THE CORD THE TIE THAT BINDS WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY SINCE 1926
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 2 • JUNE 15, 2016
STREET EATS & SUMMER HEAT Downtown Kitchener’s food truck scene under evaluation Arts & Life, page 11 PAIGE BUSH/PHOTO EDITOR
HOMECOMING IN QUESTION
MAKING MORE HONEST USERS
SURVIVING THE CROWDS
FROM HERO TO VILLAIN
NO OBSTACLES IN SIGHT
Will Western’s recent changes affect Laurier?
Social media may be the new diary
A packing list for summer music festivals
The new Captain America comic angers many
Paralympic swimmer, Alec Elliot off to Rio
News, page 3
Features, page 8-9
Arts & Life, page 10
Opinion, page 14
Sports, page 16
APPLICATIONS
Gender option on form made more inclusive MADDY CUTTS ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
This coming fall will be the last cohort of high school students forced to define themselves using a binary gender system while applying for university within the province of Ontario. The fall 2017 Ontario University Application Centre form, through which students must submit
applications to any of the province’s 20 institutions, will feature “another gender identity” as an option under the current male and female options, as well as a move to demarcate gender as an optional question. The need for a change on the provincial forms was launched by Ray Darling, registrar at the University of Waterloo, after having had the issue of the restricting question come to his attention.
“It was a student who came to the front desk at the Registrars’ Office, at the University of Waterloo, who pointed out to us the problem that we have at the application stage of requiring a student to identify as male or female,” said Darling. “And this particular student did not identify as either.” Darling’s request began last November at the Ontario University Council on Admissions, where
he presented his concerns, of which the council agreed required amending. Darling then formed a working group, of which Wilfrid Laurier University’s own Glennice Burns, manager of 101 Recruitment and Admissions, was a part of. This group was responsible for drafting the white paper and the motions which was then presented to the council’s April meeting, at
which the changes were unanimously approved by all Ontario universities. Darling hopes that this change will signal to students outside the gender binary that Ontario’s institutions are a place they can belong. “I hope that it’s going to present a more welcoming environment for them, to give them the confidence News, Page 3