January 23, 2018

JANUARY 23, 2018 | VOLUME XCIX | ISSUE XXI LYNN’S STILL RED HOT SINCE 1918

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NEWS

CULTURE

OPINIONS

SPORTS

GAMES

#MeToo brings renewed support for women’s rally

OH HAI MARK!

Letter: Fall reading Student budgets break argument is are no excuse not still up in the air to ski

Everyone needs to calm down about this games page

THE UBYSSEY

2 OUT OF 4 AIN’T BAD UBC TAKES THEIR SECOND WINTER CLASSIC WIN // PAGE 14 IN THE MOST INSTAGRAMMED GAME OF THE YEAR

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JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS & PEOPLE

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EVENTS

OUR CAMPUS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23

Our Campus: Oxford beckons Fatima Zehra Naqvi, UBC’s newest Rhodes Scholar

UBC ARTS AND CULTURE NIGHT 6 P.M. @ MOA The Calendar and Dive into UBC are proud to invite you to their third annual Arts and Culture Night! $4

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23 THE UBYSSEY PRESENTS: OPEN MIC! (19+) 7 P.M. @ KOERNER’S PUB Anything that can be done on stage!

FREE

Naqvi is among the 11 Canadian students named for the prestigious scholarship.

Julia Burnham Contributor

MONDAY, JANUARY 29 UBC CANCER ASSOCIATION’S YOGA & PARFAIT NIGHT 4 P.M. @ ROOM 2306/2309 IN THE NEST Yoga then creating your own parfait? I’m in!

ENTRANCE BY MINIMUM DONATION OF $5

ON THE COVER FRONT COVER BY Saman Shariati, Zubair Hirji, Jeremy Johnson-Silvers and Micko Benrimoh, Patrick Gillin

Want to see more events or see your event listed here? ubyssey.ca/events

U THE UBYSSEY

EDITORIAL

STAFF

Coordinating Editor Sophie Sutcliffe, Joshua Azizi, Jack Lamming, Jack Hauen coordinating@ubyssey.ca Tristan Wheeler, Zubair H i r j i , Z a k Ve s c a r a , Charlotte Beaulieu, Iyanu Design Editor Owolabi, Clare Skillman, Natalie Morris printeditor@ubyssey.ca Olamide Olaniyan, Negin Nia, S alomon Micko Benrimoh, Samantha News Editors Searle, Kristine Ho, Bill Samantha McCabe & Situ, Divija Madhani, Alex Nguyen Lawrence Ge, Veronica news@ubyssey.ca Ciastko, Danielle Olusanya, Liz Wang, Ryan Culture Editor Neale, Mitchell Ballachay, Samuel Du Bois Shelby Rogers, James culture@ubyssey.ca Vogl, Aziz Sonawa, Jordan Byrum, Lua Presídio, Aiken Sports + Rec Editor Lao, Emma Livingstone, Lucy Fox Claire Lloyd, Ashley Dhanda, Saman Shariati, sports@ubyssey.ca Tiffany Ou, Joseph Kennel, Andrea Garza, Sarah Video Producer Neubauer, Thea Udwadia, Kate Colenbrander Ryan Patrick Jones, Jacob video@ubyssey.ca White, Patrick Hatch, Grace Young, Allison Opinion + Blog Editor Gacad, Alison Knill, Emma Emma Hicks Ng, Novera Sayed, Jenny opinion@ubyssey.ca Xu, Koby Michaels, Aidan Tong, Bridget Chase, Science Editor Henry Anderson Nivretta Thatra science@ubyssey.ca Photo Editor Partick Gillin photos@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Moira Wyton features@ubyssey.ca

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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to acknowledge that this paper and the land on which we study and work is the traditional, occupied, unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

When Fatima Zehra Naqvi received the call telling her she had won the 2018 Rhodes Scholarship, she was so shaken up that she had to call back and ask the committee to repeat the announcement and further directions.

“I was in a complete daze, I couldn’t believe it,” said Naqvi.

Naqvi is among the 11 Canadian students named for the prestigious scholarship, which recognizes academic, personal and athletic excellence among undergraduates from around the world and funds two years of graduate studies at the University of Oxford.

Naqvi graduated from UBC in 2017 with a BA honours in English literature and creative writing and will begin her MSc in migration studies at Oxford in the fall. The scholarship had never been a goal for Naqvi during her studies, but she was supported by family and friends to give it a shot.

“I never really considered it, I’d never thought I’d get it.

Once I got an email from UBC two years ago saying that I could apply for it, I started thinking about it,” said Naqvi. “I was in my third year at the time, so I sort of thought about it and I applied in my fourth year and I didn’t get through.”

That wouldn’t be the end for Naqvi though. She would go on to apply again in her fifth and final year, leading to her successful application.

“Trying to go through [the application process] twice, that really helped, but also having a support system around me,” said Naqvi. “My faculty, advisors and

friends who really supported me and believed in me. I really wasn’t in the mood to try a second time, but being told and being pushed by family and friends to apply for it really helped.”

Naqvi will be focusing her studies at Oxford in migration studies. As a literature student and an immigrant to Canada herself, she has always explored and been interested in issues of migration, displacement and borders.

“Having already explored it through a literature degree, I’m interested in exploring through a social sciences perspective and I hope to continue writing and pursue a career in journalism,” said Naqvi.

“I feel like storytelling and literature can influence policy-making and especially with where we are in the world right now, I found that a lot of writers and a lot of journalists are using storytelling as a platform to influence policy-makers.”

Naqvi is a highly decorated scholar and storyteller — in addition to being a Wesbrook Scholar, she is a recipient of the English Honours Medal and the Teresa Tenisci Memorial Prize for demonstrating exceptional achievement in UBC’s creative writing program. She is also the winner of Room magazine’s 2016 poetry contest for her poem, “forgetting urdu.”

“My poem was about my experiences forgetting my mother tongue, Urdu, when I moved to Canada, I was quite young. Recently, I’ve been relearning it again. But forgetting how to read and write in it was quite a painful experience for me,” said Naqvi.

The migration studies program at Oxford is interdisciplinary in nature, which is familiar to Naqvi through her experience facilitating a student-directed seminar at UBC.

KATHERINE HO / UBC

In her final year of undergraduate studies, she co-designed and co-facilitated a student-directed seminar titled “Analyzing 21st Century Migratory and Social Movements Through New Media and Postcolonial Literature.”

“I was able to share a lot of my truth and my experiences, and I also heard a lot of very cool stories and I got to see a lot of interesting ways of analysing these issues with some different perspectives,” said Naqvi. “Students were in charge of their own assignments and their own projects, so it really allowed us to have our democratic learning environment flourish.”

Currently, Naqvi is taking a break from studying and enjoying a year off to travel, write and explore Pakistan.

“Karachi is where I was born and I wanted to get in touch with my roots. I wrote about Karachi literature for my honours thesis and a lot of my work, even my writing and poetry, a lot of that stuff was about my Pakistani background,” she said.

“I really felt like in order to write about it in a more authentic way, I need to spend more time there and there’s just a lot of questions that I had.”

As Naqvi plans to leave Pakistan and start at Oxford in the fall, she’s looking forward to finding a new community of scholars and friends when she arrives.

“It’s all just such a friendly and exciting community and really inspiring to be a part of that community and to engage with scholars and influencers and people who really care about the world and want to do something to really understand what’s going on,” said Naqvi. “That’s something I’m really excited about.” U

NEWS

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

EDITORS SAMANTHA MCCABE + ALEX NGUYEN

3

SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH //

Farrah Khan at UBC: ‘The conversation in university should move beyond consent’ Sara Flamer Contributor

Farrah Khan, a nationallyrecognized advocate and educator regarding sexual assault, spoke on sexual violence, pleasure and sexting as part of her keynote talk for January’s sexual assault awareness month at UBC. Khan works at Ryerson University as a sexual violence support system and education coordinator. She comes from a religious household where sex was never really spoken about.

As a queer woman of colour, she spoke about the intersectionality of race, religion and gender in the context of sex and sexual violence.

In the wake of the Time’s Up movement, she said, “specifically women of colour, black women pave the way for a lot of work we’re doing now.”

Khan began her talk with humour — she spoke about sexting and brought up the eggplant and peach emojis onscreen to demonstrate her point. Laughter filled the room and she grabbed the attention of the audience immediately.

“When talking about sexual violence we need to talk about sex, and too often we don’t know

how to talk about sex,” she said.

Khan believes our society creates scripts of how we should act and react towards sex and sexual violence, and that they need to change. She pointed out that these scripts harm even men, bringing up the point that many young men feel they can’t say no to sex because society portrays them as always eager for it.

So, she said, if men are having trouble saying no to sex, and women are having tons of unwanted sex, something needs to change in our attitudes and conversations regarding sex. Throughout her talk, Khan emphasized that these conversations need to happen on campus. It is in these communities that there are extremely high rates of sexual assault, two-thirds of which happen in the first eight weeks of school, according to a 2003 report on dating violence by the Canadian ministry of justice.

Khan shared her own experience of sexual assault by her grandfather, showing the audience an ordinary, seemingly innocent family photo of him holding her as a child.

“Why do we think some people are more apt to commit

“When talking about sexual violence we need to talk about sex, and too often we don’t know how to talk about sex.”

violence than others?” she asked the audience. Her grandfather was not someone who looked like a stereotypically sexually violent man — but he was sexually violent, Khan said, and her experience shows how dangerous it is to only see a violent person only through stereotypes.

The audience was almost entirely composed of women and in an interview with The Ubyssey

after her talk, Khan touched on this.

“We should be making spaces for men to feel safe talking about masculinity as well as making mandatory spaces for them in first-year university to talk about these things, as they feel not a part of the conversation,” she said. “This also needs to happen in grade school and high school so that the conversation doesn’t

FILE AIKEN LAO

start in first-year university. The conversation in university should move beyond consent, to sex and pleasure and flirting.”

Khan believes that in our rapidly changing world it’s time to shift the conversation around sexual violence to include sex and pleasure, and that these are important conversations for UBC to be having inside and outside of the classroom. U

RALLY //

Stressing intersectionality, thousands march on Vancouver for women’s rights

ANNIE RUETER

“People are not going to take it anymore.”

Alex Nguyen News Editor

A year after the first women’s march, around 2,000 people arrived downtown in a renewed show of support for women’s rights.

Hosted by March On Vancouver, the event saw people rallying at Jack Poole Plaza before taking to the streets of downtown on Saturday. Chants of, “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” and honks in solidarity grew louder as the crowd marched past Trump Tower on West Georgia.

Held close to the one-year anniversary of the worldwide women’s march against Trump’s inauguration as US President, the event also tapped into the momentum created by recent movements like #MeToo and Time’s Up. “The last year was pretty horrible — all the things that have been happening to people and all the reversal of good progress have really charged up a lot of people with

renewed energy,” said organizer Samantha Monckton. “People are not going to take it anymore.”

Sexual and other types of violence against women were discussed by many speakers.

Angela Marie MacDougall, the executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services, said her organization responds to 11,000 cases of violence against women annually.

“Never forget that until we address violence against women, we will never have equality,” she said.

Indigenous speaker Lorelei Williams told stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women, including those of her own family members’ loss and survival. Williams also performed with her dance troupe, Butterflies in Spirit, to the live-performance of “Sisterz” by Indigenous hiphop artist JB The First Lady.

Other issues relevant to Vancouver like Islamophobia, childcare and wage disparity were touched upon as well. Speaker

Noor Fadel, who was assaulted on the Canada Line last December for being Muslim, performed a poem about her thoughts on the attack.

“Nowhere is going to be perfect — anywhere you go, you will experience some sort of things that will harm you or change your perspective,” Fadel told The Ubyssey. “I decided that I want to keep pushing myself and I want to use my voice to speak up on the incident because I want others to feel inspired to speak up as well.”

STRESSING INTERSECTIONALITY Following criticism about the lack of intersectionality in last year’s march, this year’s organizers stressed its importance in regards to race, class and sexual orientation.

“I specifically participated in the women’s march last year and I found that it was lacking representation of particular groups that are marginalized,” said UBC gender, race and social

fustice (GRSJ) Professor Litsa Chatzivasileiou. “This year, the organizers have made conscious efforts to include these groups and I really applaud them for that … the more intersectional the women’s march becomes, the more successful and effective it [will] be.”

Not featured last year, Black Lives Matter Vancouver presented two speakers this time, who discussed Hogan’s Alley as the site of a former thriving Black community and its rebuilding in the future. The importance and diversity of the Black community in Vancouver were touched upon as well by speaker Judi Lewinson, host of Black Voices Vancouver.

Speaker Hailey Heartless recounted how she did not feel comfortable attending the march last year as a trans woman and a sex worker, as well as the hate she received for being announced as a speaker this year.

“Stigma is weaponized to keep us out of feminist spaces,” said Heartless. “[Sex workers] are not victims ... Sex work is real work — we face stigma when outsiders call us prostitutes ... and we face stigma from laws that take away our agency.”

But she is hopeful that this will not be the case for next year’s march.

According to their Facebook event, March On Vancouver “uses an inclusive definition of ‘woman’ that includes trans women, gender queer women, twospirited and non-binary people.”

The pink pussy hat was also not promoted for its projection of exclusivity toward trans women, though some could still be spotted in the crowd.

BEYOND THE MARCH Many UBC students at the march, including third-year

GRSJ student Lucy Bogle, were impressed by the range of speakers and the topics of their speeches. With this inclusivity in mind, they believe that their own university has “a far way to come” in terms of supporting students with these equity issues.

“There are systems of support in place at UBC, but … the people who are able to access these supports, financially, physically and mentally and are able to advocate for themselves generally are people with privilege,” said Bogle.

AMS Equal Voice President Fatima Aamir agrees, while also discussing the role that student clubs can play in the effort.

“UBC shouldn’t be afraid of having difficult conversations ...

We really need to acknowledge these privileges and have these uncomfortable conversations in the university because universities are supposed to be a safe environment, a place where we can learn and grow,” she said.

“I think a lot of student clubs are really stepping up to this and I think on-campus activism is growing, but I think these issues need to be discussed on a wider scale, across faculties and interest-groups.”

Chatzivasileiou said UBC could do more to support their students, especially in light of complaints about sexual assault or misconduct by employees in positions of power. She stressed the need for more intersectionality when approaching these issues — either as students, university administrators or march organizers.

“When we make it more intersectional, we can start talking about the specific issues and solve them,” Chatzivasileiou said. “I would not want to have the issue reduced to a very generalized form of what we understand as women.” U

4 | news | TUESDAY JANUARY 23, 2018 STUDENT FINANCE //

‘We’ve been ... just raising it two per cent every year and not thinking too hard about it’: does UBC need annual tuition hikes?

Jack Hauen Coordinating Editor

Costs go up. So does tuition.

That’s the rationale that the UBC Board of Governors has been working with as they raise domestic tuition each year by two per cent — the legal limit allowed by the provincial government.

This year, the Board also increased international tuition, which is not subject to the same limits, by 2 to 9.2 per cent depending on area of study.

A small minority of the Board is now pushing back against the trend by suggesting ways to stop funding gaps falling on students’ shoulders. Still, except for major hikes, the increases pass each year with little fuss.

“UBC’s costs [such as faculty salaries and preservation of the Library collections] rise annually and revenue sources are constrained,” said interim VP Finance and Operations Peter Smailes in a statement. “The increase this year was required to address those inflationary pressures and maintain the university’s commitment to an excellent teaching and learning environment.”

That sentiment is echoed in the 186-page report on tuition presented to the Board earlier this month. Provincial funding for higher education has faced severe cuts and stagnation in recent years.

As such, the university says in the report that it needs to cover increased costs through “other sources of revenue” — namely, students.

Yearly tuition increases are an accepted fact among the vast majority of UBC’s Board — even its student members — which can lead to a sort of malaise surrounding the topic.

“It is what it is,” said Jeanie Malone, one of three elected student Board members. “It’s going to go up.”

Malone said the Board hasn’t been searching hard for other ways to make up the cost, though she expects “deeper conversations” next year after the final stage of the steep international tuition hike of 2015.

“Frankly, what we’ve been doing is just raising it two per cent every year and not thinking too hard about it. So we obviously could spend more time thinking about a broader solution,” she said.

Smailes noted that the university has a policy that prevents students from being turned away from UBC for financial reasons — after the student “and his or her family exhaust the financial resources available to them.”

In 2016/17, 14,360 students received $74.1 million in financial support from UBC out of a total funding and financial aid package of $263 million, Smailes said, noting that “additional initiatives are in the planning stages.”

“UBC continually strives to keep the cost of tuition as low as possible for domestic students, while ensuring the university can fund the world-class learning and research opportunities that students expect from UBC,” he said.

“It is what it is ... It’s going up.”

When asked what the university would need from the provincial government or other sources in order to avoid raising tuition, UBC VP Provost and Associate VP of Enrolment Pamela Ratner said she did “not know how to answer the question.”

WHERE’S THE MONEY GOING? On the Vancouver campus, about $6.5 million of the approximately $10.3 million generated from the increases will go directly to the faculties for things like teaching and learning initiatives, student advising and facilities upgrades.

The presentation given to the Board said the faculties’ inflationary costs are about four per cent per year, implying that the increases aren’t enough on their own.

About $700,000 of the money will also be automatically triggered to fund student financial aid.

That leaves about $2.8 million for “central funding” — the big pile of money that UBC gets to decide what to do with each year. Ratner said the Board has discussed using the extra cash to fund the Work Learn program, student well-being initiatives, classroom tech upgrades and the Equity and Inclusion Office, though she can make no guarantees.

“It all gets into a bigger pot, and so it’s very difficult to take out pieces and say, ‘This is what’s paying for this.’ It’s one big envelope,” she said, but “those are the priorities we’d like to support if we can.”

FILE PATRICK GILLIN

HOW COULD UBC AVOID TUITION HIKES? After VP Students Louise Cowin’s presentation and once the floor was opened up for discussion, Board Chair Stuart Belkin urged his colleagues to pass the increases now, so they wouldn’t have to pass a bigger increase down the line.

“Boiling the lobster slowly is the least painful way to do it,” he said.

Faculty Board member Charles Menzies — who is one of the two members who voted against the increases, along with Ayesha Chaudhry — is opposed to the idea of boiling the lobster at all.

“We spent close to four decades in this current iteration of debates about university funding in which every time it’s either increase or don’t increase,” he told The Ubyssey. “And the model that’s presented has invariably not changed over forty-plus years.

And I thought maybe it’s time for the university to think a little bit differently about the question.”

Menzies believes UBC should advocate publicly for lower domestic tuition by lobbying the provincial and federal governments to increase funding.

“There was a time when people thought it was a foolish idea to have free K-12 education,” he said.

“It was presented as a ludicrous idea — unreasonable, an excessive burden on the public purse.”

As for ways the university can affect change right now, Menzies said UBC should explore using some of its land development earnings to subsidize tuition.

“UBC has been generating an amazing amount of profits from

selling land leases and then private market development on campus.

The Vancouver campus site [is] generating revenues that are only going to go up unless there’s a major global crisis in real estate,” he said.

Instead of investing in the construction of new buildings, UBC should be investing in “soft capital, i.e. in people and resources,” Menzies said.

Framing the tuition increases as a small increase now to avoid a big increase later “totally misses the picture,” he said.

“You live in this environment where everyone’s talking about innovation, creativity and finding novel fixes, and they’ve presented the most mundane, boring, old fashioned approach: jack up the price, the market will bear.”

Smailes said money the university generates through investing proceeds from land development goes toward many projects that would not otherwise get enough funding — like Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and the Life Sciences building — and is also used to match funding for scholarships, bursaries and research.

“Those types of requirements change annually and the university requires flexibility in terms of how it addresses those needs with the revenue available,” he said.

DOES STUDENT CONSULTATION MATTER? Thanks to an internal policy, UBC is obligated to consult with students every time it raises tuition.

Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming consensus from students is negative — about 92 per cent of

the 1,799 written responses UBC received were against the hikes.

The concerns were noted in a presentation to the Board by Cowin in the same meeting the tuition increases were approved, but no modifications to the motion were added. UBC’s trend of soliciting student feedback, acknowledging it and then going ahead with their original plans regardless has left many students wondering why they were consulted in the first place.

Ratner pointed to the 2015 international tuition hikes as an example of a time when students affected a Board decision. UBC proposed to increase international tuition by 46.8 per cent over three years — 15 per cent, then 15 per cent, then 11 per cent, compounded.

The final year’s 11 per cent increase was eventually whittled down to 7 per cent — meaning the total hike went from 46.8 per cent to 41.5 per cent — after multiple organized protests.

“They were very successful in having the Board change the increases in the third year,” said Ratner.

But what if students don’t take to the streets — can feedback submitted through an online form change anything?

“I think the Board takes that feedback very, very seriously,” said Ratner. “Board members read every single student’s comments and had to weigh those comments and concerns of students against the needs they see the university having and the pressures that the university faces in a constrained budgetary environment.”

The increases passed this year with no modifications. U

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY | News | 5 COMMON ENERGY //

Student sustainability group raises concerns about consultation process of UBC’s strategic plan “I think one thing that would’ve cleared this up was if it was more clear what the process was going to be,” he said. “As much as it might have seemed that it’s ignoring the consultation process, it really wasn’t.”

‘SYSTEMATICALLY CHALLENGING’ FOR STUDENT GROUPS

“There was no structured way for interest groups to participate.”

Joshua Azizi Senior Staff Writer

CONSULTATION BASED ON OLD DRAFTS

UBC says the community consultation on their strategic plan drafts has been “extraordinarily thorough,” but some students disagree.

Throughout the past year, UBC has been working to develop a new strategic plan that will lay out the university’s goals and priorities over the next few years.

The new plan will succeed “Place and Promise,” the strategic plan introduced by former President Stephen Toope in 2009.

Over the new plan’s development, UBC conducted a number of community consultations to gather student input. They released surveys and offered open house events for community members to provide feedback, while a number of students have been added to working groups aimed at developing the plan. Most recently, the university gathered feedback on a draft of the strategic plan through two town halls in late November and an online survey that was open from November 23 to December 8.

“I think the consultation has been extraordinarily thorough and wideranging, especially compared to other universities where I know well the kinds of strategic planning efforts they’ve undertaken,” said UBC Provost and VP Academic Andrew Szeri. “I think we started from a very strong place with a huge amount of broad, public engagement to get the main themes down.”

However, this harmony has not been completely reflected in student opinions on the consultations.

According to Szeri, the draft feedback was very positive.

“If you look at the number of people who strongly agreed or agreed, it was normally in the 70th, 80th percentile range, which to me is is an indication of good success,” he said.

Shakti Ramkumar, a fourthyear geography student and co-director of the sustainabilitybased club Common Energy, said that she and her club members liked the draft but disliked its ambiguous language and low focus on sustainability. The issue is especially pertinent given that last summer, in response to UBC’s promise to give sustainable thinking a prominent place in the strategic plan, ten environmentally-focused student groups collaborated to create a proposal regarding just that.

“Words like ‘enhance’ or ‘infuse’ were in the draft and we didn’t really know what that meant,” Ramkumar said.

On December 5, three days before the consultation period ended, an updated, smaller draft was presented at a BoG meeting.

Due to this update, Ramkumar and George Radner, a third-year economics student and the codirector of Common Energy, feared that UBC would no longer be able to meaningfully use the feedback from the community consultation in November because it was based on a different draft than the one currently adopted by the university.

According to Radner, the two drafts are substantially different

FILE PATRICK GILLIN

— he points out that many strategies were revised, removed or even merged together into new, condensed strategies.

“I have no idea how it’s possible they’re going use our feedback meaningfully on this new document because it just doesn’t look the same,” he said.

“Our concern is that the feedback is going to be lost and that the consultation process wasn’t genuine — in that they’re going to take those messages and use them to inform the strategic plan — because the next draft just doesn’t look anything like what we saw.”

Szeri said that the university simply had to continue working on the plan.

“There was consultation being gathered on the version that was being put on the web, and at the same time there was some thinking about whether that was the best version or if we could improve it further,” he said.

He also said that the feedback from the survey would be meaningfully used and that the feedback from the first draft informed the new draft.

“Keep in mind that the kinds of input that we got from the web [was] available to us at all points during the week that it was posted there,” he said. “So I could go in on day two and look to see how such and such a strategy was polling.”

AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Max Holmes agrees that work on the plan had to continue and that that the feedback will be used meaningfully.

However, he recognizes that the plan’s development has sometimes been confusing.

Holmes agreed with Szeri that the university underwent a very thorough consultation process in developing the draft.

“Under this whole leadership process from Santa [Ono] and Andrew [Szeri], what we saw was that they reached out to almost every group that they could,” he said. “Everyone really had a seat at the table.”

In contrast, Radner and Ramkumar were quite unsatisfied with it. In particular, they criticized the university for primarily consulting with students individually rather than in unified interest groups.

“Our individual voices are not the same as a unified voice which can be presented through a presentation or though consultation with a group of students,” said Radner.

That’s not to say that they’ve been completely ignored — Radner, Ramkumar and other students interested in sustainability were able to organize meetings with Szeri and the AMS, respectively.

Nonetheless, Radner found that it was “systematically challenging” to have their voices heard.

“There was no structured way for interest groups to participate,” he said.

He also thought that there should be more students on the working groups involved in making the plan.

“There was one to two students on each working group — that is just not enough,” he said.

‘A VERY USEFUL DOCUMENT’ Another draft of the strategic plan will be presented at the upcoming BoG meeting on February 15, where Board members will vote on whether or not to endorse it.

Szeri predicts that a final version of the plan will be completed around March or April.

He feels quite positive about the upcoming final product.

“I believe that the plan is going to be a very useful document in the upcoming years to the university,” he said. “I like the focus on collaboration, inclusion, innovation as the three main priorities — I think these cut across so many areas of great importance in the research and teaching and learning and the kind of community engagement work that the university does globally and locally.”

While Holmes is also looking forward to the final plan, he’s particularly interested in the upcoming implementation plan, which will detail how the university plans to achieve the goals in the strategic plan.

“That’s going to be the plan where you see exactly what’s going to happen,” he said. That’s what will talk about allocation of resources, that’s where you really get into the nitty-gritty.”

He hopes that the process of creating and carrying out this new plan will be clearer for community stakeholders.

“For anything in the future like the implementation plan, there needs to be a clear process and it needs to be clear who’s being involved in that process,” he said. U

CULTURE

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

EDITOR SAMUEL DU BOIS

OH HAI MARK! //

The eternal friendship of Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero

Tommy Wiseau was interviewed by The Ubyssey back in 2011.

Watch the video on our website.

Katherine Dornian Contributor

In 2003, a man created a movie so fascinatingly awful that his best friend and co-star, Greg Sestero, wrote a bestselling memoir about the making of it. It was called The Disaster Artist. Last year, James Franco released a movie based on that memoir, and earned himself a Golden Globe for best actor for his portrayal of the madman himself, Tommy Wiseau.

Now Greg Sestero has made a new film, which he wrote and starred in opposite Tommy again.

It’s called Best F(r)iends, and he introduced it to his devoted fans at the beginning of a double-bill extravaganza at the Rio Theatre on January 13.

“We wanted to make a movie with Tommy that was actually good,” he said.

This is all part of the legacy of The Room, whose massive cult following has spread all over the world and prompted fans to show up at midnight screenings everywhere for the past 15 years.

People come dressed up as their favourite characters, hurl spoons at the screen and yell responses to dialogue a la Rocky Horror. But audience participation is much more passionate and spontaneous, and there’s no script — The Room is a kind of bad that continually inspires new feelings.

“People always underestimate how ridiculous it is,” said UBC film professor Ernest Mathijs, who teaches an entire course on cult cinema. “It surprises every time, but that just makes you love it even more. And the fans are so loyal, like they are for all cult films — they keep coming back.”

The Room is an independent film that was written, directed, produced, financed and promoted

by Tommy Wiseau — a man with an accent of indeterminate origin, eccentric mannerisms more befitting of an alien who has studied human behaviour than a Hollywood mogul, and a determination fierce enough to

FILE THE UBYSSEY

make his impressive lack of talent irrelevant to his goals.

In the movie Wiseau plays Johnny, a successful banker engaged to Lisa, who decides she’s bored and cheats on him with his best friend Mark (played by Sestero).

Ostensibly intended to be a serious, character-based drama, the actual result is an hour and a half of insanity as characters and subplots are abandoned as quickly as they are introduced, scenes repeat themselves almost verbatim, and the acting and dialogue is so unnaturally awful that it becomes hilarious. (“I did not hit her, it’s not true, it’s bullshit, I did not hit her, I did nahhhhhhtt. Oh hi, Mark!”)

“I knew what I was getting into,” Sestero said. “I saw it for exactly what it was — a fascinating look into Tommy’s mind. I didn’t think people would pay money to see that.”

Cue laughter from the sold-out theatre.

“I was clearly wrong.”

Despite what The Room turned out to be, Sestero has stuck by Wiseau ever since. Best F(r)iends, which screened first at the event, is a strangely moving testament to their bond. It was clearly made by fans of The Room, for fans of The Room. And while technically still a work in progress, it’s already tonally perfect — as bizarre and surreal as any film to bloom out of that friendship must be.

“I was high when I wrote it,” Sestero jokingly admitted.

The screening was followed by a Q&A where fans could ask questions of Sestero, the film’s director/producer Justin MacGregor, producer Kristopher MacGregor, and cinematographer Fahran Umedaly. The four of them were essentially the movie’s entire crew and what they achieved works strangely well.

The movie centres on the relationship between a drifter (Sestero) and a mortician who takes him in (Wiseau) and mirrors the actors’ real-life relationship — mismatched and weird, incomparable to pretty much anything.

There’s something genuine and charming that shines through the film — just like in The Room.

Sestero himself is incredibly humble and personable. He cares deeply not only for Wiseau, but also for the fans who make what he does possible. When signing posters and copies of his book, he asks every fan’s name so he can write it in along with his autograph. He’s more than happy to shake hands and chat with people, to make time for every person individually even when there are hundreds to meet. It’s a great experience and he’s clearly an all-around nice guy.

After a break, the event moved on to a live script reading of Wiseau’s first draft of The Room.

Sestero does these readings at most fan events, with himself reading for Mark and audience members reading other parts. And yes, it’s even more bizarre and awful than the final product. Even the people on stage (who are fans and have seen the movie multiple times) weren’t prepared for it.

One memorable scene involves Mark and Peter the Psychologist – a character who, in the final film, shows up with no introduction halfway through and then disappears just as suddenly before the last act. In it, the stage directions describe Mark knocking Peter unconscious, then finding a bucket of water on the ground and dumping it on his face to revive him. This is in a movie that was supposed to be the next Streetcar Named Desire.

The event closed out with a screening of The Room, and it was as glorious as always. Spoons flew, the audience booed the sex scenes, choruses of “Hi Denny!” and “Meanwhile, in San Francisco!” rose with every terrible transition.

There’s something magnificently earnest about the feelings the film inspires in people; there’s simply no room for cynicism.

“There’s something really admirable and amazing in that a movie this bad still shows 15 years later,” as Sestero said. “There’s gotta be a magic there.”

And there is, because The Room is honest. At its heart, it’s one man’s passion project that failed so completely that it succeeded. It’s clear what Wiseau wanted this movie to be, and it’s just as clear that he put everything he had into making it.

“As a movie, it’s very naïve,” Professor Mathijs said. “It was meant to be a good movie. It’s not self-aware, like Rocky Horror — he sincerely wanted to make a movie about love and friendship. And he believed in himself.”

A lot of the magic comes from the Sestero’s continued belief in Wiseau, too. Even if he never had any illusions about The Room, he always believed in Wiseau as a fascinating, indescribable person who could not and would not be contained.

“He really put his whole heart into The Room,” Sestero said.

“He really thought he was going to change the world and shock people with this film. And that’s a lesson I definitely learned from him — if you’re going to go out and do something, put your whole heart into it.” U

6

THEATRE //

There could have been a few more dragons in the show.

FILE KOBY MICHAELS

UBC needs more plays like She Kills Monsters Briget Chase Senior Staff Writer

I did two things as soon as I got home from seeing She Kills Monsters: I unpacked my bag of colourful, multi-sided dice from storage and I bought another ticket to see the show again next week.

She Kills Monsters is a two-hour rush of stunning visual effects, impressive fight choreography and “my boyfriend thinks roleplaying is a sex thing” jokes. With a femaleled cast and underlying themes of adolescence, family and acceptance, this is the sort of contemporary piece that UBC should be presenting more often, and one that UBC students are likely to enjoy.

She Kills Monsters does a lot of things right. While the clever ’90s references and nerdy comedy has to be credited to the playwright, Qui Nguyen, the cast and crew of the UBC production brought these aesthetics to the stage in exciting and innovative ways.

The Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) world is heavily showcased through lighting. Designer Stefan Zubovic deserves praise for bringing magic to life through effects and animations. Everything from a revival spell being performed to a magical staff casting the shadow of a five headed dragon helped the fantasy unfold and delighted the crowd.

It was often the little details that really made the play a pleasure to watch. When the protagonist Agnes (Natalie Backerman) levels up, the Mario power-up sound effect plays.

When the monsters are waiting for a fight to continue, they bounce back and forth on their feet like classic video game NPCs. These nods to geekery charmed even the most uninformed viewers.

The extensive fight scenes had audience members leaning over balcony railings, trying to catch as much of the action as possible.

It would be worth it to see She Kills Monsters for a second time solely to focus on different parts of the stage during some of the

more action-packed sequences.

The fight choreography was far from basic swordplay. At one point, Agnes’s sister, Tilly (Heidi Damayo), wrapped her legs around a monster’s neck and did a full 360 degree spin, toppling it to the ground like a professional MMA fighter. There was a full three minute battle sequence set to ’90s grunge rock and — even with the party tackling hoard after hoard of monsters — the cast did it all without losing the audience’s attention.

One of the things She Kills Monsters fell short on was the use of its creatures to the fullest extent.

The puppets made a relatively brief entry into the show, meaning we didn’t get to appreciate their full dramatic effect. The fight scene against the dragon — one hyped up by all the posters scattered around campus — felt underwhelming in comparison to the fast-paced intensity that was the rest of the show. That being said, the monsters were beautifully crafted and, for the time that they were on stage, added another level of professionalism to the performance.

Backerman elegantly captured Agnes’ journey from “ass-hatted” to “ass-kicker,” and Damayo played Tilly as a convincingly cocky nerd.

Anni Ramsay and Daelyn LesterSerafin stood out in the supporting cast as Evil Gabbi and Evil Tina — who were equally sinister in both the real world and the D&D world — as well as Jed Weiss, who played Chuck, the hilarious Dungeon Master and unintentional counsellor to Agnes.

She Kills Monsters starts its quest with Tilly telling Agnes that “this is a D&D adventure, not therapy.” But with a class like Paladin, Tilly is a healer of the wounded, which is exactly how Agnes enters the game.

Through the means of sisterlybonding, confidence building and empowerment, Tilly is able to help heal Agnes in her own special way. And she sure does kill a lot of monsters. U

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY | CULTURE | 7 ART //

Beginning in the Seventies: GLUT is a timely look at the legacy of feminism Chimedum Ohaegbu Contributor

In the age of the Resist and #MeToo movements, the adage of the pen proving mightier than the sword rings truer than ever, especially for women-focused narratives.

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery’s newest exhibit Beginning in the Seventies: GLUT — which opened on January 11 — mirrors this timelessness, despite being based on an earlier era.

Focusing on text-based art, GLUT’s main attraction is the second installation of Alexandra Bischoff’s Rereading Room project, which has brought in 100 books from the Vancouver Women’s Bookstore (1973-1996). By having readers placed strategically as living art, Rereading Room aims to explore “the potential of reading as performed resistance.”

“Often reading is referred to as an escapist activity,” said Bischoff.

“But it’s also self-educative and strengthening.”

On its opening night, Rereading Room featured a discussion between founding member of the Vancouver Women’s Bookstore, Jeannine Mitchell, founding member of Montreal’s L’Euguélionne Bookstore, Stephanie Dufresne and Bischoff herself. During the talk, Bischoff emphasized the burnout aspect inherent to activism, especially in the Trump era, even while stressing the importance of appreciating the

sacrifices and hard work of earlier activists.

GLUT’s Curator Lorna Brown agreed, adding in an emailed response that she “hope[s] the exhibitions generate a greater awareness of lesser known histories and help to preserve community archives.”

Judging from questions Bischoff, Mitchell and Dufresne fielded during the talk, the audience was responding to the fullest of Brown’s hopes.

The audience’s contribution of spoken words did not eclipse the importance of their written words, however. Expanding on its origins, Rereading Room turns books and their readers into statement art.

Annotations in the books from a selection of 13 readers, plus Bischoff, will be part of the exhibit as time goes on. This harkens back to the communicative and community-based activism of the ’70s that GLUT hopes to showcase and promote in this day and age, where it is needed more than ever. “[I] expect viewers will respond to the ongoing struggles of feminism and other social movements in a variety of ways,” said Brown.

Accordingly, a variety of people attended, including dancers, professors, therapists, activists and a contingent of SFU students, among others. With pens tucked into buns or behind ears, statement jewellery and sensible shoes, the audience encompassed

“Often reading is referred to as an escapist activity,” said Bischoff. “But it’s also self-educative and strengthening.”

all ages and represented people of diverse tastes and disciplines.

Drawing particular attention were Divya Mehra’s purple-onwhite declarative statements — especially “The Bitch Blues,” which states in capital letters: “SHE POSES A PROBLEM BECAUSE SHE KEEPS EXPOSING A PROBLEM.” Artist Laiwan’s striking “she who has scanned the flower of the

world” is a set of 27 inkjet prints on paper that combines sparse, Sappho-inspired poetry with microscope slides of leaves, flowers and other natural phenomena.

“Watching the development of the ideas of the artists we commissioned for the project was a distinct pleasure,” said Brown.

This pleasure was also mirrored in the audience’s reactions to both the talk and the exhibit itself.

ZUBAIR HIRJI

Even though the fight against oppression has grown more difficult as of late, Bischoff is optimistic.

“It’s pretty exciting that there’s such an abundance of ideas coming out of [women’s art], and how far we’ve come since [the ’70s],” she said. “We’re becoming hungrier to walk together.” U GLUT runs from January 11 to April 18, 2018.

OPINIONS

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

EDITOR EMMA HICKS

EXCHANGE //

OUR WISHLIST //

Their Campus: Practicing ‘self-learning’ in Coventry, United Kingdom

Last Words: What The Ubyssey wants to see from UBC in 2018 Ubyssey Editorial Board

January is the time of year that we all are trying to get back into the swing of school and work, on top of trying to balance our New Year’s resolutions.

But these resolutions often fall through the cracks of our busy schedules, and UBC has a tendency to “forget” about what it previously said it would do. To help them out, The Ubyssey has compiled a list of things that we want to see from the university, that it can actually commit to.

INCREASED CAMPUS SECURITY

MAC MCCREERY / FLICKR

I was surprised by how quickly I adjusted to my surroundings.

Christine Kim Contributor

From October to December, I attended the University of Warwick located in Coventry, UK. Similar in both climate and geography to UBC, I was surprised by how quickly I adjusted to my surroundings.

Before this exchange, I had been travelling and living in different parts of Europe for seven months prior. So in comparison to a country in which the language was foreign and the customs significantly different to that of Canada — like I had experienced in France, Germany, Spain and Portugal — England wasn’t that much of a challenge.

What was a challenge apart from adjusting to my cultural surroundings was actually the schoolwork.

It turns out the UK is much more for independent learning than Canada is, which definitely threw me off my game. My professors were resources to rely on for teaching during the confines of lecture times only.

Outside of class, we were to refer to our textbooks, peers and seminar leaders.

If those didn’t work, you were welcome to email the professor, while bearing in mind this was quite outside the norm. This understanding alone pushed me to figure things out on my own more vigorously than I had during my years of study at UBC.

8

I began to re-listen to the recordings of my lectures, a fantastic tool that I hope UBC adopts. In doing so, I grew more confident in my own ability to pick-up the material on my time.

With the classes that I took at UBC, we had several assignments, quizzes and readings to complete for marks that lead to a final exam — but the classes I took at Warwick were not like this. Practically a hundred per cent of my grade was determined by one assignment or one test. So in theory you could do nothing the entire term, ace the last graded item and complete the course with flying colours.

While it was difficult for me to get the hang of such an independent style of learning, I slowly began to enjoy it. I felt pride in studying and the learning I was doing, supplemented by the lectures I chose to attend — some physically and others virtually.

Coming back to UBC, I feel more confident in my abilities to problem-solve and critically think about the questions I have in my classes. I do of course miss the freedom that comes with having absolutely no real work to do until the end of term. But at the same time, I definitely don’t miss the stress and anxiety that came from mismanaging my time when I took a bit too much advantage of this concept of “self-learning.” U Christine Kim is a fifth-year student studying international relations and economics.

As of this month, Rob McCloy is the new director of UBC’s Campus Security department. McCloy brings more actual security and safety experience, which previous directors haven’t had — when former director Barry Eccleton was hired five years ago, they weren’t stringent about the person having a background in security (odd, we know). Eccleton was transferred to UBC Athletics last year after an externally conducted review recommended that the director role be tweaked to more accurately represent the campus’s needs and act as “the face and the voice of community safety for UBC.” This is a testament to student feelings about Campus Security — although they can usually be counted on to report to specific incidences, their typical lack of a tangible presence (for instance, not many officers patrolling at night) has repercussions for how safe students feel. The external review found “a dissonance between the importance of safety on campus and the functioning of campus security found on campus,” we reported in 2016, and it’s about time UBC started implementing change based on that critique.

We hope that McCloy takes his 28 years serving various roles with the RCMP and uses that knowledge to not only respond to security infringements, but also to consistently emphasize a culture of safety and acceptance at UBC with more outreach and communication.

More proactive measures such

as increased patrol officers and consistently functioning blue phones would also be nice.

AN ACTION PLAN FOR MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT All over UBC Confessions, Reddit threads, Twitter and other social media outlets are calls for support regarding student mental health.

While UBC has certain plans in place — the Wellness Centre, SASC, Student Health Services, etc. — we are still seeing a lot of students seeking help but not receiving any in a timely manner. It is evident that UBC is not offering a strong sense of community.

In October, The Ubyssey published an editorial looking into a timeline of the fall reading break discussion, citing how Ono talks a big game regarding mental health issues on campus, but doesn’t seem to have a cohesive plan to actually address shortcomings.

More recently, we reported that UBC is still a ways away from getting a fall reading break.

It appears that Senate is more concerned about students getting the best return on tuition rather than student well-being. But don’t students deserve the chance to recharge to be able to adequately do their work and be present in class?

THE OPENING OF THE INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS HISTORY AND DIALOGUE CENTRE IN SPRING 2018 AND UBC’S APOLOGY The Indian Residential Schools History and Dialogue Centre at UBC was originally slated to open in the summer of 2017, but has now been pushed back to March 2018 with seemingly no announcement of the delay. The IRSC is “designed to be a history centre, but also to be a dialogue centre” according to UBC. In August, The Ubyssey reported that Santa Ono planned to apologize for UBC’s role in the Indian Residential School System in late September, 2017. After confirming the apology and publicizing a livestreamed discussion to take place the day after, UBC postponed the

apology on September 26 — two days before the event — due to “a scheduling conflict.” We followed up on January 4, 2018 and were told that UBC would get back to us soon.

The Ubyssey has still not received word on when Santa Ono’s apology will take place, and this is something we would like to see addressed moving forward.

MORE FUNDING FOR ACCESS AND PRIVACY We can’t report on important campus issues if we don’t get the right information. Some of our most important investigative reporting results from information we gain through freedom of information (FOI) requests to the UBC Access and Privacy Office. Legally, UBC has 30 days to reply to FOI requests and has the option to tack on another 30 days if they need additional time to sift through the documents, but the vast majority of our requests take longer than the 60-day period the university is legally allowed.

As far as we can tell, this isn’t because the office’s employees are lazy — they’re just overworked.

In 2015, we published an op-ed highlighting the fact that UBC needs add funding to the UBC Access and Privacy office to increase the timeliness and accuracy of their responses to FOI requests.

FIGHTING FOR STUDENT AFFORDABILITY, NOT AGAINST IT Due to some snazzy provincial legislation, UBC isn’t allowed to raise domestic students’ tuition more than two per cent every year — which they do, every year — but that hasn’t stopped them from raising other fees and lobbying the government to remove the restriction.

It would be nice if UBC shifted its fight from the right to dump their financial problems on the backs of students to the fight for, say, increased federal and provincial funding for higher education, or — dare we say it — the fight for education as a human right. U

Resolutions often fall through the cracks of our busy schedules, and UBC has a tendency to “forget” about what it previously said it would do.

NATALIE MORRIS

JANUARY 9, 2018 TUESDAY | opinions | 9 FALL READING BREAK //

Letter: Using teaching days as an excuse for not having a fall reading break is a weak argument Madeleine Link Contributor

For an institution that bombards us with slogans like “Tuum Est: It Is Yours” and constantly emphasizes its world-class status, it seems like instituting a fall reading break would be easy for UBC. After all, most other Canadian universities have them, and UBC prides itself on being among the best of these.

Unfortunately, a recent article in The Ubyssey confirms that the push for a fall break is moving at a snail’s pace, trapped within a bureaucracy that seems out-oftouch with students, faculty and their concerns.

The claim made by student senator Kevin Doering that UBC’s primary concern is “that students should be receiving good value for their tuition” is ridiculous. If UBC is so concerned with student finances, why are they raising tuition yet again, with consultation that students criticized as inadequate?

If the university is dedicated to ensuring students extract the maximum number of teachable hours possible proportionate to the money we pay, why not just reduce course fees or forgo tuition increases? This seems

“Can the value we get out of our degrees really be measured only in teaching hours?”

like a half-hearted excuse rather than a reflection of any genuine concern on the part of Senate.

Additionally, can the value we get out of our degrees really be measured only in teaching hours?

By the middle of the semester, myself and many students I know are too mentally exhausted to

truly benefit from class time.

Despite it being considered standard, taking five courses means doing a lot of hard work.

Struggling to stay on top of our readings and assignments means many of us neglect to eat well, exercise or get enough sleep — ironically the very things

FILE CHERIHAN HASSUN

that help to maintain mental health. When students approach academic burnout like this, the value of their degree could be enhanced by a few extra days to decompress and catch up on missed work than by the pressure to keep attending classes we aren’t prepared for.

Given the hugely detrimental effects of stress on university students as well as the ofteninsufficient access to mental health services on campus — not coincidentally around times when a fall break might land — it is in everyone’s best interest for UBC to institute a fall reading break. Adding “at least one day ... in another year or two years” is simply not enough, and there is a very real risk that it will be too little, too late.

How long before UBC has a “suicide epidemic” similar to what Queen’s experienced starting in 2010?

If UBC wants to continue branding itself as a challenging, competitive university, it must accept that its hardworking and frequently overstressed students deserve a fall break.

Although Senate defends its lethargic process with excuses about logistics and ensuring the best “value” for students, these defenses are flimsy.

It has been long enough — UBC needs to figure out a solution to this urgent problem, and fast. U Madeleine Link is a third-year student studying classical, near Eastern and religious studies.

ADVICE //

Ask Pawan: Getting back into the swing of things after the holidays

New Year, new advice columnist!

Pawan Minhas Advice Columnist

New Year, new advice columnist!

My name is Pawan and I’ll be taking the reins as our favourite columnist, Natalie, approaches graduation and the world beyond our university.

To give a little background on myself, I’ve been attending UBC for a few years now and have been an avid reader of The Ubyssey since my first semester here. I particularly enjoyed reading the witty, sincere advice doled out on “Ask Natalie,” and I hope to do my best in retaining that same spirit in the articles to come.

FILE JACK HAUEN

I begin my time as an advice columnist by asking a favour: if you have any troubles, big or small, I encourage you to send them in anonymously to me and I’ll strive to provide honest, in-depth advice on whatever your dilemma may be, while also benefitting those who may be facing similar problems.

Without further ado: “Dear Pawan, I have one lecture where no matter how hard I try to stay awake and focus on the prof, I always fall asleep. This leads to me missing explanations for

some key topics and getting a little lost sometimes. Normally, I’d go to office hours and ask the prof to go over some of the things I don’t understand, but I’m pretty sure he knows that I sleep during his lectures and I’d rather avoid any confrontation about it. What should I do?”

In my time at UBC, I’ve definitely snoozed through my fair share of classes, so here’s some tips I found to be helpful in clearing my head — without upping my caffeine to barista-worrying levels.

The first is a rule of thumb for in-class lethargy: get active in both brain and body. Try seating

yourself closer to the front of class so you feel more connected to the professor and maybe even try asking the occasional question to stay fully focused on what they’re lecturing.

Related to in-class engagement, I also recommend brushing up on what you’ll be covering in the day’s class. If you do find yourself drifting off, you’ll be able to fill in the blanks as to what the prof is droning on about.

Regarding material you may have missed, start by talking to anyone in the class who you think would be willing to share notes. If you don’t clear up all your questions there, my last recommendation is that you go through all your course material (syllabi, textbooks, etc.) so as to narrow down what you’re unsure of, then take those unknowns to your professor.

With any luck, they’ll appreciate your resolve to stay engaged in class and lend themselves to helping clear up any final points of confusion for you.

“It’s the first week of classes, but I think I want to drop out. I hate my new classes and I wish I was back at home. I don’t like it here. I thought I liked it last term, but I think that I was just overwhelmed with how new everything was.”

When you first start attending UBC, it’s easy to find yourself swept up in the excitement of being a part of the bright and beautiful life that inhabits the campus, but once you’ve found your footing and that initial glow wanes, it’s important to take stock of how this new life fits.

First semester is renowned for its ability to keep life lively, presenting new opportunities at every turn, but after a trip home during winter break, you’re often packing a renewed homesickness on your way back to campus.

Take a step back from both the excitement UBC offers and your feelings of homesickness. Try to take an objective stance on where you find yourself and how content you are with your situation. Try to remember what pulled you to UBC in the first place, as well as where your passions lie academically, socially and otherwise.

Try to get a solid understanding of why you don’t enjoy your classes, whether it be a boring curriculum, bad professor, leftover homesickness or anything else.

All of this advice centres around you ensuring that you’re armed with all the information you need to take your next step confidently, whether that be switching classes, changing majors or faculties, or taking a break from UBC. You will probably find yourself arguing against yourself on a dozen potential paths, each unique to itself. If you end up here, I suggest you take a minute to appreciate the diverse range of opportunity you’ve worked to give yourself, and remember that the confidence you’ve gained from getting all your information together and understanding your options will make your next step all the more likely to be the right one. U Need advice? Contact Pawan anonymously at advice@ubyssey.ca or at ubyssey.ca/advice and have your questions answered!

FROM THE BLOG

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

EDITOR EMMA HICKS

GET ACTIVE //

10

NEW MEDIA //

Winter activities around Vancouver Club profiles: Clubs to do before Term 2 consumes us for the media mavens Emma Livingstone Senior Staff Writer

After a much needed but short break we’re already back at school. If you didn’t find time to squeeze in some winter activities between visiting family, catching up on sleep and Netflix, here are some things to do this January before assignments start piling up.

SNOWSHOEING Hiking season doesn’t have to be confined to the summer months.

Just strap on some snowshoes and explore the winter wonderlands on top of mountains, such as Mount Seymour, Cypress and Grouse, where they’re available for rent. If you have your own snowshoes, there are also trails at Elfin Lakes and Garibaldi Lake near Squamish. Both popular summer hiking destinations are just as breathtaking in the winter time.

SKIING/SNOWBOARDING In Vancouver, we’re fortunate enough to be surrounded by mountains to practice our half pipe tricks or learn how to keep

our skis straight. If you can’t afford a weekend ski vacation to Whistler there are plenty of local mountains including Grouse, Cypress and Mount Seymour. Or venture across the Port Mann Bridge to Sasquatch Mountain Resort in Hemlock Valley where they have deals on lift tickets every day of the week.

ICE SKATING Practice your balancing act and go for a skate at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre where UBC students skate for free.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t get cold enough in Vancouver to be able to skate on a picturesque frozen pond, but the outdoor rink at Robson Square is a pretty good compromise.

CANYON LIGHTS If you didn’t get the chance to see any fancy Christmas lights on your break, don’t fret because Canyon Lights at Capilano Suspension Bridge is on until January 28! Wander through the glowing tree-tops and take in all

the natural beauty. It’s also not a bad place to take a date.

SEA-TO-SKY GONDOLA Head up Highway 99 for the Seato-Sky Gondola in Squamish where spectacular views await. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but you can save $2 if you order online, and it’s definitely worth the awe-inspiring views of the forests and mountains surrounding the Howe Sound. Take some VSCOworthy photos on the snow-covered suspension bridge and then rent some snowshoes to explore the trails at the top.

WHISTLER What is an article about Vancouver winter activities that doesn’t mention Whistler? It’s the classic British Columbia winter destination where you can do all of the activities mentioned above and more (bobsledding, anyone?). If you still need to rejuvenate from term 1, treat yourself to a relaxing steam bath or massage at the Scandinave Spa. And, don’t forget to snap a picture in front of the Olympic rings surrounded by snow-capped mountains. U

Whether you are into podcasts or music, CiTR welcomes everyone.

Emma Ng Staff Writer

Want a platform to share your voice? Didn’t get accepted into media studies?

We’ve got you.

UBC has everything you need to gain real-world experience in the oldest and newest forms of media.

Join these clubs as a media expert or as someone who wants to create open lines of communication within specialized areas.

UBC FILM SOCIETY (FILMSOC) Do you make videos alone in your spare time? What about watching them alone? Try going outside and meeting some people at the UBC FilmSoc! They produce two short films per year and offer production workshops and equipment rentals for members.

You can also catch up with them at film screenings every Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Nest or tune into their radio show, The Reel Whirled, which airs every Friday from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. on CiTR 101.9 FM.

CITR 101.9 FM

What is an article about Vancouver winter activities that doesn’t mention Whistler?

WHISTLER BLACKCOMB INSTAGRAM

What’s that noise? It’s the sweet, sweet airwaves of our campus’s very own radio station. Whether you are into podcasts or music,

FILE KOSTA PRODANOVIC

CiTR welcomes everyone. You can contribute to collective radio shows, produce your own, review music or volunteer at live shows. The opportunities are endless.

DISCORDER MAGAZINE CiTR’s print-media baby, Discorder, covers just about everything in the arts community. Volunteer to review local concerts, comedy/improv shows and art exhibits, or contribute your visual talents as an illustrator or photographer.

UBC MEDIA LAB Technically, this one is a lab, not a club. They are currently developing a virtual reality field trip experience of Stanley Park in collaboration with UBC Geography, an educational physics game and much more. They also offer workshops, demos and orientations for those who are interested.

THE UBYSSEY Don’t forget about us, of course!

Anyone can contribute as a writer, illustrator, photographer or videographer. You can volunteer as much or as little as you want, so come and find us at room 2208 in the Nest for some fun journalism experience. U

GET SNUGGLY //

Dear winter blues, meet Hygge: The Danish art of coziness

FILE JOSH MEDICOFF

Getting out of a warm bed on a cold grey day can be a real burden.

Jenn Xu Contributor

It’s the most hygge time of the year.

It’s winter season and for many of us, it’s that time where our seasonal blues kick in.

Days are short, the rain pours relentlessly and the sun has been in hiding for ages. This dreary weather can easily affect our mood, motivation, mental health and energy levels.

With so many cold, dark days ahead of us, many of us retreat to

what brings us comfort on a cold winter’s day. Whether that may be the warmth evoked by a home cooked meal with friends, getting cozy by the fireplace, or perhaps even conducting little rituals that give us joy like brewing tea in our favourite mug and lighting a candle to cast away the winter shivers.

Much like most unexplainable feelings, there isn’t quite a word in English that captures this essence. However, there is in Danish — Hygge (pronounced hoo-guh).

Hygge can be expressed in many ways. It’s a moment or feeling, whether alone at home or out in public, ordinary or extraordinary — but it is always cozy, charming or special.

But most importantly, it alters our mental wellbeing.

Hygge shows that warmth is not only a physical state — it’s a mental one too.

The Danes are known to be some of the happiest people on Earth (according to the World Happiness Report of 2016). By creating simple rituals without much effort, this positive outlook has become naturally embedded into their lifestyles, and perhaps, yours too.

HYGGE STARTER PACK There are tons of ways to feel hygge.

A Danish person is likely to tell you how important it is to create a hyggelig atmosphere at home.

Start by burning some candles and cozy up with blankets, wool

socks or anything knitted are welcome to create this vibe.

HYGGE IS BEST ENJOYED WITH FRIENDS Spending a cozy evening with friends and enjoying each other’s company may just be what your body and soul need. After all, togetherness is an essential part of hygge.

MAKE A WINTER PLAYLIST Create a cheery playlist to alleviate your blue mood. Alternatively, do the opposite and channel your angst through a moody playlist and put it on blast — The Smiths and King Krule are great artists to listen to, but the main point is to create a soothing ambiance.

PLAN EXCITING ACTIVITIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO Getting out of a warm bed on a cold grey day can be a real burden. But it’s

a lot easier when there’s something exciting to eagerly anticipate.

Planning little adventures that bring you bliss can make all the difference. Try out a new coffee shop, stop by a flower shop, go see a play or even bring back an old hobby.

It may just uplift your mood and get you feeling some type of hygge way.

TREAT YOUR SWEET TOOTH Hygge is associated with relaxation and indulgence, and what’s more indulgent than sugar? After all, winter is when people consume the most amount of sweets.

You could technically make anything hygge. It’s all about perspective. Reminding ourselves to appreciate the heartwarming moments and being grateful for what we have can provide the necessary mental shift to get through the long winter months.

Now go out there — or stay in — and have a “hygge-ful” winter season. U

SCIENCE

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

EDITOR NIVRETTA THATRA

12

GRAD WORK //

Every UBC graduate student’s dissertation will now include an ELI5 version James Vogl Staff Writer

Anyone who has had the experience of thrashing through a highly technical journal article, bouncing from sentence to sentence while desperately searching for some kind of conceptual foothold, can tell you that academics can oftentimes be downright unintelligible to anyone outside their discipline.

Last spring, UBC introduced new guidelines for master’s theses and doctoral dissertations with the goal of making academic writing more understandable for a general audience, part of a broader effort within the UBC graduate school to bridge the often sizeable gulf between academia and the “real world.”

“We were concerned about students being able to explain what they did to the person in line at Safeway,” said Dr. Susan Porter, dean and vice-provost of UBC graduate school.

The May 2017 guidelines now stipulate that all master’s theses and doctoral dissertations must include a “lay abstract” that describes the research in terms that members of the general public without any technical knowledge can understand.

All the abstracts can be found online on the UBC Library’s

Theses and Dissertations database; all dissertations submitted after April 2017 include a lay abstract.

Porter described a number of reasons for the new requirement, chief among which is the fact that, as they study at a public institution, UBC graduate students have a responsibility to be as transparent as possible with the taxpaying public about their work and its contributions to society or the state of knowledge in their field.

Including an easily-understandable summary with all theses and dissertations is one way of better fulfilling that responsibility.

Additionally, according to Porter, the lay abstract requirement will also help better prepare graduate students for their future careers.

Such abstracts are commonly required in grant proposals and even in submissions to some academic journals. The more experience students can get in writing them now, the better they will be served farther on down the line.

With this new policy, UBC joins a number of universities that have introduced similar requirements in recent years.

While there are no specific requirements stipulating how to format the lay abstracts, Porter is adamant that they should

“We were concerned about students being able to explain what they did to the person in line at Safeway.”

not “dumb down” complicated research but rather make it more easily accessible to those without a technical background.

Making graduate-level work

more accessible while staying true to its nuance can, no doubt, be a difficult balancing act, but it is hoped that working to strike that balance will prove to be a valuable exercise

LUA PRESÍDIO

that will lead students to reflect on their work from an alternate perspective and perhaps gain some new insight into its place in the world at large. U

SCIENTIST //

Nobel laureate visits UBC ‘with the answers to the universe’

Dr. Barry Barish, one of the recipients of the prize, talks about his findings.

Sanjana Subramanian Contributor

On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected the universe’s gravitational waves for the first time and altered our current understanding of astrophysics and general relativity. Although first predicted in 1916 by Einstein, there has been a lot of confusion over the years about whether this phenomenon is really possible.

Yet, the LIGO team proved the impossible when they detected waves coming from a collision between two black holes that took place 1.3 billion years ago. This inspiring contribution was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics.

UBC’s physics and astronomy department was lucky to host Dr. Barry Barish, one of the recipients of the prize, to talk about his findings on November 30, 2017.

Gravitational waves can be loosely quantified as ripples in

BENGT NYMAN/FLICKR

spacetime caused by violent and energetic processes in the universe.

Space-time, on the other hand, is the concept of time and threedimensional space fused in a four-dimensional continuum, which Barish described as “space and time being unified in 4D.” Barish began his talk by describing that space-time is extremely stiff and hence changes in distance are very small, which is why the observed effects are so small as well. As a result, although

Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, he himself was skeptical about successfully detecting them.

While Arthur Eddington observed the distortion in space-time during the solar eclipse of 1919, this skepticism resurfaced in January 1957 at the Chapel Hill conference.

But Barish said these apprehensions only inspired the scientists at LIGO to find more concrete evidence to support the existence of gravitational waves.

Einstein’s hypothesis stemmed from general relativity, which is special relativity — an experimentally determined theory relating space and time — that takes acceleration into account.

Einstein’s mathematics proved that massive objects that accelerate towards each other would disrupt space-time in such a way that ‘waves’ of distorted space would radiate from the source.

Much like the speed at which gravitational waves travel, Barish broke down the norms of special and general relativity at the speed of light.

UBC students were also lucky to hear from the man himself how Einstein’s mathematics translated into their work.

“When this was but a theory, I couldn’t possibly tell a crowd that I firmly believe in this but cannot justify it,” said Barish. “Yet, today I stand in front of you all with the answers to the universe.”

With the help of the extremely sensitive LIGO detectors and a mathematical rationale to show how gravitational waves affect the curvature of space-time, Barish really did have all those answers.

Not only did these findings help scientists locate the origin of the

wave, but they even changed the discipline by giving us a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of gravity itself.

The origin of these waves was traced back to a collision between black holes and the death of binary neutron stars. As Barish described them, “black holes are regions in space with strong forces of gravity that allow nothing to escape.”

Alternatively, he also hypothesized that the collapsing and eventual death of large stars could cause gravitational waves.

In both case, large bodies either collide (black holes) or disrupt violently (large stars) and cause changes in space-time, leading to gravitational waves.

Barish went on to explain that while the gravitational waves detected didn’t completely conform to the image Einstein had created as waves with no dispersion, this discovery still has several implications. Not only does it validate a longstanding confusion in astrophysics, it now provides us with a better way of looking at the discipline, while taking gravitational waves into account to explain new phenomenon.

Moreover, it is also a new proof for general relativity, without which the entire existence of gravitational waves would not be possible.

But these implications don’t stop Barish and his team from further pursuing this field.

“This is but a small step forward in revolutionizing astrophysics,” he said. “As is our motto, we learn from our mistakes, learn from other scientists, build on our existing work and try again.” U

SPORTS+REC

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

EDITOR LUCY FOX

13

SPORTS READS //

LIFE HACKS//

From page to practice: Sam Sheridan’s A Fighter’s Heart

How to ski on a student budget

Jordan Kantypowicz Contributor

When I was 16, I watched a friend get verbally bullied for months before being beaten up at my high school. That scared me to the point where I decided that I needed to take up martial arts to prevent the same thing from happening to me.

The only problem was, I didn’t know anything about martial arts and had no clue where to start — at the time, I spent most of my time playing guitar or reading.

So, I decided to check out some local bookstores and see if I could find a book that would either inspire me or at least give me a sense of direction.

Sam Sheridan’s A Fighter’s Heart: One Man’s Journey Through the World of Fighting immediately caught my eye.

The book is about Sheridan’s experiences with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), where martial artists compete in a cage or a ring with the objective of knocking out, submitting or out pointing an opponent — there are few rules around how you can or can’t do this as well. Due to the sports flexibility and lack of rules, competitors are forced to study multiple martial arts and mix them together in order to eliminate any weaknesses that could be exploited by an opponent.

This strategy of mixing martial arts developed because, in early MMA competitions, it was common to see small competitors beat large, skilled fighters by simply dragging them to the ground and manipulating their opponents’ limbs or using choke holds to force a submission.

In response, martial artists who practiced classical martial arts involving punching and kicking were forced to learn ground-based martial arts in order to defend themselves.

In the book, Sheridan travels all over the world learning different martial arts disciplines in order to become proficient in MMA. This appealed directly to my love of travel and fascination with different cultures, leading me to finish the book within a week.

When I was done, I was eager to try out MMA and began searching for a gym in my hometown.

I soon found a local gym that specialized in MMA and went in to take an introductory class. To say I was intimidated would be an understatement. When I showed up I was out of shape, unathletic and had no self-confidence. To make matters worse, the gym had a

large roster of professional fighters who were all incredibly talented and in amazing shape — they scared the hell out of me.

Fortunately, MMA has a different culture than most sports, and that reflected in my first gym experience. The instructors, professional fighters and other casual practitioners were relaxed and there was very little ego or bravado. Even the scariest looking people in the room were friendly and enthusiastic to help new people learn the ropes. One of the most interesting things I noticed was that everyone came from different walks of life and many, like myself, were inspired to get involved due to experiences with bullying. I was hooked immediately and began attending class as much as possible.

The effects on my life were profound. I got in better shape, made new friends and built up my confidence.

I soon realized that martial arts and fighting were difficult to learn, even for the most athletic people. In order to get good at them you must spend hours sparring — fighting with teammates with additional protection to avoid injury — and competing as much as possible.

Consequently, I realized that most bullies are probably really bad at fighting in comparison to the people I was training and sparring with every day. This helped me to abandon my fear of bullies and made high school, workplaces and nights out much less intimidating.

MMA also had a dramatic influence on how I view women in sports. One of my coaches and many of my classmates were professional female fighters. To this day, some of my roughest sparring sessions and some of my most lopsided losses have come at the hand of women half my size with twice my skill level. These experiences both humbled me and showed me that traditional notions of men’s unquestioned physical superiority over women are false. Any man who uses the expression “hits like a girl” has not been punched in the face by a female MMA fighter.

I have continued to practice martial arts since high school and it remains my favourite hobby.

I’ve never reread Sheridan’s book and to this day its tacky title and slightly gross cover photo make me cringe; however, I still keep it on my bookshelf despite my girlfriend’s repeated pleas to get rid of it. U

It started with a book and turned into a lifelong passion.

FILE MAIA BOAKYE

Skiing and boarding on a budget is easy if you know what deals are out there.

Emily Kuang Contributor

With the white Christmas fresh in our minds and the Pyeonchang Olympic Winter Games just around the corner, January feels like the perfect time for new athletic beginnings. To top it off, it’s another La Nina year — which means a wintry, healthy ski season like the last one. And what better way to start off the new year than picking up a new sport?

If you didn’t jump on the Whistler train when it left in November, the cheapest way to ski is to ski locally. In fact, it’s so cheap that sometimes it’s free.

SPECIAL SLOPE DAYS Cypress Winter baby? Good news, Cypress offers free skiing on your birthday — just be sure to bring your ID with you.

Mount Seymour Are you so strapped for cash that you’re subsisting on a diet of ramen and shredded textbooks? Starting January 22, Mount Seymour will also offer skiing by donation for female skiers and riders — $15 donation, of which $7.50 goes to The Bloom Group — from 6 to 10 p.m. on Monday nights for their Shred for the Cause Ladies’ Nights. For men, it’s $33 — still ridiculously cheap. You can feel good about sparing those extra dollars too: last year, Mount Seymour raised $26,000 for social services in the Downtown Eastside.

Starting January 24, their Carload

Wednesdays will allow up to eight people per vehicle to ski or ride for $99 in a push against needless gas emissions. One caveat to bear in mind: you will need minimum four vehicle occupants to qualify. This price also does not include rentals if you need them!

Grouse Mountain If you want more bang for your buck, Grouse Mountain’s 24 Hours of Winter is also not to be missed.

On February 17 and 18, you can party on the slope for 24 hours for the price of a lift ticket.

DAILY DEALS The cheapest way to ski regularly when there are no discounts is to night ski. Stuck at labs until 5 p.m.?

Have no fear: all the North Shore mountains offer night skiing. At Grouse, it’s $49 from 4 to 10 p.m., $33 for Mount Seymour from 5:30 to 10 p.m. and $39 for Cypress.

Cypress is also known to regularly offer students 40 per cent off during a weekday of their choosing, so check their website for daily deals — in the past, it’s been Thursdays or Fridays. Paying full price at Cypress is generally ill-advised, so save money by purchasing a Gold Medal Card and pre-booking your ticket online.

GETTING GEAR Don’t know how to ski and need to get your hands on some gear? After awakening your inner shredder, you, too, can whiz through the air without it costing an arm or leg and start your path to becoming a local

COURTESY EMILY KUANG

legend with the $99 3Ski Night pass for Mount Seymour, where you can rent equipment, fall, laugh and ride for three nights.

Depending on your roommates’ tolerance of stinky gear and your commitment level to the sport, skis can also be bought or rented for less than the cost of new gear.

On the rental side, all mountains offer day rentals.

Cypress even offers a rental equipment pass that allows you to rent a pair of skis or snowboard all season for $199.

If owning your gear sounds more appealing to you, Sports Junkies on Broadway — near Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) — offers complete ski packages starting at $199. For cheap winter insulation, Cheapskates on West 16 has deals on lightly used jackets — they run anywhere under $50 for a jacket.

Those who have honed their taste for gear, however, best head to Craigslist or MEC online gear swap. Often expensive skis are sold at a fraction of the cost due to injury or travel. Simply set up email notifications — click “save search” on the upper right hand corner after you search an item — and you will be rewarded.

Even here on campus, telemark ski gear is accessible through the Varsity Outdoor Club.

If you are a club member, you just need to put a deposit down on what you borrow.

With so many ways to ski for less, there’s no excuse not to get out on the slopes. Skiing can seem like a sport that only elitists can enjoy, but armed with inside knowledge, you can start now. U

SPORTS+REC

JANUARY 16, 2018 TUESDAY

EDITOR LUCY FOX

14

MEN’S HOCKEY //

Thunderbirds win Winter Classic in front of record crowd Mitchell Ballachay Senior Staff Writer

The UBC Thunderbirds men’s hockey team had a lot to prove on Friday night in front of the 5,500 fans who made it out to the fourth annual Winter Classic.

After sweeping a pair of games last weekend against Canada West’s bottom team — the Regina Cougars — they looked to continue their momentum against the Lethbridge Pronghorns in front of their record-setting crowd.

The Thunderbirds didn’t disappoint, winning a tight 2-1 game in exciting fashion — it wasn’t an easy win, though.

The building was abuzz with excited fans and nearly 200 alumni hoping to see their team pull off a victory, something the team hoped they could feed off of to fuel the home game.

“It’s super memorable and super meaningful to all of us,” said

starting goaltender Matt Hewitt, a Winter Classic veteran. “It gives you a lot of energy knowing that the fans have your back.”

On top of the excitement, games against close rivals like the Pronghorns have become all the more critical considering a Canada West conference that has tightened up into the new year.

Despite the magnitude of the Winter Classic game and the importance of a win over Lethbridge for the conference standings, the Thunderbirds had to have everything go right in order to pull off a Classic victory.

The evening saw an attack that was not particularly potent, including three unsuccessful power play opportunities, and which still relied quite heavily on odd-man rushes. The ’Birds would finally manage the opening goal on a two-on-one off a turnover at the Pronghorn blue line in the 15th minute. The team’s leading scorer, Austin

Matt Hewitt stands up to Lethbridge forward Dalton Sward.

SAMAN SHARIATI

Crazy P gets the crowd going.

Vetterl, made a nifty move and threaded the puck through the five-hole of Lethbridge’s Garret Hughson for his twelfth of the

JEREMY JOHN SON-SILVERS

year.

Their lead would only last a few minutes though as Lethbridge’s Brooks Maxwell got on the board for the Pronghorns just before the end of the frame. The tie would last until the third period when UBC finally broke the stalemate.

UBC’s game-winner came off a long-range shot from rookie sensation Tyler Sandhu, though it initially missed the net. The puck ricocheted off the end-boards and was lost under the pads of Hughson, who ended up kicking the puck into his own net in the first minute of the third.

Though the final goal required a fortunate bounce in UBC’s favour, head coach Sven Butenschon credited his team’s increased volume of shots for the Winter Classic win.

“I encourage the guys to shoot more than they do, I don’t think we shoot enough. And that was just another example of not turning down shots,” he said. “That’s the process we talk about, and we did it, and if we’re going to do anything the rest of this season, that’s what we’ve got to do.”

In the dying minutes of the

third period, with UBC up by just a goal, the Pronghorns pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, in hopes of tying the game. Matt Hewitt was forced to make a heelkick save that can only be described as a Winter Classic miracle in order to help his team secure their victory. Again, he proved invaluable to the ’Birds success.

“To be honest, I blacked out,” Hewitt said of the play. “I just threw my pad out and I got a piece of it – I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I’m just thankful it didn’t go in the net and we pulled off the win.”

The woes that the ’Birds faced at the end of 2017 were often attributed to poor puck-luck or bounces that simply didn’t go their way. However, when things do bounce the right way for the team, they still have to grind and fight hard to the final whistle and rely on Hewitt to hold them in it.

That said, this Winter Classic was still an important one for the T-Birds.

Their victory over Lethbridge is proof that it isn’t going to be easy down the final stretch towards playoffs. But, they are now on a three-game win streak. U

An unsober perspective: The Winter Classic Liam Fisher Contributor

THE PRE-GAME PRE-GAME Illness couldn’t hold me down tonight — there was hockey to be watched. The Winter Classic was beckoning the good ol’ Canadian boy inside me that yearned to take all the boys and girls down to the local frozen pond to play some shinny on a frosty Winnipeg afternoon.

I walked into my kitchen reading the side of the cough syrup bottle for its instructions on taking with alcohol and surprisingly couldn’t find anything — and so let it be known on that day, the rallying call of university nights was let forth once more, “Let’s take shots!”

PUCK DROP POLITICS Game time. Alright. Feelin’ good.

Got some drinks in me. Some more cough syrup just for good measure.

“Holy fuck, Edmonds sit the fuck down.” Huh? “Edmonds, buddy, what the fuck bud, sit the fuck down.” What? “Edmonds, your ass is huge and it’s not even nice to look at!”

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to my idol, our hero sitting in section 117, row 1 seat 1. A man who knew what he wanted and what he wanted was for Lethbridge’s backup goalie, Ty Edmonds, to sit the fuck down.

The dialogue started open and frank with our hero kindly telling Edmonds that his posterior was in the way of the exciting action and if he would please perhaps sit or get out of the way. Edmonds rebuked by not doing so, continuing his stonewalling through standing.

At this point ad hominems flew, escalating with increasing volatility. I started to wonder if my hero would scale the glass to make sure Edmonds could hear him or perhaps discover what kind of

security this event had. In the end, cooler heads prevailed as Edmonds finally did sit and a touching gesture of a high-five between the glass was exchanged.

SOME DRUNKEN NOTES ON THE FIRST PERIOD GOALS UBC’s first goal was at... oh boy who even knows really. What a G-note though. Mr. Silky Mitts with the fade away on the backhand like he was some Swedish Forsbergian demi-god sending it right through the wickets of Pronghorns goaltender Garrett Hughson.

Lethbridge’s goal was on a redirect — I think. It definitely changed direction. A proverbial knuckleball if you will.

SECOND PERIOD? I’ll be honest, I zoned out for most of the second period. I think my fever had snuck back in despite

the cough syrup. No one scored though. 1-1 going into the next break.

AN INCREDIBLY SHORT ODE TO MATT HEWITT What a groin on this boy.

A HOME-ER BOUNCE LIKE NONE OTHER Let’s talk about UBC’s second goal. Sometimes you get lucky.

Sometimes you play it smart.

Sometimes you get lucky and play it smart. Sometimes though, sometimes you take Lady Luck out to dinner.

Wine and dine, make her feel like none other. Say your goodbyes for the night and text her an hour later because you can’t get her out of your mind. Date for a few months before you confess your undying love for her and she says the same. Get married a year later and proclaim you are the luckiest person in the world.

That person still isn’t as lucky as UBC’s second goal. It took the right angle, the right hop and the right bounce off of the tip of the goalie’s skate. I think I might need a physicists to explain the fifth dimension to me to understand how that ended up in the back of the net.

A ROUSING ROUND UP UBC won 2-1 and I didn’t get a hangover — which should be considered a win in everyone’s book.

Highlight of the night goes to the touching moment when our political hero got up from his new seat a few rows higher to tap on the glass asking Edmonds if he wanted to go for a beer after the game. After a lot of pantomiming drinking beer to get the message through the glass, the heartwarming action was quickly ruined by someone behind me yelling for our hero to sit the fuck down. U

GAMES

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

15

COURTESY KRAZYDAD.COM

U

Reading week is only 24 days away.

Fixtures Sport

COURTESY BESTCROSSWORDS.COM

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Comic Foxx; 5 Slippery; 9 Like some furniture; 14 Concert halls; 15 Son of Zeus in Greek mythology; 16 Clan; 17 Bearing; 18 Melody; 19 Country singer Gibbs; 20 Planes, trains, and automobiles, e.g.; 23 Small island; 24 Farm female; 25 Director’s shout; JANUARY 16TH CROSSWORD ANSWERS:

29 Moreno of “West Side Story”; 31 Simile center; 34 Brush a horse; 35 Needy; 36 Lendl of tennis; 37 In spite of; 40 Voice of America org.; 41 Tabula ___; 42­Less healthy; 43 Opposite of NNW; 44 Abominable snowman; 45­ Indistinct; 46 Ballet step; 47­Sniggler’s catch; 48­ Comprehensible; 56 Stratum; 57­Toward the mouth; 58 Othello villain; 60 Swell!; 61 Charge per unit; 62 Delves; 63 Crooked; 64­___ Three Lives; 65 Switch ending; DOWN 1 CD ___; 2 Blue pencil; 3 Antlered animal; 4 Comic Carvey; 5 Dines at home; 6 Blow one’s top; 7 Jester Jay;

8 River of Flanders; 9 Capital of Canada; 10 Narrow mountain ridge; 11 Soprano Te Kanawa; 12 Spanish river; 13 Dresden denial; 21 A Judd; 22 Aquarium fish; 25 ___ Dei; 26­ Crucifix; 27 Comedienne Fields; 28 Caucus state; 29 Martini’s partner; 30 Bit; 31 Walled Spanish city; 32 More rational; 33 Wrathful; 35 Excellent, slangily; 36 Just lying around; 38 Head lock; 39­Nabisco’s ___ Wafers; 44 Composite plant; 45 Arranged in strata; 46 Golfer Calvin; 47 Related on the mother’s side; 48 Forearm bone; 49 Scottish refusals; 50 Aborigine of Borneo; 51 Amos or Spelling; 52 Shrinking Asian sea; 53 Wait; 54 Den; 55 Breakfast brand; 59 Barcelona bear;

Home

Score

Away

Basketball (W) UBC

64-39

MacEwan

Hockey (W)

Lethbridge

2-3

UBC

Hockey (M)

UBC

2-1

Lethbridge

96-72

MacEwan

Friday, January 19

Basketball (M) UBC Saturday, January 20 Women’s Rugby 7s

UBC

26-14

Calgary

Women’s Rugby 7s

UBC

22-12

Fraser Valley

Hockey (M)

UBC

4-3

Lethbridge

Field Hockey (M)

UBC

4-0

India FHC

Hockey (W)

Lethbridge

1-2

UBC

Rugby (M)

UBC

52-12

Nanaimo Hornets

Women’s Rugby 7s

Alberta

7-24

UBC

Basketball (W) UBC

58-52

MacEwan

Basketball (M) UBC

93-66

MacEwan

Sunday, January 21 Women’s Rugby 7s

UBC

7-26

Victoria

Women’s Rugby 7s

UBC

12-29

Lethbridge

Women’s Rugby 7s

UBC

17-21

Calgary

Results to Note Women’s Rugby Sevens finished fourth in the first Canada West sevens tournament of the year, held in Edmonton.

ANTHONY LABONTE

PHOTOS

EDITOR PATRICK GILLIN

March On January 20, 2018

JANUARY 23, 2018 TUESDAY

16

Photos

bit.ly/2FYnwYq

Words

bit.ly/2FYkiUJ

Photo by Patrick Gillin