Crafting little vignettes since 1918
our behinds may finally be getting the support they deserve. new chairs for ubc!
U
$136 million: the price of the new ponderosa housing hub. page 10
page 3
the ubyssey
FEBRUARY 28, 2011 volume 92, number xxxvii room 24, student union building published mondays and thursdays feedback@ubyssey.ca
playoff season pages 7-9
2 / u b y s s e y. c a / e v e n t s / 2 0 11 . 0 2 . 2 8 february 28, 2011 volume xcii, no xxxvii editorial
events
coordinating editor
ongoing events
news editor
Ubyssey Production • Come help us create this baby! Learn about layout and editing. Expect to be fed. • Every Sunday and Wednesday, 2pm.
Justin McElroy : coordinating@ubyssey.ca Arshy Mann : news@ubyssey.ca
assistant news editor
Kalyeena Makortoff : kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca
senior news writer
Micki Cowan : mcowan@ubyssey.ca
culture editors
Jonny Wakefield & Bryce Warnes : culture@ubyssey.ca
senior culture writer
Ginny Monaco : gmonaco@ubyssey.ca
culture illustrator Indiana Joel : ijoel@ubyssey.ca
sports editor
Marie Vondracek : 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
David Marino : video@ubyssey.ca
webmaster
Jeff Blake : webmaster@ubyssey.ca Room 24, Student Union Building 6138 Student Union Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 tel: 604.822.2301 web: www.ubyssey.ca e-mail: feedback@ubyssey.ca
business Room 23, Student Union Building print advertising: 604.822.1654 business office: 604.822.6681 web advertising: 604.822.1658 e-mail: advertising@ubyssey.ca
business manager
Fernie Pereira : business@ubyssey.ca
print ad sales
Kathy Yan Li : advertising@ubyssey.ca
web ad sales
Paul Bucci : webads@ubyssey.ca
accounts
Alex Hoopes : accounts@ubyssey,ca
contributors Kelly Han Amelia Rajala Taylor Loren Zoe Siegel Josh Curran David Elop
Karina Palmitesta Halle Hui Noah Burshtein Todd Mackenzie Charles To Nick Frank
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.
Canada Post Sales Agreement #0040878022
resource groups • Are you
working on a progressive project, but need funding? Do you have an idea, but can’t get it off the ground? Apply to the Resource Groups for funding! Come in, pitch your idea to us and we will consider fully or partially funding your project. • Every Monday, 11am in SUB 245 (second floor, north-east corner). For more info email resourcegroups.ams@ gmail.com. Ilsoo Kyung McLaurin art exhibit: The Beauty of Nature • With
references to the tradition of landscape painting that captures the beauty of the land and trees, Kyung’s art pieces have a surrounding landscape that serves as a backdrop to her daily life within her adopted homeland of Canada. However, through her works, she also illustrates the darker side of the landscape, confronting the troubling aspects
of environmental pollution that threaten nature. • Runs until Feb. 26, artwork featured in Irving K Barber foyer and Ike’s Café gallery.
tuesday, mar. 1
noon yoga $1 • Led by the UBC
dr pascal lavoie on prof talk •
Yoga Club—all skill levels are welcome. Bring your own mat and enjoy this invigorating session. RSVP on the Facebook events page. • 12–1pm, UBC Bookstore, $1.
monday, feb. 28 picture change • The Passion Project is hosting “Picture Change.” UBC student photographers will be showcasing their works and will get to learn from local professionals. Come explore the ways in which photography serves as a medium to raise awareness of social, political and environmental issues. • 5–7pm, Abdul Ladha Centre, $10. All proceeds go to the project participants’ organizations of choice. vancouver 2010 anniversary gaming party • Relive the 2010
fun on the anniversary of the closing of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games. Play with gaming systems, enjoy snacks and
win prizes! • 10am–4pm, UBC Bookstore.
On UBC CiTR Radio’s Prof Talk, host Farha Khan will speak with Dr Pascal Lavoie from the Division of Neonatology. He will discuss some of his recent research on protecting premature babies who become sick from infections or other diseases after birth, as well provide an overview on the clinical field of neonatology. • 3pm, live programming at citr.ca.
Theory and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. • 5–6:30pm, Coach House, Green College, email gc.events@ubc.ca or call (604) 822-8660 for more information.
thursday, mar. 3 english majors: ice cream social • This event is for Eng-
wednesday, mar. 2
lish majors and potential English majors (especially secondyear students). Alumni from the program have been invited to speak about their experiences in the work force and also discuss internship opportunities. • 4–6pm, Room 261, Irving K Barber.
Carnival in Jacmel • Didier Civ-
friday, mar. 4
il is a celebrated Haitian painter and papier-mâché artist, and the founding director of an art school in Jacmel, one of the towns devastated by the recent earthquake and cholera outbreak. He will show projections of masks and costumes from the repertoire of Haitian carnival and talk about the history of carnival and its art forms. His visit to UBC is cosponsored by the Department of Art History, Visual Arts and
ubc symphonic orchestra • Guest
conductor for this concert is Roman Brogli-Sacher, chief conductor and opera director of the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Theatre Lübeck, Germany. This concert also features a new work by UBC composition student Eileen Padgett and piano soloist Bogdan Dulu, winner of the 2011 UBC Concerto Competition. • 8–10pm, Chan Centre, free.
2 011 . 0 2 . 2 8 / u by s s e y. c a / n e w s / 3
News
editor ARSHY MANN » news@ubyssey.ca assistant editor KALYEENA MAKORTOFF » kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca SENIOR WRITER MICKI COWAN » mcowan@ubyssey.ca
Ponderosa housing hub set to be built 1110 new beds for upper level and graduate students by 2015 Micki Cowan mcowan@ubyssey.ca A single building facility that will benefit housing, childcare, study areas and classroom space all at once? Welcome to the new Ponderosa Housing Hub, a $136.4 million multi-function facility that has been approved at the intersection of West Mall and University Boulevard, the first of five hubs proposed to replace some of the less permanent annexes on campus. Phase one will add an additional 590 beds by August 2013, and phase two will add 510 beds by August 2015, for a total of 1100 new residence spots targeted for upper level and graduate students. Becca Thomas, a second-year student intending to major in fine arts, struggled to find housing after discovering she was nearly 2300 people down on the waitlist for her second year in residence. At home in New Brunswick for the summer, she spent hours trying to find a place to rent for September over the internet. Eventually, with the help of her father, she signed a lease for a place she had never even seen in person. “It caused a lot of problems,” she said. The university’s resources were of little use to her. “They give you a few websites to look at for rental places but they’re really not that great if you want to find somewhere affordable. I had to do a lot of research by myself.” Thoma s sa id she spends a lot less t i me on ca mpu s now than when she lived in residence.
The Ponderosa Building, close to the proposed site of the new student housing hub. Josh Curran Photo/The Ubyssey
“I feel like having a long day at school and then having to commute home just makes me a lot more tired. If I stay late on campus [the commute] gets longer because I live downtown.” For people like Thomas, the housing hub might still be of use. “There are what we call collegiums, meant to be built in for commuter students,” said John Metras, managing director of infrastructure development at UBC. “The facility is not just about students who live in the residence rooms there, but also providing space for students who commute onto campus and don’t necessarily have anywhere to go during the day when they’re between classes.” The idea for the collegiums was inf luenced by t he UBC
Okanagan campus, where a similar development was extremely successful. Matt Parson, VP Academic and one of two student representatives on the Ponderosa Project Working Committee, said that the building is more than just a residence. “The intention behind it...is for it to be more than just your average residence building; you’re having classroom space, you have a geology lab, there’s going to be food outlets, there’s going to be cafes and then also recreational facilities. On top of all that there’s childcare (24 spaces) which is great to see,” he said. “The deal behind it is you’re providing people in that area a reason to go to this hub, which will hopefully attract a vibe around the area, a buzz.”
Both the Faculty of Arts and Education will be benefiting from and contributing funds to the hub, which will include classroom space for each faculty to replace older structures that are being torn down. Additional features will include new fine arts studios. Aside from proposed contributions from these faculties, 80 per cent of the cost will be supported by current rental revenues. “We’re taking proceeds from our market housing development, putting it into an endowment and then using the cash from that endowment to then provide financing, so it’s not funding—it’s financing cash up front to pay the capital costs of the project,” said Metras. “That loan gets paid down over time using the rents from the student housing revenue.” Demand for a multi-function building like Ponderosa were influenced in part by the success of the I.K. Barber Learning Centre. “When you look at the use of the [Centre], it’s incredible,” said Metras. “It’s almost over capacity already and I wonder how we survived without having that— what happened, where did people go before that? I think we’re really trying to satisfy a latent demand here on campus for this type of space. “I think it’s a very exciting project. The Ponderosa Hub development is really just the next evolution in that process where we’re adding in all these different amenities and academic spaces that will really draw the community together into one great place.” U
AMS proposes lower AGM quorum, later exec turnover Arshy mann news@ubyssey.ca Along with renewing the U-Pass and restructuring fees, the AMS is looking to change many of the by-laws which govern the society. “The most important one in my mind is the changing of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) quorum,” said AMS President Jeremy McElroy. “The AMS has never had quorum at an AGM, at least not in the last 40 years.” By lowering the number of people required to achieve quorum at an AGM to 500, McElroy is hoping that the AMS will, in the future, be able to change by-laws at the yearly meetings. “We felt that it was small enough number to be attainable but a large enough number to be accountable,” said McElroy. “There’s no physical space on campus that can accommodate the 1000 people [currently required] outside of the Chan Centre and we’re not about to book that for an AGM.
Other substantive changes include changing by-laws so that AMS Council can remove executives from office—a problem the AMS encountered when trying to impeach Blake Fredrick and Tim Chu two years ago—as well changing the executive turnover from February to May 1st. The latter change wou ld lengthen the current executive’s terms by three months. “It puts us more in line with our budgeting and hiring cycles. [Other student unions] start May 1, the fiscal year starts May 1, so it’s a waste of time to have the executives turn over in mid-February and just kind of sit around for two and a half months while waiting for everyone else to finish up,” said McElroy. “[Also] the current election cycle is almost a barrier to entry for a lot of people because… you either have to decide to not enroll in classes and essentially gamble with getting elected, or take the standard number of classes…and possibly have to drop them if you get elected.” U
Quorum may get cut in half. indiana joel Illustration/The Ubyssey
NEWS BRIEFS Srdja Trifkovic Barred From Entry into Canada, UBC lecture cancelled
Despite UBC’s approval of a speech by controversial Serbian academic Srdja Trifković, who was scheduled to speak on February 24, the event was cancelled after Trifkovic was stopped at the Vancouver International Airport and sent back to the United States. According to his blog, Trifković was detained for being a senior official of a country which violates (or violated) the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which includes such transgressions as genocide and terrorism—namely, Serbia. Trifković blames the campaign on the Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada. “[They] demanded to have me ‘banned’ from speaking at the University of British Columbia on February 24. The ensuing campaign soon escalated into demands to keep me out of Canada altogether. The authorities have now obliged,” he said in an article posted on chroniclesmagazine.org. Trifković justified his controversial position in his response article and gave Canada a warning. “The Canadians will learn, in the fullness of time, the price of kowtowing to [Muslim] people’s demands. They will become less free with each act of surrender, and the demands will have no end.” Ana Komnenić , who had lobbied the university to cancel his speech, was happy to hear he would not be at UBC. “I had no idea he was going to be deported but I’m glad the Canadian government did a background check on him and made the right decision,” she said. Sexist posters spark criminal investigation at Waterloo
WATERLOO, Ont. (CUP)—Earlier this month, an anonymous attacker put posters depicting Nobel Prize-winning chemist and physicist Marie Curie up over the posters of female candidates in the University of Waterloo’s student federation election. The posters read “T HE TRUTH. The brightest woman this Earth ever created was Marie Curie, the mother of the nuclear bomb. You tell me if the plan of women leading men is still a good idea.” A fraudulent email with the poster attached said to be from UW president Feridun Hamdullahpur was also sent out and social media outlets were used to spread the sexist messages. “On Feb. 9, in response to seeing the posters up around campus that denigrated women, they were taken down immediately by campus police,” said Ellen Rethore, associate vice-president of communications and public affairs for UW. The university’s police service has launched a criminal investigation to determine the identity of the attacker. U
4 / u b y s s e y. c a / n e w s / 2 011 . 0 2 . 2 8
From Buchanan to the barracks: Jason McEwan
Jason McEwan in his fatigues in front of the Seaforth Armory. Charles To Photo/The Ubyssey
Joe mcmurray Contributor Lieutenant Jason McEwan is a bit like a younger and entirely more Canadian (less brusque, more polite) version of Lt. Dan from the movie Forrest Gump. Dressed impeccably in Canada’s iconic woodland-‘relish’ camouflage, McEwan, like his filmic counterpart, speaks with the confidence of someone certain in his beliefs. “They call it attention to detail. It matters if your uniform isn’t on right or your button isn’t done up,” explained McEwan, regarding the image he likes to project as a member of the military. “It’s not just how you look: attention to detail can pick up mistakes in more critical functions.” Lt. Dan emphasized the importance of fresh socks along similar lines.
At a time in his life when many were debating whether to go backpacking in Thailand or Australia, McEwan already knew that he was going to serve with the Canadian Forces. “After high school I applied to the RMC [Royal Military College] with the intent of ‘going air force,’” he recalled with a chuckle and a disarming grin. “I wanted to go f ly jets and helicopters.” Like most teenagers, McEwan soon faced the all too familiar conflict between his adolescent aspirations and certain annoying existential forces. “The application didn’t work out for me,” McEwan said. “I didn’t end up getting in [to the RMC].” McEwan didn’t have time to be wistful. After accepting that he wasn’t going to fly jets, he immediately began to work on his contingency plans for both school and the military.
McEwan’s narrow, L-shaped office is lined with posters of men in traditional military garb, maps and placards inscribed with slogans of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. It’s an office filled with military nostalgia. It occupies one of the many rooms of the Seaforth Armoury, a veritable fortress on the corner of Burrard and 1st, which, despite its immensity, is dwarfed by the neighbouring Molson Brewery. “As a backup I had UBC and a couple other universities. I attended UBC, and halfway through the first year I started thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll go back and try [joining the forces] again.” At the end of his first year, McEwan became a reservist. He spent that summer doing training before starting his part-time career with the military the following September, beginning with weekly training sessions called “Parade Nights.”
“There wasn’t much parading involved,” he said. McEwan majored in political science but continued to aspire to a career in the military. “I was encouraged to look at the officer route as an additional challenge, to get some leadership training and exposure out of it and to make use of my degree.” Now, several years later, McEwan works as a commissioned officer—a second lieutenant. “I do a bit more of the administrative and the leadership side of things, and a bit less of the hands-on, boots-on-the-ground sort of stuff.” His day-to-day work largely involves the administrative intricacies of large-scale conflict and emergency management. And when he is on the ground, his duties include “developing training plans, giving orders, leading platoon-sized elements and following up with details and reports.
“It’s quite a wide range of responsibilities, [including] some very challenging leadership situations, constantly pushing my own perceived limitations and boundaries.” McEwan argued that there aren’t many jobs that make the same kind of rigorous demands, or that require such highly-organized and well-coordinated levels of leadership. “You wouldn’t normally get off the couch one morning and coordinate a forty-man raid on an objective at night in a swamp. Those kind of horror stories that you hear about training are actually very rewarding.” As a reservist, McEwan does not have an obligation to serve abroad. Nonetheless, last year he spent seven months in one of the most punishing environments in the world: Afghanistan. McEwan served as a “forceprotection platoon commander” within the National Support Element, providing logistical support to forward units in Kandahar. “I had a platoon of 45 traveling all around Kandahar province dropping supplies at forward operating units. Essentially, convoy security was our big deal.” Regardless, McEwan said that he was never “in the shit.” “We had a remarkably quiet tour. Some of the more intense situations that we were involved with included providing firstaid at traffic accidents, or to civilians who had been injured by explosive devices.” McEwan said that he was not looking for a fire-fight, contrary to what he said one might assume about a member of the Armed Forces. He said that what he believes may highlight a difference between the perception and reality of the armed forces. “What I found is that like almost all members of the forces, I have no interest in promoting conflict,” he said. “I see this as an opportunity to prevent and solve existing troubles, rather than to be involved in some kind of violent adventure.” U
Major changes coming to the Graduate Record Exam zoe siegel Contributor Are you planning on going to graduate school in the near future? If so, you might have to crack the books earlier than expected. Beginning in August 2011, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), a standardized test that is required for many graduate schools throughout the US and Canada, will be changing its format. While Educational Testing Services (ETS), the non-profit that writes and proctors the GRE, is making these changes in order to improve the exam, how long it will take before these changes become improvements is debatable. This will be the largest revision in the 60 year history of the GRE. ETS has stated that the motivation behind making these changes is a result of the “changes in the demographics of the test takers, technology changes, etc.” The new exam contains more advanced software, allowing users to go forward and backward within the section to change
answers and even flag difficult questions. In addition to improvements in all sections, in the quantitative reasoning section, the revised GRE will include a calculator to avoid minor mistakes and to emphasize that the test is of reasoning ability, not arithmetic calculations. However, the implementation of an on-screen calculator may mean more complex math problems. One major change will be the new test score scaling. Presently, each section has scores ranging from 200-800 in ten-point increments. In the new GRE, scores will range from 130-170, with one-point increments. Instead of being adaptive the level of questions, the new GRE will be adaptive at a section level. With the current GRE, if you answer a question correctly, the subsequent question will be more difficult. With the new GRE, how difficult the next section will be is a direct result of how well you do in the present section. The new GRE will also be an hour longer, increasing the duration to approximately four hours. Although it’s early, third-year
GRE undergoing most significant revisions in 40 years. Josh Curran Photo Illustration/The Ubyssey
arts and sciences student Talia Salzman has recently started studying for the GREs. “When I heard that the exam format was changed I decided to take the GREs sooner than I had initially expected so I could avoid the uncharted territory.” Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions agrees with Salzman and is advising students interested
to take the test before the changes take effect. Statistically speaking, when a testing company makes drastic changes to one of their standardized tests, there is a drop in the initial test scores for a short period of time after implementation. Perhaps to offset lower marks and overcome initial reluctance, ETS is offering a 50 per
cent discount to students who take the test in August and September. Students interested in graduate studies who want to take the old GRE have one piece of luck: GRE scores are good for up to five years. But with less than a year remaining on the old test, they’ll have to move fast. U
2 011 . 0 2 . 2 8 / u by s s e y. c a / n e w s /5
Tweeting from the podium UBC professors using social media to enhance students’ experiences in the classroom Taylor Loren Contributor Professors at UBC are showing that when it comes to social media, old dogs can learn new tricks. Political science professor Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega is one of many faculty members who have introduced social media as part of the class experience. Students tweet questions, comment on his class blog and contribute to discussion topics on his Facebook page. “My goal as a professor is to help students build skills for the job market, using their fluency and literacy in social media to build professional networks for when they graduate,” he said. Pacheco-Vega teaches public and environmental policy at UBC. He has a professional Twitter account, @raulpacheco, but also tweets as the popular Vancouver blogger @hummingbird604, where he has over 6700 followers. He is using his teaching as an opportunity to merge his online identities to benefit students. “Using social media in the classroom helps me build that literacy for the students so when they go out in the world, they have these skills,” he said. Pacheco-Vega is using his personal social media capital for online networking between students and other professionals in his field. “With my double identity I am able to push a lot more of my students’ content to the outside world. Twitter has helped me spread my students’ message.” Trevor Ritchie is a public policy student of Pacheco-Vega’s POLI
A prof goes viral. Courtesy of Twitter
350 and POLI 375 classes and enjoys how social media is enhancing his education firsthand. “A lot of the focus on social media has been on its applications in public policy,” he said, adding, “I’ve learned a lot about how it can form grassroots opposition or support for proposed policies.” Professors are also utilizing Twitter for instant feedback, allowing students to contribute to the class discussion without having to speak up in class. David Ng, director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory,
sets up a live stream during his ASIC 200 class. Using the hashtag #asic200, students are able to communicate about the lecture in real time, which UBC student Dominika Ziemczonek finds “both informative and entertaining.” “I wouldn’t be on Twitter without the class,” said Ziemczonek, who found out about ASIC 200 because of the website. She has now learned how to tweet and built a network of peers through online class conversation. Ritchie also enjoys the real-time effect of Twitter in the classroom.
“Being able to instantly communicate with my peers and have differing viewpoints at my fingertips enhances my ability to understand the issues at hand,” he said. Students are also incorporating academics into their regular use of social media outside the classroom. “A lot of students use Twitter specifically outside of class to ask each other questions, share helpful links and set up study sessions,” said Ziemczonek. UBC it self has become a tweeting machine, with over
50 affiliate accounts delivering daily updates to faculty, students and the neighbourhood. The #ubc hashtag has been a trending topic across Canada and a simple search delivers results from the entire community. Twitter can show the current score in a sports game, press releases about UBC’s distinguished research and faculty, students complaining during a class and even update you on the disgruntled residents of Gage during those midnight fire alarms. U
Stories for news! Stories for news! Write for news, seriously. arshy mann news@ubyssey.ca
U theubyssey.ca
6/ubyssey.ca/advertisement/2011.02.28
2 0 11 . 0 2 . 2 8 / u b y s s e y. c a / s p o r t s / 7
sports
editor MARIE VONDRACEK » sports@ubyssey.ca
Dinos slip past Dolphins at Nationals Rivalry continues as Calgary beats UBC for their second straight CIS title Kelly Han Contributor The CIS’ prehistoric swimming rivalry between Dinos and Dolphins reached its peak this weekend at the national championships were hosted by the defending champions, the University of Calgary Dinos. As the Dinos’ top rival, UBC kept neck-and-neck with only a 3.5 point deficit in men’s overall and were 50 points behind in women’s overall after the first day. “It’s going to come right down to the last race tomorrow and every swim is going to be important,” predicted UBC head coach Chad Webb. Sure enough, on the final day, the points came in with Calgary women defeating UBC 778.5 to 648.5 points in women’s races, and with Calgary ahead of UBC on the men’s side at 543.5 to 493. The UBC men edged out the Dinos by one tenth of a second in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay and provided the spark that the Thunderbirds needed. Tommy Gossland was an important point contributor as he took home silver in both the men’s 50 and 100 metre freestyle touching and also participated in the 4x100 metre medley relay with three others to place third. The UBC men’s team fought their way to the forefront, leading 354 to Calgary’s 344.5 by the end of the second day. In the women’s competition, the Dinos captured gold in three
UBC made quite the splash once again this season with back-to-back national silvers. Josh Curran Photo/The Ubyssey
events while UBC captured a silver and two bronzes, as well as placing second and third in the women’s 400 metre individual medleys. Kelly Aspinall took the second medal home for the Thunderbirds, winning a silver in the men’s 50 metre backstroke while their rookie team also placed third in the 4x100 metre
freestyle relay. Aspinall continued the mining for medals by picking up the first gold in the 100 metre backstroke with 53.89. The women also added a pair of gold and silver medals to their haul. Despite Calgary’s talent, rookie Savannah King had an excellent weekend leading from start to finish in the 400 metre freestyle
and also picked up her second gold medal in 800 metre freestyle. King’s efforts resulted in her being named the CIS Female Rookie of the Year. Martha McCabe earned gold while Hanna Pierse took silver in the 200 metre breaststroke, with McCabe propelling her lead in the last few seconds and taking over a threesecond victory margin. Fifth-year
Pierse closed out her career with a silver medal in the 200 metre individual medley, as well as coming in second in the multi-stroke event. The women also finished second in the 4x200 metre freestyle relay with 8:11.44. “We batt led hard tonight against a very strong Calgary team and showed a lot of determination,” said Webb. U
Thunderbirds dominate, but forget the basics
Men’s basketball team surpasses 100 points twice to cruise past Manitoba Bisons
noah burshtein Contributor For all intents and purposes, UBC’s first round Canada West playoff matchup with Manitoba should not have been an eventful affair. The T-Birds are a bigger, stronger and more skilled team, having won 18 games in a row coming into this weekend. That UBC swept the best of three series 106-75 and 10385 was a surprise to nobody, as the first-seeded Thunderbirds eliminated the eighth-seeded Bison with relative ease. UBC’s high scorer Josh Whyte finally returned to form on Friday night, scoring 29 points on a very efficient 10 for 18 from the floor. Whyte, who averaged a team-leading 18.1 points per game during the regular season, had gone a few games without putting up his usual highscoring effort, but the veteran player seemed quite ready and comfortable to start the playoffs. Nathan Yu led the T-Birds on Saturday night with 19, but it was his defence that was the story for UBC.
Hanson said he was very pleased how Yu “came off the bench and sparked us from a defensive standpoint,” and was satisfied with the “scores in transition” that Yu’s defensive intensity led to. Of course, this series sweep could have been easily predicted, as the Thunderbirds were expected to dominate coming into this matchup. But head coach Kevin Hanson wasn’t all too satisfied with how his team performed. “Obviously I’m happy that we won, but I wasn’t happy with the way we executed,” he said. “We made too many slip-ups for this time of year.” Unfortunately for UBC, Hanson is dead on. While the Thunderbirds had little trouble putting points on the board due to their size advantage and superior outside shooting, their defence was at times less than stellar. “Manitoba just got way too many easy baskets,” Hanson said. And he was right. At times UBC seemed to be making tactical and schematic defensive errors that are uncharacteristic of the T-Birds. Dedication to defence would be
involved in the practices this week, said Hanson. “We need to focus on the little things that we work on in practice and translate them over to the game.” For a team that has been so completely focused on winning their first national championship since 1973, it’s almost unthinkable that the Thunderbirds would be making the kind of mental errors they committed this weekend. With the CIS Championships in Halifax just two weeks away, it’s easy for the players to begin to look too far ahead and lose focus of the games they still have left in the Canada West Playoffs. With the series victory, UBC secures home-court advantage in the Canada West Final Four next weekend, where they will play host to Alberta, Trinity Western and Saskatchewan. Needing a win in the semifinal on Friday, Hanson faces his most difficult challenge of the season now, as he must keep the players focused on the games at hand and not on that March 11 date that every player has circled on his calendar. U
Josh Whyte is back in form for the ‘Birds. Josh Curran Photo/The Ubyssey
8 / u b y s s e y. c a / s p o r t s / 2 0 11 . 0 2 . 2 8
‘Birds win third straight CanWest gold Women’s volleyball defeat Trinity Western in five set epic Justin McElroy coordinating@ubyssey.ca For most players, having the game rest in their hands would be cause for nerves. But getting ready to serve at 15 in the fifth and deciding set of the Canada West women’s volleyball championship, Shanice Marcelle was as calm as could be for UBC. Of course, it helped that she didn’t know what the stakes. “I didn’t even know the score was tied,” the third-year Human Kinetics student and conference MVP said. “I was just trying to do what I do every day.” No matter. Marcelle hit one ace, then another—and just like that, the T-Birds were Canada West champions for the third consecutive year, defeating Trinity Western in a five-set epic (2522, 21-25, 18-25, 25-21, 17-15). Though both teams had already clinched a spot in the CIS championships by virtue of their semi-final victories the night before—in UBC’s case, a 3-0 over Manitoba—the teams were playing for more than seeding at this week’s CIS Championships in Laval. In October, TWU ended UBC’s 40-game winning streak with two straight victories and the T-Birds were intent on not giving them a third. “It’s always nice to get revenge against a team that snaps your winning streak,” said Marcelle, who finished with 12 kills and
six aces on the night. “It’s pretty crucial to be No. 1 out of the Canada West; you get an easier game and makes our route a lot easier.” Aside from Marcelle, UBC was led by Kyla R ichey (19 kills, 12 digs) and Jen Hinze (10 kills—both of whom missed the first half the season playing for Team Canada at the world championships. The trio provided the bulk of UBC’s offence against a spartan team that had only lost three games all season and seemed to be on the verge of a victory in the fourth set when they took a 19–15 lead. But two straight kills by firstyear Lisa Barclay turned the momentum to UBC, who went on a 10–2 run to win the set 25–21, sending the match to the fifth and deciding set. “We needed t h is k i nd of pressure match,” said Reimer, whose team had won an astonishing 21 straight sets before Saturday’s final. “Before, you’re thinking seedings, you’re already [at the nationals], but you see the emotion on the court and frankly, being able to push forward, you see the effect of hours of practice.” Tuesday, UBC heads to Laval, where they will attempt to win its fourth straight national championship. If they succeed, it will be their eighth all-time, which would set a CIS record. Reimer’s prediction? “It won’t be easy, but we’re ready to go.” U
Shanice Marcelle sealed the banner win with both tying and match points. Charles To Photo/The Ubyssey
Thunderbirds end season without playoff run Four hockey warriors hang up their Blue and Gold forever
Team captain Matthew Schneider in his last game as a Thunderbird. Josh Curran Photo/The Ubyssey
MARIE VONDRACEK sports@ubyssey.ca If you had just stumbled into the T-Bird rink this weekend and seen the UBC men playing, you
might not have been able to tell that they had already lost their chance for a playoff berth the weekend previous. This passion has characterized UBC hockey all season.
“We battled a lot this year through some adversity and I’m hoping it’ll make us into a better hockey team down the road,” commented UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic.
The ‘Birds were led over the weekend by second years Jordan White and Wyatt Hamilton. Hamilton had two goals in the 3-2 Friday night win and White 38 saves in their 4-0 loss. The weekend split with the CIS third-ranked Alberta Golden Bears (19-6-3) means the ‘Birds finish 11-12-5 on the year, sixth overall in the Canada West and five points out of a playoff spot. “What killed us this year was losing those four games in a row to Lethbridge and Saskatchewan,” commented Dragicevic, referring to his club’s late-season slump. The ‘Birds could summarize their season in a single play sequence from the weekend: after missing an open net tap-in, their opponents regrouped at centre and sprung Colin Joe on a breakaway, which went backhand-forehand and under White’s left leg. “Every team goes through a bad stretch throughout the year. It just turned out that ours was at a time where we had the most amount of injuries,” said Dragicevic. But he refused to make excuses for his team—or deny their progress. “Everyone had the opportunity to play and progress. We were one game from being above .500, and we were ten points above where we finished last year. To me that’s an encouraging sign that the team is on its way up.” During Friday’s game, U of A captain Eric Hunter suffered a
concussion in the third period after being punched by UBC forward Mike Liambas. He was assigned an additional two game suspension upon review after the game, on top of his two-minute minor, five minute major and game misconduct awarded by the on-ice official. Liambas has been on the receiving end of numerous past suspensions but is a player who teammates expect to bring passion and emotion to every game, this season and beyond. With the season over, UBC vets Matthew Schneider, Dalton Pajak, Craig Lineker and Max Gordichuk will leave behind foundations for successful years to come as they hang up their Blue and Gold with pride. Schneider will end his Thunderbird career with 15 goals and 18 assists, while Pajak and Lineker both reached career highs in their final season, with nine points for Pajak and five goals for Lineker despite missing three weekends with an injury. Max Gordichuk has been an imposing presence on the blueline for five years and a leader off the ice who will be missed by teammates and fans alike. “When I look at the players that are going to return, [they’re] our second- and third-year players with one more year under their belt,” said Dragicevic. “They’ll have more hatred for losing after two years not making the playoffs.” U
2 0 11 . 0 2 . 2 8 / u b y s s e y. c a / s p o r t s / 9
Basketball women lose control of own fate
Marie Vondracek sports@ubyssey.ca
Alberta (17-7) swept the UBC Thunderbirds (17-7) 80-74 and 73-60 in their best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series last week. The close back and forth battle in Game 1 was reminiscent of the 2010 Canada West quarterfinal series between these two teams, which saw Alberta take game one (also in overtime) and game three by two points. “After that good start, we just got outplayed,” said UBC head coach Deb Huband. “They had
people stepping up and contributing all over the place. We just couldn’t match them. We got frazzled, offensively, and stopped executing as a team.” UBC relied heavily on their starting five, with each player seeing at least 30 minutes of court time. As a group they supplied 66 of the TBirds’ 74 points. Major contributions came from Kris Young, who scored 18 points in the loss, and Alex Vieweg, who notched a team-high 22 points. “Kris did a really terrific job as a rookie. She had a strong defensive game which may not have shown
up in the stat sheet. On offence, she was able to take advantage of some opportunities and finished really well,” added Huband. “For the third straight weekend, Alex brought a lot of energy, focus and determination. She has been tremendous for us over the last few weeks.” Despite earning a 38-32 first half lead, the Thunderbirds fell victim to a 27-point onslaught to be defeated 73-64. Vieweg and Young were once again effective with 18 points and 13 rebounds together but were limited all afternoon with foul trouble. UBC
struggled as a team, shooting just 21 of 62 (33.9 per cent) from the field. “We came out of the gates very strong,” said Huband. “It was a dominant first quarter. We got hit with some foul trouble in the second and with Leigh [Stansfield] out with an injury from last night, we didn’t have much size off the bench. That said, I think our bench did a great job coming in and playing some extended minutes in the second and third quarters.” Despite the loss, UBC’s season is not necessarily over. The new
CIS format for women’s basketball sees five teams automatically qualify for the final eight—four conference champions and host— with the other three spots going to the winners of three regional four-team tournaments. “We’ll be watching with great interest over the next few days. It’s unsettling to not be in control of your future and having to rely on other teams but there is a solid chance our season will continue. It’s important for us to get a bit of rest over the next few days and then refocus and move forward,” said Huband. U
Thunderbird Athlete Council
athlete of the week
Tanya McLean
The Delta, BC native hit her opponents out of the park this week. Geoff Lister Photo/The Ubyssey
Tanya McClean of the Thunderbird softball team is this week’s athlete of the week. The team recently returned from a reading week road trip to Oregon and California with four wins and two losses, improving their season to 500 (8-8). During the trip, McClean racked up a total of 9 home runs, while the team earned a total of 30! —Amelia Rajala
Zara Huntley led her squad in the loss. David Elop Photo/The Ubyssey
Playoffs have begun, be a part of the passion. Write about it. marie vondracek |sports@ubyssey.ca
U theubyssey.ca
10/ u byssey.ca /cu lt u r e/2 011.02 . 28
culture
editorS BRYCE WARNES & JONNY WAKEFIELD » culture@ubyssey.ca SENIOR WRITER GINNY MONACO » gmonaco@ubyssey.ca ILLUSTRATOR INDIANA JOEL » ijoel@ubyssey.ca
RIP ‘No fun’ city? City reviews archaic noise laws Ginny Monaco glmonaco@ubyssey.ca Heather Deal is a guardian angel for the Vancouver arts community. In August 2010, the city councillor stepped in to protect Little Mountain Gallery, the independent artist and performance space just off Main St, from an arbitrary noise complaint that could have seen the venue’s doors close for good. The case of Little Mountain follows an all-too-familiar pattern for venue space in the city. Both established and start-up cultural spots face an impossible network of noise, zoning and liquor licensing, violation of which can force the space to shut down.
“Running a legal, all-ages venue is basically impossible at this point.” Marita Michaelis-WebB Safe Amplication Site Society
For groups like the Safe Amplification Site Society (SASS), which is aiming to launch an all-ages space in Vancouver, the bylaws seem like an insurmountable obstacle. “Running a legal, all-ages venue is basically impossible at this point,” said Marita Michaelis-Webb, a
Fun, the sleeping giant, still slumbers. josh curran photo/The Ubyssey
member of the organization’s board of directors. “There’s a weird web of bylaws that are really outdated and make very little sense and don’t really work together. The more you learn about them, the more you realize it’s hard to navigate them.” Now, according to MichaelisWebb, these laws are shifting in favour of cultural establishments—and Councillor Deal is part of the driving force behind these changes.
In 2008, Deal presented a motion to review the regulatory structures for venue space in the city. Hindered by a municipal election that year and the lead-up to the Olympics, the Regulatory Review for Live Performance Venues, as the motion came to be known, has finally started to bear fruit. The review was presented to city council on February 3, 2011 and takes serious initiative to, as the preamble states, “better support cultural spaces.”
Deal explained where these changes will be seen. “Over the next couple of months, you’ll see the temporary changes ... By summer at the latest, we will have cracked open a huge new inventory of potential performance spaces. “The more thorough review of the liquor policy piece won’t be until the fall at least. That will require a certain number of requests to the province because they are our Big Brother when it comes to a lot of the liquor bylaws.”
music
The Regulatory Review includes a provision that allows venues to temporarily work with the city to bring themselves up to code, without worries of being shut down for bylaw violations. Moving into next year, the review will be looking at “changes to permanent places,” said Deal. “This is about the building. What do you allow in residential zones? In office zones? In industrial areas?” After the Live Performance Venue Regulatory Review, Deal and her staff will tackle artist galleries and studio space. Though it is an exhaustive undertaking, the changes to these regulations will benefit both the arts community and the city. According to Deal, “[The city] does not make money off the existing bylaws. They cost us in paperwork and staff time. There are actually very few concerns with this.“ Michaelis-Webb called the review a “boost of energy.” Like many others trying to sustain Vancouver’s cultural heritage, she and SASS are looking forward to a collaborative relationship with inspectors and city council. “Sometimes it can be really upsetting and depressing and bring you down because you put so much work into it and it seems bigger and bigger and harder and harder. “But t hen somet hing will counteract it and we’ll see that we’re getting closer and closer to our goal.” U
New chairs deserve a standing ovation
campus life
University consults on new model for classroom chairs Bryce Warnes culture@ubyssey.ca Classroom Services is introducing changes that have the potential to unseat common assumptions about what chairs are and what they can do. On February 24, Classroom Services held a furniture test and survey in the SUB main concourse as part of a consultation process to decide what will be used to furnish new and renovated buildings. Students were allowed to inspect, test and lovingly caress the chairs on display and were asked to provide feedback via printed forms. Some, like Steel Case’s Node, seek to redefine the chair. “The Node is a specific chair, it’s developed by Steel Case,” said Jodi Scott, manager of formal learning for Classroom Services. She gestured at a slick little unit, a combination chair and desk on wheels. With a one-piece polypropylene contoured shell seat and a swiveling, no-handed personal workspace, the Node puts your run-of-the-mill molded plastic
Right: options for chairs of the future. Left, the new “node” chair. geoff lister photo/the ubyssey
buttock storage appliance to shame. “We don’t have it on campus anywhere yet,” said Scott, but that could soon change. Unfortunately, not every piece of furniture was as technically beautiful or concept-challenging as Steel Case’s Node. The lower echelons of chair-dom are filled with tight-budget options with standard, hum-drum features. “The first kind is a basic chair, what we call a Type One chair, they’re like a stackable chair,” said Scott, referring to a piece of
furniture that would completely fail to stand out in a crowd. “Now, if we were to move up to a different level, we’d go to something that’s got a little bit better back support, some padding, arms, wheels. Here’s a range, what looks good here?” The fancier models failed to meet the new standard set by the Node, but they offered some of the practical comforts Scott listed. More important than the flexibility of the user’s spine, though, is the flexibility of the classroom’s layout.
“Instructors are telling us that they would like to have more flexibility in the classroom, to have tables and chairs on wheels so they can reconfigure the classroom from maybe rows into discussion groups, different configurations,” said Scott. “The way we are teaching has changed...there’s more collaboration. It’s not really just somebody listening to somebody at the front of the class.” Scott envisions a future in which a panoply of different seating styles can be found across
campus, each classroom adopting a chair suited to its purpose. To cynics, such ideals may seem utopian. But to Scott, they are born out of necessity. As we plow forward into the 21st century, it may be that only the Node—or even one of its slightly cheaper substitutes—can provide the support students of the future need. “There’s new stuff out there that’s better,” said Scott. “Chairs have changed.” U — w i t h f i l e s f r om Jo n n y Wakefield
2 011.02 . 28/ u byssey.ca /cu lt u r e/11
Give me a burger, make it raw
Series
Week one of our three part series: raw food Jonny Wakefield culture@ubyssey.ca During my first 12 hours on a raw food diet, I just wasn’t working right. I’m not being dramatic when I say my body was covered in a cold sweat. I felt distracted—partly by low blood sugar, partly by the bags of carrots and almonds I had to keep munching to stay upright. So when I called Alexia Harris—an employee at the East Van raw food restaurant OrganicLives—I was fairly desperate to find out what I was doing wrong. Turns out, it was mostly everything. “I would say take it really slow,” said Harris. “It’s not about going fully 100 per cent raw right at the beginning. It can be very detoxifying on the body to go fully raw.” This detoxifying process feels pretty gross. It’s also coupled with a gnawing hunger. Because only food that has not been cooked above 46 degrees celsius is considered raw, I find out quickly that there are few raw options in the SUB. My general failure on the first day should not be seen as a reflection on the idea of raw food, which actually makes a good deal of sense. The idea behind a raw food diet, explained Harris, is that raw or “living” food retains enzymes, vitamins, minerals and, perhaps most importantly, water. All or most of these are destroyed in the cooking process. All of these elements expedite the digestion process. The thinking is that by
eating foods that retain their enzymes and water, we’ll be more efficient in our digestion, leaving us more energy for other processes. Generally, we’ll be healthier. Once I figured out that one cannot survive on carrot sticks alone, I was forced to innovate. I started with a few soups from a raw food cook book. Most of them call for coconut water as the base, combined with onion, lemon juice and garlic (generally an offensive amount). These were mostly pretty bad. I made some guacamole and a concoction of chopped walnuts, soy sauce, coriander and cumin that was supposed to emulate taco filling and ate it on some leafy greens. I also whipped up a sort of cheese sauce made from bell pepper, tahini and sunflower seeds. A word of warning: don’t attempt this diet unless you have a blender, or at least a Magic Bullet. But sometimes you want to just sit down and order food, which can be hard if you’re eating raw. I stopped by OrganicLives twice while on the diet and ate some pretty innovative creations, like a “burger” with a patty made of ground masala and a bun of dehydrated yam paste. This sort of specialized equipment—have you ever seen a food dehydrator?—relegates 100 percent raw to a boutique diet. But as Harris said, 100 percent raw isn’t the point. “It’s not about being on a ‘raw diet,’” she said. “It’s not a trendy thing. It’s just about incorporating
more raw food into your diet without it being a label.” Whether that’s having one raw meal a day or having a huge green salad with every meal, Harris said it’s a step in the right direction.
Raw food Staples Calcium and Iron: leafy greens like Arugula or kale Vitamin C: fruits and veggies. Protein: nuts and seeds Fermented foods: Sauerkraut and miso
By limiting access to prepared food—specifically SUB food— a raw food diet (or any diet for that matter) forces you to live a little more deliberately. It forces you to manage your time better, to take time out to eat and actually think about what you’re putting into your body. When you have to gather ingredients and prepare them, rather than simply grabbing something in a bag or ordering across a counter, you have time to reflect. U —Full disclosure: beer was consumed per usual over the course of this experiment.
david marino screencap/the ubyssey
Kombucha crafting: you know you wanna Directions: 1 In a large pot, bring your water to a boil and promptly remove the pot from heat. 2 Steep your loose-leaf tea or tea bags for at least 15 minutes. Remove afterwards. 3 Add your sweetener of choice and mix until it’s been fully dissolved. 4 Leave the tea/sugar mixture to cool to room temperature. Only when it has cooled completely should you put the solution into your glass container.
michael garten photo illustration/wikipedia commons
5 Add the starter culture and stir evenly to distribute it throughout the solution. 6 Add the kombucha mother.
Halle HUi Contributor
dollars from independent sellers over Craigslist or Freecycle.
7 Cover the container opening with the cloth and keep it securely in place with the rubber band.
Kombucha is a fermented tea that is being touted by the health-conscious as the latest miracle-worker. Propagated for its medicinal purposes and healing properties, this bubbly tonic was first documented in Russia during the late 19 th century. Made properly, kombucha is 0.5 to 1 per cent alcohol and contains a host of acids, enzymes, minerals and vitamins. Kombucha proponents claim the drink can lead to increased energy levels and better digestion. It’s relatively easy to brew at home.
•2-3 tsp. loose-leaf tea or 5-6 teabags. Stick to black, oolong, green or white tea for your kombucha – teas with additional oils or flavours could interfere with the good bacteria produced during the fermentation process.
8 Put your container in a quiet, undisturbed area
What you’ll need • A Kombucha “mushroom” mother. Also referred to as the “culture,” the mother is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts (SCOBY) that reproduces itself on an ongoing basis. The mother resembles a large, glossy pancake and is used to ferment the tea, and can be bought for under five
•Sweetener of your choosing, ¾ cup. Sugar, agave nectar and raw honey are most commonly used. • Kombucha starter, 1.5 cups. The starter tea can either be from your previous kombucha preparation, or if you’re without any kombucha, it can also be store-bought, raw and unflavored kombucha. • Filtered water, 12 cups. • A large container. A glass bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients is definitely recommended for the brewing process. Make sure there is no exposed metal. • Clean cloth, big enough to cover the opening of the glass.
food
where it won’t be exposed to smoke, pollen, or direct sunlight. Make sure it gets enough airflow. 9 Let it ferment for roughly seven to ten days depending on the temperature (the warmer it is, the shorter the time it takes to ferment) and how acidic or sweet you’d like it to be. A longer fermentation period makes for a strong, tart tea, similar to apple cider vinegar. Ideally, it ferments best in constant temperatures between 21 and 22 degrees Celsius. 10 After the seven to ten days, remove the original mother and the new baby that has formed on the surface of the tea. For the first 2-3 batches, use the mother and the reproduced baby together since they are new and can be delicate. After each brewing, the layer of culture formed gets thicker and eventually can be separated and used individually for future brewing. 11 Strain the kombucha and set aside 1.5 cups as your starter for your next brew. Your drink can be bottled and stored in the fridge. Bottoms up! U
12/ u byssey.ca /cu ltu r e/2 011.02 . 28
Mount Garibaldi boasts a great view The Varsity Outdoor Club climbs another geological protuberance Todd Mackenzie VOC Mt Garibaldi is a large glaciated volcano located in, you guessed it, Garibaldi park. Mt Garibaldi dominates the skyline of Squamish to the North with its diamond shaped massif, making it a desirable objective for many mountaineers. Late in January, fourteen VOCers were rounded up for an attempt. Nine of us were to tackle the mountain from the west and five from the east. By 10am on a Saturday morning, we were all shouldering our heavy packs and skinning up the logging road that marked the start of our adventure. We eventually gained Brohm Ridge and were out of the trees for the first time. The ridge approaches the mountain from the west and is broad and long. The weather was intermittent and visibility variable, but we were optimistic that it would improve. By the time we finally set foot on the glacier, we were all thoroughly exhausted. It was getting late in the day and the sun was setting. Camp was situated on a relatively flat section of the glacier and a safe distance from Garibaldi’s north face. We ate dinner quickly and crawled into our tents. Garibaldi stirred in the darkness. Sounds of rock and ice crashing down its crumbling faces made for an uneasy, restless night. Several times during the night, I would tense up
A VOC member surveys the way ahead. Photo courtesy Todd Mackenzie/the voc
and my mind would race, wondering if our camp was really a safe distance from the face. We awoke in the early morning. We were soon pulling on our harnesses and laying out the ropes, preparing for the coming
day. The sky was now clear and the sun would soon rise. A few hours of skinning put us at the bottom of the north-eastern face. We took off our skis and started to kick steps up the steep face. The snow was soft but
secure and we slowly plodded upward. The other group of five now arrived from the east and were following us up. Finally, we arrived at the summit. It was fantastic—360 degree views in perfect weather! We spent
an hour celebrating, taking pictures and eating lunch before heading down. While some bootpacked down, a companion and I put on our skis and prepared for a ski descent. The snow was soft, but the headwall was steep. At the bottom of the headwall is the bergshrund. That’s essentially a bottomless hole between the rocky summit and the start of the glacial ice. It was mostly covered with snow, but was still open in some sections. Falling here would not be a good idea. My companion skied the face first, cutting the slope at the top to test its stability. Nothing budged, so off we went. The skiing was fantastic and thick with powder. We crossed the bergshrund and continued down the slope until we found a spot to sit and wait for the others. After a few minutes of relaxing in the sun, we heard some yelling from above. Avalanche! A VOC member had triggered a slab near the summit. The avalanche traveled down the headwall, narrowly missing Michael Duncan and tearing out wider and wider slabs further down the slope. At the bottom of the headwall was a group of three who were frantically attempting to escape. Fortunately the avalanche missed them too and came to a stop, burying a pair of skis at the bottom of the headwall. Close call. After that, the rest of the trip seemed uneventful. We packed up camp and began the long slog out, finally reaching our vehicles at dusk. U
2011.02.28/ubyssey.ca/advertisement/13
14 / u b y s s e y. c a / g a m e s / 2 011 . 0 2 . 2 8
games & comics crossword
suscomic.com, by mike bround
comicmaster, by maria cirstea
Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.
BLUNDERGRADS, BY PHIL FLICKINGER (BLUNDERGRADS.COM)
last ditch effort, by john kroes (lde-online.com)
LAL Weekly Top Five Flirts (likealittle.com/ubc) At 41 Bus: Female, Brunette. Yesterday, Saturday, I saw you on the 41 and you got off at Cambie before I could get the nerve to say hi. You were wearing white headphones over a blue toque and a beige pea-coat. Your wavy hair framed your angelic face, my friend also offered you a seat before you got off. I was sitting right in front of you.
At IKB stacks staircase: Female, Black hair. You were coming out of the third floor stacks and I was looking at the map. I held the door and the smile you gave me made my day. Absolutely breathtaking.
At SUB: Male, Brunette. You are wearing a leather jacket and carrying a longboard. I always see you at Honour Roll, you are the sexiest thing ever. How am I supposed to talk to you if you make me speechless?
At BUCH D: Female, Black hair. You were giving out free cookies!:) Wearing a blue jacket, black glasses, pearl (??) earrings and a ponytail. Thanks for brightening up my day, wish I’d said ‘hi’ and asked for your number.
At Gage: Male, Brunette. You, your skateboard, and your dimples...I just wanted to say that you’re insanely cute. Thanks for holding that door for me :)
Across 1. A long time 5. Grows in Brooklyn 10. Sleeps briefly 14. German sausage 15. Burlap 16. Brio 17. Roseanne, once 18. Delight 19. New Rochelle college 20. Apportions 22. Use lavishly 24. Fuji rival 26. Breathe in 27. Sister of Venus 30. Bert’s buddy 32. Corpulent 33. Corner 34. Monetary unit of South Africa 38. ___ de mer 39. Name given to the fox 42. Plaything 43. “Orinoco Flow” singer 45. Timetable, for short 46. Oscar de la ___ 48. Swiss city on the Rhine 50. Resembling a cyma 51. Former French colony of North America 54. Leash 56. Foul-smelling, poisonous oil 58. Pertaining to the love of sensation 62. Egg 63. Ancient region of Asia Minor 65. Baylor’s city 66. Bog 67. Begin 68. Biblical garden 69. King of comedy 70. Name 71. Describes a gently cooked steak
Down 1. “Dancing Queen” group 2. Mardi 3. “…countrymen, lend me your ___” 4. Hits 5. Plan 6. Oklahoma city 7. Genetic material 8. Tolkien tree creatures 9. Cosmetic applied on the lids 10. Nor’s partner 11. Hawaiian greeting 12. Cartoon part 13. Animal trap 21. Dead duck 23. Black bird 25. Edible seed parts 27. A bit 28. Abba of Israel 29. Bank (on) 31. Interpret 33. Little one 35. ___ extra cost 36. Words of denial 37. Group of two 40. Editorial writer 41. Wood nymph 44. Belly 47. Enable 49. Help 50. Bring into being 51. Pueblo Indian village 52. Trivial objection 53. Legend maker 55. Pierce 57. Monetary unit of Lesotho 59. Zilch 60. Bakery worker 61. Circle at bottom, point at top 64. Writer Hentoff
solution
Submit your comics to our website at ubyssey.ca/volunteer/ submit-a-comic. virginie menard | production@ubyssey.ca
U theubyssey.ca
2011.02 .28/ubyssey.ca/opinions/15
opinions
do you care? WRITE US A LETTER » feedback@ubyssey.ca
editorial If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em and then beat ‘em It’s that time of year where many of the undergraduate societies—Arts, Science and Engineering chief among them—gear up for their main elections. And as tradition dictates, The Ubyssey would like to remind you, the student, to shape up and pay attention. In light of last year’s embarrassment of an undergraduate election cycle (which cost nearly $50,000 and barely increased turnout), the undergraduate societies could use your engagement. And you could benefit too. Think of the undergraduate societies as the municipal to the AMS’s federal government. You don’t get to make big sweeping manoeuvres— like launching UN complaints, hunting terrorists or claiming to represent all students—but you do get to fix the plumbing and make sure the roads get plowed. Compared to the stifling bureaucracy of the AMS, the undergraduate societies offer real opportunities for normal students to interact with the elected representatives. And perhaps most importantly, they provide a launching point for the careers of many student politicians. Following this year’s AMS elections, you may have noticed that many of the candidates who won were of a certain hacky, centrist persuasion. We know this left some of you saying, “Why bother, it’s an insider’s game.” You adorable silly goose. How do you think those insiders got to be insiders? They almost all got their start by getting involved with their undergraduate societies, then running for other positions from there. Every now and then, a dark horse rides up to wrestle power from the established candidates in an election, but that’s the exception more than the rule. Already we’ve noticed a few SJC candidates make some runs for AUS positions. To this we say: smart move. Think you can do better than last year’s crop of politicians? The niggling yenta that is The Ubyssey wants you to find yourself a nice position from a good family to run for. If you remain unengaged, don’t be surprised if you see another year of an insular crowd of hacks using your fees to throw parties for themselves. VP EXTERNAL will need to put politics aside “We did it—Christy Clark is the new Premier of BC! Thank you to all those I worked with as the Provincial Youth Chair of this amazing campaign.” This tweet would mean very little to us, if not for the fact that it came from Katherine Tyson, your newly-elected AMS VP External. In other words, the person directly responsible for representing UBC students to provincial government has just played a key role in electing the new head of that government. And if you can’t see the major conflict of interest that entails, we strongly suggest an optometrist. To be fair, student politicians are free to do what they want with their private time, VP Externals are often very political in the AMS (last year’s excepted) and Tyson took on this responsibility before she ran for VP External. But one of the key duties of her job is to be resolutely neutral, advocating for the best policies for students regardless of what party they come from. And to put it mildly, the BC Liberals have done little for students in the last five years: slashing budgets for student support while keeping student loan conditions among the worst in the country. So should Tyson take a conciliatory, long-term approach in lobbying the person she just helped get elected premier, you can bet critics will claim she’s putting politics ahead of students. It’s a quandary, but there is a solution. If she wants to maximize her effectiveness and minimize conflicts, Tyson should focus on federal issues, TransLink and UBC’s ongoing governance debate—and declare that she will be leaving issues of provincial lobbying largely to her associate vice-president and President Jeremy McElroy, a formal VP External. Such a decision would be a refreshing show of integrity from student politics and pre-empt inevitable criticisms of her neutrality. Otherwise, she risks being doubted by students and marginalized by her fellow executives in short order. Tyson has had a month any student politician would envy, and for that she deserves personal congratulations. But for both her sake and the dynamic between executives this year, we wish her the best of luck in straddling what will be a very narrow personal and professional line. U
bryce warnes graphic/the ubyssey
opinions
Why I am against giving AMS more money Nick Frank Perspective Bound to run a referendum to continue the U-pass program, the AMS is hoping to increase your student fees and change its governance structure dramatically at the same time. Active student leaders and I disagree with the changes because they create slush funds and make it easier for the AMS to make drastic changes to our $31 million Student Society while keeping the average student in the dark. I’ve included some information here to demonstrate why AMS is not yet at a point where we can trust it with such sweeping powers. Fee Structure The new fee structure gives the AMS over $800,000 in new funding without any accountability. It creates slush funds with catchy labels (such as Resource Groups, sustainability, internationalization) without an accountable governance structure. The AMS’s history is the best example of why this structure lacks accountability. Last year, the AMS Resource Groups took fees collected as part of your tuition
and wired it offshore to fight the Gaza blockade. The year before that, the AMS filed a complaint against the Government of Canada and BC to the UN Human Rights Commission for raising tuition. Total cost of the flotilla: $15,000; total cost of the UN resolution: $20,000. Is this the kind of organization that I would trust with more funds that they can spend at their full discretion? Additionally, the decrease on fees in the Health and Dental Plan is a gamble with the students’ extended insurance. The decrease will eliminate the reserve fund which has protected students against increases in coverage cost. Without this reserve, at the next increase of insurance costs, the AMS will cut coverage substantially or increase the Health and Dental Fee to previous levels. Seventy-five per cent of students are on that plan and we were never consulted on this change. The only people consulted about the new fee structure were the beneficiaries of the fees. Finally, CiTR and The Ubyssey receive increases– a strategy that has already shown results: give the major media a piece of the pie and they will support the referendum publicly. Meanwhile, students have not been consulted.
Bylaw Changes The most significant change is that the AMS is decreasing quorum at its Annual General Meeting from 1000 to 500. This would mean just 500 students could make any changes to the AMS, including giving the executive further slush funds. How is it good governance for 500 students to decide the fate of a society representing more than 48,000 students? The AMS is making the change because it has never been able to get 1000 students to its AGM. Before AMS asks students for more money, it should make itself more relevant by showing that it brings value to the student experience. The first step is creating a more accountable student government. When was the last time the AMS asked us what we wanted to see in student services? We are not a cash cow. As fee paying students, we deserve to be included in the decision making process. Until AMS changes its attitude, I am not paying more AMS fees. U Nick Frank is Chair of the ‘No’ Campaigns for the AMS Referenda Bylaws and Fees Questions.
McElroy: The case against the NCAA Justin McElroy coordinating@ubyssey.ca Over the next two months, UBC’s Administration will be listening to the campus community as it decides whether to become the second Canadian school to join NCAA Division II. To help, I’m presenting the most honest, ethical and straightforward arguments I can for and against moving to the NCAA. Here’s the case against the NCAA: Moving to the NCAA is a giant change. We’d be waving goodbye to competing in Canada against Canadian studentathletes for southern pastures, sizable scholarships and better competition. Given the change and that according to a 2008 survey, more of the community is against the change (52 per cent) than for it (48 per cent), such a move should only be made after considering this question: Who does this change benefit? One thing is for sure, it doesn’t benefit UBC’s bottom line. To join the NCAA, UBC would have to undergo US accreditation, a process that could cost $2-3
million over the next three years and $100,000 annually after that. Excluding accreditation, Athletics has claimed switching to NCAA would give UBC a net savings of $153,537. But their calculations assume that men’s and women’s hockey would stay in Canada—something that is impossible because the CIS doesn’t allow dual memberships. As the hockey teams UBC would play includes schools in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, this is creative accounting at best and deception at worst. Will this benefit school spirit and get people to actually attend games? Athletics thinks it will, but there’s absolutely no evidence to support that. Instead of playing Victoria, Trinity Western and Calgary for CanadaWest dominance, we’ll face Western Washington, Central Oregon and SFU for the right to be kings of the more competitive Great Northwest Athletic Conference. If that’s enough to get you to start cheering the T-Birds, then you’re an imaginary person created by UBC Athletics to support their point. People don’t attend games for a variety of reasons, but Athletics uses virtually
none of its budget, which is nearly $20 million, to try and change this culture. So who does this help? Well, it will allow a few dozen more Canadians to get full-ride scholarships. Which is nice, unless you believe that a university should reward excellence in academics and citizenship, not being over six feet and able to put a ball/puck through a hoop/net. There’s also the question of where this would come from. Athletics “is confident in reaching an ultimate goal of $75 million in athletic scholarship endowments through [an] upcoming university-wide campaign.” But this hasn’t happened yet, and what if they’re overly optimistic? In many ways, the desires of Athletics to move to the NCAA is like a B+ science student who, after getting her bachelor’s degree, has decided she wants to be an astronaut and work at NASA. And just like any responsible parent would tell that kid to go back to school, if UBC has a responsible administration, they’ll tell Athletics to raise money and attendance before joining the NCAA. Being ambitious is only good if you’re prepared. U
16/ubyssey.ca/our campus/2011.02.28
our campus Bryce Warnes culture@ubyssey.ca Displaying tool-making abilities rivalled only by the great apes, a pack of approximately fifteen UBC students frolicked in the snow Saturday night. This particular form of play served as a way for male members of t he pack to resolve conf licts pertaining to social dominance in a relatively non-violent and harmless way. The game also provided hunting practice for the younger students. Much like human groups, students use ritualized forms of interaction to relieve tension within the pack
and reinforce the social roles of members. Climbing to t he top of t he Knoll with their respective pieces of cardboard, each student would arrange the ad-hoc sled beneath them and then, riding on top, descend the hill. While no injuries were sustained, several members of the group tumbled from their sleds into the snow and were rewarded by the chittering, laughter-like sounds of their peers. Photographed by Geoff Lister, this image is a rare glimpse into the remarkable variations in activity within the social life of the UBC student. U
geoff lister photo/ the ubyssey
Come volunteer for The Ubyssey! We feed you. justin mcelroy| coordinating@ ubyssey.ca
U theubyssey.ca