Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
2 Feburary, 2015
The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
University forecasts $194.4 million net income
Strike looms Significant issues remain between union and university as strike deadline approaches Salvatore Basilone ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
On February 27, University of Toronto students could arrive to a school on strike, with picket lines dotting the campus, and all tutorials and about half of lectures cancelled. A strike will be a reality if the university and the union representing some 7,000 teaching assistants, sessional lecturers, and other academic staff are unable to come to a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement — a prospect that seems increasingly likely according to union negotiators. “There is a widespread feeling that we are not where we need to be in order to realistically get a contract, and there isn’t a plausible way to see getting there given the time, and given how much the employer has dragged its feet, and given how few dates we have left,” says Ryan Culpepper, chief negotiator for cupe 3902 Unit 1, which has approximately 6,000 members, made up of mostly teaching assis-
tants, but also including a number of other student academic staff. Unit 1 members voted in favour of a strike mandate in November 2014. “It is not going well,” Culpepper says in reference to the negotiations. Erin Black, co-chief negotiator for Unit 3, which represents sessional lecturers and other non-student academic staff, and chair of the union local, echoes this sentiment. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I do wonder logistically how that can be done in only three bargaining days because we have a number of things that are still outstanding,” says Black. “In terms of content of an agreement that would be acceptable to our membership, that is going to be also challenging to achieve.” The results of a strike vote for Unit 3 were announced on January 27, with 92.1 per cent in favour of striking if no agreement is in place after the February 26 deadline.
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Tamim Mansour ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The University of Toronto is forecast to have a net income of $194.4 million for the 2014–2015 fiscal year, university administration said during last week’s Business Board meeting. The prediction is based on projections from revenues and expenditures from the university’s operating, ancillary, capital, and restricted funds. It also takes into account the net assets from the beginning to the end of the year, as well as a remeasurement of the pension benefits. The projection assumes a 7.3 per cent return on the university’s investments. However, even if the return were to be only 3.0 per cent, the university would still expect a net income of $174.2 million. When asked by the board about the need for the remeasurement of pension benefits, which cost $277 million, Sheila Brown, the university’s chief financial officer, cited longer Canadian life expectancy as the reason to
account for these changes in benefits. “In the case of Canada, studies have been done and found out that we are living longer than we used to and in many cases, longer than we were predicted by actuaries to live,” Brown says, adding, “So a lot of changes have to be made to the longevity assumptions.” Brown also mentioned that employees in the public sector are estimated to live longer than employees in the private sector. Last year’s operating fund deficit of $14.5 million is expected to drop to $5.7 million. According to the report, the university’s operating fund had been budgeted to be balanced by the end of this fiscal year. However, the university has received $11.4 million less in government grants than expected.
DEBT STRATEGY
A review of the university’s debt also shows that the university’s current debt
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INSIDE Comment
Features
The quarter-life crisis
Inside Harvest Noon
Arts&Culture Locking it down
Science Scientific standpoint
Sports Kesteris heads abroad with Team Canada
The “real word” is a scary place to today’s grads
Student-run café offers locally sourced fare
Exploring the growing trend of Escape Rooms in Toronto
Two students offer their perspectives on voluntourism
Blues goaltender to represent Canada in winter Universiade
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VARSITY NEWS
Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
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WHAT’S GOING ON THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS MONDAY UTM BLACK HISTORY MONTH OPENING CEREMONY
THE EXPLAINER Although summer may seem far away, now is the time to apply for many summer internships and jobs. Here are five tips to help make sure your résumé ends up on the top of the stack at prospective employers.
Room 2060, Deerfield Hall, 3359 Mississauga Road, 6 pm–8 pm, free The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union, in collaboration with a variety of student societies, will be kicking off a month-long series of events to commemorate Black History Month. The theme for the events is Love, Inclusion, Freedom, Education.
Associate Features Editor Caitlyn Fleming Associate Comment Editor Emma Kikulis Associate A&C Editors Daniel Konikoff Jacob Lorinc
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DRAKE DRANKS
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Room 1068, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, all-day, free The Arts and Science Students’ Union will be giving out free coffee, set to the tune of Drake. There will also be an opportunity to win prizes.
Associate Web Developer Ishan Thukral
Keep it simple! Use a basic and legible font that doesn’t crowd the page, such as Times New Roman. You can also try to show off your creative side — recruiters read hundreds or thousands of résumés. You want yours to stand out.
Keep it short and sweet. Your boss does not care about your grade five piano recital, or that science fair you won in grade eight. Keep your résumé relevant for the job for which you are applying, and cut down on the fluff. In general, your résumé should be no more than one page.
Copy Editors and Fact-Checkers Salvatore Basilone, Elizabeth Benn, Matthew Boissonneault, Isabela Borges, Kieran Buckingham, Alex McKeen, Soham Parelkar, Lauren Park, Michelle Pedreiras, Maria Sokulsky-Dolnycky, Divna Stojanovic, Emaan Thaver, Elliot Wright
ABORIGINAL POLITICS TODAY
Organization is key.
East Common Room, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, 2 pm–4 pm, free
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The Association of Political Science Students presents a series of speakers on Aboriginal issues in Canada. Professor Peter H. Russell, Andre Morriseau, and Professor Douglas Sanderson will be speaking, with Professor Nelson Wiseman moderating.
Format your résumé in a way that keeps it neat and within the lines — a sloppy looking résumé could indicate a sloppy employee. Additionally, be sure to double check your résumé for typos or spelling mistakes.
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The Varsity is the University of Toronto's largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. The Varsity has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock. Content © 2015 by The Varsity. All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the sections associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity reserves the right to edit all submissions. Inquiries regarding ad sales can be made to ads@thevarsity.ca. ISSN: 0042-2789
Hart House Theatre, 7 Hart House Circle, 8 pm, $12 for students The St. Michael’s College Students’ Union and the St. Michael’s College Troubadours present the fiftieth anniversary of the musical classic, Fiddler on the Roof, featuring music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
FRIDAY FROM GRIOT TO HIP HOP: THE MUSIC IS THE STORY Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, 6:30 pm–8:30 pm, contact library for pricing The Toronto Public Library commemorates Black History Month with a concert event, as five artists share their stories and music.
Do not lie about your work or employment history. You will get caught.
Learn the art of bragging. There is no such thing as modesty on a résumé. You want to show the employer how great you are. If you have done something worthwhile, make sure you include it. Correction: An article from last week’s issue titled “U of T students place second at IBM Watson University Competition” incorrectly stated that an app, ROSS, predicts outcomes for legal cases. In fact, ROSS performs legal research using artificial intelligence. An article from last week’s issue titled “U of T student wins Sunnybrook research award” incorrectly named the award. In fact, it is called the Sunnybrook Research Prize. The Varsity regrets these errors.
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VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
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Riley McCullough to serve as vice president, university affairs Revised Articles of Continuance, tabled motions also pass at Board of Directors meeting Iris Robin ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Riley McCullough is the new University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) vice president, university affairs (vpua). McCullough was one of two shortlisted candidates chosen from a total of six applications. Pierre Harfouche, who held the office for five months, resigned at the end of last semester. He was the first candidate from a non-incumbent slate to win a utsu election in close to a decade. McCullough and fellow candidate Yadesha Satheaswaran, former president of the Equity Studies Students’ Union, presented their platforms to the Board of Directors last Friday. Afterwards, each presenter answered questions from the floor. Following an in-camera deliberation and a vote by secret ballot, McCullough was declared the winner and a motion in favour of her appointment was passed.
FROM SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSIONER TO VPUA Yolen Bollo-Kamara, president of the utsu, said that she is looking forward to working with McCullough and praised both candidates as “fantastic.” McCullough was the utsu’s sustainability commissioner before she applied for the vpua position. She says that sustainability falls under the purview of the vpua, so she is excited to continue the work she accomplished. “I’m looking forward to working with the board and fellow students on the important issues that play a direct role in their lives as students,” McCullough says. McCullough highlighted lobbying the university to divest from fossil fuels as a key priority. McCullough also says she wants to advocate for greater student involvement in developing and rolling out the Student Mental Health Strategy, and to work with students in each faculty to explore potential options for a fall reading week or break. “I also hope to help ensure the approval of the student commons project… [and] to begin work with the administration on the new food services contract, ensuring that students’ voices are taken into account in this process,” she says. Aware of her shortened term in office, McCullough says she aims to communicate with students to see what they want addressed. “Through increased outreach and consulta-
Riley McCullough. MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY
tion with our members, I will be able to gain further insight into the issues most important to students at each college, faculty and campus, and find opportunities to strengthen relationships and collaborate with their respective student societies or unions,” she says. “At minimum, I will be able to compile information to effectively lobby the administration and lay groundwork that can be built upon by future executives,” she adds.
OTHER AGENDA ITEMS In addition to choosing the new vpua, the Board of Directors also passed a motion to file revised Articles of Continuance. The union needs the articles to transition from the Canada Corporations Act to the Canada Not-forprofit Corporations Act. The articles were revised following a Notice of Deficiency issued to the union on December 1, 2014. The utsu received a Notice of Deficiency because the minimum number of directors on the board did not match Corporations Canada’s records, and the utsu did not file the description of its classes of membership properly. According to Sandra Hudson, utsu executive director, 40 per cent of organizations that
submit a transition request receive a Notice of Deficiency. Bollo-Kamara says that the Articles of Continuance have been revised to state that the minimum number of directors is 35, and to clarify that the utsu has one class of membership consisting of all utsu members, as per the utsu bylaws. Also discussed at the Board of Directors meeting was the What’s Missing? campaign launched by the utsu last Wednesday. The campaign kicked off with a townhall meeting in which students were invited to suggest ways in which the utsu could improve as a union. The townhall did not include discussion of the utsu Board of Directors restructuring, an issue that continues to garner attention since the controversial proposal put forward by the utsu was defeated at the Annual General Meeting (agm) in October. Bollo-Kamara says that the What’s Missing? initiative is related to the conversations surrounding the Board of Directors structure. “We want to hear feedback from students atlarge and from current Board members about how best we can serve and represent them. We hope this will inform policy discussions and allow more students to be involved in creating a representative structure for the Board of Direc-
tors and shaping the direction of their students’ union,” Bollo-Kamara says.
MOTIONS ON THE MOVE The Board of Directors considered several motions tabled from the last Board of Directors meeting, which were in turn set to be discussed at the agm, which was abruptly adjourned. Five motions moved by Zach Morgenstern, one of two Victoria College directors, were passed. These included motions to mobilize the anti-war coalition, to hold a Drop Fees Day of Action, to monitor “weedout” courses, to research a campaign for more accessible on-campus housing, and to improve communication. Cameron Wathey, utsu vice-president, internal and services, moved a motion to support international students, which also passed. Motions that appeared on the order of business at the agm but have yet to be discussed at a Board of Directors meeting have done so because all motions died on the floor at the adjournment of the agm. Bollo-Kamara says that such motions can be served or resubmitted at any time to the Board of Directors or to be voted on by the membership at the next agm.
Video shows man threatening students at SCSU offices Incident, posted online, appears to involve divestment poster materials Alex McKeen ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
A video posted to YouTube on Monday, January 27 shows a man apparently entering the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (scsu) offices and demanding the removal of posters supporting the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (bds) campaign. “I want this sign down right now because that’s a hate crime. If you don’t remove this sign... I will call the police and charge you guys with hate crime,” the unidentified
man is heard saying in the video, which is filmed from a first-person perspective. The bds campaign asks the university to cease investment in companies that are allegedly complicit in war crimes in Palestine. The scsu approved a motion in April 2013 to lobby the university on behalf of the bds campaign. The video was posted by an account called equity472. An open letter, addressed to the University of Toronto and the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (utam), is included in the video’s description.
The letter demands divestment from a list of companies and asks, “Why do our tuition dollars continue to fund ‘israel’s’ [sic] colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine?” The letter is signed by “U of T Divest– Scarborough,” but there are no names attached. The same letter can be found on a post from the Facebook group “Toronto Students for Justice in Palestine.” It is unclear whether the letter has been sent to the university or to utam. Don Campbell, utsc media relations of-
ficer, says that the incident occurred in late December — inconsistent with the video listing that says it occurred November 6. Campbell says that campus police responded immediately. “They stopped, investigated and formally trespassed the man,” Campbell says. “Since he’s been served notice, if he returns to our campus he will be arrested and charged with trespassing.” scsu president Tahsin Chowdhury declined to comment on the incident. As of press time, the video has over 16,000 views on YouTube.
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Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
VARSITY NEWS
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ASSU report highlights international student concerns Global Voices Report looks at tuition fees, financial aid, other aspects of student life Brittaney Warren VARSITY STAFF
The University of Toronto is colloquially referred to as “the Harvard of the North,” and attracts thousands of students from across the globe with its prestigious reputation. An Arts and Science Students’ Union (assu) report, however, says that the university may not be doing enough to support its diverse population of international students. The assu has released the Global Voices Report that seeks to identify issues of specific concern to international students and proposes solutions. Thirty-eight respondents participated in two focus groups over the past year. One issue addressed by the report was international tuition fees. When survey participants were asked if they had faced any financial difficulties, the majority expressed that they felt international fees were too high. Tuition fees for international students range from $11,160 to $40,000 per year, with the sticker price for books reaching up to $1,400. In comparison, domestic students face tuition fees from $6,040 and up, depending on the program of study. “Contrary to popular belief, there are a large amount of international students who do not come from privileged, wealthy families. Their families may be taking out a loan, remortgaging their homes... to send their children to a good international university. This puts additional stress and strain on international students, coupled with the academic pressures and the stress of being away from home,” says Abdullah Shihipar, assu president. The university says it recognizes this disparity, citing reliance on market prices. “Like most
The Arts and Science Students’ Union offices. SOFIA HABIB/THE VARSITY
other Universities, the University of Toronto charges differential tuition rates for international and domestic students. Our international tuition fees are set in the context of an international education market and we are competitive with our peer institutions,” says Althea-Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations. Another issue addressed by the report was financial aid. Although undergraduate international students are eligible for general U of T admission scholarships, of which there are between 400 and 500, the Global Voices Report says that international students are dissatisfied with the accessibility to these types of services and appear to be generally unaware of what
services the university offers. The union is calling on the university to improve promotion of these resources, and is recommending that a distinct department be created to better address the needs of the international student community. “We believe that such a department created by the Faculty of Arts and Science for international students should serve as a central hub for international students to find resources pertaining to them,” says Shihipar. “The office would also be able to direct international students to other services and offices that would be of use to them (housing services, cie, Health Services, etc.), answer frequently
asked questions... so that international students are not left scrambling around for information,” he adds. According to Blackburn-Evans, in 2012–2013, the university provided nearly $5 million in merit and need-based grants to approximately 1,600 international students. She also cites a number of resources available to international students, including the Centre for International Experience, which offers a wide range of programs and services to help international students transition to U of T and Canada. She also says the university has expanded eligibility for its work-study program to include international students.
International student enrollment set to rise Influx predicted to coincide with higher tuition across Canada
JULIEN BALBONTIN/THE VARSITY
Misara Elgammal
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Despite their lack of representation on Governing Council and ever-rising tuition costs, international student enrolment at the University of Toronto is set to increase in the next few years.
According to Althea Blackburn-Evans, director of media relations at U of T, international student applications to U of T have nearly doubled to more than 18,000 since 2010. The predicted influx comes as the university announced in March of last year that international student fees would increase by 9.2 per cent for the 2014–2015 school year.
The University of British Columbia (ubc) followed suit in December 2014 when their Board of Governors approved a fee increase of 10 per cent for incoming international students. U of T and ubc are also the only two Canadian universities to host more than 10,000 international students. According to Blackburn-Evans, the university continues to draw international students because of its strong world ranking. A survey by Emerging, a human resource consultancy based in Paris and cited by U of T, ranked the university thirteenth in Global Employability, ahead of institutions such as the London School of Economics, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and New York University. “We feel that U of T’s strengths are unique, and our own institutional efforts and successes are worthy of distinct promotion,” says Blackburn-Evans. In a June 2014 report, the Canadian International Council ranked Canada eighth behind the uk in second and Australia in fourth in its ability to attract international students. The report, written by Bernard Simon from the Munk School of International Affairs, cites the “absence of a unified and coherent voice [in] promoting Canada abroad” and goes on to say that “Canada is the [world’s] only developed country without a national education ministry or a national education strategy.” The university is looking evermore to “welcome the variety of perspectives, viewpoints and diversity that international students bring to the already diverse campuses,” Blackburn-Evans says.
The Canadian government is pushing hard to attract more foreign students and has a 2022 goal of doubling the number of international students and researchers to 450,000. Part of the drive has included changes to make it easier for international students to work while studying in Canada. Rather than having to wait six months after enrollment, international students can immediately start working up to 20 hours during regular academic sessions and full-time during scheduled holidays. While U of T has maintained consistently high rankings, other Canadian universities have not fared as well. A drop by nearly all Canadian universities in the highly watched Time’s top 200 Higher Education World Rankings is drawing concern about the quality of post-secondary education in the country. U of T remained at 20. Some experts are pointing to the first decline in 15 years in the number of domestic students as a reason for the drop in the rankings of other major Canadian universities. According to the Ontario Universities Application Centre, from last year, there were 2.9 per cent fewer Ontario high school students starting at Canadian universities, and the drop is expected to continue until at least 2020. There were 3,373 international student first-year registrations at U of T in 2014, a 60 per cent increase from 2010. International students now make up over 20 per cent of the incoming first-year direct entry class.
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VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
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Governing Council campaign period begins Ten students vie for just two Faculty of Arts & Science seats ABOUT THE GOVERNING COUNCIL û
The University of Toronto’s highest governing body
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Established by the University of Toronto Act, 1971
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Oversees all affairs of the university
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50 members: 25 members from the university (students, teaching staff, administration); 25 external members such as alumni and those appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council
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Made up of three boards: the Academic Board, the Business Board, and the University Affairs Board
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The Academic Board is responsible for affairs related to teaching, learning, and research. It sets the university’s objectives and priorities
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The Business Board is in charge of resource allocations. It approves policy and major transactions
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The University Affairs Board is responsible for non-academic policymaking and matters that concern the quality of student and campus life
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UTM and UTSC Campus Councils report to the Governing Council
The Governing Council chambers. FILE PHOTO: KENNETH TRUONG/THE VARSITY
Devika Desai VARSITY STAFF
Elections for the University of Toronto’s Governing Council and Academic Board are underway, and the competition is fierce. There are a total of 16 candidates running for just four full-time undergraduate spots in two constituencies — a decrease from last year’s 21 candidates. Ten students are competing for two Faculty of Arts & Science representative seats, while six are vying for two professional faculty representative spots. Four full-time undergraduate seats, two part-time undergraduate seats, and two graduate seats comprise the eight student spaces on Governing Council. With the two part-time undergraduate seats filled by acclamation by Susan Froom and Ray Khan, U of T students have four more decisions to make. The campaign period began on January 26, and many candidates have opted to create websites and Facebook pages to advertise their candidacy. This year, most candidates have focused their goals on improving overall student life by acquiring more funding for student clubs and academic opportunities and by fostering a better integration of student life across all three campuses at U of T. “I think it’s somewhat ridiculous that there is a bus from the Mississauga-St. George shuttle but not one to Scarborough,” says Sasha Boutilier in his candidate statement. Boutilier is running to represent undergraduates in Arts & Science.
Boutilier currently serves as the co-president of after (Applications For Tertiary Education Realized) UofT, a club that hosts academic panels and alumni exchanges. Boutilier believes that the university should make a greater effort to allow collaboration between various programs and opportunities hosted on each campus so that students will no longer be restricted in program choice solely by virtue of which campus they are at. Boutilier is carrying out a joint campaign with Victoria Wicks. Together, Boutilier and Wicks wish to create a more equitable campus by tackling issues such as integration, fossil fuel divestment, and sexual violence. “I am particularly invested in social justice,” says Wicks, a member of the U of T Student Coalition Against Sexual Violence, adding, “As student governor, then, I plan to keep our administration active and accountable on these issues,” she adds. Aditya Chawla, a fellow Arts & Science candidate, shares Boutilier’s goal for better student life. “I aim to make decisions that directly benefit undergraduate students as soon as possible,” he says, specifying his support for better funding for student clubs and academic and international opportunities. Connor Anear, co-head of college at Trinity College, lists student society policies, the Student Commons, mental health initiatives, lobbying for international student seats on Governing Council and fossil fuel divestment, and inter-campus transit among his priorities.
Anear notes that there has been significant progress on these issues. “Thus, I think it’s important that we take advantage of the building momentum and follow through by creating the best possible solutions,” he says. Susan Cui, who serves as president of ufold (Fly with Origami, Learn to Dream), a U of T origami club, names advocating for a decrease in tuition fee interest and lobbying for international student seats on Governing Council as her top two priorities. “The University should not be making commercial bank line of credit level interests off its relatively impoverished students who are unable to pay the full amount of their tuition before November of each year,” she says in her candidate statement. Dalal Badawi, an Arts & Science candidate, aims to improve connectivity between students and the Governing Council. “I...intend on creating a page that students can follow that will contain summaries of Governing Council meetings so that students can be well aware of all of the proceedings and decision making processes,” Badawi says in her candidate statement. Marc Marlo Laurin, Kristian Koschany, Lawrence Zhang, and Ridwan Olow, the remaining four candidates for Arts & Science seats, have also dedicated themselves to making Governing Council’s process more transparent if elected. Faizan Akbani and Mathias Memmel, hoping to represent students in the professional faculties, are running a campaign in tandem. “We believe that receiving notifications once a year
about the Governing Council is unacceptable,” they say in a joint statement, continuing, “We wish to empower Pro-facs [sic] to be involved in the decision making process and increase accessibility of information.” Avineet Randhawa, a second-year chemical engineering student, strongly advocates for an “integrated student experience” — a goal expressed by many of the candidates. “As much fun as faculty rivalries are, I would love to see and will advocate for more interfaculty involvement not only in university policy-making but also throughout campus in general,” he says. Andrew Watt and Vikki Bekiaris, also running for the professional faculties seats, aim to further enhance the social and academic policies provided by the university and act as the means through which the student body can be accurately represented at the council. Riaz Sayani-Mulji, a professional faculties candidate, has focused on student mental health and sexual violence as some of his main platform points. Web-based and mail ballot voting will begin on February 9 and end on February 20. Preliminary election results are slated to be announced on February 24, and winners declared by February 27. Governing Council, the university’s highest decision-making body, is composed of 50 members, including eight alumni and eight students. Editor’s note: Victoria Wicks was formerly an associate comment editor with The Varsity. Aditya Chawla is a Varsity staff writer.
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Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
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Commuter Appreciation Week reconnects students OCSA event offers workshops, dancing, food to U of T commuter students Emily Johnpulle VARSITY STAFF
The Off-Campus Students’ Association (ocsa), a consortium of college commuter representatives, reconnected commuters with campus life last week through a series of free events designed for commuter students. Commuter Appreciation Week began with a pancake brunch at Victoria College and ended with a casino night at Woodsworth College. “The thing with commuters is… we aren’t on campus everyday. We can’t afford to be. A lot of us have part-time jobs. We create schedules so that we’re not forced to commute every single day,” says University College Literary and Athletic Society (uc Lit) off-campus commissioner Niroja Thirugnanasampanthar, adding, “Having a week is beneficial so a lot of students can pick and choose which events they want to go to as opposed to a commuter appreciation day because those students might not necessarily be on campus that day.” Thirugnanasampanthar highlights the ocsa’s goal of making most of the events accessible to commuters by holding them during the day as opposed to at nights — an inconvenient time for commuters. “It’s hard to stay for extracurriculars on campus because a lot of things are after hours. Once you commute, it’s late getting home and you have little time for other things,” says third-year laboratory medicine and pathobiology student Hannah Kozlowski. Many of the events were held in collaboration with other student groups, including an open mic night with the St. Michael’s College Student Union, a screening of Moonrise Kingdom with the Cinema Studies Student
Commuters on the subway. MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY
Union, and salsa and waltz dance tutorials with the uc Lit. “I think because commuters travel such long distances, it’s nice to be appreciated by the school,” says first-year commuter student Nevoh Masliah, adding, “Travelling two hours and being welcomed to dancing and food is nice.” ocsa also held a day of 30-minute interactive workshops at Trinity College covering topics ranging from off-campus housing to campus involvement. The workshops included presenters from different student life offices
and university resources, and a question-andanswer period. “The idea was that… information presented would be directly relevant to commuters, with student assistants standing by that could offer their opinions on resources and their experiences using them,” explains Woodworth off-campus student director Aakanksha John. “We hoped that leaving these sessions commuter students would be better equipped to handle issue areas and find better ways to participate in their off campus student experience here at U of T,” she added.
“It was interesting seeing commuters I would have never interacted with… At each event I’d meet someone new, I’d get free food, and I’d have a good time,” says fourth-year kinesiology student Patrick Doc. “We hope commuters feel appreciated at U of T, feel that their voice is being heard, [and] that their representatives are doing their job correctly. We hope that they’ll get involved and they won’t just commute to campus, go to class, and go home. We really want them to really experience the university life in a positive way,” says Thirugnanasampanthar.
Undergraduates, professor embark on “groundbreaking” Myanmar trip Students design course module to examine country in critical moment of transition
TIMOTHY LAW/THE VARSITY
Alex McKeen ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
In a recent survey, Reporters Without Borders listed Myanmar, previously known as Burma, in the bottom 20 per cent of all countries in terms of press freedom. For Cara Lew, a fourth-year student, the lack
of information about the country, combined with its turbulent past, makes the prospect of going there academically enticing. Along with nine classmates and two University of Toronto faculty members, Lew will be travelling to Myanmar for 10 days over reading week. “Is it even safe for us to go to Burma? Would the faculty allow us to go? We said let’s stick
this out because nobody’s gone there. It’s so exciting,” says Lew. The trip is an International Course Module (icm), a Faculty of Arts & Science program that awards a limited amount of money to shortterm international projects that compliment existing course material. Eight of the students travelling to Myanmar study in the university’s Contemporary Asian Studies (cas) program, while two study anthropology. According to Joshua Barker, professor of anthropology and director of the Asian Institute, which oversees the cas program, the most unique aspect of the research venture is that the project was conceived by students. “[V]ery often icms are faculty proposals which then provide students with the opportunity to participate in one of these modules. In this case the design of the program and the themes that they want to investigate really came out of the students,” Barker says. Barker is the faculty leader of the icm, and will be joining the students in Myanmar. Some students were involved in the planning of the Myanmar icm as early as October of last year, looking forward to probing a local perspective on the upcoming Myanmar election in the fall of 2015. According to Barker, the country is in the process of opening up to more democratic processes and globalizing influences after
many years of military dictatorship. Now that the date of the trip is so near, the students involved say that some of their research goals have changed. “We’re still concerning ourselves with the question of democratization but pretty open with how that’s going to go depending on the things that we encounter while we’re there,” says Anthea Snowsill, a third-year student who is going on the trip. “It’s a groundbreaking entry into Myanmar. Even [most of] our professors have never gone there,” says Snowsill. Barker says that the students will have to be adaptable in their research interviews. “This is a culture where things have to be done indirectly, obliquely, and where you have to really be responsive to what your interviewees feel comfortable talking about,” Barker says. “People were there before and after democracy. It’s interesting to know how they feel about it and what they think is going to happen in the next few years: if they actually feel a change or if it’s still the same,” says Eros Grinzato, a third-year student. While there, the students will interview political officials from the National League for Democracy, the party chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, local government officials, the head of Yoma bank, and youth from the University of Yangon.
var.st/news
VARSITY NEWS
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
7
Social media anonymous The Varsity meets the personalities behind U of T Confessions, Life@UofT Emma Compeau VARSITY STAFF
Many University of Toronto course syllabi are filled with policies to prevent the use of social media during class time. Outside the classroom, however, the university community is a veritable eden for social media networks — U of T has well over 100 official accounts. The Varsity reached out to the people behind some of U of T’s most pervasive social media accounts to discuss their impact and reach.
U OF T CONFESSIONS U of T Confessions is a Facebook page administered by three anonymous U of T students. Since its inception, the page has captured an audience of over 6,000 people, and is rapidly growing. The page offers a place to anonymously post confessions through an application. Others comment or like the posts through their own Facebook accounts. Confessions range from romantic and academic struggles, to the explicit and obscure. The page managers only rarely intervene in what is posted. They spoke with The Varsity on the condition of anonymity. The Varsity: What inspired you to create a page like this? U of T Confessions: We wanted to give the student population an outlet for their problems and create a place where we can make friends with similar interests. TV: What do you think that this page offers to U of T students? UTC: It gives the students a place to vent or ask advice from other people in similar situations. It also allows some of the more shy students to meet new people. Some people are sending very intimate aspects of their lives. TV: Do you think that the page is therapeutic at all for some students? UTC: [It] absolutely is. Just the fact of telling
a secret to someone is a huge burden off your shoulders, except in this case no one can really judge them too harshly since they don’t know who the person is. TV: Do you feel any sort of responsibility running a page that anonymously shares some deep, dark, confessions? UTC: If the person inboxes us their secrets, we often try to help them out with their problems to a reasonable extent. More often than not, people feel they are the only ones going through a hard situation, so this page offers them a different viewpoint on life. TV: What do you think the anonymous posts on the page say about life at U of T? UTC: It just seems like people are lonely and extremely focused on their gpa [Grade Point Average], which could be a good or bad thing depending on how far they take it. TV: Do you think that this page conveys honesty about student realities? UTC: Personally, I think it does, just because there’s no filter and no fear of being judged for saying something deep. TV: Will you share a hint as to who you are for U of T students? UTC: We use our regular accounts sometimes to comment on posts. That’s really as far as we can say — any more than that and you’ll know who we are. TV: Do you have any other comments or advice for students? UTC: Just a piece of advice: Enjoy life. School is a big part of your life currently, but don’t forget to make friends and experience new things.
LIFE AT UOFT ST. GEORGE Life at UofT is an Instagram account managed primarily by Amie Lalonde, a U of T student who is part of the Student Life Community Crew. The account is part of a series of initiatives by the Community Crew members that also
FILE PHOTO: MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY
includes a Twitter account, Facebook page, and blog. Currently, Life at UofT St. George has over 1,500 followers and over 400 posts. TV: How many people run the account? Amie Lalonde: I’m in charge of the page and post most of the images, but there are 10 other people on the Community Crew who can contribute pictures if they’ve gone to an event on campus or just see something cool happening. TV: What are you most surprised about with the page? AL: The amount of support and engagement is what surprised me the most I think! I love engaging with so many different people through the account and I didn’t expect it quite so much.
TV: What kind of vision of U of T do you hope to portray with the account? AL: I just want to show off how great our campus is and show that there’s a lot more to U of T than endless readings. I think that it’s easy to get caught up in school work and forget that there’s this really varied social side to U of T. TV: In what ways do you think students express themselves on social media, and more specifically instagram, that offers them an outlet? AL: Since Instagram is such a visual platform and our campus is so beautiful I think that they work really well together. I also think that because Instagram is a place where you can interact with people you don’t necessarily know, the nature of what you post is different than Facebook, and you can connect with a wider group of people.
The TA strike deadline is February 27 CONTINUED FROM COVER Black says that Unit 3 is made up of around 1,000 members who collectively teach upwards of 700 courses. Both Culpepper and Black say that only three more bargaining meetings are scheduled between the university and each unit, and that, so far, the university has been unwilling to add additional meetings. When asked if the university is unwilling to add more negotiating dates, Angela Hildyard, U of T vice-president of human resources and equity, did not directly respond. “Please be assured that the University is actively involved in negotiations and is committed to reaching agreements with cupe 3902 Units 1 and 3 that are responsive to the issues cupe has raised, and that are responsible in light of the University’s challenging fiscal realities,” she says. Although both Units 1 and 3 are currently mandated to strike, the possibility exists that the university could come to an agreement with one of the units while another takes to the picket lines.
PROVINCIAL ROLE
Both Culpepper and Black say that the university is pushing for net-zero increase in the total dollar value of the deal. This means that any increase in compensation would likely have to be offset by a takeaway of equal value somewhere else in the contract. Culpepper claims that university negotiators told Unit 1 that a “directive from the provincial government” states that, as a public employer, U of T is “not permitted to negotiate
net financial increases of any kind with public employee groups.” Unit 3 was allegedly told something similar. “[The university] said that they believe they are restricted in what they can do, money wise,” says Black, adding that university representatives have been pointing to the last provincial budget and to a 2012 mandate from former finance minister Dwight Duncan. Neither of the negotiators feel this is accurate. Culpepper believes that there is no obligation to hold the line at zero because the majority of university funding does not come from the government. Black says that the province has only limited additional funding, and that they have not interfered with institutions granting increases if they already have the money to do so. “Since U of T has posted a surplus in the last two years, it is certainly 3902’s perspective that they have money in the operating budget to grant increases,” she says. When asked about a provincial directive and whether a net-zero increase is a hard line in negotiations, university representatives did not provide specific answers. The University of Toronto is forecast to have a net income of $194.4 million in the 2014–2015 financial year, university administration said during last week’s Business Board meeting. May Nazar, team leader for Issues Management and Media Relations at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, was asked if any and what kind of directions the provincial government had given U of T. “Our 2014 Budget made it clear — we will not provide any new money for compensation increases,” she says.
“We have been clear with our partners that any additional compensation costs must be found within existing funding, while ensuring that service levels continue to meet public needs,” she adds. Nazar says that the provincial government is providing assistance during the negotiation process, but adds that the agreement is ultimately up to the two parties. “Ontario universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own labour relations and human resource issues, including collective bargaining,” she says.
ISSUES OF NEGOTIATION Significant issues remain to be negotiated, with the most prominent being pay, benefits, and job security. Sessional lecturers have a variegated pay scale, but Black says the average is around $7,500 per course they teach, and that they have been on a pay freeze since August 2012. Black also says that sessional lecturers are currently teaching some 750 classes at U of T and administer 35 per cent of undergraduate education at the university. Sessional instructors also face uncertainty as to where their next job will come from. They operate on per-course contracts and are pushing for greater certainty in the hiring process. “Sessional lecturers are frequently hired sometimes as little as two weeks or one week before a course actually starts,” says Black, who went on to say that this can have real impacts in the classroom. “This past year I didn’t get access to a Blackboard page until two days into a term, for example.”
Culpepper says the average yearly takehome pay of Unit 1 members is $15,000 a year, plus waiver of tuition fees. Any external awards or scholarships lower the funding or revoke the tuition waiver. “I can tell you what would get us to an agreement,” he says, adding, “An increase to the overall minimum level of funding… right now we have been told that is impossible and there has been no increase since 2008. An increase to our benefit funds, at least to the level of long term sustainability… And some kind of tuition credit or tuition relief for unfunded members.”
THE ROAD AHEAD If a strike happens, bargaining will continue and so will many classes, according to an information session held by cupe 3902 to reach out to students last week. Yolen Bollo-Kamara, president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu), says that, while the utsu has taken no official position, the union would like to see the university bargain in good faith. “We hope that the University and cupe 3902 are able to reach compromise and avert a strike,” she says. “If there is a strike, I would encourage students to demand that the University prioritize reaching [a] compromise expeditiously and compensate students for any lost class hours,” she adds. For her part, Hildyard says that the university will update all members of the U of T community of any future developments that impact students.
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VARSITY NEWS
Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
news@thevarsity.ca
Simcoe Hall. FILE PHOTO: DENNIS OSIPOV/THE VARSITY
The biannual report was presented at a Business Board meeting on January 26 CONTINUED FROM COVER burden ratio, calculated as the principal plus interest divided by total expenditures, stands at 3.8 per cent — lower than the debt policy limit set at five per cent as part of the new debt strategy put in place in 2012. The ratio is used as an indicator of debt affordability; the lower the ratio, the more affordable the debt. The current debt strategy was approved in 2012 to account for the need for debt financing while still maintaining appropriate “financial parameters” for the university. According to the debt strategy, the debt policy limit is calculated annually with a debt burden ratio of five per cent, taking into consideration a 0.8 viability ratio, defined as expendable resources divided by total debt. A 0.8 viability ratio, should it have to do so by the end of the fiscal year, means that the
university can pay off 80 per cent of the total outstanding debt. The university is currently reporting a moderate debt burden ratio of 3.8 and a robust viability ratio of 1.17. Most of the university’s debt is external and 98.7 per cent of it is in debentures, issuing bonds. These debentures pay out fixed interest rates biannually, with repayment of the principal scheduled for between 2031 and 2051. A Long-Term Borrowing Pool (ltbp) was created by the university as funds to go towards repayment of the debentures principal. As of April 30, 2014, the ltbp had accumulated $162.2 million towards repaying the $710 million principal. The review notes that, while the university’s debt burden is high compared to other Canadian universities, it is lower than the median
among American universities with the same credit rating. The debt strategy review was accompanied by a credit report from the credit ratings agency Moody’s. According to the report, the university’s current rating of Aa2 Stable reflects “[its] solid operating performance and operating cash flow generation despite continued operating pressures, a moderate debt burden and strong balance sheet.” The report also cites pressures such as inflation and provincial regulations limiting annual increases in tuition fees to three per cent, as well as unfunded pension liabilities, as future credit challenges. The board asked Brown whether the change of outlook of the provincial government’s credit rating would affect the university’s credit outlook. She referred to a report from
Moody’s that identified the impact of the province’s negative outlook on institutions that were tied to it. The university was counted among those whose outlook would not be affected by the province’s performance. The board commented that this reflected “the diminishing dependence on the province.”
U of T commerce graduate succeeds in unconventional job hunt
Increasing number of American students pursue nontraditional career paths, study shows
“I feel fabulous,” says Xingyi Yan, sitting in her new office. After hundreds of unsuccessful job applications, the U of T commerce graduate drew on an unconventional method to get her dream job in advertising; marker, cardboard, and candy were Yan’s answer to success in today’s competitive job market. In December, Yan hit the streets of Toronto with a placard saying, “Take my résumé and get a free Xmas gift.” After seven days of handing out candy in the cold, her courage paid off. She had 14 interviews in the span of a few weeks. About a month after her effort, Yan landed a job at Reprise Media, a marketing agency. “We were very impressed with her initiative and her resourcefulness,” managing director Joseph McConellogue recalls. Yan says she hopes to encourage others to pursue their career goals, even if their dream job seems out of reach.
According to a cso Research, Inc. study of over 36,000 graduates from 54 US universities, titled, “Spring 2014 Graduates: Six Months After Graduation,” 51 per cent of graduates were in full-time employment within six months of graduation, while 20 per cent were in parttime employment and 18 per cent were unemployed but actively seeking work. Of those employed, 79 per cent claimed they were working in a field related to their major and 80 per cent expressed overall satisfaction with their current employers. The study indicated that an increasing number of students are pursuing untraditional career paths, including contract/temporary work, post-graduate internships or fellowships, and self-employment/entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, 68 per cent of spring 2014 graduates describe their occupations as “traditional employment by an organization.” The study reveals multiple reasons why recent graduates have yet to secure jobs. While 11 per cent indicated that they were simply unable to find any employment, others cited not being able to find work in their field, not being able to find employment with sufficient pay, or the need for further education.
BOUNDLESS OUTLOOK
David Palmer, the university’s vice-president, advancement, also presented the annual report on the Boundless campaign at the meeting. The fundraising campaign was launched in November 2011 with a goal of $2 billion by 2017. Palmer described the number of alumni being engaged in programming, like the Spring Reunion, student mentorship, and philanthropic support as a “rising tide.” To date, the campaign has raised over $1.5 billion.
NEWS IN BRIEF Joseph Rotman, businessman and philanthropist, dies at 80
One in three first-year students in U of T engineering programs are female, university says
Joseph L. Rotman, namesake and benefactor of the Rotman School of Management, has died at 80. Rotman was a renowned businessman, having founded many successful companies since graduating from the University of Toronto in 1960 with a Master’s of Commerce. Since 1993, Rotman and his wife Sandra Rotman have given more than $42 million to the business school. Rotman also held a variety of positions in the arts, including chair of the Canadian Council for the Arts and president of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Rotman, who began his career trading oil, leaves behind a legacy that includes contributions to business and philanthropy. He was recognized by the Order of Canada and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. “The University of Toronto, and indeed all of Canada, has lost one of its greatest champions,” said U of T president Meric Gertler.
The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering has achieved a feat that no other engineering school in Ontario has accomplished, the university said on Wednesday. 30.6 per cent of first-year students in engineering programs are female — a record number. Today, 25.8 per cent of undergraduates in the engineering department are women, compared to the province-wide average of 19.7 per cent and the American and Canadian averages of 19.9 and 18.9 per cent, respectively. Through recruiting efforts and acceptance of diversity, the faculty says it is achieving its goal of creating a discrimination-free environment for students. The faculty also boasts an above average proportion of female faculty members. In 2014, 44 faculty members, or 17 per cent, were women. The countrywide average of female faculty members is just 13 per cent. The university says it continues to attract potential female high school students through outreach events such as Girls’ Leadership in Engineering Experience (glee) Weekend and the Young Women in Engineering Symposium.
— Panagiotis Angelinos With files from CBC News
— Kayla Chaterji
— Tom Drechsler With files from the Toronto Star
— Jonathan Gass
Comment
VAR.ST/COMMENT 2 FEBURARY 2015
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JULIEN BALBONTIN/THE VARSITY
A crisis of choice Your degree doesn’t guarantee the good life Malone Mullin VARSITY STAFF
If you have ever felt like you are being crushed under the weight of the future, you’re not alone. This feeling is among the first symptoms of a quarter-life crisis. You are trapped, either by too many options, or perhaps too few. The unpleasant condition strikes at the onset of entering the so-called real world, where we make decisions that will have massive consequences on the rest of our lives. For some, the anxiety that comes with choosing the best possible path can turn critical. One wrong choice, and it seems like everything might fall apart. As millennials, we can’t use our degrees as a universal passport like previous generations could, nor are we given a set of narrow expectations to work within. A career no longer guarantees lifelong employment under one firm. There are now many more decisions to be made in order to stake out a decent life, and much of that work begins while we’re still studying. The hardest part, and also the most important, involves getting over the fear of regretting those choices later on. For all of that, I feel paralyzed by the responsibility of having to plan the rest of my life when, in reality, my options are quite limited. That’s something I share with the roughly one-third of U of T undergrads that received at least $15,000 in osap loans throughout their
degree. This is on top of the growing need to supplement résumés with extra accreditation, simply to find work in a tough job market. Economic conditions have already determined a significant portion of our near future, whether we like it or not. With a quarter-life crisis in full swing, I’m terrified that all this anxiety — not to mention the prospect of grad school and impending loan repayment — fritters away the scant amount of youth I have left. Being in school often feels like a poor use of the energy, curiosity, and risk tolerance that is inherent to being a young person. Tied down to a loan, I’ll be well into adulthood before I ever get to backpack through Europe, build an off-the-grid home, or live on a farm in Chile. The fear of future uncertainty is so widespread, there’s a group on campus that chooses to address it directly. Applications for Tertiary Education Realized (after) U of T, an organization that helps students plan for future opportunities, holds events to promote the exploration of post-degree options. It’s an excellent example of the kind of support systems one needs when they’re facing a crisis of choice. The group is unique in that it reminds students that they’re ultimately the masters of their own destinies, regardless of the restrictions imposed by debt and degree inflation. Founder of after U of T and second-year student Sasha Boutilier says that in his experience, students worry a lot about making
good decisions, and often wonder if choosing university will be worthwhile in the long run. “The most common [anxiety] and one that really troubles me goes like something like this: I’m an English major, what if I just end up flipping burgers?” says Boutilier. Boutilier has a rosy outlook on that uncertainty. He thinks that it’s a matter of optimism: building a future can be scary, but it’s also an exciting time, and we shouldn’t lose sight of that. Positive engagement with our choices will help us pick the best ones. Researchers here at U of T are also helping students navigate the quarter-life crisis. Dr. Alison Chasteen, an associate professor of psychology, has reached a conclusion that supports Boutilier’s enthusiasm. In a recent study, she suggests that a sense of confidence about our future selves may positively influence our cognitive abilities in the present. More surprisingly, she also notes that there might also be “psychological and functional benefits” to fearing lost opportunities. The very act of worrying about a possible future self who regrets past decisions is, according to Chasteen, “positively associated with personal growth.” It seems that if you frequently picture yourself middle-aged and remorseful, it may compel you to ensure that life doesn’t turn out that way. All our fear might be a good thing after all. From the neurobiology perspective, U of T’s Dr. Will Cunningham recently co-published a study that considers well-being a subjective affair: satisfaction with life’s circumstance varies
across individual experience. Whether you’re content with a savoury meal, or unhappy until you’ve built an empire, quality of life is hard to write a prescription for. But whatever your personal definition of happiness, Cunningham’s analysis suggests a universal trait amongst satisfied individuals. Cognitive flexibility, or the ability to view the same situation from various perspectives, is key to maintaining your well-being and deriving value from past actions, even though they may otherwise be tinged with regret. Keeping in mind that the brain is structured such that happiness is relative may allow us to see the sunny side of past mistakes. Perhaps Cunningham’s study alleviates the pressures of the quarter-life crisis. But it’s not clear that we could willfully produce the kind of perspectival shift that cognitive flexibility requires. If you spend your twenties living in a basement apartment working three undesirable jobs, and end up missing career breaks because you opted to save for a down payment on a house instead, no amount of perspective will bring back those missed opportunities. Attaining the sublime cannot be taken for granted. Well-being must be sought, doggedly and with an urgent concern for one’s future. A degree might open many doors, but some it inevitably closes. So think hard about your future, in as many dimensions that you can. Soon the merely imminent will be present, and then the present will be all you’ll have left. Malone Mullin is a third-year philosophy specialist.
10 Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
VARSITY COMMENT
comment@thevarsity.ca
Let’s get rid of the free-for-all period after waitlists end The practice encourages selling course spots and serves no logical purpose Column
Following the closing day of course waitlists, students will exchange cash for class spots. VICTORIA DAWSON/THE VARSITY
Zane Schwartz VARSITY COLUMNIST
Under the current course registration system on rosi, once waitlists end we enter a free-for-all-period where getting into a course is contingent on happening to log in immediately after someone else has dropped the class. This system is horribly detrimental to students: not only does it induce stress, but it also encourages dishonesty in that the easiest way into a class at this point is to buy a spot. This system is great for course administrators, who have seven days
to play with the system — letting students in who’ve asked nicely and kicking out those who don’t have the prerequisites. Making life easier for the university’s registrars, however, should not be the primary goal of our course registration system. In the long term, there are a variety of excellent models we could emulate, such as Harvard and Yale’s practice of letting undergraduates shop for courses. Even in the short term, the benefits of getting rid of the free-for-all period far outweigh the costs. The unfortunate side-effect of the free-for-all period is the sale of spots in class. U of T has insisted that selling places in courses is limited and has
been practiced for years. The university also maintains that, technically, it’s not an academic offence to purchase a spot in a course. The reality is that selling space is a clandestine activity that is generally set up through private communication — therefore the university cannot know how often it takes place. The only reason selling your spot in a course is not an academic offense is because if the university prohibited it, they’d be under some obligation to try and stop it. U of T likes to deal with students in the abstract, en masse. Even if selling spots is a limited practice, it’s a limited practice with tangible human consequences. This year, a friend accepted a
$200 offer to sell his spot in a class. He wanted the class, but he didn’t need it — and $200 goes a long way for a struggling student. Last year, one of my friends was going to pay $500 to get into a class, and only didn’t because he happened to randomly check when a spot became available. $500 may seem like a lot, but when you’re paying $35,000 a year in international student fees and you need the course to graduate, it’s worth it. U of T has created a system where the unscrupulous prey on the desperate twice a year and the administration stick their fingers in their ears and pretend like they don’t know what’s going on. Consider the response I received when I asked Sinisa Markovic, assistant university registrar, as a perfect example of how the university doesn't take these issues seriously. In Markovic’s emailed reply, she wrote: “We are working diligently to ensure that a solution does not introduce new unintended problems, and that any solution is an effective and
responsible use of resources.” That’s almost word for word the same pablum university registrar Richard Levin offered The Varsity back in August. Markovic did offer one piece of information that was genuinely new — she explained that the university intends to introduce a technical solution to discourage the sale of course spots in time for fall 2015 registration. Getting rid of the free-for-all period would be easier than making improvements to the pre-existing course selection process like allowing students access to registration as observers before their start times, enabling them to see if classes have filled up, and enforcing fulfillment of the Dean’s Promise, just to name a few. Therefore, there’s no logical reason — and certainly no moral reason — not to get rid of the free-for-all period right away. Zane Schwartz is a fourth-year history student who contributes to The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. He was The Varsity’s news editor last year. His column appears bi-weekly.
The trouble with jobless graduates Today's university model doesn’t need grand innovation so much as it needs some time to reflect Christian Medeiros VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The value and nature of a university education is often subject to speculation and criticism. It has been scathed for failing to prepare students for the workforce. At the same time, it is also criticized for failing to provide a sufficiently stimulating learning environment that enlightens students and piques their intellectual curiosity. The problem with all these critiques when it comes to their subsequent policy predictions is that they are not coming from the same place. In order to make sense of the quality of university, we need to understand what the purpose of the institution is. Only then can we properly prescribe what to do about it. While university began as a means of higher learning, scholarship, and education for the elite, practical means have eroded the ivory tower. Professional schools that were once separate, such as engineering, commerce, medicine, and law, were added to the classical university. Over time, a more demanding economy used this institution to
hire trained workers. Learning for learning’s sake, the original aim of the university, and the challenge of giving it modern economic utility have not been reconciled. This results in students acquiring few relevant job skills, while simultaneously only partially feeding raw academic hunger. If you are going to critique the university model and come up with reasons for why it should be fixed, you need to go back to first principles and decide why you think it exists in the first place. If it is solely for building up a résumé and relevant skills, then it should have more classes that teach those skills, and practitioners should teach more of those classes. Co-ops and work experience must then follow suit as part of the curriculum. This is perhaps why we see the popular resurgence of college education. Students are realizing that relevant skills and education can be achieved more effectively and in less time with a college education. Furthermore, these schools and their marketing campaigns are positioned specifically to get students into jobs. These schools are looking to provide practical education, and as a result their goals are clear and
their achievements are easy to track. This does not mean that we can’t have both. Academic stimulation and job training are not entirely mutually exclusive. It does mean, however, that we need to accept and understand what we are striving for and the trade-offs that may have to be made. An institution overly focused on academia may mean that students will have to find job skills outside the classroom, but they do not have to do so — schools can try especially hard to provide easy access to job skills seminars and career experience. Alternatively, schools could have a mix of practically focused and academically intense classes, or have two intense years of academic study followed by two years of practical skills training. These recommendations are vague, but they show that you need to first decide what university is meant to achieve before you attempt to change the model. University does not need grand new plans so much as it needs reflection. Christian Medeiros is a third-year student at Trinity College specializing in international relations.
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VARSITY COMMENT
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
11
Tablet beats paper every time Students looking to improve their note-taking should consider a sleeker, more effective alternative Column Emma Kikulis ASSOCIATE COMMENT EDITOR
If, like myself, you are studying the humanities and haven’t yet developed carpal tunnel syndrome, you may not be taking notes properly. In courses where lecturers prefer to go without visual aids like slides, or opt not to post information on Blackboard, students spend the majority of their time in class labouring feverishly to keep up with the professor. So, what is the most effective way of taking notes? And I’m not talking about whether you prefer point-form to longhand or paragraphs to sentences; I’m talking about the most efficient medium. Taking notes in class is a personal preference; in my experience, U of T students tend to fall into one of the following three categories of note-takers; the scribbler: one who furiously and illegibly transcribes every word, verbatim, uttered by the prof; the loud typist, who, like the scribbler, pounds the keyboard of their laptop with speed and precision in order to catch every last word of the lecturer; and, finally, there’s the recorder, who places their recording device on the lectern, clicks “record,” and relaxes for two hours, with plans to listen to the lecture at home afterwards. There exists a device, however, which arguably covers the premier aspects of each of these three examples to embody the most effective form of note-taking: the tablet.
A tablet, unlike pen and paper or a laptop, is the most effective and efficient way for students to not only take stellar notes; it enables us to study and read more efficiently. Historically, tablet tech has been prohibitively expensive, however, in recent years multiple producers have rolled out less costly models to appeal to student budgets. Using a tablet, like an iPad or Kindle, for academic purposes is as strategic as it is convenient — you don’t need to carry multiple notebooks for various classes, you can say goodbye to your pencil case, your finger is the stylus, and you don’t have to lug your laptop around from class to class — rather, you can keep it at home to type out long-form assignments and research projects. For those who have yet to be convinced to join this technological note-taking revolution, and who may be skeptical or scared of change, I empathise with you; I too was wary of bringing a tablet to class. I wasn’t only worried that my precious Chaucer notes would somehow get lost in cyberspace or deleted, but feared that I lacked enough will-power to refrain from googling and checking social media after transcribing a few dismal lines. That being said, if you generally stay off your phone in class, or take it one step further and turn off the Wi-Fi connection, I assure you that taking notes with a tablet won’t be a huge adjustment, and has the potential to make your notes more organized and legible come midterm and exam seasons.
KATE TAYLOR/THE VARSITY
Although many students and professors warn against taking notes on screens instead of writing them out longhand, writing and typing don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Tablets, unlike typical notebooks, have the option of connecting a stylus to your screen, so that you can physically write on the top of your tablet whether you use a note app or Microsoft Word. Although this seems strangely akin to just taking notes with a pencil and
paper, like our parents did before us, writing on a digitized system enables you not only to archive your handwritten notes in one space, but it also allows you to draw schematics, diagrams, and graphs you wouldn’t be able to do as effectively on paper or on a laptop. It's clear that tablet beats paper in the classroom for note-taking and studying purposes, but that doesn’t mean you have to completely aban-
don books and longhand which remain the cheapest option of all. However, if you want to have a leg up come April and are willing to make the investment, bringing a tablet to class is one of your most viable solutions. Emma Kikulis is the associate comment editor at The Varsity. She is studying sociology and English. Her column appears bi-weekly.
U of T’s support services for victims of sexual violence are not as strong as they seem If substantive changes are to come, students will need to be involved Op-ed Celia Wandio
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
“I don’t think this is as big of a problem as you’re making it sound.” These are the words one man spoke to me after I asked him to sign a petition directed at U of T’s upper administration. This petition claims that U of T’s responses to sexual violence are, in fact, huge problems for far too many students. The petition also asks for changes to the Advisory Committee to the President and Provost on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence’s selection process, which has been secretive and has not done enough to ensure that student voices are represented adequately. Echoing this man’s sentiment, U of T president Meric Gertler recently told The Varsity in an interview that he believes that the university’s services for responding to sexual violence are “very strong,” though he also accepted that it is “too early to say” whether or not
Celia Wandio is the student behind the petition. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY
the current system will be sufficient. This was after being confronted with this same online petition, which over 300 students have now signed, not to mention the countless others that have signed in person. Why is it that, when faced with students’ lived experiences — which overwhelmingly show the inadequa-
cy of these services — people continue to deny that there is a problem worth addressing? I could relate horrific stories of U of T’s failure to protect its students from sexual violence and its failure to address the resulting trauma. I could recite shameful statistics — 19 per cent of undergraduate women
report experiencing sexual assault while in school — until my face turns blue. I could point to multiple reports on these issues, almost all of which indicate that both comprehensive services for survivors, and a distinct policy for adjudication, are necessary to respond to sexual violence appropriately. I could engage with dissenters in drawn-out and insulting arguments in which the value of the work I do is questioned mercilessly. I could do, and have done, all of the above, as have countless other students involved in this work. And while we do this, our university’s administration continues to get away without doing what it must to protect its students — not to mention the hundreds of thousands of students across the country whose universities are failing them too. I know progress is being made. Premier Kathleen Wynne, after meeting with student representatives from across Ontario, has indicated that she will announce a plan to respond
to campus sexual violence in March. My point is that, for ages, students have been saying that, when it comes to sexual violence on campus, the university’s response and prevention efforts have been woefully inadequate. Students have been suffering and their voices have gone unheard, or at least, unheeded. If we want to see substantive changes made in this area — if we want students to stop suffering unnecessarily — student voices need to be included in substantive ways. We have experiences, both negative and positive, which qualify us, and we are the ones who suffer the consequences of the administration’s continued inaction. We refuse to let student voices be ignored any longer. If you agree and want to join our campaign, please sign and share our petition available online, and feel free to email us. Celia Wandio is a student at Trinity College. She started the Stop Sexual Violence at U of T petition.
Article by Emily Katz
Inside campus’s sustainable, socially conscious Harvest Noon Café
T
ucked away near the southwest corner of campus, down the quiet enclave that holds the Department of Earth Sciences and the Multi-Faith Centre, a small, unassuming building houses the Graduate Students’ Union. On the first floor, there is a small, pleasant pub and a neglected gymnasium. Climbing the stairs to the second floor, the mood completely changes. The space opens to a bright café, illuminated by sunlight and decorated in a piecemeal fashion — a juxtaposition of mismatched wooden tables and chairs and inviting cushions, with drawings of vegetables adorning the walls. A map of southern Ontario occupies a portion of a chalkboard wall. Lines radiate from Toronto to the farms outside of the city from which the café’s fresh produce arrives. It is an inviting space, welcoming patrons from the chill of winter. A handwritten menu outlines the week’s features. The standard meal is the Bumper Crop, which offers a main of either black bean and butternut squash mash or hot beet borscht, both accompanied by a seasonal salad, home-baked bread, and hummus spread, all for around five dollars. If you can’t decide which main you’d like, you can get the Double Bumper. Harvest Noon is one of U of T’s last well-kept secrets. The establishment celebrated its three-year anniversary just last week with a dessert potluck. Harvest Noon board member Jessica Denyer describes it as a “student and community run vegan co-op café,” mainly operated through volunteer work. In addition to their main dishes, you can purchase salads, soups, fruit, baked goods, and fair-trade coffee and tea. These options cost anywhere from $2 to $7, depending on the combination. Take-out containers can be purchased for $0.50, though the atmosphere of the café is a significant part of the dining experience. The fare is versatile; the hearty cornmeal soup, the baked bean potato mash, and the potato latkes have been popular menu items this year. Desserts at Harvest Noon are delightful and portable. Cakes and cobblers are the most common and are almost always gluten-free. The food and the space are the product of dedicated staff. To consistently create satisfying and enjoyable meals with locally sourced produce in the middle of the Canadian winter seems like a challenging goal, but it is one that Harvest Noon consistently achieves. According to staff, the method is simple: planning, many test runs, and lots of grains and legumes. “We have to test a recipe out, so, you know, we know that it wouldn’t fail,” explains staff member Chechi Liu. Some dishes need to be jazzed up, she says, because winter seasonal vegetables can lack colour.
DEVELOPING ROOTS Originally founded in 2011 by the student group Hot Yam!, Harvest Noon’s official name is the Toronto Sustainable Food Co-operative — a more informative, though less inviting, moniker. The café, as Denyer notes, “operate(s) from a broad environmental justice mandate,” which translates into a belief that there is no environmental justice without social justice. As part of that mandate, the café aims to provide information and education to others. “A big part is education, events, and providing a space for groups,” Denyer explains. The volunteers that run Harvest Noon are invaluable, and many start out as customers. Their contributions are essential; invested volunteers lighten the workload at the café, contributing to the relaxed atmosphere for staff and patrons. “It’s a good working environment that provides students with different skills and a place to hang out,” Liu says. Volunteer shifts last two hours and include a free meal. A team of almost 30 volunteers works with five staff members and the Board of Directors to oversee the operations. The co-op is fueled by a shared interest in vegan, healthy, and sustainable food options, all of which are largely unavailable across the St. George campus. Liu acknowledges the challenges of engaging visitors with the café’s wider mission. Unsurprisingly, he
Harvest Noon Café. MAYA WONG/THE VARSITY
noted that the people who learn the most are usually the ones who want to. “It’s more done on a personal level, sort of felt by volunteers when they feel empowered to take the issue into their own hands,” he says, adding, “We sort of provide an environment to help with that.” The challenges are clear. “Obviously I wish there were more passion and programming going on, but limited resources are a big hurdle,” says Liu. When asked if Harvest Noon would ever expand to a bigger space on campus, Liu was uncertain, saying it would mean a bigger investment on the co-op’s part. For now, however, it seems that the space is serving Harvest Noon very well. Every day, the small café is filled by 1:00 pm, and the kitchen is usually out of at least one main by closing time at 2:00 pm.
LOCAL FOOD SOURCING Harvest Noon’s food comes primarily from the distributor 100 km Foods. The focus is on locally sourced food to optimize freshness, support local farmers, and reduce the co-op’s carbon footprint as much as possible. “It feels really nice to have that immediate support and most of the produce is of amazing quality, and is stuff that you can rarely find in stores, which is a bit strange,” Liu says. This support is part of a symbiotic relationship. Small-scale farms, dependent on seasonal growing, are unable to provide for the varied and specific needs of large-scale restaurants year-round. As much as places like Harvest Noon are dependent on local farmers, the local farmers rely on seasonal, rotating menus like the one found at the café. Before choosing to work with 100 km Foods, Liu did his research. “I actually went and located all the different farms on Google Maps, and there’s a lot in the Niagara Region, vinegar from a Niagara vinery, a few in the west [of Ontario]… it’s quite a big variety,” explains Liu. For some ingredients, extra-regional sourcing is necessary. These include wheat and legumes, which are grown in the prairies. A benefit of locally sourced food is its diversity and quality. “Quality is an issue, just how standardized everything has to be in a lot of grocery stores. A lot of the things we get are not as sparklingly clean as you’d get in the stores,” Liu explains. He adds that a major cause of food waste is the tendency to discard food based on physical appearance alone. With this approach comes more transparency. The produce used by Harvest Noon is all guaranteed to be organic and GMO-free, and often has a Local Food Plus certification. Local Food Plus certifications indicate a commitment to social consciousness in addition to environmentally friendly farming. “They pay fair wages to their workers,” Liu explains, adding, “We try to get as much food as we can from them.” The staff has plans to bring its sourcing even closer to home. When staff members can’t order an item lo-
cally, they stop by Kensington Market to buy “odds and ends.” “We can’t say all our food is local, because some of our seasoning items aren’t as local as we can get. But we’re working on that. We’re considering harvesting Sumac,” Liu notes.
FACILITATING COMMUNITY Community is important to Harvest Noon’s mission as a socially conscious café. The management of the café is collaborative and co-op oriented. It takes only five dollars or two volunteer shifts to become a member for life and join the ranks of over 1400 others. Membership gets you discounted menu items and participation rights in general meetings. The space itself can be rented for group use, but the café also collaborates with campus groups. Recently, its neighbour, BikeChain, held an event focused on “healthy, nutritious, to-go food” for cyclists on extended trips. One of Harvest Noon’s closest collaborative projects is with Dig In!, the campus agricultural network that is dedicated to small-scale, sustainable food production. Harvest Noon works with Dig In!’s local plots to grow herbs and preserve them by drying them for use throughout the winter. Harvest Noon also works with local groups like the Toronto Seed Library (tsl), an initiative also founded by U of T grads. Its work is “collecting expired seed from stores, or actually even go directly into seed companies and get their expired seed,” says Liu. Despite expiration dates on packaging, most of the seed in a package is often still viable — the tsl collects and redistributes these to the public for free. Liu explains, “They call it a library because the idea is that you should get a seed and plant it, and return more seed in the next season.”
A SPACE TO GROW It is common to find many politically and socially conscious minds among the students at U of T. Yet, few on-campus food options can claim to be inexpensive, vegan, organic, healthy-minded, locally sourced, or sustainable. Harvest Noon is all those things, and consistently delicious too. Though much of Harvest Noon’s charm comes from its relative anonymity and the unique experience it affords, ultimately, the café wants to increase its promotion and community engagement. Even with all of its wonderful offerings, Liu says, “Surprisingly, people still haven’t heard of us.” In the future, the Harvest Noon staff would like to see increased programming, including workshops and events. They currently offer menu planning and breadmaking opportunities, and Liu wants to increase preserving and pickling of fruits and vegetables in the off-season. The café’s charm is certainly undeniable. Spending time immersed in the smells of squash mash and freshbaked bread is a blissful retreat from the winds billowing outside on campus in the February cold.
Try these fresh, locally sourced recipes to warm up this winter
Recipes and photos by Malone Mullin
B L ACK B E AN BURGER (W ITH V EG AN M AYO) Prep: 20 min Cook: 20 min Black beans are grown in Ontario and Michigan and are sold year-round. This burger is topped with kale sprouts fresh from farms in the GTA. BURGER PATTY: 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds 1/2 cup grated carrot or zucchini 1/2 cup onion, finely diced 1/2 cup (approx.) breadcrumbs or pulverized crackers 1 flax egg (see below for directions) 1 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp paprika Salt and pepper to taste 1.
Heat oven to 425 F.
VEGAN MAYO:
2.
To make flax egg, whisk 3 tbsp ground flax with 1/2 cup warm water in a small dish.
3.
Leave mixture in fridge for at least 20 minutes, or until it reaches an egg-likeconsistency.
4.
Mash the beans in a large bowl with a fork. Leave some of the beans intact for texture.
5.
Mix in onion, almond, carrot or zucchini, and seasonings. Add flax egg; stir to combine.
1 pound silken tofu 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp Dijon mustard 1 tsp regular mustard 1/4 cup almond or soy milk 1/4 cup olive oil Salt to taste Sriracha or chipotle hot sauce (optional)
6.
Add breadcrumbs until consistency of patty mixture is just wet enough to hold together.
7.
Form into patties and place on greased baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden and firm in the middle.
1.
Add ingredients to blender or food processor. Pulse until smooth.
WARM K ALE SAL AD Prep: 15 min Cook: 30 min This salad features winter root vegetables grown in Ontario. SALAD: 6 cups shredded kale, stems removed 1 butternut squash, peeled, gutted, and diced 1 large beet, scrubbed and diced 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil Salt and pepper to taste DRESSING: Mango chipotle or Raspberry vinaigrette 1.
Heat oven to 375ยบ F.
2.
Toss squash and beet with oil in large bowl until lightly coated. Season with salt and pepper. Lay in single layer on baking sheet; cook for 30 minutes or until softened, turning once.
3.
When cooked, roast walnuts in single layer for 2-4 minutes until lightly toasted.
4.
Add slightly damp kale to large pot on medium-low heat. Blanch kale, stirring often, until cooked through; about 5 minutes. Blot with towel to remove excess water.
5.
Add all ingredients in large salad bowl and toss with dressing of choice. Serves 4.
Arts&Culture
VAR.ST/ARTS
2 FEBURARY 2015
Corey Van Den Hoogenband VARSITY STAFF
Y T I C E H T G N I K C O L N U S M O O R ESCAPE TO'S N O R O T E R A R O F D N E L ATEST TR ROUS ADVENTU S T N E D U T S
In the last few months, many Torontonians have found themselves trapped — locked in poorly lit rooms with a group of friends, desperately trying to find a way out. The strangest part? It's an experience they paid for. Interactive puzzle-solving experiences, better known as room escape games, have recently exploded in popularity around the world, and Toronto is no exception. The real-life room escapes are often said to have evolved from the room escape video games that popped up all over the Internet in the early 2000s. In these games, players would point and click on objects for clues on how to escape their disturbing online locales. It wasn't long after that entrepreneurs in Japan, China, and California took the core concept behind games like Crimson Room and placed players in similar — albeit real-life — environments. From there, the idea blew up worldwide. These days, escape rooms come in a multitude of forms. The most traditional ones trap players in a single room with clues spread throughout, awaiting decoding. Others challenge patrons to escape a series of rooms, with each unlocked door leading to a new set of challenges. Regardless of the set up, one element always remains constant — you only have one hour to escape. Ryan Henson Creighton, an ex-video game designer turned escape room creator and owner of the company “LockQuest” shared a few of his thoughts on the recent explosion of room escape games in Toronto. Apart from cold weather making Torontonians look for indoor activities, Creighton says, "Another reason they're big here is that Toronto is a multicultural city. We have international students who have played these games at home who can spread the word about them here." With such a saturated market, it can be challenging to decide which puzzle to tackle first. Third year student Danny Xie shared his experience with EscapeZone's Biohazard room. While players are restricted from spilling details of any of the games' puzzles, Xie commends the room for constantly bombarding his group with challenges and was impressed by the staff’s
arts@thevarsity.ca
enthusiasm, saying, "[The employees] offered clues and guided us through some of the tougher puzzles." Anthropology student Elora Tse recommends esc-it, a venue that proudly boasts the title of first escape room in Toronto. Like so many other players, Tse's experience in esc-it's "Escape With Vision" room saw her and her team failing to free themselves before the clock hit zero. I'll be the first to admit my own session ended with me laying in a pile of fake bones while my teammates desperately scavenged for any remaining and overlooked clues. For the sake of immersion, Creighton reccomends rooms that rely on story. "Too many escape games dump you into a bizarrely decorated room with no compelling reason to escape other than 'the door's locked,’” he says, adding, “Cool — how did I get here? Who locked me in?" "Story, to me, is everything," Creighton elaborates. "With [escape rooms], I think story is an essential part of the magic,” he says. Creighton's own company currently runs a room called "Escape the Book Club Killer." After responding to a strange invitation to join a peculiar stranger’s book club, players find themselves locked in the mysterious apartment of said book club killer. They are then tasked with unravelling any clues left behind by past victims to escape before the madman returns. With such an apparent demand for the puzzle games, a major question worth considering is what the future of this pastime might hold. Creighton referred back to his video game days to predict what might lie ahead. "As with indie games, a few break-out successes will attract the attention of more financially endowed entrants, and games with higher production values will push out lower quality games,” he predicts. From there, we agreed, it's possible that the games might take new forms outside of single room mysteries, with companies introducing new types of experiences like outdoor puzzle hunts that won't always centre around escaping. Regardless of where the trend goes, it’s clear that escape rooms are in Toronto to stay. They seem to fill a niche market of creative problemsolving that, until now, had been untouched. As Creighton says, “People enjoy these games, in part, because they're a departure from reality. The deeper you can immerse people in the experience, the more enjoyable it will be."
Escape Rooms feature players in real-life traps they only have an hour to escape from, using hidden clues. PHOTOS BY TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY
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VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
15
Living Arts: Choir! Choir! Choir! Every week Choir! Choir! Choir! makes its way to a new bar. COURTESY OF JOSEPH FUDA
India McAlister makes her way into the indie-choir community with mixed results India McAllister VARSITY STAFF
Many of us are no strangers to the joy of singing in a crowd. Whether it’s campfire sing-alongs, belting out an enthusiastic rendition of “O Canada” at a hockey game, or the public humiliation known as karaoke, it’s not uncommon to have, at one point or another, raised your voice in song with a group of friends or strangers. Singing within a group creates a sense of community, and can be a healing process of sharing and cooperation. So, on Wednesday night, I thought: “Why not go to the Monarch Tavern, have a pint, and sing a song with a bunch of strangers?” Having made my decision, I journeyed forward to Choir! Choir! Choir!, a weekly dropin community choir that has been harmonizing groups of Torontonians since 2011.
I have to admit that, on my way to Choir!, I was nervous about getting lost and arriving late. In my nervousness, I arrived exactly on time — a publicly posted 7:30 pm — to find that, thus far, only a few other anxious newbies had shuffled in for the night. The already initiated regulars, the bartender knowingly informed me, usually trickled in around 8:00 pm. I quickly bought a drink. Taking a seat beside another first-time Choir! participant, I told her that I was unfamiliar with this week's repertoire, “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters — a confession that seemed to stun her. I joked that I figured it’s because the song is too old for me to know, but not quite old enough to be a classic. She thought that was funny, although it made her feel old... at 28. We continued to chat, and I relaxed — I had made a friend, of sorts. Just after eight, the choir began. I had expected the participants to be mostly un-
der 35, but was surprised at the amount of white hair among the ranks. The showrunners, Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman, sported more of an indie rock aesthetic than your average choir directors. Unlike most formal choirs, we skipped the warm up and launched into a free-for-all of the night’s repertoire. I enjoyed hearing all of the voices, about 60 in total, blending together in our own improvised way, and immediately felt a bond with those around me. However, very soon, this joy would turn to frustration. Choir! is meant to be casual, but a certain amount of decorum is required to pull off any three-part harmony, and “Everlong” featured a particularly complex arrangement. Our rocker conductors decided to use the tactic of harassing us and making off-colour remarks in an attempt to motivate the crowd to sing the parts the way they envisioned. In between directions, the choir leaders spoke
to the crowd in what I can only describe as ill-conceived comedy bits. I have to admit I was alarmed — this was not the carefree sing-a-long I had imagined. Tired of the negativity, I pushed my way out of the crowd, retiring to the bar to chat with the bartender and wait for the final take. Eventually, we sang the song, and they recorded it. The final version was technically better than our earlier run-through, but the atmosphere had lost most of its excitement. By the end of the night, I was relieved to be able to go home. Despite having a less-than-stellar initial experience, I think that Choir! is an allaround good idea. I plan to return because I want to give it a fair shake. It’s hard to enter into an established community for the first time, especially when singing a song with which you're not familiar. And, frankly, I don’t think “Everlong” will ever be a classic. At least, not in three-part harmony.
$10 Restauranteur: Pho Hung Sarah Leaper
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Pho Hung's yellow and red sign has been a staple of Toronto's Chinatown since 1980. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY
The storey-high yellow and red sign on the storefront of Pho Hung is an immediately recognizable Chinatown staple. For those of you who have been there, I know I’m preaching to the choir. This recommendation is for those who have not yet been converted — the food is outrageous and the prices decidedly not. Obviously, the top-ticket menu item at Pho Hung is the salty noodle soup that gives the restaurant its name. No surprise there — pho is a magical, all-purpose cure for colds, hangovers, broken hearts, and midterm blues. The ingredients vary, with options including rare and well-done beef, brisket, tripe, tendon, and beef balls. My personal recommendation from the massive menu would be to keep it simple with a $7.50 large Pho Tái, the rice noodle soup with rare beef: trust me, the large size lives up to its name.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, the Pho Hung Dac Biet or "Hung’s Special" costs an extra 50 cents and comes with rare and well-done beef, tripe, and tendon, and if you’re in the mood to share an appetizer, try the Cha Giò Chay, the restaurant's deep fried vegetarian spring rolls. The $4.00 small size is great as a smaller snack, while the $7.50 size up is ideal for the hungrier student or as a sharing plate. If you really want to get fancy and spend a little extra, take a look at the drink menu. Pho Hung offers a variety of hot and cold Vietnamese beverages, like the $3.50 filtered coffee with condensed milk. Or, if you’re looking for something more refreshing for the same price, try a soda water with fresh lemon juice, ice, and sugar. If you haven’t already, make the pilgrimage to Pho Hung — located on Spadina between College and Dundas — in between classes. I promise that you will be an immediate pho convert.
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Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
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Winterlicious: a student guide Breaking down the must-visit restaurants of the winter food festival Jeffery Chen
VARSITY STAFF
If you’re looking for something to motivate you to get out of your studying den, look no further: Winterlicious has officially arrived. The annual winter foodfest has prix-fixe menus set at $18– $28 for lunch and $25–$45 for dinner, with over 200 restaurants participating. Restaurants you could only previously afford during parental visits can be experienced during the event at a fraction of the regular cost. Whether you’re looking for savings, new exciting cuisines, or a new date spot, we went through and found the best restaurants for every occasion.
BEST CHEAP EATS Normally priced at much more than Winterlicious’s $18/$25 lunch/dinner menus, Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill is a must-visit. Located in the downtown core, the café marks the first restaurant in the Oliver & Bonacini restaurant empire. Offering a contemporary menu with a distinct Mediterranean influence, the restaurant provides a sophisticated, urban twist to classic Italian dishes — from fresh salads and soups to pastas and oven-roasted pizzas. For those with more international palettes, Arisu, known for serving authentic KoreanJapanese fusion cuisine, also has great value for your dollar. Serving up everything from perfectly seared Korean Barbecue to butter-like pork belly — and with an extensive roster of sushi options to match — Arisu, located near campus in the Annex, is well worth the trip. Also dealing in Japanese fare, the celebrated fried chicken, noodles, and rice cakes of Momofuku Noodle Bar — David Chang’s well-loved, stylish establishment — can also be had at a bargain rate during Winterlicious.
BEST GREEN OPTIONS While only a limited number of restaurants cater to those on a vegan or vegetarian diet, a few restaurants participating in Winterlicious offer veggie-friendly menu options. A standout among them is Grasslands. Boasting a $25 dinner-only menu and an elegant atmosphere, Grasslands offers imaginative vegan options
ranging from pesto cream fettucini to grilled seitan steak. La Macquette, located in Old Town, is famous not only for its classic French and Italian menu, but also for its sumptuous interiors. With crystal chandeliers, an elegant staircase, and a oneof-a-kind solarium that looks onto St. James Cathedral, La Macquette is the perfect venue for a romantic dinner, and has plenty of vegetarian options to boot.
BEST DATE SPOTS La Société, a dinner date classic, is a sure-toplease option when it comes to romantic dining during Winterlicious. Serving casual Parisian bistro fare in an upscale setting, the atmosphere itself — and the famous stained glass dome ceiling — is reason enough to pay the restaurant a visit if you want to impress your date. Tucked away in the heart of Yorkville, Ciao Wine Bar not only offers authentic Italian cuisine, but provides a cozy, candle-lit atmosphere for a date. With décor featuring exposed brickwork and vaulted ceilings, the rustic-yetelegant feel of Ciao is perfect for a second or third romantic outing.
BEST SPLURGES For those wanting to sample Toronto’s top-ofthe-line culinary scene, Winterlicious is the perfect opportunity to get normally pricey restaurants at good value. While many flock to upscale dining staples such as Mark McEwan’s One Restaurant or the ever-popular Canoe, there are many other restaurants that offer fine dining without the brand-hype. Café Boulud, Daniel Boulud’s Toronto restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel, serves a menu reflective of the café’s eclectic décor: French-themed, but inflected with strong international accents. Another standout in Toronto’s fine dining scene is Auberge du Pommier, which offers up culinary gems in a setting reminiscent of a rustic French cottage. With over 500 wines to choose from, as well as carefully crafted dishes infused with a unique Japanese style, Auberge du Pommier, though farther away from downtown than the other restaurants on this list, is well worth a visit.
Auberge du Pommier. COURTESY OF ROB HYNDMAN/FLICKR CC
Ciao Wine Bar. COURTESY OF INSERT MAGAZINE/FLICKR CC
Momofuku Noodle Bar. COURTESY OF CHRIS BARKER/FLICKR CC
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VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
The Spiegelman Perspective
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Cartoonist Art Spiegelman speaks on comics and free speech in light of the Charlie Hebdo massacre
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ENABLING CHANGE POST-SECONDARY DESIGN COMPETITION 2014 – 15 S LE F T ! H T N O T WO M M IT NOW! SU B
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is a competition open to Ontario post-secondary students in ALL design fields. Project ideas that remove barriers for people with disabilities and promote greater inclusion are welcome. Inclusive digital, interactive and web design projects are encouraged.
$2,000 and have their work included in an exhibition at Design Exchange in Toronto!
Deadline: April 1, 2015 DX.ORG/CONNECT
Write for Arts & Culture. Art you the one? arts@thevarsity.ca
Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist known for his support for free speech. COURTESY OF WEXNER CENTER/FLICKR CC
Jacob Lorinc
ASSOCIATE ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR
“Recently, people have been saying that I’m the father of the graphic novel,” muses Art Spiegelman as he stares blankly out at the crowd filling the seats of the Bloor Cinema. “Well, in that case, I’m demanding a blood test.” Spiegelman is the Pulitzer prize-winning, idiosyncratic mastermind behind critically acclaimed graphic novels Maus and In The Shadow of No Towers, as well as the creator of decades worth of covers and essays for The New Yorker. When taking into account his work for Raw Magazine and Arcade: The Comic Revue, it’s difficult to overstate the cultural significance of Spiegelman’s immensely influential body of work. While he modestly denies the title of comics’ paternal figure, the label is nevertheless understandable. His impact on the world of politically driven satire stands above other graphic artists and cartoonists; it is the subject of his appropriately titled lecture last Monday night, What the $@%!: The Spiegelman Influence. Spiegelman was introduced to MAD Magazine as a young boy. Inspired by the publication's outlandish humour and satirical take on American politics, he began creating his own
cartoons. He credits MAD for launching his career as a cartoonist and gives the magazine equal credit for bestowing upon young people like himself a certain sense of political cynicism that was heavily frowned upon when he was growing up in the 1960s. Now, Spiegelman has inadvertently found himself a demi-God-like figure for cartoonists in the Western hemisphere. In his graphic novel Maus, he tackles his father’s odyssey as a Jew during the Holocaust; In the Shadow of No Towers addresses his own trauma as a New Yorker following the 9/11 attacks. Having developed a reputation as someone willing to address disaster head-on (he’s frequently been quoted as saying “disaster, it’s my muse!”), it’s unsurprising news that Spiegelman has become the go-to figure to comment on the recent murder of 11 members of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Much like his politically driven — and often controversial — work, Spiegelman’s lectures are blatantly candid and lacking in any sort of censorship. He uses freedom of speech to its greatest extent, having focused the majority of his career around it. “What the $@%! Happened to Comics, is, in my opinion, the best fucking way to describe this talk,” he announces, sounding off the names of each symbol used in the lecture’s title. The different symbols, he
explains, are correlated with the concept behind satirist drawings. It allows for the viewer to derive meaning out of an image — placing words in your head without explicitly saying them. “A cartoonist's goal is to create an image that, once you’ve seen it, you won’t be able to ‘un-see’,” he says, while standing highlighted against a drawing of a member of Al-Qaeda preparing to duel an American bureaucrat. Between the two figures sits Spiegelman, unconscious, with a caption that reads, “Equally terrorized by Al-Qaeda and by his own government.” “This is when most people assumed that I had fallen off my rocker,” he explains. Spiegelman began the presentation calm and collected, but was quickly derailed by an impassioned rant on censorship in the modern media. The New York Times’ reluctance to publish the Charlie Hebdo drawings that initially prompted the attacks greatly upset him. According to Spiegelman, The Times told readers to search for the drawings online if they wanted to see them. “You don’t send people to the internet,” he says, adding, “Because then why should they come back to you?” With that, the lecture quickly turned to the moral implications of the Hebdo controversy.
“I’ll never understand how [Charlie Hebdo] could forgive those guys,” sighs Spiegelman, referencing the magazine’s recent issue whose cover reads, “tout est pardonné,” meaning "all is forgiven." For Spiegelman, the attack was not only a massacre of innocent civilians, but an attack on the ability to enact free speech. He notes that, while many of the cartoons made by Hebdo could have been interpreted as racist, the magazine often discussed disfranchised minority groups within France and how their living conditions could be improved. In Spiegelman’s view, the extremists were missing the point. He then, true to his eccentric public persona, abruptly left the stage to use the bathroom, mic left on until a helpful audience member hollered at him to turn it off. Returning to the stage for a question period, Spiegelman received numerous inquiries regarding his opinion on free speech. Taking into account his own experiences, he truly understands the sensitivity needed in the characterization of other religions, even if the intentions are in good taste. “I’ll never understand the big deal over depicting Mohammed,” he sighs, and pauses before adding, “But then again, the satirist depictions directed towards Jews has never been my cup of tea, either.”
var.st/arts
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
15
Living Arts: Choir! Choir! Choir! Every week Choir! Choir! Choir! makes its way to a new bar. COURTESY OF JOSEPH FUDA
India McAlister makes her way into the indie-choir community with mixed results India McAllister VARSITY STAFF
Many of us are no strangers to the joy of singing in a crowd. Whether it’s campfire sing-alongs, belting out an enthusiastic rendition of “O Canada” at a hockey game, or the public humiliation known as karaoke, it’s not uncommon to have, at one point or another, raised your voice in song with a group of friends or strangers. Singing within a group creates a sense of community, and can be a healing process of sharing and cooperation. So, on Wednesday night, I thought: “Why not go to the Monarch Tavern, have a pint, and sing a song with a bunch of strangers?” Having made my decision, I journeyed forward to Choir! Choir! Choir!, a weekly dropin community choir that has been harmonizing groups of Torontonians since 2011.
I have to admit that, on my way to Choir!, I was nervous about getting lost and arriving late. In my nervousness, I arrived exactly on time — a publicly posted 7:30 pm — to find that, thus far, only a few other anxious newbies had shuffled in for the night. The already initiated regulars, the bartender knowingly informed me, usually trickled in around 8:00 pm. I quickly bought a drink. Taking a seat beside another first-time Choir! participant, I told her that I was unfamiliar with this week's repertoire, “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters — a confession that seemed to stun her. I joked that I figured it’s because the song is too old for me to know, but not quite old enough to be a classic. She thought that was funny, although it made her feel old... at 28. We continued to chat, and I relaxed — I had made a friend, of sorts. Just after eight, the choir began. I had expected the participants to be mostly un-
der 35, but was surprised at the amount of white hair among the ranks. The showrunners, Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman, sported more of an indie rock aesthetic than your average choir directors. Unlike most formal choirs, we skipped the warm up and launched into a free-for-all of the night’s repertoire. I enjoyed hearing all of the voices, about 60 in total, blending together in our own improvised way, and immediately felt a bond with those around me. However, very soon, this joy would turn to frustration. Choir! is meant to be casual, but a certain amount of decorum is required to pull off any three-part harmony, and “Everlong” featured a particularly complex arrangement. Our rocker conductors decided to use the tactic of harassing us and making off-colour remarks in an attempt to motivate the crowd to sing the parts the way they envisioned. In between directions, the choir leaders spoke
to the crowd in what I can only describe as ill-conceived comedy bits. I have to admit I was alarmed — this was not the carefree sing-a-long I had imagined. Tired of the negativity, I pushed my way out of the crowd, retiring to the bar to chat with the bartender and wait for the final take. Eventually, we sang the song, and they recorded it. The final version was technically better than our earlier run-through, but the atmosphere had lost most of its excitement. By the end of the night, I was relieved to be able to go home. Despite having a less-than-stellar initial experience, I think that Choir! is an allaround good idea. I plan to return because I want to give it a fair shake. It’s hard to enter into an established community for the first time, especially when singing a song with which you're not familiar. And, frankly, I don’t think “Everlong” will ever be a classic. At least, not in three-part harmony.
$10 Restauranteur: Pho Hung Sarah Leaper
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Pho Hung's yellow and red sign has been a staple of Toronto's Chinatown since 1980. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY
The storey-high yellow and red sign on the storefront of Pho Hung is an immediately recognizable Chinatown staple. For those of you who have been there, I know I’m preaching to the choir. This recommendation is for those who have not yet been converted — the food is outrageous and the prices decidedly not. Obviously, the top-ticket menu item at Pho Hung is the salty noodle soup that gives the restaurant its name. No surprise there — pho is a magical, all-purpose cure for colds, hangovers, broken hearts, and midterm blues. The ingredients vary, with options including rare and well-done beef, brisket, tripe, tendon, and beef balls. My personal recommendation from the massive menu would be to keep it simple with a $7.50 large Pho Tái, the rice noodle soup with rare beef: trust me, the large size lives up to its name.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, the Pho Hung Dac Biet or "Hung’s Special" costs an extra 50 cents and comes with rare and well-done beef, tripe, and tendon, and if you’re in the mood to share an appetizer, try the Cha Giò Chay, the restaurant's deep fried vegetarian spring rolls. The $4.00 small size is great as a smaller snack, while the $7.50 size up is ideal for the hungrier student or as a sharing plate. If you really want to get fancy and spend a little extra, take a look at the drink menu. Pho Hung offers a variety of hot and cold Vietnamese beverages, like the $3.50 filtered coffee with condensed milk. Or, if you’re looking for something more refreshing for the same price, try a soda water with fresh lemon juice, ice, and sugar. If you haven’t already, make the pilgrimage to Pho Hung — located on Spadina between College and Dundas — in between classes. I promise that you will be an immediate pho convert.
16
Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
arts@thevarsity.ca
Winterlicious: a student guide Breaking down the must-visit restaurants of the winter food festival Jeffery Chen
VARSITY STAFF
If you’re looking for something to motivate you to get out of your studying den, look no further: Winterlicious has officially arrived. The annual winter foodfest has prix-fixe menus set at $18– $28 for lunch and $25–$45 for dinner, with over 200 restaurants participating. Restaurants you could only previously afford during parental visits can be experienced during the event at a fraction of the regular cost. Whether you’re looking for savings, new exciting cuisines, or a new date spot, we went through and found the best restaurants for every occasion.
BEST CHEAP EATS Normally priced at much more than Winterlicious’s $18/$25 lunch/dinner menus, Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill is a must-visit. Located in the downtown core, the café marks the first restaurant in the Oliver & Bonacini restaurant empire. Offering a contemporary menu with a distinct Mediterranean influence, the restaurant provides a sophisticated, urban twist to classic Italian dishes — from fresh salads and soups to pastas and oven-roasted pizzas. For those with more international palettes, Arisu, known for serving authentic KoreanJapanese fusion cuisine, also has great value for your dollar. Serving up everything from perfectly seared Korean Barbecue to butter-like pork belly — and with an extensive roster of sushi options to match — Arisu, located near campus in the Annex, is well worth the trip. Also dealing in Japanese fare, the celebrated fried chicken, noodles, and rice cakes of Momofuku Noodle Bar — David Chang’s well-loved, stylish establishment — can also be had at a bargain rate during Winterlicious.
BEST GREEN OPTIONS While only a limited number of restaurants cater to those on a vegan or vegetarian diet, a few restaurants participating in Winterlicious offer veggie-friendly menu options. A standout among them is Grasslands. Boasting a $25 dinner-only menu and an elegant atmosphere, Grasslands offers imaginative vegan options
ranging from pesto cream fettucini to grilled seitan steak. La Macquette, located in Old Town, is famous not only for its classic French and Italian menu, but also for its sumptuous interiors. With crystal chandeliers, an elegant staircase, and a oneof-a-kind solarium that looks onto St. James Cathedral, La Macquette is the perfect venue for a romantic dinner, and has plenty of vegetarian options to boot.
BEST DATE SPOTS La Société, a dinner date classic, is a sure-toplease option when it comes to romantic dining during Winterlicious. Serving casual Parisian bistro fare in an upscale setting, the atmosphere itself — and the famous stained glass dome ceiling — is reason enough to pay the restaurant a visit if you want to impress your date. Tucked away in the heart of Yorkville, Ciao Wine Bar not only offers authentic Italian cuisine, but provides a cozy, candle-lit atmosphere for a date. With décor featuring exposed brickwork and vaulted ceilings, the rustic-yetelegant feel of Ciao is perfect for a second or third romantic outing.
BEST SPLURGES For those wanting to sample Toronto’s top-ofthe-line culinary scene, Winterlicious is the perfect opportunity to get normally pricey restaurants at good value. While many flock to upscale dining staples such as Mark McEwan’s One Restaurant or the ever-popular Canoe, there are many other restaurants that offer fine dining without the brand-hype. Café Boulud, Daniel Boulud’s Toronto restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel, serves a menu reflective of the café’s eclectic décor: French-themed, but inflected with strong international accents. Another standout in Toronto’s fine dining scene is Auberge du Pommier, which offers up culinary gems in a setting reminiscent of a rustic French cottage. With over 500 wines to choose from, as well as carefully crafted dishes infused with a unique Japanese style, Auberge du Pommier, though farther away from downtown than the other restaurants on this list, is well worth a visit.
Auberge du Pommier. COURTESY OF ROB HYNDMAN/FLICKR CC
Ciao Wine Bar. COURTESY OF INSERT MAGAZINE/FLICKR CC
Momofuku Noodle Bar. COURTESY OF CHRIS BARKER/FLICKR CC
var.st/arts
VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
The Spiegelman Perspective
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Cartoonist Art Spiegelman speaks on comics and free speech in light of the Charlie Hebdo massacre
CONNECT:
17
ENABLING CHANGE POST-SECONDARY DESIGN COMPETITION 2014 – 15 S LE F T ! H T N O T WO M M IT NOW! SU B
CONNECT: EnAbling Change Winners receive up to
is a competition open to Ontario post-secondary students in ALL design fields. Project ideas that remove barriers for people with disabilities and promote greater inclusion are welcome. Inclusive digital, interactive and web design projects are encouraged.
$2,000 and have their work included in an exhibition at Design Exchange in Toronto!
Deadline: April 1, 2015 DX.ORG/CONNECT
Write for Arts & Culture. Art you the one? arts@thevarsity.ca
Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist known for his support for free speech. COURTESY OF WEXNER CENTER/FLICKR CC
Jacob Lorinc
ASSOCIATE ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR
“Recently, people have been saying that I’m the father of the graphic novel,” muses Art Spiegelman as he stares blankly out at the crowd filling the seats of the Bloor Cinema. “Well, in that case, I’m demanding a blood test.” Spiegelman is the Pulitzer prize-winning, idiosyncratic mastermind behind critically acclaimed graphic novels Maus and In The Shadow of No Towers, as well as the creator of decades worth of covers and essays for The New Yorker. When taking into account his work for Raw Magazine and Arcade: The Comic Revue, it’s difficult to overstate the cultural significance of Spiegelman’s immensely influential body of work. While he modestly denies the title of comics’ paternal figure, the label is nevertheless understandable. His impact on the world of politically driven satire stands above other graphic artists and cartoonists; it is the subject of his appropriately titled lecture last Monday night, What the $@%!: The Spiegelman Influence. Spiegelman was introduced to MAD Magazine as a young boy. Inspired by the publication's outlandish humour and satirical take on American politics, he began creating his own
cartoons. He credits MAD for launching his career as a cartoonist and gives the magazine equal credit for bestowing upon young people like himself a certain sense of political cynicism that was heavily frowned upon when he was growing up in the 1960s. Now, Spiegelman has inadvertently found himself a demi-God-like figure for cartoonists in the Western hemisphere. In his graphic novel Maus, he tackles his father’s odyssey as a Jew during the Holocaust; In the Shadow of No Towers addresses his own trauma as a New Yorker following the 9/11 attacks. Having developed a reputation as someone willing to address disaster head-on (he’s frequently been quoted as saying “disaster, it’s my muse!”), it’s unsurprising news that Spiegelman has become the go-to figure to comment on the recent murder of 11 members of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Much like his politically driven — and often controversial — work, Spiegelman’s lectures are blatantly candid and lacking in any sort of censorship. He uses freedom of speech to its greatest extent, having focused the majority of his career around it. “What the $@%! Happened to Comics, is, in my opinion, the best fucking way to describe this talk,” he announces, sounding off the names of each symbol used in the lecture’s title. The different symbols, he
explains, are correlated with the concept behind satirist drawings. It allows for the viewer to derive meaning out of an image — placing words in your head without explicitly saying them. “A cartoonist's goal is to create an image that, once you’ve seen it, you won’t be able to ‘un-see’,” he says, while standing highlighted against a drawing of a member of Al-Qaeda preparing to duel an American bureaucrat. Between the two figures sits Spiegelman, unconscious, with a caption that reads, “Equally terrorized by Al-Qaeda and by his own government.” “This is when most people assumed that I had fallen off my rocker,” he explains. Spiegelman began the presentation calm and collected, but was quickly derailed by an impassioned rant on censorship in the modern media. The New York Times’ reluctance to publish the Charlie Hebdo drawings that initially prompted the attacks greatly upset him. According to Spiegelman, The Times told readers to search for the drawings online if they wanted to see them. “You don’t send people to the internet,” he says, adding, “Because then why should they come back to you?” With that, the lecture quickly turned to the moral implications of the Hebdo controversy.
“I’ll never understand how [Charlie Hebdo] could forgive those guys,” sighs Spiegelman, referencing the magazine’s recent issue whose cover reads, “tout est pardonné,” meaning "all is forgiven." For Spiegelman, the attack was not only a massacre of innocent civilians, but an attack on the ability to enact free speech. He notes that, while many of the cartoons made by Hebdo could have been interpreted as racist, the magazine often discussed disfranchised minority groups within France and how their living conditions could be improved. In Spiegelman’s view, the extremists were missing the point. He then, true to his eccentric public persona, abruptly left the stage to use the bathroom, mic left on until a helpful audience member hollered at him to turn it off. Returning to the stage for a question period, Spiegelman received numerous inquiries regarding his opinion on free speech. Taking into account his own experiences, he truly understands the sensitivity needed in the characterization of other religions, even if the intentions are in good taste. “I’ll never understand the big deal over depicting Mohammed,” he sighs, and pauses before adding, “But then again, the satirist depictions directed towards Jews has never been my cup of tea, either.”
Science
VAR.ST/SCIENCE 2 FEBRUARY 2015
science@thevarsity.ca
Health care voluntourism on the rise Scientific standpoint: perspectives on the ethics behind medical voluntourism
Institute of Medical Science Lunch and Learn Hosted by the Institute of Medical Science, the session will provide information regarding the IMS graduate programs and answer any related questions Tuesday, February 3 1:00 pm–2:00 pm Donnelly Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, Black Room Free; register on Eventbrite
MaRS Mornings: Turning inspiration into disruptive companies Start the day off right with breakfast and inspiring talks from creative thinkers like Michael Garrity, the CEO and co-founder of Financeit regarding his entrepreneurial venture Wednesday, February 4 8:00 am–9:30 am MaRS Discovery District, Multi-purpose Room Free; register on Eventbrite KAWMADIE KARUNANAYAKE/THE VARSITY
It benefits both the volunteers and the communities involved Aditya Chawla VARSITY STAFF
Many charitable institutions today offer programs that allow undergraduate students to travel to developing countries to perform various volunteer tasks. Volunteer tourism was created as an alternative to typical tourist programs in an effort to promote more responsible and sustainable forms of travel. Currently, there is a debate as to whether this is truly a charitable form of tourism, or whether it unintentionally exploits those it intends to benefit. Despite the controversial nature of these programs, I believe that voluntourism has had many tangible benefits for developing countries. A common criticism of voluntourism is that the “voluntourists” are driven solely by personal motives. Although this is a valid criticism, one cannot ignore the value of the work that they put into the projects. In a survey done at the Abi Bakar Sidik School in Morocco in 2009, although only 15 per cent of foreigners chose Morocco for altruistic reasons only, 89 per cent of the students in the school perceived the work of the foreigners as positive. In fact, the school is run solely by international volunteers and would not exist otherwise. Thus, it can be said that programs such as the aforementioned one do support economically disadvantaged children, who probably would not have access to education if it were not for this volunteer work.
Another criticism of voluntourism is that it harms the host country’s economy by occupying jobs that would otherwise go to the local population. However, I believe that the redistribution of wealth from developed to developing countries far outweighs any decrease in wealth. According to the Johns Hopkins Institute, eight European countries contributed 23 per cent of the volunteers in all of South America in 1998. This tremendous allocation of labour could potentially take a great burden off of government spending, allowing capital to go to more important programs. In fact, United Nations Volunteers, a program by the un, states that voluntary action contributes eight to 14 per cent of the gdp of these developing countries. In addition to the tangible benefits, voluntourism has immeasurable social benefits. For young individuals, volunteering abroad provides opportunities for selfdevelopment and a perspective outside sheltered, Western lives. In addition, the local population can benefit from direct contact with different cultures, which could diminish inequality in these societies. Essentially, if it were not for these types of programs that combine tourism and volunteer work, these areas may not receive wealth from more developed countries. Aditya Chawla is a second-year student at Trinity College studying laboratory medicine and pathobiology.
Health care voluntourism does more harm than good Sandy Wang VARSITY STAFF
The World Health Organization estimates a global shortage of over four million health care providers, with the greatest need in South East Asia. From this scarcity sprung the recent enthusiasm around health voluntourism projects: short-term volunteer programs that provide an opportunity for individuals to conduct health care related work abroad — including clinical tasks and patient care. These volunteers are often undergraduate university students and, as one such student myself, I would be lying if I said that I have never considered going on one of these trips. It seems like the perfect opportunity to do a good deed while receiving a completely unique international experience. What’s there to lose? Although health voluntourism may be a great experience for the individual embarking on the trip and is by nature altruistic, it’s often not the best way to help, as it poses several important ethical concerns and sustainability issues. To volunteer in the health care industry in Canada, individuals must undergo a rigorous application and training process and be supervised during most, if not all, of their duties. Undergraduate student volunteers are not permitted to perform even the most basic medical procedures; a patient’s right to quality health care is never sacrificed for efficiency. Does travelling to a developing nation rid us of these standards?
The argument is often that, in developing nations, having at least some care is better than no care. However, this mindset only creates a harsh double standard in health care between affluent and developing countries. Furthermore, health voluntourism poses a threat to patient autonomy. Volunteers travelling to developing countries to offer aid in health care often do not have prior knowledge of the culture or language of the place that they are travelling to. This strongly impedes patient communications with the health care provider and undermines the choices and rights of the patient. Perhaps the biggest flaw in these global volunteer trips is that they promote a culture of volunteering in short episodes. All too often, these initiatives are not integrated into the local health care facilities and only provide a Band-Aid solution at best. In the long term, this is unsustainable, with many patients not receiving adequate ongoing or follow-up care. To volunteer in the health care profession is laudable, but we must tread with caution. As students, before participating in one of these trips, we should take it upon ourselves to look into the organizations offering these trips, seek possible alternatives, learn as much as possible about the place we would like to travel to, and ask the hard questions about ethics and sustainability. Sandy Wang is a third-year student at Trinity College pursuing a double major in neuroscience and psychology.
Naturalization in Clinical Ethics Hosted by the Joint Centre for Bioethics, this seminar features a lecture by Dr. William Harvey of U of T’s Department of Philosophy Wednesday, February 4 4:00 pm–5:30 pm Health Sciences Building, Room 108 Free; no registration necessary
Disturbing Developments in Digital Government David C. G. Brown, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa, will be presenting this lecture examining concerns regarding digital management by the Canadian federal government and what we can expect in the future Friday, February 6 12:30 pm–2:00 pm Canadiana Gallery, Room 361 Free; register on Eventbrite
Action Potential Lab Speaker Series: Taxidermy 101 Hosted by the Action Potential lab and featuring internationally recognized taxidermist Mickey Alice Kwapis, who will present the history and techniques of taxidermy during the introductory session Friday, February 6 7:00 pm–8:30 pm Action Potential lab, Cost: $25
var.st/science
VARSITY SCIENCE
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2015
19
In conversation with Dr. Amy Caudy Molecular genetics professor discusses the breakthroughs happening in her lab ing dna synthesis [to kill cancer cells]. Only cancer cells, and a few cells like those in your gut and your hair, are actively growing. The rest of you doesn’t really need to do much dna synthesis, so you’re actually fine to kill the cancer by inhibiting dna synthesis. This is better than any other option that we have right now. My hope, in my lab, is to find pathways that are even more cancer-specific than dna synthesis, and are involved in how cancer upregulates its metabolism to grow effectively.
Shaan Bhambra
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The Caudy research group has made strides in understanding how the building blocks of our genetic code are made. Specifically interested in the metabolism of cells, the Caudy group has also studied the connection between cancer cells and metabolism. Dr. Amy Caudy is currently a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and also serves as the Canada Research Chair in Metabolics for Functional Enzyme Discovery. She was previously a fellow in the LewisSigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. The Varsity spoke to Caudy to discuss her group’s work and how the breakthroughs being made now in the field of molecular genetics will affect both research and cancer treatments in the near future. The Varsity: What is molecular genetics? Amy Caudy: I think of molecular genetics as an approach. We have the sequence information — which we can now get easier than ever before — and we have all the tools to analyze it. We now even have the tools to go in and change that sequence. You can go and figure out what the genes are from your [dna] sequence analysis and experiments, and you can make hypotheses. The molecular genetics comes in because you’re changing the molecule itself; you’ve got the dna molecule and genetics to create organisms that test your hypotheses. Genetics is trying to understand what the instructions in the dna are and how the dna is read to ultimately produce an organism. We have a three billion base pair set of dna in our genome, and [because of dna] here we are talking to one another. That three billion base pair set is only 20,000 genes. What are those genes and how are they interacting? Genetics as an approach is similar to this analogy: If I pull a piece out of my car, will the car run or not? In a sense, what’s the resulting phenotype? If I make changes to the instructions of the cell, what’s the result at the end?
MARI ZHOU/THE VARSITY
TV: What is cellular metabolism? AC: It’s how the nutrients we take in — for us that’s food, for yeast that may be the barley broth that you put them in to make beer — how those nutrients are broken down and converted into the building blocks of the cell. It’s a set of chemical reactions. There are thousands of reactions, and there’s enough flexibility there that we can eat a variety of things and make exactly what we need to sustain growth. TV: What don’t we currently know about cellular metabolism? AC: We have hundreds of compounds in cells and we don’t know what they are or how they’re being made. Typically, they’re being made by an enzyme reaction. We’ve got things in cells that are being made by a gene but we don’t know the gene, and we also have reactions that we know are occurring that have to be catalyzed by a gene. We also don’t know many of those genes. We also often don’t know the direction of chemical reactions in cells. We have ideas from
studying things like cows’ hearts, but we’ve made a lot of generalizations from organs that are easy to study but don’t necessarily represent what’s happening in the majority of cells. TV: What does the Caudy group hope to uncover by researching cellular metabolism? AC: The best drugs we have are small molecules that inhibit enzyme reactions. However, we don’t know all [of the cell’s] enzyme reactions. My lab’s trying to figure out what those reactions are, and the end goal is to inhibit cellular growth of bacterial pathogens or cancer cells by targeting unique metabolic aspects of cells. TV: Some of the research in your lab focuses on cancer. How does cancer link to cellular metabolism? AC: Cancer takes up glucose at a much higher rate than normal cells. That’s one example of how the metabolism of cancer cells [is] different. Also, they’re actively growing. Classic therapeutics take advantage of this by target-
TV: Your work helped to discover a new pathway for the synthesis of ribose in the cell. What is ribose, and how has this finding been significant so far? AC: Ribose is the sugar that is in rna, the messenger molecule, and deoxyribose is the sugar in dna. Deoxyribose is made directly from ribose, so you have to make ribose to transcribe and replicate your genome. This pathway we found is specific to fungi and also is present in a small group of bacteria — we’re very interested in that apparent transfer of genetic information from bacteria to fungi, and that’s an active area of research. This is also very important for biofuels, because metabolism of ribose and other 5-carbon sugars is important for knowing how to break down plant sugars. TV: The field of molecular genetics is moving at a rapid pace — what questions do you feel molecular genetics and metabolism research will be asking in the next 10 years? AC: I think that molecular genetics is going to be transformed by the availability of [dna] sequence information. We’re at this point where lots of people are getting their genomes sequenced. Now, cancer patients at many cancer centres are routinely having their tumours sequenced. When you do this, we get a ton of information. We need to be able to use this data to say, “How can we create a therapy relevant to you?” The real goal is that someday, healthy people will look at their genomes and notice their risk factors for certain diseases. From this, they’ll hopefully say, “What can I do today so that I remain healthy years from now?” This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Plants benefit from sex Study: sexual reproduction helps primrose avoid harmful mutations Jaclin Simonetta
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
A recent study published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution has provided strong evidence as to why many organisms reproduce sexually. There has been long-running debate on the benefits of sexual reproduction compared to asexual reproduction. Some argue that asexual reproduction is advantageous as it does not involve resource-consuming and laborious tasks part of sexual reproduction. However, the argument that sexual reproduction has benefits from a genetic view still persists. The authors of the paper include postdoctoral candidate Dr. Jesse Hollister and his advisors, University of Toronto professors Dr. Stephen Wright and Dr. Marc Johnson. The three looked at various species of the evening primrose, known as Oenothera, to study the effects of sexual reproduction. Johnson studies the evolutionary consequences of the loss of sex in evening primrose and looks at the effects sexual reproduction has on defense genes. “There is lots of theoretical evidence to suggest that when you lose sex, that your ability
to adapt to parasites is hindered,” he told The Varsity in a phone interview. Despite the many years of studying theoretical evidence about why organisms have sex, Johnson says that virtually no work looking at the molecular evolution has been done. The team studied 30 pairs of species, with one species in the pair reproducing asexually and the other sexually. They looked at genetic variation in species pairs and the amount of deleterious mutations accumulating in each mating type. This study was done with the assistance of the 1,000-plant transcriptome initiative headed at the University of Alberta and supported by bgi-Shenzhen in China. “We’ve answered the question with a sledge-hammer,” Johnson says, “This is the first solid molecular evidence that loss of sex is associated with the accumulation of deleterious mutations across the entire genome.” The study serves as empirical evidence to support the theoretical work done for many years previous. The team showed that asexual species of Oenothera accumulate more deleterious mutations than sexual species. The paper concluded that sexual reproduction is beneficial from a genetic perspective because species do not accumulate harmful mutations as easily
JULIEN BALBONTIN/THE VARSITY
as in asexual reproduction due to the recombination of genes. During sexual reproduction, the genes are separated and shuffled. These genes have the ability to recombine and prevent deleterious mutations from being inherited in the offspring. Conversely, in asexual reproduction, the species makes copies of its
genome, passing on all its mutations to the next generation. Johnson says that upcoming research will focus on understanding how loss of sex influences co-evolution with parasites, and says that he will continue to use evening primrose for studying the consequences of loss of sex.
VARSITY SCIENCE
20 Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
science@thevarsity.ca
Exoplanets more hospitable than ever before Study: a larger amount of extrasolar planets than previously expected could possess a lifesustaining atmosphere Nadezhda Woinowsky-Krieger ASSOCIATE SCIENCE EDITOR
On January 6, astronomers and space enthusiasts everywhere celebrated the discovery of the one-thousandth potentially habitable “exoplanet,” a term used to designate any planet from an alien solar system that is not our own. The discovery has been made possible by nasa’s Kepler spacecraft mission, which uses observation techniques to analyze how similar an exoplanet is to Earth. Although an archive of 1,000 potential new homes may seem like an ample selection to choose from, in reality, determining whether or not an exoplanet could potentially host a human population or even alien life of its own still depends on a large number of restricting factors. However, new research published just last month in the journal Science suggests that the list of restrictions to a planet’s potential to bear life may not be so insurmountable after all, as at least one of these factors may be far less hindrance than previously believed.
Artistic concept of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. COURTESY OF NASA AMES/JPL CALTECH/T PYLE
The researchers, including Dr. Jérémy Leconte, who is from the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, came upon this conclusion by combining the knowledge of planetary orbit and spin with a 3D atmospheric
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climate model developed by him and his team. Physicists who specialize in planetary astronomy and atmospheric science were already aware of the fact that the atmosphere of an orbiting planet can affect how the planet spins on its own axis. This
has been observed closer to home by the manner in which Venus orbits around the sun. According to laws of planetary rotation, Venus is so close to the sun that it should be orbiting in a manner referred to as “synchronous rotation,” where the same side of the planet always faces its star, and thus that half of the planet receives all of the heat and light that the star gives off. Venus, however, has not been abiding by this rule at all, and is spinning fast enough that different parts of the planet are facing the sun at different times, resulting in Venus having a day-and-night cycle just like Earth does, albeit much slower. Having a cycle in which different parts of the planet are heated up by the sun at different times is a prerequisite for being able to sustain life. The key to Venus’s orbital delinquency is the fact that it has an atmosphere. “Although the atmosphere of Venus is only one part in ten thousand of the mass of the planet, it has been able to accelerate Venus’s spin over geological timescales,” Leconte and his colleagues wrote in a press release made public on January 15.
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According to the new model, the extent to which Venus is rejecting its expected state of synchronous rotation is not in proportion to the size of its atmosphere. As it turns out, the high density of Venus’s exceptionally cloudy climate is limiting the amount of light from the sun that manages to reach the surface of the planet and heat it up, thus curbing the atmospherically driven increase in rotation speed. How does this affect our estimate of how many habitable new worlds there could be out there for us? Leconte’s press release reads, “While astronomers are still awaiting observational evidence, theoretical arguments suggest that many exoplanets should be able to keep an atmosphere as massive as that of the Earth. In that case, this new study shows that a large number of known terrestrial exoplanets should not be in a state of synchronous rotation, as initially believed.” Whether or not the presence of the day-and-night cycle means that a planet has developed life of its own, Leconte says, is still to be seen.
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Sports
VAR.ST/SPORTS 2 FEBURARY 2015
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Nicole Kesteris heads to Spain to compete in Universiade Blues star goaltender has an impressive career at U of T
Nicole Kesteris making a save. COURTESY OF VARSITY BLUES
Ahmed-Zaki Hagar
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
The Varsity Blues women’s hockey team played the Waterloo Warriors on January 25, and the game marked a special occasion. Fifth-year goaltender Nicole Kesteris was recognized before the game, as this will be her final season with the club. She proceeded to shut out the Warriors, earning her fiftieth career regular season win. Last year was stellar for Kesteris. She was named an Ontario University Athletics (oua) first team all-star and a Canadian Intercollegiate Sport (cis) first team all-Canadian. Kesteris also won the cis and oua Marion Hilliard award, which celebrates excellence in athletics, academics, and community involvement. For her amazing season, she was recognized as the Varsity Blues female athlete of the year, being the first goaltender to ever receive the award. Kesteris will compete for the Canadian women’s hockey team at the Winter Universiade in Granada, Spain this week. The Varsity: What led you to choose to play for U of T? Nicole Kesteris: I’m a homebody, so I like to stay as close to home as possible. I’d had options to go play D-1 at the States, but it was also important for me to have my parents to be able to watch my games on the weekend. Going at Brown or Boston would be difficult for them. So U of T was good in that sense, but it’s also a great school, and academics was also important to me as well. TV: What is it like to be considered “one of Canada’s best female goalies” by your coach? NK: This league is so competitive, anyone could win. There are a lot of great goalies out there. It means a lot to me, and I really appreciate all the work Vicky [Sunohara] has done for me and pushed me to be a better goalie. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my team, my parents, the support, Vicky, everyone.
TV: What is it like to represent Canada in the Winter Universiade? Any goals for the tournament? NK: It’s always a dream, especially as a little girl playing, wanting to represent Canada at some level. Although I may never make the Olympics, for me, this is my Olympics and I’m very proud and very honoured to be a part to that. I would really like to win that gold. TV: Does competing for a national championship help with dealing with expectations placed on you in this event? NK: There’s definitely expectations for Team Canada; I think we’ve never not won gold. So there is a lot of pressure and expectations in that sense. But for me, it’s a brand new experience and something I want to go out and have fun with and have a lot of memories. TV: The team is second in the standings with five games left. What are the team’s goals heading into the end of the season? NK: Grab a point or two points from every game. As I said before, this league is so competitive, anyone could win anyone could win any game. We need to go into each game thinking that we can win and we should win, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work. TV: Being your final year with the Varsity Blues, what was your experience with the team like? NK: Amazing! I talk about all these opportunities in the States and there’s not one moment where I regret not going to play D-1 hockey. I would never take back that decision and it has been the greatest time of my life. TV: What do you think is in store for you after graduation? NK: It’s amazing how much wear and tear there is on your body, especially playing goalie. I’ve played in every game, except for one, and there’s a lot of pressure on the body. So I’m kind of looking forward to a break, maybe go play in Europe, I’m not sure. I’m definitely leaving these doors open.
JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY
BY THE NUMBERS 2014-2015 save percentage:
.938
AS A VARSITY BLUE WINS: SAVES: SHUTOUTS:
50 2578 16
VARSITY SPORTS
22 Vol. CXXXV, No. 17
sports@thevarsity.ca
Fitness class review: Dancefit Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre hosts fitness classes for U of T community Ameena Youssef VARSITY STAFF
The University of Toronto’s new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (tpasc) is now open and holding fitness classes for U of T students, staff, and tpasc members. This week, I attended the onehour Dancefit class, which incorporates music and dance moves into an exhilarating workout. Unlike Zumba, which mostly focuses on Latin-inspired dance, Dancefit uses a greater variety of hip-hop, pop, socca, reggae, R&B, and classics like swing. This class was open to people of all dance backgrounds, from experienced dancers to those who had never danced before. Because this class required no equipment, it was simple to adjust the pace to all of the participants. The class began with a slowpaced hip-hop introduction; as it progressed, the pace and tempo gradually picked up. By the fifteenth minute, I was already sweating and feeling the burn all over my legs. The best part, I found, is that once you get into the rhythm, you forget that you are even working
out. The casual, friendly, and inviting atmosphere takes your mind off of the burning. The instructor was very welcoming and exciting; she made sure that everyone was able to follow along. With such a fun and energetic instructor, the class felt more like a party than a workout. The dance moves themselves were just the slightest bit challenging, but because the class consisted of many repeating moves and sequences, it was easy to pick up the routine and follow along. The challenge of learning the new dance moves makes this class a workout and not just a dance session in your room. The class ended with a yoga-like cool down session. This class is perfect for those interested in a fun, new way to exercise. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick workout that is different and fun, but still as efficient as the typical gym workout. All you need to participate is your TCard, a bottle of water, running shoes, and some comfortable clothes. Dancefit is offered on Mondays at 6:00 pm in Studio 1, and is free for U of T students and staff.
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A fitness class room at TPASC. JUMA PEREZ/THE VARSITY
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VARSITY SPORTS
var.st/sports
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
23
Blues teams successful in January Varsity Blues teams set themselves up for strong playoff runs Henry Yang
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
MEN’S SWIMMING January has been another excellent month for the men’s swimming team. It started off with a dual meet against the Western Mustangs on January 10. The Blues, reigning Ontario University Athletics (oua) and Canadian Intercollegiate Sport (cis) champions, won nine golds of the possible 11. The team was led by the sophomore Eli Wall, who came out on top in the 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke races. Following this successful matchup, the team split up to compete at the Eastern Cup and to host the Varsity Cup on January 16. At the Eastern Cup, Hochan Ryu won four golds while Edward Liu matched this feat back in Toronto. The men’s swimming team is looking to defend their titles and are currently ranked first in oua and second in cis. The team will compete in the oua championships on February 5–7.
MEN’S CURLING The men’s curling team — defending champions — will conclude its season on January 17 and 18 at the Brock University Invitational. On the 17, the Blues started with two solid wins: 5–4 against the Western Mustangs and 5–0 against the Brock Badgers. The domination continued the next day as the team won 9–4 against the Trent Excalibur and 7–1 against the uoit Ridgebacks, securing their place in the finals. Unfortunately, in a tightly contested final, the Blues lost 8–2 against the Guelph Gryphons. This tournament acted as a warm-
Blues swimmer competes in an event. EVAN LUKE/THE VARSITY
up for the upcoming championships. Beginning on February 19, the team will be competing at the ouas, looking to win its second consecutive championship.
The team has a 4–15 record for the season and will need a strong finish as it has two games this weekend and only one more game in February to end its regular season.
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
It has been a rough January for the men’s volleyball team. It began on January 9 and 10 with two consecutive losses against the Waterloo Warriors and the Guelph Gryphons at home. While they fought hard to recover from these losses, the following weekend was equally bitter, as two more losses came against the Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers. Needing a win, the Blues travelled to Kingston later last month. The first game was disappointing as the team suffered a shutout against the Queen’s Gaels. Nevertheless, a much-needed win came against the Royal Military College of Canada on the 25, led by veteran Jake Dyselhof.
It has been a dream-like season for the women’s volleyball team with a perfect 17–0 record. In January, the team did not lose a set. The team went 8–0 this month, including a key win against the fourthplace team, the Queen’s Gaels, who also have an admirable 11–6 record. Fifth-year veterans Jennifer Neilson, Charlotte Sider, and Bojana Radan have been dominant as usual, backed up by the quality support of the rest of the team. Although the team already clinched a berth in the playoffs, it will need to continue building momentum as the cis Champions and the oua playoffs are coming up.
Women’s hockey team plays in Think Pink game in January. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
Following a break in December, the women’s basketball team’s season continued in January. The team opened their year with a 74–71 win against the Ryerson Rams at home, led by the veteran Jill Stratton. This was a huge upset as the Rams are first in the division and have only suffered three losses all season. The following weekend continued with a dominating win against the Algoma Thunderbirds. The Blues, however, suffered a narrow 77–79 loss in overtime against the Queen’s Gaels. Despite Stratton’s career-high 31 points, the team did not have enough to overcome the Gaels. The team showed mental toughness with a huge win against the York Lions 66–45. Overall, the team has a 7–6 record this season.
The women’s ice hockey team has been excellent in January, improving its record to 15–6 and climbing up the standings to second place. The month began with back-toback games in the Varsity Arena against uoit and Queen’s University. The uoit Ridgebacks were a challenging team, but the Blues were able to fend them off and come away with a 1–0 victory. The following day had a closelycontested game against the thirdplace Queen’s Gaels. The game went to overtime, and the Blues came out on top with a 2–1 win. The following weekend was tough as the team lost to the Guelph Gryphons in a shootout. Nevertheless, the team has had five consecutive victories since, including a tough two games ending in shootouts.
Meet True Blue
Varsity Blues mascot appears at a number of university and community events Zaigham Ali
VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
True Blue at a Varsity Blues game. COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES
Mascots have an important role in entertaining fans at sports events. At the University of Toronto, the Varsity Blues mascot is a beaver named True Blue. True Blue is in demand around campus and is more than just a sports mascot. He can be seen at events like Convocation, birthday celebrations, the cibc Run for the Cure rally, and campaign milestone events. When off-campus, True Blue is seen as an ambassador for the University of Toronto. Around the city, True Blue is a staple in the annual Great Canadian Mascot Games and is seen during halftime events at Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies games. Competing against other gta-based mascots, True Blue gets invited to corporate functions, notably the St. Joseph’s Toronto West Halloween Fest. Dating back several decades, there have been different versions of True Blue, but the Blues’ mascot has always been a beaver. The mascot has a sister named Blaze, who is seen less frequently than True Blue.
Just like the students and frosh leaders, True Blue is involved during orientation week for incoming first-year students. During frosh, True Blue serves as the ambassador for the Varsity Blues program, visits the various U of T colleges, and attends functions like Clubs Day, career fairs and the huge frosh parade. The mascot is part of the work-study program at U of T. Currently, three students have undertaken the position of the True Blue mascot for the 2014–2015 season. Typically, a couple of students are hired for the role. Aside from keeping minimum academic standards during the season, there are no set requirements to be selected as the mascot. However, students that possess energy as well as theatrical, acrobatic, and comic skills go on to become great mascots. Students from all three of the U of T campuses are eligible to be the mascot. Surprisingly, there is no set practice for the mascot. True Blue will be called out at times to practice with the cheerleaders. Novelty routines are incorporated alongside the cheerleading, pom, and dance teams. A common place to catch True Blue is at home football, basketball, volleyball, and hockey games.
24
MONDAY, FEBURARY 2, 2015
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