September 15, 2011 by The Ubyssey

September 15, 2011 | VOL. XCIII ISS. IV

Humping the camera and tandem bikes SINCE 1918

UBC DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW about its Investments, what it’s selling out, it’s research to, or how they are handling your public property. More on P6

U TOP REACH FOR THE

THE UBYSSEY

WIRELESS

More and more athletes are supplementing their work outs with yoga

FRUSTRATION

MAN

FALLS

OFF

CLIFF Emergency crews called to Wreck Beach

P3 Andrew Bates Senior Web Writer

You may be forced to take a midday break from Facebook, as technicians at UBC Information Technology are scrambling due to load issues that have brought the “ubcsecure” wireless internet network to its knees. On September 12, the network’s authentication system started to hit peak load levels due to everyone trying to log in at once, according to an email from IT Client Services. “Some users were able to connect, but most experienced difficulty,” wrote Jennifer Burns, IT’s director of client services. The problem was compounded when people rushed from the network to its sibling, “ubcvisitor,” which is set up for visitors to campus. “Unlike the higher capacity ‘ubcsecure,’ this network can only handle 4000 users and thus became unusable to people without a connection,” the email said.

Load balancing actions kicked in that night, but the authentication system collapsed again at 11am on Tuesday. That afternoon, IT was able to increase the capacity of “ubcvisitor” to accommodate students who were overflowing from the secure network. The current plan is to add authentication servers, which will hopefully ease the bottleneck-causing issues like the network repeatedly asking for campus-wide login user info. “My hope is that in the next 48 hours we’ll have the additional servers online, and that will enable us to reduce that load issue quite substantially,” Burns said. “We should be back to normal.” In the summer, “ubcsecure” became the main wireless network on campus, after the less secure “ubc” network was decommissioned. The secure network also saw its security encryption changed from the WPA1 protocol to the WPA2 protocol, but the security change did not likely contribute to the

outages, according to Burns. Some students have been frustrated as their internet access has ground to a halt. “I’m usually in the computer science building, ICICS, and it’s been trouble logging onto “ubcsecure” down there fairly often. Sometimes it just doesn’t log on, sometimes it takes a long time,” said fourth-year student Laura Abresch. “I’m a computer science student, and I need to be on the internet.” Others were able to push through, and haven’t been too inconvenienced. “I dunno, whatever ten minutes is worth to people, I guess?” said Stuart Cowan, a third-year history student. “For me, it wasn’t a big deal because I have long breaks and I’m patient.” Burns asserted that IT Services was taking the issue seriously. “We know this is disruptive to the students, and we’re definitely doing everything we can to get this back,” she said. “I’m quite confident that in the next day or so, we’ll be back to normal.” U

2 | Page 2 | 09.15.2011

What’s on 15 THU

This week, may we suggest...

Our Campus

One on one with the people who make UBC

SINGING!>>

BC A Capella Workshop #1: 6-8pm @ Scarfe 100

Bring out your inner gleek and and join the singing fellas of UBC A Cappella. As if any more incentive is needed, the highly sought-after UBC A Cappella T-shirt comes with your ticket. Spirit hands optional. Also, the above is all our art director had for a stock photo of people singing. Sorry.

16 FRI

FARM >>

18 SUN

BOOKS >>

FarmAde: 3pm-8pm @ the UBC Farm Snack on organic baked goods, drink handcrafted beer and pick up some farm-fresh veggies while watching live performances from The Ponderosas and the 9 Pound Jammers.

17 SAT

SPORT >>

Home opener game: 2pm @ Thunderbird Stadium The Thunderbirds—the pride of UBC—are playing their first home game. Join the legions of fans at the Stadium to catch our glorious football team in action. Who knows, they might even win.

MON

Michael Moore: Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage @ 7:30pm The enfant terrible of America is here with his memoir, Here Comes Trouble, as part of the Vancouver Writer’s Festival. This is what those in the industry call a “get.” Come for amusing anecdotes and a guaranteed rant on the GOP. Avoid if you find his films “problematic.”

TOOPE >> President Stephen J. Toope gives his annual UBC update. Come learn a bunch of UBC buzzwords and watch The Ubyssey hold the man to account. A light lunch will be provided.

Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

THE UBYSSEY September 15, 2011, Volume XXXIII, Issue IV

Coordinating Editor Justin McElroy

coordinating@ubyssey.ca

Managing Editor, Print Jonny Wakefield printeditor@ubyssey.ca

Managing Editor, Web Arshy Mann webeditor@ubyssey.ca

News Editors Kalyeena Makortoff & Micki Cowan news@ubyssey.ca

Art Director Geoff Lister

art@ubyssey.ca

Culture Editor Ginny Monaco

culture@ubyssey.ca

Senior Culture Writers Taylor Loren & Will Johnson tloren@ubyssey.ca wjohnson@ubyssey.ca

Sports Editor Drake Fenton

sports@ubyssey.ca

Features Editor Brian Platt

features@ubyssey.ca

Copy Editor Karina Palmitesta

CONTACT

copy@ubyssey.ca

Business Office: Room 23 Editorial Office: Room 24 Student Union Building 6138 Student Union Blvd Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 tel: 604.822.2301 web: www.ubyssey.ca

Video Editor David Marino

video@ubyssey.ca

Web Writer Andrew Bates

abates@ubyssey.ca

Print Advertising:

604.822.1654 Business Office:

604.822.6681 advertising@ubyssey.ca

feedback@ubyssey.ca

Graphics Assistant Indiana Joel ijoel@ubyssey.ca

Webmaster Jeff Blake

webmaster@ubyssey.ca

BUSINESS

Business Manager Fernie Pereira business@ubyssey.ca

Ad Sales Alex Hoopes

advertising@ubyssey.ca

STAFF

Andrew Hood, Bryce Warnes, Catherine Guan, David Elop, Jon Chiang, Josh Curran, Will McDonald, Tara Martellaro, Virginie Menard

Rick Chung: professional partier Taylor Loren

President’s Townhall Meeting: 12pm @ Roy Barnett Recital Hall

EDITORIAL

JON CHIANG/ THE UBYSSEY

Rick Chung manages to look chipper despite the head-splitting hangover he is most likely experiencing.

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. 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.

Senior Culture Writer

Being awesome isn’t just a job title for Rick Chung. The former UBC student tweets, blogs and drinks his way around town as the social editor for the local blog Vancouver is Awesome. However, Chung wasn’t always the prolific partier and man about town that he is now. “I think I’m more involved with UBC now than when I was a student,” he said. His metamorphosis into social butterfly didn’t come until after he graduated from UBC with a BA in political science. Chung went on to study broadcast journalism at BCIT, where he found his niche through blogging. “I just started blogging on my own…I didn’t take it seriously until just before the Olympics. I was really scared because all my friends had gotten these awesome jobs and I hadn’t even tried.” Instead of working, Chung decided to enjoy the giant party that was Vancouver. “It was as simple as listing all the free events, going to them, walking around the city, taking pictures and blogging about it.”

Want to get involved with the Ubyssey?

Post-Olympics, Chung realized that he was making a name for himself and could turn this into something else. Utilizing both his online and offline personality, Chung was a social media intern for CBC and then with Vancouver is Awesome. Networking is what he does, and he has made a career for himself as a professional partier. But in order to attend multiple parties per night, he has to streamline events and build relationships, like in any other career. “People are going to use you. You’re using other people, people are using you, it’s how you build a relationship.” However, instead of networking to get clients, Chung’s relationships have led to many open bars. Though his time at UBC may have been devoid of parties, he loved his experience studying political science and finds it to be applicable to his career now. “I always wanted to know more about the world we live in, and poli sci is really just the study of now…I love it because it’s how people deal with each other, what their roles are and how they interact.” Attached to his iPhone, the

Write Shoot Edit Code Drink

internet is Chung’s office. “Being offline for more than an hour is so painful,” he said. He writes the same way online as he does offline, offering an honest stream of consciousness to his audience. “Sometimes when I’m tweeting, I think, why does anyone hire me?” U

Rick Chung Occupation Social Editor at Vancouver is Awesome Age 25 Hometown Ladner Area of study Political Science graduate On getting his start “Hands down, the best party was the Playboy energy drink launch party. It was a secret party…they turned it into a popup club and it was insane.”

COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE

SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

News

09.15.2011 |

Editors: Kalyeena Makortoff & Micki Cowan

TAXES >>

Tayyar: HST rollback a “pain in the ass” for taxed AMS businesses Andrew Bates Senior Web Writer

For AMS businesses, implementing Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and revamping all of their inventory was a pain. Now the switch back to the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) system means businesses will have to jump through all the hoops again. “Going back and forth definitely doesn’t help us,” said AMS VP Finance Elin Tayyar. “It’s a pain in the ass.”

The HST, which has briefly replaced the GST and PST, was announced after the 2009 provincial election and implemented on July 1, 2010. A public initiative campaign led to the HST’s repeal this August as British Columbians voted to extinguish it in a binding referendum. “It’s just a lot more work. There’s definitely an air of uncertainty for everyone,” Tayyar said. “It’s scheduled to be January 2013—the rollback— and we’re not sure if that’s going to be back to the same system or if we’re

going to have a different tax, whether or not HST is going to change.” According to AMS director of finance Richard Hester, it will require reintroducing complexity to the process. “We’ve just implemented a new POS system, so we’re going to have to recode all of the items in all of our outlets to break them up into GST/PST,” he said. “So at the moment, they’re all nice and simple...and we don’t know at the moment what the exemptions are going to be.” According to UBC tax law

professor David Duff, the HST, which did not carry the PST’s exemption for restaurant meals, likely had an effect on the types of food service jobs students often rely on— but the situation may not improve. “Of course, if you put a tax on an industry that wasn’t taxed before, there’s going to be some effect,” he said. “[But] I’d be skeptical that getting rid of the HST is going to create some kind of boom in the restaurant industry. It’s not clear that down the road, the PST will never apply to restaurant meals. Those

BIKES >>

EMERGENCY >>

Man falls off cliffs at Wreck Beach

Bike shelter to be built in chemistry courtyard

Andrew Bates Senior Web Writer

An unidentified man appearing to be in his 20s fell off of a cliff between the Museum of Anthropology and Wreck Beach on UBC campus at approximately 1pm on Monday, September 12. Wreck Beach-goers Ryan Fletcher and Noel Farrand were the first people on the scene. “I was just getting settled down there, at the beach, I heard a noise, I put my head there and I saw the body go down,” Fletcher said. “He was unconscious at first, and not for very long, and then we called for help.” It was Farrand who called the police. “It was pretty clear from the beginning that it had to do with his leg, because he was kind of moving around, but there was part of his leg that wasn’t moving.” BC Ambulance called Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria (JRCCV) and hovercraft were called on scene. The man was found on the beach in “rough shape.” At 1:17pm the man was conscious, forming full sentences but was in a great amount of pain. Emergency services were loading him onto a spine board for transport. At 1:35pm, JRCCV told The Ubyssey that the man was being transported by hovercraft to meet ambulance services for further transport to Vancouver General Hospital. His injuries were considered serious, but not life-threatening. According to Farrand, the quick response by emergency services, which took about 30 minutes, made dealing with the incident much easier. “Not having to do any intensive

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

Dominic Lai Contributor

GEOFF LISTER/ THE UBYSSEY

An emergency response team lifts the injured man onto a Coast Guard hovercraft.

first aid’s always a relief, just because you don’t know someone’s full injuries, or what’s going to happen,” he said. “So it was nice to have people come from all directions, EMTs, fire department, keep him conscious. Keep him breathing, not moving too much.” Fletcher, a publicist, had never had to deal with such an emergency

incident before. “You did well,” Farrand told Fletcher. Farrand, a tour guide and staffer at the UBC Ropes Course, had some experience. “I’ve done it a few times, not tons, more than I’d like to,” he said. “You never want to be a part of that, right?” Farrand noted that many people in the UBC community come to the cliffs.

“The poor guy, he’s 20 years old, he just got to school, probably,” he said. “A lot of people come to these cliffs at UBC, and we just want them to be safe, and careful about what they’re doing.” U

and therefore does not fit in with the character of the surrounding area,” wrote Yonson in a blog post. The online petition is linked through ubcinsiders.ca.

Society chairperson Tara Paterson. Students need to have reliable bus service to be able to make it to classes on time. BC Transit has many innovative ideas to improve service, but they are held back by the lack of funding coming from the provincial government. Over the coming months, students will be contacting Minister of Transportation Blair Lekstrom to call on the BC government to help BC Transit with an injection of new funding from the carbon tax.

stabbing incident that took place early Saturday morning at UBC’s Okanagan (UBC-O) campus. RCMP responded at 1:29am and found three male victims with lifethreatening injuries. Seven men and one youth have been taken into custody as part of the RCMP investigation. Police are recommending charges of aggravated assault and possession of a prohibited weapon against six of the men. The other male could face two charges of aggravated assault and assault. Four of the seven arrested are UBC-O students. One of the victims is a UBC-O student. U

—with files from Arshy Mann, Geoff Lister and Kalyeena Makortoff

News briefs Gage South petition launched A group of students led by UBC Insiders editor Neal Yonson have launched a petition to designate Gage South, the area currently comprised of the bus loop and MacInnes field, as “academic” land. Its current designation is “land under review,” which has raised concerns that UBC will eventually develop the land for non-student housing. “Gage South is surrounded by public, student-centric amenities...areas [that] are considered academic and are part of the area that UBC considers the ‘heart of campus.’ Non-student housing is neither public nor student-centric

things might change,” said Duff. Duff felt both sides in the HST controversy were a letdown, as bad tax politics produced bad tax policy—and price increases due to the HST are not expected to disappear. “I don’t foresee price decreases, to tell you the truth. If there’s any savings from HST, cost of goods are going up, so we’ll just maintain the prices instead of raising them,” he said. “That’s something for future generations of executives and our businesses, in general, to worry about.” U

UVic students take action for more public transit Some students at UVic are tired of seeing full buses pass them by. While the Victoria Regional Transit Commission met on Tuesday, September 13, UVic students simultaneously launched the Passed Up? transit campaign. Year after year, students are getting left behind at the bus stop during peak hours, said UVic Student

Stabbing on UBC-O campus Kelowna RCMP have arrested eight people in connection with a

UBC is set to build yet another secure bike shelter—an improvement to bike racks already on campus. The stand-alone facility, to be located in the chemistry complex, features a secure area for 55 bikes, with lockers available for users to store their gear. Construction on the project will begin around November and will wrap up before the April exam period. “The intent of these types of facilities are to help remove some of the barriers of cycling,” said Carole Jolly, UBC’s director of transportation planning. “One of the barriers we know is a concern is around theft. By providing secure bike parking facilities, we are removing a barrier.” The facility will be open to students, faculty and staff who have registered at the AMS Bike Kitchen, which is the proccess for all secured campus bike cages. The chemistry bike shelter will join seven existing shelters at UBC. Two more are in development. However, each one is slightly different. “Outside it’ll look pretty industrial—metal and concrete, but as you walk in, the entire ceiling will be wood with no significant exposed structure,” said Ian Ross McDonald, the associate with Bruce Carscadden Architect Inc., the company that is responsible for the shed. The shelter also has a planned rainwater receptacle that will divert water from the drains. The lockers will be made from recycled plastic. First-year science student Daniel Chao said, “I think it’s a great idea overall. The building’s going to be a great addition to the area and I’m planning on really using it once it’s done instead of the regular bike racks.” U

4 | News | 09.15.2011

The Chapman Learning Commons has no books but provides computers and study spaces for students. UBC is rethinking the role of the library in a university education.

GEOFF LISTER/ THE UBYSSEY

UBC working to move libraries out of the 1990s Tim Chow Contributor

When people first walk through the doors of Toronto’s downtown reference library, there’s a good chance they’re going to take note of the liquor licensed “salon” before they see the books. And the trend of turning libraries into social spaces is not reserved to that reference library. Like the liquor-serving Toronto library, UBC libraries are evolving from places of books to places that support different learning styles and digitization of information. Just a quick glance at Koerner Library and Irving K Barber Learning Centre (IKB) shows how libraries are evolving on campus.

“Koerner represents a different time, back in the early 90s where the model for learning was that formal learning only happened in the classroom from professors, then students go away and learn by themselves,” said Simon Neame, director of IKB. “The university recognized that learning has evolved to include social and group learning,” Neame continued. “For some students, learning happens from each other during group work rather than from professors during lectures.” Jo Anne Newyear Ramirez, associate university librarian, recalled a time when she passed through the basement level of Koerner Library to find that students had rearranged study carrels to facilitate group study. “IKB tries to support social

Program brings North Korean profs to UBC Will McDonald Contributor

A new program designed to promote engagement between Canada and North Korea will be bringing six professors from North Korea to study English and economics at UBC for six months. “It’s a very tentative program. It’s the first time it’s been done. We’re not sure where it’s going. Even at the very worst, we’re going to learn things. There doesn’t seem to be any downside to it,” said Stephen Owen, VP External, Legal and Community Relations for UBC Public Affairs. “It might turn out to be a very positive thing, it might be a bust and something that isn’t continued. But I don’t think we can lose on it.” The program, which is called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Knowledge Partnership Program, is directed by Kyung-Ae Park, the director of UBC’s Centre for Korean Research. The names of the professors have not been released, but they are experts in their respective fields of macroeconomics, taxation, international trade and finance at Kim Il Sung University and Jong Jun Taek Economics University. They arrived at UBC in July and spent the first two months

of the program studying English. According to UBC Public Affairs, in addition to taking courses on economics and management, the professors will conduct research projects with faculty advisors. “The desire is not to prop up a regime in North Korea, but to open up a country...we have so few lines of communication that the universities and our civil society groups can do things that the government can’t do,” said Paul Evans, UBC’s director of Asian Research. According to Evans, UBC has had a history of academic exchanges with North Korea since the 1990s. “There’s a certain confidence that has been built up over history in exchanges and that’s part of the reason that North Koreans feel this is a good place for exchange,” said Evans. Although academic exchanges between Canada and North Korea have occurred in the past, this is the first program of its type to be held at UBC. Evans also commented on the potential of the program. “If we can see some indication of a more open conversation, genuinely, knowledge being built on both sides through this and the other events, that’s a modest but important step forward in trying to end the isolation of North Korea.” U

learning with open spaces, and tables and chairs that easily move around,” Neame added. The implementation of the new group study spaces in IKB was not without challenges. “The benefits certainly outweighed challenges [but] we do ask students to contribute to maintaining the space, such as cleaning up after [themselves],” said Neame. Other libraries on campus are also updated to provide spaces to accommodate different learning styles. The newly renovated garden level in Woodward Library provides spaces for group learning. New libraries in the Sauder School of Business and the Faculty of Law will provide a mixture of quiet and group study spaces.

Digitization of printed materials freed up a lot of space for group study spaces, but don’t expect printed materials to become extinct at UBC. “It is currently in a state of transition,” said director of library digital initiatives, Allen Bell. However, printed materials no longer need to sit on open shelves, thanks to innovations such as the automated storage and retrieval system in IKB. “The demand for printed materials is still strong,” Newyear Ramirez added. “People still want to be able to refer to the original material [in case] some materials do not come through when digitized.” The general bustle surrounding the study spaces at IKB shows the group spaces have been a success.

Michelle Schumacher, a fourthyear undergraduate student majoring in international relations, finds the group study spaces useful. “If there is stuff that I do not know about and I know that other people have a solid grasp of the material, I prefer to do group study,” she said. But that doesn’t mean that the quiet dungeon-like stalls of Koerner will disappear just yet. “If I know that I know the [information], I’ll go study by myself,” said Schumacher. Neame said that IKB will preserve silent study areas to some extent. “[IKB] strives to provide environments to support a range of learning styles, including group study spaces and quiet study carrels.” U

Culture

09.15.2011 |

Editor: Ginny Monaco

WEB LIFE >>

BURLESQUE >>

Everyday I’m hassling

Burlesque performers twist and shout to the Beatles

Hasslers.org will get on your case Andrew Bates Senior Web Writer

Sometimes you just need someone to hold your feet to the fire to get your paper in on time. Gordon McGladdery wants to be that man. A 27-year-old musician from Victoria, McGladdery founded Hasslers.org, a peculiar type of internet startup that eschews automation for the personal touch. Hasslers is a motivational service where you sign up with a goal and your contact information, and one of their qualified hassling associates—though currently, McGladdery is the only one—contacts you at the appropriate time and gently prods you until you get the job done. “You’ve had days, I’m sure, where you’ve spent the whole day at the computer, and then all of a sudden, the day is gone and you’ve kind of wasted it, and you feel bad,” McGladdery said. “We all need outside motivation, I think. Friends don’t want to do it because they want to hang out, and you hate it when your family does it.” Hasslers can afford to be politely firm. “If someone ignores a hassle that they’ve requested, first of all, they’re ignoring me, which is kind of rude, and people don’t like being rude. And I think you also have to consciously process that you’re ignoring your own advice,” he said. “I had one girl who wanted to be hassled to sew her jeans five days in a row,” McGladdery said. “I called her the first time, she said, ‘No, I can’t do it today, I’m organizing a party,’ and I asked her if it was a jeans-sewing party.” The human element is what separates Hasslers from notifications and organizational software,

Catherine Guan Contributor

INDIANA JOEL/ THE UBYSSEY

Now you can pay someone to do what your mom used to do for free.

according to McGladdery. “It’s harder to ignore a person than it is to ignore a machine.” Currently, the service is free in its testing stage, but McGladdery plans to introduce a sliding pay scale based on magnitude, where the first hassle is free and the next nine are 89 cents for text messages and $1.19 for emails or phone calls. When the service started a month ago, it raced to forty users, but it

generally shakes down a steady client base of around 10-15 people. “I’ve had three people who wanted to just get hassled for exercise, and it worked out well for them,” he said. “I had one guy who wanted me to call him three times a week and tell him to do something useful. The last time I talked to him, he had just bought an accordion, and he was going home to practice his accordion.” U

Need more? The “SnūzNLūz” Donation Alarm Clock takes hassling one step further. Using your Wifi connection, the clock connects to your bank account. Every time you hit the snooze button, it donates a designated amount of money to a charity you hate. thinkgeek.com

Fringe reviews RED

Giant Invisible Robot

Written and performed entirely by Sebastian X Samur, an MA student in the University of Quebec’s theatre program, Red is a perverse retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. And it is exceedingly funny. It’s not an especially complex piece of work. The performance highlights Samur’s profuse physical acting abilities. At the beginning of the show, audience members are given bells which, at given times, may be rung, at which point Samur will shift between playing either Red or the Wolf. It’s a fun way of integrating audience participation into the performance, and readily provides audience members with an opportunity to be excessively pernicious to the performer. Moreover, it is immensely amusing to watch how each character interprets the body position which was previously occupied by the other. Samur’s ability to contort his body and convey posture is exceptional. It is remarkable that, almost entirely through the use of exaggerated facial expressions and physical gestures, he is able to maintain the momentum of the performance while consistently provoking laughter; only basic video and music editing compliments his actions.

Giant Invisible Robot–written and performed by Jayson McDonald–is an engaging comedy with weight behind it. Robot gives us a glimpse into the mind of Russell—a man who reads comics, bites his nails, and is shy around the opposite sex. The man’s only friend is an invisible robot, a machine programmed for “atrocious and spontaneous acts of violence”. Despite its instinct to destroy cities across America, the mechanical monster resists the urge to squish the lonely Russell. Companions for years, the two social outcasts experience the highs and lows of life together. As the play wanders from the perspective of one character to the other, the audience glimpses the psyche of a child and the realities of growing up in an unhappy household. McDonald gives an exceptional performance, utilizing the power of laughter to capture the viewer’s heart. He masters both the swagger of Captain Victory and the allure of the attractive woman from upstairs. McDonald is entirely convincing of his characters and their imaginary world. This charming tale is filled with much laughter and a small dose of heartbreak.

—Rhys Edwards

—Rheanna Buursma

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Fruitcake is a dark and funny look into life in the psychiatric ward.

Fruitcake Rob Gee is certainly no Nurse Ratched. The slam-poet turns his eleven years as a psychiatric nurse into a tangy confection in Fruitcake: Ten Commandments from the Psych Ward. Over the hour-long oneman show, Gee makes the rounds and exposits on the hilarity of insanity. Gee is a capable wordsmith and makes his excursions into verse with ease. His anecdotes–sometimes bawdy, sometimes horrifying–invite more wry amusement than knee-slapping laughter. Each chapter begins, with a voice-over “Commandment” from God–who apparently is female and drawls in

a Jamaica accent. Gee’s storytelling was unnecessarily restricted by the structure. The musical number ending the show should also be reconsidered. While the only kind of humour concerning mental patients is the inappropriate kind, Gee’s affection for his former wards is evident. The broad physical comedy is tempered with touches of poignancy. Years in a flawed health system encouraged a healthy serving of skepticism, but he never lost his empathy or sense of humour. This is a man who stared into the abyss and thought it winked back at him. U —Catherine Guan

Some pairings are simply classic. Think champagne and caviar, port and Stilton, or perhaps Gewurztraminer and choucroute. Local musician Blue Morris is proposing an addition to this time-honoured list: the Beatles and burlesque. The sexiest vixens of Vancouver perform burlesque numbers set to live performances of Beatles hits. Choreographer and performer Miss Fitt said it best: “What could be hotter?” Beatles Burlesque returns to the Anza Club on September 19 after a sold-out show in April. “At the time, I didn’t realize how popular the idea was going to be,” band-leader Morris recalled. “As soon as the tickets went on sale, it was crazy.” “I think for people who haven’t seen a burlesque show, it might have opened the door for them, knowing that they would really enjoy the music,” speculated Miss Fitt. Miss Fitt, among her numerous endeavours, is finishing her BA in psychology at UBC. So, how did a psych major become a modern day Zeigfield girl? “I gractually grew up as a dancer and I was also in musical theatre,” she said. As for burlesque, “I could picture the corset-and-stocking aesthetic.” Then she performed alongside Burgundy Brixx, who invited her to go-go dance at the Biltmore’s famed Kitty Nights. According to Morris, Miss Fitt is now the “go-go queen” of Vancouver burlesque. For Morris, the inspiration behind becoming a burlesque band-leader was, well, rather odd. “It was when I saw the movie The Odd Couple,” he said. The character Felix, played by Jack Lemmon, entered a dance bar where a live band was accompanying the go-go dancers. “I saw that and I was like, I want to play in that band.” A self-admitted eccentric, Morris remarked on the “accepting atmosphere” of the burlesque community. “Burlesque is different from some of the other physical art forms, such as conventional stripping,” Miss Fitt explained, “because anybody’s body type, appearance, regardless of age or weight, is equally celebrated.” Joining them at this edition of Beatles Burlesque are Max Lazurus and Eric Rasmusson of the Valuables, and MC Chai Tea. Morris called being able to perform the Beatles hits in this show “a dream come true.” Miss Fitt agreed. “It’s the same band, but their range of music allows for a range of burlesque styles.” Among the performances is a sultry fan dance by Miss Via Rose to “Blackbird” and an edgy “Helter Skelter” routine by Melody Mangler, one of the most celebrated burlesque performers in Vancouver. Miss Fitt herself is doing a number to “Drive My Car.” “I’m a traffic girl who wants to be a star and there’s lots of glitter involved,” she said. “Lots of glitter.” After a pause, she added, “It’s very sexy. I don’t think I mentioned that.” U

6 | Features | 09.15.2011

Request Denied How BC universities are fighting to keep their billion-dollar corporations out of the public eye

UBC owns powerful corporations that manage its investments, commercialize its research and develop all of the real estate on campus. The university considers them off-limits to public access. A former Ubyssey journalist is engaged in a sprawling court battle to open them up.

By Neal Yonson If a public university owns a private corporation, is the corporation public—or not? Over the past six years, a legal battle has been taking place between BC universities and citizens who have requested information from corporations owned by the universities. The outcome of this ongoing legal saga will set an enormous precedent for the public’s right to know what is being done at private companies run by public institutions across Canada. In 2007, former Ubyssey journalist Stanley Tromp requested various records from seven UBC-affiliated corporations. Among the corporations was UBC Properties Trust (UBC PT), whose purpose is to “acquire, develop and manage real estate assets for the benefit of the University.” In other words, all of the construction you see happening around campus is ultimately managed by UBC PT. Another corporation was UBC Investment Management Trust (UBC IMANT), which manages the billions of dollars in UBC’s endowment fund and pension plan. Tromp wanted to see the latest annual report, meeting minutes and salary and expenses information about the highest-paid employees at these corporations. UBC refused to disclose the records, claiming they were private documents. Tromp appealed, and the legal battle was launched. Meanwhile, a similar situation developed at Simon Fraser University (SFU), where a professor tried to access records from an office which helped commercialize research developed at the university. In 2005, SFU refused, and the dispute made it all the way to the highest court in the province, before ending inconclusively when the professor died this past December. Now the UBC case is taking centre stage again, and both sides are preparing their arguments. The submission period ended this summer. Whatever decision is reached, the case will re-write privacy laws as they pertain to universities across all of Canada.

Challenging the university In BC, there is a law called the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act

(FIPPA), which says that records generated by a “public body” such as UBC must be disclosed to the public upon request. There are a number of exceptions which prevent disclosure, especially when it comes to protecting the privacy of individuals, but for the most part UBC’s records are publicly accessible to anyone who cares enough to request them. FIPPA applies to over 2000 public institutions and crown corporations in the province including government ministries, hospitals, universities and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), but does not apply to private corporations. It was under FIPPA’s rules that Stanley Tromp made his request for the documents of the UBC-owned corporations. This wasn’t the first time Tromp had tangled with the university. Tromp originally gained fame around The Ubyssey in 2000, when he took the university to court over whether their exclusive supply contract with Coca-Cola was subject to FIPPA requests. The case took years to settle and racked up tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, but Tromp and The Ubyssey emerged victorious. This was a hugely important legal precedent, opening up contracts between universities and corporations across Canada. As for this matter, it wasn’t unusual for UBC to deny requests for documents from the corporations it owned. The AMS, The Ubyssey and some of the CUPE unions on campus have also made FIPPA requests of UBC PT—all of which were rejected. Tromp was, however, the first to ask the BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC), an independent office which has adjudicators who can rule on issues arising as a result of FIPPA, to review UBC’s decision to withhold documents. In doing so, he was following in the footsteps of an eccentric professor who was causing SFU all kinds of headaches.

David Noble, gadfly extraordinaire In 2004, a York University professor named David Noble placed a request under FIPPA for documents held by SFU’s University-Industry

Liaison Office (UILO), an office which helps commercialize SFU’s research discoveries. Noble was seeking information about two of SFU’s spin-off companies, Credo Interactive and Virtual Learning Environments. At first, SFU started producing some of the requested documents while holding others back, taking the position that they had possession of all the records and could provide them, but was required to first consult with other shareholders. After companies affected by the requests protested, SFU did an abrupt about-face in 2005, saying that it did not have any of the remaining documents. Instead, SF Univentures (SFUV), a private corporation wholly owned by SFU, was supposedly in possession of the records. SFU asserted that as a private corporation, SFUV was not required to fulfill requests made under FIPPA. It was made clear that Noble would not be receiving any more of the information he had requested. Noble was a well-known gadfly who frequently targeted Canadian universities. He fought against corporate influence at universities, which he felt was eroding academic freedom, and increasing use of technology, which he felt was being used to control, rather than empower, workers. He also had a decidedly unpleasant relationship with then-SFU President Michael Stevenson. Prior to becoming president, Stevenson had served as Vice President Academic Affairs and Provost at York University, where Noble was based. The two were bitter adversaries during a seven-week faculty strike in 1997. In 2001, Noble was nominated for a prestigious faculty position at SFU, the J.S. Woodsworth chair in the department of humanities. Despite unanimous faculty support, Stevenson blocked Noble from getting the position, telling another senior administrator in an email to “avoid this appointment like the plague.” Noble finished his career at York University. Although it may have been partly vindictive for him to pursue SFU, given his history with Stevenson, the documents he was after were not unrelated to his research interests. Once SFU stopped producing documents,

Noble requested a review of their decision by the OIPC. The OIPC adjudicator invited other groups to participate as intervenors, a status awarded to parties with a strong indirect interest in the outcome. UBC was one of those invitees and made a joint submission with the University of Victoria (UVic). During the inquiry, SFU asserted once again it did not have control of the documents, insisting that SFUV had never provided them to SFU. UBC and UVic’s submission argued that the records could not be under the control of both SFU and SFUV—and since the records were under SFUV’s control, they could not be under SFU’s. However, the situation was not as black and white as the universities had portrayed. SFUV exists only on paper. If it weren’t for SFU, SFUV would have no employees, location or any tangible existence at all. As summarized by the OIPC adjudicator: “SFU is the sole shareholder of SFUV. The President of SFUV is the Vice President of Research at SFU and the director of the UILO is an SFUV director. All of SFUV’s directors are SFU employees. All of SFUV’s activities and its day to day management are undertaken by staff of the UILO. SFUV’s office is located at SFU within office space that the UILO occupies.” SFU’s refusal to comply with FIPPA was treading within a grey area of the law. When FIPPA was created, it did not explicitly contemplate an arrangement where a public body owns and controls “private” subsidiary corporations. As a result, the OIPC was forced to consider what took precedence under FIPPA, the subsidiaries’ status as private corporations, or the university’s status as a public body. Due to SFU’s all-encompassing control over SFUV, and the fact that SFU employees were the ones creating and handing all of SFUV’s documents, the adjudicator ultimately concluded that SFU did in fact have control of the documents and that SFUV’s status as a private entity could be ignored. SFU was ordered to fulfill Noble’s information request. Unsurprisingly, SFU immediately appealed the OIPC’s decision to the BC Supreme Court.

Timeline of the legal battles against UBC and SFU December 2006 January 4, 2007 Tromp requests documents UBC denies the request, saying the from various UBC-run documents are not under the university’s companies control. Tromp appeals to the OIPC.

Tromp vs UBC

Noble vs SFU

March 1, 2004 David Noble requests documents held by SFU’s University-Industry Liaison Office

October 21, 2004 SFU grants Noble’s request, agreeing that the documents are under the control of SFU

October 17, 2005 After companies affected by the request protest, SFU reconsiders its decision and says the documents are not under SFU’s control. Noble appeals to the OIPC.

January 4, 2008 OIPC rules in favour of Noble, orders SFU to comply with the request

09.15.2011 | Features | 7

UBC-owned corporations targeted by the freedom-of-information requests: Properties Trust

Self-described mission “to acquire, develop and manage real estate assets for the benefit of the University.”

a near-monopoly on all development that happens on campus, manages private rental housing for non-students, and is the landlord for most of the UBC PT has

commercial space.

Investment and Management Trust

Self-described mission “to provide comprehensive investment management for the UBC Endowment Fund, Staff Pension Plan, Working Capital Fund and other UBC funds.”

makes investment decisions with billions of dollars of UBC’s money. UBC IMANT

Research Enterprises Inc.

Self-described mission “to encourage, promote and assemble resources for the commercialization of inventions and the new ventures they may inspire.” It works under the University-Industry Liason Office.

creates spin-off companies in

UBC RE takes research innovations developed at UBC and the hopes that the company’s profits will flow back to the university.

The judges take over While the OIPC is the primary adjudicator for disputes about FIPPA, its decisions can be subjected to judicial review if the BC Supreme Court agrees to hear the case. A party may then appeal the Supreme Court’s decision to the BC Court of Appeals, the highest court in the province. After that, the only place a case can go is the Supreme Court of Canada. As Noble’s case approached the BC Supreme Court, the OIPC was making its judgement on the dispute between Tromp and UBC. From the original seven corporations that Tromp targeted, the OIPC determined that three were set up in a similar manner to SFUV: technically private corporations but wholly-owned and wholly-controlled by UBC with many UBC employees on the payroll. These three were UBC PT, UBC IMANT, and UBC Research Enterprises (UBC RE), a corporation which helped to commercialize UBC research. In April 2009 the OIPC ordered, just as they had with SFU, that because UBC held such complete control over the three subsidiary companies, UBC controlled the documents and must produce them. Mirroring SFU, UBC immediately appealed to the BC Supreme Court. In August of 2009, the case between SFU and David Noble finally reached the BC Supreme Court. Once again, UBC obtained intervenor status in the case. In a convoluted ruling the judge sided with SFU, overturning the OIPC’s earlier decision. The judge’s ruling again pondered the

April 21, 2009 OIPC finds in favour of Tromp.

May 20, 2009 UBC appeals OIPC decision to the BC Supreme Court

question “Is SFUV independent of SFU?” Based on precedent, for SFUV and SFU to be considered one and the same, SFUV must have “no independent functioning of its own.” However, the judge made no effort to actually perform the cited test on SFUV to determine its degree of independence. Instead, the simple fact that SFUV has been incorporated as a business was used to assert its independence from SFU. It was a purely tautological justification: SFUV is a private corporation because SFUV is a private corporation. As a result of the ruling in favour of SFU, the OIPC offered to hold a second inquiry into Tromp’s request and UBC withdrew its BC Supreme Court appeal. The precedent set by the SFU decision meant that a second Tromp inquiry would have almost certainly gone in UBC’s favour. However, David Noble, along with the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), subsequently appealed the SFU case to the BC Court of Appeals. The Tromp/UBC dispute was put on hold pending the outcome of the SFU case.

ahead as planned. However, rather than debating the substance of the case, the lawyers had a morning-long discussion about how to proceed in the wake of Noble’s death. Counsel for SFU argued the case was moot since there was no resolution to be had—even if the documents were produced there was no one to receive them. Legal counsel for Noble and CAUT sought to have another individual inserted into the case as a replacement plaintiff. They were given three months to come up with a suitable candidate. They found two. The first was Sarah Dopp, Noble’s widow. The second was Arthur Schafer, a philosophy professor at the University of Manitoba whose research interests overlapped with those of Noble. But in May 2011, the three-judge panel ruled that neither Dopp nor Schafer could be inserted into the case in Noble’s place. Since the only party in the case seeking records was deceased, the case was closed. After seven years, Noble’s request fizzled away quietly, without resolution. The case died with him.

Starting over

An inconvenient death Finally, over five years after Noble’s initial requests had been denied in October 2005, the BC Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case on January 19, 2011. As with the previous hearings, UBC obtained intervenor status. Unexpectedly on December 27, 2010, David Noble passed away from complications related to pneumonia. Nevertheless, the January court date went

On May 10, 2011, the OIPC reopened the second inquiry into Tromp’s document requests. The submission period ran until June 21. The OIPC adjudicator will now consider all of the submissions and eventually issue a ruling. With the leading precedent being the BC Supreme Court ruling in favour of SFU, it appears likely that the original ruling will be reversed and UBC will be allowed to keep the corporate veil intact.

November 25, 2009 Because of SFU’s Supreme Court win, the OIPC agrees to hold a second inquiry into the UBC case. UBC withdraws its appeal.

October 30, 2009 The BC Supreme Court rules in favour of SFU, overturns the OIPC’s ruling

November 27, 2009 Noble appeals to the BC Court of Appeal

No matter who ends up winning this inquiry, an appeal to the BC Supreme Court is certain. After that it may go to the BC Court of Appeals. It could easily be a few years before any sort of definitive resolution is reached, assuming the Supreme Court of Canada doesn’t also feel the need to weigh in. Should the courts rule that UBC’s subsidiaries are subject to the same FIPPA requirements as their parent universities, they’ll have to start fulfilling a backlog of freedomof-information requests, many of which are already a number of years old. Most likely, a lot of new requests would be made. It will be an important saga to watch. The UBC subsidiaries perform functions which are crucial for the university to operate. These corporations manage literally billions of dollars of UBC’s money and have a nearmonopoly over on-campus land development. A decision in favour of UBC would seal the records of UBC’s corporate subsidiaries forever, or until a theoretical future revision of BC’s privacy laws. It would also prop open a significant loophole in universities’ disclosure requirements, potentially allowing the university to hide any business it likes by creating a corporation to manage that business, thus keeping it private. There may still be years of court battles to come, but after a few false starts, we may now be getting close to a resolution of this long-running battle. -Neal Yonson is an editor at UBC Insiders. With files from Brian Platt.

May 10, 2011 Second inquiry resumes after SFU case ends inconclusively.

December 27, 2010 David Noble dies

Date to be determined: Second OIPC inquiry makes its ruling. No matter which way this goes, it will almost certainly be appealed.

May 2, 2011 The BC Court of Appeals rules that nobody can take Noble’s place, and the SFU case is closed without a final resolution.

Sports

09.15.2011 |

Editor: Drake Fenton

Vancouver athletes streching for success with yoga “Do you see all of those beautiful bodies on Kits beach...we made all of them”: Dworkis Zafira Rajan Contributor

A sweat-drenched Kitsilano woman with a yoga mat tucked beneath her arm on the 99 B-Line is a common sight in Vancouver. It’s almost as common as a muscle-bound jock smashing a protein shake on his way out of the BirdCoop—but seeing that same jock on the 99 B-Line with a yoga mat tucked beneath his arm is something that most people wouldn’t expect. “There was a stereotype of it being [for] girls,” said Spencer Betts, a fourth-year receiver on the UBC football team who doesn’t agree that yoga is an activity meant for women exclusively. “But I did it before and it was really tough. I realized how hard it was.” Due to a rash of recurring injuries, Betts has been practicing Bikram yoga this past summer. He admits that even though he has been interested in yoga since he started university, it took a “real reason” to get into it. Over time, however, he realized that yoga was doing much more for him than just rehabilitating his injuries. “I really liked it; I just had to get past the first few classes where I thought I was going to pass out… But I felt really good afterwards so I kept on going back,” Betts said. “After a couple of classes I started noticing my body was feeling a little better, so I just kept going. Everything felt better.” Though Betts prefers Bikram yoga, which is performed in a room heated to 35-41 degrees Celsius, there are a variety of different types of yoga that can equally

benefit the body. UBC Rec offers Hatha, Vinyasa and Ashtanga yoga, all of which focus on different breathing techniques and series of postures, but all work towards mental and physical balance. Hatha is great for beginners, and Vinyasa is more slow-paced for those who aren’t quite ready for the high levels of physical activity that Bikram and Ashtanga entail. For athletes, Bikram yoga may be the best possible option. “I always tell athletes that when you have more strength than you do flexibility, the extra strength is called hollow strength, in other words, unusable,” said Danny Dworkis, co-owner and director of Bikram Yoga College of India in Vancouver. “When you use your strength, which is actually quite easy, though it’s just a little bit painful when you are stretching—like when you are pulling on your heels to stretch the back of your legs—you are using your strength to create more flexibility. “By creating more flexibility, you actually activate more of your strength that was unusable before, and that is a huge, huge deal.”

The flexible athlete For athletes, times are changing. Yoga is beginning to be incorporated into their training in an attempt to promote flexibility, prevent injury and improve an athlete’s entire well-being. “My body feels healthier, and I’ve been able to stay on the field more,” Betts said. “I think training is changing these days, and it’s not so much about just lifting

weights. It’s more holistic in terms of flexibility and endurance, physical training and mental training. Apparently, even Roberto Luongo does it.” Dworkis was quick to point out how beneficial Bikram yoga is at transforming an individual’s body. “Do you see all of those beautiful bodies on Kits beach...we made all of them,” he said. But Dworkis also noted how valuable Bikram yoga is for athletes. “The object is your health, not your posture; we are just using posture as a medium. Bikram designed a series to exercise the entire body, so when you try these particular 26 [Bikram] postures, you are exercising 100 per cent of the human body,” he said. “That is why Bikram yoga works ten times better than anything else for athletes.” The stereotype of yoga as an activity limited to women is slowly dissipating. According to Betts, while there are usually more women in his classes, “quite a few bigger, burly guys whom you might consider macho are doing it. The demographics are pretty spread out.” Dworkis concurred with Betts’ assessment, stressing that yoga is not an activity that should segregate the sexes, and that men playing sports for exercise shouldn’t leave it at that. “Our culture has been misinformed about what exercise really is, and what sport is,” he said. “We have been taught to go out and play soccer or football, get healthy, go and do exercise. That is the big mistake. “Sports are sports, and sports are

CHRIS BORCHERT/UBC REC

fun…Do sports for those reasons. Do yoga to exercise, not for fun, but do yoga so you can get your body back to being normal, strong, healthy and flexible. “Sure, when you are doing sports you are building speed and strength, but you are losing flexibility. It’s called pissing in the wind.” Betts has surpassed any stereotypical expectation that would prevent him from practicing yoga.

He cited the agility, endurance and physical health that he has gained from it as reason enough to continuing incorporating it in his training routine. “It’s now definitely more acceptable for guys to be doing yoga, and you don’t get a weird look if you tell people,” he said. U —UBC Rec offers free yoga classes until September 18.

UBC women’s field hockey team shooting for CIS title Drake Fenton Sports Editor

“I expect to win nationals. That is the goal every year coming in,” said fourth-year forward Robyn Pendleton. There is nothing brash or cocky about Pendleton’s assertion. She and her teammates on the UBC women’s field hockey team have established a reputation for success in the Canada West and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). Last season, they won their eighth consecutive Canada West title before finishing second at nationals, losing to the University of Toronto 2-1 in the final. In 2009, they crushed the University of Alberta 6-0 in the national championship and hoisted the McCrae Cup for a CIS-record 12th time. This season, the Thunderbirds will be fielding a veteran-laden roster and head coach Hash Kanjee expects his team to once again be competitive. “I feel that our depth chart, in all different positions, is better than it was last year when we had a lot of first-years,” he said. “This year we have some players who have one more extra year of experience, and it is a more veteran team.” Two big additions will be the returning Pendleton, who missed last season’s CIS final due to national commitments at the Commonwealth

Poonam Sandhu strikes the ball during an exhibition match last Saturday.

Games, and third-year forward Poonam Sandhu, who missed the final because of knee surgery. In the 2009 CIS final, Pendleton was the tournament’s MVP. “Both of them are either ex-national players or current national players, so they have a lot of experience and their skill set is very, very high, so we will look to them,” said Kanjee. With Pendleton and Sandhu expected to lead the offense, Kanjee is

expecting big things from another former MVP, and one of his most veteran players. Midfielder Kirsten Bertsch is the only fifth-year player on the team and was the game MVP of the 2009 final. Kanjee expects her to be one of the team’s captains this year. “We have two superb defenders in the backfield in Miranda Mann and Caitlin Evans, and [Bertsch] will help bring some stability to the middle of

GEOFF LISTER PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

the pack and provide a veteran presence,” said Kanjee. For Bertsch, being the only fifthyear on the team is slightly “overwhelming,” but she feels that the ‘Birds’ core nucleus is strong enough to help guide the younger players on the team. “I am just going to use my veteran qualities and try to be a leader and help the young ones coming in,” she said. “We have a lot of great new

players coming in, and we have a lot of veteran national team players that have great qualities who will be able to help us out. “We are ready to fight this year.” Though UBC is the unquestioned favourite to win the Canada West, Kanjee believes that the competition will be fierce, noting that the Canada West is one of the country’s toughest divisions. “The competition in the Canada West is like all of the other [varsity] sports, it has the toughest competition. [The University of Victoria] is always going to be very, very tough. Calgary is coming on strong and will be very good, and Alberta is another good team,” he said. Being a favourite in a tough division is also something the ‘Birds will have to be wary of. Each week, UBC will have a target painted on their back as their opponents look for a chance to take down the conference champion. For Pendleton, that fact is something she is well aware of, and something she relishes. “Absolutely [there’s a target on our back] every single year,” she said. “It’s regardless of whether we won nationals the year before or not. I think we are always the team to beat.” UBC begins their quest for their 13th national title on Saturday, September 17 in Edmonton against the University of Alberta. U

09.15.2011 | Games

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.

Free lunch, Wednesdays at noon. Come schmooze. COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE

SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

Down

Across

1- Battery terminal 2- Eurasian juniper 3- That is, in Latin 4- Salt of tartaric acid 5- Debt that remains unpaid 6- Seashore 7- Rules 8- Coffee container 9- Radiance 10- Self-centered person 11- Make _ for it 12- Cancun coin 13- Sault _ Marie 18- At the bottom of the barrel 21- Answer 23- Animal life 25- Congo, formerly 26- Ages 27- Crew needs 28- Half a fly 29- Peter Fonda title role 30- Combustible matter 31- The Hindu Destroyer 33- Negative vote 35- Passes over 36- Fistulous 38- Generally 39- Perfidious 41- Combines 42- The Dog Star 44- Put away papers 45- Locations 46- Halts 47- Eagle’s nest: var. 48- Alley 49- Organization to promote theatre 50- Empty 51- Puppeteer Baird 52- _ ___-mo

1- ________ were 5- Legal rights org. 9- Harvests 14- Zilch 15- Crowd sound 16- Everglades bird 17- In debit 19- Drench 20- Trouble 21- Thick-skinned charger 22- Beg 23- Dues 24- Cabinet dept. 25- Cuban dance 28- Bunches 31- Waterfall 32- Campaigned 34- Swerve sharply 35- Glossy 36- Skater Lipinski 37- Shoebox letters 38- Director Kurosawa 39- Kitten 40- Hard to define 42- Prefix meaning “beneath” 43- California wine region 44- Skill 48- Dens 50- Masculinity 51- African language group 52- British lower-court lawyer 53- Chip maker 54- In ____ of 55- French military cap 56- Buy alternative 57- Probability 58- “____ quam videri” (North Carolina’s motto)

Opinion

09.15.2011 |

Editor: Brian Platt

Students need a fully operational SASC Perspective >> Lau Mehes

North Korean professors right at home on UBC campus

COLIN CHIA/THE UBYSSEY

The Last Word Parting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues Seriously guys, you should go to the football game It’s the middle of September, which means that the sun is still out, which means that denizens of this campus can still congregate in large numbers. Take advantage of that now, because for the rest of the year, you will be cold, wet and overwhelmed with homework. Coincidentally, this Saturday at 2pm the T-Birds football team plays its home opener at Thunderbird Stadium. They have one win and one loss, and are playing the University of Alberta Golden Bears, who have no wins and two losses. In other words, a win is both expected and would help UBC’s chances of making the playoffs for the first time since 2006. So come. Enjoy the ambiance of the stadium. Enjoy the primal force of football in person with thousands of fellow students. While you’ve still got a little life left in you.

Or FarmAde. Just do something on campus Alright, fine. You don’t like football. Too macho, too confusing. We get it. But we won’t let you off the hook that easily. Friday afternoon is FarmAde, the annual celebration of our very own urban farm. It’s a chance to eat free-range burgers, drink handcrafted brew, watch wonderful bands and generally get your country fair groove on. Plus, it’s a chance to show your support for a 24-hectare piece of land that UBC periodically tries to develop into more beautiful and soulless condos. So if football isn’t your cup of tea, odds are you’ll enjoy this. And if neither farm nor football fascinate you, then may mercy be placed upon your soul.

We now have a weekly show If you’re anything like our video editor, then you’re probably still upset that you never got your invitation to Hogwarts on your 11th birthday. He believes that a part of learning how to cope with being

Muggle-born comes with learning how to be better than ALL OF THE WIZARDING WORLD. Which, to him, means making ridiculously awesome videos. Over the summer we have been re-thinking and greatly expanding our online content. No doubt you have already seen our “93 things to do” video. And now, this week marks the first episode of an ongoing weekly video show. This enables us to explore new ways of telling stories and offers new spaces for discussion. So, basically what our video editor is trying to say—in his only chance to write text in our paper—is “that Hogwarts can shove their elitist acceptance letters up their urethras. I’m fine with being a Muggle. The wizarding world can suckio-my-ballsio.”

The bees are disappearing and it’s terrifying Apples, beets, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, coffee, pumpkins, soybeans, flax, carrots, lemons, peaches, pears, sweet cherries, blueberries—all tasty treats that are pollinated by bees and would die if the bees go away (not to mention honey). That the bees are dying off in the Okanagan is problem enough; without them, it would probably mean the end of us all. And even if we managed to survive, what the fuck would the vegans eat?

Don’t blame the Wreck Beach lifestyle for the fire

When a provincial audit of UBC’s open wireless system revealed that it left users’ personal information vulnerable to attack, UBC decided to phase out the system altogether in favour of the once optional “ubcsecure” network. Secure requires students to log on using an external application, XpressConnect, and, based on the tweets, most people haven’t been able to figure it out:

Earlier this year the RCMP let us know that they were going to be increasing patrols at Wreck Beach. Wreck Beach is one of the few places in Canada (at least outside of Quebec) that feels a little like Europe; we can let it all hang out, in every sense of that phrase. Which is why we worry that the recent fire near Totem Park will cause police to put further restrictions on what happens at Wreck Beach, despite the fact that the fire was pretty far south of the beach itself. We obviously agree that people need to be very careful whenever they have campfires, but this fire wasn’t caused by Wreck Beach users. Leave them be.

my wireless has been sucking all day!! Over 1.5 hours of me trying to connect to ubcsecure!

An empty Pit Pub is something to cry about

ubcsecure is so infuriating! Haven’t been able to connect since 9 this morning!

On the first day of school, some editors and reporters from The Ubyssey decided to grab a few leisurely pints at the Gallery and the Pit in order to take the lay of the land. With knowledge of years past, we were expecting long lines starting at 2pm. Instead, there were none. The bars weren’t empty, but they certainly weren’t full of students catching up with old friends as we expected. There are many possible explanations for this; students are poorer every year, prices are going up and expectations for having fun on campus sink lower and lower every year. However one thing is for certain. It sucks. It sucks a whole lot. U

The WiFi doesn’t work, so you might as well be outside

Resorting to my phone to do my readings because ubcsecure is shit. A university needs a working wireless system. UBC had the summer to make sure that the details of the system were communicated to students, and that apparently was not done in a clear way. The IT department needs to get this on track within the week or consider reverting to the old system.

Currently the AMS’s Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) is running at a reduced capacity. To put it simply, this is completely unacceptable. The support coordinator position is sitting vacant—a preventable situation, were it not for the AMS administration’s bureaucratic mismanagement. What does this mean in terms of services lost? Well, SASC—which is normally open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (including holidays)—is now only open to students 20 hours a week, with only one employee. They can no longer run their weekly volunteer training program. And while they still provide outreach and referrals to other services in Vancouver, they can no longer offer support. SASC is normally able to offer a range of support services, such as peer support—both in crisis and ongoing—and hospital and police accompaniments for survivors of assault who require assistance in navigating both the medical and judicial systems. These services have been lost at an absolutely vital time. According to Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), young women ages 15-24 are the most likely victims of sexual assault. The fact that this demographic makes up a significant portion of the UBC population should be enough to prove the importance of a fully functional SASC on campus. If that doesn’t stress the importance enough, consider the fact that, according to Brown University, new students are most vulnerable to sexual assault in the first three months of university.

UBC’s student population—not just women, SASC serves people of all genders—needs and deserves the service that they are paying for to be running at full capacity. There may be other support services in the city of Vancouver, but for UBC students, especially new students, these can be inaccessible. The importance of an easily located, central, on-campus support centre with peer counseling and crisis support cannot be overstated. That the AMS could so easily mismanage the hiring of a new support coordinator shows that they should be re-evaluating their priorities, to better provide students with the services they need and deserve. Student well-being should be at the top of the list, and the AMS should be doing everything in its power to replace the support coordinator position and get SASC running at full capacity again. They should be keeping students informed of how exactly they are going about finding the replacement, as their accountability and transparency is already called into question over their mismanagement of this vital service. As students, what should we be doing to ensure that SASC remains a top priority for the AMS administration? Well, we need to hold them accountable. Keep emailing AMS President Jeremy McElroy at president@ams.ubc.ca and let him know how important peer support is to the work that SASC does. Demand a concrete timeline as to when a new support coordinator will be hired, and hold him to it with emails and discussions. Let’s keep this conversation going, and let’s get the vital services that SASC offers functioning at full capacity once more. U

Fire kills. So does stupidity. Editor’s Notebook Andrew Bates

In the summer of 2003, my home town of Penticton was surrounded by fire. To the north, the Okanagan Mountain Park blaze, started by a lightning strike, was consuming 24,000 hectares of land and over two hundred houses from South Kelowna all the way to Naramata, a village on the outskirts of town. To the south, a brush fire in OK Falls was burning, started by a stray cigarette thrown by a motorist. In the downtown area, we weren’t being threatened, but the fire was real to us. We were ready. When you live around trees and there is a forest on fire, even if you’re not in immediate danger, you go on high alert. So the somewhat muted reaction on campus to the Pacific Spirit Blaze last week is baffling to me. The fire, which sprung up last week at midnight and only burned three-quarters of a hectare, was not necessarily a danger. Luckily, the wind didn’t push it up the cliff towards Totem or down the beach towards MOA, and with a strong response from fire teams, there was never a real threat that the campus would burn down or anything. But with the exception of the Twitterverse—an easily excitable

bunch if there ever was one—students in Totem or otherwise seemed indifferent to it. One Totem resident compared the noise of the responder teams fighting a fire 500 metres outside of her house to parties: “It’s kind of always loud over here, so it’s just kind of ignored.” It didn’t feel, at the end, like it was real to them. I don’t know if it’s because the rain that forms the backdrop of so many Vancouver jokes usually prevents things from getting as dry as they have recently, but UBC students should take a forest fire threat seriously. This campus is surrounded on all sides by a large, old-growth forest with plenty of dead things in it that would love to burn if you gave them a chance. The lucky thing is that we generally don’t have to worry about forest fires starting. We’re not the Okanagan, which will spring ablaze if you leave it unattended for five minutes in the summer. But we are a heavy urban interface zone. If you look at the Village, it sits literally right next to Pacific Spirit Park. If that forest ever saw an inattentive smoker or a lightning strike in the right weather conditions, those people could be in serious danger. It’s like the danger of underwater currents when you’re swimming: it may not be a regular danger, but you have to be aware of it and you have to respect it. Forest fires are somewhat more serious than your neighbours having a party. U

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09.15.2011 |

Pictures and words on your university experience

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Just plain pickled: handling your first week hangovers Happy Healthy Horny

Raeven GeistDeschamps

OUR VIDEO EDITOR

IS CINEMATIC

SHOOT FOR THE UBYSSEY

Raeven is a former medical writer, sex columnist and yoga instructor, having recently returned to UBC as a science student to tackle medical school prerequisites and the mysteries of existence. This column discusses ideas, concepts and bits of mental fluff about health and illness which affect students and their ability to tackle a degree while maintaining wholeness of body, mind and heart.

As we’re sliding into the second week of school, many of us might be battling a weekend’s worth of hangovers launched by the AMS Welcome Back BBQ and its cheap beer. If you’re going for a week’s worth of binging, let me assure you this is the time to do it before reality sets in and you remember you’re actually at UBC to study. To keep your marathon drinking afloat, stick to liquor and carbonated water. It might be more expensive, but it will keep you going for longer than sweet combinations would. Or if beer is a-beckonin’, only indulge in those cheap bubbles every second day. Sugar hangovers are what keep you nauseously cuddled in the fetal

David Marino video@ubyssey.ca

position, pondering regrettable—or heroic—behavior from the previous night. To be a first week binging champion, you have to get out of the house and exercise to get your circulation going, aerate those throbbing brain vessels and generally avoid gaining weight from all the sugar in your alcoholic bevies. Also, fear not the early morning vomit. If it’s inevitable, head for the porcelain bowl to abandon the phlegm-covered bubbly bits from the night before, then launch a couple aspirin down your gullet and prepare to rage. To take care of your hangovers, I’ve painfully tested a few theories and here’s what’s worked over in my camp. Sober up before going

to bed by staying up and drinking water for at least two hours before hitting the sack. Go for a jog right after you get up and before you’re fully sober. Sleep. Hit up the aspirin, but not the Tylenol, because the latter uses the same molecules that degrade alcohol in the liver, which overloads your body’s capacity to detoxify your blood—which is bad. Coconut and tomato juice are wonderfully full of electrolytes and less processed than Gatorade! If you’re a yogi, a practice with tons of twists will massage your organs and help you squeeze out the ethanol. And if you’re feeling particularly brave, I’ve heard half a Caesar and half a beer will get you under control for the times ahead.

However, let me put on my Debbie Downer shoes for just a second and let you know that shriveling your liver on the regular is pretty terrible for your health. The actual limits are fairly low; guys shouldn’t be drinking more than ten beers a week or two beers a day and ladies, no more than seven beers a week or one and a half beers a day. Also, hangover helpers like water and tomato juice don’t actually do much for your liver, they just replenish your body’s vitamins and make it juicy once more after the anti-diuretic properties of alcohol have zapped away your fluids via excessive urination. Frizzled livers aside, enjoy the lack of inhibition, hazy memories and maladroit adventures ahead! U

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FIRST WEEK

The Welcome Back BBQ had a larger attendance than last year.

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

An annual event at campuses across Canada, students at UBC volunteered for Shinerama, and have raised over $30,000 at press time for Cystic Fibrosis.

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

FirstWeek wrapped up with a SUB Ballroom concert by the Arkells.

Welcome Back BBQ attracted a big crowd Friday.

COLIN CHIA/THE UBYSSEY