May 9, 2018

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T H O M P S O N R I V E R S U N I V E R S I T Y ' S I N D E P E N D E N T S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R

VOLUME 27 · ISSUE 27 · MAY 9, 2018

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MEET TRU'S NEXT PRESIDENT

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TULIP FESTIVAL IN FULL BLOOM

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EMILY YOUNG JOINS THE 'PACK

TRU has a summer of construction ahead Wade Tomko EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω For those who will still be on campus in the coming months, TRU has a summer of construction and roadwork ahead.

The Industrial Training and Technology Centre (ITTC), which started construction back in February of 2017, will be substantially completed on or around June 21, according to Les Tabata, TRU’s director of capital projects.

“Remaining work following substantial completion will include deficiencies, new work and installation of furniture and equipment,” added Tabata.

Though the ITTC has a forecast deficit of $1.6 million, according to March’s board of governors meeting agenda, the project team has been working to introduce cost-saving methods, some of which have been in place since the project’s onset.

See ITTC Page 4

Art exhibition Eight showcases variety of grad students’ work Elizabeth Nygren CONTRIBUTOR Ω This year’s bachelor of fine arts graduating exhibition included work from eight different students, with all the pieces varying in style. Submissions included paintings, videos, three-dimensional work, photography and fabric work, to name a few.

The graduating students include Ruba Alshoshan, Edward Cheung, Serena DeRosa, Kelsey Ehalt, Debra Kessler, Yongyi Annie Li, Rose Prevost and Darci Turnquist.

The 2018 BFA Exhibition, Eight, took place in the TRU Gallery and other studio spaces from April 20 to May 4. Eight was plentiful with artwork and led you from room to room, allowing you to experience all of the different pieces as they should be. Much of the artwork was also available for purchase and some pieces were also purchased for TRU's permanent art collection.

Bryan Dumas, a first-year bachelor of arts student, gave his thoughts on this year’s graduating exhibition.

“I am impressed with the amount of variety in the art,” Dumas said. “Not only are each of the pieces unique in presentation, but style as well.”

Darci Turnquist’s work was all very similar in design, but the medium changed between some of the pieces. Each piece complemented the others well, while still making all of her works unique and intriguing. Turnquist had 15 pieces in the exhibition; all except for three were for sale.

Rose Prevost’s work also had a similar theme between each of her pieces, with all of them having Spirit of the Land within the name. Prevost included four different works in the exhibit, many taking on different mediums as well, varying from photographs to fabric. Prevost sold two of her pieces before the exhibition and the other two were to be sold within their sets as a whole, as many included more than one item.

Comorbidity by Darci Turnquist was one of the many pieces featured at the exhibition Eight. (Elizabeth Nygren/The Omega)

See more of the BFA ARTWORK on Page 5

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MAY 9, 2018

NEWS

Brett Fairbairn announced as TRU's next president The university’s next president is a professor from the University of Saskatchewan Jennifer Will NEWS EDITOR Ω The search for Thompson Rivers University's new president and vice-chancellor started at the beginning of the 2017 fall semester.

On April 12 in TRU’s Grand Hall, the announcement was made that the search was over and Brett Fairbairn would be taking on the role.

Fairbairn is currently a professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. He has taught and conducted research at the UoS for more than 30 years and held other positions in senior leadership including provost and vice-president academic.

Jim Thomson, search committee chair, said that once it was announced that TRU’s current president, Alan Shaver, would be serving his final year, the board quickly went to work in finding a new president.

“We knew that we had a big job ahead of us and that it would be a significant undertaking.

We formed a search committee

of 16 people affiliated with TRU, to ensure that the voices of our varied community would be represented,” Thomson said.

Back when the search process started, Thomson noted that competition for finding the perfect candidate could be stiff due to TRU’s salary restriction and 11 other university president searches going on across Canada.

However, the committee had their work cut out for them as they were able to vet and interview a total of 41 applicants for the position.

“I think that goes to show that TRU is on the radar. There was no shortage of interest in this position,” Thomson said.

Thompson added that he feels the search was a success and that Fairbairn is a great fit for TRU. Fairbairn himself said he took this position at TRU because of his love of universities and academics.

“You have to love what it is that defines universities, the students and learning. It’s about a free and open academic discussion, participatory self-governance, community engagement, internationalism; those are the things you love and are a motivation to be a university

president,” Fairbairn said.

Being new to both the province and the university, Fairbairn says that one of his goals is to make and build relationships with members of the community, faculty, staff and students.

“I know that communicating

with students is something that presidents can never do enough of,” Fairbairn said. “So, I will certainly be looking to do more of that through meeting with student leaders, through meeting with students wherever I can meet with them and talk to them.”

Shaver will finish his term in August and the new president will start his five-year term on Dec. 1. Current provost Christine Bovis-Cnossen will take over as interim president for the time in between Shaver and Fairbairn.

TRU's next president previously involved in tenure scandal at UoS At the University of Saskatchewan, former provost Brett Fairbairn was part of a major controversy over firing the head of School of Public Health Wade Tomko EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω For many at TRU, preserving academic freedom is preserving the university’s way of life. While TRU is like any major institution and must uphold its reputation, many here realize that quashing dissent simply leads to lower morale for faculty and more stress for students.

When Brett Fairbairn was announced as TRU’s next president last month, TRU’s board of governors chair Jim Thomson said that Fairbairn had all the attributes the search committee was looking for.

What Thomson didn’t reveal at the time, was that Fairbairn had previously been involved in a tenure scandal at the University of Saskatchewan. Though the issue is now four years old, it recently resurfaced in an article published

by Mel Rothenburger, the former editor of The Daily News, in CFJC Today.

In the spring of 2014, provost Fairbairn fired Robert Buckingham from his position as the head of the

School of Public Health as well as his position as a tenured professor.

Buckingham was then escorted off campus.

This came after Buckingham had published a paper voicing his concerns over the University of Saskatchewan's new cost-cutting plan TransformUS, as well as criticizing his fellow deans and directors for their silence on the matter.

Whether or not Buckingham went overboard in his criticism of the University of Saskatchewan is up for debate, but nonetheless his firing caused an uproar over academic freedom. However, with a veritable firestorm emerging on Twitter and the reputation of UoS already damaged, Buckingham’s tenure was restored and he returned to work as a professor, though he later resigned.

Fairbairn also resigned from his position as provost, at the behest of then president Ilene Busch-Vishniac.

In a letter at the time, Fairbairn said that he was told by Busch Vishniac that -- if he resigned -- at least one of them "could survive the crisis."

TRU's next president, Brett Fairbairn, will take over from Alan Shaver on December 1. (Juan Cabrejo/The Omega) Not long after that, Busch-Vishniac was fired without cause by the board. Though both Fairbairn and Busch-Vishniac would return to UoS to teach, Busch-Vishniac eventually quit and sued the university for $8.5 million for unfair termination, that case is still being adjudicated.

Despite this, TRU board chair Thomson said that search committee had fully explored the issue.

“Our board of governors chair, Jim Thomson, said that the search committee had engaged Dr. Fairbairn on these issues from Saskatchewan, they were well aware and they were satisfied,” said TRUFA president Tom Friedman.

Friedman himself has his own concerns over the issue, yet believes that the controversy served as a learning experience for Fairbairn and universities across Canada in preserving academic freedom. As such, Friedman added that he’d like to personally talk with Fairbairn in the coming months before he takes his position as president.

“I welcome having that [discussion], but at this point he doesn’t become president until January,” Friedman said. “But if he would like to make an attempt to talk before then, I’m available and I think it would be really helpful to have those discussions before he takes office.”

While Friedman believes that this opportunity presents a fresh start for Fairbairn, he’s left wondering what exactly the search committee told Fairbairn about TRU’s own issues over the past few years.

“We have gone through a very difficult time over the last few years, we had a non-confidence vote in senior admin,” Friedman said. “Was Fairbairn informed of this, was he informed about what led to that non-confidence vote?

What reassurances was he given about maybe a new attitude on the part of our senior administrators.”

While Friedman says that TRUFA and senior administration have been working together to repair the damage caused by

the non-confidence vote, it is still something to be discussed.

Alongside that, Friedman added that issues surrounding low faculty morale still need to be addressed.

“I keep getting indications from a large group of faculty that they are not particularly happy and that they need to have a greater say in determining what their programs are and that is not happening to the degree that it should be,” he said.

Looking into the future, Friedman concluded that academic freedom is something that needs to be protected at all levels of post-secondary education.

“There are so many examples across the country of violations of academic freedom, either by boards of governors or by administrators and I think we have to be really conscious that there are pressures and that there are reputational issues involved in running a university, but we are all stronger if we can air our criticisms in a respectful way in a mutually respectful environment,” Friedman said.

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NEWS

Bee-friendly garden coming to campus this summer TRUSU Eco Club awarded $5000 through Sustainability Grant to create bee-friendly garden Robert Wisla CONTRIBUTOR Ω Do you like bees? Then you’re in luck, thanks to the Thompson Rivers University Sustainability Grant. The TRUSU Eco Club has been awarded $5000 to create a bee-friendly garden that will focus on giving habitat to the native bees that face an uphill battle on campus for places to call home.

Every year $100,000 is up for grabs for students and staff to make projects that make the campus a more sustainable place. Created in 2013, the Sustainability Grant has funded a variety of projects including the solar compass, the community sweat lodge and the efficient hand dryers, as well as many more. All project proposals are approved by the Sustainability Office. Most of the capital of this project’s funding comes from the parking levy across campus.

“It’s fantastic that the Sustainability Office sets money aside for grants such as these, as over the years this fund has enabled some really amazing eco-friendly projects to come to light,” said Eco Club President Valerie Law, who led the grant application. “I am excited that

our bee-friendly garden will soon materialize on our campus.”

Law added that putting the project together has been no easy task.

faculty of science (represented by Lyn Baldwin) and the EUReKA! Science Program all join together in the creation of the proposal,” Law said.

project and this experience really solidified my belief that multi-discipline collaboration adds so much value to any eco-friendly venture such as this.”

TRU’s new bee garden, which will start this summer, will be situated between the Science Building and the Old Gym at the location pictured above. The garden will feature a variety of plant species. (Wade Tomko/The Omega) “Putting together an application of this scale takes a lot of collaboration.

For this project we were incredibly lucky to have the Eco Club, the

“We also had valuable input from a variety of other sources including horticulture and TRU Facilities. It was exciting to see the enthusiasm for this

The project’s goal is to plant in the underutilized garden beds surrounding the Ken Lepin Science building (Science Beds #15 and 17-21,

on the southwest side of the building, between the Science Building and the Gym) with native and non-native plant species beneficial for native bees.

Besides being of use to native bees in the area, Law says she is also excited about the educational benefits the bee garden presents.

“What I am excited to see is all the multi-faceted benefits of our bee-friendly garden evolve. Not only is this area the first of its kind at TRU, as it will focus on attracting native bees to our campus, but it will also offer an educational space to look at the difference between native and naturalized plant species and be a relaxing green space which everyone can enjoy,” Law said. “My hope with this project is that it will foster further discussions on how we can incorporate natural landscapes into our urban areas and bring appreciation to the diversity of the native flora and fauna that surround us!”

Construction of the bee-friendly garden will start in the summer of 2018 and employ one student to take care of it over the summer months.

Science students will use the garden as a place to learn more about the environment, insects and plant species.

Ten scholarships worth $120,000 being given to students heading to graduate school Wade Tomko EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω For students planning on going to graduate school this September, applications are now being accepted for the Knowledge First Financial Graduate Scholarship Awards.

Ten graduate scholarships with a total value of $120,000 will be

awarded this year.

No matter your academic background, what graduate school you want to go to or even if you want to do a graduate diploma to complement your undergraduate studies, you can apply to receive a Knowledge First Financial Scholarship Award.

Five of the awards, including the Arnold Edinborough Award,

valued at $25,000, are only for students who are beneficiaries of a Knowledge First Financial RESP. However, another five awards, including a top award of $15,000, are open to all students going to graduate school.

This is part of Knowledge First Financial’s continued commitment to ensure student success no matter the background.

“Financial support makes all

the difference to students,” said George Hopkinson, President & CEO, Knowledge First Financial Inc., “It opens the door to choice in programs and schools, while enabling students to focus on their field of study.”

Knowledge First Financial is a company that has dedicated themselves to making post-secondary education available to Canadian students through

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Registered Education Savings Plans. For the past 11 years, the company has also supported students by offering graduate scholarships. Since then, the cumulative value of awards has exceeded $1.5 million.

Those looking to learn more about the awards can do so by visiting knowledgefirstfinancial. ca. The deadline to apply is May 28, 2018 at 11:59PM.

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MAY 9, 2018

NEWS

ITTC nears completion as construction of the NPH building starts soon CONTINUED (COVER) “The team continuously looks for opportunities to save time and money without sacrificing program and quality objectives,” Tabata said.

“Examples include considering design alternatives and procurement methods, analyzing building equipment and materials and seeking partnering opportunities.”

The Nursing and Population Health (NPH) building is also expected to start construction soon.

Since there haven’t been any delays with the project, construction is still slated to begin around May 18 and is expected to accelerate in June.

However, the construction of the NPH building will likely affect College Drive alongside the Ken Lepin Building and the Culinary Arts Building for the entirety of the project, says Warren Asuchak, director of facilities.

“My understanding based on NPH meetings, is that the road will be closed to public traffic for the duration of the NPH project to give working space for NPH construction and ensure adequate safety to the public,” Asuchak said.

“The road will be made passable for emergency vehicles though and I

expect pedestrians will be able to use it if they’re okay with walking on gravel. The road west of the Culinary Arts parking lot entrance and within the lot should be open properly again this summer.”

Though WolfPack Road and Dalhousie Drive to the roundabout will be drivable come the fall semester, work on TRU’s gas main will take place this month and next, closing both roads and part of the roundabout.

Finally, the work being done on University Drive between Old Main and Summit Drive is expected to be substantially completed within the coming weeks, assuming availability according to Asuchak.

Though paving of the road might occur soon after, Asuchak believes University Drive will be paved at the same time as the roundabout, later in the summer.

“The work from the entrance to Lot A3 south, including the asphalt, is limited by the gas main work. If the gas main installation goes as planned, it’s possible that the roundabout and paving could be complete by the end of June,” Asuchak said. “That’s an aggressive schedule and I think that realistically, a little longer will be necessary.”

Building robots and more at the Big Little Science Centre

The Big Little Science Centre’s Spring 3D Design and Robotics Club teaches creativity Wade Tomko EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω If you have kids with an interest in either computers or robotics, the Big Little Science Centre might have exactly what you’re looking for to keep them occupied this spring and summer. The Spring 3D Design and Robotics Club, which started on April 26, will encourage children to design and program their own robots.

The club makes use of LEGO Mindstorm kits, which feature all the necessary components to make your own functional robots. Using a variety of different LEGO bricks, club members will be able to make robots that can drive, walk, lift and tell temperature, among many other functions.

Though there is no set curriculum for the club, the Big Little Science Centre’s executive director, Gord Stewart, says that the club can be divided into two different aspects: building and programming.

“As normal, some kids are really good at building, but don’t like the programming. Then some kids like the programming, but not the building,” Stewart said. “So we try to get them to work off of each other and help each other, it’s a club. The idea is to make robots and make them do something, it doesn’t have to be overly practical.”

According to Stewart, the club has between 250 and 300 different predesigned LEGO parts to work

with including motors and sensors.

“You can have up to three motors and four different sensors on a unit,” Stewart said. “With those motors and sensors, it can detect its environment, do sound, light, colour and temperature and a whole bunch of other options.”

The environment at the Big Little Science Centre is meant to be casual, Stewart says, with the idea being to give kids nine and up the ability to flex their creative muscles and become familiar with design and coding.

Kids will get the chance to use LEGO Mindstorm kits, like the one pictured above. (Crossfire_/Flickr) Though there aren’t necessarily team events for kids to compete in, members working at a higher level may be given the opportunity to complete more difficult challenges.

“We don’t get into team challenges per se, but if kids are looking for things to do, I’ll give them

challenges to see if they can make a robot that could pull or push the most weight or how fast can you make one go,” Stewart said. “I might even make a challenge to see if they can make a robot tell me if my coffee’s hot enough.”

In addition to learning about designing and programming robots, club members will also be given the chance to learn about 3D design and the use of 3D printers.

The club, which has run for eight years, originally started as a simple request, Stewart said.

“It started because someone doing homeschool came to me and said, ‘I’m doing these LEGO robotics and I need some help’,” Stewart said. “I agreed and said I’d get some other kids involved and it went from there.”

Stewart believes that the club has since provided its attendants with some very practical skills in design, coding and creativity.

“It creates familiarity with design and building, being able to come up with something yourself or following instructions, these will definitely be talents moving forward,” he said.

The club runs every Thursday from 2:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. until June 9. Children must be ages nine or older to register. You can find out more about the club and registration by contacting Susan Hammond at 250-554-2572 or susan@blscs.org.

In addition to the club, a summer robotics camp with more structured challenges will run from July 23 to 27.

TRU partners with a U.S. community college Wade Tomko EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω Last month, TRU announced that it had signed two agreements with the College of Western Idaho (CWI) to provide transfer opportunities for CWI’s students and graduates. The College of Western Idaho is a public, open-access community college with seven campuses located throughout Southwest Idaho.

These articulation agreements allow graduates of CWI’s associate of arts and associate of sciences programs to receive transfer credit into TRU’s bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degree programs.

Christine Lee, TRU World’s transnational education coordinator, says the agreements are primarily for CWI’s associate of science and their associate of arts students to come into TRU’s bachelor of science and bachelor of arts programs. However, Lee says that this model isn’t new and that TRU has already partnered with four colleges in Washington state.

“It is not a new model, we have this model with four colleges in Washington State already,” Lee said. “There are the three Seattle Community Colleges, Central Seattle, North Seattle and South Seattle and then there is Edmonds Community College, where their associate holders can come up to TRU for their degrees.”

In fact, it is a very common practice for both American and Canadian universities to partner with community colleges, with many American community colleges expressing interest in creating partnerships north of the border within the last two years, says Lee. “It’s a very standard model in both America, as well as Canada,” she said.

“Langara College is a two-year college and students have to go somewhere after, so they partner with universities to provide their students opportunities to progress in their education.

So it is a very common model of post-secondary partnerships, it allows students to progress in their degrees.”

According to Lee, the partnership between TRU and CWI has been in development since February 2017.

While the agreements required much deliberating between TRU World and their counterparts at CWI, Lee says that they required collaboration with TRU’s faculty on course creation and the Registrar’s Office on credit transfers as well.

“If we see them as a potential match, the next step TRU World takes is to work with the faculty directly and ask if the relevant faculty are interested in having an articulation agreement,” Lee said. “If the faculty say yes and normally that is the chair and the dean of the faculty, then TRU World will facilitate with whoever does that kind of work on the partner’s end.”

These agreements have many benefits for both TRU and the CWI, says Lee. “From the college end, what my counterpart has expressed to me is that they really like giving their graduates an opportunity to further their education,” she said.

On TRU’s end of the deal, Lee believes that having American students here in Kamloops will add even more diversity to the university’s community.

Looking into the future, Lee added that TRU is currently working on more partnerships with community colleges in the state of Idaho, though those agreements will depend on the availability of TRU’s resources.

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ARTS

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Bachelor of fine arts graduating students show off their work CONTINUED (COVER) Deb Kessler had created one of the largest pieces in the exhibition, next to Kelsey Ehalt’s series Fragmentary Transfiguration.

Kessler’s piece is titled Thirteen Grandmother Moons and Community and included the use of three-dimensional items and paint. This work also took you

through the four different seasons (spring, summer, fall and winter), but also had one drum dedicated to community. This piece was also being sold as a whole for $2600.

Intimate relationships: Lovers by Yongyi Annie Li Photos by Elizabeth Nygren Thirteen Grandmother Moons and Community by Debra Kessler

Spirit of the Land: Healing by Rose Prevost

Fragmentary Transfiguration by Kelsey Ehalt

Victoria-based The New Groovement launches new EP Connor Hegion CONTRIBUTOR Ω Tired of Waiting is the fresh new studio EP by Victoria-based funk/ jazz/ hip-hop fusion band The New Groovement. The talent it takes to compose music like this is immeasurable. The talent it takes to perform this stuff is otherworldly and wow, these guys (and gal) have got it.

The production on this release is so clean with the horns being a total stand-out here. The horn section on this release is so well written, recorded and executed and of course are super clean and bright. The incredible bass is right there with you in your soul along for the ride and the drums and percussion are crazy solid, inventive, super clear and mega funky. The guitar writing on this record is so lovingly comprised of the jazzy licks and 70s-esque fretwork that is so unfortunately uncommon in this day and age.

To top it all off, we have frontwoman Steph Wisla's powerhouse vocals.

She stands her ground and tears the

roof off of the lyrical topics presented here and her jack-of-all-trades pipes are perfectly at home within this band; from the soft sections on Hooked on You, to the belt-it-out lines found on tracks like Waiting.

She's the incredibly talented cherry on top of the pie that is this JUNO Award-destined group of musicians known as The New Groovement.

The instrumental breaks and pauses in the music, the solos and those explosive full-band jams just get you in the right mood for a good time. As I write this, the rap section of Little Black Skirt is soaring through my studio monitor speakers.

The flow of this section and of course the entire song is immensely smooth and the rest of this EP follows suit.

This band deserves your support and your ears deserve to listen to this release.

You can purchase this album for $4.95 on iTunes and if you would like to support the band even further than 5 bucks, you can choose to pay as much as you want ($4.95 or more) for the EP on Bandcamp. I highly recommend this release!

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MAY 9, 2018

ARTS

The legacy of Abbotsford’s Tulip Fest is in full bloom The agritourism sensation opens up about their past, present and future Justin Moore CONTRIBUTOR Ω As April turns to May, the Abbotsford Bloom Tulip Festival is already in full bloom.

With fields of over 2.5 million tulips, food truck vendors, a new u-pick field and an on-site market, the Bloom Festival created by Alexis Warmerdam three years ago has become a major hotspot for Fraser Valley locals and tourists alike.

The festival is a tribute to Alexis Warmerdam’s grandfather, Peter Warmerdam, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1948, bringing over his passion and knowledge of horticulture to his own farms in Abbotsford.

Much like his granddaughter years later, Warmerdam grew up surrounded by bulbs back home in Sassenheim, a municipality widely popular for the growth of bulbs.

Peter’s son, Nick Warmerdam has since taken over the family business of growing tulips, daffodils, peonies and gladiolus at Lakeland Flowers, while Alexis Warmerdam tends to her popular Bloom Festival nearby.

The team of passionate staff

and volunteers behind Bloom are now seeing their third year operating in the heart of the Sumas Prairie.

General Manager Ashleigh Watters was pleased to talk about the original ideas behind the festival and where the Warmerdam family and team are going with the event. Being part of the planning since day one, Watters joked that if she had a second last name, it would be Warmerdam.

“You’re planning this event that you don’t really know what it’s supposed to look or run like. It was a lot of hoping that we were coving everything we needed,” Watters said on the creation of the festival and the ongoing care that goes into the now popular event.

When asked about the inspiration for the event, Watters reflected back on tulip festivals south of the border and a former Agassiz festival. Alexis Warmerdam, having attended many of these festivals in previous years, took inspiration for her own festival in ways of promoting the importance of farming culture.

“Our main focus is agritourism,” Watters said, referring to the niche trend that involves

visiting and experiencing the agriculture lifestyle.

“It’s an industry that’s definitely still around. It’s a huge part of what’s going on in the growth of Abbotsford,” she added.

For Watters, the Tulip Festival is more than just an opportunity to take photos for Instagram, but a chance to take a further look into the culture and lifestyle of farming that is still highly important to the area.

In looking towards the coming years, Watters said that she’s working on making the festival run as smooth as possible, while still keeping the spirit of agritourism alive in the area.

With the usual array of tulips, you can also spot the new Canada 150 red and white tulips, as well as a new variety of offwhite tulips aptly named Peter’s Legacy, after Peter Warmerdam.

This celebration comes after years of dedication and passion from Warmerdam, inspiring his multi-generational family to keep up with their flower-growing traditions.

If you plan on visting the Bloom Tulip Festival for yourself, high bloom tickets are now available online at abbotsfordtulipfestival.ca.

Tulips have been seen as a symbol of friendship between the countries of Canada and the Netherlands since the 50s. (Justin Moore/The Omega)

Tabletop gaming convention coming to Kamloops KamCon will be coming to TRU this October and will feature a number of different gaming systems Wade Tomko EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω Later this year, TRU’s Grand Hall will host the very first KamCon, a tabletop gaming convention created by local gaming enthusiasts Tyler Carpentier and Julian Leader. The event, which takes place on October 27 and 28, will feature a variety of different gaming systems, first and foremost being the well-known Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).

Though 5th edition D&D is certainly the most recognizable system that will be at the convention, there will be other tables for systems like Scion, Genesis, FATE and others, says Carpentier.

“It’s not just D&D, a lot of our marketing and social media has promoted D&D, just because it is the most recognizable franchise out there,” Carpentier said. “But there will be a lot of systems that will be played like Scion and Genesis and different types of D&D like Pathfinder.”

In addition to this, the event will have a main stage, which will feature special guests, as well as a marketplace with local vendors.

According to Carpentier, while the schedule has yet to be fully finalized, Leader and himself have targeted a variety of local personalities, YouTube channels and even theatre groups to come give talks, acts and demonstrations. There will also be room for crafters looking to sell gaming

accessories and art.

“There will a lot of room for crafters as well, with their gaming accessories or gaming-related artwork,” Carpentier said. “So we want to have a really good variety there. It is always nice to go down to the store and shop around for this or that, but it’s tough to get everyone all in one spot.”

The gaming sessions themselves will be run in four-hour blocks. This will give players enough time to experience the game and accomplish something without taking all day, said Carpentier.

Carpentier says the idea for the event originally came out of his own D&D group just over a month ago.

“It is our first time running this convention,” he said. “It is a brainchild of my D&D group actually. Myself and Julian Leader, the two of us are undergoing most of the organizing for it. We both operate in the same way and we both work very well with each other.”

Originally, Carpentier and Leader’s plan was to work alongside the already established Kamloops wargaming convention Attack-X. While the two events share some similarities, Carpentier said that they were just different enough to warrant the creation of a completely new event.

“How they run Attack-X and how we are running this is similar, but slightly different and with it, it made more sense for us to take on the risk ourselves because it’s something a little bit different than what they

Get ready to break out the dice! KamCon will run October 27 and 28 in the TRU Grand Hall. (Lydia/Flickr) are doing,” Carpentier said. “Also, Attack-X is heavily focused on wargaming, where as we are focusing on roleplaying and board games.”

Unlike wargaming conventions, which can be run as tournaments, roleplaying conventions can’t be managed the same way. As such, Carpentier believes that KamCon presents a great opportunity to bring the Kamloops tabletop gaming

community together.

“There is a huge amount of growth in the industry as a whole, but there is really no meeting place,” he said. “We kind of want to give the community a place to meet and grow around, make it easier for people to find games, make it easier for people to find players.”

Despite the event being in its inaugural year, the community’s

response has been much better than anticipated, according to Carpentier, with so many requests from locals in the community wanting to dungeon master games being almost capped out.

“We started this in earnest about a month ago and the response has been fantastic, we are ahead of schedule, the response is way better than anticipated, it’s blown us away,” he said.

WWW.TRUOMEGA.CA

7

SPORTS

World-class athlete joins the WolfPack Emily Young, a Paralympic athlete, has joined TRU's cross country team Alvin Mutandiro SPORTS EDITOR Ω The WolfPack have had a lot of unique athletes, but few like Emily Young.

Young is returning to university sports after six years as she becomes the latest recruit of the WolfPack cross-country team.

The 27 year-old Young has competed collegiately in cross-country for Douglas College. But she is best known for her other cross-country passion: skiing.

In fact, Young recently captured two medals (silver and bronze) at the 2018 Paralympic Games in South Korea.

For the last three years she has been a part of the very successful Canadian para nordic/ biathlon team.

Young has been a student at Thompson Rivers University since 2015 through the TRU Open Learning program. She is in the bachelor of arts psychology program.

Though an avid skier, Young has a background in cross-country running.

“I have always been involved with running ever since I was a young athlete. I ran cross-country for my high school and then transitioned into triathlon after my injury,” Young said. “I love running!”

Young was also a promising

collegiate wrestler who suffered a severely dislocated right elbow and shoulder and extensive nerve damage during a training session in July 2009. However, that didn’t stop her from competing in the 2012 World Ironman, as well as the 2012 and 2013 Ironman Canada events.

Young and her husband Chris live in North Vancouver, but are relocating to Kelowna for the fall.

Young added that her husband, whom she says is her biggest influence, is a former professional triathlete who rode across the country to raise funds for the Heart and Stroke Foundation in 2009.

“I am super excited about joining the WolfPack program. I love racing and being able to race on a team again is awesome. Sadly, I won’t be able to be present with the team training, but I will really enjoy the moments of being on the team in the races.”

Young is ranked fourth in the world for para nordic, ninth for biathlon and ranked first in the nation in cross-country skiing.

Young is a member of the Canadian Senior World Cup team.

As far as a training program goes, Young says she will be in Kamloops when her schedule allows.

“My cross-country ski coach is going to doctor my plan for the summer/ fall to add more focused running pieces in,” she

said. “However, if I can come to Kamloops for some training when my ski schedule allows, I am going to do that with the team.”

Head coach Carmin Mazotta believes that Young will not only make a great addition to the team, but will inspire other athletes as well.

“From the initial interactions I

have had with her, Emily seems to have a great personality and should be a great addition to our squad. She is motivated, full of positive energy and is more than ready to embrace a new adventure by being part of a university cross-country team,” Mazotta said to TRU Athletics.

“She won’t be at practice too

often, but she should be able to compete in most of our local and regional races in the build up to the big competitions, B.C. Cross-Country and USPORTS championships, at the end of the season. This will give her an opportunity to get to know the other women on the team and form a bond,” added Mazotta.

Young won two medals, a silver and a bronze, at the 2018 Winter Paralympics earlier this year. (TRU Athletics)

Baseball finishes regular season strong going into playoffs WolfPack baseball team won two games against VIU to close out regular season Alvin Mutandiro SPORTS EDITOR Ω The TRU men’s baseball team beat the Vancouver Island University Mariners 12-0 and 11-1 to close out the regular season.

Lefty and Moses Lake native Josh

Snider started on the mound in game one. He got the win, throwing a complete game.

He didn’t allow a run and only allowed four hits and struck out five batters.

Liam Rihela (White Rock, B.C.) had a great game going 2-3 with a double, two RBIs and two stolen bases.

Jackson Dartnell (Winnipeg, MB.) went 2-3 with two doubles and a run scored. Matt Pidlisecky (Abbotsford, B.C.) and Zac Comeault (Pitt Meadows, B.C.) both went 1-1 with a two RBI double. Comeault also scored a run.

Josiah Williams (Cloverdale, B.C.) finished 2-3 with two RBIs, two runs

'Pack player Josiah Williams slides to a base in the team's May 6 game against the VIU Mariners. (TRU Athletics)

scored and a stolen base. Adam Filmon (Winnipeg, MB.) went 1-2 with an RBI, two runs scored, a walk and a stolen base.

Malik James (Toronto, ON.) went 1-3 with a RBI. Taylor Van Ham (Medicine Hat, AB.) went 1-1 with a RBI and a run scored. Michael Bauer (Surrey, B.C.) went 1-2 with a run scored.

Josh Hillis (Calgary, AB.) walked, scored a run and stole two bases.

Coach Ray Chadwick paid tribute to all the seniors on the team by having them all in the starting lineup for game two, the last regular season game of their WolfPack careers.

The team’s lone senior pitcher Regan Gillis (Fort McMurray, AB.) got the start and threw well. He tossed 6.1 innings, giving up just one run on five hits and three walks.

He struck out five batters as well.

Scott Wood recorded the last two outs.

Seniors Josh Hillis, Jordy Cunningham (Ladner, B.C.) and Yutaro Takasaki (Japan) all started in the outfield.

Hillis had a huge game, going 2-4 with a double, four RBIs and two runs scored.

Cunningham went 1-3 with two runs scored, a walk and two stolen bases. Takasaki went 2-3 with a walk,

two runs scored and two stolen bases. Matt Pidlisecky went 1-1 with a two RBI doubles.

Jackson Dartnell went 1-1 with an RBI base hit and a run scored. Josh Iannetti (Fort McMurray, AB.) and Zac Comeault both went 1-3 and each scored a run.

Liam Rihela finished his season 1-3 with a RBI and a stolen base.

Vance Fode (Bow Island, AB.) went 1-2 with an RBI and a walk.

With the four wins, TRU finishes 3rd in the league going into the playoffs.

End of regular season stats: Batting average – Josh Snider – .391; Liam Rihela – .314; Jordy Cunningham – .313; Jackson Dartnell – .303, Josh Hillis – .302.

Hits – 35 – Josh Hillis (tied 7th in the league) Doubles – 10 – Josh Snider and Liam Rihela (tied 5th in the league) Triples – 1 – Liam Rihela and Adam Filmon Home Runs – 4 – Vance Fode (tied 2nd in league) RBIs – 23 – Vance Fode (tied 4th in the league) Runs scored – 27 – Josh Hillis (6th in the league) Walks – 20 – Josh Hillis (6th in the league)

8

THE OMEGA

MAY 9, 2018