March 18, 2013

VARSITY EDITORIAL: LEGAL INFIGHTING SERVES NO ONE PG 9

THE VARSITY

Vol. CXXXIII, No. 20

University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

18 March, 2013

Team Renew victory tarnished by withdrawal

Team Renew acclaimed, sweeping board and executive positions Crystal Chin VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

All of Team Renew’s executive candidates were successfully acclaimed to their seats in this year’s utsu election Current vice-president, university affairs Munib Sajjad will succeed Shaun Shepherd as president of the union in the coming year.

Joining him will be current vice-president, campus life Yolen Bollo-Kamara in the equity portfolio; current Innis College director Agnes So as vice-president, university affairs; and newly-elected vice-president internal & services Cameron Wathey.

The executive team candidates each received slightly more than 2,000 “yes” votes and approximately 900 “no” votes.

Chief returning officer Eric Luong confirmed that ballots for the vice-president, external would not be counted. The seat will remain vacant until further notice. Renew’s candidate for the position, Sana Ali, withdrew from the race late last week.

The tightest race in this election period was for Arts & Science At-Large Director.

Following a friendly but competitive campaign against current vice-president equity Noor Baig, independent Ben Coleman took the seat with 1097 votes, surpassing Baig’s 801 votes.

Ben Crase was elected Trinity’s director with 165 votes, surpassing Umer Saeed’s 85 votes.

“Whether they are the college councils, clubs or levy groups…

We all serve students, we all have a role in building a greater university experience.”

—Munib Sajjad, president-elect, UTSU Most Board of Director positions were filled by members of Team Renew, with Aimee Quenneville and Vinoj Suthakaran in the uc and Engineering director positions respectively, being the only independents acclaimed.

Only one slate ran in this year’s election period. The majority of the campaign period was uneventful. Ali’s forfeiture on the second day of voting caused a major stir among students who followed the election.

Sajjad said that his goal for the utsu is to solidify its relationships with student groups.

“Whether they are the college councils, clubs or levy groups… We all serve students, and we all have a role to play in building a greater university experience,” he said.

The statement comes following many colleges and faculty student unions’ wish to defederate from the utsu. When questioned at the All Candidates’ Debate, Sajjad and his team did not express any concrete plan to address this issue.

As one of a handful of independent directors on the board, Coleman said that he in-

tended to develop a strong relationship with the rest of the bod.

“I want to be able to speak my mind and ask critical questions without the other board members feeling attacked, and it takes strong personal relationships for that to work,” says Coleman.

Coleman plans to hold himself accountable to students through a website or Facebook page, where he will keep students updated on the progress of his platform goals. He hopes to outline the steps to achieving his goals to students through this medium.

Unlike previous years, there was no controversy regarding the chief returning officer’s rulings. Official election results have not been published, but unofficial results are unlikely to change.

For now, says Sajjad, his chief priority is planning for the year ahead. “We need to get to work. We need to be working effectively, reaching out to all our campus partners.

“It is going to be a very interesting year, to say the least.”

York, Ryerson union execs managed Renew’s campaign: Sana Ali goes public Simon Bredin NEWS EDITOR

Sana Ali, the vice-president, external candidate for the Renew slate, withdrew from the utsu election late last week in an open letter posted on Facebook that detailed her grievances with the campaign’s conduct and internal dynamics.

The letter quickly found traction, with more than 300 shares, 1,500 likes, and dozens of supportive comments. In an exclusive interview with The Varsity, Ali described a tightlyorchestrated campaign characterized by a level of secrecy and micro-management that “put [her] on edge.”

Late Sunday afternoon, Renew released a lengthy, emotional, two-part video responding to several of Ali’s claims and casting doubt on her version of events. “I was very disappointed,” said Sajjad, of Ali’s public departure. “Things seemed fine, and our team was very shocked.”

Ali claimed in her letter that Renew’s platform was a “laundry list of points that have changed almost imperceptibly from past incumbent

CONTINUED PG 3

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VARSITY NEWS

Vol. CXXXIII, No. 20

WHAT’S GOING ON

THE VARSITY

THIS WEEK

VOL. CXXXIII No. 20

21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6 Phone: 416-946-7600 www.thevarsity.ca

ON CAMPUS

Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Murad Hemmadi

suzy@thevarsity.ca dan@thevarsity.ca

Photo Editor Bernarda Gospic

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the week in tweets NIKKI TAVASSOLI @NIKKITAVASSOLI

editor@thevarsity.ca

Design Editors Suzy Nevins Dan Seljak

news@thevarsity.ca

If you search the hashtag #uoft on Instagram, all you see is screen shots of admission emails

production@thevarsity.ca

Managing Online Editor Patrick Love

—March 15, 2013

online@thevarsity.ca

Senior Copy Editor Catherine Kabasele

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News Editor Simon Bredin

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Arts & Culture Editor Brigit Katz

BECA BOOKMAN @BECABOOKMAN Fun Fact of The Day: It’s #UofT’s 186th birthday! Congrats! Via @uoftmagazine — March 15 , 2013

arts@thevarsity.ca

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Video Editor Wyatt Clough

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Associate Design Editors Natalie Morcos Shaquilla Singh Nathan Watson Associate Photo Editors Michael Chahley Carolyn Levett

RON LEUNG @RONLEUNG

STUDENT COMPOSERS CONCERT Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 6:30–8pm Walter Hall 80 Queen’s Park Circle

I think we’re nearing the time of the season when #UofT is at its most visually pleasing state.. Cherry blossom season.

— March 14, 2013

SOLDIERS’ TOWER MEMORIAL ROOM OPENING HOURS Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2–6pm 7 Hart House Circle

LUKE ALBERT @LUKEALBERT

Associate Online Editor Sofia Luu Associate Copy Editor Catherine Virelli Associate News Editors Zane Schwartz Irina Vukosavic Rida Ali

Positive: the sun today is glorious.

Negative: Robarts owns my soul and I cannot go outside and actually enjoy the sun. #UofT

VOCAL JAZZ ENSEMBLE Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 7:30–8:30pm $20 ($15 seniors/$10 students)

— March 14, 2013

Associate Comment Editor Vacant Associate Features Editor Damanjit Lamba Associate A&C Editors Danielle Klein Ishita Petkar Associate Science Editors Roxanne Leung Katrina Vogan Associate Sports Editors Elizabeth Benn William Deck

SHAUN SHEPHERD @SHAUNSHEP

“WHAT IS KARMA AND HOW TO MAKE USE OF IT?” Buddhism in Daily Life Series Friday, March 22, 6:30–8:30pm Koffler House (Multifaith Centre) 569 Spadina Ave.

Just bumped into a @Trin Episkipon reading at Queen’s Park. I can now say I’ve seen it all at #UofT —March 8, 2013

Writers Rida Ali, Salena Barry, Patrick Baud, Elizabeth Benn, Hope Caldi, Sri Chaudhuri, Crystal Chin, Amanda Coletta, Benedict Darren, Noemie De Vuyst, Stephanie Gaglione, Susan Gordon, Jennifer Gosnell, Amanda Greer, Elena Gritzan, Brigit Katz, Danielle Klein, Roxanne Leung, James Maiangowi, Grace McDonell, Zamir Merali, Ishita Petkar, Seemi Qaiser, Zane Schwartz, Fatima Syed, Catherine Virelli Copy Editors Fact Checkers Armen Alexanian Armen Alexanian Elizabeth Benn Elizabeth Benn Lois Boody Lois Boody Aisha Kakinuma Hassan Catherine Kabasele Heather Pierce Heather Pierce Laura Sabatini Laura Sabatini Michelle Speyer Catherine Virelli Catherine Virelli Miranda Whittaker Miranda Whittaker Designers Ethan Chiel Natalie Morcos Suzy Nevins Dan Seljak Shaquilla Singh Catherine Virelli Nathan Watson

Photo and Illustration Minhee Bae Michael Chahley Ethan Chiel Bernarda Gospic Janice Liu Dan Seljak

Cover Photo Bernarda Gospic

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Crime Stats March 8–13

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Trespasses

Security Alarms

Thefts

Mischief

Liquor Offence

Break and Enter

An interview with new Arts & Science At-Large Director Ben Coleman THE VARSITY: What prompted you to run independently for utsu’s Board of Directors?

BEN COLEMAN: To represent students, obviously there is a diversity of students at U of T, and that means there will be a diversity of opinions. It’s really important to have people who are independent, because that means they can represent students if they don’t feel that one platform that most of the board has represents them.

TV: Can you comment on Sana Ali’s letter announcing her resignation from “Renew”?

BC: First of all, I was shocked. I wouldn’t have expected her to drop out, but obviously it resounded with a lot of people. […] [The letter] was good, because it really opened up the possibilities for people to talk about these types of things: how is it we are running these elections? How is it people are coming to be on the Board? How well do they understand what their roles are, and what do they think they’re going to be doing?”

TV: What was it like on the campaign trail?

BC: By showing [Team Renew] gestures of

goodwill when speaking to students and sharing the same space with people running against me for positions on the board, [it] helps you work together and it eventually gets reciprocated. It’s less stressful. That’s the sort of attitude that I want to take to the board.

The biggest emotional impact for me came when I realized I was running against Noor, because Noor is very experienced and has done great work at U of T. It was disappointing to both of us that we had to run against each other. I really wish that she were on the board, because I like her. And a lot of people like her. She’s done a lot of good work for equity on campus.

TV: What is your first order of business you’re the Director-At-Large for Arts & Science?

BC: My number one priority is the osap Deferral Points. That’s what I want to come out of this year, is to have the osap Deferral go to January. Students often end up paying interest to the university or have trouble paying living expenses because deferral isn’t long enough right now. I’m not on osap, but this issue really matters to me because the situation we have right now is blatantly unfair.

var.st/news

VARSITY NEWS

“SANA ALI” CONTINUED FROM COVER

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be updated during campaign period when we’d be too busy.” She refused — the only candidate to do so.

Ali also claims there were attempts to prevent discussions with students who had publicly criticized the union. “I found that there was an active desire to suppress any kind of communication I may have with the ‘opposition,’ even at times when it was completely civil and benevolent,” she wrote.

“I can finally say I understand where the colleges are coming from,” Ali told The Varsity in the days following her withdrawal, speaking specifically about the attempt of several divisions to divert fees from the union.

“I think U of T students need a union, a strong union. I wish that the people on Renew could see that if they want to actually save the union they have to let go of their death grip on it and let the ‘opposition’ have a say, because they are just as much a part of the union as anyone else,” she said. “I also wish the ‘opposition’ would recognize that there is too much to be lost by dissolving the union altogether, and redirect their energies to breaking through this state of corruption.”

platforms” that was “more assigned to me than arrived at.”

In the aftermath of their victory, members of Renew have suggested that the process of drafting the campaign platform was more open than Ali has indicated. Sources close to the campaign described weekly meetings during which candidates were free to pitch ideas and platform points, and claimed that Ali did not speak often during these sessions.

CAMPAIGN ORCHESTRATED

BY VETERANS Renew’s campaign was overseen by Alistair Woods and Brodie Metcalfe, veterans of the York and Ryerson student unions respectively. Woods will serve as chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario next year.

Ali claimed in her interview with The Varsity that Woods and Metcalfe handled many facets of the campaign, from the website to debate preparation, to platform and messaging. Sajjad denied that his campaign had anyone serving in an “official” capacity, though several sources close to the campaign confirmed the nature of Woods’ and Metcalfe’s involvement.

It also fell to Woods and Metcalfe to condense the ideas pitched during pre-campaign meetings into the bullet points that eventually became Renew’s public platform.

“When I decided to run for this position with this team, I was under the impression that I would have the opportunity to apply myself in order to create something good for students,” wrote Ali in her letter. “I have now been disillusioned. I was pulled on board this team to fill a space and fulfill a pre-set mandate, not to bring my brain.”

While Ali stressed that “the utsu and this team are made up of some very well-intentioned and progressive people,” the letter was also an unsparing critique of her former running mates, calling them “close-minded and set in their ways.”

Although candidates wrote their own statements and debate speeches, Ali said that after submitting hers to the campaign managers the version posted and distributed to media outlets “didn’t resemble the one I sent in at all.”

Cameron Wathey, another vice-presidential candidate on Team Renew, said he had a different experience, and that his statement and debate speech “came from the heart.”

MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013

Former Renew candidate Sana Ali at the all-candidates debate. Bernarda Gospic/THe VarsiTy

Ali says her candidate statement would not have been radically different from the edited version that was ultimately attributed to her name. “I don’t disagree with the things the team is trying to achieve,” she says. “I disagree with their methods.”

PURPOSEFULLY EVASIVE? During the all-candidates debate, Renew’s candidates repeatedly claimed “not to know very much” about a number of controversial issues, including fee diversion and online voting.

Ali alleges that was a result of Woods and Metcalfe instructing the candidates to be “evasive” in the debate, telling them “not to actually answer the difficult questions everyone obviously wanted answered.”

Ali cited the process behind setting Renew’s position on online voting to The Varsity as an example of her disagreements with the campaign.

“I don’t get why we are against online voting and I said so to my team,” she says.

“Our campaign manager replied, saying that it doesn’t actually raise voter turnout in the long run, it’s not secure, and that there are different systems.

“He added that our stance would be that we’d ‘investigate the options’ but the un-

derstanding was that we as a team had no intention of actually instituting it.” (The Elections & Referenda Committee voted unanimously in late February to implement online voting for elections beginning next fall if the system passes a security audit, meaning it will likely be in place when the by-election necessitated by Ali’s withdrawal is held.)

“There was never any question of them changing their minds. It was a matter of changing mine,” says Ali. Her withdrawal letter decried Renew’s campaign “groupthink” and “attempts to squash dissent and individuality within the team.”

FOLLOWING THE PLAN “It had been made clear that our managers had been doing this for years,” says Ali. “They had a plan and they took no time putting it into action, and telling each of us exactly what to do every hour of every day.

We had to think very little, but do a lot.”

At one point, Ali says, Metcalfe asked candidates for their Facebook passwords.

Ali said she was told to surrender her password “so he could comb through and make sure there was nothing the opposition could use against [her], and so our statuses could

“THERE NEEDS TO BE A CHANGE” Complicating matters, Ali’s withdrawal came late in the race, after polls had opened on Tuesday.

Ali faced criticism from some students over the timing of her withdrawal. Some seemed particularly skeptical of Ali’s claim that she perceived the lack of competing or opposition candidates as “a massive call for reform,” questioning why she waited over a week to withdraw.

“It is hard to admit to yourself after you’ve taken on something so publicly that you actually don’t believe in it at all. That night, I finally admitted it to myself that the more I learned about what I’d gotten myself into, the more I disliked it. It was at that moment I knew I had to get myself out immediately,” said Ali. “The next morning I posted the letter.”

Chief returning officer Eric Luong said that ballots cast for Ali were not counted.

No official vote count for the position of vice-president, external, was released.

“It has been difficult grappling with the guilt of having to do this to the people that I worked so hard with for the past three weeks,” said Ali, reflecting on the tumult since posting her letter. “I can only hope that my words can serve as a wake-up call to our new utsu executive, so they can recognize that there needs to be a change.”

Graduate Students’ Union backs defederation referenda With votes on fee diversion looming, the UTSU declines to lead a campaign encouraging students to stay Zane Schwartz ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The Graduate Students’ Union (gsu) endorsed college and faculty plans to host referenda that would sever financial ties with the utsu if approved.

The surprise announcement from the union’s long-time ally came in an open letter condemning the utsu’s actions during the recently concluded campaign season. The letter finds that it may not be “productive or possible” to keep utsu unified any longer, and that referenda asking students to approve fee diversion is an “appropriate” response.

The letter was released after utsu vice-president, internal, Corey Scott appointed Gale Fernando, a resource coordinator with the gsu, to a coveted seat on the Elections and Referenda Appeals Committee (erac), the utsu’s highest elections appeals body.

gsu executive Brad Evoy explained that although utsu had for several years handpicked a staff member of the gsu to sit on the committee, this year the gsu decided to pick their own representative.

The utsu refused to accept the gsu’s representative on the erac, and Fernando declined the invitation.

Scott described the whole situation as a “misunderstanding”, adding that “this is the process we’ve been following for years.”

In an interview with The Varsity, Evoy described an organized outreach effort from the utsu to try and halt defederation efforts that has unfolded behind the scenes in recent weeks.

Evoy says he received several emails trying to coordinate “traditional campus allies” to “speak out against defederation.”

Evoy identified apus, utmsu, scsu as well as “about 10” other campus groups

that have been asked to contribute to efforts to halt defederation.

The cro, Eric Leung has issued 11 rulings, overturning all complaints and issuing no demerit points. The erac has not met this year and according to Scott, will not be meeting.

The gsu’s letter comes as preparations are underway for referenda on fee diversion to be held at the end of this month.

The campaign period for Trinity’s referendum on diverting fees from utsu began last Friday. Referenda at Engineering and Victoria are scheduled for the coming weeks.

As of The Varsity’s press time, no one had registered to run the “no” campaign at Trinity, although the college has delegated $500 dollars for this purpose.

Longtime opposition figures Taylor Scollon and Brett Chang are organizing the “yes” campaign at Trinity.

At the Trinity College Meeting last Monday, a

formal invitation was issued to the utsu to serve on the “no” campaign. utsu president Shaun Shepherd has acknowledged receipt of the invitation, but as of press time, has not issued a response.

Shepherd has previously stated he does not recognize the legitimacy of any of the college’s referenda and has “clear legal precedent” to stop them regardless of outcome. Newly-elected utsu president Munib Sajjad said he did not recognize the legitimacy of Trinity’s referenda, because it was not open to all utsu members and was not being held according to the union’s referenda procedures.

Sam Greene, co-head of Trinity College, issued a public challenge to the utsu, encouraging them to send someone to campaign to “justify their own existence.”

“If they don’t do this, it’s their own fault — they’ve know this referendum was going to happen for a long time.”

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VARSITY NEWS

Vol. CXXXIII, No. 20

news@thevarsity.ca

Post-doctoral fellows seek unionization If successful, fellows would form fifth unit of CUPE 3902 Catherine Virelli VARSITY STAFF

Post-doctoral fellows at U of T have launched a campaign to become universally unionized under cupe 3902.

The campaign, which commenced in January 2013, comes a year after the Ontario Labour Board’s initial ruling that postdoc fellows should be considered trainees, not employees of the university. The ruling was revised by the Board this year, resulting in a new provision that post-doc fellows should indeed be given employee status and thereby treated as such.

“If a vote were ordered by the Labour Board, we would encour-

age everyone in the proposed bargaining unit to vote and to let their wishes be known. The university values its post-doctoral fellows highly,” says Laurie Stephens, director, news and media relations at the University of Toronto. According to a press release issued by cupe, post-doc fellows currently receive salaries as low as $27,500 (before taxes), and are subject to inadequate leave-of-absence options and meagre professional development opportunities.

“Post-docs are an integral part of the academic life at this university.

They are working in labs, they are developing research that is being published in prestigious academic journals, and U of T gets its rank-

ing as one of the best universities in the world partly because of those publications and what goes on in those labs. That is why these workers deserve better,” says Abouzar Nasirzadeh, chair of cupe 3902.

U of T presently does not consider post-docs to be employees unless they teach at the university. Postdoctoral fellows who teach are the only fellows currently represented by cupe 3902. The arrangement leaves those who do not teach unrepresented by a formalized bargaining agent and unable to receive standard workplace benefits.

As cupe member organizer Jennifer Ridgley explains, this policy excludes a substantial number of the

university’s post-doctoral fellows.

“The vast majority of post-docs don’t teach courses — their fulltime work is research. That work right now, with the way that postdocs are paid, is not considered employment income, which has a lot of implications,” says Ridgley.

According to Nasirzadeh, the most significant problem facing post-doc fellows is the lack of a formalized system under which the university’s post-doctoral fellows can be protected “There is no protection whatsoever, and no formalized system,” Nasirzadeh says. “Post-doctoral fellows don’t have anything to prevent their principle investigators from overworking them. The

other issue is that they don’t have any protection against arbitrary dismissal. They can be dismissed at any point.”

“Of all academic workers, postdoctoral fellows are the only major group of employees that don’t collectively bargain with the university,” says Ridgley.

If post-doctoral fellows successfully unionized, they could form a new unit of cupe. The union would collectively negotiate workplace terms and conditions with the university.

Both Ridgley and Nasirzadeh are confident that the campaign will be successful, as they believe there is a large backing of postdocs to the campaign.

News in brief Google acquires U of T start-up Google recently acquired University of Toronto startup company DNNresearch Inc., the brainchild of computer science professor Geoffrey Hinton and his graduate students Alex Krizhevsky and Ilya Sutskever.

The startup’s research focuses on deep neural networks that are capable of developing digital speech recognition.

Under their new arrangement with Google, the DNNresearch Inc. team will now be splitting their time between Google’s Mountain View, California-based headquarters and Toronto.

Google had previously invested $600,000 into the startup research, though the details of the new deal were not released. “The deal with Google allows me and my students to work on whatever we like and to publish whenever and whatever we like. It doesn’t put any constraints on what we work on and when we publish,” said Hinton in an interview with the Toronto Star.

Google currently uses deep learning as part of the Android 4.1’s speech recognition, an area that is to be further developed by this University of Toronto team.

—Jennifer Gosnell

Federal government to absorb loss as unpaid student loans reach $540 million The federal government announced it will write off an additional 44,000 loans this year as taxpayers are set to pick up the tab on $540 million in unpaid student loans, “Amounts being written off are debts for which all reasonable efforts to collect the amounts owed have been exhausted,” read a statement from the Treasury Board.

The Canada Revenue Agency attempts to collect unpaid loans by sending notices and withholding income tax refunds, and in some circumstances may also employ wage garnishes or asset seizures. The Crown, however, loses legal authority to collect these debts after a six-year limitation period.

The department has stated that approximately 87 per cent of all student loans are repaid within this limitation period.

—Zamir Merali With files from Canada.com

Atwood threatens to write U of T out of her will over Astroturf plan Margaret Atwood has taken up the charge against against U of T’s plan to convert its back-campus field into a field hockey pitch with artificial turf, hinting that the move could lead her to write the university out of her will.

“So, @UofTNews: as a soon-to-be dead alum w. $ to leave, am I annoyed by the anti-green plan? Y!,” read one of Atwood’s tweets.

The esteemed novelist and U of T alumna has used her clout on social media to back a campaign opposed to the plan, which is part of preparations for the Pan-American Games in 2015.

U of T’s vice president, university operations, Scott Mabury, says that while Ms. Atwood has the “perogative” to make her opposition be heard, he hasn’t heard any such warnings from other alumni members, adding that “We all like natural grass better, but the needs of our students lead us to taking advantage of great opportunities like this to make sure the university’s dollar goes as far as possible.”

—Fatima Syed With files from The Globe and Mail

With files from the Toronto Star

It’s not too late to contribute! email news@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY NEWS

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MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2013

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Cora’s for sale?

U of T students may be disappointed — or relieved — to hear that local pizzeria Cora Pizza has been put up for sale.

Known for its cheap prices and generous slices, Cora Pizza has been a family-owned business since it opened in 1984. It remains unclear whether the sale will result in a closure, or if the restaurant will carry on under new management.

Many students have dubbed Cora Pizza, located near Spadina Avenue and Harbord Street, a staple in the U of T community. Regularly open late, the restaurant is a favourite for those undertaking all-nighters.

Online reviews proclaim that Cora’s is “the closest thing you can find in the core [to] a NY style slice. Cora offers the kind of drippy, gooey slice that every U of T co-ed dreams about grabbing after class.”

“This pizza store is a huge part of student life at U of T. It is very close to Morrison Hall residence, New College residence, Innis residence, Robarts library and many other houses,” says another reviewer.

UTSU

While many students openly profess their love for the pizza joint, others say it’s hard to forget the sanitation issues of the past, which forced Cora to close briefly in 2009. The Toronto Public Health food safety program DineSafe found “gross unsanitary conditions” after “several dead rats and fresh rat droppings were found on the premises.”

Cora reopened its doors a few months after the closure and has since passed every health inspection, including the latest conducted

by DineSafe in October 2012. One student said the potential closure or sale is “a devastating loss for students and rodents alike” While employees said they were confident that Cora Pizza was not closing, ownership declined to comment. The pizzeria has been listed on HomeFinder and Craigslist, as well as on Kijiji. For any students with a passion for pizzamaking, the asking price has recently been lowered from $149,900 to $129,000 — Hope Caldi & Grace McDonell

ethan chiel/the Varsity

calls for new drop credit policies

Rida Ali ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) has released a discussion paper calling for a revised drop credit policy.

“Academic forgiveness policies support students in extenuating circumstances,” reads the report.

“Across universities in North America, institutional-wide academic forgiveness policies are the standard. By implementing similar policies, the University of Toronto would align itself with peer North American institutions.”

In the paper, utsu recommends that students be allowed to make multiple attempts at a course, and that the highest subsequent mark be reflected on their transcript, with the original mark deleted.

Under the union’s proposal, only the best attempt at a class would also be used in calculating cumulative grade point averages (cgpa).

The justification for such a recommendation according to the utsu is the external factors that could affect a student’s academic performance, such as household education levels, mental health, and socio-economic status.

“Academic performance is tied to realities that extend beyond the borders of our campuses… Multiple course attempts are a means of ensuring students with extenuating circumstances can progress

in their academic careers,” the report finds.

The report also identifies problems with the current appeals process, suggesting that it is “lengthy” and “cumbersome,” and can take anywhere from seven days to several months to complete.

The utsu justifies reflecting the higher mark on the transcript and in the calculation of the cgpa, suggesting that “by committing to reflect the improvement of performance on both students’ cgpas and transcripts, the university would honour its commitment to recognizing academic achievements. It would also help to ensure that students are not penalized for extenuating circumstances and individual hardships.”

The report cites examples of other North American universities who have different or more flexible drop credit and academic policies.

For example, at Carleton University, the original course attempt and grade are bumped out of your degree and are moved to a section of your audit called “Courses Set Aside” when a course is repeated. Both grades appear on Carleton transcripts, but only the most recent grade is included in cgpa calculations.

“I’m very happy that the utsu has a drop-credit proposal, and that they’ve featured it fairly prominently in their election platform. It’s an example of the sort of academic advocacy that I

think should be the utsu’s main focus, along with student services,” said Aidan Fishman, an undergraduate representative on the Governing Council.

The utsu calls for students to be free to swap out their lower grade three times over the course of their undergraduate careers.

Fishman agrees that there should be a limit placed on the policy, but thinks that three attempts is too many.

“My only minor criticism is that I don’t see why three drop-credits per student, rather than one or two, is necessary — at that point, I fear that this system could be exploited simply trying to raise subpar marks in some courses for medical or law school purposes, rather than those truly afflicted by [extenuating circumstances].”

“All that being said, drop credit would be fairly low-impact; it would only affect students who do particularly poorly in 1–3 courses that they require in order to complete their degree, and who have time and money to retake those courses. I believe that pushing average U of T marks upward from their extremely low current level and altering the breadth requirement system to work better for students are likely to incur far more benefit for a far larger group of students,” said Fishman, who has made his own proposals regarding academic performance at U of T.

Can you spel? copy@thevarsity.ca

The utsu recommends that the policy be made simple and easy to access through rosi or New Generation Student Information Services (ngsis) and that information about the policy and academic appeals be provided to students upon enrollment in courses. The utsu expressed concern that students often do not find out about the appeals process until some time after an academic issue arises.

“By promoting the policy through an online student registration system, every student would be aware of the policy and would be more likely to under-

stand and not misuse it,” says the report.

Finally, utsu recommends that U of T develop a university-wide standard for making multiple course attempts; right now, policies on multiple course attempts are different across faculties.

“Standard practice across faculties would facilitate academic fairness for all students. Other post-secondary institutions investigated in our report have established standard, institutionalwide practices.”

University registrars and administrators declined to comment on the utsu’s proposal.

ONLINE THIS WEEK

18 MArCH 2013

Can online publishing live up to print standards?

comment@thevarsity.ca

var.st/comment

VAr.sT/COMMENT

CAPS

crisis

Are mental health resources really helping students Amanda Greer VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

“What if I don’t know why I’m anxious or depressed? What if I just am?” asks a blonde girl, her voice shaking.

The room falls silent.

I’m sitting on a rigid, plastic chair in a small seminar room in the Koffler Student Services Centre, trying to pay attention to the presentation projected onto the screen: “Coping with Stress.” The question catches me off-guard. It’s the question that everyone’s been thinking, but no one has asked aloud.

The psychologist running the presentation stops speaking and looks around the room, clearly struggling to come up with an answer.

Instead of speaking, she passes out a “Fear Hierarchy” sheet and asks us to rate our fears according to how anxious they make us. One astute example is “raising your hand in class.” The blonde girl’s question remains unanswered.

I had hoped that this “Coping with Stress” workshop, run by U of T’s Counselling and Psychological Services (caps) would help me, but instead it left me frustrated and angry. After a hard first semester, I approached caps about meeting with a counsellor. I was told there was a four month-long waiting list and to start looking for other options, but to come in for this stress workshop anyway. It didn’t go very well.

However, my co-workshopper’s question got me thinking. Why are mental health issues increasing in adolescents and why does it seem that most universities can’t keep up with this growing need for psychological services?

Maclean’s has reported that, after motor vehicle accidents, suicide is the leading cause of death in Canadians aged 10–24. With the spate of suicides in the past two years at universities such as Queen’s and Cornell, this statistic is uncomfortably believable.

“Today’s students are not exposed to a lot of life stuff, the difficult ‘fall-on-your-face’ stuff,” says Trinity College dean Jonathan Steels. “The home environment can be very nurturing, much more so than it was in the

The entrance to CAPS at the Koffler Centre. MICHEAL CHAHLEy/THE VArsITy

past, which can make the transition to university a lot more difficult.”

The increasing competitiveness among students is also a strong contributor to the mental health crisis. The American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment found that 86 per cent of all students reported having felt overwhelmed and, sadly, 45 per cent of college students felt hopeless. It does not seem that students are enjoying their education.

“When I went to U of T, the atmosphere wasn’t nearly as competitive,” says Janine Robb, executive director of Health and Well-

ness at U of T. “We were able to savour our education. It’s unfortunate, and something we’re trying to lessen around campus.”

The exceedingly competitive job market has not gone unnoticed by students, either. “It’s a whole evolving landscape,” explains Steels.

“There’s a huge drop of people going into liberal arts degrees … a belief that ‘hard science’ degrees are more useful. Failure isn’t an option, so anxiety goes up because the coping techniques aren’t there.” caps seems to be prioritizing the development of these coping techniques through programs such as Peers are Here, a peer support

drop-in group, and Stressbusters, a series of workshops aimed at helping students cope with stress. In addition, caps has also initiated a cyber counseling service called CounseLine, in partnership with the Faculty of Social Work and the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Robb emphasizes that caps is making a continual effort to de-stigmatize mental illness across campus through events like Mental Health Awareness Month and their newest undertaking, Blue Space.

“Blue Space will be identified as areas where mental health matters and where it is safe to have conversations around mental health.

We want to get to a point where students feel empowered to ask for mental health support when they need it,” says Robb. But will this be enough?

Lauren, a second-year student, went to caps seeking help for her disorder. Instead of finding a positive space, she says: “I was shocked to see how harsh the doctor was. They were completely cold, unfriendly, and judgmental — everything that I was afraid of. I was in complete shock. I thought I had found a safe environment where I could finally be helped; instead, I felt even more like nothing as I left the room.”

Ironically, like any other student at U of T, a portion of Lauren’s student fees goes towards running caps.

Though caps has good intentions, the organization still has a long way to go. A four month-long waiting list is far from ideal for a student undergoing a mental crisis, especially if they cannot afford to seek treatment from therapists who charge as much as $185 an hour.

“It is an ongoing evaluative process. We are always trying to improve the system,” Robb concedes.

Hopefully the system will begin to work for its students, so that university becomes a more nurturing environment for individual growth.

Hopefully students' questions will be answered and help will be given. Hopefully students will come to know that they’re not alone.

We can only hope.

Amanda Greer is a second-year student at U of T studying film and English.

The CCR must be designed for students A co-curricular record has potential, but only if it addresses student's concerns Stephanie Gaglione VARSITY STAFF

Essay argumentation requires references.

With renowned libraries and online databases, the breadth of research options available to U of T students is astounding, leaving few excuses for students to justify a poorlysupported argument. Yet the question must be posed: if job applications require references as well, why do the same rules not apply? Why are our options to reference extracurricular involvement limited to letters and phone numbers? In contrast to excuses for a poor essay, U of T students have every right and excuse to argue that the current means for referencing extra-curriculars is sub-par.

If students are using well-established international journals to support their essays, they're using the equivalent of an obscure blog to support their resumes.

Acknowledging this void, the university has finally proposed a plausible solution, the CoCurricular Record (ccr). Will the ccr be successful? Searching through records, attending town hall meetings, and cross-comparing the proposed ccr with those of other institutions,

the answer is not clear. It depends upon key questions resting about the final details.

The ccr is intended to provide a “validated record of engagement” to students who engage in active, skill-building clubs and university associations. In addition to providing a formal transcript for students, the ccr will include a database of activities that can be searched and will provide the university with feedback on the types of organizations students join as well as skills students are acquiring. The ccr should aim to achieve several goals: to promote the connection between student engagement and skills; to allow students to market their experiences and skills to employers and graduate/professional programs; and to improve the accessibility of activities. Will the ccr accomplish this mission? Or is there another, better way to fulfill similar goals?

The ccr is not a new concept. In fact, it has been implemented at several institutions across Canada: the University of Manitoba, Dalhousie University, Seneca College, University of Ottawa, Carleton University, and Concordia University. Each has experienced varying levels of success but common features include an online application to

MINHEE BAE/THE VArsITy

submit activities, the student responsibility to find a validator for an activity, and a "skill bank" allowing each student to customize the appearance of their experience on a final transcript. The University of Ottawa has chosen to adapt the ccr with a focus on volunteering, making eligibility for a ccr contingent on 20 hours of volunteer experience.

However, contrary to arguments in support of the existing ccr structure, there are several concerns that must be resolved for a successful ccr design. The benefits of participating in a student organization do not result from what I term "resumé-culture."

Quantity does not equal quality. Tracking student participation on a formal transcript endorses the collection of activities like AirMiles points, particularly if the skill list assigned to an activity is not personalized.

Ideally, a supervising professor or student leader will be able to add personalized comments to an activity on the student’s request.

First-year students will be not be accommodated within the existing design. Firstyear is a time for discovery; most first-year students do not take on meaningful leadership roles in student organizations. They dabble in four or five clubs, attend workshops and seminars and, by the end of the year, may settle into one or two clubs of passionate interest. The ccr only reflects year-long engagements, discouraging the discovery process for first-years, understandably eager to begin developing a ccr

CONTINUED PG 8

var.st/comment

VARSITY COMMENT

MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013

7

Is your summer program ethical A guide to avoiding voluntourism and making sustainable change Benedict Darren VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Between midterms, assignments, and student elections, many of us have yet to find time to frantically plan our summers. Without fail, some of us will go abroad to a lessdeveloped country and assume the task of helping a community there. In fact, at the end of every winter break, reading week, or summer holiday, I am faced with collections of Facebook photos of laughing children, laughing children holding hands with volunteers, and volunteers doing some sort of good. With programs titled ‘Hero Holiday,’ putting volunteers on a pedestal for ‘heroism,’ the entire enterprise seems too selfcongratulatory and insincere for my taste.

Critics use the term ‘voluntourism’ to describe volunteer-abroad trips that involve light work and are riddled with tourist-y activities. While I acknowledge that this is not the case for all programs, the prevalence of such voluntourist itineraries is starkly apparent. To appease uncomfortable skeptics like myself, the following are questions worth reflecting on before taking on volunteer work abroad.

Why are you undertaking this project? Is it to beef up your resumé, or to truly help implement an effective and sustainable change in whatever community you are working in? I sincerely hope your answer is the latter. Otherwise, I suggest that you stop reading this article altogether. I admit that these days it is hard to argue for the existence of selfless acts of kindness. Nevertheless, your work should primarily aim to benefit the community more than it benefits you.

Are you the best person to do the job? Programs that permit undergraduate volunteers to give injections or administer sensitive tests such as pap smears are highly unethical. If you are not allowed to perform that procedure

here in Canada then the same ethical regulation must also apply in the locale you visit. Knowing how to hold a hammer does not qualify you to build a house, nor does speaking English qualify you to be an English teacher. The result

One might easily contend that there are just not enough locals who are qualified to do the work.

If this is the case, why not invest in building local capacity to do the work instead of doing the work yourself?

despite their inefficiencies, are crucial to training anyone pursuing a medical degree. Well, in that case, shouldn’t the programs be geared toward training local medical students? After all, they are much more likely to stay in the re-

minhee bae/The VarsiTy

of such programs is that limited resources have to be directed toward training foreign volunteers inexperienced in their given field of work.

This leads to my next question: do the locals have the capacity to do the same work? Having foreign volunteers build schools takes away paid jobs from local workers who are likely more qualified to do the same work. So yes, voluntourism has the potential to harm the local economy.

I know of programs that allow undergraduate volunteers to consult with patients in groups, then present their diagnosis so that it may be evaluated by the supervising local physician. I see no sense in putting a middle-man between the patient and the physician. For the patient, there is wasted time interacting with inexperienced volunteers rather than the physician directly, so the benefit solely lies with the volunteers. One might argue that such programs,

gion after they have been trained than visiting volunteers, with the added boon of increasing the nation’s supply of physicians.

This line of argument begs the inevitable question: is your project sustainable? Like the example above, many programs simply foster dependency on external aid by supplanting services that can be administered with equal or better effectiveness by and for the locals.

Throwing undergraduate students into a community year after

year only serves to undermine the local capacity to better ones own community. Any program or nongovernmental organization (ngo) that offers volunteer abroad programs must have an exit strategy to ensure that locals are responsible for their own well being. Programs claim that they have been building houses and roads for over a decade, but such claims prove the ineffectiveness of the program in creating sustainable and lasting interventions. Why else would they need to be in the locale for so long then? Sustainability is not a measure of how well a program can keep itself going. Sustainability is a measure of how well the program encourages the community to help themselves, for themselves in the long run.

Ultimately, this article is not meant to attack those who wish to or have done work abroad.

There is merit in the desire to do something good in the world, and taking action on that desire is commendable. However, without self-reflection, I believe that the connotations of superficiality and destructiveness associated with ‘voluntourism’ are warranted.

I hope that in this article I have fostered a sense of critical thinking about what ‘help’ really means and entails. I hope that with a smidgeon of self-criticism, the whole notion of voluntourism will be abolished altogether. We must acknowledge the communities we visit as equal partners, and that they have the capacity to be responsible for their own well being. Do your share of research and affiliate yourselves with programs and ngos who have taken issues such as local capacity and sustainability to heart. As Oscar Wilde so succinctly puts it, “It is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought.”

Let’s change the way we think about helping others in need.

Benedict Darren is a third-year Pathobiology and Global Health student.

'One' program to rule them all PATRICK BAUD VARSITY COLUMNIST

Despite the university’s intention to shift undergraduate programs to the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses and focus the St. George campus solely on graduate and professional education as part of the Towards 2030 plan, undergraduate education has undergone a renaissance in the past decade.

Colleges have been the main drivers of this renewal, resuming the academic role that they largely gave up in the 1970s and 1980s. The renewal of the colleges’ academic role is symbolized by the “One” programs, pioneered by Victoria College, which allow first-year students to take integrated, small courses in a specific field. All the colleges — and, starting in the fall, the Munk School of Global Affairs — now offer their own “One” programs. The renewal

of the colleges’ academic role seems set to continue. While the university administration has not repudiated the controversial Towards 2030 report, few steps towards downsizing undergraduate education have been made. Trinity and Victoria, under new Dean of Arts Michael Radcliffe and Principal Angela Esterhammer respectively, have both recently established new streams of their One programs, the former focusing on public policy and the latter on the arts and society.

Victoria has also established a Vic Two program, intended to extend the experience of small, focused seminars into second-year.

For the next phase of this renaissance, college and university leadership should look beyond the One programs. These programs have been extraordinarily valuable, but do little for students during the rest of their time in university. Their goal should be to deliver on the oft-

repeated line that the colleges offer students the unique opportunity to be part of small academic and social communities within a large university. Ideally, a student’s college should have almost as much bearing on the quality of their academic experience — and by extension, on their development as citizens and leaders — as their program of study.

In order to fulfill the promise of colleges as true academic homes for students, there are several steps that the college and university leadership should take. First, they ought to supplement the valuable work done by college-based writing centres and require that all students take at least one course intended to develop their public speaking and writing skills. These skills are not only crucial for success in undergraduate education, but more importantly for the further education and work that students pursue

after university. While some departments attempt to impart these skills to their students, the quality of these efforts is inconsistent.

Second, the colleges should require that all students develop and demonstrate leadership skills during their undergraduate education.

The simplest way to do this would be to require students to involve themselves in campus life or, ideally, in community service, as is currently done at Ontario high schools.

The colleges could take a role in matching students with organizations that need volunteers. More ambitious colleges might sponsor service projects of their own in partnership with community organizations and institutions, and encourage students to take on meaningful roles in managing them.

Finally, the colleges should also generate opportunities for their students to be exposed to the big problems of our time in their

fourth year, by creating courses to complement the One programs.

These courses, which would focus on topics ranging from Canada’s relations with China to climate change to terrorism, would charge students on interdisciplinary teams with developing policy proposals to address these challenges. The colleges would be ideal homes for these “capstone” courses since they unite students from across the disciplines in a way that no other academic unit does. The college and university leadership, including university president-designate Meric Gertler, would do well to introduce these changes and thereby ensure that the renewal of the colleges’ academic role continues.

Patrick Baud, a Victoria College student, participated in the ethics stream of the Margaret MacMillan Trinity One program in his first year.

His column appears every two weeks.

8

VARSITY COMMENT 16 MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 LETTERSโ TO VARSITY SCIENCE

Vol. CXXXIII, No. 20

THE EDITOR

The promises and limits of egg freezing

Vol CXXXIII, No. 19, March 18th, 2013

comment@thevarsity.ca

sc

The proce assist wome VARSITYahead CONTRIBUTOR In January I wrote an opinion piece in support a pledge to eat veggies on Mondays at which a real voice. They just want your face and your UTSU forges with plan to close St. family, but of Meatless Mondays at U of T, in which I men- point they can get their discount card, but they vote โ not your ideas.

George Street to local traffic conditions. tioned U of T Food Services' impending Veggie must go to specific places at specific times to The irony is that in taking the fight to the poliUntil about five years ago, women traction of m Mondays. The program has now been under- sign up. This creates a barrier. ticians for their "corruption" and "ignorance", โ Most ofseeking the vehicles driving George woman sho to have theirdown eggs St. frozen way for about a month at several food outlets At the very least, the outlets that do not offer the utsu has become the very thing that they fail to yield when one is crossing street,โ zen when s by fertility clinics across the Canada on campus. So what is the verdict? the card should be able to direct students, but have tried to fight - a close-minded, top-down, said Abigail utsufor vice-president, couldCudjoe, do so only medical rea-ex- ing her late Students can receive a 10 per cent discount at the Innis Cafe the proprietor, when asked, anti-democratic organization that is rotting ternal. sons. Things have since changed. eggs are th on vegetarian and vegan dishes on Mondays, did not know where to get it. Food Services from the inside.

If you cross at a signalized or look storage unt Largely thanks intersection, to technologiwhich is good, but the catch is that students could be doing more to promote this impor- โ Kevin P. Siu (from web) both ways jaywalking, you'll reduce cal before advances, egg freezing canthe to retrieve t have to acquire a discount card. Acquiring the tant initiative... chance of run out over.with much more decides she bebeing carried card is an unnecessary barrier, and most stu- โ Paul York Sana Ali is super naive at best and a traitor in is now Cudjoesuccess says theand closure couldavailable also unifytothe thawed, fer women seeking it for non-medical dents will not bother with it, and thus will not practice. If we assume she believes in every west, central and east portions of the down- partner, an reasons.

Just this October, the in uterus. Ther receive the discount, which seems to defeat Renewโ s Sana Ali forfeits election single thing she says, does it mean she decided town campus, allowing students to โ engage Society for Reproduc- a woman ca the purpose of the program. to join team renew without thinking or enough an openAmerican space.โ tiveearth Medicine lifted processโ Although not going as far as the Meatless Sana's letter was brilliantly written and de- research?

What on does this eventhe mean?

I don't when she label.

With its them under Monday idea (which itself falls far short of scribes exactly what is wrong with the utsu toShe not only put the people on her campaign cross St.โ experimentalโ George because I want to go for a pointchanged egg is set the idea of a healthy, sustainable, and more day. There are many people who do not disagree in jeopardy but also she did not have enough less stroll, I cross itstatus, so I can getfreezing to my next class. While qui to become ethically sound whole-foods plant-based diet), with many of their policy positions โ indeed courtesy for people who voted for her on first U of T students havemore a lot widely on theiravailable plates, and ing has its to women, even those seeking it a tion mainta Veggie Mondays is certainly a baby-step in the it is commendable to be fighting for tuition fee and second day of elections. "engaging in an open space" is probably not for non-medical reasons. right direction. However, this card represents decreases and taking a stand on equity and disShe could have dropped very much sooner in top priority.

How out of touch could you pos- in the freezi a problem. crimination, for example โ but their politics of a respectful manner to her own campaign and sibly be? Social egg freezing (egg freez- is well past for non-medical reasons) It is not entirely clear how one even goes vitriol and close-mindedness are the complete other voters.

This ising a downtown campus in Canada's larg- the technolo seems about acquiring the card: the web site for Veg- opposite of what they say in public. โ Mahsima Tavoosi (from web) est city โ traffica ispromising a fact of lifeway here,to andemthere the decrease power women bymeasures giving them gie Mondays needs to be amended to make This is the highest profile (recent) example of are already traffic calming in place companies a more control over when they can need to have this more clear. What's missing is the critical how they have managed to alienate those who Sana most definitely must've known, as do on St. George anyway. I don't see why we need have children. Fertility declines use egg freez information on when and where one goes to are progressive from their cause, but certainly must of us involved in student politics, exactly another pointless closure like the one that with age and the dip is especially Additiona get it. I had to ask around to finally find out not the first. There are many stories of Directors what she was getting herself into. I donโ t find brought us those hideous planters and neversteep for women after their mid- nancially a that the card is issued in the Robarts cafete- who were co-opted into the incumbent Sanaโ s actions to be brave nor admirable... used chairs/tables on Willcocks St. 30s. Women captivated by the al- LifeQuest, a ria on Mondays. Apparently students can sign slate and have found themselves lacking โ TickTockMickMock (from web) โ Mauricio Curbelo (from web) lure of a traditional family, where es $8,600 fo a woman and her male partner cluding egg have biological links to their and embryo activityfind to athemselves recognized CCR CONTINUED FROM PG 6 children, in student po- also requi association campusa group, sitions where or starting familyandmedication portfolio. Beyond first-year, stu- is anything the requirement a studentwhich can b but ideal.that A woman dents may feel the pressure to might takeswant on atoleadership Find- Social egg pursue a role. career, remain committed to a student establish ing a validator prove toorbe atake off and financialmay security, organization for the duration of find challenge to partner many students; the right first. As anyit cannot o a full year or may hesitate before is the ccrcase design take womthis intofertility dec withmust numerous becoming involved in clubs at the en,consideration. she may hit her late-30s be- who wants half-year mark. The solution? Al- fore these If it can address student concerns, conditions are met, at willing to b low students to include less for- which the ccr hasthe thequality potential add adole out the point of toher is very low. to applications toso before it i mal activities, indicate a level of eggs new dimension ย ลข ++'$ ลข ) ลข *((1)$/5p . ลข . - # involvement and the duration of professional and graduate programs the activity, 'informal' or 'formal,' as well as for jobs. A ccr is a valuย ลข ,1 1'/1- ลข and the skills they believe they ac- able complement to an academic quired from the activity. transcript, can offer a search tool ย ลข 1'/1- 'ลข -$/ " ลข *). -2 /$*)ลขaลข To make the ccr effective, we for students seeking involvement ) " ( )/ must also confront validator and opportunities, and will provide ย ลข ( -" ) 5ลข ) " ( )/ club bias. Who decides which club an authentic, valuable, and useful VINYL,'valuable' CDS, EQUIPMENT provides learning expe- document to students. Confronting ย ลข )2$-*)( )/ 'ลข $.1 'ลข *((1)$ /$*)ลข riences?

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Editorial

Tr

YOU ARE HERE

Colleges/EngSoc launch legal action against UTSU

COURT

Vote to divert fees

The results of either action would be based on claims made by either side, and the court's ruling

editorial@thevarsity.ca

Colleges/EngSoc proceed with referendum

Colleges/EngSoc call off referendum

Referendum held

THE GREAT UNKNOWN

UTSU files injunction

Vote to stay in the UTSU

Injunction rejected

Injunction approved, stopping the current referendum

Results to the UAB Each division has asked different questions and will use different procedures, so the UAB could make different decisions in each case

Results are approved

UTSU does nothing

UTSU sues the University

Injunction not appealed by colleges/EngSoc

COURT

Colleges/EngSoc win

Colleges/EngSoc lose

STALLED BUT ONGOING

COURT

The injunction and its appeal would delay the process enough that a referendum would have to be held next year.

A NEW SEPERATION UTSU loses

Injunction appealed by colleges/EngSoc

Results are rejected

colleges/EngSoc could be involved

The colleges/EngSoc divert their fees. Unclear whether this means secession from the UTSU.

ng months omi ec th

UTSU launches legal action against colleges/EngSoc

18 MARCH 2013

ould happ hat c en in kw c a

USTU wins

BUSINESS AS USUAL Colleges/EngSoc remain part of the union and continue to pay fees as they do now.

Legal infighting serves no one I

n the last few weeks, the pages of this newspaper have been filled with talk of ‘defederation,’ a colloquial way of referring to the attempts by the Engineering Society (EngSoc), St. Michael’s College Students’ Union (smcsu), the Trinity College Meeting (tcm), and Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (vusac) to divert their students’ fees from the utsu to their respective councils. As you can see above, there are a number of ways in which those attempts could lead to court battles.

It is difficult to predict what form a possible legal action could take. If the referenda proceed, and their results are accepted by the university, it is unclear what legal precedents would apply if the case goes to court. The case being cited by both sides, apus vs. utmsu and epus (Erindale Part-Time Undergraduate Students’ Association), does not seem to be a clear precedent. According to those involved in the case, the principle that the judge seemingly upheld is that one organization cannot interfere with the internal workings — membership, for example — of another organization.

As the utsu has pointed out repeatedly, under its bylaws, every full-time undergraduate at the U of T is individually a member of the union. The utsu seems to implicitly recognize the faculty and college structure in the makeup of its Board of Directors, but there is no formal recognition in the bylaws. The apus case seems to be based on a federation structure, so it

is not immediately obvious that it applies to the present case.

With both sides displaying confidence in their legal position, any court case will likely be prolonged and expensive. Attempts by various student councils and unions to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students (cfs) have resulted in huge legal fees — over $407,000 in the case of the University of Guelph Central Student Union. There are significant differences between the cfs defederation cases and the present situation. The cfs is a federated body; the utsu is not. The cfs also has a record of litigation, with long legal battles employed to wear down the unions attempting to defederate and run up huge legal costs; the utsu has no such record.

But the ‘war chests’ being assembled by some of the divisions clearly suggest they fear a legal contest.

In November, the EngSoc hired Heenan Blaikie llp (the firm that represented Guelph in the abovementioned cfs case) on a $10,000 retainer, and has a $67,000 legal fund in place. The tcm has retained Fasken Martineau DuMoulin llp with a budget of at least $100,000. Although the utsu does not list legal costs explicitly in its year-end financial statements, it retains legal counsel and has the money to sustain a long legal battle.

But where does all of that money come from? It comes from your student fees. The college and faculty councils, and the utsu, receive a portion of the student fees you pay

every year. It is possible that in the battle to divert or retain the utsu portion of your fees, those same fees will be spent on litigation. These fees would be better spent serving members, rather than on legal infighting among students.

There could also be broader consequences to a legal fight. Any fee diversion would have to be approved by U of T’s University Affairs Board (uab), a committee of Governing Council. If faced with referendum results calling for fee diversion, it is unclear what the uab will do. But if the uab does approve fee diversion, it is possible that the utsu could take legal action against the university itself.

That action could call into question the university’s right to make decisions on student societies’ fee changes, upending the way incidental fees are organized and controlled at U of T. This means thats legal action could do more than cost you money — it could fundamentally alter how students and the administration interact.

The U of T faculty and colleges attempting to divert fees at U of T are each at different stages of the process. vusac, tcm, and EngSoc have issued reports detailing how fee diversion would work; smcsu has yet to publish a report. Some students have criticized these reports as inconclusive or under-researched, an understandable critique considering their short time frame. Discontent has been brewing for some time, but fee diversion is a fairly recent phenom-

enon. Its current iteration has only been in existence since last month’s utsu Special General Meeting. Six weeks is not enough time to educate affected students about the potential financial and structural implications of fee diversion. Considering that it also takes time to plan, publicize, and run the referenda, it is questionable whether there has been enough time to run an effective campaign that benefits students.

The utsu, for its part, has failed to head off the attempts at fee diversion.

The union provided a response to the tcm report, and has been in correspondence with the various units planning referenda, but it has not taken sufficient public action to inform students about the consequences of fee diversion. Nor has it acknowledged that some of the student grievances driving the movement may be legitimate. Successful fee diversion would have enormous financial consequences for the union, and would seriously undermine the utsu's claims to speak for all U of T students. President-elect Munib Sajjad’s decision not to answer questions about litigation may have been legally prudent, but he and his team have done little to inform students about the implications of a court battle and to bridge the gap in campus politics. Meanwhile, the recent electoral withdrawal of executive candidate Sana Ali and her criticism of the Renew slate suggest that there is a divide even among the union’s supporters.

Both sides justify their actions by claiming they represent the will of students on campus, but a large number of students, perhaps even a majority, are unaware of most campus politics, let alone the recent battles between the union and its divisional opponents. These students are also unaware that the ill-considered decisions both sides are making could lead to a legal battle, the result of which is uncertain except for an unnecessary financial burden on students.

Both sides have repeatedly offered to settle their differences through consultation and compromise, yet no solution has been achieved; each side blames the other for this dispute. The best and least expensive way of obtaining a solution is through outside mediation — an objective, professional third party who could resolve the disputes between the union and their divisional opponents, and ensure that much-needed structural reforms are made within the utsu. This method of resolution could usher in a new era of mature, conscionable governance.

The mediator would basically reboot union and student relations, and lessen the probability of a legal battle.

Student leaders on both sides of the fee diversion battle must back up their rhetoric with a willingness to make substantive concessions in the presence of a third-party mediator. This is the best way to avoid a protracted, expensive, and risky legal battle, which is the worst possible outcome for students.

Forty years

How women fought their way into Hart House and the accessibility challe ARTICLE BY DANIELLE KLEIN PHOTOS BY BERNARDA GOSPIC AND YI ZHAO Since its was established in 1919 with funds from Toronto’s wealthy Massey family, Hart House has served as a uniting centre for the U of T. It is a source of pride, an architectural focal point, and an intersection for students’ artistic, academic, and athletic pursuits.

As Northfrop Frye wrote in 1969, “Hart House represented the university as a society; it dramatized the kind of life that the university encourages one to live: a life in which imagination and intelligence have a central and continuous function.”

But it was not until 1972 that women were first allowed to be full members, meaning this romanticized society wholly excluded them.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:

The change was partially made possible by the passing of one-time Governor General Vincent Massey in 1968. Massey, who in his lifetime still exerted some control over Hart House’s direction, once remarked, “It’s a pleasure to be in a country where women cannot mix everywhere.”

On March 8, International Women’s Day, Hart House, in collaboration with the U of T Multi-Faith Centre, played host to the Breaking New Ground conference in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the extension of full membership rights to women at Hart House. Panelists began by discussing the difficult history of Hart House, reflecting on its exclusivity, and on injustice towards women in the university at large.

The audience at Breaking New Ground; Hart House warden Bruce Kidd; participants at the Making Inclusion Happen workshop; Evelyn Smith-Romero and Abtin Parnia of the Hart House Social Justice Committee.

“NOT ABOUT THE LETTING IN, BUT THE GETTING IN”

Although today Hart House is a remarkably inclusive space and is mandated to continually bolster its accessibility, it was once a site of bitter oppression for women.

Until 1972, women were granted limited access to the building, and were denied any form of casual entry into the facility. They were allowed in for special events such as dances, or during certain hours accompanied by a man.

Panelist Michele Landsberg, an award-winning author and journalist, described her experience of being banned from Hart House, having begun studying at U of T in 1958, already an eager feminist.

“I was shocked to realize that I was barred from the facility. I lived in the suburbs and had a long hike down to the university. Whenever I wanted to stay for the evening, there was nowhere on campus for me to wait. There was only the library.

“At Hart House, the windows were glowing and the men inside were gathered around the fireplace and women were absolutely not allowed. It was enraging, it was insulting. I was disgusted. It was exactly the same to me as segregation… It was obvious to people that women were second-class.”

Landsberg recalls an “insulting, degrading notice” on the door of the Arbor Room, stating that ladies could be admitted after 3 pm, only if “in the company of a gentleman,” which prompted her to complain to the Dean of Women.

“It was sickening and so condescending…

I went to complain very bitterly about this Hart House situation. She looked at me as though I were mentally deranged. She said: “we’re going to build a women’s athletics building in the near future. I said, ‘I don’t care. There should not be a facility on the

campus that bars women.’ She couldn’t understand that.”

Although the Massey Foundation set aside $125,000 in 1919 to fund a female recreational building to open alongside Hart House, the plan never materialized due to constant roadblocks, including concerns over the ‘indecency’ of women exercising outdoors. After decades of controversy, the Benson Building was constructed in 1959 at Harbord and Huron Streets, but it was a poor compromise. The building served solely as an athletic building, rather than as a multipurpose space. In A Path Not Strewn with Roses, a history of women at U of T, author Anne Rochon Ford writes, “The forty-year struggle on the part of women students and faculty to get that building is one of the saddest untold stories of women’s history at the University of Toronto.”

Landsberg admits that she continues to harbour bitter feelings towards the building and the university in general. “The sexism of the campus at that time affected me in every way. I was prevented from going on to graduate school although I did score very high… It was that kind of sexism that barred so many women from so many paths.”

Although Landsberg felt isolated and without a feminist community to support her at U of T, courageous women had been pushing for female inclusion at Hart House prior to her arrival at the university. Before the building opened women were already attempting to garner support for a similar facility for women.

Ford notes that as early as 1911 a motion was passed to distribute a petition to the colleges, which stipulated the inclusion of a women’s gymnasium in the plans for Hart House. Although this effort was unsuccessful, discourse about the need for a women’s athletic space had begun.

bate, women held a demonstration. Some attempted to sneak in, but were allegedly caught when a security guard noticed one woman’s manicured hand. Kidd describes this incident as a “watershed.”

Another story is that of Olympic track and field athlete Abby Hoffman. In the 1960s, Hoffman was training as a runner, and snuck into the indoor track at Hart House to escape practicing in the bitter winters, disguising herself as a man by wearing a hood. Her teammates, including Kidd, helped her in through the back door. In 1966, fed up with these circumstances, she presented herself three times to train, and each time she was “unceremoniously thrown out into the snow.” Kidd explains that Hoffman’s case became a “cause-celebre” and was an important pressure point for allowing women into Hart House.

Opposition to the inclusion of women at Hart House came from the Massey family, as well as from the administration, faculty, and some U of T students. Many, however, were progressive and a diversity of opinions existed. “It was a complex landscape,” Kidd notes, “It wasn’t polarized in terms of advocates and opponents.”

Event organizer and head of the Hart House Social Justice Committee Carly Stasko points out during the opening remarks at the Breaking New Ground conference that “it’s not about the letting in, but the getting in,” emphasizing that co-ed access to the building was not simply granted from above, but obtained by the impressive efforts of a unified group of women.

“ONLY A MATTER OF TIME”

on

enges that remain The October 17, 1919 issue of The Varsity, published the same year the doors of Hart House first opened, included an article titled “A Co-Educational Social Centre.” The piece highlighted the need for female inclusion at Hart House, stating, “It is with longing eyes that the women of the University gaze on the towering grandeur of Hart House, and sigh in vain for an ‘Open Sesame’ to those sacred portals which guard their fabulous treasures from the feminine view.”

Current Hart House warden Bruce Kidd, a noteworthy champion of equity, remarks, “The activism of women against the male-only character of Hart House has a long history. There were stories from the ’20s and ’30s of women who broke in… There was certainly a lot of activism in the ’50s. The Varsity was a leading proponent of the admission of women to Hart House. One of the outstanding editors of The Varsity in the 1950s, Wendy Michener, wrote a number of brilliant editorials arguing for the inclusion of women.”

Breaking New Ground panelist Dr. Meg Luxton, professor and director of the graduate program of Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University, participated in these efforts, which she described at the conference as “a fairly noisy, disruptive political movement.”

Luxton recalls standing up with her female classmates in unison and yelling out questions when a professor wouldn’t take questions from women, and occupying two buildings in different protests. “We learned to work together.”

The feminist movement at U of T produced some famous legends of female resistance. Several different people realy one such anecdote in slightly inconsistent versions. A debate on US foreign policy between John F. Kennedy and Stephen Lewis was held at Hart House in 1957.

The story goes that in the rain outside the de-

Kidd notes that, in retrospect, inclusion of women at Hart House was “only a matter of time” by 1970.

“By 1970, women had made the issue of admission one of the highest priorities of activism on campus… Women were pounding on the door in all kinds of ways — sitting in on debates; [female] Varsity reporters were showing up at special lectures. There were more and more men who were encouraging women to sneak in.”

By then, the Benson Building was available to female athletes, but many women continued to bemoan the inadequacy of this solution, asserting that their inability to enter Hart House was sexist and unfair. In 1971, an Advisory Committee was established to consider the access of women to Hart House. After a change of deed was successfully sought from the Massey family the Board of Stewards voted in favour of female admittance in January of 1972. By July of that year, women were granted full membership to Hart House.

“It’s a bittersweet victory,” Landsberg reflects. “A lot of harm was done over the years… When I finally started attending events at Hart House, I entered with a mixture of loathing and unsatisfied indignation. I still feel that way. There’s certain harms that you don’t get over.”

Panelist Dr. Keren Brathwaite, co-founder of the Transitional Year Program, echoes Landsberg’s sentiments at the conference. “I want to remember how disenfranchised we were. I want to remember the struggle that brought us to this day.”

Kidd remembers his male colleagues complaining that they had to swim in bathing suits following the change-over, rather than the previous custom of using the pool naked. He also notes that it was very difficult for women to use the pool and gym facilities, as there were initially no provisions to build locker rooms for

women. It was only in the early 1990s that the large men’s dressing room was divided into two equal change rooms.

Panelist Dr. Kathryn Morgan, a U of T philosophy professor adds, in correspondence with The Varsity, “There was a lot of bullying of women when Hart House was sex-integrated, particularly in the swimming pool… Some of it was verbal, some of it was leering.”

Misogyny didn’t cease to exist at Hart House in 1972, nor did the efforts of feminists come to a halt. It took time for the institution to adapt to the change.

EXPANDING ACCESSIBILITY

In contrast to this dark history, Hart House possesses a counter-history of progressiveness, moving away from its Christian foundations to embrace different religions, increasing wheelchair accessibility, and serving as a lgbt-friendly environment. Major efforts are currently being made to ensure the inclusivity of the facility to women and all minorities.

Although one facet of the Breaking New Ground conference was reflecting on the hurdles faced by women, the major emphasis was on the current moment in feminism and moving forward to further expand accessibility at Hart House.

In terms of ongoing barriers to accessibility, Kidd cites having only one accessibility entrance for people with disabilities.

The building is an historic site, rendering physical alterations difficult, so efforts to increase inclusivity have focused on publicity and events. Kidd invites any student who feels unwelcome to visit his office and let him know why they feel that way in order to mitigate their concerns. “We want every U of T student to feel welcome here, that this is your house,” he says.

In addition to a panel and a keynote speech by highly active feminist Judy Rebick, the Breaking New Ground conference included workshops about gender, sexuality, racism, and well-being. The goals of the workshops, Stasko explains, were both to celebrate women and reclaim the space of Hart House, as well as to discuss the legacy of the facility.

“The initial idea came out of saying, ‘so it’s been forty years since women were welcome to Hart House — who’s not welcome now? What kind of exclusion is normalized still?’”

The Hart House Social Justice Committee facilitated one such workshop, titled Making Inclusion Happen, addressing precisely these questions.

Speaking to The Varsity, Evelyn Smith-Romero, Committee Co-Secretary, points to the question of men’s right groups as a potential challenge to inclusion.

Communications executive Abtin Parnia comments, “Any sort of stigmatized groups, they all fall under the same umbrella of inclusivity, because you have to consider all these groups when you want to organize an event… We want to look critically at the whole process of inclusion, how it happened, and whether there are still barriers for any groups to get engaged in Hart House.”

Participants in the workshop and the conference were encouraged to voice or write down their concerns over inclusivity, which will eventually be compiled in a report with a view towards implementing change and continuing the momentum of increasing accessibility.

At the conference, in a room filled with influential women, it was clear that Hart House has seen massive changes since its opening.

In the 40 years in which women have been members at the facility, it has evolved into a decidedly inclusive space, which ardently strives to give more students access.

Kidd encourages students to explore the building and recognize their hard-earned ownership of it. “Come in to Hart House and treat yourself to an hour of discovery… Just spend an hour wandering around this place, so that you’ve got time to discover and reflect.

Just spend an hour thinking, ‘this all belongs to me and all these opportunities are available to me.’”

In my explorations of Hart House, I’ve discovered rooms surrounded by portraits of men, the stone monkeys overlooking the main entrance, and the matchstick strikers on the walls. Despite the trappings of the building’s male-oriented past, women are visible at the gym, on committees, running events; the voices of women past and present resonate in the halls, claiming the building as their own. In his office, the warden eagerly shows off a plaque featuring an image of Hoffmann that commemorates 40 years of women in Hart House, and recalls a quote by Robin Morgan: “Only she who attempts the absurd will achieve the impossible.”

VOICES OF HART HOUSE AUDIO AT var.st"b2n

Arts & Culture var.st/arts

Toronto with a tea An exploration of contemporary tea culture Brigit Katz ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

It was less than two decades ago that franchise coffee houses began cropping up on practically every street corner in Toronto. These new cafés offered exotic roasts, flavoured lattes, and an experience — a seductive combination of earth-toned sofas, smooth jazz soundtracks, and free Wi-Fi. Coffee was suddenly accessible and fun, and drinking coffee has since become a ubiquitous feature of city life. We grab coffee, meet for coffee, place orders for coffee using strings of adjectives that would be unintelligible to earlier generations of coffeedrinkers: “I’ll have a tall, non-fat, no-whip, six-pump, extrahot, cinnamon dolce latte.”

If you decide to forego said latte in favour of tea, more often than not you’ll get a single tea bag slapped into a cup of boiling water. Though it is the most consumed drink in the world, tea has received considerably less glory than its hot beverage cousin in North America, having been eclipsed by a dominant coffee culture. But this is quickly starting to change.

Tea consumption is on the rise in Canada and is expected to increase by 40 per cent over the next seven years. In Toronto, this trend is reflected in the number of specialty teashops that have recently opened up across the city. In addition to Toronto’s independent teahouses, the American chain Teavana (which was purchased by Starbucks this past December) recently made its Toronto debut, and teal DavidsTea cups can be spotted with increasing frequency in the hands of bustling pedestrians.

Torontonians are drinking more tea than ever before, and they are drinking it differently. But what has prompted this explosion in tea consumption? And what, if anything, makes the city’s contemporary tea culture distinct from tea-drinking practices that have persisted across the world for centuries?

BEGINNINGS Tea is an aromatic beverage, which, in its most basic form, consists of hot water and the leaves of a plant called Camellia sinensis. “Herbal tea” is technically not a true tea. Made from herbs, spices, and fruit (rather than Camellia sinensis), this infused drink is referred to by tea experts as a “tisane.”

The many varieties of tea that are available today — green, white, black, oolong, and so on — are all derived from the Camellia sinensis plant, but each type of tea is processed differently. Black tea, for example, undergoes a high degree of oxidization (fermentation), while green tea is oxidized only

slightly. The geographic locations of tea farms also contribute to nuances in tea flavour; the delicate Darjeeling tea hails from India, the earthy Pu-erh from China, and the fullbodied Ceylon from Sri Lanka.

Although the early history of tea is obscure, the beverage may have originated in China during the Shang dynasty. The British began importing tea leaves from Asia in the 1600s, and tea came to North America with European settlers during the colonial period.

It was the rise of the tea bag — a twentieth century American invention — that arguably created one of the biggest rifts between traditional and contemporary tea-drinking practices. Tea bags usually contain “fannings,” a very fine grade of tea leaf. While it is certainly possible to find tea bags that offer a high-quality product, many of the tea bags that are sold in supermarkets are stuffed with the dregs of a tea crop, the crushed leaves that remain after whole tea leaves have been filtered and packaged as loose-leaf.

TRADITION? While loose-tea traditions have persisted in Europe, Africa, and Asia, the tea bag has taken over the North American market. For many years, consumers have been willing to forgo vibrant and chunky loose-leafs, sacrificing quality for the sake of convenience.

Yet in Toronto and other North American cities there has been a resurgence of demand for high-quality teas. A number of Asian-style tea houses are scattered across Toronto, while other tea stores in the city are modeled after traditional British shops. Among the latter category is Majesteas, a specialty loose-leaf store in Leslieville.

Majesteas is a tiny space, dominated by a rich mahogany display case that is lined with rows of tea jars. Plates of scones sit on the counter by the cash register and, in true English fashion, tea at Majesteas is served in a teapot.

The shop was founded three years ago by Ian Macdonald and Robert Gignac. According to Macdonald, who is a certified tea sommelier, the rising popularity of loose-leaf tea is due in part to the slow but steady realization that the average tea bag simply cannot compete with the rich flavour of loose blends.

“Europeans have always had no problem with loose-leaf tea,” he says. “It’s a much higher quality than the stuff in the tea bag… I think that people have slowly come to try loose leaf tea and say, ‘Oh, this actually does taste a lot better than tea bags.’”

Macdonald also explains that an increasing number of his customers are former coffee drinkers who have decided

18 MarCH 2013 arts@thevarsity.ca

PHOTOS BY BERNARDA GOSPIC Below: Tealish Opposite top: Majesteas Opposite bottom: DavidsTea to cut down on their caffeine intake and are looking for a substitute beverage.

“Now with people being stressed, and university students staying up and studying, people drink too much coffee,” he says. “And the effects of that aren’t so great for you in the long run… There isn’t that much caffeine in tea.”

Although Majesteas stocks a diverse range of tea blends, its selection is relatively conservative. Macdonald points out that Majesteas has deliberately steered clear of “gimmicky tea, which is tea with little bits of candy in it.” The shop instead offers fruity herbal teas, Asian blends, and, of course, an assortment of breakfast teas — the robust black tea that is popular in England.

That said, Majesteas is a far cry from the fusty Old English tearooms decorated with lace tablecloths and Royal Daltons. The shop is light and modern, with cool green walls and soft, cushiony chairs. Majesteas also offers a number of playfully named blends, such as “Buckingham Palace Garden Party,” “Cheeky Monkey!” and “Leslieville Picnic Blend."

Perhaps most importantly, Majesteas’ tea-wall is not located behind the cash. This allows customers to browse through the teas at their own pace, to pull jars down from the walls, sniff the blends, and decide what they want to taste. According to Macdonald, this “grocery store” model makes the customer’s tea experience more inviting and accessible.

“Our idea was that people can open the glass jars, they can read about the tea, they can smell and self-discover different kinds of tea," he says. "That’s the main thing that makes us different from other places — you can self-discover, and then have a cup of tea and try it.”

MODERNITY Tealish on Queen West is another boutique tea store that strives to put a new twist on an old beverage. The shop is beautiful and bright, with a large storefront window and small seating area in the back of the shop. The store’s exposed brick tea-wall is lined with huge metal tins, each one stamped with pastel labels designed by the Tealish staff. The teas inside the tins are all blended locally, and some of them are created in Tealish’s basement.

Alyssa Garrison, assistant manager at Tealish, explains that many of the store’s customers first visit the shop while seeking out the health benefits of premium looseleaf tea.

“Green tea boosts your metabolism and it’s a really high anti-oxidant, so that one is popular,” she says. “And then

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we also have Yerba Mate… It’s full of vitamins and minerals and, because it’s so nutrient-dense, it actually works as an appetite suppressant. So that one is really, really popular.”

But the salutary property of tea is not the only thing driving customers to Tealish. To put it simply, drinking tea at Tealish is fun. The store only uses ingredients that are, according to Garrison, “really clean and really natural,” yet Tealish offers an exciting variety of blends featuring creative combinations of flavours and ingredients. Among the store’s signature teas are “Caramel Apple Rooibos,” “Pink Dragonfruit,” and the best selling “Toasty Almond.” Tealish also sells tea smoothies, tea lattes, and iced teas.

According to Garrison, the modernization of tea has been a driving force behind the drink’s rising popularity. She also believes that innovative tea blending is a defining feature of contemporary tea culture in Toronto and other North American cities. “[Tealish] opened ahead of the tea trend curve,” she says.

“And then this happened. The crazy tea attack. Everyone knows tea, everybody has a tea cupboard. I think a big part of it is that teashops got a lot more modern and approachable.

Before, a lot of the teashops were either Old English … or very Asian style.

“The rise of new, more fun tea shops has both made those origin teas a lot more approachable for people and

introduced a whole other blended tea thing, which I think is pretty unique to North America. I’ve talked to a lot of people from of other countries and … they don’t have fancy blended teas… Because teas are being presented in a really fun way [in North America] … there’s pretty much something for everyone.”

COMMERCIALISM Making tea accessible to the masses has been key to the success of DavidsTea, the Canadian tea chain that burst onto the market in 2008. Like Tealish, DavidsTea offers a vast array of innovative loose-leaf blends. In addition to staples like “Spearmint” and “English Breakfast,” the store’s 150 unique blends include “Chocolate Chili Chai,” “Cheeky Lychee,” and “Red Velvet Cake.”

“We love tea and we love sharing our passion for tea with our customers,” says DavidsTea representative Bradley Grill.

“We're just all about making tea fun and accessible, whether you're new to tea or not.”

Some DavidsTea blends include ingredients that would probably offend the sensibilities of stringent tea purists — sprinkles, chocolate, yogurt pieces, and caramel can be found in several of the company’s select teas. Yet DavidsTea sources its tea from some of the world’s finest estates and gardens, and uses organic ingredients whenever possible.

Bring in a copy of this article to Majesteas for a free cup of tea!

The company is, essentially, providing high quality loose tea, but taking liberties with blending traditions in order to makes its product palatable for an expanding market of tea-drinkers.

This approach to tea seems to be working; DavidsTea now has over 100 locations across the US and Canada.

HORIZONS The rising popularity of tea in Toronto seems to have been prompted by Torontonians’ desire to drink something different, something healthful, something better than the standard brand of tea that you can buy in a supermarket.

Yet the loose-leaf tradition has resurfaced in a notably different form. Tea has been modernized to suit the tastes of a contemporary market. It is fun, it is delicious, and it offers endless possibilities for blending scents, ingredients, and flavours. When it comes to drinking tea, there is so much to learn and so much to explore.

14

Vol. CXXXIII, No. 20

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

Pop-rock, Billie Jean, and Greek yogurt An interview with Zachary Gray of The Zolas

HART HOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS THE 18TH ANNUAL

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

FESTIVAL OF DANCE CANADA’S LARGEST UNIVERSITY DANCE FESTIVAL

MAR 22 – 23, 2013 FRIDAY & SATURDAY @ 7:30 PM

CELEBRATING THE DIVERSITY OF DANCE AT U OF T! Join us at the 18th annual Festival of Dance: a showcase that unites all three University of Toronto campuses and highlights dance styles from around the world.

BOX OFFICE: w w w. u o f t t i x . c a / 416.978.8849 Adults $12 / Students & Seniors $10

www.harthousetheatre.ca SEASON SPONSORS:

Zachary Gray and Tom Dobrzanski of The Zolas. PHOTO COURTESY TAKE AIM MEDIA

Salena Barry VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Starting this Tuesday the 31st edition of Canadian Music Week will showcase around 350 bands in 35 of Toronto’s live music venues. One of these bands is The Zolas, a British Columbian alternative rock group fronted by Zachary Gray and Tom Dobrzanski. In advance of The Zolas' gig at cmw Gray spoke with The Varsity about his band’s sound, his latest music video, and his awesome lunch.

THE VARSITY: When did you start playing music? Did you always intend to do this or did it just end up this way?

ZACHARY GRAY: It certainly ended up this way. I didn’t really play music until after high school, which is kinda strange. When I was in high school, I was a theatre nerd and was more focused on playing sports and being good at school. I went on a trip to Asia and while I was away, Tom joined this band and when I got back, I joined them. We started out making music for fun.

TV: Your music has been labelled as indie rock and alternative rock. Do you accept these labels and how else would you describe your music?

ZG: The way I see it, there is good indie rock and bad indie rock. Some genres become cool for a while. I think that the least cool genre is probably pop-rock. I mean, if someone told me that their band plays pop-rock I would probably be reluctant to listen to them, but at the same time, that’s the sort of music that my band makes. Some of the best albums and bands, like Radiohead and Weezer, are poprock. Most of what we listen to is pop-rock, even Rihanna’s "Umbrella" could be considered part of that genre. I think what matters is whether or not it’s good. Our music is pop-rock with some other elements.

TV: Speaking of Rihanna, her songs get covered pretty often. How do you feel about people interpreting your own songs?

ZG: I haven’t heard too many recordings [from other bands that have covered us]. When I hear our songs out of context, it’s fun. I’m not that good of a guitarist, but when I hear kids playing the guitar parts better than I can, it’s funny. I think it’s great!

would be told to play an hour and a half or two hours, and we just didn’t have enough material at that time to fill up the space, so we would play covers. We once played "Billie Jean," which is a great song, but it just… I promise anyone who comes to see our shows that they will never hear us play "Billie Jean" [laughs].

TV: During live gigs, do you play a fixed set list, or do you just go with the flow?

ZG: When we play, we like to have a set playlist so that we’re not playing a song and going back and forth, like ‘Well, we played this, now what’s next? Can we take any requests?,’ as nice as that would be. Playing a good set is like sex: you want to be responsive and human, but you also have to show [the audience] who’s in charge.

TV: What are you guys doing right now? Recording? Touring?

ZG: Well right now, I’m making this awesome wrap. It has vodka sauce, salami, broccoli, mozzarella, avocado, and Greek yogurt.

TV: That’s a fancy wrap.

ZG: It is! You just have to make sure that you use Greek yogurt that has less than 10 per cent [milk fat] — you can basically use it in the same way you use sour cream.

Tomorrow we have to catch this 4 am flight to go play in Texas for South by South West, and then we’re heading to Toronto for Canadian Music Week. We’ll be playing on Thursday and Friday [March 21st and 22nd] at the Rivoli and the Horseshoe.

TV: I recently watched your music video for the song “Escape Artist.” How much creative input did you have when it came to making the video?

ZG: Our label is very accommodating, so if we have an idea they let us do it. We shot [“Escape Artist”] when we were in Brooklyn. We were there, and a friend gave us the idea and we put out an ad on Craigslist, and we got all these awesome people who responded, and we just shot it. Which was crazy! We had the final version down just two days before shooting [the video]. We’re involved in delegating the jobs for our music videos, but we’re hands off. We let the video people do their job because they’re better at it.

TV: When you play live, do you play any covers?

TV: Do you have anything else you’d like to say to your fans at U of T?

ZG: We don’t play covers. Well, that’s not entirely true. When we were first starting out, we

ZG: Come out and see us play, because we don’t tour that often!

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

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A new era of South Asian dance The Kalanidhi Fine Arts festival at Harbourfront celebrates traditional and contemporary forms of Indian dance Ishita Petkar ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Although Bollywood dance is the purview of celebrities, traditional or classical Indian dancing is said to have originated among the gods.

Based on archaeological findings of sculptures dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indian dance tradition appears to be well over 5,000 years old. Although it came close to extinction during British colonial times, this ancient art form had been steeped in the country’s bones for too long to give up easily. The beginning of the twentieth century saw a great revival in each of the many South Asian dance styles, sparking a new era of classical and contemporary Indian dance.

Boasting eight official classical dance styles today, these forms all take root in the Natya Shastra, a scripture written in classical India c.

200 B.C., and mostly focus on topics relating to Hindu mythology. The dance styles generally employ two main facets of dance: nritta or pure dance expression, and abhinaya or facial expression, in order to tell a story. But that’s where the similarities end — each of these dance styles has their own unique music, techniques, and objectives, with roots found all over India. Today, the official styles are Bharatanatyam from the state of Tamil Nadu, Kathak from Uttar Pradesh, Kathakali and Mohiniattam from Kerala, Kuchipudi from Andhra Pradesh, Manipuri from Manipur, Odissi from Orissa, and Sattriya from Assam.

While classical Indian dance only arrived in Canada in the 1960s,

Menaka Thakkar Dance Company from "Gita Govinda." PHOTO COURTESY KALANIDHI FINE ARTS

it has had a pronounced impact, vaulting its way to the forefront of Canadian artistic consciousness. At first, there was a struggle to afford Indian classical dance styles the same recognition given to Western classical dance styles like ballet.

However, once acknowledged and funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, they found new opportunities in cultural hybridization. One company that was instrumental in ushering in this new era was Kalanidhi Fine Arts, a dance company founded by Sudha Khandwani. The company puts together a festival in Canada every year in an effort to disseminate both traditional and contemporary forms of classical In-

dian dance into the Canadian artistic mainstream.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of Kalanidhi Fine Arts, and the 25th anniversary of its inception in Canada. A three-day long festival, it features local artists as well as dance companies from the United States and India. The lineup on the opening night this past Thursday seemed to encompass this vision, presenting three different dance styles by dancers from around the world.

The night began with an ode to tradition by Sujata Mohapatra, a renowned Odissi dancer from India. Opening with an abhinaya

piece describing the god Shiva and his consort Parvati, the work played on the two variations of dance embodied by these gods: tandava, a vigorous and aggressive male dance representing Shiva, the god of destruction, and lasya, the graceful and feminine response of the goddess Parvati. Closing with a traditional nritta piece expressing the joy of pure dance, Mohapatra embodied the vitality of an ancient dance form that is still very much alive today.

The second performance began with a play on conventions generally observed in Indian classical dancing. Presented by inDance, a Toronto-based company that aims

to present works that are a synthesis of South Asian and Western sensibilities, this piece enacted the Ramayana, a Hindu epic in a traditional Bharatanyam style. Tradition ended there, however, giving free reign to contemporary expression. Featuring two University of Toronto students as live singers, the dancing duo composed of Japanese artist Hiroshi Miyamoto and local artist Nalin Bisnath, who traded customary dance costumes in favour of a simple black shirt and yoga pants in an effort to pose the question: would we recognize God if he/she walked amongst us today? Although the dance performance fell a little flat with the audience, the live musicians stole the show with their powerful melodies that resonated in the theatre long afterwards.

The final performance was a true testament to the art of hybrid dance, blending aerial dance with Bharatanatyam and Kalaripayattu, a martial art form from the state of Kerala. Performed by Samudra Arts, an Indian troupe, “The Sound of Silence” was a powerful piece that explored the dialogue between movement and sound, body and soul, and of course, tradition and modernity. With feats of aerial acrobatics and complex rhythmic schemes, this dance performance ended off the first evening of the festival with a bang.

The continued presence of the Kalanidhi Fine Arts festival ensures that Toronto remains one of the world’s artistic leaders in the cultivation and growth of diasporic Indian culture, an ever-changing global art form that is climbing to great heights.

Tragic Relief The UC Follies production of Anouilh’s Antigone explores morality, authority, and choice Elena Gritzan VARSITY STAFF

Dramatic tragedy is a relief because you know how it will end. As the chorus explains midway through UC Follies’ production of Antigone, it can be peaceful to not have to worry about hope. You know your path; now you just have to bear it.

In honour of the UC Follies Theatre Company’s first ever production in 1885, the company is currently performing the version of Antigone

by Jean Anouilh, which is based on the Greek tragedy by Sophocles.

Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, defies the authority of King Creon when he decrees that the body of her rebel brother Polynices will not have a proper burial. At the risk of punishment by death, Antigone attempts to bury her brother’s body and put his soul to rest. The play deals with the characters’ clashing perspectives as they struggle with the inevitable deadly outcome.

Anouilh’s rendition of Antigone was originally performed in Nazi-

occupied Paris, adding subtle emphasis to Antigone’s rejection of a brutal authority. The present-day Follies’ production was staged in the UC Junior Common Room and is set in 1940s Europe. To emphasize the play’s contemporary setting, the cast uses French pronunciations of the characters’ names.

Directors Shak Haq and Noa Katz move beyond Anouilh’s script to great effect, creating a four-person Greek style chorus to act as both omniscient narrators and Creon’s staff. As soon as doors open, the members of the chorus are in character: they direct the audience to their seats, dust around the room, and fluff pillows. During the show, they provide context and foreshadow the action, alternating phrases between them and adding emphasis by stating some lines in unison.

Unfortunately, Thursday’s preview show had the four actors occasionally interrupting each other while delivering their tightly-spaced lines.

Since most of the action takes place off-stage, it falls to the actors to push the story forward with their

depictions of the characters’ emotional conflicts. The principal actors pull this off very well, most notably in a stand-off scene between Antigone and Creon. Siobhan O’Malley’s Antigone stares off into the distance with idealistic determination to carry out her plans, while Haq’s Creon is unyielding in his insistence that the law of the land is just. Both actors are able to show the clashing perspectives of their characters through a combination of their expressions, tones, and postures.

Antigone leaves the audience full of intense and profound questions.

What consequences are you willing to face to do what you think is right? How far are you willing to go, and who are you willing to hurt to keep your view of justice and authority intact? The play provides no answers, instead detailing the perspectives of characters who see the issue of Polynices’ burial in very different ways. No matter which character you agree with, one thing is certain: when compromise is made impossible, a disastrous ending is unavoidable.

JANICE LIU/THE VARSITY

Science

FROM THE ARCHIVES

var.st/sCIENCE

Where U of T solar energy research was one year ago

18 MarCH 2013

http://var.st/8h7

science@thevarsity.ca

Playing with quantum dots and plasmonic nanoparticles U of T’s Ted Sargent fine-tunes solar cells for a cheaper and more efficient design James Maiangowi VARSITY STAFF

A new technique developed by Dr. Ted Sargent and his research group builds off recent advances in nanotechnology that could lead to a possible 11 per cent improvement in solar cell efficiency.

Sargent, a U of T electrical engineering professor, and members of his research group, published a paper in Nano Letters entitled “Jointly Tuned Plasmonic-Excitonic Photovoltaics Using Nanoshells.” His work explains how colloidal quantum dots, when suitably modified, could lead to more efficient and inexpensive solar cells.

A colloidal quantum dot is a particle made from a semiconducting material that has been reduced to a very small size by dissolving certain compounds in an appropriate solution.

While most solar cell technology to date has been based on bulk materials like silicon, colloidal quantum dots offer unique advantages.

“There are two advantages to colloidal quantum dots. First, they’re much cheaper, so they reduce the cost of electricity generation,” Susanna Thon explained in a statement. Thon, a co-author of the paper, is a post-doctoral fellow in Sargent’s research group.

“But the main advantage is that by simply changing the size of the quantum dot, you can change its light-absorption spectrum.”

The heart of Sargent’s paper lies in the goal of increasing the light-absorption spectrum of photovoltaic cells. A photovoltaic cell converts the sun’s energy into electricity by converting solar radiation into direct current. But most photovoltaic cells focus on absorbing only a portion of the sun’s power, typically within the visible-wavelength spectrum with which we are most familiar.

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“Half of the sun’s power reaching the Earth lies in the infrared,” the paper explains early on. “It is in better harvesting photons in this spectral regime, that colloidal quantum dot (cqd) photovoltaics offer an attractive advantage over many organic and inorganic solar technologies.”

While cqd photovoltaics offer a chance to absorb more of the solar radiation spectrum,

they are not without problems, offering only a limited absorption of infrared light.

The solution to this problem is as clever as its name is ponderous: spectrally-tuned, solution-processed plasmonic nanoparticles. By combining quantum dots with plasmonic nanoparticles, Sargent and his team were able to fine-tune and increase the conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic cells.

“Changing the size [of quantum dots] is very easy, and this size-tunability is a property shared by plasmonic materials,” Thon explains. “By changing the size of the plasmonic particles, we were able to overlap the absorption and scattering spectra of these two key classes of nanomaterials.”

This overlapping technique has shown “a resultant 35 per cent enhancement in photocurrent” in the near-infrared spectrum, the paper states, which could translate to an 11 per cent improvement in the solar power conversation rate.

While the paper is a proof of principle, more work needs to be done before the improvements can be made available. Further research by Sargent’s group will look into both decreasing costs and increasing photon absorption.

“We want to achieve more optimization, and we’re also interested in looking at cheaper metals to build a better cell,” Thon said. “We’d also like to better target where photons are absorbed in the cell — this is important in photovoltaics because you want to absorb as many photons as you can, as close to the chargeollecting electrode as you possibly can.”

This achievement comes only months after the research group’s last breakthrough, also under the supervision of Sargent, in which they partnered with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology to develop the most efficient cqd solar cell ever.

Sargent’s research progress has been honoured by a host of associations. He has been named one of the top 100 young innovators by the MIT Technology Review, as well as one of Canada’s ‘Top 40 under 40’. In December, he was awarded the 2012 Steacie Prize for his research contributions to Canada.

Nine U of T researchers receive top NSERC prizes Seemi Qaiser VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Last month, nine U of T researchers received six prestigious awards from the Natural Sciences and Research Council of Canada (nserc). The awards were presented in Ottawa to individuals ranging from masters students to long-time teaching professors. The winners collectively represent a host of talents from various scientific disciplines and engineering backgrounds.

Dr. Stephen Cook, a professor of computer science and mathematics, took home the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal. Cook started out as a mathematics graduate student at Harvard, but changed his mind midway through his studies. “After taking a course in Logic and Computation from Hao Wang, my future advisor, I switched fields.

My PhD thesis was inspired by a question posed by a pioneer in the field named Alan Cobham: is multiplication [of large numbers] intrinsically harder than addition?”

Cook explains. In addition to the nserc Herzberg medal, Cook has a long list of achievements on his resumé; he is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Last month, he added another one — the Order of Ontario.

Dr. Aneil Agrawal, a name familiar to anyone who has taken the foundational bio210 course in ecology and evolution, was another nserc winner. He is one of three U of T recipients of the e.w.r. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, intended to help develop the career of an engineer or scientist attending a Canadian university. Why did Agrawal choose to work at U of T in particular? “U of T has a long-standing tradition of scientific excellence in general,” Agrawal says. “Moreover, I am really thrilled to be in Canada’s only Department of Ecology & Evolution where I am surrounded by a number of outstanding colleagues who are also nice people!”

Another recipient of the Steacie Memorial Fellowship is Dr. Warren Chan, a professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at U of T. He is also co-founder of Cytodiagnostics, one of the top five nanobiotechnology companies in the world. The applications of Chan’s research have major implications for future personalized health diagnostic tools. “Take a disease like the flu, where it just walloped Toronto. But with this technology, you spit into a little slide, plus some dried reagents to crack out the bug, wait 20 minutes, and use your cell phone to view it and tell you whether the bug is present. You can do your own screening and di-

agnosis. The cool thing about a cell phone is that, because you can detect and store information, you can track diseases.” His advice to budding researchers: “Learn the basics.

It’s really about learning the basics.”

Dr. Gregory Scholes, winner of the John C. Polanyi Award, has additional advice for young undergraduates. “Research requires a different skill set. Don’t be discouraged if your marks aren’t up there.” Scholes’ award recognizes his outstanding advances in biology and quantum physics. “It is an honour,” he says of the award, “I was thrilled when I got the call from the president. John [Polanyi] is my colleague, so it is special from that point of view.” Scholes studies how to harness solar energy as efficiently as an energy source as in nature. In addition to science journals, his work can be found in popular science media sources such as Scientific News and Discovery.

A number of other scientists at U of T were also recognized at the awards ceremony.

Graduate student Christina Nona, who investigates kainite and nmda receptors in the brain and their role in neural mechanisms responsible for learning and memory, was one. She was awarded nserc’s André Hamer Postgraduate Prize along with $10,000 for being one of the top four candidates in the

MINHEE BaE/tHE varsIty

master’s and doctoral category. Nona’s relationship with U of T goes back to her undergraduate years; she received her Bachelor of Science in neuroscience and organic chemistry in 2012. Nona decided to pursue her graduate studies at U of T because she liked the “rich, diverse research environment” that U of T provided.

VARSITY SCIENCE

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MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013

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A three-in-one sustainability plan New NPO educates, provides waste management services, and donates to the community Susan Gordon VARSITY STAFF

As the public becomes more educated about environmental issues, an increasing number of people are making deliberate choices to minimize the pressure they put on the environment.

From low-flow fixtures to organic foods to electric cars, there are multiple options available to individuals that allow them to reduce their environmental impact. Recycle for Change, a new not-for–profit organization, aims to make it easy for corporations and organizations to do the same, while continuing to support individual efforts.

Recycle for Change was founded by entrepreneur Ilia Shapenko, and is a waste management organization with environmental objectives.

“Our goal is to educate and inform the public about environmental issues, while providing our clients with customized solutions and educational programs for recycling, waste management, and sustainability,” says Shapenko. “[We] partner with commercial offices, construction companies, universities, colleges, schools, and others, helping them with their waste management and recycling needs. In addition, we will be offering a unique sustainability program designed by sustainability and environmental professionals.

“Via this program we will provide workshops and presentations to employees, in order to raise awareness, decrease waste, and help them to operate in a sustainable manner.”

Shapenko, who immigrated to Canada in 2005, says that it was his interest in entrepreneurship that pushed him to create the organization in 2012 and his passion for the environment that led him to make Recycle for Change so green-minded.

“It was critical for me to found an organization which will make a positive impact and real changes in our community and society,” he says.

Recycle for Change is not only interested in environmental issues, however. The organization also hopes to create

social change in the Toronto area according to Shapenko, a Ryerson graduate.

“The fees we collect from our services will be invested back into our community through donations made to established Canadian organizations such as SickKids Hospital, United Way, The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and animal welfare organizations.

“The waste management industry is known for … being traditional, old fashioned, and for being led by for-profit, large corporations that are operating for the purpose of maximizing revenues.

Our approach is different, as through our services we are offering a channel for institutions, corporations, and individuals to donate funds and make both environmental and social change.“ Elaine Zlotkowski is the chief editor at Recycle for Change, and curates articles and web content that the organization creates to educate the public on environmental issues.

“I absolutely believe that Recycle for Change has the potential to make a difference in the community and environment,” says Zlotkowski. “[Our] programs will provide businesses and institutions with the educational tools that will help them to operate sustainably, and the environment will be far healthier for it. It’s really a win-win situation for the environment and the community.”

For editor and author Tamkin Naghshbandi, the opportunity to connect to the public was a key factor that led her to join the organization. “Recycle for Change initially sparked my interest when I learned that there was an opportunity to write and research environmental reports for the purpose of educating the public. These articles are posted on the website for readers to enjoy and use for the purpose of learning more about … how human activity impacts the natural ecosystem.”

The educational aspect of the organization is integral to achieving its mandate for environmental and social change.

“We have two main goals: change the perception of the environment and change the community,” explains Recycle for Change business development analyst Yana Shepelyova.

“That’s a new approach, innovative, and it’s going to shake the industry and give it new breath. We are not only about

performing high-quality services; we are also about educating people. Change starts in everyone’s mind.”

Shapenko hopes the organization will be up and running in the near future. “Our goal is to offer educational services and fully operate by the end of [the] year,” says Shapenko.

If all goes well for Shapenko, his organization will soon be creating the environmental and social change he has been working for. “By educating individuals about sustainability, recycling, and environmental issues, we can build a strong community, improve our’s and others’ lives, and live in a better world.”

Ilia Shapenko, founder of Recycle for Change. PHOTO COURTESY ILIA SHAPENKO

Science in brief Some animals sniff to smell, others sniff to assert dominance

Surprising method of survival observed in extremophilic algae

An international team of scientists has found that amplified greenhouse effects in the Arctic have resulted in northern seasons and vegetation looking more like those of the south.

The nasa-funded study shows that loss of snow cover and sea ice increased Arctic temperatures, and that colder seasons are warming more quickly than the summer. This means decreased temperature and vegetation seasonality in the north — a greener Arctic.

“As a result of the enhanced warming over a longer ground-thaw season, the total amount of heat available for plant growth in these northern latitudes is increasing,” says Dr. Compton Tucker, a senior scientist at nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “This created, during the past 30 years, large patches of vigorously productive vegetation, totaling more than a third of the northern landscape — over nine million kilometers squared.”

These effects may grow more extreme. Seventeen state-of-the-art climate models predict that by the end of the century, Arctic seasons may resemble areas 20° in latitude to the South when compared to the seasons recorded between 1951 and 1980.

These changes could mean loss of food and timber for local communities in addition to global effects, as greenhouse gases are released from thawing permafrost.

The implications could be far-reaching, says Dr. Scott Goetz, deputy director and senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center, USA. “Any significant alterations to temperature and vegetation seasonality are likely to impact life not only in the North but elsewhere in ways that we do not yet know.”

When dogs or other animals sniff each other, the obvious assumption is that they are trying to smell each other. But Dr. Daniel Wesson, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, recently showed that the act of sniffing also serves as a form of communication meant to establish social hierarchies between rats.

Wesson’s research, published in the latest issue of Current Biology, was inspired by the knowledge that rats formed social hierarchies, much like humans do.

The aim of his research was to elucidate the mechanisms by which these hierarchies were enforced.

Wesson’s team found that when one rat encountered another, the amount of sniffing exhibited by either rat depended on its relative standing on the social ladder.

In other words, a rat of higher social standing would sniff the rat of lower standing at a greater frequency in order to communicate its dominance. Conversely, the subordinate would sniff less frequently to indicate its lower standing. Furthermore, Wesson and his team discovered that if this system was not respected, the dominant rat was more inclined to exhibit aggression towards the subordinate rat.

This discovery is pivotal to explaining the various ways animals behave and provide social cues to each other, and may prove to be a useful model of human interaction. Hopefully, by studying this behaviour and how neurological disruptions alter a rat’s ability to conduct itself ‘appropriately,’ we can expand our own understanding of the relationship between the human brain and social behaviour. Research in this area could help identify specific neural centers responsible for modulating social behaviour and how complex social disorders arise when damage or improper regulation is sustained.

An extremophilic type of algae has the ability to survive in extreme environments such as the high temperatures of pristine hot springs or the toxic and corrosive environment of decrepit mine shafts. Recently, this algae has been discovered to use a genetic technique never before seen in eukaryotes.

The red algae Galdieria sulphuraria uses horizontal gene transfer to adapt to extreme environments, by acquiring genes from other bacteria instead of simply depending on genes inherited from its ancestors.

Although horizontal gene transfer is common in the evolution of bacteria, it was not expected to occur among organisms that contained nuclei since these organisms could rely on sexual reproduction to produce recombinant genomes in their offspring.

Many characteristics of G. sulphuraria, such as the ability to withstand high temperatures, co-exist with heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, tolerate high salt concentrations, and accept a variety of food sources came about through genes it acquired from other bacteria or archaebacteria.

The findings, which were determined by using comparative gene sequencing, were reported this month by a group of 18 international scientists in the journal Science. Gerald Schoenknecht, one of the study’s lead authors, thinks “the results give us new insights into evolution,” while co-author Martin Lercher added, “Why reinvent the wheel if you can copy it from your neighbour?”

Although the question of how G. sulphuraria accomplishes this feat is still unanswered, the fact that it could integrate genes taken from an entirely different organism and develop qualities to improve its own survival opens the door to many exciting possibilities in genetic engineering and biotechnology.

—Noemie De Vuyst With files from ScienceDaily and Nature

—Roxanne Leung With files from ScienceDaily

—Sri Chaudhuri With files from ScienceDaily

Amplified greenhouse effect causes the north to appear more like the south

Sports

FROM THE ARCHIVES

var.st/sports

Relive the field hockey team’s journey to the top

18 MarCH 2013 sports@thevarsity.ca

var.st/as3

Patrick Coristine works with the Blues football team, capturing video footage to prepare them for each game, including the home opener win over the Laurier Goldenhawks above. Bernarda GospiC/tHe varsity

The man behind the camera The video operations manager is integral to the Blues football team Elizabeth Benn

ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

Patrick Coristine manages video operations for the Varsity Blues football team. He is part of the 19-person coaching staff of the close to 100-player team and a student at oise.

Before taking on the job, Coristine worked in Halifax for a year after graduating from St. Francis Xavier University, where he played football for four years. “I had a couple of years of eligibility remaining to actually play and considered playing at U of T, but I also knew I eventually wanted to move on into a coaching role, and in the end I pursued that instead,” Coristine explained.

This past summer, he was helping out with a football team in Cornwall, Ontario, his hometown, and asked Kirby Camplin, the coach of that Cornwall team, if he knew of any opportunities with U of T’s football team. Coristine was called in for an interview while he was moving to Toronto for teacher’s college.

“During the meeting, I saw that they were using the same video system that St. Francis Xavier used while I was there, and mentioned it to them,” Coristine recalls. “They asked if I knew how to use it. I told them I knew a little bit through experience, and they said they needed someone to help out with it as it was their first year with the system. I said yes, and the rest is history.”

Coristine has a number of responsibilities with the Blues’ football team.

The first is as a video co-ordinator.

His duty here is to film games and practices, edit the footage, and make it accessible to the coaches and players at all times. Coristine also tags the videos with all the relevant information that allows coaches to find them in the Blues’ database. “This is the most important function of my role, as it is integral to scouting upcoming teams, as well as ourselves.”

His second role is as a study hall advisor for the football players. He has a strong relationship with the players and they respect his authority, regardless of the similarity between their ages.

Coristine is also a coach, a responsibility he took up in January. “I currently coach the defensive backs, teaching them technique and system specific skills.”

But video is by far his most timeconsuming job. “About an hour before practice I have to set up our cameras and systems around the field so we will be ready to film, organize the people that we have filming that day, and make sure they know what we need filmed.

“There are two positions we film from: a wide view for receivers and dbs, and a tight view for offensive line and defensive line, running backs, and linebackers. During practice, it’s just a matter of making sure no problems happen with the equipment and that we get everything we need.”

After the practices end, Coristine goes through the one to two hour process of editing, tagging, and uploading the film. Game day is much the same. “On Saturday we go through the same process as

practice. Afterwards, the game has to be edited and tagged with specific information that the oua asks for, and then uploaded to a central database that all teams have access to,” he explains. “This has to be done by a specific time, normally four hours [after the game] or else you are faced with a fine by the league.

“Normally on Saturday night, Sunday, and Monday I start breaking down our opponent’s film for the coming week, getting it ready for the coaches so they can compile scouting reports for themselves and the players, and then create their game plans. I help compile the scouting reports and on the defensive side of the ball put the game plan on paper, listing key players, plays, statistics, and common formations used by the upcoming team.”

The off-season is less demanding.

The team has two practices a week that Coristine films, edits, and distributes, while running a study hall on the Mississauga campus for five hours a week. He is also involved in recruiting, calling new recruits, and scheduling visits for them to the campus.

Coristine’s off-season work may take less time, but it is no less important. He picks up patterns in the team’s play, which is helping them during this offseason to experiment with different players’ strengths and weaknesses. “This off-season, I’ve gained more of a voice [with the coaches] in what we are doing on the defensive side of the ball because of the coaching role I have.”

With all of his time spent working with the footage and the coaches,

Coristine has a unique perspective on what the Blues’ football team needs to do in order to be successful after years of disappointing seasons.

Coristine believes that the culture in the locker room needs to change.

“One of the first things I noticed when I joined the team was that [among] some senior players who had been around for all the tough years losing was acceptable, almost expected,” he notes. “However, as the season went on, we had new leaders begin to step up and react differently. Slowly but surely this attitude is changing. It doesn’t happen overnight, as anyone who has tried to change the culture of a team knows, but it is happening.”

The Blues’ video coordinator also believes that it is important to establish accountability among players. Last year, he says, there were a few players who did not attend enough practices and meetings.

“Football season lasts 12 months a year and players were not putting in the commitment needed to be successful,” he says. “You could also see on film when things got tough certain players would stop giving maximum effort, as if they accepted it was inevitable they were going to lose.”

Coristine believes that although the coaches address this issue, the players need to hold each other more accountable for the efforts not being exerted. “A coach can motivate, [and] try to install accountability by threatening a player’s position on the depth chart, or by cutting a player, but the best way to change behaviour is through peer pressure. The coach-

ing staff is cultivating an excellent group of leaders right now who are in turn establishing standards that are expected to be adhered to, and you can see the team buy into these standards and hold each other accountable for effort and punctuality that was not present when I first joined the program.”

Coristine admits that time is also a major factor in any team’s success — establishing a successful culture and identity of a team requires time and patience. “We currently have a very young team with a lot of talent, but right now they are still learning the game.

When the lights do start to go off in their heads, which should be in the next two years, U of T will be a very formidable force.”

The final step the Blues need is more financial investment in coaching. “If you take a look at all the elite teams in the cis, almost all of them have at the bare minimum three paid full-time coaches, with most having more,” he explains. “While this is a budgetary issue and beyond the football team’s control, any university that truly wants a successful team needs to invest in coaching.

“A lot of the issues on the team that prevented it from being competitive and winning were inherited by the current staff, but under [head] coach Greg Gary, [offensive coordinator] Tom Flaxman, and [special teams coordinator] Ken Mazurek, the players, and support staff, these issues are being worked out. Under their care, the University of Toronto will be competitive and successful again, and soon.”

var.st/sports

VARSITY SPORTS

MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013

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The sports nutrition insider

Lowell Greib works with the women’s basketball team to determine diets and nutrients to help maximize the team’s success. Bernarda Gospic/THe VarsiTy

Varsity Blues’ women’s basketball fueling coach on the importance of eating to succeed Amanda Colleta

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

When soccer legend George Best moved to the North American Soccer League in the mid-1970s, it wasn’t only his illustrious European career or self-destructive playboy antics off the pitch that set him apart from his Los Angeles Aztecs teammates.

While the rest of the Aztecs enjoyed a steak before every match, Best preferred cornflakes as his pregame meal. And when the Irishman netted the game-winner in seven of the Aztecs’ first nine victories that season his teammates followed his example, ditching their steaks for cornflakes instead.

The difference between Best and his teammates probably had very little to do with the cornflakes, but proper nutrition plays a fundamental role in ensuring an athlete’s best physical and mental performance.

Advising athletes on what to eat for optimal game-day performance is the job of naturopathic

doctor Lowell Greib, the founder of The SportLab — an injury prevention, therapy, and nutrition clinic in Huntsville, Ontario — and the fuelling coach of the Varsity Blues women’s basketball team.

The SportLab works with people involved in sports and activities ranging from mma to rowing, cross-country skiing to firefighting, and triathlon running to snowboarding. The clinic not only aids elite athletes and varsity school teams, but also works with what Greib terms “the active individual, somebody who is active in sport purely for the fun of it.”

While pursuing a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Waterloo, Greib participated in high endurance competitive cycling events lasting 12–24 hours. The experience made him personally familiar with the challenges athletes face and played a large role in his decision to pursue a career in sports nutrition.

“The stress caused my body to fail.

My sponsor still wanted me to continue racing so I began to work with various therapists and chiropractors

to seek alternative treatments,” he explained. “A lot of what they told me had to do with nutrition. This piqued my interest.”

Greib’s studies only fuelled this interest. “I was finding things in my own research about the human body’s biochemistry that ended up helping me in my own training.”

After graduating from Waterloo, Greib began a program in Naturopathic Medicine at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, eventually founding the Sports Medicine program at the College, where fourth-year interns can participate in a clinical rotation. Greib is still involved with the College, acting as a supervisor and lecturer.

While Greib calls his path to a career in sports nutrition “atypical” (The SportLab is one of the only clinics led by two naturopathic doctors) he believes his background in biochemistry helps him understand active individuals and their nutrition and rehabilitation.

Greib was the first person in Ontario to be certified in sports nutri-

tion by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, a body that “reviews the science behind the medicine and the nutrition,” explained Greib. “We then apply the evidence and the science to what we’re doing.

This varies from sport to sport.”

Greib has been involved with the Varsity Blues’ women’s basketball team for three seasons.

The greatest challenge, from a nutritional standpoint, for a basketball player is keeping hydrated. “Players, especially the starting line, are on the court a lot. The air circulation is often poor and there is a lot of sweating,” he explained.

“We needed to strategize in order to maximize hydration over the course of a day so that players were already hydrated before the game.

Many athletes go in dehydrated. In a high-paced game like basketball, hydration is also important for mental performance,” Greib added.

Keeping hydrated is also an important part of the post-game recovery process. “I wanted the girls to look to the post-game recovery not as the

end of the game, but as the beginning of preparation for the next practice and the next game,” he said. “The reality is that they’re not just players.

They’re also academics and need to function optimally when they’re in the classroom as well.”

Greib also worked to help the team navigate the often complicated world of nutritional supplements, making sure that the players had a good understanding of what is available and what is safe.

“A lot of people take protein, for instance,” said Greib, “but there are safer proteins for athletes to take, especially in varsity sports where doping controls are in place.”

Greib admits that there are a lot of differing sources and opinions circulating on proper nutrition for an athlete or active individual, making it difficult to know who or what to believe.

“Nutrition is often a confusing aspect of being an athlete,” he said. “It is important to have a plan and to be guided by a professional who can understand your body and tailor the program to fit your needs.”

MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013

DIVERSIONS

With an acclaimed UTSU slate, there’s little to get mad about. Let’s help you out.

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Spring Meeting of Members The Spring Meeting of Members of VARSITY PUBLICATIONS INC. (the “Corporation”), the company that publishes The Varsity newspaper, will be held: DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 TIME: 5:00 pm LOCATION: 21 Sussex Ave., second floor The meeting will be held for the purpose of: 1. election for directors: voting for directors can be done online at voting.utoronto.ca on March 17, 18 and 19, 2o13. This online voting system does not permit Varsity Publications Inc. to identify how an individual has voted; 2. review and, if deemed appropriate, pass an ordinary resolution to approve proposed changes to the corporation’s bylaws; 3. transacting such other business as may properly be brought before the meeting.

Members unable to attend this meeting in person are able to proxy their vote. Proxies must be returned to the location of the meeting no later than 5 pm on Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Proxy-holders cannot hold more than two (2) proxies.

For more information on the Spring Meeting of Members, visit var.st/springmeeting Elections for director positions on the Board of Directors of Varsity Publications Inc., the corporation that publishes The Varsity newspaper, will be held:

Board of Director Elections ELECTION PERIOD: March 17–19, 2013 LOCATION: online at https://voting.utoronto.ca CANDIDATES: — Zayne Dattu — Angelo Mateo — Marcus McCann — Jerome Newton — Abby Vaidyanathan — Philip Wu For more information visit var.st/board2013

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