Prime minsters can touch boobies since 1918
STUDENTS BRING THE YEAR TO A TRIUMPHANT CLOSE WITH UBC LIPDUB AND BLOCK PARTY. PAGE 3-4
U
the ubyssey
APRIL 11, 2011 volume 92, number l room 24, student union building published mondays and thursdays feedback@ubyssey.ca
OVER 300,000*
*And counting
Lipdub lifts off with hundreds of thousands of views
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events
april 11, 2011 volume xcii, no l editorial 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
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contributors Karina Palmitesta Will Mackenzie Kait Bolongaro Joyce Wan Elise Grieg Rob Fougere
Urooba Jamal Iqra Azhar Irene Lo Jenny Tsundu Noah Burshtein Richard Lam
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 Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as your year and faculty with all submissions.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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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. noon yoga $1 • Led by the UBC Yoga Club—all skill levels are welcome. Bring your own mat and enjoy this invigorating session. RSVP on the Facebook events page. • Tuesdays, 12–1pm, UBC Bookstore, $1. pott e ry s al e at sprout s •
The UBC Pottery Club is now selling their work at Sprouts
and have donated some pieces in return for space. It brings a new addition to the Sprouts atmosphere and allows potters sp a c e to showc ase their pieces. • Mon–Fri, 9:30am– 4pm, Sprouts, SUB basement.
tuesday, apr. 12 Quartet in Four Courses: An E v e n ing of M u sic al Drama a n d Co n v e r s at i o n • T h i s
experimental evening will explore connections between a string quartet, a theatrical per formance and a social event (a dinner party). The celebrated Borealis Quartet will play Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No. 1, with a staged reading of a short play by Jonathan Wisenthal as a companion piece. • 8 – 9:30 pm, Coach House, Green College, go to greencollege.ubc.ca for more information.
thursday, apr. 14 Co. ERASGA/Complot: EXpose • A powerful new full-length duet
exploring sexuality, gender and identity, EXpose brings together two exceptional male solo artists: Vancouver’s own Alvin Erasga Tolentino, artistic d ire c to r of C o. ER A S G A , whose sophisticated works have toured around the world; and Martin Inthamoussú, a driving force in Uruguay’s contemporary dance scene. T h e se t wo char i s m a t i c performers seek to expose the complexity of the personal and public territories within the gay psyche, creating a spellbinding theatrical and physical dialogue. • Apr. 14– 16, 8pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre, $28, $20 students/ seniors, buy tickets at ticketstonight.ca.
saturday, apr. 16 f i lm s c r e e n i n g : Aa ki d eh •
‘Aakideh’ is an Ojibwe word meaning brave or brave-hearted. Artist Carl Beam earned a reputation for being fearless, v isi o n a r y a n d ul tim ate l y, unforgettable. From his early years growing up on Manitoulin Island to his turbulent years
spent at a residential school, this documentar y explores how these early experiences not only impacted Beam’s life but also his art. Screening time: 65 minutes. • 1pm, Museum of Anthropology, $14/$12 + HST.
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culture
editorS BRYCE WARNES & JONNY WAKEFIELD » culture@ubyssey.ca SENIOR WRITER GINNY MONACO » gmonaco@ubyssey.ca ILLUSTRATOR INDIANA JOEL » ijoel@ubyssey.ca
food with kait bolongaro
Photo courtesy of UBC Lipdub
Going live
UBC LIPDUB viewed 300k times in two days Most-watched campus lipdubs: Université du Québec à Montréal Posted: September 11, 2009 Views: 8,441,908 Shorewood High School (WA) Posted: December 17, 2009 Views: 1,583,318 Universitat de Vic (Spain) Posted: May 24, 2010 Views: 1,308,136
Some 200 people turned out to the launch party Friday. Geoff Lister photo/The Ubyssey
Jonny Wakefield culture@ubyssey.ca
potential recruitment tool. “There was...this guy who said ‘Yo, I’m on the East Coast but I know where I’m going to university,’” said Ahmadian. While the university supported the video— Less than three days after its release, UBC’s Lipdonating spaces and the film license, and closDub video seems primed to go big. ing East Mall—it had no creative control over “I could never have envisioned it would turn the final product or branding. “The benefit of out this way,” said Andrew Cohen, the BFA Actsomething like this is...it’s grass roots,” said ing student who directed and co-produced the Cohen. “As soon as it has that corporate-y feel video. “I had visions of grandeur six months it loses its value.” ago, but I never thought it would look this cool.” “The LipDub is fearless,” said former VP StuThe video was shot on campus on March 26, dents Brian Sullivan, who attended Friday’s featuring close to 1000 UBC students and comopening. “It’s fun and it does munity members lip synceverybody proud and I think ing, dancing and celebratit’s going to take the whole ing to the sound of Pink and thing to the next level.” Marianas Trench. It was upCohen and Ahmadian loaded Friday afternoon, and Brian Sullivan, Former VP Students hope the video will hit ten had around 300,000 views million views. They are collecting donations as of press time. based on view counts for the Make a Wish Cohen and co-producer Bijan Ahmadian ofFoundation. ficially unveiled the video at a launch party at Cohen admitted that the success of the LipRobson Square Friday evening. Around 200 dub is an anomaly for a disconnected campus people attended the event, many of whom parlike UBC. “I’ve been a commuter student this enticipated in the video. tire time, and that’s one of the reasons I want“I thought [the LipDub] was pretty good,” said ed to do this, because I figured it would give me Nick Hamm, a second-year Science student. “It some kind of affiliation to a campus that I othgets people to meet...people from other faculties erwise had no real connection to,” he said. Ahand people who don’t even go to this school. I madian, however, said the event builds off of the saw a lot of younger kids who were attracted success of other campus-wide events like Imagby the fact that Marianas Trench was there.” ine Day and the Student Leadership Conference. “I heard about [the LipDub] because the guy “We showcased some of the things that I think from Marianas Trench was talking about it and students from this generation will remember I thought it looked like fun,” said Samatha Pintabout UBC,” said Ahmadian. “I think if you talk er-Thompson, a local high school student. “I’d to this generation of students they’ll tell you they love to go to UBC.” remember their Translink bus passes, they reMany YouTube commenters echoed Pintermember Ike Barber, they’ll remember the Knoll Thompson’s thoughts. The thousands of comand Storm the Wall...And this video.” U ments on the video speak to its power as a
“The LipDub is fearless.”
Boston University Posted: December 14, 2009 Views: 556,393 Warsaw School of Economics Posted: December 16, 2009 Views: 460,103 University of Victoria Posted: October 22, 2010 Views: 216,325 UBC Posted: April 8, 2011 Views: 300,000+
YouTube honours as of press time 2nd most viewed video in Canada (of videos uploaded same day) 4th top rated video in Canada this week 6 th most viewed video in Entertainment
Urban Honey: Vancouver’s sweet cottage industry Whi le w i ldf lowers are found in nooks and crannies t hroughout Vancouver, few people would think of them as a potential source of income. However, flowers— whether urban or rural—need to be pollinated. The primary movers in this act are bees, which turn nectar into honey to be harvested and sold. This small-scale honey industry is growing, as consumer demand for local and organic products climbs. UrbanSweet Honey is a Vancouver company capitalizing on the market for quality local honey. Russell Godwin, its owner, comes from a line of beekeepers. He decided to transplant his family’s trade into an urban setting. “I just thought that it would be neat to have a hobby,” said Godwin. “The city of Vancouver made it legal [to harvest urban nectar]. I extended that thought: it would be nice to have urban honey as an alternative to commercial honey. It was a way of cutting myself out from the herd.” One of the biggest issues in the commercial honey industry is how heavily filtered and processed products are. Honey sold in supermarket chains is usually clear like liquid gold, while honey in its natural state is cloudy. “Retailers don’t want it because the customers think that the honey is bad,” said Godwin, All of UrbanSweet’s honey is collected from beehives in the Greater Vancouver Area.“The process is the same,” said Godwin. “The irony of it is that GVRD is cleaner than the countryside because [Vancouver] doesn’t use a lot of pesticides. With all the bees, people are able to eat product that comes from Vancouver.” What about the ethical implications of harvesting honey? According to Godwin, UrbanSweet only takes a portion of the product at the end of the summer, leaving the bees enough to survive the winter. However, more large-scale producers can push bees beyond their limits. “We have physiologically pushed dairy cattle very far. To some extent, that’s true of bees [too],” said Dr Murray Isman, Dean of Land and Food Systems faculty. “There’s been a recent crisis [called] colony collapse disorder, in part because companies push bees to their limits of their abilities. However, the [main cause] is a virus [that] bees are more susceptible to because bee colonies are transported by humans to pollinate agricultural crops which have a high amount of pesticides.” And harvesting honey doesn’t jeopardize a bee colony’s survival. “We domesticate a lot of plants and animals to feed humans,” said Isman. “We want to do that in as sustainable a manner possible. The history of humans and bees domesticated goes back a long way and it’s firmly established you can harvest honey without harming the beehive.” U And that’s all Ubysseyers! Thanks for reading my column this year. From Ethiopian cuisine to honey, we have gone around the world in food. If you’re interested, check out my food blog at roamingepicurian.wordpress.com.
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Kicking it with kid Koyczan
POETRY
Vancouver spoken word artist revisits youth in latest work Ginny Monaco gmonaco@ubyssey.ca “Think of your childhood as a neighbourhood and it’s just finished raining,” said poet Shane Koyczan. “You’ve got all those rain puddles which represent all those dark spots, but there are those few in-between dry patches where you c a n sa fely ju mp f rom d r y patch to dry patch.” Koyczan has spent the better part of a year meditating on his unconventional childhood in preparation for an upcoming series of shows at The Cultch. When I was a Kid deals with youthful “silliness” and “wonder,” qualities Koyczan considers “important aspects of ourselves that should never be thrown away.” Koyczan never really knew his mother or father, and was raised by his grandparents in Yellowknife before moving to Penticton at age 14. His childhood had more than a few dark spots and he never spent much time looking back on it. “The biggest thing was sort of believing for t he longest time t hat I d id n’t rea l ly have a childhood because I was bullied so much and t here was so much tragedy,” he said. “I felt like maybe I’d been cheated because I had to grow up so quickly.” It was only recently, when Koyczan’s grandmother discovered his early journals, that he began to reevaluate his experiences growing up. “[The writing] was really horrible stuff but what’s funny is that I was so genuine at the time. I meant everything I’d written down. “It’s so bad!” Koyczan laughed and offered an example. “I think it was meant to be an insult
about this kid who had started dating my soul mate, kind of a ‘fuck you.’ The insult was ‘Oh, his mother probably cuts his apples!’ Like, what the hell does that even mean? “That’s when it occurred to me, as awful as the majority of my childhood was, I did still have a childhood.” Koycza n is perhaps best known for the piece “We Are More,” which he performed at the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, but he was an established and well-respected artist long before that. His poems, often accompanied by his band The Short Story Long, are at once heart-wrenching, funny and always surprising. Koyczan calls writing a “mechanism to dea l wit h t he moment,” and his candid poems call upon specific events to communicate some more universal ideas. “Not ever yone’s h ad t he same experience that I’ve had, but people have felt the same way. I talk a lot about the way that I feel and I think it’s that level of emotional nudity that people identify with.” On top of creating When I Was a Kid, Koyczan has been working with George Miller on the next installment of the Mad Max franchise, as well as preparing to release the next Short Story Long album this summer. Koyczan has found a way to make a living as a writer, something he never really expected. “I thought for sure I’d be a wrestler. I had it all worked out. My name was going to be ‘The Garbage Man’ and my saying would be ‘I’m taking out the trash!’ My finishing move would be the Trash Compactor. “I guess things worked out for the best,” he laughed. U
Indiana Joel illustration/The Ubyssey
AMS Block Party’s moment in the sun
CAMPUS
Beers and bass shook MacInnes Field on Thursday Bryce Warnes culture@ubyssey.ca
In the press. Geoff lister photo/the Ubyssey
The sun showed up for Block Party on Thursday and brought 3055 students in its wake. By four o’clock in the afternoon, a throbbing gang of dancers had gathered in front of the stage, bouncing along to mashups by Team Canada DJs and turning MacInnes Field into a stew of mud and discarded plastic cups. Rye Rye was next on stage. Flanked by a pair of backup dancers and spitting her brand of art rap over an electrified hiphop beat, her performance was well-received by an increasingly boisterous audience. Spirits were high, and so were students, as cups of Molson were raised up and joints were ignited on the down low. Security was benevolent, for the most part, their work mainly consisting of telling smokers to put out their cigarettes. (A designated smoking section would have benefited the event, as anybody stepping out for a puff was barred from re-entry.) On several separate occasions, flailing
participants who had clearly gone over t heir limits were strong-armed out of Block Party by guards. But for the most part, the atmosphere was festive and non-threatening. By nine o’clock, 50 kegs had been emptied and it was time to clear out. Besides the sunny afternoon, the choice of performers likely helped to draw the large crowd. Block Party’s music had the baseline (and bassline, ha ha ha ha) popular appeal that can get students of whatever tastes dancing after a few drinks. Its performers may not have been as high-profile as the Barenaked Ladies, but Block Party got students dancing and singing. And that lead to a warm and fuzzy last day of classes. U
U
Online exclusive
For more pictures from Block Party, visit ubyssey.ca/culture.
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News
editor ARSHY MANN » news@ubyssey.ca assistant editor KALYEENA MAKORTOFF » kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca SENIOR WRITER MICKI COWAN » mcowan@ubyssey.ca
Fate of Gage South still under review arshy mann news@ubyssey.ca Will the bus loop be turned into market housing? That’s what the UBC Board of Governors (BoG) is slated to decide over the next year. The area known as Gage South became a point of contention after the university proposed building market housing in its place in the UBC Land Use Plan (LUP) amendments last year. However, after receiving negative feedback from the university community, the BoG decided to designate Gage South as an “Area Under Review,” creating a separate consultation process to determine its future. Last Tuesday, BoG passed a resolution beginning the process that will eventually culminate in a public hearing next year. “Gage South is unfinished business from the land use plan,” said Nassif Ghoussoub, a faculty representative on BoG, and the head of the Property and Planning Committee. “This is [going to be] a long process.” Since the passage of Bill 20, which transfered responsibility for the University Endowment Lands (UEL) from Metro Vancouver to the Province, UBC is required to adhere to a strict set of guidelines any time it wishes to change area zoning. According to Associate VP Planning Nancy Knight, although Gage South only covers the area where the current diesel bus loop stands, any changes will have to account for bordering areas.
Gage South, the area previously planned for market housing. GEoff lister Photo/The Ubyssey
This area is currently in a state of flux due to the building of a new Student Union Building, alumni centre, a possible relocation of the aquatic centre and changes to the transit hubs. War Memorial Gym and MacInnes Field will also be part of the study. “The program is intended to be highly collaborative,” said Knight. “We’ve already put together a working group for consultation, which includes students, of course.” AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Matt Parson will be one of the members of the group. They will be consulting with the Alma Mater Society (AMS), Graduate Student Society, University Neighbourhoods Association, UEL and Translink regarding the changes. During last year’s consultations, the AMS expressed its strong opposition against
building market housing on Gage South, arguing that it would not be compatible with the bustling atmosphere of the area. In the past, fraternities and other campus groups have come up against market housing residents over noise complaints. The market housing that the university had planned for Gage South was heldover from housing that was originally set to be built on UBC Farm. But when the university made a commitment in 2008 to save the Farm, it did so under the condition that the housing be transferred to another part of campus, some of which was integrated into plans for Gage South. The university is now making similar demands in the face of a possible transfer of housing from Gage South. “The housi n g u n it s w i l l be transferred elsewhere on
Arshy Mann & Kalyeena Makortoff news@ubyssey.ca
campus if t hey’re not built there,” said Knight at last Tuesday’s BoG meeting. Units to support around 400 people were planned for the area. At the December 1 public hearing about the LUP last year, then chair of the AMS’s University and External Relations Committee and current VP External Katherine Tyson, criticized UBC’s demands to transfer these units. “We don’t understand why Campus and Community Planning keeps saying that we need to transfer [the density] out.” She went on to say that UBC was speaking of these density transfers as if they were absolutely necessary, as opposed to a choice the university was making. After the public hearing is held, amendments will go to the Minister of Agriculture and Lands for approval. U
you think that younger, unexperienced candidates should have in an election, and what advice would you give them?
On the eve of the leaders’ debate this Tuesday, Deputy Liberal Leader Bob Rae took some time to speak to The Ubyssey about what issues will be affecting students in this election, and why young people should consider voting Liberal.
Rae: I think it’s great if young people are coming forward and running for us in ridings, that’s terrific, in ridings which don’t appear to be winnable at the beginning may be in fact winnable at the end, so we wish people the very best, I’ve run in ten elections...and I can assure you there will be many surprises on election night.
Ubyssey: More than the rest of the population, students and young people tend to be fairly-left-ofcenter. Why should students who might be considering voting for the NDP or the Greens in this election give their vote to the Liberals?
U: What are the ways in which that can be improved, that you can get the youth to be engaged in the political process?
Emergency AMS Council meeting tonighT Kalyeena Makortoff kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca
Bob Rae: Liberals more progressive than ever
Bob Rae: I think the strongest argument that we can make for the Liberals is a combination of two things: one is that we’ve got a platform and a leader that are clearly thinking a lot about the future, that they’re focusing a lot on issues that matter to the whole country and we’ve got a very progressive and thoughtful platform. The second is that we’ve actually got a chance of forming a government.
NEWS BRIEFS
Bob Rae. PHoto courtesy the liberal party of canada
Rae: We’ve talked about t he learning passport which is a really progressive and thoughtful way to try and encourage more participation in college and university. Another thing, obviously is really focusing on how people communicate, so we spend a lot of time on social media. U: One criticism about the learning passport is that it requires you to open up an RESP, which lower income families are generally less likely to do.
Rae: One of the reasons that people are less likely to have an account is because they don’t have any money, and the fact of the matter is that this proposal from Mr. Ignatieff doesn’t require any people to put money into their account, it just requires that people open an account. U: Three UBC students have been recruited by Liberals to run in what appear to be unwinnable ridings in BC, or at least ridings that have done historically poorly for the Liberals. What role do
U: On a closing note, what is the one message young people should be left with during this election? rae: My clear message to young people would be you’ve got a real choice in this election, and I can’t think of an election in which the choices were more stark or more clear between a party that’s talking about the future in an open and progressive way and a party that is doing the exact opposite, that has a very narrow ideological vision, and I hope that students are active in helping to change its government. U To read the whole interview, go to ubyssey.ca.
AMS Council will be holding an emergency meeting at 7pm tonight to discuss pay raises for AMS staff and executives. Last Wednesday, council received a presentation from the Business and Facilities Committee (BAFCOM) about provincial plans to raise minimum wage beginning May 1, along with a strategy they believe the AMS should take to best implement incremental raises for their own staff. AMS staff wages under discussion did not include food and beverage workers. “W hen the premier an nounced that she’s raising minimum wage, I thought that we could take this opportunity to look at the entire wage structure of the AMS and also how can we make it so that the AMS can pay our student employees fairly, equitably and also systematically,” explained Allen Chen, a member of the BAFCOM working group. A three-tier wage system was proposed by BAFCOM. While minimum wage earners would see their pay increase in order to match new provincial levels, AMS executives would see their salary increase from $25,000/year to approximately $28,000 this year, and $31,000 for the 2012–2013 executives. The change would also eliminate the meal voucher program, an executive benefit valued at $500-$1000 per executive yearly. “We knew this was something that wasn’t going to be popular at all,” explained Chen, “[but] if the executive salary was not increased at all, a lot of the staff that would be reporting to them would essentially be compensated almost at their level, at hourly wage, if that base goes up but your top does not move, a lot of people will generally feel, in a professional environment, there’s pay inequity.” “Whether council agrees or not that’s something that we’ll see, but also the timing is another question to be considered.” “Raising the salaries of the AMS employees—particularly executives—so soon after passing a major fee referendum which was sold around the need for more program funding is about the worst thing you could possibly do for optics,” said former AUS President Brian Platt on his blog UBC Vanguard. “It looks absolutely terrible. It makes you look like liars.” Executive members recused themselves from discussion, as their own salaries were being debated. Chen said that there will be an AMS compensation review forum hosted by the BAFCOM working group before the council meeting, in SUB 206. Chen hopes this will be a chance to dispel potential misunderstandings and have an open and informal question and answer period. U
6/ubyssey.ca/investigative/2011.04.11
A Ubyssey investigation into on-campus employers Living as a student in Vancouver is expensive. Scholarships don’t always provide sufficient financial coverage for post-secondary education, forcing even full-time students to seek employment. For those looking for jobs, working on campus is convenient, not only for those living in residence. Commuting students may also find it more desirable to work shifts close to their classes, and international students have to apply for an offcampus work permit if they choose to seek employment outside UBC. “Given the nature of international students at UBC, they’re only allowed to work on campus,” said AMS President Jeremy McElroy. “Unless, of course, they apply for an off campus work permit, which takes a while to process, costs $150 and doesn’t guarantee you a job, so a lot of students sort of stay away from that.” With the need for financial support in mind, The Ubyssey’s investigative team set out to find out how many jobs are available for students at UBC. On-campus employers “UBC does do a great job hiring students and there are a ton of positions available,” said McElroy. “The AMS also employs over 400 students and we’re actually one of the largest student employers in Canada, in terms of student unions… we all do a lot but there are just so many students on campus.” For students looking for career-related work opportunities, UBC offers the Work Study and Work Learn programs. Opportunities in these programs can include research/lab assistant and TA positions for both undergraduate and graduate students, among others. Available to domestic and international students, the programs provided over a thousand jobs last year. “Last [academic] year...we had about 1750 students working through Work Study and the average wage was about 15.5 dollars an hour,” said Career Services Director Howie Outerbridge. However, participants can only work a maximum of ten hours per week in the programs. According to Outerbridge, this limit was created to help ensure that students maintain a balanced lifestyle while going to school. “One of the reasons why we have a cap is that really we want to give students a chance to focus on their studies…by limiting it to ten hours we’re figuring that a lot of students will volunteer, or be engaged in leadership. They may also be living in Richmond, and have an hour or two-hour commute every day, so that’s one of the reasons why we’ve limited it to ten hours a week.” He cited research from the UK, which showed that “anybody that works more t han 15 hours [and goes to school
Investigative Team lead: Jenny Tsundu investigative@ubyssey.ca
Features Editor: Trevor Record features@ubyssey.ca
Will FOR school
WORK
Written By Joyce Wan, Uroob Jamal, Iqra Azhar, Irene Lo, Jenny Tsundu and Elise Grieg full-time] is at risk of seriously affecting their physical health, their mental health, their ability to cope and do well in school.” While he realizes that the Work Study and Work Learn programs don’t give students the ability to be completely financially self-sufficient, the cap allows for more positions to be available. “It allows us to spread the resources out a bit further. If we…had 20 hours a week then half as many students could be involved with the program.” Where the jobs are(n’t) The Work Study and Work Learn program provide many jobs at reasonable pay, but with few weekly hours. To get a better idea of the extent of other student employment opportunities on campus, The Ubyssey contacted a number of UBC ancillaries for the number of students they employ. Many, such as UBC Food Services, UBC Bookstore and UBC Parking and Access Control, employ limited numbers of students. After Work Study and Work Learn, the biggest student employer on campus was UBC Athletics. Around 90 per cent of their total work force are students. Athletics typically posts details about the application process on its website in August, and the positions available range from promotions to security to media relations. UBC REC currently hires 200 student employees in roles ranging from game management to human resources, and also runs a leadership development program. The AMS is the next largest student employer, with 400 student employees.
The cost of being a student UBC Faculty of Graduate Studies posts an estimation of the minimum annual living costs for a single person in Vancouver on their Campus & Community web page. Their estimate accounts for books, student fees, health plans, personal/household expenses and a small entertainment stipend. The total minimum estimated cost of living in Vancouver as a single person on your own (on or off campus) is about $17,027 per year. Room and board (including food costs) makes up a conservative $12,000 of this total, so costs are considerably lower if you’re living with family. According to UBC’s “You@UBC” guide to undergraduate programs and admission, tuition for most undergraduate programs at UBC costs between $4000 and $6000 for domestic students, and ranges from $21,000 to just over $25,000 for international students. That makes the cost of attending UBC and living in Vancouver a minimum of $21,000 for domestic students and $38,000 for international students. “You’re using the standard of a student who is receiving no support from their parents, which is actually the majority of students out there,” said AMS
President Jeremy McElroy. “Not living at home…and working part-time while going to school full-time, it’s actually almost impossible to pay UBC’s tuition in addition to the cost of living in Vancouver.” Riddell said that being financially selfsufficient in Vancouver is indeed difficult. “Tuition is still low in Canada, compared to some countries like the US,” said UBC Economics Professor Dr Craig Riddell. “But when you add in [the cost of living]…you either need support from your family or you need to try to earn enough money in the summer… or you need loans or some other [form of financial aid].” McElroy said that an AMS report on the affordability of education over the last 70 years at UBC showed that, even when adjusted for inflation, going to UBC has never been more expensive. “Really what it came down to was tuition at UBC, all other fees notwithstanding, just tuition for 30 credits for an Arts student, is twice as much in real dollars… as any other time in UBC’s history,” said McElroy. “The cost of living in Vancouver has been creeping steadily up above the national average…it’s harder than it’s ever been to be a student.” U
After this, UBC service ancillaries have less than half of their positions available to students. UBC Food Services, a potential source of on-campus employment, allocates less than half of their available positions for students. Out of 300 positions, only 120-130 are designated for students. UBC Housing and Hospitality Services allocates approximately 330 of 1000 positions for students. Other UBC ancillaries employ even fewer students. The UBC Bookstore, Parking and Access Control, Properties Trust, and Public Affairs are subsidiaries that employ 25, 19, one and zero student employees, respectively. These numbers can fluctuate depending on the time of year— while the UBC Bookstore allots 25 out of 100 positions for students, an additional 60 students are usually hired during term rush seasons. However, all ancillaries have hired UBC students in the past and expressed interest in hiring students where feasible. A representative from Properties Trust said they often promote interns after they graduate from UBC, and expressed a special preference for hiring Sauder students. At the time this information was collected, UBC Public Affairs had no student employees, though they had hired journalism students in the past. Why not more student Jobs?
Students tend to work less during terms when they are taking classes, and instead seek more hours in the summer, when many of these groups need fewer employees. “If you had students who’d want to work year-round, then the only obstacle might be that they only want to work a few hours a week during the terms when they want to take classes, and work more hours in the summer. That may not fit with the employers’ desire for the number of hours they have their employees work.” McElroy pointed out that parameters set by unions as to how many hours should be worked each week often did not fit with a student’s need for part-time work and flexible hours. Riddell suggested that students are more likely to find jobs on campus in the service sector. “I think a lot of part-time work is in the service sector, like working in a coffee shop, bar or restaurant,” Riddell noted. “Those are the most plentiful jobs, they often have pretty flexible hours, which fits what students need… [and they’re] often available close to where people live… At the same time, they’re not exactly career paths…though they might be useful in enhancing some skills.” The part-time job that both provides a living wage and career experience is especially elusive. Riddell explained that career-related job opportunities are harder for students to attain because employers are “often looking for more permanent employees. Typically there’s a fair amount of training and learning on the job required…they’re not just looking for people who are there temporarily. The employer is making a big investment.” Co-op and Work Study/Learn programs can help convince employers to hire students, using wage subsidies as an incentive—UBC pays part of your wage, so that the employer gets a lower rate for your work. In addition, certain government programs offer the same kind of agreements for employers. But for the majority of students, who will likely accrue some financial debt as a result of their post-secondary education, Riddell said that it’s best to look at things in the long-term. “The good news is, on average, you… get paid off quite handsomely; [education is] a good investment,” said Riddell. “It may be a situation where students are a bit uncomfortable, having accumulated a substantial amount of debt, but from an investment point of view, it’s a good debt to take on for the average person.” U
Dr Craig Riddell, a UBC economics professor specializing in labour economics, guessed these ancillary groups can’t hire more students because of the unique scheduling needs students have.
$8060 a years’s Work Study Wage @ $15.50/hr
$21,000 Minimum Tuition, five courses, International student
$17,000 Minimum cost of living
(source: UBC Faculty of Graduate Studies)
Minimum tuition, Five courses, domestic student $4000
$5000 without room and board
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national VIU enters second month of faculty strike Christina M. Windle The Navigator (Vancouver Island University) NANAIMO, BC (CUP) — Holding bright handmade signs, culinary arts students at Vancouver Island University protested the faculty strike that has already lasted a month and could cause irreparable time-loss damage to their education. “Unlike most students, we’re not able to make up the work at home. We have to be in school to make it up,” said Martin Macnutt, a participant of the March 29 protest. “The strike affects us more than most students.” A heavy portion of VIU’s trades programs are based on physicalskills training and exams that require equipment accessible only on campus. Each day these students, whose skills-based courses and exams need to be completed to graduate and begin summer work placements, lose valuable in-class time and facility access that they may not be able to make up by June 20, when planned coop placements begin. The cost for students to complete an extended semester may also cause repercussions for the 2011-12 school year. “If I can’t finish my semester, I don’t know how I’ll afford to come back in September,” Macnutt said. “I drive from Port Alberni every day and I don’t have the extra $500 a month it costs me in gas, plus time away from my child to be here.” Like an increasing number of students, none of the culinary
sherry wota photo/courtesy the nexus
arts protesters were in support of VIU’s faculty association, who have been on strike since March 10. “We just want to see ourselves back in school,” Macnutt said. “Their job security is not my problem. I’ve paid to come to school. I’ve signed up for this course and they’re choosing to protest, to put up their picket line before
the semester’s over, affecting as many students as they possibly can. I feel like they’re using us as pawns.” “If anyone is using the students as pawns, frankly, it’s the employer,” said Dominique Roelants, faculty association chief steward. “If negotiations had started last May, we would have settled
this long ago and there wouldn’t have been a strike.” The delays in negotiations are causing mounting frustration on the picket line. “Students have the right to express themselves,” said Toni O’Keeffe, communications director for the university.“ Education is about critical thinking, and understanding
and appreciat ing different points of view....We are not surprised to see students out there in support of their beliefs.” O’Keeffe added that other factors played a role in negotiation delays. “[The delays] were the result of some significant administrative transition,” he said. “VIU’s vice-president of academics stepped down last spring and it took until August to get the [position] replaced. So yes, this did impact VIU’s ability to move forward. It was not a delay tactic, it was not part of any plan— it just was.” Although all sides involved in the strike have been feeling student-based tension from the beginning, something that could also be taking an extra toll on the faculty association is pressure from within the union itself. “We also feel the pressure of the long-term impact on the university if we don’t solve it in the right way,” Roelants said. “We need to get a solution that means that VIU will become a great university as opposed to whatever it might become if we don’t win this. “Spirits are pretty high on the line because, you know what we’re actually fighting about is for ensuring that the priority for spending at VIU is on educational services for students,” Roelants added. “If we were out there trying to get a salary increase, I have to tell you, the line would have fallen apart long ago.” U
Have some free time after exams? Start writing for The Ubyssey! We will be publishing throughout the summer, online and in print. Shoot us an email at news@ubyssey.ca to get on our pitchlist. arshy mann | news@ubyssey.ca
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sports
editor MARIE VONDRACEK » sports@ubyssey.ca
Sailing to compete at collegiate level noah burshtein nburshtein@ubyssey.ca Most people on campus haven’t heard of UBC’s new competitive sailing team. Of course, most people on campus also haven’t raced across the ocean at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour either. Newly founded, the UBC sailing team has become officially competitive at the collegiate level thanks to a passionate group of racers led by team manager and sailor Elisha Allen. Allen is passionate, to say the least. Clearly in love with her sport, she was thrust into sailing at an early age. She grew up in Calgary, where her father taught her to race 50 foot boats, and instilled in her a love of sailing that she still wears proudly on her sleeve. Taking lessons in Calgary, she learned how to race boats and began to meet other racers. Coming to UBC, Allen had one goal in mind: she wanted to sail. She claims she came here “both for school and sailing,” but her true love was out on the water. She joined with some sailing friends who she had met before coming to UBC and together they
joined the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. Given occasional time to practice, they decided to propose the idea of a competitive collegiate racing team, only the second of its kind on the West coast of Canada. After having their proposal pass, a process Allen admits was “surprisingly painless.” The University of Alberta’s coach came out to Vancouver to help them get set up. Allen sat on the executive board of the yacht club and helped gain funding and support for her team. Collegiate sail racing is quite popular in the Eastern US and Canada, with major programs at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. These American schools offer full scholarships for their teams, allowing them to be quite competitive in the racing world. UBC, armed with a brand new squad, is obviously not as competitive as these older programs, but they do have a few secret weapons that allow them to beat many schools. UBC has always been a breeding ground for Olympic athletes, and when racing at nonNCAA tournaments where nonamateur athletes are allowed to compete, the Thunderbirds really have an opportunity to shine.
UBC has been quite competitive at the many different sailing regattas they’ve been to already, competing mostly in the southwestern United States. Thanks to their two volunteer coaches, the Thunderbirds are beginning to attract more and more talent to the Vancouver campus. Moving forward, Allen admits there are still a few roadblocks left to tackle. She explains that “we don’t have the use of the yacht club’s boats for summer training, as they are in use for lessons and such,” detailing the Thunderbirds’ biggest issue thus far. Teams at the highest level of this sport train yearround, and Allen’s squad is still unable to find boats that are available for use during the summer. The key is, of course, funding, and so far it has been an uphill battle for the T-Bird racers to find enough. It costs roughly $20,000 to be able to fund boats for the team, and Allen plans to approach both the AMS and corporate sponsors to attempt to raise the funds. “Corporate sponsorships are something we’re really planning on investigating,” Allen says, noting that the Canadian Yacht Club has been “more than supportive,” and that she plans to approach
Setting out on a new era of UBC sailing. Rob Fougere Photo/The Ubyssey
sailing equipment companies for additional support. Already armed with 20 willing and able racers, the team has been contacted by coaches in Brazil and the US who’d like to work with them in the future. Next year, the squad will be headed to Hawaii
and Stanford to compete in some of the most competitive sailing tournaments available on the collegiate scene. The future is bright for Allen and her racers, who are managing to popularize their sport while racing to the finish line. U
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Big Block Banquet honours athletes
Cam Thompson soaking up the magic. Richard Lam Photo/The Ubyssey
marie vondracek sports@ubyssey.ca Uniforms were exchanged for tuxedos and dresses last Wednesday as over 850 guests attended the 90th annual UBC Big Block Club Awards and Sports Hall of Fame Banquet. Eleven different teams were represented among the winners, with volleyball and track and field sweeping the major individual awards.
The event celebrates excellence and commitment to Varsity athletics, with a parade of the Big Block Inductees and graduating athletes in addition to the individual awards. Inductees are awarded a ‘Big Block sweater‚‘ upon completion of their second varsity season, while graduating players are presented with a silver, Native art-engraved ring to be worn on the ring finger of the right hand.
The winner of the Bus Phillips award, which honours the top male athlete of the year, was Inaki Gomez of track and field, while on the women’s side, Shanice Marcelle won the Marilyn Pomfret Award. “It’s pretty incredible, I never thought that in the short t ime t hat I’ve been here so fa r t hat I’d be get t in g t h is award,” said Marcelle. “Just being up on stage, surrounded
by all t hese at hletes, it was incredible.” Three athletes shared the Thunderbird Rook ie of t he Year award for their first season at UBC. Ga ga n Dosa njh from men’s soccer was the lone male recipient while Kylie Barros (women’s golf) and Savannah King (women’s swimming) shared the female award. The Du Vivier Team of the Year award was also split between two national championshipwinning squads, women’s golf and women’s volleyball. The most prestigious award of the evening was awarded to one track and field athlete and a pair of volleyball players, as the top graduating athletes of the year awards were earned by Blair Bann, Jen Hinze and Liz Gleadle. “It’s an honour to win it and to leave UBC with this prestigious award is a great feeling,” said Bann, who won the Bobby Gaul Memorial Trophy in his final year on the men’s volleyball team. The May Brown Trophy for the top female graduating athlete was split between Hinze of women’s volleyball and Gleadle of track and field. “I was incredibly anxious and nervous the entire day and it was really exciting to hear my name called,” Gleadle said afterward, calling the award a great honour. Hinze held similar sentiments. “There were just so many athletes and competitors at the banquet that in it‚ “really an honour to be selected amongst such an elite group.” U
bird droppings UBC Softball picking it up
The UBC Thunderbird softball team has moved over .500 during a six-game win streak last weekend in Oakland, CA. Senior Tanya McLean led her team on Friday with two home runs and seven RBIs in the 7-0 and 15-6 wins, both over Patten University. The second match of the day was a slugfest, with UBC out hitting Patten with 16 hits to 9, and four home runs to three. UBC defeated the Holy Names University (HNU) in two tight rendezvous 3-0 and 3-2. Freshman pitcher Leigh Della Siega threw all seven innings ceding only three hits and four walks, and striking out five batters. On Sunday, the ‘Birds earned another 5-3 win over HNU and a dominating 10-4 victory over Patten. The victories moved UBC to 23–18 on the season.
UBC Baseball slacking
The UBC Thunderbirds settled for a split with the Concordia Cavaliers to start their series at Nat Bailey Stadium, as the T-Birds edged the visitors 3-1 in game one but fell 6-2 in the evening. “This is a team supposed to be getting ready to make a big push for the World Series and we aren’t playing anywhere near that,” said UBC head coach Terry McKaig after the series. “These guys at some point have to make the decision to elevate our game because we’re just making too many mistakes and not bringing the proper mental approach to the plate, little defensive and base running mistakes, and you just can’t do that to be a championship team so we have to keep pushing in the right direction here.” U
End of another term = a fresh slate to begin a dream. Dream of journalism? Start here. marie vondracek | sports@ubyssey.ca
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games & comics crossword suscomic.com, by mike bround
comicmaster, by maria cirstea Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.
Across
blundergrads, by phil flickinger (blundergrads.com)
1. Pile 5. Copycat 9. Wreath of flowers 12. Car bar 13. Roofing items 15. Mouth bones 16. Milk source 17. Shout of exultation 18. Airline since 1948 19. Writer 21. Headset 23. Apply powder to oneself 25. Combining form meaning “dry“ 26. Convened 29. Enclose 31. Gambling state 35. Israeli submachine gun 36. Muzzle 38. Mum’s mate 39. Feminist Lucretia 41. Chairman’s hammer 43. Suspend 44. A Musketeer 46. Nairobi’s nation 48. Baton Rouge sch. 49. Winged child 51. Singer Amos 52. Bruce was a famous kungfu movie star
53. Little Tenderness 55. Frees (of) 57. In fact 61. It spreads aromatic smoke 65. Fleshy fruit 66. Garlic sauce 68. In a bad way 69. Actress McClurg 70. Merchandise 71. Physical suffering 72. Part of RSVP 73. Chair 74. Blunted blade
Down 1. Panama and bowler 2. Corp. VIP, briefly 3. Banned apple spray 4. Minor, in law 5. Man of royal blood 6. Actress Zadora 7. Fashion mag 8. Make less tense 9. Composer Schifrin 10. Actor McGregor 11. Archipelago part 14. Philosopher Kierkegaard 15. God 20. Sacks 22. Get ready 24. Frog sound 26. Shrub of the cashew family 27. Alchemist’s mercury 28. One tenth, usually 30. Down-filled quilt 32. In the least 33. Compact 34. Dispute 37. Domingo, for one 40. Agonize 42. Lyric poet 45. Chapter of the Koran 47. Adjutant 50. Clause 54. AKA 56. Long-billed sandpiper 57. Gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans 58. Basic monetary unit of Ghana 59. Follow 60. Long ago 62. Hit with an open hand 63. Night author Wiesel 64. Baseball’s Sandberg 67. Meadow solution
There’s only one issue left after this one. Don’t forget to get involved next year! justin mcelroy coordinating@ubyssey.ca
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opinions
do you care? WRITE US A LETTER » feedback@ubyssey.ca
editorial mental health more than a service Queen’s University made unfortunate headlines this week after two students died on campus— the fifth and sixth in the past year. At least two of these deaths were suicides. This tragedy has left the university reeling and looking for answers. It’s also the latest development in a national conversation about the mental health of university students. We’ve known for several years that students tend to display higher rates of depressive symptoms than the general population. It’s a stressful time. We’re often living away from home for the first time, disconnected from social networks and forced to cope with the stresses of work and study. Whatever the cause, many report feeling hopeless, lonely and overwhelmed, according to the National College Health Assessment. Universities are starting to realize they need to do more to help students. In 2009, the UBC VP Students office made mental health “a priority,” and launched a number of programs aimed at getting help to students in distress. UBC is working on an early alert system to get help to students thinking about suicide. And most counselling appointments are now available same-day. We’re doing better than other schools our size: at UW in Seattle, it can take up to four weeks to see a counsellor. While safety nets like these are vital, we may be overlooking important structural concerns that are making university an unreasonably stressful time of life. Cornell University experienced six suicides in five months, and some started referring to it as a “suicide school.” The university began to look seriously at how their curriculum was affecting mental health. In light of this, the Cornell senate made a number of changes to its academic policies. Assignments during breaks are “strongly discouraged,” breaks have been extended and the university is facilitating discussions between students and faculty on academic pressures. Queen’s administrators are promising to similarly alter their academic calendar. It’s distressing that these steps only are seriously considered in the wake of tragedies. Preventative measures like those UBC are considering are a step in the right direction. But they may not go far enough. There may be something embedded in the bones of the university that make it a harder place to be. It’s a large university with rigorous academic standards, where most students commute and feel no real sense of community. UBC students score higher than average on rates of depressive symptoms. The university should take proactive steps towards addressing student mental health that go beyond tweaks to services. Thoughts on the UBC LipDub video A small note, because as the YouTube counter ticks ever-higher from the tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands, across Canada hopeful and prospective students alike begin to imagine UBC as a utopia in which helicopter rides and pole-dance party buses featuring Brian Sullivan abound, and you and your 999 best friends might spontaneously break into choreography in a display of overwhelming school spirit; a place where the Greek system is a part of a larger community of service and students hobnob with stars on their way to classes in gleaming buildings filled with the fruits of higher education; a place where every sporting event is attended by mobs of screaming Thunderbird fans, student elections engage their constituencies to create high turnout and the phrase ‘degree factory’ is a dusty dream of the past; in short, the kind of dream university in which unicorns are plentiful and flash mobs are a daily occurrence; where learning and intellect are melded with charming absurdity into one single spandex-studded display of the depth of feeling this campus community inspires—yes, this, they think, might be the place for me! It isn’t. This is a fine school, but fully lacking in this sort of campus-wide spirit 99 per cent of the time. You want crazy funtimes, go to St FX. Or Western. Or Queen’s. But this was quite nice for what it was. Raise your glass to those involved. U
bryce warnes graphic/the ubyssey
opinions
Time for South Asian LGBTQ support Arshy Mann news@ubyssey.ca Vancouverites could be forgiven for thinking it’s impossible to be both South Asian and queer. The media tends to frame the two groups as antagonists, with South Asian men full of machismo and Eastern prejudices terrorizing Vancouver’s vibrant queer community. When Peter Regier and David Holtzman were savagely beaten outside of their Chinatown home by two South Asian brothers in July 2010, the media immediately began asking if South Asians had a problem with homophobia. The Province asked if “gay bashings were a culture clash.” Same story with Michael Kandola’s attack against Jordan Smith in Vancouver in 2008. After a Sikh religious leader made homophobic remarks in December 2007, gay rights activist Kevin Dale McKeown said that the comments were “a wake-up call to the queer community to recognize that other marginalized minorities are not automatically our friends and allies.”
He went on to say that “minorities [that] hold devoutly and literally to just about any religious creed, the odds are that they are not only not our friends, but are in fact a very real threat to our own rights and freedoms.” The discussion was very different when Shawn Woodward, a white man, punched Ritch Dowrey in the face at a gay bar, giving him permanent brain damage. No one asked if the white community had a homophobia problem. People saw it for what it was; the repulsive and hateful actions of an individual. Of course, we can’t apologize for the hatred that some people in Vancouver’s South Asian community—especially older generations—have towards people with differing sexualities. But putting the focus on one ethnic community and making them the scapegoat for homophobia in Vancouver means that the rest of our city doesn’t have to examine their own prejudices. And even more importantly, these pernicious media stereotypes find their way into the LGBTQ community, making South Asians who are
struggling with their sexuality another reason to stay in the closet. At a recent conference about immigration, Brian O’Neill, a professor of social work at UBC, said that he thinks “the mainstream gay community at large has a tendency to blame the South Asian community [for gaybashings] and say ‘send them back.’” “[Queer South Asians] felt rejected by the mainstream community and the mainstream Anglo white gay community,” he went on to say. “You face double discrimination.” Groups such as Sher Vancouver have sprouted up to help queer South Asian youth and give them a place to fit in, but it’s not enough. With South Asia one of the primary sources for new arrivals in Canada, we need to create the infrastructure and support networks to help both immigrants and their children who are queer. Just as many new immigrants are being asked to question their own prejudices about sexuality, Vancouver’s LGBTQ community must ask whether they’re letting members in both communities down. U
still take a full year for many employees to reach the new minimum wage. This isn’t acceptable. It isn’t acceptable as a stand-alone policy, and it’s certainly not acceptable to leave AMS employee wages where they are when we plan to give large raises to our AMS Executives. The debate about whether the Executives require a raise is not one I wish to discuss; my concern is solely with those students who put in time at our food establishments in order to keep themselves in schools. Many of these students, including myself, work few hours in order to ensure that all student employees have a chance to earn money. This makes it all the more important that we raise
the wages they earn, to compensate for the reduced number of working hours these students work in comparison to our executives. On Monday, our AMS Council members will have a choice before them. They can choose to find a way to help students in need, or they can choose to wait for the government to impose it upon them. I sincerely hope that the AMS Council chooses to find a way to smoothly integrate a wage increase for low wage employees and to do it in as expedient a manner as possible.
letters Regular AMS workers deserve wage increase Members of AMS council have an important debate looming, and it’s a debate that will end up affecting many students on campus. I’m referring, of course, to the emergency council debate on wages and compensation for employees of the AMS. Hundreds of students rely on the AMS as an employer through their school years; it’s a crucial aspect of how many students pay their tuition each year. The starting wage for many AMS employees, especially those who are in the food services, is well below the proposed minimum wage. Even with wage increases each semester, it would
—Trevor Ritchie President of the UBC New Democratic Party
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