October 17, 2011

Swing your arms from side to side SINCE 1918

October 17, 2011 | VOL. XCIII ISS. XIII

PLAY OFFS P5 Thanks to a win on Saturday, UBC is heading to the Canada West football playoffs for the first time since 2006

U

THE UBYSSEY

P6 TRansiT

SING IT

STRAIGHT P9 UBC A Cappella entertains students in four-part harmony

EXEC PAY Our look at Lower Mainland transportation issues

PETITIONED AMS to hold consultations after students raise concerns about salary hike

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2 | Page 2 | 10.17.2011

What’s on YOGA >> 17 MON

This week, may we suggest...

Our Campus

One on one with the people who make UBC

Yoga Club Movie Night: 8pm @ The Norm Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is not only the winner of the Golden Spire Award at the 1998 San Francisco International Film Festival—it’s also playing for free (by donation) at the Norm for members of the UBC Yoga Club, as well as anyone interested in joining.

18 TUE

FOOD >>

19 WED

WORKSHOPS >>

The Great Pancake Race: 12:30pm @ Koerner Plaza

CBC >>

The future of CBC: A conversation with president Hubert T. Lacroix: 7pm @ The Liu Institute The president of CBC is coming to UBC to discuss the future of our public broadcaster and journalism in general. Yeah, we’ll be there. But more importantly, will you?

20 THU

FILM >>

“How to Run a Workshop” Workshop: 5pm @ The Global Lounge Ever wanted to run a workshop, but weren’t sure where to start?

Well, this workshop is for you! But what if you want to learn how to run this sort of event? Where is the How to Run a “How to Run a Workshop” Workshop? WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?!?

The Crucible: 7pm @ Old Auditorium On November 10-13, UBC Opera will be presenting Robert Ward’s opera adapation of The Crucible.

In preparation for the opera, there will be a free screening of the Daniel Day-Lewis film version.

Come ready with your Soviet allegory of choice.

U

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

THE UBYSSEY October 11, 2011, Volume XXXIII, Issue XI

EDITORIAL

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

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

Senior Web Writer Andrew Bates abates@ubyssey.ca

webmaster@ubyssey.ca

BUSINESS

Business Manager Fernie Pereira

Senior Culture Writers Taylor Loren & Will Johnson

Ad Sales Ben Chen

business@ubyssey.ca

tloren@ubyssey.ca wjohnson@ubyssey.ca

advertising@ubyssey.ca

Sports Editor Drake Fenton

Andrew Hood, Bryce Warnes, Catherine Guan, David Elop, Jon Chiang, Josh Curran, Will McDonald, Tara Martellaro, Virginie Menard, Scott MacDonald, Anna Zoria, Peter Wojnar, Tanner Bokor, Dominic Lai, MarkAndre Gessaroli

sports@ubyssey.ca

features@ubyssey.ca

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ijoel@ubyssey.ca

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Features Editor Brian Platt

Print Advertising:

Graphics Assistant Indiana Joel Webmaster Jeff Blake

STAFF

UBC’s own living rugby legend Drake Fenton Sports Editor

This is part of Thrive Week on campus, a series of events designed to promote positive mental health. How do pancakes fit in?

Come to the event to find out.

18 TUE

JOSH CURRAN/THE UBYSSEY

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.

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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.

There isn’t a speck of grey in his beach blonde hair, his calves look like they could kill a horse and he can still be found patrolling the sidelines of Wolfson Field, yelling obscenities at no one in particular.

At the age of 62, Spence McTavish has been a long standing fixture in the UBC rugby community.

McTavish, the head coach and general manager of the Thunderbirds rugby team, came to UBC in 1967. He graduated in 1973 with his teaching certificate. During that six year span, he played for the ‘Birds. In 1970, he was selected for the national team, a team he played on for the next 17 years, captaining Canada on five different tours.

Though he played high level rugby for over 20 years, McTavish escaped relatively uninjured.

“I must have been flexible or made out of rubber. I mean, I had my fair share of injuries, but nothing that really set me back,” he said.

In 1992, while teaching at Lord Byng Secondary, McTavish became an assistant coach at UBC. Five years later, he was the head coach. He continued to teach at Lord Byng and coach at UBC until 2007, when he retired after 34 years of teaching and took up coaching at UBC full time.

During his playing days he would get incredibly nervous, often vomiting before games.

Though he no longer vomits, McTavish said that even now he gets nervous before games and that his love of the game is as strong as ever.

“I don’t have to [vomit] while coaching, but I still get pretty nervous and I still love watching the game and I still love working with the athletes,” he said.

Anyone attending a UBC rugby game can attest that McTavish is still brimming with passion; they only need to be in earshot of his occasional sideline outbursts.

“I’ve always been a little bit of a hot head and it’s probably not the best thing for coaching. I’ve always been someone that likes to tell it how it is. I don’t candy coat it,” he said. “I think this generation or a lot of generations are pampered enough. People are being told they’re doing a really good job when they’re not, so I just like to tell the truth.

“I think sometimes that has backfired and I have probably lost players because of it, but in the real world, doesn’t everybody want to know the truth? I would be a terrible politician, obviously.”

For his dedication to UBC and rugby, McTavish has been inducted into the UBC Hall of Fame, the BC Rugby Hall of Fame and BC Sports Hall of Fame. U

News

10.17.2011 |

3

Editors: Kalyeena Makortoff & Micki Cowan

U-PASS >>

Keep track of your U-Pass: replacements limited to one per semester Natalya Kautz Contributor

Forgetful and unlucky students may find themselves without access to transit.

Under UBC’s new agreement with TransLink, students who lose their U-Pass are limited to one replacement pass per semester rather than an unlimited amount, as under the previous contract.

“Even getting this one replacement pass a semester was a bit of

a challenge at the negotiation process,” said AMS President Jeremy McElroy.

The new contract limits the number of replacement passes allowed to be issued to students each month to two per cent of the U-Passes issued at the start of that month.

“All schools are contractually obligated to ensure they do not issue more replacement U-Passes beyond the cap imposed by the contract,” explained Carole Jolly, director of Transportation Planning at UBC.

“There are about 40,000 students who are eligible for U-Pass BC each month, which means we cannot issue more than 800 replacement passes per month.”

Last year, UBC issued an average of 540 replacement U-Passes per month during the winter term.

According to TransLink’s website, under the new agreement, each institution will establish their own replacement policy, and “may choose to limit or deny replacements.” Jolly said that some schools

have chosen a no replacement policy.

The change in the policy, according to McElroy, is one of Translink’s new efforts to reduce fraud in the transit system.

“It was affecting the financial sustainability of the program... there were a lot of illegitimate passes floating around out there,” he said.

UBC’s new replacement policy was not listed as one of the “Five Big Changes” to the U-Pass on the

UNA >>

Residents petition south campus development Micki Cowan News Editor

A recent presentation on Wesbrook Place, the residential development south of 16th Avenue, brought out petitions and letters of protest from residents.

Claire Robson, chair of the Strata Council at Keenleyside, one of the first developments finished in Wesbrook Place, said at the October 11 University Neighbourhood Association (UNA) meeting that residents’ voices have not been heard when it comes to new construction projects. She started a petition, which was signed by 44 out of 72 Keenleyside residents after four days.

“That’s an overwhelming level of support in that period of time,” said Robson. “I think it’s the tip of the iceberg. People are very upset if we have to go to the press.”

The petition asks for a halt to the development and for a public consultation where residents can address their concerns, including the 18 high-rises slated for development.

Joe Stott, director of planning for Campus and Community Planning, explained the increased density was due to their inability to use 24 hectares on the UBC Farm after a series of protests in 2009 prevented development there.

“In April of this year, the UBC governors approved a distribution of residential gross building area that had been allocated through the neighbourhoods,” said Stott. “Our job is to take the one line that applies to Wesbrook Place and seek to obtain that goal.”

Nonetheless, Stott said that the resident’s concerns are a little disheartening. “We launched this process last July and we’ve had our

email updates sent out at the beginning of the school year. However, the replacement policy is included in the Frequently Asked Questions section of UBC’s U-Pass website.

“It’s not an ideal system,” said McElroy, “but we kind of have to recognize that we were really privileged in the previous system that we had.

“But if you’re losing your pass more than once a semester, there are only only so many concessions we can grant.” U AMS >>

Petition prompts exec pay raise consultations

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

Andrew Bates Senior News Writer

PETER WOJNAR/THE UBYSSEY

Residents say they haven’t been able to give proper feedback on construction projects in south campus.

Advisory Planning Committee in place since then as well.

“We’ve had two open houses, we’ve had companion online feedback periods of at least ten days for each one. That’s the opportunity for people to give us [feedback],” said Stott. “Tonight we heard at this meeting that there’s a desire to have more of a dialogue in the communities, more like a town hall meeting.”

A resident of Hawthorn Place, John Dickinson, read out a letter of protest at the meeting. While Robson was protesting the lack of public consultation, Dickinson’s letter spoke to the relative powerlessness of the UNA in general.

“I feel that the UNA has reached a degree of maturity that now

needs to be reflected in enhanced powers, and increased accountability for matters that are currently UBC’s responsibility. The prime example of this is neighbourhood planning,” said Dickinson.

“I am proposing to the UNA and to UBC and the broader community that the UNA should be given veto power over any developments in existing and new residential areas,” he said, suggesting that it would be a demonstration of trust and indication of UBC’s commitment to a true partnership with the UNA and its residents.

In an interview after the meeting, Stott gave a counter-example.

“In Vancouver they have Visions Association, but they don’t have veto power,” he said. “What they

have is the ability to provide input into the process that is highly technical and more specific when you start dealing with specific developments.”

Stott plans to take some of the advice of residents and have more opportunities for question and answer periods in front of a microphone at the next open house.

The complaints that are brought up there will be reported to the UBC Board of Governors. “If there are concerns that we can address we’ll address them,” said Stott.

“If they’re outside the scope of this amendment process, we’ll tell our governors and the residents of Keenleyside that they are outside the tool of the neighbourhood plan.” U

UBC students win gold in iGEM competition

Breaking ground for UBC’s Centre for Brain Health

UBC researchers bring us one step closer to cyborgs

Interim dean takes post in Applied Science

The UBC International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team won a gold medal at the iGEM Americas Regional Competition for their project, which sought to control pine beetle infestation using terpene compounds produced in yeast.

The undergraduate team, comprised of Applied Science and forestry students, was one of ten Canadian teams participating in the competitions. They will now progress to the world championships, to be held next month at MIT. This marks UBC’s third entry into the competition.

Federal and provincial representatives were on hand October 11 to break ground on the $68.8 million Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, which will open in 2013 at the UBC Hospital. Researchers and students from both UBC and Vancouver Coastal Health will use the facility for research, teaching space and patient care. “[It] represents a concerted effort to unite the study of neuroscience, neurology and psychiatry, and to bring the resulting discoveries to patients with greater speed and efficacy than ever before,” said UBC President Stephen Toope.

UBC researchers, along with an international team of scientists and engineers, have invented new artificial muscles strong enough to rotate objects two thousand times their own weight, but with the same flexibility of an elephant trunk.

“This new generation of artificial muscles, which are simple and inexpensive to make, could be used to make tiny valves, positioners, pumps, stirrers and flagella for use in drug discovery, precision assembly and perhaps even to propel tiny objects inside the bloodstream,” said UBC electrical engineering professor John Madden.

The Faculty of Applied Science has appointed professor Eric Hall as its interim dean, effective immediately.

Hall follows Dean Tyseer Aboulnasr, who announced his resignation on September 23.

Aboulnasr will be officially stepping down as dean of Applied Science on December 31.

Hall joined UBC’s department of civil engineering in 1992 as the senior NSERC/COFI industrial research chair in Forest Products Waste Management. Prior to his placement as interim dean, Hall served as associate dean of faculty matters for Applied Science. U

News briefs

The AMS will hold consultations this week to address the controversial executive pay increases, prompted by students who started a petition to cancel the pay raises entirely.

“There was a concern that changes weren’t brought in, in the most open or clear way,” said Kyle Warwick, chair of the Legislative Procedures Committee (LPC). “By having these sessions, what we really want to do is try to rectify that.”

The consultations will provide an arena for student feedback on proposed solutions to the pay raise structure. They were set up after the AMS Oversight Committee held talks with the students who started the petition.

According to John-Jose Nuñez, one of the petition’s organizers, the talk was fruitful. “The committee really seemed to understand our concerns that the pay raise was irresponsible and disrespectful and seemed to agree that something should be done about it.”

One of the solutions up for discussion at the consultation is pro-rating the $5000 bonus payments. The bonus—called a performance accountability restriction—would then be halved to $2500 for this year’s executives, given that the measure was introduced mid-way through their term.

Nuñez said the challenge of the petition is that if it were to reach 1000 signatures, it would trigger a referendum; then, it would be up to the AMS to proceed through the rest of the process, possibly pushing the referendum into December.

“It’s totally in their ballgame to do the responsible and right thing to make us all very happy and impressed,” Nuñez said.

Warwick said this is a reminder that the AMS should seek consultation. “Even if it makes sense within our group, we do want to hear from as many students as possible,” he said.

The consultations will be held Monday from 6-8pm and Tuesday from 12-2pm in the SUB Council Chambers. U

4 | News | 10.17.2011 WRECK BEACH >>

Smoking ban on Wreck outrages New regulation at Wreck Beach is the “nail in the coffin,” say beach-goers

Malcolm Bailey Contributor

Wreck beach has long been characterized as a place of freedom, spirituality and counter-culture.

But many beach-goers are now wary of the effect that a ban on smoking will have on Wreck’s care-free environment.

“ We’re not going to have an army of police down there, but we are giving beach-goers the right to ask smokers not to bring their habits to the beach.”

Tim Stevenson City Councillor, Vancouver Judy Williams, chair of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society, wants Wreck Beach exempt from the anti-smoking law. Williams, who has been involved with Wreck Beach since 1969, is outraged at the increased restrictions at Wreck.

These include no dogs, no drinking and most controversially, no staying on the beach after sunset.

Despite being a non-smoker, Williams described the

ALEXANDRA DOWNING/THE UBYSSEY

Starting January 2012, Wreck Beach smokers will be banned from lighting up.

anti-smoking law as “a nail in the coffin” to the beach’s historical character.

The new ban was approved in late September and will apply to all Metro Vancouver regional parks, effective January 1, 2012. Park officers are expected to enforce the ban.

Williams began a survey to gauge whether fellow beach-goers shared her concern. According to Williams, the surveys were distributed at Wreck Beach over a nine hour period.

Of the 852 surveys collected, one person complained about smoking

while the vast majority of pollsters didn’t support a smoking ban.

Vancouver councillor Tim Stevenson, a proponent of the ban, said that while Wreck is unique amongst Vancouver beaches, “it doesn’t mean that this particular beach will be exempt.”

As for enforcement, Stevenson continued, “We’re not going to have an army of police down there. But we are giving beach-goers the right to ask smokers not to bring their habit to the beach.”

Stevenson said his main concern was that public smoking might influence youth.

“Enforcement will definitely be a problem,” said third-year forestry student, Ryan Hainesworthy.

However, he did support the fact that the ban might keep the beach free of cigarette butts.

There are already two bylaws in place that protect the beach from smoking hazards. The first prohibits smoking during fire risk periods.

The second prohibits littering of any kind on the beach.

Williams argued that stronger awareness of these existing laws makes more sense than creating a new ban that simply attempts to eliminate smoking, and said that volunteers gathered over 45,000 cigarette butts from the beach during one collective pick-up effort.

Stricter littering laws would be more enforceable than an attempt to eliminate smoking altogether, Williams said.

Tony Trinh, a third-year science student, agreed that “getting people to care more about pollution could work a lot better than just trying to cut out smoking.” U

Sports

10.17.2011 |

5

Editor: Drake Fenton

SOCCER>>

Women’s soccer team draws vs TWU CJ Pentland Contributor

JOSH CURRAN/THE UBYSSEY

The UBC football team defeated the University of Regina 23-16 in a fourth-quarter thriller Saturday afternoon at Thunderbird Stadium. The team is now second in the Canada West.

SOCCER>>

Identity crisis doesn’t stop football team from success Moving the chains Drake Fenton If the Canada West football conference was a high school, UBC would be that mysterious new transfer student.

He would have long flowing blond locks and a hip new clothing style that all the girls at school whisper about. The coolest guy in school (aka the undefeated University of Calgary) immediately hates him and is insecure about the prospect of sharing the spotlight.

When UBC walks through the hallways, there is a buzz surrounding him. Nobody really knows what to think. Is that deep V-neck he’s wearing cool, or is he just trying too hard? Will he end up going home with the prom queen at the end of the year, or just getting wasted by himself in his parents’ basement?

This is the problem that UBC faces. Its identity is far from transparent, and after defeating the University of Regina Rams 2316 this Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium to move to four wins and two losses on the season, there are more questions than answers.

Heading into the contest, UBC’s defence conceded on average 267 yards rushing a game. That, paired with the fact that Regina’s running back Adrian Charles entered the game as the third leading rusher in the CIS, didn’t bode well for UBC. Charles gained 67 yards. UBC’s defensive line did an amazing job of controlling the line of scrimmage and their linebackers flew around the field, consistently shutting down Regina when they attempted to pound the ball.

Their run defence was so stingy that Regina only gave Charles the ball four times in the second half.

He gained a grand total of five yards.

Yet while UBC’s defence brought their game to a new level, the offence struggled profusely in the first half, only scoring three points.

Quarterback Billy Greene threw two picks, including one at the end of the half that gave Regina favourable field position. Regina pivot Zack Oleynik capitalized by throwing a 17 yard touchdown strike with 15 seconds left on the clock.

With Regina leading 7-3 at halftime, it was starting to look like UBC was destined to spend their prom night at home with a bottle of Jack Daniels and Adele blasting in the background.

Lucky for UBC, they stepped up their game in the second half and gave an inkling of what their identity might be.

It isn’t often that you see a coach’s game plan work to perfection, but on two separate occasions, UBC head coach Shawn Olson dialed up specific pass plays that exposed a vulnerability in Regina’s defence.

On both plays, UBC lined up in a five receiver set. They lined four receivers on one side of the field and then motioned fifth-year running back Dave Boyd to the other side.

With all of Regina’s defensive backs on the opposite side, Boyd was left with only a linebacker covering him.

On each play, Boyd blew out of the backfield as Greene dropped back to pass. Each time, he ran a corner fade route into the end zone and the covering linebacker was unable to stay with him.

Boyd hauled in both passes for touchdowns.

It was Boyd’s first ever multitouchdown game.

“We have a guy like [Boyd], who I honestly think is one of the best players in the Canada West, and you just have to find different ways to get him the ball, and one of those ways is you can throw it to him,” said Olson.

“We throw the ball a little bit better than we run it right now and it’s part of our game plan to get him match-ups where he can make plays in the passing game.”

JOSH CURRAN/THE UBYSSEY

Dave Boyd celebrates a touchdown pass

Along with a resurgent offence, the defence continued to lead the ‘Birds in the second half. They forced five turnovers, four of which were interceptions. Not to take anything away from their effort, but Oleynik was Regina’s fourth string quarterback entering the season and his deep passes looked like grenade tosses—high, soft and easily interceptable.

Regardless, it was a credit to UBC’s secondary for making gamechanging plays. Defensive half back Lavar Hayden and linebacker Vivie Bojilov had two interceptions each.

In the final minutes, Regina managed to make a game of it. With 12 seconds left on the clock, and the score 23-16, they had two chances to score while in UBC’s red zone. Each time, UBC’s defensive backs broke up passes to keep Regina off the scoreboard.

“We have had trouble stopping the run and we forced them to throw the football, which was a huge focus of ours,” said Olson. “Our defensive back field did what they had to do. They didn’t make every play but they made the ones they had do.”

Though UBC managed to scrape together a victory and aspects of their game were dominant, they were far from perfect. Costly penalties, dropped passes and poor execution hurt them throughout the match and made the game much closer than it should have been.

“It was a big, big win and sometimes you don’t play your best game but you still find a way to win. I think that was one of those ones,” said Olson.

With only two games left in the season, UBC’s identity has yet to be defined. Their defence made strides this week, their offence was maddeningly inconsistent Saturday, but they have the capacity to be unstoppable. Penalties and boneheaded mistakes are fixable. If Olson can make everything coherent, this team will give Calgary a reason to be afraid.

The onus is on UBC. Do they want to be prom king? Or do they want to spend an exorbitant amount of money on therapy to erase the painful memories of high school? U

In a game for first place in the Canada West between two of the top five teams in Canada, the UBC women’s soccer team was able to withstand last-minute pressure from Trinity Western University (TWU) to escape with a 1-1 draw Saturday night at Thunderbird Park.

With just ten minutes left, UBC allowed TWU to score and lost an opportunity to take sole possession of first place in the Canada West.

However, UBC coach Mark Rogers was still impressed with his team’s effort in the draw. “[TWU] are a heck of a team; they’re loaded with good talent,” said Rogers. “But our determination, our urgency, our willingness to compete was first-rate. That’s all you can ask of an athlete.”

The first half didn’t contain many good scoring chances for either team until UBC broke through during stoppage time. A free kick by defender Kelly Cook was played perfectly into the 18 yard box and ended up on the foot of midfielder Rachel Ramsden, who made no mistake blasting the ball into the net from the edge of the 18.

UBC’s strong defence kept the score at 1-0 for the majority of the second half as TWU struggled to get anything going on offence. Keeper Alyssa Williamson defended her clean sheet with an incredible save in the 74th minute, as she tipped a strike heading for the top shelf over the net.

However, TWU kept the pressure coming from that point on, and were finally rewarded 80 minutes in. A long through ball managed to bounce its way around the UBC defence, and was eventually flicked over Williamson by Trinity midfielder Jessica King to tie the score.

The TWU attack didn’t stop there, as they had several more chances where they almost took the lead. “At some stage in the game, you know you’re going to have to weather some pressure, but you’re just hoping it’s not in the last five minutes and you’re hanging on with your fingertips,” said Rogers. “But we [managed to hang on].” U

T-Bird Standings Football Calgary Sask.

UBC Manitoba Regina Alberta

W

L

5 3 3 2 2 0

0 2 2 3 3 5

Soccer (W) W L TWU UBC Alberta Calgary Victoria Sask.

Fraser Valley Manitoba Lethbridge Regina

8 7 6 4 4 4 3 2 0 0

1 1 2 2 4 3 5 6 7 7

T 0 1 0 2 2 1 2 0 1 1

6 | Features | 10.17.2011

Transit Supplement Buses and gondolas and SkyTrains, oh my!

Supplement Editor Tanner Bokor By bus, by SkyTrain, by bike or by SeaBus, UBC students and staff alike rely upon Vancouver’s integrated transit system to get them where they need to go on a daily basis.

As the link that connects UBC Vancouver to the rest of the Lower Mainland, transit is one of the most important issues that UBC faces.

With the ever-growing student

population and increasing demands for transit, TransLink, Metro Vancouver’s primary transit provider, faces new challenges on how to best serve UBC. However, mass transit isn’t the only way of getting around. As one of the most active cities in the world, Vancouver has a vibrant biking and athletic culture, with more and more cyclist and pedestrian routes popping up around the city.

This supplement takes a look into some of Vancouver and UBC’s most important transit issues in recent history. We’re examining the future of Vancouver transit with an update

on the UBC Line consultations, the scoop on a possible new bike-share program around the city, and an inside look into the newest incarnation of transit passes, the Compass pass.

Learn about the proposed SFU gondola to ferry students from the base of Burnaby Mountain to the lofty campus of Simon Fraser University and UniverCity, and take a peek into the process of planning bus routes.

There are also stories of the hilarious (and sometimes unbelievable) experiences that come with riding the NightBus. Whatever your fancy, delve into the world of Vancouver transit. U

Gondola to

Trisha Telep Contributor

UBC’s current bike-share system consists of a fleet of purple and yellow bikes maintained by the Bike Co-op.

COLE MURPHY/THE UBYSSEY

The future of Metro Van transit Compass program In 2013, the new Compass card will be rolled out in the Lower Mainland. For students, this will mean U-Passes will make way for Compass cards. The Compass card uses smartcard technology similar to systems found in London, Hong Kong, Paris and other major cities, where faregates—a turnstile-like entrance point to fare paid zones— require passengers to “tap” their compass card in order to pay and board transit.

The card can be reloaded with money when it runs out, either online or at machines located in SkyTrain stations. Aside from the convenience factor, Compass will make fare-evasion more difficult. In addition, TransLink will be able to collect more accurate passenger information through faregate data.

The ability to remotely disable a pass could potentially reduce fraudulent use of passes as well.

—With files from Wanyee Li

UBC Line TransLink, UBC, the BC provincial government and the City of Vancouver have been in talks for several years on the possibility of installing a new “UBC Line” that would connect the UBC campus and Broadway corridor to the Canada Line SkyTrain.

Unfortunately, the price tag is huge for a rapid transit line; the tunneled SkyTrain extension from the VCC-Clark Station to UBC is the most expensive of TransLink’s seven preliminary designs, at a cost of $3.2 billion.

The study also included five other options: Bus Rapid Transit, where roads would be completely reformatted to give buses their own right-ofway; two Light Rail Transit options, also known as streetcars or trams; and two combination options, where the SkyTrain would be used for the eastern half of the corridor, with the rest employing either buses or streetcars.

Costing only $1.1 billion, the streetcar is the cheapest option for the proposed UBC Line. While public consultations are currently over, Metro Vancouver officials have said that there is a projected lack of growth in the corridor, which would render the idea of building a new rapid-transit line financially inefficient.

If the line is approved to be built, construction is expected to be completed before 2021.

—With files from Regan-Heng Zhang & Cherrie Lam

Evergreen Line A new SkyTrain line named the Evergreen Line, approved by the Metro Vancouver mayors, will connect Coquitlam to Vancouver via

Port Moody and Burnaby. It will connect to the existing SkyTrain system at Lougheed Town Centre Station.

The six station line is expected to cost about $1.4 billion dollars, with funding provided by the federal and provincial government, as well as $400 million from TransLink. The Evergreen Line is expected to transport about 70,000 commuters per day by 2021.

—With files from Tanner Bokor

“Bixi” bike-share system In 2009, the City of Montreal introduced a program called “Bixi” (Bike+Taxi=Bixi), which is a system of for-hire bicycles with stations set up around key points in the city, designed to be an alternative to public transit or cars. Subscribers to the system (about $78 a year) can rent bicycles for a 24 hour period using a key system and return the bikes to the docking stations after use.

Vancouver proposed installing a similar system set to open in 2011; however, delays have pushed the earliest possible start date to spring 2012. Stations would be placed at UBC, Commercial Drive, Downtown, Mount Pleasant, Kitsilano and Fairview.

With an expected price tag of $15 million, the program aims to help Vancouver become the greenest city on earth by 2020.

—With files from Tanner Bokor U

A proposed Peak-to-Peak style gondola to replace the 145 bus line to Simon Fraser University (SFU) is being considered as an alternative to expanding bus service to meet future demand.

“At this point we are still sifting through the results of the business case to see if in face there’s a good economic argument to build it,” said TransLink’s director of communications, Ken Hardie. “Although the conclusions aren’t out yet, it would appear there’s some significant economic advantages in going with the gondola.”

The gondola would connect at Production Way SkyTrain station and serve the nearly 30,000 students and residents of the SFU area, transporting people to the top of the mountain 8.5 minutes faster than by bus. It would also save 35,000 to 55,000 hours of diesel bus operation and help students to avoid the weather shutdowns that cripple the campus 10 to 15 days a year.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever come out to SFU during rush hour, but it’s crazy. Often times people will be late for class, or miss class, or have to come extra early. I know people who have come late to exams [because of the buses],” said Duncan Wlodarczak, executive director of the Sustainable SFU committee.

The 135 and the 144 buses would continue to run up Burnaby Mountain, however, serving areas that wouldn’t be covered by the gondola.

Some residents living in Forest Grove, the community under the proposed path of the gondola, are unhappy about the possibility of airborne students soaring over their houses every 40 seconds.

The Forest Grove residents are concerned about a wide variety of things, including noise, invasion of privacy and decrease of property values.

“We want to make sure that projects that we decide are important [to] move ahead, but we want to make sure we bring everybody along. Usually in these processes, you find the people who are pro and the people who are con have quite loud voices, and it’s the people in the middle that get left behind,” said Burnaby-Douglas MP Kennedy Stewart.

Cost is another important concern. The original feasibility statement commissioned by the SFU Community Trust for the gondola was $70 million, but Glen Porter of nogondola.org, a website run by a group called Citizens Against the Gondola, said that the the estimated cost of the project has risen above $120 million.

“We’re trying to raise the issue of whether regional transit users and regional taxpayers would get value for money from the replacement of a single bus route with a $120 million gondola,” he said.

He doesn’t see the benefit of spending so much money on a novelty.

“The idea of a gondola has quite a lot of surface appeal. It’s attractive, it’s shiny, it whizzes through the sky. Who wouldn’t like the concept?

I can readily empathize with students who would like to arrive at university by gondola.”

All this gondola speculation might be for naught, however.

TransLink has completed phase one and phase two consultations about the gondola with affected communities and the wider public, but the conversation and the controversy is still ongoing.

“At this point in time, the gondola is not in our strategic plan. And if it does come into our strategic plan, it would have to take its place in the list of priorities for the region. It remains a live concept, but we’re not at a point where we can say, ‘Well, it’s definitely going to go ahead and we’re going to do it by such-andsuch a date,’” said Hardie. U

10.17.2011 | Features | 7

Planning the system: bus routes Brian Platt Features Editor

Planning out a bus network in a metropolitan region is a rather complicated task.

Katherine McCune, the manager of service planning for Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC), paused when asked what people should know about her job. “Well... it’s a lot of fun,” she said with goodnatured sarcasm. “It’s so many elements, and we try to design service for the broadest range of customers.”

Metro Vancouver is the largest single service transit area in Canada, and CMBC is responsible for managing over 200 bus routes operated by more than 3300 drivers. At the company’s headquarters in Surrey next to the Gateway SkyTrain station, a small section of staff work in cubicles on the fifth floor to design and optimize the entire bus network across the region.

A challenging environment

SFU?

Most of the changes to bus routes are based on seasonal patterns.

Service levels are adjusted four times a year. In the summer, more buses run to ferries and tourist spots; in the winter, more buses run to the universities—known around CMBC as the “U-Pass routes.”

CMBC constantly reviews service levels to propose other changes.

The service design department has planners, schedulers, analysts and engineers, all of whom play a role in shaping bus routes. Proposals can arise from data analysis, customer feedback, operator feedback and the local knowledge of planners, many of whom have previously worked at regional service delivery centres.

“Once we come up with a proposal, it is shared among our organization and with the local municipal government,” McCune said. Once everyone has had their say, a final decision is made.

Changes can also be initiated from the outside. CMBC is a subsidiary of TransLink, which produces a “big picture” transit area plan about every five years. The last one resulted in the creation of both the 33 and the 84 bus lines to UBC. There are large obstacles to overcome when introducing change into a complex transit system. Every change affects everything else. It takes many months to collect data, analyze it, create a proposal, do consultation on that proposal and then integrate it with a finite amount of equipment and operator hours. A proposal will often be implemented a year or more after it first comes up.

Bus schedules also have to take into account the unpredictability of city streets; almost anything can throw a bus off schedule, causing it to either run late or bunch up at stops.

“Even the different techniques of drivers [can make a difference],” added Judie Robertson, the manager of scheduling. “It depends whether you’ve got a pedal-to-themetal kind of thing, or a more cautious driver.”

A technological revolution Over the past ten years, advances in technology have completely changed how planners go about their business. “What I have seen is just amazing,” McCune said.

Originally, all their data came from people who were sent out to ride buses and monitor passenger levels. Now they have Automatic Passenger Counters (APCs), which are door sensors that measure how many people are getting on and off.

“APCs provide a good, broad look at the service, and we can see where there’s crowding issues,” said McCune. “We can then marry that up with pass-up data, where an operator pushes a button on a control system on the bus to indicate they’ve passed up someone. And that’s all driven by GPS coordinates,

so we know where passengers are getting on and off...which we never used to have.”

CMBC would be months behind in data collection as they waited for human counters to do their work. APCs, on the other hand, give almost real-time information on whether buses are overloaded.

They also give a much more accurate response than human counters.

“If you send someone out, they come back and say the bus was full,” McCune said. “Well, what does that mean? Is that everyone in a seat? Or is that people hanging out the windows? So [APCs] are a much more precise way of getting information.”

Another enormous change has been the Transit Monitoring and Communication system. This gives TransLink and CMBC a map overlay of every single bus in operation.

Different colours of icons mean different things; red means the bus is early, green is on time and blue and yellow mean late.

A final piece of technology, currently in beta testing, are the smart phone applications that will allow passengers to query the exact GPS location of a bus and give them a real-time estimate of when it will arrive. “We aren’t there yet,” said McCune, but they’re close.

Do your research “One thing I would like to tell people...now, how do I word this nicely,” McCune said in concluding our interview. “Too often, people are married to one bus route. And when the bus is late, they’re stuck.” She also mentioned examples of people who are completely helpless when the SkyTrain is not in operation because they don’t know the bus routes.

“Have your primary plan, but have a back-up, too. Often when you miss your bus, there’s another one coming half a block away. Know your options. Because in the end, it’s easier on all of us when you have that flexibility.” U

8 | Features | 10.17.2011

Horror: The Night Bus Peter Wojnar & Veronika Kvorostukhina

3:19am:

3:09am:

The bus leaves before the drunken old homeless man is able to unzip his pants. Shanaynay compensates for this by vomiting profusely.

3:10am:

The majority of the bus is chanting “scrambled eggs!” repeatedly. It began as a description of the vomit, but now it is the best song anyone has ever heard.

Staff Writer & Contributor

You get on the bus. The driver looks at your September U-Pass and begrudgingly lets you on, despite the fact that it’s more than a week into October.

A drunken old homeless man tries to say something to you, but you can’t understand him. You sit down beside him and he tells you about his night.

3:15am:

An entire “anything-but-clothes” party boards the bus. Dresses made of garbage bags and duct tape?

Check. Kilts made of beer boxes?

Check. Open alcohol? Check. There aren’t enough seats for everyone, so they pile on top of one another.

That isolated seat you chose? Now, you’ve got scantily clad men and women in front of you, next to you, and precariously close to being on top of you.

3:16am:

The girls leaning against you in what would be a comfortable position if you were a little more drunk introduce themselves: Anne, Maddie and “Shanaynay” are also UBC students.

3:17am:

Drunken old homeless man tries to start a fight about personal space.

3:18am:

Drunken old homeless man is asked to leave the bus. He agrees on the condition that the bus doesn’t leave before he pees on the tires.

3:20am:

3:25am:

The bus arrives at the UBC loop and you wait your turn to get off the bus. This is a long process because one in five people are terrified of the large step down to the pavement, and of those people, 50 per cent eat shit. You pick your way through the no man’s land of bodies struggling to stand up without losing the contents of their stomachs and realize: this was you last night.

What if you miss the night bus?

It’s 3am and you are on Broadway, watching the N17 leave you behind.

Don’t panic!

First, you’ll want to prepare yourself for the night. As our ancestors have known for millenia, fresh, warm meat will give you the nutrients you need for survival. Chicken would be the tastiest option, but you’ll probably have to settle for pigeon. Find a blunt tool and set out on the hunt. The adrenaline rush of the kill will be a further source of warmth.

Or you could just go to Tim Horton’s—but if you think the experience will be less awful than bludgeoning a pigeon, you clearly haven’t tried ordering there in the middle of the night before.

GENNIE CHEUNG/THE UBYSSEY

Now that you’ve had something to eat, you’re ready to take on the night. You have several options: 1. Sleep. Cozy up against a tree or bush in the park and pray that nobody urinates on you.

2. Walk. As an average intoxicated person, you should be able

to cover at least two miles an hour.

Don’t hesitate to say hi to everybody—chances are, they won’t try to kill you.

3. Just enjoy the night! Most people will not have the opportunity to see Vancouver as empty as this. Think of the profane, vulgar

U

things you have always wanted to do in public: sex, vandalism, sexual vandalism, etc. Now you can.

Worst-case scenario, you’ll sit through a moderately chilly night and catch the 7:30am bus back to campus. And your next “bad” blackout night won’t seem quite so bad. U

First person to enter The Ubyssey office and debate the validity of Occupy Vancouver with Brian Platt gets 100 free copies of the paper. Great for sleeping on or under at Occupy!

COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE : SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

Culture

10.17.2011 |

9

Editor: Ginny Monaco

Arts Briefs

GEOFF LISTER/ THE UBYSSEY

UBC School of Music to hold concerts at Robson campus

KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY

Gill said that she’d like to try tree-planting again, but unfortunately, “my body has reached the end of its tolerance for my tree planting hijinks”

WRITERS>>

Charlotte Gill talks coast to coast about Eating Dirt Will Johnson

Senior Culture Writer The Ubyssey sat down recently with UBC professor Charlotte Gill, who is currently touring with her new book Eating Dirt, which is an account of her tree-planting experiences and the sub-culture thereof.

U: I read your essay “Eating Dirt” in the book Cabin Fever. How is the fulllength book related to that essay?

Gill: The essay “Eating Dirt” was the germ for the longer work. I always knew I wanted to write a fulllength book about planting trees. It had been such a big part of my life for so long. The book went through many drafts over five years.

As time passed, I realized I needed to tell a bigger, global story about forests in addition to the adventures of a bunch of BC tree planters. I wanted to find out if planting trees worked in all the ecological ways we hope it might. The natural history of trees on earth—and our human

interaction with them—was fascinating to me U: Can you give me a brief overview of your career in tree-planting?

Would you ever do it again?

Gill: I started planting trees at the age of 19. Over the course of my 17-year career, I worked in Ontario, Alberta and many parts of British Columbia. I’d like to do it again, but my body has reached the end of its tolerance for my tree planting hijinks.

I loved a thousand things about the job, and I hated it in equal measure. It took me 300 pages to explain what it was that led to such extreme feelings. But I look back on it now as the experience of my lifetime. The trees I planted will probably be the most long-lasting thing I ever do.

U: You’re currently on tour. How is that going so far? What has the audience reception been like?

Gill: The book has only been out for a few weeks, but I’ve been meeting a lot of former tree planters who are nostalgic for the experience. And also the parents of tree planters.

They’re curious about what that life is really like, especially when their children returned to them so transformed. It’s a visceral, physical job.

It toughens people up in the most remarkable way, both inside and out.

U: Who makes up your target audience?

Gill: I’d always felt sad that there was no non-fiction book out there that captured the tree planting life. It’s an iconic Canadian experience and thousands of people do it. I waited for quite a while for that book to show up, and then eventually I guess I just decided to make one myself.

U: Congratulations on becoming a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. How does it feel to be nominated?

Gill: It’s a wonderful surprise and an honour to be nominated. There are some very accomplished books on the shortlist, but I don’t think of the other shortlisted authors as competitors. We’re all sharing the same amazing experience.

U: You’re a teacher now. How do you juggle the two roles?

Gill: Many writers teach as well.

My life is much more indoors than it used to be. I got to extend my youth for a very long time planting trees.

But I think I’ve finally become a grown-up.

U: What are your future plans?

Do you have any other projects in progress?

Gill: I don’t know what my next project will be; I’m a slow writer.

These days I’m busy teaching. My students give me a lot of creative energy. U

MUSIC>>

UBC A Cappella continues to add new voices Rheanna Buursma Contributor

“There’s a lot of people that come out of high school and lack a creative outlet,” said Christa Masson.

Masson is president of the UBC A Cappella Club, and feels that singing with the group fills an important gap in the occasionally unbalanced lifestyle of a student.

“It’s a really good sense of community. It’s laid back, it’s inviting. It’s something different,” she said.

The club is known to perform unaccompanied versions of Lady Gaga, Billy Joel, Coldplay, Mika and the Beatles at their biannual concerts.

Founded in 2007 by Tim Ma, they’ve grown from 23 performers in past years to a current membership of more than 130.

The growth is due to the launch of two new performance groups, called Unaccompanied Minors and Choral Reef, joining the previously established group, Undeclared Majors.

The difference between the three performance groups is time commitment and size. Unlike the Majors and the Minors, Choral Reef is a large ensemble that boasts about 70 performers.

Thanks mostly to a contribution from an anonymous donor, the UBC School of Music plans to hold six weekly performances featuring a variety of ensembles and genres, including piano solo, opera, instrumental chamber music, choral music and big band jazz.

“Residents, office workers and shoppers in the downtown core have a chance to sample the riches of music by students that the Point Grey campus and area community enjoy all through the year,” said Don Black, director of community programs for UBC Continuing Studies.

“We are so grateful that an individual felt so passionately about bringing our talented and accomplished students to the public ear in the heart of downtown that they acted and made it happen,” Richard Kurth, director of the UBC School of Music continued.

All concerts are free and open to the public and will be held in the theatre at UBC Robson Square.

Researchers look for psychopaths on Twitter and Facebook Researchers at UBC and Cornell University are using text analysis software to discover if psychopathic murderers are tweeting or blogging.

In a recent study released by professors Michael Woodworth and Stephen Porter, researchers took the text “speech” of “14 psychopathic and 38 non-psychopathic homicide offenders” in order to isolate phrases and language commonly used.

The study showed that psychopaths often use cause-and-effect descriptors like “because” and “since”; the words “uh” and “um” are also used more frequently.

By taking a percentage of these terms used in Twitter’s 140 character limit, the study suggests that these cases can be isolated, and possibly help to prevent crimes committed by people like a Long Island serial killer who found his victims on Craigslist.

Evelyn Lau to become Vancouver’s third poet laureate

“We’ve always had workshops, like beat boxing, and arranging, and blending,” said Masson. “We kinda took that idea and said, ‘Let’s make a choir out of it.’”

There is more growth in the A Cappella Club’s future. Masson hopes that the club will be able create more ensembles, whether they are specific to gender (an all men’s choir, perhaps?), ethnic origin (opa!) or even faculty (we all know engineers sing in the shower).

“Basically we want to have the structure so that other people can have their a cappella dreams realized with our help,” said Masson.

All three club ensembles are currently in preparation for their upcoming Christmas concert.

Musical director Sam Dabrusin believes that everyone can benefit from attending an A Cappella Club show. “There’s something very unique about just hearing voices,” he said.

CATHERINE LAI/THE UBYSSEY

As for the first concert of the school year, Dabrusin offered some teasers.

“Maybe some Jackson Five, lots of Christmas songs, songs about snow, potentially some Bon Iver. I hear he’s popular,” he said.

Dabrusin claimed that the group has a certain edge over other AMS clubs. “We’re pretty much all really good looking. Every member. You could come to an A Cappella concert and find your potential mate, I bet.” U

The City of Vancouver announced on Friday that Evelyn Lau will succeed Brad Cran as Vancouver’s poet laureate. Lau has written five volumes of poetry, two works of nonfiction, two short story collections and a novel, with works translated into a dozen languages worldwide.

The poet laureate is an honorary position established by the Vancouver City Council to celebrate literature and poetry in Vancouver.

During a three-year term, the poet laureate champions poetry, language and the arts.

Lau plans to raise the profile of local poets and bring poetry into public spaces and public discourse, continuing the work her of predecessor. U

Opinion

10.17.2011 |

10

Editor: Brian Platt

Occupy Together may be what the left needs Editors Notebook Brian Platt

At a UNA meeting 20 years later, with all natural light blocked by condo towers, the residents begin to catch on.

VIRGINIE MENARD/THE UBYSSEY

The Last Word

Parting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues Gondola today, zeppelin tomorrow?

It’s very possible that in the near future, TransLink is going to build a freaking gondola to get up the mountain at SFU. If this happens, it goes without saying that it’s not fair for the rest of us. Where are our cool transit options?

Many UBC students live downtown or on the North Shore, and would have a much shorter route to campus if they could commute directly across English Bay. Therefore, we demand a zeppelin line be implemented using state-ofthe-art technology for a smooth and speedy ride. For those who have to descend down the hill from campus into Kitsilano, we kindly request a zipline be constructed. A logflume would also suffice.

Now, as with the U-Pass, we’re sure that the smaller colleges in Metro Vancouver will complain if SFU and UBC get awesome transit routes and they don’t. But who cares? We’ll just point and laugh from our zeppelin.

Jets today, Grizzlies tomorrow?

The return of hockey to Winnipeg resulted in an outpouring of national emotion, a nice case of Schadenfreude towards Gary Bettman and a temporary moratorium on jokes about Winnipeg. However, if we’re looking at Canadian cities regaining sports teams, why not dream of an NBA team back in Vancouver?

For you young ‘uns, the Vancouver Grizzlies (1995-2001) were notable for their turquoise jerseys and terrible play. They left after six years due to declining attendance, a 70-cent Canadian dollar and bad ownership. But could it be time for a return?

Okay, this was mostly the idle thoughts of our coordinating editor, who confuses nostalgia for real emotion. But the dollar no longer cripples Canadian sports teams.

The further internationalization of this city means truly global sports (sorry, those that believe Eastern Europe=Earth) should thrive here.

At the very least, it would give those that hate having to cheer for

the Canucks a second option during the fall, as long as the NBA could resolve the whole lockout thing.

Petitions, petitions everywhere…

Across campus, various groups are looking to make changes. They’re not occupying regions of campus or holding signs outside of the houses of the UBC powers-that-be, but they’re doing what can be understood as the written equivalent: circulating petitions.

UNA members are upset about the lack of consultation over highrise development in south campus. A number of students are upset about the AMS executive pay raises. And the “concerts not condos” petition regarding the zoning of Gage South is also circulating.

It can be said that we don’t have a radical campus, and the days of sitins in the Old Admin building and student arrests at APEC are long gone. Still, petitions only surface when people don’t feel their concerns will be otherwise considered by the powers that be.

However, the AMS’s quick reaction after students started paying attention to them and their work is heartening. It seems that they understand that it doesn’t happen often, and that students pushing to take the issue of exec raises to a campus-wide referendum is rare.

They worked quickly to do something that takes more student voices into consideration: holding an open house and consultation to see what the rest of us have to say. Are you pissed that referendum money is being put to exec salaries? Do you think they should be compensated fairly, above minimum wage, given their responsibilities and commitment? Well, here’s your time to come right out and say it.

Fraud & U-Passes. Again.

There’s something that’s been grating on us ever since the calendar turned over to October.

Specifically, something about the U-Pass.

We’ve been told that many of the changes made to the program were made to combat fraud, which is

completely fair; fraud was an issue under the old system, and it should be harder to buy/sell heavily subsidized passes.

However, the new monthly U-Pass has a flaw. Namely, an October pass looks exactly the same as a September pass. And while transit cops may ask for your ID, bus drivers don’t. Yes, there’s been an increase of transit police on major routes—but because drivers just want people to get on the bus and the October U-Pass looks exactly like the September one, there are still giant opportunities for fraud, despite the increased inconvenience for students.

We know that the Compass computerized transit pass is coming in 2013, which should effectively end all fraud. For TransLink, that day can’t come fast enough, because it’s clear they can’t design a fraud-proof system without it.

All the single ladies don’t stop believin’, ‘cause good times never felt so good Ah, karaoke. The refuge of the drunk, the talented and the exhibitionist. (Pick at least two.)

We either love going to karaoke or barely tolerate being pushed to the bar and onstage. But too often we are held prisoner by the song choice of our local bar—and until recently, the Gallery had been no exception. It’s easy to mistake any upstanding establishment for an old man bar when the karoake book has a sprawling catalogue of Jimmy Buffett and Jon Bon Jovi songs, but contains single selections by artists from the last 15 years.

That’s why this year’s expanded karaoke selection on Tuesday nights at the Gallery has been such a welcome surprise. Having a selection that ranges from newer pop and rock songs to oddities like TV themes ensures that you’ll never again be disappointed you had to settle for “Brown-Eyed Girl.”

Ultimately, we know that the night will still end with 15 people singing “Don’t Stop Believing.”

That’s okay, as long as we can sing a few White Stripes songs beforehand. U

There’s a lot to like about the Occupy Together movement that’s taking root in cities across the continent, and I say that as someone who normally rolls his eyes whenever professional protesters get all worked up over something.

This protest feels different than the demonstrations against the G20, the Olympics, the World Trade Organization or any other occasion where men wearing suits are gathering to talk about stuff. The focus is more broad-based and it’s an overdue expression of real anger at how Wall Street banks have operated in recent years. It’s also—and we’ll get to this in a bit—a welcome pushback against the Tea Party.

But before this column gets too sappy, let’s quickly go over the things about Occupy Together that are annoying.

There’s the obvious fact that Canada does not share the dire economic circumstance of the US. This protest is basically happening because we have to copy what the Americans are doing—though Vancouver has a better excuse than most, given that the movement was kicked off by the Vancouver-based magazine Adbusters .

The Occupy message boards also contain the usual contributions from wackos spouting impenetrable post-modern gibberish and various conspiracy theories. But it’s at a lower level than usual, and the organizers are doing an admirable job of keeping the discourse sane.

Finally, and this is most important to me: the Occupy Together activists are not the heirs of the Arab Spring revolutionaries, no

matter how much Adbusters or pundits insist on it. There is no comparison between severely impoverished and politically repressed people facing down the military forces of a decades-old dictatorship, and people living in a democratic country camping out in a park in the financial district. Sorry, it doesn’t matter how many times you get pepper-sprayed: you’re not in the same league, and you never will be.

Ah, that feels better. Now here’s why the protests may prove to be worth supporting.

The left has been disorganized for years. This is certainly true at UBC, as The Ubyssey has pointed out many times, but it’s generally true across the country. The problem is that leftist activists have largely eschewed the difficult work of political organizing in favour of political stunts.

When challenged about this, they’ll tell you sob stories about how the system is gamed in favour of conservatives, so why should they even try?

This is bad news for those of us who want a smart and strong left wing voice in politics, because the most energetic and determined grassroots leaders have essentially excluded themselves from the work of winning elections. The Occupy Together movement has a chance of changing this.

If the protests keep the wideranging support that they’ve built up in recent weeks, the leaders are eventually going to realize that it can be translated into a lot of votes— and hey, votes win elections. The Tea Party figured this out quickly, and they’ve swung many congressional elections in the United States.

In standing up for the 99 per cent against the super-rich, activists have finally found a cause that resonates with a majority of North Americans. It’s now up to them to leverage this support during an election, and not make Occupy Together just another ineffective stunt. U

Bookstore remains a valuable service Letters Re: How the Bookstore’s purpose went astray The UBC Bookstore remains focused on supporting students and our university.

Dedicated staff worked hard to put it at the forefront of Canadian campus bookstores in providing electronic and rental textbooks, a more affordable option for students.

They launched an online ordering system this summer to make materials more convenient and accessible.

They expanded their technology offerings, and partnered with UBC IT, to meet students’ digital needs.

The commitment to providing academic materials has not been jeopardized by growing other products and services, which through responsible management can make an important difference for student services, facilities and research.

Should the Bookstore (which does not pay rent and gets access to UBC services for free) reduce its support to faculties, or get

subsidized? UBC is facing the same inflationary pressures, at around three per cent, as everybody else.

Significant investments are needed in learning technologies and classroom infrastructure, and expanded student housing carries an annual multi-million dollar price tag.

How do we pay for that? Our government grant is flat—that’s a zero inflationary increase on the biggest source of revenues.

The Provincial Annual Capital Allocation for building maintenance has gone from $20 million to zero in three years. Domestic tuition increase is capped at two per cent. We reduced expenses by $30 million two years ago, but we still need to find another $10 to $15 million in efficiencies or new revenues every year to balance our budgets.

I love idealism. But let’s be careful about simplistic criticism. The UBC Bookstore continues to provide excellent service, while contributing vital support to our university mission. That is a good thing.

—Pierre Ouillet Vice-President Finance, Resources and Operations of UBC

Scene

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Pictures and words on your university experience

STUDENT BODY>>

Turkey hangovers and home blues Happy Healthy Horny

Raeven GeistDeschamps Week seven (ish). Maybe you’ve just gone bushwacking through thickets of midterms, papers and presentations. Maybe you’ve perpetrated—or fell victim to—the Turkey Toss, and you’re feeling both horny and peeved. Maybe motivating factors to skulk over to a morning biology class seem few and far between. Maybe a general sense of malaise has settled in your ribcage. It might help to sort out your brain tangles by talking. UBC has an incredible range of resources for you to talk it out. I spoke to Katie Berezan, ex-rez advisor extraordinaire, and she rolled through the options.

UBC Counselling: Guess what? It’s free. They’re located at 1040 Brock Hall and are open from 9:30am to 3:30pm. They promise to listen to your crises, academic or personal, and help you get the most out of your UBC experience. They also have a referral program for professors concerned about the health of their students.

Speakeasy: On the first floor in the SUB, staff are available to talk about any personal or mental difficulties you are bumping your head against.

Trimentorship programs: Everyone’s doing it! Land and Food Systems, Arts and Science have trimentorship programs in which a first- or second-year student is paired with a third- or fourth-year student and a working professional.

Go to a couple meetings, share a few ideas, get inspired!

Arts and Science Advisors: They can be helpful. Much like the department secretariats, they can assist in communicating with your professors if you are unable to.

Residence Advisors: If you’re in residence, they have the yellowpages of UBC and community resources.

Don’t like your RA? Speak to one on another floor. Their job is to help YOU feel good about being here in whatever way they can.

Teaching Assistants: Yep. They’re everywhere and they’re usually students. If you feel too intimidated to speak to your professor directly, the TA’s role is to guide you through the class material. They are also probably working on interesting research, so take the time to pick their brains.

A few things to bear in mind.

First of all, wander the campus.

There are many spots to escape the humdrum of Koerner and Hebb, like the Nitobe Gardens, the Museum of Anthropology, the cliffs, etc.

Secondly, there are always a few monumental realizations that may change your academic path or lead you away from university. Who knows, you might figure out your passion is actually interpretive dance/raw dog food catering/unicycling around Canada, and that’s what you’re meant to do to make this world a better place.

As Berezan says: “If you know you need to switch, then there’s no changing that, no matter how long you put it off.” So play around a bit.

“Fake it till you make it,” and do things that you know will make you happy until they actually do start making you smile.

Take classes that make your heart glow, or follow awesome professors.

I spent my first degree prancing around literature classes when all I should have been doing was esoteric historical research. The questions “why am I doing this?” and “how is this going to get me where I want to go?” should be quotidian reflections in choosing what you really want out of the beautiful, chaotic experience of university. This is the opportunity to meet your own expectations. U

DAY 21: WHY IS SHIA LABEOUF HIDING FROM THE UBYSSEY ? abbing lunch at ing ouf was spotted gr On October 5, LaBeBeef was also recently spotted enjoy e Chronic Tacos. Th and smoking a cigarette. a chai latte at Blenz not good enough ouf? Normal lattes What’s wrong, LaBe too “mainstream” for your elitist for you? Is espresso Hollywood tastes? that ting a pair of guns er s, LaBeouf is spor Judging by photo e to shame. How can you be a smokrkout would put Navaron Is he following some sort of LA wo cro and stay so ripped?away entirely with cardio? What ne regimen that does mancy is this? u. a move. We dare yo u, LaBeouf. Make We’re watching yo

12 | Games | 10.17.2011

Crossword

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com.

Used with permission.

Across 1— Ancient Palestinian 7— Embrace 10— Cereal grain 14— Fit with clothes 15— Clean air org.

16— Actress Garr 17— Evaluate 18— East Lansing sch.

19— _ Rhythm 20— Given to vituperation 23— Word with panel or energy 26— After taxes 27— Ascends 28— I smell __ ____!

29— Prince Valiant’s son 30— IV units 31— Skill 33— Bingo!

34— Gasteyer of Saturday Night Live 37— Shoebox letters 38— Mom-and-pop org.

39— June honoree 40— Bit 41— Treasure Island monogram 42— Black gold 43— Aromatic herb 45— Fall from grace 46— PC monitor 47— Bedouin 48— Month of showers

51— Not for a Scot 52— Licorice-like flavoring 53— Standing alone 56— Needless bustle 57— Help 58— Recompense for hardship 62— Monogram ltr.

63— Hindu honorific 64— Sort of 65— Lawless character 66— Blue 67— Fashions

Down 1— 7th letter of the Greek alphabet 2— Airline to Oslo 3— Bro’s counterpart 4— Lift up 5— Polite refusal 6— Formerly, formerly 7— Made of cannabis 8— Overturn 9— Massive wild ox 10— Inflammation of the ear 11— Protection 12— Valuable collection 13— Locations 21— Fantastic 22— Area with coin-operated games 23— More secure 24— Bay window 25— Back streets

29— Sean of The Lord of the Rings 30— Graph 32— Mars 33— Worshiped 34— Pong maker 35— Grannies 36— Maker of Photoshop 44— Gangplank 45— Midday nap 46— Frank 48— Attach 49— Dried plum 50— Gum 51— Currency unit in Nigeria 52— Concerning 54— Soviet news service 55— Coloured part of the eye 59— Hole maker 60— Actress Charlotte 61— Bad start?