The Cannon February 2020

THE CANNON SkuleTM’s Newspaper since 1978

cannon.skule.ca

FEBRUARY 2020, Volume XLII

OPINION

More Femininity and Less Passivity in Engineering rest of my class, I was the best at math. Teachers and family members called me There was actually a time ‘the engineer’ for as long as when I was equal to the other I could remember. I didn’t boys. In fact, I thought I was even know what the word better than them. really meant until well after Growing up, I was those days. surrounded by the males There was that beautiful in my family. I was a little time when I couldn’t aggressive around the edges genuinely tell the difference and I played a lot of video between a man’s and woman’s games. I was the tomboy and (stereotypical) role in society.

I even had the short haircut I even had a rationale as to prove it. Compared to the to why women were an NEETHA PARAMESWARAN Cannon Writer

intellectually superior race over men. I figured, well, I am a female, and I’m the best in this room. So, that has to be representative of something, right?

As a little girl, I imagined the future to be very different from what actually ended up happening. Embarrassingly enough, I dreamt of a future where I had become some world-renowned neurosurgeon or an insanely genius NASA scientist.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Some people are achieving those dreams here every day, in front of our very eyes. And I will always wonder about how they’re doing it, but I’m not hating. I have my own path to pursue.

So, things didn’t turn out the way I had once hoped for, and I have changed.

And I will admit that growing up in a South Asian household instilled some level of competitiveness

in me. My parents always compared me to the next child, boy or girl, and I just knew I had to be better than them.

I always called out ‘first’, whether it was running up to stand in line or finishing a set of math problems. I counted the orange Smarties faster than the rest of the other kids once and yelled ‘first’ then too.

Femininity continued on page 3

OPINION

Campus Residences for International Students SMRITI MEHROTRA Cannon Editor According to 201819 statistics, UofT has a total of 91,286 enrolled students, out of which 61,690 students study at the St. George campus.

To accommodate such a large student population, the St. George campus offers about ten different residences, the most well-known being Innis, Chestnut and St Michael’s.

At first glance, having so many options for housing may seem impressive, but from personal experience, your preference for your residence is barely taken

into consideration by the university.

When I applied for housing as a first-year international student, the long list of possible residences and all the facilities they had to offer amazed me. I studied each residence and their eligibility criteria and ranked the ones I preferred based on a few factors. All that planning went to waste because when I received a residence offer, it was from Chestnut Residence, a residence I had ranked last on my list - literally the last on my list of more than ten residence options. To this day, I don’t know why

A History of Godiva Week page 10 & 11

they even offered any of the other residences, as my preferences were definitely not taken into account. I was confused by this result, and being the naïve kid that I was before joining UofT, I thought I could request for a residence change; but of course, UofT doesn’t work that way. I got a reply from the administration politely informing me that I was free to reject the residence offer from Chestnut, but as a result will not be considered by any other on-campus residence for that academic semester.

Residences continued on page 4

Nobody page 13

CHESTNUT RESIDENCE CREDIT: SIMON PULSIFER

The New Spirit Heads page 14

2 • THE CANNON

FEBRUARY 2020

THE CANNON Masthead EXECUTIVE TEAM EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rick Liu

MARKETING DIRECTOR

Diana Li

LAYOUT EDITOR

Raman Mangla

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Dina Castelletto

GRAPHICS EDITOR

Nadya Abdullah

EDITORS Alyson Allen Prerna Anand Ruknoon Dinder Smriti Mehrotra Shreya Mehta Linda Yu Andrew Zhao

Letter From The Editor Hey Engineering, A common question I get is “Does The Cannon have total creative and editorial control of its content?” and “What does the writing process look like?”

First, we have a meeting where all the staff brainstorm ideas. Usually, it turns into an hour long session of us talking about the craziest things, such as tin-foil hats, dogs and couches, coffee cups, the latest TTC delay, and the legend of “Sticknoon”. I’ve never worked with other publications before, but our writers have complete creative control and we don’t reject articles on the basis of content. Writers who don’t make the brainstorming meeting usually tell us their ideas in the weeks following the meeting.

Next we copy-edit each other’s articles, while the entire issue undergoes layout, using an agile-like (but not quite 100% agile) approach. Coming from a non-writing background, I generally check for quality and clarity, while the editors check for grammar, clarity and quality. If an article needs more work, we delay the article instead of rejecting it, and it’s up to the writer to make revisions.

At this stage, EngSoc reviews all content. Usually, it’s done by the VP Communications, but the other 4 officers can also add input. On very rare occasions, EngSoc will express concerns if the article is inappropriate, inaccurate or biased. Only after final approval from EngSoc will the issue go out to print. Therefore, we share editorial control with EngSoc, since EngSoc has to approve our paper before printing, which reflects the fact that The Cannon is not independent from EngSoc and is run as a project directorship.

Writefully yours, Rick Liu

About CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS Maggie Paul Neetha Parameswaran Noor-E Shahrin

PHOTOGRAPHERS Ji Oh Kim SPECIAL THANKS Aseer Chowdhury Hannah Eng Dana Kokoska Tom Kreynin Aidan Lachine Emily MacDonald-Roach Kohava Mendelsohn Anais Poirier Yixin Tian Jack Yu

STATEMENT The Cannon is the official (serious) newspaper of the University of Toronto Engineering Society. Established in 1978, it serves the undergraduate students of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. Submissions are welcome by email to cannon@skule.ca. Advertising and subscription information is available at the same email or from the Engineering Society at 416-978-2917.

DISCLAIMER The views expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Engineering Society unless so indicated. The editors reserve the right to modify submissions to comply with the newspaper’s and the Engineering Society’s policies.

CONTACT The Cannon 10 King’s College Road Sandford Fleming Building Room B740 Toronto, ON M5S 3G4 cannon.skule.ca cannon@skule.ca facebook.com/cannon.news

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FEBRUARY 2020 Femininity continued from page 1 But as I got older, the rules started to change. It wasn’t about being the first anymore, but more so about being a proper woman. From friends to family, and the rest of society, the main question seemed to be, “Why aren’t you acting like a girl?”

And slowly, I started to conform to this notion of being a ‘woman’. Started to look more pretty, and less edgy. Started concerning myself with other people’s opinions, instead of following my own instinct. But the message gets a little confusing when you try to enter a nonconventionally feminine field like engineering.

“You’re just sitting here to look pretty, aren’t you?”, a high school teacher attacked.

The same guy also commented on another female, “I didn’t like her boyish clothes.”

It’s almost as if we have to fit some perfectly nuanced medium to appease certain populations, so they can bear to stand in the same room as us, without having to feel any particularly strong like or dislike. Like somehow, our beings are a distraction otherwise.

And I have just the perfect example in mind to prove this theory.

“No one takes her seriously.”

“Ugh, she’s so loud.”

“Jesus. Someone, just tell her to shut up.”

An engineering student I knew was very engaged in the community, open and honest about her failures with her coursework, and had this very bubbly, loud personality.

She reminded me of a version of myself, before I started to fear the judging glares and conform to their ideals.

But you know what? This girl managed to do it all. She worked the odd part-time jobs to make the extra cash.

She continued to actively advocate for current issues on behalf of the student body.

She was even somewhat of a model.

I personally never found her ‘annoying’ or ‘repulsive’.

Instead, I saw her courage to stand out as a source of inspiration. After watching her achieve her numerous goals in the so-little time we have allocated to life outside of school, I started to pursue more things over the course of my undergrad. I went from hiding out in a tiny common room, to getting out of my comfort zone daily. I went from struggling to jump into a simple conversation with a few people, to pitching business ideas in front of massive crowds.

Regardless, I had not grown as much as I thought I should have. Something was missing. As if a piece of myself had gotten lost under this rubble of chaos called engineering. You see, while most of us decided to judge that engineering student, we were extremely supportive of the men who exemplified the

exact same energy as her.

“Oh my god. He’s so hardworking!”

“Funny guy!”

“What’s not to love about him?!”

As much as I admired the girl, I saw that most hardly gave her credit where it was due. Yet, he was adorned by so many more. And perhaps, I had unknowingly taken influence from these inherently misogynistic reactions. Today, I am able to identify those subconscious fears of mine, as I reflect back on the past four years of my undergrad.

I still had a confidence issue to work on. I had grown to be amazing at tackling issues head-on and problem solving in female-dominated settings, but I cowered and pursed my lips in silence when I was amidst groups of boys and men. I started to correlate those tendencies back to my cultural upbringing and educational settings prior to entering engineering.

“The boys can handle that.

Why don’t you… err…. just screw this thing on?”

“You’re not picking up.

Let’s just start with something easy for you.”

“Don’t talk back like that.

You should’ve known better as a woman.”

When you hear it enough, a part of you starts buying into it. Even with the negative stuff.

So, I became a pushover in hopes of getting these people to like me. I took up

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the menial tasks no one else wanted to take. I sacrificed my evening and weekend plans to appease to the personal schedules of others.

I refrained from the use of makeup and overly feminine attire, to keep the ‘friendly’ and ‘approachable’ image.

Yet, most still had the audacity to boss me around and put me down, whenever it was most convenient for them.

“You can go deliver this.

You didn’t do anything.”

“Why don’t you go do this as well? You’re free anyways.”

I was fed up. I grit my teeth and balled up my fists. But I never punched anyone (nor do I condone it), and I would just weakly smack the unlucky wall, before complying with their demands.

It took me four years to finally see that I always drag these heated frustrations along to every place I go as long as I continue to disrespect my own time and deny myself the basic right to truly be myself.

One of the biggest lessons I learned throughout my work experiences, was that a major proponent to an individual’s, company’s, or industry’s success is the pervasive exploitation of others––which all boils down to obvious insecurity.

Unfortunately, it is no different in the engineering industry.

So, I entered my final year with the mission of doing the little things to build on

my confidence. These days, I express and present myself the way I want to––if others are bothered by the reveal of a little skin, or some bold choices of makeup, then that’s on them. It is their duty to confront those internalized issues and educate themselves on diverse perspectives beyond their own. News flash - People like me exist everywhere you go.

I raise my hand and speak whenever an idea comes to mind. Even during moments when the thought of hearing my singular voice projected across a full classroom scares me to death––I figured that with practice, the anxiety will mellow, and the flow will get better. And besides, I know I have great ideas.

More importantly, I booked off my Saturdays this semester to work on meaningful commitments outside of school. I make it very clear at the start of every group meeting. Seemingly, I started to notice signs of the respect that I have yearned for as I firmly stood my ground for once.

And I may not become a neurosurgeon or NASA scientist one day, but I am going down a path much more relevant to the growths I have noted within myself for the past couple years. To be in this fortunate position as a student and leader, where I get to advocate and help the next woman in line, is the best path I could have ever pursued.

them how to network and present themselves at career fairs.

Cons: First year is a tough year for most students.

Many of them are not sure of the disciplines that they are currently enrolled in and some even switch out of it during or after the first year.

PEY is not their priority at that point. They are usually more worried about passing their courses, dealing with

low grades probably for the first time and deciding if they want to continue with their program. They will most likely be only interested in having a brief idea which they already get as PEY is highly advertised by the university on their websites and campus fairs for incoming students.

OPINION

What is a PEY Worth?

First Year? Are these new services worth the money?

How can students be sure The Engineering Career if they want to do a PEY Centre is potentially before third year? planning to change their Here’s a breakdown of PEY services starting with the services, and their pros the 2T4 class. The new PEY and cons. program starts from First Year which offers services 1. The two main services for $600 per semester. There for First Year’s which is are multiple questions that currently being offered as these changes raise. Do we part of their pilot program need training for PEY from are a welcome information PRERNA ANAND Cannon Editor

event and peer mentorship programs where students are paired with students who have already completed their PEY. Pros: Students are well informed about what PEY is and what criteria they need to meet to qualify to do one.

The mentorship program helps them get advice from students and professionals who have first-hand experiences and can teach

PEY continued on page 4

4 • THE CANNON

FEBRUARY 2020

Residences continued from page 1 So essentially, in order to not be homeless in a foreign country during the first year of my university education, I was forced into accepting my Chestnut offer. Chestnut is infamous for being extravagantly overpriced, not to mention the twenty-minute walk to Front Campus, along with a multitude of “minor” inconveniences like having only two operational elevators in a building with 24 floors, or barely usable Wi-Fi. A significant point to note is that I did end up living in Chestnut for the next two years, and that’s because by that point, the campus residence administration had rendered me clueless about any other on-campus residence options.

As ridiculous and dramatic as that sounds, it’s pretty accurate. After my first residence application experience, I was hesitant to put in the effort and apply to a bunch of residences just to be directed to Chestnut again. Without having well-advertised residence information seminars, and after exhausting the online residence information from official websites, I resorted to PEY continued from page 3 They’re also informed about it during Frosh Week by upper-year students.

2. For planning out their career and professional development, they have a PEY handbook with all dates, an online tool with assessments and activities, and a list for all opportunities across the faculty.

Pros: The handbook will help them in planning out the next two years. The online tool and the list of resources are tools to make a career action plan which would be beneficial for students who have figured

UofT reddit pages and other peers for their advice. I got the impression that getting into Innis as an international engineering student was near impossible. Loretto, New College and St Mike’s also favoured domestic students over international.

I knew so little about UC, Vic, and Woodsworth that I didn’t even try applying. I had been brainwashed into thinking that Chestnut was the only residence that was safe and worth living in.

To all international students looking for

housing: don’t limit your options and fall prey to this trap. Take full advantage of all the residences offered by the university. Details like eligibility criteria, dining halls, washroom allocation and floor gender details for all campus residences are listed online. As mentioned, the application process might not always be straightforward, but there are ways to get official assistance for your queries and concerns. In case emailing does not get you the help you need, consider

out what their career goals are.

Cons: All the information about PEY is already present on the PEY website and the University also sends reminders at the start of the semester about all key dates. YNCN (You’re Next Career Network), a student organization, aids with professional development which students can avail for free anytime during their time at UofT.

connections and practice how to answer questions that would be useful while finding a PEY and even jobs in the future.

Cons: Such events are already organized by WISE and YNCN which is open to all students throughout the year.

3. They will be holding industry engagement events and online mock interview tools to improve interviewing and networking skills.

Pros: This offers many opportunities to create

paying the office an inperson visit. The housing services office is located in Koffler centre, and their telephone contact number is 416-978-8045.

If on-campus residences aren’t working out, avail of the off-campus online portal offered by the university. Finding accommodation offcampus is challenging, especially for international students as we often don’t get time during the semester to explore open houses, and aren’t in

town before or after the semester. The online portal simplifies this by allowing you to find both houses and flatmates in off-campus locations. The process is time intensive and involves a lot of research, but the struggle might pay off and allow you to explore more of Toronto than just the 27th floor of Chestnut residence.

Cons: Resume building is already taught as part of APS100 and the University can make changes to the curriculum for this course to focus more on professional development.

Additional help is also provided by professionals during specific resume and cover letter building events 4. Assistance with resume organized by WISE and and cover letters through YNCN. webinars, guides and online feedback tools.

After analyzing this Pros: Students usually breakdown, the charges for have never prepared either these services set by ECC of these before and aren’t are too high as students aware that you need to already have access to change it based on the type these services for free from of job and whether it is other clubs at UofT. The part-time or full time. So, ECC is providing many of these services would be very these services as part of useful in guiding them. the current programs, for

a maximum of $1100 for PEY and $400 for ESIP, only if you are able to secure a job through them.

For students who find jobs through other websites and/or those who decide to drop out of the program in between the third year, it would not make sense to pay for all six semesters.

More importantly, due to the expense associated with PEY, many students might even opt-out of it.

The ECC needs to re-evaluate its decision to go ahead with these changes. We as part of the engineering community need to speak up and suggest ways to improve the PEY program without making it expensive.

INNIS RESIDENCE CREDIT: JI OH KIM

cannon.skule.ca

FEBRUARY 2020

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How To Be Efficient After Winter Break Ends NOOR-E SHAHRIN Cannon Writer For an engineering student, nothing compares to the joys of the start of winter break and the dread of it ending. After four long months of continuous hassle of the fall semester, it feels like no break can be long enough to recover. And just when you start feeling human again, Christmas break has passed you by and it’s back to school. A million words could not express the restlessness and blinding panic that shadows you on the last day of christmas break. No, you don’t have time to get emotional because you are sitting in your first lecture right now, thinking about the struggle ahead.

If you are someone who feels like you need a week to get out of winter break mode, you are not alone.

Even when you physically

prepare for your classes in the first week of Winter Semester (take notes, check Canvas, actually show up to class), your mind is experiencing inertia due to being in a state of denial.

The first step to starting an efficient semester is to let go, admit that the comfort of winter break has ended, like all beautiful things must, and let reality sink in.

Take your time.

Many of us get stressed because we seem to start the semester with procrastination even though we are going to class, buying textbooks and building our calendar. This is because the last thing we remember about being a student is pulling all nighters before finals and we try to pick up where we left off. But obviously, there’s not much to do in the first week. You are still allowed to keep binging those last few episodes and finish

the last chapters of your comfort book. If you feel like being extraordinary, you can use this time to ask professors how to study to succeed in the new courses and mentally prepare for the milestones so there are no unpleasant surprises later on.

If you are well-connected enough to already have lab partners for all relevant courses, congratulations!

Others might want to use the first two weeks to look for familiar faces to pair with. Unless you want to leave it to the universe and walk into the first lab to get paired up with anyone.

That’s also a plan. Either way, it’s good to familiarise yourself with the people sitting around you in a new class who might help you down the road. It’s good to have a support system to catch us when we fall.

The first week’s lectures give you trailers for each

course. It’s worthwhile to pay attention to the content and estimate the workload for all your courses. If a course looks like it will drain the living happiness out of you over the next four months, try looking for alternatives before school starts in full force. A little planning and looking ahead can make your semester much more fruitful.

Sooner than you know it, your first prelab is due.

Ah, here we go again. We know transitions are never easy, but inevitable. It helps to sometimes remind yourself of the big picture.

Remember your high level goals, why you are here and how far you have come. So, let’s fix that sleep pattern and get into the routine of making all the deadlines.

You may now start counting the days till reading week (forever salty about having only one of those a year).

very best. Why? Because I understand that there are others on the road, others who have families waiting for them at home. I understand that my vehicle is powerful and could really do some damage if it gets out of control. I understand that by driving in a society I am obligated to look out for my fellow humans. That one out of four Canadian drivers who doesn’t drive while distracted is making sure he/ she doesn’t harm anyone. It’s also important to note that, not unlike drunk driving, the driver who isn’t at fault is the one who is more likely to die in a crash. Here’s an example for you. In 2010, a man was driving and using his cell phone. He crashed. The man in the car he collided with, who maybe was going home to his family, maybe going to work, maybe on his way to his

parents’ house to take care of his sick mom, was left with a fractured humerus, a crushed ankle, and a traumatic brain injury affecting his speech.

The distracted driver was minorly injured.

This is why I get upset.

When I get on the road, I expect to be safe. I expect that people know by not looking at the road for the entire time that they are driving makes driving unsafe. Why should I have to worry about other drivers’ intentions when they get on the road? Yeah, I get it, I should always be looking out for other drivers to make sure they aren’t doing something unsafe. But when it gets so bad that I now have to constantly look in my rearview mirror to make sure the driver behind me has finally looked up from their phone; when it gets so bad that now I’m not even paying attention to the

road in front of me because I’ve realised the car behind me is more dangerous; when I now have to dangerously change lanes because I just want to get away from the distracted driver … no, I’m not accepting that this is now something we have to do to feel safe on the road.

So for those of you reading this who don’t text and drive, thank you. I greatly appreciate you. And for those of you who do, consider this a wake-up call. It’s not cool, it’s not responsible, and in all seriousness, you could kill someone. So please, stay safe while driving and next time you’re tempted to use your phone, think about if the text is more important than your future.

ORGANIZED AND SMART STUDYING IS ESSENTIAL CREDIT: QUARTZ

OPINION

DWD, the New DUI ANONYMOUS Cannon Writer Let’s start with a fact.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, nearly 3 out of 4 Canadian drivers admit to driving while distracted. That could be using a phone, eating, putting on makeup, anything that causes a driver to not pay attention to the road. That’s a lot of distracted driving, and it seems like everyone does it.

So, what’s the big deal? We’re only driving around about 4000 pounds of metal that could kill someone if we hit them.

Two summers ago, I drove over 600 km and I saw people looking at their phone instead of the road for probably half that distance.

I once saw a guy using drumsticks to fake play the drums on his steering wheel

instead of paying attention to the road.

I have had to call the police because some guy was texting so much that his hands weren’t even on the wheel, and he was swerving in and out of his lane while driving 90km/hr.

I once had to pull onto the shoulder of a one-lane highway because a lady behind me was texting and driving. She almost rearended me five times because she wasn’t paying attention and I wasn’t feeling safe.

I once saw someone in a lane beside me watching a YouTube video.

Just this morning, as I was driving into school, some guy was driving distractedly and was not looking at the road, because apparently, he thought looking at his phone was more important.

When I drive, I do my

6 • THE CANNON

FEBRUARY 2020

OPINION

Is 18% Turnout Okay? No RICK LIU Cannon Editor-in-Chief

Turnout continued on page 7

EngSoc Officers

Uncontested Election Rate

On November 10th, The Varsity published an article titled “Participation in student government elections at UofT among lowest in Canada”. While most students know voter turnout for student elections is low, what is surprising, at least to me, is that the author found that turnout for UTSU elections is abnormally low compared to other schools.

Most schools in that article had a student turnout of around 20% compared to the 4% of the last UTSU election. UBC, which is a similar institution to UofT with its large commuter and international student cohort, had a turnout of 24%, so low turnout cannot solely be caused by UofT’s large student body, international students, or large numbers of commuters.

This article pushed us to do an analysis of student turnout at a more local level. I decided to compile the turnout for all class representatives, Officers, Discipline Club Chairs, and Board of Directors elections from the previous election cycle. This would include the March, April, September, and November 2019 elections. I excluded elections for positions such as Common Room Manager, or Social Director, and other discipline club positions, because I did not or could not find the associated rules in the discipline club constitutions for who is eligible to vote or run for those elections in all disciplines. In addition, not all disciplines have the same set of elected positions; many don’t have an elected common room

VOTER TURNOUT ACCORDING TO DISCIPLINE (ABOVE) VOTER TURNOUT ACCORDING TO PROGRAM YEAR/ELECTION TYPE (CENTRE).

UNCONTESTED ELECTION RATE ACCORDING TO DISCIPLINE (BOTTOM) CREDIT: RICK LIU

cannon.skule.ca

FEBRUARY 2020 Turnout continued from page 6 manager for example, so it would be unfair to include those positions for comparisons. I also excluded levy referenda, since turnout to those are more driven by “get out the vote” efforts by design teams.

What I found is not surprising.

At 18%, EngSoc elections have a higher turnout than UTSU elections, but turnout is still very low, and many races are uncontested, meaning there’s only one candidate running to be a representative.

Acclamation is a huge concern, because having only one candidate depresses turnout.

Participation in these elections is still important, because the student body still has a chance to be able to reject the candidate. On average, I saw races with one candidate running have an average turnout of 14%, compared to an average turnout of 24% with two or more candidates running.

Turnout isn’t the same across all the disciplines, years or elections. I found that Chemical Engineering had by far the highest turnout. At an average turnout of 34%, 4% higher than the next highest discipline of Materials Engineering, and 5% higher than Mineral Engineering, it suggests a very robust student culture and engagement. On the other hand, EngSoc elections have a 6% average turnout for its Officer elections, and both Electrical and Computer Engineering are at the bottom among the disciplines with a 7% and 9% average turnout, respectively. The results of my analysis, shown on graph 1, is somewhat indicative of how lively a discipline is. Similarly, 2nd year elections have the highest turnout at an average of 29%; after that, it slowly decreases the longer students stay

in the program. Board of Director elections have noticeably lower turnout than Discipline Club Chair elections, which may indicate students aren’t as clear on the responsibilities of directors, or have higher voter apathy. Discipline Club Chair elections, as expected, have a turnout that’s the average of the turnout of the 2nd, 3rd,4th year, and PEY rep elections.

Low voter turnout is a huge problem in any democratic institution because it questions the legitimacy of the election in the first place. Statistics, and the Central Limit Theorem, show that a sample can generally represent the wider population, but this is usually only true when the sample is unbiased and when there is a large enough sample. With some turnouts lower than 10%, it’s very hard to justify that these elections actually represent the will of the community, especially as the turnout rate might not be the same across different demographics in the engineering community. Chances are, the people who are already highly involved in EngSoc or other forms of student government are more likely to vote, but for the people who don’t vote or aren’t involved, they still have an equal say in the decision making process. While

Chemical Engineering should be commended for their high turnout, is 34% really a number we should be aiming for? With 24% turnout for a school wide election at UBC, we can reasonably assume that their divisional elections’ turnout would be much higher than even Chemical Engineering. 34% means that around two-thirds of all Chemical Engineering students don’t have their voices heard, and this number grows to 94% for all engineering students with regards to who their EngSoc Officer is.

Low voter turnout has real life consequences too.

In some elections, such as two EngSoc Officer elections, and the Board of Directors representative for Computer Engineering during the elections in March and April of 2019, the difference between the two candidates was a margin of less than 10%, and turnout was also below 10%. At this point, 1% of all eligible voters held the power to decide who wins the election.

Can we be reasonably sure that the majority of the student body preferred the winning candidate as their representative, with such a razor thin margin, and a low voter turnout?

However, uncontested elections are an even greater problem. Four disciplines

have rates higher than 80%: Mineral and TrackOne both had a rate of 100%, while Materials and Civil had rates of 80% and 83% respectfully. Roughly 57% of all EngSoc elections are uncontested. This means that voter apathy is so high that people aren’t even motivated to run. There is a mechanism to reopen nominations, which provides the voters another option in uncontested elections, but in my time at UofT, I’ve only seen it used once. Its use is rare, and about as meaningful as declining your ballot at federal elections.

Representative democracy in general is all about giving the people the choice and the means to decide who represents them to make their voices heard, and when there is nobody to challenge another candidate in an election, or offer an alternative that reflects the diverse opinions of the student body, then the system is not performing the way it should. Whenever I think of acclaimed elections, I think of authoritarian regimes where they hold elections to seem legitimate, but only have one serious candidate running, who usually wins with an over 90% margin. I’m not saying that EngSoc elections are unfair or undemocratic, but it definitely creates the

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perception to some people that they might be.

After the 2015 federal election, Stephen Harper said something that I think any respected elected official, from Jagmeet Singh to Justin Trudeau, would agree with: the voter is always right. The low turnout, even compared to universities similar to UofT like UBC, as well as high uncontested election rates, are actually messages that the student body is sending to us. Either they don’t think student government is important, or they distrust student government, or they think that EngSoc and Discipline positions are a clique meant for only a certain type of people. Any of these three mindsets are bad for the community, and it brings up questions of how much legitimacy EngSoc and discipline clubs have. It may be easy to blame the voter, or focus our attention on more “get out the vote” efforts, but voter turnouts have been abnormally low for many years, and more and more elections are being uncontested every year. My opinion is that this is a serious problem that goes beyond the lack of voter awareness, and we should be devoting more of our attention to correcting the structural problems leading to low turnout and uncontested elections.

UNCONTESTED ELECTION RATE ACCORDING TO YEAR/ELECTION TYPE CREDIT: RICK LIU

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Godiva’s Crown PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: DINA CASTELLETTO

FEBRUARY 2020

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A Look Into the SkuleTM Archives: Godiva Week EMILY MACDONALD-ROACH Lady Godiva was a nobleArchivist woman, remembered for a legend dating back at least Whether while chanting to the 13th century. As the “We are, we are, we are, we story goes, she rode naked are, we are the engineers” , – covered only in her long hearing the Lady Godiva hair – through the streets Memorial Bnad or seeing a of Coventry to protest SkuleTM Spirit head click her oppressive taxes that her heels and shout “Godiva!”, husband imposed on their the significance of the image tenants. In SkuleTM today, of Lady Godiva in SkuleTM is the story of Lady Godiva clear. With another Godiva is taught as a reminder of Week come and gone, it’s a the social responsibility of good opportunity to reflect engineers and our duty to on the origins of some of always protect and serve the SkuleTM’s oldest and most best interests of the public. cherished traditions. Two Included are pictures of the most celebrated and excerpts about Godiva traditions of Godiva Week- Week from throughout the -Ye Grande Olde Chariot years. If you are interested Race and Cannonball are in learning more, or also two of the longest exploring our collection, standing. email archivist@g.skule.ca.

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Ye Grande Olde Chariot Race, 1948 Ye Grande Olde Chariot Race, 1948 F!rosh Hardhat Contest, Skulebook 1995 Excerpt from Engineering Yearbook 1927 Ye Olde Mighty SkuleTM Cannon at Cannonball 0T0 Cannonball 8T4 Ye Olde Mighty SkuleTM Cannon at Cannonball 8T4 Excerpt on Cannonball from Skulebook 6T3 Freshmen Schedule from F!rosh Handbook 1970-1971 Godiva’s Wake, 8T2/8T3 Godiva’s Wake, 8T2/8T3

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OPINION

Squashing the Beef TOM KREYNIN Cannon Writer Silent, but deadly. No, I’m not talking about assassins that do their murderous work in the hush of night. I’m talking about farts. Farts and burps actually. Cow farts and burps to be absolutely exact.

I’m sure you’ve heard about this unfortunate epidemic that is attacking our world, but if you haven’t, let me paint the picture for you: 1.4 billion cows releasing 100kg of methane per cow every year, and methane is 23 times worse for the climate than CO2. This is not what the recipe for a sustainable future looks like.

Unfortunately, flatulation is only the start of our worries.

A shocking one third of the world’s arable land is used to cultivate food for livestock. Let me say that again. One third of the world’s land is used for the sole purpose of producing food for animals, not humans. A whole slew of problems arise from this reality, but the most glaring

one is deforestation. Let’s look at a current example: deforestation in the Amazon.

200,000 acres of trees are being cut down every day, mainly to make space for cattle grazing and soy farms (used to feed the cattle).

Areas without trees are areas that are dry, because the rainforest actually produces its own rain. So when you cut down trees, you are creating massive regions of dry land.

Now for the part that brings it all together: the main method used for clearing trees is slash-and-burn, with the key word there being “burn”. Trees are being set ablaze which inevitably leads to fires getting out of control.

This is how we get the historic Amazon wildfires of 2019. The combination of large swathes of dry land and setting them on fire is not a good one. The result is our world’s largest carbon sink actually releasing more carbon than it absorbs because of the amount of trees being cut down (trees release carbon when they are cut down, burned, and

allowed to decompose).

This issue is of global concern and can be directly traced back to the cattle industry. In a perfect world, we would all stop eating beef, deforested areas would be restored with lush groves of trees, and your father would finally approve of you.

But of course, these things are easier said than done.

In the US alone, cattle is approximately an 80 billion dollar a year industry. Corn and soy production are also critical industries and rely heavily on the existence of the cattle industry. But most importantly (at least to the average person), beef is known to be rather delicious! Going up against these challenges is going to be, well, a challenge.

The solutions are out there though, and they are what we turn to now.

Possibly the most exciting solution is clean meat. If you haven’t heard of it before then it may be off putting, but hear it out. It starts with getting a small amount of fast producing cells from

Nobody By Mehak Sharma The world is brutal.

It tries to crush you in every possible way.

There are moments of infinite dismal But somehow you find the will to stay.

But then, when the universe has decided to turn against you, You can’t possibly run away.

Sure you run away from the things you can, Rush to your empty room Slam the door, bolt the lock But how do you run away from the things that haunt you?

Oh no, no one taught us that.

Well some things you can figure out yourself, Or maybe you need a bit of advice A warm hug, maybe a peck on the forehead would be nice.

And so you think of who could you possibly ask for, To hold you tight, as tears stream and you sink to the floor.

Someone to catch you into careful arms To say something that your heart warms...

And little brain, I ask you, Think of a name, exactly who?

And there comes a whisper That shatters the pieces of the heart you fixed with tape.

“Nobody”

a cow, and then putting them in a petri dish. Next you nourish the cells with a growth medium, which right now is a fetal bovine serum.

The cells are then placed in a culture medium where they are provided with the energy requirements they need.

In order to give the meat a structured shape, it is grown in scaffolding which must allow for vascularization and ideally helps simulate the natural environment of the cells. The end result is meat that has identical cellular composition to that of real meat. Okay, so that’s how it works, but why hasn’t clean meat become a part of everyday life? For starters, it is still expensive, with prices for a pound of meat costing in the range of hundreds of dollars, although promising start-ups are claiming they can get the price down to under $10 in the near future. The other problem is scale; the clean meat infrastructure is a far cry from where it needs to be to become an alternative to meat. These are engineering

problems and require engineering solutions. If being on the cutting edge of food sustainability interests you, then look no further than clean meat.

Clean meat is a plan for the future, but another meat alternative exists now. It’s not some fringe idea, it’s not something hypothetical, and it’s currently being consumed all over the world.

I’m talking about insects of course. 80% of countries in the world eat insects: crickets, cockroaches, butterflies, ants. You may shudder, but this could be our future. For 10 kg of feed, insects yield 6kg of meat to beef ’s 1 kg, and cricket meat is a complete protein, meaning it contains all of the essential amino acids.

Insects are farmed vertically, which utilizes space efficiently. Any way you look at it, insects are an amazing protein source that must be seriously considered. If getting over our natural fear of insects is all we have to do for a sustainable future, I say it’s a sacrifice worth making.

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Introducing the New Spirit Heads The Cannon interviewed the newest SkuleTM Spirit heads: Mr Blue and Gold - Aseer Chowdhury, Godiva’s Crown - Anais Poirier, and Ultimate F!rosh - Aidan Lachine. We dived deep into their lives to find out what they like and hate doing when not dropping pants, clicking heels or jumping up and down.

ANAIS POIRIER Lady Godiva

ASEER CHOWDHURY Mr. Blue & Gold

AIDAN LACHINE Ultimate F!rosh

Let’s start off with the most important question: What are your favourite Timbits flavours?

Honey dip. Tim’s isn’t the I hate Tim’s. I only like I don’t know what it’s called greatest place, but the other bagels but those are hard to but the blueberry one. ones are too fake. mess up. You can’t even argue that Tim’s is even Canadian anymore and they have been getting worse over time.

If I had to choose, I guess Chocolate Timbits or the Chocolate Lovers one that I had at an event over the summer.

Anais, what is your Aseer, while we are on the Aidan, describe this backstory? topic, I wanted to mention year’s Ultimate F!rosh that you first came under my competition.

I started doing radar with the Oreo tier list I was nervous to start gymnastics when I was 3, you did last year. Can you because I saw on my friend’s and I frequently injured tell me a bit more about it?

Instagram something about my foot after the age of 13 Independent City onions and flour. I went and onwards. I quit when I was in the 11th grade, market had a good sale on because I like onions. The first and focused a lot more the box of Oreos, which few rounds were luck based; on school. For Godiva’s was 2 for $4.50. I bought the first round we had to find Crown, it was what defined a ton and invited all my cards with an “X” on them. I me the most, and I decided friends over for an Oreo thought they were supposed to do gymnastics since party. Not many people to be big Xs but they were that is a unique talent. I ate them so I also brought small, so I panicked, but originally wanted to do an them to the Pit, but I used realized what they looked opposite strip tease, but my entire print quota to like and soon found a hidden print fake surveys to rank card. I was tall so catching anyone can do that. the flavours so people the falling newspaper was wouldn’t feel bad about easy. Musical chairs was very challenging; I was pushing the eating so many Oreos. kid in front of me so I could get a chair. I didn’t know what ninja was, but I played very defensively so that was fine.

Why did you decide to run for your respective spirit head position?

I struggled a lot in first year In my First year, I joined Jacob Foster was Mr. B&G which left me feeling isolated. TBog, and there were a lot of and seeing him I wanted to I messaged Lisa, Godiva’s the “Pit people” in the club, so do it, but I realized I can’t as Crown 1T9, one day about I joined them. When Godiva a Frosh so I ran for Ultimate switching to ECE, and we Week came by, I knew friends Frosh instead. started talking and became running for Mr. B&G and of good friends. She had a very course Ben Morehead’s whole positive impact on me. I act for Mr. B&G last year was wanted to connect with Frosh a huge inspiration to me. I in a similar way. I participated started off by planning a few in F!rosh week 1T9, had such potential routines: weird a good experience, and loved jokes, spongebob references, the positive impact. I also and shirt layers. I’m a slow wanted to perform in front of looking dude and I wasn’t people again. planning on winning, because I didn’t want to drop my pants Spirit Heads Interview continued on page 15

ANAIS POIRIER (LADY GODIVA, TOP) AND ASEER CHOWDHURY (MR. BLUE AND GOLD, BOTTOM) CREDIT: DANA KOKOSKA, KOHAVA MENDELSOHN, YIXIN TIAN, JACK YU

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Spirit Heads Interview continued from page 14 Anais Porier

Aseer Chowdhury

Aidan Lachine

for a year, but then a friend convinced me in the middle of performances.

Aseer and Anais, Outside of ECE and T1 you two weren’t very well known, so how have you taken it in?

I wanted to run a bit for myself, because I wasn’t as involved in the community outside of ECE 2T1s and thought this was a good opportunity to be involved.

I mostly knew the first and second years, so I wanted upper years to get to know me as well. I went out wanting to perform and make people happy.

I didn’t care about the other people, I was just happy that my friends were there cheering. I was surprised that a lot of people actually knew me from the Oreo and water fountain things, and all the T1s eventually went into the other disciplines and spread my word.

What has been the most creative request?

My friends and I were One kid made me do the My friends played an audio talking about our favorite Konami Code (up, up, down, recording saying “Jump up chocolates, and my friends down, left, right, left, right, and down” on repeat outside went on and on until they back, start!). The guy in the my room. Also, one of my finally made me click my finals was one of my best friends has a reminder set to heels by saying Godiva (the friends, and he said Jump and text me that and then expects chocolate). The suspense was into my arms. video evidence four times a very annoying. day.

If you were not going to be an engineer what would you be?

I wasn’t sure about I’m south asian so my I wanted to be a farmer physics until I got a tutor choices are engineer or until I was 14 because I grew in the 12th grade. I applied doctor, but being a doctor up on a farm. I had no idea to Integrated Sciences, is risky. I would like to do what I wanted to do after I and Cognitive Sciences in something in chemistry, already applied to physics, places. I only applied to but you have to branch out integrated science. I originally engineering at UofT as an into different branches and wanted TrackOne, but then afterthought.

I hate organic chemistry. saw EngSci and thought it was So sorry, I love CHEM, but interesting, so I applied to that not becoming one anytime instead. I like Biomedical and soon.

Energy Systems for EngSci majors, but I like most things in EngSci. What is your favourite memory from SkuleTM? Right before our first Tools 101 when I was midterm, my friends and in first year because that I went to Prep101. I have was the first time I actually imposter’s syndrome, and used power tools. I had to one of my friends handed me lie to my mom, and it was a pamphlet and said “Here is out of my comfort zone, this opportunity to prove to but it introduced me to the yourself that you are really SkuleTM community. smart”.

ASEER (ABOVE), ANAIS (CENTRE), AND AIDAN (BOTTOM) CREDIT: HANNAH ENG, DANA KOKOSKA, KOHAVA MENDELSOHN, YIXIN TIAN, JACK YU

What are some things you want to change about yourself?

I would like to be able to I should stop being as Not to overthink things. make decisions more easily. I judgemental as I am. I am wish I was more honest with also very easily influenced people, I am too much of a by peers. I would probably people pleaser and that often not be B&G if I weren’t easily holds me back. influenced but there are also a lot of things I shouldn’t be doing.

Spirit Heads Interview continued on page 16

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Spirit Heads Interview continued from page 15 Anais Porier

Aseer Chowdhury

Aidan Lachine

What is something you want to change about the SkuleTM community?

I wish SkuleTM would have Making sure everyone more female and LGBTQ+ feels welcome in the SkuleTM members in its community, community. We know all and someone brought up that of the people who are well I was a girl last year, and we involved, but we should look as engineers are too business at people who do other things and career focused and not and make them feel welcome. enough about larger issues like this.

Who would you want to have your roles next year?

Someone who welcomes Someone who is able Someone who has hops. people into the community, to bring down their ego. makes them feel accepted, Someone who is selfless. and who is a little weird.

Which of the two other spirit heads would you rather be?

Mr. B&G because the I would rather be Ultimate I’d be Mr. B&G because physical activity of jumping Frosh because it has less who wouldn’t want to drop would be exhausting. physical requirement. their pants for fun.

Finally, for your closing remarks, what is something you want to tell the community?

Don’t be afraid of us.

Run away kids, I’m coming I don’t know what to say. and I’m changing things up.

Born to jump, forced to land.

AIDAN LACHINE (ULTIMATE FROSH) CREDIT: HANNAH ENG

Dealing With Stress MAGGIE PAUL Cannon Writer This time of year can prove stressful for many people.

School and work start to pick up, offers of admission start to roll in from schools, and you can feel your mood drop with the dark wintery days. It can be really easy to neglect your mental health and well-being during hectic times. Meal and rest periods especially seem like they’re up for grabs instead of essential times needed to ensure you’re feeling as well as you can. I’m guilty of skipping lunch to study just a bit more, or sleeping four hours and calling it a luxury.

It’s super easy to find yourself caught up in U of T’s “hustle culture” where eating little, sleeping less, and working insane hours is praised and deemed the norm. However, if there’s anything I’ve come to learn from last semester where I saw my highest grades yet, it’s that sleep and mental care aren’t only

valuable for feeling good, but for making sure you’re doing the best you can.

Dealing with stress is much easier said than done.

Twitter threads that say, “To cure your depression, just drink water” are pretty useless (though drinking water is essential and you should do it). So, how can you cope with stress? Well, a Harvard Health post in 2019 suggests learning some quick relaxation strategies.

The one they recommend involves closing your eyes and, working from your toes up, tense each muscle and hold for 10 seconds before releasing the tension for 20 seconds while thinking “relax” to yourself. This has been shown to help manage and temporarily reduce symptoms of anxiety. They also suggest practicing mindfulness, which they say is “…the ability to pay attention to the present moment with curiosity, openness and acceptance.”

Guided meditation through

mindfulness apps is something they suggest but even going on a short walk is helpful. Practicing noticing things without engaging with them is an excellent way to practice mindfulness (e.g. seeing someone’s cool pink hair, recognizing that you have noticed it, and then moving along).

How about some more immediate strategies? My therapist (who is amazing) has a couple of simple suggestions to distract and care for yourself when you feel anxious and stressed out. Of course, she recommends seeking professional help if panic and anxiety become persistent and overwhelming. An underrated technique she always praises is cooling breaths. I know it seems trivial and obvious, and it’s something I dismissed for a long time as useless, but I’ve come to appreciate and see its value. She calls it “box breathing” because each phase is measured in four

seconds. Breathe in for a count of four, hold for four, breathe out for four, and lastly hold again for four; repeat this as necessary!

Another great strategy she teaches that’s common in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is questioning anxious thoughts.

For example, I don’t do as well as I would’ve liked to on a test. I’m worried I’ll fail the class, flunk out of university, won’t get into any Master’s programs, won’t get a good job and will be doomed to be a failure. This technique gets you to question the legitimacy and logic of each intrusive thought at every stage and can help you feel a lot better after the kneejerk panic reaction of a bad grade.

Lastly, what do each of my friends suggest for stress? One fantastic app I will talk about until the end of time, as suggested by my friend Ellen from her cognitive science professor, is Woebot. It’s a free app and

is an AI program developed

by Stanford to practice Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in a pinch when a therapist isn’t available to you - though it should be noted I’m not at all claiming Woebot is a replacement for a professional. It helps to teach you easy techniques for managing anxiety and caring for yourself during stress and after anxiety episodes. One of my roommates likes to exercise to get better rest at night and to keep her energy up. My friend Victoria likes to play some video games to relax and immerse herself in something fictional. I like to stress bake and cook a lot; I don’t necessarily stuff my face, but it’s a nice act that requires me to be mindful and present and not thinking of the millions of things floating around in my brain.

No matter how you choose to do it (though be safe), remember to take care of yourself as the year picks up.

Let’s all make ourselves our top priority in 2020.