March 30, 2020

March 30, 2020

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Vol. CXL, No. 23

2

THE VARSITY

NEWS

news@thevarsity.ca

Through thick and thin

The Varsity

MASTHEAD Josie Kao Editor-in-Chief

editor@thevarsity.ca

Julie Shi Creative Director Ibnul Chowdhury Managing Editor Ilya Bañares Managing Online Editor

creative@thevarsity.ca managing@thevarsity.ca online@thevarsity.ca

Ori Gilboa Senior Copy Editor

copy@thevarsity.ca

Andy Takagi News Editor

news@thevarsity.ca

Angela Feng Comment Editor Stephanie Bai Features Editor Kashi Syal Arts & Culture Editor Adam A. Lam Science Editor

comment@thevarsity.ca features@thevarsity.ca arts@thevarsity.ca science@thevarsity.ca

Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor Srivindhya Kolluru Business Editor Megan Brearley Deputy Senior Copy Editor Kathryn Mannie Deputy News Editor

sports@thevarsity.ca biz@thevarsity.ca deputysce@thevarsity.ca deputynews@thevarsity.ca

William Xiao Design Editor

williamx@thevarsity.ca

Aditi Putcha Design Editor

aditi@thevarsity.ca

Dina Dong Photo Editor

photos@thevarsity.ca

Iris Deng Illustration Editor

illustration@thevarsity.ca

Nathalie Whitten Video Editor

video@thevarsity.ca

Kevin Lu Front End Web Developer

kevin@thevarsity.ca

Stephanie Zhang Back End Web Developer

stephanie@thevarsity.ca

Osobe Waberi Public Editor

Jacob Harron, Nicola Lawford Associate Senior Copy Editors

publiceditor@thevarsity.ca

The masthead would also like to thank all of The Varsity’s staff and contributors!

Laura Ashwood, Sara Fredo Associate Sports Editors

Lauren Alexander, Hannah Carty, Mikaela Toone Nicole Shi Associate News Editors Associate Business Editor Hafsa Ahmed, Nadine Waiganjo Associate Comment Editor

Vacant Associate Design Editor

Jadine Ngan Associate Features Editor

Victoria Lee, Samantha Yao Associate Photo Editors

Liam Bryant Associate A&C Editor

Fiona Tung Associate Illustration Editor

Javiera Gutierrez Duran, Tahmeed Shafiq Associate Science Editors

Haley Sheh Associate Video Editor

Lead Copy Editors Valeria Khudiakova, Khyrsten Mieras, Maya Morriswala, Nawa Tahir Copy Editors Fatima Abdulla, Marta Anielska, Alessia Baptista, Celeste Browning, Isabella McKay, Jla Starr Johnson, Eva Wissting Cover Julie Shi

BUSINESS OFFICE Algimantas Janusis Business Manager

business@thevarsity.ca

Nicole Qian Advertising Executive

nicoleq@thevarsity.ca

The Varsity is the University of Toronto’s largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock. Content © 2020 by The Varsity.

All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the sections associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity reserves the right to edit all submissions.

Inquiries regarding ad sales can be made to ads@thevarsity. ca. ISSN: 0042-2789

Fatima Abdulla, Abhya Adlakha, Alia Aghaeinia, Jordan Aharoni, Reena Ahluwalia, Amena Ahmed, Safa Ahmed, Muntaka Ahmed, William Ahn, Khachig Ainteblian, Khatchig Ainteblian, Efe Akan, Aiman Akmal, Pamela Alamilla, Saeda Ali, Rayyan Alibux, Jerusha Alvares, Firaz Alvarez, Olivia Anderson-Clarke, Haleigh Andrew, Marta Anielska, Chelsea Anthony, Ateeqa Arain, Theo Arbez, Adrian Areco, Asal Arefi, Yasmeen Atassi, Umme Nafisa Ayesha, Matthew Azevedo, Marian Aziz, Aanya Bahl, Sophia Bai, Brooklyn Baly, Alessia Baptista, Victoria Barclay, Joana Bargas, Matt Barrett, Keely Bastow, Alex Bayliss, Sunniva Bean, Elizabeth Benner, Vaibhav Bhandari, Debasmita Bhattacharya, Caroline Biel, Vicky Bilbily, Toryanse Blanchard, Jonathan Blumenthal, Nadia Boachie, Hannah Boonstra, Angela Bosenius, Joshua Bowman, Danielle Browne, Celeste Browning, Willow Cabral, Simon Capobianco, Mia Carnevale, Eloisa Cervantes, Isabella Cesari, Yousef Chaparian, Linda Chen, Rachel E Chen, Veean Chen, Coco Chen, George Chen, Keith Cheng, Vivian Cheng, Darren Cheng, Tammy Cheng, Amanda Cheung, Belicia Chevolleau, Nathan Ching, Sidney Choi, Mayesha Chowdhury, Paige Chu, Joshua Chua, Skylar Chueng, Reut Cohen, Martin Concagh, Aleksa Cosovic, Julia Costanzo, Tania Damico, Rachel DeGasperis, Emily Deibert, Ryan Delorme, Jack Denton, Angad Deol, Kirtana Devaraj, Vanshika Dhawan, Anita Ding, Christina Ditlof, Christina Ditlof, Joseph Donato, Hannah Dunn, Amelia Eaton, Megan Ebreo, Sandakie Ekanayake, Sila

Naz Elgin, Emma Ellingwood, Ann Marie Elpa, Sherry Eskander, Ameera Essebar, Nicole Eun-Ju Bell, Andre Fajardo, Joy Fan, Tif Fan, Zhiyi (Alice) Fang, Katya Fedorovskaya, Alison Feise, Cappucine Ferguson, Riel Flack, Sarah Folk, Nubaira Forkan, Michelle Fornasier, Elena Foulidis, Ted Fraser, Ruth Frogoso, Ruilin Fu, Matthew Gene, Nicole Giebler, Katya Godwin, Conroy Gomes, Anastasiya Gordiychuk, Will Gotlib, Lucas Granger, Rue Guhathakurta, Mohammad Haddadnia, Ava Harrington, Padideh Hassanpour, Isobel Heintzman, Neeharika Hemrajani, Ali Hendricks, Julianna Hendricks, Amira Higazy, Randa Higazy, Dean Hiler, Albert Hoang, Milly Hong, Julia HookongTaylor, Jinyu Hou, Ashley Howard, Shanna Hunter, Emily Hurmizi, Erblin Hysi, Faria Jahan, Trisha Jain, Hikmat Jamal, Yasamin Jameh, Yasamin Jameh, Adela Jeon, Yoon-Ji Kweon, Jla Starr Johnson, Kelly Anne Johnson, Holly Johnstone, Charlie Jupp-Adams, Kiki Kalochoridis, Med Kane, Ryu Won Kang, Chloe Kapenen, Mehran Karimzadeh, Diya Katra, Rachel Keir, George Kell, Annika Keller, Mary Katharine Kennedy, Harry Khachatrian, Sameeha Khan, Shahd Fulath Khan, Valeria Khudiakova, Spencer Ki, Jaylin Kim, Michelle Kim, Grace King, Frida Kitz, Zach Koh, Michelle Krasovitski, Michelle Krasovitski, Keenan Krause, Sadie Kromm, Sarah Kronenfeld, Peter Kuitenbrouwer, Hadiyyah Kuma, Janus Kwong, Jacky Lai, Charis Lam, Hannah Lank, Paul Jerard Layug, Michal Leckie, Matthew Lee, Seoyeon Lee, Marissa Lee, Stephanie Lee, Melina Levesque, Alex

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the.varsity

@TheVarsity

Our news team, led by Andy Takagi and Kathryn Mannie, doggedly covered the issues that mattered to students, whether it be the mental health crisis or COVID-19.

In hard numbers, we set an all-time record for reaching the one million unique pageview mark on February 1, and over the year we’ve gained more than 1.5 million unique pageviews in total. We had over 400 contributors this year, of whom 100 were staff, and I’m grateful to each and every one of them.

To say that I am proud of the work that we accomplished this year would be an understatement, and yet I’ll be the first to admit that many mistakes were made. Achieving a more equitable workplace and content output was my main goal for this year, but this is, of course, a goal that can never be fully realized.

‘Equity’ is not about publishing one article and patting ourselves on the back, but about continually putting in the work to bridge the gap between The Varsity and the communities we cover. The Varsity has rightly received fair criticisms for failures in the past, but it’s still worth acknowledging progress in the present.

This should not be your main takeaway of our work this year, but I’m one of the few — if not the only — women of colour to have had the privilege of running The Varsity. But I wouldn’t have been able to achieve my dream without the work of those who came before me. Therefore, I hope that the foundations we have laid this year will ensure that anyone can see themselves in this position in the future. Being the first shouldn’t matter, so long as you’re not also the last.

Speaking of our achievements, I want to thank the masthead, who never failed to impress me with their wisdom and generosity.

To Ilya, Ibnul, Julie, Al, Ori, Andy, Angela, Kashi, Stephanie, Adam, Silas, Vindhya, Me-

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thevarsitynewspaper

Four years ago, I stood nervously in the hallways outside of The Varsity’s offices, trying to work up the courage to go inside a space that I so longed to be a part of. I left the office that day thinking that perhaps it wasn’t the place for me; perhaps this terrifying institution wasn’t where I belonged.

Years later, I’ve now had the privilege and honour of leading The Varsity for one volume of its long, 140-year history. However, it took many articles and breakdowns for me to realize that The Varsity could be a home for me, and capable of helping students express their visions for a more equitable U of T. Yet to the average U of T student, the newspaper may be a distant afterthought, if they ever think of it at all.

But even if you go through your entire degree without ever picking up a copy of the paper, that doesn’t mean that you have been unaffected by its work. Change does happen at U of T, hard as that may be to believe, and one driver of that change is student media.

Every week, I have watched as our editors and contributors ceaselessly push The Varsity — and by extension, U of T — to be the best that it can be.

Comment Editor Angela Feng moulded her section into a place where students could freely criticize accessibility concerns of all kinds, from late withdrawals, to sick notes, to laptop bans.

Managing Editor Ibnul Chowdhury and Senior Copy Editor Ori Gilboa dedicated their entire year to creating our behemoth of an equity guide, which I hope can act as a standard of excellence for mastheads to come.

Features Editor Stephanie Bai made the best out of the Student Choice Initiative, because of which we lost our print magazines, and published a stunning digital magazine that has been a creative outlet for dozens of contributors.

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thevarsity.ca

A letter from Josie Kao, Editor-in-Chief 2019–2020

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Vol. CXL, No. 23 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600

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AK YT

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gan, Kathryn, Will, Aditi, Dina, Iris, Nathalie, Kevin, Stephanie, Nicole, and our many associates, correspondents, and columnists: thank you for giving me the great honour of working with you this past year and bearing witness to your incredible contributions. I’ll never forget our late night font changes, mysterious Shringle appearances, or questionable Slack emojis.

Thanks is also owed to my predecessors, Jack, Jacob, and Alex, for their endless encouragement and guidance.

To Ilya, thank you for the many good times and late nights we shared in this Varsity journey.

To Ibnul, thank you for your level-headed wisdom that never failed in times of crisis. To Al, thank you for your neverending good humour and dependability. And finally, to Julie, thank you for being my moral and music compass — I don’t know where I would be without you.

I know that The Varsity’s hope for a more equitable future is safe in the hands of my capable successor, Ibnul. Ibnul’s sound judgment and clear-eyed vision gives me perfect confidence in his ability to lead the paper through another year of ups and downs.

I’ve said nearly all the thank-yous I’ve wanted to say, but I’ll end with one final expression of gratitude: thank you to you, our readers, for sticking with us through thick and thin.

— Josie Kao Editor-in-Chief, Volume CXL

Levesque, Edward Li, Bryan Liceralde, Janice Liu, Catherine Lu, Jianing Lu, Annie Lu, Ingrid Ma, Emily MacCallum, Tsiti Macherera, Ian Mack, Yehia Mahdi, Tara Mahoney, Redwan Majumder, Ashley Manou, Krisha Mansukhani, Lina Maragha, Stephane Martin Demers, Abril Masola, Kody McCann, Victoria Mccutcheon, Jesse McDougall, Victoria McIntyre, Isabella McKay, Morgan McKay, Hayley McKay, Jaime McLaughlin, Kristal Menguc, Khyrsten Mieras, Fatima Minhas, Agata Mociani, Krishna Moda, Yasaman Mohaddes, Fatima Mohamed, Sana Mohsin, Claire Moon, Maya Morriswala, George Moshenski-Dubov, Leah Mpinga, Oviya Muralidharan, Tasneem Murtaza, Rehana Mushtaq, Luc Mvono, Makena Mwenda, Kassandra Naranjan, Jess Nash, Veronika Nayir, Joel Ndongmi, Bao Li Ng, Gina Nicoll, Hannah Nie, Stefan Ninkovic, Elham Numan, Dermot O'Halloran, Huda Obaid, Shivani Ohja, Clara Osei-Yeboah, Anna Osterberg, Kayla Paciocco, Jenna Palombi, Margaret Pareira, James Patrick, Laura Peberdy, Ana Pereira, Therese Perucho, Karel Peters, Diana Pham, Michael Phoon, Rakhshan Pirooz, Anastasia Pitcher, Elisa Pugliess, Annie Qian, Lauren Quant, Anya Rakhecha, Indu Rammohan, Tasmiyah Randaree, Rochelle Raveendran, Dante Ravenhearst, Roshni Ravi, Andrew Raya, Kate Reeve, Zeahaa Rehman, Jack Rendall, Jacqueline Renee, Fiona Reuter, Sana Rizvi, Mick Robertson, Alexander Robinson, Alexander Robinson, Stuti Roy, Vincent Ruan, Kartik Rudra, Taylor Ryan, Tamara Saadi, Yana Sadeghi, Nouran Sakr, Kashaf Salaheen, Rosalia Samuel, Barry Sangha, Haya Sardar, Emily Saso, Nicole Schwab, Lindsay Selliah, Rojan Shaeri, Kavya Shah, Shaina Sharma, Ambika Sharma, Shehryar Shaukat, Abdus Shuman, Farheen Sikandar, Brandon Silver, Kaitlyn Simpson, Olivia Smith, Sophia Spiteri, Narthaanan Srimurugathasan, Caitlin Stange, Lucy Stark, Oscar Starschild, Maya Sternthal, Harper Stewart, Jennifer Su, Nawa Tahir, Andrea Tambunan, Tahasun Tarannum, Beverly Teng, Laura Tennant, Michael Teoh, Jing Tey, Swadhi Thanabalasingam, Clara Thaysen, Jeffrey To, Dana Tors, Vidhi Trivedi, Ava Truthwaite, Lauren Turner, Vinayak Tuteja, Vinayak Tuteja, Aman Udeshi, Sona Uppal, Marium Vahed, Eddie Vargas, Eran Vijayakumar, Shankeri Vijayakumar, Imran VIrani, Lolita Vorobyeva, Long Vuong, Harmanraj Wadhwa, Chunxiao (Shirley) Wan, Teresa Wang, Rilla Wang, Eddy Wang, Michelle Wang, Jennifer Wang, Abigail Whitney, T Williams, Devon Wilton, Eva Wissting, Sabrina Wu, Tina Ye, Xin Yi Lim, Andy Yin, Kevin Yin, Helen Yoon, Sayeh Yousefi, Emily Yu, James Yuan, Maarya Zafar, Francesco Zangari, Aileen Zara, Anji Zhang, Madelin Zhang, Oliver Zhao, Amy Zhao, Tian Zheng, Jennifer Zhong, Lucinda Zhu, Meghan Zulian, and Sven.

var.st/news

MARCH 30, 2020

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U of T medical students launch Toronto Student COVID-19 Response Team

Students across the GTA have volunteered more than 400 hours to help health care providers Randa Higazy Varsity Staff

A group of students in medicine, nursing, and other health care-related fields at U of T have started a Toronto Student COVID-19 Response Team to help front-line workers fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative offers assistance with child care, grocery shopping, food and coffee delivery, pet-sitting, and running other errands in an effort to alleviate some of the recent pressures that health care providers are facing.

Daniel Lee and Jordi Klein, both U of T medical students, launched the response team by reaching out to classmates to see if they were willing to help.

Lauren Beck, another U of T medical student who serves as a volunteer coordinator and internal communications director for the initiative, described the outpouring of support from fellow students in an email to The Varsity.

“Within an hour there were dozens of responses,” Beck wrote. “All of us helping out are simply people who are trying to help other people through this challenging situation to the best of our abilities.”

Malli Zworth, a nursing student and fellow

volunteer coordinator, told The Varsity that “If we were in the same predicament that these health care professionals are in, we would want someone to help us.”

How the response team works The team is made up of a four-person steering committee, 16 volunteer coordinators, and 416 student volunteers. The student volunteers are in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, respiratory therapy, and occupational therapy programs.

Volunteers from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College also offer chiropractic services, and those from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine offer naturopathic services.

Zworth said that the team has been expanded to include students in education programs across the GTA.

Zworth added that the response from health care practitioners has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Every email that I get back when I make a match for a health care worker… starts with, ‘Thank you so much for this initiative. You don’t understand how grateful we are and how helpful this is for us!’”

Zworth also emphasized the power that small actions can have. “Just changing the litter in their cat box, it’s so small and insignificant, but that’s just one thing that they can cross off their list that they don’t have to think about,” Zworth said. “It just makes you realize how a little thing can really go a long way for someone right now.”

According to Beck, more than 200 health care practitioners have filled out the form to request support, mostly in child care. As a result, the response team is actively recruiting more volunteers who are adept at providing child care support.

Impact on the community According to Beck, the initiative has been able to arrange more than 100 successful matches between students and health care practitioners, and they’ve already volunteered over 400 hours.

Ensuring safety while providing services Beck stressed the importance of volunteers’ safety.

She outlined various precautions the team has put in place, “such as asking volunteers to ensure they meet our stringent requirements about

symptoms, risk factors and exposure history.”

“We also have a program design in which each student is only paired with one family for the duration of the program so that students are not meeting multiple families and increasing the risk of exposure,” she continued.

She added that students who live with highrisk populations, such as immunocompromised or elderly individuals, and people who have travelled outside Canada in the past 14 days are ineligible to volunteer.

Zworth and Beck’s role as volunteer coordinators also includes regularly checking in with volunteers to ensure that they don’t have any symptoms or new risk factors, and are still comfortable to continue.

For students who are not volunteers, but want to help, both Zworth and Beck highlighted the importance of following social distancing recommendations from public health officials.

“The health care workers going to the hospitals are trying to work for us every single day,” Zworth said. “The least we can do is just stay home and try to help them in that small way.”

U of T extends pay continuity policy to on-campus workers, in light of COVID-19 pandemic

Workers will be paid until April 5 — little indication of what comes next

IR I TH S DE E V NG AR / SIT Y

Lauren Alexander Associate News Editor

Effective March 14 and ending April 5, U of T will maintain a pay continuity policy, which will ensure that people who work on campus will continue to be paid regular wages. U of T has not revealed whether this policy will extend past April 5, potentially leaving some students who work on campus without a source of income. The Varsity heard from two such students about how these changes have affected them.

The university informed employees on March 14 that it would continue to pay staff in the event of cancellations. The official policy on pay continuity was released on March 18.

This policy includes all employees, whether they work on a term, temporary, or casual basis.

The policy instructs workers to take additional paid sick days if they contract COVID-19, regardless of whether they have already used all their preappointed sick days.

Employees who receive salaries from the university will continue to be paid the same amount.

Those who are paid hourly will be paid according to either their scheduled shifts or their average weekly wages — whichever is greater. Employees are expected to continue their work remotely, if possible, and otherwise may be assigned new work.

One anonymous student who works at Hart House, along with other on-campus jobs, told The Varsity that she is continuing to be paid for the time being, despite campus buildings being closed. Hart House administration sent an email on March 16 saying that employees would continue to be paid until April 2. She believes that, at the time of the email, U of T expected to reopen facilities soon after that deadline.

Her pay at Hart House and her other on-campus jobs is based on monthly hours that she and other employees decided on before the campus closures began. In the case of her Hart House job, the shifts were decided on Microsoft Teams, and employees will continue to be paid for the hours

they signed up for, though they are not required to do any work.

This was not clear to all employees early on. In one case, an employee was unable to attend her shift in person, so she gave it to someone else.

Her coworker is now being paid for those hours even though neither of them worked the shift. “I don’t like how no one knows what’s going on,” she said.

Thomas Siddall, a third-year student in international relations and contemporary Asian studies, works as a duty tech at Gerstein Library and a computer access facility assistant at Robarts Library. They are still being paid wages from both jobs, though the university has shut down both Gerstein and Robarts.

As a low-income student, Siddall relies on these jobs to pay bills. They feel that, given the university’s vast resources, U of T should be doing more to help on-campus workers.

“The university can and should be refunding

students’ tuition, residence fees, [remitting] payments to student casual workers — full-time staff still receive a salary — and [ensuring] that students will be… able to return to university,” said Siddall.

Siddall feels that student employees are being left out of the loop purposefully. For instance, full-time staff members received an email informing them of changes to the hours at Gerstein, while casual workers did not.

Both Siddall and the anonymous Hart House employee have received contracts for work over the summer, though it is unclear whether or not U of T will need its summer workers.

The university has not yet responded to The Varsity’s request for comment.

Disclosure: Siddall served as a Victoria College Director for the University of Toronto Students’ Union until their resignation earlier this year.

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THE VARSITY

NEWS

news@thevarsity.ca

The Breakdown: U of T’s 2020–2021 budget

International fees to rise about five per cent, funding allocated to mental health and diversity initiatives The decision to increase international fees was made in consideration of the province’s choice to reduce operational grants by $750 for every international student enrolled in an undergraduate or master’s program.

Divisions still aim to increase the amount of international students, and to diversify that population to be more reflective of U of T’s global partnerships. The university expects the proportion of international students to rise to 28 per cent in the next academic year.

Furthermore, up to six per cent of each division’s international tuition will go to a scholarship fund for top international students. These scholarships will be awarded based on a variety of factors, including merit and need, and the amount invested is expected to grow from $14.7 million in 2020–21 to $75.8 million in 2024–25.

The provost has also planned to allocate money from the University Fund — a non-formulaic portion of the budget that’s used to meet institutional academic goals — to increase staff to provide international students with services like immigration advising.

International enrollment represents the greatest source of revenue for the university as of last year. However, in light of changes in funding from the provincial government and caps on tuition and enrollment, U of T has developed a plan for a new revenue stream called the Four Corners Strategy.

This strategy aims to generate $50 million in revenue per year by 2033 through the develop-

Marta Anielska Varsity Staff

The University of Toronto recently released its budget report for the next academic year, with long-range budget guidelines for 2020–2021 and the following four years.

International enrollment, developing new revenue streams, and implementing the recommendations of the Presidential & Provostial Task Force for Mental Health are all central aspects of the report, which was profoundly shaped by the third Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA3), the first such agreement negotiated under the Doug Ford government.

SMAs are agreements between postsecondary institutions and the province on how much funding schools will receive.

Domestic and international enrollment The Ontario government first announced a 10 per cent cut to domestic tuition in January 2019, and announced at the same time that tuition would be frozen for the 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 academic years.

International fees are unaffected by the cuts, and will rise by an average of 5.3 per cent next year.

The university’s revenue, the majority of which comes from enrollment tuition and fees, is expected to rise by 8.6 per cent, taking into account the domestic tuition freeze and increased international tuition and enrollment.

ment of 3.5 million square feet of new space dedicated to campus services, amenities, and new office and retail space.

U of T would use ongoing leasing revenue to fund the early stages of proposed projects, and would invest the money made back into research and teaching.

The SMA3 Under the SMA3, which will be implemented starting in the 2020–21 academic year and ends in 2025, performance-based funding will rise from 25 to 60 per cent of total provincial operating grants by 2024–25. This would represent an increase within the university’s total revenue from 5.6 per cent to 11.7 per cent.

In addition, the university must maintain enrollment within a flexibility range of three per cent of a fixed amount. While the university continues to advocate for another 1,000 master’s and 1,000 doctoral spaces, these have not been approved under the current agreement.

Mental health and diversity The University Fund has been allocated across four categories, including Student Success and Experience, which receives $6 million, and Faculty Diversity and Renewal, which receives $2.3 million.

Support for mental health service is one of the major pillars of the Student Success and Experience category. Efforts will focus on implementing the recommendations of the Presidential &

Provostial Task Force for Mental Health, which includes restructuring mental health services, appointing a tri-campus clinical director, and expanding counselling options.

Faculty Diversity and Renewal notably aims to support the hiring of 20 Black and Indigenous faculty members. This is consistent with U of T’s previous goal of hiring 80 faculty and 20 staff members from underrepresented groups.

COVID-19 and university comments The future of the budget is deeply uncertain due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an email to The Varsity, a U of T spokesperson wrote that the cost implications of the pandemic are still unknown, and that the budget was created under the expectation of normal circumstances.

The spokesperson added, “the University’s focus is on ensuring our students complete their term, provide a place for those students in residence who cannot return home, and support critical COVID-19 research. We are also providing emergency assistance grants for undergraduate and graduate students impacted by COVID-19 and who need immediate short-term financial relief because of unexpected expenses.”

The spokesperson also reaffirmed that the university’s “budget commitments to student mental health and our response to the task force [remain] the same.”

Governing Council will vote on the proposed budget on April 2.

4,422 U of T employees made over $100,000 in 2019 Annual Sunshine List shows increased earnings for business school-related professions Andy Takagi News Editor

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The Ontario government released its annual public disclosure of salaries above $100,000, colloquially known as the Sunshine List, on March 20. It shows $715 million earned by 4,422 employees at U of T, Victoria University, Trinity College, and the University of St. Michael’s College in 2019.

Daren Smith, President and Chief Investment Officer of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation, topped the Sunshine List for U of T with a salary of $800,749.46, a decrease from his $989,308 last year, and a knock-down from being the second highestpaid public employee in the province to the fifth.

President Meric Gertler also moved down from being the third highest-paid employee at U of T to the 13th, having earned $438,892.04 in 2019

— a pay cut of nearly $50,000 from last year.

Gertler’s ranking on the Sunshine List was below multiple vice deans, finance and accounting professors, and three professors of strategic management who are, respectively, the second, third, and fourth highest-paid employees at U of T: Will Mitchell, Brian R. Golden, and Joel A. C. Baum.

The number of university employees whose salaries appear on the Sunshine List has steadily increased from 3,626 in 2016 to 4,422 in 2019 — an addition of about 400 employees every year. The average U of T employee listed made $161,710.11, with a median income of $146,587.39, indicating that those earning closer to $100,000 make up a majority of U of T’s Sunshine List.

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Maximum, minimum, first and third quartiles, and medium salaries of each year.

Breakdown of earnings divided by income level, per year.

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Top 100 salaries at U of T, colour and size represents income.

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MARCH 30, 2020

5

Postponing spring convocation deemed impossible, OSAP loans repayments deferred

U of T cancels convocation, faculties and departments to independently hold celebrations.

NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

Third week of student life disruption in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak Hannah Carty, Kathryn Mannie, and Mikaela Toone Varsity News Team

As has been the case for the past two weeks, closures, cancellations, and online transitions have been a number of recent measures related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Spring convocation has been cancelled, and despite student backlash, the university has deemed its postponement to be impossible. In addition, U of T students will no longer need to pay back their Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) loans for a six-month period, summer courses have moved online, and all U of T libraries have closed.

Convocation blues In a statement made to The Varsity, a university spokesperson disclosed that postponing convocation will not be possible “given the size of Convocation Hall and the fact that it is needed for lectures during the term.” They pointed to the fact that U of T’s convocation “includes 32 separate ceremonies for over 12,000 graduates and 34,000 guests” as a reason why convocation at a later date poses too many logistical challenges.

This confirmation came two days after news broke that the upcoming convocation, which was originally scheduled from June 2–19, had been cancelled due to concerns that it would violate the COVID-19 social distancing directions put in place by government officials, as Toronto declared a state of emergency on March 23, and the Ontario government had banned gatherings of over 50 people. This restriction was changed to five people on March 28.

Students who expected to convocate in June will still be able to graduate after the spring semester — they will receive their degree parchment by mail. However, students who wish to receive their diploma after the spring semester cannot attend a future convocation.

Deferring graduation is an option only available in certain programs, and it means that a student will not receive an official degree parchment until they graduate.

U of T noted at the time that it was still “exploring possible alternative means of celebrating your graduation.”

Those alternative means have come into frui-

tion for arts and science (A&S) students. On March 26, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science Melanie A. Woodin sent out an email in which she promised prospective graduates that, in lieu of a traditional U of T convocation in June, the university will be organizing an “inperson ceremony” to recognize their efforts in completing their degrees.

The faculty hasn’t decided when the ceremony will take place and notes that it “may not look like the traditional U of T Convocation.”

However, Woodin acknowledged that both students “and [their] families have sacrificed a great deal to get to this major moment.” She wrote that she understands the desire to celebrate this accomplishment with students, professors, and the university at large.

As such, Woodin is committed to mark the graduation of A&S students at the end of this semester with one or multiple events. “This will be a special occasion,” she wrote.

Woodin also clarified that the decision to cancel convocation was made in consultation with public health experts. In addition, a university spokesperson added that “Other universities across North America such as [the University of British Columbia], the University of Michigan and McGill University have also called off their spring graduation ceremonies.”

There is an online petition circulating that is calling on the university to postpone, rather than cancel, convocation.. As of publication time, the petition has garnered over 23,000 signatures.

Frozen OSAP dues On March 25, the provincial government announced that it will not be collecting OSAP loan repayments for six months. From March 30 to September 30, loans will not accrue interest. This announcement also came with the news that the Ontario government has launched a $17 billion action plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the $17 billion, $10 billion has been allocated to directly support people and jobs, while the remaining $7 billion will go toward supporting the health care system.

In a press release, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) commended the action plan, but noted that in a previous open letter to the Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano, they had advocated for a two-year interest-free grace period for students graduating in 2020.

“While we will continue to advocate for this grace period, the moratorium is a good first step towards alleviating some of the difficulties graduates will experience when repaying their OSAP loans,” reads the OUSA press release.

The press release also asked for some of the billion-dollar contingency fund to be allocated toward mental health support for students during this time.

The government is also offering direct financial assistance through its Employment Insurance (EI) program, for which almost a million Canadians applied over the past week. For those not eligible for EI, the federal government has introduced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The CERB will provide up to $2,000 a month for anyone who has lost income due to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Campus closure news Both sessions of summer courses for the Faculty of A&S will be delivered remotely, as of now. However, the university has reserved the option to add in-person courses for the second summer session, from July until August. A final decision on this matter will be decided at a later date.

The university is still exploring options for courses that require hands-on learning, such as those involving labs or experiential requirements.

In an email to students, Woodin wrote that instructors will have ample time to prepare for the transition to online learning, and that they will be given support by the university. “We are confident our instructors will continue to provide you with thoughtful and substantial learning experiences,” wrote Woodin.

A day prior to this announcement, the university closed all of its libraries in accordance with a provincial mandate released by the Office of the Premier. On March 23, Premier Doug Ford notified the province that non-essential businesses must close by the following day at midnight.

In an email sent to U of T staff, the university wrote that they are still in the process of determining which employees fall under the essential category of Ford’s announcement and will be notifying those employees who will be required to physically work on campus.

Though libraries will be closed, the email stressed that residences and research labs conducting COVID-19 research will remain open.

“We continue to provide a welcoming home for international students, students whose family members are in self-isolation, and out-ofprovince students who need more time to make travel arrangements,” the email read.

For labs that have received the go-ahead, the university is requiring researchers to implement social distancing measures in order to disrupt possible transmission of COVID-19.

The email also acknowledged that some students may struggle to access course work without library services. These students are directed to go to the university’s COVID-19 webpage and click the “Contact us” button for more information.

The mandatory closure of all non-essential businesses by the provincial government is set to last for 14 days, with the possibility of an extension as the situation evolves.

Ontario released a list of all essential services that will continue during this time. They include food services; telecommunication and information technology services; transportation; construction; financial activities; the justice sector; newspapers, radio, and TV broadcasting; research; health care and social services for seniors; pet stores; maintenance; manufacturing and production; and environmental services.

Business

March 30, 2020 var.st/business biz@thevarsity.ca

Black in business: chatting with the award-winning Black Rotman Commerce Emerging student group discuss community, visibility, mentorship

Jeffrey Fasegha, Zainab Hamid, Jasmine Ali, Ayesha Mohammed, and Judson Asiruwa.

SRIVINDHYA KOLLURU/THE VARSITY

The Varsity sat down with the BRC to discuss their origin and raison d’être as a community space for Black students — both Rotman and non-Rotman — who are interested in business.

Ibnul Chowdhury Managing Editor

Despite being only one year into its existence, Black Rotman Commerce (BRC) has emerged as a major player in serving its student community at the intersection of Blackness and business.

The BRC focuses on organizing networking events, hosting socials, and supporting peers as they navigate university courses and career opportunities.

In January, its founding members — Jasmine Ali, Judson Asiruwa, Jeffrey Fasegha, Zainab Hamid, and Ayesha Mohammed — organized the second annual Black Career Conference in collaboration with the Black Students’ Association and the National Society of Black Engineers.

Earlier this month, the BRC’s work was recognized by the Arts and Science Students’ Union, which awarded the student organization with the Terry Buckland Award for Diversity & Equity in Education. In addition to the five current members, the award was also presented to graduate Dunsin Adebise, whom Fasegha credits for initiating the idea for BRC last year.

Tackling isolation, forming community Fasegha, a third-year Rotman Commerce student, spoke to the isolating experience of being a Black student at Rotman and U of T in general.

“When you have such few Black students in the program, you don’t really see anybody you can directly relate with.” Asiruwa, a fourth-year Rotman Commerce student, described the BRC as a formalized product of the community that had been forming between Black Rotman students.

Fasegha and Asiruwa also spoke about their realization that their community is much larger than they had initially imagined — especially when they consider Black students outside the Rotman Commerce program or on other campuses who take an interest in the BRC. Addressing the “confidence barrier” While Rotman, in general, already provides many opportunities and resources, Asiruwa noted that accessing them can be challenging — thus justifying groups like the BRC. “Sometimes it can be a bit of a confidence barrier.”

Fasegha also described how accessing the resources provided by BRC peers, who share similar lived experiences with them, can be more intimate and less intimidating compared to general Rotman resources.

More broadly, on getting Black students to reach programs like Rotman Commerce, Asiruwa similarly noted that “just getting people to apply can sometimes be the barrier… if you know that a program is for you, you would feel more inclined to apply to that.”

Fasegha added, “When you see somebody represent you, then you’re more likely to go there.

So Rotman hasn’t historically been a place where Black students go to, and so that’s what we’re trying to change.”

Fasegha said that BRC is working to encourage more Black high school students to apply to Rotman and U of T, acknowledging that visibility is part of the issue.

“Having these specific communities and programs kind of lowers that barrier,” Asiruwa said. Accordingly, the key to inclusion is to make more accessible spaces, not to “to lower standards or change programs entirely for diverse sets of people.”

The importance of visibility Ali, a third-year Rotman Commerce student, further discussed the importance of visibility and representation on campus. “Just seeing yourself reflected in leadership positions is what’s encour-

aging a lot of our younger years to actually go out and get involved.”

She continued, “You have incredibly talented and qualified Black students who don’t go for these leadership positions because they just don’t see themselves represented there.”

The same issue of representation applies to startups, according to Fasegha and Asiruwa.

Fasegha noted that there are venture capital funding gaps, and despite the achievements of diverse entrepreneurs, they aren’t as recognized in the media. “Less [media] coverage means lower multiples, which means lower valuation, which means lower money,” added Asiruwa.

Mentorship: paying it forward Appreciating the BRC’s initiative to foster genuine Black community and mentorship, Ali praised her seniors: “Rotman actually doesn’t know how many Black students there are technically in the program. So going that extra mile to first find us, and then actually cultivate organic relationships with us… mentorship blossomed at the same time as friendships.”

She emphasized the need to treat the next cohort of BRC students in a similar manner. “We feel a need to pay it forward,” she reflected. Helping one another out comes from “a common understanding amongst us that we all pitch in and we all take at the same time.”

— With files from Srivindhya Kolluru and Alex Law

Toronto rent continues to soar while graduate student funding packages remain stagnant

Faculty of Medicine graduate students report high stress associated with Toronto’s housing crisis Francesco Zangari Varsity Contributor

Finding affordable Toronto housing has become an increasing challenge over the last decade due to the city’s growing population. This particularly affects graduate students attending the four universities within the city’s jurisdiction, a large share of which study at U of T’s downtown campus.

Graduate student intake at U of T has grown by approximately 23 per cent since the 2014– 2015 academic year, and the average rent in Canada has risen by approximately 32 per cent from 2010–2018. Yet publicly available data indicates that graduate funding packages have remained relatively stagnant.

Coupled with Toronto’s increasing rent and population, “governments frequently make matters worse by incentivizing home ownership over renting,” explained Dr. Dwayne Benjamin, Vice Dean Graduate Education of the Faculty of Arts & Science and an economics professor at U of T, in an email to The Varsity.

U of T has been investing in housing for its graduate students, but change for students is still several years away.

Surveying graduate students in the Faculty of Medicine The Graduate Representation Committee (GRC), an assembly of student advocates for nine basic science departments comprising the Faculty of Medicine (FoM), conducted a student survey in 2019 to understand the financial situations and well-being of graduate students in the faculty.

Out of the 426 survey respondents, 85 per cent declared that they could not support themselves

solely on graduate funding, and 42 per cent responded that they needed an additional $5,000 a year to meet their living expenses.

The FoM’s funding package lies below the “Low-Income Measure, After Tax” line, which means that the government considers students who rely solely on this funding to make ends meet to be “low-income” and “substantially worse off than others.”

Despite this, graduate students in the FoM have one of the highest base-funding packages at U of T, and therefore students in other faculties might face similar, if not worse, difficulties in affording housing close to UTSG. Main implications of these findings To mitigate short-term funding gaps, the GRC has recommended several measures, and has negotiated a five per cent funding package increase for the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 terms for FoM graduate students.

Samantha Ing-Esteves, a graduate student and member of the GRC, further explained the survey’s findings.

“Based on student comments, one of the main challenges is finding accommodation that is suitable for graduate education,” Ing-Esteves said. “Finding an affordable apartment where students are able to work and be productive is challenging.”

As one student commented in the GRC report, “My current rent is already considered fairly cheap in downtown Toronto. However, I am living in a basement and the living conditions are incredibly poor.”

Martino Gabra, a member of the GRC who has had success finding suitable housing, noted

that there’s an element of luck involved. “I was able to get into my current apartment with no issue,” said Gabra. “Cheap Toronto housing does have an element of who you know.”

A quarter of respondents have turned to living with family and spouses to circumvent this funding gap, saving approximately $400 per month compared to students living with one or more roommates.

One student in the survey wrote, “I would not be able to pursue graduate studies if I did not have subsidized rent because I live with extended family.”

Other financial aid One third of respondents use loans to support financial needs. However, the recent changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) by the Ford government have placed a further onus on some students to generate additional income.

ISOBEL HEINTZMAN/ THE VARSITY

A subset of respondents have done this through teaching assistantships or secondary jobs.

One student wrote, “I already lived by a budget, but since the new OSAP changes, I worry every day about if I will have enough money for the month even on a strict budget… I worry that if I don’t work part-time I will not be able to support myself.”

International students have an additional burden as they are not eligible for many scholarships that domestic students may claim. “International students suffer the most where domestic students walk away with scholarships while international students have to struggle [with fewer] scholarship options and survive [with a] lesser stipend [funding package]” added one student.

Benjamin noted, “For students, the university realizes this is a real problem — and not just for graduate students.”

Comment

March 30, 2020 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Travelling home during a pandemic only adds to the fear and anxiety

The burden of uncertainty faced by international students Stuti Roy Varsity Contributor

JACQUELINE RENEE/THE VARSITY

On March 16, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would close its borders to non-essential travel. He later announced that it would remain open to international students.

The sheer scale and suddenness of Trudeau’s announcement meant that anything was possible.

At that moment, the preventative measure didn’t affect me personally, but it was nevertheless abrupt and unexpected.

Fast forward 24 hours later, and I had packed all of my things and prepared to board a 14-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Bahrain — with a 20-hour layover in Dubai.

Everything was chaotic. I ended up missing some of my online classes, but that was the least of my concerns. I was primarily worried about getting home. Navigating a pandemic places an additional burden on international students, whose sense of belonging is threatened as the world shuts down.

Trudeau’s announcement created room for greater uncertainty than my family and I had anticipated. After all, wasn’t the situation better in Canada? Wasn’t it less dire than in the US or UK, where my school friends were? Ostensibly, yes. But, what could come next? Shutting down outbound travel? A complete lockdown?

It is incredibly difficult to make reasoned decisions when your position as a visa-carrying foreign student is at stake and changing by the hour. For those of us who are international students and have no family or relatives in Canada, the prospect of getting stuck by yourself on a different continent for an indefinite length of time is scary.

This is not so much a question of being safe as it is of being separated.

This precariousness of the situation was apparent

on my flight. Right before it took off, the government of Mauritius closed down its borders to all commercial flights. There were a handful of passengers on the aircraft whose final destination was Mauritius, and the crew had to make arrangements to escort them off the plane and locate their luggage.

The resulting two-hour delay was ample time for me to reflect upon the perilously changing circumstances that we are currently facing — for me to reflect on the fact that those who left the plane could have been acting as fast as they could with the information they had. Yet, they fell prey to circumstance nevertheless — and many international students did too.

Other than the emotional and situational burden of these uncertain times and having to make swift decisions without knowing the consequences, there is a real financial burden that international students may not be ready for. Booking a flight to the opposite side of the Earth incurs a potentially devastating invoice, especially when travel is both seriously limited and in especially high demand.

International travel itself is becoming increasingly restricted and unpredictable. Certainly, these measures are necessary in order to curb the spread of the virus, but they place international students, like myself, in a dangerously awkward position.

After my layover in Dubai, there was some confusion as to whether or not my next flight would actually go to Bahrain. This was based on a rumour, but it sparked a serious dilemma on my part. If Bahrain shut down its borders, I wouldn’t be able to go home, and I wouldn’t have been able to return to Canada.

The mere fact that I found myself in a position to contemplate this dilemma shows that there are

things international students have to consider that are particularly burdensome. I entertained the notion that my passport, which validates my citizenship and existence, might not get me anywhere. In a crisis where everyone is feeling anxious for their health and safety, I was worried about becoming displaced.

Under ordinary circumstances, I would go to India, where I am a citizen, but on that very day, India announced that it was blocking all international flights for a week. Had I been unable to board that flight to Bahrain, I would be stuck in a limbo of international borders, like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. No one wants to be him, but under the dystopian reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems eerily plausible.

Despite how dangerous it was and still is to travel internationally, I had to leave. The fact that myself and other international students still felt the compulsion to get on a plane, in spite of everything, is testament to the essentiality of being at home in a time of global crisis.

Stuti Roy is a second-year Political Science student at Victoria College.

Late class cancellation put commuter students at risk during the COVID-19 outbreak

Ontario universities should have transitioned to online learning earlier Yana Sadeghi Columnist

It is no secret that commuter students, myself included, will jump at the opportunity to tell you about their latest TTC adventure. Truthfully, it’s a fun way to blow off steam and it’s usually a good conversation starter. However, the complaints among commuters have become more serious during the COVID-19 outbreak, as many of us were potentially exposed to the virus on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, the University of Toronto, along with many other universities, did not adequately address our concerns about this in a timely manner.

According to Toronto Public Health, a person who tested positive for COVID-19 travelled on the TTC on March 2, 3, and 4 — exactly two weeks prior to the university-wide shut down.

Given the rate at which COVID-19 spreads, two weeks is a substantial amount of time for it to spread within the school’s community and the general public.

We should also note that it takes up to two

weeks for symptoms to become present, and not everyone who tests positive develops symptoms.

As such, the virus can easily spread without our knowledge.

Many students at the University of Toronto are reliant on the TTC to get to and from campus on a daily basis, meaning that they may have unknowingly come into contact with COVID-19.

Unlike those in Ontario, some American universities decided to transition to online learning earlier: Stanford University announced its movement to online classes on March 6.

Ontario institutions could have taken preventive measures as early as February 24 if they had listened to Chief Medical Officer of Health Theresa Tam’s warnings, but they chose not to promote social distancing practices.

As a result, many of us commuters had to risk public health just to attend a few lectures.

Personally speaking, this became a point of contention in my household because one of my parents has Crohn’s disease and routinely under-

goes immuno-suppressive therapy.

As a result, my fears of getting COVID-19 while on my commute became so serious that I stopped going to classes before they transitioned online. Though this was the right thing to do, it did compromise my education.

Some of my first-year courses are notoriously known for not posting any lecture material online, and I started to get behind in my coursework.

Luckily, I have caring friends who were willing to help, but the university should be the main source of support for students who need academic accommodations — especially in a time like this.

While few crises can rival a pandemic, hopefully the university will treat future ones with urgency sooner than they did with COVID-19.

Yana Sadeghi is a first-year Social Sciences student at New College. She a columnist for The Varsity’s Comment section.

ADITI PUTCHA AND CORALS ZHENG/ THE VARSITY

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THE VARSITY

COMMENT

comment@thevarsity.ca

The credit/no credit deadline must be extended across all campuses, not just UTSG

UTSC and UTM students should be afforded the same accommodation George Chen Varsity Contributor

The impacts of COVID-19 have made all of our school lives more difficult. At the University of Toronto, the credit/no credit (CR/NCR) policy has been key in ameliorating academic difficulties. After all, being able to see your grade before deciding to CR/NCR is a sigh of relief in the face of heavily-weighted — yet now uncertain — finals.

However, this is not a privilege afforded to all U of T students. In fact, UTSC and UTM students, who face the same difficulties in light of the spread of COVID-19, are making their CR/ NCR choices without knowing their final marks.

UTSC and UTM students can only make their decisions until April 25 and April 22 respectively, and “no final grades will be released until after this date” per the UTSC website.

UTSG’s Faculty of Arts & Science was the first to announce its updated CR/NCR policy on March 15. It would have made sense for UTSC and UTM to follow suit, but instead, their announcements came two days after, with different CR/NCR deadlines.

The rationale that was offered for the differences between campuses is what is truly frustrating.

The UTM website helpfully outlines that “the regulations and procedures that govern these decisions… may vary among the divisions

across the University, as is normally the case.”

These differences aim to “[maintain] academic standards of degrees and programs.”

In other words, differences in regulations and procedures, academic standards, and more are the cause of differences in policy.

Yet I do not believe that academic standards are so different across the three campuses as to warrant such a substantial variance.

To be clear, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Rotman School of Management at UTSG have both taken identical positions to the Faculty of Arts & Science. If three widely differing divisions with differing academic regulations and policies can arrive at the same decision downtown, then UTSC and UTM ought to as well.

For students who are dependent on final marks for employment, graduate school, and beyond, the ability to CR/NCR without knowledge of final marks is not sufficient when faced with writing a final that’s worth 40–50 per cent of their grade in an experimental, untested format. UTSG, the University of Waterloo, and Ryerson University all seem to agree on offering students the ability to CR/NCR after viewing their grades.

Fundamentally, this is an equity issue. UTSC

and UTM students are U of T students too; they face the same academic standards, graduate with the same degree, and are equally impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Every U of T student deserves the same accommodations in the face of this pandemic.

Perhaps the university needs to listen to the petitions being circulated by those who have been impacted.

George Chen is a fourth-year Management and International Business student at UTSC.

UTSG students received an extended deadline for CR/NCR requests.

PETER ALFRED/CC FLICKR

Students seeking to make an impact should volunteer locally, not abroad The shortcomings of voluntourism Joel Ndongmi Varsity Contributor

We’re often told that we must develop into global citizens as the world becomes a global village. In trying to gain this global perspective, many students choose to volunteer abroad in low-income countries. They find that these experiences are eye-opening and meaningful, and give them insight into inequalities around the world.

U of T encourages students to go on a variety of volunteer missions. In the medical field, these opportunities can range from a dentistry outreach program in Uganda — a yearly program that collaborates with not-for-profit organizations to provide dental services in the Ugandan countryside — to an ophthalmology project in Costa Rica.

Even outside of medicine, the placements are diverse: students can assist in soup kitchens in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, or help hospitals with basic tasks such as triage. U of T also has a scholarship that provides students with a course on teaching English as a foreign language, so that students can do so abroad for two weeks.

While these opportunities are alluring, they tend to verge on romanticized voluntourism — a practice whereby tourists travel with the goal of both doing volunteer work and gaining valuable cultural experiences. However, these volunteers often leave without having contributed to tangible or sustainable change.

The bulk of general volunteer placements are arranged through a third party. As a result, U of T can’t be held accountable for how much impact a trip actually has on the local community. However, this isn’t the case for medical trips: since the university has international partnerships with local organizations, it has more leverage in creating a lasting and meaningful experience for everyone involved.

For example, the Dentistry in Uganda Program has partnerships with not-for-profit organizations like the Kigezi Healthcare Foundation.

Medical missions have specified agendas and goals, and the students and professors attending them have medical expertise that is inherently valuable and relevant to those communities.

In contrast, it isn’t clear how meaningful shortterm general international volunteer placements are for the communities in which they take place.

Take, for example, a university student teaching English to Tanzanian children for two weeks.

Those children are not only learning from an inexperienced teacher, but they also see their teacher leave within less than a month. Not only can this separation break their hearts, but it also makes it unclear whether the temporary role of foreign teachers truly contributes to furthering learning and development.

As Sarah Pycroft, a UK teacher who volunteered for students in Sri Lanka, wrote in The Guardian, “[The other volunteers] suggested I teach them colours… I thought: ‘How do you not realize that every single previous volunteer would have taught them colours. You taught them nothing. They were good at colours because they knew it already. You’ve had no impact.’” The constant turnover of volunteering does not allow for continuous learning.

Voluntourism companies have been under intense scrutiny as non-government organizations across the world question the validity of sending

ZACH KOH/THE VARSITY

youth to low-income countries without any expertise to do “difficult and sometimes inappropriate work.” To make matters worse, many companies fail to perform background checks, a routine procedure for jobs involving children, according to The Guardian.

This reasoning also applies to other general volunteering opportunities, such as volunteering in soup kitchens abroad. There’s no benefit in paying an excruciating amount of money or spending a scholarship, to do a job that a local Costa Rican could do. Transitioning these voluntary positions into paid ones could help local workers, and ease the burden of unnecessary expenses for overseas volunteers.

There are alternatives to volunteering abroad.

Canada has many enduring socioeconomic and medical inequalities. The relationship between Indigenous peoples and settlers, for example, is one that could benefit from a sincere desire to connect with these communities on their terms.

First Nations and Métis peoples across Canada are at higher risks of arthritis, asthma, and diabetes.

In Ontario, “the prevalence of diabetes in Aboriginal people is three times that in non-Aboriginal Ontarians,” according to a government report.

These inequalities put a significant strain on rural hospitals, and many hospitals in Indigenous and rural communities are appreciative of an extra hand.

One can have a helpful and life-changing experience volunteering with various organizations such as L’Arche — community houses that provide safe and inclusive homes for disabled folk — or local soup kitchens, such as The Scott Mission.

Instead of allocating expenses toward voluntourism trips abroad, students should volunteer to aid local hospitals and shelters. These general placements still provide an interdisciplinary understanding of inequities without spending thousands of dollars.

Moving forward, U of T should encourage more students to go on volunteer missions closer to home.

Joel Ndongmi is a first-year Social Sciences student at Victoria College.

Editorial

March 30, 2020 var.st/comment editorial@thevarsity.ca

In light of COVID-19, giving students a universal pass is the only way forward Academic accommodations have been uneven and inequitable thus far The Varsity Editorial Board

U of T’s transition to online learning has been rocky, at best. Two weeks of online learning have yielded uneven results, with discrepancies across and within campuses and faculties.

The university’s pandemic planning was sorely lacking. Despite praise from department members, The Varsity recognizes that U of T has delayed adequately preparing students and faculty for changes in instruction, and notes that multiple universities across Ontario maintain robust emergency pandemic plans, something that U of T is sorely lacking.

Consequently, the U of T community is still struggling to find its footing amidst the cancellation of in-person classes, campus closures, and transition to online learning — not to mention a host of other financial, health, and housing inequities that students and staff may be personally experiencing.

Students and faculty have been stepping up for the community. A prime example is the Toronto Student COVID-19 Team, which aims to alleviate some of the stress faced by frontline health care workers during this crisis.

Furthermore, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Dean Melanie Woodin has been regularly updating students in creative and inspiring ways, using social media to boost student morale through messages of empathy and hope. Woodin sets a strong example for her colleagues.

The Varsity commends these students and faculty for taking on these responsibilities, and furthermore encourages U of T to look to these actions as examples of what can be done to alleviate the burdens that are being placed upon students and staff during this time.

While the university’s efforts have largely fallen in line with that of other postsecondary institutions across North America, The Varsity believes that it can and should do better. We must stand for students, faculty, and staff, and make a renewed commitment toward the health and safety of our community. To move forward, we must first revisit the university’s shortcomings.

COVID-19 case response was the first misstep The Varsity’s editorial board members would like to express our disappointment toward the university’s response to the first confirmed COVID-19 case on campus. It seems that optics were put over the consideration of health and safety.

While medical confidentiality should absolutely be respected, especially during times of high anxiety and paranoia, the various parts of university administration made missteps concerning when it chose to inform students and which students they chose to inform.

Firstly, the university should not have neglected to initially inform undergraduate students of the case. Since the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies (CrimSL) administration deemed it possible that graduate students had come into contact with the person who had tested positive, there was no reason to keep undergraduate students in the dark. The decision may not have been made in malice, but it gave the appearance of a certain hierarchy of importance.

Secondly, the CrimSL’s response was to immediately resort to secrecy and suppression. Once The Varsity began making inquiries, rather than respond, its administration sent an internal email discouraging students, staff, and faculty from speaking to the media. The Varsity, as a media organization, is disappointed by the administration’s efforts to prevent anyone from speaking to the press.

Thirdly, when U of T’s central administration did respond, it chose to deny knowledge of the case, though it would have ostensibly been made aware of it through the centre. We understand that it is a very chaotic time, and we have sympathy for everyone who is struggling to keep up with rapidly changing situations. However, the university

would have been informed of the case, and furthermore had months to prepare for its possible arrival.

Therefore, the unclear messaging and denials only worsened the situation by effectively discrediting the university’s authority on the matter. We at The Varsity do not know the internal mechanisms at play, of course, but the matter was publically handled in a way to make it seem that the university wanted to suppress any news of this case.

This was made worse by the fact that after the article was published, it took six days before the centre sent a vaguely worded email to undergraduate criminology students which appeared to confirm the case. The centre wrote that there was “a very low risk that that undergraduate students in our program were exposed to anyone at CrimSL who tested positive for COVID-19.”

If the risk on campus was serious enough to

hopes that the university addresses these concerns as soon as possible. Libraries, both on- and off-campus, are closed, and community members are left with no access to digital resources in the case of internet or other technological difficulties.

In addition, out-of-province and international students have had to deal with the stress of moving, new times zones, and growing anxieties over displacement, on top of keeping up with their school work. The university’s decentralized response puts them at a disadvantage.

In light of the decision to continue academic evaluations until the end of the term, and the inconsistent levels of support depending on campus, program, and professor, the university should take more initiative to support students who are now working in a vastly different capacity than they were a few weeks ago — while still facing

FIONA TUNG/ THE VARSITY

warn CrimSL faculty, graduate students, and staff to be alert if they had visited certain areas, it is unclear to us why this information was expressly kept from the public.

This irresponsible reaction undermines student trust at a dangerous time, given the severity of the circumstances. All students and staff at the university should have been notified, given the shared nature of campus spaces. CrimSL graduate students and staff were notified on March 15, just two days after the cancellation of in-person classes was announced.

The central university administration should have notified the wider community, and The Varsity urges U of T to do so immediately.

Pass or panic The Varsity recognizes the efforts of the administration to continue offering regular accessibility services, including one-on-one appointments, peer note-taking, and accommodations for tests and assignments. An effort to keep services as close to ‘normal’ as possible, however, is not sufficient for the situation at hand.

The pandemic has created higher levels of stress for almost everyone, and the university should be prepared to offer support to a higher number of students who may be dealing with new or worsening mental health conditions as a result.

Students and staff with limited access to wi-fi and technology are unable to maintain the same level of communication as their peers. The Varsity

the relatively similar academic expectations.

The university’s failure to provide students and faculty with a transition period has been harmful, with many professors failing to adapt to online systems. While some took responsibility for these potential changes early on in the year, it’s irresponsible for the university to expect professors and lecturers to do so in a matter of days with little to no guidance.

Some faculties have failed to make significant adjustments to course assessments, transitioning tests into online formats within a week of the cancellation of in-person classes. Doing so is inequitable, considering the uneven distribution of emotional, financial, and academic tolls of COVID-19 measures. The fact that this has continued is an extreme oversight by the administration and an unfortunate indication of a lack of compassion and consideration by faculty members.

Furthermore, while many lecturers have stepped up to these new challenges, a concerning number of lectures have been cancelled entirely, without adequate alternative delivery methods due to an inability to adapt to the demands of online learning.

This is not the fault of our teaching staff. The Varsity would like to thank those lecturers who have adjusted to the demands of this crisis and would like to recognize the lengths that they have gone to ensure that students continue to be taught.

Those who have decided to cancel lectures are doing so because they are understandably underprepared. The fault falls at the hands of the ad-

ministration who failed to adequately plan and inform teaching staff and teaching assistants of these potential circumstances.

As a result, academic pressure remains high.

Students still must pass their courses, or else face financial and academic consequences, potentially needing to repeat courses in the future.

For those hoping to enter programs or apply for graduate studies, or who are on academic probation, the credit/no credit (CR/NCR) system does not present a realistic option. Without clarification from the university, first-year students are in limbo as they need to maintain averages in order to enter into some of their desired programs.

Furthermore, students at UTM and UTSC are not being afforded the same consideration as those at UTSG, who are able to drop and CR/ NCR courses after they have received their marks.

The Varsity reminds the university of its commitment to students of all three of its campuses.

There is no reason that UTM and UTSC should not be able to have the same extended drop date, and the continued inequitable treatment of students from satellite campuses during this pandemic is unacceptable.

For graduating students, the CR/NCR option does little to alleviate growing academic and financial pressures. For those enrolled in challenging upper-year courses, a failure to pass may require students to repeat a semester or even year of study. Graduating students are also in an increasingly precarious position as they have to enter an unstable job market.

What unites students across faculties, years of study, and campuses is the burden of academic pressure, which could be alleviated if the university chooses to put its students’ health first. Academic performance during this time is not a reflection of a students’ ability to successfully function as students.

These circumstances are novel, like the virus itself, and the extent to which we mediate growing anxieties and pressures must adequately reflect the severity of this pandemic, as it has affected every level of life, from diet to academics to housing.

A universal pass is necessary Students across North America are petitioning colleges and universities to institute a no-fail system. While many universities have adopted some variation of the CR/NCR system, this is simply not enough.

The Varsity urges the university to consider a universal pass for all students, regardless of final grades. We believe this would be the most compassionate option for students and educators who have been thrust into this exceedingly difficult situation through no fault of their own.

In this scenario, students would still have their exceptional work during the year reflected in their grades, but no student would have to worry about failing classes due to mitigating circumstances such as insecure housing situations, lack of reliable internet access, or stressful home environments.

Simply offering students the option to drop a course if they do not pass will potentially force many students to spend more money re-taking courses to finish their degree. During a time when unemployment is set to rise drastically, this is unacceptable, particularly for graduating students who are certain to feel the impact of a shrinking job market.

The Varsity has already urged the university to adopt equity as a guiding force behind its implementation of preventative measures. A universal pass is the only way to ensure that students and faculty are able to focus on their physical and mental health during a time that is undeniably stressful for everyone.

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.

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THE VARSITY

FEATURES

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Can we trust our textbooks?

U of T professors discuss how Indigenous stories have been written over and forgotten Writer: Marissa Lee Illustrator: Julie Shi

False narratives have been replicated in academic resources over hundreds of years, and they continue to be presented as fact to this day.

We grow up using textbooks. We grow up believing they’re authoritative sources of knowledge because, from a young age, they’re ingrained into our educational curricula. But we don’t grow up learning that textbooks can carry biases too.

Even the oldest archival resources are subjective, as the information they give is mediated by the perspective of the people writing them. This is especially true of historical representations of Indigeneity. Canada’s reputation as the Great Nice North rests on a whitewashed and a settler-constructed conception of history that both erases and stereotypes Indigenous peoples. False narratives have been replicated in academic resources over hundreds of years, and they continue to be presented as fact to this day.

Each semester, professors at U of T have to decide what material to incorporate into their lessons, which also means deciding what information to exclude. Crowds of students flock to the U of T Bookstore for textbooks.

But how can students be sure that they are making worthwhile investments? How can students and professors find reliable resources for learning and teaching?

The Varsity interviewed Brenda Wastasecoot and Tania Aguila-Way about how they choose academic sources and the role they believe that textbooks should have at U of T.

On going beyond books Wastasecoot is a writer, artist, and assistant professor at U of T’s Centre for Indigenous Studies, and is of Cree and Ininu descent. She spoke to The Varsity about textbook representations of Indigenous history and the impor-

tance of making space for conversation and collaborative learning.

“Indigenous people have [always] been invisible in these textbooks,” she said. “I remember textbooks from when I was young, it was maybe one tiny chapter of the whole book…

We were like an anomaly.” Wastasecoot was a university student by the time she “learned what really happened.”

In these small chapters, Indigenous history was constructed to portray colonizers in a favourable light. But despite their inaccuracy, these racist settler narratives came to be the dominant ones.

“You don’t tell people that you ripped [Indigenous peoples] off, and threw most of them off, and [that settlers are] on stolen land,” she said.

But textbooks are slowly improving, Wastasecoot said, as more accurate information about Indigenous history is made available. Wastasecoot uses books to plan her courses; they are important to the way she teaches. The physicality of a book is an important space that accurate Indigenous history should occupy.

“For myself, I like to have something in my hand that I can leaf through… [and say,] ‘See, it’s written here!’”

Still, she believes books are best used in combination with other sources. She uses books for information like the history and background of Indigenous peoples. For more current information, Wastasecoot turns to more accessible and easily updated resources on the internet.

Social media, for example, can provide a platform for a more diverse body of voices to be heard, especially ones that are often silenced or decontextualized in dominant media. Sparking these conversations also inte-

grates Indigenous communities into current social conversations, which is important when a lot of existing literature treats Indigenous issues as purely historical.

An example Wastasecoot highlighted about the internet’s relevance was the outpouring of information on social media about the Wet’suwet’en people and their protests when armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers entered unceded Wet’suwet’en territory on February 6 to arrest and remove people protesting the development of a Coastal GasLink pipeline there.

“You can read about it right away,” she said.

The internet also houses great historical resources, such as the University of Saskatchewan’s Indigenous Studies Portal, which includes over 65,000 electronic resources, including archival documents and photographs.

However, Wastasecoot’s students remain one of her main sources of inspiration as a professor. She spoke highly of their creativity and ability to find good articles and sources for their papers. “Students are amazing,” she said. “Some of the things they find [are] really right on to what I want to include in… next year’s course.”

Where books may fall short, Wastasecoot encourages her students to use other methods to excavate forgotten or covered-up stories of Indigenous peoples. This includes the many stories about Indigenous heroes and history.

Wastasecoot celebrates these successes in her class, in which her students examine the contributions of 30 Indigenous leaders across history, all the way back to nineteenth century Plains Cree Chief Big Bear and up to now, with the likes of Murray Sinclair and Tina Keeper.

Wastasecoot also prioritizes creative and collaborative work as another access point into Indigenous history. Her students complete a

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project about the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which reported on the systemic causes of all forms of violence against Indigenous women and girls, including sexual violence.

Working in groups, her students choose a woman from the list on the CBC website, and create creative pieces in their honour. Within these groups, they’re given total creative freedom on how they want to present their pieces.

“Because it’s such a heavy topic to look at,” Wastasecoot said. “I just wanted to get them in there and looking at it in a way that was meaningful to them, so that they could make sense of it themselves.”

She and her students have also taken a walking tour of UTSG that was focused on showing the campus’ Indigenous history.

“What’s under the sidewalk, you know?” she said. “[The students] really loved that.

It’s just amazing how much has been covered over… and forgotten. It’s good to know what we’re standing on.”

Choosing which stories to read Aguila-Way is an assistant professor with U of T’s Department of English, and she is currently teaching ENG252 — Introduction to Canadian Literature. In an email to The Varsity, she broke down the factors that go into structuring her class and achieving her goal of disrupting the dominant settler narratives of Canadian history.

Since ENG252 is an introductory course, Aguila-Way aims to expose students to a diverse body of texts. But she also hopes to historicize and contextualize these texts for her students, “giving them a clear understanding of the historical forces that have shaped the Canadian literary canon.”

“This requires that I teach not just a variety of literary genres, but also the variety of literatures that exist in Canada, including Indigenous literatures, Black Canadian literature, and Asian Canadian literature, to name a few,” she wrote.

Aguila-Way has had success using textbooks and anthologies to achieve her goal, in part because “they compile readings that students might have difficulty accessing otherwise.”

Anthologies, which assemble works by various authors, are particularly beneficial in English courses because of the “paratextual materials” within them, including headnotes, writer biographies, historical documents, photographs, and more. “[These] can help students understand the cultural and historical contexts of the anthologized texts,” she wrote.

She has opted to assign a variety of primary and secondary sources, including books, novels, poetry, and plays, many of which she has made available to students on Quercus.

Cost is another major consideration for her.

“There are some excellent Canadian literature anthologies that I have used in past courses and would be happy to use in my classroom again,” she wrote. “However, a good anthology can cost upwards of $100 and I feel uneasy as-

signing such a costly text for a course that only lasts one semester.”

At its core, though, Aguila-Way’s class is based on a balance between introducing students to dominant narratives and chronologies, and simultaneously disrupting them.

This includes teaching and contrasting settlement narratives from canonical and emerging authors with stories from writers of different races and backgrounds.

“In my module on settlement narratives I teach what is probably the most famous Canadian emigration manual – Susanna Moodie’s Roughing it in the Bush – alongside Mary Ann Shadd’s A Plea for Emigration, a nineteenth century emigration manual that was directed specifically at Black people who were considering emigrating to Canada to escape persecution under the Fugitive Slave Act in the United States,” she wrote.

Teaching Shadd and Moodie’s emigration manuals side-by-side allows her to show students that the experience of settlement is heterogeneous, and “could vary greatly depending on one’s race, class, and gender.” It also disrupts the narrative that multicultural and multi-ethnic writing is a recent phenomenon in Canadian literature.

“The history of racialized writing in Canada is as old as the country itself (and far older if we include Indigenous literatures within this category),” she wrote.

In her class, she opens the semester with Indigenous texts by authors like Thomas King and Brian Maracle. They both directly address Indigeneity and Indigenous literature as existing outside of colonial and settler narratives.

The history of Canadian colonization acts as both a basis and a contrast to everything else students read. But she also hopes to expose students to Indigenous literature as a vast and diverse genre, beyond the scope of colonial influence. She highlighted the Truth and Reconciliation era as a major turning point for professors. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established by the federal government in 2008, and uncovered the harsh abuse that took place in residential schools against Indigenous children.

“I’ve noticed that, even in this post-Truth and Reconciliation moment during which many Professors are trying to decolonize their syllabi and include Indigenous writings and perspectives in our courses, there is a persistent tendency to think about Indigenous literatures only in relation to colonialism,” she wrote.

“To me, this kind of framing elides the expressions of resilience, defiance, and cultural resurgence that characterize a lot of contemporary Indigenous writing,” she added. “Thus, in my course, I’ve tried to include texts by Indigenous authors whose work not only challenges colonial renderings of history, but also affirms the resilience of Indigenous peoples.”

When asked if textbooks should be used at U of T, given their biases, Aguila-Way wrote that they should be. However, she also acknowledges that certain textbooks, such as anthologies, can sometimes carry the implication that the writers they represent are the most important and thus ‘worthy’ of being anthologized.

To combat this idea, she frequently supplements anthologized texts with materials by

lesser-known or emerging writers.

The huge range of subjects and sub-subjects in English alone makes it a challenge to choose which stories should be highlighted.

Still, she offers a strategy for professors to “encourage a diversity of thought” among their students.

“Reference existing critical debates surrounding the literary texts we are teaching,” she wrote. “Acknowledging these debates not only serves to remind students that there are multiple ways of interpreting a literary text, but it also helps introduce them to the wide array of critical approaches.”

On the future and limitations of textbooks Wastasecoot and Aguila-Way demonstrated that textbooks and historical resources can be used effectively in their teaching, but they also emphasized the importance of interacting with a diverse range of sources. Textbooks can be a great starting point for further research, and serve as wonderful points of access to topics that are otherwise difficult to discover. But they should not be the only point of contact you have with a subject.

When The Varsity asked Wastasecoot how students at U of T can expand their understanding of Indigenous history that has been excluded in textbooks, she implored people to educate themselves.

“You can Google this stuff,” she said. “It’s right at your fingertips… There [are] many Indigenous authors now, right? There are many more nowadays. And there are many Indigenist authors… people who are not Indigenous but know the story and can be allies.”

She also stressed the importance of connection with other people, to learn and teach together.

“I always allow people to come and audit [my] course,” she said. “I think it’s important to have at least one seat available to somebody, maybe not a student… They just don’t know where to start, so they just start there.”

“And no question is a stupid question to me, because… you’ve just got to be able to ask. You’ve got to feel safe enough to ask,” she added.

One way to create safety is to have these discussions outside of the classroom. Whether it’s a book club or a movie night, “it’s really important to get people talking.”

When I think about all of the history we have left to uproot and re-examine critically, I think about a passage in King’s A Coyote Columbus Story. Coyote, a trickster figure, tells the narrator that she is going to a party for Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America and the Indigenous peoples who live there. The narrator tells Coyote that Columbus made no such discovery.

“Oh no, says Coyote. I read it in a book… It was a history book. Big red one. All about how Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue looking for America and the Indians.”

“Sit down,” replies the narrator. “Have some tea. We’re going to have to do this story right.

We’re going to have to do this story now.”

In these small chapters, Indigenous history was constructed to portray colonizers in a favourable light. But despite their inaccuracy, these racist settler narratives came to be the dominant ones.

Arts & Culture

March 30, 2020 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Breaking bread A housewife’s response to calamity and COVID-19 Kate Reeve Varsity Staff

I’ve always been suspicious of people who are very invested in the process of baking bread.

For one thing, they’re usually bread-baking people, which is to say they are very proud of themselves and their products. More than a hobby, bread becomes part of their identity, to be hoisted around in bars.

To me, making sourdough is a strange cultic activity that traps lonely people into schedules of care: rising and stretching and — inexplicably — feeding yeast. To what end? Big grain’s wet dream — an army of horny youths, kneading ceaselessly in their studio apartments.

Moreover, the mechanics of fermentation are entirely beyond the horizon of my interests. I refuse to care about gluten tension or dough salinity — terms I just invented that might mean something, but likely don’t.

Maybe I need to gender this complaint: I suppose I am particularly suspicious of men who become very invested in the process of baking bread.

For some reason, I feel territorial about the activity, even though I have no interest in it. Bread is women’s work! Halakhic law backs me up on this.

But I lost my job and I’m graduating soon and I’ve been indoors for too long — so I’ve been baking bread.

Seventeen loaves so far, most of which my sisters and I deliver to the bottom of our neighbours’ porches. We wear gloves that were originally intended for dyeing our mom’s hair in the bathtub, but they’re functional enough. Of course, we’re very careful, so much so that it feels like we’re actors in a macabre play.

My time is now patterned like a housewife’s: every morning I wake up, listen to “Fast Car (2017 Dance Workout Edit Mix)” — this is just legal speed — and mix water into flour. I put yesterday’s risen dough into the oven, set up for

tomorrow’s loaves, and then clean the kitchen. I make breakfast for my family. I clean the kitchen once again, and then I change into leggings and do pilates tapes in the basement. I’m living Sheryl Sandberg’s nightmare.

Although baking for others sounds generally altruistic, it’s absolutely not: without it, I would lose my mind. My routine is entirely self-serving.

But caring for others in pathetically simple ways is — ironically — the only way to get through our mutual alienation.

Jacques Derrida postulates four conditions of a “free gift”: there must be no expectation of reciprocity, the recipient must not recognize the gift and thus feel indebted, the donor must not recognize it as a gift, and the gift cannot exist as such.

In his equation, a free gift — one that is truly altruistic, without even a twinge of self-congratulation — is impossible unless one transcends the transactivity of actions in time. In other words, it is impossible for kindness to go silently — giving creates social entanglements.

These entanglements keep us sane. They could also be foundational in reshaping how we interact with one another when this eventually ends.

You know, in St. Augustine’s framing, alms-giving is a way to expiate earthly sin. He believed that humans, flawed as we are, sin constantly — so we must give constantly. It’s not a perfect idea, but there’s something to it.

With that in mind, here’s the bread recipe that’s most popular with my neighbours. It’s not sourdough — I have yet to fall so far from grace, and I pray I never will.

Cinnamon-raisin peasant bread 2 cups white flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 3/4 tsp instant yeast 2 tsp of salt 3 tbsp brown sugar 2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp vanilla powder (optional) 1/2 cup raisins 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. I like to use a spatula for this because it feels vaguely professional. Pushing the ingredients to the edges of the bowl, make a well in the centre. Pour the water into the well. Fold the dry into the wet until a shaggy dough forms. It will look weird and not at all like bread.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, or a tea towel if you still have faith in individual consumer choices having environmental impact. Leave to rest on the countertop for at least 12 hours. I like to make this in the morning, leave it for 24 hours, then bake it the next morning.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a dutch oven or big, oven-proof pot into the oven. Make sure your pot has a lid, because you’ll need it soon. Let the pot heat up for 30 minutes with the lid off.

Meanwhile, toss a handful or two of flour onto a baking sheet. Using a spatula, scrape out your dough — it should look bubbly and much bigger — onto the floured baking sheet. In a few cupping motions, shape it into a ball with your palms. Place the ball of dough onto a sheet of parchment paper.

When your pot is ready, remove it from the oven, and pick up the edges of your parchment paper and nestle the entire sheaf inside the pot. Cover, and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the lid off, and bake for another 15 minutes to brown the top. Let cool, ideally for an hour, then slice, share, or serve.

Disclosure: Kate Reeve previously served as Volume 139 Features Editor of The Varsity.

You better believe it’s bread!

KATE REEVE/THE VARSITY

Dear U of T, I bid thee farewell — even if it’s not the way I imagined Reflections from a journalist at the end of an undergraduate degree Abhya Adlakha Varsity Staff

As I sat down to write this piece — my final article for The Varsity — I wondered what I could say about this university that hasn’t already been said. How was my story any different, any less tumultuous than that of any other student?

I came to this university four years ago as a scared first-year student lugging a suitcase of expectations and dreams behind her, smiling sheepishly with braces, ready to bite into the fruit of so-called adulthood. I can barely comprehend that it’s already time to graduate.

I was the first in my family to go to university overseas, like many other students I’m sure.

Leaving the comfort of home and familiarity behind was difficult, but I was so excited to be independent and to discover myself that it rarely mattered.

Before I knew it, I had immersed myself in university life. Classes, assignments, and extracurriculars became a routine. Friends became family; study sessions ended up in late-night dinners, and, unbeknownst to me, U of T became my home.

It was at U of T that I made lifelong friendships, reconnected with old friends, and met my

roommate and best friend. I fell in love here, and also learned that life isn’t always as you imagine it to be.

I got the chance to learn from some of the smartest and accomplished professors in the world. I failed and learned to stand back up, and even stumbled a little here and there. The nights I spent at Robarts Library will always be etched in my heart; it was often comforting — and even a little funny — to look around at midnight and see everyone in the same hellhole as I was.

The food truck in front of Sidney Smith Hall, Friday nights at the Ein-stein Bierhalle, and laughing in the residence halls at early morning hours are some of the things that I’m never going to forget.

But more than anything else, U of T has helped me discover who I am. I found my love for writing, decided to pursue journalism instead of medical school, and landed an internship with one of the largest newspapers in the country. It was here that I transformed from a shy 16-year-old into a bold, independent, and still a little shy adult.

The last few weeks have been unprecedented.

With so many closures and cancellations, everyone — especially the graduating class — is uncertain and worried about the future.

On Wednesday, a lot of my peers and I were

left heartbroken by the news that the June convocation was cancelled, and as such, we, the graduating class of 2020, are not going to get the send-off we were so eagerly waiting for.

We didn’t get to say goodbye to our friends the way we thought we would. Our parents are not going to see us walk on the stage while they call out our names. We won’t be able to don the U of T black gown and stand proudly as the class of 2020.

Although it’s the best decision in light of the ongoing pandemic, it’s still going to hurt a little.

We are not going to be able to enjoy our last summer before we are flung into full-fledged adulthood. We might not get to travel and explore the world like we planned. We’re entering into a harsher world, and an economy with fewer jobs. But there’s comfort in knowing that we’re all in this together — and we’ll get through this together.

Dear graduating class of 2020, no matter what happens, trust that we’ll be fine, and know that it’ll be one hell of a story to tell.

var.st/arts

MARCH 30, 2020

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ADITI PUTCHA/THE VARSITY

Growing up is being let down Angela Feng Comment Editor

Content warning: Discussion of sexual abuse against children.

I don’t think that 16-year-old me would be a fan of who I am today. Friday nights sitting in bed — with dead, overbleached, un-styled hair — and dramatically overemotional. I’m just fine. No more, no less, just sensationally average.

At 14, I picked up my first copy of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” at the Bloor Street and Spadina Avenue BMV Books. After cashing my first paycheck, this purchase began a years-long devotion to buying and never reading iconic literature.

But I did read “Howl.” I consumed it. I hungered for the emotions within: that desire to be free, to rebel, to feel young and restless — mind you, my 14-year-old self didn’t yet know about perspective, so this was a big, big deal. Ginsberg spoke to me — directly to me. This young, shy, hard-working girl who had a knack for repressing pain and suffering. This poem meant everything to me. It inspired expectations of a life beyond reality, of a constant quest for something more.

My dramatic love for “Howl” and my deep, longing desire to fit in created this disturbingly

Navigating the growing pains of your icons failing you anxious dynamic that caused me to wear highwaisted jeans, crop tops, and listen to the Arctic Monkeys. But I hated myself every step of the way, and used “Howl” as a guide for why everything and everyone around me was lame and dishonest.

I loved that my coworkers called me an old soul, and I emotionally distanced myself from my friends, unable to feel like I fit in. Instead, I feigned maturity in the warm embrace of pseudorevolutionary vibes.

Last year, I read an article that explained how, in the late 1980s or early 1990s, Ginsberg joined the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), a group that advocates for people with pedophelia. It aimed to abolish the legal age of consent and release people who had sexually abused children from prison. Ginsberg became one of their biggest, most unapologetic proponents. Sitting in Robarts Library, I sifted through article after article as disbelief turned to anger, and anger turned to pain.

I was understandably gutted. Memories of my teenage self are agonizing even without the knowledge that I was pining over the works of an author who was morally fucked.

I’ve always been a collector of precious things — of feelings, emotions, and objects that hold

within them memories of times too overwhelmed with the majesty of their own meaning to simply remember. I crave tokens, evidence of obstacles overcome, tears shed, adventures lived or imagined.

Like a relic, I easily shatter. The wrong touch disintegrates my very understanding of the world.

I’m known to panic. Irrationality is my conscience, unable to process dread and unease.

When I learned Ginsberg wasn’t the person that I had painted him to be, I crumbled into a million misspelled verbs. That guiding light that had led me through the confusion and sorrow of puberty was suddenly made filthy by truth. But these are growing pains that we may never stop feeling; society makes white men better than they are.

Jenny Slate did an interview once where she said that she was better at being a teenager as an adult than when she was actually a teen. I spent my teen years pretending to be an adult, and as an adult, nothing brings me more joy than the hit album Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus.

I’ve grown out of “Howl.” My relationship with this poem charts my life as an individual who is inclined to dedicate herself entirely to things that barely matter, and who grips tightly to memories of a luminous past. Just as I am no longer that 14-year-old girl — occasionally, I even save my paychecks — Ginsberg is no longer that idyllic,

creative genius that I thought he was. He was a myth of bohemian perfection whose truth proves to be just as convoluted as adulthood has been so far — another reason for my crippling trust issues.

As a former wannabe Arctic Monkeys groupie spiraling into a mid-life crisis at the age of 20 at 1:00 am on the second floor of Robarts Library, I wanted to strangle Ginsberg. First comes anger, I guess. But it’s what comes next that matters.

Icons remain evidence of our past — of how we ignored people’s misdeeds, celebrated their achievements, and continue to preserve their legacies. His influence persists. Ginsberg remains an icon — U of T even owns the world’s largest collection of his photos.

We can’t ignore his legacy, but we must change the way that we talk about Ginsberg. He didn’t live in a vacuum, and the same patriarchal biases that allowed him to escape prosecution allow people to escape justice today. Truly awful people can still create meaningful works of art, as much as we wish they wouldn’t.

So let’s make a collective decision to forgive ourselves for complacency, so long as it remains a thing of the past — even if that means I have to get over myself, grow up, and move on.

Book Club: Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and The White Book Living in translation: from South Korea to the rest of the world

Sana Mohsin Varsity Contributor

Content warning: mentions of domestic abuse.

Sometimes, at the most random of times, when I am doing something of no importance, I am reminded of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, and suddenly it’s all I can think about: the memory of Kang’s haunting prose paralyzes me.

But, at the same time, when I am stuck in a creative rut, or need a moment of reflection in my busy, lecture-laden days, I turn to Kang’s The White Book, and let her peaceful, lilting poetry take me to a place of stillness.

Kang’s work contains multitudes, so much so that The White Book and The Vegetarian may not seem to belong to the same writer, as she succeeds in surprising readers with each new book that is published.

While there has been discussion as to whether Deborah Smith took some liberties in her translation from the original Korean to English, what remains at the end of the day is the beauty and simplicity of Kang’s words, and their provocative and unembellished nature.

The Vegetarian was first published in Korea in 2007, and the English translation was published in 2016, which went on to win the Man Booker International Book Prize. The novel centres around Yeong-hye, a housewife who decides to become a vegetarian after a series of violent dreams.

The rest of the plot follows the reactions of her family, who are unaccepting and extreme.

Although the novel is essentially about the titular character Yeong-hye, readers are only able to perceive her through the perspectives of those around her — namely her husband, her brotherin-law, and her sister.

We are only able to observe Yeong-hye and her erratic actions through the eyes of others, never finding out her own reasons for her decision.

Ultimately, The Vegetarian is about autonomy and more specifically, how much control a woman really possesses over her own body in a patriarchal society. The decision to give up meat is Yeonghye’s alone, but the actions of her husband, her father, and even her brother-in-law to some extent, do not allow her to stick to this decision.

One chilling scene involves Yeong-hye’s brother holding Yeong-hye down at the dinner table while her father tries to force-feed her a piece of pork. The men around her cannot handle the fact that she can take such an action — a small one, as she’s only giving up meat — by herself, and that she is standing by it so strongly.

Further, by using Yeong-hye as a proxy of sorts, her husband, brother-in-law, and sister are forced to acknowledge their own mental instability and their own feelings that are brought out due to Yeong-hye’s worsening physical and mental health. By the end, the only one who stands by Yeong-hye is her sister In-hye, as she navigates Yeong-hye’s stay at a mental institution.

Contrasting the shocking subject matter of The

Vegetarian, The White Book allows for a moment of calm and slowness. The book is a meditation on the colour white, as well as the different objects and concepts that the colour encompasses. There are chapters on salt, snow, the moon, and white birds, all of which convey Kang’s reflections on the different topics in fragments.

The author wrote this book while on residency in Warsaw, Poland, and while the city is unnamed in the book, we get to see Kang’s musings on the history of the place — one that still bears the tragedy of war. But perhaps most of all, this book is a meditation on Kang’s older sister, who died in her mother’s arms when she was barely two hours old.

Like a ghost, this older sister has haunted Kang throughout her life, leading her to think of what life would’ve been like if instead of Kang, it had been her older sister doing all that she does.

All in all, The White Book is a powerful statement of less being more, and of simplicity conveying some of the biggest realities of our world.

I would recommend Kang’s work to everyone, and then some. There are very few authors who capture human nature like her — skirting between realism and surrealism — unafraid to express the raw truth through words on a page.

Not only that, but it’s so important to move past the Western perspectives that have been given a higher credibility than other literatures for centuries. Through translation, a worldwide view is quite literally offered to us, and we should seize that opportunity.

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

Science

March 30, 2020 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

Coping with ‘coronaworries’ U of T psychology, psychiatry professors share advice on adapting to the new normal Valeria Khudiakova Science Correspondent

Widespread lockdowns, border closures, selfisolation, and quarantines have become the new normal around the world as people adapt to the realities of COVID-19. These changes to our lives, along with the uncertainty of how long the spread of COVID-19 will last, can have a detrimental effect on mental health.

However, according to psychology and psychiatry experts at U of T, there are practical ways to take care of yourself during these challenging times.

It’s normal to feel anxious Dr. Steve Joordens, a professor of psychology at UTSC, said in an interview with The Varsity that the current pandemic is “a prototypical situation” for anxiety to manifest.

He explained that anxiety tends to appear when we feel like we’re under threat and we can’t do anything about it, just like during this pandemic.

In such situations, your sympathetic nervous system activates the fight-or-flight response, making you feel on edge.

Joordens went on to say that students, whose lives are generally structured around classes, can begin to feel adrift when that structure and organization is gone.

“And when those things are taken away from us, we can feel a little adrift,” Joordens said. “Like

a boat without an anchor where we’re not sure what we should be doing.”

The lack of human contact as a result of selfisolation, and the constant exposure to the news can also feed into this anxiety.

Further, quarantine can lead to severe psychological consequences: a review in The Lancet found that quarantines can cause symptoms similar to those of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as feelings of “confusion and anger.”

Maintaining a sense of control despite uncertainty The Varsity interviewed Dr. Greg Dubord, an assistant professor of psychiatry at U of T. He wrote that although our daily lives have been uprooted by the virus, “The behaviours that maintain good mental health are the same with or without the presence of the COVID-19 virus, and many of those don’t have to change.”

In an interview with Global News, Dr. Vaile Wright of the American Psychological Association emphasized the importance of maintaining a sense of control. According to Wright, in a situation like the ongoing pandemic, the only things you can control are your thoughts and emotional and behavioural responses.

Stress can be managed productively: eating well, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep can help you stay in good mental health.

According to Dubord, research has shown that spending time in cluttered and messy environ-

ments can have a negative impact on your mental health. Cleaning your room may be overdue, and it might keep you busy for some time. You’ll then be better able to focus on your homework afterward.

Creating a schedule or planning each day carefully might help you stay productive and maintain a sense of control.

Dealing with the anxiety News can give us some sense of comfort, according to Joordens, but it can also easily turn into a source of addiction. “We are all living in this uncertainty, and information is very comforting to us, and we’d like to get a little bit more understanding of what’s going on,” he reflected.

Dubord added that although it’s “vital” to stay informed, and “most people will end up consuming an unhealthy amount of news.”

To avoid scrolling through the news all day, and hence becoming even more anxious, both Joordens and Dubord recommend balancing your exposure to the news — for example, you could check the news in the morning, afternoon, and early evening, but not right before bed — and limit your time on news websites. It is also crucial to get your news from credible sources.

JOANA BARGAS/THE VARSITY

Limiting your exposure to social media can also be beneficial and prevent information overload. However, you might find that following mental health accounts on Instagram is helpful, insightful, and grounding.

Grounding yourself with relaxation techniques In a New York Times article, Dr. Judson Brewer of Brown University recommended trying awareness techniques to stay grounded and activate your prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for judgement and decision-making.

Brewer provided the example of reminding yourself of the good hygiene practices you’re partaking in during times of transmission-related anxiety. The brain tends to engage in processes it finds rewarding, so it might start focusing more on the pleasant feelings good hygiene brings about, rather than the negative feelings of anxiety.

Joordens further suggested finding guided relaxation techniques that work for you and designating a cue word that will prompt you to start relaxing. “You can’t tell yourself to stop being anxious, but you can tell yourself to start relaxing.”

Other activities, such as listening to your favourite music, or singing, can also help you cope with the anxiety.

Reading can be a calming activity, too. “Hopefully your future self can look back upon the COVID-19 self-isolation period with some pride based on having read a good number of good books,” wrote Dubord.

COVID-19 breakthrough: researchers from U of T and McMaster successfully isolate virus

Isolated virus could speed vaccine development, help determine if COVID-19 tests are performing as expected Mohammad Haddadnia Varsity Contributor

Scientists at Sunnybrook Hospital, the University of Toronto, and McMaster University successfully isolated and cultured SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, from two patients, accelerating progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine.

The discovery was announced on March 12, and comes almost three months after the outbreak of COVID-19, which started as an epidemic in Wuhan, China in December 2019. One day earlier, on March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the virus’ spread across the globe to be a pandemic.

Research teams from all across the world have started accepting grants to work on developing

a potential vaccine. Even though COVID-19 shares genomic and structural similarities with severe acute respiratory syndrome — better known as SARS — another strain of coronavirus that was identified and previously researched in 2003, the WHO has said that it would take at least 18 months to develop a vaccine.

Dr. Rob Kozak, a clinical microbiologist at U of T and at Sunnybrook Hospital, told Sunnybrook News that “researchers from these worldclass institutions came together in a grassroots way to successfully isolate the virus in just a few short weeks.”

Lab-grown copies of the virus will help researchers around the world enhance their understanding of the virus’ biology and evolution in order to develop better treatments and a potential vaccine.

One of the primary uses of the isolated virus

will be as a control group to see whether the tests currently being used by health care providers are performing as expected, according to Dr. Samira Mubareka, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist who’s at U of T and Sunnybrook.

Researchers can also use the isolated virus to measure the effectiveness of the vaccines and drugs that are currently in development.

As Kozak explained to U of T News, “From a bigger picture standpoint, having a virus isolate that can be shared with other labs to perform other experiments to better understand the virus and how to stop it is critical.”

Karen Mossman, a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University, told The Globe and Mail that she and her colleagues would be using the isolated virus to understand how COVID-19 counteracts the

human immune response.

As of time of publication, the virus has infected more than 662,000 people in over 177 countries and regions, and caused more than 30,800 deaths.

While there is more work to be done, there is cause for hope, as the isolation of SARS-CoV-2 could eventually help quell the outbreak and save many lives worldwide.

“Now that we have isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we can share this with other researchers and continue this teamwork,” said Dr. Arinjay Banerjee, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University, to Sunnybrook News, emphasizing that this collaboration will continue.

“The more viruses that are made available in this way, the more we can learn, collaborate and share,” he added.

var.st/science

MARCH 30, 2020

15

From Netflix Party to Zoom: how to handle COVID-19-related social distancing

Social distancing doesn’t mean social isolation, according to U of T psychiatry professor Emily Saso Varsity Staff

Social distancing and self-isolation measures have become the new norm for the foreseeable future in Toronto. These measures will help ‘flatten the curve’ of the spread of COVID-19, and can save lives by not overburdening Canada’s health care system.

Canadians have been taking their studies and work to their homes. However, social distancing and its potential toll on people’s emotional well-being is a subject of concern for mental health experts.

Dr. Suze Berkhout, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a clinician investigator at the University Health Network, explained how weakened emotional stability can be a typical effect of isolation in an email to The Varsity.

“In the context of COVID-19, we might also expect other feelings to become prominent: fear relating to infection, guilt, [and] confusion around the reasons for decreasing proximity with others when someone has no symptoms of infection, as well as irritability, sadness, or even anger at the situation in general,” she wrote.

Awareness of the negative impact of social media With newfound time at home, spending hours on end scrolling through seemingly eternal COVID-19 news feeds can be overwhelming. Jessica Valenti, an American feminist writer, asked her followers on Twitter if anyone else had “been waking up in the middle of the night to have a nice big panic attack.” One of the responders commented that she had just had her “first Coronavirus cry.”

Berkhout mentioned that although it is important to stay well informed about the situation and public health recommendations, people must balance the different kinds of COVID-19 media they consume.

“That might mean giving yourself a schedule – only going on to certain sites with reliable information and [limiting] how often that is during the day.” Finding examples online of communities pulling together can also foster feelings of hopefulness and resiliency.

Social connection through remote communication It is important to remember that physical isolation doesn’t have to mean social isolation. Dr. Heidi Kar, a clinical psychologist at the Education Development Centre advocates for the importance of a solid support system for good mental health. Similarly, according to Jonathan Kanter, the director of University of Washington Center for the Science of Social Connection, people are less likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder after natural disasters when they have family support.

However, only socializing through text messages lacks “the non-verbal aspects of communication that we respond to and use to understand one another,” as Berkhout pointed out.

Setting up video calls to converse, with programs like Skype and Zoom, along with doing activities like playing music, games, or watching movies with friends and family can all reduce this disconnect.

Google Chrome even has an extension called Netflix Party that allows you to watch TV shows and movies in sync with others remotely — with a real-time sidebar chat to share your reactions and comments on whatever you’ve decided to binge-watch.

Berkhout reminds us that “[we] also need to try to adapt and not expect everything to feel the way it would have – it’s a new ‘normal’ and one that we can embrace.”

centive to leave our houses for tasks such as work, school, and other extracurricular activities, as our usual markers of productivity and achievement are no longer there. Berkhout emphasized the importance of maintaining a routine “so that the day itself has more certainty.”

Ensuring that “each day has elements of relaxation… enjoyment, social connection, and

feelings of accomplishment” through practices like mindfulness, physical activity, and maintaining a regular sleep schedule are all ways to decrease anxiety and improve our moods.

“One way to help with the challenge of social distancing is to reframe the practice as part of a larger collective effort in which we are helping to protect our communities, especially our most vulnerable members,” wrote Berkhout.

Solitary tasks to boost one’s mood If you are home alone, there are solitary tasks you can do during the day that may help prevent negative thought patterns. For example, start reading the books that you’ve been wanting to read for months, journal your thoughts and experiences, and follow an at-home fitness routine to get endorphins flowing through your body.

Self-care practices like these are great methods for stress relief, emotional release, self-discovery, and building self-esteem. You might come to terms with any negative stressors that have been lingering throughout the escalating panic of COVID-19 and be able to better process them.

It can be discouraging without the normal in-

ISOBEL HEINTZMAN/THE VARSITY

The impact of vaping every day on the lung health of a Canadian teenager

U of T researchers analyze the first case of popcorn lung linked to flavoured e-cigarette liquids Roshni Ravi Varsity Contributor

Three months after Health Canada issued a warning on the risk of pulmonary illness associated with vaping, a collaborative study involving University of Toronto researchers examined the case of a 17-year-old male with a severe lung condition: acute bronchiolitis.

The teen, who was otherwise healthy for his age, had a five-month history of daily vape usage, using the dew mountain, green apple, and cotton candy flavours, supplemented with tetrahydrocannabinol, better known as THC — the main psychoactive chemical present in marijuana.

The patient’s ultimate diagnosis was

bronchiolitis obliterans, more commonly known as popcorn lung. The condition manifests as a scarring of the lung’s tiny airways, called bronchioles, which can hamper breathing and even be fatal. Popcorn lung acquired its common name when workers in popcorn manufacturing plants developed the condition due to the inhalation of the flavouring chemical diacetyl.

Following the publication of the U of T-led case study, the Canadian Medical Association Journal called for a nation-wide ban on flavoured vaping liquids.

Growing health concerns for flavoured e-cigarettes E-cigarettes burn fluids that commonly contain diacetyl and other flavouring. While they don’t directly contain tobacco, they still contain nicotine — the addictive substance found in tobacco — in varying amounts. Different available flavours have made the e-cigarettes more appealing to young Canadians, who have started using them recreationally.

Not all vape users are aware of the flavouring compound diacetyl, which has been linked to lung damage. “[The vaping industry] has been very unregulated,” said co-author Dr. Tereza Martinu, an assistant professor at U of T’s Department of Immunology and an affiliate scientist at the Toronto GenFIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

eral Hospital Research Institute, in an interview with The Varsity. “There are no regulations that say [companies] have to put all of the ingredients on the label, [so] you don’t know what’s in there.”

There have been reports of adverse reactions related to e-cigarette use, such as lipoid pneumonia, diffuse alveolar hemorrhage, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis — all of which are conditions that cause severe damage to the lungs.

The causes and effects of popcorn lung “Smoking is known to be very toxic for the lungs, but [this is] over many years of consumption,” said Martinu. She noted that the patient had only been vaping for five months.

The patient’s symptoms included shortness of breath, nausea, and a severe cough. Later, medical imaging and the exclusion of other potential causes led to the final diagnosis of popcorn lung.

Despite this diagnosis, it is unclear exactly which chemicals may have produced the patient’s popcorn lung. It may have been the result of a combination of different chemicals, since vapes can contain a variety of substances.

Flavouring-related popcorn lung as a complication of vaping is rare, but serious. The Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation has called for a change in the legislation regarding the use of tobacco and vaping products, in the form of an increase in the legal age for e-cigarette use to 21 years of age and regulation minimizing the toxic additives to e-cigarette liquids.

Sports

March 30, 2020 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

COVID-19 blues: Toronto athletes shifting gears following Tokyo 2020 Games delay Postponement of summer Olympics impacts Varsity Blues

Sara Fredo Associate Sports Editor

ZACH KOH/THE VARSITY

On March 22, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee announced that they would not be sending athletes to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Less than 48 hours after Canada pulled its athletes from the games — the first member country to do so — the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo organizing committee officially postponed the games until 2021.

In the midst of international shutdowns, health

crises, and waves of social distancing, it was not a matter of whether or not the games would be postponed or cancelled, but when. Numerous other athletic events, including the U SPORTS men and women’s hockey and volleyball championships, had already been cancelled or postponed indefinitely.

The ramifications of this decision will impact a significant number of athletes who were vying for the games. Though the IOC has announced that athletes who had already qualified for 2020

would keep their spots into 2021, questions now arise for when and how qualification processes will take place.

Other questions have yet to be answered, such as the age restriction in women’s artistic gymnastics, which states that gymnasts must be turning 16 in the Olympic competition year. Will gymnasts turning the eligible age in 2021 now be included? Will they be excluded from the Olympics, yet allowed to enter other competitions? It’s also uncertain how this delay will affect the Code

Cristine Chao: a career in retrospect

Women’s hockey all-star veteran reflects on a successful career Laura Ashwood Associate Sports Editor

Cristine Chao is a force to be reckoned with on the Varsity Blues women’s hockey team. She came in hot as a rookie, being named a member of both the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) and Canadian Interuniversity Sport — now U SPORTS — all-rookie teams. Since then, Chao only continued to prove her worth as a defenseperson throughout her career as a Blue. She racked up OUA team all-star titles in her second and third years, and was also named the OUA’s Defender of the Year, Most Sportsmanlike Player, and an OUA First Team All-Star in her fourth year.

This past season, Chao was an integral force in catapulting her team to the McCaw Cup, and their ticket to nationals. The Varsity asked Chao to reflect on her hockey career and her success as a Blue, and to offer some words of wisdom for incoming athletes.

Chao’s love of hockey came early and forcefully: “Every year, I begged my parents to let me play, but instead they would just put me in figure skating lessons,” she wrote in an email to The Varsity.

“I still remember [that] day clearly. My parents drove home from one of my brother’s games and told me that I could start playing the following year. I was super excited, as I loved watching hockey on TV, watching my brothers play, and playing around in my basement or at the rinks.”

From there, Chao skyrocketed in the sport, with the support of her parents. “I only played house league, which is the lowest level possible for the first four years, but I remember that I was always the fastest player and scored a lot of goals.”

Her mother had recognized her daughter’s outstanding potential in an interesting way: “I remember that my mom would pay me a toonie every time I scored three goals in a game” — the maximum number of times that a player could

score in her league. “That motivated me to always get better and to try my hardest, as what kid doesn’t want money?”

After beginning to play competitively in sixth grade, Chao knew that she would be pushing herself to be the best hockey player she could. Coming to U of T, her goal was getting into Varsity hockey, and she got there. “At first I was shocked with the difference in skill level and speed,” she wrote.

This difficult transition served as fuel to her fire, as motivation to improve. “As every game passed, I started getting used to the speed of the game. It wasn’t until the second half of the season [that] I started to play my game. I’ve always been an offensive defenseman, and it [was] in the second half [that] I felt comfortable enough to start playing more offensively.”

From there, her varsity career skyrocketed, and she became a standout player on the ice. Amassing multiple OUA accolades, Chao has become a leader by example for the younger players on the team. “Over the years here at U of T, I’ve seen myself change as a leader. Even as a first year, my coach always told me that people looked up to me, and that I needed to lead by example.”

“It meant that I had a large influence on how practices were going to go, the level of focus… and the work ethic that was given by everyone.

This forced me to always keep a positive attitude around the team and always give it my all during both practices and games.”

As her years as a Varsity Blue have come to a close, Chao looks back fondly on her times donning the ‘T’ jersey: “My fondest memory would be winning the McCaw Cup on home ice,” she remembered.

“I scored an empty-net goal with 1:12 left to

go in the game… As the final seconds ticked down, I remember hearing the roars from the crowd and the team swarming the ice to celebrate with us.

Raising that cup and skating around the rink was a 5-year long dream that I’ve had, and it’s unbelievable that I was able to achieve that at my last game ever at Varsity Arena.”

Chao is leaving behind a legacy of leadership and camaraderie, and has raised the bar for all future members of the Varsity Blues women’s hockey team.

She’s happily finished off her career with a smile on her face and a championship cup.

Her parting words of advice for those following in her footsteps?

“At first, you may be intimidated by your teammates, but remember that in the end you are all one big family, all with the same goal of winning a championship… Have fun. The four or five years are going to fly by, so try to enjoy every moment of it!”

Cristine Chao helped her team win the McCaw Cup in her final game as a Varsity Blue.

COURTESY OF SEYRAN MAMMADOV/ VARSITY BLUES

of Points, which is the rulebook that indicates the scoring system for each level of competition.

The Toronto Varsity Blues have a large handful of athletes whose qualification plans have been put on hold.

Varsity Blues men’s swimming alum Matt Dans had made the qualifying Canadian Olympic Trials in the 100-metre butterfly event.

Runner Lucia Stafford, who had a stunning cross country and track field season, was looking to contend for a games berth next to Gabriela Debues-Stafford, her older sister and holder of multiple Canadian records.

Swimmer and Olympic Bronze medallist Kylie Masse was all but a shoo-in for her second straight games, and Rosie MacLennan was vying for a third consecutive gold medal in the women’s trampoline event.

Erica Gavel had already helped qualify the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team to a Paralympic berth.

This list also doesn’t include the other Blues — past, present, and future — who have either made qualifying times for trials, or who would have been attending the games as a staff member.

So, how are the Blues handling the COVID-19 blues?

Dans wrote to The Varsity that, without access to a pool, he is focusing on ‘dryland’ training. This refers to training done outside of the pool, such as weight lifting, running, or cycling. His training plans have shifted significantly due to the delay, as swimming usually operates on a quadrennial cycle that aims to have athletes in peak shape for the Olympics.

Now, instead of focusing on stroke techniques, Dans is focusing more on building a strong base of fitness for 2021.

However, he’s also using this extra time and self-isolation to focus on other things; he wrote to The Varsity that his go-to relaxation activity is testing out new baking ideas.

var.st/sports

MARCH 30, 2020

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In conversation with

Janelle Joseph

KPE professor talks barriers to access, issues of equity in sport MAKENA MWENDA/THE VARSITY

Silas Le Blanc Sports Editor

The Varsity got an opportunity to speak with Janelle Joseph, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education who performs research in critical studies of race and Indigeneity in sport. Joseph spoke about many barriers that racialized people face in their local communities, as well as what organizers can do better to address these concerns.

The Varsity: How did you get into studying race, multiculturalism, and Indigeneity in sport?

Janelle Joseph: I’m sure I have a few different origin stories. One that probably applies is the fact that my brother was a professional baseball player, and I went to visit him at his training camp. I recognized that most of the players were Black. Most of the coaches were white and, in fact, a lot of the players only spoke Spanish.

And so my brother was really a minority on the team, being the only Black player from Canada. And it really gave me an insight into how racially stratified sports are, and also how glorified professional sports are. I really started to think about how the systems that we celebrate are the same systems that end up creating racial hierarchies, and I wanted to dig into that even deeper. So that’s part of how I became a sports scholar. Also, as a Black woman I’ve always enjoyed physical activity. My passion has been martial arts, dance, and other physical movement practices.

TV: Can you describe what critical race theory is, and how it applies to sport?

JJ: So critical theory is a way of understanding the world. Critical race theory views the world with the understanding that we live in basic structures and that there is an ongoing hierarchy that positions white people at the centre of the culture, and creates a hierarchy that marginalizes other groups. These other groups have shifting levels of power, but in Canadian society we generally see that Indigenous and Black people almost always fall at the bottom of those hierarchies.

Because of that permanence of racism, critical race theory was also dedicated to discovering the stories of marginalized people and figuring out how the structure actually affects them. Mostly these are marginalized voices because they’ve been left out of the mainstream storytelling. So for example, within sports, the national narrative of hockey as a really inclusive coloquial pastime

that everyone has access to ignores the fact that, for so long in residential schools, hockey was used as a tool of domination and Indigenous people, generally speaking, have been excluded from hockey in almost all Canadian centres.

They’re starting to change now with specific initiatives to promote inclusion, and part of that goes into class, because hockey is such an expensive sport. But that’s just one example of how we need to actually talk to people who are racialized to hear their stories and their versions of events so that we can get a more complete Canadian history.

TV: What do you think needs to be done to promote more Black and Indigenous people in sport?

JJ: I think there’s a multi-pronged approach that can be taken, and it really depends on the kind of sport or activity that you’re talking about. I’ve been approached by people who are with Rowing Canada and soccer at municipal levels. Those particular sports have usually one or two people of colour, and they see a lot of racism. Those are the kinds of people who often reach out to me for support. And things that can be done is bringing their stories forward and making sure that people understand that when they see discrimination in their sport, it’s not just the result of a few bad apples and some individually racist people. It’s usually because referees, coaches, athletic trainers, and a lot of people in positions of power think it’s just normal.

So making sure that everyone is aware that’s happening, that if there are policies then they are being followed. And if there are no policies in the books, then start taking a structural approach — making sure that every sporting organization has an anti-racism policy.

It can sometimes get included with an antibullying or anti-harassment policy, but you need to make sure that the language about racism is explicit. So it’s not enough to say, “We have an anti-bullying policy.” It needs to be an antiBlack racism policy, and an anti-Indigenous harassment policy. Those things need to be based on that so that people can take those policies, and say that they are experiencing harassment.

And then there’s also the issue of representation. If your organization has no people of colour on the board, or no coaches or referees of colour, that might mean that you need to do some training, and that might mean you need to go into those communities that have high proportions of youth of colour and introduce them to the idea of refereeing, introduce them

to the sport of rowing.

It’s going to be a long time before you have, say, Black leaders in equestrianism in Canada. If they’re not exposed to that sport and if it remains really class-exclusive and racially exclusive, then maybe we need work on a lot of different levels, from policies, to recruitment, to representation, to being really explicit that if you look around the board and it’s usually dominated by men and dominated by white men, you might need to set some quotas and might need to set some targets.

Say “we can do better,” and, given that you are operating in the province of Ontario at the very least, you could add to match some of the racial demographics of the province or of the city on our board. And that includes gender demographics and other intersections such as disability or LGBTQ+ status. It’s important to remember that people of colour come in all different shapes and sizes and they need to recognize those intersections as well.

TV: What kind of challenges do you believe Indigenous people face in getting involved in sport?

JJ: It really does depend on the area that they’re living in, first and foremost. So if Indigenous people are in remote areas and some of the issues they have come down to access, are there enough people to make up a team? Do you have the type of equipment that you need? Do you have the facilities that you need? You might have an idea that you want to start a basketball league, but do you have the gym space? Do you have the competitors and the coaches and the officials?

All of the structural elements that go into generating sporting opportunities are limiting rural communities, and many Indigenous people in Canada are living in rural communities. So that’s one factor. But we also have many Indigenous people in our urban centres. In Toronto, some of the barriers that Indigenous people are facing do stem from racial exclusion.

Assumptions being made about what kinds of activities they’ll be good at or be able to do. For Indigenous people, there are barriers connected with their ancestral cultures. They’d love to have opportunities to do Indigenous activities, dances, and Pow Wows, and those opportunities may not be made available to them. So they not only have to be athletes or physically active, but they may also have to be entrepreneurs and business organizers, and they need the leverage organization to get the space and the time to do the kind of activities they want.

TV: What about immigrants and newcomers to Canada? What kinds of challenges do they face?

JJ: I think there are a lot of similarities. Sometimes for newcomers, the biggest challenge is around finances and sense of economic status.

And so they might not be able to afford the physical activities that they would prefer because their first priorities are food, shelter, and making sure that they can take care of the basics.

We know that a lot of immigrants, when they come here, their qualifications and education combinations that they have come from are not honoured, or not recognized. And so you might have someone who has an engineering degree or a medical degree, and then in Toronto they’re driving a taxi cab or working in a factory. And so they don’t have the kind of income that would lend them to participate in sport because of their income or free time.

We should lead them to participate in the kinds of activities they want, particularly for the next generation raising their children in the kinds of activities that those children are supposed to play. There’s also a language barrier sometimes, and they might not even be aware of the opportunities that are available because English is not their first language. Some local community centres have not made an effort to advertise their services in multiple languages.

TV: What do you think the media, including student media, can do to better foster inclusion and multiculturalism in sport?

JJ: One of the things — and I’ll bring it back to critical race theory — is to ask those people. We have so many pockets of, for example, Somali communities. Where are they shopping? Where are they hanging out? How could we go to those communities, and figure out what it is that they need? Because if you don’t have those people on your boards and in positions of decision-making power, then you’re not going to know what those communities need.

So the first thing that the media could do is profile the stories of those communities and ask them what they need. Profile all the good work that’s happening. I know of a few different Muslim women sports opportunities that have popped up in the last couple of years in the GTA. So rather than only printing stories about how these communities don’t have access, or don’t do enough physical activities, and blaming them for their own sedentariness, figure out when and where they actually are doing these things.

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

ADITI PUTCHA/ THE VARSITY

MARCH 30, 2020

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Missed connections Seeing God at Gongcha UTSU’s #1 Fan Farcity Contributor

I saw her as she entered the Gongcha at Spadina Avenue and Bloor Street West. She was with her friend — or at least I think it was her friend — who called her “student journalist of the year my lord and saviour Kosie Jao.” She locked eyes with me as she sipped on her large brown sugar milk tea with tapioca. She scoffed and turned away. It was love at first sight.

Kosie, if you’re out there, I love you.

Equity Man He was staring at his laptop, typing feverishly with abandon. I peeked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of his work.

“Equity, equity,” he muttered under his breath,

skipping a Majid Jordan song for another Majid Jordan song, and clicking back onto a 300-page document titled “Equity plan, 2020 — in progress.”

If you’re seeing this, I don’t understand why you type in an eight-point font, and I really want to ask you about it.

Finding inspo on FanFiction.net I’ve been reading your fics for weeks, inhaling them the moment they’re released.

I saw you writing in a Starbucks on Bloor Street West and Bathurst Street and decided to check out your work. I’ve always been a fervent Dramione stan, so I Googled your username, only to fall into a rabbit hole of fics. I still regret not getting your name or striking up some kind of conversation. You were drinking the largest bottle of coconut aloe drink I’ve ever seen in my life.

If by some miracle, you read this, please reach out to me at dramioneonly6969.

Are you okay? Late night worries You were staring at your phone, scrolling through an Excel spreadsheet. You looked calm, despite the concerning number of tabs open on your phone and computer.

Your friend returned with snacks and drinks, and you proceeded to drink all of them during the eight hours that she was there. I guess, like me, you were there to do a lot of work. But then your friend left, and I didn’t notice you eat or drink during the 12 hours I stayed at Robarts Library. I went home and slept for about nine hours, returned to the library, and you were still there.

You were wearing the same clothes and typing away, and I don’t think you had slept that night.

Are you okay? I’m worried about you. You need to sleep, eat, and drink water, please. I’m normally not this paternalistic, but you seemed nice and fully functional. I’m just concerned.

Non-threatening leadership skills for every #girlboss How to be a great colleague, according to a male specimen

Print Influencer and When you wanna be TikTok famous but you’re shy Farcity Contributors

So ladies, say you’ve got a full-time job or you’ve moved up the ranks at your workplace. But what are some important leadership skills to have as a #girlboss? Look no further!

1. Email etiquette For one, email etiquette is so important. It’s tempting to be direct and concise in your messaging, but watch your tone: you want to come off friendly, not hasty. Be generous with exclamation points, the “no worries,” and apologies, even if you have nothing to be sorry for.

More importantly, sign off the email properly.

I suggest sign-offs like “with love,” “warmest wishes,” and “sweetest regards.” You don’t want to come across antagonizing, ladies.

2. Keep the attitude in check Same as in emails, don’t raise your voice, simple

as that. Always be friendly and likeable in the office. If you’re assigning a task to someone, it’s important to frame it as a question, and end it with “no worries if not.” Boost office morale by doing chores like cleaning out the fridge and supplying office snacks. Ask your co-workers if they need any chores done for them too.

3. Dress like a boss Nobody wants to work with a show-off. Leave the low-cut tops, tight skirts, and bright colours for the weekend. Dressing in a flashy manner is a surefire way to gain the attention of your employees — but not the right kind. Respect yourself, and your team just might respect you too!

However, there is no need to be a professional prude: covering up completely with drab colours will give the message that you are boring and not willing to innovate. We’re not sure exactly what the perfect balance between too-loud and too-boring actually looks like, but we’ll let you know when we find it.

JOSEPH DONATO/THE VARSITY

4. Don’t be like my mom The last thing your team wants is to be reminded of their mothers, nagging them to clean their rooms or do their homework. When giving ‘orders,’ phrase it like you are giving suggestions! Remember: the less your team members remember that you are in charge, the better the work environment!

“Oh no, we’re stuck in quarantine together”: pandemic, panic and… true love?

Coming to a Netflix near you: Closed Borders, Open Hearts MEGAN BREARLEY/THE VARSITY AND ALTON/CC WIKIMEDIA

Renegade Farcity Contributor

The dystopian story of our era, Closed Borders, Open Hearts is a tale as old as time — but with a hip modern twist that audiences will find both relatable and endearing. Viewers will surely feel right at home, as

the story is ripe with social distancing, Zoom nightclubs, and government-imposed lockdowns.

The story begins with, and circles around our two characters, Mallory and Mort, who find themselves quarantined together in a European hostel as flights are cancelled, borders close, and travel home is no longer an option.

Though it was released last week, The New Constantinople Times has already named Closed Borders, Open Hearts the top movie of the year. In fact, its release is an accomplishment in itself, given that the entire movie had to be shot and edited remotely, as film production was deemed “non-essential” under Doug Ford’s March 23 announcement.

However, even if no other films are released this year, the movie still deserves Times’ title endowment for its evocative and heartbreaking love story.

Truly, the movie is so realistic that it almost looks like the actors are standing in the same room together, a feat that will make anyone long for the day when the pandemic is over, and dream of happier times. Closed Borders, Open Hearts makes the most of every opportunity. It shows that, in a time when meeting people and dating is literally impossible, love perseveres nevertheless.

Closed Borders, Open Hearts asks you to question where you’ll be 10 years into the quarantine.

But what’s more, it begs you to imagine yourself in the far off future, telling your quaranteens the story of how, when disease was rampant, the economy was falling apart, and the end was surely near, you were spending your days trapped in government-banned close proximity to a total

5. Be like my mom On the other hand, every guy loves to be reminded of their mother sometimes. She cheered them on at every DECA Inc. competition, and made the best lasagna that you, a mere mortal, could never replicate. While it isn’t generally considered professional to iron your employee’s socks, iron their ego instead by reminding them that they are, in fact, the bestest boy. stranger in an empty hostel, falling in love.

This is a story of love, yes, but it is also a story of the effort that needs to be put into love and the hardships of the universe. We follow the two as they struggle to practice safe social distancing in a cramped dorm room that’s only actually six feet wide; run out of toilet paper, and eventually food; and inevitably end their story in tragic heartbreak, as, despite all of their best efforts, they both get COVID-19 anyway.

Believe it or not, this classic meet-cute and wrenching tale was adapted from a Wattpad novel. Author and recent millionaire, 12-yearold Valerie Hopkins, announced last week, two days after the movie’s release, that she’s going to be taking her online middle school classes online in order to go on a Zoom tour and meet her fans.

Currently, Hopkins is living on her own private island with no parents, no COVID-19, and three wild tigers “for the aesthetic.”

What’s her biggest secret? Well, as a 12-yearold on a 13-plus platform, Hopkins always tells audiences to “not let anyone tell you you’re not good enough,” as she emphasized in an interview with The New Constantinople Times.

The Farcity reached out to Hopkins regarding the first leg of her Zoom tour, which will take place at U of T’s Zoom campus. In response, Hopkins forwarded The New Constantinople Times’ article, with the subject line: “whatever, just use this.”

— With files from Canterbury Big Geoff

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THE FARCITY

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THE FARCITY zoom.us “Call me, beep me, If you wanna reach me.”

— “Call Me, Beep Me,” Kim Possible

The Farcity

@TheFarcity

the.farcity

thefarcitynewspaper

the.farcity

thefarcity.ca

MASTHEAD STUDENT JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR YO editor@thevarsity.ca Dictator 2000s throwback playlist Chief Visionary

Volume 140 EIC José Gao returns for another term at The Farcity Online election system’s failure results in cancellation of elections, dictatorship Melissa-Christine, here for a good time not for a long time Farcity Contributor

creative@thevarsity.ca

not-the-right kind of anarchist Chief of Staff

managing@thevarsity.ca

dramione forever TikTok Activist

online@thevarsity.ca

frankenstein’s monster’s killer’s enabler copy@thevarsity.ca Senior Copy Editor what’s in his notebook News Editor

news@thevarsity.ca

UTSU’s #1 fan Comment Editor

comment@thevarsity.ca

quarantine bangs Features Editor

features@thevarsity.ca

Sorry, running l8 Arts & Culture Editor

arts@thevarsity.ca

Michelin star winner Science Editor

science@thevarsity.ca

Bernie bro Sports Editor

sports@thevarsity.ca

Print Influencer Business Editor

biz@thevarsity.ca

Renegade Copy Chief

deputysce@thevarsity.ca

Woodsworth spy Deputy News Editor

After The Farcity’s first online editor-in-chief (EIC) election came to a close last week, the current EIC, José Gao, has decided to override the election results and continue her reign for Volume 141. This is an unprecedented, dictatorial, and undemocratic move unseen in the 140 years of The Farcity’s history. As Gao is graduating, she will be the first non-U of T student to run the paper.

“The Farcity needs me,” Gao said, “A mother does not raise a child in a year, she does it for eternity.”

Claiming complications due to the COVID-19 closures, The Farcity’s Board of Directors decided to use the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s online software to conduct the election. Though it was already tested in the 2014 North Korean elections, producing a miraculous 99.97 per cent voter

From left to right: Former EIC candidate, man who used José in visual, wrong-righter, bear-strangler, José Gao. JOSÉ GAO/THE VARSITY

turnout, some questioned the system’s strength.

In an interview published in last week’s issue, Gao claimed that it was a unanimous decision among the board to use the software, in order to prevent bias in an online voting platform.

After the polls closed and votes were being tallied, the system allegedly crashed, causing a loss of data. As a result, Gao has decided to cancel the elections and continue her term.

“You can’t trust technology, but you can trust me,” she wrote in an email to The Farcity contributors and staff, announcing the cancellation of the elections and continuation of her term. She also said that after no dispute among the Board of Directors, it reached a unanimous decision to let her continue her term and dis-

band forever. The Farcity has reached out to the board for a comment on the recent results, but members have become unreachable since.

Gao has not yet mentioned what her new platform is, but an anonymous source told The Farcity that transparency is the first thing on her agenda.

One of the candidates in the election has been organizing a petition, but their recent unexplained disappearance has slowed down their efforts.

“Democracy is dead,” said another candidate.

I, for one, put trust in our returning leader, and did not receive any suitcases full of cash from Gao.

deputynews@thevarsity.ca

Benevolent snack god Design Editor

williamx@thevarsity.ca

Token non-artsci Design Editor

aditi@thevarsity.ca

Melissa-Christine, here for a good time not for a long time photos@thevarsity.ca Photo Editor Coco bunny Illustration Editor

illustration@thevarsity.ca

When you wanna be TikTok famous but you’re shy video@thevarsity.ca Video Editor

stephanie@thevarsity.ca

could destroy us all Back End Web Developer

kevin@thevarsity.ca

Department jumper Front End Web Developer

arm’s length Public Editor

publiceditor@thevarsity.ca

Canterbury Big Geoff, Mario Baker Associate Senior Copy Editors not destroyed by news yet, Student union stan, Crossword Queen Associate News Editors

anti-establishment sports, Varsity Blues’ only fan Associate Sports Editors eco-woman Associate Business Editor help plz Associate Design Editor

climate alarmist #1, climate alarmist #2 Associate Comment Editors

the new girl, Manuela Winston Associate Photo Editors

renaissance woman Associate Features Editor

too good for this world Associate Illustration Editor

he’s lit, you see Associate A&C Editor

Living the dream Associate Video Editor

Varsity’s only feminist, knotweed investigator Associate Science Editors

BUSINESS OFFICE printer paper saviour Business Manager

business@thevarsity.ca nicoleq@thevarsity.ca

make that money Advertising Executive

thank u 4 the fb comments, we needed the engagement

U of T student finally goes to class, can’t find lecture hall English specialist unsure why U of T campus is so empty Michelin star winner Farcity Contributor

Responding to a sudden urge to attend lecture for the first time in months, third-year English specialist John Woodsworth went to Victoria College to attend ENG300 — Chaucer.

“The lecture hall was empty when I arrived at 3:40 pm on the dot,” said Woodsworth to The Farcity. The lecture was scheduled to begin at 3:10 pm.

Woodsworth remarked that he had confusedly searched the rest of the second floor of the building, and found no classes taking place.

“I certainly feel like a keener,” said Woodsworth, “as it looks like I’m the only one bothering to go to lecture anymore.”

According to Woodsworth, this is the third time he has gone to lecture in the yearlong course since September. His previous attendance consisted of the first day of classes in the fall and winter semesters, respectively.

Woodsworth, who does not have access to his UTMail+ account, was unable to send an email to Professor Emma Hainsworth.

“It almost felt like a post-apocalypse,” grumbled Woodsworth. “Like everyone decided to stay at home at once.”

The Farcity has reached out to Hainsworth for comment.

YOON-JI KWEON/THE VARSITY

TTC surprised by impact of postsecondary fare increase on ridership Sharp decrease in ridership correlates with postsecondary fare increase

Michelin star winner Farcity Contributor

Following an increase of $5.70 in the TTC’s postsecondary monthly fare pass, TTC Chief Executive Officer Prichard Blarry has issued a statement about the transit system’s sharp decrease in ridership.

“It’s astounding to see the impact of this price increase on ridership,” said Blarry to The Farcity.

Ridership has fallen by more than 99 per cent, with frequent empty trains on the Yonge-University line.

Blarry’s executive advisor, speaking on back-

ground, said to The Farcity that Blarry is out of touch with the ridership. “Clearly, the poorly received fare evasion campaign was the root cause,” they explained.

When asked if the COVID-19 outbreak may have been a factor, Blarry was surprised to hear of the news.

“I’m very in-touch with the ridership,” said Blarry. “Surely, I would know if that were truly a problem that has suppressed ridership. I’m not isolated, you know.”

Blarry also added that he is considering an additional fare hike, to better demonstrate the value of the public transit service.

F March 30, 2020

THE FARCITY

actually it’s $150,000

Bye for now!

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ACROSS 1. Type of drug that’s often used to treat bipolar disorder 12. Many keep one in their trunk 13. Also 14. A hot crime 16. French noggin 17. Concrete jungle (abbr.)

18. Combs your lawn 19. To be 21. Uber gives this to each rider (abbr.)

23. Spiritual vibe 25. Doug Ford made cuts to it (abbr.)

27. Andrew ____ Webber 30. Either ___ 31. Text talk for this evening 32. Activity that goes left to right in English 34. Direction from Toronto to Montréal (abbr.)

35. Muscles on the torso 36. Someone who might grab an executive’s coffee (abbr.)

37. “____ Night” by Vincent van Gogh 39. Jay of late night 40. “Get me this yesterday!”

41. A slippery danger noodle 42. Twitter’s version of sharing (abbr.)

43. Not there 47. Small island 49. It’s as Canadian as darts and double doubles 51. Canadian shoe store 52. You can find one working in an ER (abbr.)

53. And so on and so forth (abbr.)

56. France has it but England doesn’t 58. Stops up 61. Professor’s assistant (abbr.)

62. October birthstones 64. Gossipers love to spill this 65. Former leader of Russia (title) 67. A French death 68. A troublemaking first-year’s enemy (abbr.)

69. Nut that’s often baked into pie 71. ____-Canada, where gas is filled and windows are squeegee-ed 73. Not a grade many are proud of, phonetic 75. Vote into office 77. A goodbye message from The Varsity

AITA: I make $138,000 at a student newspaper Employees are complaining that I “exploit” them, don’t know how much a “mop” costs

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NATHAN CHING AND DINA DONG/THE VARSITY

U of T to refund student fees through TBucks

Unused student fee money to be redirected toward UTM shuttle bus improvements UTSU’s #1 fan Farcity Contributor

In response to growing concerns over a lack of access to student-fee funded services, Governing Council has just announced its decision to refund a portion of student fees through the university’s TBucks system.

TBucks, a virtual currency not unlike Bitcoin, can be used for university printing services, the U of T Bookstore, and a variety of on-campus restaurants and cafés.

“I see students in Robarts every day and every night. I see them at Starbucks, at the burrito place, using that one vending machine that stocks mechanical pencils,” U of T President Geric Mertler told The Farcity.

“I know what students like. I understand them.

This was obviously a win-win solution for the students and the university.”

Any unused TBucks will be reinvested into tri-campus initiatives like the UTM shuttle bus, a revitalization project long thought impossible without the sacrifice of students.

UTM President Klrich Urull said of the renovations, “My understanding is that the tri-campus initiatives will provide students with greater access to resources at UTSG. I don’t really understand why they wouldn’t improve facilities at UTM instead, but it’s chill I guess.”

The UTM bus will be a major focus heading into the summer semester, as administration plans to revamp the service, with the ultimate goal of providing students with a holistic transit experience.

“I’m glad that they’re installing speakers and rave lights, but I don’t really understand how this will address any of my earlier concerns,” said UTM student Kindhya Volluru, “All we wanted was working wi-fi and shorter wait times.”

Volluru added, “I guess it’ll be nice to rave on the way to UTSG, but I can’t log into Zoom without wi-fi, and all of my courses are online.”

The university has instructed students to wear “hella fresh face masks” and gloves to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

“We saw that EDC was cancelled, and believe me, as a seasoned raver myself, I am bummed.

We’re doing our best to keep student life going, and that begins with the UTM shuttle bus,” remarked Mertler.

DOWN 1. The highest point 2. Country 3. Long lock of hair 4. In other words (abbr.)

5. Eye infection 6. Slang to get someone’s attention 7. This type of reef hates sunscreen 8. Tree from the genus Quercus 9. Walk upon 10. UTSU President Joshua Bowman served on the executive of this course union 11. Deadly gas (chemical formula) 12. Means ‘let it stand’ in the world of copy editing 15. Approaches 20. Sharp, acid taste 22. Reddit abbr. for abbr.

24. ___ calls can clog up your voicemail 26. A princess endured one under her mattress 28. “___ + Off ” by Maggie Roger 29. Working parents in quarantine wear headphones to block this 31. The tongue’s specialty 33. “I can’t be ____” (British slang) 35. A position taken in an opinion article 36. An achievement for a beginner, average for a professional 37. Cucumbers meet hot rocks, meet white robes here 38. The best is ___ to come 44. Drinking holes 45. ___-mo (special effect) 46. No way 48. James of jazz 50. Floor of the fireplace 52. U of T’s closest university neighbour (abbr.)

54. Unit for measuring a precious thing 55. ____ and circumstance 57. Michelob ____ 59. Folded flap on a fancy jacket 60. Where a horse may sleep.

63. Elizabeth Bishop was one 64. What a magician might say after she finds your card 66. Another term for a nope rope/danger noodle 70. 65 ACROSS of a company (abbr.)

72. Where one goal can decide all (abbr.)

74. ___ Niño 76. A U of T student in this program might be able to hack you

STUDENT JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR YO Farcity Contributor

I’ll try to keep this short since I’m very busy and important. So I (21F) run a student newspaper (140) and do a lot of top secret and essential things. You could say that the university would fall apart without me. I work at least 10 hours a week and make $138,000 a year. This is the salary I specifically negotiated for after I heard some University of Toronto Students’ Union presidential candidate’s promise that it would qualify me for a 90 per cent cut on residence fees.

It isn’t easy running one of the top-50 student newspapers in Canada — signing cheques and hitting publish really wears you down after the fifth or so time a week. So I would say without a doubt that I earn every cent of my paychecks.

Lately, however, I’ve been hearing murmurs around the watercooler* that my employees think I’m being overpaid. I heard one person (let’s call her Oury) say that all I do is sit in my 1,000-square-foot office and drink free craft beers while she has to grow her own sweet potatoes to survive.

Another employee (we’ll call him Atom) was complaining that he’d gone to the emergency room three times in the past week because he’d cut his fingers so many times while trying to open canned food (apparently he can’t afford a can opener, whatever that is), whereas I have 24/7 catering that’s paid for by the corporation.

Usually, I would just chalk it off to typical employee grumblings. However, today they really crossed the line.

I was getting ready to head off to my monthly company-paid trip to Florida while the rest of the team was doing their daily deep clean of the office. As I was about to leave, one of the visuals people (I don’t remember any of their names, so I’ll just choose a random one, let’s call her Dina) came up to me, bowing and with eyes averted, and asked if I could spare some money for them to buy a new mop so that they would no longer have to use their own clothes.

I scoffed, of course, and asked her why she expected me to fork out $100 of company money to buy them something they already had. Well, the whole room went quiet and suddenly they all started screaming at me for being “out of touch” and accused me of “sitting” up in my “ivory tower” all “day.”

Well, I wasn’t about to miss my flight for that so I left and locked the door behind me. So tell me, AITA for making $138,000 a year while my employees have to pay to work here? *We don’t have an office watercooler. My entitled employees keep pestering me for one but I just point them to the sink, even though they say the water is “brown” and smells like “a skunk had a dump on a burning pile of garbage.”

EDIT: Lots of people in the comments have told me I should mention that the doors don’t open from the inside, so I expect they’re all still there.