BEFORE YOU SIT DOWN ON CAMPUS, CHECK IF SOMEONE’S HAD SEX THERE p9
UBCO’s Student Newspaper
October 20th, 2013 | Vol. 25 Issue 5
is this their last stand? THREE EXECS ARE UP FOR IMPEACHMENT
UBCO’S MASTER PLAN p5
Spooktacular since 1989
p10-16
NEWS
FEATURES
The new UBCO campus plan p5 Ambassadors, shhh, don’t say “party”p4
We break down the motions to impeach UBCSUO execs p10-16
LIFE
ARTS
This week we put a Halloween twist on the impeachment feature story by basing our front page on the Sean Phillips cover of The Walking Dead #100. The cover image was drawn by Asher Klassen and colourized by Darcie Rudyk and Cam Welch.
Underwear run a smash hit p6 Careful, someone may have had sex on that p7
UBCO performance student teams up with KLO students to restore nature p23
Corrections
OPINIONS
SPORTS
Is Monstanto...good? p17 Witnessing the Truth and Reconciliation Committee p19
Did the Men’s soccer team make the playoffs? p24
ABOUT THE COVER
Last issue the text was missing on the right half of our Kelowna map due to a file error. Check out the full map online.
Editor-in-chief
David Nixon eic@thephoenixnews.com
Room 109 University Center 3333 University Way Kelowna, BC Canada V1Y 5N3 Phone: 250-807-9296 Fax: 250-807-8431 thephoenixnews.com Cover illustration by Asher Klassen Feature illustrations by Asher Klassen
Managing Editor & Ad Sales
Alex Eastman managingeditor@thephoenixnews.com
Creative Director
Cameron Welch creative@thephoenixnews.com
Interim Art Directors
Cameron Welch Darcie Rudyk artdirector@thephoenixnews.com
Photo Editor
Kelsi Barkved photo@thephoenixnews.com
Interim News Editor
David Nixon news@thephoenixnews.com
Arts Editor
Laura Sciarpelletti arts@thephoenixnews.com
Interim Sports Editor
Alex Eastman sports@thephoenixnews.com
Opinions Editor
Matt Lauzon opinions@thephoenixnews.com
Life Editor
Maranda Wilson life@thephoenixnews.com
Events Editor
Hanss Lujan events@thephoenixnews.com
Staff Illustrator Asher Klassen
The Phoenix is the UBCO students’ free press.
Columnists
of British Columbia Students’ Union Okanagan
Editorial content is separate from the University
Katie Jones & Sean Willett & The Naughty Librarian
(UBCSUO) and from the UBC institution at large.
Copy Editors
submit material to the Phoenix but reserves the
Katie Norman & Lauren Wintle
Staff Photographer
Ali Young & Jahmira Lovemore [lastname]@thephoenixnews.com
Staff Writers
The editorial staff encourages everyone to
right to withdraw submissions from publication for any reason. “Any reason” could be material deemed to be sexist, racist, homophobic, or of poor taste or quality. The Phoenix will not publish materials which condone, promote, or express actions which are illegal under current
Torin McLachlan & Sasha Curry & Emma Partridge & Steph Wise [lastname]@thephoenixnews.com
laws. This does not include articles which pro-
Contributors
The Phoenix is published, in part, by the
Andrew Bates & Katriona Blair & Liza Anderson & Travis Barr & Connor Cruikshank, Jeff Bulmer, Ozamataz Buckshank
vide an in-depth examination of both sides of a controversial subject (e.g. legalising marijuana).
UBCSUO and is an active member of the Canadian University Press
NEWS
Psych student cleans trail for a healthier campus on p4
Where did this year’s class come from? Stats on p4
124
Rest of BC
Okanagan
Vancouver Island
32
407
483
Lower Mainland
Are student ambassadors being told not to talk about parties? Emma Partridge Staff Writer
briefs
The South East Asian Club has followed in the Photo Club’s footsteps and chosen to leave the UBCSUO. “Since last year, I’ve been playing hide and go seek with the Services Coordinator. My emails were never responded to,” said Lynette Oon, President of the South East Asian Club. She described in-depth her attempts to reach out in person and by facebook, both of which ended up with being re-directed to email. The SEA is the second club to officially decide to leave the UBCSUO.
You say party! We... are discouraged from responding Student ambassadors walk a fine line between answering questions honestly and still presenting the image that the university wants promoted. “We do give a tour of a residence room, and so when we were in there, somebody asked, how are parties?” said one student ambassador, who asked to remain anonymous. The response from that ambassador was that “the Resident Advisors control parties on campus to a certain degree [but] we’re very academic focused.” The ambassador thought that this was and should be an appropriate answer. But their supervisor did not agree. According to the anonymous source, the ambassador was later reprimanded simply for acknowledging that parties happen on campus. Then
their boss recommended that these types of questions be avoided or re-directed. Ambassadors are UBCO students who work for the recruitment office to lead campus tours with prospective students. Naturally, questions about campus life and parties will come up. “If they touch on that question, if they answer it, they’re going to give an honest answer,” said Tori Palychuk, who supervises the student ambassadors. And yet our source was told by the same individual, “If that question comes about … swing the question and talk about the UBC experience on the whole.” Ambassadors are being encouraged, behind the scenes, to avoid addressing the topic of parties. UBCO is under the weight of
WAIT!
Did someone say
PARTY?
the image of its academically rigorous counterpart, UBC Vancouver, which may influence our recruiters. “I know there [are] concerns about it [UBCO] becoming a party school…but it’s really not our brand,” said a past ambassador who previously led tours, and feels that avoiding topics about UBCO’s social scene is counter productive. This past employee even describes some parents who accompanied their children on tours as hoping to hear that their children would be exposed to new social avenues. This ambassador also asked to remain anonymous. UBCO has also been very quick to crack down on any parties on campus over the years to try and avoid its young reputation developing in a non-academic way.
Our next installment of The Phoenix (November 4th) will be The Party Issue. We’re going to examine the party culture at UBCO and in Kelowna, how it has changed over the years, and what factors have shaped it. Part of that will be looking at how UBCO has cracked down on parties.
It seems to have worked, since police, security, and facilities all report this year as being the tamest of all, despite higher numbers and larger Frosh events. Systemic issues may create pressures, but the past ambassador we spoke to did not face the type of explicit limit under different superiors that this year’s ambassador was admonished over. “The rhetoric was to state that yes, acknowledge that it happens, but that UBCO is an academic school and that students are here for academic purposes.” “Its not going to make or break [prospective students] coming here,” said the former ambassador, “if we make a statement of ‘we’re working on it’ or give some sort of explanation, people really appreciate that honesty.”
This year’s frosh events caused “some of the least amount of damage we’ve had. Considering that we’ve had such an increase in population, we were all expecting way more than we found,” said Alan King with UBCO Facilities.
UBCO biologists Bob Lalonde and Ian Walker recently published a “Bird of the UBC Okanagan Pond” calendar featuring 48 different species. All species were photographed at the pond behind EME. “We’re doing it to raise funds for our fourth-year undergraduate students who were involved in research projects,” Lalonde said in a press release. They also discovered two at-risk breeding populations (almost endangered species: Western painted turtles, and great basin spade-foot toads) elsewhere on campus. Calendars are on sale at the campus bookstore. Bottom: Lalonde, left, Walker, and Walker’s daughter Emma
RCMP and security reported unexpectedly tame parties as well, compared to previous years. Our question is: why? If you have opinions or tips on the subject, email us at news@thephoenixnews.com or opinions@thephoenixnews.com.
4
October 21st, 2013
Where UBCO’s 2013/2014 class came from
ON THE WEB thephoenixnews.com
This year there were 2,267 students coming to UBC Okanagan for the first time. 21% were from the Okanagan itself. But that leaves 79% of students being from outside the immediate area and unfamiliar with Kelowna. Another 44% are from elsewhere in BC. After that only 22% come from anywhere else in Canada (over half of those are from Alberta or Ontario). Finally, 13% are international.
Breakdown of students from the rest of Canada
Food Services is about to change at UBCO. Mark Murdoch is a Senior Associate with Food Systems Consulting Inc. He was hired in June, 2013 as a consultant for UBCO’s food services. His job is to consult with all stakeholders to ensure that a new food services contract will meet the needs of today’s campus. Aramark’s contract is up in June 2014, and the university must give notice by March 1 as to whether Aramark will stay or go.
Other: 13 Quebec: 4 Yukon: 6 Manitoba: 12 Saskatchewan: 19
124
Ontario: 89
Rest of BC
Weekly campus snapshots will now be online in the news section. They will typically include three brief but important news stories relevant to campus. Check out our first campus snapshots article, which covered a fine arts student who used bunnies and tea for a sculpture class, the new UBC alerts messaging system, and the first club to formally leave the UBCSUO due to frustrations with the new club policy.
Alberta: 208
Okanagan
Vancouver Island
32
407
483
1046 Total Students from B.C.
Lower Mainland
1966 Students from Canada Graphics by Darcie Rudyk
Top: Photo from Flickr/stevendepolo; Bottom: Illustration by Laura Reyerse
284
Students from outside Canada
Numbers are from the office of the AVP of students
Trailblazing
Photo by David Nixon
Campus trails are receiving significant focus. Stevie Wright (left) organized a trail clean-up day in the morning of Thursday October 17. It was an initiative by the Health and Wellness center with the Earth & Environmental Science Course Union (EESC) as a part of the VOICE research project. VOICE has been ongoing since 2007. Last year, they surveyed over 3,000 students to find topics the people of UBCO thought were important. From that, they narrowed it down to the highest volume topic areas and then developed action groups. One such group was created for trails on campus.
The new Juniper trail is especially important in light of the Academy Hill development near Aberdeen Hall, which includes student housing and may soon boast a grocery store, pub and take-out restaurant. “People who illegally park up there are already using this trail quite a bit,” admitted Wright. Juniper is right behind the gym, and thanks to Wright and some members of the EESC who showed up later, is now clearly marked and much cleaner. But it’s not just VOICE that’s looking at trails on campus. “There’s a lot of different research going on with the trails,” said Wright, “some biologists are looking at
them...I’m doing a research project on the old pond trail and how outdoor spaces affect mental health.” She also noted endangered species live along the trails. True to her research, Wright seemed positive and unstressed about the low turnout. She pointed out that it’s midterm season, and students have to prioritize that first. The next step for the action committee is to work on getting outdoor exercise “pods” set up using fallen trees so students can do pull ups and other body weight exercises for free in the fresh air.
October 21st, 2013
5
EVENTS Oct 18 UBCSUO Board Meeting 5:30pm / UNC105
Switched from Thursdays to Mondays. Especially important to learn some of the details with an impeachment motion upcoming.
Students discussing the future of UBCO’s campus at the first master plan consultation in the ADM building foyer
Oct 24 Photo by David Nixon
UBCO not sure what to do with its life Andrew Bates
Contributor
$100m
Goal set for UBC Okanagan’s share of the Start an Evolution Campaign.
$1b
Goal set for the UBC Vancouver campus
$69m
Amount raised so far towards that goal.
$10m
Extra goal set for raising money per year for the next five years for student support initiatives ($50M in total)
1/3
of total cost for a library expansion our students’ union wants to pledge to help get it started. This would have to go through a referendum. Administration has delayed this process, however, as a price estimate has not been made.
UBCO is looking for money and a plan to guide it in spending money. The university held the first consultation on updating its master plan, which lays out building and design priorities, in October, with an in-person session October 9. Its current master plan first came into effect in 2009. “We’ve stuck pretty close to the original plan,” said Bud Mortenson, director of university relations for UBC Okanagan. “The process going ahead, now that we’ve built the campus to this point, is that we have a plan that looks further into the future.” Curtis Tse, the Okanagan student rep to the board of governors, says the campus has hit a pivotal point after hitting its provincial target of 6,616 Full-Time Equivalent students in 2012. “So what’s next? We’ve done all our building projects, we’ve capped out our students, what are the next steps?” he said. “The update to the master plan is going to be what our next steps are going to be.” Campus and Community Planning (C+CP)’s presentation at the meeting named issues such as how to accommodate future growth for facilities, transportation and how to improve outdoor open spaces and walking routes. There still remains no plan for using the West Campus Lands, a 259acre chunk of farmland next to the main campus bought in 2010. Currently, the lands are leased to a private farm operation. The university currently does not plan to use it to expand the Vancouver-based Faculty of Land and Food Systems, which manages the UBC Farm, but imagines it might be used for biological and environmental science fieldwork. “That’s one of the big questions that we’re hoping people will think about, is how to be using that space in the future, very long term,” Mortenson said. The land is currently in the Agri-
cultural Land Reserve and because UBC only got the land after the City of Kelowna was unable to take it out of the reserve, he says it is unlikely they will fare better. “They would have to approve anything proposed to be done ... the chances of having some kind of high-density development on it is kind of slim.” Transportation upgrades include looking into parking. Currently, there are 2,700 stalls on campus, resulting in approximately one stall per four students. Two parkades were planned in the 2009 Master Plan and not built. The university is also working with the city to connect road access to Glenmore, a process that might take two and a half years as the city budgets more money to buy
“we’re not going to get money for these things through the operating budget...what are we going to do?” -Curtis tse, bog rep connecting properties. Jan Cioe, a faculty representative on the UBC Okanagan Senate, is displeased with the efforts to increase parking from an environmental standpoint. “This is the standard thing: if you make better arrangement for cars, more cars come,” he said. “We should be offering alternatives to people ... When they talk about having another access point for people what they’re actually saying is that we need another access point and exit point for cars, not people.” C+CP says the current bus loop is almost at capacity, and issues to be considered are how to handle an increase in students and buses alike. Tse says parking is a huge issue for
students on campus. “I think it’s the right idea, however more bus area on campus doesn’t mean we’re getting more buses,” Tse said, noting that the problem is both infrastructure and BC Transit’s funding of buses. “The bus loop goes through a major traffic zone. That loop can’t handle more buses as it is.” All of the planning, however, can’t address a bigger issue: a lack of money for new capital expansion. With the provincial government looking to cut university budgets, the only source of new money is donors. Currently projects like the expansion of the library have been put on hold for lack of funds. “The Start an Evolution campaign is critical for us to be able to do the things we know need to be done for which funding currently doesn’t exist,” Mortenson said. “When we talk (at BoG meetings) about the library, I’ve been told that there is no plan,” Tse said. “We’re not going to get money to fund these things through the operating budget ... What are we going to do? We’re going to wait for donors and keep fundraising. “The province put a university here in Kelowna, I don’t think they’ve adequately funded the growth yet.” The process of updating the master plan will continue with options being presented in winter of this year, with two phases of consultation before going to the board of governors in the fall. It will take place alongside an overhaul of the institution’s academic plan, an important plank in determining how the campus will define itself as it vies for international students and the extra money they provide. “Are we doing this to promote ourselves or are we doing something also for people?” said Cioe. Tse said the board has said it doesn’t want the campus to become another UBC Vancouver. “We’re not that. We need to define that,” he said.
UBCO Local Food Kitchen 11:30am-1:30pm / Courtyard
The UBCO Environment and Sustainability Society is putting together a local, vegan, sustainable meal on campus. FOR FREE!!!!!!111!!! It’s BYOB (bring your own bowl ...& utensil).
Oct 26 Alterknowledge Discussion Series: Symposium on Misrepresentations of Indigenous Peoples 11am / Alternator centre for contemporary art
Includes presentations on misrepresentations of indigeneous women, indigenous peoples through literature and contemporary film/television.
Oct 29 UBCO Mini-Med Health Education Lectures
7-9:00 pm / UBC Clinical Academic Campus at Kelowna General Hospital Offers a unique opportunity to learn about current medical issues and how the latest research can teach us more about our own health. $49 entry, Students $25.
LIFE
A WHOLESOME HUNGER Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
UPCOMING Oct 23 Well Wednesday: Pong Tournament 8pm / The Well
32 Pong Teams go head to head, winner moves ahead, loser is eliminated, Champion wins cash prize. Register in advance in the UNC or at the event for $2 per contestant.
Oct 25 Toga Party
doors at 8:30pm The Well &UNC Ballroom Theta Phi Sorority and UBCO Greek Life present: Toga Party Fundraiser at UBC-O’s Well Student Pub (19+) and all ages toga party in the UNC Ballroom. Featuring Wildson, Theta Phi proceeds go to the Women’s Shelter & The Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Words and pictures by Katie Jones Columnist These are great cookies to take on a hike, eat between classes, or bake on a Friday night with a friend. They aren’t too sweet but will completely satisfy a salty, chocolatey craving.
Oct 30 Downtown Kelowna After 5 5-7pm / Delta Grand
Mingle and network with local business owners and entrepreneurs.$8 covers your enrance, two drink tickets and appetizers. *Cash only* Don’t forget your business cards!
The Undie Run
UBCO’s second annual Undie Run took place on Friday October 18th, beginning oin the courtyard. The Run collected donations and sold special udnerwear (pictured below), with all proceeds benefitting the Canadian Cancer Society.
Oct 31 Haunted House: School of the Dead
How to make them
7-10pm / EME Building
On campus for halloween? Check out this Haunted House hosted by the Asian Student Association. $3 for advanced tickets, $5 at the door
Nov 1-2 Fabulous Finds
4-9pm November 1st 10-4pm November 2nd / Summerhill Pyramid Winery The Okangan’s finest artists and artisans offering one-of-a-kind handmade and vintage gifts.
2 cups spelt flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp sea salt 1 cup natural organic peanut butter 3 TBSP ground flax and 3 TBSP water (flax egg, combine and set aside for 3 min until a gel forms) 1/2 cup organic brown sugar 1/3 cup olive oil or other oil 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup Enjoy Life non-dairy jumbo chocolate chips 1/4 cup Almond or any nondairy milk
All pictures by Ali Young
Set the oven to 350F. Mix 2 cups of the spelt flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine peanut butter, flax egg, brown sugar, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the flour mixture and fold them together until combined, try not to overwork the dough. Add in the chocolate chips. If the dough is too dry, add a bit more almond milk. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes, don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let them cool for few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. Makes about 2 dozen.
September 9th, 2013
CAMPUS UNIVERSITY Getting it on on campus An anonymous confession about having the sex all around UBCO
MISSION COMPLETED
WORKING ON IT MISSION COMPLETED
WORKING ON IT NOT ADVISED
MISSION COMPLETED by H.M
Lady in the street / freak in the Arts building, parking lot, soccer field, etc
I love sex. I have a lot of sex. That table you study on? I’ve had sex there. That chair in the library? That too. You think you’re safe in that stairwell? Nope. My current boyfriend and I started innocently enough, with night walks around campus and the occasional make out session in the abandoned corners of the academic buildings. Soon though, our romantic walks grew less innocent, with wandering hands and eventually full-blown sex sessions. We started in a library study room one night (the one on the end of course, where there would be less chance of the random late-night studier walking by) and quickly progressed from sweet romantic kisses in the corner to pants thrown on the floor. Eventually, we
were startled by a security guard obliviously strolling by so we quickly clothed ourselves and slipped out of the building. Since then, we were hooked. Soon, we were finding ourselves walking around campus, brainstorming ideas for new places we could conquer. EME study room? Not in the fishbowl rooms where we would be on display. Empty lecture theaters? Good, but harder to get into. R lot? Maybe. Some other favorites include the fire escape stairwells, the study rooms in the library, and empty classrooms in the Arts building (there are always some unlocked rooms). However, my personal favourite location on campus for late night public sex is the soccer field. With no lights on, the lack of wandering security, and it being
MISSION COMPLETED relatively far away from any building, it’s the perfect place to get it in. I’d recommend bringing a blanket or towel though, as the turf can get a bit damp at night. Whether you love the exhilarating exhibitionism of doing it on the field like me, or prefer the simple rush of doing it on the kitchen counter when your roommates are sleeping, there’s no doubt about it: public sex is fun.
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8
September 9th, 2013
CAMPUS BETWEEN THE LINES AND BETWEEN THE SHEETS
What are you doing for Halloween?
with The Naughty Librarian
Open relationships need the right partner A follow-up to last issue’s letter When Miss Issues, a kinky, early 20s bisexual female with a newly ex-boyfriend, sent in her letter my Naughty reply focused on the challenges of shifting the boundaries of their old relationship to something newer and more open. The keys to success were spelled boundaries, communication and respect. But my brilliant Assistant Librarian told me that I missed a vital point: it sounds like Issues’ ex is kind of a jackass! Darling Issues, You most specifically address your ex’s “inability to take ownership for the things he did and said” and your unhappiness on the conditions he has placed on the current relationship is clear. You broke up with this guy because he wants to hold you accountable for everything you do when he himself is incapable of this! An open relationship cannot be a success (success defined as sexy fun times with all) unless both parties are willing to do the work. Actually that goes for all relationships. And ahemhm... Jack’s ultimatum that he will leave if you do something wrong- that something to be defined at a later date- has clearly made you unhappy. While there do need to be rules to follow, everyone involved must outline what they want upfront, in a way that is specific enough (and reasonable enough) that said rules can’t be used manipulatively later on. To all who read this: sex is not a cookie! Arbitrarily saying “if you do or don’t do that thing (or that person) I won’t let you play with my fun bits,” is a relationship offense! The kind where you need to bring things to a screeching halt and evaluate what caused the tension to be bad enough one lover felt they needed to coerce the other using everyone’s favorite treat. The ‘sex-cookie’ sets up an unhealthy power dynamic, not a fun kinky one like Issues might enjoy. Sex is not something to be used to control others, it is an amazingly fun activity that you should be so excited to do with your (possibly imaginary, but that’s allowed!) partner that you are squirming a little in your seat just thinking about it. Some people can’t do open relationships, especially young people (aka under oh say 35?) and it sounds like Jack may be one of those at this point in his life. In the mean time you need to find someone else to have all that hot kinky fun with, Issues, while your man Jack works on his own issues. And those people are out there for you to meet; on Fetlife, the Facebook for kinky people; on dating websites identified by a few key phrases such as GGG, or even ‘adventurous in the bedroom’. You are a kinky girl in your early 20s, Issues! The world is your oyster! So go ask (clearly!) for what you want And remember that you are worth the work of finding the sex you like, with a compatible partner. If your ex is destined to be that guy he’ll still be around, even after you give him, and yourself, some time to grow. -The Naughty Librarian
Tom Haslam (left) and Bobby Lavigne Ali Young: What are you doing for Halloween? Bobby Lavigne (right): I’m hoping for a house party. Tom Haslam (left): We were thinking of playing at O’Flannigans, wearing costumes. AY: Are you going to be a group costume? TH: We were thinking about it… I don’t know… it’s hard! AY: What were you guys last year? TH: I kinda copped out… I was an American… It was pretty lame! (Tom is originally from St. Louis, Missouri) AY: Did that take you awhile to make? TH: No, haha, I forgot. BL: I was a guru, it was pretty jokes.
Ali Young: “What are you doing for Halloween?” Colby Ormiston (far right): “I don’t know yet…Whatever’s going on.” AY: Do you have a costume? CO: Yeah I know what I’m being for Halloween… The Wild West. AY: How are you going to do that? CO: Value Village. AY: Classic.
Words and pictures by Ali Young Staff Photographer
Dylan Hinshaw Ali Young: “What are you doing for Halloween?” Aaaron Heffelfinger: “I don ’t know if I can tell you our costume, it’s top secret.” Dylan Hinshaw (pictured): “We’re just gunna drink until our dicks literally fall off.”
Special preview of the next Phoenix
Zeke Kan and Ashley Lenz Zeke Kan: “I don’t really like going out… [last year] I just stayed at home to hand out candy to kids.” I was very distressed that Zeke did not dress up to give out candy to the kids last Halloween; after all, the best part of trick or treating was those creepy houses with people sitting on the front porch when you didn’t know if they were real or not. Zeke and I sat and brainstormed some good costume ideas for this year. In the end, he maintains “it would be better if you make your own.” (I forgot to snap a pic of Zeke after we chatted, so I tracked him down later in the day. He was sitting with pal Ashley Lenz, who was pretty much wearing the exact same outfit. They swear it was an unplanned coincidence… Weird!)
September 9th, 2013
9
DINOSAURS
The truth about T-rex Sean Willett
Production Editor at The Gauntlet
Illustration by Laura Reyerse
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No dinosaur has captured the imagination of the public quite like Tyrannosaurus rex, the star of countless movies, books, and television documentaries — very few of which have gotten the tyrant king right. This week I’ll be clearing up some of the misconceptions that have followed it ever since it chased Jeff Goldblum on the silver screen.
Was T-rex a hunter or scavenger? As with most questions that attempt to paint nature as black or white, the answer lies somewhere in the grey. While there is almost zero chance an animal the size of Tyrannosaurus would have evolved to be solely a scavenger, there are few large predators alive that don’t scavenge for a significant portion of their diet. Tyrannosaurus had all the features of an incredibly capable hunter, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have taken advantage of food wherever it could be found.
Were its small arms useless? Probably not. While they were pretty small in comparison to the rest of its body, they were still capable of an immense amount of strength. T-rex arm bones are incredibly thick and sturdy, leading some scientists to believe that they might have been used to hold onto struggling prey. They may have also aided in mating and copulation, but let’s not dwell on that mental image.
Was its vision only good at detecting movement? No, that’s a silly idea. It probably had fantastic eyesight due to its forward-facing eyes, which had a larger range of binocular vision than hawks and eagles have.
Could it run as fast as a jeep?
No, but, to be fair, there probably wasn’t any dinosaur that could. While the estimated speed for Tyrannosaurus is constantly being changed as new research is published, most paleontologists agree that it could have at least outran the dinosaurs it preyed on. However, there is a catch. Though tyrannosaur leg muscles point to them having long, powerful strides, this type of movement would have required an immense amount of energy. So while a Tyrannosaurus could run faster than its prey, it probably couldn’t run for very long, meaning that it might have been an ambush predator similar to modern big cats.
Did it have feathers? It almost certainly did, at least in some capacity. While we have no direct fossil evidence of Tyrannosaurus rex being feathered, we have plenty of evidence telling us that other tyrannosaurs were. Because of this, it seems likely that rex had feathers, although it may have lost some of these feathers as it aged and grew in size. Just don’t call it a ‘giant chicken’ — remember that it still had the jaw strength to bite through a foot of solid bone, whether it had feathers or not.
FEATURES
DO YOU WANT TO IMPEACH THE EXECS? Welcome, UBCO, to your annual impeachment. This time: three times the fun. These motions are more respectable compared to last year’s though, since it wasn’t set up as an ambush. Last year a motion was put forward the day of the Special General Meeting to impeach Nick Dodds. It alleged he was an abrasive person and neither staff nor students could work with him. One specific incident involved Dodds’s behaviour resulting in a board member leaving the room crying. He apologized for this. Students spoke out on his behalf and the motion was voted down. This time, there’s weeks for students to learn about the issues, and for everyone to raise awareness and try to get as many people to the Annual General Meeting as possible to ensure better representation. Impeachment is something normally reserved for significant breaches of policy/by-laws/constitution. This, however, is three sepa-
rate impeachment motions that seek to establish that a poor enough job is being done overall by executives that a change is needed. There are a lot of factors here. Shaman Mclean, Internal Coordinator, thinks the motion is personal. Nick Dodds, Services Coordinator, has said he believes the people involved just really want a strong students union. Alex Gula, External Coordinator, says he never heard anything up until now to indicate he wasn’t doing a good job. The two people who signed the motion are Blake Edwards and Courtney Chang. Both are heavily involved in student life on campus. Edwards ran for Services Coordinator last year against Dodds, so some people have accused him of personal motives. He told The Phoenix that he is not interested in running for a position if the motion is successful, however, he just feels that it is in the best interests of students. Courtney Chang served on one of 2012-2013 External Coordinator
Sam Chang’s (no relation) committees last year, and this year she has taken up a role as a director of the Women’s Resource Center. The motion they submitted has a lot of mud being flung at the wall, and a lot are technicalities that they’re trying to catch the executive on. The bulk of their allegations do not really come across in the motions, however. We are seeking to help students get informed about the issues through this feature and further online coverage over the next two weeks, along with a town hall on October 30, for students to ask executives questions. Edwards alleges a lot of poor work being done overall, and he feels so strongly about it that he thinks the risk of going without one to three executives for two weeks (the time it will take to host a by-election) is worth it compared to what is happening now. Articles by Dave Nixon Illustrations by Asher Klassen
Directory 1. Results of a survey of clubs and course unions: p11 2. In-depth look at the successes and failures of each executive: p12-13 3. A look at the executive as a whole: p14-15 4. Analysis of some of the surrounding factors: p16 There are more issues at play here, however, so we will continue our coverage online at thephoenixnews.com throughout the week. We are also avidly seeking out student opinion and questions. If you are confused about something to do with the impeachment or if you have a strong opinion one way or the other, please let us know at eic@thephoenixnews. com.
Clubs and course unions’ thoughts on Dodds’ new policies
WALK UP TO THE CLUBS
LIKE WHAT UP
Yes we have tried to keep in contact with the executives, but communication has not been effective. An example is not being informed that course union training day was moved, which led our execs to miss the training.
“I am not in favour of the new policies. It makes it much harder to get a club together, and to promote it. It was much more accessible last year, were you just needed 5 people and it could grow from there. As a club that has been around for many years [getting 15 members] was a difficulty, I cannot imagine how a new club would. I have tried multiple times to email Nick Dodds regarding different things, and never received any response. The only contact I've had with him was receiving and email from him the night before Club Day to let the clubs know what the plan was going to be the next morning. An email should have been sent out much sooner.”
Yes, the executives have approached us to help our course union and have provided many useful suggestions and guidance. I definitely think they've been fulfilling their jobs.
In my opinion, people have been taking action on too personal a level on this issue. The people are not the problem, their policies are.
“I have found Nick Dodds to be very difficult to reach, uncommunicative, and not helpful with course union questions and sharing information.”
“The reasoning behind the new policies were clearly explained and while they may make running the clubs a bit more difficult, they seem to be beneficial for the future of clubs. I think there has not been enough coverage of how Nick has been willing to work with club executives to modify the policy as is appropriate, and based off of executives’ feedback.”
“I feel they are disorganized and lack communication skills. I have received email after email with changes and corrections from them because they keep messing up on what they send. When I ask questions it takes forever to hear back. The members of our course union who attended training day run by the UBCSUO also commented how disorganized everything has been.”
“I am not in favor for impeachment. I feel they could stand to learn from their mistakes of this year and implement a better solution next year.”
“I personally do not know enough to make a formal opinion. However, when dealing with Nick Dodds he has been extremely disorganized. Also, I have briefly dealt with Alex Gulu and do not feel he represents the best of the UBCSUO.”
“As a course union we have recived numerous disorganized emails about asking us to read all these new policies and very little additional information. Having a club or course union is becoming more and more complicated and burdened by rules.”
Can the clubs even handle him right now? The Phoenix surveyed 40 clubs by email, and 17 responded. Their responses give a good idea of how clubs, which are generally led by the most involved and informed students, feel about club policy and the impeachment motion.
NEW CLUB/CU POLICIES
Communication with SU
IMPEACHMENT
2 3 12 5 4 8 5 4 8
IN FAVOUR INDIFFERENt (both course unions)
11
The Bad
I MADE NEW POLICIES
The Good
October 21st, 2013
AGAINST
Good
MEH
BAD
IN FAVOUR
Need to learn more
AGAINST
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October 21st, 2013
THE INDIVIDUAL ALLEGATIONS Note: These sections address individual allegations only. The verdicts indicated refer only to those individual allegations. For a full picture, the allegations against the Executive as a whole must be taken into account as well.
Alex Gula EXTERNAL COORDINATOR
The External Coordinator shall: i. Act as the official spokesperson for the union to all external groups; ii. Communicate regularly with all levels of government iii. Communicate regularly with the provincial and national offices of the Canadian Federation of students iv. Regulate the production of all internal publications of the union v. Act as the official liaison with all coalition partners
Key points of Alex Gula’s election platform: 1. Reduce the pollution in our parking lots by improving the transit system 2. Make our campus more accessible by bicycles, thus allowing more space for commuters from the out-of-town areas. One hope here was to help push through the highway 97 pedestrian overpass. 3. Affordable student housing more obtainable and reliable 4. The elimination of bottled water on campus, 5. The expansion of study areas on campus, 6. Reducing student fees at recreation facilities on- and off-campus Last year Gula ran against Abdul Alnaar, who’s strengths were rooted in politics and representation in stark contrast to those of Gula. Now that the part of the external portfolio that Alnaar would have done best is beging neglected, we spoke to Alnaar about what he thinks: “I find it extremely disappointing that the External Coordinator is not showing leadership within his own portfolio. He ran on several issues that students felt genuinely represented their views. He eventually won over the student votes against me, and I had hoped that Alex would focus on bettering the students from an External position. Overall, 5 months into his term, with a few absences here and there proves to be problematic when individuals do not commit to the position they run. I simply hope that students make him aware of the promises he made.” Note: Alnaar is no longer at UBCO, but still pays attention to the issues.
Allegations: Alex Gula has failed to follow the job description (see left) of External Coordinator, causing underrepresentation to external parties (government, external interest groups, etc.). Gula has the least allegations against him, but that one allegation is still significant, as it accuses Gula of shrugging duties of the External Coordinator. Gula is not acting as the official spokesperson for the union. That duty has been relegated to the Executive Chair, Nick Dodds. Gula is not communicating regularly with all levels of government. His focus has been diverted to taking on some event aspects of the Services Coordinator portfolio. Gula is not communicating regularly with the provincial and national offices of the Canadian Federation of students. This responsibility has been appointed to Shaman Mclean (it was appointed to a director last year, Abdul Alnaar). This point does not carry much weight because precedent has been set to delegate this task. And with the withdrawal of the UBCSUO from the CFS’s lobbying campaigns, there is an even greater need for the UBCSUO’s independent representation to external parties. What has Gula done so far? 1. Pitched an outdoor skate park to administration, which was shot down due to lack of external financing. 2. Raised awareness about various access issues onto campus through posters and speaking directly to students. When a petition was made to the university administration that proposed an access route through university endowment lands, Gula spread awareness of it through tabling, social media, and word of mouth. 3. Been integral in helping organize Well parties and other events like Frosh. He is active with the Well Action Committee. 4. Corresponded with transit officials in
Kelowna to be aware of all changes that are coming in. 5. Worked with Health & Wellness on their trail clean up day on October 17. 6. Worked to seek out sponsorship from various external parties. The UBCSUO has now received $1,000 more in sponsorship than last year (from approximately $11,000 to $12,000) What does Gula plan to do? 1. On those trails, mentioned above, they hope to install workout pods, which would provide spaces for both exercise and meditation. 2. Repeat the transit survey from last year, to keep information flowing about student needs. 3. Loop UBCSUO businesses into the UBC Okanagan composting program. Verdict: The allegations are, for the most part, accurate. Gula is underrepresenting the UBCSUO to external parties. He is doing very little of his portfolio. His assistance on events and his part in advocating for various issues seems more like the role of a director at large than of the External Coordinator. Gula’s executive report for September is also noticeably void of any concrete steps taken in comparison to those of Rocky Kim or Nick Dodds. That said, students elected him in direct contrast to Abdul Alnaar, who had a proven track record for being a strong and passionate advocate for students to the CFS and to all forms of government. That indicates that students either didn’t realize the importance of that advocacy, or the majority deemed it less important than the promise of a focus on sustainability which Gula had. It is also worth noting Gula has not been made any progress with any of his campaign promises. And some of his campaign promises were simply impossible no matter what. Such as helping along the bike overpass.
October 21st, 2013
Nick Dodds SERVICES COORDINATOR Allegations: 1. Nick Dodds has failed to follow the job description of Services Coordinator, causing student events and clubs and course unions to suffer. 2. Dodds claimed full honoraria in May despite a policy that specifically forbids him from doing so. 3. Dodds has pushed out two directors at large from the board by creating a difficult working space for those directors. 4. Dodds has enacted an extensive club policy that was not vetted by a formal committe, nor consulted widely with clubs and students. This is Dodds’s second consecutive time being the target of an impeachment motion. In contrast to Gula who is accused of not doing enough, Dodds is accused of doing lots of things but doing them very poorly. Dodds’s allegations explained 1. This is a vague and general claim, and there is no strong evidence behind it. The Phoenix believes Dodds is doing his job as per the basic requirements of his job description. 2. Yes, Dodds claimed full honoraria during May which violated a policy. This is, however, a stupid policy which no one understands. According to Rocky Kim, Dodds worked the same in May as he did any other month. The Phoenix feels that this allegation should be dismissed. 3. Blake Edwards and others claim that the directors who quit have since told them that a big part of their departure was due to being unable to work with Dodds. We spoke to the directors who left and all maintained that it was due to unrelated and unspecific time commitments or personal reasons. If it is true, they are not willing to say so publicly. 4. Dodds has taken a lot of criticism over his club policy. Enacting policy is a very delicate procedure. Dodds, in conjunction with other executives, implemented a policy that favors larger, more formal clubs. It also included some inconsistencies that affected course unions differently. He has, however, achieved his platform goal of creating a more flexible funding structure. Whether club funding is increased will depend on how much clubs charge their members, since funding is limited to twice the total amount of membership fees collected and remitted by clubs. Verdict: Dodds’s policy changes have been ambitious. They also represent a focus on student associations that requires a high degree of strategy and formality. The Phoenix has previously criticized this move as hypocritical, as many of the things the new policy requires clubs to do, such as maintain meeting minutes, weren’t being done properly by the UBCSUO itself. Dodds has officially breached policy once with his May honoraria claim. That is a relatively minor breach. There have been repeated allegations of his difficulty to work with, which were discussed in depth at the previous SGM, and did not result in his impeachment then. His club policy is controversial and poorly executed, but he has been making effort after the fact to consult with clubs and help them adapt. There have also been very serious complaints from individual students and clubs about his failure to respond to them in a reasonable amount of time. These may very well be the worst of all, since an elected position such as this first and foremost requires good communication with your constituents. Dodds is certainly making the effort. But if enough students are fed up with his poor communication/disorganization, then Dodds could face a difficult vote at this year’s AGM.
13
Shaman mclean INTERNAL COORDINATOR
Allegations: Shaman Mclean has not communicated with Advocacy Representatives, and therefore they have been unable to perform their duties such as liaising with the UBCSUO resource centers. Mclean has not done his duties in representing students or liaising with the institution or the resource centers. The claims against Mclean center around advocacy and his being unapproachable to students. The recent controversy over the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) is also a significant factor. The Women’s Resource Centre 1. Over the summer the Executive decided that the Women’s Resource Center should not be given the $2,000 that they usually receive each year. This decision was based on stagnant leadership: there was very little done last year. The center had $4,800 in its bank account still. And the Executive did not see any promising leadership on the horizon. The opposing side came from those who felt that was a penalizing approach, and that more effort should have been put in to finding strong leadership to ensure the center is run properly. The UBCSUO WRC is the only women’s center left in Kelowna after the city center closed in 2011. There now appears to be stronger leadership in place at the WRC. Rocky Kim was the one who put that $2,000 back into the budget, and Mclean spoke against it at an executive meeting since then, but all now seem agreed that the WRC can have that money. 2. Some anonymous students have claimed that Mclean is arrogant and tough to approach. The Phoenix has not heard this from enough people to be able to confirm that it is affecting his overall job. 3. The last claim is that he is not meeting with his advocacy representatives. Tom Macauley, an Advocacy Representative who recently quit, has spoken on behalf of Mclean. Blake Edwards claimed that he had spoken with the Advocacy Reps throughout September. They were confused as to what their job entailed, because they had not received instruction from Mclean. As a result, they claimed less than 100% of their honoraria at the last meeting in September. Executives bumped this up to 100% anyways, however. Edwards met with Mclean a few days prior to releasing the impeachment motion. He brought up all his concerns then, and he claims that Mclean admitted he had not met with his advocacy reps yet. Mclean’s September report reinforces this, as it does not mention much to do with Advocacy Rep projects. Since that meeting, and since the impeachment, however, Mclean has met multiple times with the Advocacy Reps. Sarah Reilander, one of two Advocacy Reps, put it this way: “Through September we briefly discussed some ideas, but mainly focused on running the frosh week events and other events that were happening through September. The first time that the Internal Coordinator, the other Advocacy Rep and I were able to sit down together formally was a couple weeks ago.” She has now helped Mclean run a student satisfaction survey and is working with others to “revamp the Women’s Resource Center.” Verdict: Mclean is a second year student, and the youngest and most inexperienced of all executives. As such we don’t hold him to as high a bar as we might another person in the same position. He has had some difficulty communicating and giving clear direction to Advocacy Representatives. His inexperience has shown clearly in his handling of the Women’s Resource Center controversy and when taking other criticism (he has been reported as clearly swearing multiple times in front of at least 5 witnesses at a critic of his). If you’re going to be in politics, you need to be able to take criticism and move on. Mclean has made some of these situations worse where a more experienced person would have simply moved on. The Phoenix feels the Women’s Resource Center controversy was blown out of proportion after looking at the facts. Mclean took an unpopular approach to it, got backlash, and now things have improved. The last concern is the lack of concrete issues on his executive report for September. He does, however, list a disproportionate amount of political meetings, which appears to be Mclean picking up the slack of the External Coordinator. He has been working on policy updates all summer but we have yet to see any sign of those. Whether this is a case of inexperience, his added External Coordinator roles, something else or a mix of all of them, we aren’t sure. (It’s also an indication of when the external’s offloaded responsibilities cause problems elsewhere, however. ) Since the impeachment motion began Mclean has seemed to start working even harder though; he shows improvement.
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ALL EXECS
WHEREAS: Executives are not creating a positive environment for students to approach them and ask questions, WHEREAS: Execs present a lack of professionalism towards students. VERDICT: There is some indication of this being correct. Bob Drunkemolle has confirmed that he sees a lot of students. Drunkemolle is a new General Manager who has so far shown incredible drive to make the UBCSUO a much better place. He has gained a reputation for always making time for students’ problems, so any students who aren’t receiving replies from the executives have begun to visit him. “I’m my own worst enemy in this,” says Drunkemolle, noting that it makes more work for him, but he is not going to turn away or redirect students who need help. In his words “people are like water,” which means they will generally follow the path of least resistance. And if Drunkemolle is quick to solve problems and executives are too busy or are missing emails, then naturally they will go to the more reliable person. The executives say that this is not his job, but if there wasn’t slack to be picked up he wouldn’t have to do it. This also goes along with some of the complaints The Phoenix has received from many students who have had trouble getting replies from executives for weeks at a time.
WHEREAS: Execs must be familiar with the Society’s Act and they aren’t. VERDICT: We haven’t seen a big problem with this. If anything, execs have shown more unfamiliarity with their by-laws/policies. We published an editorial that criticized them for only hosting one board meeting in September; UBCSUO by-laws require a minimum of two per month. Immediately after, they bumped up their next meeting by a week to meet those by-laws.
WHEREAS: The SU takes staff away from their positions to run student events as a volunteer base VERDICT: Correct. The Phoenix has confirmed that during Frosh week some staff were pulled from their jobs to help with running events. According to previous External Coordinator Sam Chang, volunteers are vital. It also hurts general operations of the SU to pull staff off their jobs.
WHEREAS: The board of directors has not been holding meetings in accordance with their policies,
WHEREAS: Execs have been hard almost impossible to get answer from, especially in regards to e-mails
VERDICT: Correct, there have been motions added that weren’t necessarily in accordance with policies, or necessary documents that were needed that were never submitted or were submitted during the meeting instead of before. The board is also to blame in this instance, as it is their job to hold executives accountable, and to hold themselves to their own policies. The new Meeting Chair Katelyn Fuji is ensuring that this is done properly from now on .
VERDICT: The Phoenix has receive many reports of this, not just from Blake Edwards (who has shown u email transcripts of three-four wee delays in email replies), but also var ous clubs. One such club is the Sout East Asian Club who has now officia ly left the UBCSUO. One of their cite reasons was because they consistentl could not receive answers or suppor from the UBCSUO.
WHEREAS: The elected members of the executive have not demonstrated clear communication of the questionable Club & Course Union Policy VERDICT: Correct. Six clubs were consulted over the summer (out of approximately 90), and the policy was not reviewed by a formal committee.
THESE ARE ISSUES BUT DO NOT SPECIFICALLY BREAK BY-LAWS, POLICIES, oR THE CONSTITUTION - 8
An officer of their position
i. Grossly
tion, these by-
THESE SPECIFICALLY CONTRAVENE BY-LAWS, POLICIES, OR THE CONSTITUTION - 8 WHEREAS: The executives have failed to submit their reports on time and still claimed full honoraria, WHEREAS: Board has collected 100% honorarium without fulfilling 100% of their duties each month, WHEREAS: Honoraria is not being claimed accurately according to merit, VERDICT: Correct to some extent. Executive reports have not been submitted on time/in the right way regularly. The policy specifically states that failing to comply will result in a loss of honoraria. Executives have claimed 100% honoraria each month despite this and no one has challenged this. The new Meeting Chair, Katelyn Fuji, is being extremely strict on this point to establish a new precedent. Executive reports for September have recently been posted online, which is a big step in the right direction.
WHEREAS: Execs are not doing their jobs. This refers to 25 hours per week, all office hours spent on their job, posting office hours, being there for those posted office hours, complete all tasks set by the board, and following their job descriptions as outlined in bylaws. VERDICT: Correct, but only in some instances. For the most part executives are following this, from what we can tell. However, The Phoenix has confirmed that Alex Gula has not been in his office during his hours multiple times. This one motion further hurts Gula since it specifically states execs must follow their job description, but the majority of specific External Coordinator duties have been re-assigned within the executive, or are not being done effectively.
WHEREAS: The executives have not posted the dates and times of their executive meetings, not allowing active members of the union to be in attendance, WHEREAS: the executives have not posted executive meeting minutes VERDICT: Correct, it’s very difficult to be at an executive meeting since they are not advertised or mentioned much (this is not explicitly in violation of bylaws/policies though). And meeting minutes had not been posted, which kind of goes against bylaws (they say “minutes...shall be kept and made available”). However, since this motion, executives have begun uploading executive meeting minutes starting at their September 9 meeting. We have not seen the meeting times advertised.
WHEREAS: The motion to in crease honoraria to $2,000 is a con flict of interest as it was submitted b members of the executive.
VERDICT: Correct, Rocky Kim submitted the motion and Nic Dodds seconded it. This was i breach of the policy for conflict o interest. Advocacy Representativ Sarah Reilander spoke up and move to table the motion, which was suc cessful. (Editor’s Note: several director attempted to second the motion, Dodd was simply selected because he ws firs This makes the violation have more t do with improper procedure rather tha intent, which you may be noticing is common theme here.)
d, WHEREAS: Execs put forth a club polrs icy which includes items that the union s, themselves do not follow.
WHEREAS: Execs are not meeting the high standards of students,
ed VERDICT: Correct. The Phoenix noted m this in an editorial. The UBCSUO has imus proved a lot since then in posting things ek like meeting minutes, etc. rith aled ly rt
VERDICT: This motion captures the whole issue: if enough students truly feel this way then executives will be impeached. It cannot be proven until a vote comes in.
WHEREAS: Policy implemented is a barrier to student involvement on campus VERDICT: To some extent, yes. The new club policies are unfavorable to smaller, casual clubs, which may present a barrier to some. The intent of the policy is to help clubs be secure, organized, grow stronger from year to year, and to improve funding flexibility. Whether it will be a detriment overall to student involvement is a matter of opinion.
WHEREAS: Honoraria is being granted without direct correlation to the merit of it VERDICT: Correct, it is tough to link honoraria to merit when executive reports were not being submitted. Board members were also claiming less than 100% because they felt they hadn’t been doing enough of their jobs, and executives were bumping it up to 100%. A nice gesture, but if almost ALL board members felt that they weren’t doing enough then there may be a different issue than them just being modest.
WHEREAS: The elected members of the Executive have neglected all issues related to BC public post secondary education VERDICT: It’s definitely a problem. Alex Gula is not pursuing this sort of lobbying. Other executives are supposed to be doing it, but things are still being missed, and it does not seem like a significant pro-active lobby effort is being made by anyone. Add onto this fact that they have pulled back from Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) lobbying efforts, and there is an even bigger void here. WHEREAS: Execs are not following the purposes of the union (promote artistic, literary, education, social, recreational, charitable and sporting activities; represent students, receive complaints, investigate problems & decisions that affect students; be a medium of communication between students and governing bodies. VERDICT: This motion is very broad and an argument could be made either way. For the most part The Phoenix feels that this is being met, though some areas may not be to the degree that students want.
WHEREAS: The Execs have grossly operated outside of their mandate, by-laws, and policies, VERDICT: This is really up to interpretation.
VAUGE / ANECDOtAL ALLEGATIONS - 6
f the union may be impeached from if that person:
y operates outside of the constitu-
-laws, and/or policies of the union
nnby
m ck in of ve ed crs ds st. to an a
UNSOUND ALLEGATIONS - 7 WHEREAS: The elected members of the Executive have threated to remove students from a meeting of their own elected representatives VERDICT: Yes, this happened. But it is referring to when Shaman Mclean was acting as meeting chair and he told Katelyn Fuji that if she continued to speak out of turn that he would remove her from the meeting. Regardless of the circumstances, Fuji WAS speaking out of turn, Mclean was within his rights as chair, and we have heard Fuji make similar threats to Nick Dodds now that she’s been appointed to meeting chair. This clause seems not only silly but hypocritical.
WHEREAS: A by-election must be held for the purpose of filling any vacancies on the board VERDICT: There is a by-law that supercedes this. It allows for appointments up to a certain number. The current board is in alignment with the overall rules. Boards must be careful not to appoint too many positions, though, otherwise questions arise about the democratic nature of the board.
WHEREAS: Executives created posters containing the full print of “fucking.”
WHEREAS: The board is not well informed on issues and motions being put forth
VERDICT: The policy states that explicit postings face an evaluation proces by the Executive. Since they came from the Executive, it’s within policy. Whether students think that it is appropriate is up to opinion.
VERDICT: Governance is a tricky thing. If the board is not well informed, it would be their responsibility to demand that they be kept informed. We have a board this year that is missing members and is also full of first-time board members. There is always the danger that executives might trample over the board since they generally put in more hours and know the issues better (see our story from last year on the health & dental plan). We’ve thrown this out though, because it is mostly the board’s fault as a whole. It is definitely an issue, but we have not seen evidence to suggest the executives are consciously trying to avoid giving enough information to the board.
DUPLICATE CLAUSES: There was one about poor communication and one about allowing board members input on day-today issues. We felt that we addressed both of these elsewhere in separate but similar clauses. Another motion was specific to office hours, but office hours were also mentioned in a different clause.
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October 21st, 2013
What happens if they all get the boot? Representation. Therein lies our problem with impeachment. An AGM typically draws 100 students if you’re lucky (we need 50 just to have the meeting). But 860 votes were cast at last year’s election, just under 10.5% of the student body. That means the executive’s fate could be decided by a much smaller representation of students (although there is a lot of time to advertise the issue, and the board is after UBCO Senate to approve academic amnesty to allow students to skip class to attend, so they may luck out and get a lot more students than normal). Impeachment is typically a motion used for when a scandal erupts. This is unlike most impeachments in that there isn’t one big thing we can point to and say “There! That’s why they have to go!” It’s a pile of things all adding up. Or a lack of things adding up, in some cases. I mean, they’re not actively trying to destroy the union. There’s no malicious intent here. This puts a bigger onus on students to learn about the issues as well as they can though, in case there is a serious problem that is causing a second impeachment in a row. The students who are voting must weigh their knowledge of what’s been happening with the knowledge of what will happen if they impeach anyone. And what WILL happen? Well, you’ll have a position sit vacant for two weeks because that’s how long it takes to run a byelection. Then you’ll vote someone in. They may be twice as well suited for the role, they may not. But then they’re playing catch-up for a while. The current executive has had five months in office so far, and the summer months are supposed to be when you get a lot of things done since there’s not nearly as much routine day-to-day stuff to deal with. So anyone who gets elected to replace those positions will likely be in a maintenance role, where they just take care of the day-to-day without trying to carry out a platform or any drastic changes. Maybe that’s good, since so many complaints against the current executive are about day-to-day stuff like emails and communication being screwed up. But maybe that’s bad, because they don’t have as much experience to allow them to help students easier. There have also been some apocalyptic scenarios being spread around, which are completely false. We’ve heard members of the executive say that everything in the SU would halt if all three executives are impeached. That’s not true. The biggest problem would be the fact that two executives are needed in order to have enough signing authorities to continue being able to issue cheques. The UBCSUO would have to get someone appointed by the registrar to be an interim signing authority. Governance would slow, as it would just be Rocky Kim the Financial Coordinator; and Bob Drunkemolle the General Manager, who can run things. That means no emails answered and no board meetings. Drunkemolle says the rest of the SU would be fine though. “It wouldn’t take away from the operations of the SU. Do I think it would be more work? Absolutely. But nothing that we can’t handle,” said Drunkemolle.
Is this motion a result of a weak board? A common narrative at last year’s Special General Meeting where an impeachment motion was proposed against Nick Dodds, was that it seemed weird to leap to impeachment without any formal steps being taken inbetween to try and solve any existing problems. But there are formal steps. They’re called the board holding the excecutives accountable. The AMS Council in Vancouver made sure this happened when an impeachment motion failed against their then President and VP External, Blake Frederick and Tim Chu, respectively. Once it failed the AMS council did the following: 1. Made them unable to send press releases without the permission of student council. 2. Forbade them from having meetings/communications with any chance of adversely affecting the reputation of the AMS with important stakeholders (UBC Administration, provincial/federal government) unless they had the approval of student council. 3. An official censure of Frederick and Chu (an official disapproval) 4. All executives had to write weekly reports detailing their hour-by-hour activities. 5. Stripped Frederick from being Chair of the executive committee.
Is the SU sick? There are some structural issues with the UBCSUO that may have influenced some of the problems we’re seeing now. Check thephoenixnews.com throughout the week for more on this issue.
Yes, this example is backwards. These guys wrote a human rights complaint to the UN as a publicity stunt. And the strict measures happened afterwards. But it’s an example of the power that a council or board of directors has. So far, we’ve mostly seen a very passive board going along for the ride during the meetings (with a few exceptions). Katelyn Fuji has really stepped up to hold the board accountable now that she’s been appointed Meeting Chair, so that was a good decision on the board’s part. She can only do so much, however. The reality of this year’s UBCSUO board is that everyone is a first time director, and they haven’t come into their own yet. We also have had a huge amount of turnover: there’s three vacant positions (two directors at large and one advocacy rep), and they’ve been struggling to fill them. There was no transition plan in place to foster new directors and help them learn the ropes. So whether or not you think any of the executives are doing a poor job, we have a board that may not be savvy enough with the way things work to hold them accountable. So this impeachment motion will at least serve as a spotlight on any weaknesses, as we’ve seen happen already with meeting minutes.
The Phoenix and the UBCSUO are hosting a Town Hall on Wednesday October 30 at 5:00 pm in the UNC Ballroom (UNC 200) to help inform students about the issues and give them a chance to question executives.
OPINIONS
I’m from a family of farmers, and I support Monsanto Stephanie Wise Contributor
LETTERS In favour of the UBCSUO Lauren Ruttle-Soon
President, Biology Course Union
As the president of a course union, I cannot comment on the club policies, but I am strongly in favour of the course union policies. We were allowed to read it, ask questions about it, clarify certain parts, and then vote on it before it was taken to the Board of Directors to be ratified. Given the difficult issues that the UBCSUO faced over the summer that had us adopt the policy mid-year, I think it was completed as well as it could have been under the circumstances. I have had extensive communication with Nick Dodds, though not with the others, so I feel it would be inappropriate to comment on them. At the beginning of the year, tracking Nick down was quite difficult, but he has gotten considerably better at replying to emails and when he does he is always thorough. I no longer have complaints that he is hard to get a hold of. The executive team has had many struggles to overcome this year and I cannot see the need for impeachment of any of them. I do not know the intricate inner workings of the UBCSUO and have not had much contact with Alex or Shaman therefore I will not comment, though I do not believe Nick should be impeached. He works hard and is consistently open to comments and criticism, and changes his actions based on what the students ask from him. I believe that Club and Course Union Training Day was an incredibly positive experience for those in attendance and that more clubs should have attended--many boycotted due to their dislike of the new club policy, and that boycotting hurt no one but themselves. This was the perfect place to ask questions and show discontentment. I saw many positive things from the executives that were present that day--Shaman was apparently unable to attend--and based on that single interaction with Alex, found him to be competent and capable. I’d like to say one last thing that doesn’t answer any of your questions but I believe should be said, and students need to hear it. The UBCSUO exists for the students. So many of the students know incredibly little about how it works. They jump on the bandwagon and dislike the executives because that’s how The Phoenix is portraying them and that’s what the consensus is right now. I believe if students have a problem, they should take it directly to the executive in question and see how effectively it is dealt with. I have a policy that I do not speak badly about the UBCSUO, I speak to them. When I have a complaint, I go directly to them and get it fixed, instead of badmouthing them. More students need to do that as well. When we give the executives a chance to explain their actions (or lack thereof) the results are often very positive students need to do that as well. When we give the executives a chance to explain their actions (or lack thereof) the results are often very positive.
Coming soon: The UBCOpinion is a political opinion forum founded by the Political Science Student Association that we want YOU to contribute to. Send us your opinions on general student issues, local concerns, or even on international current events! Submissions can be 50 words or greater—so send us a line! http://ubcopinion.blogspot.ca/ Given the current discussion on campus about our own Student’s Union and the
seeming trend of impeachment, the PSSA would like to pose the question: “Do you think that there are more effective school government systems being used at other Canadian Universities and if so, what do they look like?” Check out what the PSSA and other students have to say about this topic in the next issue of The Phoenix and on our blog!
Is this protester’s “sheeple” costume more fitting than she realizes?
Image from March Against Monsanto Kelowna’s Facebook page I support Monsanto, genetically modified buying and using the product, when it is the seeds, and unnatural chemical pesticides and government’s (self-appointed) job to ensure fertilizers. Shocked yet? With the Monsanto that consumer products are safe. I know it is March happening to the Okanagan on Octo- hard for people to believe that others may acber 12th it isn’t a popular opinion. I am the tually do their job and aren’t bribed by Mondaughter of a small scale farmer in Alberta. santo to approve of toxic substances, but I No, my family and I are not being paid to en- would like to submit that it is a possibility. An argument I hear often is that Monsanto dorse Monsanto. We are simply representing a group of people who has benefit from their ex- doesn’t actually sell product that works. But istence as well as the existence of other chemi- consider: if the crops didn’t yield better and people were dying all over the place from cal corporations in North America. Farming used to be a poor man’s profes- chemicals then why would farmers continue to sion. There was a lot of hard and gritty work use Monsanto products? Monsanto isn’t payand not a lot of pay. Technology has changed ing them to use their product, farmers are paythat. It has narrowed the divide between rich ing Monsanto. And the government is endorsand poor. Farmers have tractors, combines, ing it; probably not because they are part of an air-seeders, augers, and semi-trucks. All these elaborate bribery scheme but because no govtools have helped to improve the welfare ernment on earth (corrupt or not) wants to deal of these families. And if the weather was al- with famine. The fact remains that if farmers didn’t use ways great and the pests never got out of control then those tools would be enough. But I Monsanto products, crop yield would decrease shouldn’t have to tell you that the weather drastically and there would be less food everyis rarely perfect and the pests are hardly co- where. And that would be the case in the good operative: for a long time, a farmer’s income years. The years that weeds or insects got out was highly elastic from year to year. It could of control would be absolutely devastating. At be great or it could be starvation. It might be the moment, those chemicals and GM seeds a rough year for rain or drought and the yield are the best we have got to continue feeding could drastically reduce, but thanks to GM everyone. And yes, I know that there is still seeds, the yield was higher than it could have hunger insecurity in the US and Canada, but that is to do with poverty not food shortage. been before and we still have some crop. Although the “Green Revolution” was I am sure anyone reading this knows about DDT and PCBs and also is aware that Mon- controversial, it is largely credited for saving santo produced both. And I agree that was a countless lives from famine. Which means that complete disaster. However, when has science some of us may actually owe our lives to comever worked on the first try? I do not believe panies like Monsanto. in making a villain of the company or people
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October 21st, 2013
Activism
Witnessing Kelly Mitton
Contributor
Along with hundreds of other witnesses, my boyfriend and I attended the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Vancouver several weeks ago. We sat in the hushed auditorium of the main Forum at the PNE grounds to hear recounts of aboriginal residential schools. We listened to the Survivors tell their stories. And we cried. For the Survivors, attending the residential schools was not voluntary. Aboriginal children, as young as five, (although many church archive photos show images of children even younger) were forcibly and legally removed from their families. One Survivor told of how his father never saw him or his friends being taken away by the pilot that stole into their small community one afternoon. For weeks afterwards, his father combed up and down the shores of the beach thinking his young son must have drowned. Two brothers shared their stories of abuse. One brother stated that he never referred to the residential school he attended as “school” because the only thing he and the other boys learned how
to do was to work at farming. We learned from another Survivor how bystanders played a role in the abuses committed against the children. In her case, a dentist neglected to investigate the noise coming from his office as she frantically tried pushing furniture into the path of a priest to keep him form molesting her.
“the objective that residential schools had: Erase all traces of Aboriginal identity from the children” Stories of courage and resilience were also shared. One Survivor declared, “I will not let Indian Residential School ruin my life any more.” As witnesses, we learned that brothers and sisters who attended the same school were prevented from having a relationship with one another because boys and girls were not allowed to talk to each other. Ever. Stories from inter-
Photo by Iwona Kelly (flickr)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Fulfilling our duty to recognize domestic torture
generational Survivors were shared too. One of them told us, “I want what is mine, my language and my culture.” Her words speak to the objective residential schools had: Erase all traces of Aboriginal identity from the children in order to assimilate them into the dominant Euro-Canadian Christian culture. Survivors told stories of being fed rotting fish and rotten apples; of going to bed each night with hunger pangs. They spoke of their loneliness and isolation. They spoke of how they were forbidden to comfort one another. Apologies were also heard at the TRC. Representatives from the various churches that ran the residential schools were on hand to publicly apologize to Survivors. But one such apology fell short in my view: The Rev. Dr. David Sutherland, a Presbyterian minister, began with a heartfelt apology on behalf of his church. Yet he went on to state that his church wanted it to be known that not all the children who attended Presbyterian residential schools experienced abuse. I have heard this line of thinking before, and I reject it. After all, isn’t forcibly taking
children away from their families, their communities and their cultures an act of abuse? Despite the intensity of the testimonies, not all moments during the TRC were heartbreaking. Hundreds of people gathered for the muchneeded musical relief provided at a concert held on Thursday night. Among the performers were Inez and George Leach, the genius guitarist and singer. The Sacred Fire was another gathering place that one could go to in order to meditate, find strength, or listen to drummers and singers. It was kept burning
“At times I wanted to run out of the building to get some air. But I knew it was my responsibility to listen” throughout the entire event. The ashes from the Sacred Fire will burn next at the final TRC event in Edmonton, March 27 – 30, 2014. Hearing the stories of Survivors
was difficult. At times I wanted to run out of the building to get some air. But I knew it was my responsibility to listen. As Justice Sinclair stated, the difficulty of hearing Survivor testimonials is nothing compared to those that experienced the abuse. I believe, too, that as witnesses we share a collective responsibility to pass forward the truth of the legacy of residential schools in Canada. Marching alongside 70,000 people in the pouring rain during Sunday’s Walk For Reconciliation was uplifting. We all came together in the spirit of transformation and reconciliation. And despite what critics may say regarding the reconciliation process, or perhaps what shape it should take, we as Canadians are all stakeholders in the process of reconciliation. At the final Call to Gather on September 21, Justice Murray Sinclair provided some closing remarks. He recognized the courage and the resilience of the Survivors for sharing their stories. And he claimed above all else, “We will always see them; We will always hear them; We will always believe them.” May their stories always be told.
October 21st, 2013
19
DISCUSSION Is UBCO paying the bills by bringing in more international students than we have room for?
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NO SPACE IN THIS PLACE: Professor Peter Wylie’s letter
Wylie writes: “The tuition fees for the 650 (560 FTE) international undergraduate students currently on campus at UBCO (at $23,000 FTE fees per student, so around $13m) could in theory help fund positions for domestic students that wouldn’t otherwise exist, but in fact doesn’t.” With 650 international undergrads on campus, Wylie believes his faculty is straining to handle the number of students and meet the needs of both domestic and international students: “The 69 international visa students currently majoring in programs in my academic unit are generating tuition fees to UBCO of around $1.5m, yet some programs in my unit have had no new faculty hiring since 2007 and a declining number of courses and sections offered.” There is clearly a problem: UBCO is taking in an increasing number of students every year, yet no additional faculty or space is being utilized to handle the number of students. The sheer number of international students, and by extension the revenue they deliver, should in theory be enough to fund ample space and faculty. “We asked for a larger room to expand the course and were told there were none, so, even with 40 international students in the class, no new spaces were provided.” One would think that 40 international students would not make a huge difference, but the numbers add up quickly. “The 113 international students currently enrolled across these 4 courses alone this year are generating around $260,000 in tuition revenue to UBCO. Using even a minor part of this would hire a new faculty member
Opinions Editor
Wylie then goes on to point out that such a problem is absent at the Vancouver campus: “This problem doesn’t arise at UBC in Vancouver, because there the academic unit that actually teaches the international students in its courses automatically gets the major portion of the international student fees so generated, due to the budgetary mechanism in place now for a number of years. Here at UBCO academic units see none of the international student tuition fees.”
In an effort to offset the $3m deficit, “the university has cut $3.3 million through what it referred to as ‘efficiencies’. UBC predicts it can find $2–4 million in savings from efficiencies for the 2013-2014 year, but doesn’t think there are any left the next year.”
Wylie ultimately sheds light on the implications of the system in place, not receiving any money, and the conflict it poses to UBCO’s future: “Is the campus really going to continue to raise international undergraduate students from the current 650 and $13m in tuition fees to its target of around 1,5001,600 (or around 20% of total enrollment, and $36m in tuition fees at current rates) over the next 4-5 years, without doing anything about this problem?”
Where can the university find these funds to balance the budget and bring them out of the red? “A sizable chunk of the new revenues come from three per cent international tuition increases every year. International students currently make up 11 per cent of undergraduate enrolment, with Ouillet suggesting that number could rise to 15-20 per cent in 5 years.”
In the article’s comments section, several commenters responded to Wylie’s article. Virginie writes: “[This letter unfortunately] breeds resentment towards international students, as they are seen as encroaching on domestic students’ ‘rightful place’ in university ... It is the university who needs to be reprimanded, but when reading this article, it seems that the international student isn’t welcome at UBCO because of a phenomenon that is not the international student’s fault.” Wylie’s response: “I regret that you have read my letter as implying that international students are somehow to blame here... I want to lay blame solely on the University as you correctly state the blame should be laid... If at least some minor portion of the international undergraduate student tuition fees (and we are talking currently about $13m here) are not going to the programs with the international students in them, then just what are the fees being used for by the University?”
SO where is the money going? To learn what the international student tuition is likely going toward, we turned to Andrew Bates’s April 2012 Ubyssey article on the UBC budget: “The university won’t have enough new money to cover its bills in three years unless it cuts services, raises tuition or gets more funding.” “Pierre Ouillet, UBC’s VP Finance, said inflation has caught up to the university. ‘The university’s budget reported that the university expects $10 million a year in new costs. But UBC predicts that it will only be able to make $7 million in new revenues, leaving a $3 million gap’.”
who could provide second sections of each of these four courses for next year.”
Globe image from WIkipedia Commons
Peter Wylie, an Associate Professor of Economics at UBCO, wrote to The Phoenix last week expressing his concerns over international students and the displacement of domestic students in his letter entitled “UBCO must address domestic student displacement,” which you can read in full at http://www. thephoenixnews.com/2013/10/letter-ubco-must-address-domestic-student-displacement/.
Compiled by Matt Lauzon
It looks as though in an effort to curb the deficit, the university is backed into a corner where the only solution to raise the appropriate funds to stay afloat rests on the revenues that come with international students’ tuition. UBC has identified summer campus uses and international student enrolment as two primary ways the Okanagan campus can generate revenue. (UBCO has reached the max number of domestic students that the BC government will fund for, so increasing domestic enrolment would not work.) With no inefficiencies left to cut, plus ever-increasing costs of running the university, taking on as many international students as possible may be one of the only ways to balance the budget for the time being. If that is the case, then UBC may continue to increase international enrolment (and the revenue it brings in) without reallocating that revenue to help offset increased class sizes - meaning that the students in
ARTS Actors Tara Travis and Ryan Gladstone give us their best
Vancouver’s Monster Theatre returns to UBCO with The Shakespeare Show
Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeths. Luckily, no heads were cut off. Photos by Laura Sciarpelletti
Laura Sciarpelletti
Laura Sciarpelletti
Arts Editor
Arts Editor
Who really wrote the Shakespeare plays? Was it the bard— the illiterate son of a glover—or was it The Earl of Oxford? UBCO’s Theatre26 welcomed back Vancouver’s Monster Theatre, and presented The Shakespeare Show on October 18th and 19th in the University Theatre. The Shakespeare Show is based on the “greatest theatrical academic debate of all time,” and centers on The Earl of Oxford, a man who uses a young Shakespeare, his horse boy, as a front for his own playwriting interests. The result? Shakespeare’s name becomes permanently attached to the plays. The visiting show was written by Ryan Gladstone and is directed by Karen Hamm. This performance featured actors Tara Travis and Ryan Gladstone, who were particularly gifted in physical comedy & played multiple characters each. The play featured satire, song, puppets and swordfights, as well as appearances by famed characters like Anne Hathaway, the three witches from Macbeth, and Queen Elizabeth. According to the Artistic Director of the play, the idea had been brewing in his mind for years and is loosely based on Woody Allen’s 1976 film The Front, a movie which takes place in the time of Hollywood’s Blacklist days. This was during the Red Scare when many people were suspected of being communists, and certain people who worked in Hollywood were blacklisted in order to prevent them from being hired. The premise of Allen’s film is that some writers found themselves on the infamous blacklist and, unable to work, used Allen’s character to front for them in the industry. “We had Monster Theatre here last year and liked them,” says Neil Cadger, UBCO’s Head Associate Professor of the Interdisciplinary Performance program, “and brought them back [this year].” Cadger says that this year, along with the University Theatre, Theatre26 will also be presenting performances in the Mary Irwin Theatre in the Rotary Centre for the Arts downtown. Their mandate is to present physical theatre, mask, movement, and shadow play etc., with a focus on devised theatre. The performances are created by the performers. The Shakespeare Show brought a modest crowd and the theatre was in a constant state of laughter, especially during Travis’ Queen Elizabeth part, and an epic “I bite my thumb at you” fight to the death. It was a fantastic combination of silliness and classical content.
September 9th, 2013
MUSIC
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UPCOMING Oct 24 Design Flicks YLW: Helvetica
7pm / The Streaming Cafe Design Flicks YLW is a monthly event for Kelowna that shows documentaries about a wide variety of design-related topics, from design thinking to typography to famous designers.
Hispanic Film Series: Fresa y Chocolate
6:30pm / Okanagan College Theatre, Student Services Building A love story of a cultivated homosexual and skyptical young man who falls in love with a young heterosexual communist full of prejudices and doctrine.
Oct 25 HORRORFEST 2013 8pm / The Habitat
The Okanagan’s premiere horror film festival event: a constume party full of films, music, drinks, food, and lots of BLOOD & GORE!!
GO Party: 80s and Aliens
7pm / Kelowna Art Gallery Afundraising event inspired by the two exhibitions (Theatre of the Exploding Sun and Saturday Morning Cartoons) and sponsored by Disney Interactive.
Oct 31 Shreddy Krueger + The Fangles + The Neon Kitten Burlesque 8pm / The Habitat
With tons of free giveaways, swag and costume contests tickets available at Leo’s Video & Mosaic Books. $15 19+
Nov 1 Youngblood Landscape 7pm / Alternator Centre
This installation by UBCO artists intends to reinvent conventional landscape perceptions & provide new outlooks on how people engage with the land around them.
UBCO students help local musician with the creative process Jeff Bulmer Contributor
This fall marks the second time Robert Belton has tasked his Pop Music and Visual Culture students with pitching a music video or album cover for a local musician. The idea is an attempt to illustrate the process of creating visuals for music. “It’s not just a knee-jerk reaction,” says Belton, “and I wanted to show that.” The assignment has students analyzing and characterizing a song, picked by Belton. Based on that analysis, students are then
“I thought it would be a unique thing to see what everyone came up with,” tasked with designing an album cover, or creating a rough storyboard – or “pitch” – for a music video. All students are given the same song, though neither the artist nor the name of the song is initially given.
In the project’s 2011 incarnation, students were put into groups for the pitch process. However, while some groups worked well together, going as far as to create finished videos, others were dysfunctional. This year, the process is instead individual. For phase two of the exercise, students are again grouped, though the group aspect is different from two years ago. Inspired partially by American Idol, this year’s groups will vote on and mark other students’ pitches as opposed to creating a group pitch. A musician himself, Belton has always been interested in contemporary local talent. It was this interest that led him to approach Andrew Judah about using his song “Lie Cheat Steal” for this project. Judah, who will be performing at the Streaming Café this Saturday, agreed to meet with me last weekend to talk about his life as a full-time composer and rising indie star, as well as his involvement with Belton. Rather than hoping to score a free album cover or music video from the arrangement, Judah gave permission to use his song thinking it would be an interesting experience. “I thought it would be a unique thing to see what everyone came up with,” says Judah. Judah recently came to the attention of Global Okanagan when an advertisement for Lincoln Motor
Photo from AndrewJudah.com Company scored by him was featured in the Super Bowl. A full-time composer, Judah has scored several other ads for the likes of Samsonite, Microsoft, and McDonald’s. Judah enjoys scoring advertisements, as it forces him to write in a variety of styles. As a result of that, Judah says he feels more sure of what direction he wants his own music to take. The music on his next album, which he hopes to release in early 2014, will be “more focused” and less eclectic than previous releases. Judah’s music is inspired mainly by 60s and 70s musicians such as the Beatles, Neil Young and Queen, but also more modern bands such as Radiohead and Muse. Though impartial to mainstream Hollywood soundtracks, Judah is a fan of film scores, further citing film composer Ennio Morricone as a musical influence. Morricone’s influence is apparent in Judah’s unusual choice of instruments. Albino Black Bear, Judah’s latest release, features a harmochord – a small organ that sound like a high-pitched accordion – on several tracks, including “Lie Cheat Steal”, as well as wine glasses, a toy glockenspiel and a “fake ukulele”. Judah says he enjoys finding unique instruments normally considered “cheesy” and re-applying them into a relevant context. “Purge” is a great example: while
one usually wouldn’t take a wine glass-virtuoso seriously, no one would call this a comedy song. Judah is a solo entity in the studio. Because of this, much of the music he produces is challenging to perform live. He is usually accompanied by a 5-piece band for live performances. Studio-bound instruments are reproduced through use of a laptop and MIDI keyboard.
“There’s no way to sound exactly like the record. It has to stay fresh” For his upcoming show at the Streaming Cafe on Oct. 19, Judah will be accompanied only by drummer and bassist Paul and Joshua Clark. The band will play a mix of old and new material. “There’s no way to sound exactly like the record,” says Judah, adding that the band will reinterpret many older songs. “It has to stay fresh.” From putting a new spin on the style of the 60s to putting a new spin on his own songs, everything about Judah is fresh. While the studio songs may be around forever, you’re unlikely to hear anything like Andrew Judah live a second time.
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September 9th, 2013
CAMPUS
THE WEEKLY NOSTALGIA What do you miss most from the 1990s?
Concrete in the Creek
Tia – 2nd Year Management “Tamagotchis. And Big Comfy Couch and Power Rangers.”
UBCO artist teams up with middle school students to restore Fascieux Creek Photos by Shimshon Obadia Laura Sciarpelletti Arts Editor
Matt – Kelowna Resident “Smart Guy. It was about this genius kid and his really dopey older brother. Also, ridiculous pants. Everything they wore on Seinfeld.”
UBCO Interdisciplinary Performance student Shimshon Obadia has partnered with K.L.O. Middle School students in trying to restore a wetland habitat on their school grounds. Since the Fascieux Creek that runs beside their school has been covered with concrete pads, the grade eight students are trying to raise $100, 000.00 in order to have the creek restored. It’s been five years since this mission began, and the current grade eights are now only $15, 000.00 away from their goal. Concrete in the Creek, an exhibit showcasing the students’ efforts with the help of Obadia, is now on display at the Alternator Gallery. This
fundraiser is an important step in restoring the students’ lost educational resource. “I wanted to do a directed studies on eco art practice,” says Obadia. “So I approached [UBCO professors] Denise Kenney and Nancy Holmes because that’s their area.” Obadia was introduced to Michelle Hamilton, a teacher at K.L.O. who was unhappy with the creek situation, and whose students wanted to have the natural wetland in their educational environment restored. “They’re almost there,” says Obadia. “Other issues of concern that have come up got in the way a bit and have been slowing them down. Michelle has been approaching the university for a while, and after [we teamed up] the course immediately erupted. These kids really want this and need the support. They’re up against concerns other than the money. This eco art [project] helps to
Photos by Laura Sciarpelletti
Ashley – 1st Year Student “Arthur. [My favorite character was] DW. That’s pretty much all I watched as a kid.”
Obedia and KLO students collaborate by Fascieux Creek
get them the attention and support they need.” The exhibit is a compilation of work that the students have created with Obadia over the last six months. There are audio art performance pieces and visual art, with a 70-foot cloth painting showing what the children envision the creek should look like. This particular piece, which will run through the gallery space, is painted with watercolor using actual water from the creek, and features the students’ own artistic interpretation. The idea was to create a virtual ideal wetland habitat classroom using projection and audio installations. There is a chalkboard in the gallery for people to write their opinions on. “I’ve been the facilitator,” says Obadia. “I help them express what they need [in order] to get the attention for this project to go forward, because they’re so passionate about
having nature restored in their learning environment.” This exhibit marks the beginning of Obadia’s involvement with the students’ cause. “Having nature integrated into their education and lives is something they’ve been deprived of,” says Obadia. “It’s hard to take action, especially at a young age. I was in the ‘slacktivist’ generation. We are part of a generation where we reblog what we’re passionate about or we click to like, and that’s it. But these kids are actually taking real action. Seeing that is so refreshing and I want to help to encourage them to carry on with that.” The official exhibition will run from October 18th to October 25th. The Concrete in the Creek project is sponsored by Eco-Art Incubator, UBC Centre for Culture and Technology, Theatre26, and the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.
September 9th, 2013
CAMPUS
Artist Profile
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ON THE WEB thephoenixnews.com
Art vs science
Lana Laroche’s artistic quest to challenge modernity
We review William Shatner’s new creation, a musical collaboration
Laroche displaying her art - on both her canvases and her arms Photos by Jake Sherman Jake Sherman
Contributor
4th-year Fine Arts student and Victoria native Lana Laroche has always been moved by the little things. Growing up with the coastal mountains and Pacific Ocean as a backdrop inspired her to question her society. As Lana makes clear, “Sometimes it seems it’s only really artists who get those things.” Wielding art as a weapon, Lana hopes those who view her pieces will be moved to question their place within our mechanistic and technological world. Her themes deal with something we can all relate to. In a world saturated by images of the mass media, and translated to us through our handheld computers, Lana
uses her artistic niche to remind us of the little things we all too often neglect. While smartphones show up as a recurrent motif in her work—flowers, and animals, are the clear focal points. An aspiring tattoo artist, Lana makes clear that her pieces are not meant “to be seen sitting in a gallery—I like art with function.” The idea of a stagnant piece with a fixed meaning stifles Lana’s creative struggle. For Lana, art is subjective; it means something different to all of us. As she explained, her paintings and drawings should be understood as a “critique of our technological world.” She explains, “We’re losing touch with nature, and [technology] is replacing our
need to connect with the natural world.” Lana recognizes the positive gains technological progress has brought us, but even so, she highlights the negatives. In her critique, Lana focuses not on what so-called ‘development’ has done not only to our rivers, lakes, and mountains, but moreover our social lives. “And I know I’m guilty of it too, I get so sucked in by Instagram and all those different things that I enjoy, but at the same time it’s like “damn you”. For Lana, it’s all about “finding balance” and “challenging modernity”: acknowledging the positives, but attacking the negatives. She feels the internet has manufactured us into homogenous robots and
that if we forget to look up from our screens we’ll miss the really important things—the leaves blowing in the wind on a soft autumn night. Simply put, Lana wants us to question what it means to be human in our social-media-filled blogosphere. She wants us to remember that the essence of technology is not science, but humanity; that we are not brands to be bought and sold on a cybernetic marketplace, but creatures of our environment—just one animal among many others. Essentially, what her artistic reflection reveals is this: we have become separated from that which birthed us. Her message: “Re-connect” with Mother Nature and put down your cell phones!
Like going fast? We review Ron Howard’s Rush, featuring Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Inglorious Basterds star David Bruhl.
Musician Profile of Nils Loewen, local cellist and newest member of Kelowna band Windborn. We talk to Loewen about his appearance on Global, his relationships with other local bands, and his favorite performance venue.
UPCOMING
SPORTS
On the weB
thephoenixnews.com
Oct 25 Heat Men’s Volleyball vs TRU
7:00 pm The Furnace(UBCO gym) Come watch the season opener for the UBCO Heat Men’s Volleyball team!
Oct 26 Heat Women’s Volleyball vs TRU 6:00 PM UBCO gym
The ladies open their CIS campaign hoping to build on last year’s success.
Nov 1
Heat Women’s Basketball vs U of A 6:00 PM UBCO Gym
Score some baskets! Shoot some threes, sink it from the key! Basketball!
Nov 1 Heat Men’s Basketball vs U of A 8:00 PM UBCO Gym
Second half of the seasonopening doubleheader. CBC has nothing on this.
Hayley Carlson was match MVP against Langara on the 20th. Photos provided by UBCO Heat
Heat Women beat Langara Jesse Matthews Heat Writer
With a playoff berth already sealed, the UBC Okanagan Heat women’s soccer team were playing for playoff seeding and momentum in Saturday afternoon’s matchup with the Langara Falcons. While Langara kept up with UBC Okanagan in the first half, the second half was all Heat as they put away three goals to take the match 3-0 and exact their revenge on the visiting Falcons. “I thought the girls played a solid 90 minutes today,” reflected Head head coach Claire Paterson, whose team lost to Langara, 2-0 in Richmond earlier in the season. Just two minutes into the second defender Justine Drosdovech (2nd year, Kelowna, BC) sent in a beautiful cross off a corner kick to third year defender Hayley Carlson (Red Deer, AB), who buried the ball in the back of the net to give the Heat a 1-0 lead. The Heat’s second goal of the game was a header off of a cross to by Heat rookie Haylee Lakovic (Forward, West Kelowna, BC). The goal Lakovic’s fifth of the season came just minutes after Heat keeper Christine Tallon (4th year, Kamloops, BC) make a diving save off a Langara strike by Falcon forward Chelsea Brown (2nd year, West Vancouver, BC) to preserve the Heat lead. Just six minutes later Michelle Smith capitalized on a Langara defensive scramble and notched her sixth goal of the season, giving the Heat a commanding 3-0 lead that would hold for the rest of the match. Heat midfielder Michelle Smith (3rd year, Vernon, BC), forward Madeleine Greig (3rd year, Penticton, BC) and midfielder Marissa Klees (4th year, Bellingham, WA) all had fantastic opportunities to score but couldn’t put them away before the half. With the win UBC Okanagan jumped over Langara in the standings to take third place. The four-team PACWEST provincial championship will be hosted by Vancouver Island University on October 26-27 at the Nanaimo Turf Field.
Harrison Shrimpton and the Heat might see postseason action this year
Men on the edge of playoffs Alex Eastman
Travis Barr explains how golfers get their PGA tour cards, and takes a look at how the Heat golfers did this year on an interuniversity level.
Sports Editor
By the time you read this, the UBCO Heat Men’s Soccer team may be in or out of the playoffs. A tough 2-0 loss to Langara College on the 19th of October had the Heat playing for their playoff lives as of press time. The Heat entered the weekend deadlocked with the VIU Mariners for the fourth and final provincial berth, and thankfully for UBCO, their rivals from the island lost their decision on the 19th as well, 1-0 to the Kwantlen Eagles. Prospects for the Heat in their as-of-press-time situation look good, as they match up against the winless Quest Kermodes, who have an opportunity to play spoiler with their first win of the season. The Mariners, on the other hand, are in tough against third place Douglas College. The Heat have to earn more points in the standings from the game than the Mariners, since VIU holds the tiebreaker advantage (head-to-head record). So if UBC O wins and VIU draws or loses, or if the Heat draw and the Mariners lose. Looking back on their season, the Heat got off to a strong start, storming out of the gate to a 4-1-2 record in league play, riding timely performances by a group of young players including 2nd-year keeper Logan Ellis, who posted three consecutive clean sheets for the team. The Heat then cooled considerably, falling to 1-41 over the second half of the season. What’s particularly startling about the losing skid is that the Heat dropped decisions to non-playoff opponents. For reference, the Heat were 3-2-2 versus the top three teams in the division, and just 2-3-1 against the bottom five. Defeating the Kermodes will give them a .500 winning percentage against those teams, hopefully enough to squeak into the playoffs as the 4th seed, which may be a bit of a misnomer as the Heat have proven themselves against the other three teams in playoff contention. With files from UBCO Heat and Jesse Matthews
Recaps from the season openers for the Volleyball teams as they kick off the CIS season.
Fitness under $20: It sure is getting colder outside. How does one keep up the cardio when winter takes hold? Alex investigates.
September 9th, 2013
PRO
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FITNESS
Why you should watch golf
No, seriously
Photo by Kelsi Barkved
Fitness under $20: SQUATS Alex Eastman
Illustration by Kayti Barkved
Tiger Woods is displeased that you do not watch the PGA Tour Travis Barr
Contributor
Golf is boring. My dad plays golf, I play GTA V. Or better yet, in the famous words of Happy Gilmore, “Golf requires goofy pants and a fat ass. You should talk to my neighbor the accountant - probably a great golfer, huge ass.” Living in Canada, hockey dominates the TV ratings and water cooler banter. “Hey Jim, did you see the line brawl in the Toronto-Buffalo game?” You don’t hear, “Man did you see the charge Jordan Spieth made on the back nine of the Tour Championship?” Televised golf has gained a stigma of being as exciting to watch as paint dry. However, I would argue that tournament golf builds up an atmosphere of anticipation and drama that is unparalleled in sport. In literally the blink of an eye the prospective champion makes his swing, and he and his viewer are helpless but to watch his shot fly towards the green. Moments like that can’t be found in other sports. It can be said that the last snap, the last pitch, or the last shot of a game are tremendously exciting, but there is always a lead-in. The hockey team has to charge into the offensive zone (if time permits) before the last shot is taken; the receivers must sprint to the end-zone and the quarterback must have ample time to even get off the Hail Mary; baseball’s final pitch approaches finality but if the ball is put in play and the batter (and any other runners) is safe then the game goes on. Whereas in golf, on the 18th green once he strikes the ball with his putter and it begins to
roll to the hole, there is no return. There are no audibles, no leadoffs, or timeouts. The ball might as well be a freight train without brakes because you can’t stop it. In one second, a golfer can change his fate forever. After four long days of fierce competition, the entire tournament can hinge on one hole, one shot, one putt; potentially immortalizing a player into sports history with a singular perfectly executed golf shot. Golf mirrors life. It requires determination, dedication, precision, patience, and a willingness to take risks. You don’t play against other players like you do in team sports but are pitted against the course; you play against yourself. You can learn more about someone playing one round of golf than a lifetime of conversation. On the course you see how someone handles good luck, bad breaks, great success, and utter disappointment. The fairways and greens reveal character, or lack thereof. When watching a PGA or LPGA tournament these maxims of golf seep through the screen. There are Cinderella stories: like the year the young 20 year old Jordan Spieth has had; prevailing champions Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson; and magnetic crowd favorites like Fred Couples or Jason “Duff” Dufner. Dufner has even created a viral/meme sensation of people taking photos of themselves slouching against a wall with their arms by their sides with an exhausted or confused expression known simply as “Dufnering.”
Photo by PANationalGuard(flickr)
The thing that draws me to the game is its intrinsic mystic. Golf has an aura, an innate enigma contained between the tees and greens that eludes even the greatest players in the world. It can never be mastered; the course teaches and the player is tested. Today you can shoot a personal best, yet on the drive home replay the round in your head plucking out the shots you missed or putts that you could have made and pick them apart.
Golf builds up an atmosphere of anticipation and drama that is unparalleled in sport. My good friend Ian Deans likes to needle me when I grumble about a poor shot, saying “golf is the game of ‘if’.” It always grinds my gears but he couldn’t be more poignant. “If only that drive didn’t roll into the rough, if only my approach hadn’t caught the lip of the bunker, if only my putt rolled a half turn more.” I watch golf to see professionals play on the world’s most treacherous courses, set-up to play as difficult as humanly possible, and shoot scores absent of “if.” Rounds that just “are.”
Sports Editor
The 30-day squat challenge Legs are important. So is core strength. Squats are a free, fun way to work on both things. I use the muscle groups associated with squats often when I further my career as Kelowna’s most consistent beer league goalie, so it makes sense to give them a try. Part of my challenge is to not use a gym to get into shape, but I did make my way to The Hangar to learn proper form from one of the trainers there (pictured above). Opinions Editor Matt Lauzon also suggested combining my squats with a healthy dose of oats to create full power. Resolving never to take Matt’s advice again, I turned to the fitness under $20 bible: www.google.com. The first item on the search turned up 30-Day Fitness Challenges’ regimen for a 30-day squat workout. The Breakdown: The challenge is broken up into seven four-day segments, three days of increasing reps followed by a day of rest. At the end of the challenge, there are two days of intense squatting. Here’s a list of the seven segments. If you’re struggling with a portion of the challenge, try doing it over again and extending the challenge for longer than 30 days if need be. Stage 1: 50 squats, 55, 60, rest Stage 2: 70, 75, 80, rest Stage 3: 100, 105, 110, rest Stage 4: 130, 135, 140, rest Stage 5: 150, 155, 160, rest Stage 6: 180, 185, 190, rest Stage 7: 220, 225, 230, rest FINAL BATTLE: 240, 250 How to to do the squats: Well, first of all, keep your back straight. Since we’re not squatting with weights, hold your arms out to steady yourself and look like a badass (pictured above). There are three types of squatting: deep, parallel, and shallow. If the top crease of your leg where it meets
the hip joint is below your knee, that’s considered a parallel squat, though there are other definitions that you probably shouldn’t worry about because semantics are for tryhards, we only worry about safety. Anything lower than that is considered deep, and above that shallow. Two common errors with squats are going down too quickly (especially when using weights that can really mess you up, so be careful) and bending the torso too far forward (pictured above). Keep your form prime, and by the end of the squat challenge you’ll end up feeling like the UBCO cougar ready to pounce with explosive leg strength!
UBCSUO pages
Your chance to impact the future of your students’ union
Town Hall
Wednesday October 30
5 PM
UNC 200 Ballroom
One week before the AGM, The Phoenix and the UBCSUO will host a Town Hall forum in which the UBCSUO executives will speak to students regarding the impeachment motion. The Phoenix staff will first present a list of key questions and talking points, then convey student questions submitted online by students, and finally open the floor to questions from the students in attendance. Because the impeachment motion is such an important issue, the Town Hall has been set up to ensure students can be fully informed prior to the AGM and to reduce the amount of discussion needed at the AGM.
AGM
Wednesday November 6
11 AM
UNC 106 Theatre
The UBCSUO Annual General Meeting is the designated time at which your students’ union’s bylaws can be changed. It is also an opportunity to hold the union accountable for their budget, which outlines how student money will be spent over the course of this academic year. Each student present will be able to vote on all motions and, if they have prepared a motion, submit that motion. The only student motion already submitted is the motion to impeach 3 executives. The AGM must meet its attendance quorum of at least 50 students.
The Honeymoon is Over... TIPS FROM ALEJANDRA The first few weeks of school were filled with expectations and new beginnings. Most of the time these two weeks were definitely amusing, relaxing and fun. Nevertheless, as we have reached the end of our first month, our lifestyle is starting to become more hectic and stressful. The ambience around UBCO is changing; summer is over, and it’s noticeable. It is evident one’s schedule is starting to take a definite shape, and one is getting used to a new routine. But before you get too comfortable, you should certainly get involved around campus! There are endless opportunities for you to explore and take advantage of. Get out of your comfort zone and try something new, positive and interesting! Paradoxically, I would also advise not to “bite off more than you can chew.” Even though it is great to be part of multiple clubs and activities, it is important to stay on top of your role as a student. Whether we like it or not, at the end of the day, academics turn out to be quite important. Don’t slack too much, go to class and profit from the knowledgeable people around campus! Oh, and one last thing: swing by the UBCSUO office and events; get to know your Board of Directors! We’re here to help you out!
GREEN BEAN COFFEE HOUSE
GREEN TEXT AND MORE BOOKSTORE
The Green Bean Coffee House provides local organic socially responsible coffee to our campus community. We are committed to achieving sustainability by using environmentally friendly packaging and making our food items in house from locally produced ingredients. We work closely with our local roaster, Pioneer Gourmet Coffee, who provides our coffee and specialty syrups, and ensure that the coffee we serve you has been grown organically, and has been traded and handled in a responsible manner.
The UBCSUO Green Text and More Bookstore is a great place to get your textbooks for a cheaper price than anywhere else on campus. You can sell your old textbooks, buy old textbooks and help out another fellow student. We also offer school supplies, and much more! For more information please come into the UBCSUO Green Text and More Bookstore located in UNC 103.
We buy most of our baking supplies and produce from local growers, and our bread comes from a local bakery. We know how important dietary choices are, which is why we now have gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options. Come enjoy our delicious specialty coffees or grab a quick, tasty snack or lunch!
Regular Hours Open Monday - Friday from 9:00am until 4:00pm. Closed on weekends and holidays (except September Labour Day). THE WELL STUDENT PUB The Well Pub is the only full service bar on the UBCO campus. After class come grab a pitcher and have something to munch with your friends and catch your favorite sports team on our large TV’s. We have updated our menu and are offering some unique daily specials, such as mouth watering pulled pork sandwiches on Fridays. If you ask your friends, some of our most memorable events are the BFP, Halloween party, St. Patty’s Day, BFP 2, and the Semester Ender Benders. The Well Pub is an ideal location for Clubs and Course Unions to hold successful fundraisers. We understand what students are looking for in a good time!! Come and check out the trendy renovations that have been done to your pub. Just a heads up, so you don’t miss out on a good time: it’s cash only at the bar, but we have a low service-fee bank machine on site! You must be 19 years old or older to enter The Well Pub. We will ask for two pieces of ID. This is the place to be on campus when you aren’t in class!! Come by and hang out!
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October 21st, 2013