The Argosy January 15, 2015

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LITERATURE

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Students present work at ATLIS conference: Read more at argosy.ca

How you can see a doctor faster without leaving Sackville: pg. 8

Mount Allison University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Sports pg. 6

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Arts pg. 10

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Science pg. 12

7 Mondays to host political spoken word poetry reading Journal’s staff teams with CIS for interdisciplinary focus

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Volume 144, Issue 12

Humour pg. 14

MASU

Council rushes to approve survey Willa McCaffrey-Noviss Politics Reporter

The 7 Mondays editorial team poses with past volumes of the magazine. This year’s upcoming issue will be the 21st of its kind. Chris Donovan/Argosy

Amanda Cormier Arts & Culture Reporter In an attempt to accent the political aspects of Mount Allison’s poetry scene, 7 Mondays will host a spokenword event in collaboration with the Centre for International Studies.

“It’s going to be focused on both local and global injustices, but it’s

pretty open thematically because that does encompass a lot of territory,” said Haley Shaw, the current Editor-inChief of 7 Mondays.

The reading will feature guest performances by Professors Ardath Whynacht from Mount Allison’s department of Sociology and Juan Sanchez from the Modern Languages and Literatures department. The event will be held near the end of January,

though a date and location have yet to be confirmed. Students wishing to perform are invited to bring a piece of prose or poetry, either their own or that of another author.

Shaw hopes that the upcoming event will attract interest from students of various disciplines. “It’s definitely an interdisciplinary event, which I think is really important, especially at a university that offers a lot of different

disciplines of study,” said Shaw.

Prior to the event, 7 Mondays hopes to host an instructive workshop about spoken word poetry. This will allow prospective participants to learn more about spoken word style and delivery, as well as provide an opportunity to practice before performing.

‘7Mondays,’ pg. 10

SCIENCE CAREERS

Panel tells science students about finding jobs, careers CLAY STEELL Science Reporter Choosing the next step in life can be an intimidating process, one which university students are all too familiar.

Last Friday, four Mount Allison alumni told current students about their experiences after graduating with a science degree at a panel entitled “Career Paths with your Science Degree.” The event was held in the Wu Auditorium and put on by Career Services and the Faculty of Science.

Students heard about the alumni’s respective experiences in becoming a wildlife biologist, technology lawyer,

policy analyst and pharmacist.

The event organizers invited speakers who could talk about how finding the right career is often unclear after graduation. “Where a lot of people start versus where they end is totally different, so you should always have an open mind,” said Weihong Lu, Administrative Coordinator for Sciences and one of the event’s organizers. “There’s no path necessarily from here to there,” added Jeff Ollerhead, Dean of Science and another organizer. Rebecca Leaman from Career Services also organized the event.

Aneri Garg, an Environmental Science Honours student in her third

year, was one of the few dozen students who attended the talks. “One thing that resonated was that even though you may not be using the specific material you learned, the skills that you acquire will be of use,” she said. “I find that quite encouraging.”

The presenters had a diverse and sometimes unrelated combination of educational backgrounds and employment experience. Nic McLellan graduated from Mount Allison in 2002 with an honours degree in Biology and has been working for Ducks Unlimited Canada as a conservation programs specialist since 2007. Ron Dauphinee graduated from Mount Allison in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in

Physics and Math, and now works as a senior policy analyst in Nova Scotia’s Department of Municipal Affairs.

Vera Ranieri graduated from Mount Allison with a Bachelor of Science in Math and Computer Science in 2006, and now works as an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Jeni Horsfall graduated from Mount Allison in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and now works at the Sackville Jean Coutu as a pharmacist.

These Mount Allison alumni were invited to speak based on the diversity of their employment areas, and had

‘Panel,’ pg. 12

A hastily called meeting of the Students’ Administrative Council saw councillors approve $5,000 for a survey of its members. Some councillors were left in the dark by the short notice given by MASU’s executives.

The event has thrown ambiguities in the bylaws, concerning the ability to call special Students’ Administrative Council meetings, into sharp relief.

Council met to approve spending $5,000 for a contractor to conduct an “academic experience survey” of its members. The project set to run between Feb. 1 and 14, is the brainchild of Kyle Nimmrichter, MASU’s vicepresident academic. Nimmrichter said that MASU could not have waited until January to contract the services of Common Metric.

At the meeting, Nimmrichter outlined the issues on which the survey will collect data, some of which included campus safety, quality of professors and teaching assistants, academic program design, and mental and physical health.

Nimmrichter emphasized why he felt having MASU-owned data on these topics representing the student body was important. “Our hope is that that will motivate the administration to take our requests on behalf of students more seriously,” said Nimmrichter.

Following the presentation, Nimmrichter proposed to pay the firm Common Metric $5,000 to conduct the survey. The 19 councillors present at the meeting voted unanimously in favour.

The money represents a small portion of MASU’s $1.3M annual expenses, but it is not clear from MASU’s bylaws if the meeting was in fact legitimate, and some councillors seem confused by grammatical ambiguities and procedural issues.

It is open to question whether MASU’s constitution or bylaws allow for the organization’s president to call a meeting rather than call for a meeting.

The first section of “Law I – Meetings of the Union” states, “The Chair of

‘Meeting,’ pg. 2

News

Editors: Cameron McIntyre & Kevin Levangie | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

STORM

Residences open so students can avoid storm Move-in date changed to Jan. 3 to give students the option to not travel through the storm Jean-Sébastien Comeau News Reporter Snow and extreme cold awaited students travelling back to Sackville after the holidays. The university decided to open residences on Saturday, Jan. 3, a day early, providing students with a window to beat the storm.

A group of students contacted the administration concerning the possibility of an early opening, but the administration had already considered the issue.

The initiative was well received by students. “People felt safe, people felt that the university really cared about making sure students got back on time,” said Michelle Strain, director of administrative services.

Though residences were open, the dining hall remained closed.

“To open the dining hall would be a logistical difficulty,” said Strain.

Students who had registered to come back early were told to bring food.

Upon seeing the forecast, Dylan Wooley-Berry, Harper Hall president, contacted fellow house presidents along with MASU

Sackville experienced stormy weather at the beginning of the winter term. Chris Donovan/Argosy. president Heather Webster, seeking their support in asking the university to open housing facilities early.

Efforts culminated in an email sent to the administration. A copy of the email obtained by The Argosy read, “On behalf of all students currently living in residence, I am requesting that all Mount Allison Residences be opened on Saturday Jan. 3. This request is being made due to the

impending storm on Sunday, which will result in unsafe road conditions. […]”

The email was co-signed by all house presidents, assistant dons and senior RAs at Mount Allison.

Wooley-Berry said that Webster’s email ultimately led to the final decision from the administration.

Michelle Strain, director of administrative services, said that

the university had already largely considered the issue.

“Heather [Webster]’s email came and within five minutes, Gayle Churchill [director of student life] sent a mass email to students. [Decisions] happened independently,” she said.

“The majority of students who go to Mount Allison do live in the Maritimes – within a five-hour driving distance – and were able to

take advantage of it. I think quite a few did, considering the short nature of the situation,” said Wooley-Berry.

The announcement was released through a mass email, sent to students in the early afternoon on Friday, Jan. 2. Students who decided to take advantage of the early opening had to register through the university’s facilities management department.

“I booked my tickets in the summer, because I looked at the schedule and I knew that residences only opened a day before class. They sent an email out on Friday [regarding the early opening], but by then the storm had already hit. It’s $100 for me to change my flight,” said David Taplin, a second year student from Calgary.

The university generally allows students to re-enter their residences only on the day before classes. The 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 academic years stand as exceptions, when students were allowed to move in two days before classes began.

The provisional calendar for next year is following this year’s formula, with residences opening the day before classes begin.

Meeting: Emergency meeting leaves some councillors in the dark the Students’ Administrative Council shall call and chair all meetings of the MASU.” SAC chairperson John Nuttall, however, was unaware that the meeting was taking place.

Some councillors pointed to “Law II - The Students’ Administrative Council” section six as a reason the president could call a meeting without the chairperson’s approval. The section reads: “Special circumstances requiring immediate action shall empower the President to have a meeting called without having posted notice or agenda for twenty-four (24) hours.”

The article does not stipulate who calls this meeting to order, only that the president can have a meeting called. The first section of the bylaw says the chair would call the meeting

to order, but the chair was absent for the meeting in question.

President Heather Webster called the meeting through an email that went out to council with less than 48 hours notice.

“This decision has financial implications, which is why a meeting of council is necessary,” Webster said in the email.

MASU’s vice-president finance and operations, Josh Outerbridge, acknowledged the bylaws could be unclear. “I understand ‘to have a meeting called’ to mean ‘notice being circulated,’” he said. “Also, where the bylaws distinguish a special meeting as being distinct from a normal meeting, one would expect divergence from some parts of the bylaws. However, clarification could

most certainly be added.”

Nuttall said that his lack of awareness of and absence from the meeting did not affect the validity of the decisions reached.

“What was passed at the meeting was legitimate, but the meeting itself wasn’t legitimate,” said Nuttall. He said that because the meeting had enough voting councillors present to meet quorum, the allocation of funds stands.

Further complicating the matter, MASU’s vice-president communications, Ryan Harley, chaired the meeting, despite the presence of the deputy chair who, according to the bylaws, assumes the duties of the chairperson in his absence.

“It was the deputy chairperson’s

first official council meeting since she took office,” said Harley. “I offered to chair the meeting because I have some experience chairing council meetings from earlier in the fall.”

Concerns about the legitimacy of the meeting were not the only issues.

Jen Frail, one councillor who missed the meeting, was concerned by the number of her absent colleagues. “That’s a lot of voting members of council to be absent,” Frail said. “It suggests that those votes are not needed to make this kind of decision.”

Three off-campus councillors, two on-campus councillors, the board of regents representative and the chairperson were all absent from this meeting. Many councillors cited exams as the reason for their absence,

or said that they had simply had no idea the meeting was happening.

For Nimmrichter, the timing was worth it.

“We couldn’t make Common Metric, the analysis company, wait for a whole month between December and January before we gave them an answer,” he said. “In order to make sure that they didn’t take on other work before we submitted our project to them, we needed to get it passed before the end of the year.”

“Notice [of the meeting] was posted as soon as it came to my attention the following day, which was consequently short notice considering the short timeframe,” said Harley.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

NEWS

MASU ELECTIONS

Students’ union seeks new exec

Students have until Jan. 19 to run in election Willa McCaffrey-Noviss Politics Reporter With January’s return to classes comes a flurry of banners adorning the atria of the student centre and meal hall.

Nominations for the presidential position, as well as the positions of vice-president of academic affairs, vice-president external affairs, and vice-president campus life, opened Jan. 6. Nominations close Jan. 19 at 4:30 p.m.

Students elect four of the six executives each winter. A committee hires the other two positions, the vicepresident finance and operations and the vice-president communications, later in the semester.

Current and former executives spoke to The Argosy about their experiences in office and offered their advice to interested candidates.

“When I was running, I really saw it as being the team leader,” said Heather Webster, MASU president, about the position. “Once you’re in this role, so much of it is supporting the vice-presidents, the general manager, and cleaning up the messes.”

MASU’s president functions as one of the two student representatives on Mount Allison’s Board of Regents, a student representative in Senate, and the chair of MASU’s executive committee.

The current vice-president campus life, Andrew Johnston, told The Argosy about aspects of his position.

“This job has the most direct interaction with students out of all the vice-presidental roles, which makes

for a very rewarding experience with used book sales service. Current vicethe students’ union,” said Johnston. president academic Kyle Nimmrichter The campus life job description has largely focused on organizing an includes non-academic concerns on “academic experience” survey that campus, overseeing MASU clubs and will be released to students on Feb. 1. societies, and facilitating residence In recent years, candidates for some executive training. of the executive positions for MASU In contrast, the vice-president have been few and far between. In external affairs job description each of the last two years, a single includes getting on-campus polling candidate ran for president. Harley stations for federal and provincial also ran unopposed in his bid for viceelections, overseeing the Green president academic two years ago.

Investment Fund, airport shuttle, and Former MASU president Pat bike co-op, and serving as a liaison Joyce and current president Heather between Mount Allison students and Webster have similar history with all levels of government. council. Both were involved with “[The vice-president external] can residence representation, served either spread their time and effort as vice-presidents of campus life, by over all three levels, or the VP and then on to presidency. Last can focus more so on one level,” said year’s president, Melissa O’Rourke, Ian Smith, a former was elected after When I was vice-president external working as a CHMA running, I really c o r r e s p o n d e n t , affairs. “I focused a lot saw it as being the reporting on council on municipal relations and therefore did meetings and serving team leader projects like the bike as the councillor for coop and the landlord fair.”

Windsor Hall.

Annie Sherry, the incumbent The positions are open to all vice-president external, organized returning students and require the the voting polls on campus this student to work for a May to May past fall for the New Brunswick term. Vice-presidents receive $8,000 provincial elections. Sherry also for the year. The president receives attended a conference hosted by $13,000. the Canadian Alliance of Student Students can find nomination Associations, an organization packages for any of these four which serves as a lobbying venue positions in the MASU office. “These for student representatives to speak packages include nomination forms, to government officials on behalf of summary of election rules, as well their schools. as other forms and information that The vice-president academic are necessary to the process,” Chief becomes acting president in the Returning Officer Rayan Bouhlel president’s absence or incapacitation. said. Candidates are also required The job also entails sitting on the to attend one of two all-candidates University Senate as an associate meetings. The next meeting is Jan. 19 member and facilitating MASU’s at 7 p.m. in the MASU boardroom.

FALL READING WEEK

THIS WEEK IN THE WORLD

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Compiled by Mike Roy German newspaper attacked after publishing Charlie Hebdo cartoons Two men have been arrested in Hamburg, Germany in connection with an arson attack on the tabloid newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost that reprinted satirical cartoons from the French publication Charlie Hebdo. According to police, the assailants threw rocks and an incendiary device into the basement of the offices of Hamburger Morgenpost early on January 11th. The publication has confirmed that none were injured in the attack, but that some files were destroyed from the archives. While police cannot confirm that this crime is directly associated with the publication of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, other German newspapers and magazines were placed under police protection after the attack.

NASA scientists develop volcano-diving robot Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California have developed a new robot designed to explore and record information within volcanoes. The robot was specifically designed to be able to withstand the extreme temperatures of fissures and craters within volcanoes that would prove inaccessible by mankind. Nicknamed “VolcanoBot1,” the robot completed its first mission in the inactive Kilauea volcano of Hawaii in May 2014. Carolyn Parcheta, a post-doctoral employee at the laboratory who contributed to the robot’s inception, believes that the information recovered by the missions will benefit knowledge of current volcanic processes on Earth, as well as in future NASA missions across the galaxy.

Grabar-Kitarovic becomes first woman president of Croatia Securing 50.5% of the vote, opposition leader Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has been elected President of Croatia over incumbent Ivo Josipovic. GrabarKitarovic narrowly defeated Josipovic in the voting results, as Josipovic received 49.5% of the votes in a turnout of 58.9%. A former foreign minister and assistant to the NATO security general, Grabar-Kitarovic is a member of the Croatian Democratic Union. The presidency has been under power of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia member Josipovic since 2010. Under her new role, Grabar-Kitarovic will act as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Croatian armed forces during her five-year term. A parliamentary election is suspected likely to follow later in 2015 for the republic to elect a new prime minister and cabinet.

Nusra Front takes claim over suicide bombing in northern Lebanon A suicide bomb attack in a small coffee shop in the Lebanese city of Tripoli has left at least seven dead and more than 30 injured after the blast took place on January 10th. The Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda, the Nusra Front, released a statement saying that the attack was in vengeance for the Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon, while sources confirm that two men from Tripoli orchestrated the attack. Tensions between the Alawite minority and Sunni Muslim majority have been rising over the past several years, intensified by the neighbouring Syrian crisis. The last outburst between Sunni militants and government troops struck in October 2014, when eleven soldiers, five civilians and two-dozen militants were killed in Tripoli.

Reading week approved for the next fall term Remembrance Day long weekend will now be a week off school for Mt. A students Tyler Stuart News Reporter Senate made history in December by enacting a fall study break for the first time in Mount Allison history.

Students will have a week-long break from class in November.

When the motion passed, it ended an almost two-year process. Since Feb. of 2013, an ad hoc committee had been researching the possibility of and reasons for implementing a fall break.

In the 36 hours before the meeting, the six students’ union senators, president, and vice-president academic, spoke to almost every faculty member on senate, lobbying for the break.

“We were able to, based on what people were saying, adapt the proposal,” said Steven Black, a social science senator.

The idea of a fall break appealed to students for various reasons, including its intended effect: to give them time for school work. Second year biochemistry major Jessica Grant said she was in favour of a fall

Mt. A will implement fall reading weeks on a trial basis for the next three years. Chris Donovan/Argosy. study break.

“It’s kind of nice to have a break,” Grant said. “Things get pretty stressful. I wouldn’t mind having a week with no classes to just get everything I need done.”

Grant was not alone.

Of the 1,095 people who responded to a survey, 85 percent of respondents favoured a fall break. The survey, put forth by the ad hoc committee and promoted by MASU senators, also

revealed that support for the fall study break was stronger among students than among faculty and librarians.

Student committee members were adamant that one potential benefit of a fall study break is mental health of students.

“I hope that the fall break provides students, especially first year students, an opportunity to reflect,” Riley Thompson said. “It promotes a more positive mental health. It promotes

greater academic success.”

Speaking outside her capacity as the committee chair, Karen Grant, the university’s provost and vicepresident academic, questioned the benefits of a fall break due to a lack of literature on the topic.

“I looked to see if there was any literature that was clear on the relationship between break and mental health,” Grant said. “I think that people think that there is a relationship, but it’s not clear and it hasn’t been documented.”

Robert Campbell created the committee after Canadian studies honours student Stephanie Davis presented a research project on the benefits of a fall break.

The committee looked at fall reading break models at other Canadian universities, and researched their effects on students and pedagogy.

The committee considered various alternatives to a full-week study break, including a hybrid model that extended holidays to long weekends, Black told The Argosy.

The committee placed the break

around the end of the term, near Remembrance Day, to provide a pause before exam period.

Student senators proposed a threeyear trial period as a measure of precaution.

“In our discussions with faculty and other senators, a lot of them felt more comfortable with a trial period,” said Riley Thompson.

Grant also questioned the effectiveness of a trial period. She said tracking any sort of improvement requires comparative data from fall semesters prior to those with study breaks.

Despite the uncertain effects and future of the fall break, many students and faculty are optimistic and relieved, including Davis.

“I will never in my time at Mount Allison see a fall reading break, [but] I think that just knowing that it will benefit students in the future is really great,” said Davis. “If you want something bad enough around here, you can stick it through and make it happen.”

Opinions THE ARGOSY w w w. a r g o s y. c a

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday, January 15, 2015 volume 144 issue 12 Since 1872 Circulation 1,700

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

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

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editorialstaff EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Richard Kent

OPINIONS EDITOR Tessa Dixon

MANAGING EDITOR Allison O’Reilly

SPORTS EDITOR Alex Bates

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR Cameron McIntyre

HUMOUR EDITOR Taylor Losier

­­­NEWS EDITOR

ONLINE EDITOR Sam Moore

­­­

Kevin Levangie

SCIENCE EDITOR Tyler Pitre

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Daniel Marcotte

productionstaff

PRODUCTION MANAGER Kyle Forbes PHOTO EDITOR Sarah Richardson COPY EDITORS Austin Landry Tina Oh Rachelle Ann Tan

reportingstaff

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS Chris Donovan Brandon Williams PHOTOGRAPHERS Chris Donovan Adrian Kiva ILLUSTRATOR Anna Farrell

NEWS REPORTERS Jean-Sébastien Comeau Tyler Stuart

ARTS REPORTERS Amanda Cormier Michael Dover

POLITICS REPORTER Willa McCaffrey-Noviss

SCIENCE REPORTER Clay Steell

SPORTS REPORTER Benjamin Foster

Editor: Tessa Dixon | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

MINIMUM WAGE

Minimum income is necessary Micah o’donnell The Brunswickan Fredericton (CUP) — New Year’s 2015 will go down in the history books as a moment of triumph for New Brunswick’s low-income earners – that’s all the workers throughout our province who make minimum wage.

From the 16 year old starting his first job at Tim Hortons to the 50+ father forced back out to our depleted workforce to the single mother who is breathing a sigh of relief after having paid rent once again this month, each one of them will make an extra $10 to $16 a paycheque.

Our really, really good-looking premier Brian Gallant pulled through on a campaign promise and increased minimum wage on Jan. 1 from $10 to $10.30. That means that New Brunswick citizens are worth, at the very least, $10.30 an hour. A political party, body, or bureaucracy decided “maybe they’re worth more, but human life is definitely worth no less than, say, $X an hour. I’m drawing the line there.”

It seems like when that decision was made, no one gave thought to that one’s life might be worth enough to at least eat, feed your family, have

a roof over your head, and even, God forbid, some entertainment.

Then again, when it was originally instituted, it was likely tied to some consideration of existing median wages. Now, minimum wage is arbitrarily connected to the whims and wishes of government.

What results is a lower class of people. But these people are unskilled. They generally don’t have education. Some have no experience, and others still are just incapable.

There are even the workers whose careers are completely irrelevant to our economy. Some of these lower class of citizens don’t have the right geography. Others, the right gender or ethnicity. And, because of these seven sins, they don’t deserve to make enough to live.

The word “deserve” is an amazing word. It’s more consistently vitriolic than Bible Belt Baptists. It’s a word that’s manipulated every Friday by a large portion of the workforce who are sitting in cubicles looking at their clock. “It’s 4 p.m. I am going to happy hour. I deserve this.”

A hugely influential book was written back in 1989 by Michael Katz called The Undeserving Poor. In it, he states that “the vocabulary of poverty impoverishes political imagination.”

When we diminish our language

on poverty and wages to deserving and undeserving, we relinquish a part of our humanity. When we talk about what people deserve in terms of wages, we are directly discussing whether or not people deserve to eat, be dressed and have shelter.

Michael Katz argues in the most elegant way that when we talk about those who live in poverty, the terms deserving and undeserving are so aged and cemented in our vocabulary that we don’t even really know what they mean anymore. When we use either term, we draw on any number of experiences or impressions that justify our belief of who is undeserving or deserving.

This can range from gendered and racial perceptions we might unknowingly carry to our own prejudices against difference. The man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to make his first million by 25 will likely disgust the 19 year old still hoping to be the next Leonard Cohen.

There is no such thing as deserving and undeserving when it comes to basic essentials. Food, water, shelter, clothing and entertainment. Each one of these is necessary to living.

Sure, not everyone deserves a Ferrari.

Everyone does deserve food that isn’t shit, clothes that fit, shelter that’s

warm and money to do something they enjoy.

Minimum wage disagrees. It says that a person deserves this arbitrary amount of money if (and that’s a big “if” here in N.B.) they can find employment. With that amount, they are free to scrounge together some semblance of life in a country where prosperity constantly surrounds us.

Minimum wage is a political choice. There is no morality or ethical decision-making surrounding minimum wage. A group of mostly middle­ income to wealthy men get elected and decided whether or not the worst off in our province deserve heat for the winter.

Don’t get distracted by wage. It’s a huge failure of humanity’s ability for compassion to think that wage is an appropriate meter of what people deserve in life. Deserving starts at having everything you need. Not at zero. A minimum income is what our province needs. New Brunswick must put more money into the hands of its citizens and less into the hands of its corporations. One will rise and fall. The other will stand amongst the rubble.

Poverty is one of the most pressing issues facing N.B. Brian, you handsome devil, do something real for those who don’t deserve it.

DALHOUSIE

Administration response angers students Engaging in rape culture warrants a severe penalty, not a pass

operationsstaff BUSINESS MANAGER Gil Murdock

IT MANAGER Vacant

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Chad Morash

contributors Chad Morash, John Perkin, Caroline Kovesi, Mike Roy,

Allison Grogan, Nic Sunderland-Baker, Patrick Allaby, Dakota Pauley, Madalon Burnett

publicationboard Dave Thomas (Chair), Mike Fox, Charlotte Henderson, John Trafford (Ombudsperson)

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.

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The Holiday season is rife with small talk and debates on the hot topics read in newspapers and watched on the evening news. This year was no different, following the misogynistic, inappropriate and threatening remarks about female students made by 13 male Dalhousie Dentistry students. Through all of the conversations and debates that I listened to and took part in within the last month, the most debated issue comes down to the outcome of the scandal and the penalty for the students involved in the so-called “gentlemen’s club.”

This argument can largely be reduced to debating whether or not the students involved should be expelled and thus be made unable to practice their desired profession, or whether this punishment is too harsh and another penalty should be chosen. Both sides of this argument have strong and reasonable points.

Those who believe expulsion is the answer would likely believe that patients would like to place their trust in their dentist, knowing that this professional would never use anesthetics to engage in unwanted, and perhaps violent, sexual acts.

I think, as many who support the

Students protest following offensive Facebook posts by 13 Dalhousie dentistry students. Nick Mallard/The Watch. expulsion of these students would believe, a trusting relationship between dentist and patient could not be formed with someone who made such comments as found on the Facebook page.

On the other hand, some argue that expulsion could be too harsh a punishment in response to posts on social media. They shouldn’t be taken as seriously because everyone puts on a different persona when they’re behind a keyboard, right? However, I think that any threats of rape or sexual assault should be taken seriously, no matter the medium. The dilemma shouldn’t be a matter of where, or by what means these comments were made, but rather that such comments were made in the first place.

In this case, expulsion would be an appropriate punishment for this group of students. It is easy to say “yes, I think that these men should be expelled” after first hearing the story and I think this reaction may be based out of anger and shock that groups like this one exist. However, when you delve deeper into this scandal, expulsion is the most appropriate outcome.

One would have to be very naïve to think that the formation of a “gentlemen’s club” is a phenomenon that only occurs specifically at Dalhousie. Groups such as that among the dentistry students probably exist within other faculties at Dalhousie, as well as other schools.

Since this story has gone viral and

because this “gentlemen’s club” is certainly the first, if not one of the first of its kind to receive this kind of attention, university administrators should understand that a precedent for dealing with situations like the current scandal needs to be set. I also think that because many people are following this story closely, the decisions made in this case could affect the penalty policies of other post-secondary institutions.

In the same way that Justin Trudeau exiled two Liberal MPs amongst allegations of sexual assault, Dalhousie University must send a strong message asserting that making comments involving rape and sexual assault toward other students is beyond unacceptable.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca LETTERS

OPINIONS

FACULTY

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Students Sociology courses jeopardized Administration needs to consider student and professor needs apologize for offensive costumes Caroline Kovesi

To the Mount Allison community: This past Halloween, Oct. 31, 2014, we dressed up as the Jamaican bobsled team. However, out of our group, two of us used blackface.

We have realized that this is both unacceptable and wrong. Since the incident, we have attended an educational session on the history behind blackface and why it is so hurtful and harmful still today. While our intentions may not have been to offend and insult the Mount Allison community with our costumes, we realize that we have - and we are deeply sorry for our actions.

We would like to formally apologize not just to the members of the Black Students for Advocacy, Awareness, and Togetherness (BSAAT), but to the entire Mount Allison and Sackville community.

While we were attempting to dress up as people we admire, we did so in a way that unintentionally mocked them. We realize this now and we will never again use a person’s race as a costume.

We also hope that this apology will help others to realize the harmful nature of blackface, which we were unaware of before the incident. Now knowing what it means, we hope that such a thing should not be happen in this community again.

Sincerely, Daniel Tomei Aaron Grant Brandon Maj Jimmy Scheel Donovan Saunders

To submit a letter to the editor, please contact Tessa Dixon at tzdixon@mta.ca

For the past week, I have been crossing my fingers in the hopes of getting off a forty-person waitlist and into a forty-person upper-year sociology class. While this problem is not unusual in sociology, it is nevertheless frustrating to deal with.

In a department consisting of four professors, and where non-sociology students often take sociology classes out of interest, sociology majors scramble to get into enough classes which are bursting at the seams.

I am now accustomed to begging professors to raise class caps and alter waitlists, and am used to having a correspondence course at the ready if I cannot get into my preferred classes on time.

Next year, one of our faculty members will be going on sabbatical.

There is talk of not replacing her at all, or of only offering one or two of her courses instead of hiring a fulltime sessional professor to teach her

whole course load. Neither option is desirable for students or professors.

If the professor is not replaced, our department will dwindle down to three non-tenured professors stretched thin taking on her five extra courses - that is, if the courses are not eliminated altogether for the following school year. The sociology department’s yearly special topic course and a popular second-year course on sex and sexuality taught by part-time faculty may also be cut.

These measures would only further jam waitlists and force an increase in “small” class caps, putting professors under a heavier workload and under significantly more stress.

When professors on sabbatical are not replaced, their colleagues are asked to teach courses outside of their expertise, which requires intense preparation, even though they will likely never teach these courses again.

Consequently, students won’t be taught by professors with the same comfort with course material and time available for students outside of class would almost certainly be reduced. All these spell less attention, less feedback, and likely fewer assignments and a heavier reliance on tests.

Hiring part-time professors on stipends, however, is no more

promising. The frequently-cited phrase “professors’ working conditions are students learning conditions” resonates here. Contract academic staff operate in precarious conditions. They are often hired with little time to spare before the semester begins and are usually required to pack up families and move jobs between cities with each new year. They frequently balance multiple jobs, sometimes at multiple universities. Typically hired without compensation for personal research and advancement, they are left with the expectations of a full-time faculty member without the corresponding pay.

Investment in university activities and collegial governance is taken on from their own accord, especially if they are still in the job market and competing for tenure-track jobs. If we were to hire a part-time contract professor to replace our faculty member going on sabbatical, students would be unable to carry on professional relationships with them the following year and the replacement professor would likely only come into the university on the days on which they teach. Lacking fair wages and job security, part-time academic staff would be hindered by unfamiliarity with our institution and

time constraints, and students would again find themselves short-changed.

Failing to replace professors both during sabbaticals or following leave is a disturbing trend emerging at Mount Allison, and also at other universities across the country. This casualization of labour goes handin-hand with declining numbers of faculty being granted tenure-track and tenured positions. According to MAFA, Mount Allison presently employs fifteen full-time contract staff, or sessionals, and forty-six parttime contract academic staff, and these numbers continue to rise each year. The principles behind these decisions are not ones that I would expect Mount Allison to endorse.

Students and professors at Mount Allison deserve better. If, as our university claims, students and staff are not “just numbers,” then they should not be treated as such: either as numbers on a waitlist or on course codes. On behalf of the Mount Allison Sociology Society, I ask that the administration take our students’ strong stance on hiring a full-time sessional professor to replace our faculty member going on sabbatical next year, before it is too late.

THROUGH STAINED GLASS

Progress on issues is slow, but imminent

New leadership shows promise Rev. John C. Perkin

The new year is well underway, as is the new semester. These new beginnings were preceded by the beginning of the new liturgical year in the Christian calendar, which begins with Advent, the four weeks leading up to the season of Christmas. In the Christian liturgical calendar, a threeyear cycle focuses the readings that are used Sunday by Sunday in the ongoing worship life of the church.

The three years focus, on the gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke and each year these readings are supplemented by readings from the gospel of John.

The current cycle of readings comes from Mark and the past Sunday marked the observance of the baptism of Jesus and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Mark is generally recognized as the first gospel written and is certainly the shortest. It is characterized not only by its brevity, but also its sense of urgency. Things happen, as Mark writes, immediately after one another.

The Greek word usually translated “immediately” appears seven times in the first chapter and forty times overall in the gospel. The Kingdom of God is at hand, says Jesus and Mark seems determined to establish that it is indeed at hand, making its presence felt and that life is changing.

Perhaps Pope Francis would be well advised to pay attention to this gospel

Pope Francis has called attention to vital social issues. Stemoc/Flickr. as he continues to explore ways to introduce some changes to attitudes and practices in the Roman Catholic Church through his pontificate.

This month, he has announced the appointment of fifteen new cardinals.

Eleven of them come from other than first world nations, including Tonga, Myanmar, Thailand and Ethiopia. Francis announced to those gathered in St. Peter’s Square that the new cardinals show the tie that the church of Rome has to the “churches in the world.” Traditionally, the Christian Church in the southern hemisphere (with the exception of the liberationists of Latin America) have held conservative views and practices, but the appointment of these

cardinals does signify the beginning of a shift from a European hegemony in its hierarchical structure. With Pope Francis already in his late seventies, those recently appointed will almost undoubtedly be among those who select the next Pope.

This is part of other small changes emerging in the Vatican, and which will eventually be felt throughout the Catholic church. In December he levied a harsh criticism of the bureaucracy of the Catholic Church, denouncing those who value power over principle and those who forget the joy they are supposed to bring to the world in the name of God. Out of this, he called a meeting to take place next month to begin

considering proposals for the “reform of the Roman curia,” the bureaucratic structure of the Vatican.

Last October, the Pope called a gathering to begin discussions around some of the current issues being debated in and outside the church, including marriage, contraception, divorce and homosexuality. This synod, consisting mostly of bishops from around the world is an extraordinary move. Debate will take place and debate will be seen to be an important part of theological process which in turn will inform church belief and practice. While no recommendation has come to change church teaching on key issues such as opposition to gay marriage, there is an attempt to soften the church’s position. Frequently, Pope Francis has called on others be less judgmental and more open in mercy and grace.

This may be a slow process. The example of Vatican II, the Second Vatican Council that took three years with thousands of participants, brought significant change to the Catholic church and has taken years for that change to be fully felt.

Perhaps Francis has captured the sense of urgency that is so clear in the gospel of Mark and recognizes that for the church in the twenty-first century to be relevant, meaningful and engaged. There is no time like the present and that change must be considered, immediately.

Sports WEEKLY WELLNESS

Radon gas, have you checked your home?

Editor: Alex Bates | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Mounties hungry for playoffs at 5-3 Three-way tie for second in ACAA see Mounties postseason hopes high

Madalon Burnett If you’re not moving back into residence for next year, you’re probably looking at living offcampus. When choosing a place to live and obtaining your furniture, it’s important to consider the health risks that can be associated with different buildings. The presence of radon gas in your new abode is one concern you may not have thought of.

When uranium in the soil breaks down by giving off what’s known as natural radiation, it decays into a chain of daughter products that continue to decay until a stable element is formed (usually lead). Radon is a colourless, odourless gas daughter product found when uranium decays into lead. It can escape from the soil through cracks in your foundation, entering into your home.

While radon gas is present in the air we breathe, it can also accumulate in houses. Radon is less dense than other gases in the atmosphere, which allows it to sink. This means the gas can be found in the lowest level in your home. Without proper ventilation, it can’t escape by rising out.

The problem with radon gas is that it is also radioactive. It will decay into a new daughter product, in a relatively short period of time, after its formation. While doing so, it gives off harmful radiation that can damage the DNA in lung cells. This DNA damage can lead to lung cancer.

Radon in the air is so diluted it is not a problem, but air which comes in from the soil through window casements, floor drains, cracks in the foundation and other entry points can have a problematic concentration of radon gas. For this reason, the amount of radon in a house varies depending on the amount of uranium in the ground, the entry points for radon gas available, and how well the house is ventilated.

Because radon is a potent carcinogen, it’s important for you to find out if your new house has a high concentration of radon gas. Ask the landlord before moving in if the house has recently been tested for radon gas.

If not, you can buy an inexpensive kit from a hardware store or the Internet to test the levels yourself.

The kit contains a device that tests the activity of radon gas in your home over a period of time, which can be sent to a lab to be analyzed.

In the meantime, you can protect yourself from radon gas by spending little time as possible in the lower levels of your home.

Madalon Burnett is Mount Allison University’s Health Intern.

The Mounties have put together another strong campaign in 2014-15, and will have a chance to contend for the ACAA title. Adrian Kiva/Argosy

Alex Bates Sports Editor The Women’s Basketball Varsity Mounties had no easy task playing the St. Thomas University Tommies in their first game back from the holiday break. The Tommies had blazed out to a perfect 6-0 start in the ACAA before the break, and would have to take on only the 4-2 Mounties to maintain their perfect season. On Saturday, Jan. 10, the Tommies held their own against a disorganized Women’s team for a 59-48 victory.

The Mounties were not intimidated by the impressive winning season the Tommies had been able to accrue before the break. After one half,

the game was up for grabs with the Tommies sporting a 28-25 lead.

In the second half, the Tommies pulled away from the visitors, winning the game with a final score of 59-48.

Tommies power forward, Hilary Goodine, had a game-high 14 points in the match. Mt. A had three players score 10 points each, with Jillian Edwards, Sarah McGeachy and Mackenzie Gray all tallying the teamhigh.

On Sunday, the team returned to action to play the University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves.

UNBSJ went into the game tallying just one win in 2014-15, and the Mounties looked to regain their form as heavy favourites.

Despite a slow start, the Mounties took over in the second quarter, outscoring the visiting Seawolves 209. They never looked back en route to a 75-54 win.

The Seawolves had four players score double-digit point totals, but the Mounties had a full team effort on offence led by Lauren MacEachern with 15 points, and Sydnee Balser with 14 points proceeding to their fifth win of the season. 10 different Mounties found the scoresheet in the game and nine players scored five points or more in the match.

The win pushed the Mounties back into a three-way tie for second place in the ACAA. Holland College, Mount Saint Vincent University and Mt. A all sit tied for second with 10

points, with records of five wins and three losses in 2014-15. STU leads the ACAA with a perfect record of seven wins and no losses. With the top four teams in the ACAA making the playoffs and Crandall University trailing in the standings by six points in fifth place, the Mounties’ chances of making the playoffs seem strong.

The team will be in tough against the Tommies this Sunday, when the team will welcome the ACAA-leading Tommies to Sackville. Mt. A will be slight underdogs in what will be a rematch of their Jan. 10 loss to the Tommies. You can catch the game at 3 p.m. in McCormack Gymnasium.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Mt. A roughed up by top-ranked X-Women Mounties success in Montreal hasn’t translated to AUS success Benjamin Foster Sports Reporter The Mounties’ hockey team came out of the gates slower than expected in the 2014-15 season, despite falling just short of a title in 2013-14. The team had a record of four wins and nine losses by the winter break but had seen positive signs in the latter part of 2014, with all four of their wins coming in their last seven games.

So far, 2015 has had a promising start. The Mounties travelled to Quebec to play exhibition games, and came away with two victories out of three games. One of the victories came against University of Western Ontario, who, at the time of the game, ranked third in the CIS with a record of 12-0-2. They also took down Concordia by a score of 6-3. After last seasons unexpected run to the AUS finals, the team isn’t worried about hitting the panic button just yet.

“I have all the faith in the world in our team that we can contend for the AUS title,” said Mounties captain Kristen Cooze. “I mean maybe most people would look at our record right now and write us off, but it’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish and I think that would team has the ability to pull off something great this year.”

This past weekend, Mt. A played their first two games that count in the standings. The Mounties played in Halifax against the Saint Mary’s University Huskies. The Huskies sat ahead of the Mounties in the standings, with a record of five wins and nine losses before the game.

Mt. A opened the scoring late in the first period when Jennifer Bell potted her second goal of the season.

SMU would score to tie two minutes later.

The second period was more of the same. Rookie Rosie Heffernan scored for the Mounties midway through

the period, assisted by Shelby Colton.

Again, the Huskies struck back with a goal two minutes later by Breanna Laceleve.

Heffernan’s goal would be the last the Mounties put past SMU goalie, Rebecca Weagle. The SMU offence were able to find their groove in the third period, scoring three more goals to make the final score 5-2.

Caitlyn Schell had three assists for the Huskies.

Kate O’Brien stopped 23 out of 28 shots in the loss. Penalties hurt the Mounties as SMU had eight power plays, compared to four power plays for the Mounties.

Mt. A also played the St. FX X-Women on Sunday, who have won 15 of their 16 games. The X-Women were simply too much for the Mounties, and the Mounties lost 5-0.

In Antigonish, N.S. the Mounties were only able to muster 22 shots against goalie Sojung Shin. O’Brien was once again in the net for the

Mounties. Heffernan was one of the Mounties’ best players once again, showing off her skills by winning 11 of 17 faceoffs and taking advantage of many quality scoring chances.

“Both games this weekend were not our best games. I think that getting back into school and classes may have caused us to lose a little bit of the focus that we had over the break in Montreal,” said Cooze. “That being said, there were some moments where we had some success in both games and that was due to hard work and being able to move the puck well through all three zones on the ice.”

The Mounties will try to take their first win of the second half of the season this Wednesday night in Halifax against the Dalhousie Tigers.

Their first home game will be against the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus next Saturday.

The Mounties currently sit tied for sixth in the AUS with the Tigers.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

SPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Spurrell dunks on Seawolves

Mt. A slammed UNBSJ 83-58 on Sunday, Jan 11. Chris Donovan/Argosy

Alex Bates Sports Editor The Mount Allison Men’s Varsity Basketball team suffered a rough start to the 2015 portion of their season last Saturday against the St. Thomas University Tommies, losing 69-67. The squad was able to take out frustrations on last-place University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves at home on Sunday, Jan. 11. Wolfville, N.S. native, Bradley Fuller, had 19 points against the Seawolves in the team’s fifth victory of the 2014-15 campaign.

The Mounties tipped off against the Tommies on Saturday, in a battle

for second place in the ACAA, with both teams sporting a record of four wins and two losses.

The game proved to be an exciting match-up, with a score of 32-31 after one half for the Tommies. The Mounties took a lead of their own going into the fourth quarter, but the Tommies, led by William Barber with 27 points in the game, outscored the Mounties, winning the game 69-67.

The game was a knock to the Mounties’ hope of climbing up further in the CCAA national rankings this week, as it pegged the team’s record back to four wins and three losses.

Kaleefah Henry scored 20 points for the Mounties, and Alex Chisholm

scored 19 for Mt. A in the losing effort.

On Sunday, the Mounties returned to action against the UNBSJ Seawolves, hoping to steer their season’s ship back on course to the ACAA playoffs. Whether or not the previous day’s loss to the Tommies had anything to do with it, head coach Duane Starratt’s squad came out dropping 49 points in the first half on the opposing Seawolves in a show of brute force.

The Mounties coasted in the second half and won the game by a final score of 83-58.

Four Mounties scored double-digit figures in the game. Bradley Fuller led the way with 19 points, followed

by Alex Chisholm with 16. Henry and Sawyer Eddy both contributed 11 points for the Mounties. Adam Spurrell added an impressive dunk in the game, epitomizing the beating that the Seawolves suffered in Sackville.

“That was sick, wicked and nasty.

Adam’s an explosive player on the court,” said junior Chris Haley.

The Mounties win and loss push their record in 2014-15 to five wins and three losses. This record gives the team 10 points in the ACAA standings, but by virtue of a tiebreaker, the team sits in third in the conference. Holland College sits atop the standings with an impressive record of eight wins and no losses, followed by STU, who have won five games, losing just two thus far.

The Mounties next game is a rematch of their game against STU, as they will host the Tommies on Sunday, Jan. 18 at 5 p.m. in McCormack Gymnasium in the team’s only action this weekend.

“After a tough loss like that, you just have to come back focused and ready to work harder in practice.

We feel as if we owe them one, and that’s exactly what we plan to do on Sunday,” said Haley.

The team will hope to re-gain a portion of second place in the ACAA standings against the Tommies.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

7

Women lose fifth straight against Tommies Benjamin Foster Sports Reporter The Women’s Volleyball Mounties came back from Christmas hoping to end their four game losing streak and gain momentum and confidence going into the second half of the ACAA schedule.

On Saturday night at Lady Beaverbrook Gym in Fredericton, the Mounties squared off against the St. Thomas University Tommies. Despite showing better form than their previous matches, the Mounties dropped their fifth straight match. STU ranked second in the ACAA standings with a record of six wins and three losses, winning the match in three straight sets of scores 25-20, 25-17 and 25-16.

“We kind of beat ourselves with our mistakes. We had moments where we played well but others where we just gave away points. We weren’t able to keep the momentum on our side when it counted,” said Mountie power hitter Lynne Arsenault. “We were working on winning points off of long rallies and were for the most part improving on that, but struggled to get quick points.”

Despite the loss, the Mounties did see improvement in many aspects of their game- particularly on defence.

“Even though it was a loss, was definitely a better game than previous ones.

Our defence was near the best it has been all season. The only thing that set us apart was our ability to really finish the rally,” said power hitter Katia McKercher.

“I expect with more practice we’ll be able to sort out some of the other kinks.”

Freshman setter Melissa McAnsh received action in the game. McAnsh is playing as a setter to replace Jasleen Singh, who is out for the season due to undisclosed medical reasons.

“Our new rookie setter Melissa has really stepped up since losing Jazz,” said McKercher.

The Mounties have not won a game since opening the season with four straight wins. Their record of four wins and five losses puts them sixth in the packed ACAA standings, where the difference between second place and sixth place is a mere two results. Four teams make the ACAA playoffs, making this year’s playoff race one of the most exciting in years.

“This has been a very unpredictable season,” said McKercher. “Most of the teams are very even. It would be hard to predict who will be contenders for the ACAA title let alone which teams will score playoff positions. As [coach] Paul [Settle] has told us many times, it’s all about which teams improve the most both as a team and as individuals.”

“Our team, this year, has been very flexible in terms of positions, with most girls being able to play two different positions. It has definitely been an adjustment for everyone and has taken time to get used to. I would say the losing streak was definitely a setback for our plans this season but everyone is working hard to achieve our goal,” said McKercher.

The Mounties are looking to get back on track Wednesday night in Bedford, N.S. where they will face back-to-back ACAA champion and conference leader, Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics at 7 p.m. They will have an easier test this weekend when Universite de Sainte-Anne Dragons come to Sackville to play two games.

BETTER KNOW A MOUNTIE

Potential ACAA All-Star leading Mt. A to success Moncton-native Lynne Arsenault in break-out season for the Mounties at power hitter Benjamin Foster Sports Reporter Lynne Arsenault has been key to the Women’s Volleyball team’s success in 2014-15. Despite losing three veteran starters, the squad has maintained a solid record in the ACAA with four wins and five losses. The third-year power hitter was turning heads in the pre-season with her strong play, and the Moncton-native has continued to do so through the first nine games of the ACAA schedule. Arsenault is 16th in the country with over three kills per set and is on her way to being named to her first ACAA all-star team.

“Two things I’d like to do in the rest of my time at Mt. A is to be an all-

star and I think next year or maybe even this year we could win a ACAA title,” said Arsenault.

Growing up, Arsenault played many sports including soccer, basketball, tennis, swimming, karate and volleyball. She first started playing volleyball in grade seven and joined her first club team in grade nine. In grade 11, along with playing for her club and high school teams, she made Team New Brunswick.

“That was tons of fun, and I met many great friends there,” Arsenault said.

In her grade 11 year, Arsenault’s club team won provincials. “After we won provincials, we went to nationals and did pretty well, making it to tier two. The team was really good because they were a developmental team for the Université de Moncton.” A f t e r

finishing high school, Mt. A was the only school Arsenault applied to. “I really liked it. I was thinking of trying out for the volleyball team when I came, but I didn’t know if I would make it or not. The UdeM coach wanted me to play there but I told her my French wasn’t good enough, so I applied here,” said Arsenault.

Arsenault didn’t just make the team in her first year: she started. “I played offside my first year because we didn’t have anyone to play there.

It was interesting and a nice switch.

We ended up losing in the semis in playoffs, but it was a fun year,” said Arsenault.

In her first year, Arsenault had 73 kills and a personal high of 21 assists.

Last season, the Mounties had a promising start but again finished the

season by losing in the semi-finals in the ACAA playoffs. “I didn’t play as much as in my first year. We kind of fell apart near the end of the season but before that we all had high hopes for the year.”

This season has been a breakout year for Arsenault, who is finally back to her natural position as a power hitter. She has already set a personal high in kills and is now one of the leaders of the team. “I see myself as more of a leader this year as the past two years,” said Arsenault. “We are not as experienced but overall we still have a chance with how the league is.

We started off really strong winning our first four, then we kind of hit a rough patch. I think we are really motivated to do well and have been working hard to improve.”

The biology student is planning to write her MCATS this summer, with hopes of going to medical school to become a doctor. She volunteers at the Drew Nursing Home on Main Street, and is the co-chair of the fundraising committee for the Moncton branch of the Learning Disabilities Association of New Brunswick.

Arsenault will play a big role for the Mounties volleyball squad for the rest of the season, and her teammates will count on her contributions if the Mounties wish to return to the ACAA playoffs and contend for the championship.

Better Know a Mountie is sponsored

by ScotiaMcLeod and The Connors Group.

8

NAVIGATING HEALTHCARE

Editors: Cameron McIntyre & Kevin Levangie | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

Sick in S

Getting treatment shouldn’t be a headache, but figuring out where to Cameron McIntyre Senior News Editor

The Wellness Centre (above) and the Sackville memorial hosiptal (below) are two of the main places for students to get treatment. Chris Donovan/ Argosy.

Seeing a doctor in rural New Brunswick is not always an easy process, and for many students, coming back to town means a leaving behind the easy-access medical care to which they are accustomed. In these unfamiliar circumstances, the trick to getting medical concerns resolved quickly in Sackville is knowing where to go and whom to ask.

For emergencies, the first stop should always be the Sackville Memorial Hospital. Located at the corner of Main and Union Streets, the hospital deals with all medical emergencies either on site or through referrals to other nearby hospitals.

There are more options for less pressing health problems. The hospital is still an option, but students can also use the Wellness Centre, travel to Moncton to go to a walkin clinic, or try their luck at finding a family doctor who is accepting new patients.

Unfortunately, visiting the Sackville hospital for non-urgent medical issues can result in long wait times because triage prioritizes the more urgent cases first.

It is also difficult to find a family doctor in Sackville. Of the five doctor’s offices The Argosy was able to reach, four were not accepting new patients.

One was accepting patients only in mid-to-late February. These numbers are not unusual. According to the New Brunswick Medical Society, as many as 50,000 New Brunswickers are without family doctors.

The New Brunswick Medical Society’s website had a list of walkin medical clinics in and around Moncton, and also has information about TeleCare. According to the Government of New Brunswick, “Tele-Care is a free, confidential, health advice and information line.” Dialing 811 connects you to a registered nurse, and the service is available 24/7.

The Wellness Centre is a student exclusive service located on the ground floor of the Wallace McCain Student Centre.

“For non-urgent cases, it is more convenient,” said registered nurse Cindy Crossman, who has been working in the Wellness Centre since it opened in 2003.

The wait time to see a doctor through the Wellness Centre varies.

A doctor comes to the Wellness Centre for three hours each week.

The clinic’s hours alternate between 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays and 9 a.m.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

Sackville

NAVIGATING HEALTHCARE

o go for which symptoms is the last thing anyone wants to do while ill to noon on Thursdays. The doctor on duty also alternates between a man and a woman. Students who want a specific time for their appointment or who prefer a physician of a certain gender can expect longer waits.

In the 2013-2014 academic year, the physicians had 483 visits, 293 of which were repeats.

The Wellness Centre increases the number of clinics to meet demand as well. For the first two weeks of each semester, the centre doubles the number of clinics to meet the increased demand at that time and will schedule more clinics if students heavily book the usual weekly clinics.

“Sometimes you [think] you need to see the doctor and you don’t really need to see the doctor, “ Crossman said.

The centre has policies in place allowing Crossman to deal with some medical issues.

“I can assess your sore throat, swab your sore throat, send it to the lab, get the result back, read the result [and if it’s] positive for strep, call you, bring you back in and treat you with an antibiotic without ever seeing a doctor,” Crossman said.

Crossman can do an assessment, collect samples, and, upon receiving a positive test result, treat if there is a policy in place allowing her to do so for a number of common concerns.

“I can do pap smears. I can do STI testing. I can draw blood for HIV,” said Crossman.

Symptoms requiring an x-ray, a diagnosis, a referral to a specialist, or a medical prescription make seeing a doctor necessary, but a lot of common medical concerns can be resolved without going to a clinic or the emergency room.

“Hopefully, we’ve geared our services under the umbrella of the age between 19 and 25,” said Crossman referring to the medical procedures she is able to do because of training and the policies of the Wellness Centre.

If treatment or diagnosis requires special testing, such as an ultrasound or a CT scan, patients may find themselves referred out of town in to see specialists not frequenting Sackville. Places like Moncton and Amherst also provide opportunities for residents to receive care or become a family doctor’s patient.

While the Wellness Centre closes during the summer months, the doctors participating in its clinics will accept student patients into their private practice providing long-term care from one practitioner.

With files from Kevin Levangie.

Doctors can be seen through the Wellness Centre weekly clinics, the Sackville Memorial Hospital (above), and the private practices, some of which are located above the Guardian (below). Chris Donovan/Argosy.

9

Arts & Culture 7 Mondays: continued from cover

7 Mondays is currently accepting student submissions of poetry, short prose, scripts and essays which, if selected, would be published in this year’s issue. Photographic submissions are also accepted through Fine Arts department head Thaddeus Holownia.

“We’re pretty open with what we publish,” said Shaw. “We are looking for quality, but we’re not The New Yorker. We don’t have super lofty ideals.”

In the event that a piece is not accepted, Shaw said, editors are happy to offer critique and advice to students who request it.

“To students who aren’t ready to submit their work to a larger publication, or who aren’t sure of how their work would be received, or someone who just wrote something that they really like and want to share with the community, we offer a pretty friendly environment,” said Shaw.

This year’s 7 Mondays is the 21st volume, and Shaw says that one of the special things about the journal is its history.

“It was created by Mount Allison students to fill a gap that they had felt, before there really was creative writing offered as a class by the school,” said Shaw. “There were student writers who wanted to share their work with the community, and with each other, and didn’t have an outlet for that. So 7 Mondays was created for that need.”

She added that the journal offers student writers and editors an opportunity to learn what publishing is really like.

“You get a chance to have your work published and you get to hold a physical volume in your hands that has your work,” said Shaw.

In the wake of a referendum last year in which students voted to continue funding a $3 levy for the journal – a referendum which nearly did not pass – Shaw commented on the significance of 7 Mondays and its impact on the Mount Allison community. “[The levy] enables us to publish the journal and to spread it throughout campus,” said Shaw, “so that everyone can submit their poetry and have it published and distributed at no [additional] cost.”

Finally, Shaw said 7 Mondays allows the Sackville community to discover and engage with local writers and develop an appreciation for Canadian talent.

“A lot of focus in English literature is on poets and writers who are dead, or poets and writers from another country who you will never have a chance to meet,” Shaw explained.

“Everybody knows Shakespeare’s work, but it’s something that’s very remote from us as a community and as a society here in Canada.”

Students have until Jan. 20 to submit their work to be reviewed and possibly published in this year’s 7 Mondays. Submissions can be emailed to 7mondays@gmail.com.

Editor: Daniel Marcotte | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

FILM

Jackson’s final Hobbit film falls short

Five Armies an awkwardly excessive conclusion to tedious trilogy Lily Mackie Arts & Culture Reporter In an attempt to outdo itself, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and all its dazzling effects achieves little more than raking in the profits, inevitably coming off as overpowering and tedious.

Much like its previous installments, Peter Jackson’s third and final adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit gives its audience exactly what it promised: epic battles, eye-popping CGI, and all manner of mystical creatures, with just enough familiar faces thrown in to distinguish it as part of the original fantasy world.

Unfortunately, the filmmakers go a little overboard attempting to justify the lengthy trilogy as a necessary adaptation to the hundred-page book.

It’s not surprising that the filmmakers seem to have stretched Tolkien’s text a little too thin, as they notably struggle with inventing subplots to fill the gaps.

Strangely, the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) who was anticipated to be one of the film’s main villains, is killed off long before the main conflict. Meanwhile, Bilbo (played with perfect bashfulness by Martin Freeman) and Thorin (Richard Armitage) hole up in the treasure-filled castle with a band of dwarves. Suddenly, it is as if every creature in Middle-earth has set their sights on the gold-filled mountain. The result is as though the creators decided to start throwing in every creature they could think of – mythical or not – seemingly in hopes that viewers would accept it as part of Tolkien’s original scheme. The chaotic

mishmash is more distracting than enthralling, as dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins and humans, all mounted on an assortment of barnyard animals, slash away at each other without much acknowledgment of friend or foe.

Moreover, the central internal conflict of the film – grief-stricken Thorin’s struggling with his lust for gold – comes across as thinly motivated rather than poignant. It’s as if the writers wanted to excessively dramatize Thorin’s insanity, which ends up making him emotionally confusing. As a result, viewers might struggle with deciding whether or not to sympathize with him. It feels like the creators couldn’t decide either, and avoided the problem by having Thorin resolve his moral issues offscreen just in time to reappear and save the day.

Among all the raging battles, slowmotion close-ups of characters in various states of sobbing somehow make up a good quarter of the film.

However, Jackson clearly rehashes old material, and fans of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy might begin to feel that they’ve seen this all before.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies manages to come off as routine in its visionary spectacle and fails to redeem the tedium of the first two. While Peter Jackson could not reach the bar set a decade earlier by his own hands, Five Armies is still entertaining despite its ridiculous length. Perhaps the best strategy for getting through the lengthy film is to completely disassociate oneself from the Middle-earth that Jackson’s first trilogy brought to life, because his second may have put it to death.

VISUAL ARTS

Owens hosts interactive exhibit “Reading Room” invites engagement with texts on display

Adam David Brown’s History of Art, which features a series of literary cutouts, is one piece included in the exhibition. Chris Donovan/Argosy.

Michael Dover Arts & Culture Reporter Have you ever walked into an art gallery and been tempted to touch a painting or sculpture when the security guard wasn’t looking? If so, then “Reading Room,” currently on display at the Owens Art Gallery, is the exhibition for you. Not only does the collection allow viewers to handle the pieces on display, but it actively encourages it.

“Reading Room” is a fun showcase of contemporary art that is both interactive and engaging. The exhibition strives to re-establish printed word as a visual object, while challenging the viewer to interact with texts in new ways.

“The exhibition grew out of a desire to connect readers of Sackville with artists in the community,” explained curator Lucy MacDonald. “But as our project developed, we became increasingly interested in how the artists featured in the exhibition transformed [books] to defamiliarize them, thereby encouraging reflection on these everyday objects.”

The featured works are enticingly arranged. In particular, Adam David Brown’s History of Art jumps out to the viewer and serves as an appropriate introduction to the collection. Brown cut twelve uniform holes into a red, unembellished art history textbook and arranged these circles of text into three orderly rows.

By physically cutting holes into the canon of art history, Brown’s piece

prompts the viewer to consider the art and artists that have been overlooked or forgotten over time.

Other pieces are less distinctive and require the viewer to physically handle them to uncover their meanings. One example is Kristen Atkins’s Literary Cardiogram (1), which at first glance appears to be a generic pulp romance novel. However, when the viewer opens the book’s cover, it is revealed that Atkins has blacked out all the text with the exception of the three playful words: “I,” “love,” and “you.”

This piece provokes the viewer to question the appeal of romance as a genre, cutting through the prose to reveal the imagined core of the book.

One of the most difficult but rewarding pieces in the exhibition is Micah Lexier’s 1334 Words for

1334 Students, for which Lexier collaborated with Colm Toibin and every student at Cawthra Park Secondary School.

Each student wrote a single word from the story by hand, resulting in a mix of indiscernible handwriting. The viewer’s eye is forced to continually adapt to different writing styles and sizes, a surprisingly difficult task. This encourages the viewer to be aware of the act of reading, rather than being passively immersed in the story.

“Reading Room” is an exciting and interactive exhibition featuring a variety of contemporary artists working in non-traditional mediums to explore an accessible theme. It will be on display at the Owens Art Gallery until Feb. 8.

Arts & Culture

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca FILM

Last year’s top film picks

A roundup of some of 2014’s best cinematic features Austin Landry Copy Editor Some critics have condemned 2014 as a bad year for movies. But because so many films are being released nowadays, the good, the bad and the ugly of the movies exist in every calendar year – you just need to know how to find them. In order of approximate preference, these were the five best movies of 2014: The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki’s swan song concludes his half-century career with a fictionalized biopic of Japanese aerospace engineer Jiro Horikoshi. Miyazaki’s visual flair comes alive through dream sequences, flying sequences, and glorious combinations of the two. The opening scene is an example where the shadowed landscape is quickly bathed in sunlight as the protagonist flies overhead, understanding as we do that his dreams are revealing themselves to him.

Birdman – Michael Keaton’s comeback vehicle is refreshing, hilarious and often brilliant. The best ensemble cast of the year includes Edward Norton as a dazzling but volatile method actor, and Amy Ryan hitting all the right notes. Birdman brims with backstage shenanigans that induce knowing grins for anyone who has worked as cast or crew member of any sort. Alejandro G. Iñárritu plays with unfamiliar character archetypes, special effects which carry importance and heft into the narrative they serve, and pulls off the “one unbroken shot” illusion with comedic flair.

Like Father, Like Son – The plot is simple enough, but its execution

Andrew (Miles Teller) braces for an unforgiving session with jazz conductor Fletcher (J. K. Simmons) in Whiplash. (Mongrel Media.) and the movie’s performances are masterful. Two couples are told their six-year-old boys were swapped at birth. Writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda’s camera implies a lot with restrained movements: it prompts viewers to consider the parents’ plights and how they might relate to the viewer’s own life.

The Babadook – There hasn’t been a horror movie this good in decades.

This one also just happens to be a first feature from an Australian woman. While the numbers for female directors are still appalling – only 17 of the top 250 highestgrossing movies (a paltry 7 per cent) were helmed by women – it does in fact represent a small increase and is part of an upward trend in female-directed films. The Babadook works because it relies on two terrific

performances and a compelling story without resorting to a single jump scare. I can’t wait to see what Jennifer Kent turns her camera to next.

Whiplash – What a challenge it must have been for Damien Chazelle to have pulled this movie off with such precision. An accomplished musician himself, it is his “music is hard” answer to any great sports drama with a sadistic coach. Some say the best editing is also the least visible, but Whiplash shatters that rule to bits. Despite its running time of under 100 minutes, it easily featured more cuts than any other movie I watched last year. And a lot of those even called attention to themselves, falling right on drumbeats, but every single edit was justified. And boy, was that music – both aural and visual – just sublime.

MUSIC

Best albums of 2014

Five highlights from last year, from rap to indie rock Mike Roy I was skeptical heading into 2014 and looking upon my anticipated releases for the year. However, the year has proven to be one of the most memorable in the past decade. Here are a few of the very best for your consideration.

Alvvays, Alvvays – This group has produced a rare record that many artists never achieve in their lifetime, let alone on their debut.

Their self-titled album blends elements of pop, shoegaze and indie rock that incorporates concerns that all 20-somethings have encountered in their young lives: hooking up, commitment, fear of commitment, and anxieties of just about everything else. “Archie, Marry Me,” already feels like an instant classic within the list of timeless love songs/anti-love songs of the 21st century.

Old and Weird, What I Saw – Hailing from Halifax, Allison Higgins, Danika Vandersteen and Hannah

Guinan need no introduction. Old and Weird uses What I Saw as a nearperfect statement to who they are as a band. As tracks like “Click Track/ Orcas on Parade” demonstrate, the band seamlessly fuses raw garage sounds with humour while maintaining an authentic and fresh live presence. After a year that found women dominating the music world with brilliant and masterful releases, Old and Weird feels like a band that will soon define the East Coast music scene.

D’Angelo, Black Messiah – On the cusp of the New Year, D’Angelo released one of the best and arguably most important records of 2014 with Black Messiah. Released following protests in Ferguson, Missouri, Black Messiah explores elements of funk, R&B and rock, while its title confronts American social issues and racial politics. The strength and urgency felt within “1000 Deaths” contrasts beautifully with the sexy grooves of “Sugah Daddy,” solidifying D’Angelo’s status as one of the most

dynamic artists of today.

Run the Jewels, RTJ2 – Rapper El-P and Killer Mike struck critical gold with their debut Run the Jewels mixtape in 2013, so when a followup was announced, anticipation ran high. Meeting its hype, Run the Jewels 2, is one of the hardest and slickest hip-hop records of the year. “Close Your Eyes” and “All Due Respect” demonstrate the fiery chemistry between the record’s two maestros with layered verses which strike like lightning and hit like a freight train.

St. Vincent, St. Vincent – Already a critical darling from previous releases, St. Vincent’s self-titled 2014 release pushed singer Annie Clarke into the mainstream limelight and set the stage for her charismatic introduction. Much like the allure of David Bowie or Freddie Mercury, Clarke’s presence is simply magnetic.

Tracks like “Birth in Reverse” and “Digital Witness” provide the perfect compliment for global domination.

St. Vincent has easily become the best rock star of 2014.

Ships Log

11

EVENTS “ F e e d Yo u r B r a i n” Lecture Series T h u r s d a y, J a n u a r y 1 5 2:30 – 4 p.m.

Ralph Pickard Bell Librar y Theatre Lisa Dawn Hamilton Department of Psych ol o g y “Un d e rst an d ing monogamy : challenging assumptions w i t h d a t a” Te a c h i n g A s s i s t a n t s in France T h u r s d a y, J a n u a r y 1 5 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

Crabtree Room 316 An information session for students interested in teaching English in France in the academic year 2015-2016. For further information p l e a s e c o n t a c t D r.

Ionescu at cionescu@ mta.ca.

E xchange Applic ation Deadline F r i d a y, J a n u a r y 1 6 , 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

If you are interested in going on exchange this coming summer or next year to one of M o u n t A l l i s o n’s p a r t ner universities, the deadline to apply is F r i d a y, J a n u a r y 1 6 t h , 2015.

Yo u c a n p i c k u p a p a per application at the International Centre (2nd floor of the Student Centre) Mansbridge Summit Panel F r i d a y, J a n u a r y 1 6 7 – 8:30 p.m.

This panel is open to the public.

C h a n g e Yo u r M i n d Seeking Input C h a n g e Yo u r M i n d i s in search of testimonials, anecdotes, or brief statements on practical things and creative accommodations provided by professors in times of mental health distress or general trouble.

Submit by messaging C h a n g e Yo u r M i n d o n Facebook, tweeting using #mentalhealthwin, or answering on our Google forum at tinyurl.com/ M TA m e n t a l h e a l t h w i n .

Answers will be compiled in a pamphlet on best practices to be distributed to professors. Feel free to identify with your first name, departm e n t , o r y e a r, o r t o

remain anonymous.

P r e s i d e n t ’s S p e a k e r Series Presents: Stan Douglas Tu e s d a y , J a n u a r y 2 0 7 – 8 p.m.

Crabtree Auditorium Stan Douglas is a visual artist who lives and works in Va n c o u v e r . S i n c e 199 0 h is f i l ms, v ideos and photographs have been seen in ex hibitions i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y, including Documentas IX, X a n d X I ( 1 9 9 2 , 1 9 9 7, 2 0 0 2) a nd t h re e Ve n i c e B i e n n a l e s (1 9 9 0 , 2 0 01 , 2 0 0 5) .

Since 2008 opened a t t h e C a r r é d ’a r t at Nîmes in October 2 013 a nd w i l l tou r Eu rop e t h r u 2 015.

This event is open to the public!

French-English Bilingualism Certificate For students g r a du at i n g i n 2 015 R EGISTER in the Crabtree Building, r o o m 310 S i g n - u p dead line: Januar y 2 3, 2 015 E x a m i n at ion d a t e : F e b r u a r y 7, 2 015 For f u r t he r information, Ple a s e c ont ac t D r.

Monika Boehringer mboehrin@mta.ca F r i d a y, J a n u a r y 16 M t . A Wo m e n ’s Hockey 7: 0 0 p. m .

Moncton vs. Mount Allison A t Ta n t r a m a r Ve t e r a n s M e m o r i a l Civ ic Centre S u n d a y, J a n u a r y 18 t h M t . A Wo m e n ’s Basketball 3:0 0 p.m.

St. Thomas vs. Mount Allison McCormacks Gy mnasium S u n d a y, J a n u a r y 18 t h M t . A M e n ’s Basketball 5:0 0 PM St. Thomas vs. Mount Allison McCormacks Gy mnasium

Science GENETICS

Study reveals genetic finhand link Tyler Pitre Science Editor Researchers have uncovered the genetic details that tie together the narrative of how a fin and a hand are related.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Andrew Gehrke, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, this study makes clear the genetic link between the fin and the hand. The reseachers found a common genetic link between an ancient fish which still exists today and mammals with hands, comprised of wrist and digits.

They studied the spotted gar, a fish native to North America.

The fossil record makes it clear that fins and hands are closely related. The problem is matching up the small genetic details in order to get a rigorous understanding of the link. This study looks at particular sets of genes in the spotted gar and genes for the development of hands in mice. The spotted gar switch genes for fins inserted into mice functioned almost exactly as the mice’s own genes. A switch gene is a term used to describe how genes are turned off and on during gene expression. The number of genes that a mouse has for hands however, is greater than the number of genes that a spotted gar has for a fin. Researchers are now curious as to whether or not reversing this process would lead to a fish developing hands instead of fins.

The result of that process would clear up any uncertainties concerning their findings.

The idea of the fin-hand connection is not new. Fossil records have suggested this connection for quite some time. Gehrke’s research demonstrates the first genetic evidence for this evolutionary transition, which appeared evident on the macroscopic scale but an enigma on the genetic scale.

The problem in the past was researchers were using Teleost fish, a species which did not have enough similarities in their DNA sequences to those in a group of genes such as Hox genes for this link to be viable.

When researchers compared the Hox genes of the spotted gar to those of the Teleost fish, the comparison was uncanny. Hox genes are responsible for controlling body planning during embryonic developement.

Studies like this provide evolutionary biologists with a strong foundation in their observations of the fossil record. More research in this branch of biology will help scientists understand more fully the phenomenon of evolution, its history and its mechanisms.

Editor: Tyler Pitre | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

PARTICLE PHYSICS

Neutrinos more reactive than once thought

Neutrinos detected in ‘weird reaction’ with the nucleus of particles Sarah-Anne Steeves Research from the University of Rochester suggests that an odd little particle which goes by the name of neutrino is involved in a reaction that even physicist Kevin McFarland describes as “weird.”

This new research shows that it is possible for these particles to occasionally interact with a nucleus while inflicting next to no damage.

This phenomenon is possible due to the creation of a charged substomic particle that is able to defend the nucleus from the reaction. Without the creation of this new particle, the nucleus would receive extreme damage.

Professor McFarland uses the example of a bubble being shot by a bullet.

“The bubble – a carbon nucleus in the experiment – deflects the neutrino ‘bullet’ by creating a particle from the vacuum,” McFarland said.

“This effectively shields the bubble from getting blasted apart, and the bullet instead only delivers a gentle bump to the bubble.”

Previous studies have observed the creation of these charged pions, but the results had been plagued by inconsistencies. Even results of theoretical calculations were “all over the map” according to McFarland.

With new technology, it has now become possible to measure not only the momentum and energy transfers

that are placed on the nucleus, but also the distribution of the pions.

The nature and the frequency of these “weird” reactions surprised physicists. Neutrinos, in fact, rarely react – so rare that even with ten trillion neutrinos passing through your hand every second, there is a chance that only one of those neutrinos will react. Out of those occurring reactions, only a portion will be of the variety illustrated in this experiment.

This study, however, managed to accumulate so much data that a student of McFarland’s, Aaron Mislivec, was recruited to generate a computer code to sift through the data accumulated under the supervision of Aaron Higuera, a postdoctoral fellow.

The code searches for the signature intact nuclei that marked this specific reaction. Once the intact nuclei is located, it is possible to then look at the resultant particles. The resulting data gave a clearer picture of the processes within the reaction.

“Our detectors,” said Mislivec, “gave us access to the full information of exactly what was happening in this reaction.”

Although neutrino reactions may not have direct implications on our everyday lives, even McFarland admits that “it is exciting to learn that this weird reaction really does take place.”

Panel: Talks emphasize an open mind to unexpected career paths

Speakers tell students about their careers. Clay Steell/Argosy different advice for students in the audience about potential careers.

“Your ideal job might not come first but you can build experience that’s a step in the right direction,” said McLellan. He said that it took time and effort to finally secure a job with Ducks Unlimited Canada, and before that he was sometimes unemployed.

McLellan had broad plans of becoming an ornithologist during his undergraduate years. After completing his bachelor’s degree at Mount Allison, he pursued a master’s degree at Acadia University. He then held a series of short-term jobs.

Ranieri used her background in computer science at Mount Allison to aid her as a technology attorney.

“Having the ability to understand the technology [I work with] is a great thing, and the education that I got was fantastic in giving me confidence to speak about it,” she said.

Ranieri had plans of becoming a doctor in her first year but then she took an interest in computer science and math. While working on her final project for an upper-year cryptography class, she learned about the firm for which she currently works.

“I found their work fascinating, the intersection between the real world and what I was learning about in school, which was oftentimes a very theoretical experience,” Ranieri said.

She studied law at Harvard after graduating from Mount Allison.

Dauphinee said he was drawn to government work unrelated to his educational background while completing his master’s degree in physics at the University of Western Ontario.

Dauphinee also received a master’s degree in public administration at Dalhousie University. He said he realized that he didn’t have the patience to do science. “I didn’t have a strong individual passion. I never wanted to be one particular thing, but I recognized that [the] government has a very strong and positive role to play in our society, and that I’d like to work for government,” he said.

Dauphinee enjoys his job for its diversity. “I get a broad exposure to a lot of interesting things, and the nature of the work changes constantly,” he said. His work ranges from academic research to collaborating with civil policy makers.

Horsfall said she pursued pharmacy because it aligned with her interests

during her undergraduate degree at Mount Allison.

“I didn’t want to be a doctor, but I wanted to be involved in healthcare,” she said, “I was really into physiology while I was at Mount A. I love the way how medication works in the body.” She completed her degree in pharmacy at Memorial University and is currently a doctoral candidate in pharmacy. Horsfall also said that although pharmacy program applicants don’t need an undergraduate degree, her experiences at Mount Allison strengthened her application.

“Your marks get your interview, but then you have to show why you’re a well-rounded person and a benefit to the program,” she said. “At Mount A, I did all kinds of stuff which helped round out my application.”

The event’s presenters also had advice to give to the audience, which ranged from general to specific.

McLellan emphasized the importance of personal attitude and reputation in finding work.

“In hiring, we want someone who can work well with a team and can communicate well,” he said. “Be in tune with your reputation. It’s a small world and if your application is at

risk, it can stick to you.” McLellan also encouraged listeners not be discouraged by unemployment.

“It’s always disheartening to be without work for a little while, but things tend to fall into place after a few months and you build on your career,” he said. “Your ideal job might not come first but you can build experience that is a step in the right direction.”

Dauphinee said that the skills he gained while doing a science degree made him a competitive applicant to policy analyst work.

“There aren’t enough quantitative analysis experts in government, and I think science students in particular have skills useful in this respect,” he said.

Ranieri emphasized the importance of passion in finding the right job.

“If you feel passionate about something, try and find a job that meets that passion. It will shine through in what you do,” she said.

She also said that graduates looking for a job in a given field should apply for positions even when they don’t meet its qualifications. “You might get rejected,” she said. “So what?

Move on.”

This year’s event organizers said they were pleased with the turnout, but wished that more science students had attended.

“We had about 40 students come, which is fine,” said Dean Ollerhead, “but there are roughly 800 Bachelor of Science students at this university.”

Each participant was asked several questions following their speech about the nature of their work and their career path. McLellan and Horsfall in particular answered many inquiries about their respective jobs as a wildlife biologist and a pharmacist.

McLellan and Horsfall gave their speeches in person. Ranieri spoke to the audience over an internet phone from San Francisco, where she currently lives and works. Dauphinee meant to come to Mount Allison from Halifax for his presentation, but was forced to join the event over internet phone due to Friday’s snowy weather.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

Science

CANCER STUDY

13

Certain cancers may be up to chance

Electron micrscope of breast cancer cell shows cellular deviation and growth from normal parameters. Fae/Wikipedia.

Tyler Pitre Science Editor Do you think doing all the right things will prevent the worst? A new study suggests that despite your hard work, it may be more up to chance.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Centre have found thar two-thirds of cancer occurrences in certain tissue types result from random mutations. The remaining percentage comes from a combination of lifestyle and environmental factors.

The study was led by physicians Dr. Cristian Tomasetti and Dr. Bert Vogelstein. Their article appeared in the journal Science, under the title “Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions.” The method used in the study involved plotting the normal occurrences of different types of cancers against the approximate amount of usual stem cell divisions in a given tissue. The researchers found that there was a strong correlation “that extended over

five orders of magnitude,” quoted a subcategory of cancers, such as Science. What this means is that the cancers in the digestive tract, would study suggests a be considered in this stronger role for Variation in cancer statistical model. mistakes in DNA risk among tissues can On the news replication in the release page be explained by the for the Johns development of cancer.

However, number of stem cell Hopkins Kimmel it is important to Cancer Centre, divisions. stress the fact that the researchers this study does not described their state that all cancers fall under this study as follows: “Our results would statistic. Only certain tissue types be equivalent to showing a high were the focus of the study, so only correlation between lengths of

trip and getting into an accident.

Regardless of the destination, the longer the trip is, the higher the risk of an accident.” This means that the trip, described by the researchers, is analogous to the number of times the cell divides in a given tissue. Tissues that have to be replaced often would have a higher rate of mutation than tissues that do not have to replaced often.

Cancer is a term used to describe a wide range of diseases which occur when the normal functioning of the cells goes wrong. Genes play a big role in cellular division. Eventually the cell loses its normal functioning ability and turns rogue. The latter will continue to divide and spread, displacing functioning issue with cancer tissue. This leads to the loss of function of the surrounding tissues and it affects the body as a whole.

There are over 100 types of cancers known and it is the leading cause of death in Canada, which comprised 29.9 per cent of deaths in 2011 according to Statistics Canada.

All cancers are caused by a mixture of genetics, lifestyle and environment.

It is important to maintain good health because it still contributes to your likelihood of developing cancer and other harmful diseases.

In the press release, the researchers compared the “trip taken” to be made worse by the environmental factors: “The road conditions on the way to the destination could be likened to the environmental factors in cancer. Worse conditions would be associated with a higher the risk of an accident.” So, although your cells may develop into cancer cells due to the underlying flaws, lifestyle choices make the trip more likely to end up in an accident.

HEART DISEASE

Stress related to asymptomatic heart disease

Hypertropic cardiomyopathy linked to stress related factors in new study Tyler Pitre Science Editor What effect does stress play in your ability to develop a disease? A new study suggests that stress may play a significant role in developing a particular kind of cardiac disease.

This new study was published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology led by Sakthivel Sadayappan. His study dealt with the question of why certain individuals with genes for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy did not develop the disease or show symptoms. His findings suggested stress may be a significant factor among those potential victims that develop this disease. This was the first study to reveal a correlation between stress and this particular disease.

The method used in this study was taking mice with the genes for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and placing them in stressful environments in order to see whether

Hypertropic cardiomyopathy makes your heart muscles swell and become very large. Patho/Wikipedia. they would develop symptoms, or otherwise stay symptom-free. What the researchers found was that the mice’s hearts became larger and had a harder time pumping blood. This is a typical presentation in patients who develop symptoms.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is insidious in that it often leads to quick

and sudden deaths. This is tragically demonstrated in many sudden deaths among athletes wherein hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of death amongst them.

Unfortunately, this disease is hard to detect when it is asymptomatic and so it is not a matter of negligence in terms of getting medical checkups.

Many athletes have regular checkups and no problems are detected.

The disease is described by the Mayo Clinic as being caused by substantial thickening of the heart muscle. This makes pumping blood to the body very difficult to do. It also may affect the cardiac electrical system which then causes the heart

to develop deadly arrhythmias.

Arrhythmias are any sequence of beats that your heart undergoes that differs from the normal rhythm.

Some are harmless but many can be life threatening. Approximately 0.2 per cent of the population have this disease, but the density is increased in given regions of the world, such as in India.

This study suggests new stress factors that clinicians can take into consideration. People with genetic links to this disease may be at risk of developing symptoms under stress.

Stress may induce high blood pressure which may in turn lead to the disease.

People who find out they have this disease may or may not develop symptoms to this disease. The Mayo clinic states on their website that many patients live a long and full life with this disease. Knowing that stress may play a factor would help patients who find out they have this disease avoid developing symptoms or who have it, be able to control its effects.

Humour

Editor: Taylor Losier | January 15, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

Last Issue’s Solutions

71- Item having exchange value; 72- Abominable snowman; Down

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

Across 1- Baby powder; 5- Nobelist Bohr; 10- Prejudice; 14- Colourful fish; 15- Dam extending across the Nile; 16- It is in Spain; 17- Comedian Carvey; 18- ___ there yet?;

19- Defense grp. since 1949; 20- Rebirth of the soul in a new body; 23- Back of the neck; 24- Frat party staple; 25- You ___ right!; 28- K-O connection; 31- Govt. security; 35- Generic; 37- Descartes’s conclusion; 39- Lay down the lawn; 40- In spite of; 44- Salt Lake City player; 45- Hung. neighbor;

46- Tranquil; 47- Song part; 50- Baseball club; 52- Pierced with horns; 53- Henpeck; 55- Synagogue; 57- Rubella; 63- Monetary unit of Germany; 64- Castle water pits; 65- First name in scat; 67- What ___ mind reader?; 68- The brainy bunch; 69- The back end of something; 70- Drew on;

A students’ guide to New Year’s Resolutions The top ten resolutions you can make Dakota Pauley Well, folks, it’s that time of year again. The sun is shining brightly, a new semester approaches, and Sackville is cold as hell. Now that the ups and downs (and Fall exams) of 2014 are gone, it’s time to greet 2015 with a smile and make this year an even greater journey than the last!

And what better way to prepare yourself than with some good, oldfashioned New Year’s resolutions?

Perhaps you’re fairly new to making resolutions, or are having trouble getting motivated this year, but fear not! This guide has all of your resolution needs, preparing you for yet another year. But enough preamble. Here are the top 10 resolutions every Mount Allison student should strive to achieve this year: 1. Hit the gym: Also known as “Resolution 101,” for no list can be complete without this classic. Now is the time to plan for those six-

pack abs you have always dreamed of but still don’t have. And luckily for you, the Mt. A fees include a gym membership, depriving you of all excuses to back out. The key component to completing this resolution is to try really hard for the first month, allowing your efforts to slowly fade over time.

2. Eat healthier: Though often in the same category as working out, healthy eating is its own adventure because, well, healthy food sucks.

There is no way a salad will ever taste better than pizza. And with the plethora of pizza specials in this town, avoiding a slice is almost an impossibility. You know what? Just forget this one and go eat some pizza.

3. Bump up your grades: If you’re coming off some serious exam guilt, then this resolution will be near the top of your list this year. This one is easy to accomplish, but timely.

And that’s because the solution, unfortunately, is more reading.

While exhausting at times, reading is a sure-fire way to send your GPA

soaring into the A-mosphere.

4. Party less Be honest.

5. Do something you have never done: This does not mean you have to go skydiving or climb Mount Everest. Remember, smaller goals are much easier to achieve. Try something like going to an 8:30 class or getting an exotic beer at Ducky’s.

6. Watch less Netflix: unless you’re watching Sherlock, in which case… carry on, my dear Watson.

7. Clean your dorm room/ apartment: Nobody is perfect, but this is one thing that should not have to be on a New Year’s resolutions list, yet here it is. You know what you need to do.

8. Attend an indie/underground concert: If there is one place in Canada that is made for exotic and strange musical experiences, it’s Sackville. Just do it.

9. [This space is reserved for any personal resolution that is 100 per cent guaranteed to not be fulfilled.]

10. Write an article for The Argosy: Why leave all the hard work for me?

1- Director Browning; 2- On ___ with; 3- Alley; 4- Portable power saw; 5- Civil rights org.; 6- Sharon’s land; 7- Pitcher; 8- Mown grass; 9- Move stealthily; 10- Not malignant; 11- Golfer Aoki; 12- Env. notation; 13- ___ Paulo, Brazil; 21- Mother-in-law of Ruth; 22- Hanoi holiday; 25- Cancel; 26- Like tubers; 27- Computer key; 29- Beethoven’s “___ Solemnis”;

30- Writer Hentoff; 32- Bendable twig, usually of a willow tree; 33- 1,000 kilograms; 34- Created a border; 36- LAX posting; 38- Bell and Barker; 41- Wheel center; 42- Old Ethiopian emperor; 43- Whimsical humor; 48- Encroachment; 49- Engine part; 51- African fly; 54- Type of ray; 56- Attacks; 57- Wrigley varieties; 58- Part of HOMES; 59- Denials; 60- ___ best friend; 61- Gen. Robert ___; 62- Narrow strip of wood; 63- It’s bottled in Cannes; 66- Former Bush spokesman Fleischer.

Shitty things our relatives said this Christmas “I think there aren’t as many Christmas lights this year because of the Asians.”

“I think it’s funny that people were protesting over Ferguson, when OJ Simpson murdered two people and nobody protested after that.”

“Don’t learn German; my father got paid to kill those guys!”

“I don’t buy the goose. I just get it to follow me it into my shed with corn. Then I shoot it. I’m allowed to – it’s trespassing.”

On seeing a windstorm in Lawrence of Arabia: “Funny that there could be wind when there are no trees.”

“We can’t eat yet. We need to wait for the Presbyterians.”

“But nobody likes them!”

“I would like to not have to explain to your great aunt why the gingerbread men have 3D boobs.”

“I was just looking up how to know the right kind of toad to lick, and found this religion called The Church of the Toad of Light!”

Humour

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

Winter semester

A goat for your thoughts?

15

The trouble with buying textbooks Taylor Losier Humour Editor

Holiday Weight

Patrick Allaby

Nic Sunderland-Baker

I could have saved a small village by now. I could have bought a goat, dug a well, built a school and all that other stuff. I could have been so extraordinarily generous that they might have erected a statue in my honour. Or at the very least a plaque of some kind.

But I haven’t done any of that. I am a non-goat-buying curmudgeon, who has never built a school or a well. And why haven’t I done this, you ask? Why am I withholding lifesaving goods from some poor Third World country? Why have I not allowed my dormant awesomeness to go unrecognized, unappreciated?

Because I am buying textbooks.

Because when I carefully calculate how much I have to spend on tuition, cost of living, groceries, the “technology fee” and other such expenses, when I get down to the end of it and think, “Ah, yes, here’s the money for the goats,” I realize that I left out the $200, $300 or even $500 I will have to spend on books.

So sorry kids, no fresh water for Christmas. But hey, tell you what: in 12 weeks, I’ll send you a gently used compendium of various social problems that we face today in modern society. Heck, I’ll even throw in five different anthologies of

poems by feminists and dead white dudes! Please excuse the tear-stained pages. Those are tears of joy.

Why don’t I sell them back and then send you the money? Well, you see, the exchange rate on textbook is worse than that of the (now defunct) Zimbabwean dollar. Unfortunately, the return rate on my $180 textbook will only just cover the cost of shipping. I suppose I could send you an empty box. After all, who doesn’t enjoy getting mail? But excitement might dwindle when such a box is opened. Because really, how many times have you heard one of your friends brag about getting an empty box in the mail from their parents?

I don’t like this any better than you do. I would prefer any alternative to buying textbooks: I wish I could build a well, or a school. Heck, I would love to own a goat. Goats are fun. Goats are interesting. Profs don’t assign goats as homework. Goats eat homework. I have never cried over a goat. (Unless you count the tears shed over not having a goat.)

Know, then, that when I walk up to the cash at the bookstore, I do so with a heavy heart. I watch the numbers cross the screen as each book is scanned, and when the total comes up and I’m asked, “And how will you be paying today?” I think of my now empty bank account and the sad, crying children. Oh, the humanity.

Illustration by Anna Farrell.