January 17th, 2021

January 18, 2021

THE VARSITY The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

STRANDED How new COVID-19 rules complicated international travel for U of T students

Vol. CXLI, No. 14

“Dangerous and irresponsible”: Casual workers at U of T demand sick days, draw attention to precarity of work Two graduate students share their experience working on casual contracts Isabel Armiento Graduate Bureau Chief

On January 6, the United Steelworkers (USW ) Local 1998 union released a YouTube video called “Precarity U” in which members share their experiences of working on casual contracts at U of T, aiming to draw attention to the challenges casual workers face.

USW 1998 represents administrative and technical workers, and the Casual Unit, which is the second largest bargaining group in the union, represents support and technical staff such as research assistants, lab assistants, and staff in offices, residences, and gyms, among other jobs.

The video was part of the union’s campaign as it enters into bargaining with the university, according to Nick Marchese, the president of the USW Local 1998 Casual Unit.

“Precarity is real for our members,” he wrote in an email to The Varsity. “They are stressed by the fact that they don’t know if they will be rehired. They go from one shortterm contract to the next [and] have no guarantee of hours of work.” Despite the fact that casual workers do not have all of the same benefits, especially paid sick days, Marchese stressed that many of them still work nearly full time.

A U of T spokesperson wrote to The Varsity in an email that the university “values and respects the work of the employees in the USW Local 1998 Casual bargaining unit.”

“Over the past two decades, we have successfully negotiated numerous renewal collective agreements, and we look forward to constructive discussions with the Union in the current round of bargaining,” the spokesperson added.

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Paid sick days One of the union’s demands is guaranteeing paid sick days for casual workers. “The current situation at U of T where we have continuous employees… who have medical benefits, including up to 15 weeks

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of paid sick days, sometimes working side by side with casual employees who earn not a single paid sick day is not only regressive and unfair, but also, especially during a pandemic, dangerous and irresponsible,” Marchese wrote.

A U of T spokesperson did not respond to questions about the lack of paid sick leave.

Marchese noted that casual workers’ lack of paid sick days has become “especially serious” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We know anecdotally that our members worry about calling in sick for fear of losing income,” Marchese wrote. “And while most are working offsite, there are some who must still go onto campus to work, and they risk infecting others.”

Two casual workers told The Varsity that they think U of T should guarantee casual workers paid sick days. “People go into work sick because we cannot afford not to,” wrote Gabriele Simmons, a secondyear Ontario Institute for Studies in Education student who works as a research assistant at U of T. “Paid sick days not only protect the health of the individual worker but also that of their workplace and wider community.”

Challenges faced by casual workers USW 1998’s video features casual workers represented by the union, such as Simmons, who is also on the USW 1998 Casual Unit negotiating committee. In an email to The Varsity, Simmons reported experiencing “pretty major shifts to work since the pandemic hit.”

“I found I was expected to attend far more (virtual) meetings and check-ins than ever before,” she wrote. “These contact points added up and… increased stress to complete my duties in a timely manner.”

Simmons was on a casual contract that paid for a fixed number of hours per week. Her work schedule lacked the flexibility to accommodate these new tasks.

Cont’d, p. 5

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Business & Labour

Comment

Arts & Culture

Science

Sports

Rotman-RBC partnership grows to advance sustainable �inance

Reviewing an initiative that promotes women’s awareness of health

How local tattoo artists are dealing with the pandemic

What the life sciences mean to three students

The basketball forward who is U of T’s Serge Ibaka

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Student groups hope to aim advocacy efforts at provincial government

Marta Anielska Associate News Editor

Over the past 20 years, U of T has grown increasingly reliant on tuition fees as a source of revenue — particularly high international tuition fees. In the past decade, international tuition fees at U of T have increased by 41.2 per cent, and they’re continuing to rise.

Although the university has never itself decided to decrease tuition from year to year, many student groups are lobbying the administration for lower fees. Particularly due to the pandemic, at the beginning of the 2020–2021 academic year, several student groups published letters to the U of T administration demanding that tuition be decreased. The university claimed that tuition fees had to remain the same to pay for digital infrastructure.

For this reason and a number of others, tuition advocacy has become difficult, forcing students to pursue several efforts at once in order to alleviate financial pressure.

A brief history of tuition Tuition has been on the rise in Canada since the 1990s, both as an amount students must pay and a proportion of university revenue.

Ontario serves as a particularly intense microcosm in this broader trend.

In the 2016–2017 academic year, tuition accounted for 55 per cent of Ontario universities’ revenue, up from 20 per cent in 1990.

Fees for domestic and international undergraduates increased by 25 per cent and 100 per cent, respectively, over the last decade.

Regulation plays a big role in how tuition has changed since the ’90s. Prior to 1998, the Ontario government decided how much universities were allowed to charge students.

However, that year, Ontario decided to deregulate certain programs and introduce fee differentiation, which allowed universities to charge different fees for different programs.

While universities gained more control over program fees, the government still capped the per cent amount by which universities could increase tuition each year.

International tuition fees have been deregulated since 1996 and are increasing at a rapid rate. The discrepancies between domestic and international fees at U of T make the effects of these policies immediately clear.

In the 2020–2021 academic year, first-year international students entering the Faculty of Arts & Science paid $57,020 compared to a domestic tuition of $6,100. From 2010–2020, international tuition has risen by $33,542 while — prior to the tuition freeze Doug Ford introduced in 2019 — domestic tuition rose by $1,564.

Ford’s provincial government cut domestic tuition fees in the 2019–2020 year by 10 per cent and froze tuition for the 2020–2021 aca-

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demic year. But these cuts were not accompanied by increased funding for universities, and also accompanied cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program. As a result, universities had to compensate for the loss of revenue, and they usually do so by either increasing international tuition or international student enrolment.

Student advocacy The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed many students’ passion for tuition advocacy. At the beginning of the year, several student groups, including the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) and the International Student Advocacy Network (ISAN), demanded that the university decrease tuition.

However, the university did not decrease tuition, claiming that it had to invest in digital infrastructure for the coming year and that the quality of education would remain the same. The UTSU compiled a report based on student consultation, which found that for most students, the quality of education has been reduced since courses moved online.

While the university was receptive to most of the report’s recommendations, it remained silent on the topic of decreasing tuition.

The UTSU also plans to file a Freedom of Information request to receive budgetary information on certain previously deregulated programs.

A spokesperson for the university noted that if government funding doesn’t increase, a reduction in fees would require changes to hiring plans, services, and investment in financial aid.

While student groups have been skeptical of the connection between higher fees and better service quality, they agree that the problem stems from a lack of government funding. In

2020–2021, student fees accounted for 65 per cent of U of T’s revenue, compared to around 22.3 per cent contributed from government grants.

In response, much of the UTSU’s advocacy will now be focused at a provincial level. As the government expects a new tuition framework to come out before the beginning of the next academic year, the UTSU submitted recommendations to the provincial government in late December. These recommendations include maintaining the tuition freeze and increasing operating grants.

International students have also been busy advocating for lower tuitions, especially since the university has grown so reliant on them as a source of income. Since its inception in summer of 2020, the ISAN has been working to establish connections to different levels of administration.

While the ISAN has met with university administration and voiced its concerns, the university showed no indication that it would decrease tuition fees next year. In the meantime, the ISAN will try to link international students to resources such as reproductive services and financial advice.

The ISAN speculates that one reason the university and government may have little reason to listen to their demands is because they are not citizens and, therefore, hold little political power. A spokesperson for the ISAN claimed that they have been told by the administration that their high tuition rates account for the “real cost” of their education.

However, the ISAN noted that their tuition impacts the entire student community, not just international students. In an email to The Varsity, the ISAN argued that “all students benefit from those investments, but we’re the only ones paying more for it.”

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New pilot project aims to help instructors’ online teaching through technology

Eight instructors will work with U of T bodies to test out new methods Jessica Han Varsity Staff

A new pilot program at U of T, called Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL), aims to assist instructors in navigating the new online learning environment and improving their online teaching. This comes in the backdrop of a year where online learning has become the new norm for most classes — with some students raising concerns about a lower quality of education and increased social difficulty.

The program is a collaboration among several administrative departments of U of T, including Learning Space Management, the Innovation Hub, and the Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation.

Improving online teaching The goals of this program are to help make technology and the online delivery of courses simpler, preserve in-person teaching styles, improve the student experience, and offer improved teaching solutions.

The program hopes to achieve these goals by utilizing technology. This semester, there are eight professors teaching online courses who are involved in the project and trying out new online teaching methods and collaborating with the Learning Space Management team to figure out what methods work best for teaching and learning.

TIL was established with eight principles that were first developed in fall 2020 using student and instructor input. The principles include having a personalized approach, recognizing emotional stakes, and keeping communication transparent.

Steven Bailey, the director of Learning Space

The new pilot program will help instructors as they move in-person courses to a new online format.

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Management, and Julia Allworth, the manager of Innovation Projects and leader of Innovation Hub, joined this program to assist instructors and students who are using an online platform for educational purposes.

They wrote in an email to The Varsity, “This pilot is an opportunity to leverage our current investments in technology infrastructure and expertise on campus to support instructors in their online teaching, and ultimately to support students’ learning experiences.”

Bailey and Allworth noted that the instructors

who are involved “identified the desire to create a community of practice focused on online learners, which would continue to grow and experiment with new teaching tools or strategies.”

Even beyond the scope of the current project, Bailey and Allworth hope to use what they learn “to support instructors interested in experimenting with strategies and technologies in online learning” in the future.

The normalization of online teaching The program was designed to provide opportuni-

ties for community building with academic staff of varying disciplines, familiarities with technology, and class sizes.

One of the professors involved in the pilot program is Randy Boyagoda, Vice-Dean Undergraduate at the Faculty of Arts & Science and an English professor. Boyagoda had to move his in-person teaching methods to a virtual platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with The Varsity, Boyagoda described his motivation for becoming involved with this program. “If I want to encourage other colleagues to consider experimenting with online teaching, I should do it myself,” he explained.

He added that he was “interested in seeing how working with colleagues in learning space management could create the… best possible learning experience for my students.”

The program has revolved around “learner-centred design,” which Boygoda defined as centring the experience of the student behind the screen.

During the semester, there will be regular assessments of the program. Ongoing assessments will include cohort meetings with the eight instructors throughout the semester, opportunities for students to provide experiential feedback regarding their course, and finally, one-on-one meetings between the instructors involved and the Innovation Hub team to discover ways to best support virtual teaching and learning.

Boyagoda expressed that he wants to ensure the best learning experience for his students and make sure his methods of online teaching are “clear, crisp, effective, and not entirely boring.”

U of T launches new working group to UTM residence, parking revenue tackle anti-Semitism on campus impacted by COVID-19, reports Group will review university policies, make campus affairs committee recommendations to university Khatchig Anteblian Associate News Editor

U of T recently launched a new working group to combat anti-Semitism on campus, which will consult with members of the U of T community.

The group will try to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for Jewish members of the university community, review current U of T policy, develop new initiatives, and work with U of T administration to recommend actions the university can take to improve education about anti-Semitism.

The Varsity has reported on a few incidents of alleged anti-Semitism on campus in recent years, such as a dispute between the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union and Hillel U of T, as well as an incident of vandalism on campus.

Creation of the working group The group’s aim is to examine anti-Semitic incidents and, through consultation and recommendations, prevent them from happening again. When reached out to for comment, a U of T spokesperson did not respond to a question on whether the working group was created in response to any specific incidents.

“The working group will review the processes and practices in place to address anti-Semitism on U of T’s three campuses and develop a framework to support the university’s response to this issue,” a U of T spokesperson wrote in an email to The Varsity.

The members of the group include professors from different faculties at U of T, members of t h e

Division of Human Resources & Equity, and members from the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The group is led by Arthur Ripstein, a professor at the Faculty of Law and in the Department of Philosophy.

Operations of the working group The group will work with U of T administration to propose new programs and initiatives to eliminate anti-Semitism from campus. The working group will present a final report to U of T’s president, vicepresident and provost, and vice-president human resources & equity.

Ripstein said that the group will emphasize a collaborative approach, encouraging feedback from the community. “Our main work will be, in the first instance, listening to and seeking input from members of the university community,” said Ripstein in an interview with U of T News.

Hillel Ontario, a local affiliate of Hillel International — the largest Jewish student organization in the world — welcomed the new group in an article on its website. Marc Newburgh, the chief executive officer of Hillel Ontario, said in the article, “Across the nine campuses we serve, Hillel Ontario is committed to working with all university administrations to champion the voices of Jewish students.”

In an email to The Varsity, Rob Nagus, the senior director of Hillel U of T, wrote, “It is our hope that this Working Group will identify proactive ways in which the university can better support Jewish students, and recommend decisive consequences for those who promote antisemitic rhetoric on campus.”

Ripstein, members of the working group, and the U of T Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity office did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment.

Hillel U of T is based out of the Wolfond Centre.

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Committee reports low enrolment intake of new students, high retention of existing students Hafsa Ahmed UTM Bureau Chief

The UTM Campus Affairs Committee met on January 12 to discuss campus enrolment and registrarial services during the pandemic. The committee also approved the 2021–22 Operating Plans and Budgets for the UTM Service Ancillaries.

Operating plans for 2021–2022 Chief Administrative Officer Saher Fazilat spoke about the operating plans for UTM’s service ancillaries. She noted that student housing and hospitality were able to break even this year, using the savings from the operating reserves and capital savings.

Parking services had “really low” revenues because on-campus traffic was low and because it had to pay back previous loans it owed to UTM operating this year.

Parking services also had to return money to people who had purchased parking from March to August of 2020. However, some money will be saved since not as much snow removal will be needed this year due to low usage of parking spaces.

Fazilat also noted that ancillary services will be “permanently permitted to carry a negative fund balance” as long as they have a plan to address the lost revenue.

Student housing and residence revenue fell due to cancellations. “About 50 per cent of our students actually cancelled their bookings,” said Fazilat.

There was also a loss of revenue due to limitations on capacity in residence. “To follow the public health advice… we have to offer single rooms, and that would take away our ability to offer all rooms to full capacity to within overall 80 per cent capacity.”

Registrarial services in the pandemic Lorretta Neebar, Registrar & Director of Enrolment Management, reported on changes in the registrar system beginning in the year 2003. Neebar

highlighted how 2003 marked the beginning of the campus’ move toward a paperless system. By 2017, said Neebar, the Office of the Registrar was focused on connecting people across campus, and it prioritized work on the online aspect of the system since then.

“When the pandemic hit… we were well equipped and already ready with the hardware, the culture, and the security to be able to move fully remotely,” Neebar said. “Other than [the challenge of holding exams], every single service we’ve been able to deliver remotely, both to students as well as to staff and faculty.”

Neebar discussed how a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, they realized the central email system was not sustainable, making communication with individual students especially difficult. “In April, we made the decision to change that internal system using ServiceNow for our internal ticketing to actually make it a student-facing system,” Neebar said. The Office of the Registrar launched this in the form of AskRegistrar on August 24. “This allowed us to give… a forum for students to contact us around the clock.”

Enrolment update Neebar discussed how, in the fall, UTM did not meet enrolment intake targets for new students, but they noted that because of a high retention rate, the number of registered students remained high. “We were short on domestic by quite a bit as well as some on international,” said Neebar.

“What I’m encouraged by this is even though we had a smaller incoming class, we were able to retain a high number of quality-calibre students, especially at the highest scholarship range, with about 121 students receiving our $3,000 renewable award.”

Neebar also noted that while a lower number of high school students accepted offers of admission, the admission average still remained consistent.

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The Breakdown: Why hasn’t the UTSU been able to leave the CFS? Lack of online voting, logistical issues are main factors

this might decrease accessibility for students who are commuters, exchange students, or who study online, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The motion asserted that online voting options would decrease costs and the environmental impact of voting procedures, and also increase accessibility and election security.

None of the motions got the chance to be debated since the meeting deemed these motions as not urgent and forwarded them to the Ontario Executive Committee (OEC). In the OEC discussion this past October, all these motions were either tabled or recommended for defeat.

Cedric Jiang Varsity Staff

In 2017, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) released a statement that called the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) “beyond reform” and said the union would no longer support continuing their relationship. However, despite almost three years of attempting to leave the federation, the UTSU has not yet been able to do so.

UTSU executives have pointed to the complex decertification process and the lack of online voting as reasons the union has been unable to leave the CFS. Decertification requires a petition signed by 15 per cent of students, with strict guidelines.

The Varsity broke down the UTSU’s recent efforts to leave the CFS. Why leave?

The contentious history between the CFS and the UTSU goes back several years. In 2016, the UTSU sent an open letter, along with nine other member locals, to the CFS, criticizing its decertification process as “overly burdensome” and stating that it would seek reform. Furthermore, the CFS has been involved in several controversies — such as having a hidden bank account — that have contributed to its contentious relationship with some unions.

The UTSU has been attempting to amend CFS voting bylaws to make decertification easier as part of its effort but has yet to succeed. However, according to Tyler Riches, UTSU Vice-President Public & University Affairs, the UTSU’s efforts to make decertification easier, such as by implementing online voting, have since faced “procedural tactics to limit debate” and usually did not even reach the point to be defeated.

The UTSU contributes a significant amount to CFS’ overall revenue. The CFS made $3,087,921 in revenue in 2020. U of T students pay a mandatory fee to the CFS of $8.39 per student per semester. Last year, when students were able to opt out of certain fees due to the Student Choice Initiative, the CFS had a higher than average opt-out rate of 26.6 per cent, signalling that at least one-fourth of the UTSU’s membership did not want to pay fees to the CFS.

RYAN CHOW/THEVARSITY

Commenting on the future of the UTSU’s relationship with the CFS, Riches wrote that the UTSU has seen significant changes since 2016 and experienced significant changes in its relationship with the CFS. This past September, the UTSU’s Board of Directors struck an ad hoc committee to evaluate this relationship and publish a report on it by the conclusion of the board’s term. A 2016 report found the CFS to be outdated and “too large and bureaucratic” to be effective.

“Both in my own experience, and as many UTSU executives have found in the past few years, the CFS is not willing to make significant reforms to the way that member locals relate to it,” wrote Riches. “I’m not sure what the UTSU’s future with the CFS will look like… But if a vote were held today, I’d vote to leave in a heartbeat.”

When asked about the same topic, Communication Coordinator of the CFS Taylan McRae-Yu did not comment specifically regarding the CFS’ relationship with the UTSU, but insisted that individual students hold memberships with the CFS. “[The CFS is] inspired by the united efforts of our more than 530,000 students across the country,” McRaeYu wrote in an email to The Varsity. “[We] hope all of our 62 member locals will continue to fight in solidarity for the betterment of

student health, wellbeing, and securing an accessible post-secondary education for all,” he continued.

The push to allow online voting Online voting has yet to be adopted, although member locals, including the UTSU, have called for it multiple times over the years. “Voting must be conducted by paper ballot and cannot be conducted in any other manner,” reads the CFS bylaw on voting.

When asked why the CFS has not modified its decertification policy despite criticisms from members, McRae-Yu wrote that the bylaws can only be changed by members. “Members have the opportunity to submit and discuss motions at our National General Meetings, and full power for the direction of the organization remains with students.”

Yet, as a current member of the CFS, the UTSU has faced challenges in getting its motions passed.

In the 2020 general meeting last summer, the UTSU submitted five motions to make the decertification process easier. The motions included allowing online voting and petitioning, decreasing the number of signatures required, seeking new pathways to start a petition, and amending requirements on names that appear as signatures.

The online voting motion reasoned that, while voting by paper ballot is mandated in CFS bylaws,

A complex decertification process Riches suggested that, compared with joining the federation, the process to decertify is much more difficult. The former requires the union’s board of directors to pass a motion seeking membership. When accepted by the CFS, the motion would trigger a referendum vote similar to that of decertification to make the decision final.

Under the current CFS bylaws, decertifying from the federation would be a two-part process: the petition and the referendum. The petition part requires the signatures of 15 per cent of the union’s total membership and should be sent to CFS’ head office by mail.

“If you can imagine, organizing such a massive petition drive at U of T is extremely difficult, especially for our members, who are enrolled in full-time studies (with some exceptions),” wrote Riches. The UTSU has never been able to submit a valid decertification petition.

The referendum process must be overseen by a CFS-appointed chief returning officer to set the referendum guidelines based on CFS bylaws. Guidelines include the number and location of polling stations, hours of voting, and approval of campaign materials.

Personnel from the CFS and other member locals are also allowed to participate in the referendum.

“The balance of power in a referendum like this is clearly tipped in favour of the Federation; students face an impossible campaign on their own campus,” wrote Riches. However, there is precedent for student unions leaving the federation, as BC student unions did in 2018.

Thirty-nine University of Toronto faculty members, alumni, supporters appointed to Order of Canada Professor Vivek Goel appointed for contributions to public health Joy Chan Varsity Contributor

On November 27 and December 30, 175 total individuals were newly appointed or promoted to the Order of Canada, 39 of whom are members of U of T faculty, alumni, or supporters.

The Order of Canada is one of the country’s highest national honours, a distinction made for those who exemplify admirable character as illustrated by the Latin motto, “desiderantes meliorem patriam,” or “they desire a better country.” The 39 U of T faculty, alumni, and supporters were awarded the position for their contributions to Canadian society through their service, innovations, and compassion in various realms, including public health, art, and conservation.

In 2019, over 24 U of T faculty members and alumni were appointed, and over 30 were appointed in 2018. The Varsity broke down a few of this year’s recipients.

Public health Vivek Goel, a professor from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, was named a Member of the Order for his contributions as an academic and administrator, and his commitment to the advancement of public health services, evidence-based health care, and research innovation. Goel is a special adviser to the president and provost at U of T and helps guide U of T’s COVID-19 planning and response. He also previously served as the founding head of Public Health Ontario.

Other faculty members in the health care sphere who were appointed to the order include Philip Berger and James Drake. Berger is an associate professor at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, who co-founded the Toronto HIV Primary Care Physicians Group and established the HIV Project Centre Primary Care Mentor Program. James Drake is a professor of surgery at Temerty, as well as the surgeon-in-chief at the Hospital for Sick Children.

The arts Among those representing the arts is John Hartman, whose works are displayed in the U of T Art Museum. Hartman brings landscapes and cityscapes to life on printing plates, canvas, and paper. Daniel John Taylor, an associate professor and the head of the early music program in the Faculty of Music, also showed performing arts talent within the university; he was named an Officer of the Order in recognition of his achievements as an internationally renowned opera singer and his commitment to mentoring the next generation of Canadian singers.

Other faculty members Other appointed professors and faculty members include Cristina Amon, Allan Borodin, Bill Graham, Eugenia Kumacheva, and Marietta Orlov.

Amon is a professor of mechanical engineering and the dean emerita for the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

From the Department of Computer Science, Borodin was named a Member of the Order for his expertise in theoretical computer science. Gra-

Another esham is the chancellor The Order of Canada is a national honour bestowed for teemed graduate of for Trinity College, as contributions across disciplines. the university was John well as a former minister COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO Borrows, who achieved of foreign affairs and a a bachelor’s degree in former minister of national defense, and Kumacheva, a professor in the history and political science from Victoria College Department of Chemistry, was recognized for her and two degrees from U of T’s Faculty of Law. He great contributions to chemistry and advocating for was named an Officer of the Order for his scholwomen in science. Orlov was appointed to the Or- arly work on the legal traditions and rights of Inder of Canada posthumously, in recognition of her digenous peoples, which has had a profound effect contributions to piano instruction and performance. worldwide. Borrows is a member of the Chippewas of the Nawash First Nation.

Representing the finer things in life, Leonard Alumni Michael S.W. Bradstreet, a New College graduate Pennachett, who received his master’s degree in and undergraduate zoology major, was a long-time Italian Renaissance history from the university, senior adviser with the Nature Conservancy of was named a Member of the Order for his work Canada. He was named a Member of the Order in in developing Ontario’s wine industry as well as recognition of his conservation initiatives for birds attracting tourists to the Niagara Peninsula reas well as his leadership in protecting natural habi- gion. He is the president and founding partner of Cave Spring Vineyard. tats.

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U of T Libraries to unveil updated search platform after 18 years

New system will centralize search features, hopes to make usage easier Joy Chan Varsity Contributor

After 18 years of using the current search system, U of T Libraries will introduce an updated system later this month that hopes to make experiences easier, more intuitive, and more streamlined. The new LibrarySearch system will combine different search areas into one, allow users to save previous searches, and organize saved materials, among other features.

Motivation behind the update In an email to The Varsity, University Chief Librarian Larry Alford wrote that “The transition to the University of Toronto Libraries’ new library services platform (LSP) has been in the works for almost four years.” During this time, a team of library staff members and library migration experts from Ex Libris, a company that helps develop library systems, have been working to make the transition to the new system possible.

According to Alford, this transition is “a significant undertaking and requires the cooperation of staff from across [the] library system.” He could not disclose how much the new update cost, citing confidentiality reasons.

Alford explained that when the current system

was first adopted nearly two decades ago, the library collection was primarily made up of physical formats and print copies of books, but has since diversified, and now includes electronic and digital assets as well. However, with this diversification, there is a need for a new system to “improve searching and access of both print and electronic resources,” he wrote.

Alford believes that the new services platform for the library will provide better management of all library materials, as well as better analytics that will allow U of T libraries to better “support current and anticipated research and teaching needs.”

Features of the update For users, the new update brings a LibrarySearch discovery system that will allow for an integrated search experience. The previous system had article searching, the library catalogue, and library accounts all on different platforms, while the new system has all of these on the same platform.

According to Alford, users have remarked that the new interface was “intuitive, easy-to-use, and streamlined,” and they appreciated how easily they could access and check everything in one place.

The new search experience also comes equipped with new, advanced features for “precise and efficient searching” that provides more relevant re-

U of T Libraries is updating its search system to improve searching capabilities.

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sults, including filters for navigation. Users will now also be able to save search results, favourite items, and export citations. Overall, the user experience has become far more personalizable.

Users who participated in the initial rounds of user testing for LibrarySearch gave “overwhelmingly positive” feedback and enjoyed the system. Not only was the system update useful, but it was also in line with other common digital interfaces users come across, allowing

for a smooth and seamless transition for most users. Rounds of feedback also showed that even new users with limited experience “were able to quickly learn how to use the interface and perform most research-related tasks successfully,” wrote Alford.

He continued that while the system is not finalized yet, the team members “will continue to iteratively improve the system as [they] receive more feedback from users.”

A guide to UTSC’s new 2021–2022 course offerings

Courses were approved at January’s UTSC Academic Affairs Committee meeting Alexa DiFrancesco UTSC Bureau Chief

The UTSC Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) held its third meeting of the academic year on January 13, during which members approved numerous new course offerings from the humanities, social sciences, and science disciplines. All new courses will be introduced at UTSC during the 2021–2022 academic year.

Humanities The Department of Historical and Cultural Studies will introduce the highest number of new courses

from all the humanities disciplines at UTSC, with eight new course offerings, including five new history- and geography-focused classes.

A new B-level course, GASB65 —West Asia and the Modern World, will explore the Middle East’s social, cultural, and intellectual history as an outcome of exchange with non-European regions like Asia.

The two new C-level classes, GASC73 — Making the Global South and GASC12 — Culture and Society in Contemporary South Asia, will explore the history of the Global South and focus on issues in the ethnographic study of contemporary South Asia, taking into consideration factors including gender, religion, and so forth, respectively.

The UTSC Academic Affairs Committee met on January 13.

JAYRA ALMANZOR/THEVARSITY

Cont’d. from cover After that contract ended, Simmons accepted a work offer for the fall semester. She was told that she had to perform various tasks before her contract had been finalized. “I trusted that I would be paid once the contract came in,” she wrote in an email to The Varsity.

Simmons ended up performing unpaid tasks for three months before the contract came in. “The contract kept being delayed… [and] the amount I was owed was almost as much as my monthly rent.”

“I absolutely think there’s a misconception that graduate students aren’t in need of stable employ-

ment, professional development, health benefits, and paid sick days,” Simmons wrote. “Like so many at U of T, I depend on every paycheck that comes in to pay for my tuition, rent, groceries, and supporting my family.”

While unions such as USW 1998 represent many casual workers at U of T, some remain non-unionized. Taylor*, a fitness instructor, is one such worker.

Like other casual workers, she does not have paid sick days and works on a contract-to-contract basis.

Taylor has found that with rising Toronto rent prices, the stipend she receives for her graduate studies is no longer sufficient to cover living expenses.

GASD55 — Transnational Asian Thought is a Dlevel course that will study secularism, modernity, and pan-Asianism in modern Asia through an intensive look at primary and secondary sources in translation.

Lastly, the D-level seminar, HISD03 — Selected Topics in Historical Research will discuss advanced subject matter and research methods in history in relation to a selected topic.

UTSC will also offer three new English courses next year. A pre-1900 class, ENGB29 — Shakespeare and Film, will study Shakespearean film adaptations and discuss the role of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and colonialism displayed in these media.

ENGC31 — Medieval Travel Writing will explore both fictional and non-fictional travelogues. Finally, ENGD31 — Medieval Afterlives will explore the afterlife through a literary lens, studying medieval depictions of heaven, hell, and the afterlife.

Language studies will offer two new C-level courses next year: ECTC62 — Translation in Media, which will examine linguistic aspects of translation in both new and traditional media, and LINC98 — Supervised Research in Linguistics, a theoretical and empirical research opportunity that will build upon students’ proficiency and experience in any field of linguistics.

Lastly, UTSC will offer two new philosophy courses. PHLB58 — Reasoning Under Uncertainty will look at how decisions are made in the presence of uncertainty through topics such as induction, the nature of probability, and the process of scientific confirmation and refutation. The D-level seminar PHLD89 — The Socrates Project for Applied Ethics is a full-year course that provides experiential learning in philosophy along with a teaching assignment to lead tutorials and mark assignments in a Blevel philosophy class.

Social science and science Multiple disciplines at UTSC will offer new social science courses, including three new critical development studies courses. COPB33 — Passport to Placement III will be an international development studies co-op B-level class that will use students’ skill sets and interests to prepare them for their work-term placements. Another B-level course, IDSB07 — Confronting Development’s Racist Past and Present, will teach students about the role race and racism plays in global development of thought and practice IDSC21 — Power and Community-Based Research in Development is a D-level course that will introduce students to the history and ethics of community-based research in development, while ANTC12 — Culture and Society in Contemporary South Asia is a C-level anthropology course that will explore issues in the ethnographic study of South Asia.

A new C-level Human geography course, GGRC15 — Spatial Databases and Applications, will focus on relational database management systems, specifically in relation to spatial data, and relationships and operations.

A D-level political science course, PPGD68 — Capstone: The Policy Process in Theory and Practice, will study how evidence and political consideration are used in the policy process through stages such as agenda-setting, formulation, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation.

The only new science offering will be a C-level psychology course, PSYC38 — Adult Psychopathology. This class will provide an “advanced understanding of the etiology, psychopathology, and treatment of common mental disorders in adults.”

She works as a fitness instructor to “supplement” her stipend and to cover “essential expenses like rent and groceries.”

“I would definitely describe my work as precarious,” Taylor wrote to The Varsity in an email. “I can only confidently expect to be employed for a few months at a time.”

She conceded, “I guess in some ways I’ve accepted the precariousness of my work,” adding, “I think a union could be more beneficial.”

According to Simmons, many students have, like Taylor, accepted the precariousness of their jobs.

“We’re living in an economic moment where job pre-

carity is the norm,” she wrote. “I love working at U of T and supporting my home institution, but many times I’ve felt pressure to be a ‘good sport’ about really overt job precarity. Many times, I’d like to speak up and draw firmer boundaries, but then I worry that my contracts will dry up or my hours will be reduced.”

Simmons added, “No individual should face employment precarity where they’re unsure how much will be on their next paycheck… irrespective of their stage in life.” *Name has been changed due to fear of retribution from her employer.

Business & Labour

January 18, 2021 var.st/business biz@thevarsity.ca

Royal Bank of Canada invests $250,000 into Rotman sustainable finance education

Partnership focuses on promoting environmentalism in MBA studies Spencer Y. Ki Business & Labour Editor

On December 7, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) pledged an additional $250,000 to U of T’s Rotman School of Management to support the Sustainable Finance Project for Students. The pledge follows a successful first year for the project, which the RBC also funded. The purpose of the project is to provide Rotman Master of Business Administration (MBA) students with new extracurricular and curriculum opportunities to integrate sustainability education into their studies.

The new funds will be dispersed over three years, building upon $75,000 that the RBC had already invested on December 16, 2019 to initiate the project’s pilot year. The pilot was organized by the Rotman School’s Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship, which will continue to administer the new investment.

A successful trial A number of programs were initiated under the umbrella of the sustainable finance project in its first year. The MBA course calendar was expanded to include a dedicated course on sustainable finance instructed by associate professors of finance Jan MahrtSmith and Mikhail Simutin.

The project also funded extracurricular activities, including a flagship Sustainable Finance Week, which featured networking opportunities

and research roundtable discussions. Student-led events related to environmentalism in business were also funded, such as the Rotman Sustainability Conference, led by the Rotman Net Impact student group.

A final pillar of the project was the creation of the Sustain-

able Finance Case Competition, which challenged MBA students to create an eco-friendly investment plan for a $1 billion portfolio.

Participants included 19 students from Rotman, Western University’s Ivey School of Business, McGill University, York University’s Schulich School of Business, and Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business. A team of five Rotman students ultimately took the top prize, winning a monetary award and interview opportunities with RBC. “We’ve been exploring sustainable finance - ways to align the capital markets with ethical, socially and environmentally responsible objectives - for some time,” wrote Rod Lohin, Executive Director of the Lee-Chin Institute, in an email to The Varsity. “The pilot Sustainable Finance Project last year allowed us to amp up our work in the area, with a number of events across the year, highlighted in a Sustainable Finance Week.”

ISABELLA TAN/THEVARSITY

With trials ahead Going forward, the Lee-Chin Institute is looking to build on its initial successes by re-hosting its popular offerings from last year. Sustainable Finance Week 2021 is already

Dryzzle Media: former UTSC business student founds ‘culinary Spotify’

Mix a cup of recipes, two cups of podcasts, and a cup of representation Andrew Yang Ki Varsity Contributor

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, former U of T student Anush Mahindhan witnessed the rise in popularity of both culinary media and podcast consumption — and consequently tried to synthesize the two. Now, as a founder and chief executive officer of Dryzzle Media, Mahindhan collates original recipes from diverse culinary talents to deliver through audio on a new app.

A chef in your ear Founded in April, Dryzzle markets itself to its target Gen Z and millennial demographic as a “mobile-first” app that’s a cross between the Food Network and Spotify. It aims to provide an array of original recipes in podcast format to audiences while providing its cast of culinary hosts compensation based on their number of free, advertisement-funded listeners and paid subscribers.

Mahindhan seeks to avoid what he thinks are the drawbacks of traditional food media, writing that words and pictures can be inconvenient and boring to audiences in kitchens. “You don’t always need a continuous visual of something to learn that thing,” wrote Mahindhan in an email to The Varsity. “With traditional food media, it feels like you are learning from an instructor rather than learning from a friend, so it lacked that intimacy and engagement.”

In an effort to improve on this, Mahindhan wants Dryzzle “to build a brand that [is] centered around our hosts, their voices,

and their stories.” In a later interview with The Varsity, Mahindhan described using Dryzzle as a “chef-in-your-ear experience.”

Better representation in food Beyond the novelty of the medium, the Dryzzle team also seeks to evolve culinary media in a more progressive direction. “Highlighting food media, and the lack of diversity in food media, is definitely something that we want to disrupt,” Mahindhan said. “Food media right now is very Western-centric and does not showcase… the current demographic.

It does not [bring] to light [Black, Indigenous, and people of colour] members. So, in a sense, Dryzzle is

also aimed at solving that issue as well.”

Kenzie Osborne, Dryzzle’s chief culinary officer, grew up with anorexia and uses Take the F Out of Fast Food, her series on the platform, to tackle her “biggest food fears.”

“Prior to finding Dryzzle, I was reaching out to… some pretty big food writers in the industry, and I was actually being told to not talk about my mental illness in the fear that it would turn people away,” she said in an interview with The Varsity. “When I revealed to the other co-founders of Dryzzle that I had a mental illness and that I was sharing it on my blog, they were immediately ready to start this series with me.”

scheduled for late February, which will once again include a case competition for MBA students.

Additionally, a new course on the relationship between sustainable finance and behavioural finance will be developed and offered to MBA students. Plans also include educational opportunities on how finance can address societal upheavals beyond those posed by the climate crisis, such as those posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“RBC’s commitment over the next 3 years is well placed and timely, as we are seeing increased demand from both students and employers for sustainable finance educational and experiential activities,” wrote Lohin. “This year we’ve been able to bring on more curriculum, more events, and do even more with students, industry professionals and scholars.”

The future of finance is eco-friendly The relationship between financial markets and the environment is rapidly evolving with businesses having to adapt to the climate crisis being a cornerstone of public consciousness.

“Climate-smart innovations are no longer marginal alternatives - they are becoming a massive global market opportunity yielding quality jobs,” reads the Canadian government’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance in its 2019 report. “With these shifts, sound environmental stewardship is increasingly intersecting with market access and becoming a critical source of sustained competitive advantage.”

“There’s been a huge shift in the capital markets towards ‘sustainable finance’ - to manage environmental and social risks and seek new opportunities,” stated Professor Kenneth Corts, Interim Dean of the Rotman School of Management, in the December 7 press release by Rotman and RBC. “Working with RBC, we’re preparing the next generation to be ready for this shift.”

The RBC has pledged to invest $100 billion to sustainable finance efforts by 2025.

Local origins Mahindhan began his entrepreneurial journey as a student in the co-op Bachelor of Business Administration program at UTSC. He left the program in his third year to pursue an offer of fulltime employment at Honda Canada following his third co-op term. He credits his educational background at U of T and the extensive work experience it led to since these factors gave him the skills to co-found a company during a pandemic.

“I can surely say that U of T faculty, resources, and the programs provided at the university significantly helped me start my career as an entrepreneur,” Mahindhan wrote. “The Co-op program which I was part of significantly contributed to my spark in being an entrepreneur.”

Drawing on his career experience, Mahindhan had some advice for current business students. “I think a lot of business graduates, they’re taught a very singular path… ‘Once I graduate, I will work for a big firm,’ ” he said. “I would always say to the aspiring students who are coming into U of T… please take advantage of all the resources you have. Experience anything you can; don’t settle on something right away just yet because there may be something that you enjoy, possibly later on.”

Kenzie Osborne, Anush Mahindhan, Kelly Seo, and Charlie Wang are the founders and executive team behind Dryzzle Media.

COURTESY OF DRYZZLE MEDIA

Future plans So what does the future hold for Dryzzle Media? Going into 2021, Mahindhan wrote that the startup will be pursuing investment opportunities in the spring, having already secured partnerships and sponsorships with local food companies Udderly Ridiculous, RT Brewing, and Firecracker Pepper Company.

Internally, the company is also augmenting its executive team and working to update its app with licensed third-party content by the spring. Mahindhan hopes that these changes will help attract advertisers and investors.

Dryzzle is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Comment

January 18, 2021 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

U of T must partake in an Indigenous-centric climate plan

Alex Levesque Columnist

The university must address the intersectional implications of the global crisis

Investing to Address Climate Change, a supposedly ‘landmark’ charter that the University of Toronto, among other Canadian universities, has signed, aims to adopt more responsible methods for investing in the fossil fuel industry. While the charter projects an eco-conscious image, it fails to effectively address the intersectional impacts of the climate crisis — notably, how universities’ affiliations with fossil fuel investment associate them with an industry that actively discriminates against Indigenous communities in Canada.

According to the Human Rights Watch, Indigenous communities in Canada are at a higher risk of suffering from COVID-19. This is due to systemic inequalities embedded within Canadian society, inequalities that include the climate-related food insecurity also being faced by Indig-

enous communities. The fight against the climate crisis is inseparable from the fight for Indigenous rights.

U of T is not exempt from this struggle, as the discussion of the university’s investments within the fossil fuel industry has been a topic of heated debate for some time now. To guide its future investment endeavours, U of T has claimed that it will comply with the Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI), a United Nations-supported organization developed in 2005. PRI has two aims: to understand environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment factors, and to extend these factors to its investor signatories.

PRI’s official statement reads, “[PRI believes] that an economically efficient, sustainable global financial system is a necessity for long-term value creation. Such a system will reward long-term, responsible investment, and benefit the environment and society as a whole.”

EVELYN HAYES/THEVARSITY

Notice that one of PRI’s goals is to create an economy that benefits “society.” An approach that truly benefits society should advocate for an intersectional approach to the climate crisis, understanding that its impacts exist outside of the economic dimension. However, it is unclear whether U of T understands the importance of this intersectionality.

At the virtual discussion about the charter, U of T President Meric Gertler said that the charter “acknowledges the reality of climate change.”

However, which reality is Gertler referring to?

Does he consider the Indigenous reality of the climate crisis?

Unfortunately, just like the charter itself, Gertler did not touch upon how U of T will ensure that its investments recognize Indigenous rights and land ownership. Specifically, Gertler did not touch upon how the university’s financial support of the fossil fuel industry, which indirectly involves them in development projects, will protect Indigenous peoples from the climate crisis’ impacts.

At the discussion, Elisabeth DeMarco, an environmental lawyer, asked questions revolving around the risks of the climate crisis to companies and institutions. Gertler, in response to a question from DeMarco, discussed the impact of the climate crisis on manufacturing operations, transportation, and the economy as a whole.

By choosing not to discuss the unfair relationship between the fossil fuel industry and Indigenous communities, U of T illustrated that it is only concerned about money.

The United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that Indigenous peoples need to give free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) in circumstances where the government wishes to exploit their land. Yet, despite FPIC requirements being recognized by the Canadian government, corporations continue to develop projects that violate Indigenous rights.

One example is the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, a planned 670-kilometre natural gas pipeline. Despite 20 First Nations band councils approving its construction, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs

oppose the Canadian government trespassing on their unceded territory. In this sense, while Indigenous peoples were consulted prior to its construction, it ignored Indigenous law by not fulfilling its obligation to meet with hereditary chiefs.

By continuing to support industries that infringe on the rights of Indigenous peoples, U of T, along with the charter’s other signatories, is not complying with PRI’s social ethics, nor its own commitments to fight against the climate crisis.

The crisis disproportionately impacts Indigenous lives; this is a fact. A Human Rights Watch report illustrated one of its many impacts: due to tumultuous weather events impacting food supply, Indigenous communities in northern Ontario are currently struggling to maintain a healthy diet.

Katharina Rall, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, characterized the apparent environmental discrimination perfectly when she said that “[Indigenous people] are on the front lines of climate change” in an interview with the Thomas Reuters Foundation.

In the charter discussion, DeMarco remarked that U of T is leaning toward “action, not dogma.”

However, by choosing to approach the climate crisis solely through the lens of fossil fuel investment, the university put the Indigenous reality on the backburner. Consequently, any promises it makes are inconsequential and illusory.

U of T’s decision to sign the charter is agreeable to an extent. After all, the charter will mean that U of T incorporates ESG factors into its investment decision-making. However, while the charter demonstrates an awareness of the climate crisis, U of T needs to stop watching the crisis from its ivory tower and interact with the realities on the ground.

By not having an inclusive discussion on investments, the charter is in no way a significant turning point in the fight against the climate crisis.

Alex Levesque is a second-year social sciences student at University College. He is the comment section’s climate crisis columnist.

We must tackle U of T’s competitive campus culture Reflecting on stress, loneliness, and mental health Janine Alhadidi Varsity Contributor

Before applying to the University of Toronto, I was warned about the university’s competitive nature by my counsellors. As the top university in Canada and one of the top 20 postsecondary institutions in the world according to rankings by Times Higher Education, I did not find this surprising. It was only until I started my first year that my understanding of U of T’s competitive campus culture and its stressful implications began to take form.

I distinctly remember a small orientation session I attended that was facilitated by members of my college. After a warm welcoming session, they told us to look to our right and then to our left, that some of us will make pointing out

it to the end of our degrees, while others would not.

This advanced the notion that only part of the student body would succeed at U of T, that some would not be able to endure the academic rigour that the university demands. This was also followed by a warning that loneliness would be the worst enemy that students would encounter during their time at the university, and the only way to combat this would be to seek help from mental health professionals at the Health & Wellness Centre and to remain engaged with other students to avoid being alone.

Right off the bat, the fear of ‘not making it’ at this university felt like a heavy burden I continuously carried on my shoulders,

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one that has lingered throughout my entire undergraduate education. This fear, coupled with loneliness, has unfortunately not only become part of my story as a U of T student but has also become shared experiences amongst students from different departments and faculties. COVID-19 has only exacerbated these issues, and students are now finding it harder than ever to connect with one another.

U of T’s competitive culture is very real and pervasive — however, it is also multi-dimensional. It echoes through the university’s constant commitment to excellence and its growing mental health crisis. The insidious nature of campus culture is unlike other measurable parts of the student experience; it’s hard to decipher but intensely felt. It is the announcement from professors that grades will be curved down to preserve the program’s reputation of being difficult and, ultimately, the university’s reputation of being competitive.

In an interview with The Varsity regarding grade inflation, anonymous teaching assistants (TAs) were asked what they thought about grading policies at U of T. They claimed that they felt a pressure when grading to maintain an average for the class — propelling students who were excelling in the course or performing poorly in the course closer to the average. One claimed, “The sense that I got is that the university enforces an average for all the courses, so you can’t have too many As.”

The same anonymous TA recalled a time when she was alerted that she had been grading too highly and was therefore encouraged to grade more harshly. On the other hand, she was also told in some cases to increase marks for students who had not completed assignments.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that every student comes to the university with varying struggles and perspectives, and to directly claim that all students share the same experience would be erroneous. Many students thrive under this competitive culture, as it also means being surrounded by people who are passionate about the same things you are, who share similar goals and dreams.

However, others find it frustrating and draining, and as we deal with our current mental health crisis, we need to create an environment in which students can reframe success for themselves. In order to do this, we need to address chasms in our institution that allow this campus culture to prevail.

Janine AlHadidi is a fourth-year political science and diaspora and transnational studies student at St. Michael ’s College.

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White supremacy must be fought, not free speech Campuses should avoid deplatforming in the struggle against hate

FIONA TUNG/THEVARSITY

Sheldon Stern Varsity Contributor

Images and videos of the recent attack on the United States Capitol by pro-Donald Trump rioters have sent shockwaves across the world, prompting leaders from within the United States as well as scores of foreign dignitaries to speak out against the violence.

But to those of us looking in from the outside, we should not be content with passively viewing these events as isolated American problems. A wave of far-right nationalist political movements has been seen taking root across the globe in countries like France, Germany, and Poland.

Not even our stereotypically friendly and inclusive country has been spared from these problems; in fact, if Canadians take a closer look at some of the images from the Capitol siege, they may also find cause to reflect. That is because front and centre among the rioters were the Proud Boys, a group that was recently discovered to be involved in the riot’s planning and that — despite their excessively American garb — was actually started by a Canadian.

The group’s involvement in the incident has now sparked debate within our government whether or not to designate them as a terrorist organization, joining the likes of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram. The Proud Boys would not be the first farright extremist group to which the government has given this designation. As of 2019, the federal government has designated two far-right groups as terrorist entities: Blood & Honour and Combat 18.

With all this in mind, when Canadians look at the recent events in Washington D.C., the lesson we must take away is that the problem of far-right agitators and white supremacy does not stop at our southern border, and that it’s not a uniquely American issue. Acknowledging the existence of this problem here in Canada is just the first step. What can be done to help stem this far-right tide?

While we can certainly wait for the government to take action as it is currently considering doing, postsecondary institutions can also take responsibility in the fight against white supremacy. At U of T, we have seen advertisements on campus from white nationalist groups.

However, we must venture down this path with extreme caution to avoid attempting to solve one

threat to our nation’s democracy by creating another.

If universities are to navigate these issues successfully, they must carefully balance the need to combat white supremacy with the importance of ensuring the measures they take do not harm one of our fundamental freedoms: free expression.

This debate is currently heating up in the US as social media sites have begun suppressing conservative discourse they feel violates their policies against hate speech and the incitement of violence. To best achieve this equilibrium between free speech and combatting white supremacy, universities should draw upon their history as bastions of liberal activism to orient themselves correctly.

We can look back to the prototypical university movement that kicked off the student activism of the 1960s, which defined that decade and influenced a high degree of subsequent student activism whose impact is still felt on university campuses today.

This was the Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkeley. This example is so important to examine because, when compared to the free speech debates being held on campuses today, it clearly shows the dramatic shift that has

taken place in student activism on the subject.

In the 1960s, free speech activists at Berkley protested to remove barriers to free speech and academic freedom following attempts by the university to quell rumours that the campus was welcoming to left-leaning radicals by no longer permitting students to participate in political activities on campus.

Six decades later, student activists can be found protesting against the free exchange of ideas and for the suppression of beliefs that differ from their own.

Campuses across the US have protested against the arrival of speakers who do not share their opinions and values, trying to force the cancellation of the speaking event or prevent them from voicing their views. We here at U of T have first-hand experience with this phenomenon.

One must only look back to the Jordan Peterson controversy a few years ago. Peterson’s views on transgender pronouns and political correctness were faced with student efforts to silence him or, if that was not possible, to make enough noise to drown out his dissenting viewpoints. However, this ‘deplatforming’ only served to further popularize Peterson, including within far-right groups.

Going back to the role postsecondary institutions can play in the fight against far-right extremism and white supremacy, universities can and should be a part of the solution. Students should protest real hate speech and racism. School administrators should denounce this speech when it appears, and if it truly meets the school’s standards of discrimination or harassment, they should then intervene.

But if this is not done judiciously — that is, if the current mindset of ‘deplatforming’ is used in the fight against hate speech, it could silence far more valuable and legitimate opinions than hateful ones.

This is only the immediate harm; in the long term, the mostly conservative voices being silenced will feel the effects of censorship and the loss of their freedom of expression. A likely outcome could be the further radicalization of people who believe they’ve had their beliefs suppressed.

This is a grave danger; the foundation of our democracy is that we use speech to solve the problems we face collectively. If this is taken away, conflicts and disagreements may no longer be resolved verbally.

If these trends continue in the same direction, I fear that universities, once the safe haven for controversial debates and ideas, will see a dismantling and, quite possibly, a fatal weakening of our free speech and academic freedom protections — ironically, at the hands of the same lineage of student activists who fought for their implementation not too long ago.

Sheldon Stern is a third-year political science and history student at Innis College.

U of T should offer a better synchronous-asynchronous balance to international students Prisha Nuckchady Varsity Contributor

Examination standards need to be sensitive to other time zones

Evidently, COVID-19 has had negative impacts on postsecondary education. The fall semester has not been an easy ride for students.

In-person classes moved online, the second wave hit, and lockdowns have been rough for many of us.

The winter and summer sessions of 2020 provided opportunities for schools to learn lessons that would have made the fall semester easier.

However, in November, 62 per cent of university students surveyed by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations indicated that the pandemic has had a significant negative impact on the quality of education.

Professors and teaching assistants often ask, “How are you?” during class. In my experience, the most common response, by far, has always been “tired.” Some refer to this as Zoom fatigue.

This fatigue — being one of the major drawbacks of online education — as well as lockdowns and quarantines have led to burnout. The lack of human interaction, especially peer-topeer interaction, has made it hard to actually enjoy this semester.

As an international student in my first year,

I find making new friends online to be difficult and mentally strenuous. The transition from high school to university is daunting as is, and the lack of interaction between students in online classes makes it even harder.

In fall 2020, some of my lectures were synchronous, so as an international student, the main issue I faced was the time zone difference.

As a morning person, I feel most productive and ready to tackle academic tasks in the morning. However, my latest synchronous lecture was at midnight.

At such late hours, it can be very hard to focus on academics and retain information, making academic learning harder for some students in different time zones. Recording the synchronous lecture so that students from other countries can access it at a more convenient time — as some professors do — would solve this problem.

However, watching recorded lectures is not the same as attending them live since you can’t ask questions. Also, given the rise of ‘burnout,’ it is hard to actually commit to watching the recordings. Moreover, although not all my classes were at terribly late hours, some of my exams were.

I had tests scheduled from 12:00–2:00 am

and an exam from 2:00–5:00 am. However, while I’m taking classes from Mauritius, an island with a nine-hour time difference from Toronto, students from other countries, like China for example, would have it even worse. The university cannot expect students from those time zones to perform at their academic best under those circumstances.

In winter 2021, I hope that more asynchronous components are available. Personally, I would rather have a mixture of both asynchronous and synchronous components for courses, since synchronous components are helpful in that they enable us to ask questions and discuss questions more in depth with our peers, whereas asynchronous components allow for better accommodations regarding time differences.

Another change would be to make tests available for 24 hours or so, allowing international students to take them at a time that’s convenient for them. This way, students in different time zones would not be disadvantaged and would be given a better chance to achieve academic success.

I believe that this term will still have its challenges, but we need to learn lessons from the previous semesters and be better prepared.

We must develop our own coping strategies,

as there is no singular solution that works for everyone. Taking into consideration everyone’s unique needs and securing a foundation where interacting with our peers and professors is a priority is simply one possibility.

Prisha Nuckchady is a first-year arts and sciences student at UTM.

Time zone differences can hinder sleep and performance.

KELLSY ANN MENESES/THEVARSITY

var.st/comment

JANUARY 18, 2021

9

WHEMS is a necessary champion for women’s health

The importance of empowerment, self-awareness of well-being during the pandemic Emma Paidra Varsity Contributor

Women are currently on the frontlines of the fight against the pandemic, being at a higher risk of infection since nursing, residential care, and home care staff are predominantly women.

Among this exposure, it is critical for women to be well informed about their mental and physical well-being. Women’s Health Education Made Simple (WHEMS), an initiative aimed at informing women on medical issues, is fulfi lling that need in many necessary ways.

Founded by Modupe Tunde-Byass, Tanzila Basrin, and Salwa Farooqi, a trio that includes an assistant professor and a medical student from U of T, WHEMS is pursuing a mission that has long been neglected: enabling women to discuss and seek answers relevant to their health. Ultimately, this organization allows women to better grasp their mental and physical well-being.

Since its founding this summer, WHEMS’ roster has grown significantly. Initially composed of the three founders, this women’s health initiative is now composed of an all-women volunteer team of medical students, physicians, and allied health members.

While ensuring women have access to credible information regarding their well-being is always important, it is particularly salient in times of isolation and anxiety. Among the health care inequities that the pandemic has highlighted, the WHEMS founders saw the need for increased access to a women’s health resource during the pandemic. However, poorer health among women has been an issue since well before COVID-19.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the selfperceived mental health of women has declined.

In 2018, 66 per cent of women assessed their own mental health as excellent or very good, whereas in the fi rst wave of the pandemic, this number declined to 49 per cent. In both cases, between five to 10 per cent more men reported excellent or very good mental health. These deviations are not specific to the pandemic.

A 2018 study from the Public Health Agency of Canada confi rmed that, in general, Canadian women experience poor health for a greater proportion of their lives than men. In acknowledging the existence of a long withstanding health

care bias impacting women, the resources offered by WHEMS are, without a doubt, a necessary step forward for women’s health.

WHEMS’ website design feels approachable, and the fact that WHEMS is a space created by women, for women adds to the openness and inclusivity of this organization, which in turn helps normalize matters surrounding women’s well-being.

From blogs to a YouTube video series and a colourful Instagram account, WHEMS is uniquely accessible. But better yet, each of these media outlets affi liated with WHEMS focuses on, of course, components of women’s health.

It’s not often that I stumble upon bright, wellanimated videos discussing subjects like contraceptives and menstruation. It’s thanks to resources like these that WHEMS makes having a period feel empowering.

WHEMS also pays special attention to myth-busting ‘facts’ on women’s health, reshaping the depiction of women’s well-being.

One particular myth is that having a baby is always a joyous occasion for all mothers. In a time when new mothers will be spending the vast majority of their time at home with their newborns without much outside socialization, it is critical that they understand the reality of postpartum life.

WHEMS works to give new mothers access to information pertaining to postpartum experiences, ensuring they are not doubly isolated by the pandemic and the dizzying experience of new motherhood. In order to accomplish this goal, the WHEMS Mental Health Series provides a segment on postpartum health. Th is segment is but one example of the myriad of ways in which WHEMS combats myths related to women’s health, empowering women with facts about their own bodies and realities.

On top of myth-busting, WHEMS is also concerned with deconstructing stigmas surrounding women’s mental and physical health.

As remarked by McMaster University medical student and WHEMS Team Strategist and Content Creator Mehar Sasan, “the most baffl ing thing about stigma is that it puts a veil of shame around experiences that are usually quite common.” After all, it is stigma that is responsible for the creation of negative connotations surrounding women’s reproductive health, which are then internalized by women.

Women who view their health through a lens of reproductive and menstrual shame are less likely to raise concern when they may be experiencing a health issue. Th is unfortunate phenomenon is even more worrying given the increased seclusion caused by the pandemic. By uplifting the importance of and normalizing women’s health education, WHEMS is changing the narrative surrounding women’s anatomy from one of shame to celebration.

WHEMS’ accessibility is even more valuable for women in difficult fi nancial situations, who are more inclined to face health-related obstacles. The organization’s Mental Health Video Series is easily accessed online and provides reliable information from health care professionals regarding many facets of women’s mental health. A couple of the video series dial in specifically on mental health issues that may have arisen due to the pandemic — a resource I am sure many of us would benefit from right now.

Due to an undying commitment to the women who WHEMS aims to serve, there is additionally a chat function on its website where users can ask personalized questions. Considering that the June 2019 average emergency room

wait time in Ontario is 16.3 hours, the ability to ask a simple, health-related question to an organization run by professionals is extremely useful. Of course, this chat function doesn’t replace an actual doctor’s visit, but it’s still handy in moments when non-urgent information is needed.

Using the powerful tool of education, WHEMS actively combats the destructive forces of stigma. In doing so, it makes sure that no woman is left behind due to fi nancial constraints. Every resource and tool that WHEMS makes use of is available at no cost on its website and social media platforms.

WHEMS is setting a new standard for women’s health care — and even health care in general. It’s exciting to see such a diverse group of women revamping the approach to mental and physical well-being, but it also makes sense; after having their health bombarded with misconceptions and stigmas, it’s time for women to take charge of their own health — and WHEMS is at the forefront of this mission.

Emma Paidra is a third-year English student at Victoria College.

PhotoCap.

PHOTOCRED/THE VARSITY

REBECA MOYA/THEVARSITY

Letter to the Editor: We need better union support for students Re: “U of T’s communication with prospective students needs to be better”

Sarit Radak Varsity Contributor

Last week, Valeria Yao wrote an opinion piece titled “U of T’s communication with prospective students needs to be better.” In their commentary on the role of the administration in helping students adjust to university life, Yao brought up a simple, yet obvious problem: U of T’s complex organizational structure can pose a barrier to new students.

It’s an issue that I suspect many of my peers have had to deal with at some point or another.

As an international student myself, I had a very tough time understanding how U of T’s various colleges, schools, faculties, and departments fit into the university’s structure, which includes “federated colleges.”

Though it may seem harmless, U of T’s obscene complexity can act as a real barrier to student success. Without an understanding of basic university structure, new students may not know where to seek help. Admission into many programs of study is often conditional on courses taken in first year.

As Yao pointed out, “students may not be well informed about specific requirements of the particular programs they plan on pursuing.”

Presently, the university administration seems to expect students to figure out their program requirements by themselves or proactively seek help.

Other elite North American universities assign advisors to new students instead of throwing them into the proverbial ‘deep end’ and waiting to see if they sink or swim. At Harvard University, first-year students are automatically assigned a “first-year advising team”; students at Cornell University can consult with an “advising dean.”

Practically speaking, the university is unlikely to drastically change how its advising system works. I say this based on the assumption that automatically assigning advisors to students is more expensive than the systems currently in place, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the realities of tight university budgets.

That being said, the problem still stands: the gap between new students and academic support needs to be bridged somehow. This role should be filled by the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), which offers many services that are typically undertaken by administrations at other elite North American universities, such as awarding need-based scholarships. Perhaps,

then, the UTSU can also provide the more than 38,000 students it represents with academic support as well.

Last year, the UTSU started its First Year Council: a group of first-year students tasked with advocating on behalf of their peers. One of the landmark accomplishments of last year’s council was The Handbook Project, a website aimed at helping first-year students understand how the university works and where to seek help.

In my view, this handbook is a far better resource for new students than anything the university administration has been able to put together.

Unfortunately, this year’s union executives have almost completely disregarded the handbook: I could not find it on UTSU’s website or on its Facebook page. Given the magnitude of the problem that it could help to solve, the UTSU’s handbook should be promoted much more aggressively by the UTSU and university administration alike.

Sarit Radak is a second-year molecular genetics student at University College. He served as the 2019–2020 life sciences director for the University of Toronto Students’ Union and currently serves on the Arts and Science Council as a full-time sciences student.

TROY LAWRENCE/THEVARSITY

10

THE VARSITY

FEATURES

Stranded: how a new travel rule almost blocked some U of T students from returning to Canada

Stephanie Bai Features Editor

For almost an hour, Kashi Syal stood in line for the help desk at Heathrow Airport in London, UK, waiting to reschedule her flight for the third time in the span of a week.

As a fourth-year U of T student specializing in English, Syal was trying to return to Canada for the beginning of winter semester, but she had been turned away from boarding her flight to Toronto at the airport’s checkin counter. She was then sent to a help desk manned by only two employees, as the line around her stretched for over 35 people.

Physical distancing measures were barely enforced as people clamoured to rebook the flights they had just been denied to board.

Passengers clutching suitcases looked tense.

A few were openly crying.

This was the scene on January 10 at Terminal 2 in Heathrow Airport, a hub for international flight departures and arrivals.

Although the rest of the once lively airport was a ghost town, the check-in area became ground zero for chaos and disarray as some passengers loudly fought with airline employees to board their flight.

“Everyone there is highly strung,” Syal said. “The people working seem anxious. Everyone is masked, and there’s just a massive sense of agitation everywhere.”

On December 30, the Canadian government had announced a new travel restriction.

Starting January 7, all international airline passengers on Canada-bound flights who are at least five years old must test negative for COVID-19 using a molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within 72 hours prior to takeoff.

A January 6 update to the rule allowed travellers to present results from Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) tests as well. It also extended the testing time window to 96 hours before departure from the Caribbean and South America, given the difficulties of accessing testing in those regions.

Officials have described Canada’s newest travel measure as another way to combat nonessential international travel as COVID-19 cases continue climbing in the country. But critics of this recent testing requirement say that the Canadian government’s implementation of the new rule is uneven and unclear at best, and classist at worst.

For some international students like Syal, returning to U of T in time for the new semester was an urgent priority because their Toronto apartments and rooms were sitting empty and time zone differences for classes have taken a toll on their mental health. But the new testing rule has led to mounting confusion, rising costs, and cancelled flights, creating unprecedented and towering barri-

ers for international students trying to return to U of T. According to Isabella Sell, a fourth-year U of T student from London specializing in English, the uncertainty surrounding her flight left her feeling stressed and isolated.

“Mentally, it’s just so exhausting… I just wanted either a government or a person or someone on the end of a phone to tell me… what exactly I needed to do,” Sell said. “No one knew anything.”

The staggering costs of testing Accessing a PCR or LAMP COVID-19 test is now an additional cost that passengers must bear to board a flight to Canada.

January 10 wasn’t Syal’s first attempt to return to Canada: by then, she’d already rescheduled two flights back to Toronto. After a new COVID-19 variant was found in London, the Canadian government banned all incoming flights from the UK until January 6, forcing Syal to reschedule her flight. When the new testing requirement was announced on December 30, Syal had to delay her flight again.

Syal eventually obtained a National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 test, but her result was rejected at check-in. The help desk employee told Syal that earlier that day that the Canadian government had told the airline that they would only accept private tests from UK passengers.

The Canadian government has not released an official statement about NHS tests, but according to Sell, NHS test results do not provide all of the information that the Canadian government requires. The Travel Canada website mandates that COVID-19 test results must show the traveler’s name and date of birth, the name and address of the laboratory conducting the test, the date it was administered, the type of test, and the result. NHS test results do not specify the lab or the type of test administered, so private tests are the only option for passengers departing from the UK. Meanwhile, the UK government’s website reads that those planning to leave the country cannot take NHS tests, but a traveller might not come across that information without intentionally looking for it.

As a result of these communication gaps, many travellers

may arrive at the airport unaware of the fine print of testing requirements. “I’ve not found one article that says NHS tests aren’t valid,” Syal said. “I can’t find that in writing anywhere. So how am I meant to know?”

The rejection of NHS tests has significant implications, as these tests are free while private tests are usually paid for out of pocket.

Syal had to reschedule her flight again and paid 99 pounds for a private test. “I think it’s incredibly classist that they’re making people pay for tests,” she said. “You don’t know the situation — you can’t assume that someone has money just because they’re flying abroad.”

Sell faced a similar situation when she tried to fly from London to Toronto. Her original flight was cancelled due to the December 23 travel ban — which extended an ongoing ban — thrusting her into a state of uncertainty and stress. By the time her flight was rescheduled for January 11, she was still unsure about which tests the Canadian gov-

ernment would accept.

“It was the lack of communication and lack of continuity between what the UK was saying and what Canada was saying,” Sell said. “I was left floundering in the middle.”

Sell had to rush to find a private testing facility before her flight on January 11. She recalled that most clinics in London were booked up until February, forcing her to take the most expensive private test she found. It ended up costing her 275 pounds.

“Private [COVID-19] tests are so expensive, and it’s so inaccessible to everyone after you’ve spent like hundreds of pounds on a flight,” Sell said. “It’s a crazy, crazy ask.”

Sell and Syal both understand why the new travel rule exists, but they believe it creates a punitive burden for students. “It’s great that they’re making travel such a headache, but… I think they should… give discretion to the people who have to,” Syal said. “I feel like I’m getting penalized for a commitment

features@thevarsity.ca

Cancelled flights, expensive COVID-19 tests, newly required enrolment documents

I made four years ago.”

Unclear requirements for international students New developments to travel rules have also altered the experience of travelling on a student visa. Dani Linder, a fourth-year anthropology and political science student, flew out of Mexico on January 8. For Linder, the greatest challenge she faced when trying to board was not paying the cost of testing, but rather having the necessary documents to prove that she should be allowed into Canada as a student.

According to Travel Canada’s website, international students entering Canada must have a valid study permit, be enrolled in a designated learning institute (DLI), and show proof that they can financially support themselves while in Canada. Since U of T is listed as a DLI, Linder did not expect any differences in documentation requirements

when she reached the check-in counter.

However, after checking her passport and student visa, the airline employee then asked if she was starting classes soon. When she told him that she was beginning classes on January 11, he told her that she could only board the flight with evidence that she was beginning university immediately.

“I showed him my schedule,” Linder said.

“And he was like, ‘This isn’t enough… I need more proof, like with a date stamp.’ ” After the airline employee rejected other enrolment documents, Linder was finally able to pull up an arbitrary email from a professor welcoming her to a course that would begin on January 12. Only then was she approved to fly.

Prior to the check-in process, Linder had not been informed about this new requirement. The official Canadian website does not explicitly state that, in order to board a flight, international students must prove

that they are immediately beginning studies.

U of T’s COVID-19 website simply makes a strong recommendation that students bring an updated enrolment letter.

Although Linder believes that the recent testing and travel rule change is crucial to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, she found that there was an overall lack of communication. According to Linder, the last update about travelling that she directly received was in October, when U of T sent an email about study permits and the new DLI system.

When The Varsity reached out to U of T for comment, a U of T spokesperson responded that the website was updated as soon as new information came out about international student entry requirements into Canada. In addition, the spokesperson wrote that students registered in the quarantine program are continuously updated with the latest government information.

However, Linder felt that the newest travel development is significant enough to warrant more widespread, direct communication from the university to students.

“From U of T’s part, I really wished they’d been more present, at least during this time, because obviously [the university knows] that people are travelling. I wish [U of T would] send a new email,” she said. “It definitely would have been helpful.”

REBECA MOYA/THEVARSITY

The emotional toll of travel barriers The consequences of not returning to U of T varies between students, but the overall takeaway is clear: for many, Toronto is home.

In the weeks leading up to her flight, Sell agonized over her travel requirements. Even after getting her private test, she still felt on edge.

“Even when I had the correct documents… I was just waiting for them to turn around and say, ‘You can’t come back,’ ” Sell said.

She found that, although she was afraid of not being able to physically return to Canada, the agitation she felt when preparing for a flight with vague instructions from the Canadian and UK governments loomed over her entire travel experience.

“The kind of toll that takes on you mentally was also a big

aspect of it,” Sell said. “You know, the idea of just not being able to go back to somewhere that… is kind of my home and is also a place of comfort for me.”

Sell was able to board her flight and return to Toronto, but she had to mull over the consequences if she had not been able to.

“Luckily, I mean, all my classes are online,” she said. “But there’s so many obstacles, including time difference.”

Back in December, Sell had finished her fall semester in London. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST), so a class from 6:00–9:00 pm EST translated to 11:00 pm to 2:00 am in her time zone. On top of this, she didn’t have many of her textbooks with her and some materials were not published in the UK so she needed friends to access them for her.

“I didn’t have any of the resources that I normally have,” she said. “School would have been significantly harder.”

Syal found herself in a similar situation when considering the possibility of spending the winter semester in London as well.

When she finished the fall term in London, her classes had ended at midnight.

“It was awful — I was so tired all the time,” Syal said. She found that the sleep deprivation caused by the time zone difference caused her mental health to decline, which compelled her to do everything to make her flight.

“I’m not willing to put my mental health at risk,” she said. “It’s not livable long term.”

Another concern Syal faced was the empty room she was paying for in Toronto. “I pay for my own rent,” she said. “I’m very aware that ‘x’ amount of money is leaving my account for a room that I’m not using.”

On the topic of her own rent, Syal added that if she hadn’t been able to return, she thought it would be unlikely that she could find a subletter on such short notice. “Thinking about not being able to get back… it was really stressful for me,” Sell said.

She still recalls the feeling when she finally landed in Pearson Airport in Toronto. “I remember I was just running through Pearson,” she said. It was roughly 1:30 am GMT for her, and after a long day of anxiously waiting in lines, she just wanted to go home.

When Sell arrived at her apartment, she immediately showered and went to give her roommate a hug. “I just started crying,” she said. “I felt exhausted; I felt stressed.” Being back in Toronto with her friends finally delivered her a sense of catharsis she had not felt for weeks.

“It was pure relief,” she said. “I couldn’t quite believe I’d managed to get back.”

Disclosure: Kashi Syal served as The Varsity’s Volume 139 and 140 Arts & Culture Editor and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Varsity Publications Inc.

Arts & Culture

January 18, 2021 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

ALEX DENHART/THEVARSITY

Working a close-contact job, tattoo artists persevere in a physically distant world Local perspectives on surviving and thriving during the pandemic

Charlotte Hood Varsity Staff

I got my first tattoo on my 19th birthday. I had known for a while that I wanted a piece of meaningful script and, after a heavily tattooed work friend recommended his artist at Black Widow Tattoo, I took the leap and skipped my afternoon lecture to finally get it done.

Black Widow made the experience comfortable, and the piece turned out exactly as I had hoped. Much to my father’s dismay, I became enthralled by Toronto’s tattoo industry and collected another seven pieces in the two years since.

Not only is tattooing a form of selfexpression, but it is also a form of self-care.

I, like many others, look forward to the day of each appointment with jittery excitement.

Each session becomes an excuse to take myself out for a meal, put my hectic schedule on pause, and rest.

Unfortunately, however, COVID-19 has put my tattoo plans on hold for much of the past year, and I am certainly not alone.

Municipal lockdowns closed the doors of tattoo shops in Toronto for much of 2020 and have left the industry wounded in its wake.

The provincial status of tattoo parlours as “Personal Service Settings” makes them some of the first businesses to close and the last to open.

B, the artist who — quite coincidentally — tattooed a small gothic “B” on my ankle in 2019, has worked seven months in the past

year when they usually work 11. Sleestak, the man behind two of my most recent additions, has worked only five. According to Black Widow, shops have been “forced to postpone months of appointments,” leaving both artists and customers at bay.

“Thankfully, our clients have been so understanding and patient,” wrote Jackson Trinh, the shop manager. “Unfortunately, bills aren’t as forgiving,” for Black Widow and independent artists alike.

While all businesses have felt the brunt of COVID-19 closures, tattoo shops and artists have faced some of the worst repercussions.

Yet, as I spoke with artists and shop owners, the mood was less somber than one might expect. Many have taken this time to work on themselves and find other artistic outlets.

“We tell ourselves all the time ‘lockdown doesn’t mean downtime,’ ” wrote Trinh. “As much as we’d like to get back to tattooing, being away from the shop has allowed us the time to sharpen our skillset. We’ve used this time to draw/paint new flash, explore different medias, and promote new artwork to our clients.”

The same goes for Sleestak, one of the minds behind the West Queen West independent studio, Grateful House. “I’ve had more time to do murals, canvases, tattoo family members that normally have to wait a long time. I’ve also done colabs [sic] with companies [designing] clothing, jewelry & home decor.”

Others have seen change in a more personal realm. “The time that COVID has given me to be with myself with no

obligation to work has benefited me in so many ways,” wrote B. “I was able to seek therapy, I am communicating more honestly and openly with my family, I’ve reconnected with friends... and my physical health has never been better. I am realizing how much of myself I give to work without any time to pause and reap the benefits of my labor.”

It may not be common knowledge to those outside of the industry, but tattoo artists work long, physically demanding hours on a regular basis to support their career. “[I’ve] more or less just focused on myself,” said artist Mr. Koo. The time away from work has allowed him to focus on more personal projects and take a pause from his 10-hour days.

Beyond its surface-level effects, this period of social turbulence has led many artists to stray from the conventional structure of the tattoo industry. “A number of shops in the city have been forced to close down, and more artists are opening private studios or leaving the industry altogether,” wrote B, who works out of a collective studio themself.

Sleestak had similar thoughts. “Private studios like mine have become more popular over the past few years and this pandemic will push more people in that direction for sure.”

As partial owner of a studio, Mr. Koo expressed concern about the opportunities for international artists to work amidst travel restrictions and closures. “We want to bring in foreign ideas, foreign designs that Toronto hasn’t seen yet but it’s difficult to do that while we can’t even open up.”

As for the customer experience, B noted that things are —thankfully — mostly the same. “I used to go for a handshake when a new client would arrive, or a hug if it’s a regular, but now opt for an awkwardly distanced hello and an air-hug… but otherwise interaction is normal.”

For those outside of the industry like myself, one question remains: how can we support local artists and tattoo shops when lockdowns have limited the opportunities to get a new piece? Everyone I spoke to seemed to be in consensus: social media engagement is the simplest and most meaningful way.

B recommended to “share their posts on your story, comment on their art, and like their pics!” However, Mr. Koo, whose fineline tattoos have garnered a considerable social media following, noted the difficulty of maintaining followers when he is not able to create new work.

If you have some extra income or a friend’s birthday is coming up, Black Widow recommends “purchasing [a shop or artist’s] merch, prints, and gift cards.” One of its resident artists, “Vince (@chenztattoo) released a series of custom tattooed lighters featuring floral and macabre designs done with single needle,” which is hands down the coolest merch that I have seen.

While the industry is suffering, artists appear to be making the most of these circumstances like we all are these days.

When asked his plans for the future, Sleestak responded, “Keep on keeping on.”

Simple, yet oddly insightful; his words are a good reminder for us all.

var.st/arts

JANUARY 18, 2021

13

The afternoon a psychic predicted my future to my non-believing father On literature and speaking with ghosts

Alexa DiFrancesco UTSC Bureau Chief

When I was six years old, my atheist father accompanied his eccentric sister on a visit to a psychic.

Such is a secret that he’s forbidden to disclose to my mother; as a firm believer in spirituality and being aware of my aunt’s frequent ventures, she’s resolute in maintaining an after-the-fact ignorance.

Consequently, nearly a decade and a half later, I am the sole person to share the depth of his secret; that on what should have been an ordinary afternoon, a fragile, elderly figure named Eleanor predicted to a non-believer that the dark-haired-girl he loved would gravitate toward language, so much so that she would experience great success regarding the subject as she matured. Eleanor has since converted him.

Not so much converted but influenced, my father

clarified to the now-adult version of said girl. I’d arrived home half an hour after curfew after heavily speeding and narrowly avoiding a police ticket. When the hallway light had turned on the instant I’d slipped in the doorway, I’d assumed he would confiscate my keys. Instead, he’d followed me to our living room without taking the keys from their hook.

My father has always been my best friend. While to some, it’s a prodding discomfort to hear a parent admit their humanity, our abstract conversations are the aspect of our relationship I cherish most.

And so I listened, like routine, to additional details the woman had correctly predicted: that my father would be in a wedding party within five years, that we had bought a new car, that we would order the wrong French doors for our dining room.

My father is a scientific man; he rationed his belief by the truth that time slows once in space, and explained to me the proof that scientists set four atomic clocks flying in different directions, their resulting differences consistent with special and general relativity. He thinks that, for every Charleston, there are psychics born with an ability to touch the forthcoming, to transcend and pivot into patterns of time that most are unable to uncover.

Exactly one week ago, I had a similar conversation with a man I’d met earlier within the day. We lay in his bed, engrossed in a series of questions that I, in reflection, regard as invasive for two people who’d first spoken mere hours ago. When it was my turn to post a meddling prompt, I’d asked whether or not he believed in ghosts.

I’d meant the typical, terrifying kind, the headless kind that my grandmother once swore she’d caught a glimpse of as a child. He was a physics student; I was certain he would immediately disregard any proof of a supernatural phenomenon. Instead, he’d confirmed

my belief of ghosts wholeheartedly, insisting the normalcy of speaking to one in a response that resembled something Carl Sagan would say: Books are ghosts; I listen to the stories and thoughts of a person who died thousands of years ago as vividly as if they were next to me.

Books are a way of transcending our limited lives — just a hint of immortality, the author’s hope of not being forgotten.

Only then was it apparent to me just how similar he was to my father, though it should have been overt from his bookshelf of non-fiction literature and homemade whiteboard. But, as my thoughts’ ambiance became the literature of his family’s inconceivable stories, I felt a tangible weight to his interpretation.

Admittedly, I’d originally planned to abandon my growing self-awareness for the new year. In a feeble attempt to do so, I’d planned a date with a friend. I’d planned to smoke weed. I’d planned to get a tattoo.

I’d planned to live freely and selfishly.

As someone who’d gravitated toward reading from a young age, as someone who’d chosen to foster that gravitation toward postsecondary study, my unwavering ability to understand stories has left me overanalyzing my actions. Just as I’d spent my childhood urging that instinct, through reckless action, I was urging its release. I still want my tattoo.

I yearn to understand, to control. It’s futile.

There will always be knowledge I won’t be able to refine. There will be literature I won’t be able to grasp. There will be ghosts that I’ll never speak to.

On the contrary, there are thoughts I do understand, but they travel so quickly through my mind that if I attempt to isolate one to study, it would evaporate, and I would instead face my mortality.

If I were to focus too much on what I cannot recognize, I would lose the knowledge I already have trying to find its answer. The thoughts would become dust. I will one day

Letting go of shuffling: the case for the radio A CIUT 89.5 FM contributor on why the airwaves are not relics of a pre-streaming era Janine Alhadidi Varsity Contributor

I could have with cool guests and varied selections of music that offer different soundscapes of the city that I could share.

One of the sources of comfort I’ve sought out Listening to the radio has always brought me a during lockdown is randomly scanning local radio great deal of comfort. Whether it is falling asleep stations at home. It makes me feel like I am someto the calm sonances of classical music at night how still on my morning commute or going home or waking up to the loud chatter of morning an- at late hours, and briefly, life is normal again.

Although I enjoy my fair share of podcasts, ranouncements and commercials, I am a die-hard dio has allowed me to let go of my ever-controlling radio fan through and through.

I have long dreamed of taking over a radio sta- shuffle habits and simply enjoy the sound of other tion of my own one day, as I have looked up to people conversing and playing music. It reminds me fictional radio hosts like Samantha White in that, contrary to common belief, lockdown does not Dear White People, imagining the conversations mean that the entire world has stopped at once, and I am never alone.

As an immigrant to Canada, I did not grow up listening to Canadian radio stations or shows. Constantly scanning stations at home during lockdown gave me a new perspective about Canada, and Toronto specifically, where I have lived for nearly three years. CBC Radio One introduced me to the perspectives of different community members on different topics that I was not fully exposed to within my university bubble.

Shows such as The Current with Matt Galloway employ stories as the main form of reportage, whereby his interviews with everyday people on issues like mental health, housing, and education create an intimacy between audiences and speakers that connect people’s personal anecdotes to mainstream issues.

MIA CARNEVALE/THEVARSITY Ideas with Nahlah Ayed

return to dust.

“You’ve never told me that before,” my dad answered after I told him my opinion. It is the reason I’ve abandoned a new-year rebellion to read Sagan, the reason I remember my grandmother’s narration of headless ghosts, the reason I publically unpacked my soul when my father got sick and, in doing so, inadvertently launched my journalism career.

A juvenile habit: when uncontrollably overwhelmed or excited, I play voice recordings of poetry and circle the island in my kitchen. On what should have been an ordinary afternoon, a psychic predicted to a non-believer that a little girl would experience success in language, so much so that it would become her identity.

As I circle, I don’t consider my feelings or purpose.

Instead, I catch a glimpse of my true form: afraid and small, a speck of dust occupying a flash of existence, running to the sensation at such a great speed that time slows down and I simply exist.

HANNAH FLEISCH/THEVARSITY

has also continued to spark my interest in radio journalism as she deconstructs a plethora of topics on her show that range from talks on conspiracies, to popular culture, to philosophy. The diversity of topics on her show kept me on my toes every time it aired.

As an aspiring Arab-Canadian journalist myself, her presence on CBC radio means more than just an hour time slot; her perspective and representation on an iconic platform serve as an example to women like myself that our perspective is valued and deserves adequate air time and engagement.

This pushed me to join campus radio at U of T’s CIUT 89.5 FM station. Being part of the campus radio has provided me with the creative freedom to interview community members around me and engage in raw conversations about different topics, including shame, community building, and belonging.

By showcasing student voices, including campus artists, activists, and organizers, I am constantly reminded of the incredible talent that exists within the U of T student body. Moreover, radio shows such as UTSC’s Humanz of Hip Hop, UTSG’s The West Meeting Room, and UTM CFRE Radio’s The BLVCK Show all present important forms of entertainment that delve deep into different facets of arts and culture and storytelling that we lack in our day-to-day lives in lockdown.

Radio provides us with a momentary escape to explore these perspectives without being bombarded by more screen time than what is already mandated in our new lifestyles.

In our pre-COVID-19 lives, we may have listened to podcasts or radio while commuting to classes or while we were drinking our morning coffee in preparation for the day. With the pandemic, we are forced to co-exist with our thoughts without the hustle and bustle of our previous lives, where our minds are constantly in search of new voices and sounds. Radio allows us to pause our music, disrupt the silence of lockdown, and be a part of other people’s stories as observers and active participants.

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ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

How do we become better students?

Three steps to take, two ways to think, and one good reason to begin today Margaret Ng Varsity Contributor

Popular locations for discourse on the learning experience at U of T include formal venues like faculty course evaluations and informal websites like Rate My Professors. This often prompts us, as students, to put most of the responsibility on professors to make a good class experience for us.

However, by placing the burden solely on professors, we are being passive and reducing our own sense of agency in how we learn, enjoy, and make the most out of our university experience.

Instead, a fruitful and fulfilling classroom experience requires both good professors and good students. Let’s look at ways to help us actively play our part as students.

What to do?

1. Get organized before class: set achievable goals and create a detailed schedule Studies have shown that setting learning goals can increase your academic performance by 22 per cent. Before each class, write down personalized goals for yourself. You could use the ‘SMART’ guidelines to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals.

Another way to organize your studies is to create a schedule for yourself. Since syllabi are posted at the beginning of the semester, you can tailor a unified schedule for all of your courses. Having a full picture of upcoming dates and deadlines means that you can plan and prepare well ahead of time.

2. Be engaged during class: actually go to class and actively participate With classes moved online, asynchronous classes allow great flexibility, while synchronous classes are often designed with components of student participation. Asynchronous classes won’t work if you don’t watch the recordings, and synchronous classes won’t work if you don’t show up. With

classes being only a click away from us, there really isn’t any excuse not to go.

Yet, joining classes doesn’t only mean having your name appear in a box on the Zoom call and putting a checkmark next to the attendance list; it also means actively engaging in the classroom conversation through careful listening and thoughtful responses. Professors have identified a lack of active student participation as the most disruptive element of teaching online.

3. Stay reflective after class: go to office hours and have a balanced lifestyle Research has shown that reflection and asking questions are essential parts of both learning and teaching, and office hours are some of the best opportunities to do so. When you take the initiative to approach professors and ask questions, not only can they clarify confusing material, but it can also help professors locate complex and unclear content to explain further during the next class.

In addition to reflecting intellectually, we should also reflect upon our own well-being, physically and mentally. Studies have shown that eating healthy foods, getting quality sleep, and doing sufficient exercise contribute significantly to improving our cognitive abilities, which helps us learn more efficiently. Thus, taking good care of yourself is crucial to becoming a better student.

How to think?

The above concrete actions are productive to the utmost extent if we perform them with two mindsets.

First, for any learning, embrace a ‘growth’ mindset, which entails an intrinsic motivation for learning. Countless studies have shown the far-reaching benefits of having a growth mindset, rather than a limiting fixed mindset. Believing in your unbounded capacity to learn can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for remarkable improvement.

Second, for online learning, adopt an open mind-

Taking initiative to make the most of your university experience is vital for success in classes.

SAMARTH AGARWAL/THEVARSITY

set. While the pandemic forces us to accept the difficulties of online learning, it simultaneously poses unexpected new opportunities for adaptation.

Paolo Granata, a scholar on media and technology and an assistant professor in book and media studies, noted in an email to The Varsity that, in order to carry out effective online learning, students must understand that “online learning is different from in-person learning – they are two different media, two different learning environments.”

Indeed, only after recognizing that the medium of online learning has a fundamentally different nature can we benefit from its merits, find solutions to its faults, and pave suitable paths to improve ourselves.

But why?

While this is an easy checklist to tick off, you may still ask skeptically, “But why should we take these actions and think in these ways?”

There is one good reason: it makes everyone happier.

Straightforwardly, its immediate tangible benefits are a higher set of grades for ourselves and a considerably easier job for our teachers. In short, we can become better students who make the classroom experience more enjoyable.

Holistically, the lasting and far-reaching benefits of internalizing these good habits and positive mentalities are exponential. Not only do they teach us how to learn as university students, but they also teach us how to learn as a growing and open-minded member of the world.

They equip us to be well-organized so that we can solve complex global challenges; they train us to be constantly engaged so that we can promptly manage unexpected changes in the future; they encourage us to actively reflect so that we can spark transformative ideas for the development of humanity.

As we begin a new semester, which of these actions and mindsets will you take? What kind of student do you intend to be in the classroom?

What kind of an individual in our world do you strive to be?

Guilty Pleasures: Crazy Rich Asians is more than just another rom-com The series’ examination of broader social issues adds depth to a classic love story

FIONA TUNG/THEVARSITY

Andrea Zhao Varsity Contributor

Warning: spoilers for the three novels in the Crazy Rich Asians book series, obviously.

I was a middle schooler wandering around my local Indigo bookstore when I first came across the Crazy Rich Asians book series. Be-

ing a disgruntled preteen who thought reading Ender’s Game and Catcher in the Rye gave me some incredible intellectual cache, I picked up the first book in the series and scanned the description. Upon finding out that it was a soapy drama about rich people’s relationship problems, I was repulsed and immediately headed back to the science fiction aisle.

Turns out I was wrong, as I often am. The

Crazy Rich Asians series is a lot of fun: there’s non-stop drama, expensive everything, and hilarious family members who can’t mind their own business, with the plot moving at 100 Ferrari-fueled miles a minute. There are elements typical of the genre — star-crossed lovers and a handsome guy with a mysterious background — but also huge twists that leave you scrambling to keep up.

I breezed through the three-book series in a few days over the last winter break, which felt like bingeing a trashy Netflix show — you aren’t sure whether you’re supposed to like it, but you become hooked anyway.

Looking back, this series is much more than a fun way to spend a few free afternoons. The three novels examine the ways in which societal and familial expectations dictate how we live and explore how the choices we make affect our relationships with the people we love.

The many struggles that the characters go through are often tied to broader social issues like classism, sexism, and xenophobia. Anyone from a different country or socioeconomic background can understand main protagonist Rachel Chu, who is immediately shunned by most of the country’s wealthy natives.

In the exclusive circle of Singapore’s elite depicted in the novels, young women with lucrative degrees are still expected to give up their careers for their families and are shamed into silence about their husbands’ frequent affairs. There are frequent intergenerational clashes as everyone tries to find their way through life without having to default to the paths stubbornly laid out by their parents.

The main conflict of the series stems from the struggle between Nick Young’s uptight, wealthy family, who have planned his life out for him, and Nick himself, who is determined to live on his own terms. When Nick decides to pursue his own destiny by marrying Rachel and staying with her in New York, his family shuns him and cuts him off from his inheritance.

What he did out of love and a desire for freedom is certainly worthwhile as he chose what made him truly happy, but he pays a price as he sacrifices his relationships with many of his loved ones. Although Nick has some allies in his huge, crazy family, most of them treat him like a pariah. One example is his beloved grandmother Su Yi, who only makes amends with him when she is on her deathbed.

However, after three books full of drama, the series ends on a hopeful note with the main characters all gathered at Nick’s family estate for the wedding between Rachel’s best friend and Nick’s cousin; we see that although things still aren’t perfect, they sure appear to be a whole lot better.

Most of us probably don’t have billiondollar trust funds or a whole island of luxurious properties to inherit, but we can find a common ground when considering the story’s many complex familial and social conflicts, which don’t come with simple resolutions and easy happy endings. Crazy Rich Asians may not be real life for most of us, but there’s no question that it can tell us something about our reality.

Science

January 18, 2021 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

doubled to 86,000 square kilometres as ice arches formed for shorter periods of time or, during the winter of 2019, not at all.

The reason for this, explained Moore in an email to The Varsity, is weaker ice structure due to the climate crisis.

“The warming of the Arctic is the primary reason for the weakening of these arches but there are other factors at play such as the thinning of the sea ice,” he wrote. “Thinner ice is not as strong and hence the arches with thin sea ice are not as strong.”

Ice arches in northern Canada are disappearing — with dire consequences for Arctic ecosystems UTM paper on weakening ice structure due to the climate crisis

Ice arches form in the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada keep ice from heading south.

CC MICHAEL SALE/FLICKR

Koen Bertens Varsity Contributor

Far off in the northernmost reaches of Nunavut, the coasts of Ellesmere Island and Greenland meet to form the Nares Strait, a narrow waterway connecting the Arctic Ocean to Baffin Bay and the Northern Atlantic beyond. As winter arrives, ice arches form and block passage of ice from the Arctic southward. These arches are large structures consisting of immobilized ice sheets spanning across the northern and southern inlets of the strait.

But observers have noticed that structures are forming for shorter periods of time, leaving a

larger window for ice to flow out into warmer waters. A recent UTM research paper published in Nature Communications examines the observed trend and predicts dire consequences to follow.

A concerning trend Orbiting hundreds of kilometres above the planet, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites watch over the ice sheets, observing day and night the flux of Arctic ice along the Nares Strait using radar mapping of the Earth’s surface.

It is through these images that Kent Moore, a professor in the Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences at UTM, was able to quantify the total ice area moving through the waterway.

When ice arches form, the magnitude of this measure is low, indicating less Arctic sea ice moving to warmer waters on the other side of the strait.

The data shows a concerning trend, however.

Each year, the ice arches form for shorter and shorter periods of time. At the start of the millennium, these structures could be expected to last for more than 200 days of the year. Now, they last for around 100 days.

The effects of this are clear. From 1997–2009, an annual average ice area of 42,000 square kilometres passed through the southern Lincoln Sea flux gate, located at the northern end of the Nares Strait. From 2017–2019, this average more than

Anticipating the consequences With weaker ice arches leading to greater Arctic ice loss and increased ice loss leading to an overall thinner Arctic ice cover, the problems are only cascading. Further north of the Nares Strait, a region known as the Last Ice Area is expected to be the last remaining sanctuary for Arctic ice cover and those that depend on it in the decades to come. For Inuit populations who use the ice to travel, movement is only expected to become more difficult as the ice thins, according to Moore.

Mammals, such as seals and polar bears, prefer thick ice to travel as well. In the case of seals, a thicker cover means deeper dens to raise pups and seek shelter from predators. Without protection, populations could decline by up to 99 per cent by the end of the century, with secondary effects to follow down the food chain.

The consequences are not contained to the North Pole, either. With a more mobile ice pack, more of it could reach southern waters. There have already been instances of thick sea ice reaching the ocean off Newfoundland’s coast, Moore wrote, creating issues for marine traffic in the area.

All hope is not yet lost. If the Paris Agreement can prevent complete melting of the Arctic ice, the Last Ice Area can act as a springboard for the restoration of the ice coverage. The more that can be done to reduce our global carbon footprint, the less warming that will follow. But things will become worse before they become better, especially if drastic action is not taken.

The Olduvai Gorge gives up two-million-year-old secrets U of T-affiliated study shows hominins adapted to wide array of changing environments

Tahmeed Shafiq Science Editor

Few archaeological sites can claim to be famous, but the Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania is chief among them. With the word ‘olduvai’ coming from a misspelling of the Maasai word, ‘oldupai,’ a name for a plant that grows in the area, the fossil-rich region is famous for offering up some of the first evidence of fossil remains and stone tools used by early hominins, ancestors of today’s humans.

In the 1930s, Louis and Mary Leakey were working in Olduvai when they uncovered stone tools from early humans. Since then, it has become a popular archaeological site. The gorge lent an even older name — the Oldoway Gorge — to the paleolithic culture discovered there before the Abbevillian culture and, subsequently, their tools. Oldowan tools are often either large hammering stones or smaller, sharper flake stones used for cutting. They were used by precursors to modern Homo sapiens, such as Homo habilis.

Now, an international research team comprised of scientists from around the world, including from U of T, have conducted a thorough search of the Olduvai Gorge and concluded that hominins were living and building tools in the site as early as two million years ago. Moreover, their continual occupation of the gorge, extending over a 235,000-year period, shows how early hominins could adapt to changing environments — a skill that might have aided in their expansion out of Eastern Africa.

A wide source of information The researchers combed through a wide array of sources to reach their findings. They took samples from previously excavated fossils and tools and compared them against samples of pollen, plants, and charcoal from wildfires, which were all deposited into the soil millions of years ago. The result was a pattern of human activity in the same place across time.

The prehistoric Olduvai landscape contained a variety of environments, such as streams, floodplains, woody forest, dry steppe, and even patches of land covered by ash from volcanic activity. Early hominins were able to exploit all of these environments, partly by bringing materials they needed for

tools with them. Some of the rocks used to make tools originated 12 kilometres from where they were found. Others were made using what was at hand.

However, it is not clear which hominin species made these tools, largely because no new fossils were found. One possible candidate is Homo habilis because their fossils have been excavated nearby.

Rethinking the past Oldowan tools have been excavated in nearby Ethiopia dating back to 2.6 million years ago, so this study does not represent the earliest discovery of stone tools. But it does extend the timeline of the Olduvai Gorge specifically. Previously, the oldest use of tools in the region was dated to 1.85 million

years ago, so these findings push that start point by about 150,000 years.

Moreover, these new findings demonstrate that early hominins had a robust ability to adapt to new environments. Julio Mercader Florin, lead author and professor at the University of Calgary, wrote in The Conversation that “This is a clear sign that 2 million years ago humans were not constrained technologically and already had the capacity to expand geographic range.”

The researchers discovered that the tools used remained the same regardless of what environment they were found in. It might have been human adaptability, then, that enabled our ancestors to thrive in the Olduvai Gorge and beyond.

Olduvai Gorge is a rich site for archaeological digs, containing dozens of fossils and early stone tools.

CC DAVID BERKOWITZ/FLICKR

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SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

“I need healing!” What video games can offer medical students U of T-affiliated study reveals the benefits of video-game based training

MARGARET ATKINSON/THEVARSITY

Adrian Tanjala Varsity Contributor

Success in medical education is typically associated with a balanced lifestyle and a rigorous study strategy. Video games seldom come to mind as a determinant of success, but a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto and University of Ottawa might be on the verge of changing that.

By performing a systematic review of medical students’ experiences with video games, the researchers determined that video game training — or gaming in general — could in fact benefit students’ medical education, namely their handeye coordination, dexterity, and performance on surgical tasks such as robotic surgery and laparoscopy, surgery inside the abdomen.

As our society becomes more and more digital, video games are becoming an increasingly prevalent staple of the student experience. A 2010 Australian study on internet use and computer and video gaming in Australian students found that an astonishing 55.2 per cent of its student sample were gamers. The researchers noted that this prevalence was higher than in previous research, meaning that it’s likely that this proportion will only grow in the coming years.

Student suggestions as a starting point For years, students had suggested that technology — including video games — be included to a greater extent in their medical schooling. Recommendations from residents and program directors for improved technical skills training in medical school may have also motivated researchers to look more into video gaming.

Prior research suggested video games could build important surgical skills for medical students. The researchers reviewed this literature to get a sense of the general value that video games provide.

They examined a total of 16 primary research articles, including experiments and observational studies, studying a total of 575 students and residents. Although the study types varied, they all examined the same basic question of whether there is a “relationship between video games and surgical skills for medical students.”

The studies in question differed in the way they examined video games. Some considered students’ gaming history or experiences, and those studies typically looked at performance in robotic surgery as an outcome. Others had some students actively play video games in a structured manner — called video game-based training (VGBT) — while others did not play video games.

These studies looked at student skills in generic

surgery, robotic surgery, bronchoscopy, and arthroscopy, but they more typically tested skills in laparoscopy. Video games included Rocket League and Call of Duty, seminal titles of twenty-first century gaming.

Skill upgrades, with a catch The researchers discovered that gaming offers some benefits, but there are limits on what can be achieved. First, a history of gaming was associated with quickened student time to completion, reduced unnecessary motion, and improved overall performance in robotic surgery, but VGBT did not offer the same benefits.

Meanwhile, VGBT did improve overall performance when it came to laparoscopy, but being an experienced gamer was only associated with improved time to completion in laparoscopy.

In general, these results suggest that video games improve performance for surgical skills, but VGBT and a history of gaming are not equal in application and value.

VGBT and gaming history appear to support distinct medical skills, and these skills form a limited subset of the overall toolbox needed to become an expert surgeon. The authors noted that a history of gaming would do better than the relatively brief VGBT at building dexterity and hand-eye coordination, as these are reinforced in most video games. That being said, the effect fell through in a procedure that required more specialized advanced training — laparoscopy.

However, the authors suggested that the use of devices like the Wii U in VGBT may benefit laparoscopy training by simulating the specialized physical motions required in the procedure. But this training wouldn’t necessarily benefit performance in more general robotic surgery.

Next steps Although the data is promising, gaming and VGBT aren’t catch-all solutions to improving surgical skills in medical students. It is clear that their effects — which themselves should be further researched — vary based on the type of procedure being trained for.

Questions about applicability and implementation still linger. What other procedures could gaming or VGBT benefit? When and how should medical schools implement VGBT or a gaming regiment?

These findings have opened the door to a diverse breadth of future research on gaming in medical education, research that could certainly answer these questions and many more — and perhaps drive a major innovation in medical education.

var.st/science

JANUARY 18, 2021

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The family lives of sabre-toothed ‘tigers’ New U of T study of fossils reveal they formed units — unlike today’s cats Margaret Atkinson Varsity Contributor

Recently, U of T researchers working at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) were working on cataloguing fossils of a prehistoric big cat when they discovered that their fossils were of a mother cat and two adolescent cats. These fossils of Smilodon fatalis — also known as the sabretoothed cat — were proof that prehistoric big cats cared for their young for as long as some modern-day cats do.

The key finding was that, like lions, these cubs often stayed with their mothers for at least two years, but unlike lions, they were nearly fully grown by then.

The sabre-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis was an apex predator, weighing in at over 600 pounds with seven-inch-long canines. They ranged over what is now North

America until around 10,000 years ago and are sometimes incorrectly referred to as sabretoothed tigers, despite being only distantly related to the modern tiger species.

In 1961, a set of Smilodon fatalis fossils were brought to the ROM from Ecuador. The fact that the fossils were all found together indicates that the animals died suddenly, possibly from a flood.

Ashley Reynolds, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, was cataloguing these fossil specimens when she noticed that three of them shared a set of rare dental features. This was a clue that they might be related.

A long adolescence In fact, analysis showed that two of the cats were siblings, young juveniles no more than two years old, and that the third fossil was likely their mother.

COURTESY OF DANIELLE DUFAULT/ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

The fossils from the Royal Ontario Museum were excavated in Ecuador in 1961.

COURTESY OF WANDA DOBROWLANSKI/ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Among modern cats, lions are known to stay with their mothers for up to two years. Tigers, meanwhile, are independent by then, partly due to their rapid growth. These fossils were both approaching maturity and found near their mother.

This implies that sabre-toothed cats had a life cycle combining elements from both lions and tigers. “It grew quickly, like a tiger, but they probably stayed reliant on their mother for a long time, similar to a lion,” Reynolds wrote on Twitter.

This finding is part of a growing body of research shedding new light on an already wellunderstood animal. Once imagined as a freeroaming hunter like the modern lion, more recent dental analysis of Smilodon fatalis fossils suggests that the cats were forest dwellers, specialized in hunting smaller animals.

In 2019, Reynolds led a team that discovered the first Smilodon fatalis fossil in Canada in southern Alberta, pushing the boundaries of where the big cats roamed about 965 kilometres north of the previous estimate.

“For me, I always thought fossils were interesting, but I didn’t think that I would end up studying them until I was toward the end of my undergraduate degree,” Reynolds wrote in an email to The Varsity.

“What I love most about being a palaeontologist is the unique way we have to think about the animals we study. Because we can’t observe extinct species in the wild, we need to get creative with how we approach questions that would be relatively easy to answer for a living animal.”

When asked why her research focused on big cats specifically, Reynolds said their unique dental structure was part of what makes them so interesting. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning that they solely consume meat for their diet.

“While most carnivorous species still have teeth capable of processing other types of food, all the teeth a cat has are optimized for hunting and slicing meat,” Reynolds wrote.

But she also responded in a way that cat owners can relate to even if they are not palaeontologists themselves: “Well, cats are simply the best!”

What the life sciences mean to me Three students reflect on their academic inspirations

Brandon Yu, Sila Usta, Nimit Vediya Varsity Contributors

Brandon Yu: Researching and living with autoimmune disease When I was just 14 years old, I first encountered the flaws of science. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease — paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric syndrome — and doctors could only tell me: “We don’t know what’s going on with your body.”

At 16 years old, I was again face-to-face with autoimmune disease — a condition science couldn’t explain just yet.

I’ve fought off autoimmune diseases for the past six years, a family of conditions known to be, well, not well known. This was when I realized that this very mystery was the beauty of science: the pursuit of the unknown, a yearning to elucidate the various biological, chemical, and physical mechanisms that we encounter on a daily basis in hopes of making our lives a little bit better one day.

My name is Brandon, and I’m currently in my second year at UTSC. I’m also a Laidlaw Scholar, and at U of T, I have the chance to express my love for the unknown, that is autoimmunity, by pursuing research in this field.

Though I am still quite young, science teaches me to get excited about digging into the unknown. My experience with autoimmune conditions taught me that there’s still quite a bit we don’t know. Being left in the dark with unanswered questions makes my pursuit of science so meaningful and one that I look forward to with excitement and eager anticipation.

And that’s why I love science.

Sila Usta: The complexity and humility of biology “G-P-C-Rs, G protein-coupled receptors,” said my

second-year cell biology professor, the letters echoing off the walls of Convocation Hall.

I heard my professor name one molecule and pair it with another and then another, and voilà, cascades of signalling molecules, adaptors, enzymes, and critical genes materialized right in front of my eyes. All these molecules simply did what their structures dictated, and yet the outcomes were enormous.

The synchrony, the compatibility, and the evolutionary imperfections led to the humbling recognition of vast clusters of atoms shuffling and bustling in the cell. Like a choreographed dance, every component ‘knew’ what to do and where to go. Like a computer code, every possible ‘decision’ was carved out.

Even when things went wrong, they went wrong in a certain way. I remember thinking, “I have to memorize all this?” and then, immediately after, “Okay, yeah, I can do that.”

Throughout my undergraduate years, I have continually recognized this combination of thrill and humility that I feel when solving molecular pathways. It has followed me into my third year as I major in cell and molecular biology, with particular interests in cancer and neurodevelopmental biology.

I’m a member of the Cell and Systems Biology Students’ Union in hopes of fostering a community of student scientists in a vastly diverse, intensely complex, but ultimately beautiful field of science.

Nimit Vediya: Finding inspiration in the tech world A few days ago, on The MedBoys Podcast, which is a podcast I created with a few friends, we had an artificial intelligence expert as a guest, and we started talking about Neuralink. Neuralink is one of Elon Musk’s companies and

Brandon Yu the day he was diagnosed with a second autoimmune disease.

BRANDON YU/THEVARSITY

is dedicated to creating brain-computer interfaces to help people with disabilities such as vision loss, hearing loss, and others.

But the way I see it, the company’s real goal is to advance humankind as a whole by merging our brains with its Neuralink device, which is essentially analogous to having a cellphone or computer always connected to your brain.

The applications for this technology are endless: you could know everything that is on the internet, you would be able to com-

municate telepathically, and it could even help individuals with intellectual disabilities. You would basically be a superhero — like Vision from Marvel Comics.

As a student at U of T, I am studying neuroscience and psychology. When I come across companies such as Neuralink, it really makes me appreciate the subject I chose to study and reminds me why I chose it in the first place. Neuroscience is truly multidisciplinary: it is a field where engineers, scientists, and doctors work together on the same product to create something amazing.

Sports

January 18, 2021 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Somachi Agbapu — U of T’s Serge Ibaka

Born in Lagos, Nigeria and standing 6’7, Somachi Agbapu has been a defensive anchor of U of T’s Varsity Blues men’s basketball team since he joined in 2018–2019. Earning a career high 16 points in a game against Ottawa last year and averaging 5.2 points a game, the forward was on an upward trajectory at the beginning of 2020.

Agbapu works his butt off on the boards and on the defensive end. His willingness to take himself out of the limelight and do what has to be done for the sake of the team shows a maturity and selflessness that’s rare from anyone, but especially when you’re literally a head and shoulder above everyone else.

Agbapu has also been a workhorse for the Blues since he stepped onto the court in Toronto, with a mentality that can’t be beat. “You’re not going to get the ball every time, so when you get the ball, you need to know what to do; you need to be efficient,” he said in an interview with The Varsity.

This makes him a reliably good player on the court: “I’m not going to do something sporadic. I’m… straight to the point, get it done.”

I asked Agbapu about his biggest stylistic

influences, and, describing the kinds of players he looks up to, he explained his own basketball mentality. “I saw The Dream, Hakeem Olajuwon, and I thought… ‘man, his footwork is nice!’… So I started working on my footwork,” he said. Then he started working to be more like Serge Ibaka.

What made Serge Ibaka great for the Toronto Raptors? He was a team player through and through, supporting his team all the way to the NBA finals. And this ability to service your skills for your teammates is not undervalued: Ibaka is a three-time NBA All-Defensive First Team selection, and a well-recognized great.

Like Ibaka, Agbapu adapts his game to his strengths and to the ways in which he can best help his team as a whole: “[I’m] very good at defense, so you have to play — catch a ball on the low post, boom, finish. One, or two dribble jump-hook…

And now I’m trying to add mid-range jumpers.”

I was so excited to speak to a player with a mind like his. This is what all hoops junkies dream of from their players. We could not have won the 2019 title without Serge Ibaka, and the Blues cannot be the team they are without Somachi Agbapu.

Make sure you remember his name.

Testing UTrain: Zumba Do the workouts really work?

Alex Waddell Varsity Staff

by being able to let go without fear of being embarrassed by my dance moves — one With the new year comes a new UTrain definite benefit of working out from home.

Sandani, the instructor, began the session schedule, and that will require re-registering in the program. I am so excited for what’s to by describing the class. She let newcomers come this semester with new classes and a like myself know that it will be more routinenew schedule, letting me try out classes that I and choreography-based than other dance classes we might have taken in the past. The could not before.

To be honest, I stopped working out over routines stay the same for six to eight weeks, the holidays, so for this week’s workout, I was so you can see yourself progress each week.

Throughout the class, Sandani gave nonlooking for something fun to get me excited about getting back into it. In addition, with verbal cues to let us know what moves were the new state of emergency and lockdown coming next. It took a moment to adjust to guidelines, I find myself missing dancing with these, but they definitely got easier to follow my friends a little more than usual. Zumba throughout the class, and I am confident that looked like a perfect excuse to dust off my after spending eight weeks with one routine, slightly embarrassing dance moves that have you would know exactly what moves were next. also been locked up since March.

But don’t worry: it’s a virtual dance class! If The Zumba class is hosted by Hart you get lost, just have fun with it. No House on Tuesdays at 1:00 pm one will know. and Wednesdays at 7:00 pm.

We started with two I attended the Wednesday warm-up songs and evening session — and, ended with a stretch surprisingly, I loved it. song. Between these, It was the perfect end there were routines to a busy day and to lots of fun songs, ensured that I fit like “Me Gusta” by in some movement Shakira and Anuel after hours of AA. There was a online classes. squat routine to Hart House “La Tortura” by described the class Shakira, another as incorporating workout set that “hypnotic Latin featured a bachata rhythms and easysong, and more! to-follow moves,” Overall, the class promoting itself left me in a really as “an exciting hour good mood, and I of calorie-burning, learned some new moves body-energizing, awefor when lockdown ends inspiring movement with and I get to dance with my life-long health benefits.” friends again! I highly While I wasn’t The Zumba class featured some great bops. recommend this one. exactly left sweating, I MAHIKA JAIN/THEVARSITY definitely felt energized

This Blues player’s defensive work makes him a player to watch.

SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES

How to stay hydrated

Easy tips to help you drink enough water Steven Hu Varsity Contributor

Drinking enough water daily is undoubtedly one of the most healthy habits to have, but it’s often hard to remember to hydrate. Plus, with so many other beverage options available, it’s easy to replace it with a can of pop or a cup of coffee.

Thankfully, it’s actually quite easy to trick your brain into hydrating more.

Bottle up A key item you’ll need in order to drink more water regularly is a large water bottle. And no, I’m not talking about a small 16-ounce flask; I’m talking about a bottle that’s at least a litre.

It can be easy to forget to drink water when you don’t own a water bottle or you have one that’s not big enough.

It’s much easier to drink copious amounts of water when it’s

AN D REA Z HA O/THE

Avishai Sol Varsity Staff

The Blues basketball forward discusses his idols and technique

right there in front of you in a big jug. I highly recommend buying a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle because it comes in an array of colours and is easily portable.

The QuiFit Motivational Gallon water bottle is another great option because it has recommendations for how much water you should be drinking by certain times of the day.

Plus, it comes with a straw, so it’s about the most effortless thing you can do.

If you’re a student with a particularly tight budget, fear not, as an empty plastic bottle or jug is the perfect cost-effective water bottle.

Listen for the ring Another great way to set yourself up for a hydrated day is to set incremental alarms on your phone to alert you to drink more water. If you don’t have a bottle that offers hourly time markers like the QuiFit, setting your phone alarm to go off every hour, on the hour, is a great way to motivate yourself to drink all your water.

Aim to drink at least two cups, or just under 500 millilitres, of water every hour. This trick will not only make sure you don’t forget about your water intake while you focus on your Zoom classes, but it will also stop you from chugging the remainder of your water bottle at the end of the day in order to finish it, leaving you uncomfortably full of liquid.

If you’re always feeling tired, having bad skin outbreaks, or having trouble digesting food, chances are you aren’t drinking enough water.

Make drinking water a part of your daily routine because it can do wonders for your health.

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ELHAM NUMAN/THEVARSITY

Highlighting the best fitness influencers on the internet today Add these three athletes to your watchlist to improve your at-home routine

Fahed Sakr Varsity Contributor

As the lockdown has gotten longer and longer, many people who used to go to the gym have begun working out at home. As students, we tend to have small budgets, and the online fitness community can be a great way to access workout plans and fitness tips free of charge.

There are many influencers in the fitness community on a multitude of platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Here are three fitness influencers who you should add to your daily watchlist.

Will Tennyson Living in Toronto, Will Tennyson produces content with helpful fitness tips regarding workout routines, diets, and recovery. However, he also keeps an extremely light tone in his videos and keeps you engaged by showing you that you can remain healthy and in good shape while

still enjoying the foods you love.

Oftentimes, you’ll find him eating fast food with other influencers in the fitness community, as well as using the various methods and diets of people like Bruce Lee, Henry Cavil, and even an F1 driver!

Overall, Tennyson has been able to stray away from the typical fitness mould in which influencers just make vlogs and talk about their sponsors; rather, he shows you how to have fun with your diet, gives you various training methods that people have done in the past, and still gives you helpful tips and tricks that you can add to your workouts.

And at only 25 years old, there’s no telling what the future holds for this young creator.

Check him out on his YouTube and Instagram.

Greg Doucette Greg Doucette has been one of the most prominent influencers in my rotation. He has a solid background, as he has competed in a whopping

54 bodybuilding competitions and won a light heavyweight contest in 2012! With almost two decades of experience, he is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about fitness, and you can see that in his content.

His most popular line of videos is his “Natty or Not” playlist, where he discusses well-known fitness influencers and breaks down whether or not he believes that they are using steroids or enhancers of any kind. Not only is Doucette informative, but he uploads very regularly. So if you find that your usual influencer is taking a bit too long to get their videos out, just know that Doucette has you covered.

Like Tennyson, Doucette likes to keep things interesting on his channel. He has a wide variety of video series and a nutrition and diet series, among others.

He has found a way to use his massive experience to cater to his audience of fitness fanatics.

If you need new fitness content, check him out on YouTube!

Greg O’Gallagher Last, but most certainly not least, is Greg O’Gallagher. He has made an astounding career out of his “Kinobody” program, in which he stresses an intermittent fast that allows you to eat any foods you like while maintaining a low amount of body fat.

Although O’Gallagher posts his fair share of informational videos, what separates him from the pack is his production quality. His movie-like “Bruce Wayne in Real Life” videos show just how great of a filmmaker he really is. Even though he does not post often, when he does, it’s typically in 4K quality.

Alongside his Kinobody program, O’Gallagher produces his own clothing brand and supplements that help you look good and feel good. Overall, if you want great quality videos as well as helpful diet tips, I suggest you check out O’Gallagher on YouTube and Instagram.

What the Health: Juice cleanses The Varsity’s health and fitness hotline

Angad Deol Associate Sports Editor

‘Juicing’ or doing a ‘juice cleanse’ is a detox diet that has been discussed as a method of purging the ‘toxins’ out of your body. In the past, I’ve been vocal of my discontent with the promotion of similar detox diets, such as the use of Fit Tea — and I hold the same stance with the juice cleanse diet.

What is juice cleansing?

Juice cleansing is a diet in which an individual replaces solid food with juice from fruits and vegetables for a period of time — between days to weeks — in order to ‘detox’ their body.

Specifically, these cleanse diets tend to promise lofty benefits, such as better circulation, improved liver function, and a break for your organs. Long-term promises include weight loss, reduced inflammation and bloating, and relieved chronic fatigue.

What toxins are you talking about?

However, as you might expect, these diets rarely tell you the specific ‘toxins’ they are targeting. Why? Quite frankly, there is hardly any evidence suggesting that these diets remove any toxins. The fact is, your liver, kidneys, and bodily excretions take care of that!

You should appreciate them more; don’t think that a diet you saw on Pinterest or the Instagram explore page will suddenly do a better job than them!

But cleansing must be great for weight loss, right?

While you may be successful in the short term, there is not much evidence supporting the notion that these detox diets help with weight loss in the long term. Research suggests that fasting is linked to stress responses and feelings of extreme hunger, fatigue, irritability, and even bad breath.

Instead of cutting solid food out of your

Skip the juice and treat yourself to a whole fruit instead.

HAYDEN MAK/THEVARSITY

diet entirely because your favourite Instagram page told you to do so, try adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet, whether in solid or liquid form. Excessive juice intake can cause problems for those who suffer from diabetes and can also lead to weight gain. Protein, an important part of a healthy, balanced diet, is also lost in a juice diet, which can impact your muscle mass.

So, the next time you come across a fancy new detox diet promising you the Earth, Moon, and all of the stars around them, think about the potential side effects instead and pick up a whole fruit — you might just like it.

Send in your health and f itness questions to sports@thevarsity.ca for a chance to be anonymously featured!

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JANUARY 18, 2021

“Winter break” by Milidae Claire Uy

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