The Argosy, May 12, 2015, Vol. 146, Iss. 1

ARGOSY

THE May 12, 2016 Vol. 146, Iss. 1

Mount Allison’s Independent Student Newspaper

Taking a victory lap since 1872

If U were all the sky and I was all the earth there would still not be enough of U by Ben Egli

ELECTION

ANNIVERSARY

Sackville elects mayor, town council One hundred years Sylvan Hamburger Editor-in-Chief

Approximately 2,000 Sackville residents dropped by the Civic Centre to cast their ballots in the town’s municipal election on Monday, May 9. With overwhelming support from roughly 47 percent of the Sackville electorate, John Higham was elected to replace Bob Berry as mayor of Sackville.

Higham received 81 per cent of votes, a decisive victory over his contender, Virgil Hammock. The new town council will consist of five incumbents and three fresh faces when the coun-

cillors are sworn in on May 25.

A resident of Sackville for about twenty years, Higham served on town council between 2008 and 2012. He was also the former director of the defunct Rural and Small Town Program at Mount Allison and a senior policy analyst in the federal government for Indian Affairs in Atlantic Canada.

Higham said he will prioritize issues related to town flooding, the shutting down of local businesses, and provincial governance changes. He said council needs to look into accessing federal funding for infrastructure while preparing for changes in pro-

vincial governance that could affect the municipality. “Change is needed, there’s no doubt about that, but sometimes change is just downloading […] and that’s something we really want to avoid by being prepared.”

Higham said the town needs to be more innovative in its attempts to foster local businesses and attract families to settle in Sackville. To do this, he aims to encourage a more inclusive tone in council discussions and operations to encourage more input from students and local entrepreneurs.

“We need to develop the town in a respectful manner,” said Higham.

“We can’t keep going after big block industries, they’re not going to happen anymore, what we really need are small entrepreneurs.”

Bill Evans, a retired network analyst with computing services at Mount Allison, has been re-elected to serve a second term on council. Evans said council needs to do more to address environmental concerns and provincial governance issues. In order to tackle these concerns, Evans said council needs to focus on improving its governance procedure. “As long as you have decent people and good process, the outcomes are going to be fine.”

‘New Mayor’: Pg. 2 John Higham is Sackville’s new mayor. John Higham/Submitted

after Grace Lockhart David Mawhinney Argosy Contributor May 18 will mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Grace Annie Lockhart, one of Mount Allison’s most illustrious graduates. In 1875, Lockhart entered into the annals of history, becoming the first woman in the British Commonwealth to be granted a “bachelor’s” degree. Documents and photographs recently donated to Mt. A’s archives by her grandson’s widow, Nita Dawson, provide new insight into her life story.

The youngest of four daughters, Lockhart was born on February 22, 1855 to Edward Elias Lockhart and Susan C. Whittekir. Lockhart’s early life was challenging: her mother died when she was nine months old, so she was raised by her older sisters and their housekeeper, Rosanna Wilson, who died when Lockhart was eight. Three years later, Lockhart’s eldest sister left for the Mount Allison Ladies’ College, and her two other sisters followed in 1868. None of them, however, stayed for more than a year.

Lockhart entered the Mount Allison Ladies’ College in 1871. An incredibly studious individual, she completed a Mistress of Liberal Arts degree in 1874 and a bachelor of sci-

ence the following year.

A tintype received in the recent donation depicts her with eight classmates on the occasion of her graduation in 1872. Notably, she is the only one in the group not wearing a gown or holding a mortarboard. Perhaps most interesting is that she is sitting next to her future husband, John Leard Dawson – the man with mutton chops.

Dawson was born in 1851 in Tryon, Prince Edward Island. He completed his BA after studying at both Mount Allison University and the Boston Theological Seminary. Later on, Dawson became a probationer in the Methodist Church, serving in Nova Scotia and Bermuda before his ordination with the Church in 1881. That same year, he and Lockhart married in Saint John, New Brunswick. Subsequently, the couple moved regularly throughout the Atlantic provinces in order to follow the three-year circuits of the Methodist denomination.

‘Grace Annie Lockhart’: Pg. 5

News

May 12, 2016 | argosy@mta.ca

J.E.A. CRAKE AWARD

Senior Argosy editor wins Crake-Sawdon Austin Landry Argosy Contributor Fourth-year biology student Clay Steell, who was the Argosy’s science editor for the 2015-16 publishing year, will cap off his final year at Mount Allison by winning the CrakeSawdon award for his contributions to student journalism.

Steell’s many investigations led to our publishing some of the most in-depth work by a single reporter over the last year, as well as a recent look into the non-prescribed usage of study drugs among Mt. A students.

Beginning as a contributor when he found out any student was welcome to write for us at the close of his first year, Steell went on to report for the Argosy in all four of his years of study.

Steell said that working at the Argosy exposed him to societal issues in higher education. The care for these issues Steell has cultivated over the years has “become central to [his] identity.” He says working at the paper challenged him to “consider the story behind pretty much everything.”

Despite holding the position of science and technology editor, Steell’s journalistic interests ranged widely beyond these areas. He wrote or contributed in some way to all of

the Argosy’s sections this year, but his reporting had a clear focus. “I was particularly fond of exploring issues relevant or tangential to science but not explicitly related to it,” he said, which he believes led to less common perspectives being considered.

Specifically, some of Steell’s investigations used data journalism to explore local climate and gendered implications of Mt. A’s student demography. Local science reporting can seem scarce in the face of Mt. A’s robust sports culture and Sackville’s arts scene, but regardless of whether it was finding an on-campus angle to a more abstract story, or simply seeking out the local beat, Clay’s reporting illuminated a multitude of goings-on in the local science community.

Clay will continue his studies this fall, when he will begin a master’s at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The Crake-Sawdon award is annually awarded to a Mount Allison student who has made a substantial contribution to print journalism. It is named for William Boyle Sawdon, who died in 2001 and was an editor of the Argosy as well as the Sackville Tribune Post’s publisher.

After Sawdon passed away, his family and the Crake Foundation established the award in his honour.

terms.

Megan Mitton, a previous candidate for the New Brunswick Green Party and first-time councillor, received the most support on Monday, garnering 1,370 votes. Mitton said she will work towards implementing mitigation and adaptation measures to address climate change while incorporating sustainability into all aspects of council decision making.

She is looking forward to working with members of the Mount Allison

Clay Steell collecting seaweed near the Bay of Fundy for his thesis research.

Clay Steell/Facebook

community to help fulfill her goals.

“The university is essential not only to Sackville's economy, but to our community,” said Mitton. “I am very open to ideas for how the town and university can work together in the future.”

Andrew Black and Allison Butcher will also serve as newly elected councillors. Black, a former smallbusiness owner and Mount Allison alumni, said the town can work with Mount Allison to implement

entrepreneurial programs, shared public and student spaces, and collaborate with various academic departments to aid with decision making and planning.

Evans said he is excited by the success of the newly elected younger councillors, as they hold positive relationships with Mount Allison. “I think it’s the least we can expect that council is not prejudiced against the university.”

CLIMATE CHANGE

Past winter warmest ever recorded locally Findings reflect global heat-record streak S. Clay Steell Argosy Contributor This year’s mild winter weather was a welcome reprieve from last year’s frigid conditions, but it has shattered local climate records.

The average temperature this past winter was the highest ever recorded locally, according to Environment Canada’s climate record for Moncton.

This was not just a local phenomenon, it fits into a yearlong pattern of regular global climate records being broken as a result of manmade climate change.

The average temperature in Moncton this past winter, which Environment Canada defines as the months of December, January, and February, was -3.57° Celsius. This is more than 4° higher than last winter’s mean temperature of -8.48°,

but within 1.5° of the mean of three winters in the last decade: 2012, 2010, and 2006. The winter of 1958 was almost as warm as this winter, with a mean temperature of -3.7°, which is the only other recorded winter in Moncton to have an average temperature above 4°.

2015 was the warmest year ever recorded globally, breaking this record for the second consecutive year, and this January, February, and March reached the warmest temperatures ever recorded globally for those months. March became the eleventh consecutive month to break its global temperature records, and early reports from NASA show that April may have continued this record.

While no month in 2016 has broken a local climate record yet, last December was the warmest December ever recorded in Moncton.

Jeff Ollerhead appointed acting provost, vice president academic Leo Gertler Argosy Contributor

‘New Mayor’: Higham is elected as mayor of Sackville after decisive victory Evans said the council should acknowledge the financial and social benefits of having a university in town. “We, the community, need to recognize the simple fact that Mount Allison and the students are hugely important to us,” he said.

Joyce O’Neil and Bruce Phinney, both lifelong residents, will serve their fourth term on council. Additionally, Ron Aiken, a biology professor at Mount Allison, and Michael Tower will serve their third consecutive

ADMINISTRATION

Numerous scientific bodies, such as NASA and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), say that this regular temperature

record breaking is a strong sign that manmade climate change is accelerating.

Data acquired from Environment Canada’s Canadian Climate Data. Winter for a given year includes the months of Jan., Feb., and the previous Dec.

Jeff Ollerhead, a professor in the geography and environment faculty, will be serving as Mount Allison’s acting provost and vice-president academic and research. Ollerhead’s term will begin July 1, and he will hold the position for the duration of the 2016-17 academic year.

Ollerhead has had ten years of experience as dean of sciences, a position which will be filled by biochemistry professor, Amanda Cockshutt for 2016-17.

According to the Mt. A website, the provost is responsible for “budgets for the academic faculties, the library, administrative and general services, and other academic areas.”

Karen Grant, the current provost, will resign her post effective June 30 and leave the university. Students were informed of these changes in an email from Robert Campbell on April 28.

“As interim provost for the year, my primary goal is to ensure that all necessary processes run smoothly for 2016-17 ... and that we continue to pursue a goal of being academically sustainable,” Ollerhead wrote in an email to the Argosy.

Ollerhead said he would like to address whether or not Mt. A’s distribution credit system, which has been part of an ongoing debate at the university, should be changed early on in his tenure as provost.

Ollerhead also included “[completing] the work started

by Dr. [Karen] Grant on a plan to increase and enhance student experiential learning at Mount Allison” as one of his top priorities.

Ollerhead spoke positively about what he has learned while working with three different provosts over his years as dean, including Grant.

“I have learned that the role of provost is extremely challenging and that ongoing dialogue with all stakeholders is key,” said Ollerhead.

“I have also come to realize that for some decisions, there will always be unhappy stakeholders because in some cases, it is simply not possible to satisfy all stakeholders equally.”

Ollerhead said Mount Allison is “entering a collective bargaining period and negotiations with a number of [its] unions, including the Mount Allison Faculty Association.

These discussions will undoubtedly present opportunities to cultivate relationships.”

The selection process to find a permanent provost to replace Grant is set to begin in the fall.

NEWS

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca LIBERAL ARTS

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Halifax Humanities visits Mount Allison Non-degree program offers free liberal arts classes, looks to expand to N.B. to bridge Ont.-N.S. gap

Mary Lu Redden, center, with a book compiling the work of Halifax Humanities alums. Austin Landry/Submitted

Cameron McIntyre Argosy Contributor One of the perennial questions that surrounds the liberal arts focus of Mount Allison and other universities concerns the value of such an education. A Halifax-based initiative believes it has the answer and that there is now interest in starting a similar initiative in Sackville.

Halifax Humanities offers a free introduction to the humanities to those living below the poverty line.

The core course is modeled after the Foundation Year Programme at King’s College. At the North Branch Library in Halifax, students go from studying classical texts like The Iliad and The Republic to contemporary writings such as Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex over the course of eight months. Although the program is not for credit and there is no marking, the program uses a shifting cast

of volunteering professors from universities in Nova Scotia to run each class. Halifax Humanities also offers a seminar-style class to students who have completed the foundation year. This class expands on themes from the core course and allows graduates to come back to the program year after year.

“The numbers are down in terms of the enrolment in arts and humanities courses and programs, so I think there is real pressure to prove that they are viable and applicable to everyday life,” said Elizabeth Wells, who will become the new dean of arts for Mount Allison on July 1.

“This [program] is a really good way to show that in a very real, tangible way.”

Wells, also a deacon at Sackville’s Anglican Church, organized a talk at Mt. A on May 4 that featured speakers from the Halifax Humanities program with Ranall Ingalls, the rector of Sackville’s Anglican Church.

She said the goal of the talk was to gauge interest in and determine the logistics of implementing a program like Halifax Humanities in Sackville.

She deemed the event a success due to the high turnout given the time of year.

Theoretically, Sackville has all the ingredients to make a program like Halifax Humanities work. As a small university town, Sackville has a glut of experts in the relevant cultural texts as well as residents who would benefit from such a program. In 2006, the census reported that 13.8 per cent of New Brunswickers live in poverty.

That is not to say that implementing the program will be an easy task. For a program that aims to be as accessible as possible, accessibility problems often arise. In the case of Halifax Humanities, Mary Lu Redden, the program’s director, handles most of these potential barriers.

“I do the fundraising. I order the books. I make the coffee. I get the

bus tickets. I arrange the child care.

I do all of that,” said Redden, who also participates in all the classes.

“We have a lot of students with very complicated lives.”

However, Redden does not organize the curriculum of Halifax Humanities. That task falls to the volunteering university professors.

Redden appoints professors as coordinators for each section of the course, which are typically divided by historical period. Co-ordinators are responsible for meeting with their colleagues and deciding who will handle each specific text.

“I’ve never had a text that I had to prepare from scratch,” said Eli Diamond, a professor in Dalhousie’s classics and philosophy departments. Diamond has been teaching a few classes per year for Halifax Humanities since he began at Dalhousie in 2008. “It is nothing like preparing for one of your own classes or a conference in terms of workload.

It is really very reasonable.”

Diamond said that the collaborative effort required by the program has brought his department closer together, while the lack of marking allows for more open discussions in class. It gives professors the opportunity to bridge the gap between school and community that often emerges in university towns.

“It is an incredible amount of fun to go into the classroom. It is so lively. It is really wonderful to be talking about these texts with people who have very different [backgrounds] than my own and different [backgrounds] from your typical 18-year-old university student,” said Diamond.

“It’s one of my favourite teaching responsibilities.”

Not offering credit is not necessarily a bad thing for students either. “It does change the demographics of who we attract. For instance, we have a larger proportion of people in our program who are on long-term disability because of a mental or physical health condition,

whereas in the United States, because the programs are for credit, they tend not to attract that population,” said Redden.

The fact that it is not for credit has not stopped graduates of the program from pursuing further post-secondary education. Of the course’s 120 graduates, one third have gone on to pursue credited studies or rejoined the workforce.

“Getting people together to engage with really good writing is powerful regardless of whether it is being done for a credit or not for a credit,” said Redden. “I think there is a hunger to learn amongst people, and to feed that need is remarkably important.”

If a program were to start up in Sackville, it is unlikely that it would initially run the full length of Halifax Humanities’ eight-month-long program.

“We can start with a six-week or an eight-week program on maybe one or two courses and gradually build up to something bigger over time,” said Wells. Although the administration has no plans as of yet to start a program, Wells said, “There is probably a will and an interest in running something on a small scale to start with.”

ADMINISTRATION

Distrubution credit system survey results conflict Taylor McCuaig Argosy Contributor Responses to the distribution credit survey show that student preference is split between the newly proposed distribution credit system and the current system, whereas faculty favour the proposed system or an entirely different system to best achieve the university’s goal of intellectual diversity.

On behalf of Sarah Murphy, Mount Allison Students’ Union’s then-president Dylan Wooley-Berry sent a survey to students on April 11 requesting feedback on the newly proposed distribution credit system.

This survey was also sent to members of the faculty.

Responses to the survey from students were distributed evenly across academic years; while the majority of responses came primarily from of the students in Bachelor or Arts and Bachelor of Science.

“I was very impressed by the number of student responses,” said Murphy. “With 772 responses, this is clearly an issue that students care deeply about.”

The proposed system has eight new distribution categories, rather than the current four. Students would be required to complete three credits from seven of the eight categories.

This would change the requirement from 24 distribution credits to 21.

“There was a lot of conflict in the responses,” said Murphy. Fortynine per cent of students were in

favour of preserving the previous distribution credit system whereas 43 per cent responded positively to the proposed system. An additional option allowed students to suggest an entirely different system of distribution courses. Seven per cent of students who responded chose this option, many suggesting a pass/ fail distribution credit system would be best.

One student indicated they think the current system is favourable: “I think it is quite silly to change a system that has nothing wrong with it. Every year there are successful, well rounded graduates who graduate from Mount Allison and I don’t think changes to this system are necessary in any way.” This sentiment was echoed by many other student

responses.

In contrast, another student voiced a preference for the new system, as it would give students broader categories to chose from. “I think the broader categories work better as it gives students more choice as to what they can take […] overall not forcing any student to take courses they find uninteresting or difficult is the best option.”

In another question, the survey asked if an additional category should be included in the new distribution credit system. Many students answered that the new distribution system did not need a new category.

Some also said there were already too many categories in the proposed system.

One student suggested the new

system include an indigenous studies category and emphasized the need for more social sciences course. Another student suggested a diversity category, writing, “courses that focus on various inequalities such as gender, disability, race […] possible courses could be taken from the [women’s and gender studies], [sociology] and [psychology] departments.”

Many students also said anthropology, sociology, and the sciences need to be included in more categories; many others expressed a desire for a pass/fail evaluation system. Members of the faculty echoed this sentiment.

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NEWS

Honorary degree recipients

May 12, 2016 | argosy@mta.ca

Tyler Stuart Editor-in-Chief Illustrations by Jeff Mann Every year, Mount Allison University honours public figures “who have demonstrated service to Mount Allison or the wider community, or prominent public persons” by awarding them honorary degrees at convocation. This is a longstanding tradition at the university, dating back to 1946. According to its website, Mount Allison gives honorary degrees “to individuals who reflect the vision and values of our community.” Below are eight of the 69 recipients since 2000.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, received an honorary degree from Mt. A in 2012. She has been a political representative for Inuit at a regional level, researching and analyzing the effects of climate change on Inuit communities. She recently authored a book, The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet. She has received several awards for her service and activism, including the Right to Livelihoods award in 2015.

Heather Reisman, the founder and CEO of Indigo Books & Music Inc., received an honorary degree from Mount Allison in 2010. Since Indigo’s merger with Chapters in 2006, Indigo has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on book retail sales in Canada.

Reisman is also the founder of the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, an organization with close ties to the Israeli Defence Forces. Because of her role in HESEG, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid has issued a boycott against Indigo.

For this reason, her nomination for an honorary degree was opposed by faculty members and students.

Maude Barlow, awarded an honorary degree in 2004, is an environmental activist who served as the senior advisor on water to the 63rd president of the UN General Assembly.

She authored and co-authored 16 books, including Blue Gold: Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water. She has received 12 honorary degrees and several awards, including the EarthCare Award, the highest international honour of the Sierra Club. She currently serves as the national chairperson for the Council of Canadians.

James D. Irving, who was awarded an honorary degree in 2013, is the co-CEO of J.D. Irving Ltd., the largest private sector employer in New Brunswick that dominates the province’s pulp and paper, forestry, and agricultural industries. He is a member of the Irving family dynasty, which owns every daily newspaper in the province, several radio stations, and the largest oil refinery in Canada. Their fraught relationship with taxation and massive land holdings make it one of the most powerful and controversial families in the country.

Deepa Mehta, who received her honorary degree in 2013, is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and screenwriter. Born in Punjab, India, and raised in Delhi, Mehta began her career as a filmmaker. She is perhaps most well-known for her Elements Trilogy films, including installments: Fire, Earth, and Water. Earth, released in 1998 and based off of Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel Cracking India, was India’s Academy Award entry for Best Foreign Language Film; Water, released in 2005, explores the effects of misogyny and suicide in rural India, and was Canada’s official entry for that year.

L. R. (Red) Wilson, awarded an honorary degree in 2000, is a Canadian businessman. Wilson was the CEO of Bell Canada from 1992 to 1998. He also served as the chairman of the board for both Nortel and CAE, a Canadian aerospace manufacturing company which specializes in simulation technologies. According the “Defence & Security” section of its website, CAE provides “world-class training solutions for remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) and unmanned aerial systems (UASs).” CAE has sold its products to the Canadian, U.K., and U.S. militaries. Wilson also funds the L.R. Wilson Internship in Public Policy and Public Service.

Julie Payette, a Canadian engineer and astronaut, was awarded an honorary degree from Mount Allison in 2005. Throughout her service, Payette has completed two space flights, one on the space shuttle Discovery in 1999 and one on the space shuttle Endeavour in 2009. In total, she has logged 25 days in space.

From 2000 to 2007, Payette served as Chief Astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Beyond her career with the CSA, Payette was appointed the director of the National Bank of Canada in 2014, the sixth largest commercial bank in Canada.

Kevin Vickers was awarded an honorary degree in 2015. Considered by many to be a Canadian hero, Vickers, the ninth Sergeant-at-Arms for the House of Commons, killed gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who shot and killed a guard at Parliament Hill on October 22, 2014.

He currently serves as the Canadian ambassador to Ireland. Vickers was born in Catham, New Brunswick.

ADMINISTRATION

Mt. A revokes membership with research network, upsets faculty Conor Van de Wetering Argosy Contributor Mount Allison cancelled its financial contributions to the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network (NBSPRN) in April after five years of participation, thereby revoking its membership.

David Bruce, director of the office of research services at Mt. A, sent an email to the Argosy disclosing that the decision to cancel Mt. A’s membership was made by the President’s Executive Group, in consultation with Mt. A’s office of research services.

Bruce’s email implied that the NBSPRN provided redundant services. “The support that Mount Allison’s office of research services provides to our own faculty members achieves similar outcomes.”

Bruce’s email also suggests that there is no need to financially support the network because the individual memberships are free.

“Membership in NBSPRN is at the individual level,” he wrote. “Mount Allison faculty and students who have been members of NBSPRN will continue to be registered as members, at no cost.”

In 2010, New Brunswick’s four public universities, UNB, STU, U de M, and Mt. A, signed a five-year agreement with the NBSPRN. The government matched the funding provided by the four universities dollar for dollar.

Initially, Mt. A contributed $25,000 to the NBSPRN. Mt. A reduced its contributions to $10,000 in 2012 and again to $5,000 in 2014.

Although UNB and U de M continue to fund the NBSPRN, Mt. A has now cancelled its funding.

The NBSPRN’s mission is to advance citizen engagement and evidence-based policy development in New Brunswick. According to its website, the NBSPRN accomplishes this by facilitating relationships and mobilizing knowledge between those making decisions, those conducting research, non-governmental organizations, and New Brunswick citizens.

Mt. A is home to many of the networks participants and beneficiaries. Mario Levesque, a political science professor at Mt. A, speaks highly of the NBSPRN on its website. “The NBSPRN has allowed me to quickly incorporate provincially relevant research into my larger research agenda.”

Nick Scott, the executive director of the NBSPRN, said in an email that he understands the financial pressures that face post-secondary institutions,

but stressed that that the network is a worthwhile investment because of the tremendous amount of value it generates for both universities and the general public.

Scott also mentioned that in addition to the services, connections, and grants the NBSPRN provides, their team has offered invaluable support to its members and in organizing conferences that advance its mission.

Scott said the network will continue to maintain its relationship with the Mt. A community in order to continue its mission to advance evidence-based policy and citizen engagement. He also expressed that the network’s work for the public good comes at a cost. “The network depends on its members to realize its mission.”

Michael Fox, a professor in the department of geography and

environment and member of the network’s advisory committee, was not consulted on Mt. A’s decision to withdraw from the network. He said he is concerned about how this decision reflects on Mt. A. “The fact that Mt. A has apparently decided to rescind its membership in the network reflects very poorly on our institutional character,” Fox said.

Dave Thomas, the head of the politics & international relations department, said a few of his colleagues were active participants in the network. He voiced concerns about Mt. A’s membership cancellation and the administration’s approach to decision-making.

“This decision was made without any form of consultation that I am aware of, which seems to be part of a larger trend of the centralization of decision making, authority and power at this institution,” Thomas said.

Opinions

May 12, 2016 | argosy@mta.ca

THE ARGOSY

UNIVERSITY

What’s the point of Mt. A?

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

I’ve enjoyed my time at Mt. A, but not because of the brochure promises

Kevin Levangie Argosy Contributor It’s pretty easy to rattle off a column about the university when I’ve spent the last two weeks mulling over my time here. Now more than ever, I tend to vacillate between sentimentality and cynicism about my time at Mount Allison. I’ve met a lot of people I respect and admire, I’ve taken a handful of classes that have made an immediately perceptible impact on how I view the world, and I’ve enjoyed a number of beers in a variety of places across town.

Still, my time here leaves me somewhat unsatisfied. It often feels as though life on and around campus isn’t organized in the way that most students, faculty, and staff would have it. I’m afraid I can’t point to a specific incident, policy, or budget line that I dislike or disagree with that can totally explain this feeling.

Instead, I think in order to interpret this feeling it’s important to read the university like a text—by placing it in its historical, social and political context.

We could – and often do – say something about how the Mt. A community is more than the sum of its members. I agree, but probably not in the way that we might like to think

of ourselves. Whatever the other aspirations of the university, it began as, and remains, a training ground for the ruling classes. It doesn’t much matter that many of us find that function somewhat distasteful—the university will continue to fulfill it.

As Karl Marx wrote, “The traditions of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”

The institution carries a lot of baggage: it was built on unceded indigenous territory, was the source of cannon fodder in an imperialist war, and has trained generations of future lawyers, physicians, ministers and bureaucrats to take places as functionaries of a pretty brutal social order.

At some level, the “memorial echo” now standing next to the Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts is a symbol of how we do things at Mount Allison. Despite the ostensible “support of our troops” by the institution, the Memorial Library was demolished. I’m not much for the compulsory commemoration of the First World War – which was, in my understanding, a slaughter conducted in service of competing imperial interests – but I think studying the library’s fate can tell us something about the university.

First, it should be noted that it’s a memorial to a memorial. Even

if you’re not trained in a discipline largely concerned with the cultural objects produced by postmodernism, that should strike you as a little odd.

This leads to some complicated questions. Is the “aura” of something taken to be sacred transferable to another monument? How many times can a monument can be torn down and rebuilt before it loses its commemorative function? While a memorial is always a performance of commemoration that doesn’t have any real, material relationship to the events or people it memorializes, this seems to take that divorce to an extreme.

If the administration had considered the original memorial to be something sacred, as many alumni do, it would not have commissioned its demolition. In this debacle and the alumni protests that ensued, we can see a fundamental contradiction between some of the differing social functions of a university.

In this case, we see the university’s classical role as preserver of tradition giving way to its newer role as a business that needs to advertise new buildings such as the PCCA to attract new students. While I’m not fond of the role of the university as a bastion of the martial values of feudalism that it froze in time – honour, discipline, obedience – we can see how they

necessarily come in conflict with the university’s desire to appeal to the market of students looking for a university.

What we do here is in many ways more about appearances than substance. Perhaps Mount Allison – and universities more broadly – could learn from my high school’s motto: “To be rather than to seem.” That is, there is a fundamental conflict between the running of the university as a business and its functioning as an educational institution. Rather than existing for its own sake, or for the sake of its students, faculty, and staff, it is managed so as to draw in students, more concerned with the appearance of substance rather than its actual presence.

In order to teach and learn unobstructed, we need to place the governance of the university in the hands of the people who work and live on campus—not an arms’-length board or imported administrators. On campus, as elsewhere in our society, we need a deepening of democracy before the institution can actually become greater than the sum of its parts. As the university continues to change, it must begin understand that governance and management can’t be taken to mean the same thing.

a professor of pharmacology in the United States.

Despite being somewhat confined as a minister’s wife, Lockhart was an activist. In a recently donated photograph of her with a white ribbon pinned to her dress, we see that she was both a member of the Women’s

Christian Temperance Union and a strong advocate for social reform.

Among several interesting ideas published in an 1896 newspaper article, Lockhart wrote, “as mind is greater than matter, the cultivation of the mind is more important than the cultivation of the soil.”

Lockhart died 100 years ago in Charlottetown at the age of 61. I suspect that her early death might have been caused by the stress of looking after Dawson, who died two years later from what his death certificate deemed “premature senility.” Both Lockhart and her husband are buried in the People’s Cemetery in Tryon, Prince Edward

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Continued from cover: Remembering Grace Lockhart Dawson and Lockhart had three sons, all of whom attended Mount Allison. The oldest and youngest became engineers, while the middle son, Wilfred Thomas Dawson, distinguished himself as the university’s ninth Rhodes Scholar. Wilfred went on to become

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Discussing her grandmother’s achievements, Lockhart’s granddaughter recently said in an article published in the Mount Allison Record, “We knew about [our grandmother’s accomplishment] certainly, but I can’t ever recall it being considered a big fuss […] it was just something that happened and was fantastic. I don’t think my grandmother ever made a big deal of it either.”

Lockhart remained humble despite her many accomplishments, and Mount Allison should continue to honour her legacy.

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Arts & Culture

May 12, 2016 | argosy@mta.ca

FINE ARTS

Fine arts grads host group exhibition ‘Less Famous Now’ features instalments, sculptures and self-portraiture Daniel Marcotte Argosy Contributor Upon reflecting on her time as a fine arts student at Mount Allison, Lily Furlong said that the small and tightly knit community has been formative to her as an artist and as an individual. In a testament to this, 12 fine art graduates have put together a final exhibition titled “Less Famous Now,” currently on display at the Owens Art Gallery.

Furlong said that the exhibition’s title was chosen as a group, and is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to a headline they found in a tabloid magazine.

“It’s kind of a funny and hopefully untrue suggestion that our artistic careers have already peaked,” wrote Furlong in an email.

Furlong has three mixed-media pieces in the exhibition: “Tang Dynasty Tomb Guardian”, “Pink Lotus Tiffany Lamp” and “The Meiyintang ‘Chicken Cup’,” all of which are based on and named after invaluable artefacts at the Cleveland Museum of Art. However, Furlong’s pieces are made from discarded and found materials such as plastic forks, squashed yogurt cups, broken glass and mangled pop cans arranged to roughly resemble their namesakes and then dipped in white epoxy and enamel paint.

Furlong said she is drawn to the ways in which a gallery or museum space can imbue seemingly worthless objects with artistic or cultural significance. She said that her exhibit is a way of posing the question: ‘Could our old food containers one day become relics of our age?’

“The value of these everyday objects changes when they become sculptures in a gallery,” said Furlong.

To accompany Furlong’s foundmaterial sculptures, an image of each respective artefact is screen-printed directly onto the gallery wall behind

FOOD

it. Other pieces in the exhibition, such as Emma Hoch’s “Tell a Toile Story” and Corryn Bamber’s “Beed the Firds”, are installed into the gallery and invite viewers to enter enclosed spaces and actively engage with the creative process.

“Much of the work will be a temporary thing that exists for this summer only,” said Furlong.

“Hopefully people will be drawn to that and want to experience our show, because so many works have been designed as an experience.”

Jihye Bang – another graduating fine arts student – contributed six photographic pieces to the exhibition, all of which are part of a larger series currently in progress. Many of the photographs are self-portraits, and use hard shadows, reflective surfaces and multiple exposures to create overlapping silhouettes and ghostly copies of the artist.

Bang said that the pieces are a form of “visual self-exploration,” and that they echo psychological theories of selfhood and identity such as those of Carl Jung.

“Shadows have negative connotations—a space without light, an unknown,” said Bang. “I used [them] to represent the subconscious, and hidden or negative aspects of the personality.”

Because she moved from South Korea to Canada in 2009, Bang also said that the multiple exposures were a way of representing an internal split between Korean and Canadian cultural identity. This is also evident in the works’ titles, as they appear in Korean with an English translation.

“Coming to university represented a big change, especially since I was now separated from my family,” said Bang. “In changing languages, countries and their cultures, and simply by maturing, I adapted to my new environment and was surprised at the ways my personality changed.”

Both artists spoke to the fact that coming to terms with themselves as

Unsettling the table Alex Lepianka Food Columnist The moments of celebration and merrymaking for which convocation is responsible are so notable because they stick out from the daily routines of graduates, students and parents alike. Distances are overcome to reunite for this rare moment of conclusion; convocation allows us not only to recognize graduates’ work, but also to emphasize the changes which many graduates will face in the months to come.

In many ways, what is true of convocation in general is true of the meals in which graduates and their families will partake. For one, the happy chaos of banquets, brunches, and finger-food galas are so dissimilar to the years of library snacks, hurried dinners, and 2 a.m. garlic-finger

runs that characterize eating for an undergrad. But, these early weeks of May are also the time of onthe-road meals, inventive dinners to empty out fridges and pantries before big moves, and first dinners with new roommates. Against these moments of change, convocation gives us a chance to reflect on our time in Sackville by raising those final servings of Aramark-catered cheese cubes, Black Duck americanos, and Joey’s sangria to a ceremonious status.

Yet, for many friends, alumni, and perhaps even parents who haven’t seen Sackville since they dropped their kids off four or five years ago, the food scene might be unrecognizable.

I wrote last fall about the profusion of dining options that have come to Sackville in the past couple of years— Song’s Chopsticks, the Coy Wolf, the Black Duck, Napul’è, and so on.

With this new diversity, it’s almost guaranteed that some conversation

Above: Jihye Bang with her photography.

Below: Emma Hoch’s ‘Tell a Toile Story’ invites viewers to enter into the space. Both photos Allison Grogan/Submitted artists was both an individual and a collective experience. For example, Bang likened her work’s themes of identity to Anna Cai’s cyanotype print and to Ayla Ernst’s sculpture “Significance of Memory and Space,” while Furlong compared her work to

that of Emily DeJong, whose studio was adjacent to hers.

“We’ve all influenced each other over the years,” said Furlong. “We’ve all changed and grown as a result of our proximity and closeness as a group, and that’s really reflected in

this exhibition.”

“Less Famous Now” will be featured at the Owens Art Gallery until June 26, with an opening reception to be held on May 14 at 4p.m.

will be had over dinner, where old friends will reminisce about Pickles’ sandwiches or the breakfasts at George’s Roadhouse and comment on the strangeness of the Painted Pony.

Of course, this is the complex beauty of celebrations like convocation: they weave together perceptions of memory and newness.

As with birthdays, retirements, and memorials, graduation ceremonies make apparent what could otherwise go ignored: how much our lives change from the first day of class to the time of graduation. We reflect, in other words, on what it was like to have grown with our friends, our campus, and our town—including its food venues. Many will also remark on the changes yet to come and the uncertainty that accompanies any change. Reunions between old friends will be held five, 10, 15 years from now, but they will take place on

a campus different than the one we know today, over meals at unfamiliar tables in new restaurants. But, these experiences all illustrate the beautiful ways we use food as a vehicle for memory and ritual; brunches, buffets, and dinners of celebration are moments of profound humanity. No matter how tired graduates might be of the ubiquitous Aramark cheese-

and-fruit platter, it is nonetheless a part of how we celebrate, reflect on, and anticipate what it means to change.

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Arts & Culture

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca MUSIC

7

Girth opens Sackville’s Bordertown Festival Kael MacQuarrie Argosy Contributor The town of Sackville hosted its second annual Bordertown Festival last weekend, a celebration highlighting town culture and promoting local business. One of the events which took place at Thunder & Lightning showcased Sackville local Zack Bruce, followed by the newly minted band Girth. This show displayed a side of the Sackville music scene startlingly opposite to the folk and indie this town is often associated with.

The night was opened by DJ Zack Bruce, who played a set consisting of future bass bangers. The hourlong mix flowed seamlessly through a variety of different sounds, showcasing the best experimental pop has to offer, as well as some of Bruce’s own compositions. His set had a darker tilt than usual, in contrast to the airy flittering future bass of his previous sets – bass lines lurked and crept as the crowd danced out their dread.

After a brief intermission, the DJ hopped behind the drum kit as Sackville’s newest band Girth took the stage. The crowd waited in anticipation; this was Girth’s debut show, and everyone seemed unsure of what to expect. Opening the show with a jazz-influenced jam session, the band quickly morphed into a hardcore act, awash in noise and screaming.

Vocalist James Fagan howled as a wall of noise built, and for a minute I was genuinely scared I was going to go deaf. The band held the barrage of noise for what felt like an

Phil Legere (left), James Fagan (center) and Zack Bruce (right) played at Sackville’s Bordertown Festival Friday April 29. Katharyn Stevenson/Submitted eternity, imprisoning the crowd in the static abyss. Bassist Phil Legere thrashed around with his instrument as if he were trying to strangle it into submission. Meanwhile, Bruce triggered samples with an MPC as he drummed, giving the band a unique sound that mixed hardcore and hip hop. They were creating a progressive mess of noise that was unlike anything I have ever heard from a Sackville band thus far. Bruce fought with his drum kit, breaking his kick

pedal during the set and decimating every drumstick he had, as he created a solid structure to frame the noise being produced from Fagan and Legere’s playing.

The band displayed a wide range of influences in their sound; industrial destruction was punctured by house chords that built up just to drop into crunching noise, and ear drum busting breakdowns morphed into Krautrock influenced jams. Though the sounds were eclectic, everything

was in its right place, and the sound came together creating an interesting and well structured whole.

A remix of Rihanna’s 2015 single “Bitch Better Have My Money” was the centerpiece of the set, with the band turning the track into an industrial mess. It was as if Rihanna was screeching from the confines of a cardboard compactor in some hellish factory of noise. As the crowd moshed during the last song of the set, Legere’s bass amp was unplugged

by flailing limbs. Legere reacted quickly, fixing the issue and snapping into a face melting bass solo, and the band launched into their final track of the evening. Though the show was rather short, lasting only five songs, the crowd was frothing at the mouth for more as the set came to a close.

As Girth left the stage, it definitely seemed as if they were down with the thickness.

FILM

(Your) Nextflix Austin Landry Argosy Contributor Given all your probable pent-up anxieties stemming from paper writing/lab reporting/job applying, you should always remember to dilute your time spent re-associating with other people/regular sleep cycles with a good heaping of much-deserved screen time.

A year as a subscriber to Canadian Netflix revealed the following, some real gems which I loved watching but which all made me wish I was watching them in a theatre. But there you have it: the life of a student.

A Separation (Drama, 2011) – an Iranian drama which jumps from one complex moral dilemma to the next.

A movie whose greatness will not diminish in decades to come.

Tender Mercies (Drama/Music, 1983) – Robert Duvall’s most understated performance in a little, understated movie about a man who kicks the bottle and seeks quietude in a new life. This is a story, not a plot.

Searching for Sugar Man (Documentary/Music, 2012) – my favourite documentary. I’ve already

Don’t let these must-sees fall out of your queue

watched it three times since January.

Watch this one cold – no pre-viewing research allowed.

Under the Skin (Sci-Fi/Horror, 2013) – a great Scarlett Johansson performance that is about as different as possible from her (also-wonderful) voice work in her (also on Netflix).

When people refer to Jonathan Glazer as Kubrick’s heir, they’re actually somewhat on to something.

Hoop Dreams (Documentary, 1994) – “The Great American Doc” – a heartbreaking, complex testament to the human spirit, with high school basketball as a jumping-in point. Roger Ebert led many critics to join his (ultimately unsuccessful) campaign to get the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to nominate it for the coveted best picture prize. He went on to name Hoop Dreams the best film of the 1990s.

End of Watch (Crime/Drama, 2012) – adrenaline-pumping action with (sometimes over-the-top) runins with L.A. gangs and bolstered by strong performances from Michael Peña and Jake Gyllenhaal as two refreshingly non-corrupt cops.

Metropolis (Silent/Sci-Fi, 1927)

– the best Fritz Lang film, and everyone’s favourite entryway into silent film. This movie is made great not by great plot/story so much as by the unfettered imagination that went into it.

Nebraska (Comedy/Drama, 2013) – Colin Colvert summed it up best: “Nebraska is a wonderful comedy shot in black-and-white and told in shades of gray.” More than that, it’s a very funny comedy that leaps from the funny to the melancholy in the abrupt-yet-seamless manner of Bonnie and Clyde and Terms of Endearment.

The Verdict (Courtroom Drama, 1982) – yet another example of Sidney Lumet’s masterful naturalism – including the way he directed top-notch performances from Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, James Mason, and Lindsay Crouse – and of David Mamet’s immortal writing capabilities. This movie also offers the added bonus of suffusing the audience with a strong sense of justice and moral right.

Minority Report (Sci-Fi/Neonoir, 2002) – the best movie you’ve probably already seen but didn’t appreciate all that much when you

were 12. Or at least that was the case for me. It’s an airtight noir plot with all the right ingredients. The cast are perfect for what Spielberg needs them to accomplish. Most refreshingly, the future is portrayed somewhat positively for a change, but the cool futuristic tech remains secondary to characters and plot. The worst thing about this movie is its title.

Simin (Leila Hatami, left) plays a mother who faces several moral dilemmas in A Separation. Mahmoud Kalari/Sony Pictures Classics

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as two on-the-level cops in End of Watch. Roman Vasyanov/Open Road Films

Humour

May 12, 2016 | argosy@mta.ca

75 things to do before you graduate Brendan Carroll & Kael MacQuarrie Former Humour Editors 1. Fuck the Hart Hall ghost 2. Fall into the vile Waterfowl swamp on your 19th birthday 3. Drink Faxe because you’re too poor to drink anything else 4. Get hooked on cigarettes 5. Lose a piece of clothing in every residence 6. Get as many free drinks as possible 7. Get banned from at least three of the downtown establishments at one time 8. A whole box of wine 9. Pass out in a stranger’s room 10. Piss in a trashcan 11. Piss in the Windsor Hall fire escape 12. Piss in the Windsor Hall elevator 13. Piss on your roommate 14. Tongue-kiss BA Johnston at a BA Johnston show 15. Make all the landlords in town hate you 16. Swim in the Swan Pond 17. Kill two swans 18. Legally change your name to “John Belushi The College Man” 19. Become a Sassy’s regular 20. Win it all at the Uncle Larry’s VLTs 21. Walk to the liquor store in a blizzard 22. Go on a bender during the strike 23. Underpay your friend to drive you to the airport 24. Just try the tatertot casserole 25. Watch your friend puke at meal hall 26. Jerk off in the library bathroom 27. Don’t bother showing up to a final exam 28. Poop in every building on campus (and in town if you can) 29. Drink so much coffee you have a mental breakdown 30. Take study drugs, nature’s coffee 31. Go to an exam after not attending a class for the entire semester 32. Vomit in every residence 33. Do a chin-up in every door frame on campus 34. Green out 35. See a picture of yourself before meal hall and cry 36. Eat eight chicken burgers in one sitting 37. Break something in Windsor Hall 38. Argue your way out of a residence fine 39. Argue your way out of a police fine

by Sylvan Hamburger

Pt. 2

40. Steal a funnel from a house party 41. Go to SappyFest. Seriously, it rules 42. Do psychedelic drugs and accidently become a nihilist 43. Get a drunk stick-and-poke tattoo of a meme that will lose relevancy in a week 44. Get a free Bob Marley poster from your weed dealer 45. Lose your dignity on the dancefloor 46. Hit the bucket 47. Slur your way through a Goya’s order at 3 a.m.

48. Stick around for reading week 49. Go to class hung over 50. Skip meals because you’re studying 51. Neglect your health entirely during finals 52. Incur crippling debt 53. Start referring to movies as “film” 54. Get into the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor 55. Start hating the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor 56. Throw a street sign into the quarry 57. Go to the Fuck Cancer party so you can stand out front and smoke cigarettes all night 58. Grow to hate your roommates 59. Grow to hate everything 60. Go through ego death 61. Get caught listening to some douchebag ramble on about Marxism at a house party 62. Get drunk on a roof 63. Do a 5th year 64. Do a 6th year 65. Graduate, I guess 66. Reflect on your complete lack of employability 67. Get a new wardrobe to fit the #Trends 68. Go to the campus pub once and then never go back again if you can help it 69. Discover it is possible to survive for two weeks with 46 cents in your bank account 70. Give every single person on campus a nickname 71. Walk out to a show at George’s (they still happen once in a while) 72. Convince everyone you can that your name is Li’l Jeb at a house party 73. Get blackout drunk on free wine at an art opening 74. Kick everyone out of a house party by blasting LCD Soundsystem’s “Damce Yrself Clean” (It’s the perfect ‘Get the fuck out of my house’ song) 75. #FindYourself

by Patrick Allaby