE WEIRD TIP: Flee to another country!

Counter for money wasted during strike, now with animated skeleton!

January 30, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Across 1. Couch 5. Collection of maps 10. Absorb written material 14. Damson 15. Make cool 16. Spindle 17. As acknowledged 19. Give as an example 20. C 21. More awful 22. Eyeshade 23. Trap 25. Visitor

Down 1. “The Final Frontier” 2. Bygone 3. Exhaust 4. French for “Friend” 5. They play roles 6. Not here 7. Jar tops 8. Supposedly 9. Cunning 10. Bigotry 11. Being 12. Countertenor 13. Stag or doe

27. Autonomic nervous system 28. Ceremonial gown 31. Bit of parsley 34. Cyphers 35. Prefix meaning “Modern” 36. Loyal (archaic) 37. Infant 38. Stigma 39. Bran source 40. Succulent 41. Cubic meter 42. Qualified 44. Card with one symbol

18. Exaggerated nasality in speech 22. Ex-servicemen 24. Found on a finger 26. Utilized 28. Vocalization 29. Close 30. Ripped 31. Blackthorn 32. Resound 33. A type of explanation 34. Daycare 37. Square block 38. Stair

45. Lubricated 46. One of three offspring 50. Anagram of “Talon” 52. Freight 54. Wood chopping tool 55. Distinctive flair 56. String puppet 58. Sediment 59. Operatic solos 60. Small slender gull 61. Foot digits 62. Prepared 63. Historical periods

40. Jack and ____ 41. Descendant 43. Goliaths 44. Fleet 46. Threesome 47. Not earlier 48. Spare 49. Adolescents 50. Exam 51. Hodgepodge 53. Diva’s solo 56. Blemish 57. French for “Summer”

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

The Town of Sackville & the Tantramarsh Blues Society present

Friday, Jan. 31, 9:00 pm, George's Roadhouse 67 Lorne St., Sackville NB Tickets: $12 in advance at Ducky’s, $15 at the door, Students $8 (ID required) Tantramarsh Blues Society: www.mta.ca/tbs Rod Allen’s Used Cars