THE CORD THE TIE THAT BINDS WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY SINCE 1926
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 3 • AUGUST 31, 2018
BLOOM BEYOND YOUR ROOTS
ORIENTATION WEEK 2018
PROFESSORS VS. STUDENTS
A WEEK OF CHEAP EATS
KNOWING YOUR LIMITS
FINDING THE FIT IN FITNESS
Laurier preps to welcome first-years
Relationship boundaries outside classes
The best bang for your buck around campus
Prioritizing selfcare as a new year begins
Creating attainable goals at the gym
News, page 3
Feature, page 20
Arts & Life, page 23
Opinion, page 34
Sports, page 39 PHOTO BY BRIT KOVACS
2 •
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
VOCAL CORD What advice would you give to a first-year?
The Cord
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CordNews
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
“Everything works better under pressure.” –Ama Iluwa, third-year global studies
GARRISON OOSTERHOF/WEB DIRECTOR
Laurier Hawks win their first official game of the season against the Ottawa Gee-Gees with a 39-21 win this past Sunday Aug. 26, 2018.
“Have a goal and don’t fall behind.” –Remington Evelyn, second-year communication studies
From the archives:
WANT MORE? CHECK OUT WWW.THECORD.CA FOR MORE ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
“Get involved and meet new people.” –Karley Sider, third-year political science and film studies
“Make as many friends as you can.” –Larissa McFadden, second-year political science Compiled by Margaret Russell Photos by Jackie Vang NEXT ISSUE SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
WE NEED YOU On Friday Oct. 7, 1966, The Cord Weekly reported on the annual Shinerama fundraiser. Shinerama was originally founded at Wilfrid Laurier University. When it was created, Shinerama was a shoe shining fundraiser. Students would shine shoes to raise money. In The Cord Weekly, it was reported that the campaign raised a total of $4554. A total of 400 of the 1000 incom-
ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Michael Oliveri arts@thecord.ca
CORD STAFF
OPINION EDITOR Emily Waitson opinion@thecord.ca
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Safina Husein editor@thecord.ca
SPORTS EDITOR Pranav Desai sports@thecord.ca
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sadman Sakib Rahman creative@thecord.ca
GRAPHICS EDITOR Kashyap Patel graphics@thecord.ca
WEB DIRECTOR Garrison Oosterhof online@thecord.ca
PHOTO EDITOR Eva Ou photos@thecord.ca
NEWS EDITOR Hayley McGoldrick news@thecord.ca
ONLINE EDITOR Katherine Weber online@thecord.ca
NEWS EDITOR Aaron Hagey news@thecord.ca
VIDEO EDITOR Sarah Tyler video@thecord.ca
FEATURES EDITOR Madeline McInnis features@thecord.ca
LEAD REPORTER Margaret Russell news@thecord.ca
LEAD SPORTS REPORTER Abdulhamid Ibrahim sports@thecord.ca LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Jackie Vang photos@thecord.ca SENIOR COPY EDITOR Sara Burgess copyeditor@thecord.ca SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Jazzmine Gabert editor@thecord.ca CORDCAST PRODUCER Brielle Huang cordcast@thecord.ca
ing first-years went out to collect money, indicating that 60 per cent of the first-year population did not come out to support the fundraising efforts. Today, Shinerama has grown exponentially. Last year, the annual event raised over $125,000 in total and over $70,000 on Shine Day itself.
CONTRIBUTORS
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Alan Li Josh Goeree Nathalie Bouchard Sarah Spragg Fani Hseih John McMorran Andrew McClelland Brittany Tenhage Vidish Parikh Alyssa Di Sabatino
Chick-Fil-A serves fast food with a side of homophobia by Emily Waitson
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COLOPHON The Cord is the official student newspaper of the Wilfrid Laurier University community. Started in 1926 as the College Cord, The Cord is an editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors. Opinions expressed within The Cord are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or CanWeb Printing Inc. All content appearing in The Cord bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent. The Cord is created using Macintosh computers running OS X 10.10 using Adobe Creative Cloud. Canon cameras are used
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Volunteer for us! for principal photography. The Cord has been a proud member of the Ontario Press Council since 2006. Any unsatisfied complaints can be sent to the council at info@ontpress.com. The Cord’s circulation for a normal Wednesday issue is 4,500 copies and enjoys a readership of over 10,000. Cord subscription rates are $20.00 per term for addresses within Canada. The Cord has been a proud member of the Canadian University Press (CUP) since 2004.
PREAMBLE The Cord will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Cord believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a matter of controversy. The staff of The Cord shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of commission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly. When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to
reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartiality, and consequently conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest will be avoided by all staff. The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so The Cord will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on Wilfrid Laurier University, and the community of Kitchener-Waterloo, and with a special ear to the concerns of the students of Wilfrid Laurier University. Ultimately, The Cord will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate. The Cord has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfilled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through The Cord’s contact with the student body. The Cord will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of the student press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our newspaper.
Quote of the week: “Are those condoms? I thought they were sugar packets.” - Graphics Editor, Kashyap Patel, referring to a box of 1000 condoms.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
• 3
News
NEWS EDITOR HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK news@thecord.ca
NEWS EDITOR AARON HAGEY news@thecord.ca
Welcome to O-Week 2018
LUKE SAZARIN, GARRISON OOSTERHOF/FILE PHOTO
MARGARET RUSSELL LEAD REPORTER
In grand Golden Hawk tradition, Wilfrid Laurier University will be officially ringing in the 2018-2019 school year with a week of spirited festivities. Orientation week is the best way for incoming first-years to get comfortable and acquainted with Laurier, as well as welcoming back returning students. Icebreakers, who are Laurier’s O-Week student ambassadors, have been busy all summer preparing for Sunday and Monday’s move-in days that will commence
We are ensuring that our program is much more targeted [this year] and it doesn’t give an overwhelming sensation to the students. -Tarique Plummer, President of the WLU Students’ Union
orientation for first-years. “An icebreaker is kind of like a mentor; someone they can look up to, someone they can ask questions to, someone that can give them advice”, said Adam Rezkalla, one of the Head Icebreakers for the red team this year. Volunteers’ preparations for O-Week began at O-Con, which is a mid-summer training session for Icebreakers that involved several days of team-building activities and safety seminars. “It’s a really good way for teams to bond”, Rezkalla stated. Executive teams from both Brantford and Waterloo campuses are responsible for creating an O-Week theme each year. This year’s theme is “Where Your Legend Begins”, and first-years that participate will be placed into teams by colour. This year’s scheduled events will include Drake night, a headphone disco, a carnival, a cheer off, and some special guest performers; Wes Barker, a stunt magician and comedian, hypnotist Jeff West, and mentalist Wayne Hoffman from America’s Got Talent. Toronto-based hip-hop recording artist NAV will be hosted by A-Team Laurier in the Athletic
Complex on Tuesday night. Tickets for this show will be sold separately from orientation week packages, are only made available to Laurier students and are $30 each.
We’re much more focused on the quality of the program rather than trying to do a lot of things in a short time period. -Tarique Plummer, President of the WLU Students’ Union
“We are ensuring that our program is much more targeted [this year] and it doesn’t give an overwhelming sensation to the students,” said Tarique Plummer, President of the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union. “We’re much more focused on the quality of the program rather than trying to do a lot of things in a short time period.”
“Last year we had back-to-back opening ceremonies for students on one day. This year we have an opening ceremony on the Sunday when students move in, and on Monday when the next set of students move in,” he said. “[We’re also] paying more attention to the mental and the physical health of our volunteers, something that we are very much mindful of and looking into”, Plummer stated, and Laurier’s O-week consists of various informative events for all students. Positive Pulse will be returning this year on Tuesday to give students the information they need for maintaining physical and mental wellness. The Room Burn, a live demonstration of a dorm room being lit on fire, will also be back on Tuesday and presented by the Waterloo Fire Department and SHERM Laurier. Laurier’s Get Involved Fair, taking place on Friday morning, will give students the opportunity to check out the wide variety of clubs, committees, teams and services that Laurier has to offer. The Shinerama fundraiser for cystic fibrosis will also play a big role at Laurier’s O-week with sev-
[We’re also] paying more attention to the mental and the physical health of our volunteers.
-Tarique Plummer, President of the WLU Students’ Union
eral events taking place such as the Shine BBQ, Shine Time and Shine Day, at which all proceeds from each will go towards fighting CF in Canada. “Our marketing team, specifically for orientation week, have been continuously providing first-year students with updates and introducing them to key individuals, whether it be your head icebreaker or ice breaking team or colours”, Plummer added. “Students should be amped about what they’ll be involved in”. A full O-Week itinerary is available online on the Students’ Union website.
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NEWS • 5
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 INITIATIVES
Laurier sustainability office, Ecohawks offer a FreeStore JAZZMINE GABERT SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
This O-week, the Laurier Sustainability Office and EcoHawks are teaming up for a FreeStore. The pop-up shop will be open for the entire first week of September 2018 and will offer free items to students and the community. While the pop-up shop is open at Laurier, it is open to the community, including schools like the University of Waterloo and Conestoga College. Items range from kitchenware and office supplies to clothing and accessories.
We are working to solve our waste problem while offering a great way for [students to] furnish their homes or get … textbooks. -Tyler Plante, WLU sustainability office representative
“We aim to have a triple impact,” said Tyler Plante, Laurier Sustainability Office representative. The FreeStore aims to impact the environment, community and students
KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR
in a positive way by promoting sustainability, without any costs or exceptions. “[Sustainability] just makes sense,” Plante said. “It’s about not living wastefully.” But how is a Freestore promoting sustainable living? According to Plante, most items available are gently used and donated. “I’m really impressed by the clothing that was donated … we [also] have around six panini presses and coffee presses that look brand new,” Plante said. The Freestore is meant to act as a fun and fast way for people to live a
more sustainable lifestyle. Whether they are looking to move out, a new wardrobe or need some essentials for their homes. “If you’re moving for the first time ever, it’s really tempting to hop on a bus and go to Walmart … but we know [a lot of items] end up on the curb [by the end of the year],” Plante said. Plante and his team plan on bringing awareness to sustainable living in the community by making it convenient for student budgets and time. “[It’s a] cool and free option [for students] to refurbish their homes,” Plante said.
Plante also suggests some simple ways students can live a more sustainable lifestyle. “One of the first things I suggest is knowing your impact,” Plante said. “There’s something called the ‘Earth Overshoot day … [which] is essentially [the concept that] if everyone lived like me, how long it would take [all of ] us to use all of the planet’s resources?” “When I calculated it, the results were very surprising to me,” he said. While the FreeStore aims to promote sustainability and reduce waste and overconsumption, Plante suggests that other lifestyle
choices can help reduce waste as well. “Eating a plant-rich diet has a huge impact,” he said. “Cattle [are currently the] third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.” Sustainability plays a huge role in pushing for a FreeStore. It allows students and the community to practice reducing their waste consumption without financial or time barriers. Through donations and collections, the team was able to organize a store to help the community and students alike find environmentally friendly items without breaking the bank. “We are working to solve our waste problem while offering a great way for [students to] furnish their homes or get … textbooks,” Plante said. While moving out of the house seems intimidating at first, shops like the Freestore aim to help support incoming residents. By offering economic and environmental support, students are able to get the essentials without leaving a dent in their wallets. While change can be frightening, it can also bring new and exciting opportunities to the table. Participating in local communities and learning how to maintain a healthy and sustainable life can help bring out the best in yourself, the community and within the world.
BUSINESS
Earth Suds: Eliminating plastic waste through innovation MARGARET RUSSELL LEAD REPORTER
Slowly but surely the global community is making efforts towards eliminating plastic waste that ultimately damages our various ecosystems. Most recently on a large scale, Starbucks Coffee announced their goal to eliminate the need for plastic straws with their beverages entirely by 2020 and have already begun to implement their new lid design.
I think that when you run a business sustainably you have found the most profitable way to run a business. -Marissa Vettoretti, third-year business student at WLU
Students at Wilfrid Laurier University have also become involved in this movement through the founding of Earth Suds, a company whose mission is to provide completely waste-free and environmentally sustainable soap products such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash and hand soap.
Earth Suds was founded by Marissa Vettoretti, third-year business student, when, last summer, she entered The Circular Design Challenge. This global competition, not affiliated with either Laurier or Enactus, asks participants to consider “how might we get products to people without generating plastic waste?” “I think that when you run a business sustainably you have found the most profitable way to run a business,” Vettoretti said. The Circular Design Challenge asks competitors to target their designs toward small-format plastics. “The issue with this type of plastic is [that] it’s so small it actually gets filtered out when it goes to recycling facilities,” Vettoretti said. Small-format plastic products make up 10 per cent of all plastic packaging and are resistant to our recycling efforts, contributing to our landfills and polluting our waterways. Vettoretti entered her initial design into the competition as a “Listerine strip for shampoo” inspired form, eliminating the need for plastic bottles. Her idea brought her success in the competition. She received encouragement from her entrepreneurship instructor to pursue setting up Earth Suds with Enactus Laurier. Enactus is a social entrepreneurship club at Laurier that “almost functions as an incubator. Its purpose is to support [student
We’re planning to launch the actual product when we go back into the school year. -Marissa Vettoretti, third-year business student at WLU
businesses],” Vettoretti said. Earth Suds’ soaps and shampoos are designed for single use. As well, their target market is hotels which traditionally provide small-format plastic bottles of soap, shampoo and conditioner to their guests. “All those small bottles that you get in your hotel, those can’t be recycled,” Vettoretti said. “We are doing samples right now with Hotel Laurier”. Since competing in The Circular Design Challenge, however, Earth Suds has modified their product. “I’m really moving towards zero waste,” Vettoretti stated. “The current product is almost like a solid cube that dissolves with water.” Marissa also mentioned that these cubes will be packaged in reusable containers. On top of being an environmentally-friendly design, Earth Suds’ soaps are made simply from only a
MADELINE MCINNIS/FEATURES EDITOR
handful of ingredients. “It is a very simple formula. The main ingredient is Lauryl Sulphate, the main component in most soaps, [as well as] a lot of natural oils, which is all you really need to clean and moisturize your hair,” Vettoretti said. “We test the pH of the soap always, not only for safety but also for when it goes into our waterways.” Their formula and keeping the
pH neutral makes their soaps environmentally ideal, especially if using in open waterways when camping. Although Earth Suds’ products are not currently available for purchase, they will be very soon as Vettoretti and her team are coming close to a finished business plan. “We’re planning to launch the actual product when we go back into the school year,” Vettoretti stated.
6 • NEWS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
RECYCLING
Laurier student works towards accessible sustainability SAFINA HUSEIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Hillary Scanlon, fourth-year global studies student at Laurier, has taken to creating accessible waste and recycling options on campus for those with vision impairments. In order to easily distinguish between various waste options on campus, Scanlon has created numerous rubber floor signs. The signs, which look like large stickers, are distinguishable from the rest of the floor, making them easy to locate for those passing by. Each sign features the shape of waste symbols, such as the recycling triangle, in order for individuals to be able to easily distinguish where to appropriately dispose of their waste. For Scanlon, the idea to make waste and recycling units on campus more accessible stems from a struggle she began to face in her everyday life. “In the middle of my undergrad I unexpectedly lost the majority of my vision,” Scanlon said. Scanlon has opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS), a neurological condition which considers her legally blind. “I was just kind of pushed into this world which was no longer accessible to me, that I hadn’t noticed before,” she said. “With that, some frustrations arouse with things that I wasn’t able to do anymore and one of those was just being able to throw out my waste or a pop can or a
Starbucks coffee cup in a public space.” Scanlon’s condition ultimately prevented her from being able to easily locate waste and recycling units on Laurier’s campus. Furthermore, being able to differentiate between the garbage,
There’s a lot of assumptions that people with visual impairments can’t do a lot of things.
-Hillary Scanlon, fourth-year global studies student at WLU
compost and recycling compartments made disposing of waste difficult, being that the waste units on Laurier’s Waterloo campus do not have braille labels. Once Scanlon came up with a possible solution to her frustrations surrounding accessible recycling options, she applied to Laurier’s Sustainable Hawk Fund, from which she received $4500 in order to further explore options and possible projects surrounding the topic. “I joke around that I’m still learning how to be blind. I’m not an expert at it **(she chuckles)**
and even if I was my experience as a blind person is completely different than that of other people with visual impairments,” Scanlon said. “There are so many out there and there are so many levels of what people can and cannot see – can perceive or not perceive.” As a result, with the funding she received, Scanlon was able to conduct a series of design labs in order to get a better understand of the needs and diverse experiences of people with visual impairments and of those within the Laurier community. “I brought in people from CNIB, both clients and staff, Laurier custodial staff, which was a great asset, other students with other disabilities and abilities from the Accessible Learning Centre,” Scanlon said. “Clean River, who is the manufacturer of the waste units, was here and with that we co-created this product based on what works and what doesn’t.” Throughout Scanlon’s brainstorming process when looking to create the right product, she flirted with the idea of developing an app that notifies individuals when they are near a waste unit. However, Scanlon wanted to create a solution that allows everyone in the Laurier community — those with and without vision loss — to interact with the issue. “There’s a lot of assumptions that people with visual impairments can’t do a lot of things but the real challenge that I see is with people’s perceptions of people
with visual impairments. We can do anything that anybody else can but we might go about it in a different way.” Scanlon said. “I really hope that this product that I’ve developed with the help of others proves that we are able to contribute to society and participate in daily activities, but we might not do it in a way that was originally conceived when developing the built environment.” Edmund Pries, academic director of C3 Innovation Labs at Laurier — one of many campus
Hillary’s project is amazing, because it does exactly what you hope it will do.
-Edmund Priest, academic director of C3 Innovation Labs at WLU
resources that Scanlon used when working on the project — doted on the positive effect Scanlon’s project will have on others at Laurier: “[Hillary has] turned adversity into a creative opportunity for herself to develop this idea to work on the issue of accessibility and not only for herself but also to make it available to others and I think
that’s a remarkable kind of thing to do,” Pries said. Scanlon’s signs were first testing on Laurier’s Waterloo campus last month. At the end of the first day of testing, Scanlon said she was pleased to see the signs were dirty. “[The dirt] told me at least that people were interacting with it and they weren’t kind of wondering what it was or walking around it which I was a little bit worried about. So the level of dirt on them was actually a good sign for me,” Scanlon remarked. “To me, that interaction really proves this is a system that works for people with sight as well as without sight.” Scanlon will continue to test the signs throughout the summer in order to test for needed modifications and where to go with the project from there. “Hillary’s project is amazing, because it does exactly what you hope it will do. People have to have a close understanding of a problem, of a social challenge or any kind of challenge in order to be able to address it,” Pries said. “She obviously has a personal understanding of the issue she’s trying to address. So, her project does that. it leverages her own experience and then uses these tools of development to address a broader issue in our society – accessibility.”
PHOTOS BY ANDREAS PATSIAOUROS
NEWS • 7
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 MUNICIPAL ELECTION
KASYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR
A guide to Waterloo’s municipal electoral candidates MARGARET RUSSELL LEAD REPORTER
Waterloo Region will be voting on Oct. 22, 2018, as part of the municipal council and school board elections taking place across Ontario. We’ve spoken to our three mayoral candidates, asking about key points in their platforms and goals for their prospective terms. Dave Jaworsky Dave Jaworsky, our current mayor of Waterloo, is running this fall for a second term. In 2014, his three-point platform won him 55 per cent of the vote in a four-person race.
It occurred to me that I could do a lot more — the ultimate community job is mayor.
-Dave Jaworsky, mayor of Waterloo
His initial interest to become involved in local politics stemmed from 25 years of business experience after graduating from the University of Waterloo. Specifically, at BlackBerry’s headquarters in Waterloo where “[his] role was to set up a corporate social responsibility team, focused on environment, community, philanthropy, university relations [and] govern-
ment relations.” Jaworsky spent a great deal of time volunteering on various local boards and committees such as the Greater KW Chamber of Commerce, KW Community Foundation, KidsAbility as well as Waterloo’s minor hockey and soccer associations. “It occurred to me that I could do a lot more — the ultimate community job is mayor,” Jaworsky said. When asked about achievements made during his term thus far, Jaworsky discussed Waterloo’s economic resilience regarding the growth of businesses and jobs. “Our largest employer, Blackberry, was shedding thousands of jobs,” Jaworsky said. “We invested in Communitech to bring them to our uptown area … we made investments in the Accel-erator Centre so that they could create more companies.” Jaworsky places emphasis on the importance of Waterloo as “Canada’s education city” and making the city more accessible to students when they’re here to study and when they graduate, as well. “We lobbied alongside students to get a new standardized rental housing agreement eventually so that students have a better upper hand when dealing with their landlords,” he said. Jaworsky’s official platform will be released in early September, but he discussed some of the changes being made within Waterloo with the hopes of continuation in the new term. This includes creating more parks and implementing more segregated bike lanes with focus on streets surround-ing the campuses of Laurier, University of Waterloo and Conestoga College.
Kelly Steiss Another mayoral candidate is Kelly Steiss. After graduating from the University of Waterloo with a BA in Social Development Studies and a diploma in social work, Kelly has been working for the municipal governments of both Kitchener and Waterloo for the past 16 years. “This was really a time where I needed to step forward and offer my experience and leadership skills,” Steiss said. “As I’ve been meeting with businesses and talking with [residents]
One of the things I want to accomplish in the next four years is for us to have a more transparent, accountable and accessible government. -Kelly Steiss, mayoral candidate
in Waterloo, they are not feeling that our current mayor and council are listening to them.” “One of the things I want to accomplish in the next four years is for us to have a more transparent, accountable and accessible government,” she said. Kelly mentions our city’s need to be more proactive about homelessness and subsidized housing in Waterloo region. “One of the things that is really important to me is fiscal responsibility,” Steiss said. “[It has been] presented that we have a six per cent tax increase for
the city of Waterloo.” “It is important that we are open and transparent about why we need that kind of money and how we will use it.” “It’s about creating a vibrancy in our city … I want students to want to stay, and be able to afford to stay, in our city,” she added. Although her official platform will not be available until September, Steiss emphasizes the importance of supporting local businesses, having places of interest and attracting and retaining talent in the city, with the goals of economic growth and diversifying Waterloo’s culture. Chris Kolednik Our third mayoral candidate, Chris Kolednik, is a Carleton University alumnus and graduated with an honours law degree, with a concentration in policy and government. Now working as a real estate broker, Kolednik recalls on his political intuition being sparked at an early age and has been preparing to run for mayor by keeping up with what’s going on in Waterloo as of late. “I’ve done a bunch of door-knocking and the top three things that come up are basically property taxes, the LRT (light-rail transit) and safe injection sites,” Kolednik said. “There’s no fiscal prudence in the city … [the] cost of living has gone up for a tremendous amount of people [and] that’s predominantly one of the reasons why I’m running.” “Most [residences] are opposed to safe injection sites. If I do get elected that’s something we won’t ever see in Waterloo,” he added. “I believe in rehabilitation.”
There’s no fiscal prudence in the city … [the] cost of living has gone up for a tremendous amount of people. -Chris Kolednik, mayoral candidate
Chris has been door-knocking for his campaign in mainly non-student residential areas in the region but is also trying to get more students involved in our elections this year by using social media outlets like Reddit. “Whether you’re going to live here for six months, a year or for a three or four-year pro-gram, you’re a big part of the community,” Kolednik said. “I’m a business guy first … at the end of the day people want stability and security in their lives.” Chris’s official platform will, as well, be available in September. Ward 7 Candidates Ward 7 refers to Waterloo’s uptown district and is the ward that represents Laurier’s campus and most adjacent student housing. There are five candidates for councillor of Ward 7: Devon McKenzie, Rami Said, Tenille Bonoguore, Carol Parsons and Elizabeth Sproule.
8 • NEWS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
BUSINESS
Cash in on Laurier Startup Fund HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR
At the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, there are many opportunities for young entrepreneurs to learn the business of managing a startup. Laurier’s Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation is a great way for students to engage in the entrepreneurship core or even look into the social entrepreneurship option. There are also clubs like Startup Laurier, which help to empower students to engage in their entrepreneurial passions. However, many students have passed the stage of building their startup as well as managing it and are now looking into financing. The Laurier Startup Fund is an innovative way for students to look into how financiers and investors play a role in startups that have passed the beginning stages, as many companies rely on their own funds or family money when they are still small. Brian Smith, an associate professor at the Lazaridis School, supervises both undergraduate and graduate students during their time with the fund. “The Startup Fund allows students to gain hands on experience as angel investors. They do that by conducting research or what is called due diligence, on
these companies and the analysis involves the examination of these companies’ product development, [as well as an] assessment of [the] market that they’re trying to service and assessment of management — so whether they can
The Startup Fund allows students to gain hands on experience as angel investors.
-Brian Smith, associate professor at the Lazaridis School
execute a plan,” Smith said. Though the startup fund may seem like an extraordinary project, many of the fundamentals needed to run a business, especially one as innovative as a startup, are taught in business administration programs. “Basically, everything one studies in a business program is covered in this, in the sense that in order for a company to achieve success, they have to properly identify opportunities and need to be able to have a clear plan to sell
into that market,” Smith said. Though students are the main priority of the startup fund, they also work with experienced angel investors to ultimately come to a decision on whether or not to fund a startup. The fund was created by Laurier BBA alumni Mike Stork, who donated $1 million to the fund along with Hennie Stork in 2014. There was also a gift of $500,000 given by the Marsland family to the fund to give to students to help fund what they think are deserving investments. “These opportunities are a capstone into students’ studies in business and entrepreneurship. This is a course that takes students into the financing of these companies opposed to how to manage a startup. You need to know how a startup should be managed in order to be a financier, but beyond that you need to understand how financing is done after the early stage,” Smith said. “It’s specialized, people who actually fund these companies are either wealthy individuals or part of institutions that are dedicated to funding startups.” As for the actual courses, they are much different then courses like Introduction to Entrepreneurship, where students work first-hand with an up-and-coming startup to look at contingencies, different business models that
MADELINE MCINNIS/FEATURES EDITOR
could work for their product, potential customers and other key processes. “We’re really not there to finance companies from the start. This would be like adolescence. We give them the fuel to grow, when they’re babies they rely on their own capital, other people’s money and grants. They need significant outside funds to be able to grow their company in the later stages,” Smith said. As for the curriculum where this course is included, the associate professor brings up an inequality
in the field. “We are trying to encourage young women to engage themselves in finance. Women should not be afraid of finance per se — we want early students, first and second year young women to consider finance because it is an interesting job and there is a demand for young women to take the ranks,” Smith said. Though the fund is available for senior students, any students who look to work with entrepreneurs though they may not be one themselves should research the fund and apply when eligible.
WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE
Alison Pick named new Writer-in-Residence HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR
Each year, Wilfrid Laurier University gives out an award and two writing positions in honour of Edna Staebler, a member of the Order of Canada, award-winning journalist and author of 21 books, including the bestselling Schmecks series. The award given out is the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, which was created by Staebler herself in 1991 and has been administered by the university. The award is the only one in Canada for the genre, and has 28 recipients so far. The writer-in-residence is a paid residency at the university for a 10-week residency, and the author dedicates 40 per cent of their time to Laurier projects and programs like classroom visits, leading workshops or lectures and participating in community programming. The visiting author is a similar position; however, they are only at the university for 2 weeks, from Oct. 22 to Nov. 2, 2018. The visiting author, this year’s author being Alison Pick, does get time to work on their own projects, but they are also an added value to the Laurier community when they arrive. “What she does is works with beginning writers at Laurier, looking at their work and giving them professional feedback. She also
will be doing one or two public events, and she’ll talk about the writing process, it gives the writers a lot of freedom because we want it to come from their experience,” said Tanis MacDonald, chair of the
What she does is works with beginning writers at Laurier, looking at their work and giving them professional feedback. -Tanis MacDonald, chair of the Writer-in-Residence Selection Comittee Committee
Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence Selection Committee. MacDonald is also an associate professor at Laurier and will be showcasing Pick’s writing in her own courses as well. “She’ll also do other kinds of public events like coming to classrooms and speaking. I’ll be teaching at least one of her texts, Far to Go, in my Contemporary Canadian Literature course,” MacDonald said. Rather than just covering the material from an external point of view, MacDonald would rather get the author herself to explain her
SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
works. “I’ll ask her to talk a little about the process of writing each book, as Far to Go is her research into her own family history around the holocaust, it’s a beautiful novel and a very intense novel,” MacDonald said. “I’m interested in the idea that she would take something non-fictional, but of course had lots of gaps and things she didn’t know and change that into a fictional construct.” Alison Pick, an award-winning author who also works at Humber College mentoring students in writing by helping with papers they send her, editing their works and answering any questions they may have. As for her plans at Laurier,
Pick is willing to do the same for students here who may have any questions for her. “I grew up in KW so I feel a real allegiance to the place, my parents still live here so it feels like an extra connection. I love mentoring emerging writers, people who are just starting out or a little bit further on the path,” Pick said. “I’m looking forward to connecting with people who want to have their work read and also students in creative writing and English classes.” Her two weeks at Laurier commence at the end of October. Though Pick is dedicating almost half of her time when visiting to helping out students, the university does give time for each author to work on their own projects as well.
“I’m just starting out a new novel, so I’m at the early stages of it. It will be nice to have a little time and space to plunge in,” Pick said on her upcoming endeavours. When it comes to classroom visits, Pick is flexible as to what topics she would like to cover. “I think I’ll take the lead of the professor. I haven’t heard a lot about which particular classes I’ll be visiting, but I’ll see what curriculum they’ve been doing and what content they’ve been covering,” Pick said. Alison will be available for helping mentor students during her visit at Laurier. Help from an award winning author is something valuable to any student looking to improve their writing.
NEWS • 9
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 ALUMNI
Laurier’s first bio and chem PhD is making liquid crystals JOHN MCMORRAN STAFF WRITER
The future is and always will be unknown. We can guess and worry and plan, but never fully anticipate. For Katie Psutka, four years ago the future may have looked especially daunting, given that she was asked to blaze a trail as one of the first students accepted into Wilfrid Laurier University’s new Chemistry and Biology PhD program. That uncertainty came to a close when Psutka successfully defended her thesis, but the lessons she accumulated during her student-career at Laurier will be with her wherever she goes. When asked her biggest piece of advice to incoming students, Psutka drew from her own experience, on what set her on her course toward this PhD back in her very first year of undergrad. “It’s important for incoming students to make themselves stand out if they find something that they’re passionate about. I wouldn’t have gotten in with my professor if I had not gone up and introduced myself,” Psutka said. “Don’t be afraid to talk to your
professors if you’re interested in their work and really make yourself stand out from everyone else who’s coming through the door.”
It’s important for incoming students to make themselves stand out if they find something that they’re passionate about. -Katie Psutka, WLU PhD graduate
The courage that led to a first-year student approaching a professor about their work no doubt served Psutka well during her time at Laurier, but so did an equal measure of passion for her research. When asked what her dream project would be to work on, without hesitation she replied as such: “To be honest I’m really enjoying [the research] I’m doing right now.
I’m enjoying trying to make new materials, and trying to figure out why they’re behaving the way that they do,” Psutka said. The courage is there and so is the passion, but neither of these are inexhaustible resources. A student needs a final ingredient if they are to be successful — one that Psutka demonstrated admirably during her time here. When asked about the most challenging aspect of her program, her answer could probably be echoed by every student at Laurier. “One of the things that surprised me the most about doing a PhD is it really is a marathon and not a sprint,” Psutka said. “The research doesn’t always work out the way that you want it to, or hope that it does and you just have to keep going and keep pushing and to continue to work and develop new things, because it doesn’t always work the first time.” Over the last decade, these qualities saw Psutka earn her undergraduate and master’s degrees on her way to the aforementioned PhD in chemistry and biology. When asked to describe her PhD work, Psutka summed it up as follows:
SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
“My work focused on liquid crystalline materials, which are materials that have a state of matter between a solid and a liquid. These can potentially be used in things like solar cells, or renewable organic electronics,” Psutka said. “So, my job was to build new compounds of these and then either explain why or why not it behaves the way that it did.” Not everyone will get a PhD. Not everyone will enrol in chemistry or biology. Not everyone will
fully understand liquid crystalline materials (Psutka is our best hope in that area). However, another guarantee is that no one knows what their future holds. As we embark on this new year, let us briefly reflect on the wisdom our very first chemistry-biology PhD can impart. Psutka stands as an example that, as uncertain as the future remains, utilizing these characteristics is as close as we can get to a guarantee of success.
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10 • NEWS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
FUNDRAISING
LUKE SARAZIN, NICK LACHANCE/FILE PHOTOS
Reflecting on the significance of Shinerama in Waterloo News Editor Aaron Hagey looks at the impact and success of Shinerama over its 57 year history AARON HAGEY NEWS EDITOR
On Saturday, Sept. 8, Wilfrid Laurier’s orientation week celebration for incoming students will host Shine Day, the main event for Shinerama, a charitable fundraiser involving numerous campuses through Canada that raises money
In my opinion, Shinerama and Shine Day are the heart of O-Week; it’s what family and friends in Kitchener-Waterloo know us by. -Ardiana Marich, Shinerama coordinator for WLU
for cystic fibrosis research through Cystic Fibrosis Canada. For those first year students getting involved in O-week, the final day of the celebration features a fundraiser, where students spread out across Kitchener and Waterloo, cheering and raising money from 9 am to 3 pm, hoping for compassionate individuals to whip their spare change at them for a good cause. Shinerama in Kitchener-Waterloo has a long-spanning and rich
history, and it’s success comes as no surprise as it is a hallmark of O-Week at Laurier. Last year, Shinerama raised over $126,000, with Shine Day alone bringing in over $69,000. The event started at Wilfrid Laurier University in 1961, and since then has grown exponentially in both popularity and scale. Following a partnership with the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 1964, the fundraiser grew. By 1965, Shinerama became a large organization with dedicated events across university and college campuses in Canada. Shinerama was not always dedicated to the barbecues and car washes that grew it into the fundraising juggernaut that it currently is. It began as a shoe-shining service, but quickly evolved with its popularity to include washing cars, barbecues and collecting donations as well. Adriana Marich, the Shinerama coordinator for Waterloo, has noticed the impact that Shinerama has been able to make at Laurier, both on the campus and university life as a whole throughout its time. “In my opinion, Shinerama and Shine Day are the heart of O-Week; it’s what family and friends in Kitchener-Waterloo know us by — they know [that] the first week of September is like, ‘Oh it’s Shine Day,’ and will see everybody there,” said Marich. “I do think that we made it the heart of O-Week and a big part of what Kitchener-Water-
loo stands for.” Marich recognizes the success of Shinerama, especially in Kitchen-
... Because Laurier’s O-Week is so well known and we’re number one in student satisfaction, a big part of that is going out to Shine Day. -Adriana Marich, Shinerama coordinator for WLU
er-Waterloo, understanding that it is large in part due to the consideration, donation and kindness of those who are current or former students at Laurier, as well as a reflection of the hard work that has characterized Laurier as a school. “A lot of people that are donating to us are alumni, which is amazing. They [think] ‘Oh I used to be on the Shinerama committee’ or ‘I was a breaker and I was getting online donations,’ so I definitely think it’s a huge part because it started here,” Marich said. “But then I just think that because Laurier’s O-Week is so well known and we’re number one in student satisfaction, a big part of that is going out to Shine Day and having icebreakers and Shine and Go Team and
committees like that be around us.” Marich recounts the history of her own involvement with Shinerama as well, recalling it as a major point of connection between her and her fellow members of residence. “In first year I went to my Shine Day, and I remember [thinking] ‘Oh yeah, I’m getting close to my floor, but it’s okay, we’re semiclose’ and then as soon as Shine Day hits and you’re outside for eight hours with your floor you’re like, ‘Wow, this is an amazing experience’ and people give you a fifty and you go crazy,” Marich said. “I had such a good experience that when all my friends were applying for icebreaking at the end of first year I was like ‘No, I need to apply for Shinerama.’ This is my third year now and it’s a big part of who I am. It’s a big part of what this school stands for and I’m really happy to help and support it,” Marich said. Reflecting on the historical success of Shinerama at Laurier, it is important to look forward as well. The event would not be what it is without all the various members who contribute to it and get involved, more so because it is what defines the community spirit at Laurier. “I think it’s really important [to get involved], because I think when you get involved in university, especially after high school ,” Marich said. “If you go away from home, you
identify yourself differently, you find new things you’re interested in or find new groups of people that work well with you.“ “Getting involved really helps with that, because you find the people that are also passionate about different things or want to barbecue and raise money for a good cause,” she said.
I think it’s really important [to get involved], because ... [in university] you identify yourself differently, you find new things you’re interested in ... -Adriana Marich, Shinerama coordinator for WLU
For the incoming students, Marich recommends simple advice. “Keep an open mind when you hear the speakers during Orientation Week and try to reach out to their stories and identify and relate to them, because it’s gonna help you tremendously,” Marich said. “[And] if you see us on September 8, come give us some donations, chuck your change at us, we’d be happy to give you a sticker, a good smile and some fling bling.”
NEWS • 11
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 INITIATIVES
Sustainability at Laurier becomes pet friendly HAYLEY MCGOLDRICK NEWS EDITOR
When Brooke Dietrich was hired at the Laurier Sustainability Office for a summer student position, her first task was to make use of 30 foam mattress toppers that could not be recycled from the university’s Move Out Program, and would have ended up in landfills. Dietrich reached out to many people associated with Laurier, but unfortunately, she did not have much luck. “A lot of local community partners unfortunately didn’t have a need to take them for hygienic reasons, so they were kind of left up to us,” Dietrich said. With no uses to be recycled within the school or the community, Dietrich used her network to find a use for the foam that would otherwise pollute the planet further. As she continued her search for a purpose for these mattresses, Dietrich said “I reached out to friends asking if they had any uses, and I actually end[ed] up asking my Facebook friends if they had any ideas, and somebody commented about Ground Search and Rescue
KW.” “I messaged them and they said they would be more than happy to take the mattresses, and they told me what they were going to be turning it into, which was pet beds for dogs and cats that were rescued off of the streets.” Ground Search and Rescue is an active protocol which means to look for missing persons, but the organization that has many
branches including one in the region, used the donated toppers to create the beds for missing pets who were awaiting being reunited with their owners once again. “We donated so many, actually, that they ended up sending some out to Nova Scotia which is amazing,” Dietrich said, on her accomplishment of not only benefitting the environment but also benefitting pets that are temporarily
homeless. As for Dietrich, her involvement at Laurier does not stop when the summer does. She aims to continue to make the practices at Laurier more sustainable. “I have learned so much over the course of the summer on my impact on other people and the environment, but also Laurier’s impact on other people, the environment
and students,” Dietrich said. “Having that collaborative experience with staff, faculty and students, it’s incredible to see how we can all work together for the betterment of our school,” Dietrich said. Dietrich is also a member of residence life, and will make an effort to ensure her students are sustainable as well. “I’m actually going to be the Diversity and Equity rep for the First Year Leadership Project, so I’m really excited about it.” “I won’t be working with the Sustainability Office in that capacity, however they have given me the opportunity to pilot a composting project on my floor,” Dietrich said. “We did just get the OK to go ahead with that so I’m going to be trying out ways to kind of help make things a little bit more eco-friendly and reduce our waste.” “There are provincial by-laws we have to follow, and so we have to reduce our contamination rates by 70 per cent.” Hopefully, her help teaching first years how to reduce waste will be passed down to many more students to make Laurier’s campus more eco-friendly.
cape, notices to avoid parking were distributed to businesses and those in the UpTown area, indicating the restriction to parking that would be later enforced with the end of construction. “Since that has occurred, I have been witnessing very few instances where people are still using it, but I know it is still a bit of a learning curve,” Saunderson said. Concerning general feedback, the City of Waterloo made the desire for these segregated bike lanes loud and clear. “It was about 60 per cent, of the people that were interviewed, [that said they] would cycle more or consider cycling more if they felt more comfortable cycling next to traffic”, Saunderson said.
“By providing some separation between the bike lanes and vehicular traffic, it’s encouraging more people to get out and use the facilities.” With safety in mind, these bike lanes are going to have a significant impact in reducing collisions or incidents involving cycling and pedestrian traffic. “Quite simply, there weren’t any facilities there before, and this section of King Street had some of the highest collisions involving pedestrians, cyclists and sideswipe-type collisions, collisions involving parked cars and transit vehicles,” Saunderson said. “A lot of those issues have now been addressed through our various design treatments.”
CONSTRUCTION
Bike Segways come to uptown AARON HAGEY NEWS EDITOR
The newly-completed, segregated bike lanes running along King Street in uptown Waterloo are now available for use by the public, after over a year of delayed construction. This construction is another phase of the uptown Waterloo streetscape project, a concerted effort by the Uptown Waterloo Business Improvement Area (BIA).
[It is] very welcoming to see that the community is now able to enjoy these new facilities.
-Eric Saunderson, senior project manager for the Region
Their goal is to make King Street more accessible for pedestrian and vehicle traffic, create an environment that is more accessible and attractive to visit and exist in and to improve the overall quality of businesses and economic life in Waterloo. The lanes, which officially opened in July, are entering the final stages of completion. Scheduled for September is the final layer of asphalt to be applied, which will be followed by the permanent pavement markings being
installed, such as green paint at cycling crossings for visual clarity. Eric Saunderson, senior project manager for the Region of Waterloo, is appreciating the feedback that he has been receiving about the new lanes. “We continue to see that there are a number of cyclists that continue to use the [bike lane] facilities, more than what I expected, certainly from an initial opening perspective,” Saunderson said. “We were getting a lot of positive feedback from the cycling community.” With the addition of the new lanes came additional technology for tracking the popularity of cycling traffic in uptown as well in the form of “eco totems.” “It is essentially a cyclist detection loop embedded in the concrete bike lane in bike lanes on both sides of the street and it is counting the number of cyclists on a daily basis, which is going to be used by the region and the city as part of our ongoing monitoring of the new streetscape,” Saunderson said. “[It is] very welcoming to see that the community is now able to enjoy these new facilities.” These bike lanes, as well as those in the future, are different from bike lanes which currently exist throughout the city, as they are a more efficient construction. “Ours in uptown Waterloo has a different type of curb, which elevates the bike lane more from traffic, it has the on-road parking element as well — as [it deals with] increased pedestrian volumes and so forth,” Saunderson said. There are plans for more of these
kinds of segregated bike lanes in Waterloo, including plans to continue construction up to University Avenue in 2020 and the King and University Avenue intersection by 2023.
It was about 60 per cent, of the people that were interviewed, [that said they] would cycle more ... if they felt more comfortable ... next to traffic. -Eric Saunderson, senior project manager for the Region
This will be done following a series of detailed environmental assessments in the area to determine its efficacy. The next stage of this construction is scheduled to begin next spring, north of Bridgeport Road, up to Spring Street. “We [also] currently have a project underway on University Avenue, between Westmount and Erb, passing through the Keats Way intersection, which will have segregated bike lane facilities as well,” Saunderson said. As far as the issue of using these bike lanes as parking spaces, Saunderson is convinced that the difficult transition period has now been alleviated. As members of the city by-law and Uptown BIA communicated the changes made to the streets-
SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
12 • GAMES
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 SODOKU
RADIOLAURIER.COM
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GAMES • 13
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 WORD SEARCH
ACCESSIBILITY ANCHORBAR BUCKABEER ELECTION ORIENTATION ROOMATES ADVICE ARTS CHEAP FOOTBALL PROFESSORS SUSTAINABILITY AEXOS ATHLETICCOMPLEX DORM GOLDEN
Dear Life Dear Life is your opportunity to write a letter to your life, allowing you to vent your anger with life’s little frustrations in a completely public forum. All submissions to Dear Life are anonymous, should be no longer than 100 words and must be addressed to your life. Submissions can be send to dearlife@thecord. ca no later than Monday at noon each week. Dear Life, Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the classic Hilary Duff album Metamorphosis. That musical masterpiece is 15 years old, which makes me feel like a senior citizen. I am officially elderly.
I expect so much better. Sincerely, a FEMALE student, does that bother you?
Please stop doing that around us. You have your own room. Sincerely, Disturbed Dear Life,
Dear first years, Soak it all in. Just stop for a second and breathe it in. You won’t want to forget these moments. Sincerely, It goes by quick
Whoever thought of making a grilled salad is the stupidest person, it actually makes me angry to my core. I’m not someone who gets mad at a lot of stuff but oh my god I’ve never been so insulted in my life. A grilled salad. This is why the aliens don’t visit us.
Dear Kids, Get ready for this incredible wild ride. I’m so thankful to have you all by my side through it all. Let’s make it unforgetable. Sincerely, You know
Sincerely, Still hungry Dear Fall Term, I’m ready for you to hit me hard. Please don’t be gentle. Sincerely, A masochist
Dear CH, Sincerely, Old as balls Dear Life, I’m stressing about how stressed I’ll be during the stresstime time of the year.
You’re cute. Sincerely, I like having you around
Sincerely, Sweater weather Dear first year, Dear Life,
Dear Life,
Welcome to university. You will laugh, you will cry more often than not. But god it goes fast so make the most of every awful wonderful second of it. Make it count.
It’s good to have a summer off, but it’s great to be a Laurier Golden Hawk.
Sincerely, A fourth year that doesn’t want it to end
Sincerely, The Beach Babe
Dear The new Cord
Sincerely, Lil Stress
Dear Heat, Please stay away, we don’t want you anymore. You’ve had your fun, now go.
I wish my summer would end so my fall can begin. I’m halway in and out of bth right now and it’s messing with my head. Sincerely, Confused Dear beer, Get in me.
I still haven’t accepted the engagement of Nick Jonas and don’t think I ever will.
Hey what’s up hello, you are already killing it. Props on the design improvements over the past year, I look forward to seeing what this new ed board does.
Sincerely, Broken Hearted
Sincerely, Borat
Dear SU,
Dear Coworkers,
Dear Life,
Sincerely, I’m tired Dear life, Here’s to all the great adventures to come. Sincerely, Thankful
14 • PHOTO SPREAD
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
SUMMER 2018 IN PHOTOS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
PHOTO SPREAD • 15
PHOTOS BY: GARRISON OOSTERHOF/WEB DIRECTOR, MADELINE MCINNIS/FEATURES EDITOR, SADMAN SAKIB RAHMAN/CREATIVE DIRECTOR, SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Lumen • Discover light based new media, media art, and projection based installations in this free art festival. UpTown Waterloo Great Oktoberfest Barrel Race • Register your team of four for our annual relay-style keg race! Early-bird registration: $35!; Same-day registration: $40
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FEATURES EDITOR/MADELINE MCINNIS/FEATURES@
FEATU
URES
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 • 19
A DECADE OF CHANGE IN UPTOWN WATERLOO Editor-in-Chief, Safina Husein, discusses the transformation of Waterloo’s core before, during and after construction Change — the one word that comes to my mind when I think back to uptown Waterloo a decade ago. Ten years ago, uptown Waterloo was a local-oriented location. The core held a certain small-town charm. Janice Welch, owner of Just For You Fine Lingerie, described uptown Waterloo as exciting when she first opened her business 11 years ago. In a sense, uptown emitted an atmosphere that felt like a new beginning. Businesses and people were coming to uptown with a new vision, which made it an exciting place to be a part of. “The local economy was thriving, we’ve always had a very high business occupancy rate, we had a lot of local businesses, lots of mom and pop stores, stores that were run by local residents, so that was really great. We were doing pretty well in our core,” said Melissa Durrell, councillor of Ward 7 — where uptown is located. However, aside from a thriving local economy, uptown Waterloo didn’t have many other amenities. The core of uptown was simple and small. “A decade ago, it was a one street town. King Street was the main street, that’s where all the action happened,” Durrell said. “Our public square was a parking lot. It was a very car friendly place you could say. And it was very concrete. And we knew that we needed to make changes as a municipality although we had a lot of great stuff.” “But we wanted to make an uptown core that wasn’t just a one street core, we wanted to see it expand and we also wanted it to be more people friendly.” In an effort to make uptown a renowned area in which people could easily access through various modes of transportation, enjoy an array of amenities and more, uptown Waterloo underwent several years of drastic change and construction. The first big change to come to uptown Waterloo was the creation of the Waterloo Public Square approximately eight years ago. Before the square was built, existed a parking lot in its space, leaving little or no room for those coming to uptown to enjoy open space. “After that, the core started to expand in a way it hadn’t expanded before,” Durrell said. Once the town square was complete, uptown began to grow outwards and beyond King Street. For example, businesses and organizations began to move into the core of Waterloo, opening up on Regina Street, Erb Street and the streets beyond it. “The biggest thing would be the King Streetscape and the LRT which have been pivotal,” Durrell said. “We made sure that when we did redevelop King Street, we wanted to do it once, and we wanted to do it right. So we thought of all modes of transportation, whether you’re walking or wheeling or cycling or driving … there’s space for everyone to be able to take part.” “I’ve always called this the ‘Uptown Renaissance’, I’ve been using that term, I think we’re really turning into a metropolis in a way,” Durrell said. Amongst the exciting and grandiose changes coming to Waterloo’s core, however, were local businesses and residents having to endure over four years of constant construction. When LRT construction began, King Street was closed to traffic for a significant amount of time, making it difficult for residents of Waterloo to come to uptown. “Every single person who would come in would say ‘oh it’s so bad up here’ and I would try and spin that around to be a positive,” Welch said. “But your morale does go down because you’re constantly having to try and let people
know [uptown is] a good place. But overall, as far as customers were concerned, they were staying away there’s no doubt about it.” Since LRT construction began, businesses in uptown have been vocal and have spoken out regarding their significant decrease in sales as a direct result of construction. In conjunction with combating the rise of e-commerce, many local businesses have struggled to stay afloat. And as a result, several businesses in uptown have had to shut down or relocate due to lost sales during construction. As the main components of LRT and streetscape construction are now complete, businesses have reported an increase in sales — however, uptown has not seen the amount of foot traffic that was seen before construction began. “The construction is there in order to make it exciting again and to bring people into the area, so it’s just something you have to go through in order to get to the end,” Welch said. As Waterloo residents slowly come back to uptown now that roads are open, they will likely see that uptown no longer holds that small-town feeling. “This kind of small town feel of uptown is an interesting perspective because I feel that uptown is changing, we’re not really a small town,” Durrell said. “We’ve got two of the best universities in Canada, we’ve got CIGI which is an international think-tank, we have the Perimeter Institute which is the top physicist organization in the world; we’re a big player on an international scene and we need amenities to go along with it.” Indeed, uptown Waterloo seems to be entering a completely new era — leaving behind much of the small-town roots it once provided to residents of Waterloo. “When you come to the uptown core, it’s a different feel. It’s a cool feel and that vibe is very energetic and alive, but you also feel safe walking down the street; you can see that it’s bikeable and walkable and liveable and you get to experience that as you walk in uptown,” said Tracy Vankalsbeek, executive director of Uptown BIA. Present-day uptown holds significant enhancements in comparison to what it offered 10 years ago. The King Streetscape project brought forth larger sidewalks and bike segways, making uptown an overall safer, more accessible place to be. “Everything is enhanced from what it used to be and we have added new buildings, we’ve got new businesses, it’s all very much enhanced from what we had before. I think that the vibe of having that new streetscape … really makes it a place to be — a destination — and that’s super important,” Vankalsbeek said. “We’ve always had that local feel, that’s our tag line here is the whole choose local … [lots of businesses are] feeling very positive about things and are excited for even more folks to come as the LRT starts to bring people in.” Indeed, uptown no longer feels like a small town. Its upgrades make it a completely new space. However, the small businesses in the core of uptown will always preserve the local feeling of Waterloo. “I think we’ve always hit above our weight in uptown and I think we’ll continue to do so, and I think our retailers are right there along side us,” Durrell said. “You’ll always be able to walk into a store in uptown and meet the owner. I think that’s just part of our culture here, but we’re also growing and there’s more businesses here so we’ll start to see a bit of a mix.”
LAYOUT BY: SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PHOTOS BY: SAFINA HUSEIN, KHA VO, ANDREAS PATSIAOUROS, WILL HUANG, MADELINE MCINNIS
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FEATU
FEATURES EDITOR/MADELINE MCINNIS/FEATURES@THECORD.CA
When does Giving an apple
Features Editor, Madeline McInnis, examines the relationship rule
Starting high school, my biggest fear was losing my footing and falling down the forum stairs in the main hall. Starting university, my biggest fear was, well, falling into a sea of students and never really finding my footing at all. I was friends with some of my high school teachers, and I liked the feeling of being known around the school, even to teachers that I’d never had a class with. That was all behind me when I stepped into my first day of class in Bricker Academic three years ago. Professors were intimidating. From a professor that asked me to switch classes (yikes) to another I dropped on my very first day because I didn’t think I was smart enough to keep up with him (double yikes), starting to get to know my professors was the first barrier to really fitting in at Laurier. “We expect students to be more independent in their learning and motivation for learning and doing well in the course,” said Matthew Smith, professor and chair in Laurier’s department of biology and a course instructor for BI110 in September. Like it or not, you will have to get used to your professors very quickly, but I promise it’s not as scary as it seems right now. Though you’re a wash in a sea of students, your professors will likely be some of the most interesting people you meet in your life. “The whole point of university, in my eyes, is that we’re trying to prepare you for the real world,” said Sobia Iqbal, the other of the course instructors for BI110 this fall. The real world may not be on your radar yet, as you likely have at least four years ahead of you, but it’s never too early to start oint of thinking about your future — that’s why The whole pmy eyes, in we’re all here anyways, right? , y it univers o t g But taking that leap and facing the rest in y r t e ’r is that we u for the of your life is way easier said than done. Coming from high school, it can be difficult to prepare yo rld. navigate this new battleground of information real wo and professionalism — so where do you start? -Sobia Iqbal “Boundaries can be very hard to navigate sometimes when you’re a prof because you really care about your students and you want to get to know them, but at the same time you have a lot of students. You don’t want to set up this
kind of situation where other students are thinking that you like some students better than others,” said Eileen Wood, one of the professors for PS101 this semester. “You want to be fair, you want to be unbiased and you want to be open.” Sometimes, you’ll really click with one of your professors. These are people that know a lot about the things that you’re hopefully pretty interested in if you’re taking their course, and you’ll quickly discover that they’re interesting people outside of academics too. They have families, hobbies and other community involvement that you really want to know more about. Is it appropriate to ask them about it? Perhaps if they open up to you about it first. Is it appropriate to ask them to talk about them in a less formal setting? That’s really up for debate. “I typically wouldn’t [get coffee with first year students] until they really get to know me, and generally that’s not as cool for me. Upper years much more so because you see them in classes and you may have met them two or three times,” said Wood. All of the professors echoed a similar sentiment and stressed that they genuinely enjoy meeting their students, but would only want to be with them in an informal setting, like grabbing your favourite hot beverage, when they know the students a bit better, either in upper years, as graduate students or as alumni, depending on which professors you’re talking to. How you make those strong connections that can lead to coffee meetings in future years, however, so it is impotant to make a good impression now. One thing that everyone noted when I talked to them, so obviously a common issue that you’ll want to avoid, was email etiquette. Unless you just have a quick question on material, your professor likely won’t have time to answer it after class, so most of the time you’ll be emailing for your communication. And, think of the reason you’re here, you want to keep it classy. In particular, the professors stressed the introduction of the email as an indicator for professionalism right out of the gate. “Referring to somebody as ‘professor’ indicates that you are respectful of their position, indicates that you get that they are your instructor, and it’s a safe territory because it doesn’t assume they have a PhD or not have a PhD. You’re safe,” said Sofy Carayannopoulos, a professor in the faculty of business and economics and one of the professors of BU111 this fall.
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 • 21
e turn into getting coffee?
es and essential etiquette for professor/student relations.
“I don’t like the ‘hey Sobia, when’s the due date’,” Iqbal said through laughter. “I don’t know what course you’re talking about, I don’t know which of my courses you’re in. Just try to keep a professional relationship, in a sense.” “It seems like a trivial thing, but it can really go a long way,” Smith added. “One thing that students don’t always think of … is that while they have one instructor to email or contact for a course, the instructor has, in our case, 800 or so students contacting them.” As for social media, all of the professors I talked to either didn’t use social media at all or didn’t like the idea of adding students on LinkedIn or Facebook until after the course has finished, if even at all. Keeping things professional is essential while you’re learning under someone else. As for the infamous Spotted at Laurier account, the professors were divided. The general takeaway I got from them was that it can be fun and you can have fun with it, but don’t use it in a negative way that will reflect on your degree when you graduate. It’s public, after all, and it’s not just Laurier students that follow the page. Furthermore, Carayannopoulos stressed that if you have an issue with a course, you should go to the professor to get the answer to your questions rather than relying on the student body. Professors can’t fix the things that are wrong without knowing about them directly and they often won’t see the complaints lodged on Spotted. All in all, the takeaway here is that your professors really care about your success, but you have to care too. If you need a reference letter, they better know your name from your face. They can’t be your best friend that you invite to Phil’s after a midterm. As Smith said, you can be friendly without being friends. You may grow to be friends over the years, but you should be looking primarily to your peers for that kind of fulfillment. Treat your professors like you would your boss and you’ll be in a safe zone. “Independent doesn’t mean that you’re on you’re totally on your own and you can never ask anyone for help,” Smith said. If you are looking for help, there are plenty of people you can reach out to. The professors stressed that you don’t always have to reach out to them individually if you are struggling — you can go to your teaching or lab assistant or one of the resources on campus to help with your specific needs, whether that be personal or academic. “[Students] don’t always have to come to me. But still reach out to those who would best know the answer,” Carayannopoulos encouraged. Finally, something that was stressed more than anything in all of my interview with these professors was that office hours are absolutely the very first place you
should stop in if you have a question, comment or concern. This is a specific time that every professor has set aside to help you out and you don’t need to worry about that fine line of professionalism that comes from asking for coffee, for instance. Professors will sit alone in their office for a lot of the time, especially at the beginning of the semester, so if you want to make friends or stand out, simply You want to be fa ir dropping by will likely be you want to be , enough to do just that. unbiased and you “Maybe they could grab a friend and come with them to want to be open. see me … that’s actually a bit of a pet peeve, or something I feel badly about, is when students are -Eileen Wood afraid to come to my office and talk to me,” Carayannopoulos said. “They can try grabbing someone else that they know, ask the question for that person, and maybe come with them to my office to verify that, truly, I don’t bite, I’m not fearsome, and that it’s not a big deal to ask the professor.” The office will be the main point of contact too. Wood even leaves a whiteboard on her office door, for example, so students can say that they’ve dropped by if they don’t want to call or send an email, even when she’s not actually there. Professors will each have their own office hours and you can meet them for yourself there, and I promise they won’t bite. Three years down the line, I’ll take classes with professors who know who I am before we’ve met. That may just be a benefit of being in a smaller department, but it also shows how working hard, asking questions, and simply showing up to events can get you recognized. Trust me, you’ll need those professor recommendations sooner or later and these years will fly. They’re fun, they’re funny, and they’re great human beings. Be professional, be courteous, and please, for everyone’s sanity, start your emails with a formal greeting.
PHOTO BY: GARRISON OOSTERHOF/WEB DIRECTOR LAYOUT BY: SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
Arts & Life
ARTS & LIFE EDITOR MICHAEL OLIVERI arts@thecord.ca
RESIDENCE
Dorm room Decorating 101 MADELINE MCINNIS FEATURES EDITOR
Decorating a dorm room seems like a dream, but something your countless Pinterest boards don’t prepare you for is your Laurier dorm rules. Though you’ll have to say goodbye to your fairy lights, aquarium and scented candles, there’s still plenty you can do to make your room more like a home. Here are my best suggestions for decorating that are still within the rules. Flameless Candles I know, I know, those three-wick candles from Bath & Body Works are to die for, but open flames are a definite rule breaker in your dorm. Opt instead for flameless candles to get the same effect without the wrath of your don. The candles usually come in packs and are typically cheaper than real candles. You can get them scented as well, but if you really can’t live without your Mahogany Teakwood, you can always buy a wall plug of your favourite fragrance to match the artificial flickering. Succulents If there’s one fundraiser at Laurier that always goes over well it’s the succulent sales in the concourse.
Though you may not be able to keep your furry, feathered or fishy friend with you in residence, you can still bring a little life through your plants. Succulents are hard to kill, so even if you forget to water them all throughout your finals or go home for reading week they will still be there to greet you. Careful, though, you can’t have just one! Posters The annual poster sale is the most wonderful time of the year for many students, and you can’t really understand the scope and variety of the posters until you see the concourse full of them. When I was in first year, the department of residence provided double-sided tape, but one pack of sticky-tack from the sale has lasted me two years so far if you need more. Of course, you can always bring your own posters or buy them elsewhere, but hard-mounted wall posters are a no-go. Stick to the floppy ones, they’re easier to roll up and transport any-way. Printed Pictures For my birthday in first-year, my friends pasted my door with memes and photos of us from the previous semester. Afterwards, I didn’t have the heart to throw them out, so I brought them into my room and stuck them to my wall. It was a personal touch that I wish I had done sooner. You don’t need photo paper or a fancy printer to do this either. Just print out a bunch of pictures you
like, whether that be photos you took, your favourite Pinterest board or your friends best Instagram pictures, and tape them up on your wall. So fetch! Command Hooks You’ve probably heard about these from everyone, but they’re just that good! If you really can’t live without your hard posters or that mask you brought back from your time volunteering abroad, Command Hooks are the way to go. Be warned though, only place them on surfaces that can hold the weight of the item you’re placing and don’t put them on drywall. Ripping the paint away on the day you move out is not only stressful, it can also be costly! I’d recommend only using them on the brick walls or on mirrors and doors. Rearrange Furniture Though you have to have the furniture where it was when you entered residence, there’s no rule about moving it while you’re there! When I lived in Waterloo College Hall, I had my desk facing out the window with my back to the sink, and that was lovely! If you’re planning to rearrange, remember to be mindful of where your head will be, though. If it’ll be close to a sharp surface, say the edge of the wall mounted bookcase, you can slice a pool noodle down one side and cover the bothersome edge. It’ll be much softer when you hit your head and no one likes an unnecessary trip to Grand River Hospital.
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ARTS & LIFE • 23
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
Arts & Life Editor, Michael Oliveri, and Features Editor, Madeline McInnis, compile the best food deals in the area.
Pub on King Pitcher of beer* and pound of wings for $20
Pub on King $4 14 oz pints* and $14.50 pitchers* after 9 p.m.
Duke of Wellington $5 burgers
Duke of Wellington All day wing deal
Ethel’s Ethel burger for $5
Ethel’s Four tacos for $2.86 after 4 p.m.
Morty’s Wing nite deal, $8.99 per pound with drink purchase, 3 p.m.-2 a.m. Famoso $12 margherita pizza Symposium $5 burgers and $4 domestic pints Mel’s Diner $5.99 burgers - turkey, beef or garden veggie Harmony Lunch Pint and and pound of wings with 3 feature sauces for $15 Hungry Ninja Salmon $10, tofu and edamame for $10 McCabe’s $6.49 a pound of wings all day with purchase of beverage
Molly Bloom’s Half pound beef burger for $5, add a domestic pint for another $5 Wilf’s Buy one appetizer, get another for half off
Morty’s Pulled pork special, pulled pork sandwich for $8.99 with drink purchase, 3 p.m.-1 a.m. Symposium $12.95 pasta and rice bowls specials Chainsaw $2.25 for burgers, hot dogs, fries, chicken wings, beers, and shots each Harmony Lunch Mac and cheese for $2.50 Hungry Ninja Smoked salmon and cream cheese for $11, The “Buddha” (tofu, edamame, and seaweed salad) for $11 McCabe’s Half price burgers all day with purchase of beverage Sonny’s Drive-in Charboil hamburger for $3.29
Pub on King $7 schooners*
Pub on King 1/2 price bottles of wine
Pub on King $10.95 Fish and pint deal
Duke of Wellington $7 flatbreads
Ethel’s Meatloaf special
Duke of Wellington Dinner feature
Ethel’s A pound and a half of wings for $10 after 4 p.m.
Morty’s Wing nite deal, $8.99 per pound of wings with drink purchase, 3 p.m.-2 a.m.
Morty’s Weekend feature, new every week
Famoso 1/2 off wine bottles Symposium $5.25 martinis and $10.95 mussels Mel’s Diner one free kids meal with purchase of one adult meal valued at $9.99 and a beverage Abe Erb 1 pound of wings and a Founder’s pint for $19 Chainsaw $2.25 for burgers, $7.50 per pound of wings Harmony Lunch Harmony’s pile on a plate for $12 Hungry Ninja Ninja cali $12 (marinated tuna and crab and corn salad), Veggie tempura for $10
Molly Bloom’s Half price wing day
Taco farm All you can eat tacos Molly Bloom’s $13 domestic pitchers
Wilf’s All you can eat perogies
Wilf’s Meal of the day for $6.99
Pub on King $4.50 Jack Daniels shots Duke of Wellington Breakfast 9 a.m.-2p.m.
Hungry Ninja Ninja bomb for $12 (Shrimp tempura and raw salmon) Buddhas (Tofu and edamame, with seaweed salad) for $11
Famoso 1 oz Caesars for $4.95
Wilf’s Surprise meal special
Symposum $13.95 pitchers of draft with appetizer platter specials Chainsaw Rodeo burger for $4.50
Famoso $4.95 for Mojitos
Famoso 16 oz sleeve of beer for $4.95
Symposium $48 date night - Dinner for two deal
Symposium $5 off wine list with seafood features
Mel’s Diner Blueplate Thursday’s: Blueplate specials for $12.99
Mel’s Diner $4 domestic beers
Chainsaw $10 pitchers Hungry Ninja Shrimp tempura for $10 Veggie ramen for $7.50
Hungry Ninja Ninja bomb for $12 (Shrimp tempura and raw salmon) Buddhas (Tofu and edamame, with seaweed salad) for $11
McCabe’s $8 beef dip Sonny’s Drive-in Hamburger combo (Hamburger, small fry, and small drink) for $6.99
Wilf’s Fish and chips special
Wilf’s .95 cent wings with purchase of a drink, minimum order of 10 wings
Pub on King .25 cent wings after 8 p.m. Duke of Wellington Breakfast 9 a.m.-2 p.m., $6 apps after 6 p.m. Morty’s Burger special, Morty’s burger for $8.99 with drink purchase, 3 p.m.-1 a.m. Famoso Mediterranean flatbread for $10 Symposium 2 for 1 cake slice promo Mel’s Diner Half price pies
Chainsaw Sandwich de poulet for $5.75
Hungry Ninja Ninja bomb for $12 (Shrimp tempura and raw salmon) Buddhas (Tofu and edamame, with seaweed salad) for $11 McCabe’s Fill out a comment card and get $5 off any steak Molly Bloom’s Full breakfast for $6 Wilf’s Half price hungry hawks until 4 p.m. with purchase of drink, Buy one get one half off desserts after 4 p.m.
LAYOUT BY: KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
The Cord Picks: Best University Advice In The Cord Picks, our editorial team gives you their personal favourite of the selected topic. This week, we’re talking about what each of us were told in first year that actually made a difference.
Make yourself known to your professors
Make reading a habit, get involved
The best advice I received when entering university was from my dad, who happens to be a Laurier alumnus himself. Among many of the wise and funny (at least to him) pieces of advice he passed on to me, the most important one was making myself known to my professors. He encouraged me to push against my natural tendency to stay quiet and not speak up for myself, and it made a big difference in how seriously I took my classes and how much I enjoyed them. There is far more accountability involved when a professor knows your name and you actively care about what they think of your work and how you conduct yourself. It always makes me want to try harder when someone recognizes me and knows my name, since I want to live up to their expectations. The worst advice I got was to do everything you can to stay in touch with your high school friends, since they will be your friends for the rest of your life. I still talk to some people from high school, and I completely see the merit in holding meaningful friendships close to you. But sometimes people are only meant to stay in your life for certain periods of time, and forcing something that just doesn’t work with a certain stage in your life will just make you unhappy. Instead, branch out to new people and don’t beat yourself up over the friendships that were never supposed to last longer than high school in the first place.
I got a whole lot of advice when I was entering university. A lot of it was the standard stuff that you here from parents and teachers; things like ‘always focus on your school work’ and ‘profs won’t give you a free ride, you’ll actually have to work for it’. To a certain extent this stuff is all true and valuable for those entering university. However I think the most valuable advice that I got surrounding the purely academic part of university was from my grade 12 history teacher. His advice to us was along the lines of this: get used to reading every day now, especially if you’re going into the arts. Read and read because you will do a lot of it, and he was right. I’m glad I kept in mind what he said because the reading only gets longer and longer here. The other piece of advice is something that I didn’t follow until well into my time here at Laurier and that’s getting involved. I did barely anything except go to class in high school and I seriously regretted it. If I were to pass on any wisdom to first years I would say find something that isn’t class work and put your time into it, whether it’s going to the gym, joining a club, or writing for your school paper find something you love and your time here will be so much more fulfilling. Michael Oliveri, Arts and Life Editor
With any luck, Laurier will start to feel like home for you very soon. Like all of us, you’ll get absorbed into the so-called “Laurier bubble” and stay in the Albert to Regina, Hemlock to Ezra borders, perhaps occasionally making the trek to UpTown or Conestoga Mall. The best advice I got coming into university was to ignore all that — travel as much as you can, while you can. That could be checking out the latest movie in Kitchener’s independent theatre, The Apollo, or heading to THE place to get high end stationery in Cambridge, Phidon Pens, all travel expenses included on your GRT bus pass. That could also mean taking part in one of the many travel summer courses offered through Laurier or find yourself living abroad for a year as part of the exchange program. Some of my most rewarding experiences haven’t been at Laurier at all — from my first year residence learning community trip to Puerto Rico to my semester at the University of Birmingham, I learned more about myself and gained so many more life skills by venturing out of the bubble. Laurier also offers tonnes of scholarships and funding opportunities for you to get involved outside of campus so you can go travelling even if you’re OSAP dependent like me. This is probably your first time living on your own, so make the most of it. Have adventures, get out of your comfort zone and explore the world around you. There’s plenty to see and explore if you can drag yourself off of Netflix every once and a while! Madeline McInnis, Features Editor
Emily Waitson, Opinion Editor
Get out of your dorm room
Leave your comfort zone
The best advice I ever got going into university was that your dorm room is only a place to sleep, shower and shit at, a little thing I like to call the “3 S’s of School.” Living in a new dorm with a random person can be terrifying. I already know you have watched the movie The Roomate in 2011 where the pitiful downfall of a thriving university student is her psychotic roommate who goes on a killing spree. I like to think I am more optimistic than believing in the mass consumerism of Hollywood, but roommates can be unnerving for a messy girl that enjoyed having her bedroom as a quiet sanctuary to escape from the real world. With great fun soon does come great responsibility and all of your work will be taking up tonnes of your time and you will start to notice how often you are out of the room. The lack of study room available in most residences is almost a good thing, so thanks Laurier for your 1960’s design layout. With the mess and stress of midterms, this is an optimal time to make use of Laurier’s on-campus study spaces, a great way to ace your midterms and a time to get away from your crazy roommate.
Being one of the first people to attend university in my family, I didn’t really get the experience of having each relative sit me down and provide me with all of their hard earned wisdom. I can’t say I missed hearing about uncle Joe’s binge drinking exploits, but I was desperate for some advice, so I did what anyone who grew up in the digital age would do: I looked it up online. I actually got some great advice from the internet, and one of the pieces that stood out to me was a classic: step outside of your comfort zone. Unfortunately, it’s so nice to feel safe that we often forget it can be a good thing to push yourself. I did this by applying for a ton of club positions, even if I wasn’t that interested in them, and because of those opportunities I have grown so much. The worst advice I received was written on the face of almost every adult who heard I was majoring in English. They asked how I could possibly find a job af- ter graduation, then they tried to divert me to their personal favourite “growing industry.” To me, university isn’t for teaching you how to get a job, it’s for exploring the things you want to learn. I’m confident that when I’m looking back on the time I spent at Laurier, I’m going to be glad that I actually enjoyed what I was doing, both inside and outside of the lecture hall.
Kate Weber, Online Editor
Travel as much as you can
Sara Burgess, Senior Copy Editor
Start early, attend review sessions The best advice I got entering university was start assignments as soon as possible and no matter how many classes you skip, make sure you go to the review classes before exams. Starting assignments and projects as soon as possible will make your university experience so much more enjoyable. That’s not to say that you can’t get away with starting things last minute, but there’s no better feeling than knowing that you’ve gotten school work out of the way when you’re enjoying your free time. Even if you don’t finish right away, I guarantee that you will be more likely to go back complete the work before the deadline if you have already begun the assignment. Going to review classes is probably the smartest thing you can do at university. No matter how hard we try, skipping class can become inevitable. The best way to make sure you’ve covered all your bases is to go to review classes because this is when professors tell you the most important material you need to know going into an exam. If you’re lucky, they might even give out a question or two directly on the exam.
COMPILED BY: MICHAEL OLIVERI/ARTS & LIFE EDITOR LAYOUT BY: MADELINE MCINNIS/FEATURES EDITOR
ARTS & LIFE • 25
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 LOCAL IMPACT
Breweries aren’t buying Doug Ford’s buck-a-beer EMILY WAITSON OPINION EDITOR
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has garnered both praise and controversy regarding his decision to work towards lowering beer prices to just one dollar, an announcement which he has been proud to stand by since it was released. One criticism surrounding the ‘buck-a-beer’ campaign has been voiced by many local breweries who have seen this as an impractical policy to follow through with regarding craft beer production. Derek Levert, the managing partner at Block Three Brewing Company, commented on the task of producing beer at such a low cost and what the policy means for local breweries. “We’re not able to make beer and we’re not able to sell beer for a dollar a beer. It’s just impossible,” Levert said. The cost of the bottle, cap and label alone amount to a dollar without the beer itself factored
into the cost, making Ford’s wishes infeasible for companies such as Block Three. However, the demographic that would be attracted to Ford’s policy, likely wouldn’t be purchasing their beer from craft breweries regardless, making the impact a smaller one overall. “The people who are looking to buy beer at a buck-a-beer, aren’t typically the same customers we get at Block Three. I don’t think the customers who are coming in are expecting to get beer for a dollar.” “It’s not really our target market and I don’t think there will be a huge impact,” Levert said. The beer companies who are able to sell their product for such a low price are a vastly different market than the local craft breweries we love in the Waterloo Region. “It would be more macro breweries who can make huge quantities of beer that we can only make in an entire year,” Levert said. The few craft breweries who have said they are able to sell their
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beer for only one dollar will have a challenge ahead of them. “I don’t know how they’re going to do it because it’s just not really feasible,” Levert said. A main point of contention that has been voiced about the policy, is that it politicizes beer production. This is an aspect that Ontario craft brewery The Napanee Beer Company highlighted in a Facebook post that has now been shared over 4000 times. “It commoditizes and politicizes craft beer. One of the best things about beer — especially craft beer — is that it is egalitarian. No matter your political stripes, nearly everyone can take a moment to enjoy their favourite lager, IPA, or stout, and in many cases, support their local economy at the same time,” the post read. “I think it’s just a political move to generate votes,” Levert said. “I think what’s interesting, is that it shows that the Ontario government is moving towards dereg-
KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR
ulating an industry that is over regulated.” “I’m hoping that the decrease in the price might signal that they are moving to deregulate this industry a little bit,” Levert said. Despite the pushback from local breweries regarding Ford’s decision, it’s hopeful that companies like Block Three won’t suffer too much because of it, specifically because of the customer demographic they attract. It’s far more satisfying to buy a beer that costs more, but had ac-
tual thought and care put into the production of it. Mass produced beer that doesn’t break the bank is fine for some, but it overshadows the potential that rests in local breweries. Lowering the cost simply lowers the quality of the beer and the results from Ford’s policy will prove that in time. “When you’re making beer for a dollar, you’re using things like corn syrup and rice in your beer, while we use natural ingredients,” Levert said.
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26 • ARTS & LIFE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
FOOD
Anchor Bar expands into Waterloo
SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
SAFINA HUSEIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
On August 23, 2018 Anchor Bar held its official grand opening as the newest restaurant edition to uptown Waterloo. Anchor Bar in Waterloo — ‘home of the original buffalo wing’ — is the fifth location of Anchor Bar’s franchise in Canada. Anchor Bar began its history in 1965 in Buffalo, NY. Since then it has spread across the globe and, specifically, came into Canada just over three years ago. Since Anchor Bar in Waterloo opened its doors, David Copperthwaite, the owner of Anchor Bar Canada, said the response from the
Now that the Mississagua store is open, between that and Waterloo, we hope to get up to 3000 pounds a day, -David Copperthwaite, Owner, Anchor Bar Canada
KW community has been terrific. “It’s been the best response that I’ve had in the five we’ve opened in Ontario anywhere so far,” he said.
“I can’t believe the support and the understanding … I guess it’s because it’s closer to Buffalo; the closer you get to buffalo, there seems to be an understanding of Anchor Bar more.” Copperthwaite said in a short amount of time the restaurant has already been receiving up to 50 reservation requests each day. “We just thought Waterloo would be a great place with all the students [since we have] some great specials,” Copperthwaite said. “The uptown to me is the most improved area that I can see that’s really got a bit of a hub that people want to come to and walk around have food and drink and spend an
We just thought Waterloo would be a great place with all the students [since we have] some great specials. -David Copperthwaite, Owner, Anchor Bar Canada
evening in.” In 2017, Anchor Bar Canada’s
first three locations sold an average of 2000 pounds of wings each day. With the new addition of Anchor Bar’s Mississauga location, which opened up this past June 7, and now the Waterloo location, Copperthwaite hopes the restaurant’s combined total will increase. “Now that the Mississagua store is open, between that and Waterloo, we hope to get up to 3000 pounds a day,” he said. Although Anchor Bar is not the only restaurant and bar in its area, they offer a series of specials for students to take advantage of. “We’ve taken to the students in mind too, we like to support them because we know they’re all on budgets,” Copperthwaite said.
SCHOOL SPIRIT
The best of Golden Hawks SARAH SPRAGG STAFF WRITER
As a third-year student myself, I know that Laurier is an amazing university, as do many of my other peers. However, to the incoming first years, you may have some idea as to why this university is so special, but here are just a couple more to make you that much surer that you are meant to be golden. First: Laurier has a kickass reputation for devoting a vast amount of time and resources towards student satisfaction and success, especially for first years. From the Residence Life Program, to Students’ Union and to academic orientated initiatives, this school cares deeply about its students and their ambition for success, in and out of the classroom. This university wants students to feel like they are becoming an integral part of their campus and what it stands for, which is to ‘inspire lives’. Second: A small, close-knit community and campus SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
I will just start by saying that,
as many students already know, it only takes 10 minutes to walk from one side of the campus to the other — which, I feel is a pretty big perk on its own. Nevertheless, the size of the campus is not only a major draw for students but also how close our community is and how quickly people become a part of it. Laurier honestly has a ‘small town’ feel; many students are able to stop and have a conversation with at least one friend or peer before class, which is a truly unique trait of our university in comparison to many other larger scale universities in Ontario. Third: O-Week and Homecoming… enough said for the title The reason why I included such specific events that many other universities also partake in is because of what these weeks reflect of our school’s enthusiasm and spirit for being a Golden Hawk. During O-week, icebreakers and many other clubs such as the A-team work tirelessly to create events and activities that cater to first-years. However, the volunteers themselves truly show how much being at this school means to them. For those volunteering at O-week or attending Homecoming as alumni, volunteers or supporters, there is an overwhelming sense of excitement and support that resonates with those who truly are a part of the Laurier commu-
nity. In simple terms, school spirit and appreciation is imperative to the culture and values fostered at Laurier and is an amazing part of its identity — so it is just best to join in the ridiculous cheers while you still can. Fourth: Accessibility I will be the first to say that most students enjoying living a fairly lazy lifestyle — having restaurants, grocery stores and transit close-by that are at least within a walking distance. With all the stress that students are put under, the least that can help with the transition of a first year is knowing the basics are close by. For myself personally, having the university place and bus routes right near campus made me take one sigh of relief before reverting back to my anxiety filled incoming student state. There are so many different places that are accessible from the buses that run on King Street that students do not have to even worry about anything besides being able to carry their grocery bags from Walmart or how much money they waste on shopping therapy at Conestoga mall. Anyways, my point being that life on and off campus is made simple with how Laurier is situated next to many different convenient spots for transportation, shopping and restaurants.
ARTS & LIFE • 27
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 MOVIES
RETAIL
The beat is moving on MICHAEL OLIVERI ARTS & LIFE EDITOR
JACKIE VANG/LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER
What’s coming up at the Apollo? MADELINE MCINNIS FEATURES EDITOR
How do $5 big screen movies sound? The Apollo Cinema in downtown Kitchener is offering exactly that. “It will go through at least until the end of September,” Cara Watson, general manager and event strategist for The Apollo said. “That’s $5 for every show except special events and 3-D movies, which will still have the surcharge of $2.” This fall is an exciting time to head to Kitchener’s independent theatre, whether for the first time or the hundredth. All you need to get the reduced price on your ticket is your student ID card. Even better, the theatre runs free movie screenings every month for those who hold their membership cards, but on Sept. 19, Superbad will be free for both members and students. “Going into the fall, we really wanted to draw the student crowd and let them know that we’ve got a cool independent theatre on this side of town,” Watson said. What makes The Apollo particularly exciting is their events. These aren’t just your average run-ofthe-mill movie screenings; they’re interactive, fun and encourage audience participation. “We’re continuing on with all of our events, and we’re really going event heavy this year,” said Watson. “We have more sing-alongs coming up. We have more of the interactive ones, like we did with Monty Python.” In case you missed the interactive Monty Python and the Holy Grail event, the theatre handed out husked coconuts to the first fifty-or-so people at the doors for the screening so they could be the “horses” along with the movie. Watson couldn’t go into detail about upcoming interactive events like Monty Python due to none of the films being fully confirmed yet, but promised that more were on the way. In the meantime, the B-Movie Bingo events — which is exactly what it sounds like, a bingo card set to a B-rated movie — and the Monday Bloody Monday horror screenings will be more targeted to female audiences this fall.
The next B-Movie Bingo is Crossroads on Sept. 6, and the next Soundtrack Sing-Along is Grease on Sept. 14. The next Monday Bloody Monday will be on September 24 and it will be the film Scream. If you’re more into indie films, The Apollo is also continuing their Under the Radar series with Madeline’s Madeline on Sept. 12-13. They’re also screening Mandy on September 14, 15 and 20 and Skate Kitchen on Sept. 7, 9 and 12. The next Apollo Anime is Akira on Sept. 22 and 25. For those of you 19+, the next Drunken Cinema is Demolition Man on September 15. Since the Mercury Cafe closed, the Apollo Feast days have been rolled back, but Watson says that they’re still aiming to have a feast with a local business once every one or two months. Nothing is firmly in place for the next feast, but the Facebook page will be updated as the theatre has more information. If you are looking for food, allyou-can-eat cereal will be back in October for the Halloween edition. Also in October, there will also be a double-bill of Nosferatu and The Phantom of the Opera to live music by The Invincible Czars. Rainbow Reels, South Western Ontario’s largest queer and trans film festival, will also be back at The Apollo in October, though details for this have not yet been released. One of the things that makes the theatre so special is its commitment to giving back in the KW community. On Sept. 22 and 23, they’re screening The Muppet Movie and $3 from every ticket is supporting Big Brothers & Sisters of Waterloo Region. As a tribute to Aretha Franklin, they’ll be doing a by-donation screening of The Blues Bothers, her only big-screen role, on September 5. The minimum donation is $5 and all proceeds will go to Hope Spring KW, a charity that promotes fulfillment in cancer patients. This O-Week they’re playing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, The Spy Who Dumped Me, and The Equalizer 2, in addition to the other special events and screenings featured here.
The Beat Goes On, a chain of both new and second-hand CD’s, vinyl, DVD’s, Blu-ray and other audio visual goodies is on the move in the Waterloo region. This chain often has you covered regardless of your taste. From really-hard-to-find B-movies, to new vinyl releases, they have it all. As of late August, what was originally Beat Goes On’s Waterloo location, on King Street, and their Kitchener location, on Highland Road, have merged into a new superstore location. The new retail space is located at 341 Weber Street North, less than 5 minutes’ walk from their old King Street space. This new superstore location features a larger space for the housing of products, as well as for encouraging more leisurely browsing. As for the reasons behind the move, founder and owner John Rocchetta explained this is due to the need for more space for inventory, “Our best year was last
year, and our best year before that was the year prior,” he said in an interview to The Record.
This store is to bring back the experience the bands, the browsing, the selection.
-John Rocchetta, founder/owner, The Beat Goes On
“We were a small fish in a big pond. Today, we’re a big fish in a small pond,” he continued to tell The Record. Thanks to the move to the larger retail space, The Beat Goes On has expanded operations and can therefore stock more in order to satisfy an increasing customer demand for their products. The Beat Goes On’s annual anniversary sale took place on August
18 and 19 and featured 40% off all used products. It also featured 15% off of LP’s and accessories. This sale coincided with the Weber Street location’s Grand Opening on August 18. To celebrate the occasion, the store opened the garage door in the front of their store and played live music throughout the day. The live music and festivities for the Grand Opening were meant to invoke a certain feeling in customers, as Rocchetta explained. “This store is to bring back the experience — the bands, the browsing, the selection,” he told The Record. Further plans exist to add more character into the shopping experience of the new store. As Rocchetta said: “The way we’re building it is to make it a bit old school just based on the experience. And people still enjoy doing that,” as quoted in The Record. One thing is for certain: with their expansion, Beat Goes On is expanding to provide the best service they can for the future of their store in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region.
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28 • ARTS & LIFE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
LOCAL
Get involved in KW arts ALAN LI CORD ALUM
Coming into Laurier as a Toronto-bred, big city kid, I thought the only cultural attractions in Kitchener-Waterloo were the swarths of geese that congregated around campus. Now I work for a non-profit theatre company in Kitchener and every day I eat my words. There are so many fantastic arts organizations hidden in Laurier’s backyard, and they all want to engage students. I reached out to three local artistic directors to learn about their stories and how Laurier students can get involved. Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society (KWCMS) As a former music student, the KWCMS holds a very special place in my heart. The society began in 1974 when Jan Narveson, a Harvard Doctorate and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, sought to create chamber music venues for musicians in the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. 48 years later most concerts take place in the KWCMS Music Room — the renovated second floor of a house outside of Waterloo park, a 10-minute walk south of Laurier. Jan is now 82 years old and has been inducted into the Order of Canada for his charity work in the KWCMS. He serves chocolates, apple cider and coffee during concert intermission. “We have been putting on a [Laurier] student composer concert every year for quite a few years
now (every Feb. 1 or so since 2011) — arranged by the CIA (Composers and Improvisers’ Association of the Faculty of Music’s students) … we’d love to have more students attending our concerts. They get big cuts on ticket prices, and goodness knows there are a lot of them, in great variety! One of the Faculty’s students, Veda Hingert-McDonald, has been helping us with social media, putting up some posters, and so on.” – Jan Narveson Button Factory Arts South on Regina Street sits a former nineteenth century button-making factory. In 1994 the City of Waterloo decided to turn the abandoned building into an arts hub. The empty space now serves as an art studio, a gallery space and gift shop, creating employment opportunities for over 100 artists of different ages and varying levels of experience every year. Button Factory Arts is also a rentable venue that acts as a home-base/rehearsal space for many other arts-organizations, making it an important arts centre in the Waterloo region. “[In addition to students getting their first class free] … we’re always looking for volunteers … and we also look for help when we’re installing our shows. So if [students] want to get more experience for something like that in real life, we’re the place to do it.” - Heather Franklin, executive director of Button Factory Arts NUMUS
NUMUS is the oldest contemporary music organization in the Region of Waterloo. It was formed in 1985 by composer Peter Hatch, who also led the organization as Artistic Director for NUMUS’ first 10 years. Laurier professor Kathryn Ladano now serves as Artistic Director. In addition to being recognized as one of Canada’s foremost producers and presenters of contemporary music, Kathryn tells me that one of her biggest priorities for NUMUS is to offer more meaningful opportunities to emerging artists, strengthening its community connections, and continuing to push the envelope, making each season better than the last. “NUMUS is always in need of volunteers! We generally put together a roster of volunteers in September of each year, which is comprised mostly of students. These students help us out in our box office and merch table at events for the most part. So it’s a fun environment and it allows all volunteers to see our shows for free. Volunteers also enjoy being able to engage with the artists we program before and after shows” – Kathryn Ladano, artistic director of NUMUS As a Laurier alumnus, one of my biggest regrets is reducing the city of Kitchener-Waterloo to the intersection of King and University plus Phil’s. The three organizations listed here barely scratch the surface of a city that’s rich with beautiful stories. As students, we should explore that — the vitality of this region and its people depend on it.
SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Button Factory Arts on Regina Street.
SOCIAL
Tips and Tricks for throwing your next party JOSH GOEREE STAFF WRITER
Here at Laurier, we pride ourselves in academics, being kind people, having championship winning sports teams and, of course, partying. In MacLean’s list for Top Party Schools 2018, Laurier was listed as number 5 in the country with 4.9 hours of partying per week, only behind St. Francis Xavier (7.9), Bishop’s (7), Queen’s (6) and Acadia (5) respectively. This was higher than Western (4.6), Guelph (4.1), and University of Waterloo (2.9). So with Orientation Week among us, it is necessary, if not required, to throw a party or two. If you are nervous about throwing a party or if you’re unsure what to do, here are a few things you can do to throw a great house party. The first thing that needs to be done before you can even consider throwing a party is cleaning your house.
Nobody wants to party in a place that has garbage and clutter everywhere. Take out the garbage, clean the bathroom, vacuum the floor, do the dishes, or whatever else you need to do to make your place look clean. Later on if the party is getting more hectic, the cleanliness aspect won’t matter as much because the traffic of people will mess up the house. The second thing is inviting the people. For a good party, having around 15-20 people is good enough. More than that would make the party a massive “rager.” The key thing to keep in mind when having a party is to keep people entertained. This can be done with a variety of things. Having the right music will put the party into the right mood. Opera music or Josh Groban won’t exactly get the party people going. Try mixing in some old school tracks from artists like Eminem, Dr. Dre, Sum 41, and DJ Khaled with newer music from artists like Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Cardi B and… well DJ Khaled. Also a little bit of Blink 182 never hurt anyone. Party games are good as it’s im-
MANRAJ RAI/CORD PHOTOGRAPHY
portant to have your guests doing something other than just sitting around listening to music all night. Party games are often reliable go-to’s. However, try mixing in other games like Cards Against Humanity or Poker for those who don’t want to drink too heavily or at all.
One party idea I’ve had lots of success with is a beer pong tournament. If your party has 20 people, that’s 10 teams of two that can go head to head tournament style. Nothing gets the party going like a little competition. As an added bonus incentive to get more competition in the
tournament, I suggest having prizes for the winning team. It can be something simple, or if you can get others in the party to pitch in, a 26er per person can really make the tournament interesting. But as host, you will have more responsibilities than your guests. This includes looking after guests who have been drinking, making sure the house isn’t destroyed and kicking people out if needed. While most of the time it isn’t necessary, it will come around at some point. The key is to be firm but fair with unruly guests. If someone accidentally knocks over a beer bottle, don’t throw them out. But if someone is disrupting others’ experience, it might be time for that person to go home. While having parties can be fun, it is always important to remember to be safe. If you do take this advice and throw a party this O-Week, please drink responsibly, be respectful to others and law enforcement and always ask for consent before engaging in any kind of sexual activity. Welcome to Laurier new golden hawks and have fun this O-Week!
ARTS & LIFE • 29
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 ENVIRONMENT
SAFINA HUSEIN/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Zero Waste Bulk serves up sustainability NATHALIE BOUCHARD CORD ALUM
Zero Waste Bulk is Waterloo’s first zero waste grocery store scheduled to open Fall 2018, the store will be located at 110 King Street South just two kilometres away from campus. Ellin Park and Kevin Choi, co-founders of Zero Waste Bulk, opened the store in hopes of encouraging others to become more sustainable or even go ‘zero waste.’ Park and Choi struggled to find sustainable and package free options within the region. This caused Park and Choi to travel to numerous stores and markets in order to meet their zero waste and sustainable needs; ultimately, they were using a lot of gas in order to find their products which ultimately defeated their purpose of living a
sustainable lifestyle. “I ended up having to drive all over town just to do my groceries which is ironic because you use a lot of gas driving around to all these places, it was time consuming and inconvenient,” Park said. “We wanted a store where being [sustainable] and bringing your own containers was the norm, and also encouraged, there’s a wide variety of items which you can get in bulk, plastic free, and get fresh produce bread and sustainable alternative all in one place.” Zero Waste Bulk is planning to sell a wide variety of products from classic bulk items to speciality bulk and household items which can be difficult to find in other grocery stores like bulk vegan parmesan. Zero Waste Bulk also plans to be focused on providing the community with local, organic, and
sustainable produce and grocery items. “[Zero Waste Bulk would] have hard to find bulk goods like liquids-olive oils, vinegar, tamari, maple syrup, soy sauce-and you would also have cleaning products soaps, shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and even bulk toothpaste,” Park said. “Reusable straws, bamboo stainless steel and glass straws, we also have alternatives to items which are typically disposable like instead of plastic razors have reusable safety razors and we’ll have bamboo tooth brushes … stainless steel containers, which are useful on the go,” Park said. Zero Waste Bulk is hoping to reduce packaging waste long term by encouraging customers to bring their own containers in order to store their products. Customers
can fill containers, bags, mason jars and any storage container which is clean, the end goal for Zero Waste Bulk is to reduce everyone’s household and personal waste. “I think this will help reduce packaging waste … if everyone produces a giant black garbage bag full of trash every week or two, [but] if you can shrink that down to a small bag every month that’s a huge difference,” Park said. “Good containers like mason jars, glass bottles, Tupperware, plastic containers, clean zip locks, freezer bags, as long as it’s clean and reusable we encourage that,” Park said. Zero Waste Bulk wants to not only encourage students to shop with the environment in mind but to also encourage students to earn points at Zero Waste Bulk through their loyalty program.
The loyalty program will allow for students to choose various items to redeem with their points. “With our loyalty program you’ll earn points with every purchase and you’ll be able to spend these points with items in our rewards catalog,” Park said. “For every dollar you spend you’ll earn five earth points and you’ll be able to spend your points within items in the catalogue and for every reusable container you [shop] with you’ll receive an extra point,” Park said. In order to raise money for the opening of their store Park and Choi have launched a crowd funding campaign in order to offset the various expenses which occur when opening a small business. The crowdfunding website can be found on the Zero Waste Bulk Facebook page.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
15 •
Editorial
OPINION EDITOR EMILY WAITSON opinion@thecord.ca
Editor’s Note: Finding your place wrong choice for me. However, it wasn’t until recently that I began to feel proud to be a Laurier student. Laurier began to feel “right” for me once I realized that fitting in didn’t have to involve doing the stereotypical Laurier stuff. My advice to first-years would be to take your time when deciding where or with whom you dedicate your time to on campus. You may not find your “place” at Laurier right away — that’s okay. It doesn’t mean that your “home” on campus doesn’t exist. For me, I found my place and my people at The Cord’s office. It was there that I met people who were like-minded and had the same shared interests as me. It was there that I met friends I will likely be friends with long after our time at Laurier. Finding The Cord allowed me to see that Laurier was the right choice and fitting in at Laurier can mean a lot of things. Everyone’s experience at Laurier is different. Laurier can be whatever you want and your experience as a Hawk will be whatever you make of your time here. So if you’re like me, entering your fourth-year at Laurier, and still have never set foot into Phil’s, fear not — we’re still just as much a Golden Hawk as everyone else. For those of you who are first years and don’t feel you fit in right away, give it time. Laurier truly has something to offer everyone. Make the effort to find your place. Join clubs. Try new things. It might take a few tries; but eventually, you will find a place on campus that feels like home.
SAFINA HUSEIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Entering first-year can be overwhelming. From the first day you arrive at Laurier, you are inundated with people who are passionate about their purple and gold pride encouraging you to get involved, to try new things, and to take advantage of all that Laurier offers. It’s no secret that Laurier holds a pretty specific stereotype amongst other universities — Golden Hawks like to party. When I first came to Laurier, I didn’t feel as though I fit the Laurier stereotype. I wasn’t involved in orientation week activities and as an off-campus student, I didn’t have roommates to bond with and do the typical “Laurier” stuff that most first-years do. As someone who was highly involved in high school, not feeling a sense of school spirit was something I had never experienced. I didn’t expect to be so disinterested in all that Laurier and my fellow Golden Hawks had to offer. For a long time, I thought being a “Laurier kid” meant going to Ezra on St. Patrick’s Day or being decked out in purple on Homecoming. I was not interested in being involved in anything that was seen as a Laurier right-of-passage. As a result, I spent a lot of time thinking that Laurier was the
EDITORIAL CARTOON
KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR
Finding the value in your first job AARON HAGEY NEWS EDITOR
These unsigned editorials are based off informal discussions and then agreed upon by the majority of The Cord’s editorial board, including the Editor-in-Chief and Opinion Editor. The arguments made may reference any facts that have been made available through interviews, documents or other sources. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of The Cord’s volunteers, staff or WLUSP.
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WLUSP ADMINISTRATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DIRECTOR Rosalind Horne
CHAIR Terrence Mroz
DIRECTOR H.G. Watson
VICE-CHAIR Shyenne MacDonald
TREASURER Garrison Oosterhof
DIRECTOR Maiya Mistry DIRECTOR Vacant
PRESIDENT Terrence Mroz president@wlusp.com FINANCE MANAGER Randy Moore randy@rcmbrooks. com ADVERTISING MANAGER Care Lucas care.lucas@wlusp. com
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lakyn Barton lakyn.barton@wlusp. com HR MANAGER Paige Bush hr@wlusp.com CORPORATE SECRETARY Maiya Mistry
For many people, a first job is a mere stepping stone in the river of unknowns that begin your journey into adulthood. It provides you with a sense of independence, responsibility, an understanding of how “the real world” works and what seems like the most important aspect — a little disposable income. In most cases, it becomes one of the many short, forgettable experiences you move through to gain work experience while you’re in school. I, unfortunately, wasn’t one of those people who got their first job at 16 — I was nearly at the end of high school when I got my first job. I fabricated all sorts of explanations and excuses as to why I never tried to get one. I was too busy with school, I didn’t want my grades to slip, nobody was hiring. At the end of the day, they were just excuses and the truth of it was that my anxieties were holding me back from personal growth. The longer I waited, the worse it got — this looming fear becoming irrational and all-consuming.
Eventually that had to end — I had to have a job eventually. My first job was a line cook in the kitchen at The World’s Largest East Side Mario’s — but for the love of God please don’t ask me if it “really is the largest.” What began as awkwardness, anxiety and a persistent fear of failure, transitioned into a comfortable rhythm that left me exhausted, drained and more proud of myself than I’d ever had the chance to be in my life up until that point. I’ve worked in kitchens for nearly four years now — I took a short break from my first job to try out Wilf’s, and came back again this summer for some extra hours. It made me rethink a lot of things, reopening the bittersweet sadness that I was left with the first time I moved on from them. I never expected to care about the people that I shared this job with as much as I do. They all passed on something valuable to me, made me feel like I was part of a team and more unexpectedly, a weird, quirky little family that I know I can rely on. Every time I’d go in, I’d see a bunch of smiles greet me and I’d feel a sense of calm and belonging that had been so foreign to me in high school. People have come and gone from that restaurant over the years, but I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many people I would never have thought or had the chance
to talk to and get to know outside of it. Somehow, they all brought out the very best in me. I’m moving on now, but I won’t be able to forget about the people
I never expected to care about the people that I shared this job with as much as I do.
that took a chance on an awkward, quiet kid with no work experience. People sometimes write off my job when I tell them about it, kind of smirk at me like it’s something I should be anything but proud of. But joke’s on them, I can make a better seafood linguini than they can any day of the week. You may disregard your first job as just a brief period in your life that doesn’t matter, or probably look back on it and wonder how you managed to keep your sanity. And my experience certainly wasn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017
Opinion
OPINION EDITOR EMILY WAITSON opinion@thecord.ca
Chick-Fil-A serves fast food with a side of homophobia much of a challenge when it comes to fast food and I don’t believe
EMILY WAITSON OPINION EDITOR
The focus has rested on the food and the food alone and it takes away from the one detail that shouldn’t be disregarded like a used sandwich wrapper.
Chick-Fil-A is a beloved and highly popular fried chicken American fast food chain that has a legion of dedicated consumers who seem to do their best to overshadow the controversial viewpoints associated with the restaurant.
In this case, it’s dividing the Southern food served in red and white paper from blatant bigotry.
The media has reported on this development with factual indifference and overblown excitement, similar to when McDonald’s announced that it would be serving all-day breakfast. The focus has rested on the food and the food alone and it takes away from the one detail that shouldn’t really be disregarded like a used sandwich wrapper. Much like the continuing exposure of celebrities through the #MeToo movement, people continue the debate about being able to separate art from the problematic artist. In this case, it’s dividing the Southern food served in red and white paper from blatant bigotry.
I don’t think I would be able to casually walk into a Chick-Fil-A knowing that the company’s belief system is tied to a man who is dead-set on exposing his disagreement associated with something that has no affect on him whatsoever across Twitter. I will never be able to understand why a guy who runs a fried chicken restaurant and has a dayto-day job pandering to crowds of greasy-fingered lunch goers desperate for their nuggets to be dunked in special sauce, would have any desire making his personal beliefs regarding same-sex marriage known to the world so maliciously. Acceptance shouldn’t be that
it’s something that people should overlook for the sake of their favourite chicken order. You know the state of things have become problematic when Gus Fring, a fictional drug lord and fried chicken business owner from Breaking Bad, comes out on top in this scenario. He at least didn’t treat people like garbage because of their sexuality, I’ll give him that much. At the end of the day, I don’t believe the food from Chick-Fil-A is so amazing that it can’t be matched at any of the local restaurants spread around Toronto. There are countless locations people can go to in order to get their fried chicken fix, so it doesn’t have to begin and end with one popular, yet problematic fast food establishment. The views of Chick-Fil-A should remain in 1946 Georgia, where it was founded and where it should stay.
sandwich. Not only is the character of the person focussing on their past experiences damaged, now that person who is targeted will have a harder time letting go. Because if something is brought up all the time, it is seen as important in the mind of the targeted person. If it isn’t and people don’t stop bringing it up, that targeted person will become obsessive. And take it from me, it’s one of
the darkest roads of the human psyche to take and is not useful in university or real life. If there is something from high school that is still bothering you, I have one piece of advice for you. . If something has been bothering you for over 18 months, write it down in full detail. Being able to “archive” your arguments, feelings, and what happened will really help in letting go of whatever is bothering you. So as you’re coming into
university Golden Hawks, let old dramatics stay in the past. Not letting things go, or hanging around people who will not get over past dramas will bring you down and you will not enjoy the university experience to the fullest. If someone calls you a loser for something that happened years ago, they are the real loser today. Don’t let old drama bring you down. Rise above it like the soaring Golden Hawks that you are.
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The franchise recently released its plans to expand to its first international location in Toronto, and it’s planned to open its first set of Canadian doors sometime next year. Announcements regarding expansion have stated that there are hopes to open 15 restaurants by 2023. The announcement has been met with mixed reactions on social media — ranging from pure delight over their infamous menu being at
the disposal of Canadian chicken and biscuit lovers to disgust regarding the problematic views of the restaurant chain’s CEO Dan Cathy. Cathy has been open about his opposition regarding samesex marriage and his dedicated crusade against LGBTQ+ rights, with the fast food chain becoming synonymous with their chicken just as much as their blatant homophobia. Whether people are willing to overlook this pretty significant flaw for the sake of some deep fried food, the fact remains that their views are discriminatory and not what any establishment should represent.
Letting go of drama JOSH GOEREE STAFF WRITER
I’ve been at Laurier since September 2014 and I’ve noticed something during that time: while we all may be in university now and are now young adults, some people refuse to let go of old, unimportant dramatics from high school. More specifically, I’ve seen people go out of their way to chirp others for their old drama. Although there are a lot of people who can’t get over unimportant things that happened to themselves, it’s more disturbing when people go after others for unimportant drama. And it’s amazing how far and long some people will go. I’ll use one example from my life to show how insane it can get. Back when I was in Grade 11, my father gave me $40 to buy my friends Subway and I didn’t do it.
When my friends found out I had the $40, they were genuinely angry about it and started bothering me about it. Most people can get over something like that in a week or two. The complaining from them, about a $10 sandwich, didn’t stop for 4 years. It really shows a person’s character when they cannot get over something so small as a crappy $10 sandwich. Sometimes people will chirp for more serious things like old relationships, hookups, or public embarrassments. But again, it shows how bad someone’s character is if they rely on old mistakes from the past to bring you down in the present. In my experience, I have seen people who have graduated college/university, gotten full time jobs in their fields, and have houses and spouses, who have not let things go from high school. You can have all the things that a mature adult may have, but you can still be an immature individual on the inside if you cannot let go of something as small as a $10
MADELINE MCINNIS/FEATURES EDITOR
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• OPINION
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 I decided to attend the Math Assistance Centre (MAC) for support and mock midterms. The support systems are there. I promise you, however, it’s up to you to do your research and find the time to attend. If you are having trouble with something, seek help and seek it early. If there’s one thing I have learned, it’s that we are all learning. None of us know it all. And we can’t be expected to. But, to have the chance to gain knowledge and not take it, that would be a mistake. Because, you see, how else will you grow, how else will you transform your skill-set and your experiences? It comes down to how important something is to you.
Because, you see, how else will you grow, how else will you transform your skill-set and your experiences? MANRAJ RAI/CORD PHOTOGRAPHY
Finding the right help VIDISH PARIKH STAFF WRITER
When I first entered university, I remember being a little hesitant
to ask for help. “I’m on my own,” I would think to myself. It turns out I wasn’t aware of the full-range of resources we, as students, have at our disposal. Part way through first-year this changed. I began asking for help. I turned to the Career Centre for resume building resources.
If you really want to master Excel or you really want to learn more about program Y, you will find the resource. It’s as simple as that. One of my favourite resources is Lynda.com. Managed by LinkedIn,
it has its own set of online help videos — videos taught on a range of topics, many with worksheets and practice fills for you to test your knowledge. I’m an economics student, but that’s where I first learned HTML and CSS. It’s the medium of learning that proved to be most effective to learn something new on the side, as a passion project. Sometimes there are things you really want to learn, but choose to put off under the pretense of not having enough time. I myself am guilty of this. But it is so important to take advantage of the array of easily-accessible resources — resources that you may not have access to in the future. While our academic support services are quite useful, don’t limit yourself to just academics. We are more than what we learn in the classroom. It’s more complicated than that. Employers want to see intangibles. Show the initiative; go out there and dedicate some time on the side to something you really want to learn. I would characterize this as something you are willing to dedicate a few hours to each day, and would regret putting off. It doesn’t have to be the most complex task. But, pick a passion project. Leverage the available resources and learn something outside the traditional classroom. That journey towards your goal will be worth it. With our discussions of academic and project-based resources, let’s not forget mental health. University can be stressful.
So, when deadlines are piling up and you are feeling overwhelmed, remember that there are counselling services at the Student Wellness Centre.
While our academic support services are quite useful, don’t limit youself to just academics.
Your health— mental and physical — trumps everything. So, to those just entering first year, enjoy the ride in this your first month of university. The university journey teaches you just how fleeting time really is. Remember, that people can also be your best resources. This may be a mentor from the upper-years or a professor whose class or area of research you are truly interested in. It might be a close friend you meet on the first day. But, whoever it is, don’t underestimate the power of people as support systems. Talk to people — there’s so much we can learn from each other. In that sense, your relationships with the wide range of people you meet here might be your best resource. Because there’s something really magical about this place indeed.
Mindfully portraying sexual assault on television BRITTANY TENHAGE STAFF WRITER
Since the end of May, BBC Casualty has been airing a storyline surrounding sexual assault involving two of the main characters. Casualty has been running for over 30 years and has often tackled hard-hitting content, but sometimes misses the mark. When it was announced that the show would be airing this specific storyline, myself and multiple other viewers were concerned about how they would handle it. While it was fair to be concerned, the show has made all of these worries vanish. They have handled it extremely well. The first thing they did that is extremely important in airing storyline surrounding sexual assault is making viewers aware long before the episode begins. Articles announcing the storyline were published at the beginning of May. Viewers were also made aware of the length of the storyline, which is six episodes. The show-runners and writers worked closely with Rape Crisis England and Wales while writing the episodes to ensure accuracy as
KASHYAP PATEL/GRAPHICS EDITOR
well as sensitivity. Actress Chelsea Halfpenny, who plays the victim, Doctor Alicia Munroe, worked with them as well. The storyline itself is unique and handled very well. Sexual assault and rape tend to be very similar stories across TV shows, but Casualty’s story is different. Over a few episodes, the traumatized doctor continues to work, but struggles emotionally. She begins to realize that she didn’t consent to the sexual activity between her and her attacker. After confiding in a friend, and her friend defining what happened, she talks to a therapist. Initially, she makes the decision
not to tell the police. Her friend is concerned, but does not try to change her mind. After a confrontation between her friend and her attacker, she changes her mind. The next episode features her speaking to the police about what exactly happened. We find out during this episode that the victim had gotten drunk with her attacker and initiated a kiss between the two of them. We also find out that she had consented to previous sexual activity. She then recounts waking up and saying that he was having sex with her and she said “no.” While this is happening, her attacker is also being interviewed and insists
that the sex they had was consensual. The victim asks her interviewer if she believes her, and the interviewer says “yes.” When the victim goes home for the day, her attacker shows up, breaking his bail. She has a very powerful and empowering moment where she confronts him about what happened. She calls him a rapist, and reminds him exactly what happened between the two of them. This storyline also features the victim’s coworkers rallying around her and supporting her, while her attacker gets suspended from his job. After every episode airs, viewers are given a phone number
and a URL they can connect with if they are struggling with something similar to what’s happening on the show. Casualty is a soap opera, and when it’s held up against other soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Casualty’s storyline feels real and raw in comparison, while also being sensitive and avoiding stereotypes. To compare, Emmerdale recently featured one of their male main characters being too drunk to consent to sex. A female character took advantage of his status, but the show never acknowledged that what happened was rape. The way they handled it concerned and offended multiple viewers. Casualty’s storyline has instead empowered and encouraged multiple sexual assault and rape victims to come forward and acknowledge what has happened to them. With this storyline, Casualty has truly set a precedent for how rape and sexual assault should be handled in media. It breaks the stereotypical mould of how rape is portrayed, showing viewers that rape is not cookie cutter and that consenting once doesn’t mean consenting again. TV needs more honest and unique portrayals of rape, and I’m glad Casualty has taken the first step to telling these stories in an encouraging and real way.
OPINION • 33
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
NCAA paying athletes ANDREW MCCLELLAND OPINION COLUMNIST
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, oversees all college athletic sports in the USA. This has made it a large company and currently put it at the front of a very large debate regarding whether or not the NCAA should pay athletes.
The NCAA argues that its athletes are “student first” and therefore should not be paid.
In 2017, the NCAA profited over $1.1 billion, making it a very large company. However, the NCAA still claims that it is a non-profit organi-
zation and simply regulates college athletics. $1.1 billion dollars does not sound like there is no profit in it to me. Of this money, college athletes see zero per cent , as it is illegal for the athletes to make profit from the sports they play during their time in college. In fact, if they are found to be receiving money from outside sources, they can be heavily penalized. This happened to former USC running back Reggie Bush. Reggie Bush had won the Heisman trophy, which is the most prestigious trophy in college football, but was found to have been receiving improper benefits from playing. These benefits consisted of money, hotel-stays and free dinners. But Reggie Bush was also on the verge of making millions in the NFL and the money that he brought in for the NCAA and USC was way more than he ever received. The NCAA argues that its athletes are “students first” and therefore should not be paid. But most of the athletic schedules force them to miss classes — such as the Division 1 Football Championship which is hosted on a Monday night — usually far from the schools the athletes attend. The March Madness Tournament takes place over more than a
MANRAJ RAI/CORD PHOTOGRAPHY
week, making athletes skip classes to participate in the tournament. So, even though the athletes are “students first,” their athletic schedules require them to miss a fair bit of class. On top of missing class, athletes often miss most of their study freetime, as the NCAA is a very high level of athletics, which requires around 43 hours of practice or training per week. This is more hours than the average work week in America. The main argument as to why I believe athletes should be paid, is
due to the injury risk. These athletes are playing at a high level of competition, for no compensation and only a slight chance of going pro. Out of all the men’s and women’s NCAA sports, only baseball players have above a two per cent rate of turning pro. This means that NCAA athletes are risking their bodies to bring money in for the NCAA and their schools, for a miniscule chance of going to a higher level and no paid compensation in return. In fact, if players were to get injured, the NCAA allows schools
to pull their scholarships, putting people that would’ve typically not gone to such expensive schools in a position where they are forced to drop out. As the NCAA profits so much from its athletes, I believe they should begin to pay college athletes at least a base minimum for their hours that are put in, and perhaps consider setting up a fund for college athletes that get seriously injured. The athletes currently keep people in the NCAA employed, but the NCAA refuses to employ them.
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
Facing the increased gun violence in Toronto ALYSSA DI SABATINO STAFF WRITER
Virtually no corner of Toronto has been untouched by gun related violence this summer, with over 40 shootings that have occurred since June 21 of this year, resulting in over 30 deaths. There have been several reports of separate shootings as recently as this week. Fatal shootings alone are up nearly 40 per cent from this time last year. While shootings aren’t atypical especially during the summer months, data has shown that the number of shooting related deaths has been increasing each year. One of the most brazen and seemingly unmotivated attacks this summer was the Danforth shooting on July 22, where the gunman killed two people and injured 13 others in Toronto’s Greektown. Another high profile incident includes the death of Smoke Dawg and Koba Prime amongst one other victim in a drive-by shooting in late June. When asked to speak on the incident, Mayor John Tory linked the shooting to gang violence, but the Toronto police have declined to confirm whether or not this is true. Another notable incident includes the shooting of two young girls, aged five and nine, who were shot on a playground in Scarbor-
This can happen through mobilization and education of high-risk communities. Anti-gun violence organizations, such as Toronto’s Think 2wice organization which promote “change from within” by funding interven-
Militarization of the city only works to scare the general public and incite further urban violence, as perpetrators will be on their guard.
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ough in June. Their conditions were non-life threatening. It is suspected that the shots were meant for a man who was at the park at the time and that the girls were caught in the crossfire. While not all of the shootings are confirmed to be gang related, it is suspected that some of them are linked to territorial rival gang violence. Mayor John Tory has announced a $15 million plan to address gun crime in the city, wherein additional officers will be placed in certain neighbourhoods during dark hours for the remainder of the summer.
The city has also hired around 170 new officers for the communities. Mayor John Tory, premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have also met to discuss further gun control methods. Trudeau has offered his support to the city, while Ford has allegedly ignored the request for the funding of preventative community based programs, and is against the proposed handgun ban. If you ask me, Tory and Ford’s method for gun control are not the best methods of addressing the issue. Expanding police powers seems
more harmful than beneficial. Militarization of the city only works to scare the general public and incite further urban violence, as perpetrators will be on their guard. The gun control methods that have been presented do not address the root cause of the violence. The first priority for the city should be to pinpoint if the gun violence is largely caused by gang wars. If it is, they should work to improve police-community relations, and relations within the communities themselves.
tion projects could be the key to educating communities. The shootings feel personal to residents of Toronto and Southern Ontario. These incidents have occurred so close to home, making many feel unsafe. However, the harm that’s actually posed towards the general public is very low. Despite the increase in gun violence, Toronto is still one of the safest cities in North America, for its size.
Don’t sacrifice health for fun EMILY WAITSON OPINION EDITOR
In an effort not to sound like a broken record or an after school special harping about all the ways young adults don’t look after themselves, I’ll make it clear that I’m far from a beacon of health and balance. The beginning of university is a lot to take in. It’s fun, stressful, there’s things to do every single day, people to meet, beer to drink, places to go to. You’re overwhelmed and bombarded with a lot of information and a class schedule to follow before you’re even able to get your head above water and get a firm sense of your surroundings. It’s incredibly easy to let the activities, commitments and desire to do everything you possibly can blur your sense of personal responsibility. O-Week is exhausting no matter what stage of the university game you’re in. Frosh week is a wrecking ball of an activity list and whether you’re screaming your lungs out at a cheer off, moving into your first crappy apartment or boothing with clubs at the Get Involved Fair, it can be hard to block out all of the noise and focus on yourself. Classes come up quicker than you’ll ever expect and it’s difficult to make that transition from non-
stop fun to sitting in a three hour lecture trying to keep your eyes open. That being said, don’t put your mental and physical health on the back burner because you feel the need to prove yourself to some frat boy and stay out later than you knew you had justifiable reason to when you had an 8:30 class the next morning. Freshman 15 is a bullshit scare tactic and gendered restriction no matter how you look at it, so eating properly shouldn’t be for the sake of avoiding that tired out trope. You shouldn’t live on carbs and cheese and forgo drinking water because you think you’re invincible. The neglect you show to your overall health will eventually shine through and there are only so many nights at Phil’s that can distract you from that. As corny and preachy as it may sound, realizing you’ve spiralled into an unhealthy pattern by reading week or exams isn’t exactly the ideal time to reach your turning point. I believe in balancing the fun and social aspects of university with academics and extracurriculars, but that balance won’t happen overnight with no tangible effort. Don’t think that secret breakdowns or screaming into your pillow moments are something to ignore if they’re more frequent than not. Don’t allow your feelings to consume you if you’re not doing okay or struggling with everything that’s thrown at you.
The unfortunate thing about entering university is that no one really prepares you for it. All of the advice in the world won’t work for every person, because every person is different. Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and getting out there to experience things is a positive thing, but not if it means you’re miserable or unhealthy in other ways because of it.
O-Week is exhausting no matter what stage of the university game you’re in.
Thankfully, we have resources available to us that can help more than binge-watching Netflix to avoid class and responsibilities — and I say this from experience. No one is going to master everything at once and be a vision of health, but try not to let the excitement and stress overwhelm you. You don’t have to be the picture-perfect student you see grinning on promotional pamphlets, but you should allow yourself to find a system that works for you and makes you truly happy.
FANI HSEIH/CORD ALUMN
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
Sports
SPORTS EDITOR PRANAV DESAI sports@thecord.ca
CLUBS
Improving student satisfaction PRANAV DESAI SPORTS EDITOR
There are a variety of athletic clubs at Wilfrid Laurier University featuring sports such as boxing, cricket, figure skating and sailing, among others. However, it can be argued that these clubs haven’t received the exposure they deserve at Laurier. Tarique Plummer, President and CEO of the Students’ Union, discussed the changes that are being implemented to help the sports clubs at Laurier. “This past year when I was running for president during the election period, I made 15 promises to the student body. One of the promises I made spoke about the sports clubs at Laurier. I worked as a sports clubs’ coordinator and I understand that the department had significant challenges; one of those was financial restrictions,” he said. “The program is unable to expand and develop because equipment costs money, space costs money, opportunities to
expose [the clubs] to the university cost money and because of these restrictions,” Plummer added. Not only is the Students’ Union going to provide sports clubs with financial aid, there is also a plan to
I also spoke about the integrated Wellness Centre idea, which looks at the integration of physical and academic wellness and diversity -Tarique Plummer, President and CEO of the Students’ Union
improve the facilities at the athletic complex. “[The Students’ Union] granted the Athletic Complex a decent chunk of money that could go towards the purchase of new equipment, repair of current
equipment and also to help cover the HR packages in terms of reducing overtime and providing more student jobs,” Plummer said. The addition of new equipment and repairing the existing equipment will be completed by the end of the year. Plummer went on to talk about expanding the Wellness Centre at Laurier, admitting that this is something that would take considerably longer to implement. “I also spoke about the integrated Wellness Centre idea, which looks at the integration of physical and academic wellness and diversity. This is more of a long term plan that would take a couple of years to actualize,” he said. “It looks at a bigger building that has all those important aspects of wellness in different divisions so that they are in one centralized location. The department will be able to expand significantly and make up some of the shortcomings they have.” “The discussions for that plan are still going on and we are talking to the university right now on how
VICTORIA PANACCI/FILE PHOTO
we can best approach this. Hopefully by the end of this year, we will have built a solid foundation. Whoever the president is next year
can hopefully continue with the idea because there is significant interest,” Plummer concluded. There have been numerous
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SPORTS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
FOOTBALL
Hawks start their season off with a convincing victory Laurier puts on an offensive showcase; wins home opener against Gee-Gees by a score of 39-21 from the defensive backfield who led the unit with 3.5 tackles on the day, in addition to a pass he intercepted in the third quarter. Although my questions to coach Faulds centred around the defensive linemen, it should be remembered that the rest of Laurier’s defence is stocked with playmakers as well.
On defence we’ve historically been led by our [defensive] line. We’ve always put outstanding pressure on opposing teams’ quarterbacks ... -Michael Faulds, Laurier football head coach
On Aug. 26, 2018, the Golden Hawks hosted the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees for the first regular-season game of their schedule. After an immediate three-and-
out to start the game Laurier’s first drive propelled them to a 7-0 lead from which they never looked back. Midway through the fourth quarter Ottawa managed to pull within nine points of Laurier, but a late stand by the Golden Hawk defence handed Laurier’s offence the ball in the shadow of their opponents’ goalposts, and they wasted no time putting the game out of reach. The Hawks were led by running back Levondre Gordon and Kurleigh Gittens jr. on offence. Gordon rushed for 109 yards along with two touchdowns and Gittens Jr. contributed with 188 all-purpose yards With a final score of 39-21 Laurier wins its home opener, and they now look ahead to next week’s game (Sunday, Sept. 2) where the Golden Hawks will travel to Kingston to take on the 1-0 Queen’s Gaels, fresh off of their 42-21 win over York. The Gaels promise a tough matchup with their well-rounded roster, but this week illustrated that the Golden Hawks are up to the task.
GARRISON OOSTERHOF/WEB DIRECTOR
JOHN MCMORRAN STAFF WRITER
When asked to describe the goals for his offence in 2018, sixth year head coach Michael Faulds responded: “We're going to be balanced. We're going to be able to run the ball behind a great [offensive] line, great fullbacks, and great running backs, and then our young quarterbacks have outstanding weapons at receiver. The receiver group is super talented, one of the most impressive I've been around.” The balanced offence comes with the departure of last year’s starting quarterback Michael Knevel. Coach Faulds addressed this loss, but also his confidence in the current quarterbacks on his roster. “Obviously we're going to miss Michael. Michael was a big part in us winning the 2016 Yates Cup, but we're super confident as a team and as a coaching staff in the other quarterbacks we have, [specifically] Tristan Arndt, who will be our day one starter,” he said. Dating back to a late-season victory in 2017 against McMaster, Arndt is 3-0 as a starter, and never during his tenure as signal-caller has the offence skipped a beat.
Through the air Arndt’s main target is Kurleigh Gittens Jr, because if the Golden Hawks offence is a finely tuned sports car, then Kurleigh Gittens Jr. is the fuel that makes it go.
We’re going to be able to run the ball behind a great [offensive] line ... and then our young quarterbacks have outstanding weapons at receiver. -Michael Faulds, Laurier football head coach
After a 2017 season that saw Gittens Jr. selected as both a first team all-star and MVP for the OUA, and a CIS all-star at two different positions, there is no defence in Canadian football unaware of what Gittens Jr. can do. But when shifting to their ground-game Laurier’s offence loses none of its potency, because in 2017 Laurier’s Levondre Gordon
gashed opposing defences to the tune of 5.73 yards per carry on his way to a team-leading eight touchdowns. Already in his first regular season action Gordon piled up 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns behind a Laurier offensive line anchored by 2017 East-West bowl attendee Drew Mairleitner. Despite the offensive firepower at their employ, Laurier’s defence should not be forgotten. In particular, head coach Michael Faulds focused on the defensive line when he said: “On defense we've historically been led by our [defensive] line. We've always put outstanding pressure on opposing teams' quarterbacks… and whether it be Robbie Smith, Trevaughan James, Alfred Green, Sam Acheampong, the list goes on… and we're excited to see the sort of pass rush we can get this year.” This elite level of defensive-line play helped Laurier to a +16.6 points differential per game in 2017, and while the defence did surrender the most passing yards per game, Laurier doled out equal punishment, placing second in the OUA with 27 quarterback sacks. However, in their first regular season game it was Will Amoah
GARRISON OOSTERHOF/WEB DIRECTOR
SPORTS • 37
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 FOOTBALL
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Pigozzo helps Canada win gold ABDULHAMID IBRAHIM LEAD SPORTS REPORTER
On July 22, history was made. Canada won gold at the 2018 IFAF U19 Championship, the second of back-to-back gold medals, the first time a country has done that in the
event’s history. In front of a crowd of 25,000 at the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico, Canada prevailed by a final score of 13-7 over Mexico with the game coming down to the final seconds. A key cog for Canada on offence was Laurier’s own Alex Pigozzo.
The second year offensive lineman, carrying his past experience with Team Ontario in high school and his one year at Laurier, played a big role, playing in every spot on the offensive line during the tournament and helping secure win after win. “It was absolutely incredible.
It’s a very humbling experience to know that we were the first ever to go down there and to win back-toback championships. But not only that, just to know that I was able to represent Canada with a bunch of other absolutely amazing players, it’s absolutely incredible and it’s a memory that I’m definitely going to hold very high,” Pigozzo said. Considering how invaluable versatility is in football, the hope is that the experience that comes out of this tournament for Pigozzo is that he can take it with him and be that much better of a football player and of great help to the Golden Hawks. “It really helped me out in terms of furthering my football career. The goal was for me to be a more reliable player so that if the time comes and when, if a coach needs me to go in this or that, tackle, guard or centre, whatever, they can trust me in that spot because I’ve had experience playing all of them. So really, it just sort of helps round me out as a football player a little more reliable and versatile,” Pigozzo said. While he knows there is still things to clean up and improve upon, Pigozzo knows he performed well and is proud of his performance. The biggest thing he gained outside of experience though, is a boost of confidence. “The confidence boost is great because it helps you come into
camp knowing that I can play at a very high level. With that being said, university football is an extremely high level of sports, especially for my age, it’s definitely the highest sort of competition I could find out there for football,” he said. “But [Team Canada experience] certainly taught me a lot of things to appreciate more about football about my game. A lot of the minor details really do make a huge difference.” Another thing he hopes to take with him is the championship mentality he gained from the tournament win. “With coming back from a big championship team, the top dogs in this tournament, it kind of translates back to university and that’s the energy I wanna bring here, is that, whereas Laurier, we’re a good football team, we’re striving to be great and we want to win another championship and with that comes a championship kind of energy and mindset,” he said. While Laurier hopes to rebound from their Yates Cup loss to Western in 2017, obviously the expectations and confidence still remain high for this upcoming 2018 season. As for Pigozzo, things seem to be looking up as he looks to work his way up and push himself as well as his teammates with a confidence boost coming from one golden experience he’s had.
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
HEALTH
Waterloo startup develops shirt to reduce concussions JOSEPH DEFILIPPIS STAFF WRITER
For many, the Kitchener-Waterloo area is seen as one of the premier startup hubs of North America, and recently, this entrepreneurial spirit has been seeping into the sport industry. Rob and Charles Corrigan, two Kitchener natives, founded Advanced Exoskeletal Systems (AEXOS) in 2015, in the hopes of changing the landscape of protective sports equipment. “Rob and I were both athletes and have both experienced concussions,” Charles, the CEO of the company said. “[We saw] an unmet need in terms of a real solution to what we thought was a big factor in the whole concussion injury spectrum: whiplash.” For the past three years, the brothers have been working together to develop their first product, HALO, which is a high-performance compression shirt that has been engineered to help reduce whiplash motion of the neck and head during times of impact. HALO was created with a diverse range of athletes in mind, ensuring that comfort and performance are not compromised, while delivering state of the art athletic protection. “It’s a new thing for [athletes] to digest when they first see it,” Rob, who acts as the company’s COO, said. “But once they kind of wrap their head around it and begin to connect the dots on how it could help them from a whiplash reduction perspective, they begin to warm up to it.” When asked about the response that they have received from athletes so far that have had the chance to test HALO, both Rob and Charles expressed that they were
“very pleased with the feedback to date.” This positivity is something that has been reiterated by current Florida Panthers winger Mike Hoffman and retired NHL journeyman Wayne Primeau, who have both taken to social media in the past few weeks to promote HALO. Additionally, members of the Laurier football team along with former Golden Hawk and current CFL defensive back, Courtney Stephen, have helped AEXOS market their product to football players. “AEXOS is doing something that no one has ever done, in bringing performance and safety together in a way that’s almost invisible,” Stephen, who played for Laurier in 2008 and 2009, said.
AEXOS is doing something that no one has ever done, in bringing performance and safety together in a way that’s almost invisible. -Courtney Stephen, Laurier grad and current CFL player
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“I wore it during training camp, where we have a heavy workload and are playing a lot in a small amount of time, [which is] when you tend to get the sorest that you are going to get. I didn’t realize until I took the HALO off and didn’t use it for practice, how much it was actually supporting my neck and making me feel more comfortable.” Stephen, who has played six years of professional football, said that “a lot of guys were asking [about HALO], because they’d
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Laurier grad and CFL player Courtney Stephen wearing the HALO product
never seen it before,” signalling high levels of curiosity from other players. One of the challenges that still may face AEXOS going forward is trying to get athletes to incorporate HALO into their equipment of choice and game-day routine. “The one thing we tried to do from day one, is really understand the fact that athletes are very hesitant to add any equipment to the stuff that they already wear,” Charles mentioned. “Typically, equipment is restrictive, bulky and heavy and that was very much a barrier for us in terms of the perception of what an extra piece of equipment could be. [HALO] has the ability to give
[athletes] something that looks and feels familiar, in terms of compression gear, which made the barrier of entry a little less difficult.” This sentiment was also shared by Stephen. “You can understand why there might be some hesitation, but you just have to get people to try it, because once they do, it speaks for itself,” he said. Although the primary target market for HALO is hockey and football players, who are easily the most prone athletes to head injuries out of any of the major North American sports, the possibilities for the product are endless. “The good thing about being a small startup is that we can
pivot almost anywhere,” Charles expressed. “At the end of the day, Rob and I are just stewards of a good idea and however we can grow that and proliferate it, is what we’re here to do.” HALO is set to come to market later this fall, with pre-orders available through the company’s Kickstarter page until mid-September. The shirt is planned to retail at $190, with men’s, women’s, youth and junior sizes available. “It has the potential to make a huge difference,” Stephen mentioned confidently. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a standard piece of equipment that every athlete in contact sports wore.”
SPORTS • 39
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018 MEN’S HOCKEY teams speak in English with each other.”
That’s definitley the biggest thing I learned. You have to try and get better every day because if you aren’t, then you’re just taking a step backwards. -Colin Furlong, Former Laurier men’s hockey goaltender
EMI ZIBAEI/FILE PHOTO
Colin Furlong is off to Europe PRANAV DESAI SPORTS EDITOR
Long time Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawk goaltender Colin Furlong has joined HC Pustertal Wolfe, a professional European hockey teamh that’s part of the Alps Hockey League. Furlong signed a professional
contract with the Italian side earlier this summer after spending four years with the Golden Hawks. For Furlong, playing at a professional level was always the ultimate goal ever since he started his hockey career. “That’s the big part of what made me come to school [Laurier] actually. I obviously wanted to get an
education as well but the hockey was a big thing for me,” he said. Playing professionally won’t just be a big challenge on the ice for Furlong, but also off the ice due to the difference in culture and language in Italy. “I think it will be a little bit different but from everything I’ve heard, most European hockey
“Where I’m going, both Italian and German are common languages and I don’t speak either. It’ll be different when I’m going around in the city, but in the dressing room it should be pretty similar [to what it is in North America],” Furlong said. The Cambridge native began his journey with the Hawks in 2014, making two starts for the men’s hockey team with a record of 1-1. Furlong took over the starting goalie position for Laurier in his second year with the team. Not only did his level of play improve every year, Furlong transformed into one of the leaders on an up and coming Golden Hawks team. Although the Hawks struggled with inconsistency last year, Furlong believes that the purple and gold are headed in the right direction. “These last two years, we had a very skilled team and everyone was very close [to each other], but
I’m not too sure exactly what happened. Injuries were a huge part [of our inconsistency],” he said. “Every year during my Laurier career, a couple of key guys always got injured at some point during the season and that would obviously affect the team, but I think they just need to keep going in the direction they have been going in and be consistent every game, every practice,” Furlong added. Playing professionally is often the goal for every aspiring athlete and it’ll be interesting to see how Colin Furlong develops and adapts his game to compete at the highest level. Furlong believes that the hardworking mindset he adopted from his time with the Hawks will be invaluable. “There was a very professional atmosphere and mentality with our team. We practiced five days a week and then obviously there was also one or two games per week. I just really tried to grow as a hockey player throughout the four years [at Laurier].” “That’s definitely the biggest thing I learned. You have to try and get better every day because if you aren’t, then you’re just taking a step backwards.” Losing a talent like Furlong will not only be a huge hit to the Hawks on the ice, but his presence will also sorely be missed in the Laurier locker room. It will be interesting to see how the Hawks deal with Furlong’s absence from the team and this question only adds to the intrigue in what is shaping up to an exciting 2018-19 season.
FITNESS
Finding the exercise that works for you GARRISON OOSTERHOF WEB DIRECTOR
I have never intentionally stuck with a fitness plan. Growing up I played a lot of sports but outside of organized exercise I can barely make it through two weeks of my own workouts. I’ve always found the feeling of being a newbie at the gym or on a field kept me from feeling good about being active. Over the summer I decided to tackle my history of fickle fitness while I had the time; I knew staying fit will get a lot harder when September hits. I tried to use this summer as an orientation to what works for me and focused on building my confidence by give myself lots of time and forgiveness for not staying disciplined. I’ve tried lots of different exercises in variety of settings in the hopes of coming back to school with a routine that I like and will be able to stick with. The first thing I learned was that I need to feel some small nugget of goodness and immediate gratification if I’m going to stick with a workout. Otherwise, after a week and a half I’m going to look down and think ‘this sucks and it’s not even working.’ I asked Nicole Collins, a personal trainer at the Laurier Athletic
the next day. Nicole also suggested to get social with your fitness. “Whether it’s working out with a close friend or finding a class, they will hold you accountable to sticking with your workout plan. We offer multiple small group training programs at the athletic complex. Some of these programs are Barbelles, Barbell, Train for Greatness, I Move my Mood, Intra-
MANRAJ RAI/CORD PHOTOGRAPHY
Centre, if she had some good techniques for sticking to a workout plan. “It is firstly most important to establish a clear and specific goal. Personally, I like to set S.M.A.R.T goals with my clients before we start any kind of workout program together,” she said. S.M.A.R.T goals being Specific, Measurable, Action-able, Relevant and Time-bound. “I also think that it is important to set not only physical goals, (what you want to look like on the outside), but to also set health and wellness goals. For example, “I want to be stronger,” instead of ‘I want to look like him/her,’” Collins said. I decided my first step to being
more healthy was to improve my heart rate. Before I started, my resting heart rate was 68 (check your heart rate when you wake up). After going for a jog a four times a week. I saw my resting heart rate quickly begin to improve which meant my heart was working more efficiently and that gave me a big boost of confidence. I began to see myself getting in the habit of running to stay in shape and wanted to gradually do more. In an email Nicole said this was really important: “In addition, setting shortterm goals as well as long-term goals will help. Ask yourself, ‘Will I be able to maintain this fitness program for a year.’ That is how you know if it is a sustainable program,”
she said in an email. Maybe running isn’t going to give you that taste of goodness like it does for me. A good alternative could be stretching. I love the feeling after a long stretch session where I walk home and feel floppy like a boiled noodle. I would start with some dynamic (moving) stretches to warm up my to get my heart rate up and my muscles limber. When I started feeling a bit red in the face I moved into either static stretches or yoga. Even with 15 minutes of stretching per day I started to feel better balance, flexibility and strength. If you’re doing it right, you won’t feel achey and stiff afterwards and hopefully that will motivate you to do more again
In addition, setting short term goals as well as long-term goals will help.
-Nicole Collins, Personal Trainor, Laurier Athletic Centre
murals, Group ex, Dance etc.” If you break it all down, staying healthy is about creating new patterns and to do that we need to feel the rewards of doing good things for our bodies. “Consistency is key, and it may take time to find what works for you. Be patient,” Collins said.
Welcome home Golden Hawks – we’re so happy you’re here! Everything you need to know about living in Waterloo is at waterloo.ca. We can’t wait for you to discover our amazing city.
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