October 15, 2013

oCToBER 15, 2013 | VoLUME XCV| ISSUE XV VIOLATING B.C. LABOUR LAWS SINCE 1918

raNKED Employers, faculty and applicants — the real story behind university rankings

wrEcK laNDSliDE KoErNEr’S iS bacK Retired Trail 5 has been turned into a 600 After more than two years of negotiations, renovations and P4 foot cliff after erosion causes slide paperwork, the pub is set to reopen under private management

P6

P3

SECOND SEXUAL ASSAULT ON CAMPUS P3 CULTCH AND WESTERN FRONT CELEBRATE 40TH P9 WOMEN’S HOCKEY SPLITS HOME OPENER P5 MEN’S SOCCER P5 MENTAL HEALTH FILM SERIES P8

Tuesday, OcTOber 15, 2013 |

YoUR GUIdE To UBC EVEnTS + PEoPLE

what’S oN

THIS WEEK, MAY WE SUGGEST...

our caMPuS

2

onE on onE WITH THE PEoPLE WHo MAKE UBC

TUESDAY 15 POST-THANKSGIVING FOOd cOMA ALL DAY @ YOUR BODY

Maybe it’s the turkey, or maybe it’s the overall sluggishness from the long weekend, but you’re way too full to pay attention today.

Free

WEDNESDAY 16 cOMEdy NIGHT

7 P.M. - 9 P.M. @ THE GALLERY

As seen on CBC’s The Debators, Just for Laughs and many other comedy festivals, Graham Clark, comedian and beard-painter graces the Gallery stage. Jokes are free; drinks are not.

Free BECCA WILLIAMS/THE UBYSSEY

The Agora staff are happy to serve up their delicious, local food, located at the basement of the Macmillan Building.

THURSDAY

17

cASuAL SOccEr LEAGuE 1 P.M. - 2P.M. @ SRC

The Casual Soccer League offers soccer pros and those looking for recreation fun to either commit for the whole term or just drop in occasionally. $15 for students

“Yay! Butts on the cover! I feel sorry for this innocent character I have tortured with hot iron, but even more sorry for the poor burnt cows I looked at as drawing references.”

Illustration by Indiana Joel.

video content Check out our “UBC on Thanksgiving” video, airing now at ubyssey.ca/videos/.

U THE UBYSSEY

EDitorial

Coordinating Editor Geoff Lister coordinating@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Print Ming Wong printeditor@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Web CJ Pentland webeditor@ubyssey.ca News Editors Will McDonald + Sarah Bigam news@ubyssey.ca Senior News Writer Brandon Chow bchow@ubyssey.ca Culture Editor Rhys Edwards culture@ubyssey.ca Senior Culture Writer Aurora Tejeida atejeida@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Natalie Scadden sports@ubyssey.ca Senior Lifestyle Writer Reyhana Heatherington rheatherington@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Arno Rosenfeld features@ubyssey.ca

Video Producers Lu Zhang + Nick Grossman video@ubyssey.ca Copy Editor Matt Meuse copy@ubyssey.ca

Photo Editor Carter Brundage photos@ubyssey.ca Illustrator Indiana Joel ijoel@ubyssey.ca Graphic Designer Nena Nguyen nnguyen@ubyssey.ca Webmaster Tony Li webmaster@ubyssey.ca Distribution Coordinator Lily Cai lcai@ubyssey.ca

Staff Catherine Guan, Nick Adams, Kanta Dihal, Marlee Laval, Angela Tien, Carly Sotas Write/shoot/contribute to The Ubyssey and attend our staff meetings and you too can see your name in the glorious tones of black that only offset printing can produce. We meet every week in our office, SUB 24 — in the basement, squirreled away in the back, there. Yeah, we know. You’ll get used to it.

oCToBER 15, 2013 | VoLUME XCV| ISSUE XV

buSiNESS

coNtact

Business Manager Fernie Pereira fpereira@ ubyssey.ca 604.822.6681

Ad Sales Tiffany Tsao webadvertising @ubyssey.ca 604.822.1658

Ad Sales Mark Sha advertising@ ubyssey.ca 604.822.1654

Accounts Graham McDonald accounts@ ubyssey.ca

Editorial Office: SUB 24 604.822.2301 Business Office: SUB 23 Student Union Building 6138 SUB Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

Web: ubyssey.ca Twitter: @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.

Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as

your year and faculty with all submissions. Id will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verification will be done by phone.

The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. All letters must be received by 12 noon the day before intended publication. Letters received after this point will be published in the following issue unless there is an urgent time restriction or other matter deemed relevant by the Ubyssey staff.

It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.

Agora Café serves up local organic meals Kaitlyn Fung contributor

It’s obvious that Anita Gillespie and Emily Hunn love food.

Part of it might be the fact that they’re both fourth-year Land and Food Systems (LFS) students, with Gillespie majoring in dietetics and Hunn majoring in food, nutrition and health. But being the co-general managers of Agora Café seems to help, too.

Since 2005, students at Agora Café, located in the basement of the MacMillan Building, have been serving healthy and sustainable food to the UBC community. Having their space and facilities donated by the LFS faculty also allows the non-profit to be just that — nothing on the menu costs more than $5.

“There’s a lot of image around [organic food] like, ‘I can’t afford to buy organic, it’s too expensive,’ so we really show to people that our food is local and organic as much as possible and you guys can still afford it,” said Hunn.

Serving local, organic and sustainable food requires lots of help, which comes from Agora’s many volunteers. This year, they amount to over 100. Gillespie noted a big difference, as last year’s numbers were around 70.

It’s this combination of fresh recruits and committed veterans that keeps Agora going, with the experienced volunteers helping the newcomers. After all, Agora is a learning café where students are encouraged to gain the skills and confidence to work with food and people, and everyone has to start somewhere.

We really show to people that our food is local and organic as much as possible and you guys can still afford it.

Emily Hunn agora café co-general manager

Hunn got her start at Agora during her first year after asking her undergrad orientation leader for ways to get involved. She then became the food safety manager the following year. Gillespie also began as a general volunteer, later obtaining the assistant manager position. Now in their second year of co-managing Agora, the two have already learned a lot.

“Over the years, I’ve built up a lot of confidence in myself as a leader and someone that can be approachable, but at the same time knows how to lead appropriately,” said Hunn.

“Coming from a small town, I didn’t have a lot of people from different backgrounds ... so UBC is really good for that,” said Gillespie, who hails from Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island.

“Interacting every week with all these different people and learning about

Know someone at UBC who’s done something interesting/amazing/amazingly interesting and worthy enough to be profiled in Our Campus?

Email all candidates to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

their stories is just really interesting, as well.”

For Hunn, who grew up in Phoenix and in a family that loves to cook, the environment Agora creates has also been valuable, and something that makes Agora unique compared to UBC Food Services establishments. “We’re a cute little family-run community,” she said.

Hunn said Agora has been complimented for demonstrating their faculty’s values well by sustainably bringing food from the farm to the plate. They use produce from the LFS orchard and UBC Farm.

The two share similar reasons as to why they’re studying food and the importance of food: both discovered they could help people through nutrition, as its effects are numerous and significant.

“It’s in control of your environment, your health and how you interact with people,” said Gillespie. “What you eat is how you live, really.” U

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 |

EDITORS WILL Mcdonald + Sarah Bigam

bars >>

3

NEw Sub >>

Shortlist of New SUB names released

Photo Will mcdonald/THE UBYSSEY

The New SUB is set to be completed between September 2014 and January 2015.

RJ Reid Contributor

photo GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

Tim Yu serves up a round at the newly remodelled Koerer’s Pub. Fear not — though they’ve gone Gastown chic with the decor, there’s still pool and shuffleboard.

Koerner’s Pub to open Tuesday afternoon

Will be run by third party, has been closed since May 2011 Will McDonald News Editor

Koerner’s Pub will be open for business tonight.

Koerner’s Pub, formerly run by the Graduate Student Society (GSS), has been closed since May 2011 when it was shut down for losing too much money. The pub will reopen on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 4 p.m., and will be run by a third party, HK Commerce.

Koerner’s liquor license was approved on Oct. 10. GSS President Chris Roach said there were delays in getting the liquor license due to executive turnover and the need to update a few forms, which caused the B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch to

NEWS BRIEFS Woman sexually assaulted in Fairview At 3:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, a 20-year-old female student was sexually assaulted on campus.

According to an RCMP press release, the assault occurred inside her apartment building in Fairview. The woman was returning home when an unknown man emerged from a stairwell in the building and attempted to take off her clothes and put his hands up her skirt.

The woman managed to break free and when she screamed for help, the man fled on foot. She escaped unharmed.

The suspect is Caucasian and in his mid to late 20s, approximately 5-foot-10 and of medium build. He was wearing a dark hoodie at the time of the attack.

“UBC RCMP would like to remind everyone walking on campus at night to be vigilant of their surroundings and potential vulnerability when alone,” the release said.

Anne Kessler elected AMS VP academic and university affairs With 55.4 per cent of the vote, Anne Kessler is the winner of the VP academic byelection.

Kessler received 935 votes, while her opponent, Adam Melhem, had 752. 3.8 per cent of eligible students voted in the election.

Kessler will be in office until February. U

put their application on hold for several weeks.

“We’re licensed for 150 people inside. I don’t see why we couldn’t be full pretty much everyday,” said Tim Yu, president of HK Commerce.

Roach said the pub’s prices have been set with graduate students in mind.

Yu said beer will range from $4 pints of Pabst Blue Ribbon to $5.50 pints of craft beers. He said there will an increased focus on quality food than in years past. The pub’s food will include $5 small plates and $12 burgers made from ground steak.

“We tried our best to keep things very affordable,” said Yu. “We’ve tired to put a little more effort into

something ... that will be like the Alibi Room or something on Main Street ... really putting more of an emphasis on quality than perhaps was there before,” said Yu. HK Commerce will have control over the operations of the pub.

They will contribute $5,000 a month or five per cent of profits to the GSS. “We have full operational say,” Yu said. “The GSS is our partner, but is really there to make sure that overall ... it’s still a place that really supports the graduate student community.”

Roach was hopeful that the renovations to the pub will bring more students to it.

“Before, it was rather dark, it was a little dingy ... but now it’s

really different. It’s really nice.

It’s really open. It’s bright. It’s still got this kind of West Coast woody feel, but it’s also very modern,” said Roach.

The pub’s staff are members of the service worker union CUPE 116.

Although the GSS had a spat with the union when the pub abruptly shut down in 2011, Yu said relations with the union have improved.

“All our staff are union and we hope it should be smooth. Our agreement is actually really pretty fair and I don’t foresee there being any problems,” said Yu. Roach was optimistic about the expected turnout for the pub.

“I really think students will like the space,” said Roach. “I think [students will] flock to it.” U

Research >>

Debate over medical access to heroin continues Miriam Baldeh Contributor

Controversy continues regarding the federal government’s Oct. 3 announcement that they are banning the practice of heroin-assisted treatment for heroin addicts.

On Sept. 20, Minister of Health Rosa Ambrose vowed to remove doctors’ ability to prescribe drugs such as heroin to their patients through the Special Access Programme (SAP).

SAP allows practitioners to request access to drugs that are unavailable for sale in Canada. It limits this access to patients in life-threatening situations on an emergency basis, when conventional therapies like methadone or abstinence-based treatments have failed, are unsuitable or are unavailable.

According to a Health Canada press release, new regulations were put into place on Oct. 3 to prevent patients from accessing products containing heroin and other drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine through SAP. “This program provides emergency access to life-saving medicine. It was never intended to provide heroin to addicts, and we are taking action to close this loophole,” Ambrose said in the release.

However, not everyone agrees with this decision — including participants of the SALOME trial, a

study done by UBC and Vancouver doctors that attempts to determine the effectiveness of using heroin to treat heroin-addicted participants.

Health Canada has approved 20 of the 35 applicants to receive continued access to prescription heroin for three months after the end of the SALOME clinical trial, but they have stopped accepting applicants.

Scott Bernstein, a lawyer representing the SALOME patients, said the government’s action is standing in the way of people receiving life-saving healthcare. According to Bernstein, Section 7 of the applicants’ Charter rights — the right to life, liberty and security of the person — are being violated.

Donald MacPherson, director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, agreed that heroin itself is not the treatment but the stabilizing factor. The regular contact with social and housing workers and doctors is the treatment.

Bernstein and MacPherson said that when addicts don’t have heroin, they spend much of their time trying to get it. For people with low income, this means giving up their food and rent money and engaging in sex work and criminal activity to procure the drug. This, said Bernstein, is even more damaging than the drug itself.

“Once you’ve taken away the illegality of the drug [and] now provide it in a medical environment with all that support, then

you can start getting people to a space where they are like, ‘Oh, my life is actually OK and I don’t want to be high all the time.’”

Heroin treatment has been around for over 100 years. According to Bernstein, there is plenty of evidence that heroin-assisted treatment results in better health, better housing and better employment opportunities. He points to successful trials done in Switzerland in the 1990s as exemplary of this.

For Dave Murray, founder of the SALOME/NAOMI Association of Patients that represents the participants of the trial, the odds in savings in continuing the treatment, when compared to the dollars wasted on punishing criminal activity ranging from shoplifting to robbing homes to acquire heroin, are self-evident. “[It costs] $120,000 to keep someone in federal prison for one year,” he said. “The savings in the justice system alone are enormous.”

He also pointed to savings on healthcare when addicts don’t have to wait until they are very sick to go to the emergency room.

For patients for whom conventional treatments have failed, there are not many other options out there. Hydromorphine, a new drug being tested as an alternative, won’t be approved until at least late 2014. U

The AMS has released the shortlist of seven possible names for the New SUB. The seven options all begin with “AMS Student” and are meant to reflect a place of community within the university.

Names on the shortlist include the AMS Student Hub, the AMS Student Centre, the AMS Student Life Pavilion, AMS Student Hall, AMS Student Station, the AMS Student Nest and the AMS Student Community Centre.

The New SUB committee made the names by piecing together options from a list of possible “starters, middles and enders” they compiled.

“All combinations came from the initial crowd-sourcing part,” said Derek Moore, head of the New SUB committee. “They came off the cube, they came from suggestions from committees, suggestions from the AMS, people talking to friends.”

The cube is the New SUB design office where UBC students have been able to write name suggestions on the walls for the past few weeks.

“It started out with a couple names, and I remember getting so excited when there were just a couple,” said Rae Barilea, New SUB community engagement coordinator. “I think it was after one pit night, then there were so many more.”

Options on the cube such as “Hogwarts” and “the SUBstitute” did not make the cut.

The presence of the word “student” in all of the name options was important to the New SUB committee.

“Lots of places have their buildings named after donors, and the students are the biggest donor on this building — they donated $85 million for the construction of the project,” said Moore.

The seven shortlisted names will now enter a week-long voting period, where students can like their favourite option on the New SUB Facebook page. The top three choices will go to AMS Council for a final vote.

Moore and Barilea are both pleased with the list, though both have favourites.

“I like the Nest quite a bit. I think it’s fun, and a lot of the building is themed after the Thunderbirds,” said Moore.

“I like the Hub,” said Barilea.

“It symbolizes what this building will be.”

Barilea hopes to see a lot of people voting on Facebook over the next week.

“It’s a cool way to get involved in a little piece of history here,” she said.

Voting will remain open until Oct. 16. U

4 | NEWS |

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Clubs >>

AMS sends eviction notices to 75 clubs Sarah Bigam News Editor

The AMS gave 75 clubs eviction notices on Wednesday.

31 of these clubs are being evicted from their offices, with the remainder losing their locker space in the SUB. The list of clubs evicted from offices included prominent clubs like the Ski and Board Club, the Sailing Club and the Surf Club.

Student Administrative Commission vice-chair Nina Scott said these clubs received notice because they failed to turn in their tenancy agreements for 2013-2014.

“We had a deadline and it passed,” Scott said.

The locker tenancy agreements and office tenancy agreements are two-page agreements that grant clubs space, with the commitment that the club will maintain the safety and cleanliness of their space.

“We have over 380 [clubs], so it’s a small fraction,” Scott said.

She said a “good chunk” of the clubs who received the notice were clubs that either have been inactive or already dissolved.

Peter Wojnar, president of the Ski and Board Club, said he turned in his tenancy agreement one day after the Sept. 30 deadline. “We were assured at the time that it would probably be fine [so it] kind of came as a surprise,” he said.

Wojnar said that he received an email reminder of the deadline in the monthly AMS clubs newsletter in September, but then not again until one hour before the deadline.

Scott said that all clubs receiving this notice had a chance to appeal it before the eviction date of Friday, Oct. 11 listed on the email.

“There will be a few people who’ve genuinely made the mistake and

Peter Wojnar, president of UBC Ski and Board Club, has to deal with his club’s potential eviction.

we obviously want to do what we can to accommodate them,” she said.

Clubs can appeal by emailing the Student Administrative Commission, according to Scott. “They give a good reason why they didn’t [send the form in], and just explain to us why they need the space.”

She said there is a large waiting list of clubs who want the space if any of the clubs who received the notice fail to appeal before the deadline.

EROSION >>

However, the email giving the eviction notice made no mention of the option to appeal. “You are expected to move out by Friday, Oct. 11,” the email read.

“Penalties for failing to do so can include suspension of other club privileges, freezing of bank accounts and deconstitution.”

Although the original email made no mention of appeals, Scott said that an email was sent out on Thursday to all clubs who got the eviction notice, telling

them that they had 10 days from Wednesday to appeal. “It’s not a hugely urgent thing,” Scott said.

Wojnar sent in the Ski and Board Club’s appeal on Friday, and said they have no plans to start moving out. “[I think] what’s happening is that this year the AMS is really tired with the fact that nobody is taking them seriously and is just trying to get us to take them seriously,” said Wojnar. “I wasn’t too surprised to see it coming to us,

Photo GEOFF LISTER/The Ubyssey

we get these things often enough, but I was surprised to see things like UBC Cancer Society, and sorts of clubs that are actually providing really important services to students [get the notice].”

Scott said that in the meantime, clubs who are appealing can stay where they are.

“For now, they can stay. We’re not going to come with pitchforks and torches and say, ‘Pack up now.’ That would be ridiculous.” U

Housing >>

Landslide destroys St. John’s resident finds bedbugs retired Wreck Beach trail Student seeks new mattress as compensation Tammy Kwan Contributor

Photo Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey

The landslide occurred on Trail 5, located behind the Nitobe Gardens.

Will McDonald News Editor

A landslide left behind a 600-foot cliff at UBC on Sunday.

The landslide occurred on Trail 5, which is behind the Nitobe Gardens and leads to Wreck Beach.

RCMP said the landslide took place around 2 p.m. and no people were injured.

“It left a sheer cliff 600 feet down. It was formerly a trail,” said Sgt. Drew Grainger.

RCMP, Vancouver Fire Department and Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) staff responded to the scene. Grainger said the cliff has been barricaded off and GVRD is investigating the area.

“The area around Trail 5 has a significant barrier around it. It’s still very unstable,” said Grainger.

Trail 5 has been closed to the public for more than 10 years due to safety concerns and erosion. The trail is not marked on park maps. U

A student in UBC housing says her room was infested with bedbugs.

Hala Louay, a journalism student residing at St. John’s College, has been affected by bedbugs in her room. Louay is seeking compensation from UBC Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS).

Louay said she was bitten by the bedbugs on her arms, back and legs. “They were really itchy and small,” said Louay. “Some weren’t even visible and I only knew there was something because it was so itchy.”

Louay said the bites began in September, but she initially misinterpreted them as mosquito bites.

Louay said SHHS gave her instructions on how to prepare for pest control the following Oct. 7 after she filed a maintenance request Oct 3.

Louay requested to be removed from the room during treatment, but said her request was denied due to the concern of the potentially spreading the bedbugs.

“For me, it wasn’t acceptable, because I’m basically quarantined for two weeks while the treatment is going on,” said Louay.

“There have been bedbugs before,” said SHHS building services manager Randy Gvora, who insisted it was not a big issue.

Gvora refused further comment.

Henry Yu, the principal of St. John’s College, acknowledged that he understood the student’s perspective.

“Only one resident has been affected and it has not spread from that one room,” said Yu. “It is incredibly upsetting, but until [the bedbugs] are treated, the worst thing you can do is spread it.”

Louay has notified her friends and fellow residents of the college about the issue of bedbugs, but some residents were unaware of what has taken place. Jaclyn White, a current resident at St. John’s College, had not heard about the bedbugs.

“I’m a bit worried,” said White, “but I think it’ll be OK because I know that the maintenance and staff here at St. John’s are very quick and efficient in dealing with problems, and I imagine it will be the same for this situation as well.”

Louay said she refused to return to her room until the bedbug treatment ended due to the distress and agitation it caused for her.

“The worst part is that it is so distracting from my school-

ing,” said Louay. “I had to get extensions from professors in my department.”

Louay said she is frustrated with SHHS, not St. John’s College. Louay emphasized that St. John’s has been extremely supportive, with the principal and staff trying to help her as much as possible. Louay said they have been able to accommodate her needs to the best of their ability, and have helped her move into a temporary guest room at the college.

“It was really tough on her.

I have all the sympathy in the world for her, which is why we tried to help alleviate the situation,” said Yu. “We wanted to make sure her studies weren’t interrupted.”

At the same time, the principal also understood SHHS’s policy of containing the bedbugs.

Louay said she intends to seek compensation from SHHS. She believes that her demands are not unreasonable, and is requesting a new mattress for her room.

However, she doubts that it will happen. Louay said she would buy a new mattress with her own money if SHHS will not provide a new one.

“Other people have encouraged me to request my rent back for the month,” said Louay, “but [a new mattress] is all I want.” U

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 |

EDITOR Natalie Scadden

5

HOCKEY >>

Women’s hockey hit and miss in first home series

UBC blanks Calgary 4-0 on Friday night, but comes up empty in a shootout loss on Saturday Jenny Tang Contributor

The UBC women’s hockey team had plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend as they shutout the University of Calgary Dinos 4-0 in their home opener on Friday night. However, they were humbled the following afternoon as they were unable to continue the win streak, losing 4-3 in a shootout in Saturday’s rematch.

On Friday, the ’Birds were raring to go despite the delay in the puck drop, and were able to score three goals by the end of the first period. With goalie Danielle Lemon’s fantastic saves, they were able to carry on in the game without any goals from Calgary. Lemon managed to stop all 26 shots on goal from the Dinos, her first career CIS shutout and win.

In a fast and furious final five minutes of the first period, goals

by Tatiana Rafter and Stephan-

ie Schaupmeyer put the ’Birds ahead by three. The first came on a brilliant wraparound by Rafter, who was set up by Sarah Casorso and Nicole Saxvik. Less than 30 seconds later, Saxvik initiated a breakaway for Schaupmeyer, who expertly put the puck past Calgary goalie Amanda Tapp. Rafter then added another on a power play to end the period, assisted by Nikola Brown-John.

Rookie Melissa Goodwin added the fourth and final goal in the

Photo GEOFF LISTER/the ubyssey

Danielle Lemon was outstanding in net for UBC on Friday night, stopping all 26 shots for her first career shutout as a Thunderbird.

second period. It was her first career CIS goal.

The Dinos fought back in the third with plenty of shots on goal, but simply could not get past Lemon.

This success was fitting for captain Christi Capozzi’s 100th regular season game celebration. When a player plays their 100th game with the Thunderbirds, they are given a golden helmet by a veteran alumna of the women’s hockey team, who also gives a speech.

“I’m pretty excited,” Capozzi gushed. “I can definitely use that as an extra boost.”

However, Capozzi also said she won’t let individual achievements defer her focus from the game. “I try to play the same every game and do what I do,” she said firmly. “[The 100th game celebration] is something super special in the background that I can come back to after the game.”

Despite the win, head coach Graham Thomas was critical, emphasizing the team’s need to hit for a full 60 minutes, which is a fault that has plagued the ’Birds in previous games. He noted how many saves Lemon had to make in the third period.

“We can’t get fixated on the score,” Thomas said. “If we’re going to be one of the top teams in the league, we can’t take periods off or teams will bite us.”

UBC was intent on riding this success into Saturday’s game, and were all set to go with the raising of the their first Canada West Championship banner, a reminder of their success last year. But just as Thomas had warned, Calgary was ready to bite back.

It was clear throughout the game on Saturday that the ‘Birds were being sloppy, and a failed clearing attempt gave Calgary their first goal in the first period. This was followed by a neat retaliation

by UBC forward Rebecca Unrau, which evened out the score to 1-1 by the end of the first period.

Calgary were looking to kill throughout the second period and were able to extend their lead with two more goals. However, this was short-lived as Christi Capozzi did, as she had said the day before, “what [she] does,” and along with Tatiana Rafter, the two scored the equalizing goals within the last five minutes of play.

The ’Birds were one man down in the last crucial moments of play — Capozzi having been given a late penalty — but were able to hang on for overtime. The teams were neck-and-neck in overtime, sending the game to a shootout, and the Dinos emerged victorious.

Thomas attributed this loss on the team’s apparent lack of focus in the game, and praised Calgary warmly on their impressive play over the weekend. “[Calgary’s] a very different team, with some of the best players in the world,” Thomas commented.

“I was impressed. They’ve got some very good players and some new young players. We’re all going through this regrowing phase and we’ve got to hit where it counts.”

The Thunderbirds will be playing the University of Regina Cougars on the road next weekend, and Thomas is determined to get the girls into battle shape in order to move forward into their season. U

SOCCER >>

Men’s soccer win streak hits double digits again Defending CIS champions clinch division, earning the right to host 2013 Canada West playoffs Nick Adams Staff Writer

This weekend, the Thunderbirds extended their win streak into the double digits, first beating the University of Winnipeg Wesmen 2-0 on Friday and then the Mount Royal University Cougars 3-0 on Saturday. The games brought their record to a division-leading 11 wins and one loss.

This position isn’t an unusual one for the UBC men’s soccer team, who hold an a 2012 CIS crown and myriad of other titles.

After losing their year-and-a-half undefeated streak earlier this September, the T-Birds haven’t let the mistake happen again.

Mentally, falling into the trap of overconfidence is all too easy for successful athletes. Big games have been lost countless times because of the cognitive bias extended win streaks create — the Miracle on Ice, Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson, Steve Darcis over Rafael Nadal and so on. It’s simply indisputable that complacency comes with the territory.

After the game, head coach Mike Mosher spoke about what the team does in order to ensure that a mentality of guaranteed winning doesn’t develop.

“It’s been a case of just [focusing] upon weekend by weekend, game by game, and just [playing] what’s in front of you,”

said Mosher. According to him, it’s about looking at the future and not letting the past affect your game.

On Saturday night, the T-Birds did exactly that.

In the first minute, Harry Lakhan curled a free kick in from the corner, and the keeper was beat by the deflected clearance off one of his defenders. UBC kept the pressure on, creating a chance only minutes later that resulted in a gravity-defying goal-line save from Cougars keeper Kamil Zielinsky.

Almost the entire half was spent in UBC’s attacking third, seeing unspectacular chances from Lakhan, Navid Mashinchi, Milad Mehrabi, Niall Cousens and Paul Clerc. Due to some overzealous offside calls, the score remained at 1-0 as the teams headed into the locker rooms at the half.

Starting off the second half, Mount Royal seemed to come out with a somewhat reinvigorated demeanour. In the 54th minute, the Cougars broke through with their best chance of the game: a free kick from the fifty-yard-line saw a chip sail over the UBC defense and onto the foot of forward Matteo Valdes. His shot, however, trickled past the far right post and out for a goal kick.

Then, in the 77th minute, a midfield push up the center saw Reynold

Stewart illustrate what a perfect touch and turn looks like as he slotted a left-foot curler into the bottom corner from the top of the box.

Putting the final nail in the coffin, Mashinchi placed home a deflected save off a shot from Cousens, drawing the scoring to a close at 3-0.

“We take every practice properly,” said Lakhan. He stressed the importance of winning the Pacific Division this year, which would give UBC rights to host playoffs.

“Our focus has been for a couple weeks now getting that spot in Canada West because we don’t lose here. We did once a couple games ago against UFV, but that’s pretty much it.”

With a 14-point advantage over Victoria, UBC has now clinched the Pacific Division crown, which means they will host Canada West playoffs starting on Oct. 31.

“At this point in time, we’ve put ourselves in a great spot,” Mosher said. “We’ve had 12 games over the last six weeks and now we’ve got a bye week in front of us.

“It wasn’t easy this weekend. A couple teams came in and battled us. That said, we did take an opportunity to rest a couple players.”

UBC will rest next weekend before playing their final two regular season games in Alberta against the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns and the University of Calgary Dinos. U

Photo GEOFF LISTER/the ubyssey

Rookie striker Niall Cousens has been giving goalies grief all season for the Thunderbirds. He scored one of three goals in Saturday’s victory over Mount Royal.

BIRD DROPPINGS Men’s soccer (11-1-0) Friday vs. WIN: 2-0 W Saturday vs. MR: 3-0 W

Men’s hockey (0-2-0) Friday @ CGY: 3-1 L Saturday @ CGY: 9-5 L

Women’s soccer (7-0-3) Saturday @ LETH: 3-0 W Sunday @ CGY: 3-1 W

Women’s hockey (2-1-1) Friday vs. CGY: 4-0 W Saturday vs. CGY: 4-3 OTL

6 | FEATURES |

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

O L L H E HA MEE LI S L O MY

NY M

NAME

H I SE MY L L NAM O E

483131

The rankings bonanza

I

n the latest Times Higher Education university rankings, UBC fell one spot to 31st place. While a standard fanfare always surrounds new ranking results, with friendly trash-talking between friends at rival universities and chats with relatives, one question should always be asked: do the world university rankings affect things like the quality of new applicants, faculty recruitment and employment opportunities upon graduation?

A heads-up for incoming students As an “international university,” UBC relies heavily on both the quality and quantity of undergraduate students coming from abroad. Given that the university actively recruits in approximately 60 countries worldwide and 16 states in the United States, it cannot rely exclusively on its local reputation alone for attracting applicants.

“If students and their parents don’t know much about Canada, they’ll look at the rankings to see which Canadian universities rank, let’s say, on the top 500,” said Karen McKellin, executive director of the International Student Initiative at UBC. McKellin added that in addition to buttressing a school’s reputation, the rankings give prospective students a sense of their chances of getting accepted and how far their tuition dollars will go at a given school.

“It does play a role in early-on considerations of which college to attend,” she said. “But it isn’t the reason why students decide on a particular university.”

Ultimately, McKellin said it is about finding best fit.

The right academic program, the networking possibilities for a future career and interaction with superstar professors are all factors that McKellin said play a more significant role than the overall ranking of a university, though such elements often go hand in hand.

Milena Khalil, a first-year in UBC’s new bachelor of international economics (BIE) program, said when she was first applying to UBC, she initially examined the overall rankings.

But once she was admitted to both the Sauder School of Business and the BIE program, operating as part of the Arts-based Vancouver School of Economics, she started looking at subject-specific rankings.

“I decided to enroll in the BIE program not only because it interested me more but also because the Vancouver School of Economics was better ranked [than Sauder],” she said.

Although Khalil said rankings were not the defining factor in her program selection, she does acknowledge the weight they have on employment opportunities in the future.

“I think it would be naive of me to assume that the ranking of a university doesn’t play any kind of role in having a successful career after graduation,” Khalil said.

Jobs, jobs, jobs As more and more students graduate from universities, post-graduation employment has become a growing concern among undergraduate students and their parents — especially for international students who pay a higher tuition.

“We are obviously looking for a university in which we have some degree of certainty that we will be able to get returns from our

investment in our education, so to speak,” Khalil said.

Rankings for top universities are generally closely correlated to high post-graduation salaries, said Ashok Kotwal, an economics professor who also heads the BIE program.

But Kotwal added that nonelite universities often emphasize educating students to meet the realities of the job market rather than vying for a higher ranking through dedicating more funding to research, for example.

“There is a selection of high-calibre students at prestigious colleges, and surely keeping everything else constant, you would think they are more likely to land jobs than somebody else,” Kotwal said. “[But] some colleges are highly ranked by one criteria [and] if you add employment criteria, the rank goes down.

“Part of this is because they don’t have the programs that are much more professionally-oriented like engineering and applied science.”

Kotwal emphasized that for this reason, the ranking alone is rarely enough to tell prospective students how they’ll fare once they leave the ivory tower.

Nonetheless, rankings provide essential propaganda for a university to launch marketing campaigns at potential employers of their graduates.

For the Sauder School of Business, which heavily relies on employment statistics to promote its program, rankings do play their fair share in marketing strategies.

IS

Words by Elba Gomez Navas Graphics by Ming Wong Lida Gulli, director of the bachelor of commerce Career Services, said rankings can open doors to jobs that would otherwise be inaccessible to graduates. “[Rankings are] what come to mind when you say UBC and you say Sauder,” Gulli said. “If the rankings are favourable, it’s certainly not going to hurt the brand.”

While local employers may already have a sense of the different programs at UBC, rankings are especially important when graduates apply to foreign firms unfamiliar with Canadian universities as a whole.

“Although Sauder generally measures itself through business-specific rankings, when marketing abroad, UBC has a really strong brand. So we’ll start with the UBC brand and then introduce Sauder,” Gulli explained.

Is the Ivy League all that?

So, how does UBC stack up against the big dogs?

In 2011, Times Higher Education (THE) introduced a new ranking, where it rated schools by reputation. In the reputation ranking, UBC actually fares better than in the overall rankings: 25th versus 31st. And yet, under the metrics used by THE, Harvard University was nearly 90 per cent better than UBC when it comes to reputation — a much wider gap than under the overall quality ranking.

Gulli said the Ivy League’s golden advantage compared to universities like UBC when it comes to landing graduates with top employers comes from a number of factors, one of them being geographical location. Vancouver, in Gulli’s words, is not a “headquarter town.”

“We don’t have the competitive landscape and the quality or number of jobs that you would have around the Boston area or in the main cities in the U.S.,” Gulli said, adding that universities in western Canada even suffer when compared to schools in Ontario.

I think it would be naive of me to assume that the ranking of a university doesn’t play any kind of role in having a successful career after graduation.

Milena Khalil First-year Arts student studying at UBC’s Vancouver School of Economics

“When we put on networking events, there’s a smaller pool of professionals to draw from, to work with our students, as opposed to major financial centres [and] major headquarter centres,” Gulli said.

Ultimately, this turns into a helpful cyclical system for Ivy League schools, where the top universities in the world like Harvard and Stanford build communities of alumni near their schools, and can then rely on those networks to help future graduates.

But even schools located in financial hubs don’t necessarily embrace the rankings wholeheartedly.

David Naylor, president of Canada’s highest ranked school, the University of Toronto, said rankings don’t tell the whole story.

“It’s obviously very hard to boil institutions as complex as universities down to a single number,” he said.

Metrics aren’t flawless Questions are constantly being raised about how the rankers come up with their lists. The University of Toronto, for example, has climbed in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) rankings, while falling in the THE rankings.

That was the result of a serious shift in how the two rankings were generated, with THE partnering with Thomson Reuters and re-engineering their metrics almost entirely.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

UBC’s rankings in the past 10 years

2003

2004

| FEATURES | 7

Years

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

1

20 30

31

40

40

50

49

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), since 2003

Times Higher Education (THE), since 2010

Times Higher Education-QS, 2004-2009

for a change in rankings can be and shouldn’t hurt its universities’ How do they decide the ranking criteria? quite severe fiscally for a univer- Times Higher Education rankings.

QS rankings “With Canada’s population sity, especially when the methodspread over such a vast area, it ology can fluctuate at any time.”

International staff, The other five would seem counterintuitive to That has led some universities student, research metrics divided (7.5%) put all the focus on one or two uni- to object to the rankings, or at least by number of fulltime staff (10%) try to minimize their impact. versities,” Sowter said. “From the AWRU Industry Suzanne Fortier, who heads Mcstandpoint of our ranking, Canada Innovation (2.5%) Times Higher World looks highly competitive and Education-QS Gill University, said the rankings appears to be holding its ground were prone to making mistakes.

University Rankings much more robustly than the U.S. “These aren’t very accurate scienResearch: “Canada has a funding model tific studies, so the margin of error papers in Nature that works for Canada.” is big,” she said.

Citation and Science (30%) (20%) Naylor, the University of ToronThe impact on faculty to president, told a meeting of the school’s governing council that he was concerned over how to best It’s not only prospective students balance a student-to-faculty ratio that eagerly await the new rankversus faculty publication rate, anings every year. For university officials, a fluctuation in rankings other important metric, in order to can have a significant effect on improve the university’s ranking.

Research: papers indexed recruitment of new faculty.

“If we don’t count all the facin Science and “Faculty care a lot about the ulty, we have a high student-facSocial Science Citation Index reputation of a university and the ulty ratio, which is taken as a (20%) rankings — the higher you rank, proxy for educational excellence in the easier it is to recruit,” said some of the rankings systems,” he Kotwal, the BIE director. said. “[But] if we count all of them, Research: volume, income, the publications per faculty per reputation faculty member fall dramatically, (30%) and we lose again.”

Faculty: All over the world highly cited Ultimately, the rankings — researchers you see strategic regardless of their methodological (20%) value — play a role not only on investments being discourse around campus, but made by other also when it comes funding, netjurisdictions to ensure working and access to objective that they have a set third party information.

Yet there might be a new trend of [highly ranked] emerging for the future, according Faculty: staff with Nobel Prizes, institutions. So far to Gulli. medals “Now, there’s just so many Teaching: (20%) what’s happening in awards, staff, ways that employers can reputation Canada is not aligned in other recruit candidates, like LinkedIn, (30%) any way, shape or form for example, that employers have in that direction ... and access to candidates all over the Education: alumat their fingertips. I think ni with awards frankly it’s shameful. world the power of the rankings is going (10%) to diminish.” U David Naylor

But it’s not only department heads who worry about the rankings — university officials also fret over changes in their school’s ranking, especially when those changes are the results of different metrics being used.

“With a slightly more different methodology, you can go from 17th to 47th. And that is a valuable source of information to some parent of an international student, and they may not let them go,” Kotwal said. “The consequences

–With files from Liza Agrba and Teodora Avramov, The Varsity (University of Toronto)

In a nutshell:

THE An equal split between teaching, research and citation. 2.5 per cent is on how much industry would pay for products from this institution. Even though THE and QS split, they are similar in how much they allocate to a university’s reputation and citation output, and their international focus.

ARWU

Proof of academic excellence, according to ARWU, is based on how many papers are produced from this institution and the amount of awards won by alumni and faculty. Focus is on prestige, not so much on student experience.

Bold denotes similarities between the three scales.

International faculty (5%) International students (5%)

Citations per faculty (20%)

Faculty to student ratio (20%)

Employer reputation (10%)

Academic reputation (40%)

QS

QS

President, the University of Toronto

AWRU

But when it comes to determining the quality of a university, whatever system is employed often results in oversimplification. For example, the student-to-faculty ratio is used by both QS (where it composes 20 per cent of total score) and THE (4.5 per cent of the total) to determine the quality of teaching.

Even the rankers acknowledge the flaws with this method.

“A key part of that is access to academic support. I think student-faculty ratio is a reasonable proxy measure for this,” said Ben Sowter, head of research for QS. “This is not to say that I am satisfied with it, though.“ Phil Baty, rankings editor for THE, was harsher in his criticism of the metric.

“A staff-faculty ratio is an exceptionally crude instrument for judging teaching quality — does the number of waiters in a restaurant tell you how good the food is?” he said. “It fails to take into account a whole range of issues, like the balance between intimate personal tutorials and large lectures, major variations in student-faculty ratios by subject area, and the data is exceptionally easy to manipulate depending on how you count your faculty.”

Another issue hurting Canadian universities’ rankings has been the egalitarian funding model employed by the federal government. While other countries invest heavily in one or two universities in order to boost their rankings, Baty said the Canadian government doles out funding equally, and that will mean lower rankings going forward.

Naylor agreed with the critique, and slammed the federal government’s funding model.

“While it’s fantastic that QS says we’re 17th in the world, and we can all have a little brief victory dance about that ... we are still swimming against the tide in this country. And frankly, it’s shameful.

“All over the world you see strategic investments being made by other jurisdictions to ensure that they have a set of [highly ranked] institutions. So far, what’s happening in Canada is not aligned in any way, shape or form in that direction,” he said.

However, Sowter, of THE, said Canada’s funding model was sound

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), since 2004

THE

Rankings

10

Both of the reputation metrics are based on global surveys. Academics vote on where they think the best work is coming from and employers vote on where they think produce the best graduates, something the other scales don’t have.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 |

EDITOR Rhys Edwards

8

Through a lens darkly film >>

Psychiatry pepartment hosts film series about mental health at Cinematheque Gabriel Germaix Contributor

Were they crazy starting such a project?

Apparently not.

For 11 years, Harry Karlinsky, a professor in the UBC department of psychiatry, and Caroline Coutts, a filmmaker and curator, have kept a particular habit: on the third Wednesday of each month, they go to the movies at the Pacific Cinematheque on Howe Street, downtown. But since they prefer to choose what they are going to see, they actually select the films the Cinematheque shows.

Over a decade, their tastes have not changed a bit. Every month, Coutts and Karlinsky present a movie about a different mental health issue. Their educational project, based on world-class works of art, surprises audiences with an intelligent and interactive approach to what might otherwise stay a niche debate. Mental disorders, coping with trauma and overcoming a behavioral disorder are just some of the many themes that Frames of Mind, this unique program, introduces to the general public.

“We do think it is an effective learning experience,” said Karlinsky. “If we were to give a lecture on schizophrenia, it may not attract as many from a general audience as a film that happens to be on schizophrenia. It’s a nice way to engage the community in a discussion about a mental health issue.”

Leaving the dull ambiance of a classroom or a seminar, Karlinsky turned toward the warm atmosphere of the Cinematheque, an art-house movie theatre with cinephile-oriented programming.

This is where Coutts steps in. As a professional curator, Coutts selects the movies that best embody Karlinsky’s idea.

The equipment available at the Cinematheque allows her to use different media and show the most

Photo Stephanie Xu/THE UBYSSEY

Caroline Coutts and Harry Karlinsky have spent over a decade working to connect the public with mental health issues through the medium of film.

recent films in both 35mm and digital formats.

“It’s a real cinematic experience, not just DVD,” Coutts said.

Finding the right movie can be challenging. “We wouldn’t show a movie that we think is completely out there and say, ‘This is not accurate,’” said Coutts. Instead, the films they select try to fight against the image of the stereotypical “madman” of blockbuster cinema, Frankenstein-like with scruffy eyes and gloomy grins.

This is why Coutts and Karlinsky choose realistic features or accurate documentaries — provided they are the best movies they can find, and not one of those deadly boring educational movies students are forced to watch in high school. Both founders of Frames

with that,” Karlinsky added with a smile.

Others ask questions, while some just want to listen. “The important part is that they engage, no matter what way they do so,” said Karlinsky.

of Mind agree that the movies are really “a springboard for discussion,” leading the general public to get involved in the discussion that follows the movie.

Each week, Karlinsky invites professionals in the field to provide information and lead a debate with the audience. Filmmakers, film-lovers, psychology amateurs, students and doctors in psychiatry that make up the audience are all invited to take part in a debate that embraces many points of view on the matter. “[Frames of Mind] is about ignorance, and addressing ignorance and misinformation,” Coutts said, noting that people are not forced in any way to be active during the discussion. Some even leave before. “I am completely okay

If we were to give a lecture on schizophrenia, it may not attract as many from a general audience as a film that happens to be on schizophrenia.

Harry Karlinsky Professor in the UBC department of psychiatry

To engage with UBC, Frames of Mind has set up a series of agreements with the department of psychiatry and Faculty of Medicine. Alan Wai, a liaison with the UBC community, makes sure that 10 psychiatry residents and 10 medical students attend each screening for free.

In addition to the educational purposes of the series, discussing mental health issues can help viewers relate to the characters of the movie, or someone they know who has mental health issues. They can easily approach one of the organizations that are invited to the Cinematheque for each viewing. “It’s a nice and gentle way to increase access to the community services as well,” Karlinsky said.

As for the future of Frames of Mind, both Coutts and Karlinsky don’t lack ideas. For Coutts, she envisions a travelling Frames of Mind festival in smaller Canadian towns, while Karlinsky recently launched the Lucid Book Club at Green College at UBC. As a partnership with the UBC’s creative writing program, the book club is the literary twin of Frames of Mind, focusing on the same issues.

People who would prefer to stick to the movies can go to this Wednesday’s screening, Tyrannosaur. The British film is about the tentative friendship between a hard-drinking, violence-prone unemployed worker and a woman who hides a traumatic life behind her fair Christian facade. “It is a fantastic film — pretty bleak, but there is still hope at the end,” said Coutts.

Those who doubt such a movie can end well should see themselves: they might change their minds.

Frames of Mind plays at the Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe St., every third Wednesday of the month.

Tyrannosaur plays Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. U

theatre >>

Dissolve receives renewed relevance at Sauder Leyna Michela Contributor

Photo Geoff Lister/THE UBYSSEY

Students look on at last week’s performance of Dissolve, a play about drug-assisted sexual assault.

Almost 11 years after its premiere, Meghan Gardiner’s one-woman show has come full circle.

Entertaining and provocative, Dissolve is the story of drug-assisted sexual assault. Gardiner first wrote the play during her time in the BFA acting program at UBC. As part of recent sexual assault awareness initiatives, she was invited back for a return performance by the Sauder Undergraduate Office.

Dean Robert Helsley of the Sauder School of Business hoped the play would raise awareness and foster dialogue about sexual violence on campus. “Now that I have seen it myself,” he said, “I can attest to the play’s importance and impact.”

The brightly lit lecture hall in Wesbrook was more than half full at its first performance.

Many members of the Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS) were in attendance, including VPs and new president Sean Fleming.

Just past the entrance, the Sexual

culture vulture

Assault Support Centre’s table provided pamphlets on drug-assisted sexual assault.

After the performance, Gardiner answered audience questions and spoke about her writing process. She was open and honest about her own experiences with drug-assisted sexual assault.

Gardiner said she hoped Dissolve would be put out of business; however, incidents such as the rape chants at UBC and St. Mary’s prove that the play is still relevant.

“The CUS has been helpful in reaching out to the student body and connecting them with information about the performance,” Helsley said.

According to CUS VP internal Thea Simpson and VP academic Nil Keshmiri, Sauder students were not pressured to attend. “It was presented as an opportunity for reflection,” said Keshmiri. <em>

</

em>

Dissolve has two more performances on Oct. 15. At 12:30 p.m., the play will be in Room 201 of the Wesbrook building, and at 6 p.m., at Dorothy Somerset Studio. Admission is free. U <em>

</em>

Cool story B.C. native Alice Munro has been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature. She is the first Canadian to ever win the esteemed award, and was the writer in residence at UBC’s creative writing program in 1980. The jury declared her “the master of the short story.”

No, not that kind of apple Friends of the Garden, a charity that supports the UBC Botanical Garden, is running a pop-up store from 11 a.m.–2 p.m. today at Robson Square. They are giving out free apple products to celebrate the upcoming Apple Festival (Oct. 19-20).

Cheap deal Ballet BC is offering a student rush ticket discount for TILT at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre downtown. Students who come to the box office with valid student ID pay $15 plus fees, a discount of over 50 per cent from regular seating. The performance runs from Oct. 17-19 at 8 p.m. U

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Canadian experimental art spearheaded at the Western Front

art >>

The big Two of Vancouver’s most important cultural powerhouses are celebrating their ruby anniversary this year. In their own ways, both the Cultch and the Western Front have rigorously supported and advocated for the independent production of avant-garde and experimental art, theatre, music and dance.

PHOTO Wikimedia Commons/THE UBYSSEY

Though innocuous on the surface, the Western Front has played a pivotal role in the development of art, music and other media platforms in Vancouver.

Aurora Tejeida Senior Culture Writer

Global venue, community stage: Vancouver East Cultural Centre

PHOTO foxtongue photography/flickr

The Cultch hosts dancers, musicians, comedians, and artists from across the planet while catering to local interests.

Alexandra Meisner Contributor

Forty dancing candles, exquisite world premieres and thriving new programs; these are some of the highlights the Vancouver East Cultural Centre — affectionately known as the Cultch — has to look forward to during their upcoming 40th anniversary year of artistic performances and celebrations.

On Oct. 15, the Cultch — located at 1895 Venables St. — is celebrating the milestone of bringing 40 years of choreography, music and creative talent to the stage for all Vancouverites to enjoy.

The Cultch’s executive director, Heather Redfern, is bustling with excitement for the momentous occasion and pride in the centre’s years of achievement.

“We bring in work from all over the world. There just isn’t that much access to live performance in Vancouver from other countries and the rest of Canada,” said Redfern. “And then for local companies, there are not a lot of theatre spaces in Vancouver. We play a role there by presenting their work.”

The anniversary event being held at the Cultch will be an informal celebration free to the public. The party will feature a live band, food and drink, and an archival exhibition of posters and photos that document past years

of performances. “The first show here was Oct. 15, 1973, [an] Anna Wyman dance,” Redfern said.

The event is one highly anticipated by the staff of the Cultch, and Redfern cannot wait to share the fun with everyone attending.

“I just want everyone to come and have a really good time.”

Along with Redfern, colleague Robert Leveroos is eager for the celebration of 40 years, and equally as eager for the future plans of the Cultch’s specialized programs.

Leveroos has been the active youth program coordinator for the past two years, a program he believes to be unique in the Vancouver area.

“We have a mentorship program for anybody between the ages of 13 to 24. It’s for artists in specific disciplines. We pair them up with mentors to work on their own projects,” said Leveroos. “[The] mentorships are for dance, the spoken word and song-writing,” Leveroos explained.

Along with play writing and directing, organizers are looking to add new aspects to the program for youth to learn about stage management.

Leveroos sees the Cultch as an irreplaceable contribution to the cultural experience of Vancouver.

“Nobody in this city is offering the kind of programming that we do,” he said. “[The Cultch] not only presents local artists, but national

| CULTURE | 9

artists and international, and it spans the spectrum of contemporary art.”

Redfern was also excited about the Cultch’s upcoming year of programming. “We’re actually [going to be] seeing work that is maybe a little edgier, a little more challenging,” she said.

Included in that programming is the highly anticipated work of Canadian dance icon Margie Gillis, set to appear in the premiere of Bulletins From Immortality ...

Freeing Emily Dickinson. Premiering on Oct. 23, the Cultch will be the first venue on a worldwide tour of the show, which interprets the life of the famous American poet through dance and spoken word. Gillis says she is delighted to be performing once again at the East Vancouver Cultural Centre.

“It’s a perfect intimate space for us to have our premiere, and get it out of work-in-progress and into its final stage,” Gillis said.

“We have followed the poetry and unleashed — unbound — Emily Dickinson.”

With the upcoming anniversary party, the expansion of incomparable youth programs and anticipated performances scheduled, the Cultch is forecasted to remain a significant cultural experience that Vancouverities will continue to appreciate. U

In 1973, a group of eight artists bought a building in Mount Pleasant that once belonged to a secretive fraternity known as the “Knights of Pythia.” Their idea was to create a place where artists could live and create art. This resulted in the creation of Western Front, one of the oldest artist-run art spaces in Canada.

“Western Front sort of originated as a relationship between art and life that was quite fluid,” said Sarah Todd, curator of the media arts program at the Front.

Forty years ago, all founding members lived in the building that sits on 303 East 8th Ave. Today, only one of them still lives there, but the Front continues to be an important space for art in Vancouver.

“What makes it unique is the interdisciplinary program, and that it is an artist-run centre,” Todd said.

This means that artists have the opportunity to connect different disciplines like music, art and multimedia, which, in Todd’s opinion, reflects the way artists are presently working.

Currently, the Front has a media arts program, an exhibition program and a new music program. In the past, there were literary and performance arts programs, but funding issues have narrowed it down to the current three.

This year’s anniversary was celebrated in the summer with an open house. It coincided with the building receiving a special designation as a place of interest from the City of Vancouver.

Each program contributed something to the celebration.

Todd’s program did a screening of videos from their archives, which consist of over 18,000 videos of original artwork and documentation of performances and concerts that have taken place at Western Front.

“We chose some [of the] greatest hits from the archives and sort of matched them with temporary works that were not produced here. The theme was fancy dress party, which is kind of pointing at Western Front’s history of dressing up,” said Todd.

The Front has changed a lot in relation to the funding that is available. They are publicly funded, so when the funding changes, programs come and go.

A few years ago, they had to close the performance arts program, which was a big part of the centre, so the media arts program and the exhibitions program had to step up their support of performance-related projects. The Front also had to stop publishing their zine, Front Magazine, in 2011.

“Western Front is still very much interested in experimental art practice, things that are research-based, things that are performative, things that are not necessarily objects based, because we have all of these different spaces,” said Todd. “There are many aspects of what we do.”

Performance art projects are still very much on the agenda. Last May, Adam Frank, an associate professor at UBC’s English department, produced a project called Radio Free Stein. The project’s goal is to stage at least 10 of Gertrude Stein’s plays that have not received critical reception, and to make recordings in collaboration with composers and sound artists, directors and actors.

“The basic idea [is] that if you can put on an audio version of these plays, it will be easier to understand what they’re about, like radio plays with a musical component,” said Frank.

For the Country Entirely: A Play in Letters was the first Stein play produced for the project. It was staged live at the Front in front of roughly 75 audience members, and a recorded version will soon be available online.

The project is just one of many similarly experimental projects being supported by the Front.

“Western Front is interested in avant-garde or experimental performances and art of all kinds. It’s a great venue that’s been around for a long time and it’s one of the good spaces for hearing good music and watching performances and experimental art,” said Frank.

The Front’s attraction as an experimental site stems from its multi-functionality. The building includes a performance space, guest rooms, production studios, a gallery, a kitchen and two residential spaces.

For Todd, this is what makes it such a unique place. “There [have] been a lot of changes in [our] 40year history, but one uniting factor is the building. In a way, it forms what we do.”

The Front has also been a driving force in the use of technology for art. According to Todd, it is one of the first institutions worldwide to have cameras available for the artist’s use.

But sometimes, it seems like only other artists are aware of the Front.

“From the outside, it’s not very noticeable. We don’t have a sign that says Western Front, it’s a strange building in a residential area, you have to buzz in — but this is an active and vital place,” said Todd, adding that most of the events are free.

“It’s a great place to become involved with what is happening in the art scene in Vancouver,” she said. U

Tuesday, October 15, 2013 |

student voice. Community reach.

10

A mangled name for our $90M baby?

Eager to rebrand, the AMS has bungled the naming process for the New SUB — a building you paid for

F

or those of you unaware of the hulking rump of concrete and steel — growing incrementally under the shadow of the SUB and several Christmas-light adorned cranes, forcing you and thousands of other students to cram your way through alternate entrances to the SUB — let us give you some background on the New SUB project.

In 2007, the AMS came to the realization that a 1960s brutalist piece of civic architecture with collapsing ceilings, clubs relegated to closets and an entry door that can’t be locked (shhh!) should maybe possibly be replaced by a newer building with room to accommodate UBC’s massive student population.

In 2008, students approved a student fee in a referendum to attain funding for the nearly $90 million the AMS is contributing to the New SUB. Since then, construction has progressed at a steady enough rate, and despite a delay of a few months, it looks like the new building will open sometime next year.

But the New SUB project isn’t just about building an awesome new building for students — which by all indications the New SUB will be.

Enders: Commons, Forum, Centre, Block, Base, Quarters, Zone, Habitat, Site, Area, Nest, Cloud, Ranch, Branch, Web, Bird, Core, Society, Club, Union, Station, Hall, Mall, Pavilion, Building, Clubhouse, Plaza, Hub. If this sounds like the AMS turned to a game of Boggle to name their crown jewel, that's probably not so far off. But imagine the possibilities: “the Alma Mater Society Community Area,” “the Student Life Society Quarters” or even “the Activity Ranch” are all valid options.

This building is a big deal, and whatever name gets stuck on it will be there for decades.

ILLUSTRATION jethro au/the ubyssey

While students could suggest names for the new SUB, it’s clear the AMS, with the help of the dark lord Voldemort, had their own ideas about what to name the New SUB.

proceeded to do so in a maddeningly inefficient and, quite frankly, bad way.

Rebranding

a 3-part naming

Instead, the AMS is taking this as an opportunity to rebrand their entire image. As part of the project, the AMS has spent tens of thousands of dollars on rebranding the AMS businesses in the SUB and creating a new logo for themselves.

Didn’t like pizza or beer before?

Well, with offerings such as BOOM! Pizza (née Pie R Squared) and the Perch (née the Gallery), the AMS thinks they can expect some massive uptick in sales and revenue.

AMS VP Administration Derek Moore, who is overseeing the New SUB project this year, said there were four ways the New SUB committee came up with their shortlist of names: from student suggestions left on the Cube (that glass-enclosed architecture design room looking out on the Aquatic Centre from within the SUB), from friends, from internal AMS committee suggestions, and suggestions from other people in the AMS. In other words, the AMS’s name generation process was essentially an exercise in self-indulgence, seeing what might happen if student hacks and permanent staff stepped into an echo chamber and spent a few weeks seeing what came out. The only meaningful student input allowed into the process came off an actual echo chamber, the Cube, and in case the AMS was unaware that tossing a Magic Marker at college students and telling them to name your $90-million project was not a fantastic idea, we have decent information that most of the student suggestions — “FROSH 2013 never happened,” “hAMSter,” “China SUB,” “Herpody Herpes” — were thrown up after a drunken Wednesday night at the Pit. But the AMS’s naming procedure was already so convoluted as to render even serious suggestions — “the Bird's Nest,” “the Aviary,” “the Forum” — unusable.

The New SUB committee decided that not only were they the best people to generate name suggestions — because everything works better by committee — but that some combination of refrigerator word magnets, Mad Libs and children's menus provided the perfect inspiration for a powerful new name.

The committee decided the names for the shortlist would be

If this sounds like the AMS turned to a game of Boggle to name their crown jewel, that’s probably not so far off.

Or, more likely, they see the new logo and the renaming of SUB businesses as part of a grand project to remake the image of the AMS as your student society.

This is no small part of why, when it came to a name for the New SUB (if you thought that was itself a name, apparently you’d be woefully mistaken), the AMS shunned corporate sponsorship and even, it appears, genuine student input. This is the AMS’s moment to shine, they believe, and they won’t let anything get in the way of that — not even good names for their new building.

But they also apparently won’t take help from professionals. Despite hiring consultants to revamp all their businesses and their own brand, they figured they’d just take over this whole naming-the-building-itself thing on their own — and

We warned them!

ILLUSTRATION indiana joel/the ubyssey

In the Oct. 3 edition of Last Words, we warned the AMS of the dangers of poor name choice. There, the concern was selling off the naming rights; we never considered they’d come up with original names that were just awful.

At the time, we offered our own suggestions for SUB names, none of which were selected for the short list. Guess we won’t be teaching any students how to read good and do other stuff good too.

“The AMS was supposed to have had a name for the New SUB a long time ago. Since they can’t seem to come to a conclusion, we took it upon ourselves to offer some suggestions: BOOM SUB: The AMS thought it was a good idea for the new Pie R Squared. Why not apply it to the whole building?

AMSterdam: The new student union building will be a haven for students looking to avoid UBC’s draconian drug laws.

The Next Obsolete Building (NOB): Let’s face it, construction will never end on campus. Soon enough, students will be sick of the New SUB and will want some other shiny new building.

The Ubyssey Centre for Children Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too: If the New SUB gets this name, we promise to teach students to read good and do other stuff good too.”

chosen in three parts: “starters,” “middles” and “enders.” They took the submitted name ideas that they liked, cut them into these categories and regurgitated some incredibly mediocre names that no students seem to want.

Not to mention that considering every name on their shortlist starts with AMS, it seems clear who was driving the decision making.

When you think about how the names were put together, it's understandable that the final options are looking a little off.

In the interest of transparency, here’s the part-by-part breakdown: Starters: the, the AMS, AMS, the Student, Student, the Student Life, Student Life.

Middles: Activity, University, Community, Union, Social, Society, Association.

From this list, it looks like most of the serious suggestions written on the Cube, such as the Lett Student Centre, the HUB, Pacific Students' Pavilion, the Bird's Nest, the Nest and the Forum were taken into account, and that's good. (See our blog for the full list.)

student input snubbed But with the convoluted beginning-middle-end naming process, none of the student suggestions will become the actual name. A couple of other legitimate ideas, like the Sanctuary and the Aviary, were left out. This is understandable in any process of elimination, but then we are forced to ask where lengthy devils like the “the AMS Student Community Centre” came from when better student-suggested alternatives were passed over.

Actually, we know where they came from: the AMS. They’re the ones with all the power over the decision. They created the shortlist, and it will be AMS Council that chooses the final name from a top-three list later in the month. And while it makes sense that the AMS should have the power to veto names like “Old SUB's subordinate” or “the Poop” for their new building, students’ feedback should be taken into consideration more seriously than it has been, when they are paying close to $100 million for a building.

We don’t know what may have come up in informal talks between New SUB committee members and other students, but we know, for example, that none of the suggestions on the Cube began the building's name with “AMS.” If you’re going to name your Student Union Building after your student union, why not just leave it as the SUB? Or, if you want to get really adventurous with your rebranding, even the AMS SUB? You may think we’re making too big a fuss out of all this, but this building is a big deal, and whatever name gets stuck on it will be there for decades at a minimum.

Students have the ability during the next few days to vote for what will become the top three names presented to AMS Council. Your options might not be stellar, but it's worth it to vote for the lesser of seven evils: anything but “AMS Student Station,” please. U

Tuesday, OcTOber 15, 2013 |

PICTURES + WoRdS on YoUR UnIVERSITY EXPERIEnCE

CATCULTY

coMic >>

bird

11

LAND AND FOOD SYSTEMS

by Tubey

ILLUSTRATIon LUELLA SUn/THE UBYSSEY

Why the UBCO student government execs should resign

OP-ED

By Curtis Tse

KELOWNA — Three of UBC Okanagan’s four student government executives, including the chair of the UBC Students’ Union Okanagan (UBCSUO), are currently facing impeachment — and for good cause.

To the extent that UBC Vancouver’s sister campus’ student politics turmoil has caught your attention, many of you may be wondering what exactly is going on over here.

Honestly, many of us are wondering the same thing.

Our student union has been in turmoil for the better part of the 2013 2014 winter term, mostly due to the actions of our elected executives.

Slightly different from the AMS, students in the Okanagan elect four executives with an executive chair, like a president, chosen out of those four executives. This

year, the students at UBCO elected two new executives who had no experience in the student union, and one executive who had been appointed the previous year.

The motions for impeachment that have been submitted to the UBCSUO for consideration at the annual general meeting contains a lot of jargon about violations of the constitution, bylaws and policy.

But the tricky language obscures the straightforward factors that led to the impeachment drive.

The students who submitted the motions are heavily involved in SUO and have been pursuing dialogue with the executives and staff for some time.

However, they decided that a point had been reached where no further dialogue would help, a position that I agree with.

Let me break down why each of the three executives are being put up for impeachment and show you where I reached my breaking point.

You might say that this alone doesn’t warrant impeachment, but Gula has literally not done anything whatsoever since being in office.

We have not seen the launch of any campaigns on our campus; no discussion around transit; no advocacy around post secondary education; and no discussion around national and provincial lobbying organizations.

The external coordinator opted to take leave during the summer, and had planned no campaigns for the year. Now, in mid-October, still no projects have begun.

Despite the lack of action, Gula has continued to collect full pay each month.

Does doing nothing while being paid to do, well, something, warrant impeachment?

Given that we are six months into the term of the external coordinator, and as a student paying into the organization, I have not seen anything coming from that portfolio, I argue yes.

policy amendments — including a pay raise for executives—to the SUO board.

One of the most concerning decisions made by McLean was his attempt to cut off funding for the Women’s Resource Centre. The SUO is an organization that has always been an advocate for gender equality, and yet McLean argued that because the Women’s Resource Centre’s membership was stagnant, we should cut off funding.

In fact, it is McLean’s job to ensure that the centre is staffed and has the necessary resources.

Rather than starve them of funding, he should have been assisting them in recruiting new members, for example.

Due to student pressure, the group’s funding has been restored.

But the decision to withhold it in the first place suggests an executive out of touch with the student body.

ALeX guLA: eXternAL coordinAtor

shAmAn mcLeAn: internAL coordinAtor

This is the second time that students have made a motion to impeach Dodds, and for good reason: out of the three executives facing impeachment, students have probably felt the most frustrated and disenfranchised with Dodds.

Dodds put in place an incredibly convoluted club policy with barely any input from club presidents. He tried to enact and overhaul policies

The external coordinator is like the VP external in the AMS. One of the primary roles of the external coordinator is to meet with all levels of government. Yet when the minister of advanced education visited UBCO, Gula was conspicuously absent from the meeting.

“Inexperienced” is the word that best describes Shaman McLean’s behaviour on the job.

McLean has failed to properly consult students through the formal advisory committee system before submitting multiple

nicK dodds: services coordinAtor

governing course union, similar to clubs, after the academic year had begun. And students have generally been unable to communicate with the Services Coordinator, who, for example, rarely replies to their emails.

A point had been reached where no further dialogue would help.

Dodds spends more time debating students who object to his actions than actually doing his job. I believe Dodds has lost touch with the constituents he claims to represent.

The real question now is whether or not students believe that with a wake-up call can get these executives to turn it around, or if their incompetence will continue unless they are impeached.

Being involved in student leadership and student unions for almost three years now, what I have witnessed this term from the three SUO executives is nothing short of a joke. I don’t see the possibility for much improvement unless they are kicked out of office.

Curtis Tse is the Board of Governors student rep at UBC Okanagan.

<em>

</em>

12 | GAMES |

TuESdAy, OcTObEr 15, 2013

Crossword

Across 1- Swiss peaks 5- Collective word for intellectual pursuits 9- Pressure 13- And ___ goes 14- Pages 16- need a scratch 17- Litigant 18- Great bargain 19- Fill to surfeit 20- Girder 22- dines at home 24- 29th president of the U.S 27- A big fan of 28- Familiarize 29- Bid lower than another 33- Wash lightly 34- Ferrara family 35- Arizona city 36- Sleazy paper 37- Alternate 8- ___ darn tootin’!

39- Till bills 41- “Believe” singer 42- Skip ___ 44- Coil site 46- Pines 47- new Mexico art colony 48- Whip 49- district adjacent to a city 52- debtor’s letters 53- Alamo rival 57- Between ports 58- Bar at the bar 60- Cat call 61- Breather 62- Rate 63- Sigmund’s daughter 64- Commedia dell’___ 65- Barton Fink director 66- Attempt

6- Put a new price on 7- Abound 8- Pampering place 9- The aggregate of past events 10- Greek letters 11- Broadway opening 12- At that point 15- Thin 21- Twining stem 23- Broke bread 24- Strong aversion 25- Richards of Jurassic Park 26- Like Saturn 27- Bury 29- doorkeeper 30- Purchaser 31- That is to say...

32- Pub game 34- Community spirit 37- Tenth month of the year 40- Locate 42- Loser to ddE 43- West Atlantic islands 45- Swiss river 46- Holly shrub 48- Sarge’s superior 49- Franklin d.’s mother 50- ____-friendly: not too technical 51- of the highest quality 52- Sock ___ me!

54- Let off steam 55- new Rochelle college 56- Large mop 59- Animal pouch Oct. 10 answers

down

PUZZLE CoURTESY BESTCRoSSWoRdS.CoM. USEd WITH PERMISSIon.

Sudoku

1- Beast of burden 2- Bud’s bud 3- Chart shape 4- Walks with long steps 5- Missing

Write Shoot Edit Code Drink COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

PUZZLE CoURTESY KRAZYdAd. USEd WITH PERMISSIon.

U