THE CANNON SkuleTM’s Newspaper since 1978
cannon.skule.ca
APRIL 2020, Volume XLII
OPINION
What UofT Engineering Taught Me “You deserve to go. You worked hard for it, man.” “You can only flex the By the time this gets ring if you go.” published, I would have “WHY?” already gone to my Iron Ring ceremony, or more The last person wasn’t formally The Ritual of the wrong for asking that. Calling of an Engineer. If I Why didn’t I want to go? were being honest, I found Because I was struck myself feeling uneasy with feelings of guilt and about going. I expressed regret. this thought to friends, I could have done things family and peers. differently. “I don’t feel like going. I I could have done things had other plans anyway”, I better. said. Needless to say, I was My first mistake was met with the same reaction that I didn’t ask for help. from all of them. This is my very last semester of school NEETHA PARAMESWARAN Cannon Writer
(possibly forever), and I recently found myself sitting in the office of our learning strategist. Her name’s Melissa. I’m not going to lie, I wondered what in the world could she teach me that I didn’t already know? I mean, I already got through four years of engineering. I stumbled, but I got through. But, I learned some cool tricks that day that made me wonder. Could all of those moments of abhorrent test anxieties been prevented had I just given this a try earlier? Could I have reached my
unsung goals by now had I allowed myself to be vulnerable? I admit. I’m not organized. I am terrible at learning too. You might be terrible at it too. Wondering why that GPA is so low? You’re not stupid. There’s always a way to improve. Seek it out.
TA asked me to look into the microscope in front of our lab group. I started dozing off on the eyepiece, and my classmate (who is now one of my best friends), had to poke me to take her turn. She still taunts me with that memory. I found that my performance tremendously increased once I just slept My second mistake was more. School, work and that I didn’t take care of extracurriculars started the basics. to align into an almost I suffered from a lot of perfect array. One of the sleepless nights, only to greatest surprises I learned find myself snoozing at the most inconvenient of Taught continued times. In second year, my on page 3
OPINION
Love in the Time of COVID-19 RICK LIU Editor-in-Chief English was my least favourite subject in high school. We slogged through multiple Shakespearean plays, weirdly translated novels, and many rants by our English teacher claiming that existentialism exists in everything. But there were a couple of pieces of literature that I liked. Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” was a great example of how to blend world history and current
events in literature, while Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera” was a welcome break from all of the serious pieces of literature we read. The novel starts off with a teenaged Romeo and Juliet style crush between Florentino, a boy from the slums, and Fermina, who is from a relatively middle-class family. Fermina’s family succeeds in stopping the romance by moving to the city, where Fermina eventually lives an uninspired life
Oppurtunities in the Summer page 3
married to Dr. Urbino, a doctor specializing in cholera whose entire personality is rational and scientific, for the next 50 years. Meanwhile, Florentino seems content to be as promiscuous as possible, while somehow rising up to the city’s (presumably Bogota) elite. After Dr. Urbino dies in a freak accident involving a ladder and his pet parrot, Florentino tries to immediately get back COVID-19 continued on page 4
Femininty in Engineering page 6
FRONT COVER OF LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA CREDIT: GRAHAM HARDY
Comics page 7
2 • THE CANNON
APRIL 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 Dear Engineering, Its been a weird month to say the least. For a lot of us, including myself, its really tough to focus on anything. For the first week after school shutdown, I could not find the motivation to do school work or extracurricular work. Eventually, our team managed to scrap together a shorter than normal issue, but I’m definitely not at my full productivity. Its been a weird ride trying out online classes, online group meetings, and even online video recording in lieu of live presentations. I’m lucky that I’m in my last semester where classes arguably matter the least, but its definitely not ideal, and I hope future professors or employers will be understanding in the effect this crisis has on our education. It’s also important we remember to have fun in our lives. Instead of meetings sanding the canoe, we’re having online scribble.io sessions. Instead of hanging out in school, we’re hanging out on discord (screenshot of a call with my bad webcam above), and playing the occasional online game. Humans are by nature social creatures, so while its important we keep safe, we should still connect with our family, friends, or even TAs (especially if you are in MIE363, I hear that TA is missing his office hours). I hope you are all keeping safe and healthy and remember that we are all going to get through this together, both in terms of the current quarantine and the economic repercussions. Writefully yours, Rick
About CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS Neetha Parameswaran PHOTOGRAPHERS Ji Oh Kim SPECIAL THANKS Savanna Blade Jasmine Francesca Mirjana Mijalkovic Catherine Ye
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
cannon.skule.ca
APRIL 2020 Taught continued from page 1 throughout university is that some of the smartest people put themselves first above their grades. They will take the “L” if it comes down to their health and well-being. Engineering is hard. There is a lot going on. Sometimes, you can’t do it all without failing altogether. I just know that I started doing better when I capped myself off at 10PM. Whatever’s done is done. I’m off to bed now. My third mistake was that I got too involved with school. I’m not talking about extracurriculars. I’m talking about people and this always surprises everyone. How could someone like myself, who leveraged the connections she forged with people on a personal level into grand opportunities, say such a thing? My ability to relate and start the awkward conversations has gotten me through the door so many times. But, it has also hurt
me in my professional development. The unfortunate truth about any professional community, engineering or not, is that preconceived, controversial notions of an individual can hinder them. I found that people were quick to use these against me in group settings, and discredit the value of my technical input. Their thought process went along the lines of,
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my younger self: Don’t overshare or trust too easily. Keep it simple and professional with your peers. Get a life outside of this place. I finally did. I reconnected with old friends before my chapter here—some even from my childhood. I forged relationships with new friends I made in other places. I borrow my brother’s cat on the occasion to keep me
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myself. Learn for yourself and not others. “I don’t think you can handle it. Just stick to what you know.” I have been told that so many times. And unfortunately, I have given into those criticisms. I let those dictate my choices that ultimately left me unhappy, and sometimes scarred. I got the worst set of grades once, and I did everything the ‘right’
I reconciled with the fact that I don’t learn best by going to lecture. To all my professors: It’s not you. It’s me. To myself not too long ago: Don’t go to lecture if it doesn’t mean anything to you. Don’t go just to show your face—you don’t owe these people anything. But you owe yourself the right to learn and succeed. I mean, that 60K tuition speaks for itself. And even with all these mistakes, I found that I’m still learning new things everyday. I’m amazed by how vastly the landscape has changed in our faculty—I somehow find myself confiding in many of you, who are quite younger than me. It’s almost as if every incoming class is getting smarter and smarter—both in terms of way—I started to gain the “book smart” and “street approval of my peers. I smart”. showed up to every class. So maybe you won’t I did all the readings in have to worry about the advance. I just did horrible. I even mistakes I have made. Or maybe, you will make your ended up hating school. But, the moment I own set of mistakes. Just know that making regained my appreciation for in-class education, and mistakes is learning––and started to do somewhat learning is still winning. decently again, was when
Because I was struck with feelings of guilt and regret. I could have done things differently. I could have done things better.
“What could she possibly know? I mean, I’ve seen her outside of class, and she is a screw-up on all levels.” There were so many times where I felt the subtlety of their stigma with this hidden connotation. And trust me, it really stings. So, here’s my advice to
company and sane. There’s nothing wrong with being personable—it helped me in a lot of ways. Just know that there’s always a hidden limit when you’re approaching the beginning of your career. My fourth mistake was that I didn’t learn for
Opportunities In the Summer PRERNA ANAND Cannon Editor Every winter semester the biggest question that pops up in every student’s head is “What should I do in the summer?”. Deciding what to do and achieving it is by itself a job which most students undertake in the winter semester. As Engineers, our go-to option usually is an internship in a field we would like to work in. During my third year, I found out about many other opportunities which I believe would be beneficial to most students.
1. NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards: It is a research award which is applicable for canadian citizens or permanent residents who are in their second year of undergraduate study or higher. The forms come out at the start of the winter semester. Through this, you can apply to specific research topics you like and can get selected based on your resume and cover letter, as long as you have a professor willing to supervise you. Check with your department for the Summer continued on page 4
CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
4 • THE CANNON COVID-19 continued from page 1 together with Fermina, and only succeeds after a year or so of persistently trying. They finally go on a river cruise date, where Florentino uses the “cholera flag” to prevent Fermina’s circle of friends from discovering their date. I often think of the novel’s lessons in these “unique and challenging times”, and not just because of the title or because it’s Ted Mosby’s favourite novel. Having the pandemic and subsequent lockdown occur at the end of my final year of undergrad was a sudden and monumental change in our lives. I think we all wanted to prepare our mindset and celebrate the end of 16 years of education on our own terms, but instead it simply ended without giving us a chance at closure. It’s something that will continue to happen in our adult lives, and we often won’t ever get a chance to aim for the storybook ending that we see in our idealized version of Summer continued from page 3 application process since it varies from department to department. 2. General research position: Many professors are looking for students who they have taught during the semester to help them with their research. Go to the office hours of the course you like and ask the professor about their research. If it is something you’re interested in, you can directly talk to the professor. This makes the procedure of getting a research way easier as there is no need to fill a form and the professor already knows you which helps in making a good decision. Unlike the USRA, it’s open to all students, however
APRIL 2020 ourselves. For Fermina, her 50 years of routine simply ended because of a parrot escaping its cage, and it’s up to us to make the most out of any sudden shifts in our lifestyles. The current quarantining is undeniably tough, but in a way, it’s also indicative of life after we graduate, and once we fully remove ourselves from all facets of undergraduate life.
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see thousands of people, people who are seemingly normal, die every day, while many more get lifelong effects from the disease. But things will eventually get better; the job market will improve, and the pandemic will eventually end. 2-3 years may seem like a long time, but I personally cannot imagine waiting 50 years to be with the love of my
rather than 10 years from now in the future. If anything, with modern technology, new methods of communication, and advances in medicine, we are better equipped for a pandemic than any generation before us. Lastly, while not directly applicable to the current pandemic we have, it’s also important that we don’t forget what makes
I often think of the novel’s lessons in these “unique and challenging times”, and not just because of the title or because it’s Ted Mosby’s favourite novel.
We also need to be optimistic and hopeful. Nobody knows for certain, but it seems like the economic conditions for the next 2-3 years, especially for new graduates, are going to be as tough, if not tougher, than the 2008 recession. It’s also scary to
life. In the grand scheme of things, while the next 2-3 years may be the toughest period in our lives, it also only represents a fraction of our lives. This fraction, out of all the 2-3-year periods in our lifetime, is also the time where we can best adapt to the current pandemic
us unique. I often struggle with what comes after undergrad because my life right now is defined by class, and extracurriculars related to school. In a way, I finally understand the grief Fermina, while not completely in love with Dr. Urbino, felt after he died. I spent a week in a
the professor may be less willing to fully fund you without the funding from NSERC. 3. International research positions through the Centre of International Experience (CIE): You can apply for research abroad in the fall semester to multiple universities in different countries. After getting selected by the university, you get the choice to select the research you like and then
join that team over the summer. It’s a fantastic opportunity as you not only get to explore a new country but also develop new skills while working on interesting projects you love. Link: studentlife. utoronto.ca/cie 4. NASA Internship: I have great news for all you space geeks here. NASA has announced internships in Canada which start this year! The
application comes out in the fall semester. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I would recommend you give it a shot. Link: intern.nasa.gov 5. Junior Deep: This is an outreach program for school students done by the university. Students can apply to be instructors where they would either be assigned to teach or talk to students in the GTA and promote engineering. Some of these are paid
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Summer is a great time to try out new things and... to explore what you really like.
very sulky mood because I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Concrete Canoe, my classmates, or even my identity as a “good student”. But I think my identity has always been someone who values my own personal time and likes to investigate things that I think are not right in the world. This was definitely true in high school, and it took a pause for the last five years because of a new set of challenges and identity that undergrad fostered on me. It’s great that undergrad changed me mostly for the better, but I have to realize that school is not my identity, and now is a good time to begin new hobbies or return to the hobbies I used to do. For me, these lessons are ones that I’m still thinking about, and have been thinking about since the start of PEY. But the past month has given me a lot of motivation to start doing some reflection and think of my journey after graduation in these “unique and challenging times”.
positions. Link: outreach. engineering.utoronto.ca/ about-us/employmentopportunities/ Summer is a great time to try out new things and these opportunities are a great way to explore what you really like. In case, none of these work, you can always take some courses at the university or online along with a part time job, or even get a certification in machining, business models and innumerable other things. The possibilities are endless! Don’t lose hope if you don’t get an internship during the summer. You decide where your future lies.
cannon.skule.ca
APRIL 2020
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OPINION
Why Is UofT So Expensive? ALYSON ALLEN Cannon Editor I come from a privileged background and am a domestic student, but I wouldn’t be at UofT if it weren’t for begging my parents, relying on scholarships, needing OSAP, and having jobs. Do I qualify for UTAPs? Sometimes. I’m not sure why I only get it sometimes. Needless to say, the University of
the black mold in the residence. It was awful. I moved out and started enduring a total of three hours of commuting each day so that I could stay in decent living conditions. The commute and my apartment still ended up being cheaper than living at Chestnut. Now that I spend more time on campus, I realize how terrible our buildings are. I can’t even imagine getting around the campus if I had
jobs I’ve had? Yes. On the topic of learning, it does feel like the university is holding back investments that they could make to improve our education. I’ve had computer labs with software that didn’t work because we didn’t have an updated version. I’ve heard of students having to pay for TopHat and other online testing services despite there being free options such
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Needless to say, the University of Toronto is ridiculously expensive and I have often questioned my choice of being here. I’m only here now for the community...
Toronto is ridiculously expensive and I have often questioned my choice of being here. I’m only here now for the community and the hopes that my experiences will benefit me in the long run. Let’s start off with just the necessities: living. I mean, it makes sense that the city is so expensive, but why make the residences so unaffordable? I worked incredibly hard in high school to get into Innis Residence, one of the least expensive places to live on campus. I wanted to stay on campus for my first year, especially for a cheap price of around $1000 a month. However, the residence “didn’t have the budget” for basic things such as a toilet seat cover, fixing our stovetop, or privacy shades between the apartment and the main hall. I ended up having to leave two months after getting pneumonia from
mobility needs. Through my experiences, it seems like Myhal elevators are often under maintenance, Haultain has little airflow, libraries are overcrowded, and classes are uncomfortable for my personal learning. This is unacceptable. Since I need to stay on campus to get work done, I just accept the conditions of whatever place I find on campus. Each job I’ve had since high school has been to save up and pay for university and related expenses. Do I sacrifice my classes to work? Yes. Did I contemplate becoming a part-time student to work more but then realized that not all summer opportunities accept part-time students? Yes. Did I refuse to do summer research because the opportunities provide so little money in comparison to a retail job? Yes. Do I find myself learning more from the
as through Quercus. Some of my labs are just me watching TA’s do demonstrations, or we’re told we have to share lab equipment because we don’t have enough for everyone in the class. As someone who learns through hands-on work, it makes me question why I’m at university. I’ve admittedly almost refused to submit a project because I would have had to pay $60 to print a poster for a 5-minute presentation until I begged to get the price down. I’m currently doing a term project and despite asking, I’m still unsure whether we are getting reimbursed for it. I understand that it’s officially stated by the university that we should expect additional expenses as much as a textbook per class, but for me, these are just a waste of money. If it’s worth less than 10 percent of
MYHAL CENTRE CREDIT: DINA CASTELLETTO
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I did not expect university to be so expensive.
my grade, I wouldn’t even bother. Overall, I can say that as much as I have had great experiences at this university, finances are a huge stress factor. Despite rigid planning, I did not expect university to be so expensive. I have reached out for financial aid, received grants and so on. But not all students are as privileged
in the first place. It is incredibly important to help bring awareness so that students have fewer barriers to their university experiences.
6 • THE CANNON
APRIL 2020
Engineering and Femininty DINA CASTELLETTO breaking them down. It is Cannon Photography Editor vital that women continue to express themselves JI OH KIM however they choose in Cannon Photographer engineering fields-- it takes courage, but with the We asked four support of each other and engineering students what our communities, we can femininty meant to them, change the status quo so and their experiences as that no engineer feels the a femaile engineering need to hide who she is to student. be taken seriously. Jasmine Francesca MECH 2T1
Catherine Ye T1 2T3
Q: UofT Engineering’s 2019 official report claims that 40% of incoming firstyear engineering students are female. It is still not quite half yet, but it is not a bad number. How do you think we can increase the number of incoming female student engineers? I think it is all about representation and outreach. We want more females in Engineering because women are generally more sensitive and understanding and it leads to better engineering design and outcome. We should be highlighting Engineering as a peoplecentric job as opposed to highlighting only the technical part of it. Engineering helps people and not only profits.
Q. Have you ever encountered discrimination or disadvantages because of your gender/femininity? Nothing assertive or aggressive. But I definitely believe that I, as well as all women in engineering, have experienced passive discrimination or been looked down on. One time, my friend who is in EngSci wore a slightly revealing and “girly” outfit one day, and as she was looking for her TCard to get into the EngSci common room, one guy came up to her and said, “Um, tHiS iS EnGsCi cOMMon RoOm”. It was an awkward moment when she swiped her TCard and the door opened; she said: “I know, I am in EngSci”.
Savanna Blade ENGSCI 2T2 Q. I recently read this article saying that girls need to conceal their femininity to be taken seriously, what do you think about this? I strongly disagree. Expressing femininity in its many forms does go against the culturally accepted values of engineering institutions, and can influence the way that women are viewed and treated by their peers; however, acting in defiance of these traditions is essential in
JASMINE FRANCESCA CREDIT: DINA CASTELLETTO
Mirjana Mijalkovic ENGSCI 2T2 Q. What is your definition of female empowerment and femininity? And how could you relate them to engineering? I see female empowerment first and foremost as the feeling of being able to fully express one’s female pride in its truest and most personal form, unimpeded by institutional constructs or social barriers. I always see femininity shine the most in my classmates and friends in spaces that encourage Femininty continued on page 8
SAVANNA BLADE CREDIT: JACK YU
cannon.skule.ca
APRIL 2020
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If The Roles Were Reversed (Goose Edition) By Nadya Abdullah
Aw! Look at the little guy!
He’s so cute!
Should I go up to it? I wanna pet it!
Adorable!
I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It looks distressed.
Nah! It can’t be!
That was a mistake.
These creatures are wild.
CANNONBALL 8T4 CREDIT: ARCHIVIST
8 • THE CANNON Femininty continued from page 6 female empowerment and self-expression. Not only creating a space and saying “this [space] is open to ‘anyone’ therefore it’s a shared space”, but taking those steps in making it feel welcoming; those small and careful considerations make all the difference. The Engineering community is a really interesting environment to watch this happen because of its history of exclusion and barriers to entry. Historically, only a certain type of person with certain values was able to study to become an engineer, and fortunately, as time has passed we’ve seen how opening up this community to women has changed it for the better. Even the definition of what an engineer is and what they do has changed, in part because of who’s joined the industry and the valuable insights they’ve brought to that community. Here on-campus, I think we’ve really tried to adopt that mindset. Even though we’re proud at UofT Eng to have the highest female student admission rate of over 40% across Canadian universities, we seldom talk about female graduation rates because they are
APRIL 2020 by no means the same numbers. We lose a lot of really amazing people over time, and not just women, but it begs the question of what exactly pushes female engineering students out especially in the first year or even semester when interest and excitement for engineering tend to be at its highest. We excel at empowering female high school students to join our Faculty, but somehow can’t quite seem to keep them around. There are some really cool first-year female EngSci students tackling this problem head-on within their cohort, and I’m so excited to see what comes out of their consultations and ideation sessions. My favourite photograph at the moment is this black and white picture of a few presumably female Cannon Guards in heels firing in chains at a SkuleTM Dinner Dance back in the day. For me, every time I look at it I feel empowered thinking about all the trailblazing women that walked these halls before me so that I could feel proud to be here today, and it drives me to continue trying to empower myself, so future Skuligans might do the same.
CATHERINE YE CREDIT: CATHERINE YE
MIRJANA MIJALKOVIC CREDIT: MIRJANA MIJALKOVIC
cannon.skule.ca
APRIL 2020
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Five Years of Adding Trademark Symbols to SkuleTM RICK LIU Cannon Editor-in-Chief Five years spent in a single club is a long time. Very few people in UofT engineering have done it, and I personally only know three people who have. What’s even rarer is to spend four years in a significant leadership position, especially for a club with a long history like The Cannon. Matthew, a 1T8 friend, is the only person I know who’s done it, and soon, I’ll join him and a select few that have spent five years in a single club, and four years as an executive. I can’t speak for everybody, but the five years I’ve been on The Cannon has significantly changed me. Before I joined The Cannon in 2015, the paper was widely viewed, to put it bluntly, as a joke, and was irrelevant to the community. From what I gathered on Skulepedia and the January 2013 issue, the Editor-in-Chief in 2012-2013 did not publish a single article or issue in the fall semester, and was removed in November of 2012. For the rest of winter semester, VP Communications recruited a skeleton crew to publish one more issue after the January 2013 one. The next two Editor-inChiefs were tasked with reimagining The Cannon into an online news club, partly responding to what they thought was the cause of the 2012 debacle: a lack of motivation to write for a dying medium. To them, students were not getting their news from newspapers anymore, and The Cannon should reflect this by publishing articles online, and supplementing the online articles with three print issues a year.
CREDIT: NADYA ABDULLAH
This was a drastic change for the paper. Digging through our emails, and past records on our drive, The Cannon was publishing eight print issues a year in 2009, equivalent to a college paper like The Strand or The Gargoyle, and seemed like it had reached the
perfectly honest, it still hasn’t. In my opinion, the student body had even less motivation to check our website than they had to check our physical copy, that was usually easily reachable in The Pit, or theis discipline common rooms. To the writers, the print issue
Wang, Editor-in-Chief of 2015-2016, decided to set an ambitious goal to publish six print issues a year. During the Clubs Fair of my first year, the Bahen Atrium was so crowded, like it is for every Clubs Fair. Back then, I had a lot of social anxiety,
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...The
five years I’ve been on The Cannon has significantly changed me.
same level of relevance in the engineering community as those papers in their respective communities. I can’t speak for what happened from 2013-2015, but it didn’t seem like the paper ever recovered, and to be
offered set deadlines and rigidity for commitment, and there was a sense of pride in having a tangible and physical copy of your article, that would never be subject to a website crash. Maybe it was for those reasons that Edgar
and most of the big clubs had way too many people crowded around their booth. I dabbled in photography during high school, and The Cannon booth was looking pretty attractive since it had no one in front of it (this
should have been a bad sign). I decided to sign up for the mailing list, and go to their first meeting to see if I could be a photographer. For long time Cannon members, it’s become a running joke that it wouldn’t be a Cannon meeting if there weren’t 10 times more executives than general members. But at the time, it was so surreal that I and another student were the only two new members to attend the meeting. This was especially surreal since I just came from the Formula SAE intro meeting which nearly filled up SF 1001. I also felt misled when Edgar told us that a photography team didn’t actually exist, and I would have to join the graphics team, which Cannon continued on page 10
10 • THE CANNON
Cannon continued from page 9 would entail photography, photoshop, and most importantly, the dreaded position of layout. My first year in The Cannon was not fun. The graphics team met in dark and dingy EngCom, and I felt like the graphics executives were giving me random and useless busy work. I made some photo collages using photoshop, debated over fonts with other new members, and made a single table in InDesign. There were some issues where, due to poor communication, I didn’t realize a meeting had occurred, and as a result, didn’t get a chance to contribute anything to the 3rd or 5th issue. I still don’t know why I didn’t just quit at the time; perhaps it was because all my frosh leaders were telling me to get involved, and with The Cannon being my only extracurricular, I felt like I had to stick through it no
APRIL 2020
matter what. Things didn’t go well in other parts of the team either. I never knew who else was in the paper besides Edgar, and the four members of the Graphics team, but I was told of one incident by an executive where there was an intense disagreement among the execs over the lack of commitment of some editors.
of making us report on news, she transformed it to become more of a magazine where writers, free from being limited to topics assigned to them, can write about anything they want, which produced very intriguing articles about nuclear energy, hotel towels, and art. My favorite moment of that year was the work I put in to redesign the logo. While it’s no longer in the colours that Lu wanted it in, it’s still being used as our main logo, and I was so excited to hear all the positive feedback I got. As soon as I knew very few people would actually read or care about the paper, I decided to write two articles, one each for the 3rd and 4th issue. The paper offered the perfect medium for me to express Over the summer, I out to me to contribute high quality, and we all my thoughts about the honed my photoshop to the Frosh issue or genuinely felt proud of TTC that I would never and illustrator skills with about exec positions, and the 10 hours we put in get the chance to express, a personal project on second, because I was for each issue. Nobody and there was almost no the future expansion of surprised that she was complained, even though pressure from her to write the TTC, and had every still recruiting execs in some editors wrote two Cannon continued intention of quitting September. articles per issue. Instead on page 11
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the dying paper to join Concrete Canoe after I learned about the club. When Lu Chen, Editorin-Chief for 2016-2017, asked me to be the Graphics Lead during the first week of September, I was surprised for many reasons. First, because I had no notice that execs were being chosen in July and no one reached
Lu’s team consisted of many externally recruited execs, including some who were in their first year. But the way she ran the paper was very organized, and made it feel like a real club. She decided to do four print issues as it was clear that Edgar overextended the team, but unlike 20152016, each issue was of
My first year in The Cannon was not fun. The graphics team met in dark and dingy EngCom, and I felt like the graphics executives were giving me random and useless busy work.
cannon.skule.ca
APRIL 2020 Cannon continued from page 10 an extraordinary article on the first try. Even disaster couldn’t shake my newly found passion for the paper; when the huge tsunami of backlash from the Nepotism article hit us, I only saw it as a positive as this was the first time, in the two years since I joined, where people were talking about an article in the paper. All of this led to me running against Dale Gottlieb for Editor-inChief. Everybody on the exec team thought it was a certainty that Dale would become Editorin-Chief in 2017-2018, and as a result, no one else mounted a challenge. With no one running, I decided I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Canoe wasn’t doing too well at the time, and in a sense of irony based on my feelings in September, I thought becoming Editor-in-Chief would get me away from the dying club of Canoe. One day before the Joint Council Meeting (JCM), a meeting to decide on Project Directors, started, I got news that I was the recommended candidate from the evaluation that VP Communications and Lu completed. I was so shocked and excited that I didn’t sleep that night. Dale told me that he decided he wasn’t going to attend the JCM, but I thought about why I ran for Editor-inChief in the first place, and encouraged him to come anyways. We both made roughly similar speeches, and Dale prematurely congratulated me while everybody in the room voted. After what seemed like ages (it turned out multiple revotes occurred), Dale had won 37-32, despite the recommendation towards me. Internally I was fuming, and had a two-hour long phone
conversation with my parents that mostly consisted of me venting my frustrations and sometimes crying. This moment was my first feeling of actual betrayal, and was the moment when I realized nothing in life is guaranteed to be fair. While it feels silly to
shut out of it. Eventually, I stopped believing in most of those things and I genuinely appreciate a lot of what EngSoc does, but it took a long time for my opinion to evolve, and I don’t think I’ll ever have the same opinion of EngSoc, or student government in general, as others in Skule TM.
gold. When our website crashed, and nobody did anything about it, I devoted a couple of late nights to fixing it. Unfortunately, in a cruel twist for the 2013-2015 Cannon Editor-in-Chiefs, we lost all of our online articles that the 20132014, and 2014-2015 teams sacrificed the print
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Things got so bad that for our January [2018] issue, despite all the layout tricks I’ve learned, we were still 4 pages short of the 12 pages we needed.
say it now, I felt like I had forever lost the opportunity to prove that I made it, to be a leader in the engineering community, and to prove to my high school teachers that I wasn’t the generic quiet but smart Asian student that so many at my high school were. At the time, I felt like the whole meeting was a glorified popularity contest, whose real purpose was
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I resolved to ingrain myself in more extracurriculars for my third year. I became the Concrete Lead for Canoe, and set myself up to become a co-captain since every concrete lead since 2013 eventually became a co-captain of the club. Dale and I also had a discussion about the operation of the paper, and he wanted me to lead the graphics
issue for. I felt awkward in a role that was above a normal exec, but not quite the Editor-in-Chief, and despite everything Dale had done for me, it was not the same as leading the paper. We also had our share of struggles in trying to publish one more print issue. There were multiple meetings where only Dale, myself, and one of our executives
I have to admit that The Cannon was mostly an afterthought during my PEY year. I became the full time layout editor, and became so good at the job that I can complete all 16 pages in under four hours.
to make EngSoc seem legitimate. This played out perfectly for Dale, who was connected to almost everybody in the “Skule TM” community, while my friends and I, as members of the wider “UofT engineering community”, were forever
division and help him with some management tasks while Dale led the writing division and managed the rest of the paper. I did layout for three out of the five print issues we published, and I changed our template look to use more blue and
(it was never the same executive) were the only attendees, leading us to gouge ourselves with all the extra timbits and pizza Dale bought with his PEY money. Things got so bad that for our January issue, despite all the layout tricks I’ve learned,
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we were still 4 pages short of the 12 pages we needed. Dale encouraged one editor to write a very long 2,500 word article about the history of UofT engineering, while I wrote a 2,200 word article on the history of streetcars in Toronto, so that we filled up the remaining 4 pages of empty space. Some positives came out of that year; Dale and I had a lot of fun as we struggled through the year, and we recruited Alyson, Nadya, Diana, and Najah, to the team. At the next JCM, I ended up getting disqualified for missing the All Candidates Meeting. It turned out that everybody expected me to become the new Editor-in-Chief, and no one else mounted a serious challenge, as I had the year before. At the same time, with the elation I felt at achieving a very unexpected 5th place at the Canadian National Concrete Canoe Competition (CNCCC), I decided to put all my effort into becoming the best Co-Captain for Canoe, and encouraged Dale to ask Najah, our most committed editor that year, to run for Editor-in-Chief in the June by-election. I have to admit that The Cannon was mostly an afterthought during my PEY year. I became the full time layout editor, and became so good at the job that I can complete all 16 pages in under four hours. I still came to nearly all the meetings, contributed the occasional article (but didn’t write for every issue like I had in 20172018), and helped out with distribution. Najah ended up solving all of the persistent problems that plagued Dale’s run of the paper, such as the low turnout to meetings. For me, Canoe was the number one priority that Cannon continued on page 12
12 • THE CANNON Cannon continued from page 11 year, above even my PEY, and I was almost ready to move on from the paper. From September 2018 to March 2019, Matthew and I were struggling to secure a future club space for Canoe once the university decided to move forward with a new residence at that location. Combined with the pressure I placed on myself to be the first UofT team in 20 years to win the CNCCC, it led me to have a near mental breakdown in February. I had an identity crisis since almost everything I did was related to the club, and I feared I was about to lose a huge part of my life if we didn’t secure a future for Concrete Canoe. For
APRIL 2020 my own mental health, I took a two week break from everything except day-to-day tasks, and left Matthew in charge of preparing ourselves for the CNCCC until I felt okay. Eventually, I decided to not do a second year of cocaptainship like Matthew had done, despite the encouragement of some of my friends. We were eventually successful in moving to Myhal (but faced a lot of resistance), and I was looking to have a relatively stress free fourthyear. When it came time for someone to become Editor-inChief, it took a lot of convincing from Najah for me to even take the idea seriously. Eventually, I felt that the JCM of 2017
was going to haunt me for the rest of my life, and the idea of having unfinished business made me decide to run for Editor-in-Chief for the final time. I wrote for every issue this year, and challenged myself to write about stuff outside my traditional comfort zone of transportation. I’m so proud of all of the editors and writers we had this year, and I don’t think I could ever run the paper without them. The meetings we have, don’t feel like meetings; it feels almost like a group of friends talking about life for an hour. Today, I feel like the paper has become more relevant than ever and I actually spot people reading it or talking about an article that we
wrote (sometimes for the wrong reasons). I don’t think Edgar could have imagined the progress Lu, Dale, Najah, and now me, made in restoring the paper to its past glory, or how many committed people we have. With my undergraduate life coming to a close, I started reflecting on my experiences, and thought that The Cannon deserved a longer article than the one I wrote about Canoe in April 2018. I think joining the paper, and sticking with it through all of the struggles, all of the harsh backlash, and all of the bad times I’ve had was the best decision and most important one I made during my five years at UofT; It’s more important than my decision to join
Canoe and definitely more important than my decision to apply for the NSERC undergraduate research award. It’s given me improved writing skills, the ability to use design software, both of which I’ve applied on so many projects over the years at UofT. It’s given me a lot of friends, where we can have some inside jokes about “Najah would never do such and such...” or “stickthoughts”. And, it’s given me confidence that I never imagined I would have. After these five years, I think I can say that my life at UofT was truly a transformative experience filled with “tin foil hats” and “gears that obviously need more oil”.
RICK AND HIS FRIENDS CREDIT: RICK LIU