The Argosy, April 2, 2015

Mt. A farm tries out a new entrepreneurial model. Page 6

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THEATRE

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Dual one-act plays use improvisational elements

‘Fight Night’ and ‘The 4-H Club’ revel in absurd comedy

April 2, 2015 Vol. 144, Iss. 21

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Humour pg. 11

SWANS

First Mt. A-born swans die over winter Richard Kent Editor-in-Chief

Jake Planinc and Gabriel Christie offer performances that straddle the line between the comical and the absurd. Adrian Kiva/Argosy.

Amanda Cormier Arts & Culture Reporter In Fight Night, actors competed against each other with unscripted results; in The 4-H Club, a masked man sat in the audience as red balls fell from above.

Throughout the evening, MotyerFancy Theatre’s presentation of two one-act plays was shocking, confusing, but overall fun and entertaining.

Fight Night, directed by drama student Ian McMullen, is a devised

piece, meaning that the script is created through collaborative activities between the director and the actors. The play follows the relationships between four friends – played by Madison Fairweather, Grace McAvinue, Emily Preeper, and Tristan Grant – each with a competitive side.

Throughout the show, conflicts between characters were represented by live games, played by the actors and mediated by a referee (played by Cassidy Gaudet). Each character had a monologue, for example, during

which they would try to catch candies in their mouths as thrown to them by the referee.

Actors earned points for their successes throughout the show, leading up to a climax in which the top two would play a game of Twister.

The winning actor’s character would receive the grand prize: a bursary which would allow them to go to university and, ultimately, leave the other three behind.

The show was fascinating in that the games were not rehearsed – one

can’t exactly rely on catching four out of five candies every night, after all – meaning that the winner is different every time. When I saw the show, Gremlin (Preeper) defeated Cobra (McAvinue) in the final round, but one could theoretically see the show three times and witness three different endings.

‘Theatre’ pg. 5

LABOUR

Prof replacement divides MAFA, admin Jean-Sébastien Comeau News Reporter Mount Allison’s Faculty Association and the Mount Allison administration cannot agree on the facts surrounding sabbatical replacement.

In their latest newsletter, MAFA marked a decline in sabbatical replacements, but the Mount Allison administration said that there has been

an increase in that area of the budget between the 2014-15 and the 2015-16 academic year.

Every seven years, a professor is eligible to leave on sabbatical for a full academic year. According to the current collective agreement, sabbatical leave’s purpose is to enable a faculty member or librarian to pursue a program related to his or her principal professional responsibilities and serve the objectives of the university.

Due to the university’s small size and large number of programs, very few faculty specialize in a given area, said mathematics and computer science professor Andrew Irwin.

“When someone goes on sabbatical, almost inevitably, maybe not every single time but very often, that leaves a significant hole in that program,” Irwin said.

According to MAFA’s newsletter, the rates for hiring the sabbatical

replacements which fill these holes have declined over the last few years.

The rates dropped from 115 per cent in the 2012-13 academic year to a projected level of 29 per cent for 201516 and out of 17.5 professors going on sabbatical in 2015-2016, only 5 positions are expected to be filled, said the newsletter.

‘Sabbatical’ pg. 3

The two swans in Mount Allison’s care have died over the course of this winter. The university says both animals died of natural causes.

Now, facing complex legal issues, the university is working out whether it will replace the birds.

The first swan died Nov. 18, 2014.

The second died on March 1. No autopsies have been carried out, and none are planned.

The female swans were born in the Spring of 1996, two of the cygnets born to former Herbert and Muriel that year.

The university announced both deaths in a Facebook post on March 18. From there, the news spread quickly. The post was shared over 400 times.

Some commenters on the post recalled stopping to watch the swans after classes. Many called for the swans to be replaced.

One anonymous poster on Sackville’s Yik Yak even suggested (perhaps jokingly) that a song be written in the swans’ memory, like the one for Li’l Sebastian of the television show Parks and Recreation – a miniature horse so beloved by the residents of fictional Pawnee, Indiana that the town’s government held a memorial concert.

Mt. A must now decide whether it will – or can – replace the swans.

The university requires lots of information before its administrators can decide, said Robert Hiscock, the university’s director of marketing and communications. The university currently holds a permit to own mute swans, which are considered exotic animals.

Both the federal and provincial governments are looking to update animal control legislation.

New Brunswick’s exotic animal task force was expected to report its recommendations by the end of March 2015.

‘Swans’ pg. 3

News

Editors: Cameron McIntyre & Kevin Levangie | April 2, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

AUSTERITY

Concordia students ditch classes to protest Protests on March 23 were officially sanctioned by Concordia’s administration

Milos Kovacevic The Concordian MONTREAL (CUP) — March 23 became the first day of student antiausterity strikes with five faculties boycotting their classes and having their act partially validated by the university’s decision to cancel classes.

Undergraduate classes for the Fine Arts, Philosophy, Geography, Women’s Studies, and the School of Community and Public Affairs were cancelled by the school, which billed the move as a ‘day of dialogue.’

Graduate students in Philosophy were also a part of the strike.

This follows a series of student assemblies that have so far all voted to pass strike motions. In addition to the above, some of the others to join the strikes have been the Political Science Students’ Association and the Liberal Arts Society.

At the same time other student organizations like the Geography, Planning and Environment Graduate Students Association will soon decide whether they want to join the movement.

Most have picked March 23 and April 2 as the days to leave their classrooms, coinciding with

province-wide student strikes aimed at pressuring the government into rethinking budget compression measures they say are essential for eliminating the deficit.

Some student groups, like Students of Philosophy Association (SoPhiA), have voted for significantly longer strike actions—in this case, an additional week of striking from March 26 until April 2.

The university administration said March 23’s strike would be the only ones officially sanctioned.

The anti-austerity movement isn’t one solely rooted in the students and support has also come from other directions within the university.

Concordia University’s Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA) recently announced their support for the student strikes, saying they considered the tactics as a legitimate form of opposition to the government and not levelled against the university itself or any of its staff and faculty.

However, CUPFA equally distanced itself by saying it reserved a right to protest against austerity in their own way. Still, the union announced its members could support the student movements in other ways, such as organizing curriculum workarounds to

A March 27 protest ended with an intervention by riot police. Concordian/CUP. accommodate the strikers.

To deal with the possibility of escalation by student picketers denying entry to classrooms, it instructed all teachers to report for class as usual and ask to be let in. If denied, the teachers were to file a report but under no circumstances engage in physical contact or

STUDENT POLITICS

Canadian elections get nasty Negative social-media post used anonymous medium Willa McCaffrey-Noviss Politics Reporter A spate of anonymous, negative social-media posts directed at campaigning student union candidates on a number of Canadian campuses has left some with a bad taste in their mouths.

Earlier this year, Dylan WooleyBerry, MASU president-elect, and Ryan Lebreton, vice-president campus life-elect, were both subjected to social media abuse.

During the campaign period, numerous posts were made on the anonymous app, Yik Yak, about both candidates. A YouTube video entitled “Poop Ballot” was also anonymously posted, targeting Lebreton’s campaign video (“Blank Ballot”), which itself is a variation of the popular Taylor Swift song, “Blank Space.”

Lebreton said he doesn’t believe the problem is limited to university campuses.

“Any type of politics brings out this behaviour,” said Lebreton. “Because now it’s so easy to be anonymous, it’s just a new obstacle to the game,” said Lebreton.

U of T students witnessed anonymous elections commentary on the “U of T Confessions” Facebook

page as well as Yik Yak threads about a presidential candidate, Cameron Wathey. Wathey’s opponents, the Brighter U of T slate who went on to win the election, were allegedly involved in social media activity which targeted Wathey.

Brighter U of T was assigned “demerit points” by the U of T chief returning officer for their involvement in a number of unspecified online actions.

The UTSU chief returning officer found the slate guilty of “posting ‘bullying, harassing, damaging and libelous’ content and comments on Facebook towards Presidential candidate” Wathey, as well as “using slanderous language describing Mr. Wathey as sexist and misogynistic” and “falsely representing his online presence.”

U of T’s student paper, The Varsity, reported on March 30 that this may be related to an incident in which Wathey appeared to ‘like’ a misogynist post on the “U of T Confessions” Facebook page.

Wathey subsequently lost the election. It is unclear whether the public defamation from his opposition affected the results.

On the Mt. A campus, WooleyBerry said the Yik Yak thread questioned his stance on feminism and accused him of being a “woman beater.”

“When someone puts themselves

forward for public office, you’re allowed to question their character,” said Wooley-Berry. “When you just throw unsubstantiated, negative rumours in their direction, it crosses a line.”

At McGill University in Montreal, students have turned to Reddit threads to insult Students’ Society of McGill University presidential candidate, Kareem Ibrahim. One post title reads that Ibrahim and his team are “hypocritical cronies.” The thread expands into comments which call Ibrahim “two-faced” and “whiney.”

Wooley-Berry said this type of criticism should not discourage students from running in elections, but that thinks it is likely to do just that.

Lebreton released a public statement following the anonymous YouTube video directed against him stating that he actually found the video funny.

“It didn’t discourage me,” said Lebreton. “It could be just one person spamming Yik Yak.” Lebreton said he values the words less due to their anonymity.

“If you can’t attach your name to what you’re saying, it holds no weight.”

altercation.

Concordia’s Teaching and Research Assistants of Concordia (TRAC) has likewise instructed its members to report for duty but respect the picketers.

With larger province-wide public protests ramping up for April and May, the continuance of such tactics

is almost certain to expand. Student organizations will have plenty of time to mobilize to either continue with additional strikes or join the movement.

How this will affect the successful completion of the semester for certain faculties is unknown.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

NEWS

‘Swans’: Mt. A is still considering purchasing new birds As mute swans are native to Europe, Environment Canada views them as an invasive species. The agency also says the swans are a risk to people, habitats, and other animals. While it’s well-known in Sackville that swans are deeply territorial around their nests, they rarely injure humans.

Despite the difficulties of mute swan ownership, the birds have other qualities which make them easy to keep.

“Some swans are migratory. Mute swans are typically not,” Hiscock said. “And that’s good, so if you have swans, you don’t have to go looking for them all the time when Fall comes.

You don’t have to go down to Florida and find them.”

Perhaps because mute swans rarely travel more than short distances, wild populations have grown rapidly in parts of Ontario and British Columbia over the past decade.

Providing mute swans with food or nesting materials is discouraged by the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Government regulation is only one piece of the puzzle.

Hiscock said that the universityowned Swan Pond may need repair, if swans are to move back in.

“In the last year or two, the pond itself has changed. It’s shallower.

The island that was in the middle is no longer there, and that’s where the swans used to nest.

The artificial pond was once home to two islands large enough to park a car on – which, thanks to some enterprising pranksters, has happened at least a couple of times in Mt. A’s history.

Today, one of the islands is gone, and the other has shrunk so much that the swans began nesting on the pond’s shore.

The pond is also shallower than it once was, Hiscock said.

Any assessment of the Swan Pond’s fitness to host swans will have to wait until the ice melts.

The swans’ parents were Herbert and Muriel, the only pair of swans to

Compiled by Mike Roy G20 organizers accidentally leak personal information of world leaders The Australian immigration department accidentally leaked the personal information of multiple world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and British prime minister David Cameron, to the organizers of the Asian Cup soccer tournament, which was held in the country January 2015. Information such as passport numbers, visa details and other identifiers were unintentionally leaked by the department after the information was collected when the leaders travelled to Brisbane for the last G20 meeting in November 2014. The Australian privacy commissioner has confirmed that they were contacted by the director of the visa services division of Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection about a data breach on November 7, 2014.

The commissioner said that the breach was due to human error and that the employee neglected to check whether the Microsoft Office autofill function had entered the incorrect email when sending along the information. The information is unlikely to be “in the public domain,” according to the commissioner, who also stated that the world leaders need not be made aware of the breach as it was handled and solved swiftly.

The two mute swans that inhabited the Swan Pond were the decendents of the original pair of swans, Herbert and Muriel. Chris Donovan/Argosy.

produce cygnets at Mt. A. The other cygnets were sold along with Muriel shortly after Herbert’s death from an illness in 1996.

The swans lived at the Swan Pond in the warmer months, where they were cared for by Mt. A’s grounds crew. They lived at a Port Elgin farm during winter.

The university has owned at least ten swans since the first pair arrived in 1968. A gift from thenBoard of Regents member Campbell MacPherson of St. John’s, N.L., the

two males lived until 1979.

Herbert and Muriel moved onto Swan Pond in 1994, a gift from the class of ’79. They replaced Otis, an Ottawa-born swan who arrived with his mate in 1979.

Herbert and Muriel were named for their donor, Herbert Pottle, and his wife Muriel.

These swans had not been named.

‘Sabbatical’: MAFA sees decrease, Admin sees increase “Conclusions have been drawn, but the conclusions may not in fact be valid,” said vice-president academic and research, Karen Grant. “The amount of resources dedicated to that budget is actually higher in 2015-16 than it was in 2014-15.”

Grant said the hiring of sabbatical replacements is only one component of that budget as professors also take leave from the university for reasons other than sabbaticals.

MAFA obtained some of the statistics included in the newsletter from the provost’s office, through a motion made by senate on Jan. 13, 2015. MAFA said that the numbers provided by the administration were incomplete and so some of the numbers in the newsletter were drawn from MAFA’s own records.

The provost’s office did not provide the number of sabbatical replacements requests made by departments, a move which the faculty union said violates a section of the collective agreement.

“Article 23 of the Full Time

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Collective Agreement requires the dean to consult with departments and programs with upcoming sabbaticals about their replacement needs,” said the newsletter. “Despite this formal requirement of consultation, the Provost’s data passes over this part of the senate motion in silence.”

Faculty may be replaced for a number of reasons during an academic year, said Grant. These reasons may include maternal leaves, or a relief in the course load for heads of departments.

“Subsequent to the provision of that information to departments, there was further infusion of resources based upon our contractual obligations under their collective agreement,” said Grant. “That is not reflected in here.”

This is an issue that concerns not only MAFA, but the Mount Allison community as a whole, said Irwin, since it could potentially impact students.

“Before the provincial budget was released the executive committee

fully intended to make the issue of sabbatical replacements our first priority in MASU’s annual budget submission to the university,” said MASU’s vice-president communications, Ryan Harley, in an email sent to The Argosy.

“Sabbatical replacements will remain an important part of our discussions about MASU’s budget submission, because the issue directly impacts the quality of the programs our members are currently enrolled in.”

“Probably some departments are managing one way or another, other departments will be cancelling courses or moving courses that used to be every year to alternate years,” said Irwin. “Everyone has their own idiosyncratic ways of dealing with this and we’re all doing the best we can with the resources, but I think what the data shows is that there are fewer resources being put into these sabbatical replacements.”

Jay-Z re-launches ‘TIDAL’ music streaming service to challenge Spotify, Rdio, Apple After a media event on March 30, Shawn Carter a.k.a. Jay-Z has relaunched the Swedish music streaming service TIDAL. Carter bought the service from former owners Aspiro for more than $50 million and collaborated with partners such as Kanye West, Daft Punk and Jack White to retool the platform for North American audiences.

TIDAL operates on a $10 per month unlimited streaming plan for non-lossless audio files, but also offers a premium $20 per month plan for high-definition streaming. Artists have become increasingly frustrated with compensation from current streaming services, as demonstrated by Taylor Swift’s much publicized removal of her catalogue from Spotify last year before the release of her latest album 1989. Carter has pitched this new service as an outlet for artists to gain more profit from the streaming of their music, though he has not revealed to the public the specifics of how this will be done. Apple is expected to reveal plans for their own streaming service after their acquisition of the Beats Music brand for a reported $3 billion last May. Tsunami warning issued by officials along coast of Papua New Guinea after earthquake A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea on March 30, according to official monitors. The quake, which took place 33 kilometers underground, struck near the town of Rabaul, situated in the northeast portion of the country, reports The U.S. Geological Survey. No destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami is expected, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii stated that tsunami waves of one to three metres in height above the tide level are expected to strike within 1,000 kms of the epicentre of the quake. The centre advises those located on the coasts of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands should stay alert for possible waves.

Another 4.9 magnitude earthquake was detected off the coast of Vancouver Island last week, though no damage has been reported.

Singapore blogger faces charges after mocking founding father 17 year-old blogger Amos Yee attended court on March 31 facing charges of violating laws against offending the feelings of a religious group, harassment and sharing obscene material, sources report.

Yee posted a tirade against founding father Lee Kuan Yew on his YouTube channel that presented disparaging remarks towards Christian following a state funeral for Yew on March 29. The video was titled “Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!” and contains an eightand-a-half minute monologue questioning whether Lee’s leadership had truly left citizens happy and speaking out against the strict rules placed upon the population by his administration. It received hundreds of thousands of views since it was uploaded, but has since been taken down after Yee’s arrest. Sources said more information will be revealed after Yee’s court appearance.

Amazon tests experimental ‘delivery drones’ in remote location in Canada Seattle-based online retailer Amazon has been developing plans for drone delivery services over the past several years, and has begun outdoor test flights in Canada after being granted a license in December. The company aims for this new project to eventually deliver packages under 2.3 kilograms in 30 minutes or less using the drones in a new Amazon PrimeAir plan. The drones are able to fly within 16 kilometres of Amazon distribution centres, which covers a large number of their clients, many of whom live in urban environments. According to Transport Canada, the license to test the drone details the maximum altitude, minimum distance from people and property, operating areas and requirements for cooperating with air traffic services.

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Arts & Culture

Editor: Daniel Marcotte | April 2, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

WHISKEY

Ducky’s Pub hosts bourbon tasting event A roundup and review of some of America’s most enjoyable whiskies Daniel Marcotte Arts & Culture Editor Ducky’s Pub has once again proved that they are the leaders of the Sackville whisky scene. Following their Whiskies of the World event in October 2014, the pub recently hosted a bourbon tasting led by selfdescribed “whisky geeks” Johanne McInnis and Graham MacKenny.

The event featured five bourbon whiskies and a cocktail made with Tennessee whiskey, together offering a carefully curated tour of the distinctive corn-based spirit of our neighbors to the south. McInnis and MacKenny also walked those in attendance through the process of whiskey tasting, as well as the fascinating history of bourbon

production that differs greatly from that of Scotch, Irish or Canadian whiskies. Here I have condensed my general thoughts on the featured liquors – as well as their prices – in case one is inclined to pick up a celebratory bottle after essays and exams: Buffalo Trace ($39.99, 45% ABV) – a crowd favourite that MacKenny referred to as the “gateway bourbon.”

Sweet, smoky and accessible, this spirit offers aromas of pipe tobacco and saltwater taffy and a rich palate of maple syrup and maraschino cherry.

With the addition of a little water, this bourbon reveals its hidden vanilla flavours and something reminiscent of old leather-bound books. Simple in some ways and complex in others, Buffalo Trace is perfect for both the bourbon newcomer and the seasoned

sipper.

Knob Creek ($45.99, 50% ABV) – a cask-strength whiskey, this bourbon needs a bit of water to skim off the alcohol burn and truly shine.

I struggled to pinpoint what exactly struck me about this one: maybe it’s the full-bodied flavours of spices, overripe fruit and brown sugar, or perhaps the unique scent of black forest cake. Either way, this bourbon will have you securely hooked after the first sip, as it only gets better from there.

Woodford Reserve Select ($46.99, 45.2% ABV) – this whiskey doesn’t mess around. With its harsh lacquer afterburn and a smoky, almost peaty flavour, Woodford Reserve is perhaps best for a dusty saloon or for brooding over the next Great American Novel with a cigar in hand.

1792 Ridgemont Reserve ($59.99, 46.5% ABV) – named for the year Kentucky achieved statehood, this bourbon smells like a cinnamon bun and tastes like a chocolatey fruit and nut bar dipped in Disaronno. Worth noting is the spicy, warming feeling that this whiskey imparts into your stomach – keep this one in mind for next year’s frigid snowstorms.

Basil Haydens ($54.99, 40% ABV) – unfortunately, the most spectacular thing about this bourbon is its label and bottle design. With its light honey and grassy notes infused with a little citrus peel, Scotch lovers might liken this to a young Highland blend. However, I’ve personally had Canadian whiskies – such as Forty Creek Barrel Select – that navigate Basil Haydens’ dual rye and corn flavours even better for a fraction of

the price. Save your precious student dollars and buy Canadian in this category.

George Dickel No. 12 Tennessee Whiskey ($34.99, 45% ABV) – while this was served in a classic Manhattan cocktail, its spicy and oaky elements shone through the other ingredients and perfectly complimented the bitterness of the muddled fruit.

Although not a true bourbon, this whiskey still bears the corn sweetness and charred oak flavours of its Kentucky cousin. Try reaching for this instead of Jack Daniel’s next time to further glimpse the diversity of America’s rich distilling tradition.

CONCERT

Conduct Becoming releases 2015 album

Student musicians showcase live talent at the Vogue Cinema Lily Mackie Arts & Culture Reporter Alongside the launch of Conduct Becoming’s thirteenth album, featured artists shared their exceptional talents in front of a live audience at The Vogue Cinema on Saturday, March 28.

“We had almost one hundred people come,” said Willa McCaffreyNoviss, Conduct Becoming’s executive producer and one of the event’s main organizers. “It was incredible.”

McCaffrey-Noviss, who was featured as a recording artist on last year’s record, took over Conduct Becoming to help manage and organize the project. The album was recorded and produced by Stephen Buckley and Justin McKiel, who are also featured as accompanists on several tracks.

Conduct Becoming: Voices Against Cancer began in 2001 in remembrance of Jason Abraham, a Mount Allison student who died of cancer. Since then, Conduct Becoming has raised funds for cancer research and provided an opportunity for Mt. A musicians to be featured on an album and engage directly with the recording process.

McCaffrey-Noviss said that this year was one of continuing reorganization for the project, which was reinvigorated in 2013 by Odum Abekah after a brief period of relative decline. In spite of some challenges the project faced at the start of the year, Conduct Becoming’s 2015 album and recent concert attest to the continued success of the project.

The concert showcased the wide range of talent of the album’s contributors. In addition to the artists’ original songs, other performances included covers of well-known songs such as “When the Night Feels My Song” by Bedouin Soundclash,

Sydney Phelan sings with The Great Flamingos in the Vogue Cinema. Their original song “The Time Traveller” is featured on Conduct Becoming’s 2015 album, which they also performed live at the release concert. Chris Donovan/Argosy.

“Home” by Philip Phillips and “Revelry” by Kings of Leon.

“I think that each performer brings something unique, and they make this beautiful mosaic of sounds,” said McCaffrey-Noviss. “[Jesse Corrigan] plays piano like you wouldn’t believe; and there’s The Shí, who started playing a kind of Maritime music, and they’re hilarious; and Kylie Fox singing about Tinder. Everyone’s so funny but so unique,” said McCaffrey-Noviss.

Conduct Becoming has helped

launch the careers of many Atlantic Canadian artists including Mike Allison, In-Flight Safety, Jon Epworth, and Allison Lickley.

McCaffrey-Noviss’ sights, however, are not set on stardom.

“I’m just having fun,” she said. “I recently just started writing songs.

I’m not aspiring to make it big, I’m just enjoying myself.”

McCaffrey-Noviss said that this philosophy extends to other participants in this year’s project.

“I think that the key is for everyone

to be having fun,” she said. “When you’re making music it’s hard not to have fun, and then I think if something big comes out of it, that’s great too.”

Over the years, Conduct Becoming has served as a way to commemorate victims of cancer and raise money for cancer research, while also celebrating the musical talents of Mount Allison students.

“I really love Conduct Becoming,” said McCaffrey-Noviss.

“The opportunity to be on a recorded

CD that you get to bring home for Christmas and show your friends – it’s kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity that not every university has to offer. I really hope that any musicians out there who want to get involved next year do.”

Albums can be purchased for $10 at the student centre, the proceeds from which will go to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Arts & Culture

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca

‘Theatre’: experimental one-act plays utilize improv elements

MUSIC

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Reviews

Brandi Carlile – The Firewatcher’s Daughter (ATO Records, March 3)

Tristan Grant meanders about the stage holding a bursary cheque in Fight Night (left); Grant Mathias contemplates an apple, a prevalent and recurring symbol throughout The 4-H Club (right). Adrian Kiva/Argosy.

The play’s costumes were simple but reflective of the characters’ personalities, and the punk rock music played during games added an energizing and dramatic touch to the performance. However, character development was slightly lacking, and it was sometimes difficult to understand the characters’ motivations in the midst of all the action. Overall, Fight Night was an incredibly entertaining show with an excellent balance between scripted events and improvisation.

After an intermission came The 4-H Club, written by Sam Shepard and directed by drama student Sam White. This play was completely

absurd from start to finish; there was no clear plot or character development, and as I left the theatre I could hear fellow audience members muttering to each other, trying to figure out exactly what they had just witnessed.

This lack of clarity, however, was what made the play so enjoyable.

From start to finish, nothing made sense. A group of masked figures appeared on stage every so often to give actors their props. One of them, wearing a headpiece made from several creepy-looking masks, sat with a portion of the audience in the front row. One of his masks, with a nightmarish clown face, was at the

perfect angle to stare at me ominously the whole time.

Garbage was strewn all over the stage. Dozens of red balls of different sizes, representing apples, gradually fell from the catwalk and bounced off the stage floor, startling the audience. Voiceovers, provided

by Josh MacDougall, started out comically as a type of cheesy radio announcement, but quickly escalated into overlapping, echoing voices.

All of these elements created discomfort – not only for the characters, but for the audience as well. What the audience experienced, however, was a more desirable or cathartic discomfort, similar to

watching a psychological horror film. But the script also contained some humourous and light-hearted moments, and the three main actors – Jake Planinc, Gabriel Moreno, and Grant Mathias – did a great job at balancing these alternating moments of humour and discomfort.

At first, The 4-H Club’s lack of clear plot or characters was unpleasant and confusing. But once the audience realized that they weren’t supposed to understand what was going on, they were able to enjoy the other theatrical elements, including the exciting use of costumes, props, and audio to garner an emotional reaction.

Throughout her career, Brandi Carlile has jumped between rock, Americana and country. The recent release of her fifth studio album, The Firewatcher’s Daughter, features a blend of old and new styles.

With her continued collaboration with twins Phil and Tim Hanseroth, the album is graced by some beautiful harmonies on tracks like “Wilder (We’re Chained)” and “Murder in the City.” “Mainstream Kid,” the album’s most obviously rock ‘n’ roll track, features Carlile’s killer vocals and a beat that lends itself to foot stomping.

Though this album is not a drastic departure from her previous work, it is evidence that Carlile has found her niche in the folk-country scene within which she excels. For listeners who might normally distance themselves from the genre, the new record is accessible and features a handful of dance-worthy tracks that are sure to have you singing along by the second listen.

– Allison Grogan

FILM

Owens presents Secret Citadel at the Vogue

Graeme Patterson’s 5-year sculpture project culminates in stop-motion film Michael Dover Arts & Culture Reporter After five years, Secret Citadel, a multimedia project by Graeme Patterson, has come to a climactic end. Over the course of the project, Patterson constructed a series of large sculptural installations that were accompanied by short stop-motion animated films. These short films were spliced together to create a thirty minute film, also titled Secret Citadel.

The film was recently acquired as part of the Owens’ permanent collection, and was screened at The Vogue Cinema on Monday, March 30.

“It seemed important to have Patterson represented in the Owens collection,” said Owens Art Gallery Director Gemey Kelly. “He’s a Sackville artist now, and someone I think is doing really excellent work. We haven’t really collected a lot of film, so this acquisition was innovative for us.”

In addition to the film, the Owens purchased four of the puppets that were used in the making of the film.

“The puppets, when exhibited with the film, really give viewers a better idea of the entire creation process,” said Kelly.

Secret Citadel follows the relationship between two anthropomorphic figures, Cougar and Bison, as they navigate their evolving friendship.

“The piece is about male bonding and incorporates my experiences, but it’s really more of a portrait than a full narrative,” explained Patterson. “It’s autobiographic, but it’s really more fiction than non-fiction.”

For puppets without dialogue, Cougar and Bison are well-rounded, emotionally complex characters fraught with their own insecurities and losses. In one scene, Patterson depicts a car crash and a friend being shot in the back with an arrow. In another, Bison and Cougar fight their animal namesakes, ultimately losing

and being dominated by their own primal forces. Despite these conflicts, the film ends with both characters left together in an abandoned bar, distant and vaguely brooding, but still connected.

Secret Citadel continually blurs the line between the physical and the imaginary. Throughout the

“It’s this beautiful, fictional narrative that helps me to see myself better.” film, Cougar and Bison can be seen working on maquettes of the sculptures that were built to accompany the project. The film then shifts to show Patterson dressed as his puppets and constructing fullscale versions of his sculptures. Even to viewers who have not had the chance to view the exhibition in its entirety, the link between the physical

sculptures and the film’s narrative is inescapable.

The complete exhibition was displayed at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) earlier in the year and is currently on display at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. AGNS Chief Curator Sarah Fillmore worked with Patterson throughout the project and attended Secret Citadel’s official book launch at Thunder & Lightning. “[Patterson] has been able to make this film such a universal and human story that even though he’s working with animal avatars, everyone feels as though he is talking just to them,” said Fillmore.

“Two women curated a show on male friendship, but both of us felt like it was our story,” said Fillmore.

“But it’s not our story, it’s not your story, it might not even be Graeme’s story; it’s this beautiful, fictional narrative that helps me to see myself better. There’s sadness and sweetness; it’s an examination of what it’s like to be alive.”

Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi (Atlantic Records, March 31) I don’t think I had a cohesive thought during the first half of Death Cab’s newest album – it is brand new, yet sounds frighteningly familiar. In true Death Cab fashion, the lyrics are more personally prosaic than poetic.

The most distinct feature of Kintsugi is its electronic sound, a layover of frontman Gibbard’s time with the Postal Service. With their producer and guitarist Chris Walla gone, Gibbard has gained a lot of influence on the sound.

The other observable loss regarding Walla’s departure is a lack of transitions between songs. Each one ends with negative space, and therefore provides a choppy listening experience. Usually this enables the tracks to be put on playlists more readily; but with Kintsugi, no singular piece will stick long enough for individual appreciation – the album itself is the work of art.

– Tobias Paul

6

MTA FARM

Editors: Cameron McIntyre & Kevin Levangie | April 2, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

Mt. A farm to continue under Some Mount Allison students will soon find themselves responsible for financing, managing, and farming Mt. A’s farm.

Located about a 15-minute’s walk from campus, the 22-acre parcel of land sits between York Street and King Street. The words “Mount Allison Farm” peel off the eleven by fourteen inch sign that marks the York Street entrance. The dirt driveway that winds up the hill to the farm’s parking lot is already easy enough to miss.

The upper field is a 4-acre space, and a 1.5-acre section within the upper field has been the main target for soil enrichment and investment by the university. It’s this plot that the student farmers will be using to try and turn a profit during this growing season.

The farm began operating in 2011 under the guidance of Michelle Strain, Mt. A’s director of administrative services, and ran for two years on a model that saw the university take financial responsibility for providing the cash investments into planting and maintenance, as well as paying the student farmers through the university payroll system.

Compensation ranged from $14 an hour to the senior farmer student, and $11 to the farm assistant. Both were paid through the university’s payroll system.

In 2011 and 2012, there were potatoes grown in the upper field and organic vegetables in the lower one.

In 2011 alone, the farm produced 30,000 pounds of potatoes. A significant portion of the harvest went to Jennings Meal Hall, which purchased the vegetables and incorporated them into the other offerings in the rotation.

All photos courtesy of Erin Porter.

The farm also offered U-picks for Mt. A students that proved popular with those living off-campus.

But the farm was losing money. After running deficits of approximately $11,000 a year in 2011 and 2012, the farm stayed closed for the 2013 season, and went a year without a harvest.

“We lost money, and so the farm shut down for a year,” said Strain. “The reason for that was because residence students were supporting the farm and it was losing money. It didn’t seem right to only have one half of students supporting it when the off campus students were benefiting but not paying part of the cost.”

It was students who once again got the farm project up and running. Erin Porter, co-president of Enactus MTA and 2014’s farm manager, was a part of this process. Enactus MTA is a student-run organization and a MASU club that is concerned with helping students Mt. A introduce entrepreneurial and start-up ideas.

Porter was one of two students employed at the farm this past summer. The GIF’s selection committee allocated $10,552 of their budget to the farm last year.

Enactus applied for a MASU Green Investment Fund grant, and received $10,522 from the students’ union because the farm provides food with very little carbon footprint. The one-year grant represented a significant chunk of the farm’s $24,350 operating budget.

Of the GIF’s investment, $8,500 went to capital investments with the remaining $2,052 going to pay students who were employed by the farm in the summer.

GIF’s mandate is to reduce carbon emissions in the Sackville region by providing grant funding to projects that pass a two-stage selection process. It was approved by student referendum in 2009, and each student pays an additional $10 levy into the fund on top of their existing student fees.

Following the GIF funding, the farm’s strategy changed. Porter said they grew very few potatoes during that season, instead focusing on other vegetables.

Despite the changes, the student labourers kept similar hours. Throughout most of the farm’s life, it was run full time by two students from mid-May to the end of August. When classes resume, hours usually become more complicated.

September has been the major harvest time in order to feed the students in residence, so the farmers work what Strain called “odd hours” on evenings and weekends in order to bring the harvest in when they are not attending class.

“I’d go up to the farm really early in the morning, and the first thing I would do is water plants in the greenhouse because if you didn’t water them first they would just get fried,” said Porter.

“Then I would go up to the field, and it would depending on what month it was but I might do weeding or seeding or harvesting, and I would do that all day.”

Porter said she typically started when the sun rose in order to avoid the hottest part of the day. She said that the 1.5-acre field was well served with the students working eight hours a day, 40 hours a week.

Even with the GIF investment, the administration still felt the financial pressure to change the configuration once again.

The Argosy | www.argosy.ca | By Kevin Levangie

MTA FARM

r a new entrepreneurial model “The University had to reduce the staff time and resources devoted to the farm,” said Strain. “With fewer students enrolled we were looking at reductions in all budgets across campus.”

“This coming summer we’re going to change it up a bit based on what Enactus is all about, kind of an entrepreneurial spirit, where we will receive proposals from students and students will farm up there, take the risk, but keep all the profit for themselves at the end. It’s a different twist on a summer job,” said Strain.

“We’re hoping that the student or students who are up there, whoever gets the opportunity, will look for grant funding. There are lots of grants out there that are not available to the university but would be available to young farmers.”

Enactus will be concerning itself with helping out with raising the capital for the fund.

“Our role last year was pretty much just acquiring funding,” said Porter. “This year we’ll be able to work with whoever takes this on to help them try and find some grant funding.”

The university will no longer be paying student farmers a wage or paying for the day-to-day maintenance of the farm.

However, Strain said that the ending of the funding did not mean an end of support for the project.

“We’ll give them the key to the shed, they’ll have access to all the equipment there, and we’ve invested quite a lot of money into soil amendments. They’ll get the 20,000 kilograms of compost, which is a huge help,” said Strain. “We’ll give them everything that we can of what we have, but the intent is not to give the money, except maybe for seeds to get started.”

Strain also said that Jennings remains “very interested” in purchasing vegetables from the farm going forward, but Alex Thomas, a staff member at the farm last spring, said this would not be enough to break even alone.

“When you sell to a dining hall like Jennings, they are only going to pay what Aramark is used to paying from their wholesalers and Aramark has thus far been willing to pay any higher just because its from the farm,” said Thomas. “There’s no farm that is of that acreage that is able to make ends meet by wholesaling alone.”

Other than that, the students will come up with their own ways of selling their produce. Strain suggested that they could institute a “community supported agriculture” program, in which customers pre-purchase baskets of vegetables and pick them up when they are ready.

“If people take it over, they will really want to focus on the retail market, so farmer’s markets and vegetable boxes where you’ll be getting retail price for your produce,” said Thomas.“Wholesale prices tend to be half or less than of retail prices.”

Strain and Porter also said the summer students will forgo the older model of potato farming in one field and farming other vegetables in the other in order to be able to periodically harvest throughout the summer.

“Normally the farm would be focused on Jennings, so focused on September when students come back,” said Strain. “If someone takes it over they need to start

earning money earlier, so grow the cold weather crops like spinach, get things in the ground as soon as you can, so you can start harvesting mid-June so that you have an income.”

The flip side of the entrepreneurial model is that students will be financially responsible for any deficit that is incurred.

“It takes a really skilled and business savvy farmer to be able to generate a decent wage even ten dollars an hour on such a small scale farmer,” said Thomas.

“For newcomers to take that on without much farming experience, … it would be very hard to generate much more than five or six dollars an hour. It would be quite realistic to generate much less than that.”

Porter said that the costs for students this summer were likely to be minimal.

“If somebody knows what they are doing, it’s a great summer job,” said Strain.

Between the information session and more informal conversations about the possible project, Porter and Strain have spoken to about 30 students.

Applications were due on April 1, and Strain said that everyone who applied will get an interview.

The interest was not limited to students of a particular discipline, or even of a particular year of study.

“At least three people in the room grew up on farms,” said Strain.

“To be successful here, and we want to pick the student or the group of students that will have the most chance of success, and they will need farming experience.”

While warning potential candidates about the risk involved, Thomas said, “If there is young students who understand that risk and who want to give it a go. It’s just a satisfying kind of work.”

–With files from Cameron McIntyre.

7

Opinions

Editor: Tessa Dixon | April 2, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

THE ARGOSY

LETTERS

Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday, April 2, 2015 volume 144 issue 21

Lack of unified leadership detrimental to Mt. A environmental initiatives

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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

PHOTOGRAPHERS Chris Donovan Adrian Kiva

COPY EDITORS Austin Landry Tina Oh Rachelle Ann Tan

reportingstaff NEWS REPORTERS Jean-Sébastien Comeau Tyler Stuart

POLITICS REPORTER Willa McCaffrey-Noviss SPORTS REPORTER Benjamin Foster

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Chris Donovan

ILLUSTRATOR Anna Farrell

ARTS REPORTERS Amanda Cormier Michael Dover Lily Mackie SCIENCE REPORTER Clay Steell

operationsstaff BUSINESS MANAGER Gil Murdock

ADVERTISING Taylor Hall

OFFICE MANAGER Alex Lepianka

CIRCULATIONS Sebastian Carrera

contributors John Perkin, Dakota Pauley, Patrick Allaby, Ninh Khuong, Allison Grogan, Tobias Paul, Mike Roy

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

MASU made misguided divest decision That only four councillors who thought it appropriate to vote in favour of the MASU adopting a position on sustainable and responsible investment is astounding. A quick glance at The Argosy’s coverage of the debate in the Council chambers last Monday should have most of Mount Allison’s student politicians hiding under tables. Arguments against supporting divestment from fossil fuels ranged from incredulously comical to embarrassingly fallacious.

Understandably, Divest MTA’s work is not complete – as I have pointed out numerous times to their leaders, they still need a better answer to the Harvard question that still looms over similar divestment campaigns – nor is their campaign strategy always as impactful as it could be. But their growth and maturation over the past three years is a very strong sign of encouragement.

Students have traditionally played a leadership role on environmental issues at Mt. A, more so recently.

In 2013, with the administration and faculty at an impasse over who should lead the school’s sustainability efforts, it was a student, Graham May, who found the MASUbacked solution. The compromise saw a student-appointed chair of the Environmental Issues Committee for the first time in the university’s history. The chair is also joined by up to four students on the Committee, representing the different collections of campus sustainability efforts such as Eco-Action and the MASU’s

opinion, and the arts, written, edited and funded by the students of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of The Argosy’s staff or its Board of Directors. The Argosy is published weekly throughout the academic year by Argosy Publications Inc. Student contributions in the form of letters, articles, photography, graphic design and comics are welcome. The Argosy reserves the right to edit or refuse all materials deemed sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise unfit for print, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles or other contributions can be sent to argosy@mta.ca or directly to a section editor. The Argosy will print unsolicited materials at its own discretion. Letters to the editor must be signed, though names may be withheld at the sender’s request and at The Argosy’s discretion. Anonymous letters will not be printed.

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

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

own sustainability committee, whose co-ordinator oversees a sizeable pot of money for local sustainability projects.

When you add these to the relentless persistence and research excellence of the geography and environment students, one cannot make decisions on the environment at Mt. A, or even in Sackville, without hearing the student perspective.

Students are an integral component of the community’s ongoing discussion about its response to climate change and the sustainability challenges of our time. However, a lack of unified student leadership on campus over the past several years has resulted

in the university’s slow withdrawal of its environmental priorities. We have witnessed the elimination of the university’s Green Evolving Fund, the failure to establish an in-house sustainability office, and the closure of the university’s sustainable residence.

MASU councillors had the opportunity to define the future of this institution and its national contributions, an opportunity at which they failed spectacularly.

Misguided by short term-ness and ignorance – the fiduciary argument becomes decreasingly viable as studies after studies have indicated that changes on investment returns are negligible post-divestment and,

in some cases, even positive within five years – Mt. A’s elected leaders came up short and, yet again, national leadership from this school goes begging.

I do not expect the Divest MTA team to be disheartened; they know where the weaknesses in their argument are and will doubtless continue to strengthen their case to the student body. One can only hope that the next time the question is called, there might be a touch more courage in the room.

Rob Burroughs Chair of the Environmental Issues Committee in 2013.

THROUGH STAINED GLASS

Religion shouldn’t be divisive

Respect is paramount regarding religious beliefs and affiliations Rev. John C. Perkin

disclaimers and copyright The Argosy is the official independent student journal of news,

Lauren Latour, one of Divest MTA’s co-ordinators in Febuary in front of Centennial Hall. Chris Donovan/Argosy.

In the Christian calendar, it is Easter and it is Spring (everywhere in Canada except Sackville, it seems), and in the world of news and polls, it is the annual look at religion in Canada.

For over 20 years, it seems that around Easter, The Globe and Mail or Maclean’s or other major news agencies take it upon themselves to explore the statistics around religion in Canada.

Seemingly on cue, the Angus Reid Institute has released its findings.

The Angus Reid Institute is a new organization, established as a registered charity in Oct. 2014. It serves as a “national, not-for-profit, non-partisan public opinion research organization established to enhance and encourage better understanding of issues and trends affecting economic, social, governance, philanthropy, public administration, domestic and foreign policy in Canada and its world.” It recently released its latest results on religion in Canada, based on a fairly wide-ranging public

opinion poll on Canadian views and attitudes towards religious practices and beliefs. A sizeable number of Canadians continue to regard themselves as religious, holding to faith and practice in the Christian church or other religious traditions.

As might be expected, given trends over the last generation, many people have moved away from traditional religious practice, including and especially the Christian church.

Canadians, generally speaking, fit into one of three broad groups in this study: 30 per cent are “inclined to embrace religion.” This represents a small decline, but would indicate that those moving away from religion observance is slowing ever so slightly.

On the other side, the largest growth is among those who are “inclined to reject religion,” representing about 26 per cent of Canadians. The middle area, who say they neither embrace nor reject religion, rounds out the numbers at 44 per cent. While they do not regard themselves as devout in any way, they also recognize that although their engagement with religion and its institutions may be limited, they have not abandoned religion.

The regional trends over the last twenty years are more or less the same. Those living in British Columbia and Quebec are more likely than others to reject religion, and the more active participants in religious are found in the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and in the Atlantic region. Likewise, the trend continues that those who are older are more inclined to identify themselves as embracing religion.

Women are more likely than men to express ambivalence toward rather than rejection of religion.

One of the interesting notes is that immigrants to Canada tend to be more religious. This is hardly surprising, as religion continues to thrive in South America, Africa and Asia, especially Islam and Christianity. Within the next ten to twenty years, four-fifths of Christians will live in these regions.

Among those coming to Canada, the dominant religions tend to be Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants, and perhaps surprisingly to me, those immigrants who are young adults are more likely to embrace religion.

Active involvement in religion is not dead in Canada. But it may well be a different faith, posing a challenge

to the liberal or progressive branches of North American faiths, including but not limited to Christianity. One of the findings of this year’s survey was that those who reject religion are more likely (over 60 per cent) to feel uncomfortable around the “religiously devout,” in contrast with those who embrace religion or are ambivalent. By contrast, those who embrace religion or are ambivalent are less likely (under 40 per cent) to be uncomfortable around those who reject religion.

These numbers suggest that wherever we stand on the spectrum of embracing or rejecting religion, it becomes more important that we meet as neighbours – with all our different religious traditions, and with none – so that we might better understand one another and appreciate one another. Religious or not, devout or not, ambivalent or not, we are all people sharing life and community together. Our willingness to share our experiences is important, in all its forms, whether or not we look at life through stained glass.

John Perkin is Chaplain of Mount Allison University.

Sports

Editor: Alex Bates | April 2, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca AWARDS NIGHT

Athletes cap Mountie Day with ceremony Brandon Leyh and Gillian Tetlow cap night with Athlete of the Year awards Benjamin Foster Sports Reporter

Thursday, March 26 marked the inaugural “Mountie Day,” which celebrated the accomplishments of Mt. A Athletics over the last year.

Led by Athletic Director Pierre Arsenault, the recent history of the Mounties has seen some of Mt. A’s best performances in school history.

Over the past two years, Mt. A has won two Loney Bowl championships, an ACAA women’s rugby title, two ACAA cross-country titles, an advance to CCAA Nationals in basketball and has won seven straight ACAA Badminton championships.

These are just a few of the many incredible accomplishments by Mountie athletes.

“The 2014-15 season has been another memorable year for Mountie athletics.

Our student-athletes have competed hard, won games, and captured championships.

Furthermore, they have been excellent ambassadors for Mt. A and have been the embodiment of Mountie Pride,” said Arsenault in a press release.

“Mountie Day” festivities started off at 10 a.m. at Sackville Town Hall where the Mt. A Athletics flag was raised beside the New Brunswick and Canadian flag.

Sackville mayor Robert Berry spoke about how Mountie athletics have made a difference all over the town of Sackville and inspiring the town every day.

All over the university campus, around the town of Sackville and even Mounties alumni from all over North America celebrated the event by sporting their Mounties gear with pride and admiration. Fans flocked to social media, where they tweeted photos of their Mountie gear and used the hashtag #MountiePride.

Mt. A President Robert Campbell was very active on twitter during the day, retweeting multiple supporters

Leyh (left) is Quarterback for the Mounties, while Tetlow (right) plays badminton and soccer for Mt. A. Submitted/Mount Allison Athletics. and even tweeting himself: “Very proud and appreciative to see the Mount A flag in good company at the Sackville town hall #mountiepride.”

Marshview Middle School also got involved, with many of their students wearing Mounties clothing and face paint, supporting the athletes who have dedicated so much of their valuable time to the program “Mounties in Motion,” in which they tutor kids.

The night ended with the annual “Night of the Mounties,” where awards were handed out to deserving Mounties athletes. Multiple awards were handed out for academics, service to the program and for the athlete’s performance on the field.

The biggest winners of the night

were Brandon Leyh and Gillian Tetlow, being named male and female athletes of the year, respectively.

Leyh, the quarterback of the football team, had a year to remember, leading the Mounties to the first undefeated season in the school’s history. Leyh also lead the AUS in completion percentage and throwing the least interceptions in the league, with just four. He was also named the overall MVP of the football team.

Tetlow, a dual athlete on the soccer and badminton team, added a few more awards to her already full trophy case. Tetlow and her mixed doubles partner, Greg McGuire won a bronze medal at the CCAA Badminton event; Mt. A’s second badminton medal ever. For the third straight

year she was named ACAA Player of the Year and made the CCAA AllCanadian team. She also won rookie of the year for both the Mounties and the ACAA in her freshman year and has won three straight MVPs. Fourth-year male swimming Mountie Andrew Reeder won multiple awards, taking home the male swimming MVP, along with being named the Outstanding Scholar Athlete as a successful student.

Mounties goalkeeper and 2013-14 playoff hero Kate O’Brien was named the female outstanding scholar athlete for her hard work in her academics.

McGuire picked up the Gus McFarlane trophy for Outstanding Male Senior Athlete and also won the Male Badminton MVP.

Marya Peters won the Joy Taylor Memorial Trophy as Outstanding Female Senior Athlete.

Football rookie Chris Reid and swimmer Olivia Feschuk won the overall university rookies of the year.

“The Voice of the Mounties” Steve Ridlington was deservedly honored with the Bubsy Grant Award, awarded by Bubsy himself.

Ridlington has been announcing multiple Mounties sports for forty years.

WEEKLY WELLNESS

What’s the deal with antioxidants, anyway?

The science behind oxidation, and why it’s good for you Madalon Burnett Every few months it seems like a new “superfood” hits the market, leaving us to wonder what blueberries, kale, green tea, and dark chocolate have in common. These foods haven’t been chosen randomly – they are all high in substances called antioxidants.

Oxidation reactions occur when reactants lose electrons to other elements. These reactions are what cause exposed apple slices to turn brown, meat to start smelling bad when you don’t put it in the fridge and your skin hurt when you get a cut. In our bodies, oxidation reactions are dangerous when oxygen atoms lose electrons; this is generally due to

the way bonds with other atoms are broken. This leads to the formation of free radicals – substances with an unpaired electron that makes them extremely reactive. These potentially dangerous reactions can occur as a result of various metabolic processes.

Free radicals cause damage by taking electrons from compounds in the body to replace the ones they have lost. In cells, free radicals can cause problems if they take electrons from molecules of DNA. Damage to DNA causes mutations that can lead to rapid proliferation of cells, which, unchecked can develop into cancer.

Often, a free radical can cause a chain reaction, creating more and more free radicals.

Luckily for us, there are

antioxidants! Depending on the type of antioxidant, they help stop the initial free radical from forming, or stop the chain reaction that causes many free radicals to form. They do this by donating electrons to the free radicals. For example, vitamin C is a type of antioxidant that neutralizes the initial free radical, preventing the chain reaction of free radical formation from occurring. Vitamin E, in contrast, breaks the chain in the middle of the chain. Other classes of antioxidants include flavonoids and polyphenols.

In order to protect against all types of toxins, we need to have many different types of antioxidants.

Each type of antioxidant works in a different way and therefore provides

protection against different types of free radicals. Eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other antioxidant containing foods means more types of free radicals can be neutralized.

Oxidative stress is the term used to describe the situation when there are more free radicals in the body than the available quantity of free radicals can neutralize. Oxidative stress is linked to a variety of chronic diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, heart disease, lung disease such as asthma, diabetes, arthritis, and various types of cancers.

Studies are currently underway to determine if taking antioxidant supplements is beneficial to the body.

Some studies suggest that taking

too many antioxidants could have adverse effects on the body. For this reason, it is still recommended that we get all our antioxidants from the foods we eat. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, some of the richest foods in antioxidants include beans (especially red and kidney beans); berries such as blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries; apples; pecans and artichokes.

In short, the hype about antioxidants is because they can prevent a huge list of terrible diseases, and all you have to do to get the benefits is eat food!

Madalon Burnett is Mount Allison University’s 2014-15 Health Intern.

Science

Editor: Tyler Pitre | April 2, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

HONOURS PROFILE

Biology student does shark research

Mt. A honours student conducts research on effects of environment on sharks Ninh Khuong Sara Mackellar is a fourth year honours biology student working under the supervision of biology department head Suzanne Currie.

Mackellar’s honours thesis, “The Physiological Effects of Hypo-osmotic Stress on Gummy Sharks and School Sharks,” focuses on the physiological coping mechanisms of these animals in low salinity environments.

Gummy sharks are commonly found off the southern coast of Australia and are named after their unique plate-like teeth. School sharks, distinguished by an elongated snout, are migratory and inhabit the coastlines of most continents worldwide. School sharks have been listed as vulnerable since 2006, primarily due to overfishing through catch or direct targeting, as shark fins are a highly lucrative product.

As with most shark species, juvenile gummy and school sharks are born and matured in nurseries, areas that offer protection and resources for young sharks. Nurseries are typically in estuaries, regions where inland fresh water from streams mixes with saltwater from the sea. Shark nurseries are highly susceptible to salinity fluctuations resulting in young sharks being exposed to hypoosmotic or dilute seawater.

Based on tracking data of juvenile gummy and school sharks in a Tasmanian estuary, gummy sharks move away from dilute seawater,

while school sharks remain in their habitats. The goal of Mackellar’s project is to understand why there is a discrepancy in their behaviours, which may be caused by the differences in the physiological coping mechanisms of the two species in response to hypo-osmotic stress.

Sharks are particularly useful models for understanding physiological coping strategies to salinity changes due to their ability to osmoconform. While animals such as mammals and birds maintain a constant internal osmotic pressure, sharks osmoregulate by changing their internal fluid to match that of their surroundings. This is done by gaining or losing osmolytes such as urea. In low salinity, urea is lost, leading to lower levels of solutes in their fluid.

The experiment, conducted at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Tasmania, Australia, involved exposing the sharks to hypoosmotic seawater for 48 hours. Blood samples were taken throughout the time course, and gill and muscle samples were taken following the exposure. Samples were then shipped back to Currie’s lab at Mt. A, where Mackellar has since been carrying out several physiological and biochemical analyses.

Major endpoints of Mackellar’s research include urea, osmolality, intra- and extracellular ions, as well as levels of cellular stress indicated by heightened levels of heat shock proteins, particularly HSP70.

Sara Mackellar conducts research on school and gummy sharks to see environmental impact. Adrian Kiva/Argosy.

Heat shock proteins, present in all organisms, are induced when cells are exposed to various stressful conditions.

Mackellar originally thought that school sharks would exhibit less signs of cellular stress indicated by lower levels of HSP70 due to their ability to remain in water of low salinity. However, the results from her research indicated the opposite.

School sharks had higher HSP70 levels in comparison to gummy sharks.

“School sharks have a more robust increase in heat shock proteins. These sharks are highly migratory, meaning they will encounter many different environments during their lifetime, so they may have adapted to deal with

different types of stress. They might just better at coping with it,” said Mackellar. Her results showed no real indication of a change in heat shock protein levels in gummy sharks. This could potentially explain why they are avoiding the hypo-osmotic stress, as they are less equipped to deal with it.

This research has important implications, particularly when it comes to climate change. Polar ice cap melting has led to massive effluxes of freshwater into the oceans, causing global and local decreases in salinity. Understanding how marine animals handle these changes is important, especially for sharks, whose populations are declining.

Mackellar hopes that findings

from her study may one day help to provide insight for conservation efforts made towards protecting the natural habitats of these animals.

Her research also aims to better understand the two shark species, as there has never been any research conducted to study their physiology and response to different salinities.

“Research is intimidating at first, but it is fun. You get to do things that haven’t been done before,” said Mackellar. “Working with Dr. Currie is awesome. She is incredibly positive, supportive, and enthusiastic. She is always there when you need her.”

Sara Mackellar is planning to pursue health-care related graduate studies upon her graduation.

WILDLIFE

Clownish cat collar developed in order to save wildlife New wearable pet technology could save millions of birds and small mammals Clay Steell Science Reporter It’s a situation cat owners are all too familiar with: your feline friend has brought a mutilated animal to your doorstep, or even worse, into your bed. While your cat’s intentions are to simply display its affection for you, it unknowingly contributes to the death of hundreds of millions of wild animals in Canada every year at the hands of domestic cats. But there is hope for your pet to remain outdoors and reduce its toll on local wildlife. Two new studies have found that a novel invention known as the Birdsbesafe collar dramatically reduces the number of wild birds and other animals that domestic cats kill, all while making your cat look clownishly flamboyant.

The Birdbesafe collar utilizes different animals’ color vision, especially birds, to make it harder for cats to hunt. Birds have acute color vision, and can easily see a large, bright-color collar with high contrast, giving them an advantage in avoiding cats. The Birdsbesafe was invented by an environmentalist trained in biology from Vermont, and became

available for sale online in 2009.

Domestic cats may kill more wild birds in Canada than any other human-related activity. Studies from Environment Canada estimate that cats kill between 100 million and 350 million wild birds in the country every year, and up to 7 per cent of all birds living in Southern C a n a d a .

About 90 per cent of these birds are small songbirds, but cats do occasionally prey upon waterfowl and seabirds. One of the new studies on the Birdsbesafe collar found t h a t cats only return 23 per cent of their kills to their owners, so their actual predation rates may be much higher than what they bring home.

Less information exists on how many small mammals Canadian cats kill annually. A study led by the Smithsonian Institute estimated that cats kill up to 12.3 billion mammals

in the United States annually, with similar rates probably occurring in the rest of North America.

“This area is very symptomatic to what’s happening everywhere else [in Canada],” said Pam Novak, Director of Wildlife Care at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute

(AWI) in Cookville, New Brunswick. The AWI is New Brunswick’s only licensed wildlife rehabilitation center, and is a 30-minute drive from Sackville.

Novak said that the AWI receives

many birds that have been attacked by cats and lived, but that many die within 48 hours due to the bacteria from feline mouths. Any cat owner who finds an injured animal attacked by their pet can call AWI to have it taken into rehabilitation.

“We always promote that cats be kept as indoor pets,” said Novak, “as an owner of a cat, we need to be responsible for not having your cat going out and wandering free.”

Two independent studies have now verified that the colourful collar significantly reduces the number of birds and mammals domestic cats can hunt.

A study published in the journal Global Conservation and Ecology by researchers from St. Lawrence University in New York found that cats wearing the Birdsbesafe collar killed 19 times fewer birds during the

spring and 3.4 times fewer during the fall. The study took place over two 12week periods in upstate New York, near Ottawa and Montreal.

Another, independent study from Murdoch University in Western Australia found that the Birdsbesafe collar reduced cats’ wild bird prey by 54 per cent. The study took place over two years and tracked 114 cats, and was published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Ninety-six per cent of these cats’ owners said their pet didn’t mind their collar or got used to it within two days.

These studies demonstrate that the Birdsbesafe collar is more effective at stopping cats from hunting wild animals than other feline accessories.

Collars with bells attached to them can help animals sense hunting cats, but cats are able adapt their behaviour to minimize the sound these bells make. Similar results were found in an electronic collar that beeped every 7 seconds, as well as an apron-like collar that blocks cats’ paws during an attack.

Illustration by Anna Farrell.

Humour

Editor: Taylor Losier | April 2, 2015 | argosy@mta.ca

The not-so-secret guide to making it to exams Dakota Pauley The zombie apocalypse is upon us. Don’t believe me? Just go to the library and look around. Right now, campus is like a Christmas tree, but with half of the lights are burnt out. Let’s face it, Mounties: you’re exhausted, you’ve written too many papers this semester, your projects are piling up and you’re feeling 110 per cent unprepared for upcoming exams. Sleep is an old friend you once visited back in February, and your mental capacity was depleted three weeks ago. Now here you are, chugging along like the educational train you are forced to be. But if you remain on track and focus, you just may be able to make it through the year without your grades derailing themselves.

“I’m going to plan out everything this semester!” said you from January. It’s amazing how “past you” can predict “future you” so well, but doesn’t take into account how lazy “present you” can be. Planning is one of the easiest steps you can take to ensure a smoother transition into exam season. Studies show that actually giving yourself enough time to write an essay is surprisingly effective. Despite the full confidence I place in every one of you (I don’t really), the day-to-day approach has been screwing you over for two months. So stick to a plan, there’s a reason you made one in the first place. Just make sure you schedule in an HP marathon.

Sleep. That reason your eyes feel fuzzy right now? Probably because

you haven’t slept in a fortnight (however long that it). And I mean sleep, real sleep, not dozing off through your 8:30 class. Feel like you are going to pass out on the couch? Do it. Can’t quite finish reading this article? Hit the bed.

There’s a reason you’ve never seen a dog chug a Monster and try to study astrophysics all night. That’s because it’s psychotic. On the other hand, no one has ever been called psychotic for studying responsibly and going to bed. Sleep is a greedy friend you’ve been hanging out with since you were born, and it’s too late to turn your back on him now. So give in to the peer pressure and close your eyes.

Finally, there is one remaining piece to the puzzle: studying. You can keep watching Netflix, I’m sure your prof will question you on the first three seasons of The Walking Dead.

Or you can study…also known as “reading a textbook”. Studying is by far the worst thing that has happened to education. It is both an exhausting and excruciating process. Shockingly though, studying has shown a very high correlation with remembering the stuff you learned throughout the year. I mean, you spend 15 hours a week taking notes anyway, so the least you could do is look over them.

So as the semester is approaching its climax, it is important that you remain optimistic. The study pain will heal, the exam grind is brief, but the GPA glory will last forever.

Keep focused and you will remain victorious. Stay golden Mounties, stay golden…the end is near.

Patrick Allaby

Crossword

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

Ninh Khuong Across 1- Young cow; 5- Bikini blast; 10- Charts; 14- Iranian coin; 15- Trio; 16- “East of Eden” director Kazan; 17- Comics canine; 18- Construct; 19- Tirade; 20- Water buffalo; 22- Parched; 24- Military fur hat; 26- Newspaper executive; 27- Mountaineering aid; 30- Sign up; 32- Hasta ___; 33- Understanding words; 34- Dextrous, lively; 38- Poivre’s partner; 39- Created by humans; 42- Eureka!; 43- Mgr.’s helper; 45- Sports figure; 46- Kitchen gadget; 48- Foil maker; 50- Breakfast food;

51- Formal order; 54- Some hybrids; 56- Unific; 58- Rhinoplasty; 62- Give a ring; 63- Mild oaths; 65- Au naturel; 66- End in ___ (draw); 67- Spine-tingling; 68- Work without ___; 69- Nipple; 70- Resided; 71- Not so much; Down 1- Gator’s cousin; 2- Verdi heroine; 3- Den; 4- Run-down hotel; 5- Comfortable; 6- Pulsate; 7- Afore; 8- Denomination; 9- Tied up; 10- Gaily; 11- As ___ resort; 12- Mottled mount; 13- Nymph chaser;

21- Full-bosomed; 23- Altar answer; 25- Polite agreement; 27- Ingrid’s “Casablanca” role; 28- Billiard implements; 29- Slippery swimmers; 31- Tidy, without fault; 33- A big fan of; 35- Bern’s river; 36- Perlman of “Cheers”; 37- ____ Grey, tea type; 40- Climbed; 41- Fencing blades; 44- Small, sassy woman; 47- Weapons supply; 49- Wreath of flowers; 50- Broom room; 51- Gold coin; 52- Related on the mother’s side; 53- Eyelashes; 55- Wait ___ Dark; 57- Increased in size; 59- Sixth month of the year; 60- Keats creations; 61- Wagers; 64- Exist.

Last issue’s solutions online.

y s o g r A e h T

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