SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 | VOLUME XCIX | ISSUE VIII ‘CHERYLE’ WITH AN ‘E’ SINCE 1918
U
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NEWS
CULTURE
Memoir: Looking back on first-year woes
Walk for Reconciliation is only the first step
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P / 14
OPINIONS
SCIENCE
SPORTS
Their Campus: Appreciating my study abroad
Why some people worship a flying spaghetti monster
Dinos, superhumans and soft balls
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THE UBYSSEY
WEAKEST LINK
THE CHALLENGES OF BEING THE LOW-HANGING FRUIT OF THE TECH WORLD. PAGE 7.
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SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY
YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS & PEOPLE
EVENTS
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OUR CAMPUS
Our Campus: Max Holmes is the new kid on the block THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 ALLARD PRIZE FOR INTERNATIONAL INTEGRITY AWARD CEREMONY 6:30 P.M. @ UBC OLD AUDITORIUM Free, but RVSP in advance.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 TOUGH STUFF: REPORTING ON SENSITIVE TOPICS WORKSHOP 6 P.M. @ AMS Nest Room 2506 We’re not the only newspaper around. FREE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 CHEESE AND MEAT FESTIVAL 2017 3 or 7 P.M. @ Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre $35-135
Joshua Azizi Contributor
ON THE COVER PHOTO BY Patrick Gillin
Want to see more events or see your events listed here? ubyssey.ca/events
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SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 | VOLUME XCIX| ISSUE VIII
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Sophie Sutcliffe
The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Tuesday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization and all students are encouraged to participate. Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publications Society.
The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles. The Ubyssey accepts opinion articles on any topic related to the University of British Columbia (UBC) and/or topics relevant to students attending UBC. Submissions must be written by UBC students, professors, alumni, or those in a suitable position (as determined by the opinions editor) to speak on UBC-related matters. Submissions must not contain racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, harassment or discrimination. Authors and/ or submissions will not be precluded from publication based solely on association with particular ideologies or subject matter that some may find objectionable. Approval for publication is, however, dependent on the quality of the ar-
Holmes will officially take office on Wednesday, September 27.
gument and The Ubyssey editorial board’s judgment of appropriate content. Submissions may be sent by email to opinion@ubyssey.ca. Please include your student number or other proof of identification. Anonymous submissions will be accepted on extremely rare occasions. Requests for anonymity will be granted upon agreement from four fifths of the editorial board. Full opinions policy may be found at ubyssey.ca/submit-an-opinion It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.
Just over a year ago, Max Holmes was a first-year arts student who had recently moved to Vancouver after growing up on a farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania — a town with a population of 2,528 people. Fast-forward to last weekend and Holmes had just been elected AMS VP Academic and University Affairs (VPAUA), winning 84.2 per cent of the vote in a tense by-election with a 12.8 per cent voter turnout. In contrast, only 3.8 per cent of students voted in 2013’s VPAUA by-election. “This is definitely not where I thought I was going to be,” said Holmes the morning after his victory. “Honestly, I’m ready to get down to work. The office has obviously fallen a little behind with all the transition stuff, so I know that we need to start working immediately.” New to Vancouver, Holmes spent the first four months of first year mostly focusing on schoolwork — but he later got his first taste of the AMS after unexpectedly winning the role of elections administrator for its 2017 general election. “I guess they put their chances in a little first-year,” he said. Though he originally didn’t
FiLE PATRICK GILLIN
imagine himself as a future student politician, he decided to stick with the AMS after getting to know the members of last year’s executive team. In particular, he said that he looked up to former AMS President Ava Nasiri and enjoyed working with former VPAUA Samantha So. “I just met great people and they all convinced me that I should stay on in the AMS in some form.” He soon took an interest in the VPAUA office where he earned the position of associate VPAUA and worked under the wing of Daniel Lam, the previous VPAUA. When Lam resigned last July, Holmes put forward his candidacy for his former co-worker’s position. “I knew from the start when I was applying for jobs, if there was any position I wanted in the AMS, it was going to be this position,” he said. “I knew that what I wanted to do was university-facing. I wanted to be able to advocate for students on the body that can affect them most.” Holmes will officially take office on Wednesday, September 27, when he will start working on an ambitious platform that includes some of Lam’s previous priorities. His goals for the position — which include working with UBC to lower housing costs, reviewing academic concession policies,
advocating for Open Educational Resources and reviewing graduate student advocacy — are so expansive that he struggled to make hard commitments during the debate. Although he understands why students would be concerned about him not being able to achieve all of his goals within his seven remaining months in office, Holmes hopes to at least make some progress on them so that future VPAUAs can continue his work. “There’s not going be a single goal that I don’t work on this year,” he said. “I would rather have an ambitious set of goals and maybe not accomplish everything than have a safe set of goals and accomplish all of them but then realize I could have accomplished more.” Looking back, Holmes thinks that his campaign went very well, all things considered. “[The margin of] 5,400 to 1,000 votes is something I’m really proud about, and I know I wouldn’t have been able to do that if students weren’t confident in the platform that I had and weren’t confident in the things I was speaking to them about,” said Holmes of the margin by which he won over his only opponent, Franz Kurtzke. He also noted that he enjoyed his debate with Kurtzke. “Even though I disagreed with my opponent on many things, I was glad to see that people came out to ask questions about things that were on his platform that maybe not necessarily were addressed in my platform,” said Holmes. “Academic freedom is not something I’m going to ignore — this is something I’ve already spoken to [Senior Advisor to the Provosts on Academic Freedom] Neil Guppy about [and] I’ve already had conversations with the student Senate caucus about it. “I was just glad to be able to have someone else up there on stage with me to be able to really have a good debate.” As he moves into the full-time role later this week, Holmes listed meditation, academics and the friends that he’s made at UBC as his biggest past-times outside of the AMS’ busy schedule. “I try to be someone that has a close-knit friend group and I try to have people that challenge me, so I have to thank all the friends that I have because I wouldn’t be here without them.” But as someone who’s only been at UBC for just over a year, Holmes believes that the list of things he’ll do in his time here is only going to grow. “Around a year ago now I was listening to Ava Nasiri’s Imagine Day speech, so it’s kind of crazy to think that I’m one of the executives now that sat on that stage when I was there in first year,” he said. “A year ago — wow, I didn’t even know what the AMS was!” U
NEWS
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY
EDITORS SAMANTHA MCCABE + ALEX NGUYEN
3
BY-ELECTION //
Max Holmes wins AMS VP Academic Jack Hauen Coordinating Editor
Max Holmes said he was “humbled and honoured by students” after being elected AMS VP Academic and University Affairs (VPAUA) Friday night. Holmes worked as associate VPAUA under Daniel Lam, who occupied the position previously. Lam resigned in July, which triggered the by-election. Holmes ran on a platform of affordability, diversity, improving the student experience and adding additional experiental learning opportunities like co-op. Holmes defeated the race’s only other candidate, Franz Kurtzke, who ran on a platform of promoting free speech and reform of the social justice movement. Holmes received 84.2 per cent of the votes, while Kurtzke received 15.8 per cent. Five per cent of the votes abstained. Kurtzke had previously gained notoriety on campus for his antisocial justice lettering campaign, during which he got a talking to from the RCMP after entering a locked campus residence without permission. Holmes received endorsements from the UBC Inter-Fraternity Council, the UBC Social Justice Centre, social justice-oriented media outlet The Talon and former
JACK HAUEN
“I think the most important thing is that we come together for our advocacy.”
VPAUA Samantha So. Kurtzke was able to galvanize the UBC Free Speech Club in support of his run, despite previous fallout wth the club. However, he never garnered mainstream support. By-elections traditionally have extremely low voter turnout
(3.8 per cent of students voted in 2013’s VPAUA race) but Elections Administrator Filza Raza said 12.8 per cent of students voted this time — a number just higher than the turnout for the 2016 AMS general elections, in which 12.5 per cent of students voted.
Holmes said he hopes to unite students after a “contentious campaign.” “I think the most important thing is that we come together for our advocacy,” he said, “so that instead of being divided as students we can have a united
front for everything that we bring to the university, because they’re going to be united, so we need to be united.” His post-election announcement plan was to call his parents — “the biggest supporters in the world” — and tell them the news. U
FREE SPEECH //
AMS VICE censored to keep Imagine Day ‘family-friendly’
They could not use certain terms like “drugs,” “substance” or “alcohol.”
Zak Vescera Contributor
VICE — an AMS addiction support service — was required to censor their materials for Imagine Day on the basis of keeping the event “family-friendly,” according to multiple sources familiar with the service.
A relatively new service, VICE aims to tackle all forms of addiction by offering educational outreach, harm-reduction workshops and individual peersupport mentorship programs. Despite this objective, they could not use certain terms like “drugs,” “substance” or “alcohol.” As a result, VICE had to tape over all mentions
ZUBAIR HIRJI
of these words on their banners and printing materials — making their outreach materials more or less nonsensical. “Basically all printed materials they have included those words,” said an anonymous source close to VICE’s operations. “They had to cover up the words on their banners, making the message very
vague and silly.” They were also not allowed to display any drug or substance related materials, including naloxone kits that are used to revive people overdosing on opioids — especially fentanyl and heroin. VICE Coordinator Alexander Dauncey was not able to comment. Kim Kiloh, the director of the Centre for Student Involvement and Careers, which is organizes Imagine Day, stated that VICE’s materials were not the “best fit” for Imagine Day. “Given the venue, our staff encouraged the VICE team to focus on advertising the service and to direct students to their office at the Nest for more personalized conversations about risk reduction,” Kiloh said. The Main Event Regulations — which provides guidelines for boothing on Imagine Day — also states that “no alcohol or alcoholrelated activities [are] permitted at the event.” However, the anonymous source viewed this as a severe misreading of the service’s message and intentions. “The whole point of being there is to be available to talk about any issues students might have,” they said. “Trying to not shy away from the conversation is literally the entire point of VICE.” Still, VICE had to scale back the depth and range of their information presented at the event. Rather than leading students through normal activities involving substance control, they were allowed to present
just statistics on normative drinking rates, but only after confirming audience members were drinkers. The source indicated that these restrictions severely damaged the service’s ability to reach out to students. “The only way that the UBC team allowed [VICE] to use those statistics is if they confirmed with the students that they were drinkers,” they said. “VICE normally doesn’t try to single people out and put them in boxes by asking if they drink ... we’re trying to de-stigmatize that kind of thing.” They further added that UBC’s restrictions might have especially impacted new students. “When people get to university, it’s a new time for them — they’re experimenting with many things,” said the source. “Maybe they’ve never tried alcohol or drugs before. “It’s a bit like saying we can’t say the word SASC — Sexual Assault Support Centre — because we don’t want to make it seem like every student is having sex. We can’t just pretend that nobody here is using drugs or alcohol.” The source also claimed that VICE received little support on this matter from the society — despite being a service within the AMS. “It seems like from the AMS’s standpoint, they didn’t want to be too aggressive so I don’t think they took huge steps to help,” they said. “It seems like they didn’t make a big deal out of it and they just pushed it to the side.” When contacted, AMS President Alan Ehrenholz acknowledged The Ubyssey’s message, but has not yet provided a statement. U
4 | news | TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 INDIGENEITY //
‘We are all one’: Thousands take part in Walk for Reconciliation way forward for reconciliation. “Let’s take the love and hope and opportunity today, take it tomorrow and the next day and the next week and the next month, and make a better British Columbia together.” Other notable speakers included Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Minister of Justice Jody-Wilson Raybould and Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow. The event also featured a number of performances from a variety of musicians and dance groups that ranged from Inuk musician Susan Aglukark to the Royal Academy of Bhangra.
“IT’S NOT A CURE”
“I knew innately that reconciliation gives us the possibility to find new ways to go forward.”
Joshua Azizi Contributor
On Sunday, thousands crossed the Cambie Street bridge in the Walk for Reconciliation to acknowledge the legacy of Canada’s residential school system. They later convened at Strathcona Park to listen to speakers and watched performances that called for solidarity around efforts to create constructive steps forward. From 1871 to 1996, “at least 150,000 First Nation, Métis, and Inuit children” were seized from their families and sent to residential schools in a government-ordained attempt to assimilate them into Canadian culture. Physical, sexual and emotional abuse were extremely prevalent. Thousands of children died in the schools, while the trauma endured by the survivors has damaged their communities for generations. “The worst thing you can be is Indian — that’s what I was taught when I was little,” said the survivor who opened the event. “I knew they were capable of killing me. They [built] those schools so we’d die.” She also talked about suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her experiences, but finished her speech on a hopeful note. “I ask everyone involved today [to] open your heart and realize these are all your brothers and
sisters. I ask Creator to bless you all and make us all one race — the human race.”
ZACH KOURGIALIS
He finished by expressing that working together was the best
Linc Kesler — the director of the First Nations House of Learning at UBC and the advisor to the president on Aboriginal affairs — had mixed feelings about the event. He appreciated how the walk can highlight the importance of Indigenous issues in Canadian society, but noted that the event is limited when it comes to offering concrete advances. “Its primary importance is that it brings a bit of visibility to the kind of questions that remain for us to resolve surrounding our relationships,” he said. “It’s great at creating a moment of attention, but it in itself can’t really do more than that ... It’s not a cure and it’s not in itself a solution.” Kesler also felt somewhat ambivalent about the concept of reconciliation and recalled hearing speeches by residential
school survivors who had rejected the term. “People have stood up and said ‘I’m not going to be reconciled,’ and what they’re indicating is that the history of what happened to them is so difficult that they don’t expect it to ever be fully addressed in their lifetime ... The idea where we’re [going to] reach a point where it’s all OK, they’re not expecting that to happen for them. “And I have to say I kind of feel the same way myself.” Regarding the long-term changes, Kesler expressed that although systematic changes need to be made, individuals can also create a difference by simply becoming more informed about Indigenous history to better understand the issues of today. “People encounter reports on events in the newspaper and they’re usually conflicting — it’s usually about land claims or barricades or pipelines or deplorable conditions in some communities,” he said. “As people go to think about them or decide what to think about them, they have very little of contextual information that would allow them to think about them in an informed way.” In that light, he appreciated the walk’s ability to raise awareness. “If something like a walk brings attention to that and people follow up on it by coming to understand a bit more and thinking things through in a lot more detail, that’s important,” Kesler said. U
“WE NEED EACH OTHER” This theme of unity could also be found in the march’s slogan — “namwayut,” which translates into “we are all one” — and later speeches and performances at Strathcona Park. “I knew innately that reconciliation gives us the possibility to find new ways to go forward together,” said Reconciliation Canada Ambassador Chief Robert Joseph, who is himself a residential school survivor. “I want to say to you that Aboriginal people cannot do it alone, that we need each other.” This ideal was further complemented by tangible steps to take, both in the everyday life and policy context. National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Perry Bellegarde told the crowd that they can help create a reconciled future by getting rid of of their stereotypes of Indigenous people, calling out prejudice and teaching people about the legacy of residential schools. BC Premier John Horgan stated that his government acknowledged the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, the 94 Calls to Action and previous court cases that promised Indigenous rights.
“I want to say to you that Aboriginal people cannot do it alone, that we need each other.”
ZACH KOURGIALIS
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY | news | 5 SAFETY //
Shaping Vancouver nocturnal culture: GRSJ student Stacey Forrester starts nightlife street team Kelly Chan Contributor
In 2016 and 2017, there have been increasing reports of crime in the Granville Entertainment District including cases of stabbings, sexual assault and debit card theft. These incidences may be quite worrying to bar-goers in the area — this is where the Stacey Forrester’s “Night Life Street Team” comes into play. Forrester is a GRSJ student at UBC and co-organizer for Good Night Out Vancouver. She is at the forefront of the Night Life Street Team as they move into their third weekend — Friday and Saturday nights from midnight to 3 a.m. — patrolling the Granville area in an aim to increase patron safety. As a GRSJ student with a background in healthcare, Forrester’s fields of study played equally significant roles in motivating her to start the Nightlife Street Team initiative. “I feel like safe public spaces are just as much a health issue as they are a social issue,” said Forrester. She also explained that their concept originated “from an early grassroots feminist framework in that women and the queer community and everyone essentially deserves to feel safe in all aspects of their life.” “One little incident is all it takes to kind of ruin a night out,” Forrester said. “You’ll be out, you’ll be having fun. Everything is going well and then someone will like kind of like you know, do a little grab as they pass by or kind of follow you around.” Forrester has repeatedly heard stories that pertained to these behaviours and she hopes that the Nightlife Street Team could help people enjoy Granville’s nightlife culture without having to worry much about harassment and other safety issues. In addition to the behaviours Forrester mentions, statistics from the Vancouver Police Department show that the Central Business District area
KOBY MICHAELS
“I feel like safe public spaces are just as much a health issue as they are a social issue,” said Stacey Forrester.
of Vancouver has the highest incidences of crime such as assault and robbery compared to other areas in Vancouver. Forrester acknowledges this issue and said that the team will be collecting statistics during their eight weeks. A challenge she has faced is helping people realize that even though behaviours such as catcalling are not illegal, they are problematic and should not be normalized. Forrester observes that said behaviours cannot be easily reported to the police because no crimes are being committed and
Co-organizer of Good Night Out Vancouver, Ashtyn Bevan
the police are often preoccupied with larger matters. On their first weekend patrolling Granville, Forrester said many people approached members of the team to ask about the project. Approximately 60 per cent of those who received support from the Nightlife Street Team were women-identifying, while the other 40 per cent were men-identifying. Through these numbers, Forrester emphasized that women-identifying patrons are not the only ones who are affected. The team itself is a diverse group
KOBY MICHAELS
made up of men and women from a variety of backgrounds, including some UBC students. If the Nightlife Street Team is successful at the end of the eight weeks, they will consider expanding the project to other
areas of downtown Vancouver. The team initially had a main volunteer group and began reaching out to their friends to fill shifts. They will also be recruiting new members if the project is extended. U
Women-identifying patrons are not the only ones affected.
KOBY MICHAELS
THE UBYSSEY STORE Wear the paper. Read your university. STORE.UBYSSEY.CA
FEATURES
EDITOR MOIRA WYTON
Weakest Link How not to be the un iversity that gives up $11 .8 mi llion to hackers Words by Jac k Lamming Photos & Art by Patrick Gillin & Natalie Morris
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY
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8 | Features | TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
“The nature of the security is a cat and mouse kind of game, like a moving target.” - Dr. Hasan Cavusoglu, associate professor emeritus of information management
Jack Lamming Contributor
On Friday May 12, PC users across the world opened their laptops to a brick wall — or, more accurately, a paywall. Over the following weekend, some 300,000 people found themselves locked out of their computers, all data encrypted. To get their data back, one had to pay a specified amount of Bitcoin (BTC) — an untraceable cryptocurrency — to the hackers. The typical payment was close to three hundred dollars, or 0.13752951 BTC at the time of publishing. Though given the vast spread of the attack, that relatively small fee crippled massive organizations. The attacks were implemented with the WannaCry ransomware program, though how and who infected so many computers remains unclear. The most severe shocks were felt in Europe, though Britian was hit hardest. The National Health Service, Britain’s single-payer healthcare system, was crippled by the attack — some 48 out of 258 systems were shut out entirely. What does any of this mean to the average UBC student? For starters, stop thinking you’re immune and that you can trust those TV streaming sites hosted in Azerbaijan. If you decide to pirate your TV or music, watch out for the file type. If your Gilmore Girls season five is full of .exe files, don’t click on them, and make sure to
delete LimeWire. It’s not just your computer you’re protecting, it’s the network. “There’s personal information as well as their interest in accessing the internet [at UBC] — there are potential vulnerabilities all around us,” notes Dr. Hasan Cavusoglu, an associate professor emeritus focusing in information technology management at UBC. “Although you can try to put all of the protection mechanisms around the network, [it] still creates some further vulnerabilities for everyone in the network.” While these viruses can be largely harmless — locking your PC until you read a trite poem, for example — viruses have gained the power to steer democracy and target institutions, including universities, with an abundance of sensitive and valuable information.
HACKER? I BARELY KNOW HER! The methods used by the WannaCry hackers may be novel, but hacking is as old as computing itself. The first viruses were spread through malicious floppy disks, cooked up by a ninth grader in 1981. And still, the hacking everyone’s been talking about lately is less of the ‘[ACCESS GRANTED]’ hacking you see on NCIS, and more social
engineering. The most wellknown attacks are called phishing, and can be either precisely targeted or broad, aiming to make you willingly give up your information. For example: you log into Gmail to see an email from Apple saying that your account has been hacked — and you need to log in to change your password. What you didn’t notice is that the email was from help@apple. xyz, a fake account. It’s too late now, and your credit card is maxed out. While these attacks are nothing new — a freakishly prescient Radiolab in September 2015 told the story of one woman’s computer being locked by a WannaCry clone — their scale is unprecedented. Recently, MacEwan University in Edmonton paid $11.8 million in university funds to a fraudulent account posing as a regular university contractor, using a similar scheme as the previously mentioned false Apple emails. As though the original WannaCry wasn’t enough, a second ransomware attack spread across Europe last month, starting in Ukraine. The program was different this time, known as Petya, and infiltrated affected computers through malicious email attachments. Other than the name, the spread — which began in Eastern Europe, and is now spreading further — has the potential to cripple entire
infrastructure networks. “Security is the weakest link,” said Cavusoglu. “Even if you cover everything, even if there is one particular aspect that has not been protected properly, that can cause the problem.” For the UBC community of some 60,000 students, faculty and staff, information security breaches have ramifications from leaking personal records to intellectual property theft concerns. But in a university setting, security has to be balanced with flexibility — and the right ratio is hard to strike. While UBC has not disclosed the number of detected hacks on its networks in recent years, according to Cavusoglu, this is part of its security strategy. “The nature of the security is a cat and mouse kind of game, like a moving target,” he said.
INFORMATION ECOLOGY But UBC, despite its size and vault of information, lacks the privileges afforded to large corporations who can lock down their data behind a single firewall. “We don’t have that option because we have to allow researchers and professors and staff doing their work some flexibility in what they do,” said Don Thompson, UBC’s chief information officer. “Our network and our ecosystem here is very diversified and that definitely presents a challenge.”
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY | Features | 9
The “greatness of UBC” adds to those challenges as well. “We’re a tier one research university, so we have a lot of information of interest to people,” Thompson added. While he urges extreme caution when storing personal information on any public server, Thompson emphasized that UBC does everything possible to protect students. “UBC’s servers have protection on them as do our email gateways. They’re scanning for malware, phishing attempts and all of that. Then we have protection on individual computers, whether that be antivirus, encryption or various other technologies that we put in place for that.” UBC’s cybersecurity network attempts to keep your data between as many layers of security as possible, at least while on UBC networks, including malware scanners on servers. And UBC doesn’t go it alone either, according to Thompson. “We’re part of an organization called BC Net, which provides network and connectivity to all post-secondary institutions in BC,”
he said, referring to the not-forprofit of which all higher education institutions in BC are members. Securing its information isn’t a project UBC can handle on its own. “Some organizations might say, ‘Oh, I’m going to close all the loops, I’m not going to allow students access to this and that, you can’t use Facebook, you cannot use this, you can’t do any filesharing,’” he elaborated. “But my external observation is that UBC IT recognizes the importance [of freedom and flexibility]. They see it as a really proper risk management perspective instead.”
GROWING PAINS According to Cavusoglu, these challenges are those that all universities face as they update their systems and try to stay current during the new technology age. “Universities are viewed as one of those low hanging fruits,” he said, which makes them a potential target for hackers. “Especially due to the massive amounts of data that universities have about their students, hacks are potentially devastating.” And it is not just that students are vulnerable — they are also potential liabilities due to the laptops they often take to class.
“If it were a standard organization, either a company or government organization, you could have a lot more ways to ensure certain standards of protection. [But] a student might bring a laptop, which may not have any protection,” said Casuvoglu, noting that this could compromise the whole network. The sheer number of devices that each student is bringing in compounds the issue, with each being a potential source of malware. If a hacker gets access to the SSC, the consequences would be dire, but Cavusoglu said they are hard to foresee. “Certain metrics of student information would be exposed, [and there] might be some loss of credibility, reputation or damage [to UBC],” he said. Even so, the extent of these damages would be hard to predict even after the hack had been discovered and halted.
U l t i m a t e l y, Thompson highlighted the importance of using two-factor authentication for as much of one’s online presence as possible. Two-factor authentication refers to a system where you can’t just log in with a password, you need two forms of ID, such as a password and a code sent to your phone. While it’s not the reality at UBC yet, two-factor authentication will be rolling out for CWL login within the coming few months. Part of the reason is Thompson finds many students storing and sharing passwords between accounts and devices.
PRACTICE SAFE BROWSING Thompson doesn’t want students to worry — but it would certainly help him if they were more aware. He urged students to make their CWL password and login unique and to not share them with any other accounts. “When they have your information because with your username and password, they can become you,” he warned, adding that it is equally important to not using Facebook, Google, or Twitter credentials anywhere else. As well, keeping up with your updates can have a huge impact on the security of your information. “[In] the WannaCry outbreak from May, or the outbreak in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago, the avenues for all of the bad guys to get on to the systems were unpatched, older versions of the operating system,” said Thompson, stressing the need to keep your systems up to date. “Believe it or not, Apple, Microsoft and Linux developers use those incessant updates to keep their security infrastructure up to date.”
“If you recall, some of the largest internet companies have had breaches — Yahoo had millions of accounts breached, or not breached but made public, and the problem was that people used their business account, or their company account, also for their Yahoo account,” he said. The bottom line is that if employees at a tech company are vulnerable, so are members of the UBC community. To see if your personal information has been compromised, the website haveibeenpwned.com pinpoints which of your accounts could have become vulnerable by searching your email address. “As a university, we want to promote as much possible access to the network and to allow students to access information,” said Cavusoglu. “But at the same time, we recognize the challenges of balancing our responsibilities.” U
CULTURE
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY
EDITOR SAMUEL DU BOIS
10
MEMOIR //
Feeling disappointed and alone in first year Julia Burnham Contributor
I’m sure I must have startled the Ross House residence with the large, echoey clunks of my massive hockey bags in the stairwell. It took a while to drag everything up to the fourth floor and there was certainly no move-in crew in sight — there’s no pomp and circumstance when you move into first-year residence halfway through the year. With only the guidance of my older sister, a campus map riddled with yellow highlighter and a faint idea of how UBC works, I was flung into campus and residence life head-first. Once I decided in November of first-year that I needed to transfer out of my program at Sciences Po in France, I clung to the idea of starting fresh at UBC and getting the “real” college experience. Arts Advising was miraculously able to hook me up with a single room in Vanier, and I started counting down the days until I would be able to have late night study sessions in the common room and grab dinner in the caf with my newfound besties. There are a lot of things about Sciences Po that make it remarkably different from UBC — the small campus of about 900 or so students, for one thing. Aside from the overwhelmingly toxic atmosphere for student well-being (that’s another story), it just felt like high school all over again. I wanted to be somewhere with a bit of anonymity and endless opportunities to customize my university experience. The whole North American school spirit vibe was also enticing, and I quickly grew jealous of watching all of my friends attending frosh events back at home in Ontario. It made me want to dye my body purple and drink myself to death in the streets on St. Patrick’s Day. I wanted to brand myself in UBC merchandise from head to toe. I was ready to be a collegiate, but I didn’t realize that that wasn’t necessarily the UBC experience. I left my dorm room door wide open on that first day as I unpacked. I assumed that my RA told everyone that there would be a new student living on the floor and that they were expecting me. When a handful of girls walked by after class, some of them expressed they didn’t even know that whoever lived there in first term had moved out. It was a little disheartening. My RA eventually stopped by and said that she would try and get a group together to go for dinner at the caf. I’m pretty sure the dinner that night was the first and last time I ate with another human in the cafeteria. At this point, the friendships had already been formed on my floor and I was late to the party. There would be no other group dinners or study sessions. I tried to put myself out there in the beginning, but it was tiring to try and infiltrate these friend groups — I didn’t get the sense that I fit in with them. I was under the impression that I was supposed to be meeting my best friends in residence, but I don’t think I could name any of the girls who lived on
SAMUEL DU BOIS
“I can’t say that I ever got over my initial disappointment in UBC.”
JOIN they found me eventually. I guess that’s my fault for thinking they TODAY were going to be handed to me on
my floor to this day. From that point onward, I confined myself to my room, leaving only for the occasional lecture I could muster up the strength to attend or to pick up dinner to-go from the caf. For the first month or so of school, I’m pretty sure the only people I talked to were the cashier ladies in Vanier caf. I wanted so badly to be successful and happy at UBC, but I felt like I was flung in the deep end of some warped post secondary-dimension. Where was my multicultural group of friends, strutting down Main Mall between classes, like the promotional booklets promised? Nothing will ever really prepare you for the waves of loneliness or depression that you will feel in your first year of university, and no one will be there to hold your hand through it either. This isn’t a total sob story either — I got involved in different clubs on campus and developed some pretty incredible friendships in places I didn’t think I would find them. It took a while and meant that I had to extend myself beyond the boundaries of Vanier, but my people were out there and
a silver platter. I can’t say that I ever got over my initial disappointment in UBC — in fact, I probably never will. But it did make me change my perspective on what the purpose of a post-secondary education is. I used to think of university in a purely social context, with the higher learning portion as a fun bonus. The minute I started paying attention to my classes and investing myself into the things that I was learning, that mindset completely shifted. You can be here to make friends and you can be here to party — but you’re foremost here to get a degree. You don’t have to be a university student to make some adult friends and do some adult things. My high school self is definitely rolling over in her adolescent grave right now, but keeping this academic focus is in the back of my head at all times has really helped me get over my first year. I love what I’m able to study here, and ultimately that’s going to be more important than whether I had someone to sit with in the cafeteria. U
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SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY | culture | 11 PREVIEW //
Happy Days probably won’t change your mind about Beckett
COURTESY UBC THEATRE AND FILM
Beckett’s works are known for frustrating audiences with their cryptic writing and illusive meanings.
Lawrence Ge Contributor
Beckett is far from your average playwright. At first glance, his characters utter words and sentences that seem to lack any sort of coherence — trying to make sense of even one line usually just leads to more befuddlement. Despite his plays being very difficult to grasp, Beckett’s cultural impact is nothing to scoff at. Theatre academics and practitioners will have heard his name numerous times, often praising his profound contributions to the Theatre of the Absurd — a category of theatre that emphasizes the meaninglessness of human existence. From winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 to having a whole bridge named after him in Dublin, Beckett’s legacy stands incredibly strong within the theatre world. The extent of Beckett’s influence is clearly exhibited by UBC’s theatre department, with Beckett now returning to campus for another consecutive year as part of their lineup. The upcoming production of Happy Days — directed by Gerald Vanderwoude — will
soon be the latest addition to the department’s history of Beckett productions. The play explores the complex relationship shared between Winnie (played by Beverly Bardal) and Willie (played by Joe Procyk), a married couple placed within in a strange and surreal setting. Gerald Vanderwoude, an MFA directing alumnus from UBC’s theatre program — who is also currently an assistant dean in the faculty of arts — developed an interest in this play in 2001. Vanderwoude was drawn to the play for its portrayal of the character Winnie, her struggle with her husband and her attempt to find some sort of meaning to her life. “My professors would say to me, ‘don’t do a play unless it speaks to you,’” said Vanderwoude, “and this play did speak to me.” Vanderwoude, however, wanted to find precisely the right time to begin production for Happy Days. “For me, it was always about the right place, right time, right actors,” he said. It took a little more than 15 years before it all “just lined up right,” and work on the production began. Vanderwoude is an expert in directing Beckett. His masters
thesis was on Endgame, one of Beckett’s more significant plays. Vanderwoude’s first professional production of Beckett was back in 1995, when Dr. Peter Loeffler encouraged him to begin work on a Beckett production. “It all started snowballing from there,” said Vanderwoude. Now Vanderwoude holds director’s credits here at UBC for “nearly every Beckett production, save two.” Loeffler, who was a well respected theatre history professor, is perhaps the most influential figure in Vanderwoude’s career, as well as many other UBC theatre alumni. The Peter Loeffler Memorial Prize — an undergraduate award for theatre majors — was named after him to remind people of his legacy. It was from Vanderwoude’s relationship with Loeffler that his passion for theatre and Beckett grew. “Dr. Loeffler was one of the most inspirational teachers, and he was very much connected to Beckett,” said Vanderwoude. “Both of us had a shared passion for the art form.” Loeffler died in 2002 of cancer. Part of his legacy is the UBC’s theatre department’s strong connection to Beckett’s works, as well as their annual productions.
The production of Happy Days “is really about a celebration of Peter as much as it is about Beckett,” Vanderwoude explained. In this spirit, any proceeds earned from the show go towards funding the Peter Loeffler Memorial Prize. Although the Beckett plays produced by the theatre department evidently hold a great deal of personal significance to those who produce them, it still cannot be denied that they can be very hard to enjoy if you are new to the playwright’s works. Vanderwoude explained that his own enjoyment of Beckett comes from the variety of emotions that can be felt from the playwright’s portrayal of the human situation. Beckett’s work highlights the feeling best described by the realization that, while we live our everyday lives, “we are hurtling through space towards our eventual destruction.” Another reason to enjoy Beckett is that “it’s also an interactive theatre,” said Vanderwoude. “You are in the soup and every once in a while his characters look out across that wall and they sort of hint that they can see you.” Regardless of how elegantly director Vanderwoude puts
it, this explanation may not be sufficient enough to bring the average student to watch a Beckett play because it is still very difficult to understand the dialogue. Vanderwoude, however, believes that people who are new to Beckett should approach his plays a lot like how you would an “orchestra or a symphony.” Beckett’s writing has “a high degree of musicality and rhythm to it,” he said, arguing that a lot of the enjoyment of Beckett comes from the immediate experience of his plays rather than their comprehension. “Don’t try to outthink it,” advised Vanderwoude. “It’s just whether you’re open to it.” In the end, going to a Beckett play requires adjusting your approach as an audience member in order to experience its full impact. Regardless of whether or not students are able to understand and appreciate Beckett, Vanderwoude hopes students will come “for the celebration of theatre because that’s really what we’re doing.” U Happy Days runs from September 27 to 30 at the Frederick Wood Theatre. All profits from this production will go towards The Peter Loeffler Memorial Prize.
OPINIONS
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY
EDITOR EMMA HICKS
12
STUDY ABROAD //
Their Campus: Finding my drive at Delft University of Technology Suzanne King Contributor
Sure, the Dutch have a reputation for being weird — but if being weird is what you call having collaborative university classes coupled with a fun work life balance then I certainly don’t want to be normal. Where I really noticed a difference from UBC was the attitudes of Dutch students. For one, there was an overwhelming sense that they actually wanted to be there. It seems to me this must be equal part personal motivation and campus environment. More and more at UBC I find there is a disheartening lack of interest. Perhaps this is because of the massive, impersonal lecture hall style courses we all experience in lower years. Or maybe it is because so many students come to university to study engineering or science or business just to appease their parents. But, unlike UBC, Delft — a city of 96,000, an hour outside of Amsterdam — is refreshing because students are genuinely excited to be there. They are actively involved in everything going on at campus — from involvement in their sports and culture centre to engineering design teams. Students can even take an entire year off to work full time on a design team, organize a student festival or pursue something of the like. And they
Delft University of Technology.
actually do because they appreciate the value in these experiences without concerning themselves over the delay in their graduation. One Dutch friend of mine was managing a start-up company while still only in third year. By providing an environment where students have the freedom to actually do what they want and pursue their goals, TU Delft and
SUZANNE KING
their student body are thriving. There is an overwhelming sense that students and professors are on even playing field. One course I took consisted of weekly meetings where 12 students sat in a boardroom with our supervisor to discuss the progress of our project and collaborate — a foreign concept coming from UBC’s 200+ student lecture halls.
There is something undefinable about TU Delft that makes it so special. Maybe it is the worldrenowned faculty. Or perhaps it is the fact that it is a smaller — total enrollment is 19,000 — technically focused university. Or maybe it is the student mentality of working hard but knowing the value of getting involved in all the other great opportunities that lie outside of
the classroom. Whatever the magic recipe is, Delft certainly has it down to an art (or rather, a science). The long and short of it is, living and studying in Delft has made me more excited and motivated as a student and future engineer. U Suzanne King is a BCom graduate (UVic) and third year student studying civil engineering.
BOARD OF GOVERNORS //
Charles Menzies: Parking is driving UBC’s underground agenda
PATRICK GILLIN
The proposed site of the new parkade.
Charles Menzies Columnist
UBC is trying to move forward with a 200-car underground parking garage tucked into the space between the Nest, BirdCoop, War Memorial Gym and the Alumni Centre. The underground parking garage is being brought to this week’s (September 20/21) Board
of Governors meeting for Board 2 and 3 approval — the decision that makes the building of the garage a fait accompli. There is a certain irony involved here. UBC has been very loudly touting its “innovative” sustainability agenda, part of which includes constraining individual car trips off and on campus. Yet here we have a project with a stated mandate to facilitate
and encourage car trips into the ceremonial centre of campus. Somewhere, somehow, some time in the recent past someone came up with the brilliant idea to build an underground garage to encourage cars into campus. The current sell on this presents it as fulfilling UBC’s engagement mandate — engagement with offcampus communities. Who are these off-campus
communities that require a concrete underground parking garage? If we consider the facilities nearby one very prominent “engagement” space comes to mind: the Alumni Centre. All kinds of high-level “engagement” activities take place here — Board of Governors meetings, president’s advisory meetings, alumni executive and relate meetings, and donor gatherings. Is it possible that
this multi-million dollar concrete car storage and attractor facility is simply to further this kind of elite level engagement? How does attracting and facilitating car transport of special off-campus elites really serve the best interests of our public university? How does encouraging cars advance UBC’s sustainability agenda? Realistically this does not advance the overarching best interests of our university nor does it contribute to UBC’s sustainability agenda. UBC’s management needs to carefully rethink this project. How can the asserted needs of “engagement” be met through other means? Where is the modelling to see what the impact on engagement might be in the absence of the underground parkade? Before this project can be properly considered, UBC’s management team needs to do a more complete job reviewing their options and the implications of their planning. We expect a lot from our management team, but aren’t they the leaders of a top 50 global institution? Shouldn’t we expect more than good, shouldn’t we expect beyond excellence in planning and design? U Charles Menzies is a professor of anthropology and an elected member of the UBC Board. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of UBC or the Board of Governors.
SCIENCE
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY
EDITOR NIVRETTA THATRA
FAITH //
Massive online course from UBC investigates religion from a cognitive science perspective
13
RELATABLE //
Under the microscope: PhD Comics
FILE AIKEN LAO
Piled Higher and Deeper Comics are “too real,” comforting grad students world-wide.
Jacob White Contributor
AIKEN LAO
“Why religion?”
Marissa Birnie Contributor
A new massive open online course from UBC on the science of religion is combining science and the humanities to discover why some of us believe. The course is hosted by edX, an open-source online course provider, and is one of 38 currently offered by UBC on the platform. With over 1,000 courses offered in partnership with over 50 universities, edX is a well-known resource for students. Since 2015, UBC has provided courses on coding, Indigenous education and Chinese thought, all for free. Teaching the science of religion course are Dr. Edward Slingerland, a professor in the Asian studies department and Dr. Azim Shariff, associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine. Funded in part by a grant from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the course approaches the study of religion from a cognitive science perspective. The cognitive science of religion (CSR) disciplinary perspective uses “the tools of cognitive science and evolutionary theory to explore and understand religious behaviour and belief,” said Slingerland. CSR takes a scientific approach to explain why and how people have religious beliefs. This means taking a look at the cognitive, social and cultural mechanisms involved in religion. “If you want to boil it down into one big question, it’s, ‘why religion?’”
said Slingerland. “History of religion courses just assume that religion is one of the things people do. CSR takes it a step back and says, well, ‘why do people have religion?’” Religion is very puzzling from a naturalistic perspective, said Slingerland. Sacrificing material goods to build temples or giving offerings to appease a supernatural deity can be very costly. If religion can cause people to behave against their best interests, what is its purpose? There are a couple of different theories of why people believe. The social control hypothesis posits that religion has historically been controlled by social elites who trick the populace into contributing resources for their own gain. Cognitive scientist Dr. Daniel Dennett’s evil meme hypothesis (no, not the “Dr. Evil” memes) envisions religion as a virus of the mind, a cultural idea that attaches itself to its host and causes them to spread it to others. Yet many find much to be gained from their faith. Religion may aid in anxiety reduction and give us a sense of control. The meaning-making hypothesis sees religion as a way for us to satisfy our desire to see meaning in the world around us. CSR hypothesizes a social benefit to religion. Grand temples, for example, could serve a symbolic social purpose and create solidarity among groups that could help them outcompete others, explained Slingerland. The driving hypothesis behind the grant that originally funded the new edX course was the hypothesis
that religious behaviours are a “byproduct of cognitive tendencies that originally evolved for other reasons,” said Slingerland. “Basically there is, in a way, a little bit of truth to all of these [hypotheses].” Theory of mind, a branch of cognitive science, offers an interesting explanation for religious belief. “If a hurricane destroys a house, we immediately want to know why it happened even if there’s not an explanation,” said Slingerland. “The answers to why questions require agents,” said Slingerland. We tend to see other people as individual agents, a view called mind-body dualism. That’s why it’s so confusing to see or think of a dead person — it’s our natural inclination to wonder ‘what happened?’ Religious explanations arise as a byproduct of this kind of thinking. People with “impaired theory of mind abilities,” like people on the autism spectrum, “tend to not believe in religion as much,” said Slingerland. On the other end, people with paranoid schizophrenia possess excess theory of mind that sometimes manifests in enhanced religious belief. These are all “bits of evidence that religious belief is probably linked to theory of mind abilities,” he said. We have some explanations for why people might harbour religious beliefs, but why do certain religions flourish above others? We could all be worshipping a flying spaghetti monster, but a handful of the world’s largest religious groups make up the bulk of believers.
“It’s not an accident that certain types of religions spread, and it’s because they cobble together a successful combination of features,” said Slingerland. “Having the idea that God actually cares about us being good to one another is a very successful idea.” Supernatural monitoring (the belief that God(s) are watching us), costly practices like circumcision and ritual practices are other common features. These are just some of the topics explored in the edX course. One problem that arises in CSR studies is a lack of knowledge about different disciplines. Scientists can have little knowledge of complicated cultural contexts, and humanities professors often lack the explanatory models necessary to tackle questions of ‘why,’ said Slingerland. The decision to have the course taught by an Asian studies professor and a psychology professor was intentional because integrating the humanities and science is a key goal of CSR. Slingerland believes open online course is a good way to “expand the pool” of people who can teach a course on CSR, as there are a limited number of experts at UBC — he cites psychology professor Dr. Ara Norenzayan as one such expert. While UBC has its department of classical, near Eastern and religious studies, plans are in the works for a new religious studies department. “Having UBC be the host of this science of religion [course] is a way for UBC to signal to everyone that this is an area that we have strength in,” said Slingerland. U
Life as a grad student is a uniquely chaotic and stressful experience. Your friends don’t get it, your parents don’t get it and sometimes it seems like your advisor doesn’t really get it either. Then one day, if you’re like me, you stumble upon a comic strip about how presenting at a conference never goes as planned. It reminds you that you’re not the only one going through this experience. It encourages you to also examine yourself and find the humor in what can seem like an never ending, pushing-aboulder-up-a-hill exercise. This comic I’m referring to is Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) Comics. Created by Dr. Jorge Cham while a Robotics PhD student at Stanford, this comic series portrays what he calls “surviving as a grad student.” The title is a tongue-incheek reference to the value of college degrees. On September 17, Cham gave a talk at UBC’s Hebb Theatre. Cham explained that the exponential growth of the comic lead to a huge influx of fan mail. Many of the letter-writers tell him, “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when reading your comics.” I have to say that this pretty accurately sums up my feelings regarding the comics. Some are just... too real. Sifting through the sea of fan mail, Cham found an email from UC Irvine particle physicist Dr. Daniel Whiteson. Whiteson, who was a fan of how Cham “captured the suffering of being a grad student,” had an idea about creating some sort of accessible explanation of the Higgs Boson. The two began collaborating; the results were an animated sketch that went viral on YouTube and a book, We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe. The book tackles some pretty complex topics like dark energy with the simple, witty comic style that Cham is known for. Developing an idea for your graduate thesis is overwhelming. But as a graduate student, your ultimate goal is to contribute new information to your field. This isn’t too different from the idea behind Cham and Whiteson’s book, except at the end you can say “now we have a little bit of an idea.” U Jacob White is a UBC graduate student studying astrophysics.
SPORTS+REC
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY
EDITOR LUCY FOX
DINO DESTROYING //
14
REC RIVALRY //
Soft ball, hard game: T-Birds dominate Dinos, take commanding Canada West lead Jeters Never Prosper defeat Brewjays in Fall Softball Classic Rory Hoffman Contributor
UBC forward Abbey MacLellan back tracks to defend against a Dinos attack.
Salomon Micko Benrimoh Contributor
The UBC Thunderbirds women’s field hockey team continued their regular season unbeaten streak — which now extends over three seasons — this past weekend with two commanding wins against the University of Calgary Dinos. The ’Birds have not lost to the Dinos since October 9, 2009, when they fell to the Calgary side 2-1. Looking to snap the streak, the Dinos went into Friday’s game determined to find a way past the ’Birds. Play was close throughout the game but the ’Birds moved ahead 1-0 in the 26th minute thanks to a goal from second-year forward Margaret Pham. The rest of the game saw play remain close with the Dinos getting numerous chances on goal
but all were stopped by a strong UBC defence. The ’Birds opted for a change in goaltending this week, with Gabriella Switzer getting the start over fourth-year veteran Rowan Harris. Switzer held her own in her first game of the season as she held off constant attacks from the Dinos for all 70 minutes of game time. The second game of the doubleheader, played bright and early at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, was more of a one-sided match-up in favor of UBC. The ’Birds scored three times in 11 minutes in the first half to make it a 3-0 game. Sara Goodman would add two goals to her season tally at the 16th and 27th minute of the game while Margaret Pham added her second goal of the weekend at the 20th. The Dinos attempted to launch
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We’re beginning to plan a new neighbourhood in the area around Thunderbird Stadium, and we want your input and ideas to help shape this process. Share your insights on living, working, studying and playing at UBC. Your experience can help guide our planning decisions.
planning.ubc.ca/stadium
Questions? Contact Neal Wells, Manager, Communications and Engagement at neal.wells@ubc.ca or 604 822 0473.
COURTESY DAVID MOLL/ CALGARY DINOS
a comeback midway through the second half, scoring two goals of their own within four minutes at the 50th and 54th minute marks. However, the ’Birds responded quickly with a goal from veteran fifth-year midfielder Sarah Keglowitsch in the 60th minute, giving UBC a cushion of two goals with just 10 minutes left in the game. Unable to respond, the ’Birds closed the weekend with a commanding 4-2 win. Now 4-0 this season, the ’Birds will return home to UBC to play their final two weekend doubleheaders against both the Dinos and the Vikes before embarking on what’s sure to be another long playoff run. They’ll play the Vikes two weeks from now on October 7 and 8, and then the Dinos the following weekend. U
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After an afternoon of games on Friday, the 2017 Fall Softball Classic held by UBC Rec ended with the campus-wide matchup between the unrelenting Brewjays and the unconquerable Jeters Never Prosper. The cloudy sky that afternoon would soon reflect the blood, sweat and tears left on the softball diamond. The first batter stepped up to the plate for the Brewjays, top of the first inning, with fire in their eyes. The Jeters refused to give up ground as the shortstop made a mind-blowing shoestring catch. Minutes later, a Brewjays player slid into second and a heated debate began as to whether sliding was even allowed in the Softball Classic. Despite the wall that was the Jeters’ defense, the Brewjays cranked a three-run homerun to start the scoring. Jeters Never Prosper refused to back down. Already with two outs in the bottom of the inning, a Jeters’ player scored on a downthe-line hit. A second runner followed suit as he rounded third at just under Mach-3, beating the throw by a microscopic margin to get over home plate. After one inning, the score was 3-2 Brewjays. The top of the second saw the first error of the game — a groundball error in the infield by the Jeters. To make up for it, the Jeters buried their emotions and allowed no Brewjays to score. A groundout, flyout and blistering strikeout left the Brewjays gasping for air but still leading.
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Online Survey September 28 to October 22 planning.ubc.ca/stadium
Sport
Public Open Houses
Volleyball (M) UBC
Saturday, September 30 3pm to 6pm Wesbrook Community Centre, 3335 Webber Lane Tuesday, October 3 5pm to 8pm Old Barn Community Centre, 6308 Thunderbird Blvd Thursday, October 5 11am to 2pm I.K. Barber Learning Centre, 2nd Floor Lobby
Jeters were on fire by then, with confidence running through them like mercury. After two solid singles, the ringer stepped up and set a record for biggest hit in the 2017 Fall Softball Classic. Three runs were scored to set the Jeters up 5-3. Even with the setback in scoreline, Brewjays always find their fire — as the saying goes — and they did indeed. With both teams refusing to give any more ground, the third inning passed without any scoring. The final inning of the legendary matchup dawned, with Jeters Never Prosper leading 5-3. The Jeters held true, but a ball to right field let a Brewjays player on to base, setting up the powerhouse batter known only as Steve for a strong showing as he stepped up to the plate. One tworun homer later and it seemed that the Brewjays might have done the impossible. Jeters quenched that dream with their first batter and a onerun homer tying the game. The other saying, however, is Brewjays never give up — which once again held true. As the Brewjays got two outs in quick succession it seemed the game might end in a tie, when She — so hallowed is Her name that it is no longer permitted to be spoken among mortals — stepped up to bat. With a man on third She lofted a ball gently into left field, uncaught, and scored the winning run with a walk-off single. Jeters Never Prosper clinched the win 7-6. When asked about the matchup post game, a player from the winning team described the event as great, the competition as challenging and the ball as “soft, but not too soft.” U
Home
Score
Away
3-0
Thompson Rivers
0-2
Queen’s
Thursday, September 21
Friday, September 22 Ice Hockey (M)
UBC
Saturday, September 23 Field Hockey (W)
Calgary
0-1
UBC
Soccer (W)
Thompson Rivers
0-6
UBC
Football
Alberta
21-41
UBC
Ice Hockey (M)
UBC
2-1
Queen’s
Rugby (M)
Victoria
24-44
UBC
Sunday, September 24 Field Hockey (W)
Calgary
2-4
UBC
Soccer (M)
Alberta
1-0
UBC
Rugby (W)
Victoria
82-0
UBC
Soccer (W)
UBCO
0-2
UBC
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 TUESDAY | SPORTS | 15 SUPERHUMAN ABILITIES //
Uphill battle: Jonathan Schwarz takes on Whistler Alpine Meadows ultramarathon
Schwarz makes a stop at the third of five aid stations along the route.
Andrew Hung Contributor
Spanning seven different ecological zones and 55 kilometres, surviving the Whistler Alpine Meadows
COURTESY JONATHAN SCHWARZ
ultramarathon can be just as rewarding of a feat as winning it. The race, which has an elevation profile of 3350 metres, takes runners around the northwestern parts of Whistler — starting at Riverside Resort and going as far
The Whistler ultramarathon takes runners up into the glaciers, among other ecological zones.
north as Screaming Cat Lake. This year, UBC pharmaceutical sciences PhD student Jonathan Schwarz crossed the finish line. “It’s fun running [on trails] because you’re adventuring to
U
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places that you haven’t been before. It’s like an adventure, training and workout all at the same time,” said Schwarz. Competitors begin on the softer valley floor and travel up the alpine, traversing boulders and glaciers as they go. With such a variety of terrains, the event is an expedition as much as it is a competition. The Whistler Alpine Meadows race also carries an element of survival — weather plays a major role as it could affect whether or not the heli-drop aid stations would be functioning during the race. Moreover, the unpredictable weather conditions force runners to be thorough and self-sufficient in the preparation of their own food and liquid supply. Schwarz said prior to the race that he would be carrying liquid nutrition mixes, energy gels and bars in his vest, just in case some of the aid stations are not functioning on race day. Of course, Schwarz also had to prepare to complete the 55 kilometre distance of the race — the longest distance he will have ever run. Though evidently strenuous, it is this sense of challenging one’s own capabilities and extremes that drew Schwarz to ultramarathons in the first place. Schwarz first got a taste of the sport when he stumbled upon Salomon Trail Running’s YouTube channel, which features videos of trail runners around the world. “Mt. Marathon” — one of the videos available — showcases the Mount Marathon Race in Seward, Alaska, where athletes run through misty valleys and grizzly bear habitats and slip down rock-covered hills. At the end of the race, some of the competitors are bloodied and wounded, while
COURTESY JONATHAN SCHWARZ
others can barely walk on their own. Schwarz has experienced some of these extreme challenges himself. After his first 30 kilometre race, his body took a while to recover. “I couldn’t walk for the next four days. My quads were just destroyed. Walking up the stairs was so painful,” he said. Although Schwarz is relatively new to the sport of ultramarathon running — having only started last winter — his experiences in other sports prepared him thoroughly. Prior to attending UBC, he was a competitive swimmer in high school and throughout his undergraduate studies at St. Francis Xavier University. While completing his undergrad, he also competed for the varsity rowing team and for Nova Scotia’s rowing team in the 2013 Canada Games. Nowadays, Schwarz cycles competitively, mostly in cyclo-cross races. For the ultramarathon, cycling has also become a form of cross-training, supplementing the 18 – 20 kilometre runs he does two or three times a week. Leading up to the race, Schwarz was eager to see how far he could push himself. “One of my big goals is just to finish, so I’m not really pushing hard to try to make it to the top ten. But I’m also just competitive, so I’m not going to want to walk it at any point. I want to see if I can do it, and if I can do it, how fast I can do it,” he said before the race. This year’s competition, organized by the Coast Mountain Trail Series, was held on Saturday, September 23. Schwarz finished the uphill ultramarathon in 7:51:15.5 hours. U
16 | GAMES | TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
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LEFT CROSSWORD Across 1 On; 5 Inner self, to Jung; 10 Destiny; 14 Wraparound dress; 15 Deep sleeps; 16 Untruths, tells falsehoods; 17 Sea eagle; 18 Mindlessly stupid; 19 Airline to Israel; 20 Imitator; 21 Relieve congestion; 23 Roadster; 25 Queue after Q; 26 Feudal overlord; 31 Red fluorescent dye; 35 British verb ending; 36 Bathroom fixture; 38 Sensitive spots; 40 Barbecue fare; 42 Chad neighbor; 44 ___fide; 45 Register; 47 Haunting; 49 Actor Beatty; 50 Tenuous substances; 52 Whisker of a cat; 54 Hung. neighbor; 56 Hill insect; 57 Crested Australian parrot; 62 Fill up;
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We see you, UBC Confessions poster #7146. We understand. We’re sorry. Come by our office and we’ll hug it out.
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48 More competent; 51 Miss named?; 52 Inactive; 53 Standing alone; 56 Pack down; 57 Louis Quatorze, e.g.; 58 Intermittent watercourse; 62 Bacchanalian cry; 63 Flightless bird; 64 Tater Tots maker; 65 Russo of “The Thomas Crown Affair”; 66 ___ the season...; 67 Blush; Down 1 Part of TNT; 2 Seminary subj.; 3 Proverb ending?; 4 Sets straight; 5 Dolt; 6 Monumental; 7 Simple shed; 8 Stony gray; 9 Sullen; 10 Train convenience; 11 “Delta of Venus” author Nin; 12 All, in music; 13 Remains; 21 High regard; 22 Construction pieces; 23 Like some college walls; 24 Audacity; 25 Crooked; 29 Lower a sail; 30 Frozen rain; 32 Commands; 33 Consented; 34 Author Zola; 35 Wanderer; 36 This is only ___; 44 Interlaced; 45 Home on the range; 46 Exceptional intellect; 48 Chasing; 49 Courageous; 50 Yellowish citrus fruit; 51 Wynonna’s mother; 52 Accustom; 54 Waste allowance; 55 Are you ___ out?; 59 Cover; 60 Citrus cooler; 61 Solo in space;