Open mic poetry night draws stellar attention

Eva Rachert, News Editor » thecampus.news@gmail.com

Colin Ahern - Opinions Editor

Photo Courtesy of Bryn Shoshannah Jones Square

Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square organized a live poetry event on Dec. 16, 2022. This event featured live music, paintings, and poetry, and lasted a little over three hours with many guest speakers. The event was catered by Sodexo and offered free wine and food for whoever was interested. Naaz Sidhu, a student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, B.C., performed at multiple points during the event as a guest speaker. She flew in from British Columbia to perform some of her very powerful spoken word poetry. Sidhu touched largely on her experience as a woman of color and immigrant in Canada. Alex Bergeron, a musician in the band, Year of Glad, performed a piece that seeks to create ambient soundscapes, focusing on a technical and precise style. Alex Bergeron described Year of Glad as a band that entices the listener to become enraptured in the many layers of complexity that was found in their music.

Eric Manolson’s piano playing accompanied a few videos about his research in battling Alzheimer’s through music. His inspiring videos revealed his lifelong dedication to music as a means of healing. Manolson accompanied Markayza Mitchell’s performance of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”. Eric’s performance ended with an original protest song that blended musical elements from Bobby McGuire and Bob Dylan into a new and distinct piece. Following Manolson, the show became an open mic venue for poetry. There were many moving and powerful performances that followed. Literature students seized this venue as an opportunity to showcase the best of their writing. After the early performances, the crowd was electric and grew in fervor with each unique and highly stylistic performance from the students.

At the end of the event, conversation did not stop. Most performers mingled and exchanged information. The sentiment surrounding this event was clear; it was a complete success and demanded an encore. Many professors who had attended spoke about the need for these sorts of events and congratulated Dr. Square for organizing such a successful event.

With about a month having passed since the event, it is clear that excitement around the evening has not faded and there is interest to run another poetry night during the winter semester of 2023.

SRC Extra Day promotes student

involvement Bea Rouse - Contributor

SRC Extra Day – previously known as Club Day – took place on the first day of classes, Jan. 11 from 1:00-3:30 p.m. in the Gait. The event has changed its name from “Club Day” due to the inclusion of groups such as the Indigenous Cultural Alliance (@ bu_ica_), the Jewish Student Association (@bishopsjsa), the Caribbean African Students Association (@ubishopscasa), the Sexual Culture Committee (@ busexualculturecommittee), and Muslim Student Association (@msabishops) on Instagram – which are not under the “club” designation. Clubs, groups, teams, and associations arrived 15 minutes early to set up their assigned stations, which were positioned to form an open circle in the Gait. run midday on the first day of classes – potentially inconvenient for some students, but receiving still an impressive turn out. Each table presented their own display: a trifold board, a flag, a poster, a sign-up sheet, or in particularly fun cases, candy. The American Sign Language (ASL) Club (@buaslclub) and Bishop’s University Pride Alliance (BUPA - @bupridealliance) handed out candy and pride flags respectively and were met with enthusiastic attention. It was a chance to be creative, meet new people, and promote your group.

Some departments also have societies which attend SRC Extra Day. The Sports Studies Society (@bu_sposo), Science Society (@busciencesociety), English Literature Society (@englit_ubishops), and the Astronomy, Mathematics & Physics Society (@buamps) were some of the societies in attendance this semester. For those wanting to meet more students with similar academic pursuits, these groups are a fantastic way to get connected.

Outside the Gait in the SUB, Bishop’s International set up a table during the first few days of the new term for incoming international students to learn about the campus and how to navigate it.

For people who were not able to join SRC Extra Day, the SRC Extra Instagram page (@ busrc.extra) has a full list of all the clubs, groups, societies, and associations currently active this year. It is also a good platform to follow for notifications on campus extracurriculars, from Eco-Week events to new club announcements to occasional department wine and cheese notices. With events starting up again this semester, now is a great time to find people with similar interests or backgrounds and make new friends!

Eva Rachert, News Editor » thecampus.news@gmail.com

Unseasonably mild winter in Québec a reminder of climate change

Eva Ratcher- News Editor

Much of Quebec missed out on the typical white Christmas this year as mild temperatures and rain made for a warm winter break. Winter sports and activities have had a late start, and travellers have been stranded by the unseasonable storms. The local ski season started off weeks later than it typically does, with ski hills relying heavily on manufactured snow. Several local mountains have not yet fully opened and few people are turning up on the slopes. Mont Sutton, which lost power for multiple days in late December, has yet to open several chairlifts and trails. Bromont has opened just over half of the hill. Few cross-country ski routes have opened. While American tourists have been filling up the resorts, people across Canada have been noting unusual winter weather. For much of late December and early January, Montreal’s high was above 0 degrees, where typically the city would be averaging at -4 in other years. The average low was only -1 degrees Celsius, as opposed to the typical -14. While weather this mild is rare for Montreal, it has grown increasingly more commonplace in the last 20 years. These weather patterns in December and January have only occurred five times since 1875; however, three of these occurrences have taken place since 2007. In December of 2007, the city hit a record high of 12 degrees. In Sherbrooke, the weather patterns are similar, with an average of -1 degrees in the last two weeks. Nearly every ice-skating rink remains unopened, and those that are open have less than ideal conditions, having melted and refrozen several times over. The unseasonably warm weather serves as a grim reminder of the effects that climate change will have on Eastern Canada. Québec’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are some of the highest in the world, with poor plans from the provincial government to address and lower the production of emissions. Southern Ontario and Quebec are expected to warm almost twice as quickly as much of the rest of the world, and Northern Quebec is expected to warm three times as quickly. Future winters in Quebec are predicted to be approximately 5 degrees warmer than previous winters. This will likely lead to increased frequency of flash floods in the region, which the current infrastructure is poorly prepared for. Winter is on its way, with temperatures expected to dip to seasonal averages in the coming weeks. Freezing rain is forecasted to hit the city, and the Eastern Townships can expect a wet winter. However, in future winters, Quebec can expect to experience the consequences of climate change more severely.

Job Posting

Ever thought about working for Bishop’s after graduation?Have you enjoyed your experience at Bishop’s? Do you want to bring that experience to others? Are you looking for some awesome post-grad work experience? If yes, this job could be for you!Here is what to expect / what we do: Briefly, the Recruitment and Retention Office is responsible for recruiting new Gaiters to Bishop’s. Our Recruitment Officers represent the university throughout Canada, and across the world, both virtually and in person. When not visiting schools or taking part in fairs, our staff is performing all the important administrative tasks involved with the position.For more information and to learn how to apply, follow the link below! If interested, please send your CV and Cover Letter to careers@ubishops.ca by January 29th, 2023 at 4 pm.

The Recruitment and Retention Office

Colin Ahern, Opinions Editor » thecampus.opinions@gmail.com

Financial strain of living on campus

Eva Rachert- News Editor

Housing options in Lennoxville are plentiful, but the benefits of each can easily be lost in the rush to get a lease. Off-campus, students can choose from a variety of apartments, houses, and studios — often signing leases as early as October of the year prior to moving in. The large variations in pricing and duration of lease are typically the main issues that students face when finding a place to stay. On campus, however, options are more limited. Students can choose between apartment style dorms, a single room, or a shared room, depending on their priorities. At Bishop’s, the only apartment-style residence is Paterson Hall, located on the back of the campus, behind Dewies. Each apartment contains four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a communal kitchen and living room area. Paterson Hall is primarily inhabited by upper year students, who live with friends or are randomly assigned roommates. Paterson students, who have access to kitchens, are the only students in residence who are not obligated to pay for a meal plan through Dewies. Living in Paterson gives students more room and more independence than other dormitories, but costs more than other rooms, and requires students to live with roommates. Single rooms in the bog-style residence halls are the most popular rooms among firstyear students. A bog is a single room that shares a bathroom with one neighbour. The building is a typical residence in other respects, such as a communal kitchen, common rooms, and laundry facilities. Munster, Abbott, and Kuehner Halls, as well as the new residence, are all bog-style, giving students some independence while still providing them an easier social life through their bog mates and frequent RA-hosted events. Students who want to meet more people on campus, who want to be on the meal plan, and who want more modernized dormitories will benefit from bog-style living. However, bog-style residences are more expensive than traditionalstyle residences, and, in addition to rent, students are also required to pay for the meal plan, making this residence style unaffordable for many students. Students looking for a more economical option will benefit from the rooms offered in the traditional-style residence of Mackinnon. Mackinnon is the most affordable residence offered at Bishop’s, with shared bathrooms and rooms that have not been recently renovated, but available in singles or with a roommate. Instead of the double beds and larger rooms available in bog-style residences, traditional residences offer twin beds and small rooms. The variations in price are not great enough to account for the difference in quality between traditionalstyle and bog- and apartment-style residences.

Students applying for on-campus housing for the first time would benefit most from bogstyle residences than traditional residences, since traditional rooms are poorer quality for price. Upperyear students who want to stay on

Forming a poetry club

Colin Ahern and Isabelle Callan- Opinions Editor and Contributor

campus typically apply to Paterson, though many who want to remain in dorm-style residence live in Abbott Hall. Students should try to avoid traditional style in favour of the more attractive residences on campus.

The absence of a poetry club is a huge missed opportunity for students at Bishop’s. After the Empathy, Social Justice, and the Arts event took place on Dec. 16, it was clear that there is no shortage of poetry on campus. The event, a poetry reading night featuring poet Naaz and hosted by Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square, was extremely popular and begged the question: Why is there no poetry club if there is this much interest? This would be an invaluable club to form as it could serve as an intersection for much of the creative writing done at Bishop’s. The club could meet biweekly and focus on the sharing of ideas and themes among different forms of poetry. Similarly, with the existing solid foundation of writers, this club could be an access point for new writers to get feedback and assistance. The nature of the club has many advantages since professors from the English department could serve as guest speakers. Students within the club would become more acquainted with the English literature professors, and students outside the department would still be able to receive high quality feedback on their literary forays. A poetry club serves as a venue to sharpen creative writing skills, something that classes often do not sharpen, instead assigning argumentative essays. Similarly, for many English students, classes that cover literature offer few opportunities to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom. A poetry club would offer students a forum to creatively engage with the material they have encountered in the classroom. Students who minor in literature have even fewer opportunities to engage in writing, since they have a stricter set of classes to attend that are focused largely on contextualizing English as a discipline (although the English department also offers minors in English, film and media studies, and communications). For example, in most 100-level English classes, teachers will use poems and short stories to provide context for different periods of literature. Unfortunately, these classes rarely have the time to offer an opportunity for students to write poetry of their own because of the scope of the class. A club would encourage students to apply this knowledge while working with peers who are similarly interested in improving their writing skills. Photo Courtesy of Emily Crunican