April 4th, 2022

The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

Vol. CXLII, No. 24

04:00, APRIL 4, 2022

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April 4, 2022

THE VARSITY

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THE VARSITY THE VARSITY NEWS

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Turning the page THE VARSITY Vol. CXLII, No. 24 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600 the.varsity

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MASTHEAD Hannah Carty Editor-in-Chief Aditi Putcha Creative Director Tahmeed Shafiq Managing Editor Stephanie Bai Managing Online Editor

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Nawa Tahir Deputy Senior Copy Editor Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor

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Maheen Zulfiqar UTSC Bureau Chief

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Cedric Jiang, Jessie Schwalb, Beatriz Silva Associate News Editors Shernise Mohammed-Ali, Nina Uzunović Associate Comment Editors Alyanna Denise Chua, Rhea Jerath Associate Features Editors

A letter from Hannah Carty, Editor-in-Chief, Volume CLXII Hannah Carty Editor-in-Chief

When I stepped into the role as The Varsity’s Editor-in-Chief, no one knew what kind of year we were getting into. But we knew what kind of year we were coming out of — a year of online production, Zoom calls, and me responding to edits on articles from my bed.

As the summer unfolded, we realized we’d be able to return to in-person production, and our beloved office at 21 Sussex Ave. Suddenly, the first few weeks were a whirlwind of group coffee orders, intercom shenanigans, and burgeoning office friendships.

The benefits of being able to work together again became apparent quickly. Even when we had to return fully online in the beginning of winter — and then to being hybrid for the remainder of the semester — I found that the community we had created was able to last us the whole year. I saw how section editors began to collaborate and learn from each other. I watched how they took in new writers and trained their associates to write incredible pieces.

And ultimately, it’s the relationships we’ve built that allowed us to continue doing important work. This year, we’ve seen the publication of countless stories on the International Human Rights Program hiring scandal, and investigations on international tuition and long-standing allegations against a former Trinity provost. And of course, our team covered the continual unfolding of COVID-19-related stories through many different angles — such as a scientific review of U of T’s reopening plans, the difficulties faced by international students, and how campus theatre persevered through the pandemic.

And then there were all the other stories that mattered to our community. Stories like the closure of Daddyo’s, U of T student athletes going pro, and U of T’s announcement to divest from fossil fuels.

Hannah Carty Editor-in-Chief, Volume CXLII

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Lexey Burns UTM Bureau Chief

Emory Claire Mitchell Public Editor

tackling big topics and treating them with care.

Angad, for teaching me something new every week and making everyone in this office a little bit more of a sports fan.

The entire design team, Will, Makena, and Aditi, for assembling the paper each week and having much better font choices than I do. To our visuals This year, led by Aditi and Jadine, we put out editors Andrea and Caroline, for being renaissance another digital magazine, Hindsight, and will be women and bringing in new ideas each week. putting out our first print magazine in three years And our copy team, Artie and Nawa, it’s imposlater this month. Needless to say, these magazines sible to describe here the powerhouses you two were no small feat. We put together four wonder- are — from the hours in the office to the care and ful themed issues — Black History Month, Love & attention you put into each article.

Sex, Food, and Future — where each department Lastly, the rest of the management team — of the paper worked together for a common goal. Tahmeed, Stephanie, and Aditi — for being there Lastly, I need to thank all the people that cre- on many late nights, and being true leaders of ated our community this year. Our news team, this paper.

Lauren and Marta — for being there for every To my successor, Jadine, I have complete conpiece of breaking news, and being unwavering fidence in you. Your ability to successfully spearin your commitment to publish the stories we head two magazines while running the Features needed to do. section demonstrated that there’s clearly nothing Sarah, for always following the money. Maya, for you can’t do. always representing students’ voices actively and It’s overwhelming to think about how many accurately. Alexa, for always being an advocate hours of work people put into this paper each for your writers and approaching your work joy- week. To each writer, photographer, illustrator, fully. Our Science Editors, Sky and Khatchig, for and copy editor that used their free time to contribute — thank you. We couldn’t have done Hannah Carty. it without you.

CAROLINE BELLAMY/THEVARSITY I hope, if you’ve read this far, you take this letter as an urging to get involved with The Varsity. If you feel unsure of yourself or are questioning whether you might belong here, I should tell you, we all have at some point. Too often, I forget that I once believed I wouldn’t be able to be a part of this organization.

The organization cannot thrive without you — we need writers and editors, photographers and designers. Or read our articles and tell us what you think. We want to hear!

Lastly, I need to thank our readers. Thank you to everyone who has picked up a copy of our paper this year, read an article, or shared what they thought about it on social media. We’ve loved keeping you informed, entertained, or heard.

And as we turn the page to another chapter of The Varsity, we hope you’ll consider joining us.

publiceditor@thevarsity.ca Audrey Miatello, Mekhi Quarshie Associate Sports Editors Talha Anwar Chaudhry, Safiya Patel, Ajeetha Vithiyananthan, Cherry Zhang Associate Senior Copy Editors

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Lead Copy Editors: Jonathan Blumenthal, Whitney Buluma, Linda Chen, Julia Da Silva, Robert Guglielmin, Mona Liu, Oeishi Mukherjee, Grace Xu, Valerie Yao Copy Editors: Khatchig Anteblian, Nicole Ha, Zarmina Jabarkhil, Shizza Malik, Maggie Ng, Denisse Rocher Isaias, Lina Tupak-Karim

BUSINESS OFFICE Parmis Mehdiyar Business Manager

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Masking, vaccine, and UCheck requirements paused on May 1 Provincial mask mandate ended March 21 Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor

U of T has announced that it will be pausing mask, vaccine, and UCheck screening requirements effective May 1. In an email to its community, the university noted that these measures might be reinstated on short notice if conditions or guidance change.

The provincial mask mandate for most public places was lifted on March 21, and the provincial vaccine requirement was lifted on March 1. U of

T has kept mask and vaccine mandates for the remainder of the spring 2022 semester.

Even though these measures will no longer be mandatory after May 1, 99.6 per cent of the U of T community is already fully vaccinated.

The university continues to encourage students to get fully vaccinated, receive booster shots when possible, and upload their vaccination status to UCheck. While unvaccinated students and employees will be able to participate in inperson activities starting May 1, they may be unenrolled from classes or be ineligible to work

should circumstances change.

The university also recommends that community members continue to wear masks indoors, especially in crowded areas. Community members may be required to wear masks if they have been exposed to COVID-19 themselves or to someone else with symptoms, if they have travelled recently, or if they provide a service that requires masking.

Furthermore, the university wrote that even though measures like physical distancing and masking will no longer be required, “[U of T asks] everyone to respect the decisions of others regarding these measures, according to their comfort levels and health needs.”

The university’s statement concluded by reminding community members that they should not come to campus if they are feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for COVID-19.

The Varsity thanks all of our staff and contributors for all their hard work this year!

Staff: Aissatou Odia Barry, Ajeetha Vithiyananthan, Akshita Rajesh Aggarwal, Amanda Pompilii, Amena Ahmed, Anastasia Kasirye, Andrew Ki, Andrew Stone, Angie Lo, Arthur Hamdani, Bianca Reategui, Caleb Chan, Carmina Cornacchia, Cheryl Nong, Christina Lam, Daniel Yihan Mao, Dellannia Segreti, Elise Cressatti, Em Yu, Emily Faubert, Emily Saso, Erin Poon, Frank Qiao, Georgia Kelly, Grace Xu, Isabella Liu, James Jiang, Jasmin Akbari. Jennifer Lou. Jessie Schwalb, Jonathan Blumenthal,Joseph Donato, Julia Da Silva, Kalliope Anvar McCall, Khatchig Anteblian, Kiri Stockwood, Linda Chen, Logan Liut, Madeline Szabo, Maggie Ng, Melissa Cusack Striepe, Mona Liu, Morgan Lee, Oeishi Mukherjee, Oluwatoyin Aina, Rachel Banh, Robert Guglielmin, Rosalind Liang, Rushil Dave, Sahir Dhalla, Sanjaya Sritharan, Selena Ling, Shankeri Vijaykumar, Sherene Almjawer, Shreya Vanwari, Sidney Choi, Valerie Yao, Vincent Zhang, Violet Mackintosh, Whitney Buluma, William Lloyd, Yan Xu, Yasmin Ameri, Zarmina Jabarkhil

thevarsity.ca/section/news

APRIL 4, 2022

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Tuition for non-Ontario domestic students at U of T to increase by three per cent Three student governors vote against tuition framework at Governing Council meeting Cedric Jiang Associate News Editor

In a meeting on March 31, U of T’s Governing Council passed its proposed tuition fee schedule for the 2022–2023 academic year, despite encountering objections from three student governors present, as well as students from a variety of student groups. The newly passed schedule will increase non-Ontario domestic students’ fee by three per cent, international undergraduate student tuition fees by two per cent, and graduate student fees by about three percent.

Other topics discussed and passed at the meeting included two construction project proposals — a new graduate residence and an Emerging and Pandemic Infections Centres (EPIC) building.

Council members also discussed the creation of an anti-Asian racism response taskforce.

Tuition schedule and fee increases Beginning next academic year, undergraduate domestic students arriving at U of T from outside Ontario will see a three per cent increase in tuition fees, while international students will see a two per cent increase.

This increase is part of a larger trend at U of T of increasing tuition fees, as the province has frozen domestic tuition while cutting provincial funding for postsecondary education. Increasingly, the university has looked for other avenues for revenue — especially through raising international tuition.

The motion to adopt the proposed fee schedule was passed with objections. Three student governors voted against the new tuition schedule.

Students’ concerns about differentiating fees Students representing the computer science program, the Juris Doctor program, and the Indigenous community gave speeches at the meeting to voice their objections to the proposed tuition

framework. They described the new fee schedule as opportunistic, divisive, and harmful to regional diversity. They believe it will discourage students arriving from outside of the province from attending U of T. Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr defended the decision, saying that U of T is not unique in adopting such a policy. Given the declining funding from the government and tuition freeze for Ontario students, she said, the university has to “explore all policy options.”

She further noted that the plan is based on extensive consultation and data analysis, and that it is an essential part of the budget.

In an email to The Varsity, Evan Kanter, a fulltime undergraduate student governor studying computer science, wrote that he believes both fee increases do not align with the university’s values and students’ interests.

Kanter further noted that increasing tuition for non-Ontario resident domestic students is also inconsistent with the university’s own policy. He explained that the funding U of T receives from the province is calculated based on the number of all domestic students it receives, not just Ontario residents. “So, there is no principle that justifies charging students from outside of Ontario higher fees,” he claimed.

Willem Crispin-Frei, a third-year Juris Doctor student, spoke at the meeting. He said that differentiating fees for in- and out-of-province students would imply that U of T prefers Ontario students over those from other provinces, and such an implication would damage U of T’s reputation and prestige nationally. “The university has not divided Canadian students like this before,” said Crispin-Frei.

Crispin-Frei said that the two-tier domestic tuition framework — which is more commonly practiced in the United States — has led to less regional diversity in the student bodies of universities that adopted it. He also mentioned that in

The Governing Council approves decisions on academics and tuition.

VURJEET MADAN/THEVARSITY

order to recruit students from all over the country, top American law schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, New York University, and the University of Chicago maintain institutionally standardized domestic fees.

“If the Governing Council adopts this new fee framework, other universities across the country will follow suit. Canada, as a country, will have fewer students share ideas across provincial and territorial borders,” Crispin-Frei said.

Jamie Kearns, an Indigenous student and president of the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students at U of T, said that the two-tier domestic fee system would also have a detrimental impact on Indigenous students. She noted that Indigenous students at U of T are from communities across the country, and a lot of these communities are small in size, with limited resources and funding.

As part of its Truth and Reconciliation campaign, U of T had pledged to increase recruitment and retention of Indigenous students. Kearns questioned this commitment and worried that members of Indigenous communities may be unable to pay the increased out-of-province fees, resulting in access to U of T becoming impossible. Graduation rates among Indigenous students could also drop as a result.

“This differential fee system will limit students at

U of T to only those who live in Ontario or those who are willing to leave their home communities if they are from out-of-province,” said Kearns.

Other updates At the meeting, President Meric Gertler announced that U of T will also form an anti-Asian racism taskforce. He said that U of T is not immune to the trend of growing anti-Asian racism and hopes the taskforce will combat such racism and promote inclusion on all U of T campuses.

There have been two instances of anti-Asian racism on campus this year.

Council members also discussed two new construction projects. One of them was a new graduate residence that would expand the current Graduate House and the other was a new building for the EPIC. Both projects were passed unanimously.

Scott Mabury, Vice-President, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships, said that the new EPIC facility would allow U of T to work on researching noxious viral and bacterial organisms.

He said that the current facilities at the Medical Science Building have been operating years beyond their lifetime. A new facility, Mabury noted, would enhance U of T’s ability to contribute knowledge to important research areas, such as the study of COVID-19.

UTSC student reveals trouble in getting pregnancy accommodations Examining support for pregnant students at U of T Beatriz Silva Associate News Editor

More than five million undergraduate students in the US have to balance their studies with parenting or pregnancy, but many do not receive the relevant support to navigate this challenge from their schools. The Varsity spoke to Batool, a pregnant second-year UTSC student who has been having trouble getting accommodations from the university and her professors. Batool requested that The Varsity use her first name only for privacy reasons.

When in-person classes resumed, Batool found commuting to class difficult due to the physical and emotional challenges that come with pregnancy. She contacted her professors and requested accommodations such as uploaded lecture recordings, but was told by one of them that such accommodations would not be possible.

She also reached out to her program coordinator, who suggested that she contact accessibility services for help in getting accommodations. However, when she did so, she was informed that their assistance was “limited to people with disabilities.” Batool has been trying to contact the program manager again to seek accommodations for one of her in-person final exams that is scheduled close to her due date.

The role of accessibility services The description on U of T’s accessibility services website states that their assistance is designed for students “navigating disability-related barriers.”

For the university, pregnancy does not count as a disability-related barrier.

A U of T spokesperson told The Varsity that the Family Care Office is in charge of supporting students, staff, and other U of T community members with “family care related issue[s].” The spokesperson advised pregnant students to book an appointment with an advisor at their registrar’s office to discuss their pregnancy and their plans to manage their studies.

Graduate students also have the option of taking a one-year parental leave for pregnancy, birth, or adoption, as well as access to further support and benefits.

Batool, however, revealed to The Varsity that she didn’t feel emotionally supported by the university’s administration or faculty. “I did expect them to respond with… encouragement and excitement. I remember emailing a bunch of professors and they didn’t even say congratulations, and I was kind of bummed out,” she said.

Pregnancy causes a series of bodily changes that can involve symptoms like fatigue, nausea, headaches, back pain, swelling, heartburn, and many others. The emotional effects of pregnancy — such as frequent mood changes, anxiety, fear, uncertainty, stress, among others — can also represent a challenge for pregnant students. Having

to commute to class regularly can be a challenge while experiencing any of these symptoms.

How society views young parents Many young parents report having difficulties managing their education and parenting.

A study from 2013 shows that teen and young parents constantly face a societal stigma that labels them as “unmotivated, irresponsible, and incompetent.” This can influence the way universities perceive these students and can then contribute to a feeling of exclusion and limit the

Pregnant students experience a variety of physical and mental symptoms.

COURTESY OF ERNESTO ANDRADE/CC FLICKR

support these students receive.

The lack of accommodations can demotivate student parents and make their experiences even more difficult, on top of any financial or institutional barriers they already face.

Having the support of loved ones and the institutions they are a part of is extremely important for young parents, and Batool reinforced this idea as well. “Institutions just need to… provide services and accommodations without any hesitation or without making it difficult for us,” she said.

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THE VARSITY

news@thevarsity.ca

NEWS

President Lwanga Musisi Lauren Alexander News Editor

Lwanga Musisi is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Musisi is running for president of the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) after serving two years as university governance commissioner.

“Three years ago, with your support we embarked on a journey to make our student union more accessible not only for minority student groups on and off campus, but for us as a whole,” wrote Musisi in his candidate statement. Musisi feels that his two years as a commissioner for the UTGSU make him uniquely prepared and tested to take on the presidential role.

He pointed to his work on the UTGSU Mental Health campaign, which he hopes to continue, as an example of his priorities.

“A vote for me would be a vote for pushing for a revised budget that allocates more funding and resources towards graduate students’ mental health and wellbeing; calling for a revamped student centered approach concerning the University Mandated Leave of Absence Policy (UMLAP); and a call for innovative approaches to increase awareness across our campuses through courses, programmes and initiatives aimed at not only curbing mental health stigma on and off campus, but also centering our voices and experiences,” wrote Musisi.

Lwanga Musisi did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment in time for publication.

Vice-President Finance Neelofar Ahmed Padraic Berting Graduate Bureau Chief

Neelofar Ahmed is a fourth-year fulltime doctoral student in the Educational Leadership and Policy program in Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, running uncontested for the vice-president finance position at the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU).

In an interview with The Varsity, Ahmed said that her primary motivation for running is to provide more funding for students, with the new structure of the board offering an opportunity for a “new beginning.” She points to her experience

Vice-President Internal

Vice-President External

Sarah Alam

Sierra Codeluppi

Lauren Alexander News Editor

Sarah Alam is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Alam is running unopposed for vice-president internal of the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU), and is currently serving her second term as internal commissioner for the union.

In an interview with The Varsity, Alam pointed to the union’s restructuring according to the Canadian Not-for-profit Corporations Act, as well as a number of bylaw changes, as some of her

biggest accomplishments as vice-president internal. “[The restructuring] was long overdue,” said Alam.

If reelected as vice-president internal, Alam said she plans to work on strengthening the internal mechanisms of the union by introducing new systems and procedures for the UTGSU’s management.

In her candidate statement, Alam expanded on her work as internal commissioner and her qualifications for the role. “I am committed to putting my time, energy, and resources into focusing on issues that matter to you as a graduate student,” wrote Alam.

Vice-President Academic Divisions 1 & 2 Willis Opondo, Dhanela Sivaparan Padraic Berting, Cedric Jiang Graduate Bureau Chief, Associate News Editor

Willis Opondo Willis Opondo is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Social Justice Education (SJE) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Opondo is running to be the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTGSU)’s vice-president academic divisions 1 and 2.

In an interview with The Varsity, Opondo said that his experience working with the SJE’s Departmental Students Association qualifies him for the position. He pointed to his desire to “strengthen student voices, especially the

marginalized and underrepresented students,” and to increase support for mental health projects.

If elected, he wants to “build an era of accessibility, accountability, and equitable representation at the UTGSU.” He found that, currently, there have been challenges with accessing the UTGSU, and he wants to change the lack of current participation in the union.

He concluded by stating that it’s “time for new faces” in the union.

Vice-President Academic Divisions 3 & 4 Danielle Karakas Padraic Berting Graduate Bureau Chief

working as a vice-president and president for her departmental association as having prepared her well for the role of vice-president finance.

Additionally, in her candidate statement, she mentioned the various other leadership work she’s done as an Education Specialist/Curriculum Advisory Committee for Paper Airplanes, Inc., which she describes as “a notfor-profit organization that provides educational support and programming to refugee students in conflict-affected territories.”

Ahmed explained that she wants to create more funding opportunities for students coming from non-funded programs and introduce more merit-based, instead of needs-based, fellowships, scholarships, and awards.

Sierra Codeluppi is running unopposed for the position of vice-president external of the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU). Codeluppi, a third-year PhD student in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, currently works closely with the vice-president external as an executive-at-large. She also serves as the mental health and well-being associate for the Pharmacology Graduate Student Association and mentors individuals through the Research Application Support Initiative.

Mental health is a particular focus for Codeluppi, whose research focuses on major depressive disorders. “My whole life [I’ve] been advocating for mental health because I, myself, have a lot of anxiety,” she

said in an interview with The Varsity.

To improve student awareness of mental health programs, Codeluppi hopes to hold student panels and town halls. She also pledged to continue pushing the university to update its Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment policy, as well as theUniversity-Mandatory Leave of Absence policy.

Codeluppi also drew attention to the role of grants and scholarships in mental health. “For me, a big part of my anxiety was always not being in a financially stable place,” she said.

However, Codeluppi had difficulty finding funding because many grants were only merit-based. If elected, Codeluppi hopes to expand grant opportunities for students engaged in extracurricular activities or who come from areas with ongoing crises.

Codeluppi’s platform also focuses on encouraging student activism, including supporting an anti-war movement and protests pushing the university to accelerate their plans for carbon neutrality.

Dhanela Sivaparan Dhanela Sivaparan is a third-year doctoral student at the SJE. She is running for vice-president academic divisions 1 and 2. Sivaparan has served two terms as academics & funding commissioner: divisions 1 and 2.

In an interview with The Varsity, Sivaparan said she hopes that in her third year as a UTGSU executive, she can finish the campaigns she has started, such as creating the graduate funding package extensions for students.

Sivaparan noted that during her previous terms at the UTGSU, marginalized communities, including women, trans people, and international students, have become more active in the union. She

said that her equity work on the union’s policies and her engagement with marginalized groups has contributed to making these groups more visible.

Sivaparan is currently working on creating a career hub with resources for students having difficulties getting into the job market. “We can transition and find a mentorship… for all graduate students to connect them [to others in] a career pathway,” she said.

Sivaparan said she was also curious to see the effects of the UTGSU’s board restructuring and how the new structure would function differently to the existing one, but she assured The Varsity that she would be ready to work with any changes.

Danielle Karakas is a PhD candidate in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology program, running for vice-president academic divisions 3 and 4 for the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU).

She is currently the UTGSU’s academics and funding commissioner: divisions 3 and 4, and she is running unopposed.

In an interview with The Varsity, Danielle said she’s “laid the groundwork [and] the potential for a lot of amazing initiatives,” and that she wants to continue to build off the work she’s already done.

Danielle pointed to the work she’s done

with the U of T Emergency Food Bank, such as the motion she put forward at the UTGSU Annual General Meeting to allocate $25,000 to it. Additionally, she noted the work she’s done creating legal clinics where students can seek advice from law students and local Members of Provincial Parliament about dealing with unfair landlords and other legal injustices.

When asked how she sees herself working within the new board structure, she said that she doesn’t see her role changing all too much.

However, she sees the UTGSU running a lot more efficiently because of these changes, and thinks that there will be a lot more accountability.

Jessie Schwalb Associate News Editor

thevarsity.ca/section/news

APRIL 4, 2022

UTSU announces spring 2022 election winners for five out of six positions Nominations for president by-election to close April 8 Marta Anielska Deputy News Editor

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) has released the results of its 2022 spring elections, in which it filled five out of six of its available executive positions. Two of the five races were uncontested and the president position remains vacant due to lack of candidates.

The voter turnout was 6.6 per cent, which is six per cent lower than the 12.6 per cent turnout last year. All the executive elections saw more

than a 30 per cent abstention rate. Some academic and division directors were also elected, and the full results of the election are available on the UTSU’s Simply Voting website.

President by-election The UTSU has announced that it will hold a byelection to elect its next president. Nominations are now open and will close at midnight on April 8. The campaign period will then run from April 11–22, following the silent period.

Students will be able to vote on the union’s

president from April 19–22.

Results Dermot O’Halloran won the uncontested position of vice-president operations, which he has held once before, with 85.4 per cent of the vote, not including abstentions. Maria Ebeid also won the only other uncontested election for vicepresident professional faculties, garnering 89.7 per cent of the vote.

Sarah Rana won the election for the most hotly contested position, vice-president equity,

beating out five other candidates with 23.9 per cent of votes in the first round, not including abstentions.

Victoria Liu and Elizabeth Shechtman also won their races for vice president university & public affairs and vice-president student life, respectively. Liu got 55.1 per cent of votes in the first round against two other candidates, while Shechtman got 81.7 per cent against one other candidate, not including abstentions.

The union also passed two referendums during the election. One increased the union’s Student Aid program fee to a total of $3.00 while the other increased the union’s World University Service of Canada Student Refugee Program fee to $1.95; both changes were in order to allocate more funds to, and improve, each program.

Disclosure: Elizabeth Shechtmanwas an associate news editor at The Varsity during the 20212022 school year.

Reviewing this year’s UTSU

Reviewing this year’s UTMSU

A look back on Alexa Ballis’ year as president and on the UTSU this year

A look back on Yakubi’s two terms and her team’s accomplishments

took steps to ease the transition to in-person learning by putting together a series of guides on traveling, vaccines, and housing. Ballis also created a survey for student feedback on the transition, which was shared with the administration.

Other initiatives that the UTSU took under her leadership included directly interfacing with the university on behalf of students. In January, the UTSU lobbied the Office of the Vice Provost to extend the deadline for winter semester tuition payments.

“We also brought up… the cost of tuition and how it does not correlate with the quality of the education that students are receiving in these times,” she wrote in her January executive report.

Alexa Ballis.

COURTESY OF ALEXA BALLIS

Jessie Schwalb Associate News Editor

Alexa Ballis started her term as the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) president when the vast majority of U of T classes were hosted partially or entirely online. Although a few issues have arisen within the UTSU in the year since she came into office, the union accomplished many of the goals that were part of Ballis’ platform, which majorly focused on representing student voices on the return to campus.

As Ballis’ time in office comes to a close, and her successor remains unclear, The Varsity broke down what this year’s UTSU has looked like under her presidency.

Promises kept Ballis secured over 86 per cent of all votes for president in an uncontested election last year.

Her campaign focused on “academics, student life, mental health, equity, sustainability, and more.”

During her tenure, Ballis created the Listening Peers program. First proposed in 2019, the program trains mentors using a specially developed curriculum from Stella’s Place charity and U of T’s Student Mental Advocacy and Research Team. Students are able to schedule sessions with mentors to discuss “mental wellness and explore self-care strategies.”

Ballis also initiated the creation of the U of T Directory. The directory, which acts like a dictionary of things U of T students need to know about, provides context for many of the acronyms and terms that may be confusing for new students.

At the beginning of the school year, the UTSU

Increasing student engagement According to Ballis’ May executive report, the UTSU created its town halls “to provide more avenues for feedback from students, and to help hold the UTSU accountable.” Ballis wrote that gathering student concerns around the transition to in-person learning was important for this year’s executive committee.

During her initial campaign, Ballis pledged to continue pushing for the university to divest from fossil fuels and fund student-run sustainability projects. This year, the university fulfilled some of these aims. In October 2021, U of T President Meric Gertler announced that the university would divest from fossil fuels in its investments.

Ballis also wanted the UTSU to create guides for life after graduation and lobby the university for earlier exam schedules; however, there was no indication that either of these had occurred.

Larger picture The UTSU has taken many positive steps for students in the past year, from increasing student aid to securing a new health care policy that provides the same services to students at a lower price.

In response to sexual misconduct allegations against former Trinity College Provost Andy Orchard and members of the Faculty of Music, the UTSU launched the Students for Survivors campaign. The campaign aims to improve U of T’s policies concerning sexual violence and includes an upcoming protest scheduled for April 8.

Despite the positive developments it has made, the UTSU received criticism this past year for its response to controversies on campus regarding Israel and Palestine. In July, the UTSU signed, revoked its signature, and then re-signed the Muslim Student Association open letter calling on the university to recognize violence in Palestine and Israel.

As of the publication of this article, no one has stepped forward to fill the role of UTSU president for the 2022–2023 school year.

The Varsity has reached out to Alexa Ballis for comment.

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Lexey Burns UTM Bureau Chief

Over the past year, the University of Toronto Mississauga Student’s Union (UTMSU) executive committee has run new campaigns, supported health initiatives, and revitalized its food centre. However, the union was heavily criticized

by Transparent UTMSU, an advocacy group founded by UTM student Shen Fernando. In particular, the organization has criticized the UTMSU for failing to be transparent and failing to communicate with students.

Mitra Yakubi is completing her second term as president of the UTMSU. As Maëlis Barre prepares to step into the role for the 2022–2023 academic year, The Varsity is here to debrief Yakubi’s time in office this year.

Campaign promises When running for president the first time, Yakubi’s platform included a few major policies. Firstly, she wanted to hold “conversations” about affordable education, noting the specific needs of students at UTM, which has a high commuter population. She also wanted to implement a peer mental health support program and maintain a self-assigned sick notes program.

During her second campaign, Yakubi wished to expand the peer support program to include more support for sexual violence survivors, to create a mental health task force that would lobby the government for more resources, and to review UTM’s ancillary fees to see if students’ costs could be reduced.

The UTMSU successfully developed its Peer Support program during Yakubi’s first term.

The union collected feedback from members and ended up virtually launching the program in January 2021.

With regard to the university’s sick note policy, Yakubi noted that the UTMSU’s initial discussions with the Office of the Registrar — where they’d been discussing modifying the policy so that students could report sickness without a doctor’s note — were put on hold after such a policy was implemented for the duration of the pandemic.

“If [the policy] is removed in the future, the UTMSU is ready to work with the [Office of the Registrar] to implement the pilot and further continue our advocacy as planned,” Yakubi wrote in an email to The Varsity.

In her two terms, Yakubi has also launched the Education For All campaign, which aims to reduce tuition fees; created a textbook exchange program; and lobbied alongside other U of T student unions to extend the review process of the University-Mandated Leave of Absence Policy.

Other initiatives Though Yakubi hadn’t focused on health coverage in her campaigns, her team was successful

Mitra Yakubi.

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in negotiating more coverage for students under the UTMSU Health and Dental plan without increasing cost per student. Vision coverage was raised from $150 to $200, and students are now able to visit a psychologist, psychotherapist, counsellor, or social worker up to 25 times a year for up to $125, as opposed to the 20 visits with a mental health professional that they could previously get covered.

Moreover, the UTMSU relocated its food centre from the Davis Building to the first floor of the Student Centre. In January, the union allocated $18,000 to the renovation of the centre and its reopening was inaugurated with an event where the union gave away free smoothies to raise awareness for food insecurity on campus.

Incoming and outgoing presidents During her campaign, UTMSU President-elect Maëlis Barre focused on tuition reduction, making postsecondary education more accessible, and advocating for a tuition refund for students who feel the quality of their education has been reduced during the pandemic.

When asked what she hoped Barre would work on in the new year, Yakubi wrote, “There are multiple different projects that the union has worked on and many of which the future executives can build on, however each year the vision of the executive team shapes the priorities and the work done.”

Yakubi added that she is proud of the work her team has done over the past two years.

“I’m proud of how fast the UTMSU changed to ensure that we meet members wherever they are,” Yakubi wrote. “I hope to have left a positive impact for current students and for those to come.”

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Projected revenues expected to rise U of T will be working with an operating budget of $3.23 billion this year, which represents an increase of $110 million from last year.

This revenue comes from a number of sources, with the majority of it coming from tuition. Tuition revenue accounts for $2.2 billion of the operating budget. This part of the revenue has increased compared to last year as enrolment across undergraduate programs has increased by 10.8 per cent. However, more upper-year students have been leaving U of T before completing their degrees than before, which has had a slight offset effect on this enrolment.

While Ontario students’ tuition will remain frozen for next year, the university’s budget states that it will raise tuition for out-of-province domestic students by three per cent. This rise in tuition will include Canadian students residing outside of Canada.

International tuition for programs in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering will undergo the standard two per cent increase. “​​Tuition for international students is set at a level that takes into consideration full cost of providing a program and with reference to fees at peer Canadian and US universities,” states the report.

Twenty per cent of the university’s revenue will come from operating grants from the provincial government. U of T has the lowest proportion of government spending across publicly funded universities in Canada. The budget assumes that these grants will continue to stay approximately the same at around $660 million.

These grants formed 21 per cent of the operating revenue budget last year, so the budget represents a decline in the overall proportion of U of T’s expenses to be funded by the grants.

The university also expects to

Investing in student financial aid The university expects that the proportion of students graduating with Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) debt will increase back to historical levels of 50 per cent, given the 2019 OSAP changes, which restricted the amount of aid offered to full-time domestic, direct-entry undergraduate students.

In light of these changes, U of T continued its ‘internal access guarantee’ policy, which states that all students should be able to complete their education regardless of financial needs and is maintaining the tuition fee freeze for 2022–2023.

The financial aid budget for the upcoming year will increase to $331 million. According to Regehr, the university invests 53 per cent more in aid per student than any other individual university in the province.

Last year, 56 per cent of eligible students received support from OSAP, and 25 per cent of the incoming class came from families with

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COVID-19’s impact U of T Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr explained that the university is doing well financially despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic.

She explained that the university has been in discussions with student groups about budget priorities whose need has been emphasized by the pandemic, such as student mental health, experiential learning, and financial support.

Despite the positive strides made by the university away from its previous losses, COVID-19 has nonetheless impacted the university’s operations.

“As we look ahead, there are challenges that are going to put pressure on our budget, [and] we have very few levers to relieve these pressures,” Regehr said.

Some of these challenges include the declining proportion of government funding, a limit on the number of domestic students that the university is permitted to admit, and the continuation of the tuition freeze for Ontario students this year after the 10 per cent cut from three years ago.

Regehr said that the university has increased spending on financial aid, and health and safety measures during the pandemic, but she pointed out that this was offset by lower travel and occupancy costs because classes were online. Ancillary units such as residences and food services have also been hit hard due to campus closures, she explained; they are normally self-sustaining but now may require deficit funding to rebound.

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It’s that time of the year again: U of T has released its proposed budget report for the 2022–2023 school year.

There are four fund groups that make up the university’s budget — the operating budget, which is based on administrative and teaching activities; restricted funding from donations for specific research; the ancillary budget for residence and food services; and the capital budget for construction and renovation. The operating budget is the largest group and is projected to bring in the most revenue, as it represents U of T’s core service offerings as an academic institution.

The Governing Council met on March 31 to discuss this year’s budget, and it was approved with no objections.

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Janhavi Agarwal, Sarah Folk, Ana Pereira Business Team

Evaluating investments and risks Every year, the provost allocates a portion of U of T’s incremental operating revenue to academic divisions through the University Fund. This year, U of T is investing $22 million through the University Fund toward five academic priorities that reflect efforts toward diversity, mental health, and sexual violence prevention.

The university is dedicating approximately 20 per cent of this $22 million to “building inclusive cities and societies.” The majority of this funding

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Expenditures Following the same trend as revenues, expenditures are projected to rise for 2022–2023 by 3.5 per cent, meaning that they will increase to $3.23 billion.

The majority of budget expenditures are being allocated to U of T faculty and staff compensation, taking up 58 per cent of the total budget.

Fourteen per cent is being allocated to other expenses and 10 per cent to student aid. The remaining areas include occupancy costs, capital and equipment, and pension risk contingency.

The total amount that the university has projected for salaries and compensation is $1.98 billion. Faculty and librarians will receive the largest portion of this budgeted amount, at $822 million, while $44 million is allocated to sessional lecturers, and $83 million is set aside for teaching assistants.

The remaining amount will be allocated for teaching stipends and other academic purposes.

Bill 124 has also impacted public employees’ salaries, restricting any increases in their compensation to one per cent per year during a three-year period after bargaining, known as applicable moderation periods. The report describes that the moderation period for the various employee groups at U of T will begin when the first renewal agreement created after June 5, 2019 comes into effect.

Campus costs are projected to be $738 million in 2022– 2023 and include all occupancy costs, which involve utilities, deferred maintenance, and caretaking. Occupancy costs are projected to be $235 million across the three U of T campuses.

The long-range projected budget from 2022 to 2026 projected revenues and expenditures to steadily increase over the next few years, from $3.123 billion in 2022 to $3.653 billion in 2026.

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Revenues projected to rise by $110 million, $2.2 billion expected in tuition revenue

annual earnings of under $50,000. The average amount of OSAP debt that students maintained by graduation decreased by nine per cent in real terms, meaning adjusting for inflation, in the past five years.

For international students, the university’s investment in financial aid meant to create scholarships and reduce tuition for top global applicants is projected to increase more than four-fold, from $14.7 million in 2020–2021 to $84 million by 2026–2027.

Awards are designed by each direct-entry undergraduate division based on merit, financial need, and program of study. Individual divisions are expected to designate six per cent of international undergraduate tuition to support scholarships.

Furthermore, the university allocated $353 million toward graduate student aid in 2020–2021, which included expenses in the university’s operating budget, research incentives, awards, and employment income for teaching assistants.

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Breaking down U of T’s 2022–2023 budget

receive investment income from its short-term, medium-term, and long-term investments of expendable funds investment pool. This investment income represents 1.8 per cent of the total operating revenue, but it is expected to fluctuate in accordance with market conditions.

Endowment income represents another 2.4 per cent of the operating budget and will be directed to student aid and toward the support of the endowed chairs. The university also expects $136 million from other sources, including application fee revenue, service charges on unpaid fees, and licensing revenue.

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will go toward the Diversity in Academic Hiring initiative, which will support the hiring of 30 additional Black and Indigenous faculty members. In addition, approximately one million dollars of the total investments will be allocated to the Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Centre, to support individuals reporting and seeking support for sexual violence on campus.

Another 5.5 per cent of the University Fund will be directed to “reimagining the undergraduate experience.” This will include half a million dollars dedicated to supporting personalized student mental health services through eliminating wait lists, investing in mental health education, and increasing counselling options.

Nearly half of the fund will be allocated to driving forward scientific discovery. This funding will primarily support large-scale breakthrough research, which goes along with the university’s reputation for being a leader in academic research. U of T will also invest $5.2 million in its own Defying Gravity campaign and $1.9 million in assisting with funding the priorities of each academic division.

The budget report further addressed some financial risks posed to the university, such as vaccine rollouts, international student enrolment targets, and the rising inflation costs in the current economic climate due to supply constraints.

Comment

April 4, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Let the U of T turkey run wild Robarts should be a social space, not a lonely study zone James Jiang Comment Columnist

The ebb and flow of U of T student life revolve around the John P. Robarts Research Library.

As the unofficial hub of UTSG, Robarts Library — or, more colloquially, ‘the turkey’ — has recently been teeming with students. In its lively corners, many are socializing, studying with friends, and enjoying the bliss of student life.

Some have been able to act like normal students for the first time since COVID-19 began — to finally take pleasure in their university experience. Others, however, are displeased. A plethora of Reddit posts is evidence of this displeasure.

One popular Reddit post summarizes the reason for the discontent: “It doesn’t seem like a library

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anymore but a picnic centre or community hall.

People talking at max volumes, vaping, eating and what not. All this shouldn’t be at the cost of disturbing others or invading their privacy… it has become almost impossible to concentrate unless you have a private room.” Jaded students are posting about how Robarts is too loud — how it has become more like a social centre than a study area.

This is a legitimate concern. People shouldn’t be screaming in a library or taking puffs from their vapes in enclosed university areas. Generally, a library is supposed to be a quiet space to read and study. These U of T subreddit posters are reasonable in asking for peace and quiet.

Robarts, however, is a different beast. The turkey lives to help students socialize, for it is one of the only spaces on campus where students can comfortably and conveniently do so.

Located at the heart of campus, Robarts has a great deal of free-to-use space and is easily accessible to all students. Moreover, its facilities and amenities — cafeteria, study rooms, computer workstations, and more — are the best on campus.

Because of these factors, U of T students rightly flock to Robarts.

Personally, I love chatting with people around me while I study until the late hours of the night.

I love eating brown food truck poutine in a busy workspace. I love playing Call of Duty battle royale on my phone with my friends during study breaks.

In simpler terms, I like my turkey seasoned with social spice. I like my Robarts energized. And crowds of other U of T students would happily

agree with me: Robarts should not be treated as an ordinary study area. It should be a loud, vibrant social space, rather than an ice cold, quiet husk of a library.

Of course, as previously mentioned, students who are abusing the space are intolerable. Robarts is sure to have its bad eggs — those students who are overly loud or vape in the library. That said, it does not make sense to change the whole library into an eerily quiet study space in response.

Instead of going to Robarts, students tired of the noise have several other options.

If they desire to be away from others when they’re studying — to be free from distractions — they should stay at home.

Of course, if roommates are a problem or there are other extenuating circumstances, they certainly have the right to study at a library instead. But this library does not have to be Robarts.

U of T has 42 different libraries scattered across its campuses. At UTSG, for example, Bahen, Gerstein, and E.J. Pratt are all viable options where there are quiet and private spaces to study. Moreover, even though Robarts is a social space, it still has its quiet areas. As you go higher in the stacks — generally between floors 10 and 13 — the library gets quieter and quieter.

In these levels, people have their headphones in

and are deeply focused on their work, refraining from any loud activities. Even a cough loudly resounds through the upper stacks.

Rather than forcing themselves to go to Robarts, these displeased students should consider their other options. If they continue to sulk about how loud and noisy Robarts is, it becomes a problem of entitlement rather than anything reasonable.

The turkey should be a hustling and bustling social space for students, not a lethargic and lifeless study zone.

James Jiang is a second-year political science and writing & rhetoric student at Trinity College.

Mainstream feminism has taken a turn for the worse Liberation will come from destroying patriarchy, not succumbing to it Lina Tupak-Karim Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article discusses misogyny and violence against women.

In honour of Women’s History Month coming to an end, I wanted to shed some light on the commercialization and liberalization of feminism in an attempt to redirect it toward a revolutionary movement seeking liberation, instead of what it currently seems to be.

Feminism often emphasizes empowerment and freedom of choice. While these are important, they are ultimately simplified ideas meant to sell a digestible image of a liberatory movement, in a way that effectively diminishes the subversive nature of feminism required for women’s liberation. This attempt to appeal to larger audiences hinders feminism’s ability to adequately address misogyny.

For instance, the popular slogan, “Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings,” is questionable. Initially intended as a phrase meant to encourage equality between the genders, it is now sold in the form of notebooks and t-shirts — yet women remain oppressed.

I have not met many men who would sincerely contest this phrase. I have, however, put up with countless men who deny the presence of misogyny in contemporary society, whether it’s denying the fact that rape against women is not taken seriously or rejecting the fact that domestic violence against women turns fatal far too often.

The current commercialized framework is an easily digestible and marketable version of a movement intended to liberate a gender from oppression. It has become less about actively protesting harmful economic and social institutions — like rape, sex trafficking, the disproportionate number of women in poverty, continued unpaid domestic labour, violence against women in pornography, and disproportionate rates of intimate partner violence — and more about producing catchy slogans that can sell.

This commercialization has abandoned the movement for women’s freedom and moved toward performativity and profit. This, in turn, nurtures a

culture where purchasing the product is enough to consider oneself subversive without lifting a finger.

While some might argue that feminism selling is important because it garners attention for a necessary movement, I would argue that commodification is counterproductive, as it allows people to ‘purchase’ activism as opposed to actively dismantling patriarchal institutions.

Another issue with the current framework is that it is superficial; it fails to address the needs of women as a political class affected by the collection of institutions comprising the patriarchy. Many women have the ability to make choices for themselves. For instance, many women choose to work or be stayat-home mothers. But the liberal feminist framework, which focuses on individual rights via legal and social policy, begins and ends at individual choice without seeing the bigger picture.

Liberal feminism doesn’t seem to understand why women would choose to be stay-at-home mothers.

Instead, the framework glamourizes entering a workforce that undervalues women’s labour, requiring underpaid labour from women. Nor does it seem to DINA DONG/THEVARSITY

question the societal factors that influence women to be stay-at-home parents more than men. They do not account for the fact that choices are not made independent of external forces but rather are made within overarching social structures with often negative effects for the ‘wrong’ choice.

For example, in a world where women are expected to consistently look young and ‘flawless,’ and are ridiculed for failing to do so, is the ‘choice’ to get plastic surgery or spend thousands of dollars on makeup really a choice? Is the ‘choice’ inherently feminist, simply because the woman made it herself, or is it just an easy way to sell products and delude consumers into feeling like they are still progressive?

There are no laws forcing women to wear makeup or get plastic surgery, so according to some narratives of liberal feminism, women are ‘free’ to make those choices themselves. However, is that really true? Do we really make free choices from these misogynistic expectations? This framework of feminism does not actually seek to destroy the patriarchy but rather aims to ease women’s consciences about participating in it.

The obsession with making feminism conform to a socially acceptable movement in a social culture where misogyny is the norm is antithetical to what we should be doing for change — identifying and destroying misogynistic institutions.

Firstly, in my opinion, feminists must reject the commercialized version of the movement and recognize that the term ‘patriarchy’ does not signify random idealized oppression. It is rather a word encompassing the many institutions promoting a higher spot for cisgender men in the gendered hierarchy. It manifests in and protects violence against women, including female genital mutilation, female foeticide, medical misogyny, child and forced marriage, femicide, and more. Feminism must have the clear objective of liberating women from these institutions.

Secondly, feminism must recognize women as a class. While no two women are the same, patriarchy reduces women down to this one aspect of our identity — it is simply because we are women that we face misogyny. Thus, in order to combat the oppression of women as a collective, we must fight back as a collective.

Lastly, feminism must acknowledge that what is personal can be political — women’s discontent and suffering shouldn’t remain a private issue confined to the household. Instead, feminism should foster a desire for public political change.

Feminism has become commodified and thus ineffective as a result of a fear of active politics, a fear of questioning our own behaviours and perspectives in terms of how they may reinforce a harmful institution, and a fear of backlash from criticizing the status quo. A framework for liberation must be based upon material realities and necessities, as opposed to ideals constructed within the functioning of the status quo.

As American author Zora Neale Hurston said, “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”

Lina Tupak-Karim is a second-year sociology and professional writing and communication student at UTM.

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Public Editor: The problem with candidate photos Candidate photos pose barriers for low-income students Emory Claire Mitchell Public Editor

It is no secret that all University of Toronto elections see very few candidates and very few voters. In 2019, The Varsity reported that the University of Toronto Students’ Union had some of the lowest voter turnouts of all Canadian university student governments. In 2020, turnout was slightly better than in previous years, seeing 12.7 per cent of eligible voters making their voices heard.

Interest in the candidates and the outcome of the election is clearly limited. This is indicated by the fact that there is no one running for president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) next year. Thus, we need to do everything in our power to ensure that reporting engages readers, while still remaining fair and impartial about the elections it covers.

Thankfully, The Varsity publishes candidates’ platforms and goals, using its position as the school news source to help promote engagement. This is incredibly helpful since, one might assume, many students are not actively seeking out information about UTSU elections. Because of these articles, information and updates on the election are easily accessible for students on their social media feeds, where they are more likely to come across and absorb the information about the candidates as well as be reminded of their duty as a member of the U of T community.

However, the method of the publication presents an issue regarding the fair representation of candidates. This issue does not derive from the reporting itself, but rather the use of candidate photos for the article.

Studies show that we, as voters, respond more to perceived attractiveness than we do to what the candidate stands for. Not only that, but in cases in which voters are more uninformed, attractiveness is weighted more heavily.

In an election like that of the UTSU, where voters’ interest is shown to be lower, it follows that The Varsity’s prominent

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publication of candidate photos could have a considerable impact on readers.

Even beyond the negative impact it can have on students’ votes, the photos present a barrier for students of a lower socioeconomic background. Some students will have access to well-fitting professional clothes and the opportunity to have a good photo taken by a professional photographer. It is significantly easier for them to look appealing and professional.

Meanwhile, there will be other candidates that don’t have access to these resources. Having a headshot and a look that makes them appear to be competent takes money that many students simply cannot spare.

What also exacerbates the problem is the unequal access to knowledge about how to present oneself. Students who grew up in wealthier households might have been able to learn how to appear professional and confident by watching their parents attend white-collar work and social functions.

They would learn, without effort, the best way to market themselves. Meanwhile, lower-income students would not necessarily have grown up with the same experiences.

You could argue that any candidate could research how to market themselves, but lower-income students are more likely to be employed off-campus, and would also therefore have to spend more time commuting. Therefore, they are likely to be more mentally drained than students who do not deal with these issues, and they would not have as much free time to spare over something that has no bearing on how well they will serve the students.

While it is clear that posting candidate photos creates barriers for the candidates’ success, we also need to consider how it affects other parts of the elections, too. If students are aware that they have to make their persona public and focus on marketing themselves, that may diminish the interest of some students to run.

One of the primary issues facing the UTSU elections is finding students to run, displayed by the fact that there is no one currently running for president. Any barriers we can re-

move to encourage students to find success within student government will go a long way toward advancing the goal of improving the UTSU and its reputation.

However, The Varsity also wants to encourage U of T constituents to participate in elections. When candidates are posted on social media, those articles are more likely to make it into students’ lives. The articles cannot just exist on social media to be effective — they have to grab attention.

To do so, there needs to be some imagery. Reports show that on Facebook, the engagement rate is 37 per cent higher for posts with images. If The Varsity wants to successfully promote the election, attaching an image goes far to help achieve that goal. However, we should also be looking to have the best impact on the community’s understanding of the candidates, not just voting for the person who most successfully caught their eye.

Encouraging students to engage meaningfully with the UTSU’s election season is a difficult goal. While voters tend not to invest in the elections, their involvement is necessary.

However, in The Varsity’s efforts to make information about the candidate more accessible to students, it can end up hurting the candidates.

Despite our best efforts, humans are more likely to trust people we see as attractive. However, even beyond natural looks, there are significant barriers students face if they want to make themselves as appealing as possible. Many of those barriers, such as clothing and photo quality, relate to wealth and status.

Therefore, by putting up candidate photos, we increase the chance of swaying the public not to vote for the best candidate, but for the one they think looks the best. There are likely ways around the problem, and The Varsity needs to find them if it wants to serve the student body and do the most that it can to help elect the best representation for students.

Emory Claire Mitchell is the public editor at The Varsity and can be reached at publiceditor@thevarsity.ca.

Editorial

April 4, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

U of T Needs to reconsider ending COVID-19 policies.

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Relaxing COVID-19 restrictions puts our community at risk To address U of T’s policy gaps, we must strengthen our community The Varsity Editorial Board

Content warning: This article mentions suicide.

As this academic year comes to an end, it feels like we finally have memories to look back on with fondness. In the past two years, April was a season of disappointments and anxieties for the University of Toronto community: in 2020, we were all scared of the new pandemic that had rapidly upturned our lives. In 2021, we were bitter about a year spent on Zoom without friends, or even any tuition reductions to compensate for the downsides of online school.

But this year, things have been different.

In-person classes, extracurriculars, and campus events have revived our long-denied sense of community. In a real classroom, it feels like our tuition dollars are actually being put to good use. Exciting, cutting-edge research is progressing again. The food tracks are back, the coffee shops are doing regular business, and we can even look forward to an in-person convocation to celebrate the Class of 2T2 together.

Up and down campus, student spaces are abuzz with the friendly hum of conversation — including in The Varsity’s offices, where we’ve been able to meet in person for the first time since 2020. Although we haven’t restarted our traditional end-of-semester parties, we were able to invite our staff members to an in-person gathering in the fall semester. After board games and copy editing, we sat around our newsroom tables eating dumplings and rifling through archived volumes of The Varsity.

This year has been a reminder of what this period of our lives is supposed to feel like, and how much more precious it is when the experience is shared with others. That’s why it’s so disheartening to see U of T’s lax COVID-19 policies and threatening what we’ve regained.

Last week, the university announced that it is suspending UCheck, vaccination requirements, and mask requirements starting May 1 — an announcement that came just eight days after Queen’s Park lifted provincial mask mandates

for most public places.

How can we hope to continue in-person activities safely without the most basic, sensible safety protocols? The statement announcing the changes implied that we’d all be fine without vaccination and mask requirements — after all, 99.6 per cent of U of T students are already fully vaccinated. Vaccinations and masks will no longer be required, per se, but are still going to be actively encouraged because they help keep everyone safe.

In other words, the university acknowledges the effectiveness of these policies and has the infrastructure to continue them, but is still removing them nonetheless.

Removing the mask requirement We are not crying wolf. There are good reasons to be concerned that the policy change will have an impact on the health of our community.

We must first acknowledge that Ontario is tragically facing another wave of COVID-19. This sixth wave is already evident when you look at the concentration of the virus in wastewater. U of T epidemiologist and head of the Ontario Science Table Peter Jüni estimated that the province may actually be experiencing 30,000–35,000 cases per day — and the science table’s analysis of wastewater signals suggests that this figure will double as rapidly as every 10 days.

Astronomy professor Hanno Rein tweeted that the university might be lifting COVID-19 safety policies to comply with the wishes of those who are opposed to vaccinations and masks. “If it’s true that more than 99% of UofT community members got a vaccine as they claim, then there is absolutely no reason to increase the risk for everyone just to appease a tiny fraction.”

When we remove the guardrails that the university already has in place, we make it more likely that the virus will spread within the community. This will immediately threaten the health of anyone infected — particularly immunocompromised students, who may be more vulnerable.

Their needs are not being given due consideration by this policy, which is a clear short-sighted equity failing on the university’s part.

Similarly, this policy change ignores the community members who may have dependents that are at higher risk of negative side effects.

Students, staff, and faculty who have children younger than five — who are not currently eligible for vaccines — or who are living with older, more vulnerable adults should be concerned.

Plus, even moderate cases of COVID-19 can be debilitating if they result in long COVID. While there is a lot we don’t know about this rarer, long-term expression of COVID-19, we know that it creates difficulty breathing and brain fog that can last for months after other symptoms subside. So even those of us who are not immunocompromised are still at a significant risk — and will continue to be after May 1.

And, of course, every case on campus that requires hospitalization increases the burden on health care workers who are already pushed to the limit.

It is frustrating that this change comes from a university with an excellent reputation for health research. Just last week, UTSC announced that it would be opening a new medical school to address the shortage of health care professionals in the country — the same shortage that has led to their increased burnout and exhaustion during COVID-19. So why are we taking the risk of adding to their workloads?

Collective action for a better campus Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at this policy change. After all, the current university administration has historically neglected the wishes of its students.

This neglect is evident in the ongoing lack of action to combat the university’s mental health crises, despite the heartbreaking deaths by suicide that have occured on campus. It’s also evident in how the university only pledged to divest from fossil fuels last October — more than seven years after the divestment campaign on campus began to gain momentum and issued extensive reports arguing for the cause. U of T only announced the decision one month after Harvard University had already cleared a path by pledging

to divest their endowment.

Despite all the talk of being a global leader, U of T often seems more interested in following what is already in place. What little change does happen happens slowly, and requires a great deal of effort from advocates. Community voices — our voices — are ignored.

But we don’t have to ignore each other.

In terms of community organizing, U of T has got a long way to go. In other universities, we see students using collective action to enact change: for example, students at McGill recently organized an 11-day sit-in of a campus building to call for divestment. And shows of solidarity like this work on campuses — in 2019, a month-long sit-in at John Hopkins University successfully pressured the administration to end its medical training program for US border officials. But we rarely see such sustained activism at U of T. This university has long been a lonely place; that isn’t going to change once the pandemic ends. We will need to remind ourselves of how we felt without a community and take greater care of the one we do have, instead of falling into complacency. We should take the joy of rediscovering community from this year and let it propel us into the future.

Whatever it looks like, solidarity at U of T has to be the way forward. If the university won’t keep policies in place to protect community health, we’re going to have to depend on each other for things as vital as our personal health and safety, whether we like it or not. If the university won’t listen to our voices when we tell it there’s a problem, we’re going to need to depend on each other even more.

It’s not easy to bridge the gap between individuals to build a collective effort. It’s especially not easy in U of T’s isolationist culture, which is visible even when there isn’t a pandemic going on. But there is a lot to be gained by sticking together — if only we can keep choosing to do it.

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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Mary Rambaran-Olm spoke out about the allegations against Andy Orchard for years.

Why didn’t anyone listen to her?

Accusations of sexual misconduct against Orchard came to light five months ago

CAROLINE BELLAMY/THEVARSITY

Nawa Tahir Deputy Senior Copy Editor

Content warning: This article contains mentions of violence against women, and discussions of sexual harassment and abuse in academia.

In 2014, Dr. Mary Rambaran-Olm sat in front of the hiring committee for an assistant professor position at a European university. Rambaran-Olm was the only person of colour in the room, but that was not a new experience for her. She’s one of very few people of colour — let alone women of colour — in the field of early medieval studies.

All the people on that hiring committee were directly affiliated with the university — except Andy Orchard, a medieval studies scholar who served as the provost of Trinity College and the director of the Centre for Medieval Studies in his 13 years at U of T. He left U of T in 2013 to join the University of Oxford as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. The university had flown Orchard in to help with hiring the candidate.

When asked in an interview with The Varsity if she got the job, Rambaran-Olm responded, “No, I mean, obviously not.”

In a private conversation, a member of the hiring committee gave RambaranOlm feedback on the interview, which they told her was “off the record.” They said that the deciding factor against hiring Rambaran-Olm was that the department would “[struggle to] justify to their students that [Rambaran-Olm] was an ‘Anglo-Saxonist.’ ” Rambaran-Olm had a number of scholarly publications prior to 2014, when the interview happened. The same year, she also published a book about the poem “Descent into Hell.”

Currently, she is a provost’s postdoctoral fellow at UTM researching race in early medieval England.

In an email to The Varsity, Orchard wrote that he has “never been on [a hiring committee] where a candidate’s race was discussed at all.” He added that such remarks would have been “deplored.”

Ultimately, the university offered the job — which had been advertised as a position for early-career scholars like Rambaran-Olm — to a white woman who already had tenure.

Allegations made public In October 2021, Al Jazeera published a sixpart investigation on abuse at UK universities.

The first of the six podcast episodes was about allegations of abuse and harassment against Orchard during his time at Cambridge, U of T, and Oxford.

Dr. Erik Wade, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bonn in Germany, alleged that “[Orchard] has been the most notorious sexual predator in [the field of] Old English

studies, if not in medieval studies, generally for decades.”

Al Jazeera reported that Orchard denied all allegations of harassment and abuse. His lawyers sent a five-page statement to Al Jazeera, but said that it was not for publication. Orchard declined to respond to other questions from The Varsity, but noted that he continues to deny allegations of sexual harassment and bullying.

Five months after the report, Orchard is still listed as a professor on the University of Oxford’s website, although The Varsity has been unable to confirm whether or not he is currently teaching, nor did Oxford respond

COURTESY OF MARY RAMBARAN-OLM

to a question asking for clarification.

After the Al Jazeera report came out, scholars in the field of medieval studies published open letters and petitions asking organizations, journals, and universities to censure Orchard. The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship published a statement demanding that the University of Oxford examine its harassment policies and investigate Orchard’s conduct.

But Rambaran-Olm had already known about the allegations against Orchard for over a decade. So had countless others. She first learned of Orchard’s reputation when she was an undergraduate student at the University of Calgary. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s the biggest name that I know of in the field,’ ” she said. “And also, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll have to protect myself.’ ” Since then, she has tried her best to avoid Orchard. But she has only been able to do so much — in such a small field where he was such a big name, it was almost inevitable that she would interact with him.

Rambaran-Olm has been publicly speaking about Orchard’s allegedly predatory behaviour since 2018, three years before Al Jazeera published its report.

She helped Bertie Harrison-Broninski — a UK-based journalist who was working at Cherwell, Oxford’s student newspaper — to investigate the allegations against Orchard when no one was talking about them in public. She also urged the International Society for the study of Early Medieval England (ISSEME) — then known as the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (ISAS) — to revoke Orchard’s lifetime membership.

Over the last three months, The Varsity has conducted a dozen interviews with scholars, activists, and journalists.

In most of these conversations, a consistent theme has emerged: RambaranOlm has made significant efforts to hold Orchard accountable for the allegations made against him. She has pushed for change within the field of medieval studies and academia at large. Yet over the course of years of advocacy, few people listened to her — and when the story broke, her labour and efforts went quietly unrecognized.

features@thevarsity.ca

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Silence in the field During the 2016–2017 academic year, Jillian Kern, who was a master’s student at the University of Oxford, took a required class taught by Orchard. As the year progressed, Kern and her fellow students felt increasingly uncomfortable in the class.

She said in an interview with The Varsity that Orchard would make sexist jokes about how medieval men were lucky to be able to rape women without consequences.

Inappropriate in-class conduct has also been detailed in coverage of the allegations against Orchard. A former student of Orchard told the Toronto Star that Orchard made sexualized comments while teaching.

In the Al Jazeera podcast, another former student — who chose to stay anonymous — mentioned that Orchard’s ‘jokes’ during classes would make students uncomfortable, but they would feel pressured to laugh along.

Once, Kern recalled that she and some of her classmates approached a faculty member in their office. They told the professor that they wanted to discuss something related to Orchard’s class. Before they could mention any details, Kern said the professor “jumped up, looked around, closed their door, and came back in and said, ‘I’ve been so worried about this — has he touched you?’ ” Kern also had conversations with fellow students in the program where they would explain that they were changing their research proposals to topics they weren’t as interested in just to avoid working with Orchard. Kern mentioned that she only feels

safe enough to talk about these experiences now because she is not on the same continent as him.

She remembers receiving warnings about Orchard when she first arrived at Oxford. “On one hand, it was better than not knowing. But it was traumatic on its own,” she said.

In an email to The Varsity, an Oxford spokesperson wrote, “When concerns are raised, they are carefully, sensitively and rigorously investigated and the University has a framework of support in place for staff and students who feel they have been subject to harassment.” The spokesperson further wrote, “The allegation in the Al-Jazeera podcast that the University has not responded to or investigated complaints is untrue.”

When Orchard left U of T, Centre for Medieval Studies Director John Magee told U of T News, “There’s no replacing such a scholar and teacher, but we’ll make every effort to sustain the scholarly standards exemplified by Andy.” Five years earlier, in 2008, a student had confided in U of T Professor Suzanne Akbari that Orchard had harassed her at Mullins Irish Pub, which is a five-minute walk from St. Michael’s College. As Akbari told the Toronto Star, she had discussed this with Magee, among others, at the time.

In 2007, six years before he left U of T, a Search Committee composed of 11 members struck by Trinity selected Orchard as the provost of Trinity College. That same year, at a conference, Rambaran-Olm saw a woman giving Orchard a handjob under the dinner table.

Everyone in her immediate vicinity saw what was happening, but no one batted an eye.

Rambaran-Olm was seated on the table adjacent to Orchard’s, and she and the other graduate students at her table were horrified at what they saw. It was the first time that some of the students were at an academic conference. Seeing that incident happen in front of everyone and noticing that no one said anything sent a terrible message to

these early-career scholars, Rambaran-Olm said. As she put it, “You’re traumatized in a different way.”

She remembers wondering if she would have to do similar things to advance in the field.

Rambaran-Olm’s advocacy Most of the people who talked to The Varsity about Orchard’s abuse mentioned the work that Rambaran-Olm has done to advocate for survivors. In an interview with The Varsity, Kathryn Maude — an assistant professor in the department of English at the American University of Beirut — pointed out that “Mary Rambaran-Olm, who is a Black female scholar, who has been really especially online harassed but also personally threatened by people… just hasn’t had the same respect in the field as someone like Orchard.”

In 2017, Rambaran-Olm was elected as the second vice-president of the ISSEME. Soon after taking office, she began advocating for the organization to change its name from the ‘International Society of Anglo-Saxonists,’ adopt a sexual harassment policy, and strip Andy Orchard of his lifetime membership.

Rambaran-Olm had been hearing about students’ and scholars’ experiences of alleged abuse by Orchard throughout her career, and had been lobbying the board about these changes since the start of 2019. It was appalling to her that Orchard had the honour of a lifetime membership of the ISSEME — a title that is bestowed upon a rare few.

About supporting the alleged victims of harassment and abuse, Rambaran-Olm said, “I felt that it was important for victims to know… that we believe them, and that we were trying to make this organization and the conferences a safer venue for them. And having him have access for his life was not going to make any of his victims over decades feel safe, or feel welcome.”

In August 2019, during a conference in New Mexico, Rambaran-Olm had a conversation with a former executive director of the organization — a conversation that made her realize that the ISSEME was simply not willing to listen or try to be better.

At a dinner with the executive director, Rambaran-Olm continued to press her to initiate a discussion about Orchard’s behaviour

at the board meeting the next day. Rambaran-Olm had been asking the organization to revoke Orchard’s membership but instead of acknowledging the long-standing allegations, she recalled that the director started off with “Mary, you’re gonna hate me for this,” before revealing that she had invited Orchard onto the ISSEME’s advisory board.

Rambaran-Olm told The Varsity that when she had the conversation with the executive director, Orchard had already been offered the position and he had refused. “I don’t think that it mattered that he did say ‘no,’ I think it mattered that she asked him in the first place,” Rambaran-Olm said.

“There wasn’t much to say to her, because what do you say when someone has done that? What I felt afterwards was that she betrayed all of us.”

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2018, a few months before Rambaran-Olm was elected as the second vice-president of the ISSEME, Harrison-Broninski started investigating allegations against Orchard. As a student journalist investigating a professor in his own university, he struggled getting academics at Oxford to talk to him. Rambaran-Olm contacted numerous scholars, but most refused interviews.

Harrison-Broninski had trouble getting his story published because of legal concerns, and because of the fact that Cherwell didn’t have an in-house lawyer at the time. Still, Rambaran-Olm contacted some newspapers like The Guardian and The Washington Post to try to get them to publish his story.

After Harrison-Broninski had been working on the investigation for two years, Al Jazeera got wind of Orchard’s reputation in the field.

By that point, Harrison-Broninski had realized that not many people at Oxford were willing to talk to a student journalist — not when the repercussions involved backlash from a well-respected scholar in their field.

It was only after he graduated from Oxford that Harrison-Broninski found out what had been happening behind the scenes during the years he had been working on the story.

He filed a subject access request to Oxford for emails that mentioned his name. Upon receiving the emails, he discovered that several people he had contacted had been sending his emails to Orchard and Oxford.

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“I remember thinking: ‘Wow, that’s the biggest name that I know of in the field. ’”

COURTESY OF MARY RAMBARAN-OLM

One person even recorded their conversation with him without his knowledge, and sent the recording to Oxford’s former Head of University Communications Stephen Rouse.

The emails — which The Varsity has obtained — contain communications from the Oxford Public Relations department telling people not to engage with Harrison-Broninski. In one email, Rouse wrote to the English faculty chair about an email that HarrisonBroninski sent to a professor. “They are certainly persistent and seem committed to running a story of some sort. Is it worth the three of us meeting, perhaps with HR and legal, to discuss our options?”

One academic forwarded an email from Harrison-Broninski to Orchard, writing, “I’ve just received this rather disturbing email looking for salacious gossip about you, and thought I’d better forward it on lest you were unaware of the situation.”

Such institutional and peer support for Orchard has slowed the process of bringing this story to light. Orchard’s allegedly predatory behaviour was known as an ‘open secret’ for decades, yet inaction from universities is part of the reason why he remained in teaching positions for years.

In all this struggle, there have been a few scholars who have done instrumental work in holding Orchard accountable. Wade mentioned that Rambaran-Olm and Eileen Joy, among others, “really put enormous amounts of their resources and time for years, since at least 2019, into getting this story to come out.”

Dr. Eileen Joy, a medieval studies scholar and the director of publishing house Punctum Books, was the first person to publicly accuse Orchard of sexual harassment in 2018.

Her Twitter account shows various tweets she wrote at the time saying that the field of medieval studies needed to recognize Orchard’s concerning behaviour.

In her first tweets about Orchard, she alleged that he has “AGGRESSIVELY harassed women in the fields of Anglo-Saxon & Old English studies for YEARS.” She tagged University of Cambridge, Centre for Medieval

Studies at U of T, and University of Oxford — the three institutions he has worked at in the last three decades. In the responses, a number of other students and scholars mentioned being uncomfortable around Orchard.

Joy and Rambaran-Olm’s advocacy work included helping Harrison-Broninski find people that he could talk to. They personally reached out to numerous people asking them to speak with him. In an interview with The Varsity, Harrison-Broninski said, “If we had anyone like Mary at Oxford, the story could have gone a very different way, and it could be out years sooner.”

Aftermath and media coverage “I felt like a token [at the ISSEME], that I was there just as a symbol,” Rambaran-Olm told The Varsity. A month after her conversation about Orchard with the ISSEME’s executive director, at the Race Before Race conference in Washington DC, she stepped up on the stage and announced her official resignation from the ISSEME. Rambaran-Olm’s resignation unexpectedly caused a domino effect. Soon after she resigned, other members of the ISSEME and its board began to resign. Within a short period of time, the number of board members had halved.

Wade was one of the former ISSEME members who resigned, and he also pulled a paper that had been accepted for publication by the ISSEME. In his resignation email to the organization’s listserv, he wrote, “I cannot in good conscience be associated with an organization that does not take seriously racist statements, death threats against scholars of color, and sexual predators.”

Numerous organizations released statements in support of Rambaran-Olm. In a public statement, Medievalists of Color wrote, “Dr. Rambaran-Olm’s willingness to endure the heavy intellectual and emotional toll exacted by ISAS’s environment testifies to her longstanding and brave commitment to inclusivity and community in that organization.”

Other organizations that have published

statements supporting her include Queerdievalists, Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship, and The Material Collective.

This collective pressure is what led to the ISSEME board’s vote on its name change. In 2020, the ISSEME also formalized its sexual harassment policy. But even when it made all these changes — the ones that RambaranOlm had advocated for before resigning — the organization did not acknowledge her work in the public statements it put out.

Rambaran-Olm wrote in an email to The Varsity that the only comments she has seen from ISSEME board members have been “disparaging ones.” She wrote, “No one has ever reached out privately or publicly with thanks for anything.”

The ISSEME’s recent statements regarding the changes made to the organization after Rambaran-Olm’s resignation do not mention her efforts.

As one of the few people who have been willing to talk about Orchard’s alleged abuse since the beginning, Rambaran-Olm has faced heightened cyberbullying and harassment since the story came out. But she’s noticed that, as a woman of colour, she doesn’t have credibility. She said, “It’s not just that I’m a woman, but I’m a woman of colour and a Black woman… There’s a lot of intersections in there that just work against me.”

“There’s the idea that I’m just not an authority, but also just not to be believed.”

Rambaran-Olm has faced a lot of backlash for her advocacy around the culture of sexual harassment in academia, especially in regard to allegations against Orchard. She mentioned that some “alt-right leaning” medieval scholars have made a Facebook group where they organize against those who are advocating for change in the field. Rambaran-Olm has been one of their primary targets, and some members of that group have doxxed her parents.

“There’s so much opposition,” RambaranOlm said about the work of marginalized people in bringing this story forward. “And people are just going to the extreme now to silence us.”

features@thevarsity.ca

“And also, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll have to protect myself.’”

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Rambaran-Olm has also faced professional setbacks because of her advocacy.

Last year, she announced a book contract about the far right and medieval studies.

Members of the Facebook group “contacted the publisher, and [her] contract was revoked within a day.”

Since October 2021, there has been a lot of media coverage about the Orchard story.

However, most of the scholars contacted by The Varsity — who had been speaking out about allegations against Orchard since day one — were disappointed by the coverage.

Rambaran-Olm and Joy noted that these stories have mainly featured tenured professors and academics who did not speak out years ago. Even though, as RambaranOlm mentioned, “It is on the backs of grad students, early career researchers, and vulnerable and marginalized scholars” that the story did come out.

“These other news articles are not attentive to the way that this most affects women of colour. They don’t talk about racism,” said Wade.

Rambaran-Olm said that the intersectionality of the story has been erased. Moreover, racism in the field of medieval studies has hindered racialized scholars from openly discussing their experiences. Rambaran-Olm described an incident where a white person

told her they would be vocal about issues in the field once they get tenure. “[A scholar] had sent me a message and said, ‘I am on the cusp of getting tenure, and then I will speak out.’ And I was thinking, ‘well, people like myself have been suffering from racism in the field for years. Why do we have to wait till you get tenure when we can’t even get on the ladder?’ ” Racism within the field has led to scholars of colour leaving academia. Rambaran-Olm, after making so many waves in the field, doesn’t see a future in academia anymore.

Talking about her experiences as a woman of colour and the backlash she has faced, she said that she is planning her exit “partly because we can’t breathe.”

“I went in with the idea that this field and this space was for everybody. And I didn’t discover until I was in it that I was wrong,” said Rambaran-Olm. “There weren’t very many people who looked like me in the field.”

Her advocacy comes from a place of feeling like an outsider. She said that she doesn’t think she is breaking the glass ceiling — but she sees her work as putting cracks in the glass, so that women of colour after her can break it someday.

At the end of one of her interviews with The Varsity, she said, “I hate talking about

[Andy Orchard].” She laughed. “It’s sort of inevitable at this point.”

John Magee declined The Varsity’s request for comment. Stephen Rouse did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence or harassment at U of T: • Visit safety.utoronto.ca for a list of safety resources.

• Visit svpscentre.utoronto.ca for information, contact details, and hours of operation for the tri-campus Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Centre. Centre staff can be reached by phone at 416978-2266 or by email at svpscentre@ utoronto.ca.

• Call Campus Safety Special Constable Service to make a report at 416-9782222 (for U of T St. George and U of T Scarborough) or 905-569-4333 (for U of T Mississauga) • Call the Women’s College Hospital Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Care Centre at 416-323-6040 • Call the Scarborough Grace Sexual Assault Care Centre at 416-495-2555 • Call the Assaulted Women’s Helpline at 866-863-0511

Photo

April 4, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/photo photo@thevarsity.ca

Holly Humberstone is using loneliness as a means of connection The pandemic breakout star on big-city isolation, songwriting, and her first year of live touring Last fall, The Guardian called Humberstone “pop’s pandemic breakout star” — she rose to popularity alongside a cohort of young women artists, like Gracie Abrams and Maisie Peters, whose propensity for oversharing resonated at a time of isolation and disconnect. That means this is only Humberstone’s second North American tour, and it hasn’t lost its magic for her.

“Something that I didn't get, obviously, during the pandemic was being able to play live and sing songs in person and see somebody in the crowd really connect,” she tells The Varsity

via Zoom a week later, in between back-toback shows in Chicago.

That connection matters because her songs are deeply personal — they come across as lovingly framed time capsules from her own life, as well as those of the people she loves. It’s been a “few weird confusing years,” she says, and the studio has served as “[a] little therapy space where I could work through stuff and pick things apart and figure out how I feel.”

She emerges from songwriting sessions with tight lines of verse that, while conversational, contain bursts of intense emotion.

Holly Humberstone opens for Girl in Red in Toronto on March 20, 2022.

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Jadine Ngan Features Editor

“I’m scared of everything,” 22-year-old Holly Humberstone admits to a packed concert hall.

It’s just after sunset on a Sunday evening in March, and in under an hour, Girl in Red is set to take the stage at Toronto’s sold-out Queen Elizabeth Theatre. But in that moment, all eyes are on Humberstone.

“They have to be lyrics that someone would get tattooed on their skin for life,” Humberstone once said about her songwriting in an interview.

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It makes sense, then, that she also wants her music to preserve the sound of how she was feeling in a certain moment: “I like to write [songs] and then record them on the day that I write them, and then not change a whole lot.”

“London is Lonely” is one such time capsule. “When I moved to London, I didn’t know

anybody and I didn’t have many friends and — I don’t know — everything just felt really alien,” she says. “I found I didn’t want to leave my room because everything outside was confusing and weird and chaotic.”

“I was going through a lot of changes and trying to navigate being an adult and living on my own in a big city,” she recalls.

The UK-based singer-songwriter brought no band with her to North America. Centre stage, it’s just Humberstone and several of her instruments.

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Her stage presence feels so intimate that you could almost forget that this coming summer, the BRITs Rising Star has big plans — she’s set to make her Coachella debut and open for a leg of Olivia Rodrigo’s sold-out SOUR tour.

“I’m terrified of big cities… I feel like I look like an easy victim,” she continues, eliciting

a sympathetic laugh from the crowd. She’s recounting how it felt to move to London from her countryside home, and alludes to a sense of overwhelming isolation that might feel familiar to anyone who’s left home for the first time. In the next few moments, she envelops the whole room in that exact feeling with her song “London is Lonely.”

In “London is Lonely,” like many of her other songs, Humberstone taps into nuances of emotions that feel familiar to many people.

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Phone flashlights bob back and forth as listeners sway along to Humberstone’s music.

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Today, her life isn’t done changing. In the last ew years, she’s been adjusting to the warp-speed life of constant touring, and her songs have transformed emotions like isolation and longing into a means of connecting with strangers.

She tells The Varsity she feels grateful that

she gets to play these live shows — and that her stories resonate the way they do.

“This is all I’ve really wanted to do since I was like, seven,” she says with a smile. Plus, she says that sense of connection “works both ways” — it’s a reminder that she’s not alone, either.

Arts & Culture

April 4, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture arts@thevarsity.ca

The weird and the wonderful of Cara Connors’ Straight for Pay The U of T alum performed their stand-up set at the Comedy Bar Stephanie Bai Managing Online Editor

I want to hear a voice note from Cara Connors.

This is weird but true. I think they would start off on an innocuous point about how their day is going, and then they’d spurt off on side-splitting, wonderful tangents. I think they’d send the kind of voice notes that would make you laugh in the middle of a grocery store checkout line as they run on, out of breath but full of ideas — because that is the kind of performer they are.

Connors describes themself as a Los Angeles-based, Canadian, queer stand-up comedian.

In 2018, they performed at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montréal, and in 2019, they were also a regular on the E! Series #NoFilter. Before their comedy life, Connors graduated with a master’s degree at U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

I sat in on the March 26 performance of Straight for Pay, Connor’s first North American tour, at the Comedy Bar in Toronto. This venue is apparently a favourite of theirs — they told the Toronto Guardian that it’s their “comedy home,” where they “cut [their teeth]” as a comedian.

Their ease on stage was palpable. They came

barreling in, colourful outfit and all, tearing into the audience with their jokes. Their comedy is so physical that I was left wondering what their resting heart rate was by the end of the show.

Straight for Pay is largely a meditation on identity. Although Connors was non-stop with the laughs, they also examined the confusing and convoluted path to self-acceptance after divorcing their husband and coming to terms with their sexuality. “Grow up!” they said. “Everybody’s wife is gay.”

The strongest part of Connor’s show was how well they can ramble. Where some comedians come in with polished jokes and neatly executed punchlines, Connors was not afraid to look like they were improvising the show on the spot.

Though I have no doubt their show was wellrehearsed, there was a genuineness behind the way they paced around the stage, voice mumbling in thought then bursting into yells.

They were the neurotic, coked-up voice in my head that never goes away. They were the edge of a nervous breakdown I’ve felt coming on for weeks. They were relentless, electric, authentic, and a human embodiment of what Adderall was invented to quiet.

I was strangely comforted by their stage presence. They once told the Austin Chronicle that being queer means being an outsider, which shows life’s absurdities — especially the heterosexual ones. Their comedy leaned into the absurd, and this may be the key to their success.

Weirdness invites weirdness. Within the span of an hour, Connors’ openness and authenticity became infectious. The show closed with a

slideshow featuring pictures of them growing up as “You Can’t Pray the Gay Away” by Laura Bell Bundy blasted. It was funny — especially the photos of them on the same hockey team as their ex-husband — but also poignant. It’s emboldening to embrace difference, and it’s even better to laugh along the way.

Connors is a queer stand-up comedian.

MARLON MORTILLA/THEVARSITY

Why Such Big Dreams is not “a boring law story” U of T alum discusses the publishing industry and the universality of her work Madeline Szabo Arts & Culture Correspondent

In early 2012, Reema Patel enrolled in a creative writing certificate program at U of T’s School of Continuing Studies. At the time, Patel, a 2011 graduate from the University of Windsor’s Juris Doctor program, was articling at a law firm. She was awaiting to be called into the Bar of Ontario, where she would receive a Court Certificate of Qualification, be sworn in, and enroll as a lawyer.

“I was sort of at the point where I was like, ‘This can’t be it. I don’t feel stimulated,’ ” Patel explained in an interview with The Varsity. “ ‘I don’t feel like I’ve made the right career choice.

I need to do something that makes me feel whole again.’ ” Ten years after she enrolled in that creative writing program, Patel’s debut novel, Such Big Dreams, will be released on May 10 with McClelland & Stewart.

The lawyer and author discussed her novel’s inspiration, navigating the publishing industry, and her novel’s themes in an interview with The Varsity.

U of T and Penguin Random House contest Patel didn’t enroll at U of T with the objective of writing a novel — instead, her only goal was to “do something creative.” On a whim, Patel enrolled in an introductory novel course, where she constructed the character of Rakhi, the protagonist of Such Big Dreams. That class also inspired Patel to enroll in additional creative writing courses — “Because I was doing work that I finally really enjoyed,” she said.

Though Patel didn’t complete her certificate — she took around five courses — she attributes the “drive” that pushed her to complete her novel to her time at U of T. She also praised the “strong element” of peer review and workshop in creative writing courses, which she said helped her to understand her work better. “[It] is such a valuable tool for a writer, having not just experts but regular people reading and giving feedback on your work, so that you know how it’s being received and consumed by people,” Patel explained.

During her time at U of T, Patel also entered

her novel’s second chapter into an annual school-wide creative writing award sponsored

by Penguin Random House. The first time that Patel entered, she was shortlisted. The second time that she entered, she won.

“I thought, could [Such Big Dreams] actually be a full length novel?” Patel said.

The publishing industry Once Patel finished writing the first draft of Such Big Dreams, she created a spreadsheet of different agencies in the Canadian literary scene. “I looked through their agents, and I made notes

of who was looking for what kind of books and [then I] tailored my query to the ones that… were most relevant,” Patel explained, noting that she submitted to about 20 agents.

Patel ended up hiring editor Anita Chong, whom the author described as her “favorite editor hands down,” because of her vision and enthusiasm for Such Big Dreams. Ultimately, it took Patel and Chong four years to edit the novel — “Because [we] wanted the book to be the best version of itself, and sometimes you have to give art time,” Patel said.

“I was so fortunate to have signed with a literary agent who really saw the value in the story,” she added. “And who recognized it as not just

a story about India, but a very human story that anyone could relate to.”

Patel also described herself as “lucky,” because her publisher also recognized those themes when her agent submitted it to them.

“They were like, ‘This is a book that we want to publish, a book that… a lot of people can relate

living abroad during her undergraduate studies.

“They don’t do them anymore — the International Development Agency sponsored internships for Canadians to go abroad and work at organizations that did international development in different ‘developing countries,’ ” Patel explained.

“I applied for one and got one in Mumbai.”

Patel, who lived abroad for about a year, said that during the program she “basically did funding and programming for children and youth living on the street.” After graduating from her undergraduate studies, Patel returned to Mumbai, where she had received a fellowship. “[I] got exposure to how human rights law works in India, which is very different from in Canada,” Patel explained. “Just as they were in my book, the organization relied on foreign funding, for example, in order to survive. So that also helped contribute to my general knowledge of a subject that I ended up wanting to write about.”

Though a large part of her book’s plot revolves around the legal world, Patel explains that she “didn’t want it to be like a boring law story.”

JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY “That’s not fun for a lot of people,” she said. Instead, Patel wanted her readers to form an understanding of human rights law and public interest litigation procedure “that wasn’t to,’ ” Patel said. [rammed] down people’s throats.”

“I think the experiences of the main character “Not a boring law story” are universal in terms of… we want things, but Such Big Dreams explores the story of its pro- people tell us [that] we can’t have them because tagonist, Rakhi, who lives in Mumbai and works of who we are or where we come from,” Patel for the human rights organization Justice For said. “I know, especially for young women, the All. Rakhi is affected by the sudden presence whole imposter syndrome thing is really real.” of Rubina, a former Bollywood starlet looking “I think [Such Big Dreams] is super relevant to become a celebrity ambassador for Rakhi’s today,” Patel concluded. “But it’s also kind of workplace. Rubina demands an internship for evergreen, I think. I mean, who knows where her family friend Alex, who soon persuades Ra- we’ll be 10 years down the road.” khi to show him “the real India” in exchange for him furthering Rakhi’s dreams. A lot of its plot Such Big Dreams will be released on May 10 by was “loosely based” off of Patel’s experiences McClelland & Stewart.

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THE VARSITY

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ARTS & CULTURE

As a Black woman, here’s what I think about that slap Smith’s actions demonstrated how easy it is to assault a Black man Aïssatou Odia Barry Varsity Staff

Content warning: This article discusses anti-Black racism.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the incident that occurred at the 2022 Academy Awards. I’m referring to when actor Will Smith walked onstage to slap comedian Chris Rock in the face before cursing him out. Later in the night, Smith accepted the award for Best Actor for his work in King Richard.

The next day, I woke up to a text from my roommate, who had sent me a tweet showing Lupita Nyong’o’s facial expressions behind an angry Smith. At first, I didn’t understand the situation — was she sending it to me because of how pretty Nyong’o looked?

After a quick Internet search, I was caught up — Smith had slapped Rock because the comedian had compared his wife’s — Jada Pinkett Smith’s — shaved head to that of actress Demi Moore’s in G.I. Jane. In 2018, Pinkett Smith revealed that she suffered from alopecia areata, a disease that occurs when one’s immune system attacks hair follicles, causing hair loss. In 2021, via Instagram, Pinkett Smith explained that her condition led her to the decision to shave her head.

When reacting to the slap, however, history wasn’t the first thought that came to mind; instead, like many, I assumed that Smith’s actions were a joke. It was only after I saw Australian footage of the occurrence — which featured Smith’s now infamous line, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” — that I realized the severity of the situation.

To give context, Rock’s round of jokes can be attributed to the informal tradition during which an award show host — usually a celeb-

REBECA MOYA/ THEVARSITY

rity — criticizes audience members in a joking manner. Many white entertainers have done this, such as when Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Academy Awards in 2017, and referred to Matt Damon as “fat.”

There was also Ricky Gervais’s 2020 Golden Globes rant, during which he said Felicity Huffman’s children must be “embarrassed” that she served prison time for paying someone to give her daughter a fraudulent SAT score. It’s not right, but this is what comedians do; they make immature jokes in the name of ‘humour.’

It seems that, in recent memory, no award show host has paid such a severe price for offending someone with their jokes. As a Black woman, it bothers me that this backlash is surrounding Rock, a Black man with a successful career. From voicing Marty, our favorite zebra in Madagascar, to performing sold-out stand up comedy shows, Rock’s image as a ‘funny Black man’ seemed to benefit him — until it didn’t.

In my opinion, Smith’s actions were disappointing, because they were aimed at a fel-

low Black man. They also demonstrated — to both audience members and to the Academy Awards’ 16.62 million viewers worldwide — how easy it can be to assault a Black man.

In 2020, Pinkett Smith faced a pit of online jokes when she and Smith discussed a relationship she had with singer August Alsina at the time of their marriage. I’ve heard many people mention this situation to justify Smith’s behavior; they assume that he must be tired of witnessing his wife — and marriage — receive mockery and the public’s unsolicited opinions.

In 2021, Smith wrote in his self-titled memoir that, in his childhood, he felt guilty for not standing up for his mother when she was being abused by his father. To some extent, I guess his behavior at the Academy Awards can be seen as chivalrous; it’s an example of a Black man defending his Black wife from an insensitive joke about her hair. But I wouldn’t feel ‘rescued’ by Smith’s actions, and I don’t want my significant other to attack people who disrespect me.

On the other hand, Rock’s distasteful joke contained racial undercurrent, even if Rock wasn’t aware of it. Throughout history, Black women have often been humiliated for their hairstyles — the Eurocentric beauty standard of having long, straight hair is often at odds with the texture of Black hair.

Even though Rock’s joke was not about Pinkett Smith’s hair, but about her baldness, hairstyles that a Black woman wore were once again at the center of a controversy.

Despite the Smith versus Rock debates occurring as I write this article, I believe that I don’t have to choose a side to agree with to comprehend the situation. Although the incident evoked global conversation, that’s what celebrities do nowadays — they say and do things that will provoke us into speaking about it.

Instead, I wish that they got us talking about Riz Ahmed, whose film, The Long Goodbye, won Best Short Film, making him the first Muslim person to win in that category. Additionally, Ariana DeBose, a woman of colour who openly describes herself as LGBTQ+, won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in West Side Story. Many beautiful moments happened at that ceremony — but we’re busy discussing a slap.

Despite my hatred for celebrity culture as a whole, I don’t believe that Smith or Rock should be boycotted for their actions — cancel culture is a mob mentality built upon the idea that humans are disposable. Instead, I hope that this situation transforms into a beautiful redemption story in which comedians start to write their jokes with empathy and actors understand that their violence is subject to consequences.

The infectious energy of Spring Awakening

Content warning: This article mentions suicide.

After two years, the St. Michael’s College Troubadours (SMCT) have returned with their first in-person musical. The production, performed on March 25 and 26 at the Young Centre for Performing Arts, was an adaptation of the 2006 coming-of-age rock musical Spring Awakening.

Set in late nineteenth century Germany, Spring Awakening explores the stories of teenagers who are navigating their sexualities. Its plot immerses the audience in a navigation of adolescence and young love.

Before the show started, audience members were offered a glimpse into the world portrayed in Spring Awakening through the set. Designed

by Emelia Findlay, the staging was minimal but spacious — instead of featuring a variety of backdrops and props to mark the location of each scene, they opted to feature small, interchangeable props for a quick transition between scenes. For example, when characters were supposed to be located outside, audience members witnessed what appeared to be twigs swaying from ceilings. When characters were supposed to be inside a classroom, the set changed to feature a chalkboard and chairs.

In contrast to its subtle set, Spring Awakening started with a bang; immediately, the audience was introduced to the character of Wendla Bergmann, performed by Kasey Belding. Belding starts with a soft and beautiful

solo of “Mama Who Bore Me,” during which her character asks her mother why she hasn’t given her information about sex that — later in the musical — could have prevented her from getting pregnant. Throughout the song, Belding’s tone is curious, which is fitting for their character, an innocent girl.

The performance of “The Bitch of Living” was also particularly effective. During the number, numerous men characters sang about the struggle of maturing during adolescence. The performances were high-energy and featured animated facial expressions. One actor really stood out: Daniel Goldman, who played the character Hänschen. Goldman expressed his character’s flamboyant personality by accentuating his movements while dancing.

Another standout moment took place during the smashing performance of “And Then There Were None,” during which the character of Moritz contemplates suicide to flee from his abusive father. Nicolas Cikoja, who played Moritz, perfectly tapped into the emotions of the song. Cikoja projected without screaming or shouting and moved flimsily to explore their character’s messy thoughts.

Nolan Rush, who played Melchior, also gave an impressive performance. They took command of their role and performed soft-spoken monologues that matched the inquisitive nature of their character. Their singing voice was reminiscent of Jonathon Groff, the performer who originated their role on Broadway.

Credit must also be given to Emily Sugianto, Spring Awakening’s choreographer, for creating lively dance routines that the whole cast could

perfect. The ensemble performances of “The Mirror-Blue Night” and “Touch Me” were particularly well-done. During these numbers, Sugianto used cast members to create blocking in the form of dynamic shapes. These shapes also translated into seamless transitions after the numbers finished. Additionally, during the performance of “Totally Fucked,” it was impossible not to bop my head alongside the cast’s high energy and infectious smiles.

However, I was disappointed that the SMCT did not fully commit to their show’s sexual content. This was most evident in the safer version of “I Believe,” a number during which it is implied that the main characters will have sex. While I understand that we cannot expect SMCT members to remove their clothing during this performance, I found it strange that ensemble members sang at the back of the stage.

There wasn’t much room separating them between the scene’s main action; they appeared to be watching the scene happening in front of them, making it hard for the audience to believe that the main characters were about to have sex.

Overall, the SMCT hosted an enjoyable return to in-person musicals. Their vibrant energy was a characteristic of the theatre world, and the type of performance that has been dearly missed during online productions.

COURTESY OF COLIN DARLING

Vanessa Mabelle Varsity Contributor

The SMCT performed Spring Awakening on March 25 and 26.

Reviewing the St. Michael College Troubadours’ March 25 production

thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture

APRIL 4, 2022

17

VDCS’ High School Musical took me back to my childhood The cast’s performances proved that they were “All in This Together” Lidiia Tulenkova Varsity Contributor

As a person who’s watched High School Musical about a thousand times, I was ecstatic to attend Victoria College Drama Society’s (VCDS) take on the show on March 19. The production, performed at Toronto’s Artscape Sandbox, promised to be performed “concert-style.”

Although I knew I wouldn’t be presented with new material, I had many questions about what to expect. How would High School Musical’s plot be connected if the VCDS would only be singing? Would the actors sing every song, or only the most popular ones? These questions were buzzing through my mind as I entered the show’s venue.

I was greeted by a large room with a high ceiling. Audience members frantically searched for the closest seat and studied the stage’s preassembled decorations. This high energy dynamic helped build my anticipation for the beginning of the show.

The director of the production, Paul Meyer, first went onstage to introduce the performance. After the lights dimmed, Sharpay Evans — portrayed by Siobhán Gyulay — was the first cast member to appear. Gyulay, one of the standouts of the show, commanded the stage presence of a star; her voice was unwavering, animated, and contained a confidence

that Evans would be proud of. Her character paired delightfully with Anna-Maria Maleshev’s portrayal of Ryan Evans, who offered animated facial expression and timely reactions.

Speaking of pairs, a large part of the show’s success can be attributed to powerful performances by Callan Murphy and Kathleen Kovacs, who played Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez, respectively. Murphy and Kovac’s emotional duets transported me back to watching the first High School Musical movie for the first time. The actors also displayed a captivating chemistry, supported by the cast’s energy while listening to them sing.

However, any musical fan knows a show’s success cannot only be attributed to its main actors. In the middle of the show, I whispered to my friend, “The voices of those two supporting actors are incredible.”

“Yes, they are,” was her immediate response.

Throughout the production, not one singer missed their cue; it was preparation like this that made the show fabulous.

Of course, no production goes without difficulties and emergencies. The first aspect of the venue that I noticed was its lack of stage space — a crucial factor with regards to accessibility for cast and production members. However, the VCDS efficiently managed the lack of space by staging props and lighting at the corners of the stage, so it was easy to navigate blocking

Thank you, Arts & Culture Reflecting on Volume 142 with its Arts & Culture Editor Sky Kapoor Science Editor

have to revise. They can just say, ‘Oh, I’m bringing this somewhere else.’

When I first started writing for The Varsity, I was nothing more than a scrappy, doe-eyed writer whose only prior bylines were, embarrassingly, on Wattpad. Arts & Culture was the section that welcomed me with open arms, and I planned on staying there for the remainder of my career at the paper. The first article I ever wrote was a personal reflection, which quickly became my specialty. Throughout my time in Arts & Culture, however, I was given the opportunity to explore all avenues of writing.

I first talked to the current Arts & Culture editor, Alexa DiFrancesco, on March 12, 2021, when she responded to an Instagram callout I made. Yes, I still remember the exact date — that’s how much of an impact she’s had on my life. By the time that elections for The Varsity’s masthead rolled around, we had already become best friends despite the fact that we were running for the same position on the masthead.

Evidently, I did not win that election. Instead, Alexa took me on as her associate, and what I gained from that was worth so much more than any masthead position I could’ve had.

As such, to reflect on the past volume alone wouldn’t have been representative of the Arts & Culture section. We had to do it the same way we had done everything in Arts & Culture — together.

SK: It’s good that Arts & Culture went the way you wanted it to. I know you wanted to publish some controversial stuff, and you made that happen.

AD: It doesn’t seem controversial in my mind. I don’t even know what you’re referring to. I understand why people may think, ‘Why am I reading this in a newspaper?’ but at the same time, these stories are happening in the world around us.

They take courage to write — I wouldn't feel comfortable writing them myself. What makes Arts & Culture so incredible is that people are willing to put it all on the line and share their stories.

Sky Kapoor: Tell me how this year went for you.

Alexa DiFrancesco: This year was great. Witnessing the length of work that contributors will put into making something that they’re proud of was incredible. For example, sometimes articles got cancelled for the week ahead, and so I would dig into the content I had planned for the week after that.

Contributors were willing to Zoom call me or edit together to make those articles happen.

Writing for The Varsity is volunteer work — they don’t owe me their time or energy. They don’t

SK: I think that Arts & Culture has been very

changes during the show.

After the production, I found out that one of its cast members was unable to perform on the day of the show due to a personal emergency. This was the moment when the VCDS truly demonstrated its creativity; the society recorded the cast member’s voice ahead of the production to play during the live show. In my opinion, this was one of the special details that immersed the audience: a window into the almost forgotten high school experience of hearing faculty speak into the school’s PA system.

Over the course of the production, audience members were treated to hilarious wordplay that aided the show in running more smoothly.

During VCDS’ concert, I was unable to sit still — the energy of the performers was contagious and encouraged me to sing along. My last memory from the show — when the audience stood on their feet to sing the production’s last song, “We’re All In This Together” — was truly a testament to the show’s success.

arts and culture-y this year. But I think that the content has been diverse.

AD: I hope so. These are topics which are affecting certain members of the U of T community. So why wouldn’t I include them if they’re happening?

Anna Golja at the beginning of the year. Recently, we interviewed Nathalie Bibeau.

SK: The trust that people put in us to share those stories is incredible, too.

AD: Our articles go through so many stages of editing. There’s so many examples where we'll change a word here and there. A word can make such a big difference. I’m not saying that we’ve been perfect at preserving writers’ voices — we haven’t been. But I study creative writing, so I know what it’s like to write something, whether it be an article or a poem or a novel, and you care about every single word. The faith that contributors put in us to maintain their voices is incredible.

SK: Arts is a really special section.

AD: It is so special. I’m surprised at how many people let us explore their creative projects, too.

For example, this issue, we’re covering Cara Connors’ comedy show. We’ve covered the Toronto International Film Festival. We interviewed

The Victoria College Drama Society performed High School Musical on March 19.

COURTESY OF PAUL PHANACHET

SK: What were some of your favourite articles to publish?

AD: This is like choosing between children, but some of my favourites were Vanessa Mabelle’s ‘The internet capitalizes from mocking Black women — and we’re letting it’, Aissatou Odia Barry’s ‘A reflection on being Black and neurodivergent’, Madeline Szabo’s ‘Help! There’s a rock in my vagina’, Cherry Zhang’s ‘A deep dive into the concealed death of Ontario’s famous prognostic groundhog’, and your own ‘Maybe it isn’t just Western University — maybe it’s campus party culture.’

SK: There’s something about getting to read people’s stories. When I edit articles, I think, ‘This is something I would want to do with my life.’

AD: I’m proud of this year. In 10 years, I can’t wait to show my kids all of the articles.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Alexa DiFrancesco is the Arts & Culture Editor of The Varsity Volume 142.

CAROLINE BELLAMY/THEVARSITY

Science

April 4, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/science science@thevarsity.ca

Without representative trial groups, medicine can't work for everyone.

Centuries of exclusion hinders medical research on women

CAROLINE BELLAMY/THEVARSITY

When it comes to running and analyzing studies in health-related research, sex matters Caroline Bellamy Photo Editor

While clinical research and trials are the heart and soul of advancement in the medical field, they failed to sufficiently include women before the 1990s. The result has been a lack of knowledge about the interactions between biological sex, disease, and medication, which has become known as the ‘women’s health gap.’ This gap is also bigger than just cis women — how certain diseases affect transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people is even less researched.

However, examining the historical exclusion of women from clinical studies is a good first step.

Does sex matter?

Those who wish to defend the medical field’s ignorance may argue that women are equal to men, and therefore that treatment for all patients should be the same. However, the reality is more complicated: for example, at a cellular level, our biological sex affects how our bodies interact with disease and medication.

A study conducted by The Institute of Medicine in 2001 found that when it comes to running and analyzing studies in health-related research, sex matters. There are differences in the incidence and severity of diseases, as well as various cellular responses, depending on a patient’s sex. These distinctions can often be traced to reproductive hormones, but hormones aren’t the only reason for this variation.

The fact that research has traditionally excluded anyone but cisgender men has led to women and everyone else receiving compromised medical care.

Creating the gap Prior to the 1990s, white men were considered the ‘standard’ study population. Women were viewed as ‘too emotional’ — and, therefore, too risky as test subjects, because their hormones were considered irregular and unpredictable.

In many cases, women were banned from participating in clinical trials in order to ‘protect’ their ability to reproduce in the future. Organizations and medical groups focused on the one sex-related difference they were willing to admit, and, for years, women were considered reproductive vessels and nothing more.

In the twentieth century, the endocrine system was discovered. While it provided medical professionals with an obvious difference between bodies assigned male and female, they continued to believe that all other organs functioned the same regardless of sex. They used this discovery to blame any medical issues that seemed to disproportionately or specifically affect women on their hormones.

Change began in the 1990s, when it was found that participants in studies about diseases that affect everyone, such as heart disease, were disproportionately cis men. These findings brought to the surface the gap in research that had been building over the years: our understanding of how women’s bodies functioned and interacted with disease was severely lacking, if not missing altogether in some cases.

In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration stated that it was important for women to be included in clinical trials to understand how they respond to pharmaceutical agents. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act of 1993 required that all NIH-funded clinical trials

must include women as participants.

Since then, there has been a significant increase in the inclusion of women in clinical trials, but not enough to make up for the years of their exclusion. Cumulative reviews from 2011 found that in the average trial, only 37 per cent of participants are women.

The difficulties of closing the gap While these improvements have been made, we are still playing catch up on the centuries when women were absent from medical research. Since the 1990s, research on diseases that primarily affect women — such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, and cardiovascular disease — has made significant progress in including women in research studies and clinical trials.

Of course, this progress does not mark the end of the gap — eight out of 10 prescription drugs taken off the market between 1997 and 2000 caused greater adverse side effects on women due to the male bias in clinical research during the development of these drugs.

Although many initiatives to increase the involvement of women in clinical trials have been introduced, women are still less likely to participate in them due to social and societal pressures and norms. Today, women have an increased

Molecular masterpieces at U of T

During the three consecutive terms she served since taking on the role in 2004, she implemented several initiatives intended to inspire a love for learning and an appreciation for science within the general public in Canada, with many of these programs aimed specifically at have faced, the creators of the exhibition remain young children. hopeful that their work will serve to spark an inRonit Wilk, who curated and created the exterest in the sciences and a sense of curiosity hibition, has high hopes that these artworks will about the world within the U of T community make the ‘magical world’ of cell and molecular as well as the general public, as it was originally sciences more accessible to the general audiintended to do. ence. She is captivated by how her career as a Professor Brenda Andrews, founding director scientist has enabled her to look into a world “inof the Donnelly Centre who commissioned the visible to most people,” and hopes to share the artworks, hopes that the exhibition will bring forth wonders of the molecular realm with members of a renewed appreciation for the beautiful side of the community through her artwork. the biological sciences, which can be easy to Wilk’s connections with U of T and the Donoverlook when focusing on “[making] sense of nelly Centre go back several years. She obdata patterns and of what [is captured] under tained her PhD in the lab of molecular genetics the microscope.” She believes that this art dis- professor Howard Lipshitz, and would go on to play will be an ideal way to share the beauty of work as a research assistant in Professor Henry science with members of the public and an ac- Krause’s lab at the institute, where she percessible means by which viewers can learn more formed experiments in microscopy and worked about and better appreciate the biomedical re- on complex experiments involving fruit fly RNA. search being done at the centre.

When preparing to assemble the display, Although Andrews stepped she contacted all 30 labs at the down from her role as direcDonnelly Centre for scientific tor in 2020, her legacy of images, chose the final 10 public education and pieces to represent a cooutreach continues hesive colour scheme, to thrive, with the balanced their comcreation of this exposition, and unified hibit being a fitting them with a theme. end to her tenure.

She then rendered One of the key each of the images principles of Anwith processing drews’ vision for software and laserthe institute was printed them onto to increase public aluminum panels.

The exhibition is designed to awareness and inOne of the artmake science more engaging. terest in the sciences. works is particularly ARTIST: RONIT WILK, PHOTO: CAROLINE

New exhibit at the Med Sci Building highlights relationship between the arts and sciences Andrea Zhao Illustrations Editor

For millennia, the pursuit of knowledge, expression, and progress through the practice of the sciences and the arts has been central to the human experience.

Although the two fields may appear to be fairly distinct and unrelated, they have continually influenced and inspired one another. Artists and scientists alike draw on the same essential principles of curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong dedication to learning when doing their work, sharing the ideals of understanding the world around them, and creating a better life for future generations.

A new art exhibition at U of T’s Donnelly Centre aims to celebrate the unique and fundamental relationship between the arts and the sciences through a photographic display based on molecular science. This series, consisting of 10 photographs inspired by the work done at labs at the Donnelly Centre, forms a mounted mural on one face of a wall in the Medical Sciences Building.

The display, which opened recently, is now slowly opening up to be viewed by members of the university and will remain in place for the near future.

A great deal of careful planning and thought has gone into the creation and curation of this exhibition, which is now several years in the making. It was originally scheduled to take place in 2019, in order to mark the 15th anniversary of the inauguration of the Donnelly Centre, but was postponed until earlier this year due to the onset of the pandemic.

Despite the many setbacks and delays they

BELLAMY/THEVARSITY

burden of unpaid domestic labour. They spend, on average, twice the amount of time on unpaid work in comparison to men. As a result, women often have more family obligations than men, and it is more difficult for them to escape those obligations in order to partake in clinical trials.

Research facilities must go out of their way to make participation in clinical trials more accessible for women. This can include initiatives such as compensating childcare while subjects are actively participating in the clinical trials, as well as hiring women staff to increase the comfort of participants.

Women’s College Hospital — located at Bay and College just southeast of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus — has started the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative, which is the first of its kind in Canada. It aims to help women who are struggling with heart or cardiovascular problems and provides a rehabilitation program designed with women in mind.

The women’s health gap is bigger than any one person can explain in 800 words. It goes beyond research and representation and bleeds into social structure. The truth is, healthcare has a long way to go before women will be able to access medical care that seeks to treat them holistically and fairly. meaningful to Wilk — the second panel on the bottom row, which depicts fruit fly embryos lit up blue with patterns of fluorescently-labelled RNA transcripts known as ‘long non-coding RNAs.’ The piece was adapted from a photograph that Wilk herself took while working in the Krause lab. Researchers working at this lab were the first to demonstrate that after genes are transcribed into RNA, the RNA molecules localize to specific parts of embryos and cells in order to ensure the proper timing and spatial organization for protein production.

Although Wilk no longer works at the lab, she remains a strong advocate and supporter of the sciences and has donated 10 per cent of her artist fee to research at the foundation.

Alongside Wilk’s photograph, the exhibition is made up of nine other images from labs at the Donnelly Centre, including the world’s first molecular map of a human liver, the interactions between all 6,000 yeast genes, a visualization of the human protein network, and pictures of nematode worms with glowing nervous systems in bright primary colours. The depth and diversity of work being done at the Donnelly Centre is well-represented in the selection of images, which provide a newfound way for us to appreciate scientific achievements at U of T and beyond.

The molecular art exhibition will remain in place at the Medical Sciences Building for the next little while. Due to limitations on building usage on campus, it is currently still only open to members of the U of T community with access to the building, but will hopefully be available for viewing by the general public as restrictions continue to ease. Simple in design and effective in execution, this exhibit is an ideal marriage of arts and sciences that will hopefully inspire not only an interest in either field, but also a general curiosity for the world and an appreciation for the beauty all around us.

thevarsity.ca/section/science

APRIL 4, 2022

Political polarization on Reddit due to new users, U of T machine learning model finds

with external events, and are disproportionately driven by new users.”

Surprisingly, close to no ideological polarization was observed in left-leaning communities or userbases. In every month from 2012 to 2018, right-wing communities were observed to be more polarized than their left-wing counterparts.

Right-wing communities were also the biggest contributors to the increased polarization scores observed in the study, despite being some of the smallest political communities on the platform.

Machine learning shows how politics effects online communities Sahir Dhalla Varsity Staff

The shift to belligerence This phenomenon isn’t new. Since the popularization of the internet, online culture has constantly shifted as new users overwhelm and change the cultures on online forums and platforms. This trend reached its peak in September 1993, in what came to be known as the ‘Eternal September,’ when AOL began to offer access to many more users. This phenomenon flooded the small pool of existing forums at the time, fundamentally changing the social status quo. Since then, the internet has seen a constant stream of new users across a number of platforms — which is exactly what happened to Reddit in 2016.

To study polarization across the platform, Waller and Anderson designed a machine learning

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Reddit — formerly known as the ‘front page of the internet’ — has come to be known in recent years as a politically polarized platform. More and more people have been relying on the platform for news, making it an extremely popular place for political discussion.

Following Donald Trump’s 2015 campaign, political subreddit r/TheDonald formed on the site. Other pages, such as r/democrats and r/ conservative, have also rapidly gained popularity, creating endless echo chambers and bouts of brigading between right- and left-wing communities. These changes amplified a vocal, extreme minority, and many had assumed that the existing user base on Reddit became heavily polarized during the elections.

However, a U of T study — led by Isaac Waller, a PhD student in computer science, and Ashton Anderson, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at UTSC — found that the increased polarization of Reddit is not a product of its preexisting users, but rather of the influx of new users who joined the platform during and after the 2016 US elections. model that looked at over 5.1 billion comments to create community embeddings — scales used to represent and quantify the similarities in community memberships. These embeddings showed how many individuals were active in specific communities, which was then used to show divisions across several lines on the social media platform, including political polarization.

Prior to 2016, the amount of political activity was fairly muted in the actual far-left- and farright-wing communities, since these communities only accounted for 2.8 per cent of all political discussion in January 2015. This number rapidly increased in 2016 and peaked in November, when nearly 25 per cent of all political discussion was taking place in these subreddits — and

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Reddit’s polarization has stayed near the levels of that period ever since.

The study showed that while only eight per cent of all political discussion occurred in far-leftwing subreddits, the users who contributed to these communities had almost half of their activity in these subreddits. The same can be seen for more right-wing communities — only 16 per cent of political discussion occurs in far-rightwing subreddits, but these communities are where around 62 per cent of activity from rightwing users comes from.

The authors of the study mentioned that “changes in polarization over time on Reddit are not associated with previous activity on the platform but rather are synchronously aligned

An opinionated internet This study was also vital in creating a new means of analysis for online platforms. Sociologists are constantly looking for ways to better quantify and understand social connections and group identities, and harnessing machine learning for this task has proven to be exceptionally useful.

Reddit is an ideal candidate for it, since the platform has not yet implemented user-based algorithms that would affect user activity by suggesting new content and communities to them.

This lack of algorithmic content allows users to have more organic interactions in the communities they care about and gives them more control over what they consume.

Content algorithms on other popular platforms, however, impact the communities and circles that users interact in. As a result, they take control away from the user in the content they consume. While there had already been some prior studies in this area, they always focused on platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.

However, these platforms and their algorithms create interactions that would not exist if users had more control over what they got to see.

The study also offered some support for the echo chamber hypothesis, which argues that a group of people online with similar views can often develop a sort of tunnel vision. People end up participating in only the communities where they know their views will be accepted, which leads them to believe their perspective is shared by the majority, even if it is not.

As the effects of the Eternal September continue, and as ‘netiquette’ changes with the arrival of new, unaccustomed users, these analytic methods will only get stronger and better at understanding online communities — and, hopefully, give us a better idea of how social media can be affected by real-world events.

Saying goodbye to a year of tumult and love in Science A letter from the science editor Sky Kapoor Science Editor

If you had ever told me that I’d be The Varsity’s science editor, I would’ve laughed in your face.

I’ve struggled with my passions for science since coming to U of T, and chose instead to lean into the more creative side of my personality. When I came to The Varsity, it was at a time that I’d lost a lot of my love for science, so I joined as an Arts & Culture writer. I expected to stay within that section for the rest of my time at U of T. I didn’t even reveal what my majors were to the rest of my colleagues at the paper until this year.

Admittedly, I feel a little odd writing a goodbye for a section that I’ve only run for a couple of months — but I hope to do my best, and to convey the intentions that ex-science editor Khatchig Anteblian had for the section as well.

There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with this position, and stepping into it was a remarkable learning experience.

Khatchig’s vision During masthead elections last year, Khatchig mentioned that he hoped to focus on bringing science to a wider audience. Without a doubt, the Science section has covered topics that appeal to all audiences this year.

We’ve published some incredible content and dove deep into a miscellany of topics, as strange as horse domestication and as close to home as

the job prospects that undergraduate students can look forward to.

We’ve tackled the climate crisis, investigated the arcane, and reviewed U of T’s responses to the ongoing, unavoidable pandemic.

With the breadth and depth of topics that the Science section has looked into this year, I truly hope that our dear readers found something that sparked their interest in science. And as for Khatchig’s vision, I think it’s safe to say that it panned out quite nicely, even if he wasn’t there to see it at its end.

A bit about myself For someone who had spent the vast majority of their time at The Varsity in the Arts & Culture section, such an important role in Science was daunting. I came into the role with a science background and a loosely informal journalism background, but with no science journalism background — much like many of the writers for the section.

I’d become used to writing articles that could be likened to oversharing in Arts & Culture, touching soft and personal topics. My majors are in notoriously difficult and often uninviting fields — physics and ecology — and my approach to writing was the complete antithesis.

In my short time as science editor, I’ve

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learned an indescribable amount about science journalism. I’ve solidified the idea that science is everywhere, and is for everyone. I’ve learned how the time I had in Arts & Culture can be translated to Science — how we can tell scientific stories with the same weight and personality as an article in Arts — and about just how eager writers are to communicate these topics.

The future of science What will the science section look like next year? For one thing, I hope that we continue

to explore ways to make science more accessible to everyone. Science is fun, and I truly believe that everyone has a place in science somewhere.

I know firsthand that the nature of science can make it intimidating to enter the field in any sense, and I hope that the section helps to alleviate some of this disconcerting nature. Of course, we’re just a small team in a student newspaper — but any step toward improving the accessibility of science is a good one. Scientific information is vital, and it will continue to be as science continues to develop.

It has truly been a delight to be able to help facilitate this communication. I can’t wait to see what the section does in volume 143.

Sports

April 4, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Athletes of the year: Alex Bishop and Jazz Shukla Shukla and Bishop performed exceptionally this past year

Alex Bishop Alex Bishop is no stranger to headlines. The Rotman student went from studying for a midterm to suiting up as an emergency backup goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Speaking on that experience and how it has impacted him, Bishop wrote in an email to The Varsity: “I've come to appreciate the uniqueness of my

sport and my team is a privilege and a tribute to the greater Varsity Blues program,” Bishop wrote.

Jazz Shukla Jazz Shukla, a fifth-year neuroscience student, has dominated the competition on the track this year. There is no question that her competition was absolutely left in the dust after Shukla laced up her cleats.

Shukla finished the 2022 season having collected two gold medals in the 1000m and 1500m events and a bronze medal in the 4x200m event, and having been named the Wendy Jerome outstanding female performer and the female track MVP. Shukla is used to this level of success; she has been named an OUA all-star three times in the past, as well as an All-Canadian in 2017 for excellence on the track.

Shukla competed last weekend at the 2022

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U Sports Championships and returned with even more success, adding to an already impressive trophy cabinet; she won the silver medal in both the 1000m and 1500m races at the U Sports Championships.

Any track-and-field star would dream of taking home a single medal in a season, but Shukla aims for the

A thank you to U of T women’s water polo Reflections on the post-COVID-19 Varsity season Chloe MacVicar Varsity Contributor

Characterized by COVID-19 regulations, an undefeated season, and an eighth consecutive championship title, this year reflects a stunning juxtaposition to the one prior.

Last year’s season, or lack thereof, included ‘land swimming’ on Back Campus when pools were closed, two-week stints of practice prior to shutdowns, and team socials that were held virtually. Travel trips and tournaments were replaced by games of ping pong and Spikeball — a trivial pursuit of competition at a time when reality wasn’t conducive to contact sports.

The challenge of this year’s post-COVID-19 season was that of a brand-new team. Our team included many new Blues who had never experienced a real season at U of T, let alone a normal practice schedule.

Coming back to Toronto after a summer of futile attempts to stay in shape meant being thrown back into the swing of sports. The pressure of preparing for competition, coupled with the understanding that our biggest obstacle was learning how to work as a group, emphasized that we needed to establish trust to truly excel.

At the beginning of the year, my team and I met to discuss team goals. The objective was simple: win at the National Collegiate Water Polo Championships for the eighth season in a row.

This season attempted to piece together the debris left in the wake of the pandemic, resulting in an amalgamation of elements that once were

This was no ordinary season for Chloe MacVicar.

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considered “normal.” Rather than the normal season — during which we’d play each of the other universities’ women’s water polo teams — we were instead restricted to games against three universities. Parents watched our games through Facebook live streams, since in-person spectators were prohibited.

But through everything, we were reminded to “adapt, adapt, adapt,” focusing on what was com-

stars, and her success surely inspires countless others to perform to the best of their abilities.

The Varsity is proud to name these two brilliant stars our athletes of the year. We wish Alex Bishop and Jazz Shukla nothing but the best in their future endeavours and athletic pursuits.

The Varsity has reached out to Jazz Shukla for comment.

COURTESY OF TIFFANY LUKE/VARSITYBLUES

Becoming a Varsity Blue takes a tremendous amount of effort and dedication, and every single athlete who competes with the T Leaf on their uniform is worth appreciating.

Two athletes this year, however, exemplified the excellence that comes with being a Varsity Blue. The Varsity recognizes Alex Bishop of the Varsity Blues men’s hockey team and Jazz Shukla of the Varsity Blues women’s track and field as its athletes of the year for 2021–2022.

experience and have tried to apply the mindset of simply living in the moment and enjoying what’s in front of me in my everyday life.”

Bishop has also been named the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Far West/West goaltender of the year, as well as an OUA West second-team All Star, after helping the Varsity Blues men’s hockey team reach a massive five-game winning streak to finish the season. With a save percentage of 0.920 and a goals-against-average of 2.54, Bishop was a wall in front of the net.

“Being named OUA goaltender of the year is a true honour and an award I've had my eye on for the past 4 years. Being recognized to that extent is more than just a reflection on my individual play, but a reflection on the team in front of me as a whole,” wrote Bishop.

Off the ice, Bishop is proud of achieving the dean’s list and maintaining a GPA of above 3.5 while balancing extracurriculars and goaltending.

“Being named one of The Varsity’s athletes of the year is another award I don’t take lightly.

There are thousands of incredible athletes at U of T, so being recognized for my contributions to my

Bishop and Shukla will forever be known as great athletes.

Angad Deol Sports Editor

ing next rather than dwelling on the past. Above all, we were a team. Beyond the scope of practices and games, more important than the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, I’ve found within this sport a group of people who have become family.

Our team has had to bounce back from multiple shutdowns, repeatedly pushing through the painstaking task of getting back in shape. With each new set of government regulations came the inevitable email that pools were closed and practices were cancelled, along with the unspoken, solemn understanding that all progress was lost.

Without a team as supportive and driven as mine, I’m not sure if I would have been able to do it. But knowing that my day would end with pre-practice conversations and post-practice fist bumps, surrounded by my teammates, was enough to push me through the most gruelling swim sets and frustrating days.

COVID-19 may have taken away my first-year season, our California trip, and any semblance of normalcy. It may be the cause of many injuries and a loss of endurance. But, in other ways, it created a group determined to make up for lost time — one whose dedication to the sport and commitment to defend a championship title was exactly what was needed to make it happen.

For that, I thank U of T and I thank my team — for the Sundays spent in Robarts after a week of nonstop practice, for the hours spent on transit getting to and from games, for keeping water polo fun, and for reminding me why I do it.

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APRIL 4, 2022 21

On top of the world: Highlighting women in sports A deep dive into some of the world’s most influential women athletes Corina Chahal Varsity Contributor

The sports world has been blessed enough to have gotten the chance to celebrate some great women athletes. However, many go under the radar and don’t get the media coverage that their achievements warrant. Since March marked Women’s History Month, why not take a look at some of the best and most inspirational women athletes?

It’s impossible to talk about the great women athletes without starting with the one and only Serena Williams. Williams, regarded by many as one of the greatest athletes of all time — Tom Brady and Tiger Woods, watch your backs — is an American tennis player. She has won 73 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) titles, including 23 Grand Slam events, and she has been

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able to return from, Hamilton began surfing again only one month after the attack. Not only did she continue surfing, she later went on to win her first national title. Her determination and faith through a deadly injury are one of the paramount examples of incredible women athletes.

Not only can women dominate in the sports they’ve spent their whole careers playing, but women like Sarah Fuller have also branched out into others as well. When Fuller, who’d played as a goalkeeper for Aurora FC in the United Soccer League W-League, found that there were obstacles stopping her from competing in collegiate football, she took things into her own hands — or rather, feet. She became the first woman to play in an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game. Fuller performed the kick-off in the second half for the Vanderbilt Commodores.

While there are many women athletes who have

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ranked as the number one singles player in the world by the WTA for three years, between 2013 and 2015.

In a TED talk with Gale King, Williams emphasized her role as an inspirational figure for many other women. She said, “I’ve been a pro for almost 20 years, and so, for me, it’s really important to hold women up… I want to be able to be a good leader and a good example for them.” Her achievements are a glimpse of her unmatched athleticism, and her fierceness and leadership go far beyond the court as well.

On a completely different side of the sports world, the main character of the iconic movie Soul Surfer — one of the greatest sports comeback stories — is a real living legend! Bethany Hamilton was a 13-year-old rising star surfer until she lost her left arm due to a shark attack. Despite the situation, which it seemed like she would be un-

attained unfathomable athletic achievements and even greater impacts outside their sports, it is important to note the talents of other inspiring women in sports outside of the athletes themselves.

One woman who inspires me is Erin Andrews, a sportscaster with some of the most exclusive interviews in the NFL. There is also Toronto-born Aisha Visram, who, this year, in her work with the LA Kings, became the second woman in NHL history to work behind the bench during a regular season game. Finally, I want to mention Lori Locust, a defensive line coach for the Super Bowl 55-winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who became one of the first women to be a position coach in the NFL. “She believed she could, so she did.” This is a phrase that these women and many other women athletes and women in the sports industry have exemplified time and time again — and their achievements can be an inspiration for all of us.

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Running the Sports section this year has been quite the journey.

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Letter from the sports editor: Sports, we missed you Looking back at a hectic year, and forward to a brighter future Angad Deol Sports Editor

It’s been said a billion times, but I’ll say it once more — COVID-19 changed sports forever.

From players being sidelined because they didn’t get the COVID-19 vaccine to cancellations in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) to capacity restrictions in Ontario for major sports teams’ arenas due to the Omicron variant, 2021 and 2022 were full of twists and turns. As a global health major, I understand why these decisions had to be made — but as a diehard sports fan, part of me is heartbroken that fans have had to miss out on so much action.

OUA sports are a vital part of university life across the province. Regardless of what may

be said about the Varsity Blues, those student athletes wear their hearts on their sleeves and leave everything on the field, court, and track.

The Varsity has been able to interview countless athletes over the past year, and each of them have provided unique insight into the sports they love. We’ve talked to a Blues goalie who suited up for the Toronto Maple Leafs, a legendary quarterback hanging up his cleats, tennis players who went on to win big at the provincial level, and even an Olympian! Without the Varsity Blues, U of T would be miserable, and I hope everyone has a chance to attend a game in the future — without any cancellations.

Covering the contributions of women in athletics has also been a crucial aspect of the section this year. From fighting back against clueless

articles in the Toronto Star to talking to women on the Varsity Blues about their experiences in their sport, it’s been incredible getting such diverse insights into perspectives that are too often ignored in sports media. I also had a chance to sit down with a viral TikToker who’s been able to garner an incredible platform and has been an incredible role model for women on the app. I am truly grateful for all of you who agreed to share your voice with us at The Varsity.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank my wonderful associates who assisted me on this journey. To Mekhi Quarshie and Audrey Miatello, thank you for keeping me sane, and for making the office a much more athletic space. You’ve both published incredible work, and I pray you both continue writing for The Varsity. You both have bright futures.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t thank my peers on the masthead of this volume for always holding me down at my most stressful moments and being there for me whenever I needed help. You will always have a special place in my heart.

Running the Sports section this year has been quite the journey. I’ve had the honour of publishing some incredible articles from all aspects of the sporting world.

At the beginning of Volume 142 of The Varsity, I promised myself that I would do my best to ensure that the voices of the athletes on the field and the fans in the bleachers would be recognized. Truly, I would never have realized this dream without all those who contributed this year. To all of you: I owe you everything. Thank you.

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Repeated delays of Student Commons were due to presence of slumbering Lovecraftian deity, investigation finds Cult members say they made every attempt to prevent release of chthonic god Literal Geezer If you say Bugs Bunny you only date toxic men

A months-long investigation from The Farcity has discovered that the slumbering Lovecraftian deity Ba-Ymiroth, also known as the Holy Darkness Of The Deepest Stars, was the true cause of the repeated delays to the opening of the Student Commons.

A cult of Ba-Ymiroth worshippers known as the Brotherhood of Secrets have been bribing construction companies for years to delay progress on the building. The head of the cult is a New England man named Trevor, who also goes by the alias Nnung’thar, which, in the ancient, bloodsoaked tongue of the Ba-Ymirothians, means ‘Trevor.’

“Yhari ghetheli wakvatu h’chtcha ma-wishywashy fhtan xanado,” said Trevor in an interview with The Farcity. A researcher at the university’s Centre for Medieval Studies was able to translate this as, “If we allowed the Commons to be built on Their Holiness’ sacred resting place, they would rise from their slumber and devour all you wishy-washy people. So, yeah, we stopped them for a while. We were trying to do you all a favour, actually.”

Risking life and limb for truth Undeterred by this warning, a team of reporters from The Farcity ventured into the dank hidden tunnels beneath the Commons, looking for proof of Ba-Ymiroth’s existence.

“You cannot venture into the god’s chambers without being touched by them,” said junior cult-acolyte Murderous Andy. “The first time I went down there, I lost my mind.”

The Farcity did manage to verify reports of the sleeping nightmare under the Commons.

Initially, all they found were mounds of reddish

skulls and a large colony of rats. But when a rat began to speak to reporters and revealed that they were actually the last scion of an ancient Canadian rodent empire predating humanity, it was clear that things were getting too weird and the team left the area.

“You can’t see it during the day,” Andy whispered. “We go at night during a full moon. You have to offer up blood to the god, and then their dark portal opens.”

“But they’ll probably come for you,” he added.

Deep institutional roots Historical documents buried for centuries under King’s College Circle reveal that Ba-Ymiroth’s worshippers have had a long connection with the university. As early as the university’s founding, academics self-reported making sacrifices of blood and offal for the promise of tenure.

By cross-referencing a list of the Brotherhood’s membership directory with the university’s alumni database, The Farcity was able to find connections between numerous notable alumni and the cult, including Margaret Atwood.

“Oh man, Atwood was wild,” said Trevor. “You know she had to give up 30 years of service to the god for the inspiration to write The Handmaid’s Tale? That’s real dedication, man.”

Atwood could not be reached for comment.

No other current or ex-members of the cult would speak to our team. A spokesperson from the university wrote, “The university has no knowledge or affiliation with Their Holiness Ba-Ymriroth, whose glorious darkness preserves us all, amen.”

The spokesperson later added, “You guys didn’t go down there, did you? Like, tell me you didn’t go down there without permission.”

All smoke and mirrors?

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE. WE DARE NOT WRITE ITS NAME/THEFARCITY

In contrast to the dire warnings from the flocks of weeping oracles clustered outside the building, many students who work in the unfinished Commons building say the god’s presence hasn’t made much of a difference to them.

“It’s all just hype,” said Believable Human Name.

“The auditory hallucinations are no worse than white noise. And if you squint, the DIE DIE DIE written on the walls kinda looks like wallpaper.”

Who knows whether Ba-Ymiroth exists? If they do, The Farcity was not able to find them.

All I know is that I’ve been having some really strange dreams lately of an alien world painted in impossible colours, and this massive, omniscient presence that stared into my mind and

spoke arcane truths. And I’ve been having a strange urge to buy a very large axe.

Sometimes I wake at night in a cold sweat and stare out my window at the gibbous moon, and I swear to you it turns red for a second.

Then I blink my eyes and it’s normal. The rustling wind sounds like a voice saying, “Soon, my child. Soon.” I can’t sleep for the rest of the night.

I got an email from myself the other day telling me that I needed to flee, but I don’t remember sending it. Flee what? I don’t understand what’s happening to me.

I want answers: I’m going to go back to the Commons. Wish me luck.

In the Spotlight: Farts & Sciences pranksters unveiled “It’s just jokes, man” Frat boy Discoverer/Inventor of viral articles

hahahahaha it says farts xD

After the victorious vandalization of the Faculty of Arts & Science into the Faculty of Farts & Science, the perpetrators went home, tucked away their ladder, and hung up their sweatshirts. As Seth and Joiaye* (pronounced like Joey) lay in their twin XL bunk beds, they could never guess how their peers would respond to their little joke. (The Farcity could not verify who got the top bunk.)

Seth and Joiaye agreed to meet The Farcity in a clandestine location to be interviewed about their prank that rattled the campus of U.S. News & World Report’s top 16th university.

Behind a mannequin in the boys’ section of abercrombie kids, Joiaye pulled out a Donkey Kong inspired bong.

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Student who put off problem set until tomorrow shocked that it’s now tomorrow “FUCK,” he said.

“Do you mind?” he said. When The Farcity said yes, he scoffed and smashed it on the ground. “Fine. Have it your way.”

After being escorted out of abercrombie kids, The Farcity asked Seth how he feels about the attention that their prank has received.

“You should see how many people looked at my Instagram story about it,” he said. When questioned if he had admitted publicly to the prank, Seth replied, “Of course. Do you know how hard it is to get laid as a Renaissance Studies major?”

He left the interview early to “manifest his destiny” with an American Studies student.

When asked for their motivations behind the prank, Joiaye shrugged. “It’s just jokes, man,” he said. “It’s not that deep.” And with that, he kickflipped out of sight.

😴🥱😮 *Names have been changed for confidentiality.

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Special thanks to: Badly written YA character Science editor in memoriam

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$$ ishirw@thefarcity.ca capitalism henchman #2

$$$ mansip@thefarcity.ca capitalism henchman #3 The Farcity is a love letter to writing and editing and creating pretty things, or maybe it’s a hate letter at this point, because it’s 5am and all my emotions are mixed up and oozing out of my ears. The Farcity is a really elaborate mech suit for a particularly loud and gluttonous cat.

The Farcity is printed exclusively on paper from trees that we went out and hand-slaughtered ourselves — and they were really old, too. The Farcity is celebrating its anniversary as an out and proud communist propaganda machine, and you’re allowed to come to the party if you bring cake. The Farcity is my social experiment where I see how long people will let me edit their cool articles before they notice that I can’t spell. The Farcity is just a silly little newspaper that I put together with a couple dozen of my besties. The Farcity is OVER — for now, at least, but we’ll miss you guys, and we’ll be back before you know it :]

GET US GET US OUT GET US OUT

Farcity Management Do we have to write it? It’s demeaning :(

We are the rest of The Farcity’s management team, or as Editor-in-Chief Cannah Harty likes to call us, her “little bitches.”

Harty is not the benign saint she pretends to be. She rules our office with an iron fist, often planted in our guts when we displease her. Every night, once everyone else has left the office, we are forced by this freakishly tall editor-in-chief to clean the floors with our bare hands, like sad Victorian children in a Dickens tale.

“But please, Cannah,” we plead. “We haven’t seen sunlight in days. Our families are asking after us.”

And then Cannah sprays us with a tiny squirt bottle meant for dogs.

We need you to rescue us. Call your MP, your mother, your father, your podiatrist, the PM — whoever has the power to stop this dictator.

Pay her off, organize a raid, do whatever you need to do to save us.

Time is of the essence — every moment that we spend in this office means another part of our self-respect that we’ll never see again. The end of the volume is looming over our heads, and she’s been taking it out on all of us. Lately, she’s had

help she won’t let me go home until i write a photocap

HA! YOU EXPECT TO GET CREDIT FOR YOUR WORK?/THEFARCITY

this sadistic spark in her eye, like a two-year-old who knows someone’s about to take away her toys. If you don’t act now, it’s unclear how much

of our sanity will be left to rescue.

Oh, god. Please hurry — I think she’s about to start singing again.

U of T replaces UCheck with mental health test New survey will check if you’re Ready To Face The True Blue Day

photos@thefarcity.ca

Child 1 Andrea in the Office (derogatory)

Copy loyalist, Nawa Jr, Nobody knows I’m a theatre kid, copy editing class recruit tysm and get some rest <3

FAKEnews@thefarcity.ca

The Little Van That Could Deforestation Ender

Starting May 1, the University of Toronto will replace the COVID UCheck system with CheckURself, a daily survey for students to complete with questions aimed about their personal mental health.

A spokesperson with the university said that the survey results will conclude with either a yellow or black screen. Similar to UCheck’s green screen, the CheckURself’s yellow screen is just

a giant smiley face to demonstrate students’ happiness and excitement for another lovely day at U of T! Receiving a black screen will automatically reject students from entering a building to be quarantined.

Questions will include the following: have you showered in the past 24 hours? Do you have trouble concentrating in class? Do you have a low mood/interest in doing things you once enjoyed?

“Just like COVID, negativity is contagious.

We don’t want students with negative mental health spreading it around campus,” the university spokesperson said.

The Farcity spoke to students around campus about the new CheckURself app. “I don’t think they’ll have enough quarantine spaces for everyone,” one student said.

Another student confirmed that if you have both headphones in and don’t make eye contact, CheckURself volunteers will not care.

This story is developing. More to follow.

Mental moment: crying in Robarts Please help me :( (cringe) Office weeb Editor of the figure skating section

Exam season is here, and you know what that means. Soon, you’ll find yourself trapped in the stacks, taking in the scents of room temperature sStarbucks coffee, and burnt — but somehow still cold — Tim Hortons bagels. You can’t forget the lovely noises of people talking way too loud for the supposedly quiet area of the library, of course, or the one guy who thinks exam season means playing computer games at max volume in the middle of the day.

It’s times like these where you need to let out a good cry.

Doing so is quite easy! Just remember that you still have three 3 weeks of lectures to catch up on in two 2 different courses, as well as a term paper due, before you can even begin studying for your final exams.

If you wanna jazz things up, try crying on a different floor! I prefer the acoustics of floor 12, but honestly, floor 10 is super underrated.

Lastly, remember to keep an eye on the time.

Don’t forget, your roommate left all the dishes in the sink for you to clean when you get home!

Good luck! You’re gonna need it.

THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR DID NOT APPROVE THIS PIECE OF ART

thevarsity.ca/section/misinformation

THE END OF DAYS

3

Volume MCDXX’s masthead as NBA None of them are actually good at basketball though (cringe) Office weeb & Angad Jr Last bastions of sports appreciation

If you think about it, The Farcity is kind of like the NBA; both involve a variety of different players who are (mostly) really good at what they do and who work toward a common goal. It’s their quirks that set everyone apart, though — and maybe looking to the NBA can help demystify who we all are. (We may never have the same following as these stars, but we can dream, right?)

Tahmeed is Lebron James, in that they are both old and still putting up numbers — oh, and did I mention he’s old? Nawa is definitely Jimmy Butler: first one in, last one out, and both are synonymous with coffee. Caroline is Josh Giddey, because they’re both on TikTok 24/7. William is Kawhi Leonard because I have heard him say maybe five words all year. Jadine would be Giannis Antetokoumnpo; just like Milwaukee, her hometown of Vancouver will never be better than Toronto in anything. Sky’s a lot like Bradley Beal — the Wizards also have zero other contributors. Sarah Folk is like Nikola Jokic because you literally never hear from her but her section is always running fine. Andrea’s like Ja Morant because they’re both always doing insane things that make your ligaments recoil in pain. With her amazing fits, Makena is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Marta is Kevin Durant because they’re online too much for their own good. Stephanie is Kyrie Irving because occasionally she’ll say something crazy and then everyone forgets about it — must

be the New Jersey influence. Alexa’s like Fred VanVleet, because when you see her in person, she’s a lot shorter than you would think. Maya is Joel Embiid because they love to troll their pitch lists by using clickbait. Artie is the Chris Paul of the office because they know every single technicality that goes into their job. Angad is Ben Simmons because they both fold under pressure, whether it’s from the last few seconds in a decisive playoff game or a Sunday morning copy editing issue. Hannah is definitely Draymond Green; when they both walk in, things get serious. Aditi is the Steven Adams of the office — scary. Lauren is Jayson Tatum because they both won't stop talking about Boston.

But none of this really matters, of course, because no one on the masthead can actually play

ball.

These pictures are making me feel a new kind of existential horror.

DO YOU REALLY WANT YOUR NAME ON THIS?/THEFARCITY

Op-ed: Why white victimhood must not DIE — see what I did?

UTSU changes nomination requirements to “if you ask nicely”

And no, I don’t sound like Kermit the Frog

Union offers $25 Applebee’s gift card for presidential nominees

Pordan Jeterson Farcity Jesus-on-the-Cross

I’ll admit, when I first became a clinical psychologist, I never thought that I’d be someone your dad would have to lie about liking. However, if this is to be my legacy, I shall don it like a suit of armor against the oppression of straight white men everywhere.

The rainbow alphabet mafia are out to exterminate our kind, and U of T is churning out these unqualified, impressionable socialists like no tomorrow. With this impassioned plea, I am vowing to return my white cisgender heterosexual male graduate students to their rightful positions at the top of the academic foodchain.

(Of course, I know that these graduate students are indeed white, cisgender, heterosexual, and men because I have eyes. And you know what?

Even if they aren’t, they are, because I said so.)

With each day that passes, another poor rich trust fund kid gets denied the chance of achieving his dream of going to Harvard, just because people insist on equity, diversity, and inclusion, or — give me a second — EDI? IDE? DEI? EID

— oh, wait, I got a good one — DIE initiatives that are leading to the deaths of white children’s dreams. (Aren’t I clever?)

Imagine: talented writers like me with brilliant alias-making skills cast aside into insufferable upper-middle class desk jobs because we’re white.

So much for being judged by the content of our characters, you woke, liberal, cost/co, demiboy snowflakes.

During my time at U of T, I experienced so much pressure to “respect” people. If a woman brought up a concern with me during class, I couldn’t call her crazy. I had to strive for “inclusivity.” (Miss me with that bullshit.) I constantly had to learn people’s pronouns before actively choosing to ignore them, which took so much brain power that I could have been using to write my next bestseller. How dare these students prioritize their “mental health” and “well-being” over my convenience and comfort?

We must end the reign of terror the world is raining down upon my brethren. This reverse racism must cease. I am proud of who I am, and I will not apologize for it — I am an extremely qualified and superiorly trained heterosexual white male, and I demand to be treated as such.

The Real Lin Manuel Miranda Look, kids, I’m back in your life!

Following disastrously low participation in this year’s elections, the University of Toronto Students’ Union is taking new measures to encourage students to run for office. These measures include changes the nomination requirement for executive positions to “if you ask nicely.”

If a prospective candidates doesn’t ask nicely enough — which must include remembering their p’s and q’s — the union will also accept a pinky promise that people actually want them to run.

The union is also offering a $25 Applebee’s gift card as a final initiative for students wishing

Six tips to flirt with your TA for a higher grade ;) He’ll never see this coming!

Literal Geezer If you say Bugs Bunny you only date toxic men

Tip one: Bring your TA cupcakes to show them that they’re on your mind!

Tip two: Make sure you know their allergies. Or bring your Epipen with you.

Tip three: After you realize you left your Epipen at home, Google “how to hide a body” in a blind panic.

Tip four: Have a breakdown, cry on the phone to your Image discourtesy of Pordan Jeterson.

COURTESY OF UMBRELLA SHOT/CC FLICKR

to run for president. “Are there any Applebee’s in Toronto…” mused a current vice-president.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Maybe Google maps it?”

The initiative was actually so successful that several hundred students then submitted nomination forms to run for president, in hopes of clinching the $25 gift card.

One such student, Peep McDonall, said that he decided to run for UTSU president because he wanted the Boneless Chicken Bites ($14.99).

For his drink, McDonall went with a spicy margarita ($8). “With tax and tip and stuff — I always tip 25 per cent — it did end up slightly above the $25. Luckily, I sprinkled glass in my food and got the meal comped.”

mother, and rock yourself in the corner singing lullabies. Then snap out of it, because you’re fucked, absolutely fucked, and you have to figure out a plan or you’re going to jail for murder.

Tip five: Bribe your friend in the archaeology program for a shovel. Bury the body. Don’t tell anyone where.

This is a secret you’ll take to your grave.

Tip six: Return the shovel. Notice the attractive young archaeologist from Germany hanging around in your friend’s office. Actually, he’s really, really attractive — look at those soft brown curls. And he looks so good in that tweed jacket. Maybe he likes cupcakes?