September 21, 2015

vol. cXXXvi, no. 3

T he UniversiTy

of

ToronTo’s sTUdenT newspaper since 1880

21 sepTember 2015

S I L E N C E

IS NOT AN OPTION

Feminists take to the streets on Monday September 14. SANDY MA/THE VARSITY

EDITORIAL PG 13

FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE In the wake of anonymous threats, U of T administration finds itself playing catch up

NEWS PG 4

U OF T MARCHES AGAINST MISOGYNY CUPE 3902 organizes demonstration on St. George in solidarity

UTSU financial statements reveal severance payments totalling $342,150 U T SU SEEK S L EG A L COUNSEL TO DE T ERMINE SUI TA BIL I T Y OF PAY MEN T S IRIS ROBIN NEWS EDITOR

There is never a dull moment at the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), whose audited financial statements revealed a hefty $342,150 in severance payments from last year.

The statements do not indicate the number of employees who received severance packages.

“Severance payments include one-time sev-

erance, unpaid overtime, vacation, and other associated benefits paid during the year to a legally confidential number of employees upon termination of their employment. The UTSU has retained legal counsel to determine the suitability of these payments,” reads the note attached to the severance payments line item in the budget.

A portion of the payments allegedly went to former UTSU director Sandy Hudson. The

amount she reportedly received remains confidential.

Neither Hudson nor current UTSU president Ben Coleman chose to elaborate on the situation. “I am not able to provide any further details at this time,” Coleman said when asked for comment. Similarly, The Varsity contacted Hudson, who stated that she was not allowed to talk about the severance payment issue.

Hudson served two terms as UTSU presi-

dent between 2008 and 2010, after which time she became the chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario until 2012. Hudson returned to the UTSU as their executive director in September 2012 and left shortly before the current UTSU executives took office.

With files from Enxhi Kondi More to follow...

INSIDE A game nobody wins

Malone Mullin’s take on the upcoming federal election Comment PG 10

Students in the news

Glorifications of youth adversity seldom address the big picture Features PG 14

New play We The Family premieres at Hart House

The Varsity sits down with Canadian playwright George F. Walker Arts & Culture PG 17

Blue Sky Solar Racing to compete in Australia

Meet the U of T students behind the sustainable race car Science PG 20

2 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

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Coloured paint being thrown during the frosh parade. DOMINICK HAN/THE VARSITY

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THE EXPLAINER How to proxy your vote at the UTSU AGM o you ant to e ercise your oice as a U ofT student ut can t e othered to first listen to the many many many other oices Then fret no more e ha e a step y step solution on ho you can ote as a student and ma e your opinion count

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2.

Copy Editors and Fact Checkers Rafia Soomro, Karoline Antonsen, Jordan Ichikawa Gabi Lichtblau, Gabriel Wee, Filzah Mohamad Hilmi, Laura Snow, Arin Klein, Sia Katsoyoa, Sonali Gill, Rachel Chen, Ameliese Mills, and Jennifer La Designers Amy Wang, Judy Hu, Jessica Lee, Chloe Somjee, Jasjeet Matharu, Dora Ackay, Laura Wang and Kitty Liu

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If there is a chance that your currently designated proxyholder is too popular and doesn’t know it,

member and hold fewer than nine other proxies

i.e. accidentally takes on more than 10 proxies,

to comply with the. If you want to make sure

go ahead and appoint a second proxyholder, a

your vote counts, pick someone who likes the

ackup. ave the

way you think.

ection

Get the proxy form. The rules have changed: if

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fill out the second seg ent of

page .

Remember that you cannot use your backup

you re pro ying your vote you have to fill out the

proxyholder in the event that your main proxy-

form — not your proxyholder. Pick up the form in

holder is too cool to show up to the meeting.

the

office or online at

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Indicate your voting preferences on page 7.

utsu.ca/agm.

Don’t forget to leave each page with a personal

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Read all the instructions carefully.

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Read all the instructions carefully. Again. We pro ise that you definitely

5. business@thevarsity.ca

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be your proxyholder They have to be a UTSU

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Pick someone to vote on your behalf. They shall

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Return the form in person to the UTSU or UTMSU office y hursday

epte

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PM. Eat your lunch at the back of the hall. Savour

Fill out your personal details in Section 1 on page

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5 as per instructions and have your proxyholder co plete the first seg ent of ection

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10. Go to that class you were thinking of ditching. And yes, I mean you. Or take a nap. Whatever.

Daniel Choi, Liza Korp and Michelle Monteiro Advertising Executives 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

CORRECTIONS An article on the cover of Issue 2 contained some unfortunate typographical errors in the headline and subheading. The Varsity regrets these shameful errors.

An article in Issue 2 titled “World-class TPASC open to some U of T students” incorrectly alleged that access to the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre might be limited to UTSC students. Both UTM and UTSG students will continue to enjoy access to the facility as they did in advance of the games. The Varsity regrets the error.

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STUDENT LIFE

Skuligans capture Queen’s mascot ngineering pran contin es tra ition efine

y rivalry

MATTHEW FOK

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

In the early hours of Sunday, September 13, a group of crafty University of Toronto Engineering students “liberated” an iconic Queen’s Engineering grease pole mascot.

The pole is currently in the custody of the Brute Force Committee (BFC), a semi-secret Engineering student society. The BFC released a statement on their website saying that a group of anonymous “Skuligans” had liberated the pole and that the demands for its release would be announced shortly.

The pranking rivalry began in 1955, when Queen’s students first stole the pole, which was formerly a U of T Varsity football upright.

Since then, every year the pole has been a traditional part of the Queen’s engineering orientation, where a group of students will climb to retrieve a tam from its peak. On September 13, within 48 hours of the pole-climbing ceremony, the pole was missing, and the BFC released the following statement: “Upon finding the pole neglected and unguarded, [the anonymous Engineering students] felt sympathetic and were compelled to bring [the Pole] to a better home.”

Two anonymous BFC members sit astride the captured Queen’s grease pole. COURTESY OF MARIO BAKER

“The group of highly skilled individuals executed the plan flawlessly in a quick, cunning and quiet manner,” said Mario Baker, the BFC’s self-styled “Da Chief,” on the methods by which the pole was captured.

“The team exploited the pole bearers laziness and a lapse in security,” Baker added.

“We are quite impressed with the BFC and their creative tactics that enabled them to find the pole,” said Julie Tseng, president of the Queen’s University Engineering Society. The specifics on how the

pole was retrieved are still unclear.

All that is known about the theft is that the ‘liberators’ said the pole was “extremely fucking heavy.”

“While I do not endorse stealing, I believe this prank fell within the boundaries of an act of friendly rivalry,” said Ernesto Diaz Lozano Patiño, the president of the University of Toronto Engineering Society.

According to the BFC, the prank was executed in accordance with the Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario’s ‘Pranker’s Code,’ the document that governs

the operation of engineering student society pranks in Ontario.

Both Queens and U of T students are patiently awaiting the BFC’s next move and soon to be released, ransom note.

“We hope this liberation will bring pride to the Skule™ community, and that it encourages engineering schools across Canada to continue our long-standing traditions of rivalry through pranks and events,” said Baker, who reminded the engineering community of their duty to protect their historic items.

“This recent acquisition serves as a reminder to the oath we all took to protect the greatest mascots: Ye Olde Mighty Skule™ Cannon. Always remember to Honour It, Respect It, and Protect It.” The BFC is a ‘nonexistent’ group of U of T engineering students responsible for school pranks and highjinks.

“We do not exist, we have never existed and we will never exist,” is their motto. The first time that the BFC abducted the pole was 15 years ago, in 2000.

The BFC has a long history at U of T. They are known for sneaking into the McLennan Physical Laboratories and the annual painting of the dome on the University of Toronto Students’ Union building. Their rap sheet also includes laborious pranks, such as the colossal pencil sharpener at OCAD and a spider web covering Con Hall.

Despite the group’s mysterious nature, they claim to be “all about school spirit and getting people into it.”

When The Varsity asked Patiño about the BFC, he simply replied: “I don’t think [the BFC] exists, has ever existed or will ever exist.”

ACADEMICS

U of T courses adopt the inverted classroom Students and professors provi e ee ac on t e ne teac ing met o JOSHUA GRONDIN VARSITY STAFF

In an age of technology and readily available information, course instructors are experimenting with the inverted classroom teaching format.

Gaining popularity among academic institutions around the world, the inverted classroom model requires students to cover lecture material at home through online lecture videos, learning modules, and supplementary readings. During scheduled class hours, students then have the opportunity to actively engage with their professor to gain further understanding of the material.

The purpose of this alternative approach is to give students the opportunity to improve their skills in a more interactive environment.

Professor Mairi MacDonald is one of many U of T professors who have decided to take advantage of this teaching style, implementing it in her course Ordering International Relations in an Age of Empire, a required course for students studying international

JULIEN BALBONTIN/ILLUSTRATION EDITOR

relations. “Having class time devoted to discussion or other activities gives the students an incentive to complete the readings and prepare for class by listening to recorded lecture material, so my hunch is that they do take a bit more in than they might in a conventional lecture class.”

MacDonald said that while the model is successful in providing a seminar experience for students, she believes it will face limitations in becoming common practice at the university. “To implement on a wide scale would also require the university to provide widespread access to relevant tech support. The

University would have to decide that the pedagogical advantages are worth the high cost of faculty and technical time.”

Statistics professor Nathan Taback is also taking advantage of the inverted classroom in the style of STA220, The Practice of Statistics 1.

Despite recognizing the disadvantages resulting from this method, such as the additional effort required and the dependency on students coming to class prepared, Taback is very optimistic on the future of the inverted classroom in U of T. Taback emphasized the importance of getting students to deepen

their knowledge beyond just memorizing facts, which are readily available. “This is really important in today’s world since we have so many facts at our fingertips, but people will need to become even better at assimilating these facts in the future. I believe that many jobs in the future will require this skill. So there should be a much greater focus on deep learning in the classrooms at U of T [and other universities].”

Regardless of whether or not the inverted classroom is here to stay, it is clear that it remains controversial among students.

Student Aylin Manduric found the method very effective and en-

joyed the flexibility it provided.

However, she too recognized some of its limitations. “Some students felt that it placed too heavy a burden on [them] to listen to the lectures on their own time, preferring the structure of designated lecture times [and] that it left a lot of leeway to skip the online lectures without the professor noticing. This is why it is necessary to pair reverse classroom with seminars or meetings, to help keep everyone on track.”

On the other hand, third-year student Isaac Kim strongly opposed the inverted classroom. “Why am I getting deprived of a classroom experience when I could be learning this stuff just as well, just ‘unofficially’ through the hundreds of open source material[s] provided by other prestigious universities, because it gets into the issue of where we are literally paying just for the degree now, rather than the educational merit itself since the information is nothing more than another educational video on the internet,” he said.

The inverted classroom is part of U of T’s plan to integrate more technology to the educational environment, alongside the commitment to offer more massive open online courses on online learning websites such as Coursera.

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WE ARE FEMINISTS U of T marches against misogyny

DEVIKA DESAI VARSITY STAFF

On Monday, September 14, hundreds of University of Toronto students and community members marched in support of feminism. The demonstration was organized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3902, the union that represents education workers at U of T. It was in response to threats made online against women in the Sociology and Women and Gender Studies Departments who identify as feminists.

“We want everyone to know that U of T is a feminist community,” declared Pamela Arancibia, who co-organized the rally. She and fellow organizer Ellie Adekur-Carlson are both PhD students at U of T. “The idea to organize this rally came together really quickly,” explained Adekur-Carlson. “What we wanted to do is differentiate ourselves from the normal response to such an event by creating an inclusive environment where people feel like they can get real and share their stories and experiences about gendered and sexual violence, while also broadening the topic into the idea of misogyny,” she continued.

As a show of support for those victimized by gendered violence, attendees wore purple, a colour which has traditionally symbolized the movement against misogyny and sexual violence towards women.

The attendees marched around the campus, beginning outside the Sociology Department at Bloor and Spadina and ending at the Women and Gender Studies Department at New College. “The turn up at this event was absolutely amazing and so much more than we expected,” said AdekurCarlson. “The collective energy with which this all came together was absolutely inspiring.”

FEMINISM SPEAKS The rally included a series of speeches from graduate students and student feminist activists, all of whom voiced their disapproval with the threats.

The rally began with the reading of an open letter previously published online by graduate students in the Sociology Department. “The letter is a collective effort by our graduate students, demonstrating our support for the message this rally stands for, i.e., a reminder that feminism is important,” said Anelyse, a graduate student who represented the group as a speaker at the event.

Many of the speakers voiced their disapproval of U of T’s response to the threats. Caitlin Janzen, a York University graduate student and a member of the feminist organization Silence is Violence, called the U of T response “public” and “superficial,” declaring that those targeted by the threats should refuse to be “good PR for the university.” Many others found the information shared by the administration inadequate.

Politicians Olivia Chow, Jennifer Hollett. and Kristyn Wong-Tam were also present at the rally. “U of T as an institution has led our city and our nation in feministic discourse and regardless of whether these ramblings were made by a couple of people or more, our response needs to be loud and it needs to be heard by the entire city,” concluded Wong-Tam in her speech.

Hollet agreed with Wong-Tam, voicing her hope that the present steps taken would ensure that there would be no future need to repeat such an event. Chow’s remarks served as the closing speech for the event, as she spoke of her own experiences with abuse.

An attendee of the rally stands in support of feminism. SANDY MA/THE VARSITY

DIVERSITY OF SPEAKERS There were some who felt that the distribution of speakers at the rally lacked diversity, expressing concerns that there were no self-identified Indigenous, queer, or trans women who spoke, while a male feminist ally did speak.

Sania Khan, vice-president, equity, with the University of Toronto Students’ Union, posted on the event Facebook page after the fact, commenting that “institutionalized white feminism drowned out the contributions of exactly those demographics and identities who are regularly not provided these kinds of platforms and spaces to vocalize their narratives.”

Although there was an open invitation for interested parties to come forward and help organize the event, Jades Swadron, a U of T student and organizer with the Trans Inclusivity Project, spoke to the difficulties that trans women face when in activist spaces.

“So many ideas surrounding gender, and the way it is constructed and expressed by all people, end up harming trans women, and trying to undo that overnight is an impossible task,” said Swadron. “A lot of respect and trans woman leadership is needed to make that change, and that is before we even look at factors preventing so many trans women from even participating without even giving them a choice, such as poverty and disability,” she said.

Swadron said that as a trans woman, they are in a perpetual state of potential assault, and that she cannot react with the same shock as cisgender women at the rally. “[When] I have actually been assaulted, and seen other trans women assaulted in public, I cannot even react with the same level of indignant disbelief that some white, cis women did at the rally. I have come to expect it,” they said. “So when I go to a rally talking about violence against women, and a man speaks while

trans women are completely absent, it really upsets me.”

According to Swadron, at least one trans woman was contacted but was unable to speak at the event. “[The] difficulty that exists for organizers to even get a single trans woman’s voice on a stage are significant… we are the women who face the highest amount of violence, our voices continue to not be the focus,” she said, adding the fact that a man spoke at the rally meant that cisgender feminists are more capable of elevating the voices of men than they are the voices of trans women.

“First, we want to thank folks for raising their concerns and fighting for a more inclusive feminist movement on campus,” said the event organizers in a collective statement. “As a women of colour-led coalition that includes queer and disabled people we recognize the long histories of marginalized voices being under-appreciated in this fight. While we did invite a very diverse group of presenters, including cis and trans women and men of colour and Indigenous women, to share their experiences on stage, due to the nature of the threats and the short time frame we were working with, the vast majority declined.”

The organizers said that they were looking forward to continuing to combat gender violence on campus and beyond, and that they would support the organizing done by Indigenous women, queer and trans women, and women with disabilities. They stated that their next steps are to mobilize the All Black Lives Matter rally for Take Back the Night on Saturday at 8 pm at Scadding Court. The event aims to centre the plurality of violence and anti-black racism and centers the experiences of black women, black queer and trans people along the gender spectrum, black people with disabilities, undocumented b lack people, and people in the criminal justice system.

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ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS

Home is where the Hart House is John Monahan discusses community engagement, cross-cultural dialogue, and Game of Thrones DEVIKA DESAI VARSITY STAFF

John Monahan, new Hart House warden. JENNY XIAO/THE VARSITY

John Monahan, who is one month into his term as the new warden of Hart House, stepped into the role during August of this year after his predecessor Bruce Kidd was appointed interim vice-president and principal of UTSC. In order to make Hart House more inclusive and welcoming, Monahan is looking to implement a number of new ideas and programs for the benefit of students as well as members of the university community.

As warden Monahan will act to further the house’s mission to facilitate academics and education.

“The position of Hart House Warden is one that continuously varies depending on the people who come to hold it,” remarked Monahan — who has previously worked in both the public and private sectors and has experience addressing issues that affect immigrants and refugees looking to settle in Canada.

“I feel that my experiences have given me tremendous exposure to [ethnic] communities and backgrounds, and

V

allowed me a platform on which I could practice and develop skills that navigate difference, a skill that I believe is incredibly relevant and important to have at a house like this,” said Monahan.

The new warden also spoke to his desire to become more involved in mentorship and community programs in an effort to help broaden the university experience for students.

It is yet early days, but Monahan intends to draw inspiration from the mentorship program at the Quadrangle society at Massey College by designing a program that focusses on connecting students based on their interests rather than grouping them according to their academic disciplines. “I want to connect students with mentors to help compensate for the lack of some degree of social capital that some students might have, depending on the degree of privilege that they might come from.”

Helping students connect to the world beyond their campus is a crucial aspect of Monahan’s vision for Hart House moving

forward. He hopes to achieve this goal specifically by opening up opportunities for students to demonstrate their passion and willingness to engage with those in need.

“I would say that my first real challenge is going up the vertical learning curve,” said Monahan.“It feels like I’m climbing that wall of ice in Game of Thrones. There’s a lot to learn about the governance of the House, its physical structure, the governance of the university, and there are so many people to meet, both staff and students. There’s just a lot to get familiar with and I’m doing that at the same time that students are arriving back to school.” he remarked.

“I’d like to look back after five years and say that I left Hart House a more inclusive, caring, collaborative place and its graduates more well-rounded, more in tune with their own interests [and] priorities, and more committed to effectively contributing to their local and global communities. That’s the legacy I’d like to take with me.”

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STUDENT LIFE

Posters promoting “White Students Union” appear on campus Material advertizes Students for Western Civilization PATRICK OWENS

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Last week, posters calling for the establishment of a “White Students Union” surfaced at the University of Toronto, York University, and Ryerson University campuses. They were promptly taken down. Accompanying the headline was a link to a website for the group Students for Western Civilization. U of T did not license the posters.

Sania Khan, vice-president, equity for the University of Toronto Students’ Union, said that her initial reaction to the posters was one of complete shock and anger. She also said that a white students’ union is an inherently racist concept.

“In Toronto, racism doesn’t only just look like overt namecalling, harassment, and discrimination. What racialized folks often have to further navigate through are the subtle expressions of racism, dominance and white supremacy that we encounter on a daily basis,” Khan said.

Khan stated that it was important to condemn groups like Students for Western Civilization, but that the roots of subtle racism should be examined in further detail. Khan added that, at U of T, it is predominantly white people who occupy positions of authority and that conversations about the ramifications of this power structure need to be held accountable. “[This power structure] thrives off of upholding practises of white culture, while isolating students who choose to resist conforming to standards and practices of performative whiteness,” she said. “[This] conversation of subtle racism, dominance and white supremacy is incredibly necessary at the very least.”

Those responsible for the posters did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment.

Their website reads that a white students’ union is needed in order to combat growing racism towards white people on campus. The website also states that racism is a result of liberal indoctrination.

It further states that white people are labeled as “oppressors” while all other races are labeled “oppressed” by neoMarxists. “This cultivates extreme feelings of enmity toward whites, which is a hate crime.”

The Students for Western Civilization submitted an article to Excalibur, York University’s student newspaper, which the paper declined to published. In the article, they claim that there are no conservative instructors in arts programs at York.

“As far as we can tell there is not a single socially conservative professor within any of the liberal arts departments at York University.”

Students for Western Civilization believe a white students’ union will combat these “hate crimes,” and that “A white students’ union would help cultivate a white identity while advancing the political interests of Western peoples.”

The webpage claims that the ultimate goal of the group is to eliminate the “liberal indoctrination” of York students, and to establish what they consider to be a fair academic system.

“A white students’ union would allow students to explore the avenues of racial politics which are not available currently under the liberal indoctrination of York University,” reads their website.

For her part, Khan hopes to continue the dialogue about everyday manifestation of structural and systemic racism throughout her term in office.

The posters advertizing a “White Students Union” were removed quickly after their discovery.

PHOTO VIA REDDIT

STUDENT LIFE

Ask First Campaign rebranded

The Ask First campaign features rebranded materials. YASSINE ELBARADIE/THE VARSITY

Initiative promotes consent culture EMILY COLERO

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

“Do you understand consent?” reads a poster from the University of Toronto’s latest effort to promote consent culture on campus. The new posters are part of the Ask First campaign, which was launched last summer to replace the university’s ‘Green Dot campaign. ’ The Ask First initiative aims to build on the Canadian Federation of Students’ “No Means No Campaign,” taking it a step further by discussing personal safety, the meaning and importance of consent, and the reporting of sexual assaults.

The campaign directs students to different resources, such as peer support programs.

“The material I have seen so far has been simple but effective, as well as visually appealing without being triggering,” said Celia Wandio, a fourth-year student and founder of Students Against Sexual Violence U of T. She stated that the Ask First website houses a lot of important information and praised the Office of Student Life’s effort to improve communication of their services to students.

The Ask First website gives students details of U of T security programs such as WalkSmart and WorkAlone, which provide students with a companion when walking around the St. George campus at night, including to Chestnut residence and to nearby Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) locations. UTM and UTSC have similar programs, WalkSafer and UTSC Patrol respectively.

Other safety tips tell students to plan ahead and control their situation, citing safety tips concerning alcohol, as well as encouraging students to support one another when going out.

The Ask First effort was a result of the Services and Programs working group, but the university’s Ask First efforts have been ongoing since 2001. The committee’s goal is to develop a framework, review policies and procedures, and address issues related to sexual violence on campus.

The vice-president of human resources and equity as well as the vice provost of students and first entry division established the Advisory Committee to the President and Provost on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence on Campus late last year. The committee consists of undergraduate stu-

dents, program chairs, faculty deans, professors, and program directors on campus.

Althea Blackburn-Evens, director of news and media relations at U of T, said that the ultimate goal of the Ask First campaign is to ensure students stay safe and have healthy relationships, while also raising awareness and ensuring students understand the meaning of consent.

Currently the next step of the Ask First program is to develop more videos on consent topics, such as how to be an active bystander. There are also a number of workshops coming up, including the Speak Your Mind workshop and Building Healthy Relationships workshop. Bystander awareness workshops are also available for groups upon request.

Wandio stated that the impact of these initiatives remains to be seen. “[The] website might be great, but will people actually read and absorb the information? Will students continue to be confronted with these messages post-Orientation Week?” she said. “But the fact that all of this material has been disseminated during Orientation Week definitely shows incoming students that consent is something U of T takes seriously, so it’s a start.”

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HIGHER EDUCATION

ONTARIO TUITION HIGHEST IN COUNTRY Fees expected to pass $9,000 by 2018

MEERAH HAQ

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The average cost of undergraduate tuition fees in Toronto is $7,400 a year, before factoring in meal plans, residence fees, and the cost of textbooks. Tuition has tripled since 1993, according to Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and these costs are expected to rise to $9,541 by 2018. Students in Ontario pay the highest university fees in the country, and have for seven years.

Newfoundland has the lowest cost of tuition in the country and has furthered its student aid by introducing need based grants instead of offering students loans. Rajean Hoilett, the chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario,

believes Ontario should follow suit. “Ontario needs to see a government that will commit to reducing tuition fees,” he said.

Mariam Jammal, a third-year student at U of T, was not at all surprised to hear that Ontario has the highest tuition rate in Canada. “I think there needs to be much more funding to universities in order to alleviate the cost for students, especially because so many of us end up having to split our time and focus between our education and holding down jobs, even with [OSAP].”

Currently, Ontario offers full-time undergraduate students whose families make under $160,000 a 30 per cent tuition reduction. However, this is not offered to part-time students, nor to students who do not attend university within four years of finishing their high school education.

According to Bonnie Patterson, the CEO and chairperson of the Council of Ontario Universities, Ontario has “one of the most generous financial support programs in the country,” and “you have to look at both sides of the equation.”

Stella Pock, a fourth-year student at U of T, is more understanding of the rising fees. “Ontario must have their reasons for why they keep their loans [this] way. It’s either that there are many people who can afford these fees, or that they simply have more things to spend money on.” Stella is not surprised with Ontario’s high tuition rate, “especially since U of T is renowned, it makes sense that administration would increase tuition further, simply because they can.”

8 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 21 S E P T E M B E R 2 015 news@thevarsity.ca

STUDENT LIFE

Bookstore error causes confusion l co rse te t still on s elves on first ay o class TAMIM MANSOUR VARSITY STAFF

Students enrolled in STAB52: An Introduction to Probability at UTSC emerged confused when the required course text was not on the shelves at the UTSC Bookstore.

In a cautionary echo of the common advice not to buy textbooks before the first lesson, the actual course text, “Introduction to Probability,” had yet to arrive. According to Julia Chan, manager of the UTSC Bookstore, there was a backlog on the distributor’s end.

“A new title is selected for a course for a variety of reasons by the Faculty members and we always do our best to have the books arrive as quickly as possible.

In this case, we ordered the new title as soon as we received the information but unfortunately it was on back-order from the distributor while they wait for additional inventory,” Chan explained.

Indeed, when Kuan Song, a student specializing in computer science, went to find the textbook after that first class, he did not find the course text. Instead, he found the course text of the previous session’s offering of STAB52, Probability and Statistics: The Science of Uncertainty.

“I went to the bookstore after class on Thursday to look for another class’ book, and piles of the old books were just sitting there without the tag for the appropriate course,” Song described. “There were some students who I’ve advised that the books on the shelf are not used anymore, but

Students at UTSC were left confused after the incorrect textbook was on the shelves. JUMA PEREZ/THE VARSITY

they ignored me and picked up the book anyway.”

Song also said that the UTSC Bookstore had listed the previous session’s course text as the required text for the Fall 2015 semester before the class started.

This conflicts with Chan’s statement that only the current course text has ever been listed for the fall 2015 semester.

“The textbook used for STAB52 in the summer of 2015 was the same book used back in September 2014. The Summer course-list on the U of T Bookstore’s website was posted online until the summer term was officially over and it may have

been possible that a student could have mistaken it for the September 2015 courselist,” Chan suggested.

When asked about this apparent contradiction, professor Balint Virag, the course instructor for STAB52, revealed that he was not aware of the mix-up. Virag had only told the bookstore that he would use “Introduction to Probability” as his course text, and it came as a surprise to hear about the incident.

“I would be surprised because [the bookstore] asked me what textbook I should use and usually they wait for me to tell them. It’s possible that it remained [on the website] but I don’t know,” he said.

While the previous course texts have been removed from the shelves, Song still blames the bookstore for the confusion over the course text.

“It’s the bookstore’s responsibility to remove the textbook off the shelf when the instructor notifies them promptly. Removing the tag but not the textbook is basically just tricking the students into making the purchase because they’d think it’s the same book used for previous semesters until notified otherwise,” Song said.

“Introduction to Probability,” the correct text for the course, became available on September 17 at the UTSC Bookstore.

STUDENT POLITICS

ontracts, impeac ment, oar proposals

A recap o S n ay s UTSU oar o IRIS ROBIN

irectors meeting

LEGAL ACTION During an in-camera portion of the meeting, the board voted to undertake legal action for which legal counsel was present.

Details of the action itself have not yet been made public, and the nature of the action is expected to surface later this week.

committee. A majority of two thirds of the UTSU and EngSoc executive committees is sufficient to call for a re-negotiation of the contract.

In order to avoid duplicate services, the agreement outlines which services the UTSU shall provide and which fall under the purview of EngSoc. Financially speaking, 50 per cent of the fees that EngSoc pays to the UTSU shall be remitted under the contract, and both parties have the power to terminate the agreement with a two thirds majority vote by either body’s board of directors.

ENGINEERING SOCIETY FEE AGREEMENT The board of directors voted to pass the signing of an agreement between the UTSU and the Engineering Society (EngSoc). The agreement allows for EngSoc member to remain members of the UTSU, while allowing for both organizations to maintain their autonomy.

According to the contract, which is renewable each year, the UTSU shall have a voting seat on EngSoc’s Board of Directors, to be filled by a member of the UTSU executive

IMPEACHMENT OF THE KPE DIRECTOR Auni Ahsan, director for Victoria College, moved to impeach Earnest Manalo, director for the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education on the grounds that he has not been fulfilling his duties as a director. Ahsan alleged that Manalo has yet to hold office hours, attend a meeting of the Board of Directors, join a committee or commission, or inform his membership of the union’s activities.

When the motion came to be discussed, Manalo explained that he was working two

NEWS EDITOR

This past weekend saw an eventful University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Board of Directors meeting, in which several important motions were discussed.

full-time jobs during the summer; that he was undergoing medical treatment, and that he had not had access to his UTSU email address. Ahsan later withdrew his motion to impeach Manalo.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS STRUCTURE PROPOSAL ENDORSEMENT Plan B, a proposal to restructure the board, was moved by arts & science at-large director Khrystyna Zhuk and seconded by Daman Singh, University College director. Natalie Petra, the mover of an alternate board restructuring proposal, withdrew her motion when elements of her proposal were incorporated into Plan B. Ben Coleman, UTSU president, moved the motion to endorse Plan B on the grounds that it has the majority of colleges and faculties on board, that it retains the autonomy of colleges, faculties, and UTM, and that it ensures representation for marginalized students.

Several directors, including Ryan Hume of University College, Hashim Yussuf of UTM, and Steve Warner of Victoria College, voiced their opposition of the proposal, citing fairness among their reasons not to endorse.

Grayce Slobodian, UTSU orientation coor-

dinator and former vice-president external, is the mover of the competing board proposal to be discussed at the Annual General Meeting.

She said that it would be inappropriate for the board to endorse one proposal over another.

The motion to endorse Plan B passed, and the AGM will be held on October 7.

LETTERS OF SUPPORT The UTSU voted to send a letter to the Chiefs and the Wet’suwet’en People of the Unist’ot’en Camp, who are opposing companies wishing to build oil and gas lines on their territory.

The letter states that the UTSU has pledged to hold a solidarity action in support of their right to self-determination.

The board discussed the suitability of the union getting involved in ‘political’ issues, a discussion that came up earlier this summer with the announcement of a motion in favour of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel set for the Special General Meeting later this year.

A letter calling on the Federal Government to accept more refugees also passed.

With files from Tom Yun

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NEWS 9

var.st/news

NEWS IN BRIEF 37 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FROM NEW YORK CHARGED IN THE DEATH OF FIRST-YEAR

U OF T NO LONGER TOP CANADIAN UNIVERSITY

CAPE BRETON UNIVERSITY STUDENT MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR PETITIONS TO LEAVE CANADIAN REFUSES TO WEAR FEDERATION OF STUDENTS ACCESSIBILITY DEVICE

Last Tuesday September 15, 2015, 37 students belonging to Baruch College in Manhattan, New York, were charged for their participation in a fraternity ritual which culminated in the death of a nineteen year old student, Chung Den. The ritual, known as the ‘glass ceiling’ was brutal. Chung incurred multiple, massive traumas and lost consciousness. Instead of calling for immediate medical assistance, the fraternity members hid all incriminating items and took to the Internet in an effort to diagnose Chung’s condition. The delay is believed to have contributed to his death significantly.

Out of the 37 members, 27 were charged with “accounts of hazing, hindering apprehension and criminal conspiracy,” two were charged with simple assault, and three with more aggravated assault. Five members, along with the organization itself, were charged with first-degree murder.

As of this year’s QS World University Rankings, U of T is no longer the top Canadian university. That honour now belongs to Montreal’s Mcgill University.

Last year, U of T was ranked the twentieth best university in the world, making it the top Canadian university in the world. However, this year U of T has taken a sharp decline of 14 spots, falling to number 34 in the world.

McGill University was ranked thirty-ninth in the world in 2014– 2015. This year, it has risen 15 spots, making it to number 21.

Important factors that affected a university’s score in the rankings were academic reputation, employer reputation, international student and faculty ratio as well as student-tofaculty ratio.

Following the Cape Breton University Students’ Union’s (CBUSU) unsuccessful attempt to leave the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), Brandon MacDonald, a fourth-year student at Cape Breton University, has initiated another petition to end its membership.

As of September 19, the petition has gathered over 700 signatures, which is about 30 per cent of the student population.

Although CBU students voted overwhelmingly in favour of leaving the CFS in 2008, the CFS did not acknowledge the referendum on the grounds that it did not comply with its by-laws.

The Superior Court of Justice ordered the CBUSU to pay $295,000 of outstanding dues to the CFS, plus legal fees. The CBUSU filed for bankruptcy in August, 2015.

“I’m hoping by initiating this petition that I can help CBU in the future to avoid a situation like this so that we don’t have to possibly deal with this organization again and we don’t run into this problem in the future,” said MacDonald in an interview with CBC.

— Devika Desai With files from the Guardian

— Devika Desai With files from the Toronto Star

— Iris Robin With files from CBC News

Professor Ranee Panjabi allegedly refused to wear a sound-transmitting device necessary to accommodate a student’s hearing impairment last week. William Sears, a third-year history major at Memorial University, is considering filing a human rights complaint as a result of the professor’s refusal.

Panjabi alleged that wearing the device would go against her faith. Sears told the National Post that Panjabi could choose whether or not to wear the device, whereas he cannot change the fact that he is hard of hearing.

According to Sears, this is the first time he has encountered an instructor who has refused to accommodate his disability.

Memorial University said in a statement that the case is difficult because of conflicting individual rights.

This is not the first time that Panjabi has received a complaint like this; a student filed a similar concern in 1996.

— Iris Robin With files from the National Post

COMMENT var.st/comment

21 September 2015

comment@thevarsity.ca

A game nobody wins When politics trump policy the whole country loses MALONE MULLIN VARSITY STAFF

O

DIANA PHAM/THE VARSITY

ur political system follows at least doors arrangement contriving the clauses within one basic rule: electoral procedure the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the National determines our values, policies, and Energy Board’s facade of a 'public hearing' pronational interests. It’s been this way cess. Strathy’s ruling is merely one more example since the Charter of Rights and of this trend of eroding Canadian democracy.

Freedoms was drafted in 1982, and With the Harper government at the helm, we it’s the way most democracies operate. can only watch from the shore.

Stephen Harper has had a fun ten years There’s a scene in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel poking holes in this process. Just last month Remains of the Day: European aristocrats have Chief Justice George Strathy — presiding over gathered for a conference; they’re discussing Ontario’s highest court since his appointment post-Great War reparations against Germany.

by Harper in Mr. Lewis, the 2013 — prohibitAmerican amIT DOES NOT MATTER THAT MOST EXPATS DON’T bassador, scoffs ed citizens living abroad for more these “decent, VOTE: IT MATTERS THAT NOW THEY LEGALLY CAN’T. at than five years well-meaning” from choosing amateurs attempttheir own government. The move stops a 1.4 ing diplomacy. “You here in Europe need promillion-voter block from accessing the polls fessionals to run your affairs,” he declares to this October. the dinner table. “If you don’t realize that soon Those overseas citizens, perhaps gone to study, you’re headed for disaster.” work, or reunite with family, no longer have a voice For Mr. Lewis, the conference is a high-stakes in their country's democratic process. The 2014 rul- game. He has no time to share the field with ing that gave them one has now been overturned, laypersons. Games, after all, are only meant to since Strathy insists the expat vote would "erode be won. the social contract and undermine the legitimacy “I believe I have a good idea of what you mean of the laws." Those Canadians aren’t informed, he by ‘professionalism,’” retorts the English lord. “It said, because they don’t live here. means ordering one’s priorities according to greed Let’s forget for a minute that nobody else’s and advantage rather than a desire to see goodness ballot is handed to them on the condition of and justice prevail in the world.” political erudition. Put aside too, that there’s Is our dear leader a psychopath? Probably. That no test for policy awareness, and that voting is photo op of him smothered in kittens didn’t fool a constitutional right of birth no matter which anyone. But it might also be said, through some borders one chooses to traverse, regardless of Machiavellian lens, that Harper played his cards what amount in taxes one has paid. As Maclean’s professionally, just as Mr. Lewis advocates. pointed out, under 10,000 expats bothered to The challenge for us, as students, lies in finding vote in the last election, a faction that hardly a way to change the game by injecting ourselves constitutes a threat to the tory reign. Strathy’s into it. Amending Harper's definition of Canadian regressive ruling speaks volumes about how our politics means playing smart in this election. We government views its raison d’etre. can start by letting Harper know that his promise It does not matter that most expats don’t to defend against a Netflix tax won’t win over young vote: it matters that now they legally can’t. voters. Perhaps then we can allude to the litany of Their rights of citizenship have been violated, constitutional encroachments that has steadily in keeping with a pattern of disrespect that has veiled government activity and silenced the voice become commonplace. What matters is the of the people. steady decline of participatory citizenship under But if we want to win big, we must tell our a government that devises rules according not party leaders that they need to define profesto documented legal rights, but to what is most sionalism in terms not of power and victory, advantageous come election season. but respect and dignity.

Slowly, but surely, we are becoming spectators of this strange sport rather than players within Malone Mullin is a fifth-year student at St. it; just look at C-51, C-24, a behind-closed- Michael's College studying philosophy.

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COMMENT 11

var.st/comment

Think before you share Alan Kurdi's photo e s o l empat i e RUSABA ALAM

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Worldwide outrage was sparked after the publication of Nilüfer Demir’s now-famous photo of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying dead on a beach in Turkey. Across Canada, the image has appeared on front pages and been shared countless times on social media, accompanied by support for local aid organizations and calls for our government to do more to help refugees. But with Canadian, and international, news outlets reporting daily on the plight of Syrian refugees in the months leading up to the little boy’s death, why did it take a photograph of a drowned child to move so many to action?

A Globe and Mail editorial published on September 2 argues that “some upsetting images demand to be seen, precisely because they are a true representation of reality…

And by the shock to our eyes, our conscience may be stirred.” This argument, echoed in many other publications, fails to explain why some upsetting images 'demand' to be seen while others do not. After all, no news outlet published photographs of the bodies of children killed in American school shootings as a means of increasing public awareness of gun violence in the United States. Even if such photos were published, how many of us would share them on social media?

We do not need photographs to recognize the humanity of North American children and the tragedy of their deaths — we already hold a basic level of respect for those children’s bodies, giving them and their families some privacy in their suffering. However, this is a courtesy we do not always extend to people overseas.

T e lin

it , instea o sensationali ing, Although the publication of the photos of Alan Kurdi has led to important and productive shifts in the public discourse on refugees, it also reveals a troubling disparity in the way we engage with tragedy: that we value the humanity of those near us by default, but have difficulty doing the same for those suffering far away. Moving forward, how can we truly act in the best interests of refugees, Syrian or otherwise, unless we can recognize that each and every one of them is as real and as human as our neighbours?

Many students on our campus plan to go on to careers as policy makers, journalists, political analysts, and the like after graduating from; many more will be voting in a federal election for the first time next month. As such, we all have a responsibility to work compassionately, to empathize with refugees rather than pity them, and to make every effort to see the human face of the statistics and stories we encounter in the news, whether or not they are accompanied by photographs of pain and death.

Other people are suffering material consequences right now because of our collective failure to afford children overseas the respect, dignity, and empathy we hold for children at home. Canada’s slow response to the Syrian exodus is evidence enough of that. Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, an estimated 11 million Syrians have been displaced, every one of whom has a story and a family just as Alan Kurdi did. This is to say nothing of refugees from other nations or those still caught in warzones around the world.

As students, and as informed citizens, we can and we must do better. Take this time to ref lect on your own responses to news reports on tragedies at home and

man s

ering a roa

MIRKA LOISELLE/THE VARSITY

overseas. Resolve to read the news compassionately, recognizing the value and humanity of every life lost. Ask yourself if Alan Kurdi’s death would have resonated with you as deeply had it been reported without photographs, or whether he, his brother Ghalib, and his mother Rehana would then have become casualties.

If we are capable of understanding without the help of photographs the magnitude of the

tragedy when a child dies in our own country, then we are certainly capable both of feeling the same respect and empathy for children and adults overseas and of translating that feeling into action. No child should have to die for us to recognize their humanity.

Rusaba Alam is a third-year student at Victoria College studying English.

et een aca emic press re an mental ealt

Don’t blame 'tiger parenting' — we’re all responsible for a culture shift SHAILEE KORANNE VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Jennifer Pan recently made headlines once again because of her shocking crime. Having been forced into a guarded, restraining lifestyle of high academic standards by her parents, Pan became so resentful that she hired hit men to kill them.

Stories of the impossible expectations Pan lived with have rung true to with many

Asian-Canadian students. In fact, the apparently Asian style of 'tiger parenting' — which is characterized by strict rules, an emphasis on children’s obedience, and high academic expectations — has been routinely identified as the source of Pan’s stress and anxiety. Although 'tiger parenting' can lead to better grades, research has shown it also contributes to poor mental health, and Pan herself told the Globe and Mail that she had attempted suicide.

So, while extreme, Pan’s situation should not be treated as a mere symptom of 'bad' parenting; rather, we should consider how the problem manifested due to mental health issues and the lack of support surrounding those problems. While Ontario high schools

Students’ mental health issues often stem from high academic pressure. MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

have counsellors, there’s only so much they can do, because they tend to be busy teachers as well. Mental health services should be accessible province-wide for people of all ages, but OHIP actually doesn’t cover psychological services. In fact, most other health insurance plans don’t provide enough for even monthly psychological treatment.

Most importantly for us, U of T claims to offer free mental health support, but these services are often downright inaccessible and rife with prejudice. For instance, in 2014, U of T student James Rodriguez became depressed and attempted suicide. After being hospitalized, Rodriguez found out that he wasn’t welcome back at his residence, and could only return in the winter with psychiatric approval.

Instead of being offered crisis housing, Rodriguez had to jump through dozens of hoops himself to try and get help, and still remained without sufficient support.

I can relate. It was debilitating to have to juggle the emotional and physical symptoms of anxiety while trying to get adjusted to first year. I spoke with a counsellor to be evaluated, then with another counsellor who left in May, which meant having to find a new counsellor. Having to relive my problems over and over with stranger after stranger was scary and incredibly draining.

I then went to Health Services to get a routine evaluation from a medical doctor.

After I divulged the details of my anxiety yet again, the doctor told me to get a blood test at a lab that is affiliated with U of T. I called the lab upwards of ten times and no one ever answered the phone — I couldn’t even leave a voicemail.

Eventually, I gave up. In a similar vein, James Rodriguez told Vice that he didn’t want to be at U of T anymore because of how unnecessarily complicated the psychiatry services are; he said he felt “disposable.”

Clearly, our society and institutions should be more considerate and pro-active towards mental health issues. While U of T created a mental health committee in late 2013, it is unclear what tangible or practical reforms have been instituted. Criticisms surface frequently, such as the questions surrounding U of T’s mental health protocols after regular business hours, and the fact that students are often referred to OISE student counsellors instead of professional therapists, who are able to more effectively handle serious cases of mental turmoil.

We also can’t just blame institutions for the way that mental health is handled on campus — Erin Hodgson, a former U of T student, was voted out of residence a few years ago by her own peers after she attempted suicide. This type of social exclusion and isolation is unacceptable.

Consequently, we need to recognize the negative way we talk about mental illnesses, and we need to stop creating outcasts. Pan’s story should not be written off as simply a symptom of overbearing Asian parents — this generalization is not only racist and callous, but also makes an exception of the link between academic pressures and poor mental health services in the province. For meaningful change to occur, we must all take responsibility for shifting the culture around mental health from toxicity to support and understanding.

Shailee Koranne is a second-year student at Victoria College majoring in equity studies.

12 COMMENT

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 21 S E P T E M B E R 2 015 comment@thevarsity.ca

Animal testing is often an unfortunate necessity Be cautious not to categorically condemn animal testing NAOMI STULEANU VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

A Halifax local tweeted a photo of 372 cans of cat food slated for delivery to Dalhousie University, sparking national curiosity over the necessity of such a strange order. Once it came to light that Dalhousie needed the food to provide sustenance for the cats being used as live subjects for a research project on amblyopia (lazy eye) — the most common eye condition among children in North America.

Public outrage ensued. In fact, animal rights activists held a protest just last week in opposition to the testing.

The University of Toronto, like Dalhousie, uses animals as teaching tools, for research, and in testing; for example, students enrolled in courses offered by the Department of Cell and Systems Biology are often expected to handle, observe, or experiment on animals. As such, this event raises important questions regarding the use of animals in research, particularly in universities and for scientific research.

While these animal right activists are arguably working for a noble cause, we need to be careful about categorically condemning animal testing. U of T, like many other universities, adheres to several protocols, committee reviews, and legal acts in order to protect and ensure the ethical treatment of animals used in teaching or research.

Specifically, we are guided by the three Rs — Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. Replacement refers to using an alternative method of testing if available; reduction refers to using as few animals as possible; and refinement indicates the desire to constantly look for ways of changing methodology in order to minimize animals’ suffering. These principles are widely accepted as the foundation for ethical animal use policies around the world, because it ensures that animal testing is used only as a necessity, and executed in a way to lessen harm to the lowest degree possible.

U of T also requires researchers to complete a course on animal care, as animals must be kept in good health in order for research performed to yield accurate results. So, even if you do not believe in the researcher’s moral motivation to treat animals properly, you can at least have confidence they will be ensuring good health in order to cultivate accurate results.

When expressing opposition towards animal testing in universities, many also tend to overlook the incredible benefits that both humans and animals derive from this practice.

Animal testing has allowed us to establish the vast majority of major modern medical procedures, treatment, and technology of the past century. For instance, testing on monkeys led to the development of the polio vaccination, a disease that is now about to be eradicated. Organ transplants were perfected on dogs, sheep, cows, and pigs, extending the lives of millions of people.

Dogs were used in research on diabetes, and this led to the discovery of insulin.

Because of such animal testing, many diagnoses are no longer death sentences. As we create ways to increase the average lifespan,

A group of mice being used for scientific research. NOVARTIS AG/CC FLICKR

new diseases are being discovered or developing in unprecedented ways. Continued animal testing is necessary in order to find treatments for these new diseases, unless, and until, technological developments become sophisticated enough to replicate experimentation on animals.

Therapies developed for humans can also be applied to treat the same diseases in animals, such as diabetes, cancer, and arthritis. In fact, testing on animals has led to many lifesaving treatments for farm animals, wildlife, and endangered species. Vaccinations for animals, such as rabies, tetanus, and feline leukemia, allow animals to live longer in good health.

What’s more, endangered species benefit from

advanced reproductive techniques — for example, giant panda population growth is facilitated by these techniques.

Animal rights protests should not be directed towards credible teaching and research institutions like U of T or Dalhousie.

These institutions abide by ethical guidelines established to protect lab animals, which is radically different than the lack of ethical guidelines surrounding the use of animals in the food or fashion industry.

When animal suffering is minimized, and there are potential and historically proven long-term human health benefits derived from testing, we should recognize the acceptability of animal testing.

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EDITORIAL 21 September 2015

FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE n the a e of anonymous threats U of T administration finds itself playing catch up THE VARSITY EDITORIAL BOARD

LETTERS TO

THE EDITOR .

A

JULIEN BALBONTIN AND LISA WONG/ILLUSTRATION EDITOR AND DESIGN EDITOR

t U of T, the f irst few weeks of September have always been def ined by warm welcomes and happy homecomings. Over the course of a few short days, summer disappears behind us and the excitement of a new semester grows. This is what is expected.

What is not expected during this time — or at any time on a university campus for that matter — is the increased police presence, tersely worded administrative warnings, and sense of uneasy dread that have descended on this institution in the past week.

Shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday, September 10, as many of us were waiting in line at the bookstore, dropping in at clubs’ fairs, catching up with, or meeting new friends, a frightening email appeared in our inboxes.

By now, the horrid details that were then unclear have come to light: two weeks ago, an anonymous post in the comment feed of a BlogTO article encouraged readers to go out and execute acts of violence against students at this university.

This threat was the unidentif ied subject of vice-president and provost Cheryl Regehr’s off ice’s mass email that afternoon. What this lackluster attempt to promote calm and order on campus neglected to include, however, was that the threat in question was specif ically levelled against feminists and students and faculty of the Sociology, and Women and Gender studies departments.

While Toronto Police have been adamant in their conclusion that the post does not represent an immediate risk to students, the university’s reaction to this threat represents a failure to communicate with its community responsibly, a missed opportunity to express solidarity appropriately, and leaves many important questions regarding U of T’s decision making protocol unanswered.

In an age where our lives are saturated with rapid online communication and social media, and information — good or bad — can be shared almost instantly, it can be near impossible to ensure that the facts of a story are communicated effectively. Unsurprisingly, then, it was only a matter of minutes before anyone who received the provost’s email looked up the details online and realized how little the university had actually told us.

In choosing, for whatever reason, to omit certain details of the threat, the university put itself off balance and opened itself up to much of the warranted criticism that has befallen it since.

We were going to f ind out what was going on, so keeping the community partially out of the loop seems suspicious, if not baff ling, particularly given the administration’s absent justif ication for this decision.

Beyond creating problems for itself from a public relations perspective, by choosing not to provide students and staff with all of the information available, the university also ran the signif icant risk of inciting unnecessary and widespread panic in the community. This is not to downplay the seriousness of any threat, regardless of its credibility, whether it is against one, some, or all of us; but in the decision not to share the specif ics, the administration risked provoking a precarious reaction.

Perhaps what is most troubling however, is that by passing up on the opportunity to keep the community fully informed, U of T also shamefully wasted a chance to express some much needed solidarity with feminists, Women and Gender Studies and sociology students and faculty, as well as the community at large. By presenting the threat as an abstract, anomalous occurrence — as opposed to contextualizing it as a symptom of widespread negative treatment of women and feminists — the administration failed to come out ahead for having the done right thing — not only keeping us safe, but acknowledging the reality of misogyny in our society.

Now that the dust has settled and the facts have been laid bare, the university’s subsequent statements of support are not without an air of inauthenticity. The moment to support the feminist community in a dangerous time has passed and everything released since is backtracking.

The administration’s initial silence on the gendered nature of this threat — not to mention its lack of information surrounding similar threats in June — signalled a disregard for the sexism that informed the threat to begin with.

It is not with out some incredulity that at this time, and in this place, we feel the need to denounce violence against women, in all forms, in the harshest terms. Yet, the sad truth is, as Teju Cole once noted, “the absurdity of our predicament makes it necessary to spell out obvious things in detail, even… things we already know, or should already know.”

The Varsity's editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester. For more information about The Varsity's editorial policy, email comment@thevarsity.ca.

editorial@thevarsity.ca

.

Re: Is UTSU giving your money to quacks?

By including homeopathy on their health insurance plan, the UTSU is actually providing a system of medicine that is safe, effective and often curative where conventional treatments fail. The UTSU is helping to reduce the excessive medical costs which plague people and government agencies. It is making available to more people a system of medicine that is non-toxic and does not create iatrogenic diseases which must then be treated in their turn.

Homeopathy cured my high blood pressure and my high intraocular pressure caused by glaucoma.

It achieved that safely, permanently and inexpensively. I don't have to take an expensive drug for the rest of my life just to manage the symptoms of these conditions. I don't have to take the risk of developing the iatrogenic diseases drugs for these conditions create. I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars every month on expensive prescription drugs.

How do I know homeopathy cured these conditions? I stopped taking the prescribed remedies several years ago and yet every sixmonth pressure check is normal. My ophthalmologist recommended that I stop using the conventional eye drops he had been prescribing for many years and my GP stated that I no longer needed the conventional drug for high blood pressure.

Anyone who finds homeopathy has a friend for life.

— Christine Jahnig (from web)

and treatments — finding value in some things the author would dislike, and finding some in things commentors here would not either.

These processes are long and complex. Displacing one item of coverage for another is not always a one-to-one change over in costs.

Folks, honestly, are still frustrated by our work... but even that was miles above what we thought we'd get starting out. This kind of service is difficult to navigate and ensure everyone gets what they need — especially in populations outrightly discriminated against by insurers.

I don't want people to come away from this feeling like this can be done in a snap in other unions. It takes a lot of effort, time, and collective will. It's not my place to comment on whether you should, but that's for UTSU members to decide.

— Brad Evoy (from web)

"In fact, U of T’s Graduate Student Union, whose health plan previously covered homeopathy, voted to remove its coverage from their insurance benefits in 2013. In this way, the UTSU is going against the standard of practice for student health plans, even amongst fellow U of T student organizations."

In fact, UTGSU's plan is one of the few that doesn't cover homeopathy. This was during a period when, during my time as a member of their Executive, we reviewed the entire health and dental plan based on student feedback, found a new broker, and forged a new broker-insurer relationship that was the first of its kind in the country. We talked about a lot of medicines

Re: Transgender: the margin of the margin “Substitute the word US for Canada and most of what you say is still true. It took me 63 years to come to terms with who I am, mainly due to societal constraints. I look back at all the failed relationships and substance abuse and wonder what could have been. I then realize that if I could survive all the slings and arrows I threw at myself I can, and will, survive what society directs towards me.

And still stand tall as a proud trans woman.”

— Lee Anne (from web)

Re: The myth of “reverse racism” "While the UTSMU has a valid point, perhaps it would have been more effective to explicitly critique how and when the term reverse racism is actually used, as opposed to discussing its a priori meaning. " ...a valid point? Racism isn't just about believing in your own superiority, it's time to step away from the dictionary definition. The term racism is used when anybody, of any colour, presumes that the other is something to mock.

— Alexandra Rusu (from web)

Letters to the editor should be directed to comment@thevarsity.ca. Please keep letters to 250 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

STUDEN

The Varsity’s Emily John EMILY JOHNPULLE VARSITY STAFF

S

tudents receive no shortage of media coverage, throughout the year, and especially during back-to-school season.

Numerous articles have discussed how post-secondary students face high unemployment, a difficult job market, and rising tuition fees.

Just this past year, the CBC reported on students’ growing credit-card debt. The Toronto Star stated that Ontario is home to the highest tuition fees in the country, and that young people are also “sapping their parents’ bank accounts” and drowning in debt.

This is not news. This generation of students’ struggles are well known and well publicized. There is, however, a new trend that has developed among the mass of media coverage on students: articles which not only seek to explain and probe student issues, but actually glorify these challenging situations and the students who try to confront them.

As a student reading these articles, I am left feeling uneasy about the way in which this adversity is sometimes presented. Particularly, when students and young adults resort to extreme measures in order to find employment or off-set high student fees, and these stories are presented as triumphs.

Some students’ efforts certainly are notable success stories, but at what point does their telling pull focus away from the issues which produced their hardships in the first place?

The media is a complex, vital part of an open society.

Students know this. While many are pleased to see their struggles receiving some attention in the public sphere, they also know that it matters how these stories are presented matters much more.

TAKING

I f irst c The Toro year-old degree in After co success, proach t the stree HIRE.” on outle A little story, rep on in the now emp While and expe it was p Rauhala School o when rep “On on ploymen and on h thing... I The Toron reading I’m glad that’s the you can on one in “On th was that vidual pr affected societal p In anot Brown, a pushed a as a buske hours und a name fo Neithe ploymen the natio Despit usefulne uplifting if it’s do than seri

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ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

NTS IN THE HEADLINES

npulle investigates the way students are covered in the media, and why it matters

G TO THE STREETS

came across this pattern in reporting when onto Star ran a story about Xingyi Yan, a 21 d recent graduate who, after completing her n commerce at U of T, set off to look for a job. ompleting hundreds of applications without Yan decided to opt for a more creative apto f inding a job in advertising. She stood in ets with a sign reading “U of T GR AD FOR Yan’s story gained attention and was featured ets such as Global News. e over a month later, The Star followed-up on Yan’s porting that her “Great Depression-like bid to catch e 21st-century job market has paid off.” She was ployed and thriving. e Yan’s story is clearly one of success, students erts alike have taken note of the way in which presented, and question it. According to Ann a, associate professor at Ryerson University’s of Journalism, there are several factors at play porting on a story such as Yan’s. ne hand it draws attention to the rates of unemnt among people in their twenties how serious that is, and that’s a good I remember seeing [Yan’s story] in nto Star when it first appeared, and with some interest and thinking, someone is doing this story because e sentimental aspect of journalism... tell big picture stories by focusing ndividual,” she explained. he other hand, what I did not like it emphasized that it was her indiroblem and somehow it was only a problem that individuals. It wasn’t a structural problem or a problem.” ther instance, CTV recently reported on Sebastian 23-year-old who studied linguistics at U of T. Brown piano two kilometres per day in order to earn a living er in Toronto. The story reports that “Ben spends seven der the blazing sun, playing for donations and making or himself in the music industry.” er article mentions Canada’s high youth unemnt rate of 13 per cent, which is almost double onal unemployment rate of 6.7 per cent. te this omission, Rauhala holds that there is ess in telling these stories just because they are g. “I think that message is more important even one in an occasionally slightly mocking or less ious way,” she says.

University of Manchester. With $30,000 in tuition fees, Eames was “on the hunt for frugal accommodations,” and lived in the backyard of Manchester resident Charley Mantack in exchange for tutoring services.

In a similar vein, The Toronto Star covered the story of Anh Cao, an international student at U of T from Vietnam who, during his studies, ran out of money and was forced to live in a homeless shelter for a semester. Although Cao received significant scholarships, it was not enough to cover the $33,000 tuition fees for the fall after he completed summer courses.

Both articles mention the costs that both Eames and Cao faced as international students, but these considerations came across as footnotes in the articles’ larger claims. For Cao, “Canadian kindness” and his own “grit” allowed him to pull through.

The same Canadian kindness is referenced in Eames’ story; it explained that his decision to tutor Mantack was motivated by a desire to “to try and give back.”

These articles both romanticized the students’ living situations, or even implied that they were favourable. Cao said the time he spent at the youth shelter “was great, really,” and

“They also, some more than others, imply if you really have gumption and you really have initiative, you should be able to solve your financial problem on your own, even if that means going out on the street begging for a job.”

In addition to criticism, however, there are also arguments that highlighting these albeit anomalous scenarios may contribute to a rich public narrative on the struggles students face.

“It’s a classic journalism theme of the little person triumphing over adversity. That’s not a bad theme either. People like those stories,” said Jeffrey Dvorkin, director of UTSC’s journalism program. Dvorkin also worked in the media for many years prior to taking on his post at UTSC. Dvorkin’s advice is to always find the balance. “The problem is if you do too many [stories of this type] without putting them in context, it just becomes more sentimental than contextual.”

There is also an element of what Rauhala deems the “editorial thrust” of papers. “The Toronto Star is centre or centre left. The Toronto Star’s purpose here is to create some sort of sympathy for students and some sort of understanding,” she explains.

“The problem is, if you do too many [stories of this type] without putting them in context, it just becomes more sentimental than contextual.”

ATIONAL STUDENTS TARGETED (ONCE AGAIN)

ion to celebrating the ways recent grads feel they k employment, the media has used the same tone porting on how international students are forced y housing options. he summer, The National Post reported that Canadian Evan Eames lived in a tent for a year to offset s while completing his master’s studies at the

Eames “enjoyed his year of going back to basics.”

Campus advocates for those coming from abroad point out that the barriers faced by international students are growing as both tuition fees and the number of international students at U of T rise. According to Yeliz Beygo, co-president of the International Students’ Association, these factors must be recognized.

“The overcoming narrative blurs and prevents the discussion on systemic issues we have like homelessness for students and not enough support for international students, informal or formal, — those are the kind of questions that have to be asked and are not when you hear about those success stories,” she said.

U OF T COMMUNITY REACTS TO MEDIA

Members of the U of T community have noticed this trend in the media, and their reactions are varied.

Fourth year media studies student, Matthew Celestial is critical.

“They fabricate the ‘student struggle’ to be simple, easy, and feasible,” he explained.

Celestial also says that he notices a stark difference in how racialized versus non-racialized students are depicted in the media, and that the increased barriers faced by racialized students and recent graduates is a largely untold story.

Rauhala posits that the way these stories are told may be less than helpful to the students who are in these situations.

MEDIA MATTERS

In the photos accompanying their articles, Yan and Eames are smiling — Yan holds her sign in the street and Eames sits happily in front of his tent — but that doesn’t mean their situations are anything to smile about.

Instead of garnering concern as students and young adults are essentially being left to their own devices within a system that rejects them and puts them in debt, recent stories in the media pull at the reader’s heartstrings and leave them in awe at how students are pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. However, framing any of these stories as solely uplifting is selective to a fault. The media is the means through which the public learns about the problems our society faces.

Shouldn’t those involved in the media be responsible for contextualizing the issues they cover?

Dvorkin says that this responsibility lies largely with the writer. “Writers are not able to hone clearly enough what these [circumstances] mean... to our society and our educational system.”

Rauhala agrees that the way in which stories are presented has a major impact on the way students are perceived.

“You can certainly imagine the unsympathetic baby boomer parents and relatives of recent graduates that will say, why don’t you do what the girl in the paper did’… that is kind of unfortunate.”

Students are being reported on, and this is a good thing.

However, problems arise when student struggles are made light of for the sake of a fresh, new angle. Instead of patting students on the back and tousling their hair as they navigate university with no money and no jobs in the future, when reporting on student struggles, the media should be aware of , and tell, the whole story.

var.st/arts

ARTS&CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

21 September 2015

The mind

of a

playwright As his latest work premieres at Hart House, George F. Walker spoke with The Varsity about the inner-workings of playwriting A RTICLE BY JACOB LOR I N C /A RTS & C U LT U R E E DI TOR George F. Walker is a critically acclaimed Canadian playwright. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA WASSERMAN

“I

’ve never had an idea for a play,” says George F. Walker.

Over the past four decades Walker, arguably one of Canada’s most prolific playwrights, has written over 30 plays, was appointed a member of the Order of Canada, and received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. He has written for TV shows like The Newsroom and Due South, and has contributed to various radio shows and wide-release movies. Considering his extensive résumé, his claim comes across as a bit counter intuitive. It’s as if Leonard Cohen told you he’s never had an idea for a song before.

But the longtime playwright is insistent on this point. “I just listen to the characters in my head talk and argue with each other, and then I just transcribe the argument… I don’t have any big picture in mind, ever. I’m just trying to tell these stories.”

Primarily, Walker’s plays revolve around poverty and the underrepresented. “I often write about people who no one else writes about; that is, the poor and the desperate and the messed up… there’s very little voice for the poor in Canadian theatre, so I tend

to gravitate towards that.” On September 18, his most recent play, We The Family, opened at Hart House Theatre, acting as Hart House’s first production of the 20152016 season. The play follows the aftereffect of a wedding between two culturally divergent families; the families fail to understand one another, and in the midst of this chaos, hilarity ensues.

When I ask Walker how he creates the characters for his plays, he’s quick to tell me that actually, I’m making an assumption. “I’m not creating them, I’m hearing them,” he explains. “These are people in the world. They’re people I’ve encountered or I wonder about or I’ve heard about or I’ve actually met. I don’t spend a lot of time in theatre, so I’m not creating them — I’m channeling them.”

Rather than actively create characters, Walker bases his characters off real people.

But even this is kind of hazy. When I ask him if the characters in We The Family are based on real people, he replies “Of course.

Well, they’re not based on someone, if that’s what you mean. They’re characters based on what I observe both about human nature and specific people… they’re just there. I don’t actually sit down and say

‘I’m going to write a play about so-and-so.’

I hear that person talk to me, and I wonder what they’re doing… eventually you can actually hear the conversation that these people are having.”

To my own discredit, I didn’t believe Walker when he first told me this. He insisted that he only writes plays when he hears characters suddenly appear in his head — a process I assumed was reserved for the fully unconscious or the profoundly deranged. On top of this, I found it difficult to grasp that a writer of his caliber could describe the process of playwriting with such nonchalance. But, once again, I was making an assumption.

Walker’s writing process — something he claims doesn’t exist — is much like being blindfolded and led through a vast landscape without any direction in mind.

He lets the characters guide him, and, as he explains, “Only when I’m about two thirds of the way through telling stories do I actually get a sense of how it might end.” His writing process is different than that of other playwrights, most of whom develop a structure for their story before writing it. Walker is quick to acknowledge this. “Well, yeah. I mean, for me, it seems

like that just kills the process. To know where you’re going, why do you have to discover it? And therefore, why do you have to write it?”

One of the themes that distinguishes We The Family is its distinctive urban vibe. The two families come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, something that is all-too-familiar in a city like Toronto.

Walker, who grew up in the city, can trace some of his most recent play's character back to Toronto's multicultural personality. That being said, he couldn’t possibly explain the influence that Toronto has had on him. “I was there, I don’t live there now, but I lived there for almost all my life. To explain to you what that was would be impossible. You’re part of your landscape, you’re part of where you are, and it’s part of you. And your family and your friends and anything you’ve ever read or even seen or ever heard on the street is part of what has made you and your point of view… I couldn’t sit here and say what part of it [has influenced me], although the multicultural aspect of it has helped.”

We The Family runs at Hart House Theatre until October 3

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T H E VA R S I T Y

ARTS & CULTURE 17

var.st/arts

THEATRE REVIEW:

We The Family

In conversation with Grace Helbig

Cultures collide in We The Family. SCOTT GORMAN/THE VARSITY

George F. Walker's latest play confronts sensitive subject matter in a multicultural city AYAN KASSIM

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

We the Family, the most recent play to be penned by acclaimed Canadian playwright George F. Walker, explores the fraught familial experiences that can arise in inter-cultural relationships.

The play had its first performance at Hart House last Friday.

It tells the story of the Lee’s and the Kaplan’s — Chinese and halfJewish, half-Irish, respectively — two families who are navigating their newly forged relationship after the marriage of their son and their daughter. From the awkward conversations between the two matriarchs to the unsuspecting bond forged between the two youngest siblings, We the

Family lays bare the sometimes racist and culturally insensitive thoughts that families of different cultures can harbour when they are brought together.

While the story is captivating, and the set design and musical composition deft in their execution, there were nevertheless some deeply unsettling aspects of the play that were difficult to ignore. In a time where tension and anxiety surrounding race is quite intense, We the Family attempts to make light of sensitive issues yet is unsuccessful in sparking critical thought by way of humour.

As the largely white audience sat guffawing at stereotypical jokes about east asians (their penchant to eat rice too much, how tiny they are, their love of suicide) the

jokes began to feel unbalanced, pandering towards an audience that held little relation with the subjects themselves.

According to director Andrea Wasserman, We the Family showcases how “racism (innocuous or malicious) is something we all own and practice to varying degrees;” however, this implies a level of awareness and understanding of racism that the play does not appear to possess. The actors were talented and dynamic, most notably Sarah Murphy-Dyson as the neurotic yet fragile Lizzie Kaplan.

Yet the insensitive jokes distracted from the overall performance.

We The Family runs at Hart House theatre until October 3.

STUDENT THEATRE:

Albertine in Five Times The Centre for Drama Studies stages an intimate performance with an enticing story JULIA CIPRIANI

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The bold tagline for U of T’s Centre for Drama Studies’ latest production, Albertine in Five Times reads: “Nobody wants to listen to a heartless bitch.” That being said, the audience at Saturday nights performance proved otherwise as they sat spellbound for the show’s 90-minute duration.

Written by Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay and directed by Briar Knowles and William Wong, Albertine in Five Times explores the story of one woman living in Montreal during five distinct stages in her life. Albertine becomes a widow after her husband dies as a soldier in the war, and struggles

with the challenges that come with being a single mother to a promiscuous, troublesome daughter, and a mentally ill son. Albertine battles a number of inner demons, including addiction, paranoia, rage, and jealousy. The audience pieces together more information about Albertine's past as the show continues, but more profoundly, they are able to witness her evolution on these deeply personal issues based on the dialogue between the five Albertines.

The performance’s staging is particularly striking in that the audience surrounds the stage on all four sides, allowing for the stage, cast, and audience members to create an intimate space for viewership. All five Albertines are introduced at the beginning of the play and occupy five separate spaces across the

stage, ranging from a rocking chair to a restaurant’s kitchen countertop. Selected members of the audience are given an opportunity to mingle with Albertine in personal, unscripted conversation during the preshow, which contributes heavily to the intimacy of the performance.

Notable character performances include Kristy Benz (Albertine at 40), who highlights the stark duality of Albertine through both her aggressive bitterness and complete helplessness.

Eilish Waller (Albertine at 30) also succeeds in creating a multi-dimensional character, as she portrays Albertine as a timid, nervous young woman, whose raging tantrums surface in bits and pieces throughout the performance.

Albertine in Five Times runs at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse

Grace Helbig stars on her YouTube vlog Daily Grace . PHOTO COURTESY OF GRACE HELBIG

The Internet-based comedian talks about YouTube and her career thus far ZARIN TASNIM

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Step into the realm of YouTube vloggers and you’re bound to bump into Grace Helbig. Amongst other famous acts to arise out of homegrown YouTube channels — like Tyler Oakley, Jenna Marbles, or Lilly Singh — Grace has become a wildly popular YouTube comedian across various social-media platforms. Her YouTube channel currently sits at over 2,700,000 subscribers, and she’s in town this week to perform stand up at the Just For Laughs comedy festival.

The Varsity: How do you think YouTube has changed since you first started your channel?

Grace Helbig: I think YouTube, since I’ve started my channel, has really picked up as an establishment that hosts quality talent rather than being a site where people post videos they’ve made at home. It’s become a platform that celebrates talent, and now, YouTubers are reaching to new heights to not only make an impact in the world, but [also] to make a difference in people’s lives.

TV: To what do you owe your success?

GH: I owe my success to the viewers who take the time to watch my videos everyday. They are lovely people who enjoy the content I put out and it makes me happy that I have this wonderful family with me, supporting what I love to do. It’s you guys that really make the difference and allow me to accomplish my dreams.

TV: What is the most important piece of advice you’ve received?

GH: 'Have fun' is something that’s very important to me, and I find that when my life gets busy and I have to work, I forget it sometimes.

It’s good to know that whatever you’re doing in life should entice you and make you excited about it… the second piece of advice was actually

given to me recently by a person Hannah Hart and I are working for in a project, and he said “Even if you’re having a bad day, try to make the people around you happy."

I thought that was such an amazing thing to say because that’s what I love doing. I love to make people laugh and hearing their laughter makes my day.

TV: To those thinking of starting up a YouTube channel, what advice would you give to them?

GH: Just do it! I find that people nowadays are thinking too much — worrying about the brand they’ll portray and what kinds of content they should put out. It’s about finding what you're passionate about and then exploring where you go from there. It’s an exciting journey that’ll only begin when you upload that first video.

TV: How do you stay grounded?

GH: I think it’s just surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals who don’t take life too seriously. My friends Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart are people who have a similar mindset in that they want to go out and achieve success, but in the end know who they are and love the people in their lives.

TV: If you could completely master a skill that you don’t have now, what would it be?

GH: If I could master a skill, it would be to learn how to sing, because I’m just baffled at the idea that humans are able to produce such amazing sounds from their mouths.

I’d love to know how they do this mysterious, amazing thing. And the other would be to cook. I’m trying a little bit at home, practicing really hard to get things done properly — but it’s still in the making.

Grace Helbig will perform at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Sept.

26 as part of the Just For Laughs comedy festival.

18 ARTS & CULTURE

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 21 S E P T E M B E R 2 015 arts@thevarsity.ca

CHEW ON THIS: Discover your inner herbivore with these four tasty recipes

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY LAURA YIU

ZESTY SUMMER CHILI r this chi i hi e it s sti hot outside this recipe has p ent of up ifting a ours that on t bog do n our summer appetite. er e ith a ocado and hand cut carrot stic s or our preferred choice of starch.

Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 60 minutes | Yield: 5-6 cups Ingredients tbsp coo ing oi gar ic c o es minced medium onion diced a apeno fine chopped about tbsp tbsp sundried tomatoes chopped cup dar beer m canned tomato paste m canned crushed tomatoes m egetab e broth cup uinoa tbsp bar e tbsp cumin tbsp chi i po der tsp ca enne tsp oregano tsp cinnamon m canned red idne beans drained and rinsed cup ci antro chopped coarse ime s iced into sma edges Directions: . n a arge pot heat oi at medium high heat. aut onion gar ic a apeno and sundried tomatoes unti fragrant and s ight co oured about minutes . . Add beer. ring to a boi then simmer unti i uid is reduced to about tab espoon about minutes . . tir in tomato paste unti the mi ture is e en coated. Add crushed tomatoes uinoa bar e and egetab e broth. ring to a boi and stir occasion a to pre ent grains from burning at the bottom of the pot. . Add spices cumin chi i po der ca enne oregano cinnamon . o er and simmer on medium o heat for minutes continuing to stir. . After simmering add idne beans. urn off the heat and et the chi i sit co ered for minutes. . Add sa t and pepper to taste. i in cup ci antro. er e arm ith ime and remaining ci antro.

LEMONY AVO-MAME SALAD A ocado or edamame h not both a e cream a ocado and sating edamame b the mouthfu . his egan sa ad is high in hea th fats and comp ete pro teins not to mention a e come boost of emon fresh itamin .

Prep: 5 minutes | Cook: 15 minutes | Yield: 3-4 servings.

Ingredients cups of fro en she ed edamame emon thin s iced a ocado pee ed and diced tsp i on mustard tbsp emon uice tbsp e tra irgin o i e oi tbsp sugar or hone a t and pepper to taste Directions . n a pot boi cups of ater. Add the fro en eda mame and co er unti the ater is boi ing again. immer for minutes. . rain the edamame and rinse ith co d ater unti it is coo ed or at room temperature. . n a bo combine oi emon uice mustard and sugar. Add sa t and pepper to taste. . Add edamame emon s ices and a ocado. oss in inaigrette and coat e en . er e immediate .

SPICY CHOCOLATE CHERRY COULIS his spic fruit sauce goes e ith brea fast and dessert oatmea panca es sundaes ta e our pic

EASY CHICKPEA SALAD hic peas are fu of protein fiber and nutrients. a e this sa ad in no time to satisf our appetite.

Prep: 5 minutes | Cook: 10 minutes | Yield: 1 cup

Prep: 5 minutes | Cook: 5 minutes | Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients cup sugar cup ater tbsp cocoa po der tsp ground cinnamon tspca enne po der cup fro en b ac cherries tha ed tsp ime est tsp ime uice cup dried cranberries or other chopped dried fruit optiona

Ingredients tbsp e tra irgin o i e oi tbsp app e cider inegar tsp i on mustard tbsp sugar or hone tsp dried ci antro a es m chic peas drained and rinsed ine ripe tomato diced red onion minced cucumber diced a t and pepper to taste

Directions: . n a saucepan mi ater and sugar. ring to a boi at medium high heat. . ring the heat do n to a simmer and his unti sugar is disso ed. oo for another minute. . o his in cocoa po der and then mi cin namon and ca enne. emo e from heat. . n a food processor b end the fro en b ac cherries to desired consistenc . . our the cherr sauce into a bo and his in the s rup ime est and ime uice. . Add dried cranberries. hi or ser e arm.

Directions: . n a arge mi ing bo mi oi inegar mustard sugar and ci antro. Add sa t and pepper to taste. . Add chic peas tomato cucumber and red onion. oss and coat e en . . hi o ernight for ma imum resu ts or ser e immediate .

M O N DAY 21 S E P T E M B E R 2 015

T H E VA R S I T Y

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2015/2016

U OF T’S PERFORMING ARTS LEADER SINCE 1919

Hart House Theatre Season

WORLD PREMIERE

WE THE FAMILY Multicultural mayhem. Love.

Larceny. And death!

By George F. Walker Directed by Andrea Wasserman

SEPT. 18–OCT. 3, 2015 BOX OFFICE:

www.uofttix.ca / 416.978.8849 Adults $28 / Seniors $17 / Students $15 $12 Student tickets every Wednesday evening!

www.harthousetheatre.ca

Season Sponsors:

21 September 2015

N OW S

ARO

Meet the three U of T students who designed and built their own solar-powered race-car

CIENC

E

In conversation with Blue Sky Solar Racing

science@thevarsity.ca

D UN T

var.st/science

SCIENCE

ON OUR MINDS: WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN THINKING ABOUT? Presented by the Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence Student’s Association (CASA), you are invited to come discuss your thoughts on thoughts!

Open to all students — no experience in cognitive science required.

Monday, September 21 12:00 – 15:00 pm CASA Office University College Building Room UC F301 Admission: Free

THE MECHANICAL MEMORY OF STEM CELLS Pictured: Horizon in action. BLUE SKY SOLAR/CC FLICKR

NADEZHDA WOINOWSKY-KRIEGER SCIENCE EDITOR

In a scattered, messy workroom reminiscent of a sitcom auto shop, I sat down with Blue Sky Solar Racing, U of T’s own volunteerrun undergraduate solar car building and racing hub. The group is flying themselves, along with their 300 kg homemade solar-powered vehicular masterpiece “Horizon” to Australia this Friday. There, they will be the only Canadian team to compete in the 2015 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge — a fiveday international contest that pits 45 environmentally sustainable racecars from 25 countries against each other race across the scorching Australian outback.

From the full team of 17 U of T students who will fly halfway across the globe to compete in the race, I spoke to Blue Sky Solar’s Managing Director, Zhe Gong, their team member Amir Kharazmi, and one of “Horizon’s” three drivers, Nicole d’Lyma.

TV: Tell me about Blue Sky Solar — what do you do?

Nicole: We are a multi-disciplinary student group at U of T. We’re under the faculty of engineering, but we do have some Arts and Science students as well. What we do is basically design, build, and race solar-powered cars. We run on a two-year project cycle, so we attend the World Solar Challenge every two years.

TV: How long have you been working on “Horizon”?

Nicole: We started [at the] end of 2013. We spent about a year on

design, and then we started the actual construction in February of this year... Everything is done by us, by the students, [including] all the labour for the car as well.

[“Horizon”] feels quite different from a normal car, and just getting used to the different sounds of the car, the feel of it, and turning and things like that.

TV: What do you think puts “Horizon” above the other cars that will be competing?

Zhe: In the design [of solar-powered race cars], one of the big considerations is the weight-distribution of the car. What we’ve done is design the car so that the weight is much better balanced [than in other vehicles]. That obviously comes at the cost of extra mass, but there is gain in the stability of the car — in how robust it is.

TV: How fast does “Horizon” go?

Nicole: We’ve gone up to one hundred kilometers an hour — so it can go pretty fast.

Amir: [Going fast] is not the ultimate goal — you sort of want to be cruising throughout the race, so you don’t want to just floor it and go at a hundred all the time and run out of battery. The cruising speed should be somewhere around seventy or eighty.

Nicole: It’s more about endurance, because it’s a long race.

Zhe: You get a certain amount of energy into the car over the course of the race, and it’s up to the team to figure out how to drive the car most efficiently.

Nicole: Strategy is a big part of the race. Like Amir was saying, you have to manage your energy throughout the race.

Zhe: There’s a lot of data collection and data processing that goes on, and then ultimately you have to know a lot about the car itself — you have to have an intuition for the car, and also intuition for the road conditions; things like that. We’re going to Australia two-and-a-half weeks early so that we can do characterization there.

TV: How far will the car be driving?

Nicole: The car will [be] driving 30,000 kilometers, from Darwin to Adelaide, and it’s over five days. We drive from 8 am to 5 pm every day.

TV: Have you driven the car yet?

Nicole: Yes, during testing we have. We did a five-day testing trip two weeks ago. We went to Grand Bend Motorplex, [where] they have a racetrack and a drag strip. Then, we went to Goderich airport where we did some high-speed testing on the runway.

TV: Nicole, do you have an experience driving race-cars?

Nicole: I have no experience driving race cars, but I do often drive regular cars so that helps I guess.

TV: What are you personally doing to prepare for the race?

Nicole: I guess practising,

TV: Do you feel under pressure for being the only Canadian team competing?

Nicole: I don’t know if there’s really that much pressure — for us it’s really more about finishing the race and doing the best that we can.

Amir: [When] we came back to school, [we would] casually mention that we’re going to be gone for six weeks for the race, everyone’s immediate reaction [was] ‘you guys are crazy.’ I think that personally, if I’m able to finish the race in a way that we’re happy, and also come back and do my studies and my other club commitments, I think that [would be] probably one of the biggest things that I will have achieved in my undergraduate studies.

TV: Last question: How are you getting the car there?

Nicole: It’s been a crazy few days...

But today we just shipped it — its actually going out tonight at 7 pm in a crate, and it’s being flown out to Australia, in an airplane.

TV: How much does the car weigh?

Zhe: The car itself is about 300 kilograms, with driver. It seems very light, but that’s actually heavy for a solar car. [For comparison,] a normal car, I think a smaller sized car, would be around a thousand kilograms.

TV: Do you have anything else you’d like to say?

Amir: Follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram. We’ll be posting updates, and it’s a solar car, its running on really, really low power: it’s a cool project — follow us.

The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge will be taking place between October 18 and the 25.

This article has been edited for length and clarity. An extended version of the interview can be found online.

Join seminar speaker Professor Boris Hinz from the Laboratory of Tissue Repair and Regeneration for this talk at the Faculty of Dentistry.

Monday, Sep 21, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm FitzGerald Building 150 College Street Room 237 Admission: Free

MEDICAL SCHOOL APPLICATION WORKSHOP WITH PHYSICIANS Hosted by the U of T Pre-Medical Society (UTPMS), take a Tuesday night to perfect your med-school application with feedback from current doctors.

Tuesday, September 22 7:00 – 9:00 pm Lash-Miller Chemical Laboratories Room 155 $5 admission Free for UTPMS members

UTSC LECTURE ON GENESES? HOW FREQUENTLU DOES LIFE EMERGE? Join Dr. Amaury Triaud from the Centre for Planetary Sciences at the University of Toronto for her talk at our Scarborough campus, as she answers the question of how frequently life emerges.

Wednesday, September 23 4:00 – 5:00 pm UTSC Campus Science Wing Building Room 403 Admission: Free

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T H E VA R S I T Y

SCIENCE 21

var.st/science

U of T announces collaboration with Johnson & Johnson to build biotech startups The Ontario Government to provide $19.4 million grant in support of the JLABS incubator at MaRS ADITYA CHAWLA

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The University of Toronto has recently announced a major collaboration with Janssen Inc. and the Ontario government to launch the Johnson & Johnson Innovation incubator (JLABS) in Toronto. The brand new 40,000 square foot space at the MaRS Discovery District will launch in spring 2016 and will support researchers and entrepreneurs with lab space, mentorship programs, and potential investment opportunities. The incubator will focus on startups working with early-stage technologies in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and digital health.

The recent collaboration will extend the Johnson & Johnson Innovation program for the first time outside the United States.

The Toronto location will join similar ventures in San Francisco, San Diego and Boston. As a leader of biomedical research and innovation in Canada, the University of Toronto will in collaboration with the Ontario government invest $19.4 million to the program to support the province’s growing life science sector.

JLABS @ Toronto will provide participating companies with access to talent and mentors, capital, and opportunities to work with large existing firms. In addition, the new space will be located at the West Tower of MaRS Discovery District, and will include a new digital prototype lab to develop new technologies in the digital health sector.

The JLABS program is unique from other biomedical start up incubators in its approach.

JLABS will focus on a flexible model with no strings attached, which means that there will be no equity or intellectual property taken from any start up involved in the program. The new program will join the existing entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University of Toronto, feature nine camps led accelerators under the Banting & Best Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, including the Hatchery and Creative Destruction Lab. The city of Toronto is in a unique position due to its prolific healthcare and life science community, led by multiple hospital partners, research centres, as well as hosting top scientists in the biomedical field. The recently announced Medicine by Design Initiative, which focuses on regenerative medicine therapies, will also collaborate with the new JLABS. Recently, Meric Gertler, the president of the University of Toronto, announced that in the past three years, the university’s students and faculty have created more startup companies than any other North American university. A further addition to the Toronto startup ecosystem, the JLABS program will continue to enhance the university’s place on the global biomedical sector. “This program represents a great opportunity for University of Toronto students, especially undergraduate-led startups,” said Professor Scott Mabury, U of T Vice-President of Operations. “A great deal of research at this university is completed by our undergrads, and I hope to see that they go

JLABS will occupy the West Tower of MaRs. THE CITY OF TORONTO/CC FLICKR

on to lead successful companies in the biotech sector. I hope to see a strong representation of U of T at the JLABS incubator.”

“Right now, most of the research happening in an academic institution stays in the lab. With this program, we hope to take knowledge from our research pipeline and translate them into viable businesses. In terms of the long term benefits, we hope to create more jobs in the life science sector and create more opportunities for entrepreneurship in Canada,” said Mabury.

Construction of JLABS Toronto is currently underway, and is expected to reach full occupancy by spring 2016. The first cohort of the program will include 50 early-stage startups which will lease the space on a short-term basis. The new space will be modelled after successful JLABS programs in the United States, and the best practices of which will be adopted to accelerate the impact of this new collaborative workspace.

3D Printing technologies create new opportunities for architects U of T professor creates 3D printed “Arabesque Wall” SANDY WANG

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Science and art are two subjects that often appear to be mutually exclusive. As is made evident by the recent large scale 3D printing exhibition, 3DXL, held in Toronto, this distinction is becoming increasingly blurred by modern technological advancements. One of the main attractions at the exhibition was a project titled “Arabesque Wall.” The wall was designed and created by architects Benjamin Dillenburger — who is also currently an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Toronto — and Michael Hansmeyer, in collaboration with Design Exchange, Toronto. The project to ok four months to design, four days to print, and four hours to assemble.

The end product is a large 3D printed wall made up of 12 sandstone elements that stands approximately 10 feet in height, weighs 0.8 tons, and contains an astounding 200 million surfaces.

Dillenburger described part of the process of using 3D printing to bring the project to life, “the sandstone elements are fully enclosed by loose sand when they are coming out of the printer. One of the nicest moments of this project was the excavation of those elements, which feels like an archaeology of your own design.”

“Our inspiration was traditional arabesque ornaments,” Dillenburger also added, “Our project plays with the an iconic, geometric

The sculpture was created entirely using SD-printing technology. PHOTO COURTESY OF R. BENJAMIN DILLENBURGER

tradition of those ornaments by creating intricate constellations that are at once figurative and abstract. Just as arabesque ornaments, the compositional principles of the “Arabesque Wall” are both geometric and mathematical.”

The team designed the wall entirely using customized algorithms, instead of using the traditional pen and paper or a computer aided design program. “Shifting the design process to this abstract level has a dramatic impact. On the level of output, we can sig-

nificantly increase the resolution — we can design structures with minute details at the threshold of perception,” says Dillenburger.

With a resolution of just 0.2mm, the “Arabesque Wall” is truly a structure of extreme intricate detail.

According to Dillenburger and Hansmeyer, “Architecture should surprise, excite, and irritate. It must be judged by the experiences it generates.” By using these new technologies, the project allowed the designers to stretch the

limits of their designing restraints and to fully express their vision in the design. In doing so, the design is also able to perceptually challenge the audience. “We specifically designed the architecture to evoke a sense of wonder, to make people curious, to make them want to discover it. We’d argue that people become more involved if the forms reveal themselves only upon a second or third view, if there is both the expected as well as surprise and joy,” Dillenburger explained.

In applying novel technologies to stretch the limits of artistic projects, this evolution in design also has the potential to pave the future of architecture. Dillenburger said, “It would be great to see new digital building technologies also applied for larger projects.

A 3D-printed house, which radically exploits the potential of digital fabrication, would be a fantastic challenge as for me as an architect and as a researcher.”

Architecture and technology are always continuing to evolve together. According to Dillenburger, “We ought to use these technologies in an appropriate way: not by imitating existing designs, but by exploring the new freedom — through constant experimentation. Technology is an opportunity for the profession to once again seamlessly integrate aspects of engineering and beauty. In the end, our task is to constantly redefine the way we want to live, and the way we want to build our future houses.”

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STREETERS

How are U of T’s first-years adjusting to con-hall sized lectures?

One of the most overwhelming changes for incoming science students is the size of introductory course lectures eight first years share their reactions.

ARTICLE BY MOBOLAJI TUNDE-OLADEPO PHOTOS BY SANDY MAY “I feel like it’s just a better learning environment, as opposed to being in a small classroom because [in small classrooms] if people are talking it’s easy to get distracted. And I know people are on their phones and they do talk, but you can easily just move your seat. It’s better because there are projectors on all three sides so you can see well and you can hear well as well. But I had psychology… [and] I was like two minutes late and I was sitting on the floor.”

— Mona Mahmoudi, political science “You don’t have to be completely focused all the time you can take your side notes… I heard for psychology they have films so I can go home and rewatch the lecture. [Although], for high school there are a little less people in the room so the teacher can answer questions and help out individuals all the time.”

— Isabelle Kim, life sciences “The first thing that I immediately noticed was how big it was. Like the main floor and then the second balcony, and then there was [one] more balcony above the second balcony.

The quoted figure was seven hundred people, but it feels like there’s just so [many] more people in there... It really does emphasize that in university, you are not one on one with the teacher anymore… I am a believer that having a personal connection with the teacher, as fluffy as it seems, [it] really is important to the educational experience on top of the lecture and PowerPoint presentation, and that’s something that’s, frankly, not there.”

— Frederick Zhang, life sciences

“This place is so big, right? You can meet a lot of people, which can be really useful… The [professors] are nice. [Laughs.]”

— Gloria Sun, life sciences “It feels like … I’m finally in university because we didn’t have that kind of stuff in high school. Being in a place like that and knowing that there’s a bunch of people learning the same thing, it’s kind of encouraging, but I feel worried that I have to compete with these people at the same time.”

— Amon Yamamota, life sciences “It was definitely overwhelming, and you didn’t really know where the good seats were, so you couldn’t take advantage… I tried first floor once and really hated it, so I went up to the third… the echo from the microphone [on the first floor] — I hated that.

— Ahmed Osman, life sciences “It was pretty overwhelming, I’m not used to such a big room. I think it was more of the [numbers of] people, not exactly the [size of the] hall, but just how many people there were.

But, I think it’s also really cool; it’s a different experience… My biggest [issue with the hall] is getting out of there. It takes a while to get out and it takes a while to get in, so that would be the only concern I have.”

— Mieka Saunders, french “It was actually smaller than I expected. I think it’s because I heard so much about it: people saying [that] it was crazy, but it’s really not that bad. If you come early enough to get an okay seat… you can see and hear perfectly fine. It’s the getting in and getting out that’s bad, but the actual lectures are fine.”

— Zosia Gontarz, life sciences

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SPORTS

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21 September 2015

sports@thevarsity.ca

The Blue Jays could slide into the playoffs this year. KEITH ALLISON/CC FLICKR

Jays chase storybook season Remembering the past and looking forward to the future ARTICLE BY SEAN SMITH SENIOR COPY EDITOR

October is coming, and as the Toronto Blue Jays are closing in on a position in the playoffs, fans and bandwagoners alike are becoming increasingly interested — not to mention a little crazy. Tickets are sold out for the rest of the season, and when the Jays are playing a home game it’s virtually impossible not to run into groups of fans on their way to the game.

It’s hardly a surprise that the city is getting so worked up, especially considering that the team is seeking to break a 22-year playoff drought.

In 1992, when the Jays won their first World Series title, tens of thousands poured down a closed Yonge Street to celebrate well into the early hours of the morning. The Jays beat the Atlanta Braves, in Atlanta, in six games.

The ‘92 team, unlike our current roster, had a history of successful seasons, all leading up to the team’s back-to-back World Series victories.

UP

NEXT

The team of ‘92 had everything going for them, and they made it count. The Jays had a dedicated and consistent fan following, and they had recently moved into a new state-ofthe-art ballpark under the guidance of general manager Pat Gillick, who built the team from scratch. Gillick was with the team when the franchise first started and his knowledge of the game was instrumental in guiding the Jays to success (the fact that Gillick’s departure from the team in 1994 marked year one of the 22year playoff drought is telling).

Going into the ‘92 season Gillick made a big name trade. As the story goes, he traded away his wife’s favorite player, after which she famously told him to “[come] home before you screw up the team any further.”

The player in question, Fred McGriff, as well as Tony Fernandez were traded to the San Diego Padres for Roberto Alomar and Joe

Carter. With this trade Gillick was able to strengthen the batting line-up — Alomar batted second hitting over .300 while Carter, a power hitter, added some pop to the middle of the line-up.

Fast forward 22 years and today’s Blue Jays don’t have quite the same success story. The Jays went into the 2015 all-star break, the halfway point in the season, having racked up more losses than wins. But, against all odds, the team has turned their season around in a monumental way.

The Jays’ Canadian general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, recognized the momentum the team had gathered and followed in the footsteps of Gillick, making a couple landmark trades of his own.

At the time of the trade deadline the Blue Jays were seven games behind the Yankees and were set to face them 13 more times

this season. So the acquisition of hotshot left-handed pitcher David Price from the Detroit Tigers meant that the Jays could field an ace pitcher against the Yankees for three of those games. The other trade sent Jose Reyes and 3 pitchers to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

These trades undoubtably aided the Jays and have set the stage for the most exciting playoff race in years.

With the Jays 3 games up on the Yankees and Toronto already at fever pitch, hopes that history could repeat itself are at an all-time high — enthusiasm that might just carry the Jays straight through to the World Series to a victory party 40,000+ strong.

WOMEN’S & MEN’S

WOMEN’S

MEN’S

MEN’S

Tennis vs. McGill

Fast Pitch vs. Guelph

Football vs. Queen’s

Lacrosse vs. Laurier

UTSC @ 2:00 PM Friday, September 25th

Dieppe Park @ 5:00 PM Friday, September 25th

Varsity Stadium @ 1:00 PM Saturday, September 26th

Varsity Stadium @ 7:00 PM Saturday, September 26th

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SPORTS 25

var.st/sports

Two teams in transition Blues’ hockey captains Andrew Doyle and Kristi Riseley talk roster changes, and the upcoming season JACK FRASER

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Andrew Doyle and Kristi Risely lead young teams into 2015 season. COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

For the past few seasons we’ve known what to expect from both the men’s and women’s Varsity Blues hockey teams. Very little roster turnover combined with veteran top-scorers meant that the success of both teams relied more on the performance of the group as a whole, than the individual players themselves. However, the lifespan of a university hockey career is short, and both the men’s and women’s teams now find themselves in a state of transition.

Captains Andrew Doyle and Kristi Riseley — both entering their final year of study at U of T — hope to provide the stability and guidance that their young teams need in order to succeed this season, and are both confident in their teams’ abilities to adapt quickly, and start winning games right away.

The transition from junior and high school hockey to university hockey is significant for young players, says Doyle. “In junior, you’re playing some guys who are 16. Now you’re playing some guys who are 26, so it’s obviously an adjustment.” One that the 15 rookies earning spots on the men’s and women’s hockey teams will have

to make quickly if they hope to secure a top spot in the rankings.

Last season, albeit inconsistent, was fairly successful for the men’s team. A dismal start, attributable to injuries sustained by both of the men’s goalies, gave way to a midseason drive that carried the team to the second round of the playoffs. Their run-and-gun offensive style, built around scorers like Mark Markovic and Jeff Brown, overshadowed shaky defense as the team earned a record of 13-13-1.

But this season both Markovic and Brown are gone, and while the men have veterans ready to step into their roles, it appears that the team has specifically recruited offensive players in order to bolster the line. Allowing the team’s veteran forwards to thrive in their roles.

Doyle described the team this year as “hardworking and defensively stingy,” an indication that there could be a shift in tactics.

The Blues women’s hockey team is a different story.

While the women had the better season last year, going 16-5-3, they now face their largest challenge yet: the graduation of superstar goalie Nicole Kesteris — arguably the best goalie in the CIS for the past few years. She will be replaced by

second-year Katey Teekasingh and rookies Hailey Farrelly and Valencia Yordanov.

Along with the loss of Kesteris, the women also took a hit defensively, with two rookies expected to slot into the top six. However, Riseley maintains that the team’s excellent coaching staff and offensive talent will prove that past successes were thanks to more than just goaltending. “We’re really confident in this group, and everyone’s fighting for their spot in the line-up,” said Riseley, “that competition will only make us better.”

Both captains are confident that their teams will pick up right where they left off, even with the addition of so many new players, “These guys were leaders on their old teams in junior and that makes it a lot easier,” said Doyle about the substantial roster changes. While for Riseley, the expectation is “going out and winning games,” which she remains confident the team can do.

The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team open their season playing Trois-Riviere at home on October 9, while the women play the rival Queen’s Gaels in their opener, also scheduled for October 9.

ODP in KPE Outdoor Projects teaches Kinesiology and Physical Education students teamwork BARRY SANGHA AND HUSSEIN FAWZY VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

For those taking Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) at U of T, a course called Outdoor Project (ODP) must be fulfilled in order to graduate.

For the non-KPE undergrad, the first activity, which initiates you into university, would probably be frosh week. However, unlike any other university program, U of T’s KPE program offers its students the opportunity to ship off to Muskoka to visit Camp New Moon, where students meet, play, and learn to become a team with their fellow students.

The KPE department takes a different approach to the usual college vs. college frosh week activities by promoting social interaction and group cohesion that not only optimize students’ relationships throughout the trip, but throughout their entire four year degree, which is why, during frosh week, the KPE department shines with unexpected harmony and friendship.

ODP courses, which include ODP200 ‘advanced canoe tripping’ and ODP302 ‘fundamentals of winter camping’ basically act as program-wide icebreakers, rather than tests of academic and athletic feats — a credit/no credit course option ensures that students need not worry too much about the academic aspects of the course.

Instructed by third and fourth year students, ODP requires some degree of athleticism and stamina, as activities range from a 12-hour outdoor survival program to canoeing, kayaking, and sailing — all of which are designed to promote equal parts teamwork and physical skill.

But, is the ODP program an essential component of the Bachelors of Kinesiology and Physical Education degree?

Aside from the fact that outdoorsman training might be an important skill set in the physical education

The KPE department promotes teamwork in ODP program. ALICE KIM/THE VARSITY

aspect of the KPE program, many graduates from the department go on to careers in physiotherapy, exercise pathology, and sport psychology, which do not specifically require outdoor camping skills, nor knowledge of how to build a fire, as prerequisites. And at a cost of over $300, some students argue that the mandatory ODP courses — which don’t count towards any degree credits — are not the best use of

their time, or of their money.

The reason the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education has been successfully running the ODP-level courses is their determination to create a close-knit community of teammates, rather than a faculty of students.

As other programs, colleges, and faculties turn into battlegrounds during frosh week, and compete against one another to earn honors

in their academic fields, the students within the KPE department are at an advantage in so far as they’re not only able to communicate, and interact within a faculty of their friends, but also work towards their degrees as a team.

Disclosure: Hussein Fawzy is a member of Varsity Publications Inc.’s Board of Directors

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A not-so-happy homecoming

Alyssa Grolin and Nirun Sivananthan couldn’t stop the Guelph Gaels. JUSTIN FONTAINE/THE VARSITY

Blues’ men’s and women’s soccer fall to Gaels JAMES MAIANGOWI VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The Varsity Blues’ women’s soccer team fell 1-0 in a tough contest with the visiting Queen’s Gaels on Saturday. The Blues now stand in second place in the OUA rankings at 5-2-1, behind the undefeated Ottawa Braves.

The early game saw Queen’s seize the initiative, keeping possession well inside the Blues’ side and taking two shots on net in the first 15 minutes. The Blues rebounded quickly, however, and took the fight to Queens’ net.

Midfielder Nicki Parkes got off Toronto’s first shot of the game, launching a graceful arc that bounced off the crossbar in the 16 minute. Toronto kept up the offense as strikers Alexandra Rocha and Chelsea Cheung both found op-

portunities near the net, but it was Queen’s that drew first blood, when midfielder Jessie de Boer converted a rebound from the crossbar to send a shot past Blues goalkeeper Sara Petrucci 34 minutes in.

The second half saw both teams fight for a draw. Goal keeper Sara Petrucci had a standout performance in the second half, making a clutch save on a dramatic header from Queen’s forward Rachel Radu in the dying moments.

“Toronto’s a fantastic team, so to get a result here on an away [game] is terrific for us,” said Queen’s head coach Dave McDowell, who attributed his team’s performance to a strong offence. “I certainly think we’re good at attacking and have created a lot of chances offensively,” he concluded.

Blues’ goalkeeping coach Dave Ennis also offered a measured

analysis of the game. “Obviously we’re disappointed — you want to win your home games, especially in front of a big crowd,” Ennis said, “we never really got going today, but I don’t think we have too many complaints... We’re unhappy giving up a goal... but you can’t take anything away from Queen’s today.”

After the women’s game, the Varsity Blues’ men’s soccer team took to the pitch and broke their five game undefeated streak in a 2-1 loss against the visiting Queen’s Gaels, in a game marked by tough weather conditions and even tougher play on the field. The Blues now stand in third place in the OUA rankings at 4-2-1, behind the first place Ryerson Rams and the second place Carleton Ravens.

The match opened up with a torrential downpour just before play started, sending spectators fleeing

from the stands to covered locations — but the Blues started the game in an equally dramatic fashion, as striker Nirun Sivananthan scored his fourth goal of the season on a header in just the third minute of the game.

Queen’s responded in turn when forward Jacob Schroeter sent a strike past Blues’ goalkeeper Rab BruceLockhart in the tenth minute.

The heavy rain obscured visibility throughout the first half and lead to a more aggressive approach to ball control on both sides, with slide tackles as the weapon of choice. Queen’s notched up five fouls to Toronto’s four in the first half alone. The rain abated and the sun came out again with the start of the second period, but this didn’t translate to shots on goal until the sixtieth minute, when both teams began pressing hard for a decisive advantage.

Though the Blues fought valiantly, they could not score a tying in the remaining time.

After the game, Blues’ midfielder Hugo Vieira mulled over the results. “It was a tough loss,” Vieira said. “The weather made it pretty tough in the first 15-20 minutes, but the thing is, these conditions are for both teams, so you just have to push through it.”

Blues goalkeeper Rab BruceLockhart agreed.

“It’s never nice when you lose,” he said. “It was definitely difficult circumstances, but that’s true for both teams [it] cleared up in the end, but it was not the easiest.”

The Blues’ men’s and women’s soccer team face Trent University in Peterborough on October 3.

T e five people yo ll r n into at ol ring definiti e guide to the types of student athletes that fre uent the gym ARTICLE BY JONATHAN WILKINSON AND PHOTOS BY TINA YE

When the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport opened last year, U of T received a much-needed addition to its over-burdened athletic facilities. Hart House and the Athletic Centre were so over crowded that Goldring has become a welcome addition for students to exercise their bodies, rather than their minds. For students looking to break out the sneakers they haven’t used since gym class became optional, this article serves as a guide to the kind of people you might encounter on your first visit.

1. THE APP USER With endless new fitness apps coming out through which to share gigabytes of selfies, showing off a healthy lifestyle is all the rage. You’ll recognize these people by their overpriced Nike Pro and Lululemon apparel, which they’re probably showing off on their Snapchat story. The only thing getting a bigger workout than their thumbs is their ego, but that’s all right, because going to the gym is about getting in shape, isn’t it?

2. THE CROSS-FITTER Their Under Armour muscle shirt or enthusiastic training group are an easy way to identify cross-fitters.

If that doesn’t tip you off, they’ll probably be sporting some colourful Reebok shoes and be covered in chalk. Don’t bother waiting for the squat rack, because their WOD (Workout of the Day) probably entails as many squats at the highest possible weight until they collapse.

3. THE VARSITY ATHLETE Usually to be found getting exclusive use of the top floor during the Goldring’s busiest times, Varsity Athletes are the easiest cohort to identify because they are among the few people at U of T who are actually doing their workouts with correct form. They’re decked out from head to toe in Varsity Blues swag and they actually look good in it.

4. THE RIPPED, NO-NECK, GRUNTER If you ever see these athletes, stay out of their way; they’ve got a routine and nothing will stop them from monopolizing the entire weight lifting room. They look like an attempt to develop Captain America, but instead of a shield, their favourite accessory is a thick leather belt which they wear throughout the workout.

These athletes frequent Goldring in the wee hours of the morning — when us mere mortals are still asleep — because that’s the only way they’ll be able to find enough 45-kilogram plates to stack on the squat bar.

5. THE NEWBIE, CARDIO JUNKIE If you’re reading this, odds are you fit into this category. But that’s okay, because you’re probably too busy caring about the plethora of other responsibilities you have which sedentary, non gym-goers prioritize.

If you feel like breaking out those high school running shoes, but don’t know where to start, there’s nothing wrong with using the elliptical or weight machines. Hell, you can even sport that t-shirt from the colour run you did that one time — the only thing that matters is that when you leave the gym, you do so feeling tired and satisfied.

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T H E VA R S I T Y

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VARSITY PUBLICATIONS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS BY-ELECTION: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

thevarsity.ca/volunteer

Varsity Publications is the not-for-proďŹ t corporation that publishes The Varsity newspaper. There are two (2) vacant seats on the Corporation’s Board of Directors.

A by-election to ďŹ ll these seats will be held on October 5 — 7 2015.

Who can run? — One (1) Mississauga director: any full-time undergraduate student who pays the Varsity Publications levy and is enrolled at UTM. If no nominations are received for the UTM category, a general category director will be elected — One (1) Scarborough director: any full-time undergraduate student who pays the Varsity Publications levy and is enrolled at UTSC. If no nominations are received for the UTSC category, a general category director will be elected

Nomination information: Eligible student must complete a nomination form and obtain the signature of twenty five e ers. e ers are full ti e under graduate students who pay the Varsity Publications levy.

thevarsity.ca thevarsitynewspaper @TheVarsity the_varsity

Completed forms can be scanned and emailed to the CRO (chair@ thevarsity.ca) or submitted in person to room 200, 21 Sussex Avenue, Toronto ON M5S1J6 var.st/bod15

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