February 10, 2020

February 10, 2020

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

Vol. CXL, No. 17

n o i t i t e p om c g n i r e e n i U of T students win gold at eng What you need to know about the 2020 SCSU elections

Union’s history on transportation, mental health, elections Mikaela Toone Associate News Editor

Content warning: mentions of transphobia.

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) 2020 elections have begun, with voting set to take place from February 11–13. Two slates — VISION UTSC and WENITED — have candidates running for each executive position and are currently vying for student support in the run up to the voting period. The Varsity outlined some potential hot topics for this year’s candidates, and detailed the tumultuous history of SCSU elections.

Transportation At a Toronto City Council meeting in October 2019, current SCSU President Chemi Lhamo and Vice-President Student Life Sarah Mohamed advocated for UTSC transit users. They highlighted frequent delays with the TTC’s 905 bus, as well as inadequate bus stops for Durham Region Transit buses. Mohamed is currently running for president on the VISION UTSC slate.

The executive members were in support of an extension of the Eglinton West Light Rail Transit eastward with a stop at UTSC. This addition was not approved in the city’s most recent transit plan, which was confirmed on October 29.

In addition, there is currently no service provided by the university that takes students between UTSG and UTSC, unlike the Mississauga campus, which is connected to UTSG by a shuttle bus.

As UTSC is primarily a commuter campus, the candidates’ plans for regular and accessible transit may be a deciding agenda item.

This may be the case especially for the vicepresident external elections, as this position

handles advocacy and lobbying efforts outside the university.

Mental health Following the release of the Presidential & Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health’s final report, U of T is set to redesign its mental health service system. Lhamo emphasized that as a satellite campus UTSC has its own specific nuances when it comes to mental health. There were no campus-specific reformation plans in the final report.

Vice-President & Provost, Cheryl Regehr, told The Varsity in an earlier interview that though mental health services would be coordinated across one system for three campuses, there would be “local delivery” for each specific campus. These changes to U of T’s mental health services are set to begin on a rolling basis with no specific timeline.

Different strategies to improve mental health services at UTSC were found in numerous candidates’ campaign promises.

Elections At its 2019 elections the SCSU saw a number of controversies. The SCSYou slate’s presidential candidate Anup Atwal was disqualified after posting a “gross representation of the facts” on social media claiming that Shine Bright UTSC’s presidential candidate and current President, Lhamo, hit then SCSYou’s vicepresident academic & university affairs candidate Carly Sahagian with a table. Sahagian won her election, and is now running for president on the WENITED slate.

The 2019 elections were also marred with damning screenshots leaked by The Underground, UTSC’s student paper. Atwal was

found to have sent transphobic comments about Shine Bright UTSC’s vice-president equity candidate Leon Tsai in a group chat. Atwal noted to The Varsity that “context is super important.” He provided screenshots which showed how he further criticized Tsai for posting about what she saw as the opposition slate’s mishandling of LGBTQ+ issues.

Vice-presidential external candidate and current incumbent, Chaman Bukhari, also had his chat screenshots leaked by The Underground. In a previous article, The Varsity translated his comments concerning a class exam to be “useless” and “the same LGBTQ bullshit.”

However, Bukhari defended his comment as being “grossly misinterpreted” and “utterly lacking context,” adding that the comments were made two years prior to the election.

Following the election, the SCSU Board of Directors initially refused to ratify Rayyan Alibux as vice-president operations for writing “I hope this chat is never leaked” in response to the transphobic comments made by other candidates on his slate.

Lhamo also faced criticism in the lead up to her election for her strong stance on Tibetan independence, for which she received widespread harassment on social media.

2018 also saw its share of controversy, when an SCSU board meeting erupted in protest and physical altercations following allegations of collusion to ensure that certain candidates won the election. It was alleged that former SCSU President Sitharsana Srithas worked to ensure that presidential candidates Deena Hassan and Rayyan Alibux did not win. Srithas denied these allegations. As a result, Mahir Zuber, the then-chief returning officer, resigned, citing safety concerns.

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Sarah Mohamed (VISION UTSC) Sarah Mohamed is a fifth-year student studying health studies, psychology, and city studies who is running to be the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) president under the VISION UTSC slate. She is currently serving as the SCSU’s Vice-President Campus Life.

Mohamed is motivated to run because she is “passionate about student issues, and [she wants] to make sure all UTSC students have the best [experience] on campus.”

Her slate’s platform rests on three major goals: increasing student aid for students, providing better mental health services for students, and fostering greater transparency and accountability in student representation.

As president, Mohamed’s key priorities would be to improve the Annual General Meeting process, create a frequently asked questions page on the SCSU website, increase SCSU staff positions for part-time students, and invest in training and development for SCSU executives, board members, and staff.

Carly Sahagian (WENITED) Carly Sahagian is a fourth-year student studying

Left to right: VISION UTSC’s Sarah Mohamed, WENITED’s Carly Sahagian.

COURTESY OF VISION UTSC AND WENITED

biology and women and gender studies, and is running on the WENITED slate for president of the SCSU. Sahagian first came to Canada with her sister and fellow candidate Annie Sahagian from Aleppo, Syria. After transferring from the University of Aleppo, Sahagian worked at the UTSC registrar’s office, represented students on the Campus Affairs Council, and currently serves as SCSU Vice-President University & Academic Affairs.

Sahagian’s main focus on the campaign trail is emphasizing realistic and concrete policy promises: “students are tired [of ] empty promises,” she said. However, she did not name particular executives from previous years that she believes have

failed to uphold their campaign points.

“I want to make sure that all of my team, even if it’s a mixed slate or whatnot, I’ll be the leader that they come to me and that I can lead them to make the campaign points a success,” Sahagian said, pointing out that in her current position, she has filled in for the current president as secondin-command.

Regarding her particular policy goals, Sahagian hopes to increase the number of embedded counsellors in Health and Wellness, lobby the province against cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program, and increase Indigenous representation on the SCSU.

VP Operations Bruce Chan (VISION UTSC) Bruce Chan is a fourth-year student majoring in human biology and minoring in psychology and applied statistics, who is running for the position of vice-president operations on the VISION UTSC slate. Chan did not respond to The Varsity’s request for an interview at publication time, however Chan’s campaign points were listed on the VISION UTSC slate website.

If elected, Chan plans to implement new discount services at the Members Services Desk, including tickets to Canada’s Wonderland and movie passes. Chan would also look into getting more food options for UTSC, particularly focusing on halal, kosher, vegetarian, and vegan options, as well as starting a community garden to help promote food security.

In addition, Chan would improve mental health at UTSC by creating a “decompression space” at the UTSC Student Centre and working toward better mental health coverage on the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) health and dental plan.

Niroban Jayakumar (WENITED) Niroban Jayakumar is a third-year student double-

Left to right: VISION UTSC’s Bruce Chan, WENITED’s Niroban Jayakumar.

COURTESY OF VISION UTSC AND WENITED

majoring in neuroscience and molecular biology, running for the position of vice-president operations on the WENITED slate. Jayakumar would like to promote transparency, should he be elected.

“I want students to hold SCSU accountable for the money that they use, essentially because all the students are paying,” Jayakumar told The Varsity.

He would see that the SCSU budget is updated monthly online so that students can follow along with the SCSU’s financial endeavours.

In addition, Jayakumar would lobby for expanded health and dental services, including mental health, and increasing affordable food options on campus.

In the face of an appeal by the province to over-

turn the Divisional Court of Ontario’s decision to quash the Student Choice Initiative, which allowed postsecondary students to opt out of certain incidental fees deemed “non-essential,” Jayakumar said that he would focus on seeking external sponsorships and investments to achieve “returns for future years.”

As far as prior experience goes, Jayakumar has been involved in a variety of campus clubs and associations in a finance and budgeting capacity, including managing an $80,000 budget as the president for the Scarborough College Athletic Association.

—With files from Andy Takagi

VP Campus Life Kevin Turingan (VISION UTSC) Kevin Turingan is a fourth-year student doing a major in sociology and minors in economics and statistics, who is running for vice-president student life on the VISION UTSC slate. In an interview with The Varsity, Turingan said his reason for running was “to give back and make sure the campus is lit.”

Turingan cited his experience as being the street team coordinator for campus life and vice-president events operations for Students of Sociology.

Turingan ran for vice-president operations on the Shine Bright UTSC slate last year and lost.

If elected, Turingan would endeavour to reduce the stress associated with being a student by implementing more programs and events, with the goal of creating a vibrant campus community.

Turingan would provide on campus groups with discounted services, such as catering, by working with local businesses. In addition, Turingan plans to open up an arcade room in the UTSC Student Centre as a multipurpose space for students, so that “people could have fun playing games but also relax and rest up.”

As well, he would commence monthly themed pub and karaoke nights at the Scarborough campus’ student pub, Rex’s Den. Turingan would also move to implement an online booking system for campus groups to organize room rentals.

Left to right: VISION UTSC’s Kevin Turingan, WENITED’s TJ Ho. COURTESY OF VISION UTSC AND WENITED

TJ Ho (WENITED) TJ Ho is a third-year student majoring in psychology running for the position of vice-president campus life under the WENITED slate for the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union. An avid goer of campus events, Ho believes UTSC’s event planning could benefit from an outsider without a “fixed mindset” when it comes to event structure.

“Essentially it’s a leader… showing students how a person on campus can be engaged,” Ho said of the position.

Ho is an international student from mainland China and believes Chinese students are underrepresented when it comes to campus politics.

In his first year, Ho did not attend many campus events, besides those geared toward international students, because he felt they were not meant for

students like him.

Should Ho be elected, he plans to “deconstruct” events so as to increase the number held throughout the year. Ho cited his perception that a common event currently would have both food and a dance floor as an example. Ho would instead organize events that feature a single component, such as only a dance floor or only food, so that more events could be held.

Ho said that he considers himself to be a creative person, as in his spare time he designs board games and writes. Ho said that he would bring that creativity into the role of vice-president student life by designing “super fresh” events for students.

—With files from Andy Takagi and Hannah Carty

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SCSU Elections 2020: Candidate Profiles

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Hannah Carty, Kathryn Mannie, Andy Takagi, and Mikaela Toone Varsity News Team

VP External

Eesha Chaudhry (VISION UTSC) Eesha Chaudhry is a third-year student majoring in international development and health studies, running to be vice-president external of the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) under the VISION UTSC slate. She currently serves on the SCSU as the Director for Critical Development Studies.

Chaudhry’s motivation for running is to “serve as a liaison, a voice of reason to help students get what they truly deserve.” In her various leadership roles throughout U of T, Chaudhry said she realized “how much the smallest efforts I do really do give back to other people.”

Her top priorities if elected would be to address the topics of mental health, student housing and transportation, and cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

Chaudhry feels it is especially important to improve mental health resources for students given recent discontent about student mental health services. “It’s clear and evident that university, although it’s a huge milestone in our lives, it’s also one of the most stressful points of our lives.” She hopes to increase

mental health support and resources, inform and educate students, and improve campus mental health resources like the Health & Wellness Centre.

She would also work with Scarborough housing activists and the university “to ensure that students are not only getting adequate and decent housing that is within their budget, but that they also know their housing rights, that they’re protected, that they’re safe.”

As a commuter herself, Chaudhry would prioritize lobbying efforts to see the Eglinton East Light Rail Transit system comes to fruition. She also wants to ensure that buses arrive as scheduled. “Transit is such a critical factor in whether or not I even come to school.”

She also emphasized the importance of OSAP. “Education is a right, it’s something this country owes us.”

Annie Sahagian (WENITED) Annie Sahagian is a fourth-year student in human biology and media studies, journalism, and digital culture running for vice-president external under the WENITED slate.

When asked why she is running, Sahagian

Left to right: VISION UTSC’s Eesha Chaudhry, WENITED’s Annie Sahagian.

COURTESY OF VISION UTSC AND WENITED

answered: “To give back to the UTSC community, to really utilize my connections onand off-campus with the university administration, specifically for the betterment of the student body.” She also noted that the experience she has gained through the SCSU “literally made me the person who I am today.”

Sahagian cited being a student representative on the UTSC Campus Council, and being the volunteer network program coordinator for SCSU, which involved working with offcampus organizations, as relevant experience.

Among her campaign points, Sahagian wants to institute a political and financial lit-

eracy workshop and consolidate information on health resources to make it easier for students to understand. She also wants to install cameras in UTSC libraries and parking lots, in order to help students who have things stolen from them at those locations.

Addressing the fact that presidential candidate for her slate is her sister, Sahagian responded: “I am very proud to be running with such a dedicated leader on campus.”

For Sahagian, the responsibility of vicepresident external is “to strengthen our relationships and collaboration… not only off, but even on campus.”

VP Equity Nadifa Mohamed (WENITED) Nadifa Mohamed is a fourth-year psychology and health studies student running for the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) vice-president equity position as part of the WENITED slate. To her, the position is one of community building — particularly for students who are part of marginalized communities. To address this, her campaign will focus on funding and accessibility. If elected, Mohamed hopes to implement grants for marginalized students, and to host monthly events with the goal of fostering a more cohesive community.

“I don’t want to create things for people without their consultation, without them knowing,” Mohamed said in an interview with The Varsity, outlining her campaign vision of a more inclusive SCSU. Mohamed speaks from experience, as she currently serves as President of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health and Society Students’ Association at UTSC, an organization that she has been a part of for three years. She also talked about her experiences with community outreach events for young women of colour and artists, which Mohamed said have built up her

skills for handling the logistics of events. “[Universities and institutions] are so individualistic, and I think we need a narrative change — that we need each other to do things, that we need each other when it comes to mental health and all these kinds of things,” Mohamed emphasized.

In terms of concrete policy goals, Mohamed hopes to increase accessibility to counselling services, create working groups to identify Islamophobia and racism on campus, and other equity initiatives.

Kanitha Uthayakumar (VISION UTSC) Kanitha Uthayakumar is a fourth-year health studies and political science student who is running for the SCSU’s vice-president equity position under the VISION UTSC slate. Uthayakumar immigrated to Canada when she was 12 after fleeing Sri Lanka in the midst of the Sri Lankan Civil War. Her prior experience includes being the president of the UTSC Tamil Students’ Association and a co-founder of Manidhi UTSC, a non-profit organization that advocates for the “social and political emancipation of women” in the South Asian community.

Left to right: VISION UTSC’s Nadfia Mohamed, WENITED’s Kanitha Uthayakumar.

COURTESY OF VISION UTSC AND WENITED

She is running to be the next vice-president equity because she wants “to remove the barriers that students are facing on and off campus.”

Uthayakumar has six key goals that she would address if elected. She plans to host biweekly events that would provide free breakfasts and lunch services, and “advocate for more diverse course content that covers issues related, but not limited to, race, gender, sexuality and religion.”

Her plans for Governing Council and lobbying university administration include tackling Health and Wellness funding and wait times, better budgets for the Sexual Violence Preven-

tion and Support Centre, and incorporating Indigenous knowledge into curricula through the hiring of Indigenous leaders. She also plans to host educational workshops on a variety of equity-related matters.

In a written statement to The Underground, UTSC’s student paper, Uthayakumar remarked that “UTSC shaped me into the person that I am today by providing a variety of leadership opportunities.” In return, she wants to give back to this community by ensuring that it is a safe and inclusive campus for everyone to enjoy.

Uthayakumar did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment at the time of publication.

VP Academic & University Affairs Lulu Gemma (VISION UTSC) Lulu Gemma is a fourth-year student who studies psychology and health studies. She is running to be the next vice-president, academic & university affairs of the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) under the VISION UTSC slate.

Gemma’s motivation for running stems from the personal struggles she has faced while navigating the academic system at UTSC. Thus far, not only has her time been characterized by a heavy dependence on the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), but she has also experienced a program change and has had to rely on her professors and student union for additional support. In an interview with The Varsity, Gemma expressed that she wants “to be able to give students a platform where those issues are easier to mitigate.”

Her key priorities include moving forward on OSAP reform, providing students with more accessible academic tools — which could be done by paying professors a lump sum to post their textbooks and other required resources online

— and increasing the number of credit/no credit courses that a student can enrol in.

“I also want to advocate to make permanent 24-hour study spaces,” Gemma noted. Because of a lack of these dedicated spaces, “Many students don’t get to stay on campus and participate in events and stick around for other academic review sessions.”

Yathu Uthayan (WENITED) Yathu Uthayan, a fifth-year student studying human biology and psychology, is running for the vice-president, academic & university affairs position on the SCSU under the WENITED slate.

In an interview with The Varsity, Uthayan spoke about his experience, citing his creation of the UTSC Tamil Networking Association, which, according to him, saw significant growth and attracted many people to its events. This is something he hopes to replicate with SCSU. “I want to actually make sure that all the events, everything that we do on SCSU is being continued and delivering its purpose,” stressed Uthayan.

Left to right: VISION UTSC’s Lulu Gemma, WENITED’s Yathu Uthayan.

COURTESY OF VISION UTSC AND WENITED

Uthayan also expressed that his diversity of experience was relevant for the role, which includes prior experience with SCSU, the Scarborough Harry Potter Alliance, and the Tamil Students’ Association.

Uthayan explained that he has delivered specific campaign promises with timelines so that students can hold him accountable. One of his plans is to lobby the administration to ensure that marks are posted at least 10 days before the start of the next semester, and another is to allow stu-

dents to credit/no credit courses until the last day of the semester.

“You can see all my points are kind of shaped toward making sure that students are making more informed choices,” said Uthayan.

When asked how he will approach the role, Uthayan said that his responsibility would be “to make sure the students at UTSC are effective, efficient, and successful.”

—With files from Andy Takagi

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Administration addresses student concerns at UTMSU mental health town hall Revamping syllabi, scrapping sick notes among possibilities discussed

UTM administration answered student questions on policies in the works that would improve student mental health.

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The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) invited students and panelists to have a conversation around mental health on campus last week, sparking discussion on classroom policies that negatively affect student mental health.

UTM Assistant Dean, Student Wellness, Support & Success Andrea Carter started the conversation by detailing her team’s efforts to provide mental health resources to students.

“We implement a step model of care which identifies chronic, immediate, urgent, and nonurgent needs for care, and engages in the appropriate next level options,” said Carter.

Her team’s goal, she said, is to simplify care through services such as a multilingual afterhours program through U of T’s recently released My Student Support Program service for free text and call support. Text service is offered through the app in six languages — English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. If scheduled in advance, call service is offered in 146 languages and immediate call service is available in 35 languages.

The move toward equitable classroom policies As the panel progressed, the conversation in

the room shifted away from the mental health resources UTM offers its students and moved toward classroom policies that some students reported were detrimental to their mental wellbeing.

Fiona Rawle, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and UTM Assistant Dean of Students, said that she has been in talks with various departments and professors to determine stress points, and how course policies can be adjusted accordingly.

“There’s one thing in particular where I see I can help address mental illness. And that’s in the teaching and learning collaboration,” she said.

“This is how faculty and instructors get trained on how to teach effectively, have effective assignments, active learning classrooms and whatnot.”

Later in the semester, UTM students will be able to fill out a survey so that Rawle and her team can gauge what kinds of changes would be helpful to students. So far, her team’s data indicates that students who request exceptions to course policies often come from privileged backgrounds.

“If you’re granting exceptions, you can be reinforcing that privilege,” she said. “And I think a lot of professors might not be aware of this.” She also noted that there is research showing that male students are more likely to ask for and be granted grade changes.

Rawle and her team’s work aims to address these classroom policies to make them more equitable for students from all backgrounds. She also acknowledged that UTM is a commuter campus with its own particular challenges, and said that there is an ongoing discussion surrounding office hours, and whether to provide online office hours for students unable to remain on campus.

Revamping the syllabus “Have professors ever said to you ‘that’s on the syllabus’ if you ask a question?” asked Rawle to the students in the town hall. Most answered in the affirmative.

Rawle explained that research suggests “students will often ask a question that’s on the syllabus, because it’s safe territory. They might not know how to start talking to their professor.”

Her team also hopes to implement various changes to syllabi, including using a less aggressive tone of writing and listing alternative assignments. One such example, said Rawle, is to offer students the option of filming and submitting a presentation versus presenting in front of a class.

Self-reported illness forms Rawle and the UTMSU also discussed changes to the current sick note policy, potentially modelling a new system after UTSC reported “positive results” when it implemented self-reported sick notes in 2018–2019.

Currently, students are required to submit a Verification of Student Illness or Injury form to receive academic considerations on the basis of their illness or injury. The form requires a signature from a licensed health practitioner, such as a nurse, nurse practitioner, physician, or surgeon.

Students expressed concerns that some clinics charge a processing fee to complete the forms, and that this burden could be even greater for international students who do not have provincial health coverage.

The self-reported illness forms were first introduced during a UTM Campus Council meeting last May. At the time, Professor Amrita Daniere noted that the self-declared illness form would allow students to submit incomplete coursework for up to three consecutive days without worrying about providing official documentation, and that the form could be used up to two times per semester.

Additionally, Rawle noted that there have been discussions around flexible grading schemes that would eliminate the need for sick notes altogether. In fact, Rawle noted that “there’s a lot of professors who don’t want [sick] notes at all.”

She offered an example of what a flexible grading scheme could look like: “If you have a reading assignment due every weekend, why not just take the best eight of 12 and not worry about [sick] notes?”

Her goal, she said, is to “give all the professors the same background knowledge so they understand what the options are [on setting the grading scheme].”

“There is no University of Toronto policy saying the late penalty has to be this, or even saying that you have to have a late penalty,” Rawle said.

“Some departments have policies and some professors have their own policy.”

Carter also acknowledged how inaccessible the landing webpages of services at UTM are. “I Google everything that I need to find related to UTM because the web presence is difficult,” said Carter. “So we’re working on that.”

Department of Computer Science creates graduate scholarship in memory of Iranian plane crash victims Second fund to honour U of T community members lost during the tragedy Kathryn Mannie Deputy News Editor

On January 30, U of T’s Department of Computer Science announced its plan to launch the Beiruti and Saleheh Memorial Fund — an endowed scholarship for international students seeking graduate degrees in computer science.

The fund was established to honour the memory of Mohammad Amin Beiruti and Mohammad Saleheh, PhD students in computer science who were killed in the recent crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 in Iran. This is the second scholarship that U of T will establish in the name of the crash victims.

The flight’s 176 passengers and crew were killed on January 8 when the Iranian Revolutionary Guard mistook the plane for an enemy aircraft and shot it down, according to Iranian officials. The incident happened amidst heightened tensions between Iran and the US, following the assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani. Eight members of the U of T community — six of whom were students — were among the victims of the crash, part of the 138 passengers connecting to Canada.

The department is asking for donations to help set up the fund, which will be awarded in perpetuity. It will be matching donations up to $50,000 at a one-to-one rate.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of two vibrant members of our computer science community,” said Marsha Chechik, Interim Chair of the Department of Computer Science, in a statement posted to the Faculty of Arts & Science webpage.

“By establishing this fund we hope to honour the impact Mohammad Amin Beiruti and Mohammad Saleheh made on the department and support future international graduate students [pursuing] education in computer science.”

On its donations page, the Department of Computer Science also honours Zahra Hassani, who was returning to Toronto to begin graduate studies at U of T. Hassani and Saleheh were married.

Beiruti was described as “an innovator, with a natural ability for deep thinking” in a press release from the department. As a teaching assistant and mentor at U of T, he was committed to supporting undergraduate students. Through his research in theoretical modelling and system analysis and design, Beiruti sought to make meaningful contributions to technology, as he believed “that the more technology improved, the better the world would be.” He had travelled to Iran that winter to spend time with his family following the death of his grandmother.

Saleheh had been an avid programmer since

FIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

elementary school, where he designed his first video game for a Commodore 64 home computer. He was an instructor at Sharif University and created an online course in Farsi to teach web programming — a course which is still used by thousands each year. He is remembered as “an outstanding scientist and a top-rate engineer,” who made the most out of his short time at U of T by collaborating with Samsung and AT&T, and publishing multiple peer-reviewed papers.

Hassani was a physics graduate from Sharif University who was about to begin her studies at U of T. She was described as “caring, devoted to her friends and family, spiritual, and [having] a unique perspective where she enjoyed life to its fullest.” Hassani and Saleheh are remembered as a “great couple.”

The Beiruti and Saleheh Memorial Fund is now the second memorial scholarship to be created at U of T in honour of the victims of flight PS752. On January 15, U of T announced that it would establish the Iranian Student Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will provide needsbased scholarships to students from Iran or any student interested in pursuing Iranian studies at U of T. Vice-President Advancement David Palmer, one of the co-creators of the Iranian Student Memorial Scholarship Fund, said to U of T News that the aim of this scholarship was to “ensure that the names of those we lost will not be forgotten.” He went on to say that “these students and scholars were among the very brightest of their generation. We hope that this scholarship will allow their memory to serve as an inspiration for generations to come.”

var.st/news

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Memorial ceremony held for Peter Wittek, U of T professor who went missing in India

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Peter Wittek was announced missing on September 29.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SRIRAM KRISHNAN/ GOFUNDME

Remembering the leading researcher, role model, generous friend, colleague Kathryn Mannie Deputy News Editor

On February 3, the Rotman School of Management and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) held a ceremony in honour of Assistant Professor Peter Wittek, who went missing in India in late September. Wittek was a leading expert in quantum machine learning, and his work at the CDL as a founding academic director sought to lead the charge in the commercialization of these technologies.

An avid mountaineer, Wittek was part of a sixperson team that was attempting to summit Mount Trishul, a 7,120 metre-high peak in the Himalaya mountain range of India. On September 29, the Indian National Disaster Response Force received an SOS distress signal that originated from Wittek’s camp. Search and rescue operations were unsuccessful, and it is believed that Wittek’s camp was caught in an avalanche. His body has yet to be found.

In a statement to U of T News, Professor Ken Corts, Acting Dean of the Rotman School of Management, said that “Peter’s loss is keenly felt.”

Wittek is remembered by Corts as “an exceptional contributor to Rotman and U of T — and a wonderful colleague.”

Over a hundred U of T students, staff, and faculty, as well as members of the artificial intelligence (AI) community attended his ceremony on Monday. A number of speakers who were close to Wittek shared stories of his brilliance and “generosity of spirit.”

Wittek’s brother, Gergo Oberfrank, came from Hungary to attend the ceremony. He expressed the anguish that he and his family feel at the possibility that they will never find Wittek’s body. Oberfrank began his speech by saying goodbye to not only “a brother for [him], but a father figure too.” The two

had an 11-year age difference, and Wittek was his biggest role model.

Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Multiverse Computing Samuel Mugel also spoke about looking up to Wittek, even before he met him.

Mugel recounted his time starting out in the field of quantum computing, saying, “What I found difficult was that I didn’t really have many role models [that were both] entrepreneurs and scientists — and this is really the position that Peter started to take for me because I saw him as someone that really managed to find the balance between an entrepreneur’s career [while] simultaneously [pursuing] fundamental research.”

CDL Founder Ajay Agrawal also marvelled at Wittek’s eagerness to pursue the entrepreneurial side of cutting-edge technologies. “I knew that he was a scholar and he had tendencies as a theorist.

And I know that theorists can be resistant to thinking about such crass things as commercialization,” Agrawal remarked with a bit of wryness in his voice.

This seems to be the crux of what made Wittek such a consequential academic and caused his fame in the field of quantum machine learning to be so enduring. “He was both interested in the way nature works, [and] in understanding the underlying science, but also interested in commercialization,” noted Agrawal.

Wittek was not only influential for his work in the field as a whole, but also for providing critical advice and guidance to a number of budding researchers and entrepreneurs. Mugel noted that Wittek was the one who had encouraged him to apply for the CDL Quantum Stream.

“I think there [are] an awful lot of people here who can tell you something similar — that Peter turned up at a key turn in their life and… with advice or a push in the right direction, helped us in these really difficult decisions.” Multiverse Computing is now a cutting-edge provider of quantum

computing and AI software for the financial industry.

Khalid Kurji, a senior venture manager at the CDL, spoke on behalf of the team behind the Quantum Machine Learning Stream, of which Wittek was a crucial part. Kurji spoke on Wittek’s cosmopolitan outlook, remarking that his team’s “aspirations to lead globally could only become a reality because our academic director [Wittek] considered the entire planet his neighbourhood and treated every single person as if they grew up next door to him.”

To Kurji, Wittek’s defining characteristic was his generosity. “He gave the full of himself — of his enthusiasm and intellect — into everything he did.”

Agrawal also shared this sentiment, and, as evidence, pointed out the surprising number of students who have emailed to express their gratitude for having had Wittek in their lives. “I think people have a need to tell somebody how much someone has touched their life, changed the trajectory of

their life,” Agrawal reflected.

Agrawal also shared the story of how he first met Wittek.

After reading Wittek’s book, Quantum Machine Learning: What Quantum Computing Means to Data Mining, Agrawal sent him an email with a few questions. “Very often when I send the author a question about their book, they either don’t reply or if they do reply they might send a very quick one-sentence response.”

On the screen behind him, Agrawal projected an image of Wittek’s response to his question. The email was too long to fit on a single slide, and had to be shown in two parts. He had received it 48 minutes after his initial email. “It’s remarkable how much you can tell about a person from the very first interaction,” Agrawal noted.

“I’m an economist; I was not in his community.

And I was surprised that he would take the time to send me such a thorough response and then ask me if I had more questions. And I thought, ‘This is my kind of person.’”

Complexities of Blackness: panelists reflect on being Black on campus and in Toronto Keynote speaker on combatting anti-Black racism Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

The Black History 365 Committee and the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office at U of T held a Black History symposium on February 6 titled Complexities of Blackness: Stories Told, Strategies Shared.

Keynote speaker The keynote speaker was Aina-Nia Ayo’dele Grant, Director of Community Resources Section of the City of Toronto, who reflected on the progress of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit (CABR), of which Ayo’dele Grant was the manager. The unit is part of the five-year Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism, which was implemented in 2018 and whose work primarily involves consultations with Toronto residents.

“I know for sure that the [Confronting] AntiBlack racism unit is making a difference,” said Ayo’dele Grant. She expressed that the unit is “contributing to culture change at the City of Toronto,” due to its involvement with many departments in the city’s government. Its May 2019 report showed that 28 per cent of the unit’s action plans had been underway or completed.

Some initiatives undertaken by the CABR include having over 9,000 people participate in learning sessions on anti-Black racism, and collaborating with the mayor to declare a Toronto

Black Mental Health Day on March 2. Giving an overview of Black activism in Toronto, Ayo’dele Grant noted that Toronto has also recognized the United Nations’ International Decade for People of African Descent, a resolution passed in 2013 which seeks to promote respect for the human rights and diverse cultures of people of African descent. These recognition efforts in Toronto were led by Black activists.

Panel discussion The event also included a discussion with three panelists moderated by Maydianne Andrade, a professor and the vice-dean faculty affairs and equity at UTSC. Panelist Andrew Campbell, Adjunct Lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education who completed his PhD at U of T, spoke about being a Black professor on campus.

“I [still feel] like an endangered species!” he joked, and mentioned that he is the first Black professor for too many of his students. During Campbell’s five years as a PhD student at U of T, he said that he only had one Black professor.

He also spoke about self-expression, saying that it is important to him to dress however he feels most comfortable: “I bring my whole self to school.” He added that he has learned to fight the urge to defend his qualifications and “keep unpacking and introducing yourself to be legitimate,” and instead be confident in himself.

Answering a question on navigating aca-

Event held as part of U of T’s Black History Month programming.

HANNAH CARTY/THE VARSITY

demic spaces while Black, Campbell answered, “Being on a campus like University of Toronto, you are constantly being measured. And I think what, for me, that navigation is, [is] to unpack that measuring and step away from that ruler.”

Campbell also spoke about possible criticisms that events like the one he was participating in were only happening due to Black History Month.

He clarified that, regardless, “We have to do the Black History Month thing. It’s important.”

Campell highlighted one assignment he gives to students, where they must analyze equity statements of companies and universities. He said that these statements mean nothing while “we’re in the concept of checking the boxes,” meaning that diversity efforts in these institutions often mean having people employed from specific marginalized identities and then deciding that “we have done the work.”

Michael Junior Samakayi, University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Vice-President

Equity and a fourth-year student, commented on intersectionality and being the first deaf person to be on the UTSU’s Executive Committee.

He agreed with Campbell that representation at the university was lacking: “The university is a big place. And there are very few students that look like me, very few students that identify as deaf and Black.”

Mairi McKenna Edwards, Coordinator of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Training for Student Life, was also on the panel, and spoke about her experiences being biracial. In her role at Student Life, Edwards said that “the most subversive thing [I do] here on campus… is I bring people together to have really tricky, honest conversations.”

Speaking about the drive for diversity in spaces like the university, Edwards commented, “What I’m mindful of is what the university is and is not doing to be worthy of our brilliance, possibility, and wonderfulness.”

Business

February 10, 2020 var.st/business biz@thevarsity.ca

“A springboard for Black success”: Faculty of Law launches new Black Future Lawyers program

From left to right: U of T law students and alumni Rebecca Barclay Nguinambaye, Novalee Davy, Solomon McKenzie, and Marie Kiluu-Ngila.

COURTESY OF FACULTY OF LAW

Black law applicant stream to open in 2021, aims to tackle underrepresentation in the field Ibnul Chowdhury Managing Editor

“Black Future Lawyers should be a springboard for Black success and increase the confidence of Black undergraduates to pursue a career in Law,” Rebecca Barclay Nguinambaye told The Varsity.

Nguinambaye is a law student and the president of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) U of T, which has been instrumental in the launch of the new Black Future Lawyers (BFL) program.

The program aims to support and increase the number of Black undergraduate students who are able to enter U of T’s law school and ultimately join the legal profession. In doing so, it hopes to tackle Black underrepresentation in the field.

BFL offers a wide range of opportunities for aspiring Black law students, including mentoring and job shadowing with Black legal professionals; lunches and exclusive workshops; lectures at the faculty; information sessions about accessing law school; and an annual BFL conference.

In the 2021 U of T Law application cycle, BFL will also inaugurate its Black Student Application Process (BSAP). Black-identifying applicants, both domestic and international, may choose to apply to U of T Law through this stream.

BFL is funded by an outreach grant from the Provost’s Office, the Access Program University Fund, with in-kind support from the faculty. The faculty describes the program as a “collaboration between UofT Law, our Black Law Students Association, members of our Black alumni community, and the broader legal profession.”

Tackling underrepresentation Dean and James M. Tory Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, Edward Iacobucci announced the launch of BFL in a press release on November 25.

However, Nguinambaye explained to The Varsity that BFL has been in the making for two years.

“In late 2017, BLSA communicated with Black Alumni to prompt an alumni letter to the Faculty requesting action on the under representation of Black students at the law school,” she wrote. “The faculty was very responsive.”

According to the faculty’s own data on its firstyear class profile, only one per cent of students, at most, identified as Black in the cohorts of each of

the last five years. This sharply contrasts with the wider city’s demographics — according to Canada’s 2016 census, nine per cent of Torontonians identify as Black.

Nguinambaye noted that by late 2017, the Faculty of Medicine had already launched its own BSAP, which aims to make the application process more inclusive and increase Black representation at the faculty. This informed discussions between the faculty, the BLSA, and alumni, and informed their decision to establish a similar program for U of T Law. Assistant Dean, JD Program Alexis Archbold detailed the goals of the program in an email to The Varsity.

“The Faculty of Law believes that legal education should be accessible to talented students from all parts of Canadian society,” she noted. “True access to justice in Canada cannot be achieved unless the legal profession represents the diversity of Canadian society.”

Accordingly, BFL strives to reduce barriers that underrepresented parts of the population, such as Black people, may experience in accessing legal education and employment.

“We know that the stories, challenges, and wisdom that [come] from different communities can only come out through individuals who embody those experiences,” Nguinambaye added. “To maintain the legitimacy of the law, it is important to prove that law is accessible to all and there are no [identity-based] barriers.”

A collaborative process The BLSA at U of T Law is part of the national BLSA network, which was created in 1991 to tackle barriers that Black people in law school and the legal profession face. The organization’s purpose, noted Nguinambaye, is to “celebrate Blackness and nurture community at the law school,” especially through outreach.

According to Nguinambaye, the plans for the program had been laid out by early 2019, and it hosted its first BFL conference in March. The annual conference is open to Black undergraduate students from all universities, and serves to inform them about pathways to accessing law school and becoming lawyers.

Archbold stressed the collaborative process of

BFL. She described the program as “deeply informed by the experiences and input” of Black law students, alumni, and undergraduates at U of T, especially through the work of the BFL Working Group. “It has been a democratic process where everyone’s views [are] heard and respected,” affirmed Nguinambaye.

The next major BFL event will be held on February 29, when the law school will host its second BFL conference with the help of the BLSA and Black alumni. Black undergraduate students are able to register online for free until February 24.

“We want to see community created by the many Black undergraduate students joining as BFL members and Black legal professionals joining as volunteers and mentors,” Nguinambaye noted on expectations for the program.

She added that she hopes that the BFL will serve as an outreach model for other law schools.

The Black Student Application Process The Faculty of Medicine’s Communities of Support initiative, which provides support and mentorship to underrepresented students, and the BSAP together served as a model for BFL. There is evidence of the model’s success. In the fall of 2018, the Faculty of Medicine’s first BSAP cohort included 14 Black students. Just two years prior, there was only one Black student in the firstyear class, reflecting how Black medical students and professionals tend to be underrepresented relative to the Black population in the GTA and Ontario.

With its own BSAP, the Faculty of Law hopes to “break down some of the barriers and perceptions that might prevent Black students from applying to, and accepting offers from, UofT Law.” Similar to that of the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Law’s BSAP applicants will be reviewed by members of the Black legal community. According to Iacobucci’s news release, students who apply through the BSAP will receive assistance throughout their application process, and their applications will be reviewed “by at least three staff, students, and alumni who identify with the Black community.”

BSAP seeks to tackle the challenges that Black students face in accessing U of T Law. Notably, there is no admission quota designated to BSAP

applicants, and the BSAP will not disadvantage non-Black applicants. All applicants, regardless of whether they apply through the general stream or the BSAP, will be assessed by the same standards.

Rather, BSAP will take into consideration the applicant’s holistic experiences, which is exemplified by the requirement of a personal essay from students to explain why they are applying to BSAP. Building community: past efforts, future prospects BFL follows existing outreach efforts at U of T Law to engage with students from Black and other underrepresented communities on accessing law school and the legal profession.

For undergraduate students, aside from the upcoming BSAP, the faculty also provides special mentorship, networking, and programming opportunities, such as the annual BFL conference.

For Black students who attend U of T Law, the BLSA works to provide programming, mentorship, and social and networking opportunities.

At a high school level of outreach, there is the See Yourself Here initiative, which was launched by the BLSA in 2008; the Law in Action Within Schools program, which was launched by the faculty in 2005; and the faculty’s partnership with Leadership by Design, which is specifically for Black high school students, and continues to support them during their undergraduate career.

“We are proud of these initiatives, but we know that there is a lot of work to be done, and that work is continuous and ongoing,” noted Archbold.

On this question of what can be further achieved at U of T Law for Black students, Nguinambaye listed opportunities for touring law firms, internships, academic advising, and financial assistance, which disproportionately concerns underrepresented communities, including Black folks.

Nguinambaye also called on non-Black members of the U of T legal community to support the BFL. “We have and will increase opportunities for non-Black-identifying students, faculty, lawyers and other professionals to be involved with BFL and welcome the support of the larger community,” she added.

“BFL is for Black students, but requires the commitment and encouragement of many to be successful!”

Comment

February 10, 2020 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Eco-fascism is closer than you think

We need to stop this dangerous ideology from erasing BIPOC youth activists in the climate fight Nadine Waiganjo Associate Comment Editor

According to the International Energy Agency, Africa’s total energy-related carbon emissions are two per cent of the world’s cumulative carbon emissions. However, Time reports that out of the top 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change, nine are in Africa. This is why young Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) such as Vanessa Nakate have been speaking up through activism.

Nakate has been fighting the climate crisis since early 2019. She’s been acclaimed since becoming the first Fridays for Future activist in Uganda and founding her own pan-African collective of climate activists called The Rise Up Movement.

Her work led her to be invited to the most recent World Economic Forum in January. In December, she spoke with Democracy Now! about how

the climate crisis in Uganda has resulted in deadly torrential rain in some areas and drought in others — both of which are affecting food production.

She highlighted in her interview how in countries like Uganda, which heavily rely on agriculture, buying food will become a luxury if extreme weather destroys farms. Hers is an important perspective in a fight that grounds itself in the future, because for Nakate and other BIPOC activists, the danger is happening now. They are marching for their day-to-day survival.

This is just one reason why it was so detrimental to their cause when The Associated Press cropped her out of an image of fellow climate activists at the World Economic Forum.

The climate fight in its increasingly desperate narrative is leaning into dangerous ideologies, and the rise of eco-facism explains Nakate and other BIPOC activists’ erasure from the work

COURTESY OF VANESSA VASH/TWITTER AND XIN YI LIM/THE VARSITY

The Ryerson-RSU split undermines student union autonomy, faith in institutions Unions should be reformed by the students, not universities Marta Anielska Varsity Contributor

In light of Ryerson University’s split with the Ryerson Student Union (RSU) late last month over their mismanagement of funds during the past two years, it’s natural that some people may begin to doubt the ability of student unions to advocate for student rights.

When student representatives spend an alleged $250,000 in student funds on things like drinks at the Rec Room, even the most indifferent students will start to take notice of what that may mean for their wallets. It’s not just Ryerson students that should be concerned; other universities, like our own, can learn from the fallout between Ryerson and the RSU. Universities should have a vested interest in maintaining accountability within their own student unions, should learn from Ryerson’s actions, and recognize that reformation is a preferable choice to cutting ties.

The act of splitting from the RSU inevitably has certain implications for Ryerson University as well.

After all, I personally didn’t pay much attention to the difference between the union and the university, and I don’t think the average student does either. Perhaps that conflation is justified; unions do have a large impact on campus atmosphere and environment, which is a considerable factor when deciding where to continue your education.

If both of these bodies are connected — at least in the minds of their clients — then the university should want to keep student unions accountable.

Ultimately, there are a number of ways in which the actions of a student union represent its university to students and the to rest of the world. Student unions are partially funded by student fees, but in the eyes of a student, these fees often become just another cost of university, lumped together with all the others. As a result, student unions don’t just harm their own reputation when they mismanage funds, they also harm that of their university.

When dealing with mismanaged student unions, the rationale of a prospective student may be that a different school will provide a better experience — one without any concerns of financial foul play.

This is one of the possible reasons for why Ryerson University terminated its agreement with the RSU. The decision was framed as a response to the university’s “‘lost confidence’ in the RSU’s ability to serve and represent students.” In other words, it was an attempt to punish and hold the union accountable for its actions in an admittedly drastic way.

However, the incentive that prompts universities to interfere in the first place is also the very reason they should attempt to improve student unions and not dismantle them: reputation. Student unions offer a range of different services that aim to make campus life more enjoyable for students, and are often important in making people feel safe and comfortable on campus, which can be a deciding factor when choosing a school.

they’re doing. Eco-fascism is refers to the idea that all of our environmental problems stem from multiculturalism, overpopulation, and a lack of widespread veganism, among other things. While the movement itself is niche, and overlaps with neo-Nazi movements, many of its ideas are widespread — even in liberal activism and discourse.

Eco-fascism denies the fact that oppressive white systems are what have led us to this disaster in the first place, and this denial often translates into calling for the genocide of people in the global south. Even Jane Goodall, while speaking at the World Economic Forum, made a point that if the planet held the population it did 500 years ago, most of our current environmental problems wouldn’t exist — a common eco-fascist soundbite.

This isn’t to say that any activist who aligns themselves with some of these views is a racist fascist. The subdued ideals of this ideology, which lead the media to erase the work of young BIPOC activists, are what is so dangerous. Ecofascism reframes the climate fight as, ironically, a white-saviour movement, and centres its activism solely on animal rights and the physical advancement of the planet.

This ideology benefits many of the white, liberal activists who participate in it. The climate crisis should ask everyone to look at their lives and completely rework their perspectives, which can often mean realizing they have been participating in or benefiting from the very same systematic oppression that has landed us where we are now — with 10 years left before catastrophe falls.

These systems of oppression include globalization, white supremacy, and the constant colonization of Indigenous lands and peoples — the list goes on. Realizing your involvement in these systems means understanding that you are not always the oppressed when it comes to the climate crisis, and are actually at times the oppressor. In How those services are provided without student unions is unclear.

Case in point, Ryerson University didn’t mention what would happen to the seven Equity Service Centres that the RSU provides on campus. The university did, however, mention that it will continue to offer these vital programs to students, though it has yet to actually provide an outline for this.

Ryerson has encouraged students to create a new student union, but building all of the infrastructure from scratch seems like a significantly harder task than trying to fix the current one.

Whether these arguments would hold up if this were to happen at U of T is questionable. The issue becomes a lot more personal when it’s your own funds being mismanaged, and your own rights being misrepresented. I’m sure my sense of disappointment, betrayal, and resentment would be considerably stronger if the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) was under fire.

That being said, I’m still not sure if I would agree with a stance of disbandment. Despite scandals and issues, student unions are still there to represent student rights and act as a proper counterbalance to the university.

In fact, we can compare this situation to the Sandra Hudson lawsuit that spanned from 2015–2018. Hudson, alongside two other UTSU executives, was accused of civil fraud when the two executives fired Hudson and parted from the union with a $277,726.40 severance package.

The union responded with a lawsuit that was ultimately settled in court, and released the 2017– 2018 financial audit as planned, maintaining the level of transparency that they claim to value.

If the university had felt that the UTSU couldn’t reform or handle its own problems, then I would’ve expected them to act. But in this case, any interference would’ve been misguided given

order to succeed, people have to take responsibility for that, and make efforts to dismantle systems that are actively benefiting them. For too many, especially within the climate fight, that’s simply unimaginable.

It’s uncomfortable, to say the least, for the very people whose struggles and plights continue to be ignored to speak up — with the voice it was assumed they didn’t have — and detail how the systems of oppression are the reason why we are suffering in the first place.

Instead of addressing this discomfort, the media would rather ignore them and their message. To respect and highlight their existence would also be to respect and highlight their claims, which just doesn’t fit into the white-saviour complex that too many white, liberal climate activists have.

This is why it was unfortunately not surprising to hear a young Indigenous activist such as Ta’Kaiya Blaney say of the Montréal Climate March, “There was just very clear disregard for Indigenous bodies and respect to [our] space that we occupy.” It is also why Nakate felt that her erasure belonged to a pattern of systemic racism.

The climate fight for young BIPOC activists is more than quirky signs and hashtags. It’s sustained action, aiming to completely change the way people across the world interact with each other, and to have oppressors take responsibility for making these necessary changes.

This means listening to all voices from around the world, but also amplifying the ones that have been muffled for too long. It’s difficult, uncomfortable, and certainly easier to just crop them out and ignore the issue altogether. But in order to win this fight, it must be done.

Nadine Waiganjo is a second-year International Relations student at University College. She is an Associate Comment Editor.

IRIS DENG/ THE VARSITY

the controversial nature of the lawsuit and the fact that there were already other student bodies, like the The Varsity, paying attention to the union’s actions. The university didn’t take any drastic action in favour of or against the union, but the situation still resolved itself and as such, the union is free to keep on providing services and reforming in whatever way that it deems fit.

Ryerson’s choice to cut off its student union seems abrupt since there were other easier and more logical ways to handle the situation and hold the RSU accountable. Forcing a student union to offer forensic audits and implement reforms is the system by which we expect autonomous bodies to keep each other accountable.

What we don’t expect is for them to get rid of opposing bodies they don’t like.

Marta Anielska is a first-year Social Sciences student at University College.

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Fighting the coronavirus on campus: combat xenophobia with effective action

Racism has distracted from the consequences of the coronavirus

Face masks have been in high demand since the virus outbreak.

SAMANTHA YAO/THE VARSITY

Yixuan Li Varsity Contributor

China is a common feature in newspaper headlines. But now, it’s not a potential trade war or tabloid domestic politics that’s drawing the world’s attention. It’s the outbreak of a new, deadly strain of coronavirus in the city of Wuhan, Hubei in central China.

At the time of publication, there have been over 37,000 reported cases of infection and at least 813 confirmed deaths. The majority of all those who are infected are located in China, with only seven cases in Canada.

Each time a deadly disease or outbreak occurs, people are always quick to place blame on governments or organizations. So, it is not surprising that people are blaming the Chinese government for the spread of this disease. However, this concern is misplaced and does little to improve the containment and treatment of the coronavirus. Instead, rumours have spread and incorporated racist and xenophobic beliefs, fuelling discrimination.

As I leisurely browsed through Twitter and Reddit, some comments caught my attention.

One comment read that “China is disgusting because Chinese bring virus to Canada.” Another read, “All Chinese people eat bats and dogs.”

Most people hope to only make empirical judgements based on logical reason or realistic

probability when disseminating information.

However, it should be noted that in any practical situation, most people just diffuse information based on their emotions.

When dealing with fear, sensational rumours are likely to spread, since people are receptive to negative information. People would rather choose specious facts over the uncertainty that hangs in the balance because negative information allows them to satisfy their anger and fear, even if only by placing blame on an entire community — one that is suffering from the very virus that we are afraid of.

While the coronavirus did originate in China, stereotypes and unsubstantiated rumours have caused conversations that are inaccurate and racist. According to The New York Times, the illness is said to have started in “a wholesale market in Wuhan, a city in central China, where vendors legally sold live animals from stalls in close quarters with hundreds of others.”

This piece includes several key terms like “Wuhan,” “China,” and “live animals.” From these facts, individuals online have created fictional narratives that emphasize cultural differences in order to explain the origins of the coronavirus, like the unsubstantiated rumour that the virus originated from “eating bats.”

The subsequent spread of these speculations has an undeniably racial and othering tone, which distracts from and minimizes those who are at the epicentre of this outbreak. While these online trolls may just be looking for a target to express their fear, there is a real and negative impact due to their words.

However, it should be clear that racism should not be the focus of our discussions of the coronavirus. Instead of focusing on those affected by the illness, some have used the atmosphere of fear to advantageously inject racist motivations into popular discourse.

According to BBC News, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has claimed that the coronavirus could boost US jobs. Ross’ sentiment is incredibly insensitive, as he focuses on the positive effects of the virus on the growth of the US economy, and neglects the misery of thousands

of people. He also acknowledged that Donald Trump’s border policy, which bans foreign nationals who have recently visited China from entering the US, has been successful — because the virus is destroying China rather than the US. Moreover, his comments reveal that Trump is disguising his racism with populism and patriotism.

I believe that those who spread misinformation online may not express such beliefs if they were given the opportunity to listen to a rational voice, rather than hate speech from racist politicians.

Canada, by contrast, shows a big difference.

According to CBC News, Justin Trudeau said on Feb 1 that, “There is no place in our country for discrimination driven by fear or misinformation.”

He also mentioned that “This is not something Canadians will ever stand for.”

Many of the infected Canadians who’d just returned from China isolated themselves, reported to customs when they came back from China, and either called 911 or went to emergency rooms immediately after they started showing symptoms. Their social consciousness should be respected because without this self-awareness, the virus would have spread much faster. These people and the community that they represent should not be attacked because of their race and cultural identity.

In addition, a large theme of Western media reporting has been focusing on criticisms of racism rather than efforts to inform the public of the gravity of the situation in China. Instead of giving attention to those who preach hate in this time of crisis, we must work toward improving the situation in Hubei and all other affected areas.

In order to eliminate fear, we must face it with bravery. We need to refocus our efforts to fight this disease. Recently, the sale of face masks, including medical masks and N95 masks, has become robust, with prices skyrocketing online and in stores. This practice has also come to the UTSG campus, as the U of T Bookstore — which is operated independently from the university — recently placed sale overpriced boxes of the masks on sale; they have since apologized, and removed the masks soon after.

Op-ed: The university admits low-income students without supporting them

At $100 and $160 per box, the bookstore’s prices for the face masks were much higher than their expected value. Even though it’s delightful to hear many students complain about the school’s behaviour, it is essential to further our actions beyond criticizing.

More than 20 Chinese student groups across U of T’s three campuses are currently working together to organize donations of medical supplies to hospitals in China.

“As an international student, we should do something,” said third-year psychology and political science student and president of the University of Toronto Wu Chinese Cultural Association, Thie Yan Waon. He commented that “The people back home have given us a lot of support.”

I hope that after the bookstore conflict, U of T students will pay more attention to the viral crisis happening in China, and concentrate their efforts on finding and promoting donation information and supporting other methods to help those on the frontlines of this outbreak. It is only through support and aid that we can help combat the coronavirus.

Various Chinese communities held weeklong fundraising efforts at various locations across all three of U of T’s campuses, which concluded on February 3. Fortunately, they reached their donation goals within a week, thanks to the generosity of the U of T community. Waon remarked that some local students have been very generous.

Courage is the anthem of humankind; the virus will ultimately be contained as long as we have enough courage and confidence. However, we must be careful not to destroy ourselves with fear, discrimination, and rumours first.

In the future, when we talk about the coronavirus, it will not be a crisis that represented the distrust and divergence amongst different cultural groups, but a moment when all members of the U of T community came together to fight against this seemingly-unstoppable enemy.

Yixuan Li is a second-year Economics and Public Policy student from New College.

FIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

Financial need should be prioritized over patronage — the UTSU is trying to fill the gap

Joshua Bowman Varsity Contributor

Being a low-income student at the University of Toronto does not come with a ‘how-to guide’ on the pitfalls of an undergraduate degree. For myself, I struggled to grasp the weight of tuition and the caveats of living in residence. My mother had encouraged me to take up residence so that I could make friends and find community, irrespective of the inevitable financial burden it would incur.

For many, student debt is an unavoidable consequence of their efforts to achieve a degree.

For low-income students, it is a fear that weighs over us when we evaluate how many books we can afford in any given syllabus, which leads to a significantly inequitable learning environment in which some students have access to information that others don’t by virtue of their financial position.

It’s a reality that we cannot afford to take our time during our undergraduate degree, as every additional course or year can add thousands of dollars to the finish line. When we walk across the stage at Convocation Hall to grab our degree, we do so with the ball and chain of financial burden attached to us.

When I first came to the University of Toronto, I was encouraged by friends and family to look

for scholarships and bursaries. “There’s a bursary for that,” they would say. “There’s a scholarship for that,” they would tell me. The pressure of having to maintain grades just to achieve financial aid is one that many of my peers did not have to suffer through; every test mark did more than affect GPA, it was my permission slip to stay at this university.

I have been here for five years now, and for a good majority of my tenure I have navigated through a cumbersome and, in my experience, frequently ‘under construction’ scholarship and bursary page with little to no guidance for firsttime viewers. Of course, many of these scholarships consider such a restrictive pool of applicants that they are not beneficial to the majority of the low-income students who need them.

The donors of these scholarships seem to prioritize their own legacies rather than students who actually depend on this support. Additionally, while the majority of scholarships offered by postsecondary institutions are claimed, many others are untouched, seeing students lose millions of dollars a year. Whether this is because they are not well-advertised, or the system is too cumbersome, I can’t say, but clearly there is something wrong.

I would suggest that donors and the university stop searching for carbon copies of past students and instead focus on how they can support stu-

dents who are currently struggling to achieve success at our university.

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) reformed its student aid apparatus this year, after consultations with low-income students just like me. We are working to expand our bursaries and grants to include the Book and Academic Supplies Bursary, Exam Deferral Bursary, Accessibility Bursary, Academic Pursuits Grant, Health and Wellness Bursary, Transit Bursary, and Emergency Bursary. These reforms now reflect the reality of what students need help with — transit, textbooks, unexpected expenses, and more.

Over the 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 years combined, the UTSU allocated just over $10,000 in student aid. Now, after the program was reformed in October, we have allocated over $20,000 in just four months. This is an incredible achievement, and I am proud to be part of a UTSU that made this a reality.

But the truth is that a student union cannot support every low-income student. Many students don’t even know about the program and what it can offer, and we cannot provide scholarships to pay for tuition. The financial landscape for low-income students has been ever-changing, especially taking into account the Ford government’s changes to the Ontario Student Assis-

tance Program and the inaccessibility of financial aid at U of T. The solution is quite simple: listen to us and our experiences and let it inform your student aid apparatus. To the donors who contribute to the education of future leaders, continue to do that, but understand that a lot of us are carving our own ways that may deviate from the path you charted, and that’s okay. U of T is a community of communities, and we succeed when we remember that.

Joshua Bowman is a fifth-year Indigenous Studies and Political Science student at St. Michael’s College and current President of the UTSU.

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FEBRUARY 10, 2020

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The unparalleled benefits of joining a hobby and leisure club UTFOLD president on the beauty of finding your community

Veean Chen Varsity Contributor

September 4 was a beautiful day. A gently shining sun peaked out from behind drifting clouds. At the centre of this green, Zen-like campus, 2832 UTSG campus groups chucked pamphlets at students, nudged forward their Listserv sheets, and turned King’s College Circle into a confusing mess. Amidst the disorder, email filtering, and event trying, disappointment shuffled in as an unwelcome but common guest for club members and new students alike.

No doubt the first weeks of school can be busy, thus the clubs search ends there, lest boredom, loneliness, or cheerful encouragement convince you otherwise. The shared mission of U of T’s hobby and leisure groups is to let every interested student, alum, or faculty member find a place where they feel at home.

Hobby clubs are gems buried deep in U of T soil. The University of Toronto Students’ Union Clubs Carnival, Engineering Society Clubs Fair, and Street Festival are rare excavation events that allow these groups to glisten — but not shine at their brightest. Show and tell is the spirit of these occasions, and engagement is the core of each group. Wind blows origami paper over yonder; the sun’s glare makes anime look like a black screen. Tiny board game pieces can become forever lost in the grass, but the limitations of this event are apparent and inevitable.

Perusing through the social media of U of T clubs, you will quickly find that bake sales and other promotional activities that are more commonly practiced by cultural and ideological associations are not emphasized in the itinerary of active hobby groups. Those that meet on a weekly or biweekly basis hit the deck running. Through their general meetings, workshops, tournaments, collaborations, and more, diamonds are unveiled. You can sense the passion that blossoms niche interests into something grander and more spectacular.

You will know of the ingenuity that popular interest clubs use to develop events and activities that make any membership fee they charge worth

it. If you do not feel that awe or excitement yet, it is no fault of yours. I implore you to continue discovering what the school has to offer. Pleasant surprises are not miracles here but the result of the collective, widespread efforts of U of T students who aim to provide their peers with positive university experiences.

Steadily approaching my 1,000th hour of practicing folding, diagramming, and teaching origami for the club Fly with Origami, Learn to Dream (UTFOLD), there is no doubt that my university experience would have been completely different had I not realized that club membership is an opportunity to do, learn, and gain so much.

This is U of T: one of the largest schools in Canada, and therefore one of the greatest gatherings of people with similar interests. The ease of making quick friends with people who share your language, career goals, ethnicity, food preferences, or party penchant will not fade. The opportunity to play against the city’s best Smash players at UTSmash, set a personal speedcubing record with the University of Toronto Rock Climbing Club, or celebrate the existence of bees with U of T Beekeeping Enthusiast Education Society, could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Ulife’s “Recognized Campus Groups” is the official catalogue of all clubs at the university. Some of these clubs have been inactive for years, so do not feel disheartened if contacting the listed executives leads you nowhere; clubs’ events, leaders, and agendas evolve.

You can challenge yourself to take the reins of your favorite hobby and lead its respective club to unimaginable heights. Should that feel sacrificial, explore clubs that spark even your mildest interest and share the joy with comrades new and old.

U of T is your oyster, and may the search for oncampus belonging go on. Find your place at U of T, and may your memories of the school and its people become ever the sweeter!

Veean Chen is a third-year Biochemistry, Human Biology, and Global Health studies student at University College. Chen is the President of Fly with Origami, Learn to Dream.

UTFOLD is one of the many hobby and leisure clubs at U of T. COURTESY OF VEEAN CHEN/UTFOLD

MARCH 9–13, 2020 Check out the panels, workshops, info sessions, and more at uoft.me/entweek

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THE VARSITY

FEATURES

TAs speak out about U of T g

On being caught in the crosshairs, student m Writer: Abdus Shuman Illustrator: Zach Koh

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A Twitter post has recently reignited a longrunning debate in the university: grade deflation and inflation. The tweet featured a screenshot of a message that an instructor sent to students, announcing that their grades would now be capped at a certain level for the sake of “countering the issue of grade inflation.” The post was retweeted more than 500 times and was also posted on Facebook, where it further drew agitated comments from the student body.

Melissa Hill, Executive Director in the Faculty of Communications and Public Affairs at U of T, recently wrote to The Varsity claiming that the email was a miscommunication, and that the assignment would not be capped.

Yet this very much runs against the tone of the original message.

Grade inflation is when many students score a disproportionate amount of A and B grades.

Whereas, grade deflation is when students are purposely marked harsher — meaning that the students who performed above average might still score in the C range. In this sense, marks have less to do with student performance and more to do with the university’s grading policy.

The Varsity spoke to a wide range of students, teaching assistants (TAs), and a union representative for TAs when reporting this issue.

It should be noted that some graduate students and TAs told The Varsity that they didn’t believe grade deflation occurred in their departments.

Others acknowledged the practice but were unwilling to speak about it, ultimately raising the question of how pervasive and far-reaching this issue is.

A student’s perspective on the issue Based on comments from Twitter and Facebook about grade deflation at U of T, it is clear that many undergraduate students are highly dissatisfied with these practices.

Maddie Diab, a fourth-year student studying international relations, was one of the many who commented on one of the posts, and spoke with The Varsity regarding the practice.

She recounted one instance when she followed her TA’s critiques to improve her work, and still only achieved a 70. On her insistence, the TA reread the paper and accepted that it was good, but he still refused to change the grade, saying that he probably had just read her paper after reading one that got a 90.

“I understand that because it was a big class, there were a lot of people who were naturally going to be better than me,” Diab said. “But… I never feel like I’m graded independently of other people… It’s not arbitrary, but the whole thing’s relative, and it’s really frustrating.”

Ultimately, she felt like her grade was dependent on how other students did, as opposed to the quality of her work and the expectations outlined in a rubric.

Diab acknowledged that

How are you going to learn if

However, Diab does not blame the TAs — they have their own instructions to follow. Instead, she blames the university as a whole. For her, the solution is for instructors to follow rubrics and grading schemes that clearly indicate a score for each skill demonstrated — such as clarity of argument and writing ability.

“I never thought it was the TA’s fault,” she said. “People were putting a lot of blame on the TAs, and it’s their job. You got to do what you got to do.” what she said is anecdotal, and that her experiences are primarily rooted in the humanities and social science departments.

However, she still felt that the issue of grade deflation and inflation is widespread.

She also reflected on how this has affected students’ mental health. For herself and her peers, it is highly demotivating to put your all into an assignment and then receive a grade that is much lower than you expected.

“It literally happens to every one of us — that we all feel our grades are being deflated,” she said. “I just feel like there is a huge battle of ‘We need better mental health services’… and then there was this battle about ‘We need to stop capping grades.’ And I think people didn’t realize or weren’t able to verbalize how connected they are.”

TAs speak out about their experiences The Varsity heard from TAs who have seen evidence of grade deflation and inflation at U of T. The two TAs who currently work for the university spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

One TA who spoke to The Varsity on the condition of anonymity is a graduate student in the biology department and an advocate for mental health. She said that there is pressure for her to maintain a class average — students who are either too high or too low are pushed closer to that average.

“The sense that I got is that the university enforces an average for all the courses, so you can’t have too many As,” she said.

In one instance, she was told that she had given too many A grades, so she had to change the way she was marking. In another instance, she was instructed to give higher grades even though the students were not doing the work.

She noted that not being able to be clear about the grading policy, and being pressured to give students grades that they may not deserve, quickly becomes stressful. She has discussed this issue with her peers, and for them it seems that this

is the way it has always been. This is a source of frustration for some TAs, as many of them plan to devote their lives to being educators, but they also see the anxiety that the grades bring about in students.

“As a TA, you notice the [undergraduate students], how stressed out they are,” she said. “That they are affected not just by this, but in general by the environment of the university and how we define success.”

She also spoke about the impact that grades have on student mental health. She feels that although the university is making steps toward better mental health initiatives for students, it could always do more. In addition to improving the wait times at health and wellness centres, she believes that the university needs to deal with its problems of grade deflation and inflation. Thus, there must be systematic improvement to U of T’s system.

She has also seen the pressure on students to achieve the marks they need for future goals, such as admission to graduate schools, something that has dramatically affected their attitudes toward education. She describes their attitudes as apathetic toward learning, as all of their focus is on grades.

“I don’t think that should be the role that the university is playing,” she said. “It’s supposed to be about teaching and learning and developing good humans for society. By just putting so much focus on grades… it’s just creating a bad environment for learning.”

“How are you going to learn if you’re that stressed out?”

Another graduate student from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who also wished to remain anonymous wrote to The Varsity about her time as a TA for first- and second-year courses.

“For the first year [introductory] biology course, the TAs [received] specific instructions to maintain assignment averages around 70%,” she wrote. “This came from the TA coordinator.”

features@thevarsity.ca

grading deflation allegations

misperceptions, and institutional pressure

you’re that stressed out?

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TAs are aware that they need to maintain a specific overall average, and this “can be quite restricting when assigning grades to individual students.” She found that her overall averages were “initially a lot lower than the specified average,” so she had to be more lenient when giving marks.

“I know students are aware of grade capping overall, but from personal experience most bell-curves are expected to raise averages rather [than] reduce them, so it might be a positive and sometimes stress-reducing factor,” she wrote.

However, she recognized that this is not the case with all TA and student experiences, and emphasized the impacts of grade capping on student mental health.

“There are so many external, non-academic pressures that undergrads deal with, and adding grade capping/inflation to the list is often unbearable,” she wrote. “There [are] a lot more students struggling with mental health than we are aware of, and it is important to consider how grade capping might affect their wellbeing.”

Priyanka Sharma, a former TA of an undergraduate criminology course, also wrote to The Varsity about her experience grading. She is a former graduate student at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies at U of T, and she also completed her undergraduate degree at U of T. “We were not asked to mark on a curve,” she wrote. “I would mark based off of a rubric given by the professor. However, my experience is an anomaly and the credit goes to the empathy and fairness of my professor.”

From her time as an undergraduate and graduate student at U of T, she got the impression that the “bell curve is an open secret.”

“There definitely seems to be a tacit recogni-

tion of an ‘informal but formalized’ grading curve for undergraduate classes at U of T — especially for classes with greater enrolment,” she wrote.

“Each TA has a different experience of how that plays out during marking,” she explained. “Most often, the TA is following [direction] from the professor, and it is most likely [that] the professor is following direction from the department or faculty. I think I was lucky and unique… not to have such directives imposed [on] my marking as [a] TA.” When The Varsity reached out to Media Relations for comment and interviews with TA coordinators or faculty representatives, they directed us to the

comments they made in our recent article about grade deflation at U of T. The potential violation of students’ rights Kate Brennan, member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3092 and Vice Chair of Unit 1, which represents almost 8,000 TAs and course instructors, spoke to The Varsity about the injustice against students that the tweet potentially illuminated.

She remarked that from her general experience as an educator, whenever she hears something about grades being too low or too high, it is potentially an institutional problem.

“The faculty member instructor holds disproportionate weight within the classroom and within the potential for that graduate student educator’s future career,” she said. “There are many, many, many Unit 1 members, myself included, who worry about facing retribution in some way if we upset a faculty member or, in trying to act fairly toward our students, come under the ire of a faculty member.”

Brennan expressed that, as an outside perspective on the matter, she believes that the incident relayed in the tweet may be a violation of U of T’s policy on marking.

“What should be happening now is an investigation into what really happened with that incident to make sure it’s not happening again, and to make sure that kind of problem isn’t allowed to systemically spread,” she said.

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“That means that there was something poorly done with the instruction or with the design of the assessment,” she said.

“That’s maybe what happened here.”

Brennan also stressed that the directives that were mentioned in the tweet would not have come from the TA, who would not be in a position to authorize any such action. Instead, they would have come from the course instructor, who bears overall responsibility for the course.

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“In a classroom, students have rights and educators have rights,” she stressed.

“And those are not at odds with each other; they actually complement each other. In addition to one’s rights, there also is accountability, and that extends both ways.”

Brennan detailed that one way educators are accountable to students is that they have to lay out all assignments and the marking scale in a syllabus at the beginning of the term. Under the most recent report, published in 2012 by the Governing Council about grading policies at U of T, the University Assessment and Grading Practices Policy, this grading criteria cannot be changed on a whim.

Rather, under Part B, Section 1.3, the report explains, “For both undergraduate and graduate courses, after the methods of evaluation have been made known, the instructor may not change them or their relative weight without the consent of a simple majority of students attending the class, provided the vote is announced no later than in the previous class.”

Brennan believes that in the instance the tweet highlights, students’ rights have been violated, since the form of assessment was changed.

“If there are ways in which students are not being treated fairly in this regard, then the university, I think, owes it to them and owes it to all students to make it fair,” she said. “Educators need to be accountable to students, too.”

Disclosure: Abdus Shuman is a TA in the Political Science department, as well as a Mobilization Officer for the Political Action Committee for CUPE.

Arts & Culture

February 10, 2020 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

University of Toronto’s Drama Festival 2020 The beginning

Eva Wissting Varsity Theatre Critic

A tradition dating back to 1936, the U of T Drama Festival is back for the 18th time this year, presenting plays written solely by U of T students.

For three nights in a row, various U of T theatre companies perform three 45-minute plays. At the end of the festival, at least six awards are announced, including Viewer’s Choice Awards.

The cast of The First and the Last Teen Mayor of Davenport Ontario.

COURTESY OF TRISTAN BANNERMAN

COURTESY OF U OF T IMPROV

The First and the Last Teen Mayor of Davenport Ontario — SHAKEN WALLS! In the performance by SHAKEN WALLS!, 15-year-old Charlie Thomson (Davide Sallese) lamented being voted out as mayor a mere two months after he was elected. Though his love for the small, rural Ontario town is genuine, he has failed to reach both of his political goals of moving Christmas to the end of February and making the hills of Davenport bigger. At the same time he must admit that skipping school and hanging out with adults all day has not been as exciting as it first seemed, and he misses his friends.

The scenes are divided up by several monologues, with Charlie at the front of the stage speaking directly to the audience. While the contrast between monologue and interaction with other characters serves the play well, it’s unfortunate that Sallese doesn’t connect more with the audience — most of the monologues are delivered with his eyes closed or him looking down.

When the only thing happening on stage is one character talking, and everything around them is dark, a detail like that matters.

The audience loved this performance — especially their fan club, seated near the front left of the theatre — and rewarded it with burst after burst of laughter. Still, there were plenty of jokes in the dialogues that passed by largely unnoticed.

If the cast would have slowed down just a tad, I think that even more punchlines would have landed and paid off.

In his closing remarks, festival adjudicator Aaron Jan pointed out how impressed he was with the use of bikes on stage, which were set up on specially fitted stands that let the actors cycle without turning the wheels. This was a great part of the stage setup, one that would have been a worthy winner of an award for technical achievement at Saturday’s awards ceremony.

Further, the rest of the furniture on stage allowed for smooth transitions between scenes on various locations. However, I wish they had made more use of the stage’s background, which had a huge, white screen that for the most part just hung there — huge, white, and without meaning. Why not have backgrounds signal different locations, such as the fields during the bike ride,

the place of the pie contest, or at least projecting different colours on the screen?

I also wish that the actors would have made more use of the stage. The first half of the play went back and forth between Charlie’s monologues, with him standing still, and dialogues with the characters sitting down. This lack of stage use made the play start to feel more like a read-through than acting. It was a relief when Brendan Rush entered and used his body and the space to portray meat pie enthusiast Tony Conigliaro. The same could also be said of incoming Mayor Lucy Laramie, played by Kenzie Tsang.

This was my least favourite of Thursday night’s performances, but SHAKEN WALLS! still presented an appealing and humorous play, with a closing dance that was wonderfully hilarious.

The 3rd Annual McGill Drama Festival — UofT Improv UofT Improv let the audience choose three titles out of six suggestions, all framed as part of The Annual McGill Drama Festival. This year, the chosen plays were Captain of My Soul, Under Pressure, and Lifeboat.

The first improvised play turned into a story about early European explorers who set sail for the new world “with all the best intentions.” After having figured out how to cast loose, set sail, and make the ship go in the right direction, the vessel was visited by a siren who became the crew’s new captain.

Once they arrived in Québec, they discovered the beauty of the land and all lay down to die. Aeden Taylor’s interpretation of Jeremy won her the Donald Sutherland Award for Best Performance at the festival’s concluding awards ceremony.

The second play, Under Pressure, was about love and trust, as newlyweds Mary Jane and Jeremy struggled to figure out their relationship — all the while being both disrupted and cheered on

by Mary Jane’s sister and Jeremy’s mother. In the end, love persevered, despite the discovery of Jeremy’s occupation in the esports industry.

The final improvisation of the McGill Festival, Lifeboat, became a parody of incomprehensible modernist dramas with the words “birth,” “life,” “death,” and “boats” blurted out repeatedly as shoes were either thrown around or placed very carefully at the front of the stage.

Jan was greatly impressed with the improvised plays overall, but especially with the irony that Lifeboat offered, which led to his Award of Merit for Most Complete Play –– an award he just had to create for this occasion especially.

As someone who enjoys sitting in the dark in a theatre house and who would rather die than be forced into the spotlight without a clear plan of what to say or do, I have the utmost respect for all improvisational actors. Watching them figure

The UC Follies kids on stage for Boy Who Cried — all 26 of them.

COURTESY OF WILLIAM DAO

out how to move forward together or try to push each other to reveal the next step of the play was pure joy.

After the SHAKEN WALLS! performance, which sometimes lacked a connection with the audience, the interaction at the beginning of UofT Improv’s McGill Festival was both refreshing and engaging. It would have been even nicer if the audience had been involved more throughout the performances and was asked to offer names or characteristics, or choose directions for the plays in some other way.

I do wonder why they did not come up with a new framing concept? The idea of staging the McGill festival is funny and allowed them to play on the rivalry between the two universities, the neighbouring provinces, and the two language communities of Anglophones and Francophones. But after having done that two years in a row, was there really no other framing concept worth exploring?

Boy Who Cried — UC Follies The last performance of the night was the strongest. The actors — and this play had a lot of them, 26 in total — performed on a professional level.

The casting of Eileanor O’Halloran as Kelsey Winslow, the assertive summer camp manager who was outfitted in suit, high heels, and a narrow mind, was particularly commendable.

In this great team of actors, the one who stood out the most was Margaret Rose as the main character, summer camp volunteer Soren. From the first opening, when she sat alone at the front of the stage, through scenes where she moved around the entire cast, she inhabited the stage with a presence so natural that I forgot that I was in a theatre, because it felt like I was there at that camp — even though I’ve never been to one in my entire life.

The play began when the summer camp opened, and Soren joined the team of volunteers, including her best friend Harper (Frosina Pejcinovska), who had just been promoted to lead volunteer. As you may have immediately suspected, this new power imbalance between the two caused tension. Even though the development of this part of the plot was more predictable than exciting, the escalation of the conflict was built nicely into the narrative and worked quite well.

The dramatic arc, however, was primarily built around one of the kids at camp: Soren’s favourite camper Jayce, a kid who started acting out and causing trouble and eventually ran away.

One major detail about how this play was constructed was that none of the children at the camp were actually on the stage. While the actors interacted and conversed with the kids — accompanied by extremely sparse props — the audience was made to imagine the children’s presence, speech, and actions. The fact that it’s easy to forget that we never actually see or hear the children only goes to show how strong both the script and the acting of UC Follies were.

Overall, a great round of applause was deserved, not just to the cast but also to playwright Brad Gira, director William Dao, and the entire production team. Unsurprisingly, the Follies were showered in awards at the end of the festival.

The Boy Who Cried was the audience’s choice for Thursday night. Playwright Brad Gira, Director William Dao, and stage manager Beka Morrison each received awards for their respective fields, and the whole company won the President’s Award for Best Production. In fact, this is the third President’s Award that William Dao and company have won — having been awarded it in 2018 for The Rhythm Method and 2019 for Lone Island Lovers.

UC Follies were the only theatre company to appear twice during this year’s festival. Although their Friday performance was delivered by a completely different team, I couldn’t wait to see what more they have in store for us after their strong finish of the festival’s first day.

var.st/arts

The middle I Never Saw Another Butterfly — UTSC Drama Club The second night of the Drama Festival opened with the UTSC Drama Club’s depiction of the Holocaust. Their play was set in the small northern Czechoslovak town Terezín in the years leading up to the May 1945 liberation by the Red Army. During World War II, this historic military fortress town became a stopping point for thousands of children, many of them on their way to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The script is based on photos, drawings, journals, letters, diaries, and poems documenting the stories of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezín. The script handles the serious subject matter respectfully.

Though the story is both engaging and heartrending, the acting is unfortunately a bit stilted.

The great exception is Sam Nada’s interpretation of Honza Kosek. His presence is energetic and natural all the way through, and this was duly noted by Jan, who gave him an Acting Award of Merit.

Despite the traumatic setting, the love story between Raja and Honza is brilliant. The conditions for the children in the ghetto, of course, are horrifying, and the audience is aware that the children have little odds of a future. Therefore, the fleeting moments of love: when Raja and Honza exchange poems that they leave for each other, and when Honza gives Raja the flowers and butterflies he sees by the town tower — these moments spark true joy on stage because it is something that no one can take away from them.

The stage setup serves the various scenes well, yet instead of using all of the space that the stage offers, the play does have many of the actors stand stationary whilst delivering lines, and essential information is often delivered through the voiceover.

The strongest scene of the play serves as an exception to this, seeing Honza and Raja speak to each other through a wall — a very real wall, though not visible to the audience — as Honza discovers that he has been ordered to leave the ghetto.

They both realize that this is most likely a death sentence.

It is a play that rests heavily on the spoken dialogue, along with voiceovers. Surprisingly, it makes almost no use of sound effects or music. While an overall engaging story, there was potential to evoke even more narrative and emotion through sound.

Northrop Frye has an Existential Crisis in McDonald’s — UC Follies The most professional of Friday evening’s performances was, again, UC Follies’. On the festival’s second night, they gave us a play where Northy (Isobel McDonald) — also known as Northrop Frye — goes through an existential crisis like only a dead person can. Yes, this is the same McDonald that we saw on Thursday night as part of the UofT Improv company, performing in both Under Pressure and Lifeboat.

A dead man, Northy finds himself in a rather deserted McDonald’s, and he turns to the audience for advice on how to make the place more popular even though he’s out of “hamburgers and fries and everything.” In swooshes energetic Bertolt Brecht (Molly Dunn) on a kick scooter, who tries — without success — to persuade Northy to lighten up. Northy seems lost now that he has

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

COURTESY OF UC FOLLIES

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COURTESY OF THE SMC TROUBADOURS

The cast of Northrop Frye has an Existential Crisis in McDonald’s during rehearsal.

COURTESY OF UC FOLLIES

abandoned both sentence structure and deadlines, and is unable to just accept things as they are, as Brecht does.

The play is wonderfully absurd and it brought many laughs. Funniest of all was Bennett Steinberg as a Jerzy Grotowski, who cannot stop dancing and even succeeds in making the stiff Northy try to follow his example.

While this was the strongest play of the evening, I still think it would have been improved with a stronger dramatic arc. Jan pointed out the importance of bringing out each character’s desires and allowing them to motor the play, and I also think this would have added an extra force that would have lifted this play to the next level.

UC Follies’ amazing performance of Boy Who Cried on Thursday night had heightened my expectations of the theatre company’s second play during the festival. While I was not as swept away

by Northrop Frye has an Existential Crisis in McDonald’s, it was still a play that was both amusing and insightful, and Jan gave McDonald an Acting Award of Merit for her interpretation of Northy.

Also, just giving me a reason to keep referring to Northrop Frye as Northy is worth something.

Lady Margaret — St. Michael’s Troubadours Friday’s last performance was Lady Margaret by St. Michael’s Troubadours. The evening’s third play was based on a poem, and began with a romantic yet innocent encounter between Margaret (Hannah Spracklin) and William (Kasey Belding), though this was soon interrupted by Margaret’s grouchy, bullying father Joseph (Robert Fletcher).

Enraged by Margaret’s interest in William, Joseph locked her up in the attic for six years. William was unable to wait for her release, despite having promised Margaret that they would always be together and would one day marry. Eventually, William marries another woman, and on their wedding day, Margaret opens the attic window to get some air, and she falls out and dies. She visits William later in the night as a ghost.

William, not fully understanding the strange dream he’s had, goes to Margaret’s house and learns from her brothers what has happened. As he goes to see her body, which has been laid on the bed in the attic, Joseph arrives and they start fighting — a fight which ends with both William and Joseph also falling to their death out the window.

Though this was my least favourite of Friday’s performances, I enjoyed the stage setup, particu-

COURTESY OF UTSC DRAMA CLUB

larly the use of only a window and a few other set pieces to create different rooms in various houses.

Another effective element of the stage design was the green background screen with a tree for the opening scene. It was a great choice to return to at the end, as it created a sense of closure — though the tree was not visible enough in the ending scene.

Though only a short play, there were many moving set pieces and props, and while the play would have needed fewer scenes for the narrative to work better, the stage setups and their changes could have worked if the transitions had been more practiced and ran more smoothly. Nevertheless, the judges were impressed enough to award the set designer and Tech Team Head Emelia Findlay the IATSE Local 58 Award for Technical Achievement.

Jan called this play “gothic,” which allowed me to see it in a new way. It would have been interesting to see if this idea could have influenced more of the colour, costumes, and stage setup, and how that would have enhanced the play as a whole.

Overall, though, the main problem was that we were not getting to know the characters enough to really care enough when they die, one after the other.

However, most of the audience seemed to really enjoy this play, giving audible gasps during the performance and awarding the play Friday’s Audience Choice Award.

Isobel McDonald starring as Northy in Northrop Frye has an Existential Crisis in McDonald’s.

COURTESY OF UC FOLLIES

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ARTS & CULTURE

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The end Father Figures — Victoria College Drama Society The penultimate show of the festival was the Victoria College Drama Society’s Father Figures. It had an inventive, clever, and superb script — one of the strongest of the entire festival. It was also the only one of all the plays to begin with a lot of people moving around the stage, which threw us straight into the action.

Fyodor (Sanjay Pavone) grew up with his mother while his father was away fighting in the Cold War in the Soviet Union. Why, yes, history is somewhat rewritten in this play — it’s one of its quirky benefits. While his father was gone, Fyodor missed him terribly. When his mother Emily (Alyson Doyle) received news of her husband’s death, she didn’t have the heart to tell her son the truth, and instead, she started acting as the father in the form of a hand-held puppet.

His puppet skin is blue, but he told Fyodor it was because it was so cold in the Cold War. His puppet nose is purple, but he explained this by saying that the military had run out of Purple Hearts, so he received a purple nose instead. Did I mention that this play is quirky?

Jokes were built in on multiple levels and you just have to go along with it.

The puppet-father reunited with the mother and Fyodor and they lived happily for many years — until one day Fyodor discovered his father seemingly dead under the bed when his mother was out, having left the puppet there.

Pavone forgot his lines a few times, but this didn’t really matter because his energy and connection to the audience was always present.

The true star of this performance, however, was Tuhi Sen as Ova. She played the girl Fyodor fell for, who helps him realize that having a puppet dad is not an entirely bad thing. She herself happens to have a mom who’s a sailor’s hat filled with beans.

Sen’s interpretation of the character is certainly funny — but it is the kind of funny that is still able to keep a seriousness underneath.

Having beans in a sailor’s hat as a mom is certainly meant to crack us up, but a human being longing to connect with a parent is something real. At the awards, Sen received an Acting Award of Merit, and Jan pointed out the way that her performance especially enhanced the play as a whole.

This was the play with the most ambitious use of set design. On stage were three white screens, which they used to display shadows — sometimes by moving behind them, and sometimes through the use of overhead projectors with toys and cut-out figures. Yes, overhead projectors. Who even remembers those?

What a magnificent idea for a set. That idea alone should have earned them an award!

However, sometimes the amount of creative set pieces pulled the audience’s attention in different directions and not always toward the direction of the play as a whole. Sometimes, a little less is more — even in an absurdist play.

COURTESY OF TRINITY COLLEGE DRAMA SOCIETY

The cast of Father Figures and a ukulele after rehearsal.

COURTESY OF VICTORIA COLLEGE DRAMA SOCIETY

The possible overload in design creativity, however, was a minor detail, and the audience really enjoyed this show, and chose it as their favourite for Saturday night.

TWEP — Trinity College Drama Society Last, but certainly not least, the Trinity College Drama Society gave us TWEP, which was a series of semi-connected monologues used as dialogues that centred around different shades of racism.

The Keeper (Katherine Delay) spoke with a coworker and the Initiate (Elizabeth So) with friends at school. The Confidante (Ben Liao Gormley) talked to his mother who came to his house unannounced, while the Soldier (Kenley Ferris-Ku) spoke with their dead brother.

The Advocate (Megan Campbell) talked to a prisoner on death row, and the President ( Jean Kim Crew) spoke with a new member of their Vietnamese organization. It was unclear who the Surveyor (Isabella Gillard) and right-wing extremist the Candidate (Reece Gerhardt) spoke with, but nevertheless each character performed their dialogue facing the audience as if we were that other character who they were speaking with.

In other words, each part of this play consisted of one character performing a dialogue where we only got to hear the lines of the character on stage. It was never hard to follow the dialogue, though, because the lines of the speaking characters on stage made sure to repeat anything essential — “Oh, so you’re asking ‘X’?” or “You’re saying ‘Y’?” In fact, the script could have even pulled back on this and had faith that the audience would have been

COURTESY OF CASSANDRA NELLY

able to follow anyway; the dialogue would have also felt more natural without some of the repetitive language.

The acting in this play was good overall, and the unique structure of a series of monologues as dialogues was intriguing, something that the well-chosen sparse set design supported.

In his comments at the end, however, Jan pointed out that, despite of the engaging subject matter, it was not until toward the end that he was really drawn into the play because it was in the last two scenes — the Candidate and the President — that the characters’ wants and desires clearly came out, thereby making those scenes particularly engaging.

While Trinity did not receive the Robertson Davies Playwriting Award, playwright Nam Nguyen did receive the adjudicator’s Award of Merit for Playwriting.

And the awards go to…

IATSE Local 58 Award for Technical Achievement: Emilia Findley — Lady Margaret Donald Sutherland Award for Best Performance: Aeden Taylor — Jeremey in Under Pressure Robert Gill Award for Best Direction: William Dao — Boy Who Cried Robertson Davies Award Playwriting Award: Brad Gira — Boy Who Cried President’s Award for Best Production: the company of Boy Who Cried Janet Bessey Award for Excellence in Stage Management: Beka Morrison — Boy Who Cried

TWEP was made up of a series of monologues.

COURTESY OF TRINITY COLLEGE DRAMATIC SOCIETY

Science

February 10, 2020 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

U of T races to first place with a carbon-fibre shelled toboggan Success at largest Canadian undergraduate engineering competition Nathalie Whitten Video Editor

Despite the potential dangers, the venue on race day was electric.

MICHAEL PHOON/THE VARSITY

University of Toronto engineering students glided to first place in the annual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR) on February 1 with their sleek carbon fibre-shelled toboggan. The win was a first for the U of T group, who stole the show this year while wearing outfits inspired by the uniforms of Canada Post workers.

What’s the race, anyway?

The GNCTR, this year hosted for the first time in Toronto, dates back to 1974, when the unique event was founded in Alberta. Today, it is the largest undergraduate engineering competition in Canada.

This year’s race, which followed the opening ceremonies and a technology exhibition earlier in the week, was held at Snow Valley Ski Resort just outside of Toronto. Teams from 21 faculties across Canada raced hand-constructed, independently engineered toboggans down the largest snow tubing hill in eastern Canada.

Engineering teams received awards in a number of categories, including superstructure design, safety, and innovation. Perhaps unexpectedly, artistic design was factored in — the U of T toboggan was plastered with a mock Canada Post logo reading “send it,” and the team members were outfitted

as mail carriers. U of T’s team was determined to be the overall champion through a comprehensive scoring rubric with 10 categories.

What are the rules?

The rules for the competition are simple at first glance — teams must build a toboggan that is fitted with concrete skis, weighs less than 300 pounds, and has functional steering and braking. Next, the toboggan must be able to safely transport five riders in an enclosed roll cage, a protective structure around the occupant seats. Finally, they send said toboggan barreling down a large ski-hill at the highest speed possible, hopefully keeping all riders inside.

While the final push down the hill could be missed in the blink of an eye, the lead-up to this moment takes months of hard work. The engineering process for this year’s toboggan began in the fall, with concept art, material experimentation, braking, and steering systems already well into production by October.

Innovative assets by U of T Michael Lizzi, co-captain of the U of T team and an engineering science undergraduate student, ex-

plained some of the new and innovative assets included in this year’s toboggan in an interview with The Varsity. Starting with its distinguished design and safety features, he noted that “being a closed pod is definitely unique.”

“Something new this year is we have rider isolation built in, which is that the whole front nose cone past the windshield area is an isolated crumple zone.”

It is easy to see why safety is a big priority for the team. Accidents and rollovers are common, and medics wait attentively on the sidelines of the hill in case of emergency.

The venue on race day Despite the potential dangers, the venue on race day was electric — loud music could be heard from the parking lot, competitors strutted in colourful coveralls, and impromptu dance routines broke out every few minutes in the crowd. A surreal moment that captured the eccentric fun of the event was the surprise appearance of an engineering student marching band, complete with drummers and trumpets.

While the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) team did not place, they seemed to have won the hearts of competitors and spectators by

Hidden costs, discrimination, judgement: Indigenous mothers’ experiences in health care in Hamilton U of T-affiliated study examines how the group faces barriers in accessing services

Nouran Sakr Varsity Contributor

Indigenous mothers expressed their frustration with the hidden costs and discrimination of the health care system of Hamilton, Ontario in a recent interview-based U of T-affiliated study. In this pioneering study, researchers learned about how some Indigenous mothers, despite their sobriety, are judged for past substance use disorders, or how their spiritual beliefs caused difficulties in accessing health care.

“For many women, [substance use disorder] offers a means of coping with trauma, such as childhood abuse, partner violence, and, for Aboriginal women, the intergenerational effects of colonization,” explains a 2010 Canadian Institutes of Health Research paper.

The co-authors of the U of T-affiliated study partnered with the Hamilton Regional Indian Centre, where they conducted 90-minute interviews with 19 Indigenous women.

Though small in scale, the co-authors noted that it was the “first qualitative study in an urban centre in Canada to ask Indigenous mothers how they select and use primary care” to address the health needs of their infants.

The study’s inspiration In an interview with The Varsity, co-author Dr. Amy Wright, an assistant professor at U of T’s Bloomberg

Faculty of Nursing, said that her previous work in Saskatchewan as a neonatal nurse practitioner, which is a specialist in newborn infant care, informed her research. Her job exposed her to many pregnant Indigenous women who had to travel from northern communities to urban areas in order to access hospitals where they could safely deliver their infants.

Upon her review of the literature, she found that Indigenous infants continued to have higher mortality rates than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

“It was very apparent [that] the inequities around health care access [vary] depending on where you live,” she said.

Racial discrimination and unmet spiritual needs The discrimination and racism that mothers often encounter hindered the building of trust with their health care team and their ability to receive reassurance and validation of their concerns. According to the co-authors, some caregivers saw previous substance use disorder or involvement with child protection services as “directly linked to being Indigenous,” despite the mothers’ efforts to improve their and their children’s lives.

Indigenous children are disproportionately represented in Canada’s child welfare system.

When many Indigenous mothers are pregnant, they are flagged as “high risk,” which remains on their charts regardless of the efforts they make to better themselves and to improve their children’s quality of life. The Missing and Murdered Indig-

enous Women (MMIW) report details the unfair targeting of Indigenous mothers and its contribution to the phenomenon of MMIW. Building trust was further impeded when caregivers were thought to be condescending or dismissive of the spiritual needs of mothers and their infants.

Many Indigenous mothers sought holistic care and desired that their care providers be able to meet not only physical needs, but also the mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of their infants. Recognizing the importance of spiritual health needs, having an Indigenous elder available to speak to the mothers, or directing mothers to rooms that could accommodate ceremonies would have improved the care provided to the Indigenous mothers interviewed.

Geographic inequality in access to pediatric care Wright noted that the mothers she interviewed did not live in areas with easy access to pediatric emergency services, since many of them experience poverty as well as food and housing insecurity. She attributed this to the inherently discriminatory and racist system, which was a theme that was highlighted in her findings.

The qualitative study revealed that pediatric care — from specialized emergency departments or primary care givers — was preferable to walk-in clinics. Specialized equipment and treatments, as well as child-friendly waiting areas, were among the reasons mothers specifically sought pediatric care for their infants and children. However, these

filling the role of impromptu rescuers — a loud chanting of “RMC!” could be heard every time the camouflage-clad team rushed onto the hill to carry off one of the many crashed toboggans.

Determination in absurdity U of T’s engineering team participated in the fun and friendly antics, but in true U of T fashion, they also took their work very seriously. While many competitors were warming by the fire, sipping hot chocolate, or joining the spontaneous marching bands, most U of T team members could still be seen tinkering with their meticulously built carbon fibre-based toboggan, making sure everything was perfect for the race. In the end, the relentless U of T enthusiasm paid off, earning them recognition and top place.

This sense of determination to pursue excellence, even in the face of absurdity, seems to define the spirit of the GNCTR. As the sounds of trumpets faded away and engineering students boarded their buses to depart for closing ceremonies, one thing seemed clear — perhaps only an engineer could think of an idea like a concrete toboggan race, and only engineering students could be daring enough to pull it off. services are not equitably accessible.

“In Hamilton, McMaster Children’s Hospital is in a more affluent area of Hamilton — by the university,” Wright said. “Even just that inherent inequity that they experience… meant that they were at a disadvantage to accessing that care because they were so far from it.”

Many mothers described that the cost of travel from one region to another to seek acute health services was a burden. And while walk-in clinics were the most accessible, some mothers reported that their primary care providers required them to pay a fee ranging from $40–$50 for using walk-in clinics due to provincial penalties based on the providers’ funding models.

The need for further study The Indigenous community is understudied, underserviced, and has been historically neglected in terms of health care. Wright said that representatives at the Indigenous Friendship Centre in Hamilton were surprised that a researcher was interested in studying Indigenous mothers and their infants.

Vicky Miller, the Six Nations social worker at the Hamilton Regional Indian Centre whose clients were interviewed by Wright’s team, also noted in an interview with The Varsity that the only previously conducted studies were surveys by students interested in statistical data. No previous qualitative research has extensively explored infant health and maternal experiences.

Despite this, Miller remains optimistic. “In the last four years that I’ve worked, there has been improvement [for] families,” she said. She noted a rise in case files closed with child welfare services due to families working closely with that centre’s staff, which lets children come home to their families.

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THE VARSITY

SCIENCE

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How welfare cuts in Germany worsened health outcomes of unemployed persons U of T-affiliated study results could have implications for social welfare in Ontario

Lucy Stark Varsity Contributor

One of the most drastic changes to Germany’s welfare system, the 2005 Hartz IV reform, worsened health outcomes among unemployed people, according to a U of T-affiliated research study.

This specific reform in Germany’s welfare policies affected unemployed Germans who received needs-based unemployment assistance. Prior to 2005, this financial assistance amounted to 57 per cent of the recipient’s previous earnings. After the Hartz IV reform, however, the German government replaced these percentage-based payments with a flat-rate of 424 euros every month, cutting the average recipient’s benefits by 25 per cent.

The 2005 Hartz IV reform in Germany was responsible for damaging health outcomes among unemployed people, according to researchers.

BREMER MONTAGSDEMO/CC WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The study’s methods and results The co-authors examined the direct effect of this welfare reduction on the self-rated health of those who received these benefits.

To carry out this study, they compared a group of unemployed welfare recipients to a control group of unemployed persons who were similar to the experimental group, but did not rely on the specific benefits that were reduced by the Hartz IV reform. This statistical technique is known as a difference-in-differences approach — a comparison of two groups that are nearly identical in all but the trait of interest, in order to minimize the effects of confounding variables.

By comparing the self-rated health of the two groups before and after the reform, the researchers found that both groups experienced worsening self-rated health after the reform. However, the group of welfare recipients reported an additional 3.6 percentage point increase of poor selfrated health.

“Using our [difference]-in-differences design, we [can] attribute that 3.6 [percentage point] increase in poor self-rated health to the effect of welfare reform,” said Dr. Faraz Shahidi, the lead

author of the study affiliated with U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, in an interview with The Varsity.

Applicability of findings to Canada While this study focuses on Germany, the findings are generalizable to high-income countries that provide financial assistance to low-income populations, such as Canada. Like Germany, Canada has also reduced its welfare benefits over time. In 1995, for example, Ontario cut social assistance rates by 22 per cent, causing the province’s welfare recipients to lose one fifth of their main income source.

“Since the 1990s, no [Canadian] jurisdiction has made a serious effort to increase welfare rates.

On the contrary, benefits have either stagnated or borne the cost of additional austerity measures like the one we examined in Germany,” said Shahidi.

“As a result, the millions of people who [rely] on social assistance have seen a substantial decline in their absolute and relative economic standing over the last few decades.”

It is clear, through this study, as well as numerous studies conducted in other countries, that there is a negative correlation between regressive welfare reforms and the health of welfare recipients. Shahidi pointed out that welfare cuts have previously been associated with “elevated rates of mortality and mental health conditions.”

Welfare reductions can also force former welfare recipients to take unreliable, low-wage jobs to replace the benefits they have lost, according to the co-authors.

Potential cuts in future Canadian welfare Some Ontario politicians continue to push for reduced spending in social assistance programs, such as Ontario Works, Ontario Disability Sup-

port Program, and the Transitional Child Benefit.

In November 2018, the provincial government announced its plan to dramatically reduce its spending on these programs.

However, in late 2019, the government cancelled these cuts and retained the current system, in part due to advocacy efforts like the Campaign Against the Cuts to Social Assistance. The Ontario government continues to propose a limitation to those who will qualify for financial support under the Ontario Disability Support Program.

Clear science, complicated politics The continuation of government policies that reduce welfare benefits highlights an important contradiction between scientific evidence and political actions. “Put simply, welfare reform is not [an] evidence-based policy… Power, ideology, and interests are often more decisive factors driving the agenda,” Shahidi said.

While Shahidi suggested that it would be beneficial for future researchers to investigate the underlying causes of the relationship between welfare reform and negative health outcomes, he believes that there is a strong enough base of scientific evidence to support the expansion of social welfare programs that are known to protect recipients’ health.

What complicates the implementation of these regressive reforms is the question of “who stands to gain and who stands to lose?” The available evidence points to “a straightforward answer to the second half of that equation,” Shahidi noted.

“In addition to posing a measurable threat to the health of economically vulnerable households, benefit cuts and related austerity measures impose substantial economic costs on… impoverished families, their communities, and even society as a whole.”

How chaos theory captures the dance of planets U of T undergraduate and Princeton fellow publish astronomy research on planetary motion

Lolita Vorobyeva Varsity Contributor

You probably don’t go about your day thinking about how our solar system works and the probability of its collapse.

In fact, if you are anything like me, when you do think about our galay you likely recall pretty images of space, or astronauts from movies. However, what many people might not realize is that our solar system is borderline unstable — there is a small theoretical chance that Mercury will collide with either the Sun or Venus.

Because dynamics, which is the study of how forces influence motion, is so chaotic, astrophysicists will never be able to predict when this will happen, or even if it will happen at all.

The good news is that it could be possible to estimate the probability of distribution

against all other possible outcomes in our system. This is exactly what the research paper

by Naireen Hussain, a fourth-year engineering science undergraduate student majoring in robotics at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Daniel Tamayo, a Lyman Spitzer Sr. fellow and Sagan fellow at Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysical Sciences focuses on.

The paper is available on arXiv, and is pending peer review. It revolves around the relation between chaos, or unpredictable behaviour, and multi-planetary systems.

The process of discovery Hussain and Tamayo worked together during Hussain’s second and third years of undergraduate studies, while Tamayo was at U of T’s Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. After Tamayo left U of T, the pair worked on the project through Skype and email, and

completed it over last summer.

The topic was not an easy one to research.

In addition to being centred around an ambitious idea of predicting how long orbital configurations will survive, what they wanted to explore was “whether that question is even well defined in the first place,” according to Tamayo.

One of the hardest parts of the research process was actually figuring out the initial planet configuration. Another big obstacle, Hussain said to The Varsity, was finding a “substantial data set that doesn’t take too long to generate and still is able to give you valid results,” so they had to play around with various orbital configurations.

A surprise, even for the researchers At the end of the research process, Hussain admitted, the pair was pleasantly surprised with the results. “What we went into was to

see if [it] was even possible to do this, so we were quite satisfied when we realized that [it has actually] come to a consistent distribution,” she said.

She believes that this research will make an impact on other physicists studying the topic because they can now “use [their] stability analysis to strain the orbital parameters.”

Though the probability of Mercury colliding with either the Sun or Venus is less than one per cent, it is still a possibility. But since we cannot predict when the collision might happen, even with our modern-day technology and all the information available to us, the only thing we can do is look at all the possible outcomes and estimate their distribution probabilities.

The study by Hussain and Tamayo plays a significant role in this achievement by advancing research on the relationship between chaos and planetary systems.

The research revolves around the relations between chaos and multi-planetary systems.

COURTESY OF D. A. AGUILAR, HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS/NASA

var.st/science

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

What scholarships are available for Black students in STEM at U of T? Pharmacy, medicine, and social work faculties among aid providers Adam A. Lam Science Editor

What scholarships are available for Black students in STEM at the University of Toronto?

The Varsity has surveyed awards available for students across many departments and fields, which are listed below.

Media offices across different U of T departments have contributed research to this article.

Tri-campus scholarships:

The Winkelman Admission Scholarship is an admission award for students who “identify as Black (African-Canadian, Caribbean-Canadian or Afro-Caribbean heritage)” and have “demonstrated academic merit.”

The Dr. Anderson Abbott Award is for current domestic students, and “is awarded to a black student in any program of study on the basis of academic achievement, financial need and contribution to the black community.”

The Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students Black Student Bursary of $1,000 is “awarded based on financial need to Black students enrolled in undergraduate programs on a part-time basis,” with preference given to those who mostly study on a part-time basis.

The Black Business and Professional Association Scholarships are available to Black-Canadian students who are under 30.

Students “must demonstrate high academic achievement and contribution to the Black community [and] be in financial need.”

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work: The Dr. Daniel G. Hill Sr. Scholarship is an award of annual income “to be awarded on the basis of financial need to a student enrolled in the [Master of Social Work] program, with consideration given to recruitment, incentives, support and retention of Black students.”

The Beverly & Emerson Mascoll Graduate Scholarship is an award of annual income

17

“with consideration given to a Black Canadian Resident/Citizen, who is a student in the [Master of Social Work] program, and who demonstrates financial need and good performance.”

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy: The Afro-Canadian Scholarship recognizes “a deserving black student (African-Canadian, Caribbean-Canadian, or Afro-Caribbean heritage) entering Year 1 of the undergraduate program at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy” who demonstrates financial need and community or volunteer work.

Faculty of Medicine: The Dr. Robert William Hudson Memorial Award is for students who have “demonstrated interest in endocrinology,” with “preference given to Black or Indigenous students.”

The Dr. John Douglas Graham Salmon Award for Black Medical Students is “awarded to [a] black student in any year of the MD program” who demonstrates financial need.

School of Graduate Studies (SGS): The SGS Fellowships and Bursaries for Black and/or Indigenous Students are for full-time domestic and international graduate students who identify as Black or Indigenous, and demonstrate “one or both… financial need [or] academic merit.”

Faculties of Medicine, Social Work, and School of Graduate Studies all carry scholarships for Black students in STEM. JORDAN AHARONI/THE VARSITY

Changing how we see ourselves with yoga

Practice may counter excessive cultural importance placed on our body image Caroline Biel Varsity Staff

We begin in shavasana, or corpse pose. It looks just like it sounds: we lie face-up with our eyes closed and our palms facing upward. “Try to relax the whole body and concentrate on breathing,” said our teacher. He circulated the room between the turquoise mats that blanketed the ground. We all went silent, clearing our busy thoughts and focusing inward.

“Relax your toes. Relax your knees. Relax your calves. Relax your hamstrings,” chanted our teacher as he guided our awareness from the tips of our toes to the crown of our heads. As our breathing slowed and our limbs relaxed, the tension in our bodies dissolved.

Yoga is a practice that combines physical poses with focused breathing, meditation, mindfulness, and spirituality, that originated in ancient India.

Although Western practitioners often consider it purely a form of exercise, yoga has the potential to influence the way we think and feel in our bodies, according to a recent paper authored by Dr. Niva Piran, a professor at U of T’s Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, and Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.

Their research suggests that yoga can enhance our body esteem and “experience of embodiment” — our lived experience in our bodies as we engage with the world.

This new research, published in Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, is grounded in the idea that cultural and social pressures discipline our bodies and shape the way we live in them. Western cultures place a huge emphasis on external appearances; that pressure can lead to disconnection from our bodies, reluctance to express our bodily needs and desires, discomfort in taking up physical space, lack of self-confidence, body shame, and self-neglect.

Piran and Neumark-Sztainer turn to yoga as one possible solution.

According to their research, yoga can promote

positive embodiment and counter cultural norms that place excessive importance on appearance.

For Piran, one important element of yoga is countering stereotypes, as it can challenge the idea of women not being strong, powerful, or assertive.

She suggests that empowering poses, such as warrior I and warrior II, allow yoga practitioners to connect with experiences of strength and power. Piran also pointed out the need for “deemphasizing what positions look like and focusing more on the internal experience of poses.”

Yoga is a physical activity that requires focusing on body sensations and on breathing; this helps shift our attention inward and away

from the appearance of our bodies.

For the researchers, yoga is also about creating a safe space for bodies of all kinds, such as those of diverse sizes, ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, gender identities, and physical abilities.

Yoga teachers can facilitate such safe spaces by bringing our attention to how poses feel, making us more attuned to our bodies, and suggesting modifications to poses to accommodate people of various abilities and comfort levels.

In addition, the researchers highlighted the importance of practicing yoga in diverse communities. Within Western cultures that idolize certain body types, practicing yoga in diverse communities can promote equity, support

SKYLAR CHEUNG/ THE VARSITY

body acceptance, and nurture a sense of belonging for all practitioners.

But not all yoga classes are free from our culture’s emphasis on external appearance and performance. Piran cites the research of Dr. Jennifer Webb, a professor at the Department of Psychological Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who noticed that models on the covers of yoga magazines have been getting slimmer and slimmer over the past few decades.

“Just because people do yoga does not necessarily mean that that yoga will contribute to a positive experience of living in the body,” said Piran. “Pressures around appearance that exist everywhere else can also be part of the yoga culture.”

She encouraged finding “the type of yoga that protects practitioners from larger cultural pressures.”

Indeed, the researchers emphasized the importance of finding a yoga class that fosters equity, as well as the responsibility of yoga teachers to facilitate safe conditions that promote positive embodiment.

Piran and Neumark-Sztainer hope that their research, which includes recommendations for teacher-related practices, can guide yoga teachers in promoting positive body connection in their classes.

After practicing surya namaskar, also known as sun salutations; balancing in vriksasana, the tree pose; and stretching in balasana, the child’s pose; the yoga class ends the same way it starts: in shavasana. We lay on our backs, somehow feeling in equal parts relaxed and energized. We sat up, cross legged, as our teacher left us with a closing reflection.

I will leave you with something Piran said to me during her interview that is easier said than done, but still worth mentioning in all its brevity.

“Accept your body and be in social contexts that support that kind of acceptance. Allow yourself to be strong, have a voice, and be assertive.”

She then added, with kindness in her voice, “Our bodies should not be a source of personal shame.”

Sports

February 10, 2020 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Goldring hosts sports-themed ballroom battle Kiki ball celebrates Black members of the LGBTQ+ through dance Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor

The Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport hosted a free sports-themed kiki ball on February 7, featuring several competitions where prizes could be won. The kiki scene emerged in the Black and Latino LGBTQ+ communities in 1920’s New York City, and the balls themselves feature individuals who compete before a panel of judges in various categories.

The main gymnasium was turned into a celebration of a queer subculture, with loud music serenading the entire fieldhouse while all the attendants gathered around a runway. The ball featured vogue dancing — which inspired Madonna’s 1990 music video “Vogue” — and runway competitions. The first was the “Virgin Runway,” in which U of T students, who made up the majority of the competitors, were required to wear blue clothing. Contestants all walked one by one, and then in pairs, until there was only one competitor remaining.

There was also the “On the Jumbotron” event, in which contestants wore sports jerseys and served looks down the runway. People of all ages joined in, sporting the jerseys of Kobe Bryant, LeBron

James, Phillip Dorsett, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Toronto Blue Jays. This was followed by the “Best Courtside Look” category, which involved some of the most memorable looks of the evening, as contestants aimed to emulate the outfits that their favourite celebrities have donned at the courtside of NBA games. “Referee” was also a memorable category, where a handful of contestants were required to wear black-

and-white stripes.

“We’re trying to engage students and the community in physical activity that maybe there’s not as much opportunity for, [students] that maybe don’t feel as safe in our spaces with the traditional physical activity that we offer,” said Robin Waley, Assistant Manager of Co-Curricular Diversity & Equity at U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. “So we try to

Participants vogued and strutted down the runway in Goldring’s main gymnasium.

COURTESY OF FAZLUR-REHMAN MALIK

reach these underserved communities and provide access to programs. Voguing is a really important form of physical activity, style of dance, culture for the Black and brown queer community.”

Kiki ball culture has been an important source of community and culture to queer people of colour, mainly occurring in nightlife scenes. When asked about the importance of these types of events on campus, Waley said, “The campus is not accessible. Let’s be real. We have a lot of work to do as a university, and if we work together, we can accomplish creating opportunities within equity, diversity, and inclusion for everybody, which is the work that we still need to do.” He said that the university still has a lot to do, but with events like this one they hope to create more equitable spaces on campus.

Before the event, there was a vogue workshop, where beginners could attend and learn the dance style. “I like seeing students here that come to the vogue classes and they’ve never done this before and their friends are here to support them,” said diversity and movement intern Sandakie Ekanayake to The Varsity. “And that’s really great to see.”

“Having this in this building is a big step forward to queering heteronormative space,” Ekanayake concluded.

The power of a tweet: how DeMar DeRozan changed the game U of T professor praises former Raptors player for his openness on mental health

Laura Ashwood Associate Sports Editor

In the early morning of February 17, 2018, former Raptors shooting guard DeMar DeRozan posted a short but impactful tweet: “This depression get the best of me…”

Those seven words caused a storm in the sports and psychology realms alike. So much so that U of T Faculty of Medicine Associate Professor of Psychiatry Mark Sinyor felt moved to write an op-ed about it for the Toronto Star.

In the article, Sinyor explained how Derozan’s willingness to share his struggle with depression has allowed for a conversation about mental health both in and out of sport to develop.

He told the Star that, especially for young male fans, who make up a large portion of the NBA’s viewer base, mental health issues are often seen as a chink in the armour, or a sign of failure.

“It’s a constant battle because illnesses like depression make sufferers feel hopeless and many,

especially men, still have the tragic impression that seeking help is weak or even shameful,” he wrote. By opening up, even with a simple tweet, DeRozan proved to fans and fellow players alike that you could be a four-time NBA AllStar, two-time All-NBA Team member, and an Olympian, and still struggle with mental health issues like depression. These struggles aren’t indicative of failure, but rather, they are a challenge worth overcoming.

Sinyor wrote that he is sure that DeRozan’s story impacted many, especially young male fans, who are susceptible to burying mental health struggles and worsening them as a result. “They saw it and said to themselves, ‘DeMar is fighting this and winning… Maybe I can too.’”

In an email to The Varsity, Sinyor explained that “the reason that efforts to decrease stigma are so important in sport is because [they reach] such a wide audience and, in the case of men’s basketball, an audience of men that is often socialized not to talk about their feelings.”

This is what inspired him to write the piece.

In his own experience as a psychiatrist at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, he “heard echoes of the voices in [his] office” in DeRozan’s divulsion. Also an academic, Sinyor devotes most of his expertise to “spreading messages of resilience because research shows that resilience is actually contagious.” DeRozan’s simple tweet was a clear message of resilience, resounding across the NBA and leading to an explosion of solidarity.

Enthusiastic to keep DeRozan’s momentum going, Sinyor expressed that “my hope is that efforts by DeRozan and people like him will make it easier for everyone to speak up about their mental health struggles and to reach out for help when needed.”

The prevalence of the mental health conversation in professional sports seems to be increasing, and athletes are likely to keep moving the conversation forward as these issues continue to come to light.

SKYLAR CHEUNG/ THE VARSITY

Blues beat Laurentian in graduates game

Toronto clinches first place with a 2–0 win

Sara Fredo Varsity Staff

With this win, the women’s hockey team clinched the top spot in the OUA standings.

COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES

The University of Toronto women’s hockey team scored two goals in the second period of their February 8 game to beat the Laurentian University Voyageurs 2–0 and clinch first place in the Ontario University Athletics standings.

The win was extra special for the Blues, as they celebrated graduating seniors Breanna Berndsen, Shaelynn Waite, Mathilde De Serres, Jana Headrick, Stephanie Ayres, Jessica Robichaud, and Cristine Chao in a pregame ceremony. The departure of the seven talented veterans will leave big holes for players like rookie up-and-comer Natasha Athanasakos, second-year standout Taylor Trussler, and third-year stars Louie Bieman and Laura Ellis to fill.

Toronto and Laurentian were neck in neck for most of the game. Madeline Albert shone in the net, thwarting numerous attacks from the Voyageurs. Rookie forwards Juliette Blais-Savoie and

Lauren Macdonnell did well to challenge the Laurentian goalie, but the first period ended in a 0–0 tie.

The Blues found their offensive spark in the second period when Gabrielle De Serres broke the deadlock with a fantastic finish off of an assist from her sister Mathilde. Invigorated by the scoring, Taylor Trussler rocketed a backhand past the Voyageur goalie not even a minute later. Throughout the offensive flurry the Blues were unable to score again.

Despite a fast-paced third period, neither team was able to find the back of the net. Albert did well to block numerous Laurentian shots, and the defensive combination of Chao and Headrick broke up any dangerous plays as soon as they occurred.

With the win, Toronto guaranteed themselves the top spot of the league, and a first round playoff spot against the still-to-be-determined eighthplace team. Toronto will play their final game of the regular season on the road on February 14, when they head to London, Ontario to play the Western University Western Mustangs.

var.st/sports

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

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A review of Cheer

Varsity Blues cheerleaders discuss new docuseries of America’s favourite ‘non-sport’ Hannah Carty Associate News Editor

Cheer is Netflix’s show du jour, a perfect encapsulation of the bingeable show archetype. Therefore, everyone you know has likely seen it. But if you haven’t, let me introduce you to the emotional rollercoaster that is Cheer.

The show follows the cheerleading team of Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, as they prepare for their national championship in Daytona Beach, Florida. Comprised of six hour-long episodes, the show didn’t hook me in right away.

Rather, the real-world tension of Cheer builds slowly. By the end, my roommate and I were holding our breath as we watched the team perform their set at the competition in Daytona Beach — clocking in at a brief two minutes and 15 seconds.

At the helm of the team sits Monica Aldama, who is everything you could want from a leader: stern yet supportive, intimidating yet kind.

A workaholic on the down low, the team rises to victory because of Aldama. It took me a while to get used to her, but watching Aldama help a teammate navigate a sensitive legal issue, speak clearly and calmly to her athletes, and talk openly about her support for her athletes, regardless of their sexuality — well, it warmed my cold heart. “I will debate you up one side and down the other if you talk about my boys,” Monica said in her characteristic no-nonsense tone. “And I won’t budge about my beliefs at all.”

Cheer drags you along with the constant injuries and emotional stressors on these young adults, as they show up to their never-ending stream of rehearsals and perform smiling — Aldama would expect nothing less.

Being a docuseries and not reality TV, Cheer isn’t flashy or overproduced. When a teammate The reigning OUA champs have two more home games before they defend their title in the playoffs.

COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES

Sara Fredo Varsity Staff

Women’s team The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team took down the York University Lions at the Tait McKenzie Centre on February 7. The match ended with a score of 3–1 in favour of the nationally fourth-ranked Blues.

This was a part of the “subway series” matches, which are games between York and either U of T or Ryerson University.

The Blues’ Jenna Woock got the match started with a big kill off a Hayley Goodwin assist. The two teams traded points, with Toronto eventually taking the lead with York always tightly behind.

A handful of service errors from York, combined with big kills from veteran standouts Alina Dormann and Anna Licht, was enough for Toronto to take the set 25–21. The close score was indicative of York’s scrappiness and reluctance to let Toronto win easily.

The second set, however, was all about the Blues. Woock once again started things off with a booming kill, and Toronto quickly climbed ahead to a 6–1 lead early on. Hope Kotun notched four

goes down, there aren’t any cameras in their face.

Instead, we watch from the sidelines alongside everyone else — and if we’re dedicated viewers, we might also partake in the requisite 50 pushups as a punishment for letting someone fall.

Cheer’s approach also isn’t going to lay out the intricacies of its world for you.

It won’t tell

every time a girl would flip up backward to stand on top of a pyramid made out of other humans.

Among all the injuries and emotional turmoil, it’s easy to question why they’re doing it in the first place. But everyone chosen for the team gets a scholarship, and through their personal narratives, it’s clear that cheerleading is a form of social

KRISTAL MENGUC/THE VARSITY

you what the difference between a ‘top girl’ and a ‘flyer’ is. Hint: all top girls are fliers, but not all fliers are top girls. Cheer doesn’t ask you to care about cheerleading; it forces you to.

If you’re looking for another reason to watch it, the stunts they do are genuinely incredible. “How did they do that?” my roommate and I screamed

support for many of the athletes. For example, teammate Jerry Harris lived with his “Cheer moms” after his mother passed away from cancer. For cheer team member Morgan Simianer, cheerleading was a constant in her life during a period of time when she lived alone in a trailer.

But even as the sport continues to gain recog-

nition and play such an important role in people’s lives, there’s not really any sort of sustainable future in cheerleading past the college level.

Professional cheerleaders are notoriously underpaid. Estimates vary due to the secrecy of teams, but NFL cheerleaders probably make around 75–150 USD per game, and they are not paid for their time in rehearsal, nor reimbursed for costs such as hair and makeup. A 2014 lawsuit by a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders estimated her season pay to be at 1,250 USD — about 5 USD an hour.

For my part, I shamefully didn’t know that U of T had a cheerleading team until I reached out to them for this article.

“I really enjoyed the show,” wrote Kyra Smith to The Varsity. Smith is a third-year student studying mathematics and statistics who has been on U of T’s cheer team for two years. While the U of T team practices less during the school year, they compete at the end of every semester.

She commented that what was most similar between her experiences and the show was the “immense sense of trust and family on the team,” seeing as a lot of what they do is “in essence one big trust fall.”

Emily Naing, a fourth-year student on U of T’s team, wrote to The Varsity that “cheerleading in Canada isn’t as developed as in the US, so our level of difficulty isn’t as high as what you would see on the show.” Even so, Naing wrote, “I think all cheerleaders have the same drive and dedication towards the sport.”

I guess that gets close to the heart of Cheer: the drive and dedication of these cheerleaders, pushing their bodies past what should be possible, and striving to be the best, no matter where they come from.

Maybe I’ll go to the gym this week?

Blues sweep subway series

Men and women volleyball teams triumph 3–1 over York

of her game leading 12 kills in this set alone. Kotun’s attacking was bolstered by Caleigh Cruickshank and Dormann, who added another seven kills between the two of them.

Goodwin notched a kill of her own, and with a final kill from Cruickshank, the Blues took the set by a dominant 25–11 score.

York then came out of the gates roaring, unwilling to be swept by the Blues. After some back and forth, York eventually climbed to a 14–7 lead, in spite of some early attacking errors. Service aces from Dormann and Kotun, along with a pair of big blocks from Licht, weren’t enough for the Blues to overtake the Lions, and they dropped the third set 25–21.

The set loss shook Toronto out of their slump, and they jumped ahead to a quick 3–0 lead thanks to kills from Dormann and Kotun and an ace from Woock. York managed to lead briefly after a flurry of activity, but a pair of massive blocks — a solo block from Licht, and a double block from Cruickshank and Kotun — brought Toronto ahead once more. From there, Toronto extended their lead to 16–6. York clawed back some points, but Goodwin emphatically ended the match 25–16 on a beautiful ace.

Toronto will spend one of their final three matches of the season at home, playing at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport on February 23. They will be hoping to overtake the Ryerson Rams for first place in the Ontario University Athletics East Conference within these games.

Men’s team The University of Toronto men’s volleyball team

beat the York University Lions 3–1 on February night with a game-high 17 kills — and Falardeau 7 in the inaugural subway series match at the Tait carried Toronto to a 25–20 third set victory, their McKenzie Centre. With this win, the nationally largest win margin of the night. sixth-ranked team retained first place in the OnYork fought honourably to keep the game tario University Athletic East Conference as they within reach, but it was evident the match was head into the final stretch before playoffs.

Toronto’s when they started the set with a pair The first set offered spectators a taste of how of massive kills from Towe and stellar defending the entirety of the game would play out: bullet- from Figueira. Tudor even notched a kill of his like kills, back-and-forth points, and breath- own after a York player erroneously thought taking rallies were sprinkled throughout. To- the ricochet off his body would land out of the ronto took the first point of the set, but the lead court. Both teams were eager to regain control, switched between them and the Lions for the but the Blues always held off the surging Lions. entirety of the set.

Falardeau capped off his stellar 14-point night Veteran Nicholas Trewern notched the first with the game-winning kill to give the Blues of his 10 kills of the match early on in the set, victory. while setter Jordan Figueira dished out assists Toronto will spend two games on the road beand libero Daniel Tudor put his body on the line fore playing their final home match of the season repeatedly in attempts to keep rallies going. De- against York on February 23. spite the Blues’ efforts, York barely nudged out the Blues 26–24.

The second set started off tight as well, with both teams deadlocked at 3–3 early on. In order to defend against York’s big hits, Toronto relied heavily on their blocking skills to steal points from the Lions.

Trewern, along with rookies Benedikt Licht and Jasper Neale, notched crucial blocks to stifle York’s attack. Veteran Martin Kosic added a pair of kills, and along with an Evan Falardeau ace, the Blues withstood the Lions to even the match up with a set victory of 25–22.

Service errors saw both the Lions and Blues struggle to get an attacking rhythm going in the third set. The teams traded leads, but relentless playing from Christopher The men won a crucial game to keep them atop the OUA east.

Towe — who would end the COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/VARSITY BLUES

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