The Argosy, February 6 2014

ARGOSY

Mount Allison’s

Independent Student Newspaper

THE February 6, 2014

Publishing online since 1872

Vol. 143 Iss. 16

Blues Society strikes gold again

Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas played over two hours of accordion-driven zydeco, a southern Louisiana musical genre, to the packed audience of George’s Roadhouse on Friday. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy)

The Cha-Chas play all night Cameron McIntyre

Entertainment Writer

Friday night saw the first show of the year from the Tantramarsh Blues Society.

Nathan and the Zydeco ChaChas played a double set to a packed George’s Roadhouse.

News

The accordion-driven strain of the blues kept the mood light and the crowd engaged, and fun permeated the evening through and through. The band, which hails from Louisiana, played a version of the blues steeped in the culture of the bayou. From their lyrics in French Creole to the smooth rhythm and blues undertones, their entire set oozed authenticity.

The band’s massive stage presence clearly demonstrated their experience.

Nathan

Williams was constantly off the stage twirling amongst the onlookers with his accordion never at rest. Mark Williams, all the while playing a portable rub-board, followed suit in not letting his duties as a musician get in the way of his dancing.

There was a feeling that the rest of the band would have joined them as well if they were not confined to the stage by their respective instruments.

The performance featured some covers, such as “Jambalaya

Entertainment

on the Bayou” and “Bad Bad Leroy Brown,” which were absolutely on point in providing a jumping-off point to extended jamming. It was this ability to just jam while having their audience truly engaged and invested in the music that turned what was, on the surface, a one show set to a three-hour-long odyssey with only a short twenty-or-so minute break in the middle. The result was a show that pushed through to the midnight hours,

Sports

MAFA holds rally West Ave play show Men hungry for the downtown: Pg. 2 before hiatus: Pg. 7 playoffs : Pg. 11

an extraordinary feat given that the band began punctually at 9 pm.

Despite every seat in the bar being filled, with the exception of those vacated by those who chose to hit the dance floor, the student turnout was low.

The crowd for the most part consisted of professors, fresh off the picket lines, and locals.

It was a shame considering the student deal that the Blues Society offered for the talent on display and the excellent care-

free break from the strike that the night turned out to be.

The show was the first of three scheduled by the Tantramarsh Blues Society for the winter semester. The second will be California’s Candye Kane, playing on March 8.

AllMusic raves about her saying that “she knows how to sing the blues in all of its flavours, and she sings like she’s been there and done that and isn’t afraid of what the end of the night brings.”

Arts&Literature Inside...

Joypuke literary journal released: Pg. 12

News Ship’s Log Opinions Entertainment Centrefold Sports Science Arts & Literature Pg. Humour

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NEWS

CHMA HOPING TO RAISE $11,000 Extended article available online STUDENTS OPEN STRIKE HEADQUARTERS Extended article available online

February 6, 2014

CHMA hoping to raise $11,000 Campus radio turns to crowfunding Miriam Namakanda News Writer

Brian Brown of CAUT presents MAFA President Loralea Michaelis with a donation for MAFA’s strike fund. (Chris Donovan/Argosy)

MAFA solidarity rally raises $1 million Unions from across Canada offer support Christopher Balcom News Editor

The strike fund of the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) received a substantial boost on Friday after receiving more than one million dollars in donations.

Hundreds of MAFA members, their families, students, community members and faculty association representatives from across the country marched around Mount Allison University on Friday at noon, wrapping up with a solidarity rally at the bandstand downtown.

At the rally, Brian Brown, President of the Canadian Association of University

argosy@mta.ca

Teachers Defence Fund presented MAFA with a one million dollar cheque for their strike fund.

MAFA also received donations from faculty union representatives from across the country. They addressed the assembled demonstrators, issuing messages of support and solidarity on behalf of faculty associations from Manitoba to Nova Scotia.

Most of the thirteen guests presented MAFA with cheques ranging from one thousand to ten thousand dollars.

The ‘flying pickets’ said they would return every Friday as long as the strike lasts, bringing more demonstrators and donations.

MAFA President Loralea Michaelis was grateful for the support. “It’s great. We know the war chest will hold out … as long as it needs to,” Michaelis told The Argosy.

MAFA has been on strike since Jan. 27 after last-

minute negotiations over the weekend failed to produce a mutually acceptable collective agreement for the faculty and librarians at Mt. A. “[O]ur message, our rallying cry, is academic control of academic work,” Michaelis told the assembled crowd.

“The university is the creation of professors, librarians, and students. It is for them. It belongs to them.

Administrators must serve and support that creation, not dominate it and regulate it.

If they try to dominate and regulate the university, we will relocate it to our strike headquarters,” Michaelis addressed the gathered crowd, prompting enthusiastic cheers.

Alexi Katsanis, one of several Mt. A students who attended the rally weighed in on the dispute in a conversation with The Argosy: “I believe that the faculty’s values are those of the students, and

that it is important to fight for academic freedom and to ensure that the values of the academy and the university […] are maintained.”

Meanwhile, negotiations are at a standstill. The two parties have not met since Jan. 26, the day before MAFA’s midnight strike deadline.

Both the administration and MAFA maintain they are ready to resume negotiations at any time, but no further meetings have been scheduled. Both sides accuse the other of holding up a return to the bargaining table.

Mt. A Vice-President Academic Karen Grant told The Argosy that despite MAFA’s claims, she felt the administration and the faculty do not have competing visions for the future of the university. “I think that we have more in common than things that are sources of difference,” she said.

CHMA launched a fundraiser earlier this week to raise $11,000 needed to cover a deficit caused by low enrolment.

Norman Nehmetallah, a radio host, sits on the CHMA Board of Directors and is on the project team behind the Indiegogo fundraiser.

Nehmetallah is also the entertainment editor at The Argosy and was able to share some information about the fundraiser.

Nehmetallah said the station usually raises funds through Stereophonic, but “because of the decrease and a couple back payments, this year warranted [a fundraiser] that was a little larger in scope.”

This is not the first time CHMA has needed to fundraise in recent years: last April, Julie Doiron and the Wilderness of Manitoba preformed at Struts Gallery to raise money for the station.

The CHMA Indiegogo webpage states that after forty years of operations, the station has to undergo equipment updates: “We also want to embrace the brave

new digital world, through apps and an online presence that will allow our signal, our voice, to reach beyond the marshes to a wider world.”

The Indiegogo campaign features ten different perks to accompany contributions, from an on-air ‘shout out’ for a two dollar donation, to having a studio named after a donor who gives $1,000.

Other rewards includes two types of Stereophonic bundles, a CHMA bundle, T-shirts, scarves, and tickets to a “VIP” party.

The money raised will cover expenses such as “licensing costs, software costs, equipment costs, paying staff members,” Nehmetallah said, noting that the station offers positions to students and community members throughout the year. He explained that though the station receives grants from the government and nonprofit groups, these grants do not cover all the station’s operating costs.

Though the fundraiser is largely directed at the Sackville community, alumni are also a target group.

“People who’ve been involved with the station have gone on to some fruitful careers in journalism, without there even being a journalism program here,” Nehmetallah said, speaking to the value of the station.

Chinese students celebrate the Year of the Horse Chinese New Year Banquet held at Jennings Norman Nehmetallah Entertainment Editor

The Mount Allison Chinese Students’ Association (CSA) celebrated Chinese New Year last Friday with a banquet and show at Jennings Dining Hall. The event was well attended, featuring traditional Chinese music, performances, and food. In addition to these customary activities, the organizers even incorporated educational material into the evening for those in attendance who were unaccustomed to the holiday.

Jennings was decorated for the banquet with primarily red and yellow Chinese decorations, most of which were supplied by the Greater Moncton Chinese Cultural Association. This was the first Chinese New Year in which they collaborated with the CSA.

The staff of Jennings Dining Hall prepared many traditional Chinese dishes with the culinary assistance of the CSA. The buffet-style meal consisted of won-ton soup, seaweed salad, pork, noodle, and broccoli dishes; desert was a green-tea based dish served in an edible, chocolate cup.

The performance portion of the event began with a Lion Dance, which featured four dancers, in pairs, dressed in large dragon and lion costumes. The Lion Dance was followed by musical performances from Chinese students and nonChinese students alike. Performances concluded with Chinese Sketch Comedy, which featured no English but was well received nonetheless.

Although only a portion of the sizeable dining hall was used for seating, Andy Ma, Vice President of External Affairs for the CSA, said that approximately 120 tickets were sold for the event.

While Ma and the rest of the CSA were pleased with attendance, they did acknowledge that there were approximately fifteen less attendees than the previous year.

“It’s because of the strike,” Ma said

The Chinese Students’ Association hosted a banquet in celebration of Chinese New Year. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) after the festivities. “Many faculty members usually attend”. In addition to the problems posed by hosting the event on campus, as opposed to the Sackville Curling Club, where it was held last year, Ma also said that many students had decided to go home from the remainder of the strike.

Still, Ma said that this year’s event was a definite improvement, especially due to the attendance

of the Greater Moncton Chinese Cultural Association, whose members participated in two performances. Yi Dong, of Moncton, performed PiLiYu, a solo dance, which was later followed by XiuSe, a group dance that was choreographed with traditional fans. The group brought ornate, traditional costumes and an air of professionalism to the otherwise casual celebration.

The CSA, which was established

in 2007, also played a short video in which they interviewed Mount Allison faculty and students, testing their knowledge of Chinese New Year and the Zodiac. While the answers were often humorous, the video made it clear that part of the reason for the celebration was a desire to educate the community about Chinese customs.

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Mt. A hires lawyer to negotiate School uses outside lead negotiator for the first time Kevin Levangie

Political Beat Writer The Mount Allison University administration’s decision to use a lawyer as the chief negotiator in the ongoing contract negotiations marks the first time Mt. A has seen a legal professional take the helm during collective bargaining.

Mt. A alumnus Brian Johnston works for Halifaxbased law firm Stewart McKelvey.

Johnston specializes in labour relations, and has previously worked for the NSCAD administration during two collective bargaining negotiations. According to the firm’s website, Johnston “works with virtually every type of employer” in Canada

and works “[d]eveloping union avoidance plans for national employers,” as well as “[s]uccessfully concluding collective agreement settlements at less than mandate.” Johnston was also a past chair of the Board of Regents at Mt. A. Mt. A’s vice-president academic Karen Grant said

“I don’t think it is an issue; lawyers are hired guns; they do what they’re told.” the hiring of a professional was necessary to ensure the continued regular functioning of the administration.

“If we had not done this, one of the deans or the director of HR, or the Provost would have had to take on these responsibilities, and this would have prevented them from carrying out their normal responsibilities.”

Executive Director of the Canadian Association

of University Teachers James Turk said there is precedent for lawyers to be involved in academic contract negotiation.

“In the past universities have frequently used lawyers, but I wouldn’t say there is a trend,” he said.

The Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) is not using a lawyer in negotiations.

MAFA President Loralea Michaelis cited a number of reasons why the union has not contracted a lawyer.

“It’s very expensive. And also I think that there is a strong tradition in the labour movement of having the employees and members themselves hold the positions of responsibility […] they’re more familiar with the nature of the work and they live the consequences they are negotiating,” Michaelis said.

The chief negotiator for MAFA is Helen Pridmore, a music professor. The other negotiators are also faculty.

Turk said there was nothing a lawyer could do that a member of the administration could not.

“Why they bring in lawyers, I frankly don’t know.

They may wish to bring in outside expertise, although most universities have HR departments where there would presumably be that expertise.”

Turk said that the use of lawyers in the collective bargaining process at universities does not present a problem:.

“I don’t think it is an issue: lawyers are hired guns; they do what they’re told.” Turk instead pointed instead to other perceived problems in university governance. “If there’s bad things happening at the bargaining table and the lawyer is taking an aggressive position it’s because that’s what his client is telling them to do.”

The university refused The Argosy’s requests to share details of Johnston’s compensation, citing lawyerclient privilege. The Argosy has filed a Right to Information request seeking details of payment.

Johnston was unavailable for comment at press time.

Tug-of-war on intellectual property rights MAFA, admin at loggerheads on proposals Miriam Namakanda News Writer

As the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) and the administration resume negotiations to reach a new collective agreement, a proposal to define university resources may continue to be a focal point of disagreement between the two sides.

One proposal, which moves the definition of copyright from Article 32 (Intellectual Property Rights) to Article 1 (Definitions) has been deemed standard and agreed upon by both sides.

The negotiation teams have disagreed on a second proposal from the administration relating to intellectual property rights, which defines what constitutes a university resource.

Mt. A Vice President Karen Grant described these changes as “just for clarification, nothing more than that.”

But MAFA President Loralea Michaelis said that “they are major changes that will significantly extend employer rights,” adding that it is an “unprecedented” proposal.

The faculty association is concerned that if the

administration is able to clearly define what constitutes a university resource, professors may have less opportunity to negotiate the extent to which the institution can claim ownership of intellectual property created using Mt. A resources.

In the past, faculty had full ownership of any intellectual property they created unless it used “extraordinary resources” from the university.

Salary, benefits and a “regular working condition” were not considered extraordinary resources.

The administration’s proposal aims to define extraordinary resources as: “resources including its physical structures, research laboratories, capital equipment, technical facilities, or services (including the administration of funds and support received by the University for an employee in the form of grants, contracts or other support provided by the University or external sponsor).”

In the past the administration would negotiate with the faculty about what degree the university was able to claim ownership over their intellectual property. MAFA is concerned that more definite language will mean less flexibility for faculty and the administration to negotiate the terms of property ownership. MAFA is reluctant to accept this proposal, as they assume the administration will use this clarification to justify their

claims to intellectual property in the event of a dispute with faculty over ownership.

“It is reasonable to conclude that they intend to use some

“They are major changes that will significantly extend employer rights.” [of these new rights], but it is not clear,” said Michaelis.

Nearly identical language has been found in the collective agreement of the University of Manitoba, where Grant negotiated two contracts as Provost before coming to Mt. A. The agreement at Manitoba on intellectual property is more comprehensive than what adminstration proposed at Mt. A. Linda Guse, Executive Director of the University of Manitoba Facuty Association said, “During the negotiations for the 20072010 Collective Agreement, the two sides were unable to agree upon contract language for intellectual property and so that issue went to an arbitrator who made a decision that was binding on both parties.” She also noted that Grant was only one of seven or eight negotiators.

Grant said these proposals were made to bring “our collective agreement up to date with the standards that [are] regularly used,” claiming Mount Saint Vincent, The University of New Brunswick

and other Atlantic universities have also defined university resources.

No Atlantic university has such specific language in their collective agreement, but agreements at The University of Manitoba, The University of Winnipeg, Simon Fraser University, and The British Columbia Institute of Technology contain nearly identical wording to administration’s proposals on intellectual property at Mt. A, with the exceptions of the last word, “services,” and the language in parentheses relating to grants and external funding.

Vett Lloyd, an associate professor of Biology at Mt. A said, “[the proposed changes] affect me primarily in the context of research.”

Lloyd noted that “ownership of patentable material” is a key issue in the sciences, particularly research with potential commercial value.

Lloyd said she fears a decline in partnerships with other academic research organizations. “Nobody will want to play with the greedy kid,” she said.

These fears were echoed by Stephen Law, an economics professor who is not striking because he is on sabbatical.

Law, who specializes in intellectual property, speculated that because of this proposal “… fewer faculty [may] be entering into these kind of research projects that could [cause them to] be exposed to this kind of difficulty.”

NEWS

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Week in the World Joanna Perkin

Syria peace talks end badly

A week-long conference in Geneva between the Syrian government and the opposition failed to produce an agreement.

According to the BBC, the conference is rumoured to have ended with the two sides trading insults. A UN representative said that there was a small amount of progress made, and that he had seen some common ground, and more talks have been scheduled for Feb. 10. The two sides discussed possible ways to end the violence, and well as humanitarian issues. There had been agreements made on ceasefires to allow access for humanitarian workers; however, a ceasefire in the city of Homs has not been honoured, and no aid has gone through. This city has been besieged for over eighteen months, and some of the residents of the city have said that they are eating grass to survive.

Amanda Knox refuses to return to Italy

Amanda Knox has been convicted for the second time for the murder of British student of Meredith Kercher in 2007 when the two girls were roommates together studying in a small Italian town. Knox is fighting her second conviction, saying that she will not willingly return to Italy to serve her 28½-year sentence. For the past seven years, Knox has said that she and her boyfriend at the time are both innocent, and has said that she has not been given the chance to mourn the death of her roommate and friend.

Her sentence, along with the twenty-five year sentence of her ex-boyfriend, will not have to be served pending further appeals.

Reuters suggested that a prolonged legal battle is likely.

Man thanked for stopping suicide

Jonny Benjamin of London, England, finally got the chance to say thank you to Neil Laybourn, the stranger who talked him out of a suicide bridge jump. Six years ago, the two men only spoke for twenty-five minutes, when Laybourn stopped on his way to work to stop a stranger from committing suicide. These twenty-five minutes saved Mr. Benjamin’s life. Last week Benjamin finally got the opportunity to thank Laybourn, after searching for his mystery man for the past six years, eventually putting out advertisements.

Laybourn’s fiancée knew what had happened, and the meeting between the two men was set up. Benjamin told The Telegraph that he is not trying to romanticize his story or suicide, but wants to emphasize that there is always support, and that having someone to listen can make all the difference.

Archbishops criticize anti-gay laws

The Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York have written a public letter to the presidents of Nigeria and Uganda, saying that homosexuals are loved and valued by God, and that homosexuals should not be victimized. Nigeria and Uganda have both passed legislation targeting gays. In Nigeria, a bill has been signed that bans same-sex marriages, LGBT groups, and public affection between two people of the same sex. In Uganda, a bill allowing more severe punishments for homosexuals has been passed

by Parliament, but blocked temporarily. These laws have been criticized by LGBT rights groups, as well as human rights groups.

The archbishops have said that homosexuals are children of God, and should be respected and loved.

Children humiliated by cafeteria staff

Parents in the state of Utah are outraged after lunches were taken away from thirty elementary students after money on their food accounts ran out. Erica Lukes and other Utah parents have urged the school district to start an investigation after their children’s lunches were taken away and thrown out. The Associated Press reports that the school’s principal said that after the lunches were given out, they should never have been taken away. Parents had been told that their children were behind on their lunch payments, but had not had the standard time to be able to pay the fees; some parents were even told that their warnings had been a mistake. The school district has apologized and started an investigation into the situation.

Food crisis in South Sudan

The United Nations has said that approximately 3.7 million people are in dire need of food in South Sudan following the civil conflict. The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator told the BBC that USD 1.3 billion was needed to deal with this food crisis, which has come after violence broke out in the country on Dec. 15.

The civil conflict started as violence between rival army factions, leading to thousands of deaths and 860,000 displaced peoples.

Approximately a third of South Sudan’s population is now in need of food. Some civilians have stormed warehouses was aid was being kept in order to get food. A tentative ceasefire was announced last week, although violence has not ceased entirely.

The BBC reported that over two hundred Doctors without Borders staff were forced to flee into the bush due to fighting.

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February 6, 2014

NEWS

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MAFA, administration return to the table Student strike HQ Media blackout takes effect Wednesday Christopher Balcom News Editor

The negotiating teams of the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) and the university’s administration will be meeting again at the bargaining table on Wednesday.

The provincially-appointed mediation officer asked both parties to return to the table, and both obliged.

Negotiations will resume Feb. 5, with a media blackout in force.

In the meantime, MAFA members will continue to picket outside Mount Allison University until a tentative settlement is reached. The faculty association has been on strike since Jan. 27.

“We’re extremely excited to see that both parties are willing to return to the negotiating table,” said

Mount Allison Students’ Union President Melissa O’Rourke.

“At this point in time, now that they’ve returned to the table, the thing that’s important to us is that they get back to class,” O’Rourke said. “We truly want to see them negotiate and find an agreement.”

Both MAFA and the administration have said that they are committed to reaching a negotiated settlement.

The announcement follows an open letter issued to the university community from Mt. A’s Vice-President Karen Grant on Friday. The letter, which was posted on the university’s negotiations website was also released by email to students, faculty, and staff.

The letter addressed a number of the administration’s concerns, including the “enormous financial issues outstanding” that the administration feels will have “significant consequences for the university’s future,” faculty workload, and parttime faculty.

The letter concludes by blaming the stalled

negotiations on MAFA, stating they are unwilling to discuss “the University proposals that are aimed at ensuring the quality of the Mount Allison student experience.”

“My objective […] was to, in an open and transparent way, communicate to the community, and that’s exactly what I did,” Grant said.

Grant’s letter prompted sharp criticism from MAFA. The faculty association published a response on their website, stating, “it would be fruitless to engage directly with the misrepresentations and mistruths in the materials that the administration is putting before the public.”

The MAFA release claims the university is waging a “corrosive misinformation campaign” and states that “[t]he administration will not make its case any more effectively at the bargaining table by disparaging faculty at the picket lines.”

Grant’s letter also maintained that the faculty association stated they would not return to the negotiation table until the university withdrew all its major proposals.

The faculty association has repeatedly denied this characterization of their position: “We never set any formal condition on returning to the table. That was a […] misrepresentation of our position,” said MAFA President Loralea Michaelis.

“The [university’s administration] is looking for ways to explain why there it is there isn’t a deal,” Michaelis said.

Michaelis said MAFA previously stated its members could not agree to some of the proposals the administration has put forward in a final deal, but never said faculty would refuse to negotiate until they were removed.

Grant defended her assertion, stating she had seen Michaelis quoted in the press as saying MAFA would not return to the table until the proposals had been withdrawn. Despite a review of strike coverage from various news organizations, The Argosy was unable to locate a quote to that effect.

The university had not withdrawn its proposals at press time.

Students open headquarters to study strike Angad Ghungrana With the faculty strike heading into its second week, students concerned by a lack of transparency have formed a group called Student Strike Headquarters. Their aim is to help foster informed discussion amongst the student body by providing them with facts and context vis-a-vis the faculty strike.

“With so many conflicting stories it’s impossible for us students to make sense of what is going on,” founding member Alex Thomas told The Argosy. “We are creating a huge collaborative project that no student union themselves could ever accomplish.”

The group is constructing a “super document” that brings together the answers to all possible questions that students may have regarding the strike in one virtual place.

The group was born out of a “growing sentiment amongst

students that as stakeholders we were being left out of the discussion,” Thomas said.

Mount Allison Student Union (MASU) President Melissa O’Rourke said MASU supports the endeavour, and that the work that it is doing adds to what MASU does. She said MASU had offered the group space inside their offices, but they rejected the offer.

Thomas said the group’s members felt that MASU did not have the human resources to investigate this particular issue to a depth that his organization hopes to do and they are helping fill that void.

Another reason given by founding member Erik Sin for the formation of a separate group to voice student concerns was that “A lot of students felt alienated from the MASU.” “[W]e thought we would be more approachable if we were outside the realm of the MASU,” Thomas said.

“We are certainly not antiMASU, but we’re filling a gap that needs to be filled.” another founding member Makyla Walerickton added.

NB politicians weigh in on labour disputes Government intervenes at UNB, NDP promote plan Kevin Levangie

Political Beat Writer

New Brunswick’s politicians are weighing in on the province’s two faculty strikes. The Progressive Conservative government forced the two sides in the University of New Brunswick dispute to return to the table, while the New Democratic Party proposed an act that would require universities to remunerate students for lost class time after five days of labour-dispute related class disruption, despite having no sitting MLAs. Kelly Lamrock, a former Liberal education minister and current NDP candidate in Fredericton South, brought forward an NDP proposal calling on the government to adopt what they are calling “The Student Protection Act.” In an NDP press release, Lamrock said that “The act is designed to give our university students the security they deserve,” continuing that “anyone who attends university makes significant sacrifices of time and money and they deserve financial protection and scheduling certainty.”

The NDP’s proposal would require universities to rebate tuition and housing fees in the event that a strike that disrupts classes lasts longer than five days. It would also require universities to offer make up

Brian Gallant, leader of the provincial Liberal Party, discussed labour action at the province’s universities during a recent visit to Sackville. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) the lost time “at no additional cost to any student whose completion of a program is threatened by the labour stoppage.”

Pat Joyce, executive director of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, praised the NDP plan in a Jan. 22 release, saying, “This bill provides students assurance that both their dollars and their education will be protected as much as possible during labour negotiations.”

New Brunswick Liberal Party leader Brian Gallant spoke to The Argosy before his appearance at a Young Liberals event in Sackville.

Gallant would not say if the

Liberals plan on supporting the bill, instead saying that “respectable and reasonable” tuition rates are important, and that the most important thing is a return to the classroom for students.

Gallant pointed out that because the NDP has no sitting MLAs in the legislature, they will need to find a way to introduce the document onto the floor, likely through a private members bill by an MLA from another party: “Look, except for the idea we haven’t seen any details. […]

Again, the act hasn’t been presented as yet, and I don’t know if they plan on doing so by a private members

means, but it hasn’t been presented in the legislature.”

In a press release addressing the Mt. A strike, New Brunswick Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour Jody Carr said that the government remained hopeful that an agreement would be reached through negotiations, continuing: “Our priority is enabling students to finish their term with the least amount of disruption possible.”

Negotiations resumed at Mount Allison on Feb. 5 at the request of the provincially appointed mediator.

Carr said that a media blackout

would be observed for the remainder of negotiations and reiterated the government preference “that a settlement can be found by both parties working together at the bargaining table.”

The government stepped in at UNB on Jan. 27, forcing both sides to return to the bargaining table with a provincially appointed mediator after three weeks of striking.

After the two parties reached an agreement, Carr issued a press release stating: “As minister responsible for labour, I am pleased that the process enabled the parties to reach a tentative collective agreement.”

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OPINIONS

THE ADMINISTRATION HAS A LOT MORE WRONG John Trafford weighs in on the facualty strike at Mt. A DISMANTLING OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IS QUITE CONCERNING The Gateway’s Kevin Voon writes

Hawking: It’s not about right or wrong Mitchell Gunn

The scientific community has been thrown into a state of flux due to a recent paper from renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

While it has yet to undergo peer review or be formally published, the paper is freely available online for anyone to read, and reception has been mixed, to say the least.

In the paper, entitled “Information Preservation and Weather Forecasting for Black Holes,” Hawking challenges the commonly accepted idea of black holes having an “event horizon”—a distance from within which nothing can escape the black hole’s gravitational pull. Hawking claims that this notion

is incompatible with modern quantum physics.

That’s about as far into the science as I can go. Instead, I want to focus on the attention that this paper has received, both within the astrophysics community and with the general public.

In the former, there is understandably some disagreement.

Hawking’s paper calls into question one of the fundamentally accepted characteristics of black holes, and such a challenge is unlikely to be accepted without any resistance. While Hawking’s name alone does command a certain sense of respect, most scientists are quite rightly waiting for the paper to undergo the peer review process before they start rewriting textbooks.

The paper’s reception within society at large, meanwhile, has been not quite as reasonable. When confronted with the fact that scientists—the very people who are basically paid to know these kinds of things—cannot seem to agree on what’s taking place around black holes, some members of

the population begin to question other theories and even the foundations of science altogether.

This is by no means a new problem.

Consider the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) experiment in 2011 that appeared to show neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light; the experiment seemed to violate the basic principles of Einstein’s special relativity and could have overturned much of modern physics. During the weeks of uncertainty that followed, I distinctly recall being asked, “What’s the point of science if even Einstein can’t get it right?”

While the neutrino case did end up being the result of equipment failure, there have been plenty of more reasonable instances where some seemingly contradictory idea faced heavy resistance in the academic community and caused the public to question a lot of scientific advancements—even if said ideas would turn out to be accurate. For example, evolution and the Big Bang

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Revisions & Reflections

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theory both faced difficult roads to widespread acceptance.

The point is, different fields of science regularly undergo paradigm shifts—changes in theory when one commonly accepted idea is replaced by another one that better explains some aspect of the world around us. For example, it wasn’t widely believed that the Earth orbits the Sun until a few hundred years ago.

This new paper from Hawking isn’t cause for alarm. Black holes are a relatively new concept in science, and our understanding of their behaviour is still developing.

On a wider scale, paradigm shifts are a necessary part of scientific advancement. When a new observation or phenomena indicates that our current theories are incorrect, it makes sense to search for a new, better theory, but this doesn’t mean that all scientific theories are fundamentally wrong.

Instead, it shows us that science is a constantly changing field—and that even if we don’t entirely understand how the world works, we’re learning.

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Tyler Stuart

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Allison O’Reilly

Norman Nehmetallah

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Susan Parker, Kimberly Sayson, Lisa Theriault Rachael Hanakowski

Spanish philosopher George Santayana famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” While most of you were only preschoolers during the last Mount Allison work stoppage and thus have no memory of that walkout, I hope that you will accept some wisdom from an alumnus whose university experience was tarnished by the previous Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) strike in 1999.

Just like the Mount Allison Student’s Union (MASU) is doing now, the elected student leadership in 1999 chose to adopt a position of neutrality.

While their stance was well-meaning, it proved to be a disservice to the students, and I am very disheartened to see the same mistakes that failed us fifteen years ago are being repeated today.

Rather than remaining neutral, you should be taking an active stance against the side that is directly responsible for the indefinite suspension of classes, which in this case is the striking faculty union. Threatening to cancel your winter semester is a key pillar of MAFA’s bargaining strategy, so make it known that you will not tolerate being used as pawns in their negotiations! You should be furious that your education is being used as

a bargaining chip, so meet with your MASU representatives and urge them to end their misguided notion of neutrality in favour of adopting a position of unambiguous opposition against the group that caused your classes to be cancelled. For every professor on the picket lines, there should be a dozen students marching against them. Only MASU has the organizational reach to make such a wide-spread counter-picket a reality, but this will not happen so long as your student leadership refuses to take sides.

On a final note, I implore you not to mistake this advice as being antifaculty. During my years at Mt. A, I had the pleasure of learning from many great professors, as I’m sure each of you have as well. Ultimately, however, it is the faculty union that has voted to walk off the job, and thus the striking professors should be the focus of your efforts as you do everything within your power to end the strike. If the situation was reversed and the class cancellation was caused by an administration-imposed lockout, my advice to take sides would not be changed, but I would instead be urging you to occupy Centennial Hall en masse.

-Chris Levesque, ‘02

Mount Allison, will you be my Valentine?

Truth be told, I’m rather smitten with you, and you’ve stolen my heart (I know you’ll take good care of it).

I love being with you. You never fail to make me laugh or cry or feel something. Being around you is a roller coaster of emotions. Sometimes I’m completely speechless and sometimes I’m just plain giddy. You are so complex, and I love all of your flaws and imperfections just as much as I love your beauty. I love the way you make me feel. When I’m around you, I feel like a million bucks. I feel like I have unconditional support and the confidence of thousands patting me on the shoulder.

Being with you, Mt. A, means going about my day and having this constant, continuous feeling that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. It’s pretty magical. I love you for giving that to me. I love all of the little things that make you you: I love walking into the student centre and seeing a banner that is hilarious or super artsy or just big. I love sitting in a cubicle at the library and exploring the messages left by those before me. I love feeling badass when I can walk into the bookstore without taking off my

With their student-wide email of Jan. 31, the administration has insulted both the faculty and students of Mount Allison. While the opening lines of the email apportion blame entirely on the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA), students recognize that the situation is clearly more complex than that. The strike action followed seven months of failed negotiations on the part of both MAFA and the university. To insinuate that MAFA bears all the blame for the strike is deliberately misleading. Similarly, the administration blames MAFA for the

existence of an impasse in the first place. The email reads, “The faculty association states that it will not return to the bargaining table unless the University withdraws all of its major proposals.” It fails to mention that the university has been just as unwilling to accept MAFA’s proposals. This email portrays the administration as partisan and petty.

However, the email also highlights a much deeper issue. By nature of its position as the organizational body of the university, the administration has access to all student email accounts.

MAFA does not. Disseminating its biased version of events in this manner is unfair and one-sided. Furthermore, with several references to tuition, student-to-faculty ratios, and the current strike, the email appears to be an attempt to turn students against their professors. To address this email to the “Mount Allison Community” while at the same time seeking to divide it is blatant hypocrisy. That the university believes its own students are not intelligent enough to notice this is extremely disappointing.

Students are and ought to be

backpack, because the ladies know me.

I love Carol’s decorations in meal hall and I love how the ladies in Gracie’s go all-out for the holidays, too. I love going out to the Pond and feeling like it was a great night because I saw so many people I knew and recognized.

Mt. A, you are so cool.

I love you even though you put down wooden boards on the steps in the winter, even though I can’t find any places on campus to buy Skittles, even though I feel mixed emotions whenever I spot a high school student on a tour of campus. My heart swells with pride and I have to fight the urge to tell them that this is the best place on earth, better than Disney World, so as not to freak them out (I know I can be a little overwhelming. You can, too). Instead I settle for a smile at the parents or a simple, “Welcome to Mt. A!” hoping that it might make a difference and it might express some small inch of my love for you. And I also fight back envy that they are thinking about future time at Mt. A— not about how much time they have left with you.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Mt. A. Thank you for being the love of my life.

-Danielle Lenarcic Biss a neutral body to the contract negotiations and neither MAFA nor the administration should be attempting to sway them to their side.

Mount Allison’s students are engaged, passionate, and informed and will not be convinced by this poor strategy. I hope that the university will apologize for this misrepresentative and divisive email and will change its tactics before they begin to backfire.

-James Beirne

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

ENTERTAINMENT

ONLINE:

HOFFMAN FOUND DEAD AT 46 Oscar winner dead of apparent drug overdose; complete article online.

FILM SOCIETY SCREENS PHILOMENA The film is a delicate balance of humour and seriousness

Hoffman found dead

Oscar winner dead of apparent drug overdose Norman Nehmetallah Entertainment Editor

Philip Seymour Hoffman, the acclaimed stage and film actor, was found dead last Sunday morning in his Manhattan apartment. Law enforcement officials stated that the cause of death was an apparent drug overdose.

The actor’s body, which had a needle sticking out of its arm, was found Sunday morning by screenwriter

David Bar Katz. Katz wrote two plays that Hoffman directed for the LAByrinth Theater Company.

Although Hoffman had been clean for twenty years, he had recently relapsed in his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, and checked himself into rehab for substance abuse last year.

Hoffman’s death has led to an outpouring of support, sympathy, and fond remembrance from both fans and celebrities alike. The prominent actor, who received an Oscar in 2007 for his lead role in Capote, was working on several projects at the time of his death, some of which have been cast into uncertainty.

Philip Seymour Hoffman will surely be missed for his unique presence and contributions to film and theatre.

2013 was a special gift to avid moviegoers 2013: This magical year will be remembered for a long while as the best year for movies in the new millennium so far. I would go as far as to call it the best since 1993, which some critics referred to as an annus mirabilius, or a miracle year.

One after another they arrived, great movies of all sorts—from sweeping epics to elegiac poems, 2013 left no stone unturned. And the ripest fruits of its labours pulled no punches. Many of the finest films of the year took their audiences on emotional roller coasters, while others, like Gravity, served the trend more literally.

Most important was how completely 2013 defied the Hollywood machine. 2013 saw an unusually high number of box office flops—in fact, three of them (The Lone Ranger, R.I.P.D., and Jack the Giant Slayer) currently place in the top ten box office bombs of all time. Audiences seemed to come to their senses, largely ignoring sequels and big-budget traps of movies that attempt to use flashy effects as placeholders for thoughtful storytelling.

Instead, we witnessed the induction of many new and talented filmmakers into the world of cinematic arts.

Independent filmmakers gifted us with titles like The Selfish Giant, The Past, Fruitvale Station, The Spectacular Now, The Way Way Back, and Stories We Tell.

No year in recent memory has more confidently indicated the direction in which the film industry is headed. It is a hopeful one, and 2013 has provided it with spirited momentum.

Here are the best films of the year, in order of approximate preference: Her: Spike Jonze both wrote and directed this unorthodox love story.

The plot follows a man who is a more sensitive version of the hopeless romantic archetype, here played flawlessly by Joaquin Phoenix, and a self-aware, animate operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson in a bravura performance.

Short Term 12: Featuring Brie Larson in another of the year’s best, most full-bodied performances, Destin Cretton’s independent, featurelength debut revolves around a foster care facility for at-risk teens. Larson plays Grace, who cares greatly for her work but is simultaneously distancing herself from her own rough past.

Heartwarming, heartbreaking, and life-affirming, often within the same frame.

12 Years a Slave: An unflinching testament of a free man’s kidnapping and selling into slavery, based on a true

I NTERNATIONAL D EVELOPMENT W EEK S PENDING

argosy@mta.ca

The five best films of the year Austin Landry

Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan apartment with a needle protruding from his arm. He is pictured here in 2006. (Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

February 6, 2014

story. Director Steve McQueen adds a bit more panache—which is justified because it never sacrifices substance for style—to a film which has done for slavery what Schindler’s List did for the Holocaust. It doesn’t provide any catharsis, as catharses in these cases are most likely impossible. It dramatizes historical events artfully and provides us with insight into human nature.

The Act of Killing: Documentaries exist to reach the uncharted and bring it forth. The idea behind this one was to provide Suharto death squad members, who believe themselves to be in the clear for their war crimes, the tools with which to recreate their many heinous acts. Confronting death in this manner plays to unexpected but devastating effect.

Before Midnight: One of the only romantic dramas that can be called ‘thrilling.’ Richard Linklater, who directed and co-wrote the script with leads Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, filmed an emotionally satisfying conclusion to a saga spanning nearly two decades. The dialogue is natural and true, flowing from the characters like water, but carefully crafted by the artists who wrote it.

This column is dedicated to the life and collective works of Philip Seymour Hoffman. He was one of maybe five actors who worked prolifically and consistently chose exceptional roles for themselves. His loss is unfortunate and tragic.

TO S AVE :

H OW Y OUR M ONEY C AN G O F URTHER

Join the MTA Msaada Society during International Development Week (IDW) as they raise funds to buy a De goat ($58) through Oxfam’s livelihood program. Give a loonie and guess the number of goat droppings (chocolate-covered raisins) in a jar. At the end of IDW, the student whose guess is the closest to the actual number of chocolate-covered raisins will win the jar!

All proceeds from the campaign will go directly towards purchase of a goat and other sustainable gift items the pur such as seeds, school books, and medicine, etc.

The Msaada Society aims toward fundraising for the Grace Children's Center Or phanage in Nairobi, Kenya, an extremely under privileged institution that houses over 80 o r phaned children, over half of whom are HIV+. A new group to the Mount Allison campus this year, this society raises funds through various on-campus events, that go toward purchasing nutritious food, HIV/AIDS treatments, and school supplies. For more information or to find out how you can get involved, email msaada@mta.ca.

The Argosy

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ENTERTAINMENT

Trio of trios play energetic show at the shed

7

West Ave play final show before hiatus Cameron McIntyre

Entertainment Writer

Local band West Ave played what may be their last show in Sackville for a little while last Saturday. With band members going out west to work, the album they are currently working on is also in limbo. The show was out in the practice shed behind George’s Roadhouse, and the ability of the space to concentrate a crowd’s energy made the entire show a rowdy affair—­­as shows held there are famous for being.

Unfortunately, that rowdiness resulted in some broken strings, as it tends to do. The unannounced openers, Grocery Bag Legend, broke the first of the strings in their very first song, but things were able to keep rolling after a quick change to another guitar. The first of the trio of three-member-bands played a distinctly classic rock style of music that emphasized their sexual lyricism.

The second string broke

Two members of the Kavorkas play rock ‘n’ roll to the energetic audience at the packed shed on Saturday night. They were the second band to perform. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) during the Kavorkas’ set, severely interrupting the evening. Despite the interruption, their music showed signs of progression.

It may have just been the atmosphere, but there was much more intensity in this set than their last performance at the Legion. The polished indie sound they were trying four

months ago was replaced with a much noisier rock. It was kept varied by an almost constant rotation of band members and instruments that saw frontman Robert Blackbeard play guitar, keyboard, bass, and drums over the course of the set. In the process, the Karvorkas touched on elements of folk, punk, and straight-up noise rock.

West Ave had a set that was true to their previous performances, speedy guitar riffs and all, even though they were playing with a new bassist, as their original bassist had already flown out to Alberta.

The SappyFest performers’ going-away bash was really well put together, though maybe not intentionally, as the

Dalhousie University

MSc Clinical Vision Science with concurrent Graduate Diploma in Orthoptics and Ophthalmic Medical Technology This professional two-year graduate program offered by Dalhousie University in partnership with the IWK Health Centre’s School of Orthoptics/Ophthalmic Medical Technology provides students with unparalleled research opportunities in the vision sciences along with extensive clinical practice to prepare them for the profession of orthoptics/ophthalmic medical technology.

Orthoptists/ophthalmic medical technologists are allied health professionals who perform a wide range of diagnostic and highly technical procedures and, in consultation with an ophthalmologist, plan, implement and monitor treatment of a wide variety of ocular disorders, including disorders of binocular vision and ocular motility. They are engaged in a wide range of activities including research into ocular motility, education of other eye care professionals, patient education and vision screening.

The program involves 7.5 class credits, two extended practica and a thesis in an area of vision research.

Students are permitted to exit the program after two years (prior to completing a Master’s thesis) with a Graduate Diploma in Orthoptics and Ophthalmic Medical Technology.

Applications for the MSc (Clinic Vision Science) program beginning in September 2014 are now being accepted. Applicants must hold a four-year bachelor’s degree with a minimum B average (GPA 3.0), with at least one undergraduate class in human anatomy and/or physiology, and a class in psychology with a laboratory component. Exceptional students may be accepted without these prerequisites on the condition that they are fulfilled either prior to or concurrent with the program. Work/volunteer experience in the health care field is considered an asset.

Students whose native language is not English must demonstrate the ability to participate in a graduate program conducted in English prior to acceptance into the program. The minimum acceptable score on the TOEFL test is 580 for the written test and 237 for the computer test.

Financial assistance may be available to qualified students.

Deadline for applications is March 1, 2014.

Further information is available from our website www.dal.ca/cvs or by contacting Clinical Vision Science Program IWK Health Centre 5850/5980 University Avenue PO Box 9700 Halifax, NS B3K 6R8 orthoptics@iwk.nshealth.ca (902) 470-8959

previous two performances led into theirs well. The intensity displayed by the Karvorkas and the classic rock sound of Garbage Bag Legend’s set came together in West Ave’s performance, channeled into blistering guitar solos. The energy that they brought to the crowd wasn’t quite as intense as it was in October during

their last Sackville set, but the atmosphere as a whole was more welcoming.

All in all, the trek out to the tiny, uninsulated shed behind George’s was a worthwhile expedition. The band will be together in Alberta, so it’s likely that this will not be the last time they play, but only a temporary move out of town.

World Music Jack Britton We’ve all been there. Strolling into our local record shop, we inevitably come face-to-face with the dreaded pretentious record store employee.

Like some kind of self-important sommelier of all things obscure in the realm of the recorded note, the record store employee has come to represent everything reprehensible about the sub-culture of millennial hipsters. Always ready to introduce you to whatever’s cool, rare, and farout-of-left-field in your favourite genre, vinyl geeks give the rest of us music enthusiasts a bad name. I’m sure that anyone familiar with the blistering intensity of Bessie Smith’s early recordings or the haunting tones of Rajdulari Khan’s ragas has come up against the urge to hide their love of ‘unusual’ music for fear of being lumped in with the High Fidelity crowd. It’s a shame that a passion for music has taken this shape these days—it doesn’t have to be this way.

So let’s get unusual, but not obscure or pretentious, and dive head first into the world of music from around the globe.

For my inaugural Argosy column on world music, I’ve really been digging Sawtuha, a recent compilation off the German label Jakarta Records.

Recorded over two weeks at Mohsen Matri Studios in Tunis and released Jan. 24, Sawtuha (Arabic for ‘her voice’) is pretty political, and deeply badass. It features a selection of hip hop and beat tracks recorded by a group of female

musicians from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. Egyptian hip-hop artist Maryam Saleh, like many of the nine musicians on this album, is a talented multi-instrumentalist in her own right, playing guitar and piano, as well as singing on the powerful opening track “Nouh Al Hamam.”

Despite the overall strength and experience of the artists, however, many of Sawtuha’s strongest moments come from its guest production spots.

French producer Blundetto brings what he calls a “stoned soul” quality to Badiaa Bouhrizi’s excellent song “Mana’a.” Meanwhile, German beatmaker and Jakarta Records label-mate Shuko lends an ethereal tone to Syrian artist Rasha Rizk’s mournful vocals on her song “Elegie.” Perhaps the biggest highlight on the album is Tunisian artist Medusa’s track “Naheb N3ch Hyati,” which features production by Olof Dreijer, the legendary Swedish DJ and member of electronic music duo The Knife. Dreijer’s beats on “Naheb N3ch Hyati” are ugly, erratic, and abrasive, bringing a gritty tone to Medusa’s tour de force vocal rap stylings.

Ultimately, while it misses the mark from time to time, Sawtuha is an engaging listen, ready to reveal music’s equalizing powers and kick you in the face, often at the same time.

Jack Britton co-hosts Good Rivers, Great Lakes Mondays at 10 pm on CHMA with Norman Nehmetallah.

8

RESIDENCE ASSISTANTS

February 6, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

RAs are expected to keep their doors open in an attempt to create a safe and open environment for residents (Top right; Nick Sleptov/ Argosy). During orientation week and at events throughout the year, the duties of RAs extend beyond the walls of residences (Top left; Jeehan Jawed/Submitted). RAs at Mt. A often provide both personal and academic assistance to students in their halls. They also administer fines if necessary to ensure residence safety (Bottom; Nick Sleptov/Argosy).

Report confirms RAs paid more at Acadia, St. FX RAs question fairness of compensation rates at Mt. A Tyler Stuart & Taylor Losier Features Staff

Residence assistants (RAs) at Mount Allison deal with various responsibilities to ensure the safety and well-being of students. They can be seen studying with an open door, consoling a fellow student, or cleaning vomit from a bathroom stall. They are also paid far less than comparable Atlantic universities.

An ongoing Mount Allison Students’ Union committee, which started two years ago, has raised questions as to the fairness of current RA compensation rates. Heather Webster, vice-president, campus life for the students’ union, was a part of the committee.

This year, after concentrating her work on the executive positions during the first semester, she has shifted her focus to the RAs, and is currently working on a new report, which is scheduled for release in the coming weeks. The report compiles quotes from current and former RAs, and includes external data regarding the RA situation at other universities, such as what their duties

include and their compensation rates.

The report highlights the job description of the RAs in various schools. The report aims to shed light on this issue for the university, which has justified its RA compensation by pointing to workload.

“We could cut the number in half and pay the remaining few a higher stipend like other universities do, but our philosophy has always been to have more students trained and have them work fewer hours,” said Michelle Strain, Mt. A’s director of administrative services.

The higher compensation of other schools correlates with the RA to student ratio. Strain pointed to the ratio as evidence of a lighter workload.

“We have a very student-centred focus at Mount Allison,” Strain said. “The ratio of residence staff to students living in residence is one of the lowest in Canada at 1:15. Other universities are more than double at 1:35, 1:40, and as high as 1:50. So ours is very, very good.”

The compensation rate for RAs at Mt. A is $2,400, and $2,500 for senior RAs. While the RAs at Mt. A receive forty per cent of their pay at the start of each term and the remaining twenty per cent at the end of the year in cash, some universities, like St. Francis Xavier, give their RAs biweekly and vacation pay. St. FX has an RA to student ratio of 1:28.

New RAs at St. FX are given $5,200, while second-year RAs

receive $5,800, and third-year RAs receive $6,300. Acadia University has an RA to student ratio of 1:19.

RAs at Acadia are compensated with a free, private room and $1,500 toward their meal plans. Hall directors at Acadia are given $7,700.

Bishop’s University has an RA to student ratio of 1:27. RAs at Bishop’s receive a salary of $5,100.

The apparent salary gap between Mt. A RAs and those of other Atlantic universities has encouraged the university to take some measures to improve RA compensation.

Next year, returning RAs will receive an $800 pay increase.

According to the university, this change will entice more returning RAs, thus making a stronger team and a more welcoming residence experience.

“It means that more of our students have the opportunity for leadership training as all residence staff have great training and skill building,” Strain said. “Many more of our students have the opportunity to contribute as leaders in their residences and be role models for new students.”

Strain notes that they seek to recognize the returning students for their ability to “hit the ground running,” and hopes that in doing so they will have a more central role as a leader to those who are new to the role of RA. Mt. A requires that all RAs have a single room, which can cost up to $800 more than a standard double

room. This means that the wage increase, which will only affect returning RAs, will only cover the additional cost of their required room.

One of the main obstacles in changing RA compensation lies in the willingness of students to fill the position.

“The dilemma,” Webster notes, “Is that why would the university increase what they pay RAs when they still have people applying?

Except for the fact that it’s wrong.”

RAs have pointed to reasons other than pay for their pursuit of the position.

Hunton RA Brandon Williams said that she would have considered an RA position regardless of pay.

“There are so many intangibles that come with it that you can’t put money on,” Williams said.

Harper RA D’Arcy Blunston said that Mt. A encourages the pursuit of such positions for their intrinsic values.

“I think that’s one of the big things at Mt. A,” Blunston said. “The students doing volunteer positions, RA jobs, and exec jobs, they don’t do it because they get a stipend at the end of the year, they do it because they really have a desire to be involved in the community.”

This year, the university has focused on alternative issues that could impact student life on campus.

The university is considering compensating the position of eco rep, as well as hiring a second

academic mentor for each residence as a way of improving life on campus and enticing more students to return to residence, rather than seek out offcampus housing.

“The people in Student Life who are responsible for residence life are very supportive of this initiative as they can expand programming and services to students in residence,” Strain said.

According to the university, budgetary concerns prevent larger changes to the residence system.

The money necessary to fund RA compensation comes from accommodation fees paid by oncampus students. The same fees also serve to cover the expenses for other staff members, utilities, maintenance, renovations, and equipment. Each year the residence budget is examined as part of the university’s renewal process.

“When costs go up, then the accommodation fees have to increase to cover the additional costs,” Strain said.

Some RAs insist that their compensation should be fair, regardless of the cost to the university.

“It’s a twenty-four hour job, and I think the pay should reflect that,” Williams said.

Webster said she hopes that the report’s findings will encourage the university to get on board, something that she notes students on campus already seem to favour.

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9

Anonymous RA Second-year student The official job description doesn’t say a lot of the things that an RA does, but you still have to do them to be a good RA. There’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that goes on, even when it looks and seems like a lot of work to the people who aren’t an RA­­—it’s so much extra planning and emails and don’s meetings. It’s a 24/7 job: you’re always on alert, and the hours you’re officially working are minuscule compared to the time you actually do. Even the extra time you put in going around and befriending people. I do think it takes away a bit from your academic experience. Three times this year I’ve taken residents to the hospital, twice spending over two hours there. That’s time I could have spent being a student. Or I’ll be at the library and get a text and have to come back. The night before an essay is due, that’s when someone has a problem. I’m sure there would be other people who say that it takes away from your social experience, which I disagree with because those aren’t the kind of people who apply to be an RA. It’s not that I think we should be paid shift work, but I feel as though we should be paid at least the price of the single that we need to do our job. I would have applied regardless, but you could get more applicants if it was more appealing.

Heather Webster Mount Allison Students’ Union Vice-President, Campus Life Residence assistants are an integral part of life in residence at Mount Allison. For most of us, residence life was also a major part of our Mount Allison experience and is a major part of the Mount Allison culture. Low RA compensation is something that has been talked about among students for a long time and this year I decided to take it on as a project. I have been compiling a report on RA compensation, which will be released to the public in the next week. I have found that the house staff at Mount Allison are paid significantly less than residence assistants at other universities. The university argues that we don’t necessarily need to pay our RAs more because they do less work than RAs at other universities, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The university has also said that an increase in pay for RAs would mean cutting the number of positions, which results in fewer leadership opportunities for students. I believe that better RA pay would result in more RAs returning to residence for a second or third year, which would result in more experienced RAs, better residence life, and more students enjoying the residence experience and wanting to return to residence. Increased RA compensation is something I will continue fighting for to improve the residence experience for students.

Brandon Williams Hunton RA Mount Allison RAs, I believe, are under-compensated. Compared to other schools, you see that almost all other Atlantic Canadian universities’ RAs get their entire residence expenses covered, but you don’t see that here, so in that sense I think we are under-compensated.

The job also requires you to have a single room, which for some means paying extra from the previous year if you were living in a double, but there’s no compensation there. With that being said, you won’t hear an RA at Mount Allison complain about it, just because you know from the beginning that you aren’t doing it for the money. Being an RA is so many other things besides the job itself that the pay is an after thought. There are some nights that I think, “Oh wow, I am not getting paid enough for this,” but I think the good definitely outweighs the bad.

Rebecca Fardy Windsor RA As an RA in Windsor Hall, I have seen and dealt with various situations that go above and beyond the pay that we receive. People’s lives are in our hands at all hours of the day, twenty-four-seven. There is no turn-off switch to being an RA, yes we have scheduled duty, but emergencies will not always fall into those hours on the weekend. We have to be ready at a moment’s notice to drop what we are doing and take care of residents. I have dealt with everything from suicide, various disorders, and less critical situations. There are also people who now hate you because you are the rule enforcer and they can no longer do what they would like. The other troubling thing about being an RA is the fact that you are forced into a single room and a meal plan, and have no say in the matter. I did not choose to have the upgrade of the single room, and yet neither the meal plan nor residence is covered. If I have to be there for the residents and provide them a safe space according to the university, why should I have to pay for that? I thought I was getting paid, not me paying the university, to do a job for them.

expected to be available On campus

24/7

5304

= 0.47$/hr hrs a year

Cost for residence staff this year

Mt. A ADs make

$180,000 M t . A R A s m a ke

Mt. A SRAs make

per year

per year

$4,500 $2,400

per year

$2,500

RATIO OF RES STAFF TO SUDENTS

1:15 1:19 1:27 1:28 MTA

ACADIA

BISHOPS

ST.FX

ONLINE:

A HISTORY OF STRIKES IN SPORTS How Curt Flood changed economics in sports forever LACK OF FUNDING RESULTS IN MINIMAL DRUG TESTING What’s stopping varsity athletes from cheating?

SPORTS Mounties clinch AUS playoff berth February 6, 2014

required to keep the game out of reach came via Amanda Volcko, as she scored on a breakaway, fooling Huskies goaltender Rebecca Weagle glove-side. This gave the Mounties a 3-1 lead.

After Lindsay James was sent to the penalty box for holding halfway through the final period, the Mounties penalty kill was able to stand strong, and didn’t allow a goal from the dynamic SMU power play. Mt. A finished the upset and Martin was credited with the win, making seventeen of eighteen shots she faced.

With the win, the Mounties clinched a berth in the AUS playoffs. This is the fourth straight year the women have made the playoffs and the team will try to match their 2012 result, when they were able to go to the AUS Championship game. The team now has won seven of their last eight games, and are really heating up as they pursue the playoffs. They have a tough game against AUS-leading Saint Francis Xavier X-Women this Sunday at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre.

Mt. A dominates rival Huskies Colin Rennie Mount Allison continued their destruction of the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) women’s hockey conference as they took on the Saint Mary’s University (SMU) Huskies, and the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) Panthers. The Panthers sit in the bottom of the AUS, and the Mounties looked to take the mid-week matchup. The Huskies had only lost four games all season, but a solid team effort saw the Mounties prevail at home.

Last Wednesday night, the team travelled to UPEI to take on the Panthers. Samantha Bujold opened the scoring for the visiting Mounties, and the team opened up a four goal lead before the Panthers got on the board. Mt. A took the game by a final score of 4-1, and Amanda Volcko led the way, scoring one goal with two assists.

Mt. A was in tough against SMU on Sunday. The game was an intense matchup between second overall

The Mounties have won seven of their last eight games, and are poised to wreak havoc on the AUS playoffs. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) SMU and fifth-ranked Mt. A in AUS women’s hockey.

The Mounties pulled out an impressive 3-1 victory over one of the toughest teams in the conference. This matchup was pivotal as both teams look to gear up for their respective playoff runs.

SMU came in eight points ahead of Mt. A in the AUS standings, but the Mounties were able to put the underdog notion to rest in a convincing fashion. They played a strong

game to suppress SMU’s menacing offence.

The Mounties came out strong early on, with Samantha Bujold hammering in a rebound off a shot from the blue line by Emily van Diepen just under two minutes into the first period.

Mt. A went on to dominate nearly every facet of play throughout the first period, keeping pressure in the SMU end while limiting the quality of offensive chances generated

by opposing Huskies. The score was 1-0 Mt. A at the end of the first period. The Mounties were handily dictating the pace of the game and seemed poised to continue on into the second.

Mounties captain Kristen Cooze put the home side up 2-0 with a beautiful tip off a shot from Hailey Munroe.

Unfortunately for the Mounties, SMU responded right away, as Nicole Blanche buried the puck off a dump-in

Mt. A dominates Chargers after explosive first quarter Mounties win, but is short bench a concern moving forward?

Sam Shury

Ciculations Manager The Mount Allison women’s basketball team played games against the Crandall University Chargers and Dalhousie Agricultural Campus (Dal AC) Rams last weekend. They won the first against the Chargers, but lost in a low-scoring affair at home against the Rams.

Against the Chargers on Sunday, the Mounties put in a dominating performance, winning easily 71-42.

The Mounties never looked back after jumping out to an early 22-10 lead after the first quarter.

The Mounties forced the Chargers into twenty-five turnovers, and shot 42.6 per cent from the field compared to just thirty-one per cent from Crandall. The Mounties were led by Brooke Kelly’s twenty-two points, her second highest points total of the season. Taylor-Rae Côte and

Sara Mackellar also had impressive stat lines for Mt. A. Côte scored six points, grabbed nine rebounds, and had five assists, while Mackellar flirted with a triple-double at seven points, eight rebounds, and ten assists.

The Mounties game against the Dal AC Rams was certainly a frustrating one for the Mounties, as they managed just twenty-four points through the first three quarters, and ended up falling 52-41.

The Mounties were led by Brooke Kelly’s fifteen points and seven rebounds, along with Maddyson McDonald’s eleven points and five rebounds. The Rams, although they had just four players score all game, were led by a huge thirty point, ten rebound performance from guard Candace Reynolds. Reynolds shot 12-25 from the field for the game, including 4-5 from three-point range.

The Rams played a collapsing zone defence all game, effectively clogging up the middle and not giving the Mounties any easy lanes to the basket.

The Mounties struggled to solve the zone all afternoon, and were forced into a lot of long range shots that simply weren’t falling.

Mt. A attempted thirty threepointers in the game, but made just six, and shot just 14-76 from the

field overall. Although the Mounties are averaging nearly fifty-five points per game on the season, they have managed to top that just one time in their last seven games.

The offensive woes perhaps stem from a lack of depth for the Mounties, as head coach Matt Gamblin has been forced to shorten his bench due to injury problems. Four of the five Mounties starters played over thirty minutes Sunday, with McDonald playing all forty minutes.

While lack of depth certainly wasn’t the reason for the loss on Sunday, the Rams played just six players all game and had two starters play all forty minutes, but it may be a cause for concern for the Mounties going forward.

With players consistently logging such heavy minutes, the Mounties become much more vulnerable to foul trouble or a tired lineup in late-game situations.

The Mounties play two road games next weekend. They take on the University of King’s College Blue Devils Friday night in Halifax, and then travel to Charlottetown Sunday to play the Holland College Hurricanes.

argosy@mta.ca

that took an unlucky bounce and landed right in front of the Mounties’ net. That seemed to be the boost that SMU needed as the second period quickly turned into what could have been an absolute rout.

The Huskies dominated the Mounties for remainder of the period, forcing Mounties starting goalie Keri Martin to play her best to hold SMU off the board for the remainder of the frame.

The insurance marker

Colin Rennie is a member of the Mt. A cross-country club, and a correspondent for The Argosy.

OL YMPICS COOL FACTS C A N A DA ’ S

ON AVERAGE IT TAKES

GOLD MEDAL COUNT

18 HOURS

S U M M E R O LY M P I C S W I N T E R O LY M P I C S

TO MANUFACTURE AN

OLYMPIC MEDAL

Sochi 2014 will cost

$51 BILLION

CONDOMS will be available for purchase in the Olympic Village.

In 2012, London had 150 000 ready to distribute.

You could have built the tallest building in the world, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, thirty-four times with the $51 billion they will spend on the Sochi games.

METEORITE MEDALS The gold medals at Sochi will have pieces of the meteorite that crashed in Russia in 2013.

GOLD FOR EVERY SEASON Eddie Eagan is the only person to ever win gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games, winning light-heavyweight boxing and 4-man bobsled event for the USA. MOST CANADIAN GOLDS Women’s hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser could become the all time Canadian leader in gold medals at the Winter Olympics with four medals. She is currently tied with former Canadian Olympians: Marc Gagnon, Jayna Hefford, Jennifer Botterill, and Becky Kellar.

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

SPORTS

11

Mounties lead historic comeback Mt. A in top form against Mt. A stunned by Crandall Hurricanes, beat Dal AC Benjamin Foster Sports Writer

After splitting games last weekend against two of the tougher teams in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA), the women’s volleyball Mounties expected an easier weekend. They played against the Holland College Hurricanes, who had not won a match in the past season and a half, and the third place Dalhousie Agriculture Rams (Dal AC). Both matches were tougher than the Mounties expected, going down to the last points of the fifth set in both matches.

Playing Wednesday night in Prince Edward Island on just two days rest from their win the previous Sunday, the Mounties jumped out to a quick start over the Hurricanes winning the first two sets 25-23 and 25-20.

But then things went wrong for the Mounties and they dropped the next two by close scores of

Mt. A stunned Dal AC in last Sunday’s game. (Chris Donovan/Argosy) 25-23 and 26-24. They could not close out the match and it cost them, as they were not able to win the fifth set losing 1614. This gave Holland College their first win in thirteen games

and the Mounties their first bad loss of the year.

Back at home on Sunday, Mt. A looked to recover and they once again found themselves in a closely contested matchup

this time against a much better squad in Dal AC. The teams split the first two sets by identical scores of 25-19 and Dal AC won the third set by the same score. The Mounties then decided they would not let this weekend go to waste and found an extra gear to pull out a nervous fourth set 25-23.

The final set was even more nerve wracking for everyone at McCormack Gymnasium, as Dal AC led throughout and even had a chance to win the match leading 14-13. The Mounties rallied for three straight points to take the match 16-14.

“Paul (Settle) said that wins like this one tonight build character for a team,” setter Jasleen Singh said after the game. “Our team did not win the last two sets simply by using our skills but by having a killer attitude and a tremendous amount of determination.”

The Mounties still sit comfortably in second place with a record of nine wins and four losses. They have five games remaining in their regular season before hosting the ACAA playoffs. They will battle Holland College once again this Wednesday night at home.

Mt. A nearly knocks off favourites in ACAA clash Sam Shury

Ciculations Manager The Mounties men’s basketball team split a pair of games over the weekend. They lost 9993 to the Crandall University Chargers on Saturday, and beat the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus Rams 98-57 Sunday.

The Chargers are the best team in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) this year, and the Mounties knew they needed to play their best basketball to beat them.

The Mounties trailed 74-60 after three quarters, but clawed their way back to within one basket with less than a minute remaining. A defensive foul far from their basket, and an ensuing technical foul out of frustration, put the Chargers

at the free throw line for four shots in a row, and ultimately cost the Mounties the game.

Mount Allison shot 53.2 per cent from the field, compared to 42.4 per cent by the Chargers, but Crandall managed twentythree more field goal attempts.

The Mounties were led by a solid all-around effort from Kaleefah Henry, with nineteen points, six rebounds, and seven assists. Nathan Palmer also contributed fourteen points, five assists, and four steals.

Sunday’s game against the ACAA’s last-placed Rams was a much better matchup for the team. Mt. A seemed to be taking it easier after the emotionally-draining game the day before, as the Rams hung around through most of the first half. The second was a different story, as the Mounties really turned things up, winning by forty-one points.

The Mounties play two games on the road this weekend.

They take on the University of King’s College Blue Devils on Friday night and the Holland College Hurricanes on Sunday.

Better Know a Mountie Erica Cronkhite Benjamin Foster Sports Writer

The Mount Allison volleyball team is looking for their second Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) title in Erica Cronkhite’s tenure as libero. Cronkhite, who transferred from playing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) volleyball to an ACAA level team, has not regretted it for one second.

In her first year, Cronkhite played for the Saint Mary’s Huskies in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) and won the AUS conference title. But attending Saint Mary’s and playing on the Huskies volleyball team was not something that Cronkhite enjoyed.

“I did not like my team at Saint Mary’s and they did not treat me very well. After that season I was so discouraged that I did not care if I played volleyball again.”

The Fredericton native chose to transfer to Mt. A because she did not want to live at home but she wanted to be close to her parents. They could easily come see her play at Mt. A with the transfer.

Cronkhite had researched volleyball and talked to former coach Andrew Kennedy at Mt. A before transferring.

Once she got here she decided it was worth it to play.

“I was lucky that Mt. A’s libero was leaving and I could step right in. Very

quickly this team became like a family to me and my closest friends are on the team,” Cronkhite said.

One of those close friends is Caitlin MacDonald, who also transferred from an AUS school to Mt. A and was Cronkhite’s roommate in Campbell Hall during her first year at Mt. A. “We both came here our second year not knowing anyone so it was nice to have each other to get to know the ins and outs of Mt. A. Over our years together we have won an ACAA title and became very comfortable playing defence together on the court and I know she always has my back,” Macdonald said of her teammate.

In her first season at Mt. A, Erica helped propel the Mounties to an ACAA title. “We got pumped by Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) the first two times we faced them that season and then it was amazing to take them to five sets in our last regular season game even though we lost. In the playoffs we finally beat them and then upset University of New Brunswick (UNB) Saint John in the final,” Cronkhite said. “To be the underdog then to win the whole thing shows anything can happen.”

Cronkhite’s family has always been a big part of her life in sports and other activities. She names her parents and her grandmother as her role models. Cronkhite’s sister, Emily, is now a second year libero for the Saint Thomas University Tommies and the sisters have got the chance to

face off in front of their family over the past two seasons. Erica finally got the better of her sister this past month in two games and her family was there front and centre.

“Last year it sucked because when we lost to her, I always got an earful about it. So beating her these past two games finally gives me something to use against her,” she said. “My parents always come for my home games and will even travel to other games as well.

They are very involved in both mine and my sister’s sports, they live off of them so when we do not have them I’m not sure what they will do.”

The past two seasons Cronkhite has won back-to-back ACAA libero of the year awards, and made the allstar team both seasons. She was also named Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) player of the week and most valuable player on the Mounties last season.

“We started off slow finding chemistry with five rookies and a new coach, but [Coach Paul Settle] has been amazing and it developed fast and we’ve been great for the most part,” Cronkhite said of this year’s team.

“It’s been such a great experience playing with her over the past four years. She is such a valuable asset and I’m so happy to have gotten to play with her. I will never forget the memories and laughs we have had,” said teammate Georgia Sibold.

MacDonald put the goals of

Cronkhite has led Mt. A to a 9-4 record in the ACAA. (Sue Seaborn/Mount Allison) Cronkhite and the rest of her team best, “It would be awesome to win a championship in our first and last year

together, it would be the best way to go out.”

ONLINE:

CLIMATE CHANGE WEEK HITS TANTRAMAR REGION A full lineup of events planned to rouse environmental interest HALO 2: ANNIVERSARY RUMOURED FOR RELEASE Microsoft president has not denied the claim

SCIENCE

February 6, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

China’s ‘Jade Rabbit’ rover ends Moon mission Chinese officials give first-person account for rover Allison O’Reilly Science Editor

China’s first lunar rover will be meeting its untimely demise due to malfunctioning mechanical controls.

The rover, named Jade Rabbit, may not wake up from a scheduled dormant period during the upcoming lunar night, official Chinese news sources warn.

The rover’s touchdown on the moon on Dec. 14, 2013 made China the third country in history to land an object on the moon, following missions by the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Lunar nights, which are a fourteenday period in which the Moon is in shadow, have temperatures that plunge to -170 degrees Celsius. The Jade Rabbit is powered by solar panels, so it must enter into a hibernation state in order to preserves its core systems.

For unknown reasons, this transition has not been possible, and it is unlikely that the rover will not recover once the lunar night has passed. If the rover fails to ‘wake up’ after two weeks, China may decide to scrap the three-month mission altogether.

Jade Rabbit, however, is taking its impending doom in stride. Chinese authorities have taken a bizarre approach to discussing the rover’s malfunctions. Xinhua News Agency has published a ‘first-person account’ that gave the robot a personality, and prepared the Chinese public for the possibility of the rover’s demise.

“If this journey must come to an early end, I am not afraid. Whether or not the repairs are successful, I believe even my malfunctions will provide my masters with valuable information and experience. Even so, I know I may not make it through this lunar night,” reads an excerpt.

Personification of this sort is common for Chinese media. State news outlets are known for assigning heroic characteristics to non-human items in propaganda events in order to ‘drum up national pride’.

The report even mentions the spacecraft that transported the rover to

the moon, Chang’e, and asked readers to ‘take care’ of the ship in the rover’s absence.

“If I really cannot be fixed, when the time comes, I hope everyone will remember to help me comfort her.”

Jade Rabbit’s unofficial Weibo

“Good night, planet Earth. Good night humanity.” account, China’s version of Twitter, has been overflowing with messages

of sympathy. One user, named Amaniandlove, wrote, “You have done a great job Yutu. You have endured extreme hot and cold temperatures and show [sic] us what we have never seen. Hope you get well soon, but no matter what, it is your presence that makes [the Moon] about 390,000 kilometres away dazzling.”

Approximately half of all lunar missions have failed. In comparison, more than half of all missions to Mars have also fallen short. Despite this setback, Chinese officials plan to undergo other ambitious projects.

Honours Profile

Environmental News

Maria Wilson

Olivia White

Allison O’Reilly Science Editor

Maria Wilson is a fourth-year chemistry honours student working with Steve Westcott.

Her thesis is entitled “Synthesis and anti-tuberculosis properties of copper hydroxypyridinones.”

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria.

Tuberculosis typically infects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. TB is still quite a threat in a lot of developing countries, and mycobacterium tuberculosis is becoming increasingly resistant to drugs. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis has been found to be resistant to two of the most widely used drug treatments, isoniazid and rifampin, and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis is also resistant to both, plus other treatments, including fluoroquinonlone.

Tuberculosis is also prominent in the AIDS community, and results in many deaths annually.

Due to the increased resistance, the pressure is on to develop new drugs to combat tuberculosis, and to decrease the length of treatment regimens (it often takes several months). Research has shown that current tuberculosis drug activity is increased when combined with metal, with copper being especially useful.

Copper has been known to have antimicrobial

Maria Wilson poses with a ligand sample in Steve Westcott’s lab. (Allison O’Reilly/Argosy) properties for centuries.

Nowadays, researchers have been coordinating new drugs to copper, as well as current ones, in order to increase their activity. Wilson has been using maltol (a naturally occurring organic compound) and amine compounds to make ligands for copper. She is doing this in hopes of testing them against tuberculosis strains later in the term.

In order to synthesize ligands, Wilson has been using a technique called microwave synthesis. This method involves using a vessel to put reactions in, which is then subjected

to microwave irridation. The advantages of this method include a quicker reaction time, using less solvent, and producing more yields.

Microwave synthesis also allows for some reactions to occur that typically wouldn’t under regular conditions.

Wilson is currently in the synthesis phase of her research.

Thus far, she has created the maltol control, and is working on synthesizing new copper ligand compounds for tuberculosis testing.

Wilson chose to study chemistry after being interested in the subject in high school,

The nation’s first orbital space lab, Tiangong-1, has been launched, with plans to launch Tiangong-2 in 2015.

Also, a full-scale space station is scheduled for launch by 2020.

“I’ve said a lot today, yet still feel like it’s not enough,” Jade Rabbit writes in its concluding paragraph.

“I’ll tell everyone a secret. Actually, I’m not feeling especially sad. Just like any other hero, I’ve only encountered a little problem while on my own adventure.

“Good night, planet Earth. Good night, humanity.”

though it was the research aspect of the program that appealed to her the most.

“When I first came to [Mount Allison], I was interested in problem solving, and real life applications,” Wilson said. “Research is a lot of hard work, but it’s really rewarding.”

After completion of her undergraduate degree, Wilson hopes to complete her master’s in a health related field. She has applied to programs in both health promotion amd community health and epidemiology.

A United States State Department report was released last Friday, detailing the potential environmental effects of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The report largely downplayed the effects of the pipeline on the environment.

The Keystone XL pipeline is a 1897 km long pipeline originating in Hardisty, Alta. and travelling south to Steele City, Nebraska. It would bring 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries in America. This $5.4 billion USD project is proposed

by TransCanada Corp, a large energy infrastructure company.

The report, which spans eleven volumes, stated that if the pipeline were to be constructed, it would not significantly elevate greenhouse gas emissions. It noted that whether or not the Keystone pipeline would be built, carbon emissions from the tar sands would continue, with the crude oil simply being shipped elsewhere, or through a different mode of transportation.

Greenhouse gas emissions derived from bitumen production are seventeen per cent higher than the average barrel of crude oil used in the United States.

United States President Barack Obama said last summer that he would not approve the pipeline if it heightened carbon pollution from the oil sands.

The pipeline has become largely symbolic of Obama’s approach to climate change issues. He has avoided making concrete decisions about the pipeline’s approval since the project was proposed five years ago.

The long, drawn-out approval process associated with pipeline development are the result of intense pressure from environmental groups to reduce the United States’ dependence on environmentally unfriendly tar sands oil. Pressure to approve the pipeline is rising as oil-by-rail has gone beyond its own capacity, with an increasing number of train derailments and harmful spills of petroleum products from damaged train cars. Republicans, lobbyists from the tar sands industry, and the Canadian government, are also all pressuring for approval.

There is another threemonth-long review process and no firm deadline for the project to be approved. United States Secretary of State John Kerry said he has to consult with a number of government agencies over the next three months to assess the broader economic, environmental, and national security impacts of the proposed pipeline before approving or rejecting it. The report released this week still leaves many questions unanswered and is far from providing a green light toward the pipeline’s approval.

ONLINE: EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES ONLINE

The Argosy

www.argosy.ca

EVENTS Intercordia Presentation

t r a n s f e r t o t h e B FA program

T h u r s d ay Fe b. 6 , 7 – 8pm Avard Dixon Room 111 International D e v e l o p m e n t We e k Intercordia is currently accepting applications for summer p r o g r a m s . To l e a r n more, come to the information session o r v i s i t w w w. i n t e r cordiacanada.org.

Spanish Film Fe s t i v a l

Employment & Career Fair

We d n e s d a y F e b . 1 2 , 6 – 9pm Crabtree Auditorium The Student Success Course is designed to help build the research, writing, critical thinking, s t u d y, n o t e - t a k i n g , and time management skills that will help students succeed in their courses.

Fr i d ay Fe b. 7 , 10am – 2pm W M S C Tw e e d i e H a l l All students are invited to the annual Summer Employment Fa i r. T h i s i s y o u r chance to meet with local and regional employers to find out about upcoming work o p p o r t u n i t i e s . Fo r more information: careers@mta.ca or 364-2226.

Deadline for returning students - B FA

M on d ay Fe b. 1 0 , 8:30am – 4:30pm Dead line for returning students to apply to

SHIP’S LOG

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

M on d ay Fe b. 1 0 - 1 4 , 6 – 8:30pm Sir James Dunn Mini Wu S p a n i s h F i l m Fe s t i v a l Please contact Natalie Pauley for more details at 506-3642478.

Student Success Course

The Sweetest Little Thing

Fr i d ay Fe b. 1 4 , 7:30pm - 12am Royal Canadian Legion Presented in partners h i p o n Va l e n t i n e ’ s D a y, T h e S w e e t e s t Little Thing combines a contemporary

art auction with a cake walk and dance!

V i s i t w w w. s w e e t estlittlething.ca to look at the amazing artwork donated by our members and friends and listen t o t h i s y e a r ’s s w e e t j i n g l e by B oxe r s . Fo r more information please contact: Amanda Fauteux at Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Centre (info@ s t r u t s g a l l e r y. c a ) or Rebecca Blankert at the Owens Art Gallery (owens@mta. ca).

A RT S & M U S I C Windsor Thea t r e ’s N o i s e s O f f

T h u r s d ay Fe b. 6 S a t u rd ay Fe b. 8 , 8 – 10:30pm Convocation Hall Tickets on Sale for 5 $ S t u d e n t / S e n i o r, 10$ General. Paywhat-you-can will b e T h u r s d a y, F e b r u a r y 6 t h . Fo r T i c k e t s and reservations call 364-2234 during business hours, or stop by! Office is located in the basement of Con Hall.

Diomira

S a t u rd ay Fe b. 8 , 8 – 10pm D i o m i r a’s m u s i c e x plores diverse literary and cultural influences: from the Pe r s i a n p o e t r y o f Omar Khayyam and the fantastical prose of Jorge Luis Borges, to the sensuality of flamenco and the intricate rhythms of the Indian classical tradition. Numbers are limited, so ord e r e a r l y ! Fo r ad d i tional information, v i s i t w w w. m t a . c a / d e p a r t m e n t s / Pe r formingArts Contact: Margaret Ann Craig, 364-2662, performarts@mta.ca

T h e A n g r y Yo u n g Musical

We d n e s d a y F e b . 1 2 , 4 – 5pm Conservatory of Music Colloquium Musicum S e r i e s : D r. E l i z a b e t h We l l s : “ T h e A n g r y Yo u n g M u s i c a l ” : John Osborne, S oho, and British National I d e n t i t y. ” A d m i s sion is free, all are we l c om e. Fo r m o re information e-mail us at music@mta.ca

Va g i n a Monologues

T h u r s d ay Fe b. 6 S a t u rd ay Fe b. 8 , 7:30pm Dunn Tickets will be sold in the Student Centre and in Jennings.

Tickets can also be reser ved by emailing vaginamonolgues@ mta.ca. All proceeds will be donated to Autumn House, a w o m e n’s s h e l t e r i n Amherst, and the V Day Spotlight Campaign.

S P O RT S Swimming

Fr i d ay Fe b. 7 S u n d ay Fe b. 9 Memorial Subway AUS Championship

Wo m e n ’ s H o c k e y

Away Game Fr i d ay Fe b. 7 , 7 : 3 0 pm Mt. A vs. UNBSJ

Wo m e n ’ s Vo l l y b a l l

Home Game S u n d ay Fe b. 9 , 2:00pm Mt. A vs. USA

Wo m e n ’ s B a s k e t ball Away Game Fr i d ay Fe b. 7 , 6 pm M t . A v s . U KC

Wo m e n ’ s Basketball

Away Game S u n d ay Fe b. 9 , 2 pm Mt. A vs. HC

M e n’s B a s k e t b a l l Away Game Fr i d ay Fe b. 7 , 8 pm M t . A v s . U KC

Away Game S a t u rd ay Fe b. 8 , 7:00pm Mt. A vs. Moncton

M e n’s B a s k e t b a l l

Wo m e n ’ s H o c k e y

Badminton

Home Game TVMCC S u n d ay Fe b. 9 , 4:45pm Mt. A vs. St. FX

Away Game S u n d ay Fe b. 7 , 4 pm Mt. A vs. HC Away Game S a t u rd ay Fe b. 8 , 10am D a l AC

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The Argosy is hiring its

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

Qualifications:

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

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

Please submit a cover letter and resume to:

argosy@mta.ca Applications due:

at midnight

ARTS&LITERATURE

ONLINE:

HONENS LAUREATE PERFORMS AT MTA Russia’s Pavel Kolesnikov delivers intimate guest recital MILK BAR OPERA TO DEBUT AT MT.A Music department to present new contemporary opera

February 6, 2014

argosy@mta.ca

Mt. A students use theatre for social change CIS hosts Theatre of the Oppressed workshop Julia McMillan

Arts & Literature Editor

We all know that art can entertain us, but what is sometimes overlooked is that art can also teach us to change our social ideology.

This is the philosophy behind Theatre of the Oppressed, an international organization and theatre practice that uses theatre to create social and political change.

Mount Allison students were introduced to this form of artistic activism last weekend when Theatre of the Oppressed director and facilitator Luciano Iogna presented a workshop and public lecture through the Centre for International Studies (CIS).

Facilitator Luciano Iogna leads participants through a series of exercises during the CIS sponsored workshop. (Natalie Brunet/Submitted) Iogna, a Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre specialist, has worked in countries all over the world to use theatre as a means of political and social change.

During his CIS sponsored lecture, Iogna explained that the Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre are participatory forms of theatre that were developed to engage

spectators (or “spect-actors”) in political issues by giving them the opportunity to become active participants in the creation of theatre.

Throughout his public discussion Jan. 31, Iogna shared his experiences of working with oppressed groups of people in the Ukraine, India, and Turkey.

In each case, he used theatre

Debut Joypuke issue released Underbridge Press presents new literary journal Daniel Marcotte

Arts & Literature Writer As bright and colourful as it is thought-provoking, the long anticipated literary journal Joypuke released its inaugural issue last week to join the likes of other Mt. A affiliated journals Zettel and 7 Mondays. Produced and published entirely by Mount Allison students through the Underbridge Press, Joypuke compiles works of poetry, prose, and creative nonfiction.

Unlike other literary journals at Mount Allison, Joypuke includes several works from outside the student community, and features submitted works all across the country.

“It’s different in scope because it reaches farther than other journals,” said Underbridge Press founder and President Elijah Teitelbaum in his address during the Joypuke launch. “It excites us a lot at the Press to be able to engage these different writers from all over.”

After their publication of Taylor Losier’s fantasy novel Ragged last January, the Underbridge Press agreed they

should invest in producing an annual literary journal.

“It’s good to provide more opportunities and more possibilities for students,” said Teitelbaum in an interview after the journal’s release. “It gives a new way [that] we can engage with publishing and really pull people in.”

One of the primary mandates of the Underbridge Press is to provide an opportunity for students to acquire practical skills and experience related to production and publication.

“Because half of our existence is about engaging with publishing processes, what happens inside of the Press is incredibly important to us,” explained Teitelbaum.

He also believes that these processes are their own artistic medium, as decisions about how to construct and frame a collection of literary works require an interpretive element.

“It’s creative in a different way because it’s not content creation. It’s like curation, if you think of it in terms of an art gallery,” said Teitelbaum.

“You’re taking a writer’s work and saying ‘Where do we want it placed, how do we want it represented, and how is this going to affect the reader’s experience?’”

In addition to their publication mandate, Teitelbaum believes that fostering an engaged and discursive literary culture at Mount Allison and within the Sackville community is

of the utmost importance.

To accomplish this, The Underbridge Press has hosted monthly “Open Mic” reading events at Thunder and Lightning to promote the arts and help develop an educational and enjoyable writing community. “[In this way,] people can engage not just with literature [...] and their own writing but also with each other,” said Teitelbaum.

The Joypuke overseer and Underbridge president also said that one appealing aspect of the publication process is the insight it offers into contemplating the implications of compilation and book production. He believes it encourages inquiry into the definitions of books and literature as abstract entities, particularly pertaining to the power associated with choosing a poem or a story and publishing it for the viewing public. “I think the form of the book and the experience of the book is incredibly important for the experience of literature, but it’s not all that literature is,” said Teitelbaum.

Joypuke looks forward to releasing their next annual issue towards the end of the next fall semester, or possibly early January 2015. They hope to increase the amount of content in their next publication, with the addition of longer prose pieces.

Copies of Joypuke are $6 and can be purchased at Tidewater Books or ordered from the Underbridge Press via email at underbridge@mta.ca.

workshops, like the one he was to conduct with Mt. A students, as an avenue to explore systematic oppression on both a general and specific scale. In each instance, participants and spect-actors were able to openly discuss a taboo issue because they used the play as both a catalyst and a buffer zone for discussion, thereby protecting individuals,

while beginning to make real life changes.

Following the discussion, a group of students from a variety of academic disciplines worked with Iogna to create their own Theatre of the Oppressed experience, with the aim of learning how to use theatre as a tool for global development and engagement. “[I want participants to come

away with an understanding] of the potential of form theatre as a tool in terms of education and social change,” Iogna said.

“For this group specifically, in terms of global development and where they can take it as a tool to help them work with different communities” The Mt. A group chose to examine the issue of domestic violence against women in their performances. After a spirited discussion provoked by the topic, they broke up into small groups to create their own scenes in an effort to talk about a pressing, yet sensitive social issue.

Participant Franziska Glen was particularly interested in learning about the concept of theatre with a conscience, like Theatre of the Oppressed. “[With this form of theatre], you’re not only creating entertainment,” Glen said, “You’re creating reactions, provoking people in either positive or negative ways, but always getting people to think.”

MASU approves 7 Mondays levy for 2014 Issues with constitution appealed and corrected Daniel Marcotte & Julia McMillan

Arts & Literature Staff

After a year of failed funding campaigns, 7 Mondays will collect its $3 student levy next year.

The Mount Allison Students’ Union reversed its interpretation of the January referendum results after 7 Mondays pointed out that MASU had approved funding for other projects with much lower support from students at the ballot box in previous years.

In January’s referendum results, MASU ruled that 7 Mondays did not pass referendum because with a 64.8 per cent majority, the society failed to achieve a twothirds majority. However, as 7 Mondays President Karissa LaRocque outlined during her official appeal to council on Feb. 3, both MASU’s online bookstore and the Centre for International Studies had levies approved during the spring 2013 elections with 54.2 per cent and 53.9 per cent

of students voting in favour of their referendum question, respectively.

The inconsistency between the 2013 and the 2014 referendum results arise from a contradiction between the MASU’s constitution and its operating procedures.

The 2013 questions passed because the operating procedure VII states that referenda only need to achieve a simple majority of fifty per cent plus one to pass, unless they are constitutional changes, in which case they require a two-thirds majority. Because 7 Mondays does not fall into the category of a constitutional change, the society’s question should pass with their 64.8 per cent majority, according to the operating procedure.

However, the MASU Constitution, which carries precedence over both bylaws and operating procedures, makes no mention of this distinction, and only states that a two-thirds majority is required for referenda to be “deemed binding.” Therefore, as LaRocque points out, an inherent contradiction exists between the constitution and the operating procedures in regard to referenda policies.

During the council meeting, MASU President Melissa O’Rourke recognized the “grey area” resulting from this conflicting information.

MASU proceeded to consult

with their lawyer about the issue, who said that the 7 Mondays referendum fell under the category of “nonbinding” because the voting results came between fifty per cent plus one and a two-thirds majority, therefore requiring a secondary stage of approval by council.

With that, O’Rourke put forth a motion to approve the 7 Mondays referendum to correct this discrepancy, and the motion passed, with twelve council members in favour and two opposed.

Vice-President, Academic Affairs Ryan Harley said that although council has the final say with regards to approved but non-binding referenda results, a fifty per cent plus one majority is indicative of sufficient student support for a referendum and that this should be respected. He said that if council voted against a referendum that more than half of voting students had already approved, they would be directly opposing the decisions and desires of the student body.

The issue remains that MASU’s operating procedures, bylaws, and constitution appear to contain flaws and contradictions with respect to referenda policy. The council plans to rectify and review these inconsistencies in the near future.

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CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS Posted online weekly STOP WASTING YOUR TIME ONLINE Important issues versus cute animals

HUMOUR

Across 1. Swagger 6. Otherwise 10. Shut a door forcefully 14. Long periods of geologic time 15. Sixty-four in Roman numerals 16. Sage 17. Mark 18. Wheel shaft 19. Radiate 20. The act of adding notes 22. Assistant 23. Take to court 24. Self-conscious laugh

26. Pursuer 30. Strong sexual desires 32. Solitary 33. Adjoin 35. Water park slide 39. Exceed 41. Registered nursing assistant 42. Employed 43. Great fear 44. Stiff and sore 46. Knell 47. Rugged 49. What’s left behind 51. Bar 54. Famous boxer

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13. Almost 40 inches 21. Emanation 25. Skin irritation 26. Dolt 27. 60 minutes 28. Initial wager 29. A trait of dignified seriousness 30. Midday meal 31. Great Salt Lake state 34. Boast 36. Murres 37. Canvas dwelling 38. Border 40. Smell

45. Scream 48. Agreement 50. Short for “situation comedy” 51. Notes 52. Really love 53. A temporary stay 54. A long narrow passage 57. A Roman emperor 58. Accomplishment 59. A strong line 60. Away from the wind 61. Civil wrong 62. Historical periods

Down 1. Epic 2. Cousin of a gull 3. Horse color 4. Cancel 5. Spreads sleeping sickness 6. Cheer up 7. Seventy-one in Roman numerals 8. Fodder holder 9. Things that happen 10. Pullover 11. Throttle 12. Comment to the audience

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

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