October 20, 2014

october 20, 2014 | VoLuME XcVI | IssuE xvI dribbling since 1918

Highlining at ubc The Slackline UBC club is hoping to set up a line between the Gage towers.

P5

Places to be: Mt. Gandalf and Mt. Aragorn Hiking, climbing and scrambling in the Varsity Outdoor Club’s Tolkien Range.

P6

Fall recipes Advice columnist Natalie Morris conjures up some delightful autumn treats.

P15

The Alpine Ski team’s fight against UBC’s varsity “re-imagining”

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS, PEOPLE + CAMPUS

EVENTS tuesday

OUR CAMPUS

this week, check out ...

2

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE and buildings that MAKE UBC

21

Student fee increases assembly 5:00 p.m. @ SUB ballroom

Take this opportunity to learn more about the proposed housing and tuition fee increases, socialize with like-minded individuals and enjoy some free food and cheap beverages. Free

wednesday

22

halloween costume sale 12:00 - 4:00 p.m. @ frederic wood theatre

UBC Theatre & Film is offloading some of their costume inventory at discount prices, with most items going for under $10. Take this chance to find your Halloween costume early! Free entry

thursday

23

Adnan Sayani is now famous at UBC for his cheerful and hilarious banter.

Bus loop traffic controller Adnan Sayani has become a UBC celebrity Julie Gordon Contributor

Dalai lama

8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. @ doug mitchell thunderbird sports centre

Buddhist and Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is coming to UBC. In addition to the main event on Thursday, there is a dialogue with the Dalai Lama at the Chan Centre on Wednesday. Tickets from $110

ON THE COVER Thanks to Alexandros Leon for the art inspiration.

-Photo/Illustration Nick Adams

Want to see your events listed here?

Email your events listings to ourcampus@ubyssey.ca.

U The Ubyssey editorial

Coordinating Editor Will McDonald coordinating@ubyssey.ca

Design Editor Nick Adams printeditor@ubyssey.ca

Web Developer Peter Siemens web@ubyssey.ca

News Editors Jovana Vranic + Veronika Bondarenko news@ubyssey.ca

Culture Editor Jenica Montgomery culture@ubyssey.ca

Sports + Rec Editor Jack Hauen sports@ubyssey.ca

Video Producer TBD video@ubyssey.ca

Photo Editor Cherihan Hassun photo@ubyssey.ca

Opinions + Blog Editor Austen Erhardt aerhardt@ubyssey.ca

STAFF

Copy Editor Ciaran Dougherty

Natalie Scadden, CJ Pentland, Kosta Prodanovic, Dave Nixon, copy@ubyssey.ca Soren Elsay, Olamide Olaniyan, Lawrence Neal Garcia, Tariq Distribution Coordinator Vira, Kelley Lin, Jenny Tang, Lily Cai Leo Soh, Gabriel Germaix, lcai@ubyssey.ca Joshua Azizi, Koby Michaels, Natalie Morris

october 20, 2014 | Volume XCVI | Issue xvI BUSINESS

CONTACT

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Editorial Office: SUB 24 604.822.2301

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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

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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.

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PHOTO steven durfee/THE UBYSSEY

Five weeks ago, a force of nature arrived at UBC, taking the bus loop by storm. He has the uncanny ability to command people and vehicles, all while maintaining a positive atmosphere. His name is Adnan Sayani, although many know him as the “Crossing Guard” of UBC Overheard, “Gandalf the Neon”, or, simply, the “bus loop guy.”

Adnan (or Addy, as he introduced himself) is not simply a crossing guard, but a traffic controller. He started in his current position at the main UBC bus loop just over a month ago, and quickly became a favourite among commuters for his continuous stream of jokes and his constant smile. In the short time that he has been at UBC, he has achieved internet fame throughout many Facebook pages including UBC Overheard, UBC Confessions and UBC Compliments, with most posts accumulating a barrage of compliments from people proclaiming their love for him.

For UBC students, gone are the days of stepping off the bus and trudging over to class, because — for now — Sayani will be standing there in his bright neon outfit, wielding his stop sign and telling you that “thou shall not pass”. It is enough to lighten the step and prompt a smile out of anyone.

According to Sayani, it is the student environment that allowed him to get a little unorthodox with his ways. It started on one of his first days at UBC, when a student came up to him and gave him a coffee and a slice of banana bread.

“It just raised my spirits. I was like, ‘I’m getting a really good response, I might as well have fun with it.’ And I figured, I might as well spread the message of safety through jokes,” he said.

I want to be a stand-up comedian eventually, and I thought, ‘what better place to start testing your material than on the big crowds that use the buses It just raised my spirits. here?’”

I was like, ‘I’m getting a really good response, I The jokes started out initially might as well have fun on the topic of flaggers, which is the slang term for traffic conwith it.’ And I figured, troller.

If his jokes work, he gets I might as well spread a good response; if he doesn’t, he the message of safety edits and plays around with them.

“I’m getting my inspiration through jokes.” from most of you guys,” Sayani Adnan Sayani Traffic controller and UBC celebrity

Sayani moved to Canada three years ago, though he is originally from Pakistan. He completed his MBA last year at New York Institute of Technology in downtown Vancouver, and for now is just doing what gets him by until he finds something a little more career-oriented.

said. “Sometimes just a random comment from a pedestrian, or a t-shirt even, anything that gives me inspiration and I just go for it. I don’t like to hold back in that, ‘cause I want to be a standup comedian eventually, and I thought, ‘what better place to start testing your material than on the big crowds that use the buses here?’”

When asked about his newfound fame throughout campus, Sayani laughed. “Nowadays

people have started recognizing me around the SUB during my breaks. They’ll point at me and say, ‘That guy’s amazing,’ and I’m like, ‘Thank you, I’m embarrassed. You can’t tell because of my skin colour, but I’m blushing.’”

As for his boundless positive energy, Sayani says it is a reflection of what he sees overall from the students. For the ones who may seem less than happy, he has his theory: “No matter who you are, no matter what you believe, there’s someone, somewhere, who’s always watching. It could be God, it could be a conspiracy theory, it could be just people around that you don’t notice, it could be someone far away stalking you with a camera, it could be anyone. It’s gonna happen.

You know you’re being watched, so why not give them a show? That’s just my philosophy, and because of that, because I was smiling, people started smiling and it just went up from there.”

Luckily, so long as he has been here, there have been no extreme conflicts or collisions. Sayani praised the students and the bus drivers, together, for their efforts in maintaining a safe environment.

“A lot of pedestrians actually have started looking at the buses now,” Sayani said. “I’ve seen that improvement in the last three to four weeks that I’ve been working here, and I’m very pleased with the cyclists especially who have started dismounting and walking their bikes in the bus loop.”

Overall, the main message Sayani wants to spread to the students is to be mindful of their safety.

“I do care about my own safety, and I think everyone should too. If that happens, then you guys won’t need me here anymore, which is good because that’s why I’m here: it’s to make you guys self-sufficient enough to cross the crosswalk by yourselves. “ With a chuckle, he added, “You guys are in university, for goodness sake!” U

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014 |

EDITORS Jovana Vranic + Veronika Bondarenko

social media >>

3

research >>

UBC journalism professor explores the changing face of the news industry Don’t even think

of lying to a fiveyear-old, says UBC psychology prof

photo cherihan hassun/THE UBYSSEY

Young kids are not easy to trick.

Hudhaifah Zahid Contributor

UBC journalism professor Alfred Hermida’s recent book Tell Everyone: Why We Share and Why It Matters explores the effect of social media on news.

Veronika Bondarenko News Editor

What role does social media play in determining what news we come across? How is our understanding of what we read affected by what we see flit across our Facebook feeds?

These are questions that Alfred Hermida, founding editor of the BBC News website and UBC journalism professor, has been asking himself for a number of years now. In his recent book Tell Everyone: Why We Share and Why It Matters , Hermida explores how the news industry is changing as people go from seeking out their daily news through one or two sources to reading different articles that others share with them on social media.

Hermida said that, by sharing interesting news stories with our friends on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, we are going back to the ways the news circulated before the rise of newspapers and broadcast media as an industry. <em>

</em>

“In some ways, I think we’re going back to the future,” said Hermida. “We always told each other the news. We’ve always got together and said: ‘What’s new?

What have you been up to?’”

In the digital age, there is also an increased opportunity for people to direct others to articles that they may deem interesting or important. According to Hermida, the final say on what people choose to read is now being shared by both traditional media outlets who decide what stories to publish and everyday people who choose what stories to share with their circle of friends.

“The way we thought of journalism in the past is as a fortress to be defended,” said Hermida.

“We’re moving to a space where anybody can do an act of journalism and where anybody can take an editorial decision in deciding ‘this is important’ or ‘this person has something to say and is valuable. ’”

With social media, articles that may have previously been placed in the back pages of a newspaper and not read by a large number of people can now be circulated among those who have a particular interest in it.

“It’s no longer just the decision of what goes on the front page, what makes the headlines,” said Hermida.

“We can decide and say ‘I think this story is more important.’”

But while social media plays a powerful role in its ability to share different types of information, it can also limit us to reading articles that are shared by a select group of friends, often with views that are already similar to our own. As a result, Hermida said that it is important to have a wider circle of both friends and acquaintances that can expose you to stories you might not have otherwise sought out by yourself.

According to Hermida, it is especially vital for journalists to

Photo courtesy rachel nixon

think of their work as a practice to be shared and encourage their readers to be critical news consumers who can then contribute to news stories in their own right.

“There’s always been a potential for misinformation, for errors,” said Hermida. “Journalists do the best they can in the time they have available, given the limitations, and journalists make mistakes all the time.”

It is thus up to both journalists and readers to evaluate the articles that they come across on social media and think critically about not only the information that is being shared, but also the reasons why someone has chosen to share it.

“Every time we do something on social media, we’re sending out these signals to our social circles. We’re doing that for certain reasons,” said Hermida.

“If we understand these reasons, then we can be smarter about what we do on social media.” U

research >>

UBC psychology professor studies cycles of poverty in Aboriginal communities in the prairies Catherine Li Contributor

For the average Canadian youth, getting a job during school or after graduation is not too much of a challenge. Even though the job may be menial in nature and pays minimum wage, the ability to earn money is often taken for granted.

For the average Aboriginal youth, however, access to employment is a privilege given that even access to necessities as basic as food and shelter is limited. A report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in 2013 reveals that 50 per cent of First Nations children across Canada live below the poverty line. This condition is even worse in Manitoba, where 62 per cent of First Nations children are living in poverty.

Now where do these marginalized youths turn for survival?

Alanaise Goodwill, counselling psychology professor at UBC, said that, unfortunately, one of the options is joining organized crime.

As part of her research into the influence of gang life in the Canadian prairie provinces with a focus on Manitoba, Goodwill interviewed ten Aboriginal men who had been gang members in their past.

UBC professor Alanaise Goodwill’s research focuses on Aboriginal gang life in the prairies.

Goodwill found that many of these youths viewed gang membership as a way out of poverty.

Many of them left their reserves to flee undesirable conditions in their primary communities, for reasons including chronic unemployment, violence and even natural disasters. It is also in the urban setting that these Aboriginal youths are most exposed to socio-economic differences and racism.

“When Aboriginal youths move into the cities is when they are at risk for joining gangs,” said Goodwill.

According to Goodwill, the government’s response to this problem, which has mostly taken the form of social service agencies, has not been entirely effective.

“When it comes to gangs in Aboriginal communities, the government allocates its funding inefficiently, with court expenses dominating the funding,” said Goodwill.

photo courtesy martin dee

Current programs that aim to extract Aboriginal gang members from gang life have found most success when focused on individuals. Through her research, Goodwill hopes to reach out to various Aboriginal communities and, in doing so, help shed light on a neglected issue.

“There’s no method that can resolve this issue altogether,” said Goodwill. “The best approach is to isolate individuals and surround them with support services.” U

Susan Birch, UBC psychology professor, studies our perspective-taking ability — how we reason about what others think, know or feel. Our ability to detect lies is an example of such phenomena.

One of the questions that was raised in Birch’s research asked when we begin to detect lies and how that affects our learning.

According to Birch, children as young as five are much better at telling the truth from a lie than we think they are.

“We found [the kids] use a number of cues to figure out who’s a credible source to learn from. They start realizing that not everybody is equally knowledgeable,” said Birch.

In one of her experiments, Birch had kids watch a video in which two women stated facts about animals. One would lie confidently while the other would say the truth hesitantly.

The kids would then be asked as to who they believed.

While we will often associate truth with confidence and falsehood with hesitancy, the experiment flipped this common belief around. Although four year-olds believed statements at random, five year-olds showed more consistent belief in the hesitant truth.

“They made a judgment that you can be overconfident, you should trust the factually accurate person and start disregarding claims made by someone who is overly confident,” said Birch.

The causes that lead to such development in children are still being researched, but there are clues that point to social experience and developments in the frontal lobe of the brain.

“What’s nice about this research is it shows [the kids] are not just passively absorbing any and all information,” said Birch. “They’re very actively making decisions.”

In this experiment, the kids knew someone had to be wrong due to contradicting information about their knowledge of the world, for example, whales living in the water instead of on land.

But in many other situations, perspective is limited to just one teacher in a classroom and it may be more difficult for the child to know the true from the untrue.

As such, Birch suggests for parents to aid their children in their quest for knowledge.

“Encourage them to critically assess why something may not be true, why it is true, just to get them thinking about it,” said Birch.

So what do you do next time you’re thinking of tricking a five year-old? Offer a guess, flag the information, lead them to question ‘why’, but do not lie. U

4 | News |

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

Bugs >>

Tiny caterpillars in campus trees are benign

studying >>

Group work: good, bad or potentially ugly?

Hudhaifah Zahid Contributor

photo cherihan hassun/THE UBYSSEY

UBC prof Judy Myers assures students that campus caterpillars are harmless.

Will Keats-Osborn Contributor

Autumn has arrived, which means that the days are getting shorter, the leaves are changing colours and thousands of tiny caterpillars are hanging from the trees on strands of silk and swinging into students’ faces when least expected.

“I love to see people swatting them as they walk down Main Mall,” said Judy Myers, an insect ecologist in UBC’s Department of Zoology.

Myers explained that many of the little caterpillars are larvae of a type of moth called the oak leaf blotch miner, or Bucculatrix zophopasta.

In the fall, thousands of these larvae descend on strands of silk to the ground, where they burrow into the soil and nestle into silken cocoons.

Early in the spring, when temperatures begin to rise, they emerge from the ground as moths.

According to Myers, many varieties of moth follow a similar life cycle, although they pupate at different times of year. The larvae of moths in the Geometridae family are commonly known as inchworms or cankerworms. In addition to using silk threads as a way of getting down to the soil where they pupate, inchworms sometimes drop from the branches as a way of escaping predators, then climb back up the thread when they feel it’s safe.

At other times, they extend a few metres of silk and wait for the wind to transport them to a different part of the tree.

According to Collin Varner, the head arborist at UBC, caterpillars like these can sometimes wreak havoc on the trees, if there are enough of them.“They’re not benign,” said Varner. “Cherry trees, the rose family, plum trees — they get stripped by the cankerworms.”

Varner noted that his team at UBC does not use pesticides to control the caterpillar populations.

UBC’s policy is less draconian; they simply cut back any damaged trees and, if necessary, refrain from planting vulnerable trees until after the threat has abated.

Nonetheless, cankerworm populations tend to be cyclical, and Varner believes that 2014 hasn’t been a bad year, at least from the trees’ perspective. Under normal conditions, the caterpillar’s numbers are kept in check by birds and wasps, and the trees don’t lose enough leaves to be seriously harmed.

“On campus they haven’t been too much of a problem so far,” said Varner.

Unlike trees, humans have little to worry about in their encounters with the caterpillars.

“They are annoying if the silk is in your face, but they’re very benign,” said Myers. “Just brush them off.” U

While class group work can be a great way to learn how to interact with others, the tension between its benefits and inherent flaws can also be the cause of much frustration for students who prefer to work solo.

When asked about their view on group work, both students and teachers tended to simultaneously acknowledge its benefits while also recognizing instances when working with others can be problematic.

“I definitely think group work can have downfalls if you have a group that isn’t as hardworking as you or isn’t as into the project,” said Maya Koropatnisky, a Sociology student and Teaching Assistant.

Still, Koropatnisky ultimately believes that group work is beneficial for certain projects.

“It’s good to work with other students and meet other people in your class,” said Koropatinsky.

“It kind of forces you out of you comfort zone a bit.”

UBC history professor Daniel Vickers also feels that group work is vital for learning life skills that will be valuable throughout one’s life in university.

“Learning takes place in groups because most of life takes place in groups,” said Vickers.

At the same time, Vickers attests to the importance of students needing to know how to work independently.

“All jobs involve a degree of ability to separate yourself from other people and focus on a problem and solve it,” said Vickers. “It’s an important skill, and if there’s anywhere you’re going to learn it, this is where you’re going to learn it.”

Namra Qarni, a second-year Arts student, believes that while the interactive approach

PHOTO cherihan hassun/THE UBYSSEY

Group work can be difficult, but it is important says UBC history prof Daniel Vickers

of group projects outweighs its flaws, groups can sink quickly if members do not pull their own weight.

“If your group is not engaging in the work, then you really fall behind”, said Qarni.

UBC Biology Professor Santokh Singh also recognized that many group projects can turn awry. Singh suggests keeping track of the individual contributions of each group member.

“Some groups would tell me that one or two students would end up doing more of that work than others. And I think that’s something which is a problem,” said Singh.

From his experiences in teaching, however, Singh believes that group work leads to discussions that allow students to better understand the material taught in class. According to Singh, knowing how to work in a group is also a valuable tool that students will need to know when seeking employment after graduation.

“When we talk to people who are from the industry, they want students who can work within their group, who can learn quickly, and who can bring a kind of expertise where they have shown that they have worked in group and they can do that in that work environment,” said Singh. U

THE LAING LECTURES OCTOBER 2014 UBC

VANCOUVER

SETTLING IN TO A DECADENT DECLINE OCTOBER 22–23, 2014 AT REGENT COLLEGE WITH ROSS DOUTHAT

U

INTERESTED IN SHOOTING FOR US? ubyssey.photo@gmail.com

Ross Douthat is the youngest op-ed columnist in the history of the New York Times where he writes about domestic and international politics and government.

FIND OUT MORE: rgnt.net/laingubc OCT 22 7:30 PM OCT 23 11:30 AM OCT 23 7:30 PM

DEFINING DECADENCE LIVING UNDER DECADENCE ESCAPING DECADENCE

Regent College 5800 University Blvd (on the UBC campus)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

| NEWS | 5

divestment >>

Highline >>

UBC’s slacklining club planning slackline stunt on campus UBCC350 seeks faculty support for divestment

Slackline UBC is hoping to set up a highline between the Walter H. Gage residence towers

photo cherihan Hassun/THE UBYSSEY

UBCC350 is hoping to get faculty on board with their divestment campaign.

David Nixon Senior Staff Writer

UBC student Adam Mertens is planning to be one of the slackers walking across the Gage highline.

Jovana Vranic News Editor

UBC’s slacklining club is looking to set up the first ever major urban highline on a Canadian university campus.

Adam Mertens, second-year Land and Food Systems student, and prominent member of Slackline UBC hopes to bring slackline lovers together to participate in setting up and walking across a line between two 17-storey towers of the Walter H. Gage residence.

“These towers are pretty boring usually and it would be beautiful to see this line going through them,” said Mertens.

Last year, Mertens saw potential in the drab grey towers of Gage, and, along with other members of Slackline UBC, consulted the university’s Risk Management Services to negotiate any liability concerns UBC had after the project was initially turned down by Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS).

Despite meeting all of Risk Management’s safety, liability and insurance requirements, the project hit a roadblock when it was rejected once more by SHHS. Both Risk Management Services and SHHS declined to comment on their involvement and concerns with the project.

Mertens said UBC’s anxiety regarding the project is “justifiable,” but blames it on a misunderstanding of the sport.

“[Slacklining] is very new, so people just don’t understand the factors involved,” said Mertens.

Mertens hopes the project will help showcase the new sport in a positive light, and encourage the wider UBC community to try it out.

“I think that it would be a great thing for UBC to [use this project to] promote our school as a place of mind,” said Mertens. “[Slacklining] is super mindful. There’s lots of concentration involved.”

Slackline UBC member and student Kett Panther shared his experience with the sport and club.

“I started slacklining about a year ago and it’s been super social.

Pretty much all of my friends now at UBC I know because of slacklining,” said Panther. “It’s one of the best study breaks you can have too; it’s social, it’s athletic and it takes so much of your focus to get across the line that when you go back to your studying, you’ve already had enough stimulus for the day and you can just focus on your books.”

Regardless of last year’s lack of success, members of the club remain hopeful, and will continue to push to see this project come through in the future.

“I think we just need the support of the right contact,” said Mertens. “Someone who won’t see [our proposal] and immediately say ‘no.’”

PHOTO cherihan hassun/THE UBYSSEY

According to Mertens, Slackline UBC has gathered international support for their urban highline project.

Gibbon, a world-renowned slackline manufacturer, planned to lend a hand in setting up the highline. Mertens said the company was willing to send professionals who set up the current world record holding urban highline to rig the Gage line if the proposal went through.

Slackline UBC is also receiving support from the Canadian Slackline Association in Quebec, and the organizers of the Polish Urban Highline Festival, who had been helping the group deal with UBC Risk Management. “[They’ve] been coaching me on how to get around liability issues,” said Mertens.

Other tentative sponsors for the project are Mountain Equipment Co-op and Red Bull.

Until the project is confirmed, the club has been working to organize more meetings at downtown locations to build the group’s credibility and experience with urban slacklining before pitching their idea to UBC SHHS again. As for on-campus slacklining, the club still meets by the SUB on sunny days, and encourages anyone with an interest in the sport to come join them. <em>

-With files from Mateo Ospina. U </em>

After last year’s vote showed 76.9 per cent of UBC students were in favour of divestment from fossil fuels, UBCC350 is now looking to add faculty support to the movement.

So far they’ve received over 75 faculty signatures on their open letter in anticipation of the October 27 faculty meeting, where faculty will decide whether or not to vote on divestment. If they say yes, an official faculty vote will happen in late January 2015.

“It’s extremely important because [faculty] is a core stakeholder at the university,” said George Hoberg, a Faculty of Forestry Professor and the Faculty Coordinator for UBCC350. “We’ve heard loud and clear from students last year in the referendum and it’s important for the faculty to jump in and make the same kind of commitment.”

In response to the student vote in 2013, UBC’s Board of Governors approved a Responsible Investment Strategy on June 4, 2013. In it, they said that experts consulted across the responsible investment field did not recommend divestment, but to follow ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles instead.

UBC would require support from two groups at the university to consider a new policy. Official support from faculty will allow UBCC350 to propose a new policy to the university for its consideration.

According to Julie Van de Valk, the Database Manager for UBCC350, they’re two weeks into their faculty outreach, and they’ve gotten positive responses overall.

Lori Daniels, a Faculty of Forestry professor, is one of the new faculty supporters. She said that she’s seen evidence of climate change in her own research on B.C.’s forests, and she hopes that other faculty will carefully consider the importance of the movement.

“I’m thinking critically of my own future and making individual investment decisions that I hope are aligned with this letter I have signed,” said Daniels.

UBCC350 is part of the worldwide 350 climate movement. Canada currently has 20 universities with active divestment campaigns, and North America has over 500 in total. The University of Glasgow recently became the first European university to commit to full divestment, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund just committed to divestment on September 21, 2014.

“That’s a signal that even the people early on who invented this industry, that is now putting human welfare at risk, are backing away from fossil fuel commitments,” said Hoberg.

UBC’s endowment fund is over $1 billion, with an estimated 10 per cent invested in fossil fuels. If UBC’s faculty say yes to divestment in early 2015, UBCC350 will submit an official divestment proposal to UBC. “Divest UBC is about taking the money in UBC’s endowment out of fossil fuel investments, and aligning our investments with our values as a university,” said Van de Valk. “The campaign is a chance to unite students, faculty and the UBC community to take a clear stance on climate change and join an impactful global movement.” U

GARBAGE WE SENT TO LANDFILL IN 2013:

3000 TONNES

OR 19 BLUE WHALES

You can make a difference Use recycling stations to sort your food scraps and recyclables into the proper bins.

sustain.ubc.ca/sortitout

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014 |

EDITOR Jack Hauen

6

Places to Be:

Tolkien Range

photos koby michaels/The Ubyssey

The VOC gave the Tolkien Range its name in the 1970’s. They built a cabin there, and have been going back ever since.

Koby Michaels Staff Writer

Friday This story doesn’t start with an alarm clock; it starts with a mad rush from class. I switch out my school bag for my 60L backpack, my jeans for nylon hiking pants and my Converse for waterproof hiking boots. I run across campus and jump the puddle in front of Walter Gage as Roland’s blue Jeep pulls up to the curb. Four of us stuff our bags into the trunk and squish into the back seat. Introductions are made and we excitedly discuss the upcoming weekend. Apprehension can be heard in everyone’s voices as the weather report calls for rain all weekend. But for now, that’s just a report on our phones, and where we are going, phones don’t hold much weight.

Roland tells us the stories of every mountain, river and gully we pass as we drive north. Our car is heading up to Phelix Creek and the Tolkien Range so we can spend the Thanksgiving long weekend hiking.

After hours of driving, we pull off the road to fill up the car with gas and our stomachs with McDonalds in Pemberton and then hit the road again. It is nearly dark and it begins to rain. The road narrows the farther from civilization we go, eventually squeezing into a single lane, logging road. It’s now pitch black and rain is coming down hard. We pull off the road and scramble to set up two tents as fast as we can, before the rain soaks everything. Then we snuggle into our sleeping bags and settle in for a night of ninja camping — camping somewhere where camping isn’t explicitly allowed or disallowed.

Saturday I wake up to an elbow hitting me.

Jonathan, whose sleeping bag was next to mine, is pulling on layer after layer. I grumble as I pull my sleeping bag off and wiggle into all of my clothes. Roland has a pot of boiling water. I pour some over my oatmeal and sit on a stump to eat breakfast. I look around; I am surrounded by mountains and trees that are just beginning to change colour. I’m slightly disoriented as we arrived in the dark and I had no reference from the night before.

We take down the tents, repack our bags and jump back in the car.

Then, under Roland’s control, we hurtle up the dirt logging road to the trailhead. I am silently thankful that the car is four-wheel drive and we don’t have to hike the five kilometres to the trailhead. I also hold my seat, scared to death that one loose rock will slip under the car’s weight and we will hurtle into the creek.

It is, of course, raining when we reach the trail. So we throw on our rain jackets and shoulder our packs full of food for the next three days, layers to keep warm and a sleeping bag and mat. To reach the trail, we need to cross a stream. In an attempt to keep our boots dry, we scuttle across a log bridge slick with Pacific Northwestern rain.

There is a little more to walk along the logging road before we enter a field. The brush towers over my head. The rain has stopped but the plants are covered and as I walk through the field, I am showered with every step.

We clear the field and then the switchbacks start. A muddy path carves its way through

evergreens, turning nearly 180 degrees every few metres. Mud wraps around my boots and pulls, trying to steal my shoes. It is slow going and we stop often to shed layers, take a drink of water, or replenish calories through a handful of granola or a cereal bar.

After about two hours of hiking, the switchbacks level and the trees clear, but the visibility doesn’t improve. We are encompassed in fog so thick that it’s

I can’t see anything. The fog is covering everything.” hard to see the person hiking in front. But we trust the trail and continue, eventually coming to a simple metal bridge that crosses a stream. I take it slowly,

the bridge is soaked in dew and my boots barely find grip. I step down on the other side of the bridge and am surprised to find myself on a beach, sand and all.

We have reached Long Lake. We follow the beach around until our little blue hut at the foot of two mountains comes into sight.

Gratefully we toss our bags on the ground, pull our wet socks out of our shoes and crack open lunch.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

| sports | 7

The ridge is five to ten metres wide, covered in snow and short evergreens, and both sides drop straight down hundreds of metres.”

With only four people to warm the hut, the cold quickly creeps in and we head back out to warm up. We start scrambling (hiking with the use of your hands) up a mountain behind the cabin, but it soon becomes obvious that our route won’t get us very far, so we head back to the hut just in time to meet up with the second carful of hikers to make it to the hut. Four of us grab our helmets and decide to scramble up a different peak, one we think is called Cabin Hill.

It is far from a hill. We climb hard for an hour and it pays off. As soon as we summit, the clouds clear for a few minutes and we are treated to a view of Long Lake, the hut, Mt. Gandalf and Mt. Aragorn (the latter two named by the Varsity Outdoors Club in the 1970s). The plan for tomorrow is to hike Mt. Gandalf and then walk across the ridge to Mt. Aragorn before returning to the cabin. While I’m excited by the prospect, I can’t help but notice the snow covered peak and vertical cliffs; it’s going to be a hard hike.

After soaking in the sun and the view, our little expedition heads back down to the cabin. The rest of the crew has arrived and everyone busies themselves by pulling out camping stoves and food for dinner. I warm up some soup over my burner and listen to people take turns on the hut’s old guitar.

Before long the day’s hike sinks in and everyone heads to bed. The cabin has two floors, the second an open space that allows the sixteen of us to comfortably spread out.

Instead, we huddle together in the corners to stay warm.

I pull off my jackets and slip into my sleeping bag, drawing it tight over my shoulders. Someone gets up to blow out the candles and smacks their head on the low crossbeams. Everyone’s chuckles fade into silence, and before long the room is full of gentle breathing and loud snoring.

SUNday I reluctantly turn over in my sleeping bag and look out the tiny window. I can’t see anything. The fog is covering everything. But there is little I can do about the weather, so I climb down the ladder and warm up some more oatmeal before rushing to pack my bag for the long day ahead. I pack minimally, no need to carry extra weight up the mountain. Some pepperoni, cheese sticks and tortilla for lunch.

My raincoat, extra layers, gloves, my helmet and a hat all get shoved in the bag. As usual, I’m the last to leave the hut and meet the others out front.

The hike to Upper Lake is easy and people tell bad Lord of the

Rings jokes. After an hour, we reach the end of the lake, and on top of a rock we see Roland, who had disappeared ahead of the group, dressed in a bright orange rain jacket and toque.

He had been reborn as Roland the Orange, and he warned of the trails that lay ahead of us: “It looks like a rock garden from hell.”

I share a glance with the hiker next to me, wondering how to interpret the warning. Someone asked Roland if he was going to hike up Gandalf with us. “No, I have to go eat my avocado in the cabin.” Fair enough. Everyone else straps on their helmets and marches forward.

The going is slow and the group soon breaks up into a faster group and a slower one. I stay with the slower one and scramble up several hundred metres of rock with Tim, a fellow VOCer. The terrain changes from rocky to wet alpine brush and back. It begins to rain. I constantly look up and down, judging the distance we have covered and still have left to cover. It takes ages before I can see that we’ve made any progress.

Eventually we reach the col (the lowest point of a ridge between two peaks). I pull on some extra layers. Everyone is excited when they see enough snow to start

It’s snowing so hard that the group has to stay in shouting distance of each other. If someone were to go further, it would be incredibly hard to find them again.” throwing snowballs at each other.

We are still only about halfway up, the steepest parts yet to come.

Climbing the ridge up Mt. Gandalf is surreal. The ridge is five to ten metres wide, covered in snow and short evergreens, and both sides drop straight down hundreds of metres. As Tim and I carefully pick our way up, it begins to snow. I huddle behind a rock, shove some food into my mouth and pull on my gloves and winter

coat. After a nerve-wracking hour of climbing, we reach the end of the ridge and are on the final stretch. It’s snowing so hard that the group has to stay in shouting distance of each other. If someone were to go farther, it would be incredibly hard to find them again.

We meet up with the group that went ahead and they tell us they couldn’t find a way to the summit or to Mt. Aragorn. 20 more minutes of scrambling up snowy rocks and across narrow trails yields no new route, so we decide to head back. But there is a problem; our path has been covered by fresh snow. Martin, staying calm, pulls out his GPS and we retrace our steps back to the ridge. We hike down to the col at a near run, trying to avoid being stuck in the worst of the snow.

At the bottom, everyone takes a breather and stops for lunch. We still have half the hike down to go, but we’ve escaped from the steepest and snowiest part of Gandalf the White.

As we hike back down the snow turns to sleet and finally rain. I stumble back into the cabin, drop my dripping bag on to the floor and pull off my drenched boots and socks. I’m convinced to go swimming in the lake so I strip off all my clothes and sprint into

the water. I’ve never moved faster than after that dunk. I sprint back into the cabin and dive into my sleeping bag. I curse those who convinced me to go swimming but I know that it was worth it, it’s type II fun in its purest form (the VOC defines type II fun as “something you don’t enjoy at the time, but will in retrospect and will probably do again”). I warm up, eventually, and my food tastes as if it had come fresh from the kitchen of a five star restaurant, even though the rice is crunchy and the pasta is watery.

Tonight is special. Clemens hauled up a box of wine and a bottle of rum to make Feuerzangenbowle, (say that five times fast) a German mulled wine made by pouring rum onto a sugar cone suspended above warm, spiced wine. Occasionally, the rum catches fire and everyone is treated to a fireworks display.

The wine is finally finished and everyone grabs a mug (or bowl, for those who forgot their mugs) and enjoys the warm alcohol. </strong>

moNday I’m woken by the hiss of air being pushed out of deflating sleeping mats. I make myself some — you guessed it ­— oatmeal, enjoying the warm sludge far less than I did on the first day. Everyone packs their bags, now significantly lighter and wetter, and we head out. I hike most of the way down in silence, the closest hiker just out of my sight. It gives me time to enjoy the serenity of the backcountry. I reach the stream and don’t even bother crossing the bridge. I just trudge through the muddy creek; I’m so soaked I don’t even notice.

Everyone agrees to friend everyone else on Facebook and share pictures. I climb into the jeep and fade in and out of sleep as we drive back towards Vancouver through the heavy rain.

I’m not writing this to show off or brag about what I accomplished. I’m writing this to tell you that you can do it too. Some people on the trip had never been on a hike before, and yet they survived and enjoyed the experience.

Sure, it sucks having wet socks and cold fingers and eating oatmeal for breakfast every morning, but as soon as I had showered and crawled under my duvet, I started dreaming about heading back out to the wilderness. Smartphones, laptops and Facebook are great, but it isn’t what we humans were built for. We were built to climb mountains, drink fresh water from mountain streams and explore our beautiful planet. We were built to adventure — so go find one. U

8 | sports |

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

cut down

by Lawrence Neal Garcia

On August 15, 2014, the UBC Alpine Ski Team learned — for the second time in less than a year — that by September 2015, they would no longer be a varsity team.

Their appeal had been denied, and this time, there was no room for recourse.

The decision came at the tailend of UBC’s much-publicized sports review process — an evaluation of the 29 existing Thunderbird teams — which started early last year, but is just one part of a larger athletics review that began in 2011.

Beginning with a think tank tasked with “re-imagining” sports and recreation at UBC, headed

by VP Students Louise Cowin, a new sport model concept was developed, composed of six main strands: varsity, competitive clubs, clubs, community clubs, intramurals and drop-in participation.

The sports review, a key feature of the new model, would re-classify teams into the first two strands.

With the stated aim of moving “from supporting a broad number of varsity sports to a more focused, tailored structure,” the

review posed a threat to existing teams. Even with a caveat stating that there was no pre-determined number of sports for each strand, it seemed clear that some teams would be cut; it was just a question of which ones.

For the UBC Alpine Ski Team (or the SkiBirds, as they are also known), headed at the time

by Austin Taylor, a fourth year bio-chemistry major and the student-athlete coach, the review was cause for concern. With final exams in full swing, and the ski competition season fast approaching, the review loomed large.

Using criteria developed by an advisory team headed by managing director of athletics Ashley Howard, Stage one assessed the current varsity teams in five weighted categories: competitive success, competition and progression (35 per cent), support for competitive success (15 per cent), community support and tradition (20 per cent), partnerships (10 per cent) and fit with UBC’s mission (20 per cent).

According to Howard, the criteria were developed to provide a

framework for what a varsity team should look like within the new sport model.

“Previously we’ve been criticized or critiqued because teams would want to earn varsity status and we didn’t have a framework to use … so it was really an exercise to ensure we clarified the definition of each part of the sport model,” said Howard.

On January 21, 2014, 12 days after the deadline, the Sport Review Advisory Assessment Team (SRAAT) — tasked with reviewing the submissions — delivered their decision: 16 of the original 29 teams had their varsity status confirmed. The other thirteen, with their standings on the line, proceeded to Stage two.

The Alpine Ski Team was one of them.

Despite its long history on the Thunderbird roster dating back to the 1930s, the Alpine Ski Team — until now the only varsity-ranked alpine ski team in Western Canada — has always differed from the traditional varsity model.

Due to an operating budget of only about $36,000 a year —

23 January 9 December, 2013 The varsity review criteria is announced. Stage one of the sports review begins.

21 January, 2014 Twelve days after the deadline, the decision is delivered: 16 of the original 29 teams had their varsity status confirmed. The other thirteen, including the Alpine Ski Team, proceeded to Stage two.

Head coach Austin Taylor meets with some members of the SRAAT, who conclude that alpine skiing is “clustered in the bottom range” of teams and struggled across the criteria.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

$9,500 of which comes from the athletics department, with an additional $5,000 if the team qualifies for nationals, and about $12,000 of which goes to transportation alone (due to mandated chartered buses for teams of a certain size) — the ski team is coached by a student-athlete instead of a full-time paid coach, though it compensates with professional coaching from the Grouse Mountain Tyee Ski Club, with whom the team has a strong partnership.

In addition, unlike other inter-university leagues which require varsity status for competition, the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA), the governing body for collegiate skiing and snowboarding in which the SkiBirds compete, allows participation from both varsity and club teams.

On January 23, to obtain feedback on the Stage one assessments, Taylor met with some members of the SRAAT, which had concluded that alpine skiing was “clustered in the bottom range” of teams and struggled across the criteria.

For the ski team, Stage two was more crucial than ever.

If Stage one allowed teams to outline their performance in the five criteria, Stage two offered teams the chance to propose changes to better meet those criteria.

On February 4, the ski team submitted their proposal; within the month, a decision was rendered. For the ski team, it was not a good one.

Of the 29 original teams, five lost their varsity status: men’s and women’s Alpine skiing, men’s and women’s Nordic skiing and women’s softball.

In a general assessment statement (identical to that of the Nordic ski team), the Alpine ski team was described as achieving “a good student-athlete experience with excellent academic success” but had areas of challenge including “the strength of the league, the pathway for competitive athletes, community support and partnerships.”

Still reeling from the news and left with increasingly few options, the ski team met with Ashley Howard to better understand the decision.

“We thought after going through Stages one and two and being cut, after all that time as a varsity team coming down to two lines, we deserved a little bit more of an explanation,” said Gillian Bexton,

a member of the ski team alumni committee. “So we had that meeting and then decided that it was worth filing the appeal.”

On April 29 — just two weeks after the softball team launched a lawsuit against the university — the Alpine ski team submitted their appeal, beginning a process that would last over four months.

In a sixteen-page document, and other supporting files, the ski team made their case to Professor Peter Burns, Dean Emeritus at the law school, the designated appeal review counsel.

The two main grounds of appeal were that the criteria used to evaluate teams were not applied fairly, and that the criteria were inherently unfair and disregarded some fundamental differences between alpine skiing and other sports.

For the ski team, many of the assessments in the original review — the limited competitiveness of the league, the lack of progression pathways (to national team, professional or international competition) and the lack of wider community involvement — misunderstood or did not fully take into account the unique nature of the sport or the constraints that the team functions under.

The assessment of the USCSA as “not as competitive or formalized as other competition structures” in particular, was one the team felt was misinformed.

“It’s a very different approach to university sport, because it blends the varsity-club team.

But that’s where the majority of athletes that go into collegiate ski racing [compete]; that’s the pathway, is our league,” said Millar, who noted that, apart from the NCAA (in which UBC decided, in 2011, to forgo competition), the USCSA is the major inter-university league of competition for snow sports in North America, with over 150 teams in participation.

The team also pointed out that given the nature of skiing, the level of community involvement is limited compared to various team sports.

With regard to the original decision however, Howard pointed out that the assessment criteria offered enough areas for teams to make a case for varsity status, no matter what the sport.

“There’s no one thing that alone determines whether a team should be varsity. It’s really that the reviewer takes all five headings collectively that’s important.”

Howard also emphasized that the original decision, unanimous within the SRAAT, came down to where the team fit best within the new sport model.

“I understand why a team going up or down the model, in terms of priority and funding they get, is perceived as a status issue. But really our job as the assessment team is to find out what’s best for that team and where they’re at in their development … and we felt that the competitive club strand would serve [the Alpine Ski Team] better.”

On July 22, after some email exchanges, key representatives of the ski team met with Burns to present final comments.

“We met with him, we discussed … the package we’d presented, tried to highlight aspects that maybe weren’t recognized during the sport review process,” said Benjamin Millar, a third-year med student and a former student-athlete coach of the team. “Ultimately … his recommendation was that we remain [competitive] club and the VP Students, Louise Cowin obviously took that recommendation.”

Given the legal formalization of the appeal, Millar noted that an interest in sports was not necessary to review the decision; but during the meeting, there was also concern that Burns had not been fully briefed on the situation.

“He was unaware that the softball team had sued the school at that point. And one of his initial questions was: ‘Why were we the only team to take action against the fact that we’re downgraded to a [competitive] club?’ … That was a little disconcerting, that he hadn’t been fully briefed on the athletics process and the lawsuit and all those kinds of things.”

In his assessment, Burns described the review process as “both fair and impartial” and upheld the original SRAAT decision. The appeal process was over.

For at least the next five years, the Alpine Ski Team would be a competitive club.

29 April 4 February The team submits their proposal and within a month learn they didn’t make the cut.

Unsatisfied with the explanation from Howard, the team submits their appeal.

By its own admission, the ski team ostensibly functions much like a competitive club would — but at varsity-level competitiveness.

“The team has always been a bit of a hybrid … competitively, it’s always functioned as a varsity team, and management-wise it’s always functioned more like a club,” said Millar. “It’s been student-run for many years.”

But while it isn’t yet clear exactly how different the ski team will be within the new structure — indeed, the team may continue to function similarly — the loss of varsity status could hurt their competitiveness.

Aside from reduced facility and gym access, crucial support from the university, budgetary or otherwise, could also decrease. But the biggest hit for the team will be recruitment, because no matter what the final structure, competitive club status also reads as ‘not varsity.’

“There’s athletes that are coming off national teams, provincial teams and coming to UBC specifically from across the country, specifically because it’s a varsity team. There’s prestige to that. And after all the time and money put into a sport, there’s something to be said for varsity status,” said Bexton. “I would like to think [the team] continues as it has, but it’s not quite the same.”

When the final decision was delivered, the ski team certainly felt the sting of disappointment; but there was also the sense that they had done everything they could.

“So our kind of theory was that we’re academically successful, we’re athletically successful, we’re not a large expense from the department. Really, what more is it that we could have done to prove that we are a team worth keeping?

Not to mention that we’re the only university team in Canada that competes in a nationwide [league],” said Millar.

For Kayla Johnston, this year’s student-athlete coach, the goal then is to keep things running as they always have, and compete at the highest level possible.

| sports | 9

“We want to keep recruiting.

We want to keep being a force to be reckoned with. Because we race through the States, and every year or so, we go in and we’re definitely … top competitors. We’re a team to watch out for and I would be really sad for that to change,” said Johnston.

“There’s a lot of things like that that would make us seem a lot more legitimate that we can’t do.

But the way we’ve been running has worked, I’d say really well…. I don’t know if there’s anything that we could necessarily do other than … keep running everything very professionally.”

While the sports review spelled the end of the alpine skiing as a varsity team, it was also the start of a broader change for UBC athletics, particularly within the new competitive club structure.

During the review process, AMS sport clubs were also encouraged to apply to the new structure, following the same procedures as the existing varsity teams. On March 27, 2014, nine teams were approved, bringing the inaugural number of competitive clubs to 14.

“There’s a lot to offer in that new strand, so I think it’s good to look at the review as a whole,” said Howard. “Yes, we have constraints on our budget. There are limitations to what we can do in order to ensure our standards stay high and we pursue excellence. What else does a pathway need to have to cater to a broader number of students? And that’s where that competitive club strand comes through.”

When the next USCSA competition season rolls around in early 2015, the Skibirds will have one final run as a varsity team. Although it’s hard to say what the next five years as a competitive club have in store for the team — until the next sports review in 2020 — it will likely find them continuing to do what they do best, skiing down snow-laden slopes as fast as they possibly can. U

15 August

22 July After some email exchanges, key representatives of the ski team meet with Professor Burns to present final comments.

The team learns that, despite their efforts, by September 2015, they will no longer be a varsity team.

10 | SPORTS |

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

Football >>

Thunderbirds keep playoff hopes alive Obscure Canadian football rule allows UBC to sneak by Regina 33-32

UBC will need some help from other teams to make the postseason, but in the Canada West, anything can happen.

CJ Pentland Senior Writer

Three downs. Wider field. Twelve men on the field. Those are among the rules that differentiate Canadian football from the American version, but if you were to ask the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday what their favourite rule is, they’d probably say it’s the rouge.

T-Birds kicker Quinn van Gylswyk took full advantage of the one-point score in Saturday’s game against the Regina Rams, tallying three of them in the game — including one to tie it at 32 and one with 1:59 left in the fourth quarter. The latter proved to be the difference in the 33-32 contest.

In an evenly-played game between two teams fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive, the leg of van Gylswyk proved to be the difference. In week two he was UBC’s player of game, but that was due to the number of times he had to punt. In week six, he took the honour of making the Rams pay on a number of occasions, racking up 15 points — three extra points, three field goals and three rouges — also averaging 49.2 yards per punt to constantly pin the Rams deep in their own end. His biggest punt forced Regina to concede the game-winning rouge after they fielded it 10-yards deep in their end zone.

Both teams went back and forth all afternoon long, with neither team leading by more than 10 points at a time. The game sat tied at 17 come halftime, but a field goal and Niko Jakobs’ second touchdown catch of the game put the ‘Birds up 10 in the third quarter and in a position to put the game out of reach. Yet Rams quarterback Cayman Shutter continued to lead efficient drives, and after two touchdowns sandwiched around a van Gylswyk field goal, Regina went up 32-21 at the start of the fourth.

The two rouges from the second-year kicker proved to be the difference in UBC’s win, but that was enabled due to a strong

photo Will mcdonald/The Ubyssey

T-Bird defence in the fourth quarter. After Shutter and running back Atlee Simon had their way for most of the third, UBC stepped up to force three straight two-andouts to allow for field position that led to rouges, and with Regina on the edge of field goal range with under a minute to play, defensive back Chris Adams broke up a pass on 3-and-9 to help seal the victory.

“We’re glad we won,“ said a relieved Adams after the game. “It’s one of those games where it comes down to one of the last plays of the game, and we made it — so a win’s a win right now.”

For the most part, quarterback Carson Williams led an efficient offence, making sharp throws to

total 256 yards and three touchdowns on 62.5 per cent passing. Josh Kronstrom was his favourite target, hauling in seven passes for 80 yards, while Jakobs and Marcus Davis caught the touchdown receptions.

Running back Brandon Deschamps also came out of the dressing room at halftime a new player, posting 86 yards on the ground after rushing for negative yardage in the first.

“Brandon hasn’t had the season statistically that he had last year, but he’s run every bit as hard, he’s every bit as tough — we just haven’t opened up as many creases,” said head coach Shawn Olson. “In the second half we went to some of our core runs, and that seemed to create the creases that we needed. And once you get Brandon going to the second level, he’s a very difficult tackle.”

The win moves UBC to 2-4 on the season and keeps their playoff hopes alive with two weeks to go, but they’ll need a bit of help to get in. They remain in fifth place with two teams ahead of them at 3-3 — Manitoba and Alberta. This could be the first year since 2010 that a team with three wins could sneak in the postseason. That could be UBC if they win one of their next two games and Alberta loses their next two, since UBC holds the tiebreaker with them (Alberta sits at three wins because their 71-3 loss to Calgary turned into a 1-0 win after Calgary was punished for using an ineligible player — a punishment that more hurts UBC than it does first-place Calgary).

Trying to squeeze into the playoffs is a far cry from where expectations were at the start of the season, but in the wild, wild Canada West, simply having a chance is all UBC needs in order to turn their season around.

“We’re hoping we can execute,” said Olson about next week’s game against Calgary. “If we can do that, the Canada West is a crazy conference — anyone can hang with anyone.” U

swim >>

Trash talk and memories: UBC’s alumni swim meet

file photo charles to/The Ubyssey

The Alumni Meet is an annual tradition of fond reminiscence and viscious competition.

Koby Michaels Staff Writer

On Friday, the Thunderbird swimming team competed in its annual Alumni Meet, a chance for the current varsity team to mingle with and compete against former T-Birds.

Some alumni are past Olympians, others are professionals and parents and some are even UBC professors.

The Thunderbirds have been preparing rigorously, according to coach Steve Price.

“They are in really, really hard training.… We are preparing for the Canada West Championships at the end of November.”

However, “the alumni can come in whatever shape they are in and whatever conditions they want to race in.”

UBC political science professor and ex-Thunderbird swimmer Chris Erikson explained his highly demanding training regimen. “I’ve been really digging into it, lounging mostly. Tapering for months, possibly years.”

The meet runs a little differently than a regular meet. Five points are awarded to the team who takes first place in an event, three to second place, and one point to third place. However, the T-Birds only score their highest place in each race, meaning that if they were to sweep, they would only receive points for first place, the rest of the points being award to the alumni. The alumni are also allowed to wear race suits while the T-Birds have to wear their practice suits, a further handicap, not that the strong veteran teamed needed it.

Past events have been scarred by allegations of cheating on the part of the alumni team. False starts, illegal swim suits and racing as a relay team in individual events, to name a few.

“No comment,” commented Professor Erikson.

The alumni took an early lead by winning the 4x50m freestyle relay and taking points for third place due to the handicap. The alumni continued their dominance with another first place in the 50m backstroke.

The alumni used their lead to trash talk the Thunderbirds. They should be “prepared to get their ass handed to them,” said Erikson.

“There is going to be a butt kicking tonight,” said Liz Collins, an alum who has remained involved with the team.

The T-Birds were unwilling to return the heat. Swimmer Alex Loginov said, “No trash talk, those are legends.”

The competition heated up as the meet progressed to the individual 400m freestyle. Yuri Kisil, a rookie sprinter who Price said is one to watch, pulled out a McDouble and stuffed it into his mouth as he climbed into the pool.

The alumni team leadoff (wait, isn’t this an individual race?) climbed the blocks and with the gun the race began. The alumni team was faster out of the start but Kisil caught up by the end of the first lap.

However fresh muscles provided each 50 metres by the alumni’s eight person team soon opened a lead. Kisil’s pitstop to finish his burger allowed the alumni to lap him and win the race handily.

The alumni continued to widen their lead with a questionably early start in the 50m freestyle to win four more points. A team effort in 100m individual medley seemed to cement their victory.

However, the T-Birds muscled back and the meet stood at 62 to 58 in favor of the alumni with just the 4x50 freestyle relay remaining.

The alumni’s wealth of experience allowed them to keep a level head and pull out a first and third, sealing their fourth consecutive victory by a score of 74-64.

“This event is really about the alumni,” said Price.

Alumni swimmer Aaron Blair has travelled from Calgary to the past three alumni meets because he “looks back at [swimming at UBC] extremely positively. The skills and the work ethic you build as a student-athlete, I don’t think there is any program in the world that compares to that.” U

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

basketball >>

Men’s basketball splits tournament

| sports | 11

hockey >>

Thunderbirds sweep struggling Pronghorns

photo kosta prodanovic/The Ubyssey

UBC held a significant size advantage over Western.

Jacob Gershkovich Contributor

UBC got their first taste of play against CIS teams this weekend, as the Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers travelled to the War Memorial Gym for some preseason tournament action.

One of the most notable distinctions when watching the Mustangs and Thunderbirds in their Friday matchup was UBC’s significant size advantage. The Thunderbirds systematically took advantage of an undersized Western team as they pounded the ball inside on offence and shut down the visiting Mustangs on defence. They held Western to a dismal 36.1 per cent shooting from the field. After jumping out to an early 18-9 lead in the first quarter, UBC had no problem closing this one out.

The one kink in UBC’s game was the amount of unforced turnovers they surrendered early.

“I thought we came out a little bit tight today,” said head coach Kevin Hanson. “We had some really bad turnovers…. We went into a little bit of an offensive lull. We didn’t share the ball like we have been the last few weeks … so hopefully the jitters are out.”

Connor Morgan, UBC’s second year player out of Victoria, cooled off after his 33 point effort last game against the Balloholics. Somehow, though, Morgan finished the game with 17 points and eight rebounds.

If Morgan can have an off game and still put up numbers like that…

UBC’s post players predictably benefited from Western’s inability to account for their size. David Wagner posted 12 points for the Thunderbirds, Brylle Kamen lead the team with 19 and UBC strolled to a relatively easy 87-70 victory to kick of the tournament.

The Thunderbirds faced a much more formidable opponent in the Windsor Lancers on Saturday.

“I had a chance to see them, and I’m very impressed,” said Hanson.

“They’ve got a couple of real good athletes that can attack the rim. We have to be able to defend the three point ball.”

Windsor took the lead early and refused to relinquish control. UBC competed and remained within reach of the Lancers. Though the Thunderbirds within three points, Windsor handed UBC their first loss in October, 90-87.

A split weekend against two solid CIS teams is a good start for the Thunderbirds. And now they can look forward to continuing their preseason action in Waterloo. U

photo kosta prodanovic/The Ubyssey

They didn’t play their best game, but the ‘Birds found a way to win.

Jack Hauen Sports and Rec Editor

These were must-win games for the Thunderbirds, so it’s a good thing they did.

After a convincing 5-1 win on Friday against the winless University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, UBC hammered in seven goals on Saturday evening and chased starting goalie Dylan Tait to complete the weekend sweep.

Saturday’s game began with a lackluster pace. The high-scoring first line of Adam Rossignol, Nate Fleming and Cole Wilson took advantage of this fact early, though, and combined for an early Rossignol marker at 1:50.

“It’s awesome being in that offensive role here and playing with Fleming and Wilson,” said Rossignol. “They’re two older guys who know what they’re doing on the ice.”

UBC began the second period on the powerplay thanks to a tripping call on Pronghorn David McMullen in the dying seconds of the first. The ‘Birds struggled to find a lane and Lethbridge was looking as if they would execute a textbook kill until the final 20 seconds.

Brad Hoban took a pass from Cole Wilson to regroup in their own end for one final rush — he gained the blue line, but instead of curling on the side boards and throwing it back to the point, he opted for a power move straight to the front of the net and roofed it to double up the UBC lead.

But the Thunderbirds weren’t done there. Feeding off the energy provided by the powerplay goal, Dillon Wagner potted an unassisted five-hole goal off the wing to lift the lead to three. Continuing their special teams dominance on both sides of the advantage, Nate Fleming potted a shorthanded goal — another soft one off the wing that would spell the end of the night for the Lethbridge goaltender. 4-0 ‘Birds.

Before the end of the middle frame, Brandon Clowes would respond for the Horns to spoil Matt Hewitt’s shutout bid. They’d strike again just 26 seconds into the third period, reminding UBC not to get complacent, even against the worst team in the league.

“Lethbridge has a couple skilled guys there and they feed off of hard work,” said Wagner, who had two goals on the night. “Anytime you take your foot off the gas they’ll come at you.”

Head coach Tyler Kuntz agreed that the effort level was not where it needed to be. “I didn’t think we were winning enough races to pucks, I don’t think our head speed was there. We weren’t making quick enough decisions. We got back on our heels a bit,” he said.

The home team took some time to regroup after the second Lethbridge goal of the night, and six minutes later, Luke Lockhart put the ‘Birds back up by three on the powerplay with a great effort at the side of the net to whack it in over top of relief goalie Damien Ketlo.

It wasn’t long, though, before the Pronghorns threatened to come back again. At 12:38 of the final frame, Brett Henke put in his team’s third of the night to

cut the Thunderbird lead down to an uncomfortable two goals.

Outscoring UBC 3-1 during the past 25 or so minutes, the Horns ran with their momentum and a few close calls were had in the Thunderbird end.

Hewitt stood tall, however, and closed the door.

UBC would add two more at the end of the period within 28 seconds of each other. Wagner first banged in his second of the night at 17:54 on the man advantage, meaning the T-Birds converted on all three of their powerplays (and one of the Horns’).

“It’s nice to get a couple bounces,” said Wagner. “Things just kind of lined up.”

Jessi Hilton followed up at 18:22, just to make sure that there would be no coming back for the visiting squad.

Rossignol knows that, though they came away with two wins, his team’s performance wasn’t their best.

“These are games we have to win — you can’t take your foot off the gas. You have to play every time like they’re the top team in the country.”

Kuntz wasn’t pleased with the way his team played, but he also knows that with wins hard to come by in the Canada West division, there’s really only one thing that matters.

“We got four points.” U

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last words >>

advice >>

Ask Natalie: On how to cope with tuition and housing fee increases

ILLUSTRATION julian yu / the ubyssey

LAST WORDS gage-to-gage slackline would be awesome, amusing and absurd UBC’s slacklining club is hoping to set up a highline between two towers of the Gage residence, and we’re hoping their project goes through.

For obvious reasons, the stunt would be awesome. But does anyone really care?

Just picture it — hundreds of people gathered at the foot of the Gage towers anxiously waiting for plucky slackers to tiptoe their way across a line stretching between two 17-storey buildings.

That is, if hundreds of people would show up.

The severe lack of school spirit on campus could make this potentially wicked stunt a total flop, but maybe things could swing the other way. Maybe — just maybe — it might spark some sort of internal pep to suddenly explode all across UBC. But that’s not exactly high on the university administration’s list of priorities.

The whole project has been at a standstill since last year because, of course, UBC is apprehensive about letting students dangle between buildings. They’d rather just say “no” to the whole proposal than open up the can of liability worms.

We’re on the fence — or slackline, if you will — with this one.

Although the stunt would be awesome publicity for the slacklining community, we think UBC is also definitely right to want to avoid the risk of some major negative publicity.

cloud money is the future, but not necessarily bitcoin The UBC Bitcoin Club wants the university to transition into accepting Bitcoin, the most popular “cryptocurrency,” for various on campus transactions — ranging from buying books or pizza, to paying tuition. We agree with the founders’ claim that Bitcoin is “the future of money” — to an extent. While carrying around coins and paper (well, plastic now) does seem a little archaic, we’re not so sure that Bitcoin is the best option to replace good ol’ fashioned cash with.

Bitcoin does have relatively wide adoption already, and is definitely the most well-known of the cloud currencies — but it’s also incredibly volatile and, in

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PArting shots and snap judgements from The ubyssey editorial board

many ways, more of an investment than a currency, and a risky one at that. From September 3, the deadline for 2014-15 first term tuition, to October 18, the exchange rate of Bitcoin to USD went from $475 to $385 — a nearly 20 per cent drop. It could certainly swing both ways, though — as demonstrated by Bitcoin’s all-time high of over $1,100. Volatility like that could wreak havoc on budgets and leave institutions like the Bookstore, the AMS or UBC facing serious shortfalls.

If Bitcoin were to stabilize, then it would be a viable (and pretty cool) payment option for UBC to adopt. But until then, we’re going to be sticking with our Canadian monopoly money — and we hope that UBC will too.

campus activism doesn’t only include students

actually meet your group members and start working together that a series of four-letter words immediately come to mind.

Between finding meeting times in a hefty schedule, evenly divvying up the work, and making sure that every group member does what they said they’d do, it is much more convenient (and, when it comes to grades, safer) to just work alone.

That said, it’s important to acknowledge that some form of group work is a reality for many careers, and it’s a good skill to develop.

It could just be our control freak tendencies talking here, but if you asked us to pick between trusting a bunch of people that we don’t know to pass our class and working alone, we would most enthusiastically pick the latter. U

“Ask natalie”

natalie morris

Advice Columnist

“I’m already poor enough. How am I supposed to live with the housing and tuition hikes?”

Hello students. Welcome to UBC, where for at least the next four years you will face not only midterms, professors and frat parties, but also the never-ending struggle for money. Generally, in university, you fall into two groups when it comes to finances: either you’re rich or you’re really not.

Generally I don’t care, but what can you do?

I’m not going to get into the fee increases — my little advice column isn’t really the place — but being a struggling poor college student is something I can definitely relate to.

Living on campus has and always will be more expensive than not.

Whatever UBC says, you are paying above market rates in a city where the market rates are already pretty high. Living at home with parents is the cheapest, but for those of us

without this option, living off-campus will save a little of the precious money we crave.

Roommates will help split costs and can seriously make this whole “living on your own” thing an easier pill to swallow. Living farther from campus will also make renting a place cheaper, if you can deal with riding the bus every day. Keep that in mind for next year.

Eating out, while always delightful, can take a huge chunk of your spending money. It’s okay to pick up a pizza, but did you know you can make your own pizza instead? Turn down the trip to Sushi Magic and whip up a meal yourself. You can gain those elusive life skills while saving money. And most wouldn’t argue that a date night out is better than a romantic night in.

For now, there are a few options that you can do to balance the bank.

Co-op offers you a chance to get paid while gaining relevant job experience in your field — Engineering, Arts, Forestry, Science, you name it. Honestly, you should check it out. Getting job experience can set your resume apart from the pile of others.

And, of course, there are jobs. On campus jobs can be a good choice if you can handle it. Many have a limit on how many hours you can work a week and are a lot more willing to work around your schedule.

My money-making secrets, however, are the paid studies. They are lovely. They are my favourite.

An hour of your time will leave you with $10 and you can help a grad student prove their thesis.

They are usually fun and generally interesting. They are also a one-off, no commitment way to make some spending money.

Need advice? Write to Natalie at asknatalie@ubyssey.ca and have your questions answered in a future issue. U </em>

UBCC350 is trying to get UBC faculty on board with the divestment movement. While taking a stance in favour of divestment from fossil fuels isn’t exactly controversial these days, the faculty association will be holding a vote later this month to decide if they want to take an official position in favour of divestment. If so, they will vote again in January on an official policy. While this may seem overly cautious, it is a (somewhat surprising) step in the right direction for the faculty association.

The group represents over 3,200 members, and they collectively can have a lot of influence on the university. Despite their numbers, we haven’t seen them take any collective political stances in recent memory.

Campus activism has been lacking in recent years, and students aren’t the only culprits.

The faculty association remains a large group of people with the capability to greatly influence not only students in the classroom, but the university as a whole. We hope the faculty won’t let that opportunity go to waste.

disliking group work doesn’t mean you’re anti-social Ah, group work in university.

Profs often urge us to engage in it for projects and class discussions as a way of building valuable social skills and bouncing ideas off of classmates. And while we all know that group work can be good in theory, it is when you

UBC

Celebrate

Learning Week

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014 |

EDITOR Jenica Montgomery

moa >>

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poetry >>

Cultures combine in a For Your Safety Please Hold on was inspired by an all too normal bus sign puppetry festival at the Museum of Anthropology

Beacon of Dependability”, a love poem which mixes family history and romantic longing, to “Wildest Dreams”, a melancholy musing on hope and deep despair, Czaga demonstrates a voice that is unmistakably her own.

Czaga pursued a degree in creative writing and English at the University of Victoria.

After earning her undergraduate degree in 2011, she took what she thought to be the next logical step: an MFA program in creative writing, an environment that she found to be nothing short of inspiring.

Throughout her academic career, Czaga hasn’t had much problem getting her work out and has been published in places such as “The Walrus”, “Best Canadian Poetry 2013”, “Room Magazine”, “Event” and “The Antigonish Review”. With For Your Safety, which is largely composed of poems from her master’s thesis, her publisher approached her.

Things seemed to fall into place for Czaga, something that seems true of the compilation itself, which is not to say that it didn’t also take years of accumulated work. Czaga recalls taping up the poems onto her apartment walls, and slowly, over time, moving them together until they settled into a natural, thematic order.

Now that her first book has been published, Czaga is both excited and unsure of what her future holds, except that she wants to keep writing.

“I did my BFA right after high school and now I did my MFA, and now I can do anything,” said Czaga. “It’s kind of terrifying, actually.”

But no matter what may lie in store for Czaga, one can’t help but imagine the familiar red letters — a warning, a reminder, an inspiration: For your safety please hold on. U <em>

PHOTO courtesy nightwood editions

For Your Safety Please Hold on is a poetry collection about the distance between people

Lawrence Neal Garcia Staff Writer

“So I’m sitting on a bus in Vancouver, and I see the ‘For your safety please hold on’ sign, and I think that it would be great to be able to attach ‘to each other’ to the end of it.”

That’s how it begins: that spark, that flash of inspiration, an idea for a poem. For Kayla Czaga, a Vancouver-based poet currently completing her MFA in creative writing at UBC, that’s how it always begins— or at least, that’s how the best ones do.

For Your Safety Please Hold On , a compilation of almost forty poems, is Czaga’s first book; and the title poem is certainly one of the best.

It’s about the distances between people, the love that binds them, the spaces that keep them apart, and the paradoxical absurdity of it all, themes that burst forth from the banality of a bus ride. There’s <em>

PHOTO courtesy rii schroer

The MOA will be hosting the Ouxi Taiwanese Puppetry Festival this November.

Rachel Levy-McLaughlin Contributor

The UBC Museum of Anthropology is testing new waters, letting their audience eat with artists, watch puppet plays, make puppets and see what is produced when two cultures collide during the Ouxi Taiwanese Puppetry Festival.

Ouxi is part of Spotlight Taiwan, MOA’s four-year celebration of Taiwanese culture and performing and visual arts which began in May. With deep roots in Taiwanese culture, puppeteering is an important component of this celebration. Ouxi marks the first of two puppetry festivals where performance is the core component.

The festival kicks off with day school shows from November 4-6, where classes watch shorter versions of the plays put on by the puppet troups. Then students get the VIP treatment: behindthe-scenes looks at the production, time to meet the puppeteers and create their own puppets.

MOA has brought in two different puppetry troupes for Ouxi: Taiyuan, a company of glove puppeteers, and Chin Fei Feng marionette theatre troupe.

If you do not speak Taiwanese or Mandarin, fret not. There will be translators for the plays.

MOA is doing more than performances and school shows for this Festival. “There are a couple of experiments in this project,” said Jill Baird, curator of Education and Public Programs at the Museum of Anthropology. “Friday night is one of them.” On Friday November 7, the public has the opportunity to share a meal with the puppeteers in Ouxi, something MOA has never done before.

“One of the traditions of travelling puppeteers is they get together before a performance and share a meal,” said Baird.

“So the Friday is not about performance, it’s about meeting the artists and being able to talk to them.”

This new activity for MOA is not the only one in the festival.

“Sunday is our second experiment,” said Baird. “We’ve asked two [B.C.-based Haida] artists to join with the Taiwanese puppeteers, spend some time during the day with them and dream something up together and then perform it at 3 p.m.”

“It’s a work-in-progress, an experiment and a cross-cultural exchange all mashed up,” said Baird Baird has asked Haida storyteller Roberta Kennedy and Haida visual artist Gwaai Edenshaw to work with the Taiwanese puppeteers. “I like to meet artists from different places and see what common ground we share,” said Gwaai Edenshaw.

“When there’s a chance to look at how a people’s cultural form is expressed, that’s a great opportunity.”

It’s not every day Vancouverites get to see Taiwanese puppeteers, let alone see collaboration between them and Canadian Indigenous artists. “[Our work with] First Nations and Indigenous communities is kind of at the heart and soul of what MOA is,” said Baird. “But we also work around the world. We’re a place of world arts and culture.”

Ouxi Taiwanese Puppetry Festival will be held at the Museum of Anthropology from Nov. 4-9. Visit moa.ubc.ca for more information. U

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a vitality in the poem that extends throughout the compilation, for which it provides the binding crux.

“I was really fascinated in people. And it just seemed like I was trying to hold on to them in my poems,” said Czaga. “Once I wrote that poem [“For Your Safety”], the collection just clicked into place for me on what it was about.”

Although Czaga had always written — stories of her cat that she wrote as a kid growing up in Kitimat, poems and personal non-fiction years later — she had never really thought of writing as a career possibility until eleventh grade, when she was inspired by her English teacher.

“It’s such a cliché,” said Czaga of her start in writing, which had everything from the classic highschool mentor to the Sylvia Plath obsession.

It may be cliché, but her poems certainly aren’t. From “That Great-Burgundy Upholstered

sale >>

Zombies, dresses, Ubu Roi, oh my!

PHOTO cherihan hassun/the ubyssey

From Zombies to period dresses, the UBC Theatre and Film department has it all.

Jessica Roberts-Farina Contributor

Forgo the cross-town trek to Value Village for your Halloween costume needs this year.

Instead, stroll over (or stampede your classmates) to Freddy Wood Theatre for UBC Theatre & Film’s priced-to-clear Halloween Costume Sale on Wednesday, October 22.

Production students will be hauling racks upon racks of costumes from the shop to the

Freddy Wood Theatre lobby for the sale to reduce their inventory and raise funds for the costume shop’s upgrades. All items are $10 and under, from vintage bling and furs to corseted Shakespearean dresses.

For the DIY-oriented, many a hemline of a gorgeous dress or snappy pants awaits just a few minutes of a needle and thread to regale in their former stage glory.

The truly strange and unusual costumes will abound, including

those from last year’s production of the riotous Ubu Roi, such as a ghost getup that evokes the sense of a loutish royal glutton on the prowl.

“A lot of things we’re selling, like the Mere Ubu costume, are one-time use because they’re so show-specific. The money we raise we’re going to use to build things, like our own stock of corsets, that we can use over and over again,” said Alix Miller, organizer of the sale and a BFA student in Theatre Design & Production.

The Mere and Pere Ubu costumes — in all their naked, ghoulish glory — will be up for separate silent auction at the sale, with bids starting at 12 p.m. and ending at 4 p.m.

The sale’s proceeds will go towards updating everything from the costume shop’s shelving to improving its lighting, as well as building their own sustainable costume stock. Relying on their own stock will save the headaches of renting or building them from scratch out of the show’s budget.

“It’s going to be nice to pull from our own stock,” said Miller.

The UBC Theatre & Film’s Halloween Costume Sale is on Wednesday, October 22 from 12 to 4 at Frederic Wood Theatre, 6354 Crescent Road. Cash, debit, Visa and MasterCard accepted. U <em>

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14 | culture |

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

TV >>

The Country Club may be coming to a TV near you Yoki Li Contributor

Some of you might know Lara Deglan from her amazingly funny interviews with various UBC athletic teams alongside Naomi Vogt, such as “UBC Football Men.” She’s now back with an all-new hilarious comedy TV show.

Based on their common interest in golf and the entertainment industry, Deglan, along with her friends Brock Pennie and Caileigh Anderson, are writing, directing and acting in their new comedy television series The Country Club . They are participating in the nationwide CBC ComedyCoup competition to win $500,000 for production financing and to have their pilot marketed and broadcast on prime time CBC. Currently, The Country Club has made it to the Top 110 out of 285 teams. They are one of the few teams in BC to make it this far, and the only Langley-based team.

Even though Deglan, Pennie and Anderson are up against tough competitors, they are in it to win it.

“One guy has like 500,000 followers,” said Pennie. “And a lot of guys with 10, 15 years experience … and then there’s us. But do not say we are underdogs, ‘cause we’re not playing that card. We refuse to play that card. We’re just as good as the others.”

They were able to use Brock’s equipment from his other job at VanReel Films, and they film at Newlands Golf & Country Club in Langley, getting an authentic location for the scenes. According to Lara, there are also five UBC BFA alumni working with The Country Club , including Naomi Vogt, who plays Deglan’s arch nemesis in later episodes.

The Country Club is about more than golf.

“It’s like The Office type of thing [or] Parks and Recreation, where every character is important,” said Deglan. It is a mockumentary that focuses on the dynamic relationships between three young managers who love their jobs and are recently promoted at the Deep Woods Golf & Country Club, located in the fictional town of Stanston, BC. The show follows the main characters Emmett, the Clubhouse Manager; Julie, the Wedding and Events Coordinator and Rachael, the new Assistant Clubhouse Manager. We see how each of them adjust to their new roles and fight their corporatized rivals, the Eagle Crest Golf Resort & Spa. Anderson, who has worked in the golf industry since she was 13, says, “[It’s] stuff I see happen everyday. It’s just something [that] happens at a country club.” <em>

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Photo courtesy Sam van den Boogaard

The Country Club is a comedy TV show that is a part of the CBC ComedyCoup competition.

With Deglan’s acting experience, Pennie’s experience in the film industry and Anderson’s degree in marketing, they col-

laborated and learned from each other’s skill sets.

The Country Club is a low budget production.

“It’s been pretty much all no budget. I want to say maybe less than 150 bucks, maybe 200,” said Pennie.

To support Deglan and her crew, find them on comedycoup. cbc.ca U <em>

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Clubs >>

New club wants UBC to embrace Bitcoins Chloë Lai Contributor

What if you could show up in San Francisco with nothing but your smartphone, scan the unique QR code of your digital wallet into a Bitcoin ATM and walk away with American cash?

That’s what Willson Cross did this summer.

“It’s the future of money,” said the president and founder of UBC’s new Bitcoin Club. This echoes the sentiments of Bill Gates, who has called the cryptocurrency “a technological tour de force.”

What is Bitcoin? Cross described it as “a virtual currency that is mined … on high powered computers.”

“It’s like online banking,” said Cross, pulling out his smartphone to display a digital Bitcoin wallet.

Apparently, whether or not a person understands precisely how Bitcoin is created, using it is actually incredibly straightforward. Like being able to drive a car without knowing what a chassis is.

There is a space at the top of the phone screen where the user’s Bitcoin balance is shown, and when they want to pay for an item at a Bitcoin-friendly location, they simply scan the QR code displayed on the merchant’s ‘Point Of Sale’ system to transfer the appropriate amount of currency. Cross’s first Bitcoin purchase was an Earl Grey tea at Blenz.

It seems so simple, so why isn’t Bitcoin more mainstream?

As with many things, it comes down to public image. First, there’s the fluctuating value of the digital currency, which is “impressive” to investors like Cross, but worrying to the general public.

Its mysterious origins, thanks to an anonymous creator known only by the pseudonym Satoshi

The UBC Bitcoin Club, at the time of the interview had 15 members, but that number is steadily growing.

Nakamoto, also inspire distrust in some.

For many people the first time they had ever heard of Bitcoin was when the cryptocurrency was slammed for its central role in the operation of the drug and weapons trafficking website Silk Road, whose takedown was widely publicized. It wasn’t the best first impression.

That’s why, Cross said, the UBC Bitcoin Club’s first order of business is to promote “Bitcoin literacy for the UBC student body,” in order to move away from the “social stigma.” There are several Fortune

500 companies that are already establishing partnerships with Bitcoin, with familiar names like PayPal and Expedia “adding value to the ecosystem.”

As for prospective members, don’t let the techno-talk scare you off. More than anything, the Bitcoin Club is about community.

“We want everybody on board,” said Cross. “The biggest thing is emotional investment. All we ask for … is passion and input.”

The response has been overwhelming. Within 24 hours of having launched their website, the club had received 124 e-mails

from interested UBC students and alumni, as well as the global Bitcoin community.

In fact, at the time of the interview with Cross, the Bitcoin Club was officially welcomed into partnership with two multinational associations, the College Crypto Network and the Global Bitcoin Alliance.

Cross and his team intend to help UBC evolve into a Bitcoin-friendly institution.

Though their initial focus is on student engagement and education, they are also working toward encouraging merchant adoption,

PHOTO cherihan hassun/the ubyssey

particularly at the UBC Bookstore and the SUB. Ultimately, Cross hopes to one day be able to pay his tuition in Bitcoin.

The club also has plans for a mentorship program, connecting club members to Bitcoin industry leaders, and is in the process of setting itself up as a small-business incubator.

These may seem like lofty goals, but Cross sees them as a logical extension of UBC’s vision. “If UBC’s looking for innovation, they’re going to find it in Bitcoin,” said Cross.

Today, a cup of tea. Tomorrow, tuition. U

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

| culture | 15

recipes >>

Delicious fall recipes to get you in the autumn mood Gluten-free alternative to pasta

Gingerspice cookies for loved ones

3 tablespoons brown sugar Salt and pepper 1. Cut a squash in half, from top to bottom, as evenly as possible.

Remove the guts of the squash (like you would remove the seeds in a pumpkin).

2. Place both halves cut side down in a deep dish. Add about an inch of water and cover with tin foil.

Bake for 30 minutes at 375°F. 3. Remove tin foil and flip over the halves. Cut a little into the halves at various places and add butter and brown sugar. Bake again, cut side up, for another 15 minutes.

Spaghtti squash is a great gluten free pasta substitute.

Natalie Morris Staff Writer

An easy and delicious alternative to spaghetti that embodies autumn.

PHOTO cherihan hassun/the ubyssey

1 spaghetti squash (or any other squash, as they can be cooked the same) 3 tablespoons butter

Delicious Pumpkin Buns for fall

4. Remove from oven and pull out squash with a fork (if the squash does not pull out easily, bake for another 5 minutes).

5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir squash. Serve as you would spaghetti or squash. U 2. Add about three cups of flour.

Keep adding flour until the dough is soft and not sticky.

3. Turn dough on to floured surface and knead until smooth.

Cover with a tea towel for about 15 minutes. Knead again and place in a large greased bowl to rise. Cover with the tea towel and lightly cover with plastic wrap (not to confine the dough, only to keep it from drying out). Place in warmer place (your oven preheated to the lowest temperature then turned off or with the light on) for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

PHOTO cherihan hassun/the ubyssey

Delicious, delicious pumpkin buns.

Natalie Morris Staff Writer

A little work is worth it with this amazing fall favourite 1 tablespoon instant or quick dissolve yeast 1 tablespoon warm water 1 cup very hot milk ¼ cups butter 1 ½ teaspoon salt

½ cup sugar 1 ½ cups pumpkin (from a can or just cooked pumpkin) 5 cups flour 1. Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. Combine butter and hot milk (the milk should melt the butter). Add salt, sugar and pumpkin and mix. Let sit until it’s lukewarm and add the yeast.

Natalie Morris Staff Writer

A super easy and partner approved cookie that tastes of fall.

2 cups sifted flour 1 tablespoon ground ginger 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon salt ¾ cup butter or hard margarine 1 cup sugar 1 egg, unbeaten ¼ cup (or less) molasses Optional: ½ teaspoon cloves

Alex Lenz Contributor

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

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2. Cream butter and add sugar slowly, then add egg and molasses.

3. Add dry ingredients to mixture and blend well.

4. Form into small balls and roll in sugar. Place cookie balls two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet (they will spread).

5. Bake at 350°F for 12 to 15 minutes. U

5. Bake at 350°F until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. U

ADVERTISING – MEDIA MANAGEMENT

Life is hard and full of unavoidable existential questions about who we are as individuals. Edward Albee’s play Three Tall Women explores these unavoidable truths: aging, changing and everything in between. UBC graduate Meaghan Chenosky plays the character of a nameless lawyer who must tackle these existential life questions.

“There’s something that I love about seeing a bunch of women kick ass. It doesn’t happen often in theatre,” said Chenosky.

Kicking ass is something Chenosky has seemed to master. The 27-year-old UBC graduate has come a long way since obtaining her Bachelor of Fine Arts three years ago. In her upcoming role as a lawyer in Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Chenosky tackles the challenge of portraying a nameless character that is suddenly exposed to the realities of growing old. In this coming-of-age script, three women of different generations come together to learn about the rich experiences of the oldest woman’s life while she is on her deathbed.

1. Add first five ingredients together and set aside.

4. Knead the dough one last time and divide into pieces for buns (remember to cut them to half the size you want them to finish as.

Place buns on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with the tea towel and let rise for 20 to 30 minutes or until double in size once again (check frequently because they will collapse if they are left too long) .

UBC alumna in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women “Aging, regret, hope and who you are and who you want to be, those are things that everybody walks around with in their belly all the time. And when you see it on stage and you see it personified, it can be really resonant. It’s either catharsis or it brings up questions.

It makes you feel kind of small in a good way. It makes you feel like getting old is part of being young,” said Chenosky.

The rigorous artistic style of Albee leaves no room for error in the portrayal of his famous script.

The dialogue is frank, shameless and calculated to a tee. No extra bells and whistles are added to Gold Theatre’s production of Three Tall Women . Rather, the script is conveyed in a truly honest and understated fashion. “Albee’s a very clever playwright. Everything is conscious. Everything is pristine.”

While Chenosky herself is young, she exemplifies strength and perseverance in her acting career. Prior to her part in Three Tall Women , Chenosky took on the role of Dottie in Killer Joe , a performance which earned her the Jessie Richardson Award.

“Having that piece of glass, it

PHOTO cherihan hassun/the ubyssey

Gingersnaps are a delicious fall cookie staple.

hasn’t guaranteed me anything.

But all of a sudden I can get my foot in the door where I couldn’t before,” said Chenosky.

Native to London, Ontario, Chenosky had the added challenge of finding acting work as an outsider when she first arrived in Vancouver six years ago. “You have to hustle. You have to work hard. I think it’s hard for people to take a risk on people sometimes. It’s a business … it takes so much to earn an audience. You have to be prepared to work twice as hard. And as a young woman, you have to work even harder.”

As a UBC graduate, Chenosky can empathize with the struggles that many fine arts students face when they graduate. “You hear ‘no’ a lot when you’re first out of school. If you can hear ‘no’ and that’s something that doesn’t make you doubt yourself, and it makes you feel like you just need to prove to them how awesome you are, then it helps.”

You can catch Chenosky’s performance in Gold Theatre’s Three Tall Women every day from October 23 to November 9 at PAL Studio Theatre. U </

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

Notice of Development Permit Application - DP 14030

Public Open House

Biological Sciences Building - 6270 University Boulevard You are invited to attend an Open House on Wednesday, October 29 to view and comment on a proposed addition and renovation to the Biological Sciences complex at 6270 University Boulevard to accommodate new UBC Undergraduate Life Sciences Teaching Labs.

Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 Time: 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Place: Earth Sciences Building Atrium, 2207 Main Mall

Chemistry A Block

Chemistry B Block

University Boulevard

Abdul Ladha

Bookstore

Across 1- Bridge 5- Oscar Madison, for one 9- Truman’s Missouri birthplace 14- Architect Saarinen 15- After the bell 16- Make up for wrongdoing 17- I smell ___!

18- “Clueless” catchphrase 19- Clogs, e.g.

20- Underground electric railroad 22- Thicket 24- Connections 25- Bring back into stock 29- Worries 32- Intake 34- Vintner’s prefix 35- Wife of Jacob 36- Perfect Sleeper maker 37- Palm starch 38- Performs 39- The cruelest month?

40- Shank 41- ___ Cong 42- Abounds 43- Rhythmic swing 44- Other, in Oaxaca 45- “Splendor in the Grass” screenwriter 46- Sailing hazards 47- Name given to the fox 49- Title of a knight

Henry Angus

Michael Smith

FNH

AERL Beaty Biodiversity

Bio Sciences

Main Mall

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50- Fear greatly 52- Owl, e.g.

56- French composer Erik 59- String tie 61- Japanese rice wine 62- Concert venue 63- Person who is liable to tell untruths 64- Mid-month times 65- Male deer 66- Suffix with exist 67- Scarf

Plans will be displayed for the project which will include the demolition of a portion of the building to allow for a new 4-storey East Wing for new teaching labs, an upgraded interior courtyard and renovation of the existing North Wing.

Representatives from the project team and Campus + Community Planning will be available to provide information and respond to inquiries about this project.

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East Mall

Scarfe

For more information on this project, please visit: planning.ubc.ca/vancouver/projects-consultations Meeting Location For further information: Earth Sciences Building

EOS Main

Please direct questions to Karen Russell, Manager Development Services karen.russell@ubc.ca 604-822-1586 This event is wheelchair accessible.

Down 1- Oceans 2- Andean country 3- Riyadh resident 4- In spite of 5- Does in 6- ___ Cruces 7- Ear-related 8- Formerly 9- Cowboy’s tool 10- Arterial plaque deposit 11- Cattle call 12- “Wheel of Fortune” buy 13- Hi-___ monitor 21- Ques. response 23- Flower parts 26- Honeybunch 27- Submerge 28- Perches 29- Taste 30- Narrate 31- Diner 32- Reliable 33- Like some vbs.

36- Literary ridicule 46- ___ Grande 48- Regions 49- Beach locale 51- Slay 53- I did it!

54- Squeezes (out) 55- 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet 56- KLM rival 57- Illustrative craft 58- Some like it hot 60- Fond du ___

Build your portfolio with us. coordinating@ubyssey.ca

U

piece together a sustainable future what is mscsm?

The MScSM degree is a 20-month graduate program for individuals interested in management careers in sustainability related divisions and organizations.

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Visit our website for the details of the program and to mark the calendar dates for our visit to your campus.

university of toronto Mississauga mscsm.utm@utoronto.ca | 905-569-5803 | www.utm.utoronto.ca/mscsm Oct 16 answers

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