THE CANNON SkuleTM’s Newspaper since 1978
cannon.skule.ca
DECEMBER 2019, Volume XLII
VP Communications Recalled
STOCK PHOTO (2013 ENGSOC AGM) CREDIT: CAROLYN LEVETT/THE VARSITY
ANONYMOUS On Monday October 28th, the University of Toronto’s Engineering Society (EngSoc) held their Annual General Meeting, shortly followed by the Annual Accountability Meeting (ACM). The purpose of these meetings is for the engineering student body to assess the actions of EngSoc since the previous years’ meeting, to ratify changes to the Constitution over the past year, to present the state of EngSoc finances, and
to appoint an Auditor for the next year, among other things. The Accountability Meeting specifically consists of the Engineering Society’s Officers giving a presentation of what they have accomplished halfway through their term since their elections in March. The student body then gets the opportunity to vote to recall (essentially impeach) each individual Officer, should they deem their work unsatisfactory. If two-thirds of the votes are in favor of recalling the Officer, then the Officer
Review of Common Rooms page 8
and fact checking on the author’s part. The minutes documenting exactly what had been said at the ACM had not been publicly released at the time of writing, making it difficult to do so. The Cannon recommends reading the full minutes for an accurate portrayal of what exactly was said during the meeting. This article being published and printed in its original state was a *** The rest of the original mistake, and both its writer contents of this article have and The Cannon Editorbeen retroactively omitted in-Chief agreed to take it due to poor research down. This article was not is immediately recalled, and their position will be run in the next EngSoc election cycle. This rarely actually occurred, if at all, with only four resignations listed as voluntary being noted on Skulepedia. This ACM was an exception, with the final vote for the recall of the Vice President Communications passing 60 votes to 8.
Pass/Fail in First Year Courses page 10 & 11
up to the standards of The Cannon and should have been flagged earlier by our editors. We apologize for its publication, and specifically to anyone we misrepresented, most notably the previous Vice President Communications himself.
The Joy of Little Things page 13
2 • THE CANNON
DECEMBER 2019
THE CANNON
Letter From The Editor Hey Engineering,
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 Najah Hassan Smriti Mehrotra Shreya Mehta Linda Yu Andrew Zhao
Midterm season has hit everybody, and for those of you who are loyal readers of The Cannon, and notice the content in this issue, you’ll know it’s hit us hard too. That being said, this issue is packed with articles ranging from how future first years might be graded, to finding the joy in little things. Sometime in November, my friends and I were chilling at Chatime, when a Ryerson criminology student introduced herself, and asked to talk to us. She explained that as an international student not living on campus, she was having a hard time adjusting, but she felt like her course work was too hard to focus on making friends. I had a similar feeling in first year, but I had the advantage of being in Engineering and living at Chestnut. What I ultimately told her, and what I’ll tell you, is to get involved, and engage with as many students as possible. By talking to a random stranger she never met in her life, she was already better than I was in my first year, and I suggested she continue to do that, but in the many clubs there are at Ryerson, instead of strangers she’ll never see again at Chatime (and told her Ryerson Concrete Canoe was a great club). You might not like 95% of clubs in univeristy, or most of your classmates, but eventually you’ll find clubs or friends that you’ll cherish at UofT. Lastly, shout out to my cousin who wanted me to put a picture of her in the paper. Writefully yours, Rick Liu
CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS Maggie Paul Neetha Parameswaran Noor-E Shahrin Kirtana Devaraj PHOTOGRAPHERS Ji Oh Kim SPECIAL THANKS Addy Bhatia Humans of SkuleTM Micah Stickel
About 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
DECEMBER 2019
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OPINION
The Potential Dangers of Cancel Culture
MAGGIE PAUL Cannon Writer
A 2015 FREE SPEECH RALLY HOSTING JORDAN PETERSON, WITH SIGNIFICANT COUNTER PROTESTORS CREDIT: STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY
continuously fight amongst Online outrage and ourselves, we lack the unity cancel culture has become and cohesion needed to get increasingly commonplace, things done. For example, especially with the rise of Natalie Wynn, known social media. A lot of good online as “Contrapoints,” can come out of it, like is a Youtuber who makes engaging with accountability for bigotry videos and dangerous behaviour, and refuting the ideas of such as powerful men being exposed in the MeToo movement. However, is cancel culture entirely a good thing? Public shaming online can undoubtedly do a lot in terms of holding people accountable to their actions, but a lot can also be said for the harm it inflicts. While deplatforming individuals who have caused severe damage is very important, we should famous right-wing figures ask ourselves where the line and thinkers like Jordan should be drawn. Peterson, and Ben Shapiro, Even on the left, we’ve sometimes creating become notorious for composite characters of real infighting and attacking our people to discuss the ideas own. Again, while correcting they represent. people is essential, if we After expressing her
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trouble with gender-neutral pronouns when they are used to refer to herself, Wynn received backlash to the extent that she left social media. Wynn was additionally accused of being bigoted towards the non-binary community
necessarily be complete allies (and sometimes, they are allies), but they sure aren’t enemies. We don’t always have to explain everything to people who misunderstand us, or disagree with our positions. Still, without meaningful and
thought it was a weird idea conjured by progressives. But as I learned more about it from people online, listened to them, and read their essays and explanations, I began to understand and accept it. In my experience, understanding creates acceptance. I think if I experienced anger and backlash in my attempt to educate myself, I would have been pushed even further away from those that prefer a gender-neutral pronoun when being addressed. James Baldwin, an African American playwright, has a famous quote that I love and fits well into the argument constructive conversations I’m trying to make. “We from those of us who choose can disagree and still love to have them, we fail to each other unless your understand non-leftists. disagreement is rooted in For example, when I first my oppression and denial learned of gender-neutral Cancel continued pronouns in high school, I, on page 4 like everyone around me,
I feel that if this continues as the dominant narrative in leftist conversations, we might push away people who are already in our circles... but used to identify as nonbinary herself. This is only one example of how leftists might unnecessarily attack individuals who generally support our cause, but disagree on certain aspects. These individuals may not
4 • THE CANNON
DECEMBER 2019
Humans Of SkuleTM ADDY BHATIA Cannon Contributor Frosh week is when I realized that this was something special. The stories, the people, and the diversity. Engineering took me in without hesitation and opened up a new world of possibilities and a social web to weave myself into. Hearing all the different background stories of my fellow frosh, I was eager to share them with everyone else around me. You travelled all the way from India for ECE? And you play the violin while dropping your pants around campus? How the heck is no one paying any attention to you?! Being the initiative taker that I am, of course I had to do something. Humans of UofT. No, that’s already taken. Humans continued on page 5 Cancel continued from page 3 of my humanity and right to exist.” While this can be interpreted in a variety of ways, it’s fundamental meaning is that we can have political discussions while still respecting those that disagree with us. Some people don’t want to speak to others with different political beliefs, and that’s fine too. However, I think it’s essential to not expect immediate understanding and total comprehension from people. We were at some point in their shoes, and we all learned this along the way, some way or another, whether through reading essays, engaging with people on social media, or watching documentaries. There are many ways to teach people and explain our points of view without immediately jumping to anger and backlash. I feel that if this continues as
“I RECENTLY ADDED TWO OF MY FRIENDS INTO A GROUP CHAT, TYPED IN A DOT, THEN LEFT THE CHAT. NOW THEY’RE DATING.” — KEVIN NGUYEN [ECE 1T8] CREDIT: HUMANS OF SKULETM
the dominant narrative in leftist conversations, we might push away people who are already in our circles, or make those who already disagree with us tune us out completely. If the fundamental goal of political spaces is to convince people to agree with our ideas, how can we hope to succeed if we continue on this path? Protect yourself by not engaging with those that make you feel uncomfortable; you are not required to forgive those who are intolerant. But when you can, start conversations with people, or point them towards helpful resources. This is an effective way of continuing to make the left as tolerant and accepting of as many different kinds of people as possible, without immediately jumping to cancel them on Twitter. Even outside of political spaces, we can see how public shaming online leads to controversial situations
which are unnecessary. In a piece on public shaming, John Oliver discussed an aunt who had to sue her nephew, after he jumped on her and broke her arm, because he was so excited to see her. Though it initially looks bad, the aunt had to name the cause of her injury in order to get coverage from her homeowner’s association, and had to “sue” her nephew. She was dubbed the “worst aunt ever” and “aunt from hell” over a misunderstanding. In this specific case, we can see that cancel culture can easily lead to people’s lives being ruined over situations like these. As such, while accountability on social media,is important, it can be equally harmful. We should encourage ourselves and others to look more into stories before taking angry and reactionary measures, and causing more harm than we intended.
DECEMBER 2019 Humans continued from page 4 How about “Humans of Skule TM”? Ya ... that sounds cheeky, fits into the wholesome vibe ... let’s do it! At the same time, I joined the Skulebook photography team. Photography is super cool, and if it weren’t for me liking science as much as I do, I wouldn’t have cancelled my applications to go to film school. Turns out Skulebook also wanted to do this initiative. They piloted it the year prior (2014) with great feedback and wanted to start again in 2015 - my first year! So all the more reason for me to get this going. Without asking, I grabbed three of my friends in the Track One common room and interviewed them with my camera. Why don’t we have a facebook group at this point? Let’s push to get that going. Eventually, Skulebook gave in and we got it up that very day. How many photos should I be posting? Twice a day sounds sweet. Let’s do that. Turns out that taking photos, editing, transcribing interviews, and posting is timeconsuming. Let’s slow down the pace to once a day. Okay, I can’t keep up, let’s do a few times a week. Ok, that works! In my first year, the Skulebook team and I posted 110 photo interviews ranging from professors to TAs to classmates to fellow Skuligans I’ve never met before. The Facebook page received tons of likes in under a month. We began receiving messages thanking us for putting a smile on their face and having something to look forward to every day. You can’t ask for better validation than that for your idea, now can you? Apparently you can, since “Get on Humans of Skule TM” was a featured item in the following
year’s Havenger Scunt. Luckily, Skulebook got us a spread in the yearbook, so clever engineers got the point and stood on top of the book. Come second year, the burnout kicked in. After a hype first year and time-consuming summer job, I was not ready for more non-stop action. That year, the posting fell back onto me and I got up just over 30 posts: a 70% reduction from the prior year. My interest in Skule TM was dwindling, while my extracurriculars now included building a satellite in UTAT and marketing events in YNCN. Third year of Mech - the 2nd year ECE equivalent - hit even harder. Down to 8 posts by the end of the year. At this point, I didn’t have the motivation to put in work and get back up to the level I wanted HOS to be at - it’s too late, move on. After I decided to pursue a PEY in the States, I gave up all hope. Out of nowhere, the new Skulebook team reached out, and wanted to take over the posting. Great! Now I can be abroad, but still have the page going. It’s a tough task, but they got some good posts in that year. A year later, coming back from PEY, I realized this is not acceptable. The success of this page can’t be reliant on Mr. Addy. It needs to be driven by Skuligans who believe in the message and want to get other classmates in the spotlight. That’s when I decided to convert this oneman show into a team wonder. Delegate delegate delegate. That’s what a good leader does, so why don’t I? I clearly don’t have time to photograph everyone, or reach outside my social networks to cover the wide array of students, or market across the community. A week before Frosh week, I put
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“MEAN GIRLS. BUT MIN GIRLS.” — KSENIA BILANIUK [MIN 1T9] AND AURORA ZHANG [MIN 1T9] CREDIT: HUMANS OF SKULETM
“I ... HATE CELERY STICKS, I ALMOST THREW UP EATING ONE YESTERDAY.” — FARAH ZABIN RAHMAN [INDY 2T2] CREDIT: HUMANS OF SKULETM
out a call for interested students. In two days, I got over 10 responses, and had to turn off the signups. This was proof that love still existed for this project. Fast forward to today, and we have a robust photography team trained on taking consistent, high quality, candid photos of their friends and professors, as well as a dope marketing team to help redesign the brand
and get our word out there. And the cherry on the cake? We’re on our way to getting recognized as an official club in Skule TM! Oh, and finally an Instagram account (we’re hip now). The proof is in the pudding. In the first two months of school, we have posted 35 posts. At this rate, we’ll get to 140 by the end of the year surpassing my first year peak! And when I do leave
next year, I’ll be confident that this project will be transferred into good hands. There’s still lots of work to do. Like getting the HOS name ingrained in our community and seeing these posts all over our campus. Engineers deserve a spotlight, a beautiful portrait, and a moment to share their life. We are the engineers. We are humans of Skule TM.
6 • THE CANNON
DECEMBER 2019
OPINION
The Advertising of A+ Education Service SMRITI MEHROTRA Cannon Editor The A+ Education group is “an educational institute” that offers tutoring services for first year core eight engineering and Rotman Commerce students. Throughout this semester, you’ve probably gotten Facebook notifications about the A+ Education group. They advertise their sessions and services by posting bios of their instructors or information posters about review sessions and early bird discounts. Yup, you heard it right. Of course these are paid services,
and they don’t come cheap either. According to one of their latest postings, an “early bird” discounted price is equivalent to $60. Their list of services include 6 hours of review, a review package, a group chat, office hours, and “personalised” mentorship. Two of these services, namely office hours and review, are offered by profs in every course I’ve taken so far. Also, am I the only one who thinks it’s strange to include a group chat in their cost? It seems that the only additional services provided by the group are personalised mentorship
and a review package. I got in touch with a few first years about their review packages, and it turns out that these packages are a compilation of some of the most challenging questions the prof could throw at you in an exam. However, I also heard from students that when they ask their regular course TAs’ questions about the review packages, some TAs’ dismissed them for being too hard. The fact that the students had to approach their course TA’s for help on the A+ paid tutoring services is pretty ironic. I haven’t been able to get reviews on the
personalised mentorship, so let’s assume that this service is effective and helpful. Regardless, that’s also something any junior can get from messaging a senior on Facebook and asking them for advice. I’ve been doing it for the last three years, and thankfully have not had to pay $60 for it. Perhaps we’re being too critical about the group. I’ve known friends who were excited to join the group as tutors, and that’s a sign that at least the instructors at A+ are enthusiastic about their roles. Coming from a high school education
that stressed on the importance of after-school tutorial classes, especially for competitive exams, I understand the need for providing these services. It would make sense that students would work better with the additional support. They are assured of constant help and feedback that some TA’s and profs don’t fully provide. Let’s not forget the fact that their instructors are second year or third year students themselves, who have recently passed said courses with stellar marks and know the course from A+ continued on page 7 CREDIT: NADYA ABDULLAH
Join us...!
cannon.skule.ca
DECEMBER 2019 A+ continued from page 6 a student’s perspective very well. I’ve known TA’s who are PHD students, and because of their expertise, sometimes skip over information that may seem obvious to them, but not to the students.This kind of oversight seems to be less likely to happen with the instructors at A+. So we’ve concluded that joining A+ could potentially give you additional support for a course or two, but let’s address what the goal of A+ Education is. As
stated on their Facebook and information pages, their goal is to “light up university life”. Wow. That’s promising a lot. They state that their mission is to make university life easier, but given that their original promise is getting you a 4.0 in your course, I don’t see how they can claim to make life itself easier. There’s a lot more to life than grades and exams. According to their logic, they’re implying that getting 4.0’s is directly proportional to the happiness you can experience inside and outside of university. This
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As stated on their Facebook and information pages, their goal is to “light up university life”. Wow. That’s promising a lot.
contradicts the countless upper years and profs who have told me that while grades do matter, they don’t define you. You should not obsess over getting a 4.0, because the results of your work are
just a by-product of the amazing journey you will experience to get to the end of a semester. What A+ may be trying to say is that by joining their tutoring classes, students would be
encouraged to aim high and work to meet their expectations. If that’s their message, then they should consider being a little less cryptic about it and reconsider their advertising methods.
place to discuss political standpoints, and the typical school classroom should not be considered one of them. Students often consider school to be a trustworthy source of information. Allowing students to be exposed to potentially biased political materials in such an environment can lead to the manipulation of students. Moreover, having a political presence in education can also cause a decrease in the idea of free speech. For example, a right wing government who is allowed to meddle in educational affairs may either intentionally or unintentionally suppress those who have differing viewpoints. At the very least, it may cause people with different views to be less vocal than those who conform to the party in power. On the extreme end, it could turn into something of a scene from 1984 (the book). In fact, we can see this happening in many countries around the world. In some countries, the educational systems are closely tied with the political government (we shall refrain from mentioning
specific names due to the potential of offending readers). The students are strongly encouraged/ forced to conform to a certain way of thinking that goes against the idea of learning: to seek the truth in knowledge. Politics is not a foolproof machine that never errs. It is a flawed system that is the best the current society has to maintain a semblance of order and governance in an otherwise uncivilized world. On the other hand, education is the tool by which we pursue knowledge and truths. If the political system becomes tied to education, it could potentially taint the purpose of education with the less desirable sides of politics such as corruption or greed, which could cause crucial decisions to be made without having the interests of education at heart (e.g. budget cuts). Many people believe that the youth are the hope for the future. Should they not be given the opportunity to start afresh with their own ideas for tomorrow, instead of being filled with the political jargon of today?
OPINION
Politics in Education ANDREW ZHAO Cannon Editor Politics is an art that has its reaches deeply rooted in many aspects of modern society. As with any form of art, there is a distinct lack of objectiveness in deciding on a definition of beauty – in this case, a deserving political entity. This subjectivity has been, still is, and will continue to be the cause of dissent and dispute amongst the general populace, and for good reason; democracy is built upon the idea of the general populace exchanging views on topics to reach a decision. However, politics has been steadily creeping into one particular area that it should not meddle in: education. Politics and education enjoy a complicated relationship. On one hand, education provides the foundations for a more effective political governance. On the other hand, politics can sometimes hinder the pursuit of education. As such, many people believe that politics should be kept out of the classroom to avoid any negative
influences. In the past few years, there have been many clashes between education unions and the government over heated topics such as funding. This has brought about strikes and other actions that have resulted in disruptions for elementary, secondary, and even occasionally post-secondary students. These actions hinder the growth of students in their educational journey. By incorporating politics into education, it makes the system completely vulnerable to the whims of whoever is in power. These fluctuations in the stability of the education system severely diminish its ability to provide the optimal environment for students to learn in. In those times, educational providers are unable to dedicate their full attention to teaching the students, resulting in a decrease in classroom efficiency and often not being able to finish the materials that need to be taught (please note that this pertains mostly to elementary and secondary schools; it might not accurately apply to post-secondary
educational institutions). This is largely due to the simple fact that the curriculum is planned out for a normal school year, and often there just isn’t enough time left to cover the materials when an event such as a strike occurs; I’ve had first hand experience with this happening in Grade 7, and the effects extended into Grade 8, where many classmates realized that the materials that were taught in Grade 7 were not sufficiently covered due to time constraints caused by disruptions in the education system. This places more pressure on the students to find a way to compensate by themselves, which can lead to increased stress and anxiety, assuming that they even take the initiative to learn the missing materials themselves in the first place. Having politics be involved in the classroom can also lead to a form of indoctrination for students, especially those who are not yet mature enough to discern fact from opinion or form their own views on these topics. There is a time and
8 • THE CANNON
DECEMBER 2019
The Cannon Reviews Common Rooms Seven Cannon members collaborated and reviewed each discipline’s common rooms. These ratings are definitely not scientific (and sometimes biased), and we all had different criteria for what made a great common room. Here’s what we wrote.
Civil Engineering Common Room: 4/5 Located in the Galbraith building, the comment I’ve heard most about the CIV common room is that it’s so clean. As one of the smaller rooms in UofT Engineering, it has a variety of couches, 3 all purpose tables, a small breakout room that can probably hold only 10 people, and the legendary foosball table. This table makes the common room unusable for studying, since there’s always someone playing foosball
(and yelling), but it’s a great chance to blow off steam after a tough day at school. With the common room clearly geared towards hanging out and unwinding, it would be nice if there were more options for relaxing, such as a TV with games, but the small room doesn’t really allow for it. Lastly, the signs that students have “contributed” adds a lot of charm to the room that makes it feel a lot more “Civ”.
Chemical Engineering Common Room: 5/5 Located in the heart of Wallberg Memorial Building, the Chem common room (CCR) prides itself on being accessible to ALL engineering students 24/7 (so long as the custodial staff do not close the doors late at night). It sports decorative plants, a wellness wall, pet fish, plaques showcasing the success of the discipline over the years and pictures paying homage to the previous Chem students, the Chem Club trinity and Wallberg itself. The room has also been very recently furnished with a completely new set of furniture, board and card games, a new flatscreen TV, most Nintendo gaming consoles, pool, foosball and ping pong tables as well as
microwaves and vending machines. Participating in any of the activities inside the CCR provides a really good opportunity to make new friends. If you’re there for a quick work/study session, there is an adjacent cubicle room (also open 24/7) with over a dozen cubicles and large monitors to plug your device in for a group study session. And if nothing else works, maybe the iconic view of the CN Tower from the couches or the infamous Pig portrait in the back room will reel you in. If you think any improvements can be added to the room, tell someone from Chem Club. They have been constantly upgrading the room and would love to hear your ideas.
THE CIV (TOP), CHEM (MIDDLE), AND ENGSCI (BOTTOM) COMMON ROOM CREDIT: CIV CLUB & DINA CASTELLETTO
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DECEMBER 2019
Engineering Science Common Room: 4/5 If you find yourself feeling lonely on a Friday night, stop by the EngSci common room. The room is located on the second floor of Bahen beside the EngSci office and is home base for most EngSci students. The front of the common room has glass walls that overlook St. George street. It’s the perfect place to study with tables, chairs, couches, power outlets and 46 ECF computers. You will
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usually find EngScis of all years hovering around, willing to share their wisdom, whether you ask for it or not. The back of the common room has two foosball tables, a Wii and an XBox 360, with their respective TVs. The EngSci common room is a good place to study, hang out with your friends, or just soak up the spirit of the EngSci community, as long as you can acclimatize to its unique smell.
Material Science and Engineering Common Room: 4/5 Located on the first floor of Wallberg Memorial Building, the MSE Common Room is the exclusive fobaccess only competitor of the Chem Common Room. Despite needing an overpriced fob to get into this room, students using the MSE common room can be nice enough to let you in to enjoy its surprising comfort and
space. For such a small discipline, this room has the large Wallberg window lighting, great tables for studying, foosball, ping pong, and a comfortable couch arrangement to play Mario Kart or Smash on the Wii. It’s constantly decorated with out-ofseason decorations but hey, why not have the Halloween and Christmas spirit all year long? If
you’re an MSE student, you’ll have access to tea, coffee, and cookies for a small deposit that will get you through all the socializing, studying, and stressing that happens within this room. You’ll have everything you need here to quite literally make Wallberg your home (sorry Chems, we came up with that saying first).
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Common Room: 3/5 Located in the Mining Building, right next to the bridge between the Mech and Mining Building, the MIE common room is jointly run by the Mech and Indy club. Once arguably the best common
room, it has now fallen into disrepair due to being neglected for a while. It was the first to own a pool and ping pong table, its own video game corner, board games and vending machines. There is also a
separate room for study sessions. Despite the setbacks, it remains a cozy place to hang out in and efforts are being made by the MIE club to restore it to its former glory.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Common Room: 1.5/5 The ECE Common Room is quite unpopular among ECEs, and is often considered to be a “man cave,” and it isn’t hard to see why. There is little to do other than sleeping on one of the couches or playing Melee, as the Xbox and Chromecast are gone, the foosball table’s balls
were stolen, the arcade machine rarely works, and the cables to the HDTV aren’t long enough. It gets quite stuffy with no good way to keep the door open. There are no tables to do work on anymore. It is constantly neglected, both in terms of the notoriously empty pop machine, and
in general cleanliness; you will undoubtedly find garbage lying around, or the floor sticky. Most items of interest are kept locked up in the elusive ECE Club Room, and there is distrust between many ECEs and the Smash Club that often occupies the room.
THE ECE (TOP), AND MSE (BOTTOM) COMMON ROOM CREDIT: JI OH KIM & MSE CLUB
TrackOne Common Room: 4/5 You’ll probably miss the TrackOne Common Room the first time (or the first few times) you pass by it, since it’s really just an old storage room and all the lights are often turned off, save for the colourful holiday lights. If you can find it, though, the TrackOne Common Room is the ultimate hangout for TrackOnes, and is frequently
visited by first years of any discipline. Filled with comfortable couches for napping, tokens of first year mischief, and the infamous discipline dartboard, the TrackOne Common Room is small but cozy, and very distinctly TrackOne. Crazy how the smallest room can have the biggest spirit.
Mineral Engineering Common Room: 3.5/5 The mineral engineering student’s common room, or, to call it by its actual name, the Lassonde Mineral Engineering Student Rock Lounge, is, in my opinion, one of the best common rooms on campus. It has comfortable couches for a quick nap, a television with many different games and gaming systems, and a Bluetooth soundbar for your tunes while studying, plus campus’ sketchiest
foosball table. Out the window is a fantastic view of the CN Tower, down McCaul Street, and by the door is a thermostat, so it’s always the perfect temperature. There’s a fridge for your lunch, a sink to refill your water bottle, and an espresso machine for your caffeine fix. One of the only critiques for the room is that it can get a little dirty at times. P.S. There are lots of shiny rocks, too!
10 • THE CANNON
DECEMBER 2019
OPINION
Con: Pass/Fail In First Year Courses NOOR-E SHAHRIN Cannon Writer Imagine walking into your first lecture in one of the most competitive engineering programs in the country knowing that all your first year courses are Pass/Fail. Wouldn’t that be great! Current first year students would give anything up for that privilege. But is it really all good news? Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the dark side of Pass/ Fail courses. Whether we like it or not, universities all over the world have made letter grades, percentages, and GPAs a way of measuring your immediate success as a student. A high score on
any test or assignment is an instant validation and never fails to motivate us. This system keeps us believing that the harder we work, the bigger the reward is. Replacing it with a Highpass, pPass/ fFail system takes away the benefits of healthy competition with oneself and one’s peers. As a result, personal improvement and growth is effectively discouraged. Fast forward to second year when you can not hide behind the more general grading system anymore. You struggle because last semester you taught yourself how to get away with slacking off and procrastinating work only to get the Pass, since
the difference between High pass and Pass is more vague and therefore does not mean as much. You struggle to make it to morning lectures and submit assignments on time. Pass/Fail courses subtly induce all the bad learning habits that will be hard to get rid of in the future. University is not just about teaching us how to get a job done with minimum effort; it should teach us to do each task in the best way possible with strong work ethic, punctuality, and responsibility. Only rewarding the student with the highest grade possible, a “High pass”, is not fair for students who
are above average since they may have spent as much effort as those who do the bare minimum to pass but get the same grade levels. This implies that everyone should just get the assignment half right and cram one day before the exam since any further effort may not be rewarded. One might argue that the current letter grade system is stressful, that comparing one’s marks with classmates can lower self esteem. Given that all first year courses are made Pass/Fail courses, that danger of stress and anxiety is made even more intense going into second year, when the course load is immense and the
concepts are harder. Then what issue does making first year courses Pass/Fail really solve? To conclude, making first year courses Pass/Fail would be an unnecessary change that might have a negative impact on engineering undergraduates in the long run. It’s best to keep up with the currently accepted grading system to prepare our students for the competition out in the real world. There are many other more favourable measures that can be taken to make a first year engineering student’s life less stressful.
CREDIT: JI OH KIM
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DECEMBER 2019
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OPINION
Pro: Pass/Fail In First Year Courses NEETHA PARAMESWARAN Cannon Writer “The focus is to improve student learning. The hope is to contribute to student wellness.” These were the words uttered by our Vice Dean of First Year Engineering as he went over his thoughts regarding the recent discussions on the changes being considered for the firstyear curriculum. One of those include the controversial Pass/Fail system that many have vehemently opposed, reasoning that such a motion would lose the rigor that incoming students should get accustomed to, in order to succeed in the institution and program moving forward. Although it is important to note that the proposed changes are more nuanced than a binary Pass/Fail system –– think more along the lines of “High Pass”, “Pass”, and “Fail”, or “A”, “C”, and “F” –– thus introducing room for more qualitative evaluation while maintaining fair quantitative standards. After all, the top-rated institution for engineering worldwide, MIT, adopted this policy following decades of preliminary research. Why not consider it here? I heard whispers around the faculty from time to time. I was confused. I was intrigued. It spiked my curiosity. I wondered if my first-year experience could have been more bearable if I had such an option. Therefore I took this golden opportunity to have a one-on-one with the man propelling the conversation himself. I was a little apprehensive at first. Professor Stickel was himself an undergrad at U of T in the ECE department once upon a time. Having been aware of the ranks he climbed to get to where he is now, I may have entered the discussion with
a subconscious presumption that he had a monolithic view of what ‘success’ meant to him. Contradictory to popular belief shared amongst many that administration of any shape or form is usually ‘rigid’ or ‘self-serving’, I witnessed the testament of a genuinely refreshing perspective. When I prompted a discussion over his undergraduate experience here, he recounted some of his hidden regrets, regardless of his obvious achievement in becoming a crucial proponent to such an established faculty today. “I find it ironic that I tell students to open their horizons, get involved outside, and take care of themselves. I do regret not developing as a person and leaving a lot of opportunities untapped because my academics were the priority. It is an uncertain time and you are just making sure you do well as a first year to be able to move on. I get that.” I was in awe as I sat across from him. He used the meeting to express vulnerability instead of presenting a rehearsed stream of arguments as I expected from anyone making a case for such official propositions. He even delved further into the topic of mental health when I brought up the new self-declaration of illness policy that allows students to petition coursework weighted below fifteen percent without requiring documentation. “The important question for us as administrators to ask ourselves is: Are there opportunities for us to remove impediments towards (the) wellness (of our students)? (Whether it’s) through our system, curriculum, or the way we do things. We have to critically think about these things.” It made me realize that the push for this Pass/Fail
curriculum comes from a place of empathy, instead of the usual dose of bureaucracy that we as members of a highly-ranked institution get confronted with daily. The main goal here is to allow students to finally value their unique learning processes, and for it to be done at their own comfort and paces, rather than desperately scrambling to fulfill a set of requirements. Furthermore, a 2011 study conducted by the University of Massachusetts at Worcester on Pass/Fail
was placed on grades –– a system in which they seem to have clearly succeeded within, considering their current positions. And surely, there is valid concern around the idea of not facing the brutes of quantifiable failure earlier on in one’s postsecondary educational career. However, it is key to remember that the world outside of books hardly considers a percentage-based index to judge your performance. There is a level of objectivity that comes into play. Some of
in efforts to bridge the gap between commuter students and the university via facultyappointed engCEO students like myself. It certainly succeeded in building a community amongst the few groups of students who attended and remained for the entirety of the event. We talked. We laughed. We let our guard down for once. We even played a game of jeopardy, Toronto-style. But how many more students did we miss due to midterm conflicts? Group projects? Personal commitments?
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It made me realize that the push for this Pass/Fail curriculum comes from a place of empathy, instead of the usual dose of bureaucracy that we as members of a highly-ranked institution get confronted with daily.
curriculums in medical school concluded that such systems are effective in improving the overall well-being of students, while leaving little to no impact on performance during residency. It has been theorized that they can promote well-roundedness within the students, though there are no existing studies to prove this hypothesis as of yet. One of the downsides to the proposition of a Pass/ Fail system is associated with the stigmas that may persist within traditional mindsets. For instance, this study indicated that twenty-seven percent of recruiters preferred students from GPA-based schools. However, it is important to consider that many of these recruiters stemmed from a time when heavier emphasis
it can be negatively connoted as favouritism, while others consider it an additional perspective beyond the limitations of what one may think they already know of. “Do we really need to assess students based on a hundred-bin scale versus a three- or four-bin scale? (What) if we can alleviate the concern behind the difference between a seventy-eight or a sixty-eight? (There are) so many factors that impact those numbers. Commuting, culture shock, different academic backgrounds, personal issues, etc.” Once again, Professor Stickel flawlessly hit the keynotes in validating his point. The faculty has made numerous efforts in addressing these concerns. One example being the engCEO program that ran their first commuter event
Mental health issues? The inevitable truth is that regardless of our efforts to indirectly alleviate those stresses, there will always be a barrier toward overall student wellness until we take a more direct approach that reaches out to everyone. The Pass/Fail system can do just that for the first-year students. It was never meant to lessen the importance of academics. The primary intent is to reduce the paralyzing fears that hinder students from gaining a true appreciation for their learning, whether it is done in or out of the classroom. It is to empower students to learn on their own terms and will. Having control does not always have to be a bad thing, you know.
12 • THE CANNON
DECEMBER 2019
Why It Took Me 5 Years To Buy A Jacket RICK LIU Editor-in-Chief When I first told my friends that I was going to buy a UofT engineering jacket, they asked a lot of pointed questions. One of them was wondering why I waited four years to buy one instead of buying it after first year, like most people. Others wondered why I decided to squander $500 on a jacket. I even questioned the purchase myself, and asked myself why I was buying a jacket at all, since my friends and I were clearly not the types of people to wear one. Compared to many other schools, the cost of a jacket is very high. Students at UBC pay only $100 for their bright red jacket and many other schools in English Canada pay much less than UofT for their engineering jacket. The cost factor definitely weighed on me, and it didn’t seem worth it to pay $500 for a glorified piece of memorabilia, when the same money could have bought me a new pair of glasses or a new phone. For something that was supposed to tie every engineering student from every engineering school together, the cost was a huge deterrent to myself, and probably multiple other engineering students at UofT. With each passing year, it became less and less worth it, as there wouldn’t be much opportunity to wear the jacket after graduation. Beyond the cost factor, I didn’t feel like a part of the group of people who should wear a jacket. All of my friends, even those who are heavily involved in student life activities, don’t own a jacket, and we all joke about the type of people who bought a
jacket. To me, and to many people, the stereotypical group of people who wear a jacket are those that go to SUDS every Friday, are heavily involved in the Engineering Society, and hang around the Pit every day and hour, and students who believe “C’s get degrees”. As someone who almost never drinks (out of respect to my closest friends at UofT), someone who isn’t involved in discipline clubs or EngSoc, and someone who spent most Friday nights this semester working on an undergraduate thesis (which may have been a mistake in the first place, but that’s another article entirely), I definitely feel like I didn’t belong to the group of people who would buy an engineering jacket. When the time came to buy a jacket in second year, all these factors ultimately made me decide not to buy one. Despite the fact that the jacket is viewed as a symbol of the collective engineering culture, not everyone had one at UofT. For me and my friends, it was too expensive, and it carried a connotation that didn’t represent us. It wasn’t until my first competition as part of Concrete Canoe where that began to change. Laval University was the first opportunity I had to meet engineers from across Canada, and explore what it meant to be an engineering student. On race day, each team put on their brightest and most eye catching displays of spirit. Sherbrook had their bandanas, and green and yellow face paint. Queen’s had every member of their team slamming their jackets on the ground. While our team all generally wore our club T-shirts, it never reached the same level as
Queen’s, Sherbrooke, or Laval. That was the first time I really wished I had an engineering jacket. Only 3 people on our team of 25 bought one, and we sort of looked out of place among the sea of teams that all wore their school’s engineering jackets, with each school’s jacket designed by and carrying symbols of their student culture. At that point, and especially at the more recent Concrete Canoe competitions in Waterloo and Montreal, I changed how I viewed the jacket. With the ability to customize the lettering and most importantly, add patches, the jacket became more of a representation of me, and my involvement in UofT engineering. For me, it wasn’t a $500 piece of memorabilia to how much time I spent at
SUDS or the Pit, but more as two $250 pieces to the 2 clubs I put all my blood, sweat and tears in. Sometime during PEY, I made the decision to buy a jacket as soon as The Cannon released its new patch. The old patch of The Cannon was from the mid-2000s, and didn’t represent the paper that I put so much of my time in. The new patch, using the 2017 logo, holds a special place in my heart, since re-designing the logo was one of the first things I did as an exec, and it makes me proud to see stickers using the new logo slowly spread throughout campus. While I wish I could completely customize my jacket to make it even more personal to me, and less reflective about the parts of engineering I didn’t experience, and
wish the jacket didn’t cost so much, I’m glad to say I bought one. I have patches from The Cannon and Concrete Canoe adorning both my sleeves. One sleeve has “CIV1T9” on it, while the other has “YYC YYZ” on it, reflecting my history, love for aviation, and more broadly, love for transportation. So I encourage all of you to rethink the jacket and what it means. At the end of the day, it is a reflection of you and your time at UofT. Whatever you choose to do with this period, you should display it with pride; pride in what you have accomplished, pride in what you have gotten involved in, pride in what you have experienced and learnt along the way. Pride in being a UofT Engineer.
A STUDENT WEARING A UOFT ENGINEERING JACKET CREDIT: DINA CASTELLETTO
cannon.skule.ca
DECEMBER 2019
• 13
Finding The Joy In Little Things NAJAH HASSAN Cannon Editor It is a cloudy and gloomy morning. I am walking to the bus stop, lost in my own thoughts. I am thinking about the midterm I wrote a few days ago and how it went terribly. I studied so hard for it and now I am not even sure if it was worth it. Everything seems like it is falling apart. I am watching my feet as I walk and I am reminding myself to breathe while the cold air is hitting my face. There is a man in front of me walking his dog. Together, they are blocking the sidewalk. I begin walking behind the man but he is moving very slowly and I just need to find a way to overtake them. I see a small opening and I walk by them trying to move fast so I do not get in their way. “You gave me a fright!”, says the old man once I am about five steps ahead of him. I turned around to face him. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean to.” “You moved by me so quietly. Gave me a fright,” he replies. “I’m sorry,” I say again before continuing with my walk to the bus stop, accompanied by my bitter
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thoughts. He passes by me again a few minutes later. “I hope you have an umbrella. It looks like it’s going to rain,” he says, while looking at the sky. I smile and nod at him. I do not have an umbrella. I never did. I am not prepared for rain. But, something about that interaction made me think. Here is a perfect stranger, who does not know who I am or what I have been through. In fact, I have probably annoyed him by creeping up behind him so early in the morning. Yet, he is kind enough to remind me about the rain and make sure I am prepared. That morning, I decided to do something different. I was going to pay attention to all the nice things people do around me. In the span of an hour, I see enough things to turn my day around. I see people offer up their seats to others. I see a father carrying his daughter’s school bag as he walks her to school. I see someone on St. George street walk into the middle of the road and pick up a dead squirrel that was lying there and move it near a tree. After that, I start noticing all the nice
“SEEKER OF EVERYDAY MAGIC“ POSTER CREDIT: PINTEREST
things people do for me. My friends check up on me everyday to make sure I am doing okay. They remember little details from the long and irrelevant stories I tell. They help me with my problem sets no matter what hour of the day it is. And when I begin to
Adding up all the little things in my day, makes me realize that there really is more positivity than we let in. Yes, it does not make one’s problems go away. But appreciating the little things makes me feel more motivated to get back up and try again.
question my own abilities, they show me how I can do more than I give myself credit for. Sometimes, it feels like the whole world is out to get you. Like everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong. On days like that, I start to lose faith in everything. I doubt people, question their intentions, doubt myself, worry about my future, and feel helpless. When that happens, I notice and sum up all the good things, no matter how insignificant they seem relative to the mishaps. Adding up all the little things in my day, makes me realize that there really is more positivity then we let in. Yes, it does not make one’s problems go away. My terrible midterm is still a terrible midterm. But appreciating the little
things makes me feel more motivated to get back up and try again. From time to time I have heard the phrase “happiness is a choice”. I never understood it. How can you be happy when nothing seems to go as planned? Yet, one of the hardest things we have to learn is that there are only so many things that are under our control. We keep our heads down, work hard and do our best. Anything that happens after that is not in our hands. So maybe instead of worrying about all the things that are going wrong, we should pay attention to all the things that are going right. And hold on to those while they last. So, maybe I do have an umbrella. Maybe I am prepared for rain. I just could not see it until now.
14 • THE CANNON
DECEMBER 2019
OPINION
A Rant About Paid Learning Services ANONYMOUS Cannon Writer “Want to get exclusive example booklets that will make you succeed on your midterm? Want to get a 4.0? Want information that seems relevant and makes you feel like you’re studying, when in reality, it’s just a way to get your hundreds of dollars? If so, join our CIV100 review session where we, with our world class instructors, will make you pay more to learn!” In first year, a lot of my peers were attending paid review sessions for midterms and exams, where they would spend their entire day listening to non-engineering teachers walk through examples that were potentially irrelevant.
“Are you going to the session tonight?” I would get asked, and sigh in return, thinking that a review session would cost two months worth of electricity in my apartment where I could study the material for free. Part of me thought, well, they do get these cool exercise booklets. But the other part thought, I could just go ask my professors questions and attend office hours with TAs to get help when I really needed it. Of course, these sessions could be thought of as a type of tutoring. Except, it wasn’t personalized help. There were typos in the examples. Some of the material covered scared students into studying things that were never even taught in class. Why am I so aggravated
by these paid programs? They are advertised everywhere. You get handouts as you walk into lecture, your Facebook is spammed by ads, the people around you are talking about how great these paid programs are. Those hosting them are talking about how well they did when they were in school and how you can do that too. This year, I saw a new program advertising students who received very high GPAs in their first year and how you (yes, YOU!) can get that too if you attend their sessions and spend money to get instructions. In reality, they are a way to “buy your way” into studying when there are many other free resources available, such as using
the extra review sessions on campus, going to GEARS, attending office hours, posting questions in a group chat, talking to upper years, and so much more. These programs are trying to get students’ money to make them feel as though they are studying harder and wiser. In truth, maybe they are. But when I was in my first year, and even now, I know that I couldn’t afford to spend more money on an already too expensive degree. I felt like I was missing out on the extra learning, excluded by financial situations, since it felt like most people were attending these paid review sessions. These services take advantage of the panicked state of students trying to succeed
by saying there’s only one way to do so and convince students of a false reality where grades are everything – they are not. These services might not be scams altogether, but when you see them, you should ask yourself if that is really the best (or only) option to take. Your GPA isn’t what matters the most – it’s the learning you have done along the way and your ability to understand the topics. The university should try to prevent these organizations from lurking inside our buildings and trying to convince students to participate. Do you really want to pay more to learn, especially when it’s not catered to you?
CREDIT: NADYA ABDULLAH