March 23, 2016

NOW WITH PREMIER SUPPORT!

NAVIGATING SUSTAINABILITY

JUMPING, OF THE LONG VARIETY

Legislation bringing sexual assault policies

“Solar Compass” coming to campus

Searching for the road to Rio

As TRU tries to wrap up its own policy, a legislated solution is in the works • Page 2

Embedded solar technology will be used in an upcoming campus installation • Page 2

A TRU alum is trying to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics • Page 11

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ON DISPLAY

A SHOW OF SKILL

International Days presents beautiful display of world culture

Season over for men’s basketball, team finishes #7 in the country

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See our photos from the IDays showcase, here in this paper or online at www.TRUOmega.ca. • Page 9

MAKING A RACKET

YES, AND...

Squash players want access to TRU courts

Improv groups compete, everybody wins

Without access to campus courts, the TRU Squash Club took to the North Shore • Page 8

TRUDAT and Chimera Theatre’s Freudian Slips faced off in improvisation • Page 7

historic year has come to an end for WolfPack men’s basketball. A division title, second place in the conference and a trip to nationals were all firsts for the ‘Pack. Unfortunately they weren’t able to add a CIS nationals win to that impressive list after a pair of losses to two of the best teams in Canada saw the ‘Pack leave the national tournament winless and tied for seventh overall in the country.

“I wouldn’t change anything for the world. I mean we’re a little bit disappointed to go out in two here at nationals, but it’s a really big step for our program just to make it here. We played two fantastic teams, in Ottawa and Carleton,” said fifth-year forward Josh Wolfram.

The tournament got underway Thursday, March 17 at the Doug Mitchell Stadium on University of British Columbia campus. TRU played in the opening game of the tournament and as the #7 seed they received a tough matchup, the number 2 seed Carleton Ravens.

For three quarters it looked like the impossible was becoming more and more likely. TRU was matching the fivetime defending champions Carleton shot for shot. Despite the 200-plus ‘Pack fans in attendance turning the game in Vancouver into a home-court atmosphere for TRU, an upset was not in the cards.

Carleton was able to pull away in the fourth quarter, eventually winning the game 91–75.

“I am proud of our effort. I’m just really proud of my club. We don’t have anything to hang our head about, they wore us down and that’s credit to them,” said TRU head coach Scott Clark.

The ‘Pack hung right with Carleton during the entire first half, trailing by just five points: 38–33 at the halftime break.

CONTINUES page 11

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MARCH 23, 2016

Sexual assault policies coming to B.C. post-secondary via legislation Bill that will mandate creation of sexual assault policies receives support of premier Jim Elliot NEWS EDITOR Ω A piece of legislation introduced by Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver will require post-secondary institutions in B.C. to create and enforce sexual assault policies.

The bill has drawn support from Premier Christy Clark and Minister of Advanced Education Andrew Wilkinson.

“The Premier said she’s making it a matter of priority. She wants this done as fast as possible. I met with the Minister of Advanced Education the next day, he said it is one of their top priorities and that they’re doing their best to pass it this session, which would mean by May,” Weaver said.

TRU is without a sexual assault policy of its own, but it has been developing one since July 2015 and it’s now nearing completion.

Dean of Students Christine Adam said that TRU’s sexual assault task force, formed to develop the policy, will meet again in late March and submit its recommendations to TRU’s President Alan Shaver by the end of April.

When asked about why it’s important to mandate such a policy, Weaver said “Some institutions are moving forward with policies and some are not. There needs to be consistency across all institutions that ensures that they all have policies that, while developed with students locally, follow some framework.”

Weaver’s legislation contains guidelines for how universities should educate students and report sexual assault, and recommends punitive measures the Ministry of Advanced Education can take against universities that fail to develop adequate policies.

“There needs to be a

recognition that information should not be suppressed but needs to be reported,” Weaver said.

Weaver said that his legislation is based heavily on the sexual assault policy bill which was passed by the Ontario legislature in October.

Sexual assault policy development at TRU began shortly after student Jean Strong published her account of being told to transfer schools when she took her complaints of being sexually assaulted to the university in 2012.

Strong has since been invited to share her story with the sexual assault policy task force and consult with local RCMP, campus security and Interior Health about how best to support victims of sexual violence.

Strong has also consulted with Weaver in the development of his bill.

Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver, the original bill’s author and TRU student Jean Strong, whose story was used in support of the bill.

(Jim Elliot/The Omega) “So far they have been using my story as one of the examples as they bring it up in the legislature and in various other media outlets because there’s not a lot of people that have come out as publically as I have,” Strong said.

“You cannot develop a policy that affects students without knowing what students are thinking, so it’s critical to engage students at the very earliest stages of policy development,” Weaver said.

“Solar Compass” project to bring embedded solar tech to campus Jim Elliot NEWS EDITOR Ω

Members of the Solar Compass team at the installation site. Left to right: Michael Mehta, Claire Irvine, Cheryl Kabloona, Brandan Dallamore, Ben Giudici, Tavis Knox, Carley Rookes, John Church. (Photo Bill Hadgkiss)

A rendering of what the installed Solar Compass would look like from above in front of AE. (Submitted)

TRU will soon be home to an innovative piece of solar technology that will both take care of some of the university’s energy needs and make for a prominent piece of campus architecture.

Solar panels will be embedded into the paved decorative compass that lies in front of the Arts and Education building after being awarded a $36,000 grant from the TRU Sustainability Grant Fund.

According to the team of students, staff, faculty and community members led by Geography professor Michael Mehta, who applied for the grant, the compass will feature glass plates thick enough to be walked or driven on with an embedded photovoltaic layer to collect energy from sunlight.

The group says that the solar modules embedded in the compass will generate enough energy to power 40 computers operating eight hours per day.

The panels have an estimated service life of 25 to 30 years. The group also pledged to install a monitoring system and display to show energy production online and inside the AE building in real time.

“It’s a pretty small amount, relatively speaking. It would be less than one per cent of our overall use. It’s more just a chance to showcase the newer technology,” said Jim Gudjonson, TRU’s Director of Environment and Sustainability.

Solar Earth Technologies from Vancouver will be donating the panels, which are valued at approximately $60,000 Mehta said.

The grant from TRU will cover

costs including installation and wiring to incorporate the AE building’s electrical system.

Installation will be performed

by Riverside Energy Systems, Mehta said.

Mehta estimated that the compass could be up and running by the end of August.

“The solar compass is an example of how universities can collaborate with the private sector and non-profit sector to develop sustainable energy technologies that have the potential to make a difference.

Only by working together can we unleash the power of creativity needed to make a lasting and significant contribution to a world increasingly threatened by climate change,” Mehta said in a press release.

The solar compass will be one of only a few projects in the world using this kind of technology. George Washington University installed a 100-square-foot solar sidewalk in 2013 and in the Netherlands, a 70-metre-long solar bike path has been operational since 2014.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding effort in favour of solar roadways has received nearly $2.5 million in donations and the French government recently pledged to pave 1,000 kilometres of the country’s roads with solar panels over the next five years.

Whether it is built into campus pathways or not, solar energy will play a larger role in meeting TRU’s energy needs in the future.

“We are planning on a large solar farm on one of our newer buildings in the next couple of years, or on top of one of our larger buildings. We do have a pretty good size solar panel farm on the Student Union Building,” Gudjonson said.

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Dafne Cholet/Flickr Commons

Election scheduling snafu

TRUSU’s tight schedule means election engagement will suffer Sean Brady EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω TRUSU’s next general election is coming up fast. Nominations closed on March 22 and postings are released on March 23, and then it’s just a short sprint to the finish line when election polling begins on March 30. In that time, student candidates will answer questions from students and student media, do their very best to get their name out there, organize with their slates (if they have one) and participate in an all-candidates forum at TRUSU. All of that is supposed to happen in just seven days.

Beyond the high expectations of candidates is the ridiculous idea that this is enough time for student voters to learn about who’s running in the election.

TRUSU releases its candidate postings right away, but beyond a short biography written by the

candidate, they don’t do a whole lot to show students where their could-be future leaders stand on the issues they’ll soon be addressing.

One thing making things much worse this year is that TRUSU has scheduled the all-candidates forum for Friday, March 25. That’s Good Friday.

If you find that date on the university’s calendar, you’ll see “University Closed.” No one who commutes to campus will be here, and many will have left town altogether to see their families for the Easter long weekend.

So why did this scheduling snafu occur? It might have something to do with the student union’s bylaws, which state that an election must occur “no later than the last week of March.”

Considering voting for this election goes through April 1, it would appear that this year’s schedule is cutting it a little

close – probably too close.

But beyond the dates of the actual election, the bylaws also discuss the time periods for each stage prior. Nominations are to be taken for a minimum of two weeks and there has to be a minimum of one week between the end of that period and the start of polling.

The key word here is “minimum,” however. I see no reason why the nomination period couldn’t have started the week after reading break, leading to an extra week or two in March where candidates can campaign around campus and voters actually have time to decide who they’re voting for.

A short election makes things painless and perhaps less expensive, but it doesn’t do much to help improve student engagement or make anything more representative, two things TRUSU has struggled to do. editor@truomega.ca

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NOW HIRING FOR THE 2016-17 ACADEMIC YEAR BEGINNING IN SEPTEMBER

ARTS EDITOR

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Tasked with filling the arts section, you’ll be connected to the arts scene on campus, including theatre, visual arts, music, film and more. You’ll also venture out into the Kamloops community and explore festivals, concerts, art galleries and beyond.

As editor of the sports section, you’ve always got a lot of options for stories, whether it’s the latest breaking news from the WolfPack, in-depth team and player profiles or the latest trends in the sports world, you’re all over it. Attend games, talk to players and watch what happens.

As a staff writer for the paper, you’ll take assignments from section editors and pitch your own stories, too. You might explore different beats like science and technology, campus life or city and community news. There are two staff writer positions available.

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As our photographer, you’ll be sent out to create visuals for some of the stories we put together every week. Your skills with a camera will shine through as you face challenges like difficult-to-photograph subjects and working on a deadline, but you’ll often find your photos all over our front page.

As the distribution manager, you’ll be in charge of delivering our weekly paper all over campus. You’ll also keep track of where it’s being taken from and work with the paper’s Editorin-Chief to come up with better distribution strategies in order to reach as many readers as possible.

As Copy and Web Editor at the paper, your attention to detail is important, since you’ll be helping us make sure everything we publish is error-free. That means your spelling and grammar skills are top notch. You also know a thing or two about the Internet and social media, so you’ll help out with our site, too.

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Documentary being filmed at Kamloops school Wade Tomko NEWS EDITOR Ω Tourism students Nolan Guichon and Lacey-Jade Tallie presented Reel Injun. (Wade Tomko/Ω)

Retelling the history of the Hollywood-made Indian Wade Tomko NEWS EDITOR Ω IDays is often a time of year where students can explore the abundant diversity at TRU. The week-long event allows cultures from around the world to show the people of both the TRU and Kamloops communities a showcase of what makes them unique.

While many groups on campus exhibited their cultural diversity through games, food, film and fun, students Nolan Guichon and Lacey-Jade Tallie decided to go against the norm and celebrate IDays a little differently this year.

As part of the Staging Special Events class within the Tourism program, the pair screened the documentary, Reel Injun, in order to highlight the stereotypes of First Nations peoples created by Hollywood.

“Both of us being First Nations, Lacey and I wanted to showcase First Nations culture. But we noticed IDays stereotypes a lot of people’s different cultures,” Guichon said.

“Whenever someone meets me, they always think of a different stereotype, either I should have long hair or I should be drinking, but I don’t drink. So that is how we created this event.”

The film, Reel Injun, takes audiences through over one hundred

years of Hollywood cinema and its depiction of First Nations culture.

Directed by Neil Diamond, a Cree filmmaker from Waskaganish, Quebec, and co-directed by Catherine Bainbridge and Jeremiah Hayes, Reel Injun explains how Hollywood’s representation of First Nations peoples in North America has led to the belief that all First Nations share the same culture.

“There are so many different cultures and First Nations communities, but Hollywood talks about Plains Indians as being the archetypal Indian. But that’s not the case, we don’t just have one culture,” Guichon said.

For many First Nations people, this blanket portrayal of their culture has adversely affected the way they see themselves, often causing them to identify with a culture not their own. Reel Injun goes on to explain that the issue was made even worse during the Great Depression, when Hollywood began repeatedly depicting First Nations as the nemeses of the western genre heroes: cowboys.

For the next few decades after the Great Depression, First Nations were often made to look like backwoods savages, speaking gibberish and stealing away white women. For this reason, many First Nations, including some in Guichon’s family, self-identified more with the cowboys than with the “Indians.”

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“Just like in Reel Injun, they would sometimes watch movies about cowboys and Indians,” Guichon said. “My dad would always talk about how his cousins would always cheer for the cowboys and he always wondered why they would cheer for the people trying to kill us.”

On top of the damage done by stereotyping First Nations culture, Reel Injun shows how Hollywood made no attempt to use Native actors. In fact, one of the most famous First Nations actors of the ‘30s, Iron Eyes Cody, was actually an Italian who reinvented himself as a Native American on screen.

Even today, the stereotypes depicted in films from close to a century ago are still believed.

“We have a friend from India and he kind of helped us think about this whole thing,” Guichon said. “He thought all First Nations people are as one, he didn’t know that we are so different from each other.”

Guichon believes that the only way to break down these stereotypes is through conversation and exposure.

“It is our responsibility to break down these stereotypes,” Guichon said. “To come to different events and learn about the different stereotypes is how we can deal with them.

If we keep having these stereotypes it gives people the OK to be racist, even if they are not trying to be.”

Out of a number of schools across Canada, South Kamloops Secondary was chosen as the location of an upcoming CBC documentary on the Canadian education system.

South Kamloops Secondary, which is located in downtown, is the city’s largest high school.

The national broadcaster has requested six episodes for the documentary, titled The School, from Paperny Entertainment, a Canadian production company. The series will give an “intimate and revealing look at how the next generation of Canadians are being educated,” according to CBC’s entertainment publicist Elizabeth Reid.

Meant to inform audiences of everyday school life in the Canadian education system, the series also stands to highlight the work of educators and give the average student a chance to voice their own opinion on how they are being educated.

Students will also have the chance to attend media workshops.

The original idea for The School came from an award-winning British documentary series. The Educating series, which is now in its fourth season, includes Educating Essex, Educating Yorkshire,

Educating the East End and Educating Cardiff. Offering U.K. audiences a glimpse at their own education system, the Educating series has since sparked a national conversation about education in that country.

Filming for The School is slated to begin in April, but Paperny Entertainment is already on scene. While shooting of The School won’t begin for another couple of weeks, crews have been busy interviewing students and staff and getting parents to sign release forms. Paperny Entertainment is still actively looking for a target group of students to focus on in the documentary.

Founded in Vancouver in 1993

by David Paperny, Paperny Entertainment produces non-fiction television and documentaries for North American broadcasters. In 1994, Paperny Entertainment was nominated for an Academy Award for their documentary The Broadcast Tapes of Doctor Peter, which looked at the life of a person living with AIDS. The School, which will premiere on CBC this fall, is meant to coincide with the 2016-17 school year.

Endemol Shine, an international media company under the joint management of 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management, will be responsible for the series’ distribution.

South Kamloops Secondary will feature in CBC’s The School. (Wade Tomko/Ω)

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MARCH 23, 2016

Graduating fine arts students showcase their work Story and photos by Marlys Klossner

As the winter semester comes to a close, the six graduating students of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program are putting the finishing touches on their final projects. After going through several critiques, their work will be exhibited on April 22 at 7 p.m. in TRU’s art gallery.

RYLAND FORTIE “I have two separate projects, one being artificial habitats including nature, commercial/industrial and virtual worlds. The other one is about human bodies interacting within this space,” Fortie said.

As a kid Fortie was always interested in art, and throughout his time at TRU he has worked in all sorts of mediums including video, sculpture, drawing and painting. Fortie’s final project pulls together different interests and concepts he’s dabbled in during his education.

One of the challenges for Fortie was that his ideas for the project were initially greater than he had the resources to complete in time for the show. Fortie would have liked to include more paintings in the show, but found his concept manifested better in sculpture for the most part.

One aspect of Fortie’s project includes sculptures adorned with dollar store items. All of Fortie’s pieces, in sculpture and painting, contrast high and low culture in a bold and colourful way. One piece has the base of a street sign bloom into a tree. Several mannequin torsos are adorned with headbands with purple fake hair attached.

“I wanted it be kind of gross, and kind of funny. Just kind of what it means to be alive right now,” Fortie said.

The biggest thing Fortie learned in his five years at TRU was how to apply art theory to his own work and be able to explain his work in more detail than “I made this because I felt like it.”

“I have a few projects in town here, and from there, I guess we’ll see.

Try to get some shows, travel. I’m not going to get my masters right away, I’m going to try to live a little bit and try to make a go at this art thing,” Fortie said.

LEAH TURPIN Turpin’s medium of choice is photography. For her final project she will display a photo series that zooms in on everyday objects in her home. Through her lens, a close-up turns a plastic bag almost into something abstract.

The idea began as a class project, and Turpin has developed the work even more for her final Fine Arts assignment. After displaying her final project in the fourth-year show, Turpin is toying with the idea of doing a series with the same concept but outdoors.

Turpin has also tinkered with the aperture in her photos, making the backgrounds of her shots unclear, depriving the viewer of the context in which the textures appear and making the identity of the objects more mysterious.

“I put a lot of focus on texture and colour,” Turpin said.

Turpin’s workspace has standard-sized photos taped to the wall, ready to be shuffled and reordered on a whim. On a table she has several printouts of various sizes, ranging from the size of a magazine page to as big as a movie poster. Turpin eventually decided on a size between the two: a middle ground that blows up the photo without compromising image quality.

“I’m more confident now with choosing what to display and stuff like that,” Turpin said of her progression through the fine arts program.

Turpin was always interested in drawing and colouring as a kid, and after taking art classes in high school and realizing her love for photography, pursuing it at the post-secondary level was the natural next step.

Her plans after graduation are to get a job in the arts field and eventually get her masters, always with an emphasis on photography.

“I’d like to have these in a gallery somewhere,” Turpin said of her goals for the future.

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RIVER CITY MAGIC AND THE CASPIANS @ THE BLUE GROTTO Marlys Klossner ARTS EDITOR Ω River City Magic was first to take the stage. Guest harmonica player PJ Richards added a unique touch, performing with

The Caspians lead singer Keegan Robertson. (Marlys Klossner/The Omega)

the band for most of their set.

As their songs built momentum, so did the size of the crowd. The guitar and keyboard complimented each other well and the drum and bass created infectious beats. They finished their set on a high-energy note.

“A piece of really good advice I received was it’s not how weird you make it, but how you make it weird,” JP Lancaster, lead singer and guitarist said.

Music genres today are mingling together more and more, and that’s the case with River City Magic, but their songs have a solid indie rock base with forays into genres like country, pop and blues depending on the song.

“At this point in our lives if we could do a tour of Canada as a vacation that would be great, but that would be more of a compromise. If we were where we’re at now five years ago, I think we could make an honest run of it, but the older you get you’re less inclined to take those kinds of risks, especially since we’ve all got jobs,” Lancaster said.

River City Magic is currently finishing up a follow-up EP to their record Road To Nowhere which promises a more polished sound, since it will be recorded in studio instead of a

From left River City Magic lead singer JP Lancaster, keyboardist Maggie Ollek and guest harmonica player PJ Richards. (Marlys Klossner/The Omega) concert-like setting as was the case with Road To Nowhere.

In between the main acts, the Kamloops Pipe Band stopped by to perform some songs with bagpipes, drums and a highland dance number. This performance brought the St. Patrick’s Day spirit and the carrying sound of the bagpipes drew more people into the bar.

“There are three things I want you to do. One, drink, two, get loud and three, get laid,” lead singer Keegan Robertson said

as The Caspians took the stage.

Robertson wore a dress shirt, tie and pants with wayfarer sunglasses and socks, feeling like a slightly more clothed Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

This set the tone for their set as Robertson openly wooed the crowd, spouting pick-up lines between songs.

Though The Caspians will be disbanding, they still plan on finishing and releasing an EP that they have in the works.

The Blue Grotto was a perfect

venue for the event, with excellent acoustics and green lighting for the occasion.

While the Kamloops Pipe Band performed, one particularly enthusiastic patron air drummed along. Throughout the two main acts, fans were singing along. The Caspians performed several covers, and people in the audience occasionally hollered requests.

Every act gave energetic, engaging performances, doing St. Patrick proud.

Everyone wins at improv comedy showdown Chimera Theatre’s Freudian Slips and TRUDAT went head-to-head at the Stage House Marlys Klossner ARTS EDITOR Ω “Everything’s made up and the points don’t matter,” the unofficial slogan of iconic improv comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway? is probably the most accurate description of improv I’ve ever come across. This description proved true at the show at the Stage House Theatre Saturday night, where the improv event there felt more like a collaboration.

The performance pitted Chimera Theatre’s Freudian Slips against members of TRU’s Drama and Theatre Club (TRUDAT). Since most of Chimera Theatre’s members are former TRU students, it was as though the previous iteration of TRU theatre students was facing off against the next.

One of the great things about improv is that it truly is a team sport, and throughout the many games the actors helped and showed kudos to each other regardless of what team they were on. This is improv theatre at its best.

Up for grabs was a suitably improvised trophy, a ceramic sculpture of a woman with staggeringly large hips with “Winner” written on one side and “The Freudian Slips” on the other in black Sharpie.

One of the more bizarre games, and one of the toughest for the actors, had Melissa Thomas for the Freudian Slips and Peter Navratil for TRUDAT playing a game in which they had to incorporate randomly-selected Donald Trump quotes into their scene. The improvers had to find ways of slipping in comments like “You know, it doesn’t really matter what the media writes as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful piece of ass,” and “The beauty of me is that I’m very rich,” and “It’s freezing and snowing in New York, we need global warming” into their dialogue. The characters they played were a plastic surgeon and patient, who were both feminists.

The show also featured questionable accents, animal impressions and jokes at Poland’s expense. The Poland jokes killed.

The audience for the competition

Montana Van Velzen is the bachelorette, whose suitors include a man who really likes how the floor smells (Andrew Cooper), a man who gets drunk off of questions (Peter Navratil) and a man turning into a dragon (Davis Majcher). (Marlys Klossner/The Omega) was very vocal, and when the time came to decide the winning team by applause, it was difficult to tell one roar of approval from the other.

After redoing the applause testing several times, the hosts decided to give the trophy to the TRUDAT improv team.

Jessica Buchanan and Brittany

McCarthy, co-directors of The Freudian Slips, also co-hosted the show.

The Freudian Slips’ next show on April 16 will be Harry Potter-themed and instead of consisting of several games, it will be their first foray into long-form improv, basically an improvised play.

“Since everything’s been going so

well with this season, we’ve decided to do a summer season, and there’s going to be open auditions, so if you think this looks fun, come on out,” Jessica Buchanan said.

They will soon hold open auditions, the dates of which will be announced at their April 16 show and on their Facebook page.

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MARCH 23, 2016

Squash Club wants campus courts made available again Dominique Bayens CONTRIBUTOR Ω TRU’s website advertises “outstanding athletic facilities,” boasting student access to the indoor pool, a running track and a gymnasium with weight rooms as well as racquetball and squash courts. The TRU Squash Club students, however, have to use No Limits Fitness on the North Shore to play because the advertised squash courts are being used for other purposes.

With around 150 signatures from students who wanted to play squash, the president of the TRUSU Squash Club and former competitive squash player Nick James said he had tried to reason with the athletics department to clear the squash courts to no avail.

“I took that to the school and said there are 150 people who want to play squash on campus, can we reopen the squash courts and the athletics department told me they didn’t want to have to find room in their budget and they just didn’t want to move their stuff,” he said.

Ken Olynyk, TRU’s Director of Athletics and Recreation, made the initial decision to close the squash courts and made it clear that the courts are not being used for storage.

“Storage is a little bit of a misnomer because it’s used for our summer sports camps. So it’s an office for summer sports camps, we operate out of there and the other one is used by Physical Education as a training lab. That’s what they’re being used for now and for the foreseeable future,” Olynyk said.

James adds that he has tried different strategies to try and get athletics to reconsider.

“I figured out a way to use the court to generate money – enough

money for the storage. I emailed them to meet with them again and they stopped responding to emails, were unavailable to meet, basically kind of just shut the door on us,” James said.

According to Olynyk, the meetings that took place about a year ago didn’t end abruptly without communication, but rather after a final decision was made.

Due to the lack of facilities on campus, students have to travel to the North Shore if they want to play squash.

James said there is a big difference in the number of members in comparison to active players of the location.

“The reason there’s such a big difference between the amount of people in it and the amount of people that are active because is because it’s on the North Shore.

There’s no facility near campus, a lot of students don’t have cars… the transit system is not reliable,” he said.

However, approximately 50 students have gone to the North Shore to be taught to play squash

by James this semester.

“That many people are willing to go to the North Shore to play. How successful do you think it would be if we just had courts here?” he said.

James said there were lots of international students coming from countries where squash was a popular sport played during school.

“The people in charge of TRU don’t know that. They’re not aware of it or they don’t get it…but they won’t accommodate us,” he said.

James said the club was purely recreational with their first tournament held last weekend at the No Limits gym.

“It doesn’t take a lot of time, it’s better than playing a lot of other sports, physically, and it’s cheap

to pick up, and it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I provide balls and racquets to everyone who plays.”

“I’m willing to run it for free and teach people and do everything and that’s something they still don’t understand.”

James hopes that with more students joining the club, the athletics department will take notice and make the courts available.

“I just want them to tell me a good reason. If it didn’t economically make sense, or they wanted to try a different direction, something other than ‘I don’t have room in my budget’ you know… that’s not a good answer,” James said.

Olynyk said that when the initial decision to close the courts was made there were a lot of other options for playing squash around Kamloops.

“There were a lot of reasons. We had 11 squash courts across the street, there were other squash facilities around the city and at that time we didn’t feel it was a necessity for us to provide that opportunity,” Olynyk said.

Squash Club member and TRU student, Kristjan Thorsteinson, said it was a shame that the two squash courts were not being used.

“It’s a really cheap and easy sport for students to play and it’s good for your health,” he said.

Olynyk said that the athletics department hasn’t ruled out the possibility of squash courts being available on campus in the future, but that available space is tight at the moment.

“It’s a possibility. If we build a facility definitely that would be a consideration. I’m not saying it would get done, I’m saying it would be a consideration. If we revamp the TRU gym that would definitely be a consideration.”

CAMPUS VANDALISM On March 18, the day of a major Ajax presentation by the City of Kamloops in TRU’s Campus Activity Centre, the concrete wall on the stairs in front of the building was vandalized with “Fuck Ajax” written in spray paint. One of the two exterior glass doors leading towards the TRU Bookstore was also broken. Though security has not released any details on the incident, it was first discovered earlier that morning.

The graffiti was removed just before noon the same day.

(Wade Tomko/The Omega)

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Eric Valdal and Nick James play in the men’s final for first place in a weekend tournament. (Tristan Davies/The Omega)

TRU Squash Club members Danielle Oliver, Stephanie Head, Nick James and Vanessa Hope. (Tristan Davies/The Omega)

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NEWS

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INTERNATIONAL DAYS 2016 We turned our photographer Tristan Davies loose on this year’s IDays festivities, which featured a number of spectacular performances and more events than ever.

Photos by Tristan Davies

COMICS & PUZZLES

10 Puzzle of the Week #19 – Reading in the Dark This is the last puzzle for the academic year. Have a good summer.

Consider a seven-segment LED display (used by many calculators). You wish to use one as an indicator in the dark.

Because it will be dark, anyone reading it will not be able to distinguish between shapes that are shifted. For example, one can not distinguish between only the top-left or only the bottom-right segment being lit; they are the same shape, just shifted. Similarly, the top-left and top segments being lit can not be distinguished from the bottom-left and middle segments being lit. No segments lit can not be used either; you might not even be looking at the indicator.

Normally, there would be 128 possible lighting patterns. 1) In this scenario, how many are permitted? 2) What would be a simple way around this limitation?

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize. Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko (<genew@telus.net>). Submissions by others are also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in my blog (http://genew.ca/). Come visit the Math Centre (HL304): we are friendly.

YOUR COMIC HERE WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR STUDENT CARTOONISTS. WHY NOT GIVE IT A SHOT? EMAIL EDITOR@TRUOMEGA.CA

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MARCH 23, 2016

SPORTS

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WolfPack men complete record season

With two losses in the CIS final eight, it’s the end of the line for the men’s basketball team – but the ‘Pack has plenty to be proud of in this record year Cameron Doherty

VETERANS LEAD THE WAY The three graduating players: Josh Wolfram, Reese Pribilsky and Gerard Gore led the way for the ‘Pack throughout the CIS final 8 tournament.

SPORTS EDITOR Ω CONTINUED (COVER) Throughout the second half you could see some shocked faces on the Carleton bench, as the winners of 11 of the past 13 national championships found itself trailing the ‘Pack deep into the third quarter.

It was in the fourth quarter that the quality and depth of Carleton began to shine. TRU struggled to keep up with the pace of the game and missed some key shots down the stretch. Carleton, a team that has won the most national championships of any school in Canada outscored TRU 26–15 in the fourth.

“They’re a really good team, I would say they’re the best team in the country, but anyone can lose to anyone. Back down from no opponent but respect everyone, that’s what we did today and they came out with the win but I know for sure that we’ve got their respect,” said fifth-year forward Gerard Gore.

Gore was the leading scorer for the ‘Pack with 22 points, and was named player of the game for TRU. This continued a string of games in which Gore was able to play his best when it mattered most. He also led TRU with 22 points in the Canada West championship game last week.

“We really wanted to go for the gold today, so I just came out, gave my best and did everything I could for the team. These guys really mean a lot to me, they’re family,” Gore said.

With the loss TRU was bumped to the consolation side of the tournament. Awaiting them there was the third best team in Canada, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees.

The game was extremely close: neither team ever led by more

Wolfram scored 31 points and added 18 rebounds and four assists while playing 68 of a possible 80 minutes.

WolfPack guard Jeff Tubbs rushes past defense put up by the Ottawa Gee-Gees during Friday’s game.

(Cameron Doherty/The Omega) than 5 points in the game, and as only fitting for two teams that were so even it came down to the very last play.

After a clutch shot by Luke Morris got the ‘Pack to within one point of the Gee-Gees with 46 seconds left, some great defence by both Wolfram and Pribilsky allowed the ‘Pack to have a shot at the win. Pribilsky got some separation from the defenders and let go a shot with just seconds left. The entire stadium held its breath as the ball floated through the air, hanging there for what seemed like an eternity before the clang of the ball hitting the rim and bouncing away from the net echoed throughout the building.

The shot falling just inches short sealed the game. The final score was Ottawa 78, TRU 77.

The tournament also marked the end of the road for three of TRU’s most decorated players in school history: Josh Wolfram, Reese Pribilsky and Gerard Gore.

“When we recruited them we asked them if they wanted to come someplace to build something. That’s what they’ve done.

I think they leave a pretty big legacy and they’re really good guys,” said Clark.

Wolfram, Pribilsky and Gore all came to the program when it was in a time of flux and have been making WolfPack history ever since. They were a part of

TRU teams that first made the playoffs, won a playoff series, won a division title, made it to the Canada West final four and played on the biggest stage of university basketball in Canada, the CIS final eight.

“They’ve made a lot of people proud, not just myself and their teammates, but the institution and I think the city of Kamloops.”

For a team that had only won one playoff series in program history prior to this year it is impossible to look back on the season that the ‘Pack put together as anything but excellent, despite them not being able to achieve the positive results that they wanted at the tournament.

Pribilsky played almost the entire tournament for the ‘Pack, 71 minutes in total. He also contributed 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

Gore had a huge first game for the ‘Pack, and while foul trouble limited the minutes he played in the second game he still scored 29 points and added eight rebounds.

Long jumper TRU alum searching for the road to Rio Cameron Doherty SPORTS EDITOR Ω Like many recent university graduates, Anton Dixon didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do when he left TRU for good last May. However, rather than taking some time off or backpacking across a foreign country until he figured it out, Dixon decided to get right back to work.

“My journey began in August just after graduation when I made the decision to relocate to the U.K. Choosing to put my degree on the back burner and pursue athletics was a big decision so naturally I had to aim high,” Dixon said.

Dixon, a graduate of TRU’s

journalism program, is serious about aiming high. His goal is to compete in the long jump for Team Canada at the Olympic games this summer in Rio de Janeiro.

The former TRU basketball player, who is a dual citizen of England and Canada, moved to England to train full-time, hoping to qualify for the world’s premier athletic competition in just his first year of elite-level competition.

Currently he trains six days a week with his training alternating between regimes of technical work, muscle reaction work, strength training and of course a lot of sprinting.

Trying to qualify for the Olympics is a full-time commitment however, and Dixon’s training doesn’t end

when he leaves the gym.

“My diet is very regimented and when I am not at the track I am in an ice bath, stretching or heating the muscles. Maintenance away from the track is as important as the sessions themselves,” Dixon said.

With track and field being in its off season since Dixon made the decision to participate in the long jump full-time, he has only competed in one event so far, the London Indoor Games that took place in January.

Even that competition was more about trying to “gauge where I was in my winter training program, as it is primarily geared towards the summer. It gave us a good indication as to what was working and what wasn’t and we literally got back to work the day after,” Dixon said.

Dixon’s lack of experience isn’t scaring away the Canadian Olympic Committee. They reached out to him in February to let him know that he had been identified as a potential member of the Canadian team for the Rio squad.

“It was nice to receive that after all the work I’ve been putting in.

Now that I’m on the radar I need to produce the goods,” Dixon said.

So, after over eight months of training, the hard work will truly begin for Dixon in late April. That is when the track and field season kicks into high gear. And with the Rio Olympics beginning in August, he will have less than three months to convince Team Canada that after just his one year of training he deserves a spot on the team.

To do that, Dixon, who is currently jumping in the high seven metres, has two sure-fire ways to Brazil. He can either set a qualifying jump of 8.15 metres on two separate occasions or have an amazing result at the Canadian Olympic trials in July at which he would have to both win the event and set a qualifying jump.

Even if qualifying for the Olympics is something that he’s not able to do this time around, Dixon knows that for now at least, athletics is his future.

“The way I see it is if you consistently hold yourself to a high standard and the peak of your expectations are not met, you would have still overachieved. Yes the Olympics are the end goal but there will be many steps along the way.”

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MARCH 23, 2016

Membership Advisory

who is running for Election to the TRUSU Board?

Candidate information available at

trusu.ca/news Voting on Mar 30 - Apr 1

? trusu.ca

/TRUStudentsUnion

@TRUSU15

@TRUSU15