July 16, 2012

July 16, 2012 | SUMMER Vol. XCIV Iss. III

Gratuitously Googling butts SINCE 1918

SECURITY STRIKE P4

AMS Security union’s one-day picket foreshadows more job action in September

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BRANDING DEAN

GOODBYE

YOUR BRAIN DAN The changing face of UBC’s marketing strategy

P6

Sauder hires new dean, Robert Helsley P3 Dean Dan’s complicated legacy

P10

REACHING FOR THE RINGS Your guide to the UBC athletes at the Summer Olympic Games

P5

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Ever wondered how much the president of UBC makes? Which profs earn the most?

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What’s on 16 MON

This week, may we suggest...

Our Campus

One on one with the people who make UBC

Art >>

Yellow Signal: New Media in China: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. @ Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Belkin Art Gallery presents Yellow Signal, a collection of multimedia projects by Chinese artists. The event runs until August 19, so you still have plenty of time to check it out. Free admission.

17 TUE

Bikes >>

18 WED

health >>

Purple and Yellow Volunteer Night: 6–9 p.m. @ the Bike Kitchen Ever had your bike break down on you between classes?

Volunteer with the Bike Co-op to learn about all your bike mechanic essentials.

19 THU

tech >>

Mobile Content Design and Strategy Workshop: 6:30–9:30 p.m. @ UBC Robson Square Learn how to maximize the potential of your smartphone in this mobile content workshop. $425 per person.

20 FRI

geoff lister/The Ubyssey

Alan Bates helps Vancouverites affected by homelessness achieve their goals through soccer.

All You Need to Know About Arthritis: 12–1 p.m. @ Buchanan B, Room 313 Worried about an aging loved one? Get all the hands-on knowledge you need on arthritis with this workshop, which provides a review on its most common forms, diagnosis, prognosis and up-to-date treatment options for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Free.

wine >> Wines of B.C.: 6–8:30 p.m. @ UBC Robson Square For the cultivated student tired of vodka shots and cheap beer, taste and learn about the finest selection of B.C. wine. Discover which wineries to visit on your next B.C. road trip and learn some easy ways to pair wine with your next meal. $135 per person.

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The Ubyssey Ju;y 16, 2012, Summer Volume XXIX, Issue III

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Managing Editor, Web

Alan Bates grew up playing soccer, and worked with the homeless as a psychiatry resident at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver.

When a classmate posted a link on Facebook about “street soccer,” he was intrigued by the combination of his two areas of expertise.

Now, he's the president of the Vancouver Street Soccer League.

“I found out about it just randomly through Facebook, actually,” said Bates. “I just joined because I thought it'd be fun, and I stuck around because it worked. I never would have imagined that we'd have over 100 street soccer players in Vancouver now and probably over 50 volunteers who help out with stuff.”

Bates, 35, has been involved in the UBC community for 17 years.

After completing a bachelor of science and graduating from med school, he started his residency in psychiatry in 2008. But on the side, he runs the Vancouver Street Soccer League: an eight-team league that recruits at-risk youth and people affected by homelessness living in the Downtown Eastside and around the Lower Mainland.

“Everything comes out of the friendship. Players know we have a practice at the same time in the same place every week, and they know their friends are going to be

there, the other players,” Bates said.

“Through that friendship, we find that people do get better housing, some of them get jobs, they reduce their drug use, I think, through positive peer pressure.”

Bates started training as a volunteer on a team called the Dream Catchers. “We find it's useful just to have people who are setting a good example and working hard and paying attention,” he said. “After a while, I was the only volunteer that was still around, so when attendance started to pick up again I kind of became the coach.”

It was in 2010 that the idea gained steam, with Bates taking a team to represent Canada at the Homeless World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. “That was a really fantastic experience. A lot of guys getting on a plane for the first time, leaving B.C. for the first time,” Bates said.

“After we got back from that, the players and the volunteers, we thought we should take it to the next step here in Vancouver and form a league.” The Vancouver Street Soccer League also sent a team to the 2011 Homeless World Cup in Paris, which included Canada's first women's team.

Bates said psychiatry is a profession he also fell into by accident.

“During my science degree, I was a volunteer research assistant studying pigeons in the psychology department, and basically I thought humans were more interesting than

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pigeons,” he said. Moving to the schizophrenia lab piqued his interest in psychiatry, and at the end of a Ph.D. in neuroscience, he felt he could ask better questions as a doctor than as a researcher.

Street soccer has allowed Bates to see the long-term aspect of a patient's development. “It does really change your perspective on who the people are and what change they're capable of,” he said. “When you see someone for an hour or two in the emergency department, you're really seeing them at their worst.”

But being part of a team helps them with change, according to Bates. “Some of these players I've known for over four years now,” he said. “One of the players who was recruited from the New Fountain shelter, which is pretty much as close as you get to actually on-thestreet homeless, and he just completed the Vancouver Marathon.

Physical fitness and soccer has become a big part of his identity and self-confidence, and that's always fun to see.”

And sometimes, Bates's charges put up a real challenge on the soccer field. “I play defence,” he said. “So having a street soccer player really deke me out who could hardly play before, that's a surprise in kind of a nice way.” U

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News

07.16.2012 |

3

Editors:Will McDonald + Laura Rodgers

COMMERCE >>

Robert Helsley replaces Muzyka as dean of Sauder School of Business Maitrayee Dhaka Contributor

After a year-long search for a new dean, the Sauder School of Business recently announced Robert Helsley as the successor to Dan Muzyka.

Dylan Callow, the only student on the search committee for the new dean, said the search was a year-long process that involved hundreds of applicants from across the world.

“What differentiates Bob Helsley from basically every other candidate in the pool is that he was both

an ‘external’ candidate as well as an ‘internal’ candidate,” said Callow, referring to Helsley’s most recent role as a professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and previously as senior associate dean at Sauder.

Outgoing Dean Muzyka, who will be president and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada, was pleased with the search committee’s decision.

“I worked very, very closely with him, about as closely as you can for quite a number of years. I have a full appreciation of Bob’s capabilities

and I am thrilled that he’s agreed to come back and be dean. I think he is the right person, in the right place, at the right time,” Muzyka said.

Timing was one factor that created problems for Muzyka during his time as dean, although he insists against the term “controversy.”

“You don’t always get to choose the timing for things, when something is initiated,” he said.

“In a university that has so many different stakeholders who have influence or can make decisions, the truth is, you do the best you

can given the timing and the constraints,” said Muzyka.

“It would be very hard for me to have any regrets. We did what we needed to do. Many of the things were handed to us as timing. The best you can do is the most optimal process under the conditions.

“Some of the people who had the most difficulty with the changes were the people outside the faculty.

I respect and appreciate their voice and the students do as well. It really is [the students’] decision.”

Callow said Muzyka improved the

resource groups >>

Womyn’s Centre shuts its doors

faculty by instituting broad-based admissions and driving the construction of the new Sauder building.

Muzyka and Callow both lay a particular emphasis on the importance of student involvement.

Muzyka, quoting UBC’s motto, insisted that achievements during his term were collective.

“The university’s motto is about right. Tuum Est. It is yours. Stay involved. We’ve done a lot here because of students, and I encourage them to continue to be involved.

We’re partners in all of this.” U Cycling >>

New bike shop opens in AMS tells the centre it is no longer allowed to act as an overnight Wesbrook

shelter due to the lack of funding for 24-hour security in the SUB Laura Rodgers News Editor

For over 10 years, the Womyn’s Centre in the SUB has acted as an ad-hoc shelter for women fleeing domestic abuse or otherwise in crisis. That is, until now.

When AMS VP Admin Caroline Wong learned of women staying overnight in the space, she immediately raised concerns about the safety of the women staying there, since there were no security guards working in the SUB overnight. And from June 19 onward, no one has been allowed to stay in the centre after the SUB’s closing time.

“We did not budget for 24-hour security, so it’s not something that would be feasible for this year,” said Wong. “It’s out of our budget.

“As well, we want to be able to make sure that this kind of service is maximized to benefit all students, and not just women.”

Wong first learned of the women staying overnight in early June, and an email exchange began between her and the centre’s executives.

Wong raised concerns that the location wasn’t safe for the women staying there because of the lack of overnight security, while the centre’s executives argued that they needed time to find alternate shelter for the one woman who was staying there at the time.

On June 18, Wong sent an email stating that if anyone was still in the Womyn’s Centre when the SUB closed at midnight on the 19th, they would be removed from the

premises.

Jennie Roth, the manager of the Womyn’s Centre, wasn’t happy about the tight deadline. “The woman staying there was homeless.

Two days is not long enough to find stable housing,” she said.

According to AMS director of operations Uli Laue, there wasn’t anyone present in the centre when the SUB locked its doors on June 19.

Wong said that she was assured by the Womyn’s Centre coordinators that the woman in question had already found alternate housing by that time, but Roth was unsure about where the woman went.

The Womyn’s Centre, one of the AMS Resource Groups, operates out of a small room on the second floor of the SUB. The Resource Groups are funded by student fees and exist to further various social justice causes.

The purpose of the Womyn’s Centre, according to Roth, is to “create a safe space for women, intersex and trans people on campus.”

Roth said that she’d see women staying overnight nearly every day since she started working at the centre three years ago. “We didn’t really find it our business to ask people exactly why they were there, but it was available for women in crisis, escaping abusive partners or homeless for any reason,” said Roth.

The centre’s executives are currently negotiating with Wong about the possibility of creating some sort of 24-hour crisis shelter on campus.

“We want to make sure that we find

WILL MCDONALD/The Ubyssey

The Womyn’s Centre can no longer provide overnight shelter to students on campus.

a long-term solution for students who need this kind of 24-hour space, and we want to address the appropriateness of having it on campus,” said Wong.

“I see there is a need for this and I want to be able to provide this kind of service for students,” added Wong. “But there’s a strong argument that there [are] shelters, I guess, operated in [Vancouver’s] Westside.”

Wong said that she had begun to liaise with various campus groups, including the office of UBC VP

Equity Tom Patch, on the feasibility of a UBC crisis shelter. But Patch said he hadn’t heard anything on the topic yet. “As far as I’m aware, we haven’t spoken to the AMS about this,” said Patch.

Roth isn’t particularly optimistic about the possibility of recreating any sort of on-campus crisis shelter.

“I feel like these needs aren’t being taken seriously, and that rather than working together, we’re having to fight the AMS,” said Roth. “I just don’t understand why it’s such a struggle.” U

News briefs UBC may limit use of its name due to hockey coach incident

B.C. announces new student loan repayment policy

Arrest warrant issued for UBC student Jensen White

Transit cops allegedly used excessive force on UBC student

UBC may no longer allow community teams that play on campus to use “UBC” in their names, in response to an incident in which the coach of the UBC Hornets minor league hockey team tripped a 13-year-old player on an opposing team.

This is one in a series of steps UBC has taken recently to control its brand more tightly. In 2011, the university banned new AMS student clubs from using “UBC” in their names unless the names also included “AMS.” RCMP are recommending assault charges against the coach, Martin Tremblay, who has also been suspended by the Vancouver Minor Hockey Association.

The B.C. government has unveiled a new “repayment assistance program” for university graduates having trouble paying back their student loans.

Student loan payments can now be partially relieved for people whose incomes were above the thresholds of the existing student loan interest relief program. The new assistance plan is part of B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s “Families First” agenda.

According to Ministry of Advanced Education spokesperson Baljinder Jacques, the program ensures that those paying back student loans will not need to pay more than 20 per cent of their monthly income.

The Vancouver Police Department has issued a Canada-wide arrest warrant for a UBC student charged in connection with the 2011 Stanley Cup riots who is now believed to be in Seattle.

Jensen White, a science student from Seattle, was charged in November 2011 with taking part in a riot and mischief to property over $5,000. According to the VPD, he did appear in court once, but after missing a May 7 court date he was charged for failure to appear.

Failing to appear pursuant to a court order carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. White is one of four confirmed UBC students charged so far in connection with the riots.

Two Transit Police officers are facing disciplinary action after allegedly using excessive force against a UBC student stopped at a fare-check last summer.

The student reportedly required hospitalization after the incident.

The initial complaint was filed not by the student, but by another Transit Police officer. The two officers involved, Edgar Diaz and Michael Hughes, have not been suspended from duty. The issue is currently being handled by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, and after an investigation, the fate of the two officers will be decided in the coming weeks. U

Grayson Reim Contributor

More Bikes, a new bike shop in Wesbrook Village, has been open for two weeks now, offering more options for UBC’s growing biking community.

Don Brooks, one of More Bikes’ two owners, said the shop is meant to play a collaborative role within the biking community, which includes the already established UBC Bike Kitchen. “We are here to obviously help the community with enjoying our passion for cycling, so that’s what we want to portray,” he said.

Lucy Chang, the other owner (and a class of ’97 UBC Commerce alum), also mentioned that eight UBC students make up nearly half of More Bikes’ current staff, filling roles from retail associate to mechanic.

As an additional location to buy bikes in the UBC community, More Bikes may be a source of competition for the Bike Kitchen.

But Lucas Gallagher, the Bike Kitchen’s current manager, does not foresee More Bikes affecting their current business. Gallagher thinks that they are approaching two different markets and that there is only a small overlap for them to compete.

While the Bike Kitchen primarily repairs bikes and helps customers fix up their own, More Bikes sells new bikes, ranging from basic children’s bikes to more high-end road bikes that cost over a thousand dollars.

Brooks also said that the Bike Kitchen is more of a “do-it-yourself” shop, while More Bikes will leave repairs to their service department.

But even though More Bikes will operate as a retail store, there are still many perks for students.

Beyond student employment opportunities, More Bikes offers students a ten per cent discount year-round.

Chang also sees More Bikes getting involved in the UBC biking community in other ways. They participate in many biking events (such as UBC’s Grand Prix), and are helping to facilitate several riding clubs, including a family riding club, women’s riding club and road riding club.

Brooks said he hopes that More Bikes will become an integral part of the UBC biking community.

“There’s so much that the UBC biking community can offer,” said Brooks. U

4 | News | 07.16.2012 POST-GRAD >>

Alumni board drops AMS prez

LABOUR >>

AMS Security union strikes

Laura Rodgers News Editor

The group that represents UBC’s 280,000-plus alumni just changed the way it does business because of a meeting attended by 33 people.

The UBC Alumni Association, which is expected to act as the “independent voice” of UBC grads when communicating with the university, just restructured its board of directors. Among other changes, the AMS president has been removed from the Board and placed on an advisory council with no real power.

And while UBC says the new structure will make the association more effective, some alumni are questioning the motive behind the changes.

The new set of bylaws were voted in at the association’s June 19 annual general meeting. The group’s board of directors, which previously could contain as many as 26 people, was slimmed down to 15. No current students will sit on the new board, but they’ve been offered some degree of representation on a newly formed advisory committee.

“The advisory committee will not have voting power, becuase there’s going to be a large membership of 40-plus people,” said UBC alumni engagement director Barney EllisPerry. “This group will come up with recommendations ... on everything

GeOFF lISTER/THE UBYSSEY

Will McDonald News Editor

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

UBC’s Start an Evolution fundraising campaign wants more alumni to donate to UBC.

from the student and young alumni strategy to communications and branding. These people will be called upon for their opinions.”

AMS President Matt Parson wasn’t particularly dismayed by the change. “In conversations with [Alumni Affairs], I was assured that in an advisory role, I’d still be able to have impact,” said Parson.

Alumni association member Roger McAfee questioned whether acting as a branding “focus group” is really part of the group’s mandate. “My view is that the Alumni

Association has ceased to become independent as a result of that, because in my view, that was the final step in selling out to the university,” said McAfee.

As a former AMS president, McAfee questioned how involved the association should be in UBC’s fundraising efforts. “The university wants to maintain complete control over all fundraising that’s happening,” said McAfee. “Nobody is doing it in bad faith.… It’s just I think they’re wrong.” UBC recently launched its $2 billion Start an

Evolution fundraising campaign, and a key strategy is trying to convince alumni to make donations to the university.

Still, Parson is confident that the association’s new direction will benefit both alumni and UBC as an institution. “The university has quite lofty ambitions,” he said. “I see [the Alumni Association] as an organization that’s able to help alumni be part of the UBC network, achieve the great things they hope to do and help them connect back to the university.” U

SPORTS >>

Change at the top for UBC Athletics

Andrew Bates Managing Editor, Web

UBC has reassigned Director of Athletics Bob Philip after 18 years in the role. And with nobody filling the position until September, an advisory panel will spend the summer contemplating the future of athletics at UBC. An external review of UBC Athletics published in June concluded that the ancillary department lacked both direction and a clear connection to the university.

By the end of the month, Philip stepped down to take an advisory position in UBC’s VP Students office. Now, VP Students Louise Cowin has taken the interim reins of the department and has appointed a ten-person panel to brainstorm what she calls the reimagination of the Athletics department.

“I see this as an opportunity to not just look at the 20 recommendations that the review delivered back to us, but ask some fundamental questions about what is the role of a department of athletics and recreation at a Canadian university in 2012,” said Cowin.

According to Cowin, the department has been successful in many ways, but it hasn’t offered opportunities for all students. “There are thousands of students who pay a mandatory ancillary fee to UBC Athletics and Recreation who I imagine never cross the threshold of UBC’s facilities,” she said.

Cowin added that the department needed to shift its focus so that it could serve students of all athletic abilities.

The panel will include Cowin, senior administrators, academics and private-sector experts. Master’s student Donna Lee was picked for her research into the social inequities of athletic participation.

Shaking up the Athletics department has been Cowin’s first major act at UBC since she was appointed in November 2011. “I think it’s just, with a relatively new vice-president

that’s just come into the position ... she just wants to get a sense of what the possibilities are,” said panel member Richard Price, an executive advisor to UBC President Stephen Toope. After UBC decided against joining the NCAA last year, Price has been working on a proposal to raise the bar in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) by splitting varsity athletics into regular and elite divisions.

The external review noted a disconnect between Athletics and UBC’s senior administration. “I think that the university doesn’t have a clearly articulated vision for Athletics and Recreation,” Cowin said. “That was very clear from the report, and truthfully, one didn’t need to have the report to tell you that.”

There are thousands of students who pay a mandatory ancillary fee to UBC Athletics and Recreation who I imagine never cross the threshold of UBC’s facilities.

Louise Cowin UBC VP Students The review also has suggested that Athletics should change the way it connects with the rest of campus, including with the AMS. “We are a very active campus, but in my point of view, [Athletics is] a very small community within the broader 50,000,” said AMS President Matt Parson. “I think that we’d really like to ... see more students involved in that area.”

Parson said the AMS is pushing for more support for high-performance athletic clubs like Ultimate Frisbee and the UBC Wrestling Club, neither of which have been able to secure varsity status.

Bob Philip spent 18 years as UBC’s director of Athletics.

“They’re already competing at this premier level with similar costs that varsity athletes have to incur,” Parson said. “Hopefully, in creating an infrastructure and support system around these clubs, we’ll see more clubs sprouting out around this area.”

Parson also suggested that the AMS should start helping varsity teams promote their games. “How can the AMS better support varsity athletics?” Parson asked. “How can we get more people out to games, [or] hopefully have an effect of improving student spirit at UBC?” One idea involved providing prematch events at places like the Pit, then starting a march to the game similar to those done by Vancouver Whitecaps fans.

A new athletic director will not be appointed until the fall, and instead of appointing an interim boss, all of the associate directors that

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

would have reported to Philip are reporting directly to Cowin. She said she opted for this arrangement in order to better understand the department’s inner workings.

According to Cowin, Philip may have been tiring of his position as director after nearly two decades.

“We’ve arrived in a place where, you know, Bob is kind of relieved of the nitty-gritty of the everyday of his former role,” she said.

Big changes are unlikely to come right away, as the panel’s work has just begun. “I don’t think that we can turn on a dime on this,” Cowin said. “If we’re going to be successful in delivering a holistic model of health and wellness and generating innovative and inclusive opportunities for engagement, this is a lot of work.

“Let’s look forward for the next 10 or 15 years,” said Cowin. “I’m terribly excited.” U

The union that represents AMS security workers conducted a strike outside the SUB on July 13, and union officials expect more expansive job action in September.

Union representative Dave McPherson said the one-day picket was an effort to keep their strike mandate active. The union passed a unanimous strike vote on March 6, giving them the option to call a strike within a 90-day period.

This means the union could strike in September, when job action would have more of an effect.

“I don’t expect there to be a deal soon. I do expect there to be a full strike, come September,” said McPherson. “That would involve picketing the whole building on a continuous basis and affecting the AMS economically in a serious way.

We see no hope beyond that, quite frankly.”

The relationship between COPE 378 and the AMS has been rocky since the employees voted to unionize in 2011. The union and the AMS have since gone through mediation and multiple proposals to try to reach a collective agreement.

AMS President Matt Parson said he was displeased with the union’s action. He said that it came beyond the 90-day window to strike.

“The AMS is deeply disappointed by the actions of COPE 378 and their decision to strike past the 90 days since their last strike vote, which goes against the labour code of what constitutes a lawful strike,” said Parson.

However, McPherson said the union’s job action is legal, since the union spent several weeks in mediation. According to him, the 90-day time limit pauses during mediation.

McPherson said the AMS’s wage proposals are inadequate. The current proposal would set the salary for new hires at $10.50 per hour for the next three years, slightly above the current minimum wage.

“I say that’s an offensive proposal, because they don’t need a union to get that. In fact, they’d be better off without a union in terms of the wage…. It’s sort of a recipe to get rid of us.”

Parson said the AMS proposals are reasonable and comparable to other companies who employ security guards.

“We feel that our offer is reasonable, it’s generous … Every dollar that the AMS collects, makes, spends is trying to maximize benefit for all students at UBC. Trying to maximize our services means that we are trying to find ways to accommodate the security department, but also hoping that we don’t have any hits on other areas of the AMS which have benefit to students as well,” said Parson.

McPherson said COPE 378 also currently lacks recall rights, meaning employees have to reapply and be rehired every year. Last May, 19 of the 24 AMS security workers received letters of termination due to the summer slowdown. The AMS later backed down on the decision.

“They haven’t committed whether they would hire all of them back or not,” said McPherson. “So, the guys are basically fighting for their jobs.” U

Sports+Rec

07.16.2012 |

5

Editor: CJ Pentland

Football >>

Football document confusion

Documents say more UBC football players could have been ineligible

Sport s + Rec Editor

News Editor

Geoff lister/The Ubyssey

UBC football had to forfeit all their wins from 2011 after a player was found to be ineligible.

long those three players were on the UBC team, or how mistaken UBC was in initially assessing their eligibility. “They might’ve played one, two or three years, I don’t have that information on hand,” she said. “For example, we may have put them in their third year, and they may have already been in their fourth year.”

However, head football coach Shawn Olson wasn’t aware of the additional errors. “After we found out the one player that was ineligible, there was a thorough re-examination of everything, and nothing was found on anyone else,” said Olson.

He disagreed that the slip-up was

a problem, saying, “Unless [a player] plays a game where he shouldn’t be playing in a game, that’s not really an issue, right? So having a mis-evaluation isn’t really an issue, except internally, if we need a better way of evaluating.”

Olson also said he may have missed the errors because he was only hired by UBC in 2010. “Usually a coach has intimate knowledge of players because they recruit them.

The problem is that I didn’t have that knowledge, because some players were here prior to that.” Hanson also cited frequent turnover as a reason for the error, noting, “There’s been several changes in terms of our

eligibility officer since that time.”

They also attributed the mistake to possible confusion over the rules themselves. “Eligibility rules changed very many times over five to six years,” said Hanson.

After Flynn’s disqualification, UBC was fined by the CIS. The university promised to hire a compliance officer in response to the issue, and they hope to have someone in that position by the start of the 2012 football season.

Olson said that hiring a compliance officer is “probably the best thing that’s come of” the ineligibility issue. U

inline Hockey >>

Max Grassi wins inline hockey gold with Canada CJ Pentland Sports + Rec Editor

Max Grassi was admittedly a little intimidated heading into the gold medal game of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s InLine Hockey World Championship on June 7 in Ingolstadt, Germany. With 4,575 Germans packed into the arena and cheering frantically for their home team, it’s not hard to see why.

But a mere 37 seconds after the drop of the puck, Grassi had silenced the crowd, and any fear he had was completely gone.

He scored on a breakaway to give Canada a quick 1-0 lead, and that was just the start. He finished the final game with four goals and one assist in the 9-5 win, helping Team Canada to their first gold medal at the tournament in 14 years.

“As the games went on, I just kind of got into a rhythm, and come the final game, I was fortunate enough to have bounces going my way,” said Grassi, who finished the tournament tied second for scoring with 17 points in six games. “To have the five-point night in the finals was pretty special.”

Not only did Grassi finish with the four goals, but he delivered the two biggest blows to the Germans.

In addition to the opening tally, Grassi scored just eight seconds after Germany closed the gap to 6-5 in the third period, once again stunning the sold-out crowd. “[The crowd is] all over you,” said Grassi, who is entering his fourth

2012 Olympics features plenty of UBC talent CJ Pentland

Laura Rodgers

The confusion around player eligibility that erased the UBC football team’s 2010 season was not confined to a single incident, according to documents obtained by the Vancouver Courier.

The Thunderbirds were forced to forfeit their record 6-2 season last December after UBC self-reported to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport league that they had been playing a defensive lineman who was past his eligibility period.

But UBC had previously made mistakes when they evaluated the eligibility period for three other players who joined the men’s football team in 2009, according to internal communications obtained through a freedom of information request. Those three players, however, never played while ineligible, and left UBC soon after.

According to Theresa Hanson, associate director of intercollegiate and high performance sports for UBC, the error was likely caused by confusion over frequent rule changes on how long someone can play at the CIS level after being in a junior league.

UBC was forced to forfeit all of its wins in the 2011 season due to defensive lineman Connor Flynn having played one extra year beyond the CIS cutoff. “When this infraction occurred for this one student athlete, we did an investigation,” said Hanson. “There [were] three others whose eligibility was incorrect.”

Hanson wasn’t able to say how

olympics >>

photo courtesy of max grassi

Max Grassi (third from left) led Canada to its first inline hockey gold in 14 years.

year at UBC. “It was a great atmosphere in there. It was loud; there was a lot of energy in there. We sort of took off the Germans’ energy and used it to feed our fire.

“You could really see it when they came back and they made the game 6-5 after we were up 6-2. The crowd sort of took over and it got kind of overwhelming. We had to really bear down and make sure they didn’t tie it up.”

After Grassi restored the two-goal cushion, there was no looking back for Canada. They tacked on two more goals to make the final score 9-5.

It was undoubtedly a successful tournament for Grassi, who said that he exceeded his expectations at the

championships. But Grassi’s track record with UBC exceeds expectations as well. Last season, the forward led the UBC hockey team in scoring with 25 points in 25 games.

Clearly, the transition from ice skates to inline didn’t affect Grassi’s game. He has played inline hockey for many years, but always for fun.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that his neighbour and best friend inspired him to try out for Team Canada.

“I had a lot of fun [playing with Team Canada], so I started taking inline more seriously,” he said after coming home from Germany. It was his second world championship with the Canadian team; last year, he

helped them to a bronze medal.

There is little reason to suggest that Grassi won’t carry over the dominant play to next year’s CIS season. Simply gaining experience on the world stage is a huge asset in itself, but being able to thrive under such stressful conditions is even bigger.

“I see myself as more of a professional now. You treat yourself like a professional and you approach your game with more experience. I even felt more confidence last year after playing in the InLine tournament, and this year I’ll obviously have even more confidence. I’m very excited to start the ice season.”

Grassi expects big things out of himself and the rest of the Thunderbirds, who are looking to build off of a promising 2011–2012 campaign.

“I, for sure, would like to be in the top five in scoring this year in the Canada West. If that’s goals or that’s assists, it doesn’t really matter to me, as long as I help out and I’m a key contributor to a successful season for us. A winning season too is what I’m really looking to go for.”

After coming out on top on the world stage and delivering Canada yet another gold medal in hockey, Grassi understands that it’s now time to lead UBC to a gold medal. And even though there won’t be more than 4,000 Germans screaming at him every game, there’s no reason to think that he won’t be a part of a triumph on home soil. U

UBC will be well represented when the 2012 Summer Olympics kick off in London with the opening ceremony on July 27.

Fifteen past and current UBC students from six different sports will be competing on the world stage in hopes of providing Canada with Olympic glory. One alumnus will be competing in the Paralympic Games that start on August 29.

All the athletes have gone through tough qualifying rounds over the course of 2012 in order to get to this point, but their biggest challenge is undoubtedly still ahead of them. However, many are Olympic veterans who have attended previous Games, and for a few this will probably be their last Olympics. The experience should be a significant asset when competing at the biggest sporting event in the world.

The majority of the athletes will be competing on more than one day, with success early on meaning that they will advance to compete on later dates. The events and races will be spread out between July 27 and August 12, with the Paralympic Games running from August 29 to September 9.

From rookies to veterans, there is a wide range of athletes heading across the pond to take on the world. Here is the list of the people affiliated with UBC to watch for and cheer on as they chase greatness for themselves and their country. U

2012 Olympians: Curtis Moss (alumnus) Javelin Liz Gleadle (alumnus) Javelin Mike Mason (alumnus) High jump Inaki Gomez (alumnus) Race walk Scott Dickens (alumnus) Swimming Brent Hayden (alumnus) Swimming Tommy Gossland (student) Swimming Savannah King (student) Swimming Heather MacLean (student) Swimming Martha McCabe (student) Swimming Tera Van Veilen (student) Swimming Toby Ng (student) Badminton Luke Ramsay (alumnus) Sailing Mike Leigh (alumnus) Sailing Donovan Tildesley (alumnus) Paralympic swimming

6 | feature | 07.16.2012

Behind the brand: the h SELLING UBC >>

From ‘Cambridge in the Pacific’ to A Place of Mind, UBC’s b Affairs has raised concerns over th

Cather

Contri

UBC Brand Basics Since the late 1980s, UBC has increasingly focused on its branding efforts, culminating in its awardwinning brand A Place of Mind. The visuals of the current brand are designed to promote UBC’s sense of “openess.”

Designing a brand: the concept behind A place of Mind Through the A Place of Mind’s photographs of wide-open vistas and its choice of colour, the brand constructs the image of an open-minded West Coast research facility.

Lisa fisher, one of two brand managers at Public Affairs, explains that white featured prominently in the new colour palette. “It seems kind of strange to think of white as a colour, but it’s actually important to that idea of openness.”

The rebranding team has decided not to change UBC’s crest logo. “We felt we had a pretty good logo to start with; research has shown that,” said Randy Schmidt, associate director and acting director of communications at UBC Public Affairs.

“The campus community felt pretty strongly about it,” agreed fisher.

“To modernize the look, we took out the yellow and made it kind of a modern, sophisticated blue,” said Schmidt. “hopefully, when a student puts that on their resume — that they’re a graduate for UBC — that opens doors for them. And that’s what we’re here to do, is to enhance the university’s reputation for the benefit of our students and our faculty, and to support the academic portion,” said fisher.

Branding by the numbers

18 4 2 1 4 2 1 3 1

UBC employees dedicated to branding communication coordinators

directors

marketing communications coordinator web coordinators

brand managers

executive assistant designers

photographer

PhoTo CoURTESY UBC PUBLIC AffAIRS

Promotional material under President Piper described UBC as “Canada’s Leading Edge.”

E

ven in the early days, when UBC was just a few shacks near the Vancouver General Hospital, UBC’s first president, Frank Wesbrook, sought to develop the image of the university as a “centre of culture in a largely uncultured place,” said Herbert Rosengarten.

Rosengarten, a professor emeritus of English, has been at UBC since 1965. He is co-author of UBC: The First 100 Years, a book that documents the university’s history and development.

Originally, Wesbrook sought to present UBC as a traditional university in a modern setting — as “Cambridge in the Pacific,” explained Rosengarten. According to an article by AMS archivist Sheldon Goldfarb, Wesbrook based the UBC crest on B.C.’s coat of arms; he replaced the Union Jack with an open book and the province’s motto with UBC’s Tuum Est. Although UBC has adopted a modernized crest, Wesbrook’s more traditional version has remained in limited use through the university’s many transformations.

But it wasn’t until the late 1980s, after the appointment of UBC President David Strangway, that UBC started to create a branding identity more deliberately.

Rosengarten felt this new focus on branding was directly tied to the university’s growing international ambitions. “The university was changing direction at that point. Until about 1985, UBC was essentially a provincial university,” he said.

“When David Strangway came … from back east, he had big ideas and he moved the university much more rapidly into the arena of international research, so by 1990, UBC was really growing quite rapidly.”

The need for UBC to compete internationally for students, faculty

and staff meant “creating a sense of UBC as a place, an idea, a centre, and you had to buy words and images to do that,” said Rosengarten.

As a result, the first advertising videos for UBC were made during Strangway’s time. In 1989, Strangway launched a fundraising campaign with the slogan A World of Opportunity, ultimately raising $262 million for the university.

In 1997, Martha Piper became president, with the goal of making UBC a leading Canadian university through improving education and research. She shared Strangway’s promotional enthusiasm.

“Martha was very good at projecting a dynamic, energetic, forward-looking university,” recalled Rosengarten.

In her initial attempts at branding, Piper developed the slogans Research Makes Sense, Canada’s Leading Edge, Canada’s Global University and Think About It. The wordplay of Canada’s Leading Edge emphasized UBC’s focus on research as well as its location on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Think About It was intended to put the onus on students to think about what their education meant and make the connection between university and society.

But at the time, Strangway and Piper’s efforts to actively brand UBC led to controversy from within the university over the commercialization of education.

“When UBC did start to talk about branding and marketing in the 90s and early 2000s,… people, particularly the faculty, were upset that the university was somehow being turned into a commercial operation,” explained Rosengarten.

“They thought that universities, by virtue of their very existence, should draw people in, without the necessity of commercial processes and advertising.”

PhoTo fRoM UBC: ThE fIRST 100 YEARS

An early sketch of UBC’s crest, intended to present UBC as a traditional university.

“When UBC did start to talk about branding ... in the 90s and early 2000s,... people were upset that the university was somehow being turned into a commercial operation.”

Herbert Rosengarten Author of UBC: The First 100 Years However, the last decade of development at UBC may have changed this attitude. Rosengarten feels UBC’s academics have lost their negative perception of branding; they now see it as a necessary means to compete in the world of higher education.

“So people no longer bridle when you use words like branding.… The world has changed, and you have to change as well.” ***

“We do not believe that individual customers see it as important to wear the brand, particularly students.”

Rebecca Irani UBC Bookstore Marketing and Communications In the last few years, UBC has taken unprecedented steps to unite its brand.

Before 2009, UBC’s marketing only played a role in specific areas such as student recruiting or fundraising. No central marketing communications department or advertising budget existed, and there was only one manager devoted to marketing and communications within UBC’s Public Affairs department.

Today, UBC Public Affairs is an 18-person team of managers, designers, web designers, communications coordinators and a photographer, all charged with overseeing UBC’s

07.16.2012 | feature | 7

history of UBC Inc.

brand has evolved over the years — but the rapid growth of UBC Public he role and presence of marketing in academia

rine Lai

ibutor

“I mean, they all get funding from the university, so that should be something reflected in their branding.”

And even with the brand’s success in public reputation polls, are UBC’s students able to connect to the abstract ideas behind A Place of Mind?

According to the UBC Bookstore, maybe not.

With its stock of UBC T-shirts, mugs, decals, gift wrap and water bottles, the Bookstore is an opportunity for students to buy into the UBC brand. However, Rebecca Irani, the Bookstore’s marketing and communications manager, felt this was not occurring. “We do not believe that individual customers see it as important to wear the brand, particularly students,” she wrote in an email.

For Rosengarten, the brand’s impersonality causes this disconnect.

“If you didn’t know that [A Place of Mind] referred to UBC, would you immediately associate that with a western Canadian university? It doesn’t really tell you anything about where or what it represents.” ***

PhoTo CoURTESY UBC PUBLIC AffAIRS

concept for UBC’s current brand, A Place of Mind. The brand is now featured on the UBC website, banners around campus and promotional material.

The quality of UBC’s researchers has been an ongoing theme at UBC, according to Schmidt. The new brand continues Piper’s concept of UBC as “Canada’s leading edge.”

“There’s something about being located on the West Coast, that sense of being in the west, that pioneering spirit, that creates this openness to trying things differently,” said Schmidt.

In 2008, on the heels of A Place of Mind, UBC launched Place and Promise. This strategic plan sets goals for international recognition and alumni engagement, and also outlines UBC’s core values.

PhoTo CoURTESY UBC PUBLIC AffAIRS

Top: An example of UBC Athletics very 90s logo. Bottom: University crests, compared to UBC’s.

central brand. From 2007 to 2009, the university spent $229,300 on a massive rebranding process.

“We wanted to do it right,” said Randy Schmidt, current associate director and acting director of communications at UBC Public Affairs.

Led by Schmidt, the team assessed branding efforts across campus and held consultations with students, faculty, staff and donors on their perceptions of UBC. “The current platform that we have was motivated by a desire to communicate what it is about our story that has helped us climb, in a relatively short period of time, up the rankings

to become one of the top 40 universities in the world,” said Schmidt.

“What is it that’s our unique story?”

Based on their results, Schmidt and his team thought that UBC’s “openness” stood out the most.

“That idea of openness, and being open to big new ideas that can change the world … is something that came up over and over again in our interviews,” said Schmidt. “A lot of researchers who have come to UBC did so because it was more open to their ideas of what they wanted to pursue in their research than other universities.”

This theme became the central

*** One of the most important goals of A Place of Mind is giving UBC a common and cohesive identity.

As UBC’s new vice-president of communications and community partnership, Pascal Spothelfer oversees the internal brand and connects with stakeholders outside the university. He said that A Place of Mind is intended to unite UBC. “It’s a commonality that allows us to give the organization an identity which doesn’t have to connect to every single activity the organization has, which is impossible because it’s too big.… It’s a tying element for all the folks at UBC,” said Spothelfer.

Schmidt said the amalgamation

is intended to encourage fairness within UBC. “It is something that we try not to force on people, but we try to encourage them that it is of value to have something of equity,” he said.

However, not all of UBC’s departments have adopted the brand.

Schmidt cites the Sauder School of Business as an entity within UBC that remains divided from A Place of Mind.

“Sauder is kind of an exception.

They already have a very strong brand, and theirs was done before ours, so there are ongoing conversations about how to make that work for both of us,” said Schmidt.

Similarly, the Museum of Anthropology has remained unconnected. Although the museum reports to the dean of the Faculty of Arts, it’s often perceived as a tourist attraction separate from UBC. Rosengarten worried that this trend could undermine the university as a whole.

“If too many of these things happen, then the idea of UBC as a kind of gathering of all these wonderful things is going to be fragmented, and then people will concentrate on this or that or the other, rather than concentrating on the whole, made up of all these parts.”

He felt UBC should exercise more control over these divisions.

“When I see these images, I want to feel that they are gems as part of UBC, not as independent entities.

So I think sometimes the university has to reign them in a bit, and remind them that they are part of a larger institution.

Despite these inconsistencies, UBC has been recognized internationally for its branding efforts. In 2011, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education gave UBC a gold medal in the category of institution-wide branding programs.

Following this success, UBC Public Affairs has set its sights internationally and begun plans for a major restructure.

The communications team will leave Public Affairs to form the newly created communications and marketing department. They will oversee current and future brand design, web design and branding teams. In May, the university hired marketing professional Kari Grist to head this new department. Grist specializes in brand development and has worked for Vancity and Canadian Airlines.

Spothelfer said this new department is designed to improve the quality of UBC’s brand.

“It’s always difficult when you have a very strong brand but it’s not really substantiated by the organization that stands behind it, and I think UBC is the other way around,” said Spothelfer.

Specifically, the new department will target the problems of consistency and cohesion in the use of the brand. But dollar signs accompany any large-scale replacement of images already in the public eye.

And even with a devoted department, UBC’s efforts to improve its image are far from over.

“We have a very strong organization, and the brand is almost catching up to the strengths of the organization,” said Spothelfer.

“Changing a brand takes a long time.” U

8 | Culture | 07.16.2012

Volunteering!

Realized summer is more than half over and you’ve done nothing? Don’t worry: here’s a guide to getting off your butt and helping some good causes.

Kayi Wong Contributor

It happens to all of us: summer days blur into each other, and in the middle of July, you realize you’ve done nothing but play video games and drink on your patio. Don’t fret: there are tons of volunteer opportunities to sign up for so you can salvage what’s left of your holiday. Reasons for volunteering could be educational, professional, social, philanthropic — the list goes on and on. At the very least, volunteer just to have something interesting to say when the inevitable small talk about summer occurs during the second week of September. Whether you want to network, bike, take photographs or attend that music festival for free, there’s a volunteer position for everyone. U

I live on campus

I need to get out of the city

I live off campus

Can you commit for several weeks?

I like...

Plants and vegetables

Yep! Sign me up!

I fear commitment...

UBC Farm Join the Urban Farmers crew for their farmer’s markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays (contact ubcfarm. market@ubc.ca). If you’re more interested in giving tours around the Farm, contact ubcfarm.tour@gmail.com. For an extensive list of volunteer positions, visit ubcfarm.ubc.ca/ teaching-learning/volunteer-program.

Farm Wonders Summer Camp Work with kids ages 6–11 as a gardening leader, tour volunteer, workshop leader or camp assistant. There’s a range of time commitments available. For more info, visit farmwonders.ca/volunteer.htm.

Kids and plants

UBC Botanical Gardens’ Youth Explorer Summer Camp Chaperone young campers while they participate in outdoor activities around campus.

Throwing coloured powder at runners?

Color Me Rad 5K Members needed for the Colour Bomb Squad, which hurls coloured corn starch at runners every five minutes. This Vancouver chapter of the run will benefit the Keep A Breast Foundation Canada. Aug. 18. For more info, visit colormerad.com/races/vancouver.html.

Tree hugging Jog for the Bog Trail Run Facilitate the 1-km, 5-km and 10-km run through the Delta Nature Reserve in support of the Burns Bog Conservation Society’s education programs. Or conduct maintenance of the Delta Nature Reserve boardwalks and outreach campaign.

Vancouver Fruit Tree Project Fruit pickers, delivery, bike trailer team, web design and social media contributors.

Note: Tree-picking positions are available when trees are ready to be harvested. For more info, visit vancouverfruittree.com/ volunteer/.

I like...

Renaissance festivals

Interacting with kids

Music Surrey Fusion Music Festival General event volunteer, stage crew, crafting with kids, information booths and setup.

Perks: Volunteer snack pack and T-shirt. Jul. 21–22 in Holland Park.

For more information, visit surrey.ca/ fusionfestival/.

Lanterns Illuminares Lantern Festival Videography, artist/ volunteer check-ins, setup and site crews.

Perks: Free admission and workshops.

Jul. 21 at Trout Lake. For more info, visit publicdreams. org/get-involved/ volunteer-form/.

Alcohol!

Hostelling International’s Friday Club Night Lead hostel guests and backpackers to the Bourbon and the Lotus Sound Lounge every Friday night.

Preference will be given to applicants who have knowledge of drinking games and first aid. Perks: Complimentary drinks and specials. For more info, contact Micah at micah.hermesmann@ hihostels.ca.

Note: If you’re in Whistler, HI-Whistler also organizes bar nights for their guests with the help of volunteers. Email whistleractivities@hihostels.ca for more information.

I like...

I like...

Community

Powell Street Festival Translation, sustainability, stage and site crew, poster distribution, drivers and supervision of the children’s tent. Perks: Volunteers receive food vouchers if they work four hours or more and gift packages if they complete all their shifts. Aug. 4–5 in Art Oppenheimer Park. For more info, visit powellstreetfestival.com/ Olio Festival Web entry, get-involved/volunteer/. assistant to sponsorship director, stagehands for comedy shows, drivers, Eastside Movement street team, producfor Business & tion assistants, campus Economic Renewal representatives, content Society Short-term managers and film event volunteers for web destaff. Perks: Tickets to see sign and photography; the festival. Sept. 22–25. also, assistance with an For more info, visit oliofes- upcoming golf tournatival.com. ment. Note: Year-round volunteers interested in the fields of marketing, Fringe Festival event planning, website Bartenders, floaters, site development, design crew, bar ticket sellers, and finance are also bussers, distribution, am- welcome to apply. For bassadors, etc. Perks: With more info, visit embersa commitment of 16–20 vancouver.vcn.bc.ca/ hours, volunteers receive volunteers. free tickets to several performances and a free T-shirt. Sept. 6–16.

B.C. Renaissance Festival Games and rides operator, ticket seller, stage crew, etc.

Volunteers must dress up! Jul. 19–22 in Langley.

For more info, visit bcrenfest.com/join_volunteer.html.

Administration B.C. Cancer Society Office assistant to provide administrative support, organize events and campaigns, make telephone enquiries, etc.

Queer Film Festival Venue coordinators, translators, photographers, videographers, ushers, hosts to filmmakers and technical assistants to operate the projectors. Aug. 16–26.

For more info, visit queerfilmfestival.ca/content/ volunteer/616.

Victoria Dragon Boat Festival Beer garden servers, race starters, photographers, collectors, site decorators and marshals. Perks: Snacks, refreshments and a free Dry Fit T-shirt. For more info, visit victoriadragonboat.com/EN/main/ volunteer/4810.html.

Theatre Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival Backstage and technical assistants, bike couriers, promotions, ticket sales and customer support. Aug. 25–Sept. 4. For more info, visit victoriafringe.com/ support/volunteer/.

Golden girls?

Yaletown House Society Work with a program leader and assist a medium-sized group of senior residents in painting and other art projects. Jul.– Oct., 2 hours per week.

For more info, visit yaletown.org/volunteer_opportunities.php.

Teaching Vancouver Aquarium Gallery educators, penguin educators, creative coordinators, visitor support and information desk. At least 4 hours per week for 6 months. For more info, visit vanaqua.org/join/ hands-on/volunteer/ opportunitiesavailable.

Supporting LGBT causes Queer Arts Festival Marketing, art installation, servers, gallery sitting, stage crew and box office. Perks: A free pass to see a performance of your choice for every four hours of volunteering. Jul. 31–Aug. 18. Visit queerartsfestival.com/ get-involved/volunteer.

Sports

Vancouver Pride Parade & Festival Parade patrol, event hosts and support, graphic designers, videographers and photographers. Aug. 5, downtown Vancouver.

For more info, visit vancouverpride.ca/ volunteer.

Music festivals Live at Squamish Production assistants, stage runners, bike valet service, recycling team, etc. Perks: Working one full day entitles you to free entry to the rest of the festival (with a lineup of more than 40 acts), a Live at Squamish T-shirt and free meals.

Aug. 24–26. For more info, visit liveatsquamish.com/p/volunteer.

See also: Rifflandia in Victoria this September.

Bicycles and food Slow Food Summer Cycle Tour Traffic marshalling, assisting at farms, setup and cleanup. Perks: Volunteers can participate in the tours for free. Contact Chelsea at volunteer@slowfoodvancouver. com. Jul. 28 in Agassaiz, Jul. 29 in Chilliwack. For more info, visit slowfoodcyclesunday.com/getinvolved/. See also: a similar cycle tour taking place in Pemberton, B.C. on Aug. 19.

Art

ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art Food prep, stage staff, photography, videography, gallery assistant, box office and kids’ area. Perks: Volunteering for 12 hours entitles you to a festival pass, camping pass and three free meals. Aug. 3–6 in Barkerville, B.C. For more info, visit artswells.com/volunteers.

07.16.2012 | Culture | 9 environment >>

New bartering website encourages green living

Rebekah Ho Contributor

David marino/The Ubyssey

Fans and scholars congregated at UBC to host Slayage, an academic conference dedicated entirely to the works of Joss Whedon.

campus >>

Academics investigate the wonders of the Whedonverse at fifth Slayage conference Rhys Edwards Senior Culture Writer

Joss Whedon is a pop culture phenomenon. The acclaimed writer and director — whose vast filmmaking career includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Firefly, Serenity, The Cabin in the Woods (filmed in Vancouver) and The Avengers — has been the subject of a cult following within the public domain.

Whedon’s reputation extends beyond the realm of popular film and TV, however. Slayage, an academic journal dedicated entirely to the work of Whedon (affectionately called the “Whedonverse” by fans), has been hosting biennial conferences since 2004. This year’s Slayage conference was the first to take place in Canada; it was held mostly at UBC’s Allard Hall from July 12–15.

Academics, scholars and fans from all over the world attended the conference. Speakers analyzed numerous features of the Whedonverse; the array of subjects was dizzying, with presentations on everything from female leadership in Dollhouse to the Faustian subtext of Dr. Horrible. And of course, several talks set out to compare the vampirism of Buffy with that of the ever-endearing Twilight series.

As an academic conference, Slayage is unusual in that it is centred entirely on the output of a single, living author who produces decidedly non-highbrow works.

Why, then, are so many academics interested in Whedon specifically?

Sharon Sutherland, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at UBC and a featured speaker at Slayage, explains: “Whedon’s work in television is seen as especially rich and complex. He famously challenged his audience to ‘Bring your own subtext,’ and his work lends itself to exactly that: indepth analysis through a wide range of academic lenses. At the same time, his work is witty and entertaining, despite some very dark themes. The combination of complex and entertaining lends itself to repeated viewings and new insights each time one returns to the ‘text.’”

Sutherland, who is primarily interested in legal imagery within the Whedonverse, also notes, “Whedon’s works are all innovative and surprising in their ability to break from popular culture conventions. That element of surprise

and the sense of respect for his audience’s critical abilities that Whedon’s shows convey is surely a part of his appeal to viewers who want something more with their entertainment.”

Hélène Frohard-Dourlent, a Ph.D. candidate in UBC’s sociology department, concurs. “I think he has the capacity to galvanize people in a way that we don’t see as much with other authors in popular culture.”

Frohard-Dourlent spoke at the conference about the conspicuous lack of Asian representation in the Whedonverse. She adds: “He makes a very conscious effort to make popular culture that is accessible to everyone … but at the same time, he doesn’t go into producing these works assuming that he has to cater to the lowest common denominator. For example, Buffy is full of references that are not very easy to get, that you need to have a certain amount of knowledge about American history, American culture, American literature, that you wouldn’t necessarily catch on your first viewing, or if you were 15.”

The narrative style of Whedon’s work lends itself well to intellectual analysis, and, as the corpus of a single author, his output also allows scholars to identify recurrent themes. Yet, Slayage is unique not only because of its specific subject matter, but also because of the unusual nature of the conference itself. Whedon’s popularity within the academic domain (Frohard-Dourlent notes that there are approximately 1,500 pieces of academic literature based on Buffy alone) may be attributed to the fact that scholars of the Whedonverse are essentially fans in the first place. “[Slayage is] very much academic in tone ... but what comes with it is also a more fun atmosphere, in the sense that people are congregating not just to share their work but also to share their passion,” says Frohard-Dourlent. “Angel or Dr. Horrible is not something we watch just because we want to get to the core of it, or analyze it from every perspective possible. It’s also something we like to sit down and enjoy.”

The convivial nature of Slayage merges high and low culture and creates an openness that might attract students who are otherwise alienated by the formality of academic conferences. Arguably, Slayage represents the deconstruction of the Ivory Tower philosophy

that often governs academia.

“People who are interested in the academic study of Joss Whedon and his works are very much welcome, even if they don’t have an academic background themselves,”

says Frohard-Dourlent. “That’s another way in which the fan-scholar gap is bridged.” U For more information, visit slayageonline.com.

David marino/The Ubyssey

From top: Conference-goers; the conference program; organizer Sharon Sutherland.

Troc-Exchange is every student’s dream: getting awesome stuff and recycling used items without cracking open the already thin wallet.

This free, bartering-based website is considered the “green” version of Craigslist or Kijiji and aims to help people save money and the environment.

The French couple behind TrocExchange, Yvan and Christine Sache, moved to Vancouver to get away from the pollution of Paris.

While the Saches’ idea for TrocExchange was already forming in 2008, the earth-friendly lifestyle of Vancouverites further inspired them.

“Being green doesn’t mean becoming an ecologist. It means taking care a little bit more of what we’re doing, what we’re buying, and what we’re throwing away,” said Yvan. “We thought, let’s build a website which could be for everybody.… You can donate, you can sell and you can swap.”

The basics of the website work just like Craigslist. Users post their ads for their well-loved goods or item requests, and they are able to contact one another to arrange a swap.

Users can upgrade their ads to keep them at the top of the list. Half of this upgrading money is donated to environment preservation organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation and Mountain Rider; the other half is put back into the website.

“We think that sharing is a big part of the website; not just me, myself and I,” Yvan said.

Christine continued, “We keep our own jobs, because we don’t make money with the website, actually. I continue my script-writing, and he is a French teacher.”

One of the goals of Troc-Exchange is to create a community of people whose first reflex is to share items instead of throwing them out.

“At first, we didn’t realize that the heart of the project was the link between people. We just thought about reusing stuff and stopping the pollution of the earth. In the end, we realized it’s about the connection between people,” said Christine. “In fact, I think people need to recreate a real community of thinking, not only about money or careers, but thinking of heart.”

Upcoming events for TrocExchange include organizing a book swap for students.

Christine said, “What we would like to do for the university is to create a huge book swap with the students before school starts, or maybe even in September, because books are super expensive.”

“We’ve been in touch with different associations in UBC and BCIT,” said Yvan. “We are trying to do a meeting at the end of August with all these presidents and say, ‘We can help you.’”

Indeed, the Saches seem set on helping the world, one step at a time: “With the bad economy all over the world, we hope to change people’s minds a little bit. And of course, we cannot stop the economy, but if you can do something that gives you a more caring attitude, why not?” U

Opinion

07.16.2012 |

10

Editor: Jonny Wakefield

“UBC.” Let it roll off your tongue.

You. Bee. See. It’s pleasant, isn’t it? It tastes like freedom, and goes down like a 1 p.m. scotch .

It’s the past and the future, the alpha and the omega. It’s perfect. And you can buy it here.

You can buy it from me.

Dean Dan and Sauder’s cult of personality

COURTESY OF YOUTUBE

INDIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY

Last Words

Editor’s Notebook

Parting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues There’s a special place in hell reserved for U-Pass fraudsters UBC has already capped the amount of replacement U-Passes that can be issued due to people abusing the system. At the last AMS Council meeting, VP External Kyle Warwick said that UBC may have to stop issuing replacement U-Passes without a police report if the fraud rate remains so high.

Some people actually lose their U-Passes, but when students are taking out U-Passes and “replacing” them within minutes, the entire program is threatened.

It seems many of the “lost” U-Passes can be found on the internet. A Ubyssey investigation into the fraudulent sale of U-Passes (involving complicated acts of journalism like searching the term on Craigslist and Facebook) found that there are over 20 U-Passes currently for sale online. And that doesn’t even take into account all the people who give their U-Passes to their friends or drop a class and keep their pass for the month.

Keep this up, and we’ll see how TransLink reacts during the next round of negotiations to renew the program. Really, we dare you!

The rate of pass fraud was almost a non-starter last time; participating institutions had to start issuing passes monthly because so many were being fraudulently sold online.

There are already limits on U-Pass replacements, and those are only getting smaller. If someone actually loses their U-Pass, it’s almost too much trouble to file a police report to get a replacement. If students keep committing fraud, TransLink is ultimately going to pass the costs on to us. Don’t ruin the U-Pass for everyone else to make $30 on Craigslist.

UBC struggles with dual identities After the incident of an irate youth coach tripping a kid at Thunderbird Arena rippled through the world media, UBC announced that it might consider banning community teams from using the university’s name.

Administrators were concerned that the public thought the team, the UBC Hornets, was run by the university, when in fact it is only a loosely affiliated Rec team run by volunteers.

Last year, we saw another example of UBC being overprotective of its brand, when UBC’s lawyers told the

AMS that new student clubs couldn’t have the word “UBC” in the name because people might confuse them with the university.

This makes sense when you consider UBC as a multinational business with a team of 18 marketing pros trying to create a polished image to attract international students and donors. But UBC also enjoys the privilege of being a small city, a de facto local government and a community of students, professors and residents.

Did the City of Vancouver try to deny the Canucks the use of its name after the bad publicity brought on by the riots? Didn’t think so.

The university has to decide whether people pay lots of money to live and study here get to feel like they’re part of UBC, or whether they can only interact with UBC when they enter into a commercial relationship with it.

Because it’s all well and good to respect optics and brand cohesion, but you have to respect the community as well if you wish to have one.

A little movement on student loan reform isn’t a bad thing The B.C. Liberals recently announced a new plan for provincial assistance for student loan repayment. As indebted students, we’re cautiously optimistic about the revised plan.

Though provincial support with student loans isn’t new, the plan comes as an adjustment to the current assistance program. Under the new plan, students can apply for provincial help on paying both the interest and principal on their loans. If your debt is not paid off after 15 years, the province will now pay off the rest.

These changes also lower the income maximum needed to qualify for assistance, meaning a whole new swath of indebted students will benefit from the program. For students facing job uncertainty, the new plan offers at least some defence against serious financial troubles.

The new program won’t satisfy everyone. The Liberals’ political opposition, of course, will remain forever unimpressed. For their part, the NDP points out the new plan does nothing to impact the price of education upfront, nor does it offer any assistance on a merit basis.

No, the assistance plan doesn’t address all sources of financial hardship to B.C. students. Yes, there remain problems with the cost of education.

But even if the program is flawed, the province is still taking one step in the right direction by introducing more options for students struggling with debt. And with the highest interest rates for student loans in Canada, offering more help to B.C. students is better than nothing.

To benefit the campus as a whole, UBC Athletics needs to break out of the varsity bubble Athletics’ boat has been rocked.

A recent report heaped some heavy criticism on the department, arguing that its priorities haven’t been in the right place for a long time.

Now that director Bob Philip has been pushed out — er, whoops, “promoted to an advisory role” — there’s a window of possibility for the department to make some huge changes.

But in order for those changes to happen, the Athletics department needs to figure out that its twin aims of supporting high-performance varsity sport and engaging the whole campus aren’t really at odds after all.

That is, if they’re both done right.

If you ask anyone who considered attending an American university instead of UBC (like many of our editors who hail from south of the border), they’ll tell you how strange it is that UBC’s major varsity sports are seen as a niche offering. It isn’t that we’re hoping that UBC someday becomes host to a behemoth football program that dwarfs the university it’s attached to. But we’re a school with some really fantastic athletic talent, and it wouldn’t kill us to whip up a little school spirit and support those people when they do their thing.

Attendance at on-campus games, even events like the Shrum Bowl, is regrettably low year after year. When a group of Ubyssey editors tried to find a TV on campus to watch the women’s basketball national final last year, it was a daunting task just to convince any bar to show the game.

The people who run UBC’s varsity teams have been allowed to be singleminded about what they’re pursuing.

The AMS is taking a step in the right direction by trying to start up a supporters club for our teams. Get the Pit to add a couple drink specials on game days. Oh, and get them to actually show games. Do something to get Joe Average Student more interested in paying attention to the Thunderbirds.

Because this sure as hell won’t happen on its own. U

Jonny Wakefield The list of B.C.’s highest-paid public employees is made up of financial managers, Crown Corporation CEOs, university presidents and the occasional faculty dean. These people make a lot of money, are put in a position of public trust and are a good indicator of where our province’s priorities lie.

I guarantee that only one of them has ever been the subject of a goodnatured, over-the-top YouTube sendoff.

Earlier this month, that’s the kind of goodbye we saw for Sauder’s “Dean Dan” Muzyka, who left the position last month after 13 years.

In “My Name is Dan,” an obvious homage to Lonely Island’s “I’m on a Boat,” a group of Sauder students dance around the newly renovated Henry Angus Building, rapping about how cool their dean is.

Towards the end, a group of people who seem to be Sauder staffers stand around clapping while a student wearing a Dean Dan mask does “the Party Rock.” Nobody seems to know what’s going on.

Weirded out yet?

The idea of a university dean having a cult of personality is strange in and of itself. A dean’s job is to oversee multimillion-dollar research organizations that recruit students, grant degrees, run businesses and compete internationally. They’re not hired to be your friend. And despite the chummy air he liked to project (or, more precisely, had projected onto him), Muzyka didn’t always act in the best interests of students.

During his tenure, Muzyka tried several times to pass the cost of the new Henry Angus Building onto students. While buildings are usually covered by provincial grants or private donors, Muzyka saw no problem asking students for oodles of money to fund construction. In 2007, the faculty ran a plebiscite asking students to approve a $500 fee increase on future students who would benefit from the space.

Students agreed, everything seemed fine to the university, and walls started coming down. Then the province stepped in and ruled that asking students to pay $500 more in fees amounted to a tuition increase, and tuition can’t legally rise more than inflation. The brakes were temporarily put on the project.

Muzyka was quick to realize that

he had an ally in the Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS).

If the CUS ran an actual referendum and made the increase a student fee, it wouldn’t be subject to the tuition cap. As an additional carrot, Muzyka alluded to unseen reviews by the AACSB and EQUIS — two groups that accredit business schools — which allegedly said if Sauder couldn’t get a new building, it might lose accreditation altogether.

To sum up, Muzyka went to students and told them that if they didn’t pitch in half a grand apiece for a new building, their degrees might be worthless. The CUS, perennially uncritical of the administration, went along with it: playing booster for the fee referendum and citing only information that came down from On High.

Whether this whole fee boondoggle amounted to blackmail is debatable. Students did vote overwhelmingly in favour, and the university has long been asking the province to relax its cap on tuition for professional programs, which need to spend more money to be competitive internationally. But when the dust started to settle, it turned out that Sauder had been sitting on some reserve cash all along. The faculty is now kicking $4 million into the project, which means the $500 fee won’t be there for quite as many generations of future Sauder students.

But what this situation does represent is a willingness on Muzyka’s part to use fear to motivate. And for a faculty whose identity depends so much on thinking they’re better than other schools (a key message in “My Name is Dan”: we’re better than Queens, we’re better than SFU) that fear is potent.

(As a side note, the episode only came about because the faculty started work on a major construction project without a secure source of funding. This reveals a massive lapse in judgment from the man who is going on to lead the Conference Board of Canada.)

Muzyka leaves a complicated legacy. Without him, the school probably wouldn’t have secured the $20 million gift that gave the faculty its name. He did a lot to make the school internationally competitive, and, in spite of a few unscrupulous incidents, he remains popular with students.

At the end of the day, it’s little wonder why students thought of Dean Dan as such a friendly, Party Rockin’ kind of guy. He had to be.

He needed them for a whole lot of money. U

Scene

07.16.2012 |

Pictures and words on your university experience

VISUALIZED >>

E

very year, the Vancouver Sun compiles a list of the highest-paid employees in B.C.’s public sector. It comes as no surprise that UBC employees regularly top the list.

UBC President Stephen Toope, for example, made over $528,000, earning him the title of the sixthhighest-paid public employee in B.C.

11

12 | games | 07.16.2012

Crossword

Across

45— Polite address 46— Amoeba—like alien: The _____ 48— Rescues 51— Capital of Queensland Australia 55— Banned apple spray 56— Encore!

58— Native Nigerians 59— Pealed 60— Actress Taylor 61— Antitoxins 62— Joint with a cap 63— Sailing hazards 64— Prefix with sphere

13— “Alice” diner 21— Beak 22— Ball game 24— Sierra _ 25— Sleep like _ 26— Saying 27— Primp 28— Chambers 29— Penned 30— October birthstones 31— Strikes out 32— Take to the soapbox 34— Sacred song 37— “Dancing Queen” quartet 38— Haughty 40— Latin I word 41— Wall St. debuts 43— Come out 46— Lasting a short time 47— Queues 48— Cutty _ 49— Astronaut Shepard 50— Windmill blade 51— Cause of ruin 52— Busy as _ 53— “Cheers” regular 54— Morales of “La Bamba” 56— Part of ETA 57— “Fancy that!”

1— Mother of Ares 5— Birthplace of Muhammad 10— Actor Tamiroff 14— One of the Baldwins 15— Sign up 16— Get up 17— Letter opener 18— List of candidates 19— Narrate 20— Large wine bottle 22— Donates 23— Prefix for small 24— Neighbour of Cambodia 26— The cruelest month?

29— Affluent 1— Pilgrimage to Mecca 33— Salivate 2— Gen. Robert _ 34— Evidence 3— Back 35— For each 4— Part of the shoulder joint 36— Long time 5— Subatomic particle 37— For _ (cheap) 6— China’s Zhou _ 38— Room in a casa 7— Jam—pack 39— Precious stone 8— Portable bed 40— Become less intense, die 9— Draft choice off 10— Painter, e.g.

41— Bay 11— Capital of the Ukraine 42— Costume 12— Wight, for one 44— Deputized group (CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.

Down

Sudoku by Krazydad

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