Good, quick and dirty since 1918
we get around: check out our transportation special on page 5. keep following the line inside
After the U-Pass was introduced, ridership increased this much
CAN’T STAND IT?
the ubyssey
OCTOBER 07, 2010 • volume 92, number xi • room 24, student union building • published monday and thursday • feedback@ubyssey.ca
poster children The Bosom Buddy • old WB shows • coolers • flash mobs
The Time Warp • guitar for unwanted Bob Dylan covers • bead door The Weedian • Longboard • Incense • huge bong
The Radical • socialist literature • “liberated” traffic pylon
The Dude’s Dude • frisbee • sword • trophy liquor
Pre-Civil Rights Chic • record player to legitimize claim that all modern music is claptrap • long cigarettes • vintage crap
The ubyssey’s irreverent look at the sub poster sale (page 4)
2 / u b y s s e y. c a / e v e n t s / 2 0 1 0 . 1 0 . 0 7 october 07, 2010 volume xcii, no xi editorial
events
coordinating editor
Justin McElroy : coordinating@ubyssey.ca
news editor
Arshy Mann : news@ubyssey.ca
thursday, oct. 7
associate news editor
Sally Crampton : associate.news@ubyssey.ca
culture editors
momentum presents: bike style fashion show
UBC Film Society Screening: THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
associate culture editor
Momentum Magazine presents the Bike Style Fashion Show and party. It will highlight stylish, sustainable and practical fall and rainwear that works well for riding bikes. • 8pm party, 9pm fashion show, Calabash Bistro, 428 Carrall St, go to momentumplanet.com/bikestyletour2010/vancouver.
The Girl Who Played With Fire is based on the hit novel by Stieg Larsson. As computer hacker Lisbeth and journalist Mikael investigate a sex-trafficking ring, Lisbeth is accused of three murders, requiring her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name. • Runs until Oct. 10, 9:15pm, Norm Theatre, SUB, $5 non-members, $2.50 members.
Jonny Wakefield & Bryce Warnes : culture@ubyssey.ca
Anna Zoria : associate.culture@ubyssey.ca
sports editor
Ian Turner : sports@ubyssey.ca
features editor
Trevor Record : features@ubyssey.ca
photo editor
Geoff Lister : photos@ubyssey.ca
production manager
Virginie Ménard : production@ubyssey.ca
copy editor
Kai Green : copy@ubyssey.ca
multimedia editor
Tara Martellaro : multimedia@ubyssey.ca
associate multimedia editor Stephanie Warren : associate.multimedia@ubyssey.ca
video editor
friday, oct. 8
Matt Wetzler : video@ubyssey.ca
imaginus poster sale
Mark Boulos Exhibition
Jeff Blake : webmaster@ubyssey.ca
The annual giant poster sale’s last day! Imaginus is here to bring you the largest poster sale on campus. This is the sale touring all campuses across Canada! Come get your Imaginus posters in the SUB. • Oct. 4– 8, 9am– 5pm, SUB Main Concourse.
Mark Boulos trained as a documentary filmmaker and is now working on gallery installations. In a geo-political world where more and more struggles for sovereignty are labeled “terrorist,” Boulos gives a non-journalistic, diaristic and very human portrait of people who have turned to militancy. • 10am– 5pm, Belkin Art Gallery, free admission.
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contributors Mandy Ng Drake Fenton Vivien Chang Annie Ju Irene Lo Pierce Nettling Joe Pickles Yooji Cummings Karina Palmitesta Hazel Hughes Chelsea Sweeney Josh Curran Elise Grieg Alexandria Mitchell Kelsey O’Connor Henry Ye Jonathan Chiang
saturday, oct. 9 CFI Book Club: The Armageddon Factor This book exposes a right-wing Christian Nationalist movement in Canada and its ties to the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. The author documents a network of think-tanks and foundations that lobby for policy changes on positions like abortion funding and gay rights. • 1pm, The Grind Coffee Shop, 4124 Main St, free admission.
legal The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Monday and Thursday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization, and all students are encouraged to participate. Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publications Society. The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles. Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as your year and faculty with all submissions. ID will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verification will be done by phone. “Perspectives” are opinion pieces over 300 words but under 750 words and are run according to space. “Freestyles” are opinion pieces written by Ubyssey staff members. Priority will be given to letters and perspectives over freestyles unless the latter is time sensitive. Opinion pieces will not be run until the identity of the writer has been verified. The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. All letters must be received by 12 noon the day before intended publication. Letters received after this point will be published in the following issue unless there is an urgent time restriction or other matter deemed relevant by the Ubyssey staff. It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.
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2 010 .10 . 0 7/ u by s s e y. c a / n e w s / 3
News
editor ARSHY MANN » news@ubyssey.ca associate SALLY CRAMPTON » associate.news@ubyssey.ca
UBC Faculty back to square one on negotiations Faculty Association bargained away right to strike Sally crampton associate.news@ubyssey.ca UBC’s professors have hit a brick wall in their negotiations with the university over pay increases. The UBC Facult y Association (FA), essentially the faculty union, has been bargaining with the university since January. The association recently announced on their “Bargaining Blog” that the university rejected all three of their proposals. The first of these is to raise the professional development allowance from $500 to $1200. The allowance reimburses faculty expenses not usually covered by the university. The FA claims that UBC has the lowest such allowance in the country. The FA also wants to equalize the minimum payment for three-credit courses across all faculties. “We simply seek internal parity,” they stated on their blog post. Finally, the FA is seeking a salary increase of two per cent to keep up with the inflation rate. According to the FA, UBC responded that “their mandate is not to spend a single cent more on faculty compensation for the next two years, whether they can afford it or not.” Thomas Knight, a professor at Sauder School of Business with an interest in collective bargaining, suggested that other schools have ceded to similar demands. “Other schools, including SFU, have made general increases in the range of two to three per cent,” he said. “Even this will be warmly received—along with appropriate improvements in professional support funding.” The professional development allowance falls under such funding. “If the university does have the resources to make even
If you had $1000, would you help yourself or help others? That’s the question that one UBC student will have to face today. For the past month, Campus for Christ, an AMS club, has signed up around 2000 students at UBC for a draw to win $1000. The winner must decide whether the money will go towards paying their own tuition, or to one of three charitable causes: the drilling of clean water wells in Benin that could potentially serve a community of 1000 people for 25 years, the building of temporary shelters for two families of eight in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, or the financing of orphanages in Tanzania, where the money would provide a month’s sponsorship for 22 children. All of the charities
Okanagan university attendance Lowest in BC (CUP) Five years after the creation of the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, university attendance is the worst in the province. “It’s obviously a concern, and we hope to change it,” Doug Owram, deputy vice-chancellor, told the university senate on Sept. 22. “One of the things you think by having a university in the area is that gradually ... more and more students would think university is an option.” The goal of UBC- Okanagan since its foundational announcement in 2004 has been to offer high-quality, accessible education. According to Owram’s speech, only 30 per cent of UBC-O’s students come from the region. Students affected by economic downturn: StatsCan
Nancy Langton, president of the UBC Faculty Association. geoff lister Photo/The Ubyssey
modest salary improvements and are hiding behind the government’s guidelines, they may be creating bad feelings unnecessarily,” said Knight. Scott Macrae, head of UBC Public Affairs, argued that the university’s position is a necessary one. “With respect to wage settlements, the university’s proposals are consistent with the university’s budgetary constraints and directives issued by the provincial government for the public sector,” he said. “The provincial government provides much
of the funding for faculty and staff salaries at UBC.” He argued that “the current mandate for UBC, and across the rest of the provincial public service, is for wage settlements not to exceed zero per cent in the next two years. The university’s position on wage settlements is consistent with that mandate. “The Faculty Association and UBC have been in bargaining for some time, but have not, to date, been successful in reaching agreement on the terms of the next collective agreement for faculty.”
Nancy Langton, president of the UBC FA, who said that they negotiated away their right to strike earlier this year, declined to discuss the current state of the collective bargaining on the record. “When we started bargaining with the university last January, both the Faculty Association and the university agreed that we would not bargain our issues in the press,” she said. “To honour that agreement, I think it’s probably best that the association not provide commentary to The Ubyssey at this time.” U
Campus for Christ asks UBC: tuition or aid? Elise Grieg Contributor
NEWS BRIEFS
are part of a worldwide organization called Global Aid Network (GAiN). However, Campus for Christ spokesperson Emily Leung argued that changing lives by giving out money is not the real aim of the contest. “Ultimately we just want a discussion going, and we just want people to think about what they want,” she said. “We’re not trying to guilt trip anybody in terms of ‘Oh, you’re choosing tuition instead of helping other people,’” Leung said. “If [you were] to choose tuition… you want to empower yourself and invest in yourself. [Then] self empowerment in some form is what you really value and what you desire. “We just want the students to think critically about the choices they make.” She also said that the campaign is not aiming to spark a debate
over what the right or wrong thing to do with the money would be. “[Instead] we’re trying to get people to seriously think about what they desire and…these questions that we normally don’t think about,” Leung said. “The question we want people to think about is why would you choose one thing over another thing, and what, ultimately, does our soul crave?” So what do the souls of UBC students crave?
We just want the students to think critically about the choices they make. emily leung campus for christ spokesperson
One of the entrants, Brian Lee, said t hat if he won, he would choose shelters for families in Haiti. “I believe a safe and warm home is the main essential for the people in need,” he said. “It has a long term effect and value for the people.” Anushka Samarawickrama, another student participating in the contest, would rather donate the money to orphans. “Losing one’s parents has a significant impact on a child,” she said. “I would hope t hat my contribution would positively impact the lives of orphaned children.” Leung said she would also choose to give the money to orphans. “I want other people to love and that is kind of ultimately what I desire,” she said. The draw will be held on Thursday in the SUB conversation pit between 5-6:30pm. U
(CUP) More than half of postsecondary students were unable to hold or find a job during last year’s recession. A Sept. 29 Statistics Canada report found that during the 2009-2010 school year only 45 per cent of students—approximately 542,000 people aged 15-24—were employed while studying. The 45 per cent is down from 2007-2008, when 48 per cent of students were holding jobs. StatsCan also reported that between 2007-2008 and 20092010, the number of employed post-secondary students fell by 30,000, highlighting the effects of the economic downturn. The labour market of 20092010 was also the worst year for post-secondary students aged 20 to 24 since the recessions of 1982 and 1993. However, there was some good to be found amid all the bad. According to the report, today’s employment rates are well above those reported during the 70s, which were determined to be approximately 25 per cent. Ryerson students’ union pockets $30,000 from grad photos (CUP) The Ryerson students’ union earns nearly $30,000 each year from organizing convocation portraits for graduating students. The union negotiates a flat commission with Lassman Studios each year and spends part of the money on advertising the service, said Caitlin Smith, vicepresident of finance and services. The remaining amount is revenue. Last year, the union spent $1214 on advertising the photography service and kept $28,666 in earnings. Currently, the sitting fee for students is $25, which includes the cost of the proofs and the composite photograph of the graduating class. Buying the larger photos and packages can cost students another several hundred dollars. The union has been running the service since the school started using Lassman Studios nearly 30 years ago.
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culture What’s on youR wall? Our satirical look at the SUB poster sale and what your walls say about you the dude’s dude
The Radical
Pre-civil rights chic
editorS BRYCE WARNES & JONNY WAKEFIELD » culture@ubyssey.ca ASSOCIATE ANNA ZORIA » associate.culture@ubyssey.ca
Jonny Wakefield, Bryce Warnes and Anna Zoria culture@ubyssey.ca “Who am I?” you ask the wall. The wall says nothing. “What’s important to me?” you ask again. The wall stares back. “Where am I going?” When the wall does not answer, you fly from the room in the grip of an existential crisis, looking for a place where you can find identity. You head for the SUB, perhaps
to join a club, or at the very least drown your sorrows at Manchu Wok. That’s when you see them. Posters. Aisles upon aisles of posters, stacked to the ceiling. Pure, unadulterated identity. Place. Belonging. A way to tell potential friends that, yes, you too watch The Office. But where do you begin with this bold act of reinvention? After carefully cataloging the posters on display in the SUB this week, we have concluded that there are roughly six different themes
You’re a dude’s dude, and you want three things in life: money, liquor and women. And cars. Fast cars. You’ve got a sick poster of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Aww yeah. As a dude’s dude, Al Pacino is your patron saint. He’s suave, ambiguously Italian, and exudes aggressive masculinity. Your walls are an homage to Al in his many roles and make clear that, like Tony Montana, you’re not one to be fucked with. As a dude’s dude, your decor is a celebration of bad-assery.
Stand up, damned of the Earth! Stand up, prisoners of hunger! As a Radical, you’ve been a friend to the oppressed ever since you first heard Rage Against the Machine, and your choice in wall hangings is a bold affirmation of your leftist sensibilities. To you, everything is political. Your walls are lined with images and quotations from a variety of thinkers: Guevara. Lenin. Banksy. But you don’t subscribe to one particular ideology. You’ve dabbled in socialism, anarcho-syndicalism, radical unionism and screen printing, and believe they all have a part in the global revolt against capitalism. But since you have no choice but to participate in that system, you are sure to consume as ethically as possible. Your sneakers are made from reconstituted tires and 100 per cent post-consumer fabric. Your lefty newsletter is printed on post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable inks at a union press. And though you are attending
You are a classy pearl-wearing lady or a dapper gentleman—and as such, you know that first impressions are everything. Iconic images of Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean lend your room the flair of a bygone era. You embody Hepburn’s flirty style, James Dean’s non-threatening rebelliousness and Monroe’s tragic beauty. You dream as if you’ll live forever.
You understand that these posters are not actually about the films, but the timeless icons. It is beside
the bosom buddy
The time warper
divisible from the hundreds of posters. The Ubyssey likes to believe that people are little more than an amalgam of what’s on their walls. Call it shallow; we like to think of it as incisive social commentary. The following is the product of minutes of careful research, followed by hours of scuttlebutt, pigeonholing and general dick-fiddlery. So next time you walk into a strange room, look to the walls, for only they can reveal what is in the heart.
But at the end of the day, you’re always there for your boys. You commemorate each night of drinking by holding onto every two-six and mickey. These trophies of brotherhood are afforded a place of honour in your room. Anybody who walks into your room knows immediately that you get blasted, broseph, and that most of your pride, social standing and self worth are derived from your ability to drink litres upon litres of spiced rum. Bad. Ass.
university, you would sooner buy a Nike product than become a cog in some corporate bureaucracy. You endeavor to bring down the system from within by using the power of literary deconstruction. Take that, neo-colonialist narrative! Truth be told, the work of a radical has been difficult since the end of the Bush administration. Ever since people stopped giving a shit about the Iraq war, you’ve been forced to resort to a new set of tactics to stick it to the neo-cons. After a night in the People’s Alehouse, you take direct action against the oppressive state. You let flow a stream of yellow justice on the symbols of the oppressor: banks, public buildings and fast food restaurants. You liberate traffic pylons to throw a wrench in the state machine. At night you sleep beneath the watchful gaze of the Heroes of the Revolution. Rest well, comrade, for when you awake the ruling classes will know true fear.
the point that you’ve never actually seen a film made before 1980 without falling asleep. Leave that for the film buffs who have mental orgasms over discussions about Godard or Hitchcock. Your Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster makes you look classy, and that’s all that matters—forget about watching the movie and ruining it for yourself when you find out that Holly Golightly was essentially a prostitute.
“Live, Love, Laugh” is your modus operandi. That, and “Dance like no one is watching.” You and your besties do it all the time. Lululemon is your religion and Jack Johnson is your JC. Your favourite activities include watching So You Think You Can Dance, quoting One Tree Hill and going to/planning parties with witty costume themes. But while you like to have fun, you’re also a deeply compassionate person. Next summer you’re totally
going to volunteer in Africa. Fresh out of the high school womb, you have not yet been tarnished by the harsh realities of life. Your admirably positive attitude allows you to picture yourself in a bright future where you are simultaneously a famous author, brilliant actress and defeater of world hunger. Until then, it’s all Facebook flashmobs, Friends marathons and 80s nights. Every step of the way you’re expanding your social network and growing your brand.
You’ve decided that it would have been better to live in the 60s than today. Everything back then was about peace, love and good times. You’ve commemorated the decade with posters of Woodstock, Bob Dylan, and Campbell’s soup cans. However images of the Kent State shootings, Charles Manson, or screaming Vietnamese children covered in napalm are inexplicably absent from your walls. That’s what makes basing your life on loose conceptions of a certain period of history great: you get to pick and choose. There’s a good chance you’ve never tried LSD, but if you have, you claim it was a life-changing experience. Your friends have a different perspective, though. They were the ones who had to spend four hours in the middle of the
night talking you down from atop the monkey bars at a local elementary school. Dr Leary would be proud. You’ve perfected your Dylan homage, playing spot on covers of “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Subterreanean Homesick Blues” whenever the opportunity presents itself: on the beach, at parties, open mics and bus stops. You have clearly established yourself as a wayward wanderer from another era, and everybody loves that nasally twang you affect when you sing “how does it feel?” Enjoy your hippie idealism while it lasts. In a couple years you’ll end up dating someone with dreadlocks and finding out what really happens to pubic hair when it’s left to Gaia’s whims. U
5/ubyssey.ca/transportation/2010.10.07
transportation UBC to face U-Pass referendum Concerns grow over coverage and overcrowding
Students wait in line for the 480 bus. Geoff lister Photo/The Ubyssey
“Every school is different,” said Jolly. “I certainly would suspect that we’ll see a marked increase in ridership due to the UPass....We [will] work closely under the current U-Pass contract to identify service issues, and try to work with TransLink where transit improvements can be made.” Although the Province will provide funding for the subsidized U-Pass, there is no funding to expand existing coverage, meaning that transit improvements will have to come from the re-assignment of less-used bus routes for now. “Right now, TransLink only has the funding to sustain current coverage levels,” said Hardie. “Having said that, we put a lot of expansion into the system in the last five years and the productivity of some of that expansion is not what we need it to be. So one of the things we’re looking at is, time period by time period and route by route, seeing if it is possible to shift some hours of
service from where they are not being very well used to where they will be well used.” Meanwhile, students at other campuses in BC have expressed concern over a lack of coverage to their schools. Kwantlen Students Association (KSA) Director of External Affairs Matt Todd helped organize a race between a bicyclist, a runner and a transit user to see which could travel the quickest between the Surrey and Cloverdale campuses last month. The transit user arrived on the second campus last. Todd says the KSA and Kwantlen University want students to be able to opt out of the U-Pass system easily with their program. “We want to ensure that [the U-Pass] is fair to all our students... even the ones who live in communities where it would take longer to take the bus than to run,” said Todd. “...We feel that those students should have the option to opt out.” U —With files from Arshy Mann
Welcome to the TransIT Supplement
each day, and when there are thousands of them, people are bound to become frustrated. With the Province’s recent announcement that all postsecondary students in public schools will be receiving $30 U-Passes, the number of commuter students is likely to grow even further. We’re in for a lot more company. Although UBC’s transit system has certainly improved since 2003 when the U-Pass program was introduced, there is still a lot of room for growth. Various issues plague the system, particularly insufficient
Annie Ju aju@ubyssey.ca
Geoff Lister Photo/The Ubyssey
Key actors express support for UBC rapid transit
streeters
Arshy Mann news@ubyssey.ca
Trevor Record features@ubyssey.ca Students at public post-secondary schools across BC will be voting to adopt a provincial U-Pass system that will cost $30 a month for each student. As schools gear up for referendums to adopt the pass next year, some groups are raising concerns about overcrowding and coverage. UBC is one of two schools where students will have to pay more for the U-Pass than they currently do. UBC students will be voting on the new U-Pass in early 2011. TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said the increased rate is due to the high losses they incur at the current rate, which he claims number in the millions. “The program as it has existed to this point has become unsustainable,” said Hardie. “TransLink is spending far more on additional service to meet the demand than we are generating at the current rate. Even at $30, the U-Pass is heavily subsidized.” AMS VP External Jeremy McElroy said that he expects the referendum should pass at UBC. “Given the overwhelming historical support for the U-Pass program, I don’t foresee any problems with the referendum passing,” said McElroy. “The actual increase, on paper, is only $13 per term, which, in my opinion, is not enough to discourage the majority of the student body. “If UBC students vote down the referendum they will not have a subsidized pass come September 2011....The effects of voting down the referendum would be devastating for an already financially challenged student body.” UBC Campus and Community Planning’s Director of Transportation Planning, Carole Jolly, said that UBC has been working with other universities to try and ensure that the program addresses the needs of all students. Students at other schools will vote independently to approve their U-Pass programs over the course of the next year. She said that the exact impact will vary from school to school, although students can expect far more riders on BC buses.
editor TREVOR RECORD » features@ubyssey.ca guest editor annie ju » aju@ubyssey.ca
Year after year, the bus routes to UBC have strained to accommodate the student population— especially since students are increasingly less likely to own cars. Many UBC students commute to class everyday from the furthest corners of the Greater Vancouver Area. There are students from as far as Maple Ridge and Tsawassen who endure the oneor two-hour daily commutes
Ever since Metro Vancouver downgraded a UBC rapid transit line to the bottom of their priority list, a number of other important actors have expressed their support for a line. In a speech to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention in Whistler on October 1, Premier Gordon Campbell, who is also the MLA for UBC’s riding, Vancouver-Point Grey, said that it’s time to move forward on rapid transit to UBC. “It’s time to build rapid transit to UBC, it’s time we got started,” he said. “We decided finally on the technology. We made the decisions within the next year so we can get on with building the kind of communities and cities that we need that will serve the needs of our citizens.” Two days ago, the City of Vancouver unanimously passed Translink’s report and recommendations for the UBC Line Rapid Transit study, which includes a short list of non-rapid transit alternatives for the Broadway corridor. The Alma Mater Society (AMS) has also formally expressed its support for rapid transit to the university. At its September 29 meeting, AMS Council passed a resolution directing the AMS President to “pursue partnership options with the University with regard to promoting the creation of a rapid transit line through the Broadway corridor to UBC.” The AMS executive also said that they will be organizing a lobbying campaign to raise awareness about UBC Line, and will also circulate a petition amongst students to gauge their support for the line. Metro Vancouver will be taking input on their regional growth strategy until October 15, 2010. It must be formally accepted by all of Metro Vancouver’s 22 member municipalities, the Tsawassen First Nation, Translink and all adjacent regional districts. U
coverage and overcrowding. It’s common for students to get passed by three or four B-lines in the morning or to encounter seemingly endless lineups at the bus loop come mid-afternoon. How do the students generally feel about the transit system, and will there be any changes made to satisfy us? Because the transportation affects so many of us at UBC, this supplement was made to answer your questions and address some of your concerns. Hopefully, we can provide you with a deeper insight into the commuter system. U
Liam Polsky Student U: How often do you use the transit system? A couple times a day, when I have to leave campus. The 25 is pretty bad, it comes irregularly. U: What’s your general impression of the transit system? It’s good. I come from Calgary, and the public transit there is awful. It’s much better here.
Steph Jewitt Student U: What’s your general impression of the transit system? It’s pretty good; it’s way better than in Toronto, where I come from. But the 25 sucks....It stops at every stop; doesn’t matter if there are people there or not. Sometimes they don’t even come. U: Have you seen any unusual things on the bus? Once, I was sitting on the bus and the person beside me pulled out a tube and started doing lines of cocaine.
Nick Blesch Bus Driver U: Any interesting experiences? It’s always different—sometimes stuff that irritates or upsets you. Other days, it won’t bother you at all. At UBC, you sometimes wonder how these kids got to university when they can’t read the signs on the bus. Some strange things happen but you can’t gather them all— or you get crazy. U: Is it sometimes hard to deal with certain passengers? It gets frustrating...We have no power to say no to somebody getting on the bus. And if we do, we’re on our own—so we pick our battles. U: Have you driven the 25? The 25 is a crazy bus—you feel like a racecar driver, trying to keep on time. U —Organized by Annie Ju and Matthew Weltzer.
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$173 Million Private Investors
US vs them
Tr Ri ans de i rs t Ex Bu d hi p pan ge in t s cr ion e a US U s A pas e vs s us
Who’s paying for the evergreen line?
$410 Million Federal Government
$400 Million Unaccounted for
$410 Million Provincial Government
A comparison of Vancouver, Portland and Seattle’s transit Pierce Nettling Contributor If Metro Vancouver plans to adapt transportation policies that work for our area, they must look to other cities within the Pacific Northwest for ideas on what may work for our growing community. Portland
Portland has one of the best transportation models for a city of its size in North America. Under the direction of TriMet, Portland uses a light rail transit (LRT) system known locally as the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX). The entire public transportation network within the Portland region handles over 1.93 million passengers a month. The growth of public transit in Portland began in 1973, when Portland voters rejected the proposed Mt Hood Freeway, a highway that would extend through the neighbourhoods of Southeast Portland. The cancellation of the interstate and the burgeoning environmentalist movement of the 1970s pushed TriMet to study alternatives to car transportation.
Po r
The Portland Streetcar
Portland is also known for its streetcar, also called a tram. Vancouver, once known as the city of “streetcar suburbs,” has long since dismantled its streetcar network. Streetcars are slower than a LRT and do not operate on an immediate basis in traffic. They are also more expensive. In 2001, at a cost of $57 million ($62.7 million in 2010) the City of Portland and TriMet completed a 12.6km streetcar loop servicing the downtown core and Portland State University. While the streetcar system is operated and maintained by TriMet, it is owned and managed by the city of Portland. The majority of the streetcar line falls within TriMet’s Free Rail Zone. Currently, construction is ongoing for an east side expansion project. According to Portland Streetcar Inc, the Portland Streetcar Loop Project, when finished, will connect downtown Portland to neighbourhoods on the eastern bank of the Willamette River.
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Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, yet its urban transportation and development history remain an enigma. The I-5, the most important north to south interstate highway on the west coast of North America, was approved to run through the centre of downtown in 1957, splitting the heart of Seattle in half. The destruction of neighbourhoods within Seattle spurred Vancouver residents in Chinatown and Strathcona to protest the development of a similar highway development plan in 1972. Today, only the Georgia Viaduct in Vancouver remains from this obsolete vision of city planning. In 1962, when Seattle held the Century 21 Exposition, also known as the World’s Fair, the city adopted futurism as its model of city production. The Expo, which Vancouver held 24 years later, was portrayed as man conquering and controlling nature—the fundamental tenants of futurism. The city’s legacy from this blueprint for the future is the Space Needle and the future model of mass transportation: the Monorail. However, decades later and after many years of trying, the fabled Seattle Monorail Project was officially scrapped in 2005 in favour of an LRT transit system taken from Portland’s Max Line. U
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Premier announces transportation improvements Liberals ready to think about possibly considering a UBC line, as well as extending the Skytrain to Langley
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BC’s Transit Priorities government talks transit, but has yet to put aside funding Alexandria Mitchell Contributor Effective transportation development has been a longstanding issue within Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. In September, transit re-entered the headlines with the signing of the Regional Transportation Agreement between the Province of British Columbia and the Mayor’s Council on Regional Transportation. According to the agreement, TransLink will develop capacity for revenue generation and sustainable transportation. The Provincial Transit Plan pledges to invest $4.2 billion into transit in Metro Vancouver by 2020, including the $1.2 billion dollar Evergreen Line to connect people commuting to Vancouver from the tri-cities (Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, and Coquitlam). TransLink, with limited financial resources, will have to contribute $400,000 to pay for the Evergreen Line. “What we have to do...is come up with some discussions on new funding mechanisms that can support the kind of expansion that’s going to be required in the region,” said TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie. “The Evergreen line is something that was committed to by the region, and the province, and the federal government some time ago.” Construction for the Evergreen Line is planned to start in 2011, and it will be four years until before it is open for use. In goal three of the Provincial Transit Plan, the government endeavours to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the transportation sector through investing in rapid transit infrastructure, public transit, transit priority measures, integrated cycling and walking networks, along with increased land use density around transit stations and corridors. As most transportation emissions come from vehicle traffic, public transportation is an efficient way to decrease usage of fossil fuels and allow for sustainable connections between communities across the lower mainland. Commuters to and from UBC realize the importance of effective transit through the area and to surrounding communities in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. For communities south of the Fraser, there is virtually no alternative method of transportation other than driving into Vancouver. TransLink’s technical review of “Rapid transit service along the Broadway Corridor from Commercial Drive, West to UBC,” better known as the UBC Line, is in progress. However, it’s unlikely to be continued until more funding is allocated. “The Evergreen Line is an existing commitment; the other lines would require new sources of revenue to support, and those sources have not been identified yet,” said Hardie. In a speech at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention in Whistler on October 1, Premier Gordon Campbell said that the province will commit funding to transit in the future, although he did not specify when this would be. “The province is working with the Mayors’ Council of TransLink to make sure...that we can provide for that transit service that’s so critical in the long term with sustainable funding,” said Campbell. “We can’t pretend that it doesn’t cost something to do it. I can tell you it costs us something not to do it as well, and equally important, it costs our families lots if we don’t do it and we don’t do it well.” While funds have yet to be earmarked for additional transit development, the Government of British Columbia has committed to major highway expansion. The Federal Pacific Gateway Strategy is set to cost approximately $10 billion, dealing with traffic issues and increasing the capacity for trade with Asia. The controversial British Columbia Gateway Project will take $4 billion of this, and will deal with the transport of products and mitigate the significant problem of congested highways and traffic into Vancouver. Specific projects include the twinning of the Port Mann bridge, expansion of Highway 1, and a new North Fraser Perimeter Road and South Fraser Perimeter Road. U
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Close to 60,000 UBC bus rides per day
HST makes Campus parking costs rise
Bus use to and from campus up 208 per cent since 1997 Hazel Hughes Contributor Every morning, buses drive past students and Vancouver residents. The people who manage to squeeze themselves onto the bus are forced to hold on for dear life as they stand, trying to keep their balance while their personal space is invaded. Saying the buses are a little full is an understatement. But how full are buses at UBC? UBC’s fall 2009 Transportation Status Report states that since 1997, ridership has increased 208 per cent to a total of 58,500 weekday transit trips to and from UBC. The transit mode share increased from 18 per cent in 1997 to 47 per cent in fall 2009, with transit now accounting for more trips to and from UBC than any other travel mode. In another report commissioned by UBC, it was found that between 1997 and 2005, there was a 4.8 per cent reduction in SOV (Single Occupant Vehicle) trips since 1997—despite the 22 per cent growth in student enrollment. The report showed a 163 per cent increase in transit ridership and 13 per cent reduction in daily automobile volume. The update highlighted the goals that are to be met by 2010, including maintaining daily automobile traffic at or less than 1997 levels, implementing an on-campus shuttle service, creating an end-of-trip facilities plan for cyclists, implementing a U-Pass program for UBC residents, staff and faculty, and clarifying targets for heavy truck traffic—many of which have already been put into action. Derek Zabel of Translink’s media and communications
Jonathan Chiang photo/ the ubyssey
Yooji Cummings Contributor
Twenty per cent of buses leaving campus during peak hours are on the 99 line. geoff lister photo/the ubyssey
department said that despite crowding, the level of coverage to UBC is quite high. “It is difficult to gauge the amount of transit customers that are disembarking from UBC off of our service, as so many people are getting on and off at every block,” said Zabel. “What I can say is that overall, we have 195 routes in the Lower mainland, and in the peak AM and PM periods, we have 1300 buses servicing the entire lower
mainland. Of these routes, 17 routes service UBC, and 346 inservice buses leave UBC during the PM peak (3:00pm–6:30pm). Twenty per cent of those are 99 B-Line.” Electoral Area A Director Maria Harris said that the lack of on-campus housing may be the cause of packed buses on campus. “Transit demand is affected by the amount of student housing provided on campus,” said Harris. “UBC continues to add
new student residences as well as new faculty, staff and student accommodation in the university neighborhoods. These, as well as the university’s decision to halt growth of the student population on Point Grey Campus in the future, will help to offset some of the transit demand growth of the past decade.” While changing commuting habits to, from and around campus is possible, it’s going to take some time. U
Students planning on driving to campus this semester may find their wallets a little lighter as heavier taxes have been applied to parking at UBC. The university has steadily increased base rates since 2006. This year, however, an additional tax has been applied in July in conjunction with the HST. The previous tax in 2009 was 12 per cent on the purchase price of the parking permit, but has since seen a dramatic 24 per cent jump to just under 36 per cent tax on the monthly parking permits. The UBC Parking website states that the increase is a result of a combination of a PST increase in early January 2010 and the introduction of the HST in July. However, the sharp rise in the parking tax is not fully accounted for by the addition of the increased PST rate and GST. With the introduction of the HST, the original PST was regarded as a separate “parking sales tax” and was therefore not eliminated. UBC defended the change on the Parking website, explaining that “although the ‘PST’ on parking was collected under the same legislation as the Provincial Sales Tax, it was in fact a ‘Parking Sales Tax’, and would therefore not be subject to elimination upon the harmonization of GST and PST.” U
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Shrum Bowl XXXIII: the tradition continues drake fenton Contributor On Friday, October 8, at Thunderbird Stadium, UBC will host cross-town rival Simon Fraser in Shrum Bowl XXXIII. The annual matchup is one of the fiercest rivalries in Vancouver. Regardless if the game is an exhibition—as this year’s is—or one with playoff implications, the game is played with a level of intensity and emotion normally reserved for something as momentous as the Vanier Cup. “It’s huge because of the tradition,” said UBC head coach Shawn Olson at a press conference Tuesday. “It’s got massive importance to the football community—every year people talk about who won the Shrum Bowl.” That being said, it’s important to realize that with SFU’s departure to the NCAA, this year’s contest is simply an exhibition match. It’s being held in each team’s respective bye weeks, and holds no true statistical value. But don’t tell that to the players— with SFU at 0–5 and UBC at 1–3 on the season, there’s a whole lot of pride on the line. “Bot h teams have played very, very hard...effort has been
great,” said Olson to the Vancouver Sun. “Right now, talent wise, I don’t know if either team is where we want to be.” Though t he game will be played with Canadian rules, as UBC is hosting, Olson doesn’t feel that this will give his squad any sort of major advantage. “I think there is an advantage but it really isn’t as much as you would think. If you look over the years at who won the games with American rules crossing over to Canadian rules, it has been pretty even.” He admitted that some details of the Canadian game will be advantageous for UBC. SFU players will have to make technical adjustments to accommodate the ability of receivers to run freely before the snap of the ball. SFU coaches will also have to reimagine their offensive strategy to adapt to the faster pace of the three down game played in Canadian football, compared to the four down game played in American ball. Yet the disadvantages SFU faces should be slightly diminished by the fact that they are only one year removed from the CIS, and are led by coach Dave Johnson, who orchestrated the
30-1 clobbering UBC suffered at the hands of the Clan in last year’s Shrum Bowl. Adding extra intrigue to this marquee matchup, Olson was the offensive coordinator at SFU last year, creating a mentor versus protégé coaching subplot into the game. “I have a pretty good handle on his offence, and [Dave] knows mine pretty well, though on game day I don’t know if that stuff really matters. How well our guys can show up, how well we can motivate them, and how well they can execute the game plan should hopefully make our familiarity with each other irrelevant.” UBC’s roster will look for inspiration in fifth-year linebacker Mark Bailey. Bailey is a former SFU starter who transferred to UBC this year and has been a dominant force in the middle of the field all season, leading the team with 25 tackles. Bailey echoed sentiments made by Olson that it would feel strange to line up against old teammates. Yet he made clear that when the whistle blows, he’ll be only thinking about a win. “I played with eight of their starters on offence...these guys are buddies but that doesn’t
josh curran Photo/The Ubyssey
shrum bowl facts – Game named in honour of Gordon Shrum, first chancellor of SFU – The first Shrum Bowl was played in 1967, a 32–13 victory – In the first game, a riot broke out on the field after UBC engineers attempted to kidnap an SFU student mean I’m not going to go [out] and smack them in the mouth.” That kind of intensity is what the Shrum Bowl is all about. It is part of a tradition and a rivalry that has been embedded into Vancouver’s cultural construct. It is a tradition that supersedes collegiate allegiances to exist
as something unique and individual to Vancouver itself. And with SFU holding a 16–15 lead in the series (the schools tied in 1969), the T-Birds will be looking to pull even. Shrum Bowl XXXIII is Friday night. Tradition will continue, and history will be made. U
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editorial ubc shoots an airball at raptors game On Sunday, the Toronto Raptors—those vaunted demigods of the National Basketball Association—held an intersquad scrimmage (meaning a practice game) at War Memorial Gym. Some of the world’s best athletes were on campus. And the final attendance? About 2000 paid tickets—though considerably fewer people seemed to actually be in the stands— all of which resulted in a gym that was only two thirds full. For a university that brands itself as world-class and an athletic department that fancies itself as one of the best in Canada, it wasn’t the greatest showing. “Vancouver not caught up in Raptors fever,” wrote the National Post after the event. The subworld of Canadian Online Basketball Forums scoffed at the lack of interest and advertising for the event, and we don’t blame them. But there are a lot of reasons other than the apathy of UBC students for why this event didn’t come close to selling out. First, without getting into sports jargon, with Chris Bosh gone, the Raptors will suck this year. Every basketball fan knows this, and that surely decreased the value for the game. Plus, it’s the week before hockey season starts; trying to get a Vancouver sports fan to care about anything other than the Canucks is like trying to get an eightyear-old to eat his vegetables. We don’t know whose decision it was to charge $15 for a ticket, but that much for a practice game, especially when tickets for yesterday’s exhibition match against Steve Nash’s Phoenix Suns were only $30, was just a tad high. In 1998, the Vancouver Grizzlies (remember them?) had their training camp in Victoria, played a scrimmage at UVic, made it free, and easily sold out the 2500 seat gym. It was a win-win for everyone. Frankly, we have a niggling suspicion that the lackluster crowd at War Memorial was due to UBC Athletics’s continuing inability to convince students to come out to sports events. To give them the benefit of the doubt, we’ll reserve judgement until Friday night’s Shrum Bowl at Thunderbird Stadium. But given the lack of publicity for even that, we’re not optimistic. U thanksgiving shmanksgiving Maybe it’s just because of the high concentration of Americans in our office, but Thanksgiving has always struck The Ubyssey as a somewhat lame holiday. There’s no real heritage, no sales, no religious element, no annual sports classics...it serves as “The October Holiday,” and not much else. Still, since UBC is taking Monday off, we felt as though we might as well too. This will be the last edition you see of The Ubyssey for a week, as we take the weekend off to recharge our batteries and have ginormous dinners with loved family members and less-beloved fellow editors. But before that, we’d like to give thanks to the following... September, which has been surprisingly sunny, and 4pm Delly, for saving us money The AUS too, for giving us headlines by not passing budgets and going past deadlines The CUS also, for secretive meetings, where mascots are changed and democracy’s fleeting Campus for Christ, for sparking debate on moral decisions that carry some weight Bijan Ahmadian, for setting the precedent of awkward YouTubery with UBC Presidents And while the RCMP won’t agree We’d like to give thanks to fraternities Their ham-fisted efforts to deflect the blame have sometimes been funny, and sometimes been lame For AMS shitshows, we’d like to give thanks And Forestry students; we quite like your pranks And last but not least, a full weekend to study Though we love the newspaper, our grades, they are cruddy. U
anne tastad graphic/the ubyssey
letters greek system needs a permanent representative As the reverberations of September’s great Greek drama fade out of the spotlight, I would like to offer a suggestion to the campus. Give the Greek System a real representative! A major problem for the Greek system at UBC is that every fraternity and sorority, as well as the Intra-Fraternity Council (IFC) and PanHellenic Council, rotate on a yearly basis, offering little institutional memory and long term accountability to speak of. While a fraternity may make positive strides due to good management one year, the next year it can be back to the same old antics or worse, depending on new leadership. The IFC has exercised some power to guide the fraternities toward social and operational standards. However, yearly turnover without a permanent advisor has left the system relatively stagnant in
growth and without long term focus. I suggest the AMS create a permanent Greek Advisor as a true liaison for the Greeks and campus as well as a nexus of institutional memory and focus for future Greeks. I believe strongly in the positive influence Greek society can have on campus by bringing people together in ways other than just drinking. With a real Greek Advisor, the campus might just find itself with a growing Greek system to be proud of. Drew Cuddy paid vs aid debate worth having The draw being held by Campus for Christ makes at least one important point about morality. It’s up to individual people to think about their moral and personal relationships with others, and being religious or being an atheist doesn’t change that. If you want to give
effective aid, it doesn’t matter what your faith is, you’re going to have to address the sorts of problems mentioned in the last two opinion pieces on the subject. Sometimes aid is ineffective and more often than we would like to know it can actually hurt, and so we (religious and non-religious alike) should be clear about how to improve the situation. Maybe you better help people by getting a good education at UBC and applying that knowledge later on in life, or maybe $1000 in aid right now is the clear right choice. If you don’t want to give aid, fine, it’s your life. But Campus for Christ is raising these issues, and as an atheist I think that’s great in every way. I think the next step in this debate is to ask who does the better job at exploring these issues, the religious or the non-religious? Here is a debate worth having. Cody Kolenchuk
too sexy Caring Readership, We here at Too Sexy often wax absurd over the value of communication. Despite our occasional tom-foolery, we really do mean every word of it. It is with this in mind, dear friends, that we’ve decided to take the first bit of this column off from answering questions and take the time to communicate with you (yes, you), our beloved co-pilots on this sexy sojourn. All we’ve had to pull us through was the promise of another chance to chat with you. We’ve been answering your questions for quite some time now and we’d like to think we’ve gotten to know you. Your letters have ranged from the ill-advised to the touching to the deeply private. Sometimes your letters have come in groups of eight or nine a day. Sometimes you don’t write for what feels like an eternity. Sometimes we think (we hope) that you are just trying to screw with us. But communication must be a twoway street, dear readership, and we are always looking for ways to improve this column. As you probably know by now, toosexy@ubyssey.ca serves as a repository for your questions, your rants, your attempts at erotic fiction. We hope it
can also serve as a forum for feedback. If email is too personal for you (never thought I’d write that), submit your spewings and speculations to our anonymous web form: ubyssey.ca/ask-too-sexy. And it is on that note that we delay this attempt at dialogue and change topics. Below, a list of Too Sexy’s Top Ten Dos and Don’ts, carefully cultivated from this last year or so. Read on, friends. Read on. 1. DO talk to your partner about sex. If you don’t know what they want, it’s hard to give it to them. 2. DON’T stick food in there. It doesn’t matter where ‘there’ is. If it’s not your mouth, food shouldn’t go there. If you absolutely must, don’t use anything with any sugar in it. Ginger’s a good bet. 3. DO try new things. Push boundaries. Explore. 4. DON’T forget to bring a condom. Best case scenario is you end up not having sex that night. Worst case scenario, you look unprepared, get some terrible disease and have a baby who grows up to commit genocide. Generations for centuries after will wonder how history might have been spared its darkest moments, if only you’d used a damn condom. You’ve been warned.
5. DO be honest with your partner. If you want something serious, say so. If you don’t, say that too. A relationship built on misunderstandings is a waste of time. 6. DON’T be shy. There are six billion people on this Earth and no matter what kind of pervert or prude you may be, someone else is almost certainly in the same boat. 7. DO go to a youth clinic for an STI checkup every now and then. It’s free. There’s no excuse for not going. 8. DON’T be pressured into doing anything you don’t want to do. Your sex life is not a race. (That is, unless you really want it to be, in which case, start your engines.) 9. DO read this column. It’s probably the most important thing that you’ll ever read in your entire life. (Ok, this one is probably bullshit.) 10. DON’T forget: just because you have an asshole, it doesn’t give you the right to act like one. Using other people as sex objects is a douche move, unless they’re asking for it. If they are, pick a safe word and go nuts. Anyways that’s it for this week. Please DO send us your emails at toosexy@ubyssey. ca and we’ll talk to you next week. Have fun and enjoy the autumn. U
The number of people who take transit to campus increased from 18% to 47% after the UPass was introduced.
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Kelsey O’Connor Contributor The green laser sometimes seen emanating from Totem Field is more than just a pretty light show or an omen of alien invasion. It’s helping scientists measure the amount of small particles in the atmosphere which affect air quality and climate change—and it’s the first of its kind in Canada. The laser is part of a project called the Canadian Operational Research Aerosol Lidar Network (CORALNet), and was first launched at UBC in April 2008. Every ten seconds, it is projected into the sky to an altitude of 20 kilometres. At the same time, an instrument on the ground measures the amount of light refracted off tiny suspended particles, called aerosols. The laser isn’t visible during the day, but if the beam passes through a low cloud at night, it can give off a ghostly green glow. U
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tristan menzies photo/the ubyssey