February 9, 2015 by The Varsity

Vol. CXXXV, No. 18

9 February, 2015

The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

ready, set, snow! PG. 6

UTM Campus Council Turn it Up UTSC victoapproves fee increases rious in SCSU election Students protest increase in cost of parking, food, residence Alex McKeen and Iris Robin ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS

An operating plan for the University of Toronto Mississauga (utm) that includes student fee increases in the areas of parking, food, and residence was approved by the utm Campus Council, which oversees the campus’s academic, business, and student affairs, at a meeting on Thursday. The operating plan was recommended by the utm Campus Affairs committee in mid-January. Chief administrative officer Paul Donoghue told The Varsity at that time that the fee increases would be necessary to cover ancillary costs and required reserves. Part of the expenses are accounted for by

projects to improve parking and residences. The plan predicts a 5.5 per cent increase in residence fees, and a three per cent increase in parking permits. Retail food rates are expected to increase only with inflation, while meal plan rates will rise at an average of 1.5 per cent.

STUDENTS PROTEST The plan incited resistance from utm students, and especially from the University of Toronto Mississauga Student Union (utmsu), which circulated a petition that received over 1,300 signatures in two days. Ebi Agbeyegbe, utmsu vice-president, external, organized a rally outside the meeting.

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Vice-president, equity only position filled by independent candidate Alex McKeen ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Unofficial results for the Scarborough Campus Student Union (scsu) general elections show widespread victory for the Turn it Up utsc slate. University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (utsc) students voted Tuesday through Thursday for the positions of president; vicepresident, academics and university affairs; vice-president, equity; and vice-president, external; as well as 16 director positions. Turn it Up UTSC, the only slate in this election, successfully secured the position of president, and two vice president positions. Four independent candidates also put their names forward for executive positions.

The voting period directly followed an allcandidates’ debate Monday evening, where candidates for executive positions spoke to a robust crowd at the utsc student centre.

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS Turn it Up utsc presidential candidate Nicole Dionisio won the victory over second and third place candidates Dulaa Osman and David Tweneboah, respectively. Dionisio is the only presidential candidate to currently hold an executive position on the scsu. She is presently vice-president, academics and university affairs. Dionisio was also an scsu director in previous years. Dionisio says that she is pleased with the unof-

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INSIDE Comment

Features

Debunking myths

The ABC’s of being ace

Five misconceptions about the TA strike

PG. 10

VARSITY EDITORIAL

Arts&Culture Our land is Coupland

Science Computing our DNA

Sports Sports gets sexy

Exploring asexuality and the ace community

The Varsity investigates the artist’s new exhibition

PhD students build model to predict effects of mutations

A look into the origins of wellknown sex euthemisms

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PG. 16

PG. 22

PG. 25

Governing council needs a redesign to better represent students

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WHAT’S GOING ON THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS

THE EXPLAINER Show some love for Governing Council

MONDAY

Associate Senior Copy Editor Hunter McGuire Sean Smith Associate News Editors Salvatore Basilone Tamim Mansour Alex McKeen Iris Robin Associate Features Editor Caitlyn Fleming Associate Comment Editor Emma Kikulis

WORDS OF LOVE

Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, 11:00 am3:00 pm, Monday-Thursday

Governing Council elections start on Monday, February 9 and run until February 20. Valentine’s Day is February 14. Coincidence? We think not. The Varsity shares its hottest tips on how to show some love for Governing Council during election season.

SickKids Foundation: University of Toronto will be present at Sidney Smith between Monday and Thursday. Drop by to spread the love and write a card to a sick child for a donation of one dollar or more.

TUESDAY

Associate A&C Editors Daniel Konikoff Jacob Lorinc

Get to know the candidates. You might not have time to take them on a real date, but you can read their candidate statements. A passion for mental health advocacy on campus, a strong stance against interest on tuition — who knows what you will have in common? See if you are compatible on a basic level before deciding to take things further.

Follow up with any contact information they provide. Many candidates have websites, social media profiles, and platforms online. Chat with them a bit and ask the tough questions. What is their star sign? What is their opinion on Taylor Swift?

Cast your vote. If you are spoiled for choice, you don’t have to spoil the ballot in frustration! You may vote for as many candidates as there are vacancies, so if you can’t decide, vote for more than one. Monogamy isn’t the be all and end all.

Send them a love letter. Did you know that you can vote by mail? We didn’t either. If you vote by mail, why not accompany your mail-in ballot with a poem? Granted, there are a few reasons why you shouldn’t, but hey — it’s romantic!

Don’t be disheartened if they take a while to reply. The election results will be announced on Tuesday, February 24, with the winners declared elected on Friday, February 27.

HANCOCK LECTURE: THE MYTH OF SLACKTIVISM WITH JENNIFER HOLLETT

Associate Science Editor Nadezha Woinowsky-Krieger

Hart House Theatre, 7 Hart House Circle, 7 pm

Associate Sports Editors Reshara Alviarez Sean Xu

Award-winning journalist Jennifer Hollett will take the stage at Hart House to dissect the concept of digital activism in the information age.

Associate Web Developer Ishan Thukral Copy Editors and Fact-Checkers Salvatore Basilone, Elisha Bauer-Maison, Isabela Borges, Alexandra Grieve, John Hadzipetros, Jennifer La, Emma Lawrence, Alex McKeen, Soham Parelkar, Iris Robin, Divna Stojanovic Lead Fact-Checkers Ujwal Ganguly, Fu Yuan (Andrew) Liu, Suhas Srinivasan Designers Kawmadie Karunanayake, Joanne Lieu, Janice Liu, Mike Wong, Mari Zhou

WEDNESDAY STRIKE TOWNHALL George Ignatieff Theatre 15 Devonshire Place, 6:00-8:00 pm The Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students, the University of Toronto Students’ Union, and the Arts & Science Students’ Union present a townhall event to give students the opportunity to ask questions about a potential strike.

THURSDAY U OF T DRAMA FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT

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U of T students at the UTSU Activist Assembly on February 6. DENIS OSIPOVW/THE VARSITY

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The Varsity is the University of Toronto's largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. The Varsity has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock. Content © 2015 by The Varsity. All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the sections associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity reserves the right to edit all submissions. Inquiries regarding ad sales can be made to ads@thevarsity.ca. ISSN: 0042-2789

Hart House Theatre, 7 Hart House Circle, 7:30 pm, Thursday-Saturday Nine original one-act plays will be featured at this year’s U of T Drama Festival, presented jointly by the Drama Coalition and Hart House theatre. The festival will run from Thursday to Saturday, and will be adjudicated by Dr. Banuta Rubess.

FRIDAY DESPERATION DAY All places, especially in the hearts of students everywhere The day before Valentines’ Day arrives to give students the opportunity to reflect on something other than the hours of midterm studying they have left to do.

Correction: An article from last week’s issue titled “Winterlicious: a student guide” referred to the downtown location of Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill. In fact, the restaurant is offering a Winterlicious menu at its Bayview Village location. The Varsity regrets the error.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Department of Political Science advertises unpaid internships Of 112 internship positions listed by the department, just 36 are paid in some capacity Alex Verman VARSITY STAFF

Employment prospects for students in the social sciences are slim. Taking an unpaid internship is one of the ways in which students try to gain experience and make crucial connections. The number of students interested in pursuing such opportunities means that some social science departments have become deeply invested in helping students engage with one another, faculty members, and alumni. In fact, staying up to date and engaging with internships has become so central to students that the Department of Political Science hires a graduate student specifically to disseminate information about internship opportunities.

UNPAID INTERNSHIPS ADVERTISED Unpaid internships feature prominently on the Department of Political Science’s website, as well as on a working database of internship opportunities that was emailed to interested political science students. Of the 112 internship positions listed, 36 are paid in some capacity; the rest are unpaid, including five where the student is required to pay. In one case, students are expected to incur costs up to $3,450. Of the 36 paid internships, just three are based in or around Toronto. Emily Tsui, president of the Association of Political Science Students (apss), says that, though she finds the list helpful, she is unimpressed with companies that choose not to pay interns when the funding to do so is available. “The gap between those who can afford to take unpaid internships and those who need to take a paid job must be addressed,” Tsui says. As part of a recent change to their mandate, the apss has ramped up efforts to provide some alternatives to the unpaid internship route for those students who can’t afford to travel, and incur costs, to gain research

MARI ZHOU/THE VARSITY

and field experience. Initiatives focused on networking — such as the Senior and Junior Mentorship programs — have become a priority, both to ease job searches and to create more of a community within the faculty of political science.

MAKING CONNECTIONS Jamie Levin, a doctoral candidate in political science tasked with providing academic counselling for students, says that, when it comes to work in social science fields, undergraduate students have fewer options. “The nature of U of T being such a primarily research institution, it falls often to grad students,” says Levin. He finds that students often need to have connections and leverage them to get valuable experience. Clare Gilderdale, alumni engagement liaison with the faculty of Arts & Science, describes a shift towards preparing students for a world where networking and forming connections is

the way forward. “Especially at the University of Toronto, and especially in social sciences, networking is a necessity, both with other students and with alumni,” Gilderdale says.

JUNIOR MENTORSHIP “Junior Mentorship cracks are often left when unpaid internships are not an option, and where contacts are necessary to make any headway,” Tsui says. She believes the new Junior Mentorship program is a step in that direction. Based on the department’s Senior Mentorship program, the mentorships are organized and led by the apss in an effort to connect students to one another and build networking into student interaction. Ilya Maslyanskyy, a third-year political science student who has eight mentees in the volunteer program, says it’s a matter of making the university feel smaller and a bit friendlier

for younger students. According to Gilderdale, acknowledging the limited options available has been a big step in improving the kind of services offered at U of T, such as the Backpack 2 Briefcase program, which aims to connect students within the Faculty of Arts & Science with alumni. “We’re helping students to know that it’s OK if you don’t know where you’re going, you will get there,” Gilderdale says. The initiatives are all relatively recent additions to the Faculty of Arts & Science, and to the Department of Political Science specifically, but they are just one part of a suite of attempts to step beyond the limits imposed by a field that places great value on personal connections and unpaid experience. To what extent the university can make students more job-ready and less worried for their futures is primarily a question of commitment and input. “We are always looking to do something more,” Tsui says.

Sides move closer in strike negotiations University’s ‘net zero’ bargaining stance off the table, union says Salvatore Basilone

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The university and a major campus union appear to be one step closer to a deal although none has yet been reached. Chief negotiators for cupe 3902 Unit 1, which represents teaching assistants and other academic staff, and Unit 3, which represents sessional lecturers and other nonstudent academic staff, say that university administration has made offers that include a pay increase without being offset elsewhere in the funding package. The developments mean that the university has moved away from an earlier reported position that they were taking a hard line of a ‘net-zero’ increase in the total dollar value of any collective bargaining agreement, where any union gains in one area would need to be offset by give-backs in another. The two units are negotiating separate collective bargaining agreements, although they share the same strike deadline. According to the negotiators, the pay increases are slightly different in each of the two deals,

Students fear cancelled classes if a strike ensues. FILE PHOTO: NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

although they both involve annual one per cent wage increases. Ryan Culpepper, chief negotiator for Unit 1, says the latest developments are positive. “It’s a shame that it is coming this late in the

bargaining process. This is the frame within which we normally bargain, and in which we should have been bargaining the whole last nine months,” he says. Culpepper adds there is still much to negoti-

ate before a deal can be made. “I still thinks it’s going to be extremely challenging — if it’s possible at all — to get a deal in the time that’s left,” he says. Erin Black, co-chief negotiator for Unit 3, also confirmed that the university has made some movement on job security, which is Unit 3’s highest priority. Unit 3 and the university have one final scheduled meeting date on Monday, February 9, and will attempt to make a deal in that session. No further meetings have been scheduled, although Black says that Unit 3 will continue to request more dates if a deal is not reached in that session. As of press time, Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, did not a respond to a request for comment. “We are still three weeks from a strike deadline,” Black says, adding, “Absolutely, we want to continue to meet with the employer.” A new meeting date has been added for Unit 1, bringing the current total to 4, on February 17, February 20, February 25, and February 26. Culpepper says that Unit 1 is still willing to have, and has asked for, more meetings than those currently scheduled.

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Snow day only for UTM UTSG and UTSC remain open during dire snowstorm Kayla Chaterji

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Students dreading their snow-stricken commute to the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus were spared on February 2 when the University of Toronto announced the closure of campus that morning at 5:55 am. The St. George and Scarborough campuses remained open. The university communicated the news via its official weather website, Facebook, Twitter, email, and telephone. The temperature that day hovered around -15° celsius, with about 25 cm of snowfall the night prior. Many utm students were pleased with the closure. Victoria Wisniewski, a fourth-year environmental science student, says she spent the day working on an assignment and catching up on readings. Stephanie Chen, another fourthyear student, used the time to do homework. Wisniewski lives just over 10 kilometres away from campus, and Chen lives in utm campus residence. Both say they likely would have gone to class if it had remained open. “utm is a commuter school, and most people drive or take transportation to get to and from the campus,” Chen says. To her, one of the most important factors in deciding on campus closure is severe road conditions and accessible transportation. However, students at the campuses that remained open took to Twitter to vent their anger at the decision. “It is extremely dangerous and unfair for commuters to travel to campus today, especially those that live North. Please consider that,” said Clarissa Flora, in a post directed at the university’s official Twitter account. “Can you ask the weather monitor if he/ she has successfully navigated campus in a wheelchair today?” said Angelo Muredda in a similar post. A number of surrounding post-secondary institutions, including Sheridan College, Centennial College, and McMaster University

University of Toronto Mississauga. COURTESY OF SHUTTERBUGAMAR/FLICKR CC

were closed as well. go Transit experienced delays and cancellations, and the ttc experienced major service delays. The University of Toronto Students’ Union’s (utsu) Academic & Student Rights Commission put out a call for students who were having trouble getting to campus safely due to the storm to get in touch.

THE DECISION TO CLOSE According to Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, closure of any U of T campus is based on several factors, including the conditions of public transportation, closure of other universities in the area, the City’s response, and the state of roads and sidewalks. “The geographical differences of the three campuses means inclement weather in one area would not mean the closure of campus in another,” Blackburn-Evans says.

Even if the entire campus does not close, class instructors generally have the ability to cancel classes. Both the utsc and utm websites say that instructors cancel classes at their own discretion during inclement weather, and that students should consult their syllabus for information on class attendance, late assignments, or missed tests. However, the decision to close any campus ultimately lies with the vice-president and provost, or principal of all three campuses, guided by the advice of Campus Police. Responsibility for closure of the St. George campus also rests with the vice-president, human resources & equity.

THE COST OF CLOSURE The university’s Human Resources & Equity Department focuses on the fair treatment and suitable work environment of university employees.

According to Blackburn-Evans, U of T must take into consideration the impact and cost of its decision to close. Certain university services are considered essential and remain functioning even during closure, such as the caretaking of laboratory animals, campus security, and services in student residences. A university protocol also states that staff needed for “essential services” during campus closure “will not suffer any reduction in salary or lost time” and they will be paid in accordance with overtime policy, or given the equivalent time off. The Scarborough campus was last closed due to inclement weather on March 12, 2014. utsg last closed on February 8, 2013 when all three campuses shut down. On that occasion, the decision was not effective until 3:00 pm.

Robarts Library to expand Robarts Common expansion project preparing for second phase Jonathan Gass VARSITY STAFF

Robarts Library reading room. TOSIN MAIYEGUN/THE VARSITY

The University of Toronto’s big bird is about to get bigger. Robarts Library currently welcomes around 18,000 visitors a day, a figure that has doubled over the past 35 years. As enrollment at U of T has increased, the demand for more work stations in libraries has also done so. Melissa Clancey, a fourth-year political science and English major, says that she has “a love/hate relationship with Robarts.” “[I] always end up there… but I hate circling an entire floor for a seat,” she says. The Robarts Common project should go some way towards alleviating this problem, providing 1,222 study spaces for a grand total of 6,027 at the library. The study spaces will be housed inside a new, state-of-the-art five-storey glass pavilion. In addition to these new work and study spaces, the extension will also bring a new student lounge, more group study areas, and an outdoor plaza and park. According to Larry Alford, chief librarian at the U of T, the main reason behind the extension is the need for more study space. Alford says that he has spoken to numerous students over the past three or so years, many of whom have talked about the need for more

study spaces on campus. Alford adds that Robarts Common will be connected to Robarts Library via bridges, granting students easy access to the stacks, the cafeteria, and other amenities that the current building offers. Mercedes Fogarassy, a second-year peace, conflict and justice student, praised the expansion, saying that the university needs more study space to accommodate students. “[U]ltimately, we are at the university to learn, and there is no better place on campus to focus and study than at the centre of information,” she says. The first phase of the project is already complete, consisting of numerous improvements to study spaces and library infrastructure. The second phase will consist of the construction of the new five-storey addition, called Robarts Common. According to Alford, Robarts Common will stay in line with the university’s environmental initiatives. The new structure will be granted a silver rating by the Standards of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design because of its planned environmentallyfriendly features, including a green roof area, efficient landscaping, and the use of regionally sourced or recycled materials. Although not yet confirmed, Alford hopes that construction on the addition will be underway in January, 2016.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Jennifer Hollett on activism in the digital age Hollett will give the 2015 Hancock Lecture at Hart House on Febraury 10

Jennifer Hollett. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY

Salvatore Basilone

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

On Tuesday, Jennifer Hollett, a journalist and digital strategist, will give the 2015 Hancock Lecture. Entitled “Hashtags, Selfies and Ice Buckets: The Myth of Slacktivism,” Hollett’s lecture will explore the ways that social media has influenced activism. Hollett, who holds a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, is seeking the federal ndp nomination in the University-Rosedale riding. She also served as digital director with Olivia Chow’s mayoral campaign. The Varsity spoke with Hollett ahead of her lecture. The Varsity: What gives you expertise on the topic of “slacktivism”? Jennifer Hollet: I came of age when the Internet was coming of age. This really started changing the way we communicated and told stories. When I was studying journalism, the Internet as we know it now was in its early years of mainstream adaptation. I had an independent magazine, and one of my professors said that he could put it on the “World Wide Web”, which we still called it back then, and so in 1995 I had my own web page. Upon graduation, I started working in what was called “new media” at Sony Music, and built a really exciting career working with digital tools. I did websites for artists like Celine Dion and Our Lady Peace. For me, digital has always made sense and has always been a big part of my career. When I shifted to working as a TV host and a reporter, I always used it as a way to research, as a way to connect with

people, [and] as a way to share stories to broader audiences. Now, the work I do in politics, it’s through digital; whether that’s using social media tools on Olivia Chow’s campaign, or SuperPac App, which was an app I co-founded that was meant to bring transparency to TV ads in the 2012 us election. TV: Why are you giving the talk? JH: There are a group of students who put together the annual Hancock lecture, and they thought that ‘slacktivism’ is something that students are engaging with and questioning, and that it would be great to explore the idea. So they approached me. I said I’d be happy to speak about ‘slacktivism,’ but warning: I don’t think it exists. TV: Give me your definition of “slacktivism”. JH: “Slacktivism” is used to describe people who take a lazy approach to activism, usually online by clicking something or changing their profile pic. The idea is that they do it just to look good and feel good. “Slacktivism”, as a term, is used to discredit digital activism, especially entry-level digital activism. I don’t think it exists, because I think digital actually allows us new ways to participate in social movements. Very few people are going to show up on the street with a megaphone and lead a march. Most people need an entry point. They need something that is fun, acceptable, and where they are. Digital is the perfect place to get started. From there, it is up to the organizers and the movement builders to get people more involved. TV: One criticism is that “slacktivism” is a replacement of traditional activism with something weaker because people think they are participating in a movement when they’re not. Do you agree?

JH: There are a lot of people who think that digital activism is just about a Facebook post, or a hashtag. But that is actually where it starts, not where it ends. If you, for the first time, engage with an issue by sharing a story on Facebook, or tweeting something out with a hashtag, that is the beginning of your engagement. Those of us who work on political or social issues campaigns, there is a framework called “a ladder of engagement”. This was and is still being used in traditional activism, and it’s also used in digital activism. That is how you take people from a very easy way to get involved, and that can be anything from taking a flyer in the traditional sense to liking a Facebook page, and then you want to move them up that ladder of engagement. You might want to get them to attend a meeting, or give a small donation, or to volunteer. Very few people are going to come to the table and say: “I want to be a leader in this movement.” You use these opportunities to build engagement and build the movement. It isn’t one or the other. I think part of it is that young people get digital. The majority of undergraduates on campus are digital natives: this is their language, it’s what they know, it is natural. I think why older generations dismiss it is it might not come as natural to them — it might seem too easy. TV: Some digital campaigns and movements, such as ‘Kony 2012’ or the Twitter campaign #BringBackOurGirls, have been criticized in terms of what they were (and were not) able to achieve. Is this criticism valid? JH: So to push back on that: it depends what your end goal is. I think it is always fair and important to criticize campaigns and social movements, but that is not exclusive to digital. I think there were missed opportunities with the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, and I’m not even sure if the activists who started it had a proper strategy. But we can’t underestimate the value of the international

community making a story or a movement mainstream and top priority. I was working at cbc during the Arab Spring. Traditionally, there isn’t much of an appetite for international stories. It can be hard to talk about regimes, and governments, and history, at least in television news. But social media set the agenda. People around the world said that this was a story they care about, that they were following it, that it mattered. This forced the mainstream to give it airtime in a way that we haven’t seen before. That has continued with other movements. We are seeing that with “Black Lives Matter”. We are seeing social media pick up on the story first, and then give a signal to the mainstream that they have to cover it. Sometimes, that is the goal, right? To get a topic in the news, to give a topic national or global attention. That is extremely valuable and very difficult to do. TV: What you are pointing to is “raising awareness.” But if there are only 140 characters, and 10 of them are the hashtag, how much of a discussion are you actually having? JH: I think that there are definitely limits with social media, in terms of the character count as well as the need to be snarky, or irreverent, or funny. But what social media is, it is a conversation.The conversations that I’ve been watching and being part of aren’t possible in traditional media. They also aren’t possible in physical spaces, for many different reasons: work commitments, family commitments, and because the people we connect with don’t live next door to us anymore. Social media offers us the space to have an ongoing conversation, to bring in new and marginalized and sometimes surprising voices. This interview was edited and condensed for clarity and length.

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TEDxUTSC ‘unleashes the fantasy’ Conference features war correspondent, Olympic rower Marnie McBean Shreya Mathur

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

January 31 saw the culmination of nearly nine months of work by the student volunteers who organised the third annual tedxutsc conference, an independently organized event that followed the same format as the widely known conferences organized by ted, the not-for-profit organization that runs a global set of conferences. tedxutsc brought 13 speakers to the Scarborough campus’ Academic Resource Centre to share their ideas in 15 to 20 minute talks. “tedxutsc is a bigger success every year, despite being so young,” says Jad Murtada, a tedxutsc speaker relations associate. Murtada says the event attracted 215 attendees, overselling the initial allocation of 200 tickets. ”The live stream garnered international attention with viewers from Germany, Turkey, and others,” Murtada adds. The theme of the conference was “Unleash the Fantasy,” bringing together speakers who had done extraordinary things or put forth ideas that broke norms. The conference was broken into four segments with conversational and lunch breaks in between. One speaker, Teresa Gomes, a student activist who is currently in her third-year of a health studies and international development program at utsc, spoke of creating an

Teresa Gomes speaking at TEDxUTSC. PHOTO COURTESY OF TEDXUTSC

initiative, Education & Equity for Women, in Niliphamari, Bangladesh. In her talk, Gomes highlighted the impor-

tance of being cognizant of the present and how the power of human connection can impact the world.

“You have been making an impact because, through those human connections, there is a ripple effect throughout the world,” Gomes told the audience, Also in attendance was Olympic gold medalist rower Marnie McBean who discussed how people can achieve extraordinary things with the “+1” policy, injecting her talk with reallife examples from her times at the Olympics. The speaker list also included utsc faculty members. Brian Harrington, a former utsc student and lecturer in computer science, discussed how gpas are only half of what you get out of the university experience, while Rene Harrison, from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, forewarned the dangers of osteoporosis to couch potatoes. Rohit Gandhi, an Emmy award winning journalist and filmmaker, came out to speak wearing the flags of Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan on the sleeves of his suit. Gandhi then proceeded to peel off the flags, which represented his nationalities, illustrating the importance of “being country-neutral journalists out there.” The conference also featured live performances from a variety of performing artists, such as a Bharatnatyam Dance, and paintings by utsc students that showed how the community came together. For his part, Murtada says that the event, which is in its third year, is a bigger success each time. “We hope to continue this trend,” he says.

Hundreds of students descend on front campus for snowball fight Hosts hope event will become annual affair Meerah Haq

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Students in front of Convocation Hall. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

About 400 students from University of Toronto’s three campuses and surrounding schools in the Greater Toronto Area gathered on Front Campus last Tuesday for a snowball fight. Madina Siddiqui and Frishta Bastan, two U of T students, planned the event with the goal of lightening the spirits of students bogged down with assignments and mid-terms. Both say they want to make the snowball fight an annual event. Siddiqui says that, in her first year at U of T, she noticed that students are consistently worried about the future. “I wanted to do

something that would allow us to relive our childhoods,” she says. The hosts credit much of the event’s success to social media, allowing them to reach a wider audience. Approximately 2,600 students said they were attending on a Facebook event for the snowball fight. Jonathan Cassin, a fourth-year student, says the snowball fight was the most fun event of the school year so far. “Everything was fun, but the spontaneity of it is what really made it special. It brought all kinds of students together, from arts & science to engineers.” Siddiqui says the hosts hope to eventually break the world record for the largest snowball fight, which currently sits at 5,834 participants.

Organization helps survivors Thrive Iris Robin

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

On February 3, Katrina Vogan handed out flyers with graphics in English, Chinese, and Korean at the Harvest Noon Café. The physics and literature student was promoting Thrive, an organization that she recently founded with a twofold aim: to share the stories of sexual assault survivors and to gather data for a report that will hopefully result in an administrative policy review. Thrive is running an online campaign — the “And Then” project — in the form of what Vogan calls illustrated interviews.

Vogan interviewed survivors of sexual assault and asked how U of T helped them after they were sexually assaulted. She then used graphics to create shareable images of their stories. “When I was talking to people about this issue, people who had experienced it, there was this sense that they weren’t being heard,” Vogan says. “They were speaking and speaking but no-one was listening. So I started it in part because I wanted them to be heard.” “It’s moving — it really hits you because it could be someone you know and you would have no idea. It’s a wake up call that something needs to change,” says Jasmine Denike, a fourth-year English student and volunteer with Thrive.

From there, Vogan began research on campus services because she wanted to get an idea of where people were going when they needed help. She notes a lack of holistic services — services that take into account a person’s intersecting identities and that address a student’s whole being. Thrive is administering a survey, in which students take 5–10 minutes to rate their experiences and perceptions of campus services such as Counselling and Psychological Services (caps), the Community Safety Office, and Campus Police. In the first 24 hours, Vogan says she received over 50 survey responses. Vogan says she intends to produce a report,

which she says will likely be illustrated in much the same way as the stories in the “And Then” project. Although Vogan describes Thrive as a reactive service, she hopes to see changes in policy and in attitude. Then, she says, Thrive can become a proactive resource with prevention and education goals. When asked about the goals of Thrive, Vogan says that she never wants students to seek help in vain. “Ideally, I never want to hear someone tell me ‘I went to get help and I was turned away.’ I don’t want to hear that ever again.” Editor’s Note: Katrina Vogan was The Varsity’s 2013-2014 science editor.

VARSITY NEWS

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Voting took place at UTSC from Tuesday to Thursday

Students at a polling station. JUMA PEREZ/THE VARSITY

CONTINUED FROM COVER ficial results, and looks forward to working with the new executive next year. “All unofficial[ly elected] candidates have had lots of experience in their field and I have no doubt this will reflect a very productive year to come,” says Dionisio. Dionisio adds that she is disappointed with the low voter turnout however, and looks forward to spending her term improving student engagment. Dionisio received 346 votes according to the unofficial results, while last year’s succesful presidential candidate Tahsin Chowdury raked in 1101. Sixty-four presidential ballots were spoiled in this year’s race. In a post on his Facebook campaign page, Osman suggested that he may take action against the unofficial results. “It not over yet since there has been great travesty in this year election which will be public shortly. I hope the Board makes the right decision when the CRO releases his report,” Osman says in the statement. As of press time, Osman did not respond to requests for comment.

NARROW VICTORIES The margins of victory for the positions of vicepresident, external and vice-president, equity were much more narrow. Turn it Up utsc candidate Yasmin Rajabi gained only 10 more

votes than independent opponent David Shim in order to win the position of vice-president, external. Independent candidate Jessica Kirk also won the position of vice-president, equity with only 10 votes more than Turn it Up utsc candidate Leandro Diaz-Matus. Kirk says that she is proud of her accomplishment, especially since she was the only successful independent candidate. “I was most comfortable running elections alone, and I could stay true to myself throughout the process,” says Kirk. Kirk also feels that this election period itself could have been more robust in order to attract a greater voter turnout. “I don’t think I campaigned nearly as much as I could have,” she says, adding that some of her attention was spent on organizing Black History Month. Diaz Matus is the only Turn it Up utsc candidate not to win his position. 72 and 76 ballots were spoiled in the votes for vice-president, external and vice-president, equity respectively. Camille Galindez, the Turn it Up utsc candidate who ran unopposed for the position of vice president, academics and university affairs, received 609 “yes” votes and 109 “no” notes. 43 ballots were spoiled. Of the 16 director categories, eight positions were acclaimed and five remain vacant. According to a notice released by the scsu, the election results are unofficial until such a time that they can be ratified by the union board.

Ballots. JUMA PEREZ/THE VARSITY

NEWS IN BRIEF The New School divests from fossil fuels

Islamophobic graffiti on RSU posters

U of T president appointed to MaRS board of directors

Ontario’s colleges have collaborated on a sexual assault policy that will soon be in effect across the province. Twenty-four college presidents have endorsed the policy, which clearly states the role of the school, including the duty to report an allegation of sexual assault if they are made aware of one. The policy stipulates that campuses be “safe and welcoming” and that “immediate and effective help” be offered to victims. The policy lists the options that survivors of sexual assault have after the incident, such as a police investigation and an internal investigation. It also provides definitions of terms, contacts, promises of support, and academic accommodations. The policy comes in the wake of a Toronto Star investigation that found that none of Ontario’s colleges have a policy that specifically addresses sexual assault. Just nine universities out of the 78 in Canada have a dedicated sexual assault policy.

The New School, a university located in New York City, has announced that it will divest from its fossil fuel stock holdings and reshape its curriculum to place a greater emphasis on climate change. “What we’re trying to do here is to get students and faculty to think differently about climate change, and look at it as an opportunity to design the future differently,” says Joel Towers, executive dean of Parsons The New School of Design. Among other initiatives, the school said it will also look into reducing both its carbon footprint and waste. On February 13 and February 14, student groups from around the world will participate in Global Divestment Day, a series of events aimed at urging individuals and institutions to divest from fossil fuels. At U of T, the University of Toronto Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign is preparing for a presentation to a Governing Council ad-hoc committee on fossil fuel divestment later this semester.

Two weeks ago, Obaid Ullah, the candidate for vice-president operations with the Transform ru slate in the Ryerson Students’ Union (rsu) elections, walked past one of his posters and found it defaced with the slogan “isis for life.” This is the second time that Ullah’s posters have been defaced since campaigning began. According to Ullah, this incident was the less offensive of the two, with the other incident involving the message “Fuck Muslims” scrawled on another poster. Ullah said that his first reaction was to laugh, but then thought, “’This is kind of sad.’ Just because I’m brown, I’m Muslim and I’m bearded, I’m being affiliated with isis?” he told The Eyeopener, a Ryerson University student newspaper. Ullah challenges the unknown perpetrator to speak to him in person, and hopes that they can be more open-minded. The Transform ru slate is opposing the slate that includes incumbent candidates in the rsu elections. Voting takes place on February 9, 10, and 11.

University of Toronto president Meric Gertler, who assumed office in November 2013, has been appointed to the board of directors of the MaRS Discovery District, an urban innovation hub whose 1.5 million square foot complex on College Street aims to foster economic and social prosperity. “Professor Gertler is internationally renowned for his research on city-regions as hotspots of innovation and creativity in the global economy,” says MaRS Discovery District ceo Ilse Treurnicht. Treurnicht cites Gertler’s background as important for growing Ontario’s “innovation economy.” “Research and innovation are fundamental to the mission of the University of Toronto. Through MaRS, Ontario has developed the kind of innovation engine that cities and nations around the world recognize as crucial in creating jobs and long-term economic and social prosperity,” says Gertler. U of T is a founding partner of MaRS.

— Iris Robin With files from The Toronto Star

— James Flynn With files from The New York Times

— Iris Robin With files from The Eyeopener

Twenty-four Ontario college presidents endorse sexual assault policy

— Salvatore Basilone

Vol. CXXXV, No. 18

VARSITY NEWS

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Revitalization of St. George campus centre proposed Changes include removal of surface parking on King’s College Circle, Hart House Circle

University College. VICTORIA DAWSON/THE VARSITY

Tamim Mansour

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

A report presented to the university administration has put forth principles and recommendations for the revitalization of the historic centre of the University of Toronto St. George campus — namely Front Campus, Hart House Circle, the Sir Daniel Wilson Quadrangle, and Back Campus. The recommendations include the removal of surface parking in the historic core of the campus, and the prioritization of accommodation for pedestrians and bicycle traffic to improve through-traffic in the area.

The Landmark Committee, co-chaired by Donald Ainslie, principal of University College, and Scott Mabury, U of T’s vicepresident, university operations, are behind the recommendations. At a University Affairs Board meeting on February 3, Mabury described the project as his “most important” of his career. “The cars parked around the most iconic landscapes on campus must be relocated, vehicular circulation tamed, and the pedestrian environment and amenity support strengthened,” the vision statement for the project reads. In evaluating the space, the committee found that student uses of the space and memorable

events, such as convocation, are the most important aspects of the area. The committee proposed their recommendations along the lines of improving those experiences. “The ability to pedestrianize all of this... will alter the experience for everybody at the university,” said Ainslie at a Business Board Meeting on January 26, referring to the recommendations of the report, adding, “This project is not just what’s green out there, it’s how that green area connects to all the locations on campus.” The report also identifies certain traffic pressures faced by pedestrians in the area. “There remain sidewalks that lack continuity and that are too narrow to accommodate

the pedestrian population, or conflict with vehicular movement,” it reads. The report recognizes that the shortage of sidewalks meant that pedestrians are “forced to intermingle with vehicular traffic.” While the removal of surface parking will shift the focus to pedestrian traffic, vehicles will still be able to drop off and pick up passengers, as well as service buildings. One caveat that has to be addressed by the firm contracted is where the parking will go. According to the Section 310(b), Clause 1 of the City of Toronto By-law No. 1997-0275, the university is required to have at least 1,930 parking spaces on the St George campus. The removal of surface parking from the core will make it non-compliant with the bylaw, unless they replace the parking space lost. With regards to how the firms will be addressing this problem, Mabury has described the committee as “agnostic” to the methods. Another significant recommendation is the pedestrianization of the space in front of Convocation Hall. “The other big change that we’re proposing is taking care of this space in front of Con Hall,” Ainslie said. “At the moment, classes in Con Hall [of] 1400 students leave into a road and it can be pretty hairy sometimes.” The committee also hopes that the project will receive support from the wider U of T community, with funding coming through a fundraising campaign. “We are launching a public consultation project process that will be wider and deeper than any other we’ve done around any individual capital project,” Mabury says. The committee expects to engage the university community and the city in raising support for the project. The committee also recommends that the university engage consultants to prepare a plan that fits the principles outlined in the report. The committee will be putting out calls for consulting firms to propose plans for the revitalization. From the submitted proposals, a few will be shortlisted. A plan is expected to be approved by summer 2015.

Increases drew widespread condemnation from students “I think that’s really unfortunate,” says Nimesha Basnayake of the fee increase. The fourth-year student in geography and environmental science was not aware of the fee increases and says that she would have appreciated better communication to students about the approval, perhaps by email.

CONTINUED FROM COVER Around 70 students gathered in protest, holding signs that read “don’t kill education” and “fees must pause.” According to Agbeyegbe, about seven students requested speaking rights before the meeting. Upon entering, however, the students were told that their requests had not been received. “At the meeting, I was able to speak to the motion. I was given three minutes, but the approval still went through,” Agbeyegbe says. The utmsu’s protests are based upon the belief that campus improvements can be funded by sources other than student pockets. “We went all over campus, and were able to make some noise,” Agbeyegbe says. “We made sure that we made our voices heard.”

NEXT STEPS

REACTIONS Vibhuti Razdan, a first-year student in social sciences, says that she is extremely disappointed that the ancillary fees are increasing. “It will add more to my debt!” she exclaims. “I was optimistic that the administration will listen to the concerns of the students and do

Inside the CCT building. FILE PHOTO: LESLIE SETO/THE VARSITY

something about it but that didn’t happen. If the fees are increasing in my first year at UTM I dont know much they will increase by the time I graduate,” she adds. “I believe that it is not fair to increase fees

without justification for doing so,” says Hiba Al-Attar, a life sciences student also in her first-year, adding, “This goes to the larger issue that students are expected to pay more while the services offered remain the same.”

The fee increases will go to Governing Council for final approval. Agbeyegbe plans to reach out to student representatives on Governing Council, and adds that he thinks the council lacks student representation. “I do not agree with the current governing process,” Agbeyegbe says, adding, “Most of the decisions made at this body affects students the most and we don’t like the fact that students who will get affected the most are the ones the least represented on this body.” Of the Campus Council’s 28 members, just four are students. On the Governing Council, there are currently eight student seats — six undergraduates, and two graduates — out of a total of 50 seats.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

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VAR.ST/COMMENT

9 FEBRUARY 2015

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Column

Five myths about the TA strike TAs are not overpaid and U of T won’t spend its $194.4 million surplus to avoid the strike Zane Schwartz VARSITY COLUMNIST

There are many misconceptions floating around campus regarding the potential ta strike. Some are obviously wrong, like the notion that a one day strike means we'll lose the semester. Many are more complex though. As we near the February 26 strike deadline, more and more myths will make their way around campus. One thing is clear: while not inevitable, at this point a strike is incredibly likely. So, here are five of the more complex issues to consider as cupe 3902 and U of T's administration struggle to reach an amicable compromise.

1. TEACHING ASSISTANTS ARE OVERPAID. The university pays most graduate students $15, 000 a year. According to Statistics Canada, the poverty line for a single adult in Toronto was $19,307 in 2011. Some graduate students make a bit more — the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology offers $16,500 — but most are well below the poverty line. Many students have been talking about tas $42.05 hourly rate. This number is misleading for two reasons. First, the university caps tas hours at 205 per year. Most tas work more than 205 hours though, so the real hourly rate is much lower than $42.05. Second, graduate students are supposed to work on original research full time. So, even based on the modest estimate of 40 hours a week for 24 weeks a year, they’re only making $6.65 for the other hours they’re working. It’s also worth emphasizing that $15, 000 is significantly less money than many of the American schools that U of T competes with to attract top talent. It’s also less than a number of Canadian schools, despite Toronto’s much higher cost of living.

2. THIS IS JUST ABOUT TEACHING ASSISTANTS. There are two sections of cupe 3902 that are bargaining currently. tas are part of Unit 1, which also represents course instructors who are still students. Unit 3, which represents sessional faculty, including writing instructors and music tutors, is also seeking a new contract. Sessional faculty teach approximately 35 per cent of undergraduates, and yet their salaries comprise about 1 per cent of U of T’s budget. Most sessional lecturers get paid $7,125 per half-year course. Those who have worked six or more years get paid $7,260. That’s a $135 raise, or $22.50 for every year of experience. While there are some opportunities for those who have worked for several years and received outstanding performance reviews to get paid more, under the current agreement, the maximum someone can earn for a half course is $7,925. The interesting thing is that most of Unit 3's demands have little to do with money. While they want a 3.5 per cent raise, what they really want is increased job security. Under the current system, sessional lecturers have to re-apply to teach every semester. Offering a modicum of job security wouldn't cost the university a penny and it would improve the classroom experience. After all, people who spend less time worrying about whether they’ll have a job next month have more time to spend on teaching.

3. THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT SAID THE UNIVERSITY CANNOT PAY TAS MORE. The university’s public bargaining position is that they can’t offer any increases in the net value of the collective agreements. U of T has repeatedly claimed they must do this because the provincial government has instituted a freeze for public sector salaries. The freeze does not apply to universities though because they're only partially funded by the province. U of T actually makes most of its money from

a combination of tuition and private donations. It’s worth pointing out that Western University agreed to annual raises for their faculty association in November. Western will provide a 1.25 per cent raise in the first year followed by annual increases of one per cent over three years. It’s also worth noting that Dr. Erin Black, the chair of cupe 3902, said that the university had finally offered a one per cent increase per year over the next three years.

4. THE UNIVERSITY COULD SPEND THIS YEAR’S NET INCOME OF $194.4 MILLION TO AVOID A STRIKE. U of T surprised many last week when they announced a $194.4 million surplus. Many students were quick to point out that some of that money could go to cupe 3902. While U of T could radically change their budget and divert some of the $194.4 million to increasing wages — they're not going to. That money is essentially a rainy day fund. Historically, the university runs deficits some years and surpluses others, and it uses the good years to pay for the bad. Also worth emphasizing that the university has $1,031.4 million in outstanding debt. That being said, the university does have some money to play with. The magic number is 2.8 per cent. That’s how much U of T stated it wanted to reduce overall compensation increases in the most recent budget. Currently, average compensation is increasing by five per cent. A big part of the problem is that a lot of that increase is going to members of the University of Toronto Faculty Association so the actual amount for tas and sessional lecturers is lower than 2.8 per cent. While 3.5 per cent for sessional lecturers might be doable, teaching assistants are far less likely to get what they want, if only because they’re asking for an increase closer to 20 per cent — an amount that would get them closer to the poverty line. The bottom line though is that everything is in flux until a strike happens. In 2008, the tas went on strike and they got a 16.7 per cent

increase (from $12,500 to $15,000). If public opinion swings against the unions though, they might settle for something way closer to what the university wants. Which brings me to the last point.

5. U OF T AND TAS DON’T WANT TO INVOLVE UNDERGRADUATES. The point of a strike — or a lockout — is to disrupt the normal functioning of the university to force the other side to the table. The only way to do this is to make life difficult for most people at U of T. Practically, that means undergraduate students. If cupe 3902 goes on strike, undergraduates will be hurt the most. We’re the ones who will have to worry about cancelled tutorials and classes, not to mention the potential for an extended school year. So the most important thing right now is for the two sides to sit down and talk. Unfortunately, Unit 3 has one negotiating day left (Monday, February 9) and Unit 1 has four negotiating days left. Right now the two sides are in a classic prisoner's dilemma and the only way out of it is to talk. cupe 3902 has asked for more bargaining days but so far U of T has ignored that request. U of T offered cupe 3902 no increases in salary for a year — not to the cost of living, not to the poverty line — and now they've offered so few bargaining dates that it's hard to see how they could possibly be negotiating in good faith. Which is, to put it mildly, pretty offensive. Not only to teaching assistants and sessional lecturers but also to undergraduate students. The university is hoping that we’ll be gullible enough to believe they’re blameless if negotiations collapse. While much of this issue is complex, unless the university is willing to get back to that table, the question of whose fault will be if a strike happens is crystal clear. Zane Schwartz is a fourth-year history student who contributes to The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. He was The Varsity’s news editor last year. His column appears bi-weekly.

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VARSITY COMMENT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Gertler’s trip to India is an opportunity for growth U of T should consider the possibility of establishing further international partnerships Dmitry Polyanskyy

As U of T president Meric Gertler wrapped up his late January visit to India, some important aspects of his trip should be addressed. In addition to giving public lectures at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, Gertler co-hosted a workshop entitled Universities in Urbanization: Building Healthy, Sustainable & Innovative Cities. Not only is this topic Gertler’s academic strong suit, but it is also of particular consequence for U of T due to its location within the heart of the city. Indian students represent the secondlargest international student demographic at U of T. Given the apparent willingness on behalf of the administration to branch out to other countries through academic partnerships and events, it would seem that the university’s international strategy has more room to grow. In light of Gertler’s visit, it is important to consider where U of T stands as a premier international institution and as a leader in higher education. Are we doing enough to recruit international students and to provide them with adequate assistance once they arrive? What is the university doing to address the financial, cultural, and geographical barriers that prevent those who wish to study at our institution from doing so? Some post-secondary institutions in Canada seem to have a solution. Niagara College, for instance, has created a campus in Saudi Arabia: Niagara College — Taif. Establishing an international campus is no easy task, but it is definitely a worthwhile initiative. Space abroad creates opportunities for students who might otherwise be unable to attend North American institu-

LAURA WANG/THE VARSITY

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

tions. If building the U of T brand globally continues to be an institutional goal for the foreseeable future, then perhaps the university administration should develop some plans for satellite programs abroad. It serves the dual purpose of exporting higher education to create more opportunities for students around the world who might not otherwise have them. It also helps to further U of T’s brand, name, and recognition among international students, who currently comprise approximately 17.5 per cent of our tricampus population.

With that being said, it is also important to consider the geographical location the international interest stems from and where there is the most demand before even thinking of creating a satellite campus like Niagara College. The university needs to consider if it is a good idea and, if so, whether it is better to target countries with a higher representative student population or those whose student population is low, possibly because their residents find it difficult to come to Canada as students. Gertler's visit to India represents a con-

tinued effort by the university to develop and maintain its international brand. If international recognition and recruitment remain important for the university moving forward, then perhaps the administration should consider following the trend currently developing among several post-secondary institutions and draft plans to eventually develop campuses abroad and spread the U of T experience. Dmitry Polyanskyy is a second-year student studying math and computer science.

Too busy to care? Effort to foster productive discussion undermined by poor attendance at the UTSU townhall Sonali Gill

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

At a university whose three campuses boast close to 50,000 full-time undergraduate students, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd at U of T. A sense of lacking a community, which can overwhelm a student, was one of the problems addressed at the University of Toronto Students’ Union’s (utsu) townhall event held on Wednesday, January 28. The gathering aimed to create a platform for students to share their experiences about U of T directly with utsu executives in an informal setting. The feedback received was meant to help the utsu resolve campus issues and improve student services. At the recent meeting, high profile issues discussed, were deficiencies in campus security, the importance of mental well-being, and reform in university elections. Lesser-known issues such as the shortage of water refill stations and the danger posed by traffic speeding on campus roads, were also addressed. While highlighting issues, students also suggested solutions in order to make the event productive. Concerns were raised about academic issues, like ambiguity in the grading policies of teaching assistants, the perceived inac-

Several vacant seats at the UTSU townhall. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY

cessibility of professors, and the difficulties faced by students trying to use resources like writing centres and college registrars. Students complained that the vague feedback they received from their tas prevented them from accurately assessing their own strengths and weaknesses. These issues are compounded by the inaccessibility of professors who, due in part to large classes, are not always able to meet with every student in their class. There are, however, actions that students can take, such as attending office hours, in order to

meet their professors. One good point that was raised was that it is almost impossible to make appointments with counsellors at the writing centre in time to meet course deadlines. Arguably, this is because these offices are understaffed relative to the size of the student population. Some students expressed that this is a problem which almost all student service offices within the university face, making them inaccessible to students. Returning to the theme of community, it appears that commuter students suffer the

most due to isolation. Students living in residence or on campus have opportunities to interact with peers at meal times and at other residence-run activities. Furthermore, many students seem to be unaware of the multitude of resources available to them. This can significantly limit their university experience. Commuters face academic difficulties because the university refuses to relax its deadlines, regardless of events like snow storms or transit failure. A student recalled sleeping in a college common room on the day of a snow storm because going home would likely have prevented him from submitting an assignment the next day. Events like these certainly make a strong case for the university to adopt a more flexible deadline policy. Despite addressing many crucial issues, the meeting's failure to draw crowds was a major setback. Approximately 40 students, including the executive and the Board of Directors, excluding the representative from Innis College, attended, significantly limiting the discussion. The executive did their best to stimulate an ultimately enlightening discussion, but on the whole, it appears that students are too busy to care. Sonali Gill is a first-year student at St. Michael’s College.

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Vol. CXXXV, No. 18

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Sad or SAD? The importance of language in mental health With increased awareness comes increased diagnoses Op-ed Chelsea Ricchio

PRESIDENT, ACTIVE MINDS U OF T

Seasonal Affective Disorder (sad) is a well-known phenomenon in the mental health community, particularly in Canada, where our country’s dark, harsh winters tend to contribute to the disorder’s development. However, the term is often tossed around jokingly or as something that is extremely common. While not rare per se, like any other mental illness, sad is definitely not something that “everyone goes through.” An estimated two to four per cent of Canadians suffer from sad according to the Mood Disorders Society of Canada. There is a difference between feeling crappy in the winter because it's cold and gross, and feeling depressed. People use words incorrectly all the time, especially when it comes to mental illnesses. How many times have you heard a friend say that they'll be so depressed if they don't do well on an exam, that their significant other changes their mind so

Chelsea Ricchio. FILE PHOTO: MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

many times in a day they're bipolar; or that they're "kind of ocd" because they love alphabetizing things? Or maybe they say that they're add because they keep changing the topic of conversation. sad is just more frequently referenced right now because anyone can see that the weather is terrible.

It's no wonder that people who actually have these mental illnesses are so misunderstood. The way that other people talk about mental illness is not representative of the realities of those affected. A person in sound mental health cannot possibly fathom what it is like to have a mental illness because they have

never experienced it, and using these illnesses as adjectives in ordinary sentences trivializes and invalidates the experiences of those who struggle every single day with them. Take me, for example — people love to tell me how socially awkward they are when I tell them that I have social anxiety, but socially awkward is not the same as genuinely believing that no one likes you, taking an hour or more to “warm up” at social gatherings, barely speaking to anyone other than family for an entire year, and having panic attacks on dates. It’s not “adorkable,” it’s terrifying — not to mention weird and confusing for the people around you. Believe me, when I was in my darkest mental place only a year ago, not doing well on an exam was hardly my biggest issue. I was impressed with myself if I could even physically get up, go to school, and take the exam, period. Ultimately, it sounds cheesy, but listen to what your gut is telling you. Don’t listen to people who tell you that “everyone goes through that”

and “it seems like everyone has something these days.” Don’t let anyone else invalidate your feelings. If you don’t feel well, there is a reason. It may or may not be mental illness, but it never hurts to see a doctor. Negative thought patterns and other symptoms of sad could be combatted effectively by making a persistent effort to live an active lifestyle. Going outdoors, increasing the amount of natural light you receive during the day, along with eating well and exercising regularly are sure-fire techniques to counteract the winter blues — that being said, there are people who find that medications such as anti-depressants are their best tools against the symptoms of sad and depression. For others, moderating symptoms might be as easy as finding a support group, such as Active Minds at U of T. Chelsea Ricchio is the president of Active Minds at U of T. She also works as the Creative Projects & Communications Assistant at Healthy Minds Canada.

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Editorial

VAR.ST/EDITORIAL 9 FEBRUARY 2015

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Conversations of consequence We must reconsider the structure of U of T’s highest governing body

Governing Council chambers. FILE PHOTO: KENNETH TRUONG/THE VARSITY

This month, as the university community undergoes another student election period for the institution’s Governing Council — U of T’s highest governing body — many students are rightfully questioning the representative nature of the council’s membership. International student Yelize Beygo’s story, which was featured in the January 19 issue of The Varsity, remains at the forefront of a movement to reevaluate the university’s now 44-year-old governance structure — a movement that is gaining momentum among students during the election campaign. While her domestic student counterparts begin campaigning for seats on the council over social media, Beygo, a vice-president of U of T’s International Students’ Association (insa) and a legal citizen of both Turkey and Switzerland, must sit idly by. Her nomination for a seat on Governing Council was disqualified due to her international student status. It is a discouraging fact that, despite bringing enormous revenue to the university through their comparably high tuition fees, U of T’s 11,894 foreign undergraduates remain absent in the boardrooms of the institution’s highest decision-making body. the University of Toronto Act, which includes Canadian citizenship as an eligibility requirement for student governors, was established in 1971, a time of great nationalism in Canada. Said act is hardly an adequate response to such a significant constituency’s continued disenfranchisement — especially considering that U of T is looking to increase its number of international students in the coming years. U of T remains one of five post-secondary institutions in the province whose policies prevent international students from seeking representative positions on their university’s governing bodies. Along with Western, Ryerson, Laurier, and McMaster, U of T — through ineffectual lobbying of the province to change its governing policies — continues to see its international members primarily as revenue generators, rather than equal and active participants in the university community. The lack of international student representation on Governing Council is not a new injustice. Nonetheless, perhaps it is currently the best tool the student body has at its disposal to leverage the university to pursue overarching changes to the council as a whole. While their colleagues and friends from abroad may not be able to influence important policy, those seeking election to the council this month should consider just how small their influence will be. The 16 candidates vying to fill four remaining seats in two constituencies cannot forget that, if they are successful, they will be joining a group of university stakeholders who are able to shout down their contributions all too easily. Of the 50 seats on the council, students from every conceivable demographic — internationals excepted — are entitled to fill only eight seats, while the remaining representatives come from the university’s administration, teaching staff, alumni, and provincial government appointees. This is not to say that the eventual winners of the election will be walking into an oppositional situation, but just that in terms of sheer numbers, they will always be at a disadvantage when trying to represent their constituencies directly. So, then, is it not time to apply collective pressure to reevaluate the outdated structure U of T uses to make its important decisions about spending, research objectives, and the quality of our lives as students? Many other universities in Ontario, including the University of Guelph, have alternatively structured high-level decision-making bodies. Besides allowing international students to run in elections, Guelph has prioritized student input by opting for a proportionally representative Senate model that draws elected representatives based on the size of their respective faculty or program. By splitting the university’s academic community into greater branches, Guelph has provided more opportunities to include students in conversations of consequence. Students are right to be frustrated by the council’s current make-up, because it disadvantages international students, pits the few student representatives it has against an overwhelming majority, and continues to operate with relative opacity. Assurances, such as the one Governing Council secretary Louis Charpentier offered The Varsity last month, that the council is sensitive to issues like international student representation and is working with the government to explore changing policy, are woefully insufficient. We appreciate that these developments take time, but more is needed than vague promises to address our concerns. 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.

LETTERS TO

THE EDITOR

Vol. CXXXV, No. 16, 17 | January 26, February 2, 2015 Re: A TA strike puts undergraduates in a difficult position The problem with the author's suggestion that we "cease research work" is that there is absolutely no way in which this would affect the university. Because our financial situation is so precarious (the average completion time for a PhD at U of T is almost 7 years, but only 5 years are funded), often PhDs stop researching for months at a time in order to find extra work to support themselves and their families. Ceasing research work is simply par for the course and would not affect the university in the slightest. In support of Brad's point, it might appear as a consumer of our services (an undergraduate) that our work is low-pressure, because we make an effort to appear professional and not share our worries and concerns with our students. However, being a TA is the most challenging job I've ever held in my life. Often undergraduates have no idea the kinds of demands they're making on our time, far beyond what we are being paid to do, when 50 other students are asking for the same thing. —Nathan Murray Re: Riley McCullough to serve as vice president, university affairs Let me expand on the type of person Riley is. She shows up at 7am for a 10am shift to bake cookies and leave them specially wrapped for the crew. She will manage their emotional and work needs while finishing her jobs and the job of that person who didn't show up for the day. And as she's leaving, she'll ask you if there's anything else to help with and stay another 5 hours working

on it. Then she'll go home to bake you cookies for tomorrow because you had a sad expression on your face at 3:25pm when you thought no one was looking. That. is. Riley. — Ben DW (from web) Re: Soup to nuts An overall lovely portrait of Harvest Noon/TSFC. As a former (briefly serving) Board Member and former liaison to the Co-op for UTGSU, I can say nothing but good of this well-rooted organization--both in its values and its community. If you want a great community organizing space, thoughtful events, and excellent food, it is certainly the place to be. One thing I would say, though, regarding other spaces in the GSU Building is that the utgsu Gym is both wellkept (the Union and University have repaired and spruced up the place a lot over the past few years) and wellutilized (it's general booking time is filled to the brim). What you may have noticed is that during the 9:00 to 5:00 period the space is vacant--but that is by design from utgsu due to issues with noise for staff below. — Brad Evoy (from web) Re: Strike looms Sessional instructors have legitimate gripes. Job security and adequate compensation should definitely be provided for this group. But grad student TAs? Please. You SIGNED UP for this. You knew all the requirements and conditions beforehand, so don't sign up and then complain about it. —Matt (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.

IT’S NOT EASY BEING ACE Asexuality and the ace spectrum Article by Iris Robin Illustration by Janice Liu

rian Langevin was introduced to asexuality at 16 years old, when his friend came out to him. “I had for quite some time not identified with the traditional sexual community and finding the asexual website aven [the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network], the definition on there just really clicked with who I was,” he says. Langevin, now a first-year student at U of T, has identified as asexual ever since. Noting a lack of educational material on asexuality, Langevin decided to make a weekly series of informative videos on YouTube. His channel, Everything’s A-Okay, provides an introduction to sexual orientations towards the asexual end of the spectrum, as well as related subjects such as romantic orientations, asexual relationships, and research around asexuality. In addition to his work on YouTube, he is a co-director of Asexual Outreach, a non-profit organization set to host the North American Asexuality Conference in June 2015. According to Julie Decker, an asexual author from Florida known online as swankivy, asexuality is gaining more and more visibility and recognition worldwide. “People have heard of it somewhere, they’ve seen it on TV, they’ve heard it mentioned,” she notes. “I don’t think that maybe 5-6 years ago I could have gotten a book deal on the subject, but I really think the tides are turning,” Decker says. Her book, The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality, was published in September 2014.

ASEXUALITY 101 Asexuality — most commonly defined as not experiencing sexual attraction towards people — exists on a spectrum, which includes varying degrees of sexual and romantic relationships. Together, the spectrum is sometimes referred to as the “ace umbrella,” with “ace” being an abbreviation for asexual. People who use any one of these terms to describe their orientation may or may not refer to themselves as ace. This article

uses the term ace when referring to people on the asexual spectrum and asexual when referring to asexuals specifically. A person’s behaviour is not an indication of their sexual orientation. For instance, asexuality and celibacy are different things, but there are many aces that choose to remain celibate. Yet, there are also aces who have sex for a variety of different reasons. The way in which people experience asexuality differs from person to person, and many aces have to defend their identities when non-asexuals try to invalidate or refute them, often relying on harmful and inaccurate stereotypes to do so. When Langevin came out to his family, they asked him a lot of questions. “My dad actually asked me if I had been abused as a child. It’s difficult because someone will counter with ‘Oh, that’s just a phase’, and they’ll counter with ‘Oh, it’s a mental condition,’” he recalls. Not everyone has equal access to an ace identity. Aces who have been abused and/or experienced violence or trauma; aces whose sexuality is fluid; aces with disabilities and/or mental illnesses; autistic aces; and aces of colour or from racialized communities are systematically excluded from the basic definition of ace orientations and even the ace community itself. “There’s a massive stigma,” says Queenie, an asexual blogger and survivor of sexual violence. She began writing about asexuality and sexual violence in 2012. “I started writing about it because I had experienced it, and there wasn’t anyone around talking about the experience that I had had, and I felt that someone needs to do it,” she says. Queenie described her experience on a panel a couple of months ago, which opened with the statement “No ace has ever experienced sexual violence.” “It becomes so pervasive as part of 101, that we’re not broken or ill or the result of trauma, that [it] erases aces who are mentally ill or disabled or have survived trauma,” she says.

When asked what contributes to the exclusion of ace survivors, Queenie says that the idea of the “unassailable ace” — a person who is the perfect or ideal ace — plays a role, alongside pressure from the community to keep silent about experiences of sexual violence to avoid confusing people who are not asexual. “That makes aces who have experienced sexual violence feel like they’re not ‘allowed’ to identify as asexual, or if they’re going to identify as asexual, they need to stay silent about their experiences or else be kicked out,” says Queenie. She points out that narratives of sexual violence are often only mentioned when somebody wants to win an argument about whether or not ace people are oppressed. “You probably don’t feel particularly welcome or inclined to talk about your experiences, especially if you don’t fit into the model survivor narrative that makes your experiences useful for winning arguments,” she says. Johann*, a third-year asexual student at U of T, was sexually abused as a child. “There’s always a possibility that that’s involved; you have to acknowledge that I can’t reject that, I can’t. To some extent I do think about that, but it doesn’t really bother me, it doesn’t make me anxious, I don’t really care, I’m okay with it,” he says, adding, “If someone offered me an opportunity to fix it or change it, I’d go ‘Hell no! I don’t want that!’”

ACE ATTRACTION The ace community created the language used to differentiate different types of attraction, which may include sensual, aesthetic, intellectual, sexual, and romantic attraction. For some people, these types of attraction align. For others, they are distinct. Generally speaking, sexual orientations have a corresponding romantic orientation. Arianne* is a fourth-year U of T student and an asexual lesbian. “I like the word ‘lesbian.’ It has a lot of history behind it,” she says of her choice of language. “When I’m talking about my sexuality, that is usually the only information I need to give.”

Arianne describes herself as a very private person. “The asexual part is more personal, it’s more private and I don’t think the two are in conflict with each other. The fact is that I would only ever date a girl, and that is the important part. The sex part is between me and my partner,” she adds. She says that the lesbian community is very sex-focused, due to the way in which lesbian relationships are often construed as friendships. “To say that I am a lesbian but I don’t like sex, you feel the pressure that ‘doesn’t [that] just mean you’re friends?’ because things like cuddling and hand-holding and even kissing sometimes are considered friend things between girls. And that’s not what it is, but it’s how that’s perceived,” she says. Decker is aromantic, which means she does not experience romantic attraction. For her, being asexual and aromantic have always been intertwined. Decker believes that her life would be significantly harder if she wanted a romantic partner and therefore had to negotiate sexual compatibility and compromise. “For romantic asexual people, my heart goes out to them because so many of them experience difficulties in their relationships,” she says. Being aromantic has its own set of challenges. “As an aromantic person, I am processed by the outside world as cold and unfeeling, as if there’s something really broken at the centre of my being. Which is funny because most of the people who know me would never process me like that. I’m a very affectionate person who does so many things and has a zest for life so to speak, so it’s really laughable to define a zest for life as being joined to sexuality and to romantic attraction, because for me it is not,” Decker says. Queenie tends to use the term “queer” to describe her romantic identity because it is easier for people who are not familiar with ace community terminology to understand, and it is sufficiently vague. “Pinpointing my exact romantic orientation tends to be an exercise in frustration more than anything else,” she says.

“If I were to be really specific, biromantic is a good approximation gender-wise and either demiromantic or greyromantic [romantic orientations that correspond to demisexual and grey-asexual] captures the weird fuzziness. I’ve started self-describing as biromantic more recently, mostly because I’ve gotten involved in some bi communities. But queer is still usually what I go with,” Queenie explains. Johann says that the fact that he has never been in a romantic relationship makes it difficult for him to pinpoint his romantic orientation. “I’ve never been in any sort of romantic situation, so I don’t have the necessary experience there to be actually certain… I’m not picky, you know. Mostly lasses, but not a rule. I’ve been attracted to men before, not a big deal,” he says. However, Johann does not think it is necessary to have sex in order to actually be certain. “Sex and romantic relationships are different things. You have sex, then you’re done. But when you’re in a romantic relationship and it’s long-term, it’s a commitment and then there’s all the emotional crap. They’re completely different experiences,” he says. “I think it’s a different thing to say that I haven’t had the necessary experience to talk about romantic relationships than it is to say I haven’t had the necessary experience to talk about sex,” he adds.

RELATIONSHIPS AND DATING There are a variety of ways in which aces have relationships. These include relations with friends, family, their communities, romantic relationships, and queerplatonic relationships. The latter refers to an intense non-normative relationship that is not romantic, but not adequately described by friendship. Here, “relationship” does not denote sexual or romantic exclusivity; it indicates that you have somehow interacted with someone, or continue to interact with them. When ace people do date, their romantic relationships can take many forms: monogamous or polygamous; long-distance or online with other aces; or a “mixed” relationship, wherein ace people date others who are not asexual. Although Decker is aromantic, she did date in high school, partially because she still believed that she would change eventually, and partially because people pursued her insistently. “I gave it a try, but it really wasn’t anything that I was really doing for myself. It was more from an outside pressure, and it was definitely a frustrating and stressful experience,” she says. Decker experienced the same thing at university. “People wanted to date me, people were very petulant about it if I didn’t seem interested in them. Sometimes they would get confrontational about it, which is probably the first sign that you don’t want to date that person even if you do like a particular type of person in romantic and/or sexual relationships,” she says. In university, Decker did not date anyone because she did not develop any interest in it. She was ridiculed and harassed for her aromanticism. “I had one guy try to kiss me after I said no, that sort of thing. There were people who believed that they could fix me, and there was a lot of that narrative when I was in college: ‘You haven’t experimented enough,’ or ‘I’m going to show you.’ That was scary.” University is a prime time for prominent sexual experimentation. If you don’t participate in such activities, Decker says, you can be framed as close-minded or unadventurous. “That happened to me,” she shares. Langevin, who is homoromantic, says that he expects to end up with a partner who is not asexual, both because the dating pool of asexual homoromantic males is small and because it is common for asexuals to end up in romantic relationships with people who are not asexual. For now, Brian is content with the relationships he has at the moment. “I am not lonely in the sense that I have close friends, I have acquaintances, and I have all these people who I can go to. I have a good number of close friends, and I really have relationships with a large number of people. Not in a romantic sense, or a sexual sense, but relationships meaning I have a connection with them and we can talk and hang out,” he says.

THE A-GENDER Gender diversity is common within the ace community. According the 2014 aven census, around one in five aces are trans or otherwise gender variant. Arianne has yet to come up with a word to describe her gender. She is still comfortable using

the word “lesbian”, which has a strong female implication. However, things that are generally important about gender and its distinctions have never been particularly important to her. “It doesn’t seem terrifically necessary for me to respect the codes and expectations of gender. I like to wear suits as much as I like to wear dresses and so I don’t have a good word to describe what I think. I think there’s something there to be explored,” she says. Speaking to the high proportion of gendervariant aces, Arianne says, “It has something to do with the fact that sex does place certain expectations upon us, and when you’re already in a frame of mind where you’re rejecting expectations the world is putting on you, you may be a little bit more open to exploring, rejecting some of the other expectations too, particularly those surrounding gender. I think that’s where I am now.” Decker says that her asexuality is definitely affected by being a woman. “Female sexuality is sometimes just expected to be passive, I think, and I have dealt with an absurd number of men who say, ‘Asexual? That’s not a thing for women. All women are sexual, you’re not supposed to be, give it up.’” She remarks that guys sometimes react to asexuality as if it doesn’t really matter what a woman feels in a relationship. “[They think] she’s just supposed to be there for the man, which I find to be horrifying and of course chauvinist and sexist. I’ve encountered that an awful lot and it’s definitely a different experience for an asexual woman [versus] an asexual man [versus] someone who doesn’t identify as male or female, but gets sorted into boxes,” she comments.

ASEXUALITY When someone is not sexually attracted to other people

DEMISEXUALITY When someone may experience sexual attraction, but only after a close emotional bond is established

GREY-ASEXUALITY When someone experiences sexual attraction, but infrequently

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION OF ACES

WHERE IDENTITIES INTERSECT There are any number of intersecting identities, other than gender, that influence how someone experiences being ace, including race. Queenie is working on a blog post about being asexual and Latina, which she has been writing for around six months. She finds it harder to talk about this aspect of her identity because she has not seen other people talking about it and therefore does not have a good sense of whether her experiences are different from the norm. “When it comes to writing about other experiences, I feel like I have someone else to point at to say, ‘No, look, it’s not just me!’ but I don’t have that in this case. But I feel like it’s something that needs to be talked about, because it’s a weird intersection to exist in and people tend not to treat it with as much respect as they should,” Queenie says. Queenie further considers the intersecting factors that came into play regarding the sexual violence she experienced. “It is really hard to try to figure out what exactly caused my experiences of sexual violence… In the first instance, asexuality probably played a role. The fact that I was attracted to women also probably played a role, since my boyfriend was obsessed with the idea that I’d leave him for a woman. Did race play a role because he expected me to be hypersexual? Maybe. It’s really hard to say.” When Johann tried to explain asexuality to his father, he refused to believe it existed. “He tried every fricking excuse in the book,” Johann remembers. “He once claimed that I couldn’t be asexual because I’m Greek and ‘Greeks aren’t like that.’” Discussing the place of sex in different cultures, Johann says that, in Western culture, you have sex to have children. “You’re supposed to stop once you’ve had them. In Greece, you keep going until you die. Ninety-year-old people go at it, you know,” he says. Johann says that he currently does not feel the pressure to engage in sexual relations. “I was just reading an article about how noone’s dating because of the economic crisis, so no, but maybe if the economy were better,” he speculates. Johann says that it is certainly a challenge when he encounters people of older generations who aren’t as open-minded as they could be. “But I do think it’s changing and I do think it’s going to be better for us.” *Name changed at student’s request. This article uses statistics from the 2014 AVEN survey, which excluded ace survivors of sexual violence. Queenie has written extensively on how it does so, and she believes that it is part of the larger issue of not wanting to acknowledge sexually violent experiences in ace communities; if hard numbers exist, people can’t minimize or maximize the issue as they see fit.

(Source: AVEN survey)

TYPES OF ATTRACTION Aesthetic attraction Non-romantic, non-sexual attraction to someone’s appearance

Romantic attraction Desire to be romantically involved with someone

Sensual attraction Desire to have physical, non-sexual contact with someone

Sexual attraction Desire to have sexual contact with someone

Arts&Culture

VAR.ST/ARTS

9 FEBRUARY 2015

arts@thevarsity.ca

Our home and native Coupland Coupland’s everywhere is anywhere and anything is everything exhibit has taken over the ROM and MOCCA this month

Joseph Ianni and Emily Katz VARSITY STAFF

ROM As I walked into the Royal Ontario Museum (rom) last Tuesday afternoon I saw a girl, too young to understand museum protocol, run hands-first into the Douglas Coupland; Everywhere is Anywhere is Anything is Everything exhibition. Luckily, security was pretty lenient, and it was surely a sight Coupland himself would be proud to see. The exhibit, much like Coupland’s career, covers popular art, interactivity, and public space in the Internet age. Though the rom portion of the exhibit is small in size, it is formidable in its depiction of pressing social issues brought about by our engagement with an increasingly digital world. The exhibit explores the interrelations of people living with and communicating to one another in a virtual and online world. Coupland himself has said in interviews that he doesn’t “really remember his pre-internet brain.” The installations present in the rom play on the idea of artificial intelligence and the homogenization of thought in a realm of anonymity. What is the

distinction between a post- and preInternet brain? One example of this mode of thought is the exhibit's incorporation of smartphones — Coupland’s large qr code paintings in the style of Piet Mondrian provide a description of themselves when scanned by a phone. A giant wall has been built out of a combination of snarky, sarcastic, and often insightful tweets. This towers over two white buildings that seem to depict New York City’s former World Trade Center. Often the exhibit’s installations pit idea against idea, surrounding the viewer with pieces that interact with each other on an ideological level. Whether this is the choice of the curator or Coupland, it provides an interesting experience for the spectator. In a sense, the art mimics the state of tragedies overshadowed by a wall of contradicting thoughts and opinions.

MOCCA Pedestrians making their way down Queen Street West hoping for a glimpse of the newest Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (mocca) exhibit will find themselves disappointed — the glass doors to the gallery’s main exhibit

hall are swathed in black. You have to venture inside to see the second half of Coupland's exhibit. Once inside the mysteriously wrapped space, you are met with a looming gray wall lined with dozens of shelves, featuring the smallest pieces of toy sets — Lego, duplo, wooden pieces — all are fair game. It’s an image that takes a minute to fully process and one that immediately immerses you in the world Coupland has created. The exhibit makes the interplay of themes at work instantly clear; it manages to be playful and inviting, yet somehow threatening in its immensity. Turning the corner feels like stepping into an all-Canadian living room. One piece of furniture, the Trans Canada Hutch, is so aptly named that I can’t help but laugh out loud. The chest is decorated with a pattern of highways signs, with the front proclaiming remaining kilometers to destinations like Nipigon, Thunder Bay, and Dryden. The wall at the far end of the living room is covered with truly Canadian pieces: hockey masks, a small polar bear, a Saskatchewan license plate, a container of Kraft Dinner, an empty gasoline container, and a Crown Royal bag all make an appearance.

Douglas Coupland's multi-gallery exhibition. PHOTOS BY MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

The next room features a utopian urban jungle display entitled Towers, made up entirely of crowd-sourced Lego towers — adults and children came together to build them in response to specific key words. It’s colourful and surreal; when I tried to photograph it, it appeared on my screen like a graphic screensaver from Windows 98. The last room of the exhibit veers back to the theme of Canadian identity, but is comprised mostly of paintings — computerized landscape abstractions that force the viewer to step back and take them in. These works are not about de-

tail, but instead the vast beauty that is the Canadian landscape. In the center of the room, a mock electrical tower appears to have melted, its top half wilted and lying on the floor by its side. Titled The Ice Storm, the piece pays homage to the 1998 storm that destroyed much of eastern Canada’s electrical infrastructure. The exhibit showcases the best of Coupland’s work — using everyday objects to create cultural iconography. At first glance, the name of the collection seems to mean nothing at all. After walking through Coupland’s collection, it is clear that it means everything.

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

var.st/arts

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Playing dress up Affordable thrifted outfits for every occasion found in Toronto shops By Autousa Blair and Kate Stoeher

Being a student living in one of Canada’s most fashionable cities has both fantastic pros and undeniable cons, the largest and most problematic being that many of us are very, very broke. It can daunting to stay on top of current trends on a budget, but fear not: fashion and frugality don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, they often come together in one of the best shopping experiences available: thrifting. For every occasion, there is an affordable thrifted outfit — we’ve gathered three different locations and three different outfits for your consideration to show how easy it really can be.

JANICE LIU/THE VARSITY

A bi-weekly podcast and film column created by The Varsity’s associate Arts & Culture editors, Daniel Konikoff and Jacob Lorinc This week, Dan had the opportunity to interview Jason Anderson — an instructor of critical film writing at U of T who writes regularly for the Toronto Star, Cinemascope, Sight & Sound, and countless other publications. He’s served on juries for HotDocs and Canada’s Top Ten. He published his first novel, Showbiz, in 2005 and acted as The Grid’s senior film critic. Dan and Jason spoke about what it means to be a modern film critic — how to adapt to online platforms, how to make a name for yourself, and the kind of skills necessary to break into the industry.

Kate and Autousa model the variety of looks. PHOTOS BY MAYA WONG, AUTOUSA BLAIR, AND KATE STOEHER/THE VARSITY

OUTFIT: GOING OUT — CONCERT We recommend: Black Market, 256a Queen Street West Budget: $20 A Toronto classic, Black Market is home to a vast and eclectic collection of unisex alternative clothing. While it is quite the treasure trove, you have to be prepared to dig. The warehouse feel and grungy atmosphere can be a bit intimidating, but there is gold to be found among the many racks of quirky sweaters and army jackets. We went for an ensemble suited for an indoor indie band show featuring one of the stores' classic printed t-shirts and a blue suede high waisted skirt — a look that came in at under 20 dollars. The very stylish staff didn’t hesitate to crowd around the dressing room to offer their opinions. Black Market is a sure-fire hit for casual clothing, and if you get tired of thrifting, you can always take a break and browse through the music section or get your haircut at the barber’s in the back.

OUTFIT: BUSINESS CASUAL — INTERVIEW We recommend: Kind Exchange, 379 Queen West Budget: $20-30 For your more practical needs, we turn to the trusty Kind Exchange, a chain of stores that offer a wide variety of barely used, classic name brand pieces at more than affordable prices. If you’re savvy about name brands, the Eaton Centre has nothing on this place — clothes from h&m to Ralph Lauren are all very gently used and pleasingly priced, although the selection is somewhat meagre in terms of men’s clothing. For those on an especially tight budget, everything in the basement of the Queen West location is five dollars, and the proceeds go to a connected charity. The store does require some searching to find the particularly good steals, so we came up with our outfit after about half an hour and a few quick changes. In the end, we were able to put together an entire interview outfit, featuring aldo shoes, skirt, and h&m blouse for under 30 dollars.

OUTFIT: FORMAL — DATE We Recommend: Flashback Vintage, 33 Kensington Avenue Budget: $30-50 Nestled among the other vintage options of Kensington Avenue, Flashback is your best bet for affordable formal wear. The shop is a collection of garments from the early to mid-late twentieth century. Flashback’s collection of clothing makes you nostalgic for an era you never lived through. Although housing an extensive array of mink furs and men’s leather jackets, Flashback is most renowned for its vintage dresses. After sifting through racks packed with flapper dresses, '40s gowns, and '50s party frocks, we were able to find a simple and delicate black dress for 40 dollars. A bit of a splurge in terms of our budget, but a very reasonable price considering the quality and style of the dress, easily worth upwards of a hundred at any current designer store. We were able to find a pair of heels which paired perfectly with the dress for 10 dollars, making for a grand total of 50. Even if channeling the '50s vibe isn’t quite your style, Flashback is definitely worth the visit for its quaint charm and retro ambiance.

HONORABLE MENTIONS Public Butter

1290 Queen Street West A stand-out shop among the numerous vintage stores along Queen West for its reasonably priced selection and its diversity of staple pieces mixed with eccentric gems.

Penny Arcade Vintage 177 Dundas Street West This sweet boutique on Dundas is loved for its warm and inviting atmosphere.

Courage My Love

14 Kensington Avenue A Kensington classic well known for its hefty collection of vintage jewelry and bead works as well as its adorable set-up.

Dan: So how does one go about being a film critic? Jason Anderson: Well now, you just do it — I think anybody who’s able to present themselves with a decent looking website…it’s sort of like how much credibility can you show the publicists and studio folks you have, because that’s what gets you access to early screenings, and that’s what it kind of comes down to. D: How did you start out? JA: Well I wrote for campus newspapers, and I worked for a long time for Eye Weekly, which was [the first incarnation of The Grid] I started writing music, and then I moved into film stuff. So I got involved through an alternative weekly, which is a print category that’s been very weakened and changed over the years… Up until last year I was writing a couple [of reviews] a week. I was doing a lot of things for CBC’s website, and [The Globe and Mail] and the [Toronto Star], and now I’m semi-retired, so you realize how much time you get back when you don’t have to go see Jupiter Ascending. Listen online at var.st/associated.

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

Vol. CXXXV, No. 18

arts@thevarsity.ca

Grab a cold one ALEC WILSON reviews craft beer at Steam Whistle's annual Winter Craft Beer Festival

BREWS IN REVIEW 1. Niagara College Teaching Brewery Butler’s Bitter: This coffee-influenced beer immediately demands the drinker’s full attention. It’s extremely bitter and smells amazing.

Torontonians crowded around the Steam Whistle Brewery to partake in the craft beer festivities. PHOTOS BY ALEC WILSON/THE VARSITY

Alec Wilson

VARSITY STAFF

Over the course of a blisteringly cold Saturday, a mass of people descended on the Steam Whistle Roundhouse brewery to attend Toronto’s annual Winter Craft Beer Festival. Standing in a seemingly never-ending line that snaked around the corner and out of sight, 2700 thirsty and freezing attendees waited patiently to begin their socially-sanctioned day drinking. The festival featured 105 different beers from 25 different craft brewers ranging from recognizable brands like festival organizers Steam Whistle to smaller, less reputed brewers such as Black Oak Brewing Co. Tented stalls housing tapped kegs dotted the perimeter of the Roundhouse park. Those not waiting in lines for food or drink huddled around small outdoor fires, listened to music, and watched an artist carve a sculpture out of a solid piece of ice. Despite some of the larger names, the festival was decidedly focused on micro, or craft, breweries. Craft breweries, such as the

Teaching Brewery run out of Niagara College, or Guelph’s Wellington Brewery — the oldest independent microbrewery in the country — specialize in brewing small batches of beer. Unlike their corporate counterparts, craft breweries are typically associated with a closer attention to tastes and brewing technique — qualities and processes that are often automated or brushed over in larger industrial operations. Craft beers have developed a serious following in recent years, especially in Toronto and among younger, more discerning consumers. Tim McLaughlin, a brand manager at Steam Whistle and one of the organizers of the festival, is optimistic about the growing market for micro brewed beer — and rightfully so given the number of people at the festival. “The craft beer scene in Ontario is exploding. There are now over 50 craft breweries creating amazing, full flavoured, all natural beers in Ontario,” McLaughlin says, adding, “Customers are becoming more educated about beer, and the more they learn, the more they turn to craft beer.” The Niagara area in particular seems to be blowing up as a beer-producing region, and

was consequently well represented at the festival. Complementing beers like Niagara College’s Teaching Brewery’s Butler’s Bitter — an English style bitter taking its name from loyalist Lt. Colonel John Butler — were beers from other escarpment area providers such as Oast House Brewers. Interestingly, when asked about why a larger group like Steam Whistle would be interested in hosting the festival and by extension, market competitors, McLaughlin offers an admirable observation: “We have always felt that the more we can grow the craft beer segment as a whole, the better off Steam Whistle will be. We feel a strong sense of camaraderie with all of our craft brewery brethren, so there isn’t a feeling of direct competition; we like to work together and help each other out.” It is encouraging to see that the craft brewing community is one that sticks together. In a time dominated by concerns over market shares, advertising campaigns, and profits, a friendly community of interdependent artisanal brewers provides a breath of fresh air for those looking for something a little bit different than the typical Beer Store selections.

F O E S S U M HO DREA

2. Wellington Brewery Chocolate Milk Stout: Like other stouts, this offering from the ancient Guelph brewery was quite dark and rich, though not noticeably chocolatey. Definitely delicious, although lacking in advertisement. 3. Black Oak Brewing Ten Bitter Years Imperial IPA: Created to celebrate a successful decade in the craft brewing game, this citrusy bitter from Black Oak finds a happy medium between tartness up front and a smooth finish. 4. Oast House Brewing Farmhouse Ale Collection Saison: An oast house is the name of the kiln hops that are roasted in as part of the brewing process. This small operation from the Niagara region rejects the area’s reputation for wine and makes a bold statement with hints of banana and citrus. 5. Muskoka Brewery Detour: An ironically named creative digression from a typical IPA, this beer boasts serious hops flavours and, despite the freezing conditions, somehow evokes the feeling of summer nights. Very refreshing.

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VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

A cut above the rest Profiling the increasingly popular Crows Nest barbershop Jacob Lorinc

ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

My hair seems to have a mind of its own: it does what it wants when it wants, ignoring any attempt at controlling it via comb or hairbrush. So it was particularly aweinspiring to see a barber actually “tame the beast” last Friday at the Crows Nest Barbershop. Located in Kensington Market, the Crows Nest is as much a place for social gathering as it is a barbershop. Everyone seems to know one another, and on any given day you’ll find a substantial crowd of people piling themselves into the small house-turned-storefront — the back of the store features a kitchen, living room, and back patio. The customers stay out front, but stray hairdressers with time to kill are often seen lounging around back. Owner Jon Roth can usually be found in the middle of the hairtrimming action — he opened the shop in 2010 (across the street from it’s current location) underneath the King of Kensington vintage store. “I already did all my shopping in Kensington,” says Roth, explaining his choice of location. “I think because it’s such a destination in the city, it lends itself to people from all over Toronto who will come down to buy their groceries, shop for vintage clothing, and potentially get a haircut.” The barbershop’s aesthetic fits perfectly with Kensington’s al-

ternative vibes; the interior is decked out with elaborate decorations, including assorted taxidermy and enough Jesus-related memorabilia to make for a kind of hair-cutting shrine. Roth assures me that it’s mainly there for decoration, and that the only religious experience I’ll be receiving is my divine haircut. The predominant hairstyle at the Crows Nest seems to oppose Jesus’ flowing ‘do, anyhow. In here, it’s all about a buzz cut on the sides and longer hair on top —essentially, whoever looks most like Jack Kerouac wins. Roth confirms that the “undercut” — much like the crew cut but with longer hair on top — is indeed a popular style these days. For Roth, the shop’s conception derived from the simple need to have a space in which he could be his own boss. “I used to work for Blood & Bandages [another Barbershop by Ossington & College], and that’s how I was trained and taught how to cut hair. But when things started moving in a different direction for me than the way they were for [Blood & Bandages], I decided to open my own place,” he says. While the Crows Nest has become a staple of Kensington — appealing to youthful men with sleeve tattoos and well-kempt beards — Roth points out that this had nothing to do with the thinking behind opening the shop. “It was less about me seeing a hole in the market as

much as it was about me not having anywhere else to work,” he says. “It was born out of a necessity for me to have an arena to cut hair rather than me being like, ‘man, what Toronto needs is a cool barbershop’.” Not only has the Crows Nest attracted the well-to-do folks of downtown Toronto, but it can also claim an assortment of celebrity appearances. Toronto Maple Leafs alumni like Boyd Devereaux and Colton Orr have both stopped by to get a cut, as well as the Toronto Raptors’ Tyler Hansbrough. For those who can feel these names soaring over their heads, the Crows Nest has also been host to Canadian rock ‘n’ roll sweetheart, Dallas Green. My own haircut comes to an end as a profusion of product is smeared upon my head, arranging what’s left of my hair in ways I simply did not think were possible. The barber, who had me turned away from the mirror for the entirety of the haircut — an experience that was both exciting and extraordinarily stressful — spins me around to reveal a classic “Crows Nest special” on my head. Sticking to their roots, the sides are buzzed, and the hair on top kept longer. Combining the commendable job with the equally appealing price (25$, or $15 with an apprentice hairdresser), it is clear that the Crows Nest has earned its reputation as one of Toronto's first choice barbershops.

Owner Jon Roth hard at work. ALEXANDRA SCANDOLO/THE VARSITY

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Graduate Students, Constituency I (Humanities and Social Sciences) Sandy Hudson As an OISE student studying social justice education, I want Governing Council to prioritize students. I will advocate to remove financial barriers to education & to improve the quality of education (smaller class sizes, job security for TAs). I will support lobbying for government funding (especially in humanities & social sciences), and promote an inclusive campus. I will push for meaningful student input in all university initiatives, including the development of strategies on mental health and combating sexual violence. I support divesting tuition fee dollars from fossil fuels and other unethical investments. Feb 9-20 on ROSI, vote Sandy Hudson. www.facebook. com/sandy4GC

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2014

Nirmalan Vijeyakumar I would be honoured to serve on the Governing Council as your Governor representing Graduate Students. I am a Master’s in Public Policy Candidate, with a B.A. (Hons.) in Legal Studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. I have worked in a variety of positions from Chairing a disciplinary committee to volunteering for CIUT 89.5FM. I would like to serve as your Governor as I have a consortium of skills and experience that would add a different perspective to critical issues before Council. For more information I encourage you to visit my website at www.nirmalan4governor2015.com

Graduate Students, Constituency II (Physical and Life Sciences)

Akbar Khurshid My esteemed peers at the University of Toronto. There is a reason why we hold a prestigious rank in the world and that reason is all of you and your voices. I seek your support in my candidacy for the Governing Council. I have always found the idea of making campaign promises pedantic and dishonest. Instead as your representative, my platform is your platform. I eagerly look forward to implementing the ideas of graduate students. I can be reached at: akbar.khurshid@mail.utoronto. ca. Akbar Khurshid is the candidate of honesty, transparency and action. I look forward to your decision.

Erika Daley The University of Toronto became my new home last May as I began my PhD in inorganic chemistry. As your graduate student representative I hope to influence positive change and improvements throughout the university, with your suggestions and concerns in mind. It is particularly important to have informed, prepared stewards in the academic, strategic, and financial decision-making process for the university. I believe that my extensive involvement in a number of organizations throughout the university and in the community have provided invaluable experiences that I can channel into this position. PLEASE VOTE ERIKA DALEY. To learn more visit http://erikadaley.wix.com/erikadaley

Eric Lavigne My foremost goal is to provide Council with the perspectives of graduate students from the Social Sciences and the Humanities, ensuring its capacity to make decisions in the best interest of the University. My previous working experience as Associate Dean in three higher education institutions has provided me with key insights into the workings and the needs of colleges and universities. Furthermore, my education has covered the fields of accounting, management and strategic planning; additional tools that I can leverage effectively on the Governing Council. http:// ca.linkedin.com/pub/eric-lavigne/8/a4b/44

Alex Ivovic As a fourth-year PhD student, I have been elected as Graduate Students’ Union Representative for the Physiology Department and Internal Liaison Officer for CUPE 3902, where I keep members informed and engaged, and advocate on their behalf. I support fair grading practices, more opportunities for teaching assistantships, increased graduate funding, and better student services. Through my involvement with the Canadian Diabetes Association, I lobby for better healthcare policies on the provincial and national level. These experiences have given me strong leadership, communication and organizational skills. On ROSI from February 9-20, vote Alex for your Division III/IV representative on Governing Council. www.facebook.com/ votealex4gc

The two Part-time Undergraduate seats have been acclaimed. Questions about the Governing Council elections process may be directed to the Chief Returning Officer, Mr. Anwar Kazimi (416) 978-8427; anwar.kazimi@ utoronto.ca), or the Deputy Returning Officer, Mr. Patrick F. McNeill (416) 9788428; patrick.mcneill@utoronto.ca

Science

VAR.ST/SCIENCE 9 FEBRUARY 2015

science@thevarsity.ca

A computer model to understand the genetic basis of disease PhD students using the techniques that drive Siri to make sense of our DNA

Birthing Culture: Indigeneity and Bio-Medicalization of Childbirth in Yucatan, Mexico As part of the Comparative Program on Health and Society Seminar Series at the Munk School of Global Affairs, this discussion will be presented by Sarah Williams, a doctoral fellow at U of T, and will include Anne-Emanuelle Birn, a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Wednesday, February 11 10:00 am–12:00 pm Munk School of Global Affairs Room 208N, North House Free; register online

GLOBAL HEART HOUR: Fragile Health Systems and Global Governance In partnership with the University of Toronto International Health Program and the Global Health Longitudinal Elective, this panel discussion features five panelists including Dr. David Fisman, Dr. Ross Upshur, Dr. Adrienne Chan, Dr. Rob Fowler, and Dr. Bruce Lampard. Wednesday, February 11 12:00–1:00 pm Medical Sciences Building Room 3153 Free; register on Eventbrite Dr. Frey and team. COURTESY OF JESSICA WILSON

Jeremy Li

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The genomics revolution has resulted in the sequencing of the entire human genome, which has produced vast amounts of data. This data holds huge potential for understanding, among other things, the genetic basis for disease. However, genetic data is inherently complex and challenging to interpret. PhD students Hui Yuan Xiong and Hannes Bretschneider and postdoctoral fellow Babak Alipanahi from U of T’s Probabilistic and Statistical Inference Group, along with more than 10 other researchers, worked to build a computer model that can predict the effects that mutations in the genome would have on splicing, the malfunction of which often leads to disease. Splicing is a critical biological process in higher organisms. The lab is led by Dr. Brendan Frey, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, and the Department of Computer Science. Frey has been working on this project for more than 10 years. “For every mutation, we can predict whether it’s going to disrupt splicing,” explains Xiong in an interview over Skype. Most methods for studying genetic disorders examine only the exons— the parts of the genome that encode protein. This is because scientists have known for a long time how genes encode proteins, making it relatively easy to understand how

a genetic mutation causes a change in protein structure. “When something goes wrong there, it’s very easy to predict what the result is. And so that’s kind of the low-hanging fruit that has been done before,” says Bretschneider. A great part of our genetic blueprint lies in the introns — the parts of our dna that don’t encode protein. Introns play a role in determining, among other things, where genes are spliced prior to being expressed as protein. “So when you have a mutation [in the introns], if it has an effect, then it works through disturbing the regulation of that gene, and that can be really important too. And that’s a type of mutation that we can analyze that you can’t analyze when you only look at the exons,” says Bretschneider. Many prominent genetic diseases are associated with splicing errors, including spinal muscular atrophy, autism, and some heritable forms of colorectal cancer. Understanding how the genome signals for splicing is an enormous challenge because it involves very complex interactions between dna splicing motifs that are not simple to model. The tool is called spanr, short for Splicing-based Analysis of variants, and applies a technique called machine learning to try and solve this problem. “Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence that deals with pattern recognition. So, the applications that you read a lot about these days, is image recognition and speech recognition. It’s like the technology that’s in every

phone nowadays. So we’re basically using the same kind of technology and we’re applying it to genetics problems,” says Bretschneider. Machine learning is also at the heart of other artificial intelligence systems, like ibm’s Jeopardy-playing Watson computer and ross, an artificially intelligent lawyer app recently developed by students at U of T. In terms of how machine learning works, Xiong says that a data training set must be collected. When asked how machine learning works, Xiong explained that there are two key steps: the first involves the collection of “a data training set that consists of features and the targets that you want to predict,” and the second is to learn “a function that maps from the features to the targets so that the function can be used on future data that you have never seen before.” After following these two steps, the model will be able to make predictions. In this case, spanr was trained on healthy genomes and data concerning how these genes are normally spliced. A computer algorithm uses these statistics to build a model, from which it can predict how likely a specific mutation is to alter splicing in new scenarios. “Because it captures something about the biological mechanism of splicing, it can be used to predict mutations as well — so the effects of mutations, even though the model has never seen mutations during training,” says Xiong. The results of the study were published in Science last month. spanr has already seen many suc-

cesses, including correctly predicting splice sites from genomes it has never seen before. “We tested on many different data sets… One thing we tried is that we just held out a lot of data from the healthy human genome, trained the model without looking at this held out the data, and then we look at the performance of our model on the held-out data. And it works pretty well,” Xiong notes. Among other achievements, spanr accurately predicted 94 per cent of its genes that are already linked to well-studied diseases. The model is already finding applications in the field. It has discovered many new mutations that could cause various diseases, including 39 new mutations that could be linked to autism. spanr produces useful information from the vast amount of data contained in a genome. This new approach to genetics could open the door for personalized medical treatments that are tailored to individuals based on their genes. According to Bretschneider, there is a lot of potential for the use of spanr in personalized medicine. “One possibility is that, for example, for people [with] genetic diseases, you might be able to use this technique to design custom drugs for them that bind to that specific location on their rna where they have a problem, and then change the regulation of that,” he says, adding, “When you look a cancer patient’s genome, you might be able to predict that a certain drug will work better for that person than another drug.”

EDGE: Technology in Transportation and Robotics This event promotes dialogue about developments in the field of electrical engineering. Topics of discussion include: “Radio connections between cars on the road”, “Space debris”, and “Our cars keep getting safer but also heavier.” Thursday, February 12 6:00 pm Ryerson University, Victoria Building, Room 608 Free; register on Eventbrite

Third International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia Thursday, February 12 7:00 pm–10:00 pm Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel Free; register on Eventbrite

Estonia’s Connected Citizens Driving an Integrated Healthcare System— MaRS Market Insights This breakfast conference hopes to highlight the importance of investing in healthcare systems. Speakers include Dr. Madis Tiik, former CEO, Estonia eHealth Foundation; Leslie Jamison, EVP Managing Director, Self Care Catalysts; and Patrick Blanshard, President and CEO, Sensory Technologies. Friday, February 13 8:30–10:30 am MaRS Discovery District, Room CR2 $15; register on Eventbrite

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Not sure what to get for your science-inclined partner this Valentine’s Day? The Varsity has you covered Article by Jasleen Arneja and Danielle Klein

A GIANT MICROBE

AN IV OF COFFEE

A MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY KIT

A SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR

Win their heart with a plush toy better than any teddy bear in the form of microbe plushes. From chalmydia to salmonella, give your date the furry friend they never wanted but will love just the same. Turns out halitosis is really, really cute! Also, terrible.

For late night hackathons and study sessions, every science student could use an endless supply of caffeine delivered efficiently through intravenous therapy.

Give your date a reason to cook you a romantic meal with food too small to eat. It’s okay, you can order pizza and watch Netflix afterwards.

Precision is the key to good science, math, and romance. Sure, they might already have one (and if they don’t, then congratulations, because you just got them the ACTUAL BEST GIFT EVER that will CHANGE THEIR LIFE FOREVER) — but a back-up is always a good idea, and you can customize it with a picture of you gazing at them lovingly taped to it and a message typed on the display screen. The message will probably say “boobs,” because there just aren’t a lot of other options.

WEARABLE HEART MONITORS So you can always hear your loved one’s heartbeat. Also, any irregularities.

NYMI Impress your loved one by giving them this futuristic wearable — made by a U of T startup — to unlock doors and remember passwords, using their heartbeat as a unique ID. It will keep their information locked up, and give you the key to their heart (unless they use it to lock you out).

ROSS For your single friends who have been dying to date a lawyer, this intelligent computer developed by U of T students may just be the perfect match.

3D PRINTED CHOCOLATE AND TEDDY BEAR A classy twist on the classic gifts. Also, wildly costly and way too much effort.

A ROMANTIC EVENING FOR TWO AT THE U OF T PLANETARIUM Stargaze amongst a gaggle of AST101 students and learn all about stars and galaxies from the romantic voice of Professor Michael Reid. Actually, don’t do this. Nobody can compete with Reid.

THE ELECTRIC HYBRID PROTOTYPE Who needs a romantic stroll through the city or a horse drawn carriage when you can take an environmentally friendly romp around campus in the not at all awkward-looking car-bike built by your peers here at U of T? Technically it only fits one, so your date will probably take the driver’s seat. While you tie yourself to the roof or hang onto the back for dear life.

MCAT TUTORING Alternatively, if you truly want to step your game up, help them get an acceptance letter to medical school. Go big.

PERIODIC TABLE LOVE NOTES You should periodically tell the people you love that you love them — it’s a good habit. Ideally, through love notes painstakingly put together using the elements.

RESEARCH BOARD OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP You make enough of these for your class projects, so why not dedicate one to your greatest life project? Experiment: you and me. Hypothesis: We’re a great couple. Result: You’re perfect. Then, put it on display in the Medical Science Building and wait to get an A+ grade — in being a casanova. Also, potentially an F grade in the class you were supposed to be making a presentation for.

A TECH START-UP Seems like these are all the rage these days. Shouldn’t be too hard to get one together in time for this week, right?

A DATE AT THE ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE Head east to check out the special exhibit BRAIN: The Inside Story with your partner so you can understand the mechanics behind how you truly came to love one another.

A SET OF BEAKER SHOT GLASSES That microbiology major will definitely call you back if you make them feel at home outside of the lab with these beaker shot glasses to drink some ethanol out of.

A QUADCOPTER YOU BUILT There’s no better way to profess your undying love than to build your special someone their very own drone. At the very least, you’ll be putting that mechanical engineering degree to use. Or you can buy one from 7-Eleven.

A PERIODIC TABLE SHOWER CURTAIN Buy it for the love of some steamy shower science.

A REALLY LONG WORD It just seems like, in the science world, we don’t have enough really long words. Throw some elements together in the name of love and invent a new, sufficiently lengthy term to express your feelings to that special someone the way it ought to be done — highly technically and verbosely, so no average person can possibly understand.

SOIL SAMPLES It may seem like the least romantic possible gift, but for students in environmental sciences, actual dirt from the ground is an inexpensive and awe-inspiring Valentine’s treat. Unearth some grass from beneath the snow, shovel some soil into a baggie, and voila — an unsanitary surprise guaranteed to make them say, “wow!” as in, “wow, you actually got me dirt for Valentine’s Day.” Alternatively, go for rocks!

A CADAVER It’s like Operation, but it’s a real corpse. If your special someone is thinking about going into medicine, they probably couldn’t imagine a more romantic Friday night than one spent with wine and exploration of the human body — not yours, sorry. Maybe go for a frog instead because this might be a logistical challenge and, also, illegal.

EARPLUGS If your loved one wants to hit the library to get ahead on that organic chemistry homework and your conversation distracts them, get them earplugs so you can keep talking and they can keep drawing carbon structures. It’s a win-win situation.

ASSLESS LAB COAT A simple DIY project to spice up your date. Cut the bum out of your lab coat to take it from sterile to sexy with just a quick snip. Show up to the evening wearing just the coat, and then turn around to reveal the surprise. Your partner is sure to gasp. After that, who knows what will happen? No, really— we’re not sure how this is going to go for you.

CARBON CHAINS Jewelry is always an excellent option for V-day, but it can be very expensive, so why not get them carbon chains (to the layperson, sugar) instead? Everyone rocks gold chains these days, but crystalized carbon is a completely untapped market to make your date both a baller and a trendsetter. Also, covered in sugar.

A VERY CONVOLUTED EQUATION Pages upon pages of x and y, all adding up to you + me = as amicable numbers as could ever be. Do the math (even though it might take you an exorbitant amount of time) — we’re meant to be.

Write for science. science@thevarsity.ca FROM THE CRE ATOR OF ‘FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS’

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VARSITY SCIENCE

24 Vol. CXXXV, No. 18

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Jasleen Arneja | Science Editor

What about women in engineering? Students react to record-high female first year enrollment in engineering at U of T

The University of Toronto is now home to the largest percentage of female engineers in their first year of study in Ontario: 30.6 per cent. The Varsity took to campus to ask students for their thoughts on the record-breaking news.

Kanishk Chadha Second-year, industrial engineering

Amber Li Second-year, civil engineering

Farhan Mahmood First-year, life sciences

“The progress made so far in the engineering faculty to increase the number of women is pretty strong, but, however, a lot more has to be done.”

“For female students to go into this field, you have to be better at math, and you have to be more analytical and logical, so maybe that might be one of the reasons that it’s more difficult.”

“My sister wanted to do science [medicine], but my parents made her do humanities… in my culture — my country — girls have to get married early. I’m against that. Girls should be able to follow their dreams.”

Helen Stopps Fourth-year, engineering science

Karen Cerullo First-year, computer engineering

Ahmed Dorrah PhD Candidate, electrical engineering

Stephanie Gora PhD Candidate, civil engineering

Sana Tonekaboni Second-year, electrical engineering

“It’s great that we have a higher enrollment of women in engineering this year than ever. Our school system is rather awesome for the lack of sexism. My male colleagues and professors have been nothing but supportive and not really caring about gender. I think there’s more of an issue in workplaces with some of the older men and antiquated ideas, but we’re definitely moving forward and getting closer to where we should be.”

“I’m in computer engineering and that has the lowest amount of girls in any engineering discipline and I think that’s because a lot of people get the wrong idea about engineering. Girls always say that they want to make a difference and help people in their jobs but they don’t realize that that’s what engineering is… I hope to see more females in engineering and I’m glad to see that we have the highest number, because it will hopefully inspire more girls to join us!”

“In my opinion [that] there is a low percentage of women in engineering is the nature of jobs offered, in general. For example, if you consider the field of construction, it might require some presence on-site and a lot of stress and workload and maybe even managing [a] large group of workers… Also, the other point that I noticed is that we have a large percentage of girls in the first year but then the percentage decreases…”

“It’s exciting to hear that we have a record-breaking number of female engineers in first-year this year. I think that we’re also going to have to start thinking about how those women are going to transition into [the] industry because having worked in [the] industry myself, there’s still a pretty major disparity.”

“I entered engineering because I like it. I liked it in high school — I had a few electrical projects and I like, specifically, electrical engineering. And I think women are as smart as men.”

Photos by Maya Wong

Angel Zheng Second-year, international relations and political science “I think the number itself can be sometimes deceiving. The more important thing is how many more women have enrolled this year, comparing to the past.”

A very good reason to stand up Study: sitting for long periods of worsens health regardless of physical activity routine Alice (Xia) Zhu

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Sitting for too long is often touted as an unhealthy habit, while exercising is thought to be the remedy for its negative health impacts. However, recently, researchers at the University of Toronto have found that, regardless of how much exercise a person gets, sitting too much is associated with increased health problems. The study was led by Aviroop Biswas, a PhD candidate, and was conducted by a team of researchers from the University Health Network, the U of T Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, York University, the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. The study, titled “Sedentary Time and Its Association With Risk for Disease Incidence, Mortality, and Hospitalization in Adults:

KATE TAYLOR/THE VARSITY

A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis,” was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine in January 2015. The study assessed 47 other research studies evaluating sedentary behaviour in adults. Data in these 47 articles pertaining to the relationship

between sedentary time and health outcomes, was synthesized to generate hazard ratios for sedentary activity in adult populations. Health outcomes that were of interest to the authors included cardiovascular disease and diabetes, cancer, and allcause mortality. Their calculations of

hazard ratios led to the conclusion that time spent inactive is independently associated with poor health outcomes, whether or not individuals engage in physical activity. The increase in risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer were calculated to be 18 and 17

per cent respectively. The overall increased likelihood of dying from health problems compared to people who sat less was 24 per cent. The findings of this study may have profound implications for individuals of all walks of life. For the average office desk employee, this study may serve as a wakeup call. Dr. David Alter, senior scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and senior author of the paper, warns against the sedentary lifestyle that is the norm today. “More than one half of an average person’s day is spent being sedentary — sitting, watching television, or working at a computer,” he says in a statement. “Our study finds that despite the health-enhancing benefits of physical activity, this alone may not be enough to reduce the risk for disease,” Alter continues. Standing desks offer an alternative to sitting constantly and are increasingly gaining popularity in workplaces.

Sports

VAR.ST/SPORTS

9 FEBRUARY 2015

sports@thevarsity.ca

The sexier side of sports An exploration of sport sex euphemisms and pick-up lines

Emma Kikulis VARSITY STAFF

Call them what you want — catch phrases, common sayings, or even a slip of the tongue — euphemisms are a part of our everyday vocabulary, and most of us, myself included, don’t even realize when we’re using them. A euphemism, although similar, is not a metaphor. It is, rather, an indirect or polite version of what you actually want to say, while adding a layer of elusiveness to the articulation. We use euphuisms when we want to say something offensive, embarrassing, or harsh in a not-so-offensive-embarrassing-harsh way. Euphemisms have become such an ingrained part of our everyday lexicon

that we don’t stop to think where we picked them up, when we first heard them, and why we continue to perpetuate them when, in a particular context, they have the potential to be offensive and rude.

SPORTS AND SEX The most interesting and widely utilised array of euphemisms by students on campus, in my experience, are sports euphemisms. And, quite frequently, they are used to disguise sexual innuendos, with the recipient often being a woman. Take for example the popular “taking one for the team,” originally used to describe a player who puts themselves in harms way for the sake of the team, like a baseball player getting hit by a pitch and walking to first.

It is one of the less offensive sports euphemisms as it can be applied to a wide variety of situations, not exclusive to sexual innuendos. For example, if a bunch of friends want to go out and drink, you would be “taking one for the team” if you volunteer as the designated driver. However, the phrase has lost some of its relevance to an actual sports game, and has gained immense cultural currency, as “taking one for the team” is often used by a man who decides to have sex with a girl so that his bro can also have sex with the same girl’s apparently more attractive friend.

BRINGING IT HOME Some of the most well-known and most used of these sports related

euphemisms are getting to “first, second, and third” base. In their most basic, technical terms, getting to first, second, or third base refers to a baseball or softball game, where, based on a multitude of factors, a player “makes it” by touching the base with some part of their body and is “safe”. However, for most of us, who don’t play baseball or softball, the terms are used as innuendos, and each base represents a different degree of sexual act, all increasing in intensity.

CALL ME? These idioms, although not innately offensive, are popularly used to refer to sex, having sex, or some sort of sexual act. The list doesn’t stop at euphemisms, there is a huge array of

sports pick-up lines as well, which, nine out of 10 times, won’t end up getting your crush’s number. Take, for instance, the popular “I can score from multiple positions,” one of the most overused pick-ups. The line euphemises a player’s ability to score a goal from any spatialposition on the field, court or ice, or “slipping one past the goalie.” You can use your imagination to deduce how this saying can be used. Above all, context is the most important thing to consider if you’re about to make a sports-related euphemism, joke, or comparison — when used inappropriately, they not only have the potential to be rude, but they also diminish and stigmatise the value these sayings do possess during a sports game or match.

Explaining injuries: ACL tears The first installment of three injury explanations Kasi Sewraj

VARSITY STAFF

When performing the intense and demanding activities that all athletes do, its no surprise that sometimes the body is unable to support all of the stress inflicted upon it. The most common athletic injuries can occur in a wide variety of sports, and one injury that is common to athletes who are running and changing directions quickly is the dreaded Anterior Cruciate Ligament (acl) tear. acl tears occur most frequently to those participating in sports that involve a lot of running, like basketball, soccer, and football. The anterior cruciate ligament is located inside the knee joint and controls the hinge movement of the knee. It runs diagonally and also helps to prevent the tibia or front shin bone from sliding out in front of the femur or thigh bone, as well as assists knee stabilization in rotational movements. Injuries to a ligament are considered sprains, and there are three levels of injury, from grade one, where there is only minor damage and the

knee is still intact, to grade three, where the ligament has been torn completely in half and the knee is no longer stable. Grade three injuries are the most common because partial tears are rare to the acl. These injuries usually occur due to quick directional changes or direct pressure due to contact, in which the knee makes a large rotation for which it is unsuited. The most common way that athletes become instantly aware of an acl tear is a loud “pop” accompanied by a severe knee pain. Weight-bearing and walking become difficult and the knee will begin to swell. Renee Ridout, Varsity Blues fastpitch pitcher and Ontario Intercollegiate Women’s Fastpitch Association allstar, recently recovered from an acl tear. “I tore my acl... two summers ago playing fastpitch,” she says. “The recommended surgery with a hamstring graft, as that was the most common and most efficient for women, and that I get a hard brace for the mean time. I continued my Varsity Blues Fastpitch season that year (with-

out an acl) using my brace and I went to physio so that I could strengthen my muscles around my knee in preparation for surgery,” she describes. The following November, Ridout had surgery on her knee. The operation was followed by two weeks on crutches and six months off of sports and other lateral movements. However, within two months, she was able to begin some running and workouts. One side effect of this surgery and time off that surprised Ridout was the loss of muscle. “At the six month mark I was back into sports full throttle. I tried my hardest to keep up with my exercises, but at six months I still didn’t feel my knee was as it used to be. Even today (one year and four months [later]) I still feel my knee will never be the same. I have moments of weakness and instability,” says Ridout. While full recoveries are possible, it is uncommon for those who suffer from acl tears to completely recover. There are a number of procedures that those who are injured can take to rehabilitate their knee that range from strengthening to invasive surgery.

KAWMADIE KARUNANAYAKE/THE VARSITY

26 Vol. CXXXV, No. 18

VARSITY SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Fitness class review: Groove Nation IV

Thunderwolves triumph over Blues

Hart House’s drop-in dance class review

Women’s basketball defeated by 86-69

Heather Eason

Zaigham Ali

When I first saw “Groove Nation” on the schedule of Hart House’s drop-in fitness classes, I imagined a kind of funky jazzercise popular with middle-aged men who wear sunglasses indoors. Little did I know that it is, in fact, a choreography-intensive hip hop class suited for skilled and passionate dancers alike. The level IV class takes place Monday nights from 9:10-10:30 pm, and it frequently goes overtime. The class begins with a short warm up followed by over an hour of learning and performing intricate choreography, and ends with a brief cool-down and stretch. With very little time devoted to traditional exercise routines, one might expect that Groove Nation isn’t much of a workout; however, this assumption is false. By the end of the class, everyone in attendance has learned a lengthy piece of hip hop choreography that they are expected to perform repeatedly to the best of their abilities. This, combined with the mental exercise of learning and remembering choreography, makes for an intense workout. If you leave Groove Nation with a dry shirt, you’re doing it wrong. Dustin, the Groove Nation guru, is a friendly and supportive instructor who is open to questions about movement, timing, and form. That’s not to say he’ll go easy on you. Participants are expected to pick up choreography quickly and dance full-out every time. If you don’t have much dance experience, I

The Varsity Blues women’s basketball team competed on Friday night against the Lakehead University Thunderwolves. The games tested the Blues as Lakehead sits atop of the Ontario University Athletics’s (oua) central division standings. The evening began with the women’s game, starting with both teams struggling to score early baskets. Despite this difficulty, Lakehead established early that they would be pressuring full court on defense. The Blues had difficulty breaking the press, but the offensive side recovered after a timeout. Captain Jill Stratton threw passes that were on point all night. Additionally, second-year guard Rahshida Atkinson was solid on the offensive end, delivering by driving to the rim, drawing fouls, and displaying great shooting from the perimeter. Julie Longauer also came off the bench and provided a spark delivering a quick basket right out of timeout. On the other end, the Blues played great defense, but it was not enough to contain Lakehead’s Jylisa Williams who got most of her points attacking the rim not only in the half court but also converting baskets off the of Blues’ turnovers. Williams broke an oua record, delivering 50 points, last held by Brock University’s Cand Lohr with 49 points during the 1982-1983 season. At halftime, the score was 39-34 in favour of Lakehead.

VARSITY STAFF

The Hart House fitness centre. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY

recommend trying out Groove Nation II, Thursdays from 5:30-6:45 pm. Not only is this class shorter, but the choreography is simpler and is taught at a slower pace. Whichever class you choose, you can be assured that the dance will be both challenging and fun. Dustin chooses songs from across the hip hop spectrum; anything from Beyoncé to Jeremih to old school hip hop can make appearances. Groove Nation, while exhausting, is more than just a workout. Dustin encourages every dancer to put their own flavour into his choreography and to perform as if they were in a professional dance setting. This unique fitness class allows participants to let their personality shine through, making even the most gruelling class a blast. In short, don’t be fooled by the name; Groove Nation is straight-up hip hop. If you love to dance and be yourself, and you’re ready for a mental and physical workout like no other, it’s the class for you.

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The second half started off with the Varsity Blues delivering quick baskets. Liane Bailey fired a three pointer, and Abena Addo and Atkinson tied up the score in under two minutes into the half. Longauer had a chance to take the Blues’ first lead of the game, but misfired from the free throw line. The Blues’ next few plays consisted of careless turnovers which Lakehead converted into transitional points on the other end. Lakehead separated from the tied score. The third quarter ended with the Blues trailing 63-55. In the final quarter, the Blues were unable to hold Lakehead’s Williams back. She got to the line to deliver her fiftieth point with less than a minute to go to lift Lakehead to an 86-69 victory. Stratton was the player of the game with a near double-double with 21 points and nine rebounds, followed by Atkinson’s 13 points and five rebounds. With the loss, the Blues record dropped to 7-7. On Saturday, the team was able to get back to an above-.500 record with a win over the Guelph University Gryphons. The Blues remain third place in oua’s East division.

var.st/sports

VARSITY SPORTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Men’s basketball loses lead to Lakehead Blues fall into last place in the OUA East with 73-70 loss to Thunderwolves Zaigham Ali

VARSITY STAFF

The men’s basketball team has had a tough season despite some close scores, with a 3-10 record before Friday’s game. Due to the strength of the Lakehead University Thunderwolves, the Blues lost, bringing their season to a 3-11 record, which they brought back up to 4-11 after a Saturday night win against the Guelph Gryphons. Right after the opening tip, forward Kwasi Oti-Awere delivered a mid range jumper, followed by forward Devin Johnson getting fouled on his jump shot. The Blues established fluidity not only in their offense quickly, but also played great defense early. Manny Sahota established inside position on the defense end for a rebound and he swished it into a three-pointer on the other end. The Blues continuously attempted longrange jump shots which were unsuccessful, resulting in Lakehead securing long rebounds that they would convert into points. Out of a timeout, Lakehead started pressuring the ball more and would go on to take time and run offensive sets. The Blues responded by setting up a zone defense, preventing penetration from Lakehead’s point guard, Henry Tan. Closer to the end of the first half, shooting sniper Julian Clarke shot a few long range jumpers and also got to the free throw line to help the Blues secure a 37-28 lead at the half.

Devin Johnson takes a shot for the Blues. ALEXANDRA YAO/THE VARSITY

In the second half, the Blues kept the momentum going with great plays on both ends. Starting point guard, rookie Sage Usher, penetrated into the paint with ease and kicked out passes to shooters out on the perimeter. Usher also got it inside to Devin Johnson who was delivering in the post throughout the game. After a strong take to the rim by Sahota, Lake-

head began to answer each of the Blues’ baskets; this is where things started to get a little out of hand for the Blues. The fourth quarter began with a 53-46 score favouring the Blues. While Lakehead’s intensity rose, the Blues soon started committing turnovers that would lead to quick easy buckets on the break by Lakehead.

The difference in score started to get closer. Johnson started firing, making a couple of three-pointers to keep the lead. With less than five minutes to go, Lakehead got their first lead of the game when the score was 59-58. Clarke and Johnson made three-pointers, but for every three, Lakehead would anwer back with a three on their offensive end. Usher got the lead back for the Blues with a beautiful spin move towards the rim in a halfcourt set with under two minutes remaining. Johnson and Clarke made baskets any way they could to keep the lead, but defensive intensity by Lakehead resulted in 24 second shot clock violation turnover. Lakehead scored 27 fourth quarter points. In the final stretch, Lakehead got to the rim delivering floaters and also getting to the line to secure a 73-70 lead. With 19 seconds left, the ball was given to Johnson in an attempt to swish a three. Johnson misfired; Sahota secured the rebound and tried to put it back in an attempt to get fouled but did not finish, and time ran out. With the final score of 73-70, The Blues would fall to a record of 3-11 at the bottom of the oua’s East division. Johnson was the player of the game for the Blues as he led the game with 23 points on 17 shots and nine rebounds. Johnson also scored five of six attempts from the foul line. Clarke followed with 17 points and five assists, and Oti-Awere notched eight points.

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