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Computer Science Plans revealed at Computer Science Student Union mental health town hall

department plans to increase program admissions by 10 per cent

Students discuss lack of resources, U of T responsibility Julie Shi Deputy Senior Copy Editor

Adam A. Lam & Andy Takagi Associate News Editors

Content warning: discussions of suicide.

Following a student death by suicide at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology earlier this month, the Computer Science Student Union and the Department of Computer Science held a town hall on March 27 to address mental health issues within the department, as well as the competitive program of study (POSt) requirements that many in the computer science community believe to be a contributing factor to poor mental health among students. It was announced at the town hall that the department is planning to increase space in the program by 10 per cent for the coming school year, with a new system for admitting students into the program expected to be ready for the 2020–2021 academic year.

The Chair and the Associate Chair of the Undergraduate Studies section of the department — Ravin Balakrishnan and Michelle Craig — were on the panel to address concerns from the students.

Melanie Woodin, the incoming Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science; Deborah Robinson, Faculty Registrar and Director of Undergraduate Academic Services; and Caroline Rabbatt, Director of Critical Incidents, Safety and Health Awareness were also in attendance.

Changes to POSt

Balakrishnan announced that the department is planning to increase space in the program and move to a new admissions process. The new system, similar to the admission process for Rotman Commerce, would admit half of the program’s students directly from high school — requiring them to apply with a supplemental application and maintain certain grades in required courses — with the other half made up of out-of-stream students.

Another change to the POSt system for the coming academic year, Craig explained, is that in-stream and out-of-stream students will not be differentiated for program admissions.

“Students are in the same courses, taking the same midterms, the same final exams, and we’ll use the grades in those courses without regard for the student stream,” Craig said. “I think that that’s fair to all students.”

In response to a question about the ratio of direct-fromhigh school students and nonstream students, Craig said that the decision was made in order to avoid advantaging students who have advanced computer science programs available during their secondary education.

She added that while the plan is still required to go through the faculty’s governance process, the whole panel is hope-

ful that the new system will pass.

When asked about how the department could ensure mental health of students in a competitive program like computer science, Balakrishnan said that the department will be expanding staff and hopes that the new POSt system will also benefit students.

However, Balakrishnan also said that he could not pretend that computer science would be a less competitive or difficult program but does want to make the program “more palatable” for students.

Discussion also came up about the possibility of separating the department from the faculty, to which Balakrishnan responded by saying that “all options are on the table.”

Woodin also commented on the issue, saying that the faculty acknowledges that computer science is a rapidly changing field of study but did encourage computer science students who do not make POSt to pursue a minor.

Responding to another question about how to create a more welcoming environment in the program, Balakrishnan said that in the short term, open spaces that come out of Bahen Centre renovations could be used by computer science students, and in the long term, he proposed having a building dedicated to computer science.

Vol. CXXXIX, No. 23

“

ACCESSIBILITY IS INACCESSIBLE

”

Innis students host mental health forum Content warning: discussions of suicide.

On March 29, a Mental Health Reform Open Forum was hosted at Innis College in light of a student death by suicide earlier this month and the ongoing discussion on mental health issues at U of T. First-year students Oliver Daniel, Annie Liu, Kathy Sun, and Jehan Vakharia hosted what is hoped to be the first of many consultations with students, staff, and faculty.

The forum was intended as “a safe open space to encourage suggestions and gather ideas” to address and improve mental health supports at Innis College and U of T as a whole.

Daniel told The Varsity that following recent student initiatives on mental health — including the silent protest at Simcoe Hall and the How Many Lives? campaign — the organizers “wanted to focus more on the Innis collegiate level because that was something that wasn’t being addressed.”

The main initiatives brought to the table include the instatement of a mental health director or commissioner within Innis College for the upcoming academic year and a joint letter to Executive Director of the Health & Wellness Centre Janine Robb demanding institutional change to U of T’s mental health system. Of the seven Arts & Science college student unions and councils, University College, Woodsworth College, and Victoria University are the only three with mental health or wellness commissions.

While discussion also encompassed universitywide infrastructure, students repeatedly returned to the lack of available and accessible resources both on and off-campus.

While the university often directs students to a set of external resources, a number of students at the forum noted that Good2Talk, a helpline for postsecondary students, is often highlighted but also often overloaded. This culminated in a resounding call from students for on-campus crisis supports. Campus councillors, Vakharia noted, would also be more familiar with issues specific to U of T. At the Health & Wellness Centre, students are said to have months-long wait times for appointments, with sessions for anxiety coping and cognitive behavioural therapy only accessible with a prescription from a Health & Wellness doctor.

The structure of Accessibility Services was also discussed, and its inconveniences were succinctly summarized by University College Mental Wellness Commissioner and guest speaker Kiana Habibagahi, who noted that “accessibility is inaccessible.”

Attention was also drawn to the sensitivity and intersectionality of supports by and for students, staff, and faculty. The topic was brought up following conversations about introducing student-run peer support net-

works at Innis College to provide students in precarious situations with immediate, onthe-ground assistance.

Accounting for these concerns, the organizers noted that a conscious effort would be made to form a representative volunteer base, paying mind to gender, cultural experiences, and international versus domestic student backgrounds.

The organizers also foresee volunteers receiving training similar to that of dons, which includes safeTALK for suicide prevention, as well as training on self-awareness to recognize when they are unable to provide adequate support by themselves.

Habibagahi cautioned that, because the student commission is “not trained,” it should act first and foremost as a “resource guide” and not as a “resource.”

In response to a student’s suggestion to mandate mental health training at Innis College, Dean of Students Steve Masse agreed that such training is important. Job training for occupational hazards and physical disabilities is already instituted at the college and across U of T, as it is legislated by the provincial government.

According to Masse, while there are employees with varying degrees of training — from safeTALK suicide prevention workshops to professional certifications — the university should strive to train as many people as possible.

Closing the discussion, Daniel presented the question, “Who is responsible for making sure that students are well?” Whereas one student referred to President Meric Gertler’s recent letter asserting that the administration is “strongly committed to collaborating,” others pointed out that responsibility lies with all members of the U of T community. Liu emphasized the need for “some resources at every level,” as individual concerns are best addressed by those involved in each specific area. Since the power ultimately lies with those at the top because they control the funding, Vakharia asserted that the administration needs to do more in order for students, staff, and faculty to follow suit.

Also in attendance was mental health advocate William Nesbitt, who expressed deep concern that there is a “perception around U of T that you guys are okay… and that’s not okay.”

Expressing his support for the organizers’ initiative, he suggested building a resource base and hosting seminars that allow students to participate voluntarily, anonymously, and as actively or passively as they desire.

He also reminds students to maintain a partnership with the administration and not take an adversarial stance.

Let them know, he said, “that you won’t go away.”

“Who is responsible for making sure that students are well?”

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THE VARSITY Vol. CXXXIX, No. 23 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600 thevarsity.ca

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APRIL 1, 2019

Press on A letter from Jack O. Denton, Editor-in-Chief 2018–2019 This January, The Varsity was faced with news of an existential threat. As the provincial government announced that it was going to strip student groups like ours of privileged status as a mandatory student fee, we had little choice but to do what we do best: report the news, boldly.

That day, the work of Varsity reporters and editors embodied the very spirit of what was at risk. Our reporters publicly pushed a provincial cabinet minister for answers. Our editors made news appearances to speak on the effect that the policy would have on the student press in the province. Each journalist played a part as if in a well-oiled machine, thrumming to fulfil our mandate of furthering discourse on issues that matter to students.

This year, The Varsity as an organization has been the largest in recent history. Emboldened by funds from a levy increase, we followed through with our campaign commitments by hiring editors dedicated to covering issues at UTM and UTSC, as well as broadening the scope of our coverage to include our new graduate membership. Even a cursory scan of our pages will reveal the substantial progress we’ve made in covering these communities. Volume 139 was, broadly, characterized by expansion. This year we launched a Business section, renovated our office space to accommodate a podcast studio, which became home to Bazaar and (Un)Spoken, and created The Squirrel, a student life blog. We also rejoined the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of student newspapers, after a long absence.

As for output, we crossed the one million pageview mark in early February and have clocked more than 1.4 million pageviews since May 1, 2018 from around 1,100 articles published on thevarsity. ca.

Much has been done, and there’s still much to do, but those stories are for future editors and future letters.

Producing a newspaper is a team sport, and I’ve been fortunate to enjoy the company of a most talented group. By March 31, 484 people contributed to The Varsity, of which 141 are staff. I am grateful to each and every one of them, but particularly thankful to a few. Reut Cohen acted as my rock and foil this year, and she is responsible for all of the good decisions and none of the bad ones. Kaitlyn Simpson led an expansive online team to launch a new platform and improve existing ones, always with a

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

view to the future. Pearl Cao oversaw a stunning brand redesign of our print newspaper with creative force and reset our standards by finishing production earlier than ever on Sundays. The News team, led by Josie Kao and Ilya Bañares, was a point of pride for us, responding to protests, crises, and tragedies stalwartly and with inexorable curiosity — seeing them work reminded me of why I fell in love with journalism. Thanks are also owed to my predecessors. Jacob Lorinc taught me that even though the work we do here is the rough draft of history, it should still be strong and stylish copy. Alex McKeen reminded me that, ultimately, it’s people who are at the heart of this newspaper.

While The Varsity is ending its 139th volume on a high note, it’s impossible to ignore the threats facing this organization. Premier Doug Ford’s Student Choice Initiative will give U of T students the option of whether or not to not pay The Varsity’s fee, which has historically been mandatory. The logic is that incidental fees that fund groups like The Varsity do not provide a universal service to the student body, and as such should be optional. I vehemently disagree. From holding student unions and the university accountable to providing a platform for students’ stories that would otherwise go uncovered, this newspaper has a real, meaningful, and intrinsic value on campus. Moreover, this attempt to corporatize student associations puts traditional media organizations like The Varsity — which have been mostly isolated from the economic pitfalls of print media by our reliable student fee funding — up against a wall.

The student press isn’t just under pressure from this provincial mandate. This year, there have been concerning developments among local student societies with respect to granting media access to union meetings. Despite troubling incidents this year

within the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union and the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, as we progress into Volume 140 of The Varsity, I am hopeful of where our relationship with these two unions stand. Student unions represent thousands of people and control millions of dollars; as such, they should be subject to extreme scrutiny and access to their decision-making meetings should be sine qua non.

Nevertheless, with my successor Josie Kao steering the ship, The Varsity will thrive. Josie brings years of refined news judgment to the role alongside a deep and meaningful passion for making The Varsity open and accessible to readers and staff alike. It’s unclear what exactly the future holds for The Varsity, but I am certain this organization is in the hands of a group of people who will elevate the standards of work here to new heights. The fruits of their labour will bear more than any words of mine ever could.

In the introduction to the first issue of the first volume of The Varsity, published October 7, 1880, our editors made an impassioned case for the importance of a vigorous student press. These were their opening words: “Whatever element of ambition or audacity lies latent in our programme, it is wholly bound up in the desire that the University of Toronto shall possess the best university paper in America and an unrivalled index of the progress of educational systems.”

And so, in pursuit of the best university newspaper, meaningful journalistic progress in an age and environment where it is under threat, and, above all, stories that tell the truth, boldly: Press on.

— Jack O. Denton Editor-in-Chief, Volume CXXXIX

The masthead thanks all of our staff and contributors!

Varsity Staff: Fatima Abdulla, Sharmeen Abedi, Hodman Abukar, Abhya Adlakha, Amena Ahmed, Isabel Armiento, Laura Ashwood, Stephanie Bai, Marisa Balleani, John Bao, Sanaya Bhatia, Nadia Boachie, Amrit Bola, Angela Bosenius, Megan Brearley, Liam Bryant, Hannah Carty, Eloisa Cervantes, Yutong (Stephanie) Chen, Kaiyang (Carol) Chen, Cheryl (Skylar) Cheung, Wingyan (Janice) Chin, Sabrina Daniele, Emily Deibert, Ryan P. Delorme, Christina Ditlof, Javiera Gutierez Duran, Amelia Eaton, Jiaqi (Cindy) Fan, Alisha Farrow, Ted Fraser, Jacob Harron, Adina Heisler, Flora Hewitt-Harris, Emily Hurmizi, Trisha Jain, Yazmeen Kanji, Arjun Kaul, Madeleine Kelly, Michelle Kim, Frida Kitz, Michelle Krasovitski, Sadie Kromm, Steven Lee, Matthew Lee, Tiffany Leung, Xuedi Li, Yingxue Li, Rozee Liu, Xingyu Liu, Emily MacCallum, Kathryn Mannie, Ashley Manou, Isabella Mckay, Jaime McLaughlin, Khrysten Mieras, Yasaman Mohaddes, Jadine Ngan, Gina Nicoll, Tao Nie, Daniel Ninkovic, Jingyi Niu, Elham Numan, Huda Obaid, Haoyu (Simon) Pang, Michael Phoon, Wencong (Anne) Qian, Areej Rodrigo, Sam Routley,Vincent Ruan, Lindsay Selliah, Tahmeed Shafiq, Tushar Sharma, Nicole Shi, Shayelle Smith, Sophia Spiteri, Oscar Starschild, Clara Thaysen, Meera Ulysses, Wei Wang, Jackson Whitehead, Eva Wissting, Sabrina Wu, Samantha Yao, Jingshu (Helen) Yao, Sihang (Valerie) Yu, Emily Yu, Gabriella Shiyuan Zhao, Annie Zhiyuan, Jessica Zhou Varsity Contributors: Farida Rady Abdelmeguied, Atif Abdullah, Tarik Abu Elhaiga, Anshuman Agarval, Jordan Aharoni, Umalkhair Ahmed, Sumayyah Ajem, Ryan Akler-Bishop, Rueshen Aksoy, Lisa Alers-Hankey, Janine Alhadidi, Abdul Ali, Ikran Abdullah Ali, Maham Ali, Ray Alibux, Dumkele Aligwekwe, Layla Anciano, Natasha Anita, Hazel Antiporta, Ateeqa Arain, Daniel Aykler, Lizabeth Ayoub, Proshat Babaeian, Minhee Bae, Jakob Barnes, Matthew Barrett, Mubashir Baweja, Ella Benedetti, Elizabeth Benner, Olivia Berkovits, Debasmita Bhattacharya, Vicky Bilbily, Jonathan Blumenthal, Bushra Azim Boblai, Christina Bondi, Will Bromley, Archie Burton Smith, Alex Byrne-Krzycki, Oana Calin, Mia Carnevale, Olivia Carter, Fiona Cashell, Elizabeth Chan, Kimberley Chan, Nathan Chan, Coco Chen, Yixuan Chen, Eunice Chen, Fay Chen, Nicole Chen, Rachel Chen, Victoria Chen, Darren Cheng, Clement Cheng, Belicia Chevolleau, Andrea Chiappetta, Christopher Chiasson, Sarah Choi, Paige Chu, Emily Chu, Melanie Cohen, Caroline Colantonio, Felipe Coral, Julia Costanzo, Gabrielle Cotton, Kyle Patrick Cruz, William Cuddy, Katy Czajkowski, Gaetana D'Amico, Julia Da Silva, Harrison Daley, Carey Davis, Victoria Dawson, Ashley De Marco, Rachel DeGasperis, Carissa DeMarinis, Daniel Derkach, Simran Dhunna, Rinna Diamantakos, Ester Dubali, Luka Dursun, Megan Ebreo, Zeus Eden, Sandakie Ekanayake, Layan Elfaki, Lina Elfaki, Jackie Emick, Ryan Falconer, Joy Fan, Zelia Fang, Chris Faria, Ava Fathi, Riel Flack, Matthew Fok, Nubaira Forkan, Gavin Foster, Ruilin Fu, Maria Fusaro, Rachel Gao, Harsimran Garcha, Sarah Garland, Ayan Gedleh, Isabella Giancola, Sonia Gill, Rachel Gordon, Amanda Gosio, Josie Greenhill, Josh Grondin, Angela Gu, Susha Guan, Rose Gulati, Reza Hafeez, Tarik Haiga, Samantha Hamilton, Dana Hamze, Dominick Han, Julianna He, Ting He, Neeharika Hemrajani, Ali Hendricks, Daniel Hidru, Amira Higazy, Milly Hong, Annie Hu, Rachel Mary Hughes, Daniel Hutchings, Rebekah Hwang, Margaryta Ignatenko, Sarah Ingle, Junaid Ishaq, Maisha Islam, Temisan Iwere, Anvesh Jain, Arushi Jaiswal, Ikran Jama, Imaan Javeed, Coulter Jennings, Hyerin Jeong, Lauren Jewett, Yiyue Jiang, Kelly Anne Johnson, Holly Johnstone, Kevin Kapenda, Qaasim Karim, Simrit Khabra, Harry Khachatrian, Shahd Fulath Khan, Aki Kim, Tess King, Arin Klein, Aljosa Kljujic, Piyumi Konara, Thomas Kosciuch, Avani Krishnan, Tom Kuhn, Shadi Laghai, Hannah Lank, Lina Lashin, Christine Le, Christy Lee, Abby Lessard, Mélina Lévesque, Daniel Li, Bryan Liceralde, Tiffany Lieu, Abeir Liton, Jenny Liu, Junhan Rozee Liu, Christian Logue, Annie Lu, Zhiyuan Lu, Sofia Ludwig, Jodie Lunger, Angie Luo, Grace Ma, Mark F. 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THE VARSITY | NEWS

Scarborough student union Winter Provincial government releases official guidelines on Student General Meeting cancelled due to Choice Initiative, details of tuition failure to meet quorum cuts

UTSC conservative group views cancellation as “cover up to not allow democratic engagements” Jayra Almanzor UTSC Bureau Chief

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s (SCSU) Winter General Meeting (WGM) was cancelled on March 28 due to a failure to meet quorum.

A student from UTSC’s Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association (OPCCA) pointed out that less than a dozen students attended the WGM, which was held in a classroom-tier lecture hall.

None of the 17 SCSU directors were present at the WGM. Many students who attended the WGM were associated with the OPCCA. OPCCA President Sarkis Kidanian said to The Varsity, “I’ve never seen personally in my five years that quorum doesn’t take place without the attendance of the executives.”

Kidanian noted that none of the executives at the meeting arrived with proxies. He further added that, from his experience as the SCSU’s Director of Political Science in 2015, the union’s executives have always been encouraged to gather 25 proxies for the general meetings to achieve quorum.

The WGM only had four main motions, which were all from Kidanian.

The first motion called for the SCSU to publicly apologize to the OPCCA for presenting “distance and anti-sentiments” toward OPCCA and UTSC conservatives, and to give the OPCCA the “same rights and privileges” as the other groups on campus, as perceived by the OPCCA. The second motion called on the SCSU to annually recognize the Armenian Genocide and mark April as the Genocide Awareness, Condemnation, and Prevention Month at UTSC. The third motion was to condemn the University of Toronto Students’ Union’s rejection of the Ontario government’s free speech mandate.

The last motion was to strike a Multi-Partisan Policy Analyzing and Developing Committee to

develop “stronger relationships between the Student Union and the external counterparts across partisan lines.”

Kidanian speculated that the failure of the meeting to achieve quorum was a deliberate attempt by the SCSU to block the presentation of his first, third, and fourth motions.

“It would look bad on the student union,” he said. “It’s better [for the SCSU] to state that the WGM didn’t take place because of quorum, rather than have these motions [revealed].”

OPCCA members asked why the WGM was not promoted on social media more to remind students about it, especially during the days leading up to the WGM. The SCSU’s latest post about the WGM on Facebook was on March 6, roughly three weeks before the meeting.

At the WGM, Vice-President Equity and President-elect Chemi Lhamo agreed that the WGM could have been promoted better.

However, she said that if the SCSU did not want the meeting to happen, there were other ways to cancel it instead of attempting to make it fail to meet quorum. She said that the WGM had a fully-prepared meeting package, all executives attended, and the union also booked a room for this meeting.

Lhamo said that past SCSU meetings that failed to take place were because the union was unable to book a room.

According to the OPCCA’s official statement to the SCSU released on March 29, the association views the cancellation of the meeting due to its failure to meet quorum as a “direct attack to cover up and not allow democratic engagements within the University to commence.”

The statement also called for the “immediate resignation” of the current SCSU executives and directors.

The Varsity has reached out to SCSU President Nicole Brayiannis, Lhamo, and SCSU Internal Coordinator Mel Dashdorj for comment.

Boundless Campaign ends with unprecedented $2.641 billion in donations Funds to support building, renovations, mental health, student aid

CAROLINE BIEL/THE VARSITY

Fees for student unions, campus newspapers, other levy-funded groups set to become optional Adam A. Lam & Andy Takagi Associate News Editors

The Ontario government has released official guidelines for the Student Choice Initiative (SCI), the provincial mandate to give students an opt-out option for certain “ancillary fees.” A document published today by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities expands on a previous unofficial rubric of what constitutes an essential fee, and also includes information on how universities must explain to students the reasoning behind each essential fee.

According to the document, an ancillary fee refers to “a fee imposed or administered… in addition to regular tuition fees, which a student pays for a service or product.” U of T denotes such fees as ‘incidental.’

Student Choice Initiative guidelines

Incidental fees charged by universities to support clubs, student societies, and programs that fall outside of the provincial framework for compulsory fees will be required to have an opt-out option for students.

The ability to opt out, according to the guidelines, must be presented to students before paying fees for that semester. The deadline last fall for Arts & Science students to pay their fees was August 29.

Services can be deemed “essential” by individual institutions, as long as they fall within the government’s established framework, which includes athletics and recreation, career services, student buildings, health and counselling, academic support, student ID cards, student achievement and records, financial aid offices, and campus safety programs.

Levy-funded groups like various student unions — including college student associations, The Varsity, and campus radio stations — will require an optout option, unless the university rationalizes these services as falling within one of the essential categories. The University of Toronto Students’ Union fee

Andy Takagi Associate News Editor

U of T President Meric Gertler spoke about the end of the Boundless Campaign on March 19, after the fundraising drive raised a record $2.641 billion for U of T over seven years.

Following student protests about the university’s mental health services, there is a growing online movement calling on the university to use donations from the Boundless Campaign to fund mental health services. However, most of the donations are not free for the university to use at its discretion.

Much of the funding will be used for specific projects across U of T and funds that are not specifically earmarked for particular initiatives are generally given to student support.

David Palmer, U of T’s Vice-President Advancement, wrote to The Varsity about how the money will be distributed. He explained that $406 million of donations have been provided specifically to establish or grow nearly 4,000 scholarships, support 220 student-focused programs, and lift the university’s endowments for student support “above $1 billion for the first time in [the university’s] history.”

A further $600 million was donated for use in construction and revitalization projects, including the renovations of University College, the Munk School’s Citizen Lab, the construction of the Jackman Law Building, and the Robarts Common — an extension that was originally planned for Robarts Library but never fulfilled.

Some contributions are targeted to address mental health at U of T, such as donations totalling $3 million by the Rossy Family Foundation. The Foun-

for the Student Commons project could potentially fall under the essential “student buildings” category, and will be decided at the university’s discretion.

Fees must also be itemized when provided to students for opting out. This requires the university to differentiate between various fees and restricts it from creating a general “student activity” fee.

The guidelines also require universities to submit an incidental fee protocol that governs creating new fees or increasing existing ones.

U of T’s guidelines on incidental fees are outlined in the Long-Term Protocol on the Increase or Introduction of Compulsory Non-tuition Related Fees created in 1996, which generally meets the requirements outlined by the province.

Program-related fees will not be governed by these guidelines and can still be mandatory under the university’s purview.

Details on tuition fee cuts provided, not applicable to deregulated programs

The tuition of full-time and part-time students in regular fee programs will also be cut by 10 per cent for the 2019–2020 academic year. This cut will also apply to new programs that have been approved for implementation in this or later years.

However, the cut will not apply to “most international students” and students in “full cost recovery programs,” which are programs for which all funding is received through tuition.

The cut will also not apply to students in deregulated programs, such as computer science and commerce.

From 2020–2021, the ministry will also freeze the tuition of students in each program and year of study. This means that students will pay the same tuition in 2020–2021 as they did in 2019–2020.

It is currently unclear whether this tuition freeze will apply to students in deregulated programs or international students. No information was released in this document on whether the freeze will stay in effect for future years.

dation gave $1 million to the Health & Wellness Centre in 2016, and has donated an additional $2 million to the university to support mental health initiatives. These initiatives will include a prevention strategy, which would educate students on managing their own mental health, as well as increase the number of embedded counsellors and nurses in accessible locations.

Other donations for mental health initiatives include $1.5 million for the Anne Steacy Counselling Initiative at Trinity College, $2 million for research into prevention and early detection of youth mental illness, and $20 million to research the biology of depression.

The majority of donations to the Boundless campaign originated in Canada, though significant contributions also came from Hong Kong, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

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4 | THE VARSITY | NEWS

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Sexual violence survey results “deeply saddening,” MPP Piccini says

TCU Parliamentary Assistant talks delay in report’s release, working with student groups Stephanie Bai Varsity Staff

Content warning: discussions of sexual violence.

In light of the provincial government releasing the results of an Ontario-wide sexual violence survey on March 19, The Varsity sat down with David Piccini, current MPP for Northumberland—Peterborough South and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities (TCU), to discuss the implications of the results and the delay in their release.

Student Voices on Sexual Violence was a survey commissioned by the previous Liberal government’s Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (AESD), the Ministry of TCU under the current Progressive Conservative government.

“It’s, as far as I’m aware, the most comprehensive and in-depth look that’s gone to campuses and colleges around Ontario,” Piccini said.

It was sent to over 746,000 fulltime students in all provinciallyfunded postsecondary institutions from February to April 2018. Across Ontario, over 160,000 students responded.

The results showed that at U of T, 61.7 per cent of respondents reported that they did not understand how to access supports, including how to report sexual violence. In addition, 22.9 per cent reported being dissatisfied with U of T’s response to

sexual violence, 22.1 per cent reported that they had been stalked, 17.2 per cent reported a non-consensual sexual experience, and 58.7 per cent reported experiencing sexual harassment.

“The results were deeply saddening,” Piccini said. “One experience of assault or harassment on campus is really one too many.”

Piccini emphasized that the ministry took immediate action, mentioning the four initiatives released

by TCU Minister Merrilee Fullerton alongside the release of the report.

Fullerton announced that the government would double the Women’s Campus Safety Grant, and require publicly-assisted colleges and universities to review their sexual violence policies by September, deliver annual reports to their board of governors about measures taken in response to sexual violence on campus, and create task forces to address sexual violence on campuses.

When asked about the potential release of further results from the survey, Piccini told The Varsity that the ministry has “referred [the report] to the Privacy Commissioner,” echoing Fullerton’s statements at the press conference when the report was released.

Fullerton had said that Ontario’s Information & Privacy Commissioner Brian Beamish will be consulted “on the release of additional survey results.”

When asked about why there was a delay in the release of the report, Piccini confirmed that it was a de-

lay on the part of CCI Research, the company that developed and distributed the survey.

Piccini told The Varsity that the TCU received the survey results on March 17, two days prior to the public release on March 19. He also confirmed that postsecondary institutions received the report prior to its public release.

This is a marked shift from the release plan of the previous Liberal government, as this timeline leaves a window of no more than a day between when the report was released to postsecondary institutions and when it was released to the public.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail last year, Mitzie Hunter, previous Minister of AESD and current MPP of Scarborough—Guildwood, said that the results would be shared with postsecondary institutions in summer 2018. Hunter added that some of the data would be made public and has since criticized the Ford government for “hiding” the results.

However, Piccini contradicted this point. “The previous government had no plans to release this to the public,” he said.

When asked about Hunter’s statement that the AESD had planned to publicly release the data, Piccini said, “I can’t speculate on what she was planning or what she wasn’t planning when we were given this report.”

In terms of implementing the four initiatives, Piccini said that he expects “an ongoing dialogue.”

The Breakdown: U of T’s policy on reporting suicides

Policy is nebulous, with official responses differing case-to-case

Piccini is the MPP for Northumberland—Peterborough South.

ANDY TAKAGI/THE VARSITY

“The realities are different from one campus to the next. The geographic realities, the size, the various different marginalized groups on campus all present unique challenges that I think must be addressed uniquely to that institution.”

He emphasized his commitment to work further with student groups across campuses to discuss and develop better strategies to continue the conversation about the issue of sexual violence on campus.

“There is not a group I will not meet with,” he said.

UTSU Board of Directors suspends bylaw to hold earlier by-elections

Director criticizes lack of consultation with representatives running for re-election Adam A. Lam Associate News Editor

U of T spokesperson Elizabeth Church said the university does not confirm the identity of the deceased without family permission.

THEO ARBEZ/THE VARSITY

Andy Takagi Associate News Editor

In what is being described as a mental health crisis at U of T, students have protested the administration’s handling of suicides on campus and its perceived lack of support and mental health services. The Varsity looked into how U of T tracks information about student deaths on campus and the university’s policy on acknowledging suicides.

Campus Police at UTSG reported three attempted suicides or deaths in 2017 and one in 2016, only accounting for on-campus incidents. The 2018 report has not yet been released.

For U of T, the decision to notify staff and students is determined by the Office of the Vice-Provost Students and the affected faculty, according to Elizabeth Church, U of T spokesperson.

In an email to The Varsity, Church wrote that the university does not confirm the identity of deceased students without the permission of the student’s family. She also confirmed that U of T “may acknowledge” the death and identity of a student if released by Toronto Police or other official channels.

The 2017 Student Health and Well-Being at the University of Toronto report, which surveyed 4,752

students, revealed that at least 12 per cent of respondents, or 570 students, have either contemplated or attempted suicide in the past 12 months.

Besides national surveys and Campus Police reports, the university does not publish any other information on suicides on campus.

A Toronto Star report from 2017 found that most universities release statements on student deaths, but rarely release the student’s name and almost never acknowledge the cause of death. The Public Health Agency of Canada told the Star that statistics collected by institutions on suicide are necessary to fully inform prevention efforts and policies.

When asked if there are any more initiatives on the horizon from the ministry surrounding this issue, Piccini did not give any specific examples, but he cited the ministry’s commitment to viewing this issue holistically, involving mental health in the discussion, and continuing “this ongoing dialogue, and ongoing discussions we’re having with universities.” “[It’s] important to engage students,” he said. “The solutions to this are going to involve all of us, our entire community.”

In order to hold an earlier by-election after its general election failed to attract enough candidates to fill all executive and board seats, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Board of Directors voted to suspend a bylaw to shorten its elections nomination period in an emergency online meeting on March 24.

The board approved the schedule of the UTSU’s Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC) for the union’s spring byelection. The nomination period will open on April 1 and close on April 5, campaigning will be from April 8–12, and voting will take place from April 13–15.

The union’s elections this year have seen the fewest candidates in recent history, with only seven of 28 directors winning seats on the board and three of seven executive positions being filled.

To run by-elections on the ERC’s schedule, the board voted to suspend Bylaw VI.5.b.i. According to the bylaw, the union must give notice of a by-election at least 14 days before the start of its nomination period. The union suspended the bylaw in order to give a seven-day notice ahead of the new nomination period.

Innis College Director and Vice-

President External-elect Lucas Granger wrote to The Varsity criticizing the process of the emergency meeting. “I find it sad that the meeting couldn’t have waited until the end of the election period as to include more of the board of directors.”

Board members running in the union’s elections were required to take a leave of absence. This means that the six current directors who ran in the election could not attend this emergency meeting, as it was during the voting period.

“Many of us were on leaves of absence…

I believe we could have added valuable input on the situation,” Granger wrote.

In response to Granger’s comments, outgoing UTSU Vice-President Operations Tyler Biswurm wrote to The Varsity that a delay of the emergency meeting “even by a day would have had unreasonably negative consequences,” by reducing the timeframe for prospective candidates and voters to plan for the by-election.

Biswurm further wrote that, despite the meeting excluding directors running in the winter election, “the meeting’s online session did not significantly impact attendance. Even with multiple directors on leave, attendance numbers for Sunday evening’s board meeting were on par with levels observed at other emergency meetings of the board.”

APRIL 1, 2019 | 5

var.st/news

A roundup of 2019 college student association elections

Low voter turnout, uncontested positions mark elections period

the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Board of Directors for the upcoming academic year.

Andrew Gallant won against Victoria Barclay as Vice-President Internal Affairs. Danté Benjamin-Jackson and Katie Bolissian will serve as the Upper-Year Students’ Directors.

Trinity College Meeting

Emily Chu will serve as the Trinity College Meeting (TCM) Chair for the 2019–2020 academic year having run uncontested and receiving 91 per cent of the vote, with the rest of students voting to reopen nominations.

Secretary and Deputy Chair of the TCM will be Sterling Mancuso, who gained 46 per cent and 34 per cent of the vote respectively.

Anjali Gandhi ran uncontested for Treasurer, receiving 90 per cent of preferred votes. The TCM Auditor will be Nicholas Adolphe, who received 107 votes, beating out Mary Ngo’s 88.

Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council

JULIEN BALBONTIN/THE VARSITY

Silas Le Blanc Associate News Editor

An average voter turnout of 8.7 per cent and uncontested positions across the board marked this year’s college student association elections — almost every candidate for president, or its equivalent, ran unopposed. The campaign period for the St. Michael’s College Student Union is still ongoing.

Woodsworth College Students Association

The Woodsworth College Students’ Association elections saw 305 votes cast for a voter turnout of around five per cent.

Simran Sawhney won the presidential vote against Ali Aghaeinia and Shreyashi Saha. Sawhney previously served as the association’s Vice-President External and International Students Director.

The positions of Vice-President Social Affairs, Vice-President External Af-

Report finds Con Hall still feasible for graduation ceremonies Committee concerns centre on crowding amid increased enrolment

Ann Marie Elpa Associate News Editor

Despite U of T’s growing enrolment and the building’s limited capacity, Convocation Hall has been deemed a feasible location in which graduation ceremonies may continue, according to a February report released by the Convocation Advisory Review Committee.

The report was drafted over several months, taking into account the practicality of the university’s current system and examining possible alternatives for venue and logistics.

Convocation Hall has a capacity of 1,700 but current logistics indicate that graduating classes exceed this size, as the total number of graduates has seen

an 11 per cent increase from 17,056 in 2013 to approximately 18,981 in 2018.

While the venue for convocation ceremonies remains the same, minor adjustments will be made to programming, specifically to shorten the length of the ceremony. Proposed changes include enforcing time limits on speeches, presenting graduates in alphabetical order as opposed to by level of achievement, and exploring the viability of live captions for the ceremony.

Alumni and recent graduates were asked to participate in a survey regarding their convocation experiences and ways to improve. Student groups were also consulted on possible changes.

Participants and stakeholders mainly expressed concerns regarding venue

fairs, Vice-President Public Relations, Vice-President Athletic Affairs, VicePresident Financial Affairs, Mature Students’ Director, Associate Director of Social Affairs, Associate Director of Public Relations, Associate Director of Athletic Affairs, Off-Campus Students’ Director, Mental Health Director, Equity Director, and International Students’ Director all went uncontested.

Miloni Mehta and Andrea Chiapetta will be the Woodsworth Directors on

capacity and accessibility.

Alternate locations for convocation have included the Rogers Centre, Scotiabank Arena, the Enercare Centre, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and the Coca Cola Coliseum, all of which would allow for larger capacities and fewer ceremonies.

The Enercare Centre’s capacity of 12,000 people and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre’s capacity of 10,500 people would allow for six and seven ceremonies over three days respectively. Major venues such as the Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena were restricted due to other priorities such as sporting events and concerts.

According to the report, there were 35 ceremonies at Con Hall in 2018 — 29 ceremonies in the spring over 11 days, and eight in the fall spanning four days.

Participants ultimately agreed that Convocation Hall played a major role in graduating ceremonies and traditions even if tickets and spaces were limited.

“The committee heard from a large number of people, in strong terms, that Convocation Hall plays a fundamental role in the U of T experience. We

The Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council elections saw 436 votes cast for a voter turnout of 13.2 per cent.

Alexa Ballis went uncontested for President, gaining 370 votes, or 85 per cent, 37 no votes, and 29 spoiled ballots.

The position of Vice-President External Affairs also went uncontested, with Vibhuti Kacholia securing 393 votes. Katie Marsland won in a landslide victory for Vice-President Internal gaining 276 votes, or 63 per cent, over Aurore Dumesnil’s 132.

Positions for Academic Commissioner, Commuter Commissioner, Equity Commissioner, and Sustainability Commissioner all went uncontested, but each candidate received over 80 per cent of votes.

Thomas Siddall will serve as the Victoria College Director on the UTSU.

New College Student Council

The New College Student Council election saw 241 votes cast, making the voter turnout 4.8 per cent.

Manuela Zapata ran uncontested for President, receiving 189 yes votes and 32 no votes. Reinald De Leon was also uncontested for Vice-President Administration, and was able to secure 212 votes

at 88 per cent.

The only contested positions were Athletics Commissioner and Social Commissioner. Diana Subron won 205 votes over Jennifer Lin’s 116 for the former.

There were six candidates for Social Commissioner, making it one of the most contested elections among all the college associations. Nicole Ng won by only two votes over Hannah Turcotte, who was only seven votes above Sarim Irfan.

University College Literary and Athletic Society

The University College Literary and Athletic Society elections saw a voter turnout of 8.5 per cent with 384 votes cast.

Danielle Stella won the presidency with 315 votes, while Thomas Pender won the vice-presidency for next year with 326 votes. Both positions were uncontested. Many of the other positions were contested.

The vote for Spirit & Communications Commissioner was split between five candidates, with Joshua Bienstock inching out opponents with 30 per cent of ballots cast in his favour. Sustainability Commissioner was split between three candidates, with Sophia Fan coming out on top with 149 votes, or 39 per cent.

Maureen Huang just won the twoperson race for University & Academic Affairs Commissioner against Varun Lodaya, securing 182 votes. There was also a fairly high number of spoiled ballots in this election, with an average of 41 spoiled ballots for each position.

Innis College Student Society

The Innis College Student Society election saw the second highest the voter turnout at 12 per cent, with 237 ballots cast.

The positions for President, Executive Vice President, Vice-President Internal, and Vice-President Finance all went uncontested to Nancy Zhao, Paul Kaita, Winston Chan, and Janielle Palmer, respectively.

Of the seven candidates for the two Social Director positions, Breanna Lima Martinez was elected with 91 votes, alongside Tony (Shengye) Niu with 84 votes.

Convocation Hall has a capacity of 1,700.

THEO ARBEZ/THE VARSITY

agree — that tradition must continue,” said President Meric Gertler to U of T News.

“When graduates and guests exit their convocation ceremony, they are not just on a sidewalk in downtown Toronto, but on King’s College Circle at the heart of the university,” said

Bryn MacPherson, co-chair of the Convocation Advisory Review Committee.

“The U of T community really felt a deep attachment and connection to the whole experience.”

Changes are expected to be rolled out for spring convocation.

Business

April 1, 2019 var.st/business biz@thevarsity.ca

Salary Distribution (2016–2018)

Over 4,000 U of T employees represented on Sunshine List UTAM President earns close to $1 million, U of T President close to $500,000 Andy Takagi Associate News Editor

In 2018, 4,112 U of T employees earned salaries of more than $100,000, with Daren Smith, President and Chief Investment Officer of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM), receiving $989,308. These figures were released on March 27 in the annual Sunshine List, a catalogue of public sector employees who make more than $100,000 per year in Ontario.

Employee representation from U of T and its federated colleges — the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC), Victoria University, and the University of Trinity College — has grown from 3,811 in 2017 and 3,626 in 2016. USMC and Trinity each have 20 employees on the 2018 list; Victoria has 35.

Smith is the second-highest paid public-sector employee in Ontario for the second year in a row. Brian Golden, cross-appointed at U of T and the University Health Network, is second on U

of T’s list, with a salary of $493,120.09.

U of T President Meric Gertler comes in third among U of T employees, earning $489,384.04 — an increase of more than $50,000 from his salary last year.

Gertler tops other UTAM executives who had previously dominated the top of the list. Vice-President & Provost Cheryl Regehr, who is 55th among U of T employees, earned $357,999.96 in 2018.

Over half of U of T employees on the list earn between $100,000 and $150,000. Smith is the only person to earn above $500,000 at U of T, with 24 people earning between $400,000 and $500,000. The average income of the 4,112 U of T employees was $159,767.40, which is up by about $200 from 2017, with the 2018 median income at $145,410.07.

Collectively, U of T’s Sunshine List earners accrued $656,963,528.24 in income in 2018.

Compared to the 2015 median Ontario household income of $74,287, in 2018, Smith earned 13 times more, Gertler earned six and a half times more, and the median U of T Sunshine List member earned double.

No. of U of T faculty and staff on the Sunshine List

Sunshine List Distribution (2016–2018)

Annual salary ($)

Provosts, Presidents, and High Earners

Billionaires Schwartz and Reisman respond to questions from the media following their historic donation.

MICHAEL TEOH/THE VARSITY

U of T receives $100 million donation for innovation advancement Largest-ever donation to fund 750,000-square-foot innovation complex for AI, biotechnology research Michael Teoh Business Editor

U of T has received a $100 million donation to fund a new innovation research complex that will support artificial intelligence (AI) and biomedical research. The donation, from the Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation, is the largest that the university has ever received. U of T President Meric Gertler, Toronto Mayor John Tory, and Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains were among the speakers who lauded the donation at U of T’s March 25 press conference.

“Today we enter an incredibly exciting new chapter in this history of generosity, signalling a new era of world-leading innovation and progress at the University of Toronto,” Gertler said.

Gerald Schwartz is the founder and CEO of private equity firm Onex.

Heather Reisman is the founder and CEO of book retailer Indigo.

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre

The new 750,000-square-foot Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre will be located at the corner of College Street and Queen’s Park. U of T expects that the building will host thousands of researchers, investors, industry partners, and international visitors annually. The building will also house the new Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

Gertler told The Varsity after the announcement that the centre will provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate U of T students from a variety of disciplines, including the humanities and law. “All of these disciplines are really trying to understand this incredibly tumul-

tuous time that we’re in, both [with] the advances of technology and their applications but also what it means for society,” Gertler said. “Students will be fundamental for this.”

U of T will appoint a director to lead the new institute, who will oversee the development of programming and research initiatives, as well as the creation of new fellowships and a research fund. The institute will research digital surveillance laws and the ethical and societal implications of AI and biotechnology.

U of T Professor Emeritus, winner of the Turing Award, and leading AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton said, “My hope is that the Schwartz Reisman institute will be the place where deep learning disrupts the humanities.”

Construction will begin in the fall.

The donation

Reisman said that the donation was in-

spired by an article that the billionaire couple had read about U of T’s plans to further tech-driven entrepreneurship, business partnerships, and artificial intelligence leadership. She praised U of T for creating “a foundation upon which true greatness can be built.”

“At the end of the day, what stirs us most is the opportunity to supercharge the university’s ability to recruit and inspire the best,” Reisman said. “We are grateful to be part of something so pregnant with possibility.”

The gift is the largest donation ever made to the Canadian innovation sector.

“A testament to our excellence as a city”

Tory praised the donation as further evidence that Toronto is a powerhouse in international innovation. He said that continued public, private, and philanthropic investment are needed to succeed

academically and commercially and that he hopes the donation will encourage further donations to Toronto’s innovation sector. “It is vital to our ability to finance the things that are very human, whether it’s education or whether it’s support for those who are struggling,” Tory said. He added that the gift will attract more researchers and academics to the city.

Bains also emphasized the importance of an “all hands on deck” approach in furthering the federal government’s long-term vision to “build a nation of innovators.

“I think it’s a great day not only for Toronto — I think it’s a great day for Canada. The investment… will make sure that Canada will leave its mark on the world,” Bains said.

— With files from Srivindhya Kolluru Read the rest at var.st/4ua

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Things to know about the 2019 federal budget

Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains’ portfolio includes entrepreneurship, innovation, and research.

MICHAEL TEOH/THE VARSITY

Budget provides increases to student work placements, entrepreneurship support, easing student loan costs

Michael Teoh Business Editor

The federal government’s recently announced 2019 budget outlines a number of key provisions to support students and young adults, ranging from increased job creation to easing student loan repayments. What is the significance of some of these major changes, and how will they be implemented? The Varsity spoke to Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance (Youth Economic Opportunity) Jennifer O’Connell to learn more about what the budget has in store for students.

Student work placements

The federal government aims to create 84,000 new student work placements per year by 2023–2024. Expanding this program will cost about $798.2 million over five years. Of this amount, $631.2 million will be used to expand student work placements beyond the STEM fields. This will

provide 20,000 new placements per year for students across numerous disciplines by 2021–2022.

Beginning in 2020–2021, $150 million will be allocated to the government’s Employment and Social Development Canada to create partnerships with businesses and support 20,000 additional student work placements.

The final portion of these changes is $17 million, budgeted to support the Business/Higher Education Roundtable, which aims to create 44,000 additional jobs per year by 2021.

The initiative is run by the Business Council of Canada and partnered with a number of postsecondary institutions and private companies to “deepen collaboration and improve opportunities for young Canadians.”

“The idea is to complement current co-op programs, to complement internship initiatives, not to replicate and not to undermine existing academic institutions that have programs in place,” Bains said. “The goal is to leverage the most we can of the private sector.”

When asked how the government would ensure that its investments would be apportioned to creating student work placements that would benefit students and universities, Bains said that the vetting system “is still a work in progress” that would be adjusted “in the coming weeks and months as [the government moves] forward with implementing this initiative.”

O’Connell said that ensuring work placements are both incorporated into curricula and are paid is important. “We think that if students are being paid for their work, that [will ensure that there are no] abuses in the system, that you’re not just taking advantage of a student’s work… if a business has to pay that student, then they’re going to make sure that it’s a position that is actually adding that value.”

Entrepreneurship and research

With $38 million in renewed funding to non-profit organization Futurpreneur, the federal government

is expecting to support the work of approximately 1,000 young entrepreneurs per year. Futurpreneur has provided financial and mentorship support to over 12,000 entrepreneurs since 1996.

“The exciting part is 40 per cent of them [in 2017] are women and that’s double than what we see in the private sector,” Bains said. “We’re really excited about that trendline because we want an economy that works for everyone.” Of the funding, $3 million will specifically be targeted support for Indigenous entrepreneurs.

Bains added that this funding would complement existing entrepreneurship programs at U of T, including “Vector, [the Creative Destruction Lab], or MaRS, where there’s a lot of commercialization occurring, where businesses have the opportunity, where students have the opportunities to take their ideas to market.”

Bains also mentioned Canada’s Intellectual Property Strategy, an initiative that he launched in 2018, as an example of the supports provided to young entrepreneurs and researchers more broadly.

“One thing that we are very mindful of is that as we’re developing investments in research, as we’re focusing on commercialization, that we also lead on governance,” Bains said.

“I’m firmly of the view that in the coming weeks and months you’ll see us take clear positions around how do we build trust with these investments as they’re becoming more and more commercialized.”

When asked to comment on the federal government’s stance on Huawei given security concerns brought up by other countries, Bains said that it is currently analyzing whether the Chinese firm is a cause for concern over privacy and public safety. He added that the Intellectual Property Strategy is a tool that can address

incursions into research, including research that U of T conducts through its million-dollar Huawei partnership.

“We need to… have robust policies and frameworks to protect the Canadian ideas and Canadian partnerships.”

Student loans

In a move that will cost $1.7 billion, the budget also outlines plans to change the federal portion of student loans by lowering interest rates and making the six-month grace period following graduation interest-free.

These changes are expected to save approximately $2,000 over the period of their loan repayment. For students using the Ontario Student Assistance Program, these changes is counter to the provincial Progressive Conservative government’s introduction of interest accrual during the grace period in January. The provincial government said that its change was to “align Ontario’s repayment terms with that of the federal government… to reduce complexity for students.”

“We think more people should be able to afford a postsecondary education and we think we’re concerned about the increase of that cost and the debt,” O’Connell said. She added that the federal government’s changes to student loans were inspired by comments and concerns it had received from before Ontario’s changes.

O’Connell, who represents the Pickering—Uxbridge riding, said that she has heard a number of concerns with the provincial government’s changes to student loans. “I think that this budget and our focus on youth and making education more affordable should be a signal,” she said.

“We’re happy to work with the province if they want to align their policies in this way.”

— With files from Srivindhya Kolluru

The Explainer: U of T’s new real estate strategy Four Corners aims to increase housing, generate $50 million annually by 2033 Nicole Shi Varsity Staff

U of T recently approved the Four Corners Strategy framework to guide the university in new real estate investments.

Four Corners replaces the previous real estate strategy, which was implemented in 2007.

Four Corners Strategy goals

According to the Four Corners Strategy Report, one of the two main goals of Four Corners is to “facilitate amenity uses that support the [university’s] academic mission.” The key tenet of this goal is to expand available housing for faculty, staff, and students.

In an interview with The Varsity, VicePresident Operations and Real Estate Partnerships Scott Mabury said that a detailed housing survey of employees and graduate students had been conducted.

With over 1,000 graduate students on waiting lists for housing each year, Mabury believes that there is a need to expand the available residences owned and operated by U of T. “The solid outcome of that survey is that there is significant demand from faculty and senior staff for wanting to live

near or at the University of Toronto,” said Mabury. “[We] have the confidence of building residential units that our faculty and staff will want to live in.”

Other objectives of the amenity use goal include providing space that “supports the university’s research and commercialization efforts,” creating “gathering and meetings spaces” for the campuses and broader community, and facilitating “retail uses serving the campus community’s needs.”

Another main goal of Four Corners is to “grow ‘other’ revenue while maintaining long-term real estate interests.” Given that U of T is heavily dependent on student fees and government and donor funding, the report suggests that diversifying U of T’s revenue streams with new sources will create “increased financial visibility, flexibility, and security.”

“Almost the entire university budget — 87 per cent — comes from students paying tuition fees or government operating grants,” said Mabury. “That’s not financially sustainable. We need to grow the remaining 13 per cent, to increase the resilience and sustainability of the institutional budget.”

The Four Corners Strategy aims to generate $50 million in operational fund-

Four Corners will ease the university’s budgetary reliance on student fees and government and donor support.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

ing per year by 2033 through its two cornerstone developments: a 23-storey residence at Spadina and Sussex Avenues and a 14-storey innovation centre at College Street and University Avenue.

Cornerstone developments

Revenue from the buildings will “be focused on a University of Toronto strategic fund to be invested into institutional priorities to advance the research and teaching mission of the university,” explained Mabury.

The residence at Spadina and Sussex will be the first new residence built at U of T in nearly two decades. First proposed in 2013, the building design has undergone many years of public consultations and workshops. It is expected to house 511 students and is scheduled to be built by 2021.

The innovation centre plans to house student, office, and retail spaces. According to Mabury, one quarter of the centre will be assigned for offices and academic support, while a second quarter will accommodate U of T Entrepreneurship, the Innovations & Partnerships Office, and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. The third quarter has been set aside specifically for student startups. The final quarter is slated for scaling and successfully expanding companies.

Explaining the decision to devote half of its 250,000 square feet of floor space to startup companies and established corporate partners, Mabury said that the innovation centre is “designed to be a landing pad and a starting place for our students start-ups.”

“As they grow, [students] could move out of the startup part of the building

into the scaling company… portion of the building,” said Mabury. “At some point they will grow large enough that [students] need to vacate both to make room for other companies coming along, but also because they’ve grown large enough that they need to be out and fully fledged and on their own.”

Mabury said that the building will also meet and exceed current provincial energy efficiency standards.

The Four Corners strategy will prioritize “building non-academic spaces we need today in a way that supports the University of Toronto’s academic and strategic priorities tomorrow.”

Regarding its longevity, Mabury says that if successful, “Four Corners will continue indefinitely into the future,” but that “from a planning perspective… we felt that a 15-year horizon was appropriate.”

Comment

April 1, 2019 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

The Varsity will always be there for the story of student power A letter from the Comment Editor Content warning: discussion of suicide.

The theme for the Comment section of the final issue of The Varsity Volume 139 is — unintentionally — student power.

Current Affairs Columnist Meera Ulysses advocates for a student strike in response to the Ford cuts; Arts and Science Students’ Union President Haseeb Hassaan advises incoming and future student leaders; former Varsity Photo Editor Nathan Chan discusses the controversial university-mandated leave of absence policy

(UMLAP); members of Fight for $15 and Fairness UofT discuss labour resistance; and the Editorial Board reviews all of the student union elections this year.

This should not surprise readers. This semester, U of T students have increasingly expressed frustration toward student leadership, the university administration, and the provincial government for their failure to adequately represent students and student needs. It is often in the context of highly contentious and sensitive events that interest in writing for the Comment section peaks.

We are honoured to be an outlet where students can articulate their outrage.

When Volume 139 began last summer and the UMLAP was approved, we published several opinion pieces on the topic given its significance to the student community. The very first issue of the volume featured an op-ed reviewing the approved policy. In this final issue of the volume, a number of suicides on campus in the last year has restored focus on the UMLAP, as you will read in Chan’s op-ed.

This circularity — that we are back where we

started — might frustrate readers and suggest that nothing has changed. But student resistance persists nonetheless. It always renews itself. It never seems to be down for the count.

That is why The Varsity will always be there to tell the story of student power — and to enable U of T community members to tell it in their own words. Onward to Volume 140’s version of that story.

— Ibnul Chowdhury Comment Editor, Volume CXXXIX

This fall, we must organize a student strike

Op-ed: To new student leaders — and those who hope to become ones

In light of the Ford cuts, Ontario should learn from Québec 2012

A retirement message from the President of the Arts and Science Students’ Union

Meera Ulysses Current Affairs Columnist

Approximately 150 UTSG students walked out of their midday classes on March 20.

They assembled in front of Sidney Smith Hall to protest the provincial government’s recently-announced Ontario Student Assistance Program changes and the Student Choice Initiative. Similar walkouts took place at UTM, UTSC, and across Ontario.

At UTSG, the protest was organized by the Canadian Federation of Students and campus groups. Not only did they demand a reversal of the planned changes, but they put forth a list of additional demands, including the elimination of tuition fees for all students, increased public funding for education, and more grants instead of loans.

This protest was an excellent starting point for organized opposition to changes that will detrimentally affect student life.

Low-income students will face increased barriers to postsecondary education, and student clubs and student journalism could lose funding.

The cuts aim to override student needs and to silence our voices. To this end, we must react by publicly expressing our disapproval — by raising our voices and claiming space. We must not stand idly by while spheres of academia are rendered exclusive and inaccessible by politicians who do not have our best interests in mind.

I consider this protest only a starting point because it should not remain our sole reaction. A walkout on a single day over the course of a few hours communicates our dissatisfaction. But truly making an impact requires a more coherent disruption. Effective political protesting will only succeed if it manages to disrupt the current system in a significant way.

As students, we have to recognize that educational institutions cannot continue to exist without our cooperation and participation. Without us, a school is nothing but a collection of buildings. To be a place of learning requires not only instructors, curricula, and infrastructure, but also a body of students eager and willing to learn.

These institutions require our continued presence. And so does the province: it needs an educated population in order to continue to function and to prosper economically.

The government may attempt to frame our relationship to it as one where we need its benevolence and care in the form of funding, but in reality, it needs us much more.

For a relevant example of how students might weaponize their presence as a powerful political tool, we can look to the widespread student protests that rocked Québec in 2012. Over the course of several months, students objecting to ludicrous tuition hikes refused to attend their classes and took to the streets. They organized swelling protests, disrupted transit systems, and occupied central highways. They made their dissatisfaction at the tuition changes palpable and material.

Their disruptive tactics were, in the end, successful. Not all of the students’ aims materialized, but the province was forced to enter negotiations with them that stalled the tuition hikes significantly. The operative word here is ‘forced’: a powerful institution like a provincial government will not change its course of action unless it somehow becomes inviable.

We should consider adopting some of the tactics used by students in Québec. A lengthy and coordinated strike effectively communicates not only that we will not stand for the planned changes, but also that these schools are unable to operate without our presence. If the province realizes that the institution of academia has been severely disrupted, those in power will scramble to find a way to return to normalcy. Their hand will be forced and they will be required to find a compromise with us.

If we want the government to take our needs into account, we must articulate them in a way that forces their ear. We cannot passively wait and hope that eventually someone in a position of power will feel sympathetic toward our needs. The institutions of education in Ontario are in danger of regressing toward heightened exclusivity and inaccessibility, and this threat requires organized and powerful action.

We must recognize that we belong to a political force: the student movement. This fall, when the government forces its cuts onto students, let’s show them our force in turn.

Meera Ulysses is a second-year Equity Studies and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations student at New College. She is The Varsity’s Current Affairs Columnist.

Hassaan advises the next generation of student decision-makers.

Courtesy of HASEEB HASSAAN

Haseeb Hassaan Varsity Contributor

The regular student election season has come and gone. For those who did get elected: congratulations and welcome to the world of student governance. Before I retire as the President of the Arts and Science Students’ Union (ASSU), I want to offer some advice for those involved and those still pondering the decision to get involved.

I got involved because I wanted to feel a little part of campus life and community, make some new friends and because — let’s be real — it wouldn’t look too bad on a résumé. I started small and got involved in a course union, the Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Students’ Union, as a first-year representative. I had the opportunity to collaborate with others and run events.

Through it all, I was guided by senior students.

This is why I am such a big proponent of getting involved in your early years at U of T. Afterward, I moved on to a more senior executive position in the course union and eventually got leadership opportunities across multiple clubs, ranging from the Orphan Sponsorship Program to ASSU, where I eventually became the president.

For those of you who want to get involved, you first need to find your community. This campus is huge and trying to find your space is sometimes difficult. Get involved in opportunities that actually interest you. There are hundreds of clubs on this campus that cater to diverse ends, whether they are cultural groups, political work, or just recreational. If you cannot find one that interests you, then create your own.

But while you’re there, remember the commitment that you have made and try to do the best work that you can. After you accomplish this foundational experience, you might want to take

the big step of running in an election for a senior role in a student union. However, there’s something you should know before you do it.

Student ‘politics’ can be a lot of fun. I’ve been involved in a few elections myself, and campaigning is one of the most thrilling experiences you can have. You will meet and talk to students about their issues and propose your own ideas to fix them. You will have articles written in The Varsity about you and you get to debate the issues you care about.

However, the role you’re in is no cakewalk. This university has a lot of problems: we have a mental health crisis, housing is too expensive, and marginalized communities continue to feel unsafe.

Those in power have attempted to fix these issues for decades, but they are not so easily resolvable.

When pushing for reform and lobbying administration, you can expect to face the insurmountable walls and barriers that have led multiple student leaders to burn out.

Moreover, you will face criticism — warranted or unwarranted — by simply being in the position you are in. People will call you out, write articles against you, and spread nasty rumours about you. You must be ready for that.

However, the most difficult part about student ‘politics’ is the label of student ‘politicians’ — which I hate. It creates a false sense of entitlement that only feeds into people’s egos. Trust me when I say most, if not all, student leaders at U of T have an ego, including myself. Hence, when all of these egos coalesce, we often want to be the ones in control to get the credit. This leads to disagreements and petty actions by others just to garner more clout. Often, larger groups or organizations will try to interfere with the affairs of other student groups.

What you should know is that there are wellintentioned and dishonest people on all ‘sides’ of the political spectrum. You will need to learn who to trust in your role. Stand for what you think is right. Taking the safe route on issues like the university-mandated leave of absence policy or the Student Choice Initiative is not the way to go. You need to take action.

The last thing I need to clear up is that student ‘politics’ is not real politics. There is a life beyond it — so don’t take it too seriously. If you do have a chance at ‘power,’ make it as enjoyable as you can.

Live in the present, work together, and get things done. No one cares if you were the President of ASSU once you leave this school.

Have fun, and good luck. As for me, I’m out of here.

Haseeb Hassaan is a fifth-year Political Science and Religion student at St. Michael’s College. He is the President of ASSU.

APRIL 1, 2019 | 9

var.st/comment

Op-ed: For mental health, callous attitudes contribute to preventable deaths

Reviewing the development process of the university-mandated leave of absence policy Nathan Chan Varsity Contributor

Content warning: discussion of suicide.

Earlier this week, a U of T student died by suicide at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology. Just last June, another student died under similar circumstances.

Around that time, the University of Toronto Governing Council approved the UniversityMandated Leave of Absence Policy (UMLAP).

The UMLAP is intended to help students in distress — like our peer who died recently. As stated in the UMLAP, if a student’s behaviour “poses a risk of harm to self or others,” it can be used to place the student on a non-punitive leave of absence and to provide them with additional resources and accommodations.

With that said, in the first quarter of 2019, there have already been two suicides on campus.

With the UMLAP in place and the media attention it has received, students should be reaching out and considering it as an option. However, recent comments from students show clear disagreements with the policy. We need to ask ourselves what impact the UMLAP has really had on campus since its implementation.

Something went wrong

Somewhere along the UMLAP’s development process, something went wrong. I was a member of the University Affairs Board (UAB) of Governing Council when the idea of a leave of absence policy was first introduced in May 2017. At the time, Vice-Provost Students Sandy Welsh described it as “a welcome Policy” that would provide a “transparent, non-disciplinary and compassionate” process for students to engage in leaves of absence. I distinctly recall the broad support from across the board — myself included.

We understood the need for a policy, both to provide front-line administrators with direction on mental health issues, resources, and accommodations, and to provide students with a voluntary, compassionate leave option when no option existed in their division or program.

It was not until the following academic year at the October 2017 UAB meeting, after my term had ended, that the terms of the proposed leave of absence policy were made public. Students and faculty raised grave concerns with its contents. They included the risk that a student in crisis could be denied access to essential services at their time of greatest need, the fact that individuals with no expertise in mental health could make unilateral judgments on what could be considered ‘relevant information’ when a student was pleading their case, the lack of involvement from regulated health professionals throughout the process, and much, much more.

Within a month of the UMLAP’s release, students self-organized a grassroots Facebook group with over 200 members to coordinate their opposition. Several took the initiative to meet privately with the central administration to discuss their concerns.

In response, the central administration revised the UMLAP and put forth a new version for final approval by the Governing Council’s boards in January 2018. Some issues were addressed.

Students are voicing their criticism of the university’s inadequate mental health resources.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

The revised version made clear commitments to the Personal Health Information Protection Act, prohibited the placement of any notation on academic transcripts regarding the leave, and added equity officers as an additional source of support for students subject to the UMLAP. But given that the fundamental concerns raised by students, like the threat of being denied services during a time of need, were not addressed to students’ satisfaction, they continued to raise vocal opposition.

The university and the Ontario Human Rights Commission

Less than 24 hours before the revised version of the UMLAP was slated for recommendation at the January 30, 2018 UAB meeting, Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), sent an unprecedented letter to Claire Kennedy, Chair of Governing Council. Mandhane communicated major concerns with the UMLAP. The OHRC recommended that “the Policy not be approved in its current form.”

The letter also referenced a meeting between staff from the Office of the Vice-President & Provost (OVPP) and the OHRC on December 13, 2017. In fact, documents obtained by The Varsity showed that correspondence with the OHRC began as early as December 6, 2017.

After the December 13 meeting, the OHRC had stated that it “[looked] forward to receiving a copy of the next draft of the Policy before it enters the governance path for approval.” In response, the OVPP stated that “we will share that we have met informally with OHRC staff about the proposed policy when we meet with student groups in the weeks to come.”

As the OVPP never specified which student groups it intended to share its conversations with, it’s difficult to determine whether it kept its promise. Nonetheless, a comment from Mathias Memmel, President of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) at the time, was telling: the UTSU “didn’t know that the OHRC was involved until the [ January 30, 2018] UAB meeting.” For context, during this time, the UTSU had met extensively with the Office of the ViceProvost Students and several student groups regarding the UMLAP. The fact that the UTSU was not aware of the OHRC’s involvement at the time is concerning.

But perhaps more concerning was the central administration’s behaviour toward the OHRC’s request and at the January 25, 2018 meeting of the Academic Board (AB) of Governing Council. Like the UAB, the AB must also recommend draft policies that impact certain issues before the

policy can proceed in the governance path. The OVPP appeared to have declined the OHRC’s request to provide a draft policy prior to the UMLAP’s entry into the governance path.

In response to a direct question regarding the OHRC’s request from The Varsity to Elizabeth Church, Interim Director of Media Relations at the time, Church stated, “I can tell you that the draft policy was made publicly available to everyone to review before it went through governance.” This statement is technically true: a draft policy was made publicly available just prior to the October 2017 UAB meeting, but the January 2018 version of the UMLAP that was made public on the AB meeting agenda was different. By placing the updated UMLAP on the AB agenda, this previously unseen version of the UMLAP had entered the governance path for approval.

Consequently, if the central administration had not provided this updated version of the UMLAP to the OHRC prior to placing it on the AB agenda, it would seem that the central administration declined the OHRC’s request to review the UMLAP “before it [entered] the governance path for approval.”

Based on reports from The Varsity, it appears that the OHRC and the central administration did not have any correspondence between December 15, 2017, when the OVPP responded to the OHRC’s email, and January 29, 2018, when the letter from the OHRC to Governing Council was sent. If the central administration truly did not send the OHRC a draft of the UMLAP before placing the policy on the AB agenda, the onus of the OHRC’s letter of concerns lies with the university even more. Had the OVPP complied with the OHRC’s request for a draft, changes could have been made and the notice avoided. Also, nothing prevented the central administration from delaying approval of the UMLAP until a later meeting.

Furthermore, the central administration appears to have failed to disclose the OHRC’s concerns to the AB at their January 25, 2018 meeting. An official, detailed record of the meeting shows no mention of any correspondence between the OHRC and the university.

In corporate governance structures like the AB, there is an expectation that management — in this case, the OVPP — provide relevant information that could contribute to the decisionmaking process of the respective board. This is part of a legal ‘fiduciary duty’ — something of a shared interest toward a common goal among the board members, who oversee the corporation, the management, who deal with day-to-day operations, and the members or shareholders of the corporation. Because management is the source

of a significant amount of information about the corporation and its affairs, board members must be able to implicitly trust the information that management provides them to be able to perform effective oversight.

Failing to disclose relevant information can jeopardize the diligent review of information each member of the board is required to perform when making decisions.

Thus, I find the central administration’s failure to disclose the OHRC’s concerns to the AB to be an outrageous, unconscionable, and indefensible act. In light of potential legal liabilities identified by the OHRC, it ought to have done so. I have no doubt that, had the OHRC’s concerns been fairly presented to the members of the AB, the UMLAP would have been met with significant opposition.

But these concerns were not presented, so it is no surprise that the AB approved the UMLAP. Just five of the 65 members present dissented, including two faculty members from the Faculty of Nursing and the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Read the rest at var.st/4t4 Nathan Chan is a graduate student at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto’s Institute of Medical Science. He was a 2016–2017 member of the University Affairs Board of the Governing Council, 2017–2018 Associate President at the University of Toronto Students’ Union, and 2017–2018 Course Union Representative on the General Council of the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union.

Disclosure: Chan was The Varsity’s 2016–2017 Photo Editor.

Crisis Hotlines: Canada Suicide Prevention Service available 24/7 at 1-833-456-4566 Good 2 Talk Student Helpline at 1-866-925-5454 Ontario Mental Health Helpline at 1-866-531-2600 Gerstein Centre Crisis Line at 416-929-5200 U of T Health & Wellness Centre at 416-978-8030

10 | THE VARSITY | COMMENT

comment@thevarsity.ca

Op-ed: Labour must continue to resist

Fight for $15 and Fairness UofT reflects on the dangers of Bill 66

Letters to the Editor

Re: U of T President Meric Gertler announces new task force on student mental health “Students protesting last week demanded that no related commission/ group / etc. be struck without a prior guarantee that the leadership as well as the overall composition of it will be 51%+ current students. It’s clear that our input is already being buried and dismissed by admin.”

— Lucinda Qu (from web) Re: Robarts Library expansion underway “1,200 more students can now sleep in Robarts during a snowstorm” — Tyler Riches (from web) “Just build a new health and wellness instead. The problem begins at the fact that there isn’t enough room in that building to accommodate all the students.”

— Alexandra Edwards (from web)

The U of T chapter of Fight for $15 and Fairness calls for student action on labour rights.

Courtesy of FIGHT FOR $15 AND FAIRNESS UOFT

Simran Dhunna, Vidhya Elango & Talia Holy Varsity Contributors

Only a few months ago, Premier Doug Ford’s Bill 47 repealed many of the labour protections won through advocacy by decent work coalitions across Ontario — including the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign.

Workers lost two paid sick days; pay equity between full-time, part-time, and temporary workers; and the scheduled increase of minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The bill passed despite persistent outcry, proving that Ford is not “for the people,” no matter how often he repeats it.

Following Bill 47, the Progressive Conservative (PC) government tabled Bill 66 in December, an omnibus bill titled “Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act,” which proposes amendments to several, unrelated laws dealing with childcare, environment, and labour, among other things. The PCs claim it will “eliminate red tape and burdensome regulations so businesses can grow, create and protect good jobs.”

However, the so-called red tape that will be removed crucially protects workers’ rights. The bill is at its third reading stage and will almost certainly pass in the very near future.

When organizing works: the Greenbelt

When it was announced that Bill 66 would open the Greenbelt for development, the PCs were met with strong opposition. The Greenbelt, an established protected land strip, includes more than two million acres of environmentally-sensitive areas and farmlands. That section of the bill allowed municipalities to create “open for business” zoning bylaws, giving them the option to override legislation that prohibits development in the Greenbelt.

Individuals, communities, and environmental organizations were active in opposing this legislation. A testament to political organizing, the opposition was ultimately successful: Schedule 10 of Bill 66 relating to the Greenbelt was repealed.

However, while Bill 66 has received significant media and public attention around the Greenbelt, less attention has been given to its labour implications. This lack of awareness is partially due to the fact that Bill 66 is an omnibus bill that makes changes to multiple pieces of legislation at once.

Though omnibus bills save time by shortening legislative proceedings, they limit the ability for MPPs and constituents to express their objections to specific components of the bill. Instead, they are forced to either support or reject the bill as a whole. In majority governments, omnibus bills become a strategic way to quickly push through enormous policy changes — allowing segments of the legislation to fly under the radar without accountability.

Bill 66 continues the attack on labour

According to the current Employment Standards Act, for an employee to be able to work more than 48 hours a week, both the employer and employee are required to sign an agreement and gain approval from the Ministry of Labour. This specific provision has existed for nearly 75 years in Ontario thanks to labour advocates. However, Bill 66 removes the extra step of approval by the ministry, allowing employers to ask employees to work overtime with little to no oversight.

Ministry oversight is, ideally, meant to keep the power of employers in check. It can be difficult for many workers, especially workers in low-wage, precarious positions, to say no to their employers when asked to work overtime. Removing a mechanism of formal accountability makes workers vulnerable to abuses in the workplace.

Current laws also allow employers to average out hours worked over two or more weeks, but only with the agreement of workers and approval from the Ministry of Labour. For example, working 30 hours in one week and 50 hours in another could be averaged to 40 hours both weeks — and would thus not be considered ‘overtime.’

Bill 66 scraps the requirement for overtime averaging to be approved by the Ministry of Labour.

Without oversight, employers are sure to take advantage of this loophole by avoiding paying workers time-and-a-half overtime pay.

When the Ford government says it wants to get rid of ‘red tape,’ what it really means is that it wants to give the green light to employers to place their bottom line above workers’ safety. Agreements between employers and workers are shaped by a clear power imbalance, in which workers are beholden to the whims of their boss, especially if they are relying on a paycheck to put food on the table.

Students are at risk

Students trying to make ends meet by working in precarious sectors, like retail or service, are especially vulnerable. As Ford’s policies, like cuts to Ontario Student Assistance Program grants, make postsecondary education more expensive, students will find it difficult to say no to a boss who asks them to average their overtime hours or work excess hours.

Bill 66 also scraps the requirement for the Employment Standards Act poster to be displayed in “a conspicuous place” in all workplaces. While this change is quite small, it is not trivial: it limits workers’ access to crucial information about their rights, making them less likely to seek justice if they have been wronged.

Lastly, the bill harms construction workers. Ontario’s Labour Relations Act has a “non-construction employer” provision, which means that any employer

deemed to be a “non-construction employer” is not beholden to any collective agreement that unionized construction workers would regularly be covered by.

Bill 66 expands the definition of “non-construction employer” to include municipalities, school boards, hospitals, universities, and colleges. Workers performing construction work in these settings would not be afforded the protection that their union usually offers them. By allowing these public employers to dissolve collective agreements, Bill 66 effectively undermines the power of unions, hindering access to fair working conditions and wages.

All of the changes to labour laws that this bill proposes are discomfiting, but the changes to the Labour Relations Act especially belie a pattern of the Ford government. Ford’s Student Choice Initiative effectively defunds student unions by making their fees optional, undermining their ability to provide services to students and advocate for structural change.

The collective power of students to challenge establishments like U of T is threatened by the Student Choice Initiative, just as the collective power of construction workers’ unions to advocate for workplace protections is threatened by Bill 66.

We must continue the resistance

In moments like these, when another piece of Ford legislation claws back worker protections, it is essential to remember that making noise has worked before and can work again. Though Bill 66 will pass very soon, we can still hold Ford’s PCs and exploitative workplaces accountable by continuing to organize and agitate.

Indeed, many of the labour protections that we’ve retained, such as domestic or sexual violence leave and the $14 minimum wage, are the direct result of tireless organizing by activist groups like the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign. Students have been a part of this movement for decent work, and we’re a part of a broader struggle that is resisting Ford’s continued attacks on our collective rights.

In this political moment, we must not only remind ourselves of the fights that have been won, but also be vigilant in advocating for one another in our workplaces and communities. Under Bill 66, when employers no longer have to answer to the Ministry of Labour, they will have to answer to us: the people.

Vidhya Elango is a fifth-year Linguistics, Anthropology, and Computer Science student at Victoria College. Talia Holy is a second-year Political Science, Women and Gender Studies, and Sexual Diversity Studies at Victoria College. Simran Dhunna is a first-year student in the Master of Public Health in Epidemiology program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. They are members of the U of T chapter of Fight for $15 and Fairness.

Re: Top 5 washrooms at U of T — The Squirrel “How can any list of top washrooms on u of t not include the one in that catholic youth building across from robarts? It may be a single user washroom which is pretty inconvenient, but it’s got a dang stained glass window to poop beside, how can you get better than that” — Ben Liao Gormley (from web) Re: UC administration under fire for scheduling convocation on a religious holiday “Even if they made a separate ceremony, that would suck for the graduates who want to graduate with all their classmates” — Synthia Satkuna (from web) Re: UTSU elections: hot-button topics “It’s the first year that the UTSU runs elections without slates, and no one runs for three for the exec positions.

Maybe we need to bring back slates?”

— Tom Yun (from web) Re: Five standout U of T startups to watch “Shame not a single woman-led startup was highlighted” — Kerry Paterson (from web) Re: 10 reasons you should not go to U of T — The Squirrel “Wot. Who peed in this person’s cereal? Holding out hope it is satirical given factual inaccuracies but man. That was the most brutal, generic list of complaints about UofT. Especially brutal given things actually worth complaining about - e.g. mental health support.”

— Rowan DeBues-Stafford (from web) Re: The news world needs another Peter Mansbridge “I feel like one possible problem that could address this is broaden the pool of applicants entering the news and journalism industry to include those with a non-journalism degree, which is usually required for many entrylevel positions. Larry King, Lester Holt, Anderson Cooper, Knowlton Nash and Peter Mansbridge all had non-journalism degrees or no academic degrees, but they had the opportunity to enter the industry and grow into the public icons they became.”

— Alexander Kuziw (from web)

Editorial

April 1, 2019 var.st/comment editorial@thevarsity.ca

To next year’s unions: less controversy, more engagement, please Reviewing this year’s SCSU, UTGSU, UTSU, and UTMSU The Varsity Editorial Board

Thanks to last year’s levy increase, The Varsity has expanded its tri-campus and graduate affairs coverage. We are proud to comprehensively report on the governance and election cycles of four major student unions:

the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU); the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU); the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU), and the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU).

With the emergence of a common threat — the provincial government’s Student Choice Initiative — student media and governments must remain committed, more than ever, to serving U of T students, earning their trust, and defending campus life. So let’s remember,

student unions: our job is to keep students informed, and yours is to represent them.

As the academic year comes to an end, there is no better way to inform students than to review campus politics from the last year. All four unions must do better if we are to

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

The SCSU

SCSU elections were the first of the season, and the most controversial.

Unfortunately, controversy had been striking the union all year. In the fall, multiple food safety scandals raised serious concerns about sanitary practices on campus. Yet the union did not respond with meaningful action.

In December, the Board of Directors voted unanimously on a motion put forward by Director of Political Science Raymond Dang that would regulate and limit student media access to board meetings. Dang accused student media of “abusing their positions” and “misrepresenting the reality of the situation.”

The duty of media is to freely and independently hold those in power to account. During the 2019 SCSU elections, Dang expressed some regret for the policy. But it nonetheless demonstrated anti-democratic tendencies on the part of the union.

The UTSU

At the UTSU AGM last fall, slates were banned from future elections. Slates had previously enabled teams of candidates to run under organized platforms.

UTSU President Anne Boucher claimed that independent candidates, as opposed to slated candidates, would offer voters a better understanding of the individual running as opposed to the team to which they belong. Many also criticize slates for an elitist culture that favours insiders. In theory, these are valid perspectives that justify the ban.

But the same night that slates were banned, another remarkable phenomenon took place: the UTSU failed to maintain the required quorum of 50 attendees. This despite being one of the largest student unions in Canada. This spoke to the UTSU’s longstanding and fundamental engagement problem.

The UTSU’s attempt to make elections more accessible to outsiders by banning slates, when the union continued to face, and had yet to resolve, its engagement problem, turned out to be

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

SCSU elections were, however, the most competitive and contested of the four unions. Two slates faced off, making for an engaged race, and ending in a split executive. But everything else was pure chaos.

One presidential candidate, SCSYou’s Anup Atwal, was questionably disqualified early on for multiple campaign violations. He made noise when he claimed that fellow presidential candidate, Shine Bright UTSC’s Chemi Lhamo, hit another candidate with a table, which Lhamo denied. Postdisqualification, he was exposed by The Underground, UTSC’s student paper, for making transphobic remarks about Vice-President (VP) Equity candidate Leon Tsai in a leaked group chat.

Controversy did not conclude once the election results were released. President-elect Lhamo became the target of an online harassment campaign due to her views on Tibetan independence.

The story became a world headline.

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

a huge miscalculation. The casualty was the 2019 UTSU election.

This year, no candidates ran for three of the seven executive positions, including the crucial VP Operations and Student Life roles that are needed this summer to draft a budget and prepare for orientation. There were also no candidates for 18 out of 28 Board of Director positions — which means it will be unable to meet quorum and function. The 10 positions that had candidates were all uncontested.

The lack of candidates and contested positions is extremely concerning, and reflects the lowest level of engagement in recent history. Voters responded in kind: turnout was 4.2 per cent — the worst of all four unions this year — and no executive candidates garnered 1,000 votes.

This contrasts with the three previous spring elections, where candidates tended to surpass this threshold and voter turnout was at least double. In those elections, there was at least one full slate competing.

Some U of T students agree with demands for the nullification of her election. But it is important that students respect democratic outcomes and demand change through voting or running as candidates themselves.

Most importantly, it is unacceptable that an elected candidate face threats of violence.

Drama continued when the board refused to ratify Rayyan Alibux, who had been elected as VP Operations.

Concerns were raised regarding Alibux’s involvement in Atwal’s transphobic remarks. In a Varsity op-ed, Alibux reasonably questioned the legality of the SCSU’s decision. The SCSU later reversed its decision and ratified Alibux.

The new SCSU must correct for the anti-democratic tendencies of its predecessors and ensure that elections are run competitively and fairly. And of course, it must cut the controversy.

In practice, slates serve to ensure that a given team fields candidates for all available positions, and by running under an organized platform, more easily engages voters. Only after securing a record of stronger engagement and turnout should the UTSU have considered a slate ban.

As it stands, the 2019–2020 UTSU has an extremely weak mandate to govern. The current UTSU has been forced to hold by-elections in April to address the unfilled positions, before the new term starts in May. Given that these elections will occur during exam season, we have low expectations for the quality of campaigning and level of engagement from students.

Next year, the UTSU’s priority must be to market itself better, recognizing that students do not feel heard, represented, or connected to it. It must launch a campaign that builds a better relationship with students to justify its existence and its fees, and improve voter and candidate turnout for next year’s election.

Externally, it must be more vocal vis-à-vis the university administration with student concerns like the weather cancellation policy and mental health resources. And, of course, it — alongside the three other unions — must lobby the provincial government to minimize the impact that the Student Choice Initiative and Ontario Student Assistance Program changes have on student life and finances.

The UTGSU

In December, the UTGSU Annual General Meeting (AGM) failed to meet quorum. As such, it was unable to pass important motions, including its 2017–2018 audited financial statements. Members were frustrated and some worried that the organization would financially default to the university.

At the General Council meeting immediately following the AGM, conflict arose between Varsity journalists and the council. The journalists were offered seating on the condition that they would not photograph or livetweet the events, the latter of which they purposefully ignored as directed by The Varsity’s editors.

Live-tweeting helps ensure transparency, allows The Varsity to keep a public record of governance events, and makes meetings accessible to those who cannot attend. But The Varsity’s

The UTMSU

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

This year, the UTMSU made significant changes both internally and externally. During their AGMs, the UTMSU and UTSU voted unanimously to separate.

With this separation, funds paid to the UTSU by UTM students will instead be paid to the UTMSU to directly improve campus life there.

This is a step in the right direction.

According to incoming President Atif Abdullah, one way these funds could be used is to create more bursaries for UTM students.

After intense debate at the AGM, students voted to reject online voting in UTMSU elections. This was disappointing. As UTM is a commuter campus, online voting is the most accessible means to involve students in campus governance. Incorporating online voting could have increased voter turnout at UTM, which was 13 per cent last year.

It is clear that the UTMSU has not made itself accessible to students.

In this year’s election, the Students United slate swept all five executive

have meaningful student democracy.

For next year, let’s hope for more competitive and contested elections, more engagement with the membership, and unequivocal freedom of the press to cover student politics.

journalists were asked to leave.

These issues were resolved only recently. Over the course of several months, The Varsity had to defend its interest in reporting on the events of the union, and we still differ in our views of how the union’s activities should be scrutinized. Ultimately, journalists’ attendance at UTGSU meetings is still subject to challenge from UTGSU members.

The union’s elections were overwhelmingly dominated by incumbents. Five of the seven individuals elected are returning to positions they held last year. This suggests that insiders will retain control of the organization, and that little is likely to change.

Moreover, only five per cent of eligible students voted, demonstrating that engagement with the union is very weak.

This undermines the credibility and mandate of the elected representatives.

Nevertheless, The Varsity is able to provide a valuable service to our readership, which overlaps with the UTGSU’s membership, by reporting on the union’s activities and working to increase awareness. We hope the UTGSU works to smooth out its operations, address engagement, and, in time, fully accept the importance of our presence in the room.

positions. There was no other slate, and the majority of positions were uncontested.

If students were engaged, the race would have been more competitive.

UTMSU executives should take a closer look at how they operate and what they can do to improve student engagement, and not just during elections.

For starters, the UTMSU should be more transparent by letting The Medium, UTM’s student paper, do its job. Earlier this year, a conflict between the two was publicized. The Medium has its flaws, including questionable journalistic standards, but nonetheless serves as an important voice at UTM, keeping students informed about their elected representatives. As such, the UTMSU should invite criticism from The Medium — not seek to limit it.

To its credit, the UTMSU has been able to introduce a U-Pass and the course retake policy, and extend the credit/no credit deadline. These have taken years to develop and implement and are important to UTM students.

If the UTMSU worked to increase transparency with The Medium and facilitate engagement among students, it could achieve much more.

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

12 | THE VARSITY | FEATURES

“Priority Investments”: the board meeting after Bahen Students press the administration for better mental health resources and policy change Writer: Kristen Zimmer Photographer: Shanna Hunter

Content warning: discussions of suicide.

O

n March 17, another student died by suicide in the Bahen Centre for Information Technology.

We’ve lost at least three members of our student community to suicide this school year.

Their stories are not mine to tell.

On March 18, I was one of five students allowed into U of T’s Business Board meeting.

Students deserve to know what happened in that room. This is a story I can tell.

Like most students, I learned of the tragedy through Facebook on the night that it happened. I stayed awake refreshing my home page. By the next morning, students had created an event page called “Protest UofT’s Inaction.”

Word spread quickly. Hundreds of us planned to unite in peaceful protest outside of President Meric Gertler’s office on King’s College Circle from 2:00 to 126:00 pm. When I arrived at Simcoe Hall, students were protesting outside, while Campus Police officers blocked access to the inside. Hearing that a meeting was taking place on Simcoe Hall’s second floor, four of us went to the back door of Convocation Hall to try the elevators. The elevator wouldn’t budge without a key.

I felt the sting of an obvious metaphor as I kept pressing the button. Only a select few have access to the top.

We gave up on the Simcoe sit-in and made our way to the Medical Sciences Building, where we heard the Business Board meeting would be moved. We got as close as we could to the office before Campus Police blocked off the next door. Students sat in the hall, maintaining a clear path to the door and any exit route.

We’re not in the camp of blocking the way.

Eventually, someone came from the meeting to offer three students a seat in the meeting. The spots filled up immediately. I ran up to Lucinda Qu, a student activist who was about to go in.

“You have to talk about the mandatory leave,” I urged.

“I will, I promise,” she said. I sat back down.

A few minutes later, the same person who let

three of us in came back out. There was room for two more students. This time, I was one of them.

The two of us joined the three other students sitting at the back of the room. During the meeting’s first few minutes, Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr acknowledged the recent tragedy and addressed mental health on campus. She mentioned new support systems for students in crisis at this time, and underscored last year’s investments in new counsellors and additional aid.

When the provost finished, my fellow students and I were poised to continue this discussion, but the board secretary changed the topic. “The main focus of our meeting today is student fees and budget,” he said. The students’ concern over U of T’s mental health crisis was not ‘the main focus,’ at least not here. Someone gave us copies of the 2019-2020 budget report. I opened the booklet to the centre spread and saw bold white letters on a glossy blue background: “Priority Investments.” A metaphor put into words. As Governing Council members discussed budgetary planning and tuition changes, I realized that our demands for better mental health services were not a priority investment. I looked at the other student who had walked in with me.

“Wait — what exactly are we here for?” they asked me. This student held a framed picture of their friend who had died by suicide. Five students were physically present in the meeting, but when I looked at the picture, I realized that we were six. Perhaps, in some form or other, we were even more.

“I have no idea,” I said. I had no idea why — or how — a regular budgetary meeting was happening as though students weren’t protesting outside, as though a student hadn’t died the day before.

On the back of the budget report, I scribbled notes on why the university's mandatory leave of absence policy fails to comply with the criteria outlined by Ontario Human Rights Commission. The other students compiled a statement about U of T’s mental health crisis

on a public Google Doc, where students from the outside chimed in with online suggestions.

There weren’t just five of us in the room. There were dozens.

After 45 minutes of budget talks, the board secretary addressed the elephant in the room: the students. He gave us a few minutes to speak.

Lucinda read a statement on behalf of the students who could not make it into the room.

“To the thousands of us that will spend years of our lives here,” she said, “and to the handful of us who will end our lives here, this is disheartening.” My heart sank and a lump rose in my throat. Lucinda read sections of the collaborative document where students had listed inadequate responses: “It is UNACCEPTABLE to have waiting lists for access to mental health services. It is UNACCEPTABLE to have understaffed and unresponsive counseling services.”

In the Google Doc, students capitalized “UNACCEPTABLE,” flagging the need for emphasis. Lucinda’s voice carried this collective inflection. I think my voice would have cracked.

“Time and time again,” Lucinda said, “we have participated in bad faith and fruitless discussions with people who are supposed to be our allies.” The board secretary interrupted her. “I’m going to ask you to sum up,” he said.

Crucial discussions become fruitless when cut short. Despite the impossible task of condensing a crisis in one minute, Lucinda pressed the administration to work with us “in a public, honest, and materially significant capacity.”

The secretary thanked her for “that thoughtful and well-articulated presentation.” President Meric Gertler expressed his shared concerns and thanked everyone who contributed to the statement. “We recognize that institutions like this university can and should do more to address these issues,” he said.

The president stated that the university has “invested in good faith — not bad faith — in many service improvements across all three of our campuses, and the investments are quite substantial. Clearly, there is the need to do

more.” He continued, “I just want to signal here an openness, and indeed an enthusiasm, to work with students in good faith and in a very open way to solicit your advice and your ideas on how to do better.”

Regehr spoke next. She said that the administration will continue to invest in mental health, while acknowledging that many of those current investments fall short. “With respect to consultation,” she added, “we will absolutely continue to meet with our students. Professor [Sandy] Welsh and I meet regularly with our student leaders, and that is an issue that is on the table and we commit to continuing to do that.” In response to calls for systemic change at U of T, Regehr explained that the university has a “new expert panel on the undergraduate educational experience.”

When the provost finished, the board secretary thanked us again for this moving speech before moving on. I put my hand up.

“I’m sorry, we can’t take questions at this time,” the secretary said.

I didn’t have any questions. I had a statement.

“We need to address the mandatory leave of absence policy,” I said. “A student died this weekend, and we can afford to spend a few extra minutes listening to students. I don’t know when I’m going to have another opportunity to share why U of T’s mandatory leave of absence policy is unacceptable.” I stumbled over every word. I was already standing and ready to read when the board secretary granted me permission.

“I think you should be allowed to read it, but I’d ask that you keep your comments to one minute,” he said. “It’s an additional request and we’d like to move on with our regular budget meeting, so please keep your comments brief.” I spoke for four minutes and 58 seconds. Here is part of what I said: U of T’s mandatory leave of absence policy is incompatible with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The policy claims to “provide reasonable accommodation to the point of undue hardship” as per the OHRC. On January 29, OHRC Chief

features@thevarsity.ca

Commissioner Renu Mandhane wrote, “the Policy may result in discrimination” and “falls short of meeting the duty to accommodate under the Code.” By approving the policy after making minor edits, the university sends the following message to students: although the OHRC flags potential human rights violations, the policy still stands, and its administrators stand behind the policy.

By stressing the OHRC’s “duty to accommodate,” the policy preemptively defends itself from critique within a human rights framework. If a student is in crisis, the policy claims, “it may not be consistent with the duty to accommodate to merely let the student confront significant negative academic consequences.” By touting a mandated leave of absence as an accommodation, the university misunderstands the OHRC’s policies. This policy fits what the OHRC calls “denial of access,” whereby post-secondary institutions “exclude students with disabilities” and denies them “equal opportunity in their education.” The OHRC also claims “education providers have a duty to accommodate students with disabilities up to the point of undue hardship.” Allowing mentally ill/Mad-identified students barrierfree access to education does not constitute undue hardship; it grants them the equal opportunity that postsecondary institutions must provide.

According to specific criteria listed in the OHRC, undue hardship entails accommodations that are too onerous in terms of cost and health and safety.

The policy capitalizes on the “health and safety” criterion of undue hardship by conflating mentally ill people at risk to themselves with those who pose a risk to others, a narrative which perpetuates discriminatory stereotypes. The policy conflates “a risk of harm to self or others” in the threshold for a mandated leave. This scenario maintains that Mad people are dangerous. Most Mad/mentally ill people, however, are not violent but subject to violence. If a student poses a risk to others, however, the university should mandate removal from studies as per the student code of conduct.

There are, however, documented incidents where abusers and assailants have been allowed to remain in class and on campus.

The OHRC cautions against “ignorance and misunderstanding about people with psychosocial disabilities,” and the policy reveals such ignorance.

Students may appeal their mandated leave “no later than 10 business days after the decision.” This 10-day deadline ignores the complexities of mental health. Someone admitted to a psychiatric hospital, as I have been

several times, might not be able to contact the university and organize their defence. Students must also apply “at least 30 days prior to the term in which the student wishes to enrol.” A student forced to leave at the beginning or middle of a term can only return in the following term. If a student does not meet the 30-day deadline, the university may “terminate” their registration. The student must organize around their crisis to ensure their post-secondary education is neither suspended nor terminated. A student’s return would involve “periodic review,” “verification,” “monitoring,” and “indication that the student may be subject to ongoing conditions.” This kind of surveillance will exacerbate symptoms of paranoia and anxiety that many people with mental illness experience.

The policy stigmatizes students with mental health issues. This stigma, the OHRC claims, may “lead institutions to develop policies, procedures and decision-making practices that exclude or marginalize people with mental health disabilities.”

I urge you to revise a policy that is clearly not working and clearly not for us.

I suggest a policy designed to mandate the leave of abusers and assailants on campus who pose actual threats to other students, and a separate policy designed to support students in crisis who may pose a risk to themselves.

Accommodate us without removing our autonomy.

As the policy stands, students are afraid to seek help for fear of being placed on a mandated leave.

My voice shook more than my hands. At this point, I went off script to maintain eye contact with individual members until they nodded.

“We see this policy, we see it in print, we see it in writing, and we are afraid. The consequences of this fear, the consequences of being silenced, [are] life-threatening.” I needed the governors to understand this fear. Last semester, University College’s mental wellness commissioner, Kiana Habibagahi, and I met with Vice-Provost Sandy Welsh to discuss the mandatory leave policy. Welsh said that the policy would be implemented in very few cases.

To a person in crisis, this condition means nothing. The fear of being the rare exception keeps students from seeking help.

I thanked the board members for their time and sank in my seat. I cried. My fellow students gave me back-pats and a glass of water. The rim of the cup missed my mouth and most of the water spilled down my shirt, which was already damp from nervous sweat. I was a sopping puffy-eyed mess in a room full of people on Ontario’s Sunshine List.

The provost spoke: “I’ll just respond very briefly. I really want to thank the student for bringing this to our attention.” I tried to listen.

I dissociated instead.

“When we brought the policy through last year,” the provost said, “we did undertake that we would be reporing back to governance about use of the policy and we will be doing that, as we promised.” I’m not interested in pulling back governance, or in the policy’s rare application. As long as the policy stands, so does the possibility of it being used against us.

The board secretary thanked the provost before shifting gears. “So unless there’s any other business to be raised by the board, the meeting will now move on —” One of the board members steered the discussion back to the policy, describing it as having “a certain chilling effect.” I sat up in my seat. The unexpected ally continued: “It is a strong concern and I have to admit, having thought about this policy in the months since we passed it, I have more concerns than when we approved it.” This shift from platitudes to critique hinted at progress.

I felt, for the first time, that one person in the administration was on our side. He thanked us as we left the room. I’d like to thank him back.

At the end of the hall, two Campus Police officers were waiting to usher us out. An officer placed his hand on our backs to move us through the door one by one, dividing us with a firm push and a loud “Next!” It was as though we were criminals. “Next!” I waited in line behind my four fellow students. “Next!” I have PTSD from a history of sexual assault.

Too many strangers have put their hands on my body. “Next!” The officer pressed his hand against my lower back.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Fine,” he said, with a have-it-your-way indignation. I was delirious from a sleepless night and a nightmarish day. And now I was triggered.

When I felt the officer’s hand on my back, Lucinda’s statement came back to me: “It is unacceptable.” It is unacceptable that campus police use intimidation strategies. It is unacceptable that campus police do not consider that students may have a history of trauma, students from marginalized communities that are susceptible to police brutality, students who have the right not to be touched. It is unacceptable that I have to include a tangent on the police in this article.

Yet poor mental health care and poor enforcement mechanisms inevitably ally. I call on the administration to address the systemic connection between campus police responses and issues surrounding student mental health.

In a recent meeting that a group of students and I held with Janine Robb, the Executive Director of the Health & Wellness Centre, I learnt that two years ago, campus police could handcuff students during a mental health crisis.

Today, careless actions by campus police are symptoms of this sanist legacy.

And to the officer who touched students that day: keep your hands off us.

I finally joined the students who were peacefully protesting in the hall. I knew they’d be waiting for us. Lucinda and I gave brief statements. Microphones and TV cameras loomed. Still, the daunting media apparatus intimidated me less than the board meeting

whose members wanted us to keep our statements brief. No one was watching the clock here. I sat back down among the protesters, most of whom I didn’t know. I just knew that I cared about these people deeply and felt their care just as intensely. I cannot overstate the richness of our communal support.

Toward the end of the evening, a group of students lingered in our space of protest. On his way out, Gertler addressed us. He thanked Lucinda and me for our moving speeches. We thanked him for the opportunity to speak. He then expressed a strong desire to engage in further discussions with students.

Students are not interested in being heard without being listened to. It will be the administrators’ privilege to listen to those of us who are still here to speak. When deference doesn’t get us change, we need to make demands.

I’m demanding that the administration consult with us and implement substantive policy changes as per our pleas.

“I’ll be honest,” I said to Gertler. “Students feel like the administration is working against us, not for or with us.” Prepositions matter.

Consultations matter. These forms of language and communication often go wrong. He assured that he would consult with students.

President Gertler, I will take you up on your offer for further discussions, for meaningful and regular consultations. My friends and I look forward to working with you and your colleagues.

As we continue this work, our responsibility to one another requires respect for those who are grieving, for those who need privacy, and for those whose stories are not ours to tell.

Amid the anger, the protests, and the collective demand for change, we cannot forget the mourning.

We cannot forget the seemingly small gestures that just might sustain someone who is struggling. After the protests, the board meeting, the media coverage, the organizing, and the grief of that long Monday, I met up with one of my closest friends. He brought me to his place so that I could do laundry and take a shower. It had been a while since I had done either of those things. The next day, another dear friend gave me Tylenol for a crushing headache and let me lie in her lap for a moment. My friends’ simple acts of care were more necessary than I can explain. I’d argue that helping someone meet their basic needs is more important than reading a statement at a board meeting.

I’d like to end with a note on language.

People do not ‘commit' suicide; they die by suicide as a result of a broken, ableist, and sanist system that does not support those who struggle. Prepositions matter.

On June 24, 2018, a student died by suicide in the Bahen Centre.

On June 27, 2018, Governing Council approved the university-mandated leave of absence policy.

We warned the administration that the policy would dissuade students from seeking help, that the risk of student suicide could rise.

We had hoped we wouldn’t be right.

Arts & Culture

April 1, 2019 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Summer’s nearly here — let’s look for love!

Let’s talk about sex for the last time this school year

Liam Bryant Varsity Staff

People talk about getting to the various ‘bases’ of sexual interaction as if just anyone could waltz onto the field and pick up a bat.

Chuck the ball, go the whole nine yards or so. But not everyone’s a star pitcher or batter — they may not even have tickets to the game. No — some of us need directions to even find the stadium.

If you’re like me, someone whose experience in the field begins and ends on the screen, at best you’ve watched a game or two in your free time. Maybe even watched a few plays before bed — or, let’s be honest, more than a few if you’re feeling festive.

Either way, there’s a solid chance, even from an outsider’s perspective, that despite lacking experience, you do know how the game works, whether you believe it or not.

See, everyone exists as a node in a network that connects each of our intricate relationships with one another. But certain relationships, because of pesky human society, become something beyond just another connection — they become a symbol, an image.

Virginity, marriage, and even the idea of being exclusively committed to another human being exist simultaneously for

ourselves and for others. And as if we were chefs looking for seasoning in the pantry, the keen of us might look at this and say, “Ay, there’s the rub.”

That’s the crux of the issue with not getting into relationships: thinking you can’t play the game. Putting up walls, relying only on yourself, overly depending on a partner — they are all symptoms of attachment to a prescribed image.

I would wager that a significant part of feeling apprehensive about relationships is not your fault in the slightest. Because in most cases, a truly good, and dare I say, healthy relationship, romantic or not, begins with believing that you’re worthy of one. Not in fitting some image of what a relationship ‘should’ be.

And I’ve found that the moment you realize this, you start giving yourself

opportunities to get in base and give it the ol’ college try. You play the game at your own pace, in your own league.

In the end, who cares what the professionals do?

It only matters what you do.

This new year, resolve yourself to get into a game or two. And if you’re scared, just know, dear reader, that I’m in the same boat, striking out more than I’d like to admit.

So come take a few practice shots with me. Slap on the equipment even if it doesn’t fit perfectly. Probably lose a few here and there, but eh, who’s counting? Play your cards right, and kid, you might just hit it out of the park without ever having touched a damn base.

Hate your roommates? Landlord? Neighbours?

Need a new place come May? Here are some housing options A breakdown of popular choices for student housing Thomas Mason Varsity Contributor

Finding housing in Toronto is a challenge for many students attending university. Housing costs and competitiveness is at an all-time high within the city. Students looking for housing have a few viable options depending on price range, food, location, and personal preference.

The default housing choice for many students is residence. A meal plan is often mandatory, which might be better for busier students.

Also, students will not need to travel as much and this could save some money. Usually, there are several amenities such as cleaning services, supplies, and 24-hour front desk.

Many colleges also organize events that are excellent for social students who are happier living with more people. Residence is guaranteed for all first-year students, but availability for other years can vary. Additionally, residences are often associated with colleges, which lessens the available options.

The major downside to residence is cost.

Students in residence for eight months at UTSG pay anywhere from $9,577.50 with no meal plan at Innis College to $19,052.22 with a comprehensive meal plan at Chestnut Residence. It is also common for students to be asked to leave during the winter break, since the university closes.

Another housing option is renting off-campus. The U of T off-campus housing website might be useful in this situation. It can also help you connect with potential roommates if needed. Other services can pair roommates online, and there is no shortage of students looking for roommates.

Renting is a good option for students who would like the independence that comes from organizing your own living. Landlords will typically prefer older over younger students, and leases are often secured based on credit scores, references, and guarantors. That might not be realistic for many students who simply want to rent for a semester.

There is huge variety over possible rentals in terms of price, location, and services. On average, renting near UTSC and UTM is far

Moving can be difficult, but living with the right people is very important for your mental health.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

more affordable than UTSG. When considering where to rent, the price of commuting should also be considered if a rental cannot be found in walking distance. For students taking classes downtown or at Scarborough, a student TTC metropass is $116.75, which is likely the best value for students traveling most days to the university.

Moreover, it is sometimes cheaper to be on the subway line and far away from school than to be close by. Another obstacle is the lease length of most rentals. It is usually 12 months long and not the eight months of the fall and winter semester. This could cost an extra four months rent every year, depending on your plans, unless you sublet.

Fraternities, sororities, and co-ops fill a need for housing as well. Many students know of such organizations, but the housing styles they offer greatly vary. It is important to find the one that suits you. Most organizations post descriptions or have been reviewed online, and they are generally close to the universities.

There are often requirements for applicants, such as a grade minimum, references, or a successful interview. Services differ depending on the house, but many offer groceries, a meal plan, or cleaning. A few of these organizations are not for profit, which saves students a significant amount of money. In this case, students may be expected to help with maintenance.

Renovations and other projects depend on

the organization. The houses are often converted Victorian homes that board between six and 15 people. Communities form naturally out of the members and there is often an in-depth participation element to these organizations. Co-ops have the tenants govern the entire organization themselves. Since the organizations are technically charities, another benefit is potentially an opportunity to résumé build.

Prices can range drastically, but co-ops can allow the applicant to choose the price — as low as $500 per month.

APRIL 1, 2019 | 15

var.st/arts

The grand promise of a new El Mocambo, hopefully Get in line for some Canadian music this summer at El Mocambo Edgar Vargas Arts & Culture Columnist

Situated near the corner of Spadina Avenue and College Street lies the once illustrious music venue: the El Mocambo. While the venue has been closed since early 2014 and stuck in various states of endless construction ever since, the El Mo’ is finally slated for a grand reopening this May, just in time for the 2019 Canadian Music Week.

The return of the El Mocambo is especially welcome in a time where Toronto has lost so many key venues. D-Beatstro, The Central and even fellow Spadina Avenue landmark, The Silver Dollar Room, are just some of the spaces the city has lost in recent years to skyrocketing rent prices and condominium development. A new venue opening up downtown is a reason for celebration.

Founded in the late 1940s, the venue had been home to countless world-renowned acts over the decades — from Blondie and U2 to Jimi Hendrix and Vampire Weekend. Its previous owner, Sam Grosso — current owner of Toronto’s Cadillac Lounge — officially closed the El Mo’s doors back in 2014. Shortly thereafter, millionaire merchant banker and former CBC Dragons' Den investor Michael Wekerle swept in and bought the property with hopes of completely remodeling its interior and bringing it up to snuff.

Having invested a reported $20 million into the venue so far, Wekerle has promised brand partnerships with Imax to provide live-streaming technology and recreational cannabis producer Tweed for an upstairs stage. But despite the multimillion-dollar investment into the building, nothing concrete about the new El Mocambo’s long-term role in the Toronto venue circuit has been disclosed. About two months until the grand reopening and the venue’s immediate future still seems hazy.

The venue’s official website has no new information either. Visit the site and you’re greeted only with a computer-generated render of the building and a slideshow of photos from Weker-

El Mocambo is a Toronto landmark. When it reopens, it will resume hosting live music events.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

le’s press conference where he celebrated the relighting of a neon palm-tree sign with Mayor John Tory.

However, having had limited experience in the music industry and no confirmed talent bookers lined up, many of Wekerle’s views on the venue, as well as Canadian music, sound out of touch.

In 2014, on the topic of why he bought the struggling venue, Wekerle told CBC: “Because of my own kind of nostalgic feelings toward the

My secret life as a ghostwriter Authorship for a bargain

Ghostwriting doesn't always come easy — it can be difficult contributing to work without receiving credit.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

El Mocambo and the Toronto scene… Having tried to be an artist in the music world back in my teen years — obviously not very successfully — but there was no venue. It was very difficult for Canadian artists and musicians to really get a break.”

Most recently, in a November 2018 interview with CBC, Wekerle claimed that Kiss, Justin Bieber, Ronnie Hawkins, and potentially Drake might grace the building’s renovated stages.

“When the time comes and I know the dates, I’ll walk over and ask [Drake to perform],” Wekerle told CBC. Wekerle currently lives in the same Bridle Path neighbourhood as Drake’s new Toronto mansion.

Promises of world-renowned artists and brand sponsorships, all to rekindle a 458-capacity venue in Toronto’s peaceful Chinatown neighbourhood, sound a little farfetched. Take Wekerle’s grandiose promises with a grain of salt.

April Jin Varsity Contributor

have been selling my writing for a bargain.

It takes precisely 10 years for me to navigate from point A to point Z, and I don’t see a chance in the next 10 years for me to alleviate my predicament. I am as hopeless now as I was hopeful 10 years before, and I’m slowly but steadily coming to terms with my utter disappointment.

Coming to terms with my disappointment is really just me accepting that there has never been a day where I was near point A. So while I may not have climbed many rungs on the ladder to my American dream, a few steps back from X to Z is a lot less of a bummer than the skydive we take as we gear toward 30 and are still just as miserable.

Not many of us can afford the disappointment to begin with. And if we’re being real, I didn’t become a bestseller. True.

But I’m still writing. I don’t get to sign my name under the title. Also true. But at least I get paid per word.

So, if you know anyone who still believes in the myth of the college degree, send them my way. I just lit my last joint and turned the grocery money I made off my last client into a puff of smoke.

Every so often Instagram has a new hashtag, a trend that suddenly transforms into an international movement, or maybe it’s the other way around. Who knows?

From influencers, who receive tens of thousands of likes for a picture of breadcrumbs, to those whose followers barely number in the three digits, all post some visual content pertinent to the trend. One of the latest trends is the #10yearchallenge, and it really is quite self-explanatory: post two pictures of yourself in the same frame or post, one taken recently and the other from 10 years ago.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this challenge, but as I go through old albums and scroll through past photos with people who I am barely in touch with anymore, I am seized by a lasting feeling of disenchantment.

Ten years ago, I would have sworn on my mother’s life that I’d never sell my authorship cheap.

Ten years later, I’m a ghostwriter penning personal statements for suckers too rich and vain to get into college by themselves, and I

16 | THE VARSITY | ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

Do you even listen to Drake?

7 Toronto R&B artists you should listen to instead of Drake Sameeha Khan Varsity Contributor

In the realm of artistic and cultural expressions, Toronto is one of those cities that never sleeps. In particular, this city’s up-andcoming R&B artists have proven themselves to be some of the most talented and unique musicians in the industry. With sounds ranging from classical soul to the newly popularized lo-fi, various styles of melody can be found across the spectrum of the genre.

But while these R&B artists showcase smooth vocals that float over unorthodox tempos, it seems like they haven’t received the attention they deserve at the forefront of Toronto’s R&B scene. This city’s culture is entwined with the influences of Drake, The Weeknd, R&B duo Majid Jordan, and even Daniel Caesar, who’s currently paving his way to becoming one of the very best Toronto has to offer. And while these respective artists are undoubtedly talented at their craft and deserve all the hype, I think it’s time to support budding Toronto R&B musicians as well.

We’re grateful that Drake had a part in putting us on the map — but what’s the point if we aren’t going to show love for the rest of Toronto’s homegrown talent? Let’s not get too caught up with the city’s big names.

Instead, we should start shifting our focus to the deserving Toronto R&B artists in my curated list below. Whether these are artists who arrived on the scene fairly recently or have been working on their craft for a while, they’re definitely worth a listen.

Rochelle Jordan

Top tracks: “Lowkey,” “Return to Sender,” “Follow Me” This UK-born, Toronto-raised artist has been gathering an underground following for a few years now. Her album, 1021, is reminiscent of late-90s R&B, including Aaliyah, with low, soulful vocals over 808 drum beats.

Allie

(styled as a l l i e) Top tracks: “Let Her,” “Broken Telephone,” “The Reminder” Born and raised in Toronto, Allie’s exposure to different cultures translates into her music, which caters to a wide variety of subgenres within R&B. Her debut record, Nightshade, an eclectic range of soulful ballads, or what she calls “experimental soul music.”

If you’re into slow jams either for late night drives or a night in with your girls, be sure to check her out.

Adria Kain

Top tracks: “L.I.M.B. (Liquor In My Brain),” “True Love,” “Colours,” “Ocean” I stumbled across Adria Kain’s music on Spotify only a few years back, and I don’t get why her nostalgic sound still isn’t recognized in this city. She’s opened for BJ the Chicago Kid; performed alongside Daniel Caesar and another one of Toronto’s up-and-comers, Sean Leon; and landed a voice replacement on “Thirsty” by PARTYNEXTDOOR. Her dusky vocals and lyri-

Toronto has a great music scene — big venues or small venues, there’s always someone performing in the city.

TORONTO RAP WIKI/CC WIKIMEDIA

cism beautifully capture the essence of her experiences with depression during her hiatus in 2017.

M.I.BLUE

Top tracks: Black Tea and Mint EP M.I.BLUE’s soothing vocals not only set off a super relaxing and jazzy vibe, but also make you want to listen to them when you’re all alone, engaging in deep thoughts with yourself. Her EP, Black Tea and Mint, came out about three years ago and consists of three songs that she says are “meant to be listened to in an isolated environment with a spliff in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.” I haven’t had much luck finding many other projects she’s been a part of, but I do hope she comes out with more.

Lou Val

Top tracks: “Float,” “Mi Amor,” “Bold,” “We Live Fast” This OVO-affiliated artist made his debut last May with his album Lonely in Paradise that highlighted both the intense highs and lows of being in ‘love.’ He’s another sultry vocalist we can expect late-night music from.

MorMor

Top tracks: Heaven’s Only Wishful album If you don’t have any MorMor in your playlist, I don’t really have any words for you. MorMor’s become one of my favourite artists to listen to literally anywhere, anytime, so much so that I’m just going to recommend the entire Heaven’s Only Wishful album — it’s only five tracks long.

Writer, musician, and producer, MorMor takes the lead on almost all aspects of his craft. His piercing falsetto over those chord progressions can seriously take you out of your misery, even if it’s only for a little bit.

Desiire

Top tracks: “Natural Feels,” “Caution,” “Bad Habits” Desiire is a Congo-born, Toronto-based artist whose creativity knows no bounds, especially with his tendency to blend R&B and Afrobeats to deliver layered melodies and instrumentals. His EP, As I Go Along, only came out last year and offers a range of emotional perspectives and intimacy through heartbreaking vocals and unique beats.

Science

April 1, 2019 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

“If you’re not studying women at all, you’re biased”

Rehabilitation Science Graduate Students’ Union hosts panel discussion on brain health in women

The panel hosted experts in psychology, reproductive health, and brain health.

DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

Javiera Gutierrez Duran Varsity Staff

The Rehabilitation Science Graduate Students’ Union hosted its inaugural Speaker Series event to discuss women and brain health on March 25.

The panel was held at the Rehabilitation Sciences Building.

Kyla Alsbury, PhD candidate in Rehabilitation Science, explained that the Speaker Series is a reincarnation of what was previously a monthly awareness project.

Mary Boulos, master’s student in Rehabilitation Science, hopes that these events will bridge the gap between research and the community.

“We’re doing research on these different diseases and disorders, but those findings aren’t being shared with the people who are most affected,” said Boulos.

The goal of the event was to share research and engage with members of the community who are affected and ultimately better their health.

The speakers included Professor Gillian Einstein from the Department of Psychology and adjunct scientist at Women’s College Hospital,

who discussed the relationship between sex, gender, and women’s brain health; Reema Shafi, a PhD candidate at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, who explained the vulnerability of women’s brain after concussions; and Melissa Biscardi, who recently completed her master’s degree and spoke about the endocrine reproductive health outcomes of women after brain injury.

Mental rotation differences between the sexes

Einstein explained that women’s brain health is important, simply put, because “thinking about… organisms [with XX chromosomes] brings new ideas.” Taking sex into account, Einstein said, “ensures that we can develop effective and safe treatments for [people with XX chromosomes].”

There are differences in biology, such as phenotypic expression, gene expression and epigenetic signatures, and life experience, when comparing to organisms who possess XY chromosomes to those with XX. Members of Einstein’s lab created an experiment to determine whether sex plays a role in

The World Wide Web: 30 years of connecting Canada How did the information superhighway evolve?

Nadia Boachie Varsity Staff

March 12 marked the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Three decades after its invention, it continues to transform the world by linking people using words, pictures, sounds, and all other digital media.

How did Canada become connected to this information superhighway?

The World Wide Web and the internet

In March 1989, Timothy Berners-Lee, then a software engineer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research Council (CERN), wrote a report titled “Information Management: A Proposal” which detailed his vision for an interconnected web of computers.

Berners-Lee felt that it was too difficult to access information at CERN because it was physically spread out across different computers. He realized that he could use existing internet infrastructure

to share information on a large scale between computers.

People often conflate the World Wide Web and the internet, but the internet existed decades before Berners-Lee’s invention. The web as we know it today is all the images, videos, and webpages that can be accessed with a web browser, whereas the internet is the network connection that allows us to access the web.

“The Internet…refers to a much older technology,” explained Dr. Brett Caraway, Assistant Assistant Professor in UTM’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology, in an email to The Varsity. The internet can be traced to 1969, said Caraway, and its decentralized way of routing messages contrasts greatly with the centralized systems of traditional telephone networks.

By 1990, Berners-Lee had developed three key technologies that would make up the foundation of the web: HyperText Markup Language would be the formatting language for the web, Uniform Resource Identifiers would refer to the addresses of

mental rotation tasks and when transcognition is formed.

Different groups of people were asked to complete a Vandenberg and Kuse mental rotation task. People with XX chromosomes in the follicular and luteal stage of their menstrual cycle, female-to-male transgender people on testosterone hormone therapy, and people with XY chromosomes were asked to complete the task, which shows a 3D representation of an object.

The subjects then had to match that impression to another one of the same object from a different angle.

It was found that people with XX chromosomes at low estrogen states did as well as people with XY chromosomes and people with XX chromosomes on hormone therapy. Therefore, a sex-based difference in performance is seen in the luteal phase. They also discovered that the hormone therapy that female-to-male transgender subjects receive allows them to test as cisgender males.

Concussions and menopause

Biscardi discussed the state of menopause in women who suffered a traumatic brain injury.

World Wide Web pages, and HyperText Transfer Protocol would allow users to retrieve linked resources from across the web.

The web comes to Canada

The first website went online in December 1990, and on August 6, 1991, the World Wide Web became publicly available.

A few years later, several Canadian companies and government agencies ventured to become a part of the web.

The world’s first search engine was Canadian, developed in 1990 by Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mark Parker at McGill University.

Dubbed “Archie,” it was used to search for files on anonymous File Transfer Protocol sites.

The web in its earliest phase was a collection of textbased sites created by a handful of organizations who had the technical ability to create them.

Today, the web has evolved into a complex interactive front where creating user-

She explained that “most women experience new onset of changes in menstruation despite being at least one year post-injury.”

Furthermore, in the tested sample, Biscardi found that menopause symptoms were more intense when compared to the general population.

As the symptoms of menopause and postconcussion are similar, Biscardi noted that investigation is needed to determine which symptoms are due to menopause and which are due to concussive effects.

Shafi explained that there is evidence of females experiencing vulnerability after a concussion due to a combination of factors such as structural disadvantages, which can affect cognitive processing after a concussion.

Following the speakers, there was a short panel discussion with questions from the audience.

Einstein explained that in terms of research funding, she finds a lack of understanding, saying that “if you’re only doing research in females, they really don’t know why you’re doing that.”

“Fifty per cent of the population is women,” said Shafi. “So if you’re not studying women at all, you’re biased [against] women. You have to have a reason to not study sex and gender.”

generated content requires little skill and populates a multitude of web pages, including social media sites.

“The conundrum that this remarkable availability presents us with is a signal-to-noise ratio problem,” noted Caraway. “Trying to figure out who or what to listen to is more challenging than ever. And that basic problem is amplified in any number of political, economic, social, and cultural arenas.”

FIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

18 | THE VARSITY | SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

The Ontario Autism Program: what you need to know A U of T medical student reflects on the proposed changes and what they mean for patients and families

Changes to the Ontario Autism Program will make it more difficult for patients to access quality health care and education.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

Imaan Javeed Varsity Contributor

Last month, Lisa MacLeod, Ontario Minister of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS), announced sweeping changes to the provincial autism program. These changes were met with outrage from parents, health care professionals, educators, and autism advocacy groups, culminating with the resignation in protest of a Ford staffer — who was the former head of the Ontario Autism Coalition and a parent of a child with autism.

These changes affect a subset of Ontarians in ways that many may not fully be able to grasp. With April being Autism Acceptance Month and U of T accepting a $25-million donation for establishing the Leong Centre of Healthy Children, now is an important time to discuss how changes to the Ontario Autism Program will affect patients and families.

Defining and managing Autism Spectrum Disorder

According to the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by “persistent deficits in social communication and interaction,” as well as “restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activites.”

Individuals with ASD present in a variety of ways. Some may only require help learning complex language skills and particularly nuanced social situations, while others may need more comprehensive training to develop basic language and life skills, as well as deal with challenging and potentially dangerous behaviours, including running away from home, food refusal, and aggression toward themselves and others. Due to this variability in presentation, each individual with ASD is affected differently, and programming must be personalized to their unique strengths and weaknesses.

Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) is a high-intensity application of the principles

of the gold standard therapy for ASD: Applied Behavioural Analysis. IBI involves up to 40 hours of one-on-one therapy per week for at least two years, and is generally recognized by published literature and by the Board Certified Behaviour Analyst guidelines as achieving favourable results.

The Ontario Autism Program

Currently, treatment for ASD is primarily managed through the Ontario Autism Program (OAP). Children under 18 are admitted into the program and assessed by an experienced analyst. This assessment determines the amount of funding they require to receive the best possible treatment to address their needs, which may cost up to $100,000 per year.

This cost is covered entirely by the Ontario government, allowing all enrolled children, regardless of income or age, to access effective treatment with the goal of learning to manage behaviour, enhance communication, and participate effectively in schools and communities.

The OAP’s biggest flaw is undoubtedly its massive waitlist. IBI is demanding in terms of time and funding, although economic analyses show that providing effective and early IBI to a greater number of children actually saves money in the long term. However, it is not feasible under current funding levels to provide effective IBI to every single child diagnosed with autism beginning at the time of their diagnosis. This leads to waiting periods that can last over two years, according to Amy Fee, Parliamentary Assistant to the MCCSS. Recent statements by MacLeod claim that over 8,000 children are receiving IBI through the OAP while 23,000 are still on the waitlist, a number the Ford government is accused of inflating by instructing regional providers to covertly stop accepting waitlisted families.

Changes to the program

Blaming financial constraints, the Ford government’s priority shifted to eliminating the waitlist. Over the next two years, the amount allocated for autism programs in the

annual budget will remain at $321 million, but coverage will be rationed between all 31,000 children who are either waitlisted or currently receiving full therapy.

Funding will be awarded to children based on age and family income, with clients receiving up to $20,000 per year until the age of six, followed by $5,000 per year between the ages of six and 18. Families with a household income exceeding $250,000 won’t receive any funding at all.

While earlier treatment is correlated with more effective outcomes, scaling funding with age has been criticized due to the highly variable nature of the disorder. For example, a more neurotypical child at age five could be less functionally impaired than a 10-year-old farther along the spectrum.

However, since March 21, the Ford government announced a number of concessions for which details are still unclear, with MacLeod announcing that she would take the next few months to deliberate further.

These updates included removal of the consideration of household family income in determining funding maximums; additional funding for children with autism to access speech language pathology, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy; increasing the total budget allocation to a minimum of $600 million; and committing to additional needsbased funding, without any further numerical or logistical details.

Despite MacLeod’s alleged threats to the Ontario Association of Behaviour Analysis warning the organization against disagreeing with the changes, pushback against the policy from groups across the board as been immense.

The OAP revamp has been met with protests and criticism by parents, therapists, and selfadvocacy groups. Many parents are saying that despite the unfairness and deep flaws of the previous system, they would rather wait for a full, intensive course of therapy than try to make do with what the government is providing. A significant number of families are being forced to choose between paying differences in cost that can amount to multiple

times the Ontario median income, which may involve selling family property and depriving their child of effective therapy.

In response to backlash, the Ford government announced that it would be providing school boards with an average of $12,300 per child with autism enrolled in school, to help train teachers and ensure there are additional supports available. However this was not a new announcement — according to an August 2018 announcement by the provincial government, school boards will receive $12,300 for any student enrolled in school, regardless of their diagnoses or educational needs. Other significantly smaller funds in addition to the standard $12,300 are available for students with special needs in Ontario, but MacLeod’s announcement was deliberately misleading. The push for earlier integration of children with ASD into Ontario schools is particularly ominous when set against the backdrop of significant cuts to education, which will increase class sizes and reduce staffing at Ontario schools.

The broad impact of the changes

No amount of deception by the Ford government can hide the fact that all children, especially those with more severe autism coming from families with lower incomes, will be affected by the sweeping changes to the OAP and the education system as a whole.

The ripple effects of these changes should be of concern to all of us. Anyone, from high school students soon joining U of T to mature student parents unable to afford both tuition and appropriate childcare, could be affected.

It is up to us to join with all of them and advocate for evidence-based solutions to the needs of some of the most vulnerable citizens of this province.

Imaan Javeed is an MD student in the Faculty of Medicine. The author would like to acknowledge Kristin Bain, a Senior Therapist at AlphaBee, an intervention centre specializing in IBI and other behavioural analytic therapies.

APRIL 1, 2019 | 19

var.st/science

Pelted with rocks from outer space Are we in danger of suffering the same fate as the dinosaurs?

Flora Hewitt-Harris Varsity Staff

On December 18, a meteor with an estimated diameter of 10 metres, travelling at approximately 32 kilometres per second, exploded over the Bering Sea. The meteor exploded with 10 times the strength of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 — equivalent to the energy of 173 kilotons of TNT. The explosion went relatively unnoticed and was not reported on by scientific and general media until early March. It was recorded by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization at the time, but the organization did not report on it or attempt to study it further, as it was not a nuclear threat.

The event recently surfaced in the media only after Dr. Peter Brown, a professor at Western University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, observed the explosion in the organization’s database.

NASA then added the event to its Fireballs database, which compiles the details of such events, including their location, size, and impact energy.

The incident has led to discussion surrounding the

potential threat of meteors. Their seemingly unpredictable nature makes it difficult to track them and prepare for impact if and when they occur.

The Bering Sea explosion went unnoticed because the meteor arrived at a more northerly angle than most observed events, where fewer telescopes are focused. The relative proximity to a populated area — the meteor impacted just 300 kilometres off the coast Kamchatka, Russia, a peninsula housing over 300,000 people — suggests that future meteors could pose a danger if effective monitoring is not in place.

Are we in danger?

Every day, between 80 and 100 tons of dust and small meteorites fall from space, yet the impact of larger objects is a far rarer occurrence.

A January study by Dr. Sara Mazrouei, who completed her PhD in Planetary Geology at U of T last year, and Dr. Rebecca Ghent, Associate Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, suggests that large asteroids are colliding with Earth more frequently than before, and this change in frequency began around 290 million years ago.

While ‘asteroid’ typically refers to any celestial body composed of rock and metal which orbits the sun, the U of T study focused on rocks capable of creating craters greater than 20 kilometres in diameter.

The researchers found that the rate of collisions has more than doubled over the past 290 million years compared to the ones recorded 300–650 million years ago. However, this does not mean that collisions occur often. On average, these very large asteroids only hit Earth every few million years.

So what is out there?

Around 90 per cent of objects in our solar system that are 140 metres wide or larger have been found through NASA’s Near-Earth Objects (NEO) Observations Program.

Through this program, NASA maintains a list of large NEOs that could pose a risk to Earth, determined by factors such as the size, shape, orbit trajectory, mass, and rotational dynamics.

This list, and other planetary defence studies, are used to plan for collisions. Hypothetical efforts would focus on mitigating the effects of unpreventable impacts and implementing measures that can deflect or disrupt other NEOs. NASA’s current stance is that there are no major threats of a crash.

Looking ahead

In 2017, NASA’s Science Definition Team reaffirmed that objects that are 140 metres in diameter or smaller would only result in regional effects on impact. Large NEOs could have sub-global effects if they are 300 metres in diameter or larger, and global effects if they are one kilometre in diameter or larger.

As of 2019, over 19,000 NEOs have been discovered, compared to 10,000 in August 2013. Over 1,500 NEOs have been discovered each year since 2015, raising the possibility that objects that could pose a threat may be discovered in the future.

Although roughly two-thirds of large NEOs are estimated to be undiscovered, NEO detection continues to improve as technology advances.

A letter from the Science Editor SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

The impact of science journalism

Thank you to all the contributors, whether you’ve written one or a dozen articles.

Scientific discoveries aren’t conducted by one person, but by teams comprised of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students, visiting scientists, lab technicians, and more. The media often recognizes the principal investigator — often a professor — when new research is published, but seldom speaks with the lead author, who is often a graduate student, or other researchers on the team. After all, there’s a reason why publications have multiple authors.

With this in mind, I felt The Varsity should leverage its position as a student paper to publish content that is more reflective of U of

T’s diverse scientific community.

Javiera Duran has worked on a series of profiles on women in STEM over the volume.

Her profiles are intersectional and showcase the people behind the science at U of T. The section has also published a photo series on student researchers at U of T and highlights from the Arts and Science Students’ Union’s Research Conference.

Ashima Kaura, an Associate Science Editor, wrote on retractions in scientific journals in November. The feature-length article delves into the repercussions that scientists and their laboratories face when hit with a retraction, looking into the retraction process as a whole and how it varies from journal to journal.

After it was published, readers, including a U of T professor and a cancer patient, wrote to The Varsity, expressing gratitude and noting the importance of publishing an article on the double-edged nature of scientific retractions.

Since January, Ashima has spent weeks speaking with patients who have been affected by scientific misconduct. Her follow-up investigation comes out this month.

The response to Ashima’s article attests to the important role that journalism plays in our society, even at the student level.

Spencer Ki, an Associate Science Editor, has taken on the unofficial space beat. Spencer has covered talks to outreach activities led by the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics.

In her article on permafrost, Elizabeth

Emily Deibert Varsity Staff

Diversifying Healthcare This panel discussion, led by science communicator and PhD candidate Samantha Yammine, will feature leading health care experts who will talk about the importance of diversity in the field.

Date: Tuesday, April 2 Time: 4:00–6:00 pm Location: Centre for Urban Innovation, 44 Gerrard Street West Admission: Free with registration Cybersecurity in the Age of Espionage Join cybersecurity expert, author, and former FBI operative Eric O’Neill for a discussion on how technology is used by today’s cyber spies.

Date: Wednesday, April 3 Time: 6:30–8:30 pm Location: Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Bram & Bluma Appel Salon Admission: Free with registration

Reflecting on a year of bringing science out of the ivory towers

Over 100 articles, 23 issues, and one incredible team — I could not be more thankful to our readers and contributors for making the Science section a success this volume.

I once regretted pursuing a Professional Writing and Communication minor on top of my Biological Chemistry specialist. But now, more than ever, I’m thankful that I didn’t drop it. The writing skills that I’ve developed have complemented my work as an undergraduate researcher, and if we want to become better researchers, we must not neglect the arts.

What brought me to The Varsity was my love for science writing, but what has kept me here is the undeniable sense of community.

My fellow editors and staff at The Varsity have taught me more about journalism than I ever could have learnt at an academic institution.

Science Around Town

Benner explores the societal implications of a thawing permafrost. We often forget that climate change isn’t just a scientific issue, and we can’t file all articles on climate change under the Science section, because it’s a problem that will continue to impact every aspect of our lives.

Science doesn’t live in a bubble

Science isn’t objective, and it doesn’t exist in a bubble — it has a widespread cultural and societal impact.

What most of us consider science is Western science. However, while Indigenous people have contributed to science for generations, their findings often only make up a couple of pages of science textbooks, if at all.

As journalists, readers, and citizens, we are responsible for shifting this flawed narrative of scientific research.

Science is not a bunch of old white men in lab coats. It’s comprised of individuals of different races, genders, and abilities. Some of these researchers have learning or physical disabilities, or chronic illnesses. And although it often seems like it, science isn’t confined to a lab or a scientific journal. It’s our job as journalists to separate the science from the jargon and make it engaging and accessible for a non-expert audience.

The faster the scientific community learns to embrace the diverse community that it serves, the faster science will progress.

— Srivindhya Kolluru Science Editor, Volume CXXXIX

Mathematics for Survival Can we use mathematical models to predict the future of humanity? Mathematician Ivar Ekeland will discuss this possibility and the implications it may have for redirecting our future.

Date: Wednesday, April 3 Time: 6:00–7:00 pm Location: The Fields Institute, 222 College Street Admission: Free with registration The Meta Gamification of Everything: Software as Medicine Learn about how we can improve health care for all Canadians — and how video games may be part of the solution.

Date: Thursday, April 4 Time: 7:00–8:00 pm Location: Mississauga Central Library, 301 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Glass Pavilion Admission: Free with registration CRAM CRAM is a multidisciplinary learning festival made up of over 30 lectures across U of T, OCAD University, Ryerson University, and York University. Explore some of the world’s most exciting ideas and learn how they are revolutionizing our world.

Date: Friday, April 5 Time: 5:00–11:00 pm Location: U of T, OCAD University, Ryerson University, and York University Admission: Free, registration required for some events

Sports

April 1, 2019 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

The power of sport: how Mahal De La Durantaye’s passion created a movement

Graduating Blues basketball guard reflects on her career and bond with her sister

De La Durantaye played a key role over the course of her Varsity Blues career.

De La Durantaye is extremely active off the court in charitable ways.

Courtesy of MAHAL DE LA DURANTAYE

Courtesy of MAHAL DE LA DURANTAYE

Jaime McLaughlin Varsity Staff

‘Mahal’ is the Tagalog word for ‘love.’

It is also the first name of Varsity Blues women’s basketball player Mahal De La Durantaye, and it could not be more fitting.

De La Durantaye has been a fixture with the women’s basketball program for the past four years, recently wrapping up her last season in blue and white. The journey of the 22-year-old guard, a Neuroscience and Global Health double major, stands in stark contrast to that of a run-of-the-mill U of T student athlete.

Part of what makes her unique is her heartfelt passion and purpose. Beyond her strength as a competitor and love of all things hoops — which often has her wreaking havoc while guarding the other team’s best players — her extensive dedication to grassroots organizations and their initiatives, and her bond with her sister Destiny, Mahal’s heart sets her apart from her fellow peers.

Brave beginnings

On any given weekday afternoon, one can typically find Mahal’s familiar face perched on the rafters of the Kimel Family Field House at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.

Her usual attire? Hoodie, sweats, and a messy bun. Typical student athlete behaviour for a not-so-typical student athlete.

She grew up in a mixed FrenchCanadian and British household of four, raised by parents Sherri Jones and Robert De La Durantaye along with her younger sister Destiny, who is two years her junior.

Adopted at the age of five, she moved a total of seven times during her upbringing, attending 13 different schools along the way — mostly before she reached fourth grade.

It was a situation that could have made it easy for Mahal and her sister to grow up lacking a real sense of community or lasting opportunity.

However, Mahal’s parents — especially her mother, who she cites as her role model — were determined to ensure

that their two girls had the chance to pursue their dreams no matter what.

Her parents’ “open-mindedness” and the “language” they used to discuss her identity — including Mahal’s “adoption… ethnicity… [her] history [and her] family” — clearly affected how Mahal internalized her understanding of empowerment from an early age.

From the little things — like her father, a former MTV employee, playing “culturally appropriate music,” or her mom ensuring she had the right care products for her hair — to more prominent incidents, such as her mom fighting for her to be able to participate in a Filipino basketball tournament that she had been denied entry to due to being mixed race, Mahal felt a sense of pride in her ancestral identity growing up.

Mahal shares a particularly close bond with her sister, Destiny, who is now 19.

“My younger sister Destiny grew up with a learning difference, so I’ve always been protective of her. I didn’t want anyone picking on her at school.”

Inspired by Destiny’s courage and will to overcome adversity, Mahal picked her neuroscience major partially to honour her bond with her sister.

Her first encounter with basketball came in the fourth grade.

She began to pursue the game more intensely during the onset of her high school days, but she never missed an opportunity to provide mentorship to others through her school.

In grade 10, she began her own basketball mentorship program for younger girls at The Linden School, the majority of whom were in the fourth grade. In her senior year, she had the chance to travel to Havana for a cultural and sports exchange.

She found herself impressed by the skill level of the Cuban athletes as well as Havana’s cultural and historical significance. More importantly, it was a profound moment where “despite the language barrier, it was amazing how we all still got to bond through sport.”

Student of the world Coming into university, Mahal relied

on basketball to ground her as she adjusted to the new pace of her daily life.

“I definitely needed it for structure… I just needed it. It was a good transition, coming into university,” she reflected.

Following a productive first year in which she averaged around 19 minutes per game, Mahal found herself in unfamiliar territory when she suffered a season-ending ACL tear just days away from the start of her sophomore campaign. “[It] was the hardest thing ever…

Bouncing back and having people doubt you… that was just a whole other struggle that I had to overcome.”

And while it gave her a “new perspective” on the game, she also admits that the injury continued to pose a hurdle to her game in the years to come. “Even by my fourth year, I still hadn’t come back to me fully.”

Undeterred by adversity, Mahal found meaningful ways to cement a legacy as a leader. This past season — her fourth with the program, and third of eligibility — she was second on the team in steals, and registered 13 starts.

She recorded a career best in total minutes played during the season, and was one of only four players to see action in all 23 of the team’s regular season games. She was counted on for leadership, energy, hustle, and a rebounding presence, and was often in the thick of things during game-changing momentum shifts.

Off the court, however, Mahal’s exhaustive dedication to campus and community life during her four years thus far at U of T has been nothing short of remarkable.

On top of the rigorous schedule that student athlete status demands, Mahal has also involved herself in nearly too many initiatives to count: she’s done educational outreach programs for elementary-aged children, like Blues Buddy Up and Brain Waves; she’s been a program coordinator for the Canadian Sport Film Festival; and she has volunteered with the Brampton Northwest Connects Special game.

She currently mentors youth as a development coach with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, part of the

Toronto Raptors organization, and is a three-year member and current copresident of U of T’s varsity board, which advocates for student athletes.

She’s also currently working on developing an outreach program through the varsity board with the YMCA, which would set up sports skills clinics for underprivileged youth.

Amazingly, on top of all of this, she has also found time somewhere in there to fit in her job as a referee for U of T’s intramurals.

Her incredible commitment to impactful, positive change is punctuated by one experience in particular. Last year, for the month of May, Mahal traveled to Middelpos Farm in Western Cape, South Africa, where she worked with Inspire Children & Youth, a local grassroots non-profit whose mission is to diminish rural poverty.

After weeks of planning — and packing “two extra suitcases” — Mahal found herself immersed in the organization’s day-to-day operations as a program facilitator and assistant youth worker. She was a key cog in implementing positive, permanent changes, such as a “brain-shaped food garden.”

She also single-handedly built a multipurpose athletic court from the ground up to provide opportunities for the kids to play organized sport.

It was a life-changing experience, to say the least. It solidified Mahal’s belief in the power of sport to impact lives and create change, and gave her a unique opportunity to apply her academic knowledge of neuroscience to a real-life situation.

The next chapter

Mahal’s playing days in blue and white may be over, but she’s only just beginning the next exciting chapter of her life.

Building on her extensive service work and social action, Mahal recently started her Power of Sport initiative. Her Instagram portfolio, @thepowerofsport_, was created out of a desire to build an accessible platform that would showcase herself, her experience, and her vision, while simultaneously acting as a point of

connection and a conversation starter among other non-profit organizations and initiatives.

Captain and fellow graduating player Keyira Parkes, who has known Mahal for about 12 years, described her as a “superhuman” who is a “passionate and considerate leader” with immense insight. “She has a huge heart and always finds way to help people or better a community just because. That is what is unique about her… She has really been an inspiration to me.”

Mahal’s passion for travel has taken her to Italy, the Philippines, Uganda, and South Africa, among other countries. Her love of neuroscience and youth empowerment have immersed her in countless community-led opportunities. And above all, her vision and belief in “the power of sport” are a beautiful combination of all three.

After all, it is a dream rooted in so many affirming instances of reality.

From her formative years, in which basketball was a force that brought her family closer together and bridged a language and cultural gap, to her more recent experiences — such as the permanent changes she implemented in a rural community on the other side of the world — her experiences truly embody the amazing “power of sport.”

Mahal’s successes are a direct result of years of blood, sweat, and tears poured into her greatest passions.

Nothing has been an accident: her given name, Mahal, was chosen strategically by her birth mother to ensure that she wouldn’t “forget that she loved [Mahal], no matter where she went.”

Similarly, her middle name, Namuimbwa, was selected specifically as a means of maintaining a strong, unbreakable connection to her Ugandan roots, to make sure that “no one would forget” and that she would never be separated from her ancestral line.

It was only fitting that a young woman whose names represent love and strength embodies those two qualities to a premium.

Two extraordinary names for an extraordinary person. The basketball gods could not have predicted it any better.

APRIL 1, 2019 | 21

var.st/sports

Catching up with Blues two-sport star Emily Principe Principe plays a key role on Blues fencing and rowing teams

Principe led the Blues rowing team to an OUA Championship in 2018.

Courtesy of AUSTIN SHIH

Vanda Mayer Associate Sports Editor

A few years after Emily Principe’s parents refused to buy her a horse, she became the youngest épée fencer to win the senior Australian national competition at 17.

Principe’s passion for fencing started with the modern pentathlon, which seemed like a natural direction because it combined her swimming, running, and horseback-riding abilities, while not requiring her to own a horse.

“Modern pentathlon,” she explains, “is one of the oldest Olympic sports and consists of five events: running, shooting, swimming, horse-riding (show jumping) and fencing. Part of the challenge is that competitors are randomly assigned unfamiliar horses to compete on rather than having to bring their own.”

Easier still, the fencing club was only 15 minutes away from her house.

Principe started at a small club called Rozelle Fencers in her native New South Wales, Australia. She describesthe club with fondness and respect. “It was an awesome little community club that was run by a fierce woman, Frances Stone, who was already in her nineties when I met her… The community vibe was a supportive place to start fencing and had many older fencers who were full of wisdom.”

The club’s size, however, meant that it strictly offered foil fencing, and by 2013, Principe was consistently beating all her older club mates. In search of a new challenge, she turned

to épée, and Stone encouraged the switch on the condition that Principe would be coached by Simon Jin, who was the head coach at the much bigger University of Technology Sydney fencing club.

Principe’s subsequent successes in épée did not stop her from revisiting Rozelle until the small club closed in 2017.

The importance of support throughout Principe’s career is clear when she recalls her fondest memories of fencing. When asked about the highlights of her career, she responds with, “Winning a senior Australian national competition at the age of 17, making me the youngest épée fencer to ever do so. I was fortunate to have my mother, coach, and teammates at that competition supporting me.”

“The day before had been the Under-23 national event and I had done poorly. Being able to shift my mindset and turn around my fencing to post such a strong performance the following day was very gratifying.”

She adds that succeeding with many of the people who supported and contributed to her accomplishments in the stands was a great feeling.

As for what’s kept her there?

“While I don’t consider myself to be at all violent, stabbing someone with a weapon is quite satisfying.”

What distinguishes Principe from many other high-level athletes is that she excels at not one, but two sports.

Her motivation to start rowing, unrelated to her parents’ unwillingness to buy a horse, was pursued as a way to make friends after she moved to a new school at the start of seventh

grade. Principe recalls, “I was the only new student from my primary school that moved to my new school. I also had not grown up in the area and so did not know anyone in my grade. In order to make friends, and fast, I figured that I would join a sports team or two.” Like many other rowers, her height gave her an advantage, and the team environment kept her there.

While her fondest memories of fencing link back to hard-earned victories, her rowing experience is more about people than it is about trophies. Specifically, Principe highlights Barbara Ramjan and Anne Craig, her two old rowing coaches who also coached the para-rowing squad at her club during high school.

“Given the amount of time that Barbara and Anne had put into me, I wanted to give back some of my time to them and so volunteered to help with their para-rowers.” She mentioned that during her volunteering, she rowed with a visually-impaired rower named Sam, who up until then primarily rowed alone, and so was nervous about partnering.

Principe says, “Throughout our session I could see Sam relax and we even managed to strike up a conversation in between pieces. Once we were off the water, Sam thanked me for my time and said that it had been the best on-water experience that he had ever had.’” That experience has been impactful, since she was able to give back to her rowing community.

It may seem odd that her fondest memory of rowing, a sport frequently associated with a degree of mechanic monotony, is shaped so strongly by

the connection between people. Principe enjoys the objectivity of rowing, but she also notes that the best indoor rowing times and wins “tend to blend together into being good seasons or fast crews.”

In fact, the importance of the people who surround her is the most consistent theme raised. Regarding her successes in individual épée, she explains that “given fencing is an open-skill sport, much of my training is done directly against other athletes. Accordingly, I feel that my teammates contribute significantly to my individual success.”

What led her to successes like the Ontario University Athletics gold medal for individual épée, a silver in the épée team event, and the consistent strong performances in rowing?

“I have been lucky to have some particularly knowledgeable and supportive coaches that have been instrumental in helping me to better myself both as an athlete but also as a person. My teammates not only help me to train but also are a source of motivation, accountability and support.”

Her parents, her teammates, Stone and Jin, Ramjan and Craig, Sam: these are only a few of the people she singles out when she discusses her performances in two sports that are more individual than they are teambased. The importance of these people lies beyond her athletic achievements — they did not just shape her as an athlete, but as a person.

Her hard work is clear in her preparations for competitions, both rowing and fencing. As a rower, she

reviews her race plan meticulously “to know exactly where I am going to be pushing and what sort of pace I am looking to maintain.” For fencing, she keeps a notebook in which she writes down all of her competitors’ names, their go-to offensive and defensive manoeuvres, and what she can do to combat these moves. She exhibits a studious ruthlessness that can only truly be associated with competition.

Although competing in two varsity sports can be taxing both mentally and physically, Principe does not struggle with identifying both as a rower and a fencer. Instead, the differences in the two sports appear to complement each other to provide both excitement and a team environment.

On the differences, Principe explains, “I really love the team aspect of rowing and the objectivity of it.

Ultimately, if you’re willing to put in the work then the results will come.

As well, the feeling when a crew is perfectly in sync and the boat starts to hum is wild! It feels like what I imagine flying to be like. Fencing, on the other hand, is more enjoyable to train for, as the training tends to change session to session.”

As Principe’s season draws to a close, she is already looking toward next season’s goals. One source of her inspiration: “I think that my parents always taught me not to stop until I am satisfied, or I simply cannot go further.” Based on her relentless athleticism, hard work, and dedication, it seems Principe has not yet reached this point.

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“We fear for our lives”: Jack O. Denton spirals as he contemplates losing access to Listserv Farcity members describe culture of paranoia, constant emails this is her problem now Member of Listserv

Members of The Farcity masthead and U of T community have been growing increasingly concerned about outgoing Editor-in-Chief Jack O. Denton’s mental state as he anticipates losing access to the U of T Listserv.

In recent days, Denton has been heard muttering “Hello members of Varsity Publications” nonstop under his breath while motioning typing actions.

“I wouldn’t usually be worried by this because he’s been greeting everyone with ‘hello member of Varsity Publications’ for the past five months,” said Managing Editor Toot Coin. “But now he’s started referring to inanimate objects as ‘members of Varsity Publications.’ How am I supposed to know which artisanal craft beer he wants when he calls both

of them the same thing?”

Admin of the U of T Memes for @UofTmemes Facebook group Karjun Aul revealed to The Farcity that he and his fellow admins had received approximately 15 messages a day from Denton in the past month.

“At first, the messages were just Denton thanking us for the Jack O’Lantern Denton memes, but now I would liken them more to the dying gasps of a desperate man,” said Aul. “In his last message, he offered us his firstborn child in exchange for us continuing to post memes about him.”

Regular U of T students have also become aware of the “ticking time bomb” that is Denton, as Arts & Culture Editor Kayshee Seal described him.

Trinity College student Digby Connery said that on Sunday night at 3:00 am, he passed by 21 Sussex Avenue and saw a figure on the third floor engaging in what he could

only describe as “vaguely satanic rituals.”

“It looked like he had tied a computer to a stake and set it on fire while performing dad dance moves around it,” said Connery. “I had actually just burned someone at the stake a few days prior and I was very impressed by his form.”

When reached for comment, Denton was found sprawled in a corner of his office, wallpapered in email printouts, nursing a beer, and wearing a shirt fashioned out of more email printouts.

“Hello members of Varsity Publications,” slurred Denton. “I hope this email finds you well.”

If students encounter Denton in public, Campus Police advises people to avoid using the words “hello,” “members,” “Varsity,” “email,” and “Listserv.”

APRIL 1, 2019 | 3

Science Around Town

23&1/2

Please don’t opt out Varsity Contributor

Avengers: Endgame Premiere In this follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed documentary, an international team of applied sociologists process the results of a NeoMalthusian experiment gone awry. What will happen when Malthus’ proposals in An Essay on the Principle of Population are tested on large sample sizes?

Date: Friday, April 26 Time: 12:00 am (speculative) Location: Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas, 10 Dundas Street East, Unit #402 Admission: Starting at $12.99 Important Scientists’ Meeting: Sciencey Science Talk Did you know that an important scientist recently made a discovery? Come learn about this important scientist’s research during the Important Science Society’s official science ceremony where the scientist shall receive the important science award from other important scientists.

Date: Weekday, Month Day Time: A reasonable time for most attendants Location: Somewhere easily accessible Admission: Free with registration that won’t actually be checked Antivaxxer Society 1st Annual Appreciation Ceremony All proudly unvaccinated individuals are invited to an appreciation party taking place in the heart of Manila, Philippines. Activities include sharing drinking vessels, kissing competitions, and listening to the dry coughs of the 21,396 Filipinos currently suffering from the worst measles outbreak on the planet.

Minors are not permitted.

Date: Wednesday, April 31 Time: At your earliest convenience Location: Manila, followed by a three-week, nonstop cruise across the Pacific Ocean Admission: Free, subsidised by the Antivaxxer Society The Heat Death of the Universe Come take the first look at the long-anticipated total thermodynamic equilibrium lasting for the remainder of eternity. Bring a flashlight, as maximum entropy of the universe can be pretty dark.

Date: Wednesday, May 1, 2.019 x 10100 Time: 6:42 pm Location: Literally everywhere Admission: Free, attendance mandatory for all in existence Introduction of Top-Notch Mental Health Services at the University of Toronto After the ultimate end of all possible activity in the totality of the cosmos, the University of Toronto is proud to be finally introducing useful and readily available tools for distressed students. RSVP and formal dress required for the opening ceremony.

Date: 13 days after the Heat Death of the Universe Time: 27:00 pm Location: Nowhere around here, that’s for sure Admission: No, probably not

2 | THE FARCITY

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if you're reading this u/lanklord, you hurt my feelings every time you say defund the varsity. and also screw you u/purgetheleft

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F April 1, 2019

THE FARCITY Hello members of Farcity Publications, we hope this issue finds you well

GERIC MERTLER TRIES, FAILS TO MAKE IT FROM BADER TO SID SMITH IN 10 MINUTES

Geric Mertler secretly disappointed no one bribed their way into U of T

No one indicted in Operation Varsity Blues wanted to be on the Varsity Blues Petite Steve Buscemi Farcity Contributor

U of T President Geric Mertler has been deeply disappointed to learn that none of the rich and famous indicted in the college admissions scandal Operation Varsity Blues were attempting to bribe their way into U of T, sources from inside Simcoe Hall told The Farcity.

On the morning of March 12, Mertler was seen chuckling to himself and muttering about how he could not wait to see which celebrities had attempted to get their children into the elite athletic program of the Varsity Blues. “I never would have described Geric as gleeful before that day,” said a source. “Urban theorists aren’t really known for their glee.”

“Boundless really put us on the map,” Mertler said early on that day, according to the source. “Watch out USC, we’re coming for you!”

Mertler’s mood sank over the

course of the day, as it became clear that no one involved in the scandal had attempted to gain acceptance to U of T. In fact, there is no evidence to suggest that U of T was ever mentioned as a school worthy of scamming your way into.

At 4:56 pm, Mertler informed his staff that they would be having a 5:00 pm meeting to discuss why no one had attempted to bribe their way into U of T. “It’s in the fucking name,” Mertler said, according to a source who wished to remain anonymous but whose name rhymes with Meryl Traeger. “Varsity Blues. How do you fuck that up?”

The Farcity has obtained a recording of the meeting. Mertler can be heard asking staff to suggest reasons why U of T was not seen as prestigious or elite enough to justify Alist celebrities bribing their children in. One staff member opened with a list of reasons U of T might not have come to mind, citing the cold,

Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil wins true lue 2019 library bracket

campus closure policy, lack of mental health resources, the school’s nickname being ‘U of Tears,’ and other areas of popular discontent. The staff member was immediately fired.

Several staff members from within the Office of the President reported that the work environment has been tense since the scandal broke. “He’s been watching a lot of YouTube makeup tutorials,” one employee said.

“Every so often, he emerges from his office and yells, ‘WHERE IS MY OLIVIA JADE?’” Sources say that Mertler has been investigating buying a yacht to entice prospective celebrity students.

The Farcity has reached out to Mertler’s office to ask whether or not he has heard of or seen the 1999 classic American coming-of-age film Varsity Blues, starring James van der Beek as a gifted quarterback with a heart of gold who is dissatisfied with life in his small Texas hometown, but as of press time, has received no response.

Credit card statements reveal student union spent all Student Commons funds at Northrop Frye McDonald’s

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UTSG students consider giving up superiority complex in exchange for snow days at UTM Motel Robarts not doing well on Yelp UofT memes for freezing cold teens srsly it’s cold

Many students studying at UTSG are plagued by thoughts of abandoning their sense of superiority to transfer to UTM. These thoughts are the result of UTSG rarely closing despite harsh weather conditions, whereas both UTM and UTSC cancelled classes and closed campus this past winter.

“I never thought I’d say this,” said a frostbitten student who transferred to UTSG from UTM after his first year, his teeth chattering, “but maybe I made the wrong decision.”

UTM has frequently been the subject of ridicule from UTSG students, who dislike the campus’s airy, naturally-lit modern architecture because it clashes with their ‘inner darkness.’ But with temperatures dropping low but not low enough for UTSG to close, however, downtown students are rethinking their inbred disdain of UTM. “I’m sorry I ever made fun of UTM,” a student shouted while fighting off squirrels attacking his Queen’s Park igloo.

“The deer at UTM wouldn’t do this to me.”

Incoming students disappointed to find they can’t opt out of depression

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“I’ve never been happier to be a UTM student than I have been this year,” wrote a UTM student to The Farcity from the comfort of his warm bed on one of the snow days. “All those memes I had to force myself to laugh react to, all those times I told people I went to U of T without mentioning UTM… no more.”

U of T Vice-President & Provost Rheryl Chegehr, who is involved in deciding campus status at UTSG during harsh weather conditions, acknowledged the criticisms during a Governing Council meeting earlier this semester, though the tone of her voice suggested that she did not really care, instead suggesting that UTSG students could always stay at the John P. Robarts Research Library if weather prevents them from getting home.

“I don’t want to stay overnight at Robarts,” responded a student who pays an exorbitant amount of money to sleep in a rat-infested Annex-area basement apartment that keeps getting flooded. “It’s too hard to fall asleep there with so many students crying nearby.”

As of press time, U of T has not disclosed how many UTSG students have requested to transfer to UTM.

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