June 30, 2020

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JUNE 30, 2020 | VOLUME CII | ISSUE II TIRED SINCE 1918

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Indigenous students on their experiences at UBC

A snapshot of Blackness at UBC

Where to spend your U-Pass refund

Explore UBC’s science museums from home

Former T-Bird earns a spot at Tokyo 2020

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THE UBYSSEY

‘NO JUSTICE NO PEACE’ after protests, ubc struggles to find its footing for anti-racist commitments // 03

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MAY 26, 2020 TUESDAY

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS & PEOPLE

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VIRTUAL GRADUATIONS

EVENTS

TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2020 FUNDING YOUR YEAR AT UBC

MALLORY FISHER FACULTY OF SCIENCE

Struggling to figure out how to afford UBC in the fall? This financial planning webinar will explore Canadian student loans, the UBC bursary program, awards and scholarships, and part-time work options in addition to budgeting and payment options. It is open to all students but they must register online by July 6 at 4 p.m.

JACK LAMMING FACULTY OF ARTS

REID WILLIAMS SCHOOL OF KINESIOLOGY

THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2020 IFL VIRTUAL SERIES SESSION 4: MAKING SPACE FOR INDIGENOUS GOVERNANCE Dr. Damien Lee and Marrissa Mathews will speak to the complexities of indigenous governance. The webinar will explore the ways First Nations communities, especially urban ones, innovatively govern while the Indian Act is still active.

DORSA KHORMALI FACULTY OF ARTS

VANISHA SODHI FACULTY OF ARTS

STEPHANIE BOWICK FACULTY OF ARTS

ON THE COVER COVER BY Sarah Zhao

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

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THE UBYSSEY

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STAFF

Coordinating Editor Pawan Minhas coordinating@ubyssey.ca Visuals Editor Lua Presidio visuals@ubyssey.ca News Editors Charlotte Alden and Andrew Ha news@ubyssey.ca Culture Editor Danni Olusanya culture@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Diana Hong sports@ubyssey.ca Video Editor Akshay Khandelwal video@ubyssey.ca Opinion + Blog Editor Sam Smart opinion@ubyssey.ca Science Editor Myla White science@ubyssey.ca Photo Editor Sophie Galloway photos@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Bailey Martens features@ubyssey.ca

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NEWS

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY

EDITORS ANDREW HA + CHARLOTTE ALDEN

3

BLACK LIVES MATTER //

‘No justice, no peace’: Thousands participate in antiracist protest at Vancouver Art Gallery

The protest began shortly before 5 p.m. and the crowd grew to thousands by 7:30 p.m.

SARAH ZHAO

destructive protests spread to major cities in Canada including Vancouver and Toronto, though a protest in Montréal allegedly turned violent.

Organizers stressed the need for peaceful protest, and the event posting encouraged protesters to stay two metres apart, though the crowd quickly became dense.

“We are not responding to the ignorance of the people who are coming here to stoke violence,” Callender-Prasad said.

The protest featured several Black and Indigenous people speaking one after another from the steps of the art gallery.

Between speakers, protesters

used wipes to clean megaphone mouthpieces.

Throughout the evening, speakers and organizers expressed pain caused by anti-Black racism and stressed the need for solidarity with non-Black supporters to fight racial injustice.

“Tonight is not about colour.

Tonight is not about anything but justice for Black people,” one speaker said.

At around 5:30 p.m., protesters held a minute of silence for Floyd.

“Our hearts ache for our Black brothers and sisters who have lost their lives,” a speaker said.

Though the protest was predominantly peaceful, event organizers

Andrew Ha and Charlotte Alden News Editors

Chants of “Black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace” rang through the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza on Sunday, May 31 at a mostly peaceful protest organized in support of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet.

The protest began shortly before 5 p.m. and the crowd grew to thousands by 7:30 p.m.

Organized by Jacob CallenderPrasad, the demonstration followed a string of anti-racist protests in the United States that erupted after Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody. Less

took to the steps twice during the night to discourage attendees from engaging in violence.

At around 6:45 p.m., Callender-Prasad announced that there had been an “incident” of violence by the Hornby Street side of the plaza.

The Vancouver Police Department said Monday, June 2 in a statement to The Ubyssey that the protesters were mostly “well behaved.”

“Officers were aware of the situation and our response was appropriate and proportionate to the activities observed, we continued to monitor the protest and made sure there was no concerns for public safety and the protest did not negatively affect those who live, work, and visit the area,” reads the statement.

The Black Student Union (BSU) applauded those who took part in the protest and encouraged peaceful protest in a statement to The Ubyssey Sunday afternoon.

“Here, we encourage kindness, unity, and the maintenance of safety measures. To those who send their support and love from afar, we also commend you for your allyship,” BSU Co-Presidents Maia Wallace and Tracy Odhiambo wrote.

Many of the speakers focused on dismantling the idea that Canada doesn’t have racism.

One speaker said police brutality doesn’t kill Black people in Canada, which prompted swift shouts refuting the claim from a handful of attendees standing on both sides of the gallery steps. After din from the crowd, the original

speaker handed the megaphone to a woman from the side of the steps who spoke about the realities of being policed as a Black person in Canada.

“Just because they don’t kill someone every day like in the States doesn’t mean there’s not racism here,” one of the speakers shouted.

Community members shared stories of being racially profiled in Vancouver, of being pulled over by cops and of being called racist slurs at school and their teachers doing nothing about it.

Indigenous speakers shared stories of their own oppression in solidarity with the Black lives lost and impacted due to systemic racism.

At around 5:10 p.m., a group of Indigenous people walked onto the steps as a Black person was speaking, taking the megaphone after he finished. But after a few minutes, some people in the crowd began heckling, saying that what mattered was George Floyd. The Indigenous speakers gave the megaphone back to a Black speaker a few moments after.

Later in the protest, a 13-yearold Indigenous girl told stories of her 8-year-old sister being taken away by the government. She became emotional and paused several times while telling her story.

“As a Native American Indigenous youth, I hurt with you,” she said.

Nearing the end of the protest, one speaker addressed her statements directly to BC Premier John Horgan.

“We ask you to give us assurance, protection. Let us feel at home like everybody else.” U

TAKE A BREAK //

UBC will have fall reading break after decades of advocacy Andrew Ha and Charlotte Alden News Editors

UBC will have a fall reading break starting in the 2021/22 school year.

After decades of debate and work by student senators, on May 27, the UBC Vancouver Senate passed a motion to adjust the winter session’s formal examination schedule to add a fall term break.

The break will take place around Remembrance Day, with two extra weekdays added to the one day students, staff and faculty already get off. This break was created in the schedule by changing policy V-125 on Term and Formal Examination Scheduling by shrinking the winter exam period from the current 16 days to 12 consecutive days, including Sundays.

The motion also included formalizations and changes to the course add/drop and withdrawal deadlines.

One-term courses can be added up to the 10th teaching day of the term, and for two-term courses, students have until the 15th teaching day. Withdrawal deadlines have been pushed to the 8th week for single-term

courses and the 12th week for two-term courses to withdraw with W standing.

A BREAK FROM ‘FALL GLOOMINESS’ In February 2019, the largest-ever student consultation survey led by the AMS about fall reading break gathered nearly 6,000 responses displaying overwhelming support.

The following February, the Academic Policy Committee created the Academic Year Working Group to explore possible changes to the academic year and figure out if a fall reading break was possible.

The choice of when to have the break was carefully examined.

Senator Paul Harrison, chair of the Senate academic policy committee, noted that many students favoured an extended Thanksgiving weekend — a period some students said involves more midterm preparations. However, Harrison said that more students wanted a mid-November break.

“We heard more voices say that by December, when the fall gloominess set in Vancouver normally, students’ spirits are dropping,” he said.

“Having a break to catch up

on projects, to catch up on papers they’re working on, and the early preparation for final exams would be a better time for this break.”

The extended withdrawal date was also decided with student mental health and reducing stress in mind.

Harrison said in the Senate meeting that extending the deadline to withdraw from a course would allow a couple of extra weeks for students to make a decision without experiencing a stressful situation in creating a premature judgment of their progress.

“In that time period, more students will have meaningful feedback on their progress of courses that currently happened,” he said.

DECADES OF WORK The first-ever official call for a break was back in 1991, meaning it has taken nearly 30 years for this idea to be implemented.

Calls for a fall reading break surged among students in the early 2010s. By March 2015, nearly every Canadian school except UBC had followed Ontario’s lead of implementing a fall reading break. Since 2016, the AMS and

The choice of when to have the break was carefully examined.

student senators have been actively pushing for a break. In January 2018, the solution to cut short the number of exam days to accommodate the break was considered, but since then the process has taken two more years.

Student Senator Max Holmes — who has campaigned for Senate on the platform of implementing fall reading break since 2018 — expressed accomplishment toward the creation of a fall reading break, but raised concerns as to why it took so long for Senate action to

FILE JOSHUA MEDICOFF

spark this progress.

“The one thing that I do think this points to though, is that it takes forever for action to be taken within this Senate,” said Holmes, noting that the idea of a fall reading break has been mentioned in Senate minutes going back to the 1930s.

“I think it does actually point to a much larger governance problem that we do have — as a body ... we aren’t very proactive. We are often very reactive. It does point that we aren’t doing things right in the Senate and that there’s a lot that we need to improve on.” U

4 | news | TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2020 STRATEGIC PLANNING //

UBC to implement Indigenous Strategic Plan in September Shereen Lee Contributor

UBC has moved into the final stages of writing its new Indigenous Strategic Plan, a set of goals intended to remedy the legacies of colonialism and develop proper Indigenous engagement within the university.

The planning committee will continue to make revisions to the plan throughout the summer. However, they are currently on track to launch the plan in September 2020, with implementation and evaluation to follow in coming years.

“This plan is essentially about UBC acknowledging its responsibilities to Indigenous peoples, whether that’s students, staff, faculty or communities,” said Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot, the senior advisor to the president on Indigenous affairs and associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and in the departments of political science and First Nations and Indigenous Studies.

“Like many western universities, UBC has a long history of excluding Indigenous people and knowledge systems and experiences from institutions.”

The proposal is an expansion upon its predecessor, the 2009 Aboriginal Strategic Plan. The first plan centred around Indigenous reconciliation among Canadian universities, and was “state-of-the-art conversation at the time,” according to Lightfoot.

In the intervening years, however, emerging issues and national developments on Indigenous reconciliation called for a new plan.

“That document in 2009 articulated itself as a living document that would need refresh and renewal and expansion as time went on,” Lightfoot said.

CROWDSOURCING THE STRATEGIC PLAN One of these developments includes an increased amount of literature on the topic, further clarifying the scope of institutions’ duties toward Indigenous peoples. Since 2009, Canada has developed several resources on Indigenous reconciliation, which the planning committee has used as a foundation for the plan.

Documents like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 calls to action in 2015, as well as a national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2019, have given UBC’s reconciliation committee actionable steps to integrate Indigenous rights into the community.

Another new aspect of the Indigenous Strategic Plan was the scope of feedback which went into the drafting process. “[The most recent draft] represents months of efforts from a dedicated team from UBC, input from the UBC community, Musqueam and engagements from UBCO,” said Dr. Margaret Moss, director of the First Nations House of Learning and professor at the School of Nursing.

The eight goals and 43 action points that make up the strategic plan were largely crowdsourced: first, from a pool of over 15,000

data points of survey feedback, and second, from open houses and additional consultations with local Indigenous people, university students and UBC governance.

“We are confident this work is representative of what UBC and its constituencies have largely understood to be the way forward, at this time, in this context,” said Moss.

Broader goals focus on actions such as facilitating Indigenous research, leadership and recruitment to forming networks and support systems for the Indigenous community members on campus. They also call for more Indigenous representation in UBC’s academic and cultural spaces, from course curriculums to facilitating artwork on the campus itself.

“Before Indigenous students come into the campus environment and feel at home, [they need to] feel supported and like they can see themselves in the curriculum and see themselves in the faculty,” Lightfoot said.

‘WE NEED ACTION’ This final stage of planning for the Indigenous Strategic Plan comes after significant delays to its developmental process, which can partially be attributed to the overwhelming response to the planning teams’ request for community input. “The level of interest ... was a difficulty that came from a good thing,” said Lightfoot. “We were overwhelmed by the level of interest in this planning process.”

In the planning process for 2009’s Aboriginal Strategic Plan,

most of the individuals involved in consulting had been members of the Indigenous community. Now, with drastically increased awareness of Indigenous issues at

“We need action,” said Lightfoot. However, she notes that some community members may seem apprehensive about the

SHEREEN LEE

UBC, the feedback provided became a community-wide exercise.

“The plan has necessarily changed over several versions as more input from these sessions, solicited comments [and] one-onone consultations came in,” Moss said.

The inclusion of non-Indigenous community members brought forward more delays, since processing the information became much more complex.

“We had to be sure when we were doing the analysis that we balanced out Indigenous voices and non-Indigenous voices,” said Lightfoot. “That had to be very carefully thought through and considered, so it couldn’t just be a numbers game.”

Now, after a lengthy planning stage of over three years, the members involved are ready to begin the implementation process.

changes that this new strategic plan will bring. “I think when you start talking about changing things, it can spark a fearful reaction in some people,” she said.

“How the fear is most manifested in the current period, I would say, is the desire to synthesize and study longer, and that it’s becoming a bit frustrating. Those of us who worked on the plan ... don’t feel it needs to be studied any longer.”

The shifts that the 2009 plan brought, she adds, have made great strides for the UBC community — but there is more work to be done.

“The original strategic plan was a statement of intention to try to set those relationships on a better footing,” said Lightfoot.

“And I can say, it’s 2020 now and while we have by no means finished that work, we’ve made some important movements in the right direction.” U

BOARD OF GOVERNORS //

UBC’s sexual misconduct policy has been amended — ­ but still contains gaps Cecilia Lee Contributor

After ten months of formal review, the amended version of SC17, UBC’s Sexual Misconduct Policy was approved at the June Board of Governors meeting and is set to go into effect July 1, 2020.

The new version fills some of the holes pointed out through consultation processes, but still leaves some criticisms unaddressed.

PROVIDING CLARITY The amended SC17 introduces a definition for ‘trauma-informed approach,’ and commits to following it when responding to cases of sexual misconduct.

“A clear definition will ensure that all of the other elements of the policy are really interpreted in line with the trauma-informed approach that’s outlined,” said Annette Angell, manager of the Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC).

The updated policy also provides much greater context around

consent. Section 4.1.2 assigns the responsibility of obtaining consent to the “initiator of a sexual activity,” distinguishing an act from an entire encounter following feedback on initial drafts.

While the previous version had also stated that a complainant’s consumption of drugs or alcohol would be a relevant factor in determining if they were able to provide consent, the amended version now explicitly states that the same circumstances would not be a defence for a respondent’s mistaken belief that consent was obtained. Additionally, individuals who disclose or report sexual misconduct will not face disciplinary action for violating any UBC policies, rules or regulations relevant to drug or alcohol use during the sexual misconduct.

Amendments were also made on section 8.6 of the policy, which gives the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office (SVPRO) director the ability to file an institutional report to the Investigations Office if multiple disclosures have been made regarding a single individual.

After feedback during the review process, the policy now clearly states the SVPRO director must obtain consent from the individuals who disclosed before pursuing an institutional report. “... Now the focus is on having the informed consent of a survivor before anything is shared elsewhere,” said Alicia Oeser, director of SVPRO. REMAINING CONCERNS

SHEREEN LEE

Despite the changes made, submissions from the AMS and the SASC to the Board

of Governors point out persisting areas of concern within the policy.

While the procedures for SC17 clearly outline avenues for respondents to appeal disciplinary outcomes following an investigation, it noticeably lacks appeal options for complainants.

In response to this criticism, the review committee for SC17 cited the University Act, which “limits appeals to those who have been subject to discipline”, and responded that appeal procedures fall under jurisdiction of the Senate, which are outside of their control.

“While this policy may not allow for changes to be made in how the Senate conducts and manages appeals, there is room in the policy to provide survivors with other options,” the SASC wrote in their feedback to the Board, identifying other ways in which survivors can seek an appeal, such as allowing for re-submissions of reports. “...It really is about ensuring that survivors have the same kind of procedural options [that] respondents do in the process,” said Angell.

Another concern is that the policy does not require trauma-informed training for individuals who may interact regularly with it. Instead, the policy states that UBC will only offer training to UBC persons responsible for addressing sexual misconduct.

While staff at SVPRO and the Investigations Office already receive trauma-informed training, decision-makers, including individuals who assign disciplinary outcomes, are not required to partake under SC17.

“It takes active training and reflection to think about how we can adjust our practices to better support survivors,” said Angell. “Without this training being mandatory — to us, that is a significant gap.”

In order to ensure the policy will be implemented with a trauma-informed approach, the SASC recommends mandatory, annual trauma-informed training for all people in the university who may regularly address sexual misconduct.

Throughout the review process, concerns were also raised surrounding the membership and consultation practices of the review committee. Noticeably, the SASC was not offered a seat on the committee, which Georgia Yee, AMS VP academic and university affairs, said was “a great loss to the university.” While the AMS did get a single seat on the review committee, it was something they had to lobby for.

“From the university’s side ... it wasn’t proactive engagement — [getting a seat] was definitely something that the AMS and SASC really had to fight for,” said Yee. MOVING FORWARD Since its establishment in 2017, SC17 has been strongly criticized for its policy and implementation gaps posing barriers to survivors.

One of the recommendations agreed upon by the review committee, the SASC and the AMS is the call to create an Implementation Committee that would be responsible for creating plain-language versions of the policy, among other tasks.

While there have been no confirmations that such a committee will be established, Angell and Yee have both said that there have been “conversations” around its creation.

In their submission to the Board, the AMS advocates for the SASC to have their own seat on the Implementation Committee, as well as on future review committees for the policy.

“It’s vital that the SASC, as content experts … have a seat [on the committee],” said Yee. U

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY | news | 5 DISTANCE EDUCATION //

Remote learning renews calls to make classes more accessible who were considering taking accommodations couldn’t anticipate the disruptive effect of home circumstances or routine changes on their ability to study. Last-minute changes in exam formatting, such as turning essay questions into multiple choice questions, also weighed on students’ ability to present their knowledge.

“Add in adaptive technologies to that combination, and what seems like a simple fix for an online environment can become very complicated,” said Mee. FINDING SOLUTIONS FOR TODAY, AND TOMORROW

For instructors and disabled students alike, most issues in the transition to remote learning surround online exams.

Matthew Asuncion Contributor

The transition to remote learning has challenged students and instructors alike, but the online space has offered both breakthroughs and barriers to making classes more accessible.

Online course material and instructor flexibility have provided some leeway for all students, including those with disabilities.

Meeting the needs of each student, however, still proves a challenging task.

Policy LR7 outlines how staff and faculty should accommodate the needs of disabled students.

But accessibility in the classroom entails a wide range of issues, and new circumstances call for new approaches.

“It just feels like everybody wants to do the right thing, and we’re just trying to figure out what that is,” said Janet Mee, director of the Centre for Accessibility.

The centre emphasizes that despite an increased caseload, it is streamlining registration for students needing new adaptive technology or mental health accommodations, regardless of whether they have documentation on hand.

“We don’t want students attempting to go to a medical clinic to get documentation and put themselves at risk,” said Mee. “We’d rather work with the information they give us and deal with the formalities later.”

ADAPTING TO REMOTE LEARNING Remote learning can inhibit disabled students from engaging in discussions, collaborating in groups or performing well on tests, according to Nicole Leung, who is hard of hearing and a member of CiTR’s Accessibility Collective.

Providing course materials online offers both solutions and challenges for disabled students.

As some rely on lip reading in their day-to-day classes, recorded lectures with captions and the ability to replay the lessons save those students both time and stress. But other testable materials provided by instructors still prove problematic.

“When new video content is shared, time is needed to transcribe

LUA PRESIDIO

the content, and therefore there is less time to study the content if other students already have access to it,” said Leung. “YouTube [captions] and other automatic transcribing services aren’t always accurate.”

The learning environment of online classes also requires disabled students to key in to certain modes of communication more, due to the lack of visual and behavioural cues that are normally found in face-toface discussion.

“Although everyone is experiencing Zoom fatigue, hearing fatigue is something that is commonly experienced by [hard-of-hearing] people from straining so hard to understand speech and noises throughout their day,” said Leung. “With online classes, the fatigue is even higher, and with social distance measures impacting mental health, it becomes even harder to self-regulate stress.”

The digital disconnect also makes it more difficult for fellow students to welcome their disabled peers into class discussions.

“I’ve definitely cut into people [speaking] in group discussions before and felt terrible about it,” said Abbie Abe, a fourth-year science student and Accessibility Collective member. “And for people with diverse abilities, it could be an added struggle.”

For instructors and disabled students alike, most issues in the transition to remote learning surround online exams.

Mee acknowledged in an email to the Associate Deans that platforms such as Canvas or Proctorio proved incompatible with adaptive technologies or other accommodations. While instructors could manage accommodations related to extra time allowance, the Centre for Accessibility invigilated over 4,000 exams over Zoom to handle more complex cases.

The Centre also worked with instructors to ensure that exams did not create disadvantages as they moved online. For example, as practical hands-on exams in various medicine and health sciences programs became response videos, instructors were reminded that low-vision individuals may need an alternate form of testing and that the exam should be approachable for students who hadn’t made a video before.

In addition, many students

The Centre for Accessibility continues to work with instructors, faculties and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) to provide guidance on accommodating students in a remote learning environment.

CTLT’s Keep Learning and Keep Teaching sites lay out universal strategies for adapting to online classes. A learning strategist from the Centre for Accessibility also works directly with students to find helpful learning strategies, apps and other technologies.

Recorded lectures are one solution that instructors have implemented to varying degrees.

They have helped students who tune in from various time zones, and their ability to include captions and replay have helped students with material absorption.

“One of the students in [my] class was in need of a transcription service to accommodate her deafness and it happened to be of benefit for the others as well,” said Chris Erickson, political science lecturer, who implemented captioned lectures last term.

“We do anticipate that there will be many innovations resulting from the current circumstances that will become permanent practices or resources,” added Mee. “It is hard to say whether recorded lectures with captioning would be applied universally but, technology allowing, there may be some interesting benefits to exploring these opportunities.”

While the Centre for Accessibility is looking into technologies to augment its base of professional transcribers, some argue that there’s a mutually beneficial fix. Students, who already use their knowledge and familiarity with specific courses as note takers might also prove useful in transcribing lectures and other resources.

“You’d be providing part-time income for students, and you’d also be lowering the costs of transcribing services,” noted Abe. Mee said that the Centre is “testing the quality and feasibility of all options.”

CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION Ultimately, students, instructors, advocacy groups and university administration are teaming up to promote course accessibility, for current remote learning circumstances and beyond.

COVID-19 TIMELINE MAY 27 UBC announces April U-Pass refunds After the university transitioned classes online in March, many students stopped using transit but were on the hook for the $41 monthly U-Pass fee. The refund is only for students who did not load their April U-Pass, did not use their April U-Pass if loaded or used less than $41 worth of fares in April.

JUNE 1 Co-op institutes international restrictions

JUNE 1 First term and full year Go Global exchanges cancelled In an email sent to students on June 1, UBC announced that all university travel for students in fall 2020 had been cancelled, including the exchange programs.

Students set to go on a first-term or a full-year exchange have two options: to withdraw from exchange completely or request to change their exchange from term one or full year to term two only.

The June 1 announcement that Go Global term one and year-long exchanges are cancelled was coupled with the announcement that all university travel in the fall is cancelled. This means that students in Canada can’t do outbound co-ops — even to countries with a low number of COVID-19 cases.

JUNE 8 Jump Start, Imagine Day set to be online Student involvement in Jump Start has been correlated with improved student retention, higher GPAs and an improved sense of belonging at UBC. But UBC announced that Jump Start and Imagine Day will be delivered virtually this year. UBC said it is working to create an “enriching and inclusive” experience for students, while meeting health and safety guidelines.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY LUA PRESIDIO

“I think that the best way to go about it is to have a unified approach campus wide and that we’re engaging with all these stakeholders to create a great learning environment,” said AMS President Cole Evans.

But given the findings of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Diversity and Inclusion May 27 final report, there is room for improvement in making disabled students, staff and faculty feel like they are heard and belong on campus. Evans noted that groups, such as the UBC Equity

and Inclusion Office and the new AMS Neurodiverse and Disabled Alliance resource group as well as individual advocates, continue advocacy.

“People with diverse abilities should be included in conversations and test trials to see if online materials work for them and what changes need to be made,” said Accessibility Collective coordinator Deepi Leihl. “This makes folks with diverse abilities [feel] included, not excluded, because at the end, it’s [their] future on the line.” U

CULTURE

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY

EDITOR DANNI OLUSANYA

Indigenous students on

their experiences at UBC This National Indigenous History Month, Indigenous students are sharing their experiences at UBC. From classroom debates to leadership across campus, Indigeneity is still very much present at UBC. COLLATED BY DANNI OLUSANYA AND BAILEY MARTENS

Mike Wesley [Mike Wesley was given to me by my parents. However from my education, I have learned that those names kind of come from the colonial kind of construct that has taken over our culture. My Gitxsan name that I have now, Gama-Gyahlax and has passed on, through generations, after generations, maybe for hundreds of years, and I’m really proud of that.]

Lyam Donetz [My English or settler name is Lyam Donetz. My traditional name is G̱ usdidzas. And that name was one of my Papa’s [Great-Great Grandfather’s] names. And then I got it when I was born.]

What has it been like being an Indigenous student on this campus?

[I am in the Indigenous Teacher Education Program in the Faculty of Education program (NITEP)] which is super awesome. I love NITEP. And my Mom did NITEP for her undergrad [so I am a] second generation student. I’ve made some great connections through NITEP and I’ve met a lot of awesome people and also the faculty is amazing. It’s kind of a safe space where we can talk about things that aren’t going well in the university. There are things that professors have asked that are really bad. [For example we talk about] these experiences with professors who might not understand where we’re coming from.

Why did you choose to take NITEP? I’ve always really enjoyed working with youth. And when I [graduated] high school I was a bit lost on what I was going to do with my life. So I decided to become a teacher and teach, so that’s what guided me into NITEP. My late grandmother really encouraged me to become a teacher as well. And when I got accepted into the NITEP program, she [was] really proud. I’m really glad that she was able to see [me get my acceptance] because she was one of those people that have always really pushed me to become a teacher.

What do you see as a positive future for Indigenous students at UBC? I think there’s still quite a bit of work that needs to be done to improve the relationship with the Indigenous students on campus. As far as I can see there are some positive changes. [However], we have to go further with our relationship [so we can] move closer to reconciliation.

If you could talk to a new first-year Indigenous student who was coming in next year, what advice would you give them?

[Come] to the Indigenous student Collegium. And stay on top of your classes.

What has been your experience as an Indigenous student at UBC? It’s been a pretty good time. I am in my fourth year of dietetics. And there’s a lot of nice spaces around here, which I really enjoy as an Indigenous person [such as] the UBC Longhouse and the Indigenous Collegium. The past few years I’ve been working at the Centre of Excellence in Indigenous Health. So those are a lot of great parts of UBC but there are a lot of challenges being a student at UBC as an Indigenous person.

What are some of these challenges?

There are some [more apparent] situations like the culture change from having grown up on a reserve with all my family around to not hav[ing] my family around me or nothing really here. And things are often done differently than they’d be done in my culture. Often I am also the only Indigenous person in a lot of my classes. So that’s kind of weird and challenging, because people don’t really understand where I’m coming from. I feel like nobody really understands the kind of the systemic racism battles that Indigenous peoples are dealing with.

There have been weird interactions with group partners where I would be challenged about my lived experience as an Indigenous person because they have all this theoretical knowledge that they have read about Indigenous peoples and the history of Canada. And those types of situations are really emotionally draining because it affects me more than it does the other person.

I feel like people tend to think of Colonialism as an event that happened in the past, but it’s like happening right now. Thriving. And people think all this stuff happened a long time ago, but I’m actually the first generation to not go to residential school. My father went to residential school. He only survived because he’s resilient like that. I have two children myself now.

And somehow I came up off this reserve, and I’m at this Ivy League school now. I’m just kind of proud that everything turned out this way and that I’m about to finish all of my education here.

6

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY | culture | 7

Wenonah North Peigan

Chalaya Moonias [My last name is like a combination of two Cree words: moniyâw (white man) and sôniyâs (money). So I guess my name and last name is kind of a hybrid of white man and money.]

How was your first year at UBC? This past term [was] my first year at UBC and I had the best time ever. I did so many great things. I met so many great people and I really learned a lot about myself.

I joined the Indigenous Committee, I found it through the collegium, the Indigenous Collegium was one of my favorite places to go because it was all Indigenous kids studying. And then there was the collegial advisors [who] were so great and supportive … I spent my first year being co-president [of the Indigenous Committee], and we had a lot of really great things planned. We were in the middle of planning for a Powwow and we even booked the Thunderbird gym, and it was gonna happen, and then COVID happened.

[UBCC350 held] a walkout for Wetʼsuwetʼen. And they needed an emcee and they wanted it to be an Indigenous person preferably and so they reached out to me … But everybody I asked didn’t want to do it — they were too nervous. So finally, I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll just be the emcee.’ Being an emcee for that was amazing. It was so invigorating to lead chants and have so many people, say it back to [me]. And it was just really great to hear all of the stories.

What has been your experience being an Indigenous person at UBC? There was one day in my conservation class when we were learning about conservation ethics. They put a quote on the board and it was a quote by a Cree elder about the environment. I thought that was really cool that somebody from my culture was like being used, [that] their words are being used to help teach us in a class.

I had the opportunity to see the presentation of the Indigenous Strategic Plan and what they have so far ...

And it just made me so hopeful to see them presenting like their findings. And so I can’t wait until that plan becomes a thing. However, we’ve got to make sure it’s actually implemented. Hopefully, I’ll be around to help make sure that we’re sticking to that plan.

[My name is Wenonah North Peigan. I used to not like it because there was no one else with my name. But as I’ve gotten older, it’s gotten a lot more special meaning to me, it’s a way to identify and ground myself. My uncle gave me my name. It’s from a story in my mom’s language, about a woman who gave birth to Nanabozho who’s a trickster character. My last name North Peigan is from my dad’s side, in a story about the borders. Because before colonization, the Piikani nation, where I’m from, used to be one big band before they got separated by the border. I still have an iffy relationship with that and I’m still coming to terms with it.]

What is it like to be Indigenous on campus?

I remember when I was starting in my first year, I didn’t really feel like there was space for me on campus or anyone like me or people who understood my experience.

This past year, I worked at the UBC Longhouse with the Indigenous Collegium program. Me and another student were the co-supervisors of the team collegiate advisors. What was really unique about this was that this was the first year it was for all Indigenous students, regardless of what year [they were] in or if [they] commuted or not.

We got to foster a sense of inclusive community for these students to come in to talk to us … I think that has been the most special thing for me

What was your experience working at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA)?

There was only one Indigenous person there and I can’t imagine working in that environment.

It is really hard for students who are in high school to kind of understand the complexity of a Totem pole being [there]. Especially students who [go from seeing them] in their communities [to seeing them] in a museum, especially when [they] see totem poles that have been cut in half to preserve them. But really, it’s like, what are they preserving here? And who are they preserving it for?

I think the MOA does a lot of great work to make things more accessible to people, especially for community members who might not live in the community to come see, or artists to come learn more about work. But I also think the MOA, along with many other places on campus, has a lot more work to do.

Thoughts on change.

It’s going to be a big structural overhaul. That means more Indigenous people in all places on campus. So not just in the native and Indigenous Studies program. I want to see more Indigenous people in all the programs like business and law and all of that. And I think a lot of it is when they bring people here, there is so much celebration about having an Indigenous chancellor but I think there needs to be a lot more done in retaining Indignenous students and faculty and staff. Because when I started I did see a lot of Indigenous students burn out because it’s hard when you feel like there’s not enough support or adequate support for you. And I think some has changed since I started, but I think to have more support for Indigenous peoples on campus would be the best starting point.

Sotera Mader [My first name is Asia, but I go by my middle name, Sotera, because it’s nice. It’s unique, and it’s my great grandmother’s name on my Filipino side. So, it’s sort of a connection to her to that side of my heritage.]

Tell me about your experience being an Asian and Indigenous person on this campus.

Honestly, growing up, I was not very aware of my Indigenous history or anything. My dad’s pretty white-passing and he has unfortunately experienced a lot of internalized racism. So we didn’t talk a lot about that side of our heritage and stuff. So for me, coming to UBC was one of the first opportunities, I had to connect with my Indigenous peers. I’ve also met a lot of [Métis kids] who are in my boat. There’s been a few of us who have sort of gone through this together and now have somewhat of a more thorough understanding of our own history.

What has changed about your experience from the beginning of your time as a first year to your experience now?

I definitely felt really awkward, going to the Longhouse and stuff. [I’d ask myself] ‘Am I native enough? ‘Do I even belong here?’ ‘Can I be in here?’ I mostly just look Asian, but the more time I spent in the Longhouse I got a lot more comfortable because a lot of my peers all look different.

What is the importance of the Indigenous Collegium and the Longhouse for you?

It’s important because we don’t have to worry about other people’s perceptions. [Because I don’t look visibly Indigenous] when I’ve told people that I’m Indigenous, I’ve literally had people tell me like, ‘Oh, you only got to UBC because you’re native.’ [Or they would ask me] ‘Do you get to go to school for free?’ Or, ‘But you’re so smart.

Wasn’t your childhood difficult?’ The Longhouse is the most, open accepting space I’ve ever been not even on campus, but ever. We all are from different nations and have our own traditions. It’s really cool when I go to the Longhouse and I hear someone, singing or playing their drum or something or watching them do the beading.

It’s a place where I feel comfortable, experiencing these cultural things that I never got to when I was a kid. U

FEATURES

EDITOR BAILEY MARTENS

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY

“Many other students like myself have taken refuge in consuming 2SLGBTQIA+ media to distract us from the reality that we are trapped in our house with homophobic family members.”

— Sahil Marwah

“It is quite difficult for many people in the community to interact virtually because they do not get the luxury of privacy from their family.”

— Sahil Marwah

8

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY | Features | 9

Pride Collective closed safe spaces due to COVID-19 —­but virtual support isn’t enough Words by Rachael McDaniel Illustration by Thomas O’Donnell Design by Lua Presidio

This article speaks of suicide within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

W

hen Sahil Marwah, then a third-year physics student and now Pride Collective staffer, first walked into the Pride Lounge in 2019, his reaction was one of “surprise and joy.”

“I was quite shocked that I had not discovered the lounge in my two previous years at UBC,” Marwah told The Ubyssey in an email.

“The Pride flags and the supportive environment [were] also something that was very new for me … It was eye-opening.”

For many UBC students, particularly those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, their first encounters with the Pride Lounge have been similarly powerful. The Pride Lounge, operated by the UBC Pride Collective, is one of the few spaces on campus where 2SLGBTQIA+ students can meet, organize, access resources and form connections — all in a place that holds a commitment to being affirming, safe and respectful. Walking into the Pride Lounge on any given weekday, one could expect to find a welcoming group of people, ready to offer support or simply hang out.

Now, thanks to COVID-19, that vital space is closed.

If you visit the UBC Pride Collective’s website right now, you will be greeted by a message laid overtop the bright colours of the site proper: “All Pride Collective at UBC operations are suspended for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

In the case of the Pride Collective, operations encompass a great number of services. There is the Gender Empowerment Store, which offers gender-affirming items such as chest binders for free to those who need them. There is the Hungry Hamper, with food for those struggling from food insecurity. There are the weekly discussion groups centred around the specific issues of people within 2SLGBTQIA+ communities — like, among others, QTBIMPOC, for 2SLGBTQIA+ students of color, and TaGI, for trans and gender non-conforming people. Not least, there is the Pride Lounge itself as a casual gathering space.

“For many people in [the Pride Collective], the Pride Lounge and the environment are the only space where they can be themselves,” said Marwah. “Outside the confines of the lounge, a lot of us have to mask our true selves and have to deal with a variety of serious issues. For many, they cannot afford to be out to their parents.”

Beyond the day-to-day services the Pride Collective provides, there are the special events they organize annually. At the time when the COVID-19 crisis reached a state of emergency in BC and UBC closed down the Vancouver campus, PrideWeek — the signature event for the group each year — was in its planning stages.

“We were actually planning Pride Week with a march, drag show, art exhibit, workshops and a Pit Night,” said Marwah. “All of this had to be cancelled because of COVID-19.”

This is not an unfamiliar situation in the current time of crisis. People around the world are struggling with the effects of COVID-19. Losing loved ones, financial and rental stress, record unemployment levels, dealing with loneliness and mental health issues, uncertainty about the future — all of these problems, already significant in our normal world, have been exacerbated by the extraordinary circumstance of living through a global pandemic.

But while these issues affect everyone, 2SLGBTQIA+ youth are a population particularly vulnerable to the negative outcomes created by the pandemic. 2SLGBTQIA+ youth are overrepresented among low-income Canadians. A 2008 Homeless Hub study estimated that around 40 per cent of youth experiencing homelessness were 2SLGBTQIA+. According to HeretoHelp, a provincial mental health resource, these youth struggle with mental health issues more than their peers, and are three to four times more likely to attempt suicide. In 2013, 77 per cent of transgender respondents to an Ontario-based TransPulse study reported having seriously considered suicide; 43 per cent reported having attempted suicide, with two-thirds of that number reporting suicide attempts at

or before the age of 19.

Many of these negative outcomes are the result of broad societal stigma and discrimination. Perhaps even more burdensome for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, though, is stigma and discrimination coming from inside the home. One in four 2SLGBTQIA+ youth in BC report having been forced out of their homes due to severe family conflict.

The conflict that 2SLGBTQIA+ youth are so often forced to deal with at home makes finding community in the outside world vitally important. 2SLGBTQIA+ youth are often only able to envision a future for themselves once they connect with others in the community and see the possibilities for a rich, fulfilling 2SLGBTQIA+ life.

COVID-19 has made connecting with that community extremely difficult, giving ‘stuck at home’ a much darker implication for many young 2SLGBTQIA+ people and making the loss of community events and affirming spaces even more devastating.

Marwah has seen first-hand the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on his 2SLGBTQIA+ peers. “Many LGBTQ+ people are uncomfortable being out because their family is hostile or not accepting,” he said.

“Many other students, like myself, have taken refuge in consuming LGBTQ+ media to distract us from the reality that we are trapped in our house with homophobic family members.”

In April, The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, released a report highlighting the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and suggesting ways that organizations can offer support. The research into potential impacts is extensive. Outside of pushing for policy changes like rent freezes and emergency financial benefits, the report’s primary recommendation is for youth to have access to 24/7, trained online support.

In response to the pandemic, UBC’s Equity & Inclusion Office (EIO) has moved many of the resources they offer for 2SLGBTQIA+ students to an online format. In a statement provided to The Ubyssey, EIO gave a summary of their response to COVID-19: “With limitations placed on in-person gatherings, some of the programming that brings together 2SLGBTQIA+ communities at UBC has moved to a virtual format. This includes AlumnNIGHTS Pride, a virtual celebration organized by alumniUBC and UBC faculties, and Get Connected, a virtual movie night and community building event for UBC’s 2SLGBTQIA+ students and allies, organized by the UBC Equity & Inclusion Office.”

EIO also stated an intention to “honor” 2SLGBTQIA+ contributions to the community via digital content.

But online resources and virtual events pose difficulties in access for 2SLGBTQIA+ students, who not only have to contend with the time zone and connection difficulties inherent to online meetings, but may be in unsafe environments in their homes or have their internet activities monitored.

“It is quite difficult for many people in the community to interact virtually because they do not get the luxury of privacy from their family,” said Marwah.

With the inherent uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulty of organizing students when many will not be on campus this summer and fall, the foreseeable future of on-campus resources for 2SLGBTQIA+ students is unclear. It’s a circumstance unique to the history of 2SLGBTQIA+ organizing at UBC, where groups have been meeting regularly to build community, organize and celebrate since the early 1970s.

Marwah hopes that virtual discussion groups can begin in September, and said that the Pride Collective is working towards that goal. Until then, 2SLGBTQIA+ students are doing what they can to support and connect with each other — until they can see each other and celebrate once again. U

10 | Features | TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2020

BLACKNESS AT UBC IN THE 21ST CENTURY WORDS BAILEY MARTENS, CHIMEDUM OHAEGBU, DANNI OLUSANYA, CORAL SANTANA, IDARESIT THOMPSON ILLUSTRATIONS + DESIGN LUA PRESIDIO

F

ollowing the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Regis KorchinsSay their name ki-Paquet, D’Andre Campbell and numerous others, anti-Black racism has Say it loud been brought to the forefront of society. Police How does it taste on your lips? have attacked protesters with tear gas and Salty like the rivers that cloud my vision rubber bullets, there has been equivocation Sour like the drumming in my chest on Canadian systemic racism by the RCMP and elected officials, as well as lukewarm statements and controversial black squares flooding Instagram.

At UBC, a second-year graduate student at the Social Justice Institute, Savoy Williams, brought forward an allegation of racial profiling by a security guard, raising questions about the role of policing here in Vancouver. Two years ago, former UBC Thunderbirds football player, Jamiel Moore-Williams was tackled and repeatedly tasered by seven police officers from the Vancouver Police Department for a

jaywalking violation.

Recently, former Board of Governors Chair Michael Korenberg resigned after receiving backlash for liking anti-Black tweets.

Despite this, the Black community at UBC is fighting. Not just for survival or acknowledgement, but the right to thrive: to partake in a freedom that celebrates and foregrounds all Black lives. Black people at UBC and in Vancouver are turning community into a verb, giving it pride of place in the current revolution.

Black people are no monolith, and Blackness — the highs and lows, the triumphs and challenges of living in a racist society — is similarly diverse.

Various faculties and organizations across UBC have issued statements on past anti-Blackness and future endeavours to dismantle it, from The Ubyssey itself to the AMS and President Santa Ono. But change takes time.

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY | Features | 11

OPPRESSION Say it soft Like the whispered pant that abandoned their lungs How does it caress your face?

Wet like the floor when their dreams caved Where their hearts stopped

At UBC, being the only Black person in the room is not uncommon.

Last year, Abigail Namusia was 1 of 3 Black students in her cohort of 200 people at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. Namusia attended UBC for part of her undergraduate degree but left in part due to not feeling like she had a place.

Her return to law school did not

put these questions to rest.

“Being Black in law school makes you feel really Black. You feel like Rosa Parks. You’re Martin Luther King, Jr. And you’re just trying to navigate law school and no one else is doing this work because law school is hard,” said Namusia.

While commuting from Point Grey, her car broke down. Instead of someone offering to jump the car, she waited for half an hour as people passed.

“And it makes you wonder, is it because I am Black?” she said.

But for Namusia, who served as co-president of the UBC Black Law Students Association, lessening the hardship for future Black students is worth the weight.

“Now I have to do the side work of trying to make sure that the next Black girl who came wouldn’t have to deal with these things, like a picture being taken of you and now it’s on the website.

“It’s such a weird feeling to just know you’re Black, and to know it means something different.”

This was the case for Diane Mutabaruka, often known by her stage name Missy D. She attended UBC from 2010 to 2015 after growing up in Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe. When she came to Vancouver, she quickly found herself to be a visible minority.

“Although I had lived in different places in Africa, I had never stood out for my skin colour,” Mutabaruka said.

The shift from simply existing to being observed propelled Mutabaruka to use her platforms to highlight issues in her community.

“Wherever I am — the office, the stage — being a visible minority, I know I represent something,” she said.

Adeerya Johnson moved from Atlanta to attend UBC and noticed a tangible shift in culture.

“I feel like at UBC, I have to be so careful with my movements. And I’m always thinking about what people are thinking about me, how people are reacting to me,” she said.

“I just know, my mobilization on campus, people are feeling some type of way about it.”

Even for students who were familiar with being the only Black person in the room, being Black at UBC still had its challenges. Cicely Blain was involved with Black Lives Matter Vancouver at the end of their time at UBC. Their UBC experience was filled with mixed experiences after being very excited to come to Canada from the United Kingdom.

“Very quickly [the] hopeful illusion was shattered a little bit by being ... one of the only Black Queer people in pretty much any space that I went to,” they said.

This was the case even in the identity clubs that they were a part of, such as the UBC Caribbean African Association, a club at the time when they attended.

“I think there’s this binary of you’re either in [a] Pride Club or you’re in the Black Club ... nobody really perceived that you can potentially be in both,” they said.

For Blain, UBC is a place of both invisibility and hypervisibility, especially in the classroom. “I think the majority of people just don’t understand the experience of isolation,” they said. “I don’t think there is anywhere near enough integration of Black writers, scholars and thinkers in every course, in every curriculum.”

This invisibility is also a reality for Black students outside of the classroom as much as it is inside.

Only four Black people have held executive positions in the AMS’s history — Jairus Mutambikwa, Brenda Ogembo, Kuol Akuebenchy and Sylvester Mensah, Jr. with the last being elected VP adminis-

tration this year. Mutambikwa served as vice president in 1958-‘59, Akuechbeny held the position of VP finance from 2018 to 2019 and Ogembo was the vice-chair of the AMS University Commission and VP academic and university affairs and from 2004 to 2005.

Ogembo received UBC’s Mary M. Young Global Citizen Award in 2000. In 2004, she was reprimanded by Quinn Omori, the then-chair of the AMS Code and Policy Commission, for missing a submission date for her quarterly report while taking a trip to Kenya for a Rhodes Scholarship interview. Ogembo returned from Kenya to face accusations of wrongdoing, lack of transparency and insinuations that she was regularly difficult to work with. A source alleged she was “not doing the job well.” During Ogembo’s time, she also worked with the AMS Africa Awareness club.

The AMS archives had no information on anything related to the Black community and leadership from 2005–2015.

When asked to speak on his experiences during his year as an AMS executive, Akuechbeny declined to comment.

LIBERATION When Savannah Sutherland first arrived at UBC, she noticed there I can’t breathe were no events for Black students I am tired of saying please on campus. Gavin Gordon, a fourth-year student in the Sauder School of Business, described a similar experience, was surprised by the lack of Black students, staff or faculty. It was “very discouraging, walking into a building for four years and not seeing a single Black professor or teaching advisor in my entire faculty,” said Gordon.

“If I wanted more of a Black community around me, especially in Vancouver, I would actively have to work towards that,” Gordon told The Ubyssey. This lack of consideration for Black students and their experiences on campus was not only disheartening but exasperating. Rather than focusing on their studies, like other students on campus are able to do, “we had to do the work,” said Sutherland.

In 2018, through a discussion with some friends, Sutherland and Gordon decided to create the Black Student Union (BSU). Their main objective was to show the diversity and wide range of experiences of Blackness on campus.

Sutherland noted that the BSU was based on the foundation that “Blackness is not monolithic.” This recognition of diversity became central in her organizing. It was important for her to create a student organization that was inclusive of all the experiences of Blackness.

Black students were able to meet others who “shared similar experiences and similar problems,” according to Gordon.

In the creation of the BSU, both Gordon and Sutherland were prompted to examine their consciousness of Blackness.

“I’ve learned so much about Blackness and everyone’s Black experiences ... It’s just through BSU. There’s no way we would have those conversations anywhere else,” said Sutherland. The community and space that the BSU provides has become a lifeline for the Black students at UBC. Lillian Atieno, who recently graduated from the Faculty of Arts, benefited from the hard-to-comeby student community at UBC. “I think one of the first things I heard was that there were no Black people in Vancouver, but it only turns out that that was not the whole truth. There are Black people, they just

12 | Features | TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2020

happen to be a very, very, small population,” said Atieno.

“But when I actually actively seek out the community that I wanted to be a part of. I do find that they exist.”

Dr. Sara Ghebremusse became an professor to help dismantle anti-Black racism within academia, after similarly having very few experiences with Black professors. In 2018, she came to UBC as an assistant professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. To date, she has been in academia for 17 years. Throughout that time, she has not seen much change in the way Black people are viewed or involved in universities.

“Law schools and the legal profession in Canada are not very diverse spaces. And so it was important for me as a law student to make the presence of Black Canadians in the legal profession more well known and to raise awareness and respond to concerns related to anti-Black racism in Canadian legal education,” she told The Ubyssey.

When she began working for UBC, Ghebremusse’s desire to advocate only increased as she now had the resources and title to make a greater impact. But this came without tangible support from UBC. “If you want me to publish and research and teach at the same level and reach as [far as] some of my other racialized and non-racialized colleagues, then you’re going to have to provide certain accommodations ... because I can’t do it all,” she said.

Outside of the classroom, Ghebremusse meets with racialized students both prospective and current on top of general expectations. While she is passionate about helping students in whichever ways they may need, she recognizes that non-Black professors need to be involved in this work.

“We can say all we want. We can write letters. We can protest all we want. But until those who are in positions of power can admit to themselves that there’s work that needs to be done, then this battle and struggle for reform is just going to be even longer.”

REVOLUTION With historic global changes, Black students, Say it harsh faculty and staff are hoping that UBC will use this Like the clawing in their throat moment to reflect on its Heart empty own anti-Blackness.

Mind numb “These institutions How tinted are your hands lately are very unequal. They’re They are no longer white steeped in inequality, ­— Coral Santana [which] is grounded in so many different barriers ... that inhibit these institutions from becoming more equitable places to work and just exist in,” said Ghebremusse.

“They throw up these concepts like merit to say ‘Well, in fact, we are equal because those who are most meritorious enough will reach these institutions and will function well and succeed in these institutions.’”

UBC knows it has not done enough.

On June 2, President Santa Ono released a statement in response to the global activism against anti-Black racism.

“UBC itself is not immune to racism and injustice,” said Ono. In this statement, he committed to meeting with the Black Caucus and the Asian Canadian Community Engagement Group and “ensur[ing] that all public safety officers and other

authority figures are adequately trained to eliminate any unconscious or implicit bias.”

UBC Equity & Inclusion Office and the AMS have also released statements.

According to Sutherland, “UBC needs to do a better job at taking responsibility,” as performativity may address the symptoms of anti-Black racism but not the cause. Sutherland proclaims a call to action for the university, as it is a necessity that UBC is “more proactive about anti-Black racism.”

Earlier this year, the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs hosted a speaker series called Thinking While Black as part of the Phil Lind Initiative. The series hosted Black thinkers and writers, including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxanne Gay. While the series was cut short due to COVID-19, many of the speaking engagements sold out.

For Blain, Thinking While Black brought about mixed feelings about the conversations that UBC facilitated around Blackness.

“It’s weird because it’s this sort of juxtaposition, [the Lind initiative] had big Black names come and [it] was so incredible to see how many people came to the Chan Centre, people [were] actually interested. But [at the same time] we don’t actually pay attention to the Black voices of students and teachers on campus,” they said.

Looking to the future, Blain is hoping that UBC will understand the isolation that the Black community experiences.

“Especially now [people], even non-Black people, are actually interested in the content. But also Black folks are expected to only talk about race and only talk about Black issues, whatever that means.

So, yeah, they have work to do.” U Danni Olusanya was the co-president of the Black Student Union from 2019 to 2020 and currently sits on the interim executive of the Black Caucus of which Sara Ghebrumusse and Adeerya Johnson are members. Olusanya had no part in writing or interviewing those sections.

OPINIONS

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY

EDITOR SAM SMART

13

BLACK LIVES MATTER //

Editorial: With our past and present rooted in antiBlackness, here’s how The Ubyssey will change.

Danni Olusanya & The Ubyssey Editorial Board

When I first walked into The Ubyssey office I was incredibly nervous. I had to ask three different people where the room was before I eventually finally found it. Even though I was only three minutes late to the meeting the office was already jam-packed with bodies. For the long duration of the meeting, I awkwardly stood in the doorway, peeking through the crevices between other students’ bodies just to get a glimpse inside.

I was starting to get used to these constant jitters. Yes, I was new to Vancouver and had never lived permanently away from home, but for the first time in my life, I was finding it difficult to make friends. I was never one to feel homesick or call my parents from a sleepover, but in the first weeks of school, I found it really difficult to picture this campus as my new home.

When the meeting finished, I took a deep breath before walking inside and quietly waited in line to speak to an editor whose work I had admired for quite a while. When I approached her she handed me her business card before quickly cutting me off. I beat myself up about it on the way home thumbing the cheap card stock between my fingers and feeling doubly stupid. I got lost along the way.

Four years later, I am finding myself sitting at her desk. It was not an easy road to get here. In the 102 years of The Ubyssey, I am the first Black woman to hold the position of editor, I am the second Black person to sit on the editorial, period.

I know that holds a lot of weight.

I have spent the majority of my four years at this paper writing about Black people. This was never particularly intentional, it just happened. I once mentioned to a friend that I was scared of becoming a one-trick pony.

Allowing myself to be that one girl complaining about racism … again.

But I was forced to do it. No one else would.

If you weren’t aware of something. I’ll spell it out for you.

Being Black at UBC is hard.

Not in America, not in BC or Vancouver, but here on our very own campus.

I’ve had the opportunity to talk to faculty, I’ve been in on lengthy late-night conversations with friends. Sometimes it can feel like we are constantly having to fight a losing battle. Not just to have our struggles recognized, but to be taken seriously as people.

All my Black friends at UBC essentially say the same things.

They don’t want to rock the boat when a white person screams the N-word at a party, they try not to overthink the fact that they couldn’t find a group for a class project or the fact that they were stared at when the class discussion turned to the topic of slavery.

FILE ELIZABETH WANG

For all those 102 years, The Ubyssey hasn’t been great at looking in the mirror.

But I don’t want to be the only person bringing these things up. I don’t want to be a one-trick pony.

It’s exhausting and frankly, it’s not fair.

This year every editor of this paper is a minority in one way or another, but I’m sure they would all admit that they have their own biases and blind spots, even when they are aiming to be objective. I certainly know I do.

I hope that The Ubyssey takes this moment to reflect on its own history which has often been complicit in its lack of coverage on the Black community at this institution. Because there’s only so much I can do.

— Danni Olusanya, Culture Editor For 102 years, The Ubyssey has been putting out content that matters to students. For the latest part of those 102 years, The Ubyssey has platformed folks who aren’t being heard — often taking other campus groups or the university itself to task to do so. But for all those 102 years, The Ubyssey hasn’t been great at looking in the mirror.

Culture Editor Danni Olusanya is the first Black woman to ever be a Ubyssey editor and the second Black person to sit on our editorial, period. So while we’ve been criticizing UBC for not

collecting data on students’ race, we’ve been sitting pretty with a diversity predicament of our own.

Despite electing staff representatives to hear out contributor grievances, despite a decentralized organizational structure and despite a number of other internal policies and practices, we’re still struggling to be an inclusive, welcoming space. To address this struggle, we’re changing our tactics and making this policy change public, so it’s here for future editorials to uphold.

We’ve come up with a few goals that will help to keep inclusion and diversity in The Ubyssey’s mind for the current and future mastheads. They are: - Holding semesterly staff training sessions on fostering inclusion and counteracting internal bias, - Establishing a paid opinion columnist position to platform Black voices on campus, - And providing semesterly print and online advertising space to the Black Student Union, while exploring similar advertising deals with other BIPOC student representation groups.

We’re not publishing this to glorify our allyship and win kudos — we’re writing this so that you can do to The Ubyssey what we’ve done to the AMS and UBC for decades and keep us accountable.

We want to prove the incredible diversity of this year’s editorial isn’t a fluke, rather a point on a trend.

Finally, we wanted to address the question that invariably comes up when any editorial pens an opinion: ‘Isn’t news media meant to be unbiased?’

This idea has been addressed a few times now, but here’s our take: our journalism will always strive to tell the story fairly and accurately, but we’ll never be soulless robots, disinterested in the rights and safety of folks fighting to live their lives. AntiBlack racism isn’t subjective – it’s a fact that it exists.

One recent example of Canada’s unique brand of discrimination is that despite United States statistics showing that Black people are disproportionately dying from COVID-19, Canada still hasn’t committed to collecting racebased data on the disease. To ignore anti-Black racism is an injustice and to believe that Canada’s past and present aren’t plagued by racism is to be willfully ignorant.

George Floyd, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Breonna Taylor, Pierre Coriolan and so many more — these names mean something to us and we won’t pretend they don’t. Black lives matter, and this isn’t up for

debate. Closer to home, UBC is no stranger to anti-Black racism and violence, shown by the racial profiling of Shelby McPhee at Congress 2019, the violent arrest of former UBC football player Jamiel Moore-Williams for jaywalking and the recent alleged racial profiling of Savoy Williams.

We will always pursue coverage of stories like these but, with this public statement, we’re renewing our efforts to look at our own newsroom with a critical lens. We refuse to do our staff, contributors and readers the disservice of not pursuing a better Ubyssey for the present and future by ignoring our paper’s problems.

We’ve been making content for students since 1918, and we owe it to everyone — within our office and out — to foster inclusivity and platform voices that deserve to be heard. U There are a few Canada-specific places you can donate to in order to help support the Black community, including Hogan’s Alley Society, Black Women Connect Vancouver, the Black in BC community support fund and Justice for Regis. On the online version of this article, we have linked a list of Vancouver-based Black businesses you can support. For United States-based causes, a few options are Reclaim the Block and the Black Visions Collective.

FROM THE BLOG

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY

EDITOR SAM SMART

14

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WASN’T ONE ALREADY? //

The Dingbat: Confused students have been observing fall reading break for years Sam Smart Opinion + Blog Editor

When the news broke that there would be a fall reading break for the 2021/22 academic year, Leonard Jacobson was more confused than ever.

Jacobson, a fourth-year history major, has been going home to visit his family every October during what he thought was fall reading break.

“Every year I took a week off in October. I was following the same schedule as my friends at the University of Toronto, because I just figured everyone else had it too,” said Jacobson. “Why didn’t we have one, anyway?”

The issue of a fall reading break has been a very heated debate for years, and seemingly everyone on campus has an opinion on it. But for some, this conversation hasn’t come up at all.

“I hardly talk to anyone. How the hell was I supposed to know this wasn’t a thing? I figured we already had a fall reading break and went to visit my family every October like everyone else does,” said one student, who requested anonymity so as to not attract attention to their inattentiveness.

Some students had doubts, but went with their intuition. “I considered checking the academic calendar just to be sure, but I figured my gut feeling was right. I still had a good time taking a week off class,” said Judy Smith, a thirdyear political science major.

Psychology professor Jennifer Thomas has also been skipping

FILE IYANU OWOLAB

“I don’t usually read the syllabus until a project is coming up,” said Jacobson.

a week for years, but not out of ignorance. “I let everyone take a week off in October because I can’t stand seeing them for so many weeks in a row. We all need a week off once in a while, you know? Even professors do.”

Thomas also said that it’s “about fucking time” that a real one happened.

As for the signs that something

was amiss, most students interviewed by The Ubyssey didn’t see the signs that they had missed class until much later.

Jacobson had gotten “glad to have you back” as a common greeting when arriving to class after this self-declared break, which had always confused him until now.

“I just assumed they missed me, it never occurred to me that this

was because I had missed an entire week of class.” Jacobson stated he had never considered looking at the syllabus and considering why that specific week in October had class topics listed. “I don’t usually read the syllabus until a project is coming up,” he said.

Smith always wondered why it felt like everyone was talking about something she hadn’t read when she

came back from reading break. “I figured maybe I was just jet-lagged.

I fly home from Nova Scotia on the Sunday and go back to class on Monday, so it makes sense.”

Going forward, Jacobson is looking forward to enjoying an actual reading break. “It’s so silly that I didn’t realize this for years. I hope my average gets higher than my usual 65 per cent.” U

DONATE IT //

How to use your April U-Pass reimbursement interest on your student loans, but that’s no fun. Here are some ideas for what to do with your reimbursement money, from self reflection on your coffee habits to making a difference.

EIGHT ICED COFFEES This is more me proving that you shouldn’t be spending $5 on iced coffees everyday. Do better.

SEROTONIN We all need it. Surprisingly it fits within this price range, which is a serotonin boost in itself.

A WEIGHTED BLANKET Depending on where you want to buy a weighted blanket, this may be over budget for you. With your price range, Walmart is the only feasible option.

NATIONAL BLACK JUSTICE COALITION IRENE ZHANG

Serotonin. We all need it.

Kaila Johnson Contributor

The AMS announced that students would be able to request a reimbursement for their April

U-Pass, since classes have moved online. While you might have to fight a little for a full refund (it’s automatically dispersed as tuition credit), there are many ways to use the potential $41 that you

(hopefully) receive. The items listed below are things you could spend your $41 on, if you do in fact manage to get a full refund.

The smart thing to do would be to put it in the bank or pay off

This civil rights organization is dedicated to serving the Black 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

They are focused on changing federal public policy such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), so that people cannot

be fired based on their sexual orientation.

BLACK AIDS INSTITUTE Black AIDS Institute aims to stop the AIDS epidemic within Black communities and push Black institutions to confront HIV. Their program, Cut The Stigma, focuses on public education that breaks down misconceptions around HIV and its resulting discrimination.

FOOD FROM A LOCAL BLACKOWNED BUSINESS I’ve been using Uber Eats as a form of social media at this point. That being said, Uber Eats (along with other food delivery apps) takes a lot of the money for itself so please order directly from the business!

UNICORN RIOT This educational non-profit media organization works to expose the roots of social and environmental issues. When covering the Black Lives Matter protests, they blur out protesters’ faces in efforts to reduce doxxing.

They’re independently funded by individual contributors, so if you like what they do you can help contribute too! U

SCIENCE

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY

EDITOR MYLA WHITE

EXPLORE UBC’S SCIENCE-Y MUSEUMS FROM HOME Whether you frequented UBC’s museums pre-quarantine or kicked yourself over another year of forgetting to take advantage of things to do on campus, we’ve prepared a virtual guide to serve as a prelude to the in-person activities we’re all so desperate to experience again. As campus prepares to undergo a full-scale recovery of it’s vibrant array of attractions, it wouldn’t hurt to have a taste of what we’ve been missing out on, from the comfort of our own homes.

WORDS Arian Sadigpour ILLUSTRATION Lua Presidio

MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY With current restrictions on air travel, it has become increasingly difficult for students and staff to explore cultures on campus as well as elsewhere in the world. The Museum of Anthropology has opened its virtual doors by providing an online collection of artifacts boasting more than 48,000 objects from nearly every inhabitable region on earth. Navigate over to “explore the globe” and let your curiosity get the best of you. Want to know how colourfully the Andean peoples dressed? Use the advanced search to filter for the civilization of your choice.

PACIFIC MUSEUM OF EARTH offers a full-screen 3D interactive environment to let you explore its exhibits. It features colour-coded targets that allow you to read, hear or watch as if you had walked through its front doors. You can allow the virtual tour to walk you through the exhibits until you find something that catches your eye, or snoop around at your own pace. Be sure to check out the OmniGlobe — Canada’s first display of animated planetary visualizations open to the public and one of the museum’s most popular exhibits. Play around with the display and see for yourself how planets, weather, ocean currents and everything else earthly are animated to project the phenomenal atmospheric harmony our planet has to offer.

UBC BOTANICAL GARDEN Stuck working at home and need a break from that recorded lecture? UBC Botanical Garden has just the solution! Enjoy a virtual tour of the TreeWalk through a 360 degree recording while reflecting on the significance of gardens in our lives.

According to neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, one of two types of non-pharmaceutical therapy found to be vitally important in neurological healing is interaction with gardens. This virtual tour serves as both a reminder of and an exposure to the role of greenery on our mental health.

Next time your four walls start to feel a little too grey, navigate over to the virtual TreeWalk and reconnect with one of UBC’s most raw interactions with nature.

THE BEATY BIODIVERSITY MUSEUM provides online visitors the opportunity to interact with a handful of its exhibits, including the Sturgeon Harpoon Knowledge Web. This exhibit guides visitors through Musqueam traditions of building the sturgeon harpoon — a hunting spear made from materials native to the environment — and the role of plants and animals in synthesizing this reliable and monumental tool. The sturgeon harpoon symbolizes preservation of cultural traditions from past generations as well as a need for access to the environment in order to build the tool as intended. From eagle feathers to sea lion intestines, this exhibit provides a snapshot into the ingenuity of the Musqueam people.

15

16 | Science | TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2020 STAYING SAFE //

UBC researchers develop first locally-sourced biodegradable N95 mask Roula Farag Contributor

In an effort to alleviate Canada’s high demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) in the wake of COVID-19, researchers at the BioProducts Institute at UBC have developed potentially the very first locally sourced biodegradable N95 mask in Canada and possibly the entire world.

“In every challenge there is an opportunity,” said researcher Dr. Orlando Rojas, scientific director of the BioProducts Institute and professor of chemical and biological engineering. “We have been working in the area of fibres and [wanted to explore] how fibre-based products can be used in creating the next generation of masks.”

The idea of creating this biodegradable mask, known as the Can-Mask, began when Rojas and chemical and biological engineering associate professor Dr. Johan Foster found masks and gloves littered around Vancouver and UBC. “Current N95 masks are three layers, generally, and they’re made out of petroleum-based polymers so they filter very well but they don’t degrade,” said Foster.

“So you throw this on the ground or you put it in the trash and it will take decades, if not hundreds of

years, to completely degrade.”

Given their skillset in bioproducts, the pair realized that creating a mask with the same filtration efficiency as the N95 mask but with the added benefit of biodegradability would make a huge difference.

The Can-Mask is composed of an active and a passive component.

The active component filters the air particles and allows for breathability whereas the passive component is thicker and prevents air from getting through.

“It’s basically the same material but put together in different ways.

In the passive component the fibres are very close to each other so the air doesn’t go through,” said Rojas.

“We’re using nanotechnologies in the active part to achieve the performance that we need.”

Not only is the mask biodegradable, but the fibre material provides more comfort when in contact with our skin.

“It’s a living material that we take from trees,” said Rojas. “Unlike the fossil carbon materials that are processed in the petrochemical industry and are very foreign to our bodies … [such as] the polyesters, polypropylene, polyethylene and the other types of masks that are being used nowadays.”

Since masks are currently used

“The Can-Mask is just the springboard for new materials based on fibres that will be in demand.”

by medical professionals as well as the general public, it’s important to consider the different demands by both groups.

Medical professionals, for example, require the N95 standard for masks, but biodegradability is not a priority as most medical facilities incinerate rather than compost their infected materials.

However, nurses have complained about the discomfort caused by the elastic bands that go behind the ears.

Consumers on the other hand need a mask that is effective at preventing the communication of droplets and also benefit from biodegradability. Fine tuning the Can-Mask to meet these demands can be very useful.

“Our intention is to make a medical grade and a consumer grade [mask] and deal with both because all of these masks are sourced internationally,” said Foster.

Currently, the prototype is

COURTESY PAUL JOSEPH/UBC

at the fine-tuning stage. The research group is looking for funding opportunities as well as bridging with companies that will take over the manufacturing and production of this mask moving forward.

“The Can-Mask is just the springboard for new materials based on fibres that will be in demand,” said Rojas. “This is what we’re trying to learn and find out: ‘What is the best way to advance this concept?’” U

TOO MUCH ZOOM //

Isolation fatigue: How we can learn to stop worrying and love the physical distancing

Without a direct connection to the virus, the pandemic can feel distant.

Meriwether Morris Contributor

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. BC’s restart plan remained in phase one, and the potential crowds promised by the impending cocktail of Mother’s Day, May long weekend and Vancouver’s sunny spring weather loomed in the distance.

While for the most part, BCers left generous space between themselves and other beach-goers, there were a few exceptions. With the risk of contracting COVID-19 still prevalent, why is it that some people go out of their way to ignore physical distancing protocols?

The short answer is that humans have cognitive biases. Cognitive

biases can be described as mental shortcuts people make in an effort to interpret complex environments around them, and can sometimes lead to errors in judgements and decision-making.

Reactance bias, the tendency for people to do the opposite of what they’re told for fear of infringements on their freedoms, explains some people’s unwillingness to self-isolate. The bias is the same reasoning behind why some underage people drink immediately after being told not to.

Ignoring physical distancing, argues Dr. Eric Cadesky, clinical associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, is how people maintain their sense of independence and freedom.

“Reactance bias shows our

ZUBAIR HIRJI

general distrust in authority and the inherent fear that comes along with it,” says Cadesky. “People worry that if one freedom is restricted, like through physical distancing, that others may be as well.”

The longer answer is that maintaining high levels of anxiety is difficult. Over time, the fear of COVID-19 becomes normalized as the novelty of isolation fades.

Personal experience — either knowing someone who is ill or highrisk — acts as brutal reinforcement for physical distancing.

But without a direct connection to the virus, the pandemic can feel distant. Conversely, cabin fever and the boredom of isolation are very real experiences.

“Being social creatures, we have a certain tolerance for isolation and

a need for it,” says Dr. Lawrence Frank, a professor in sustainable transport and public health at UBC. “But the need for isolation has certainly been met for most people and now they’re into a kind of overload — especially the people that are alone, or are not in social settings with their families around.”

As the consequences of ignoring physical distancing measures become more abstract, breaking physical distancing can seem less risky. This behaviour can be explained through the theory of risk compensation, which postulates that people adjust their behaviour in response to the changes in risk around them.

This bias has been theorized to be one of the reasons behind the recent increase in head injuries in hockey, after helmets have been required in the sport for some years now. Thinking that the level of risk has changed can be the catalyst someone needs to ignore public safety guidelines.

Age can also play a part in isolation fatigue. New research out of Stanford University suggests that those between the ages of 18-31 years old are more likely to break physical distancing guidelines.

This group is also the least likely to experience severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Yet, plenty of people are still voluntarily self-isolating.

When a behaviour is new, people are more likely to practice it if that behaviour is modelled for them. In terms of COVID-19, if someone sees

other people practicing physical distancing, they will be more inclined to distance themselves as well.

Physical distancing is even more likely if it is modelled by those they trust and admire. When authority figures ignore physical distancing while advising quarantine guidelines, people lose their trust and are less likely to follow their advice.

“We believe in people we trust,” said Cadesky. “The problem is people who are not trustworthy leaders try to take advantage of anger and disgust to elicit a reaction.

“We should give ourselves time to think, to reduce screen times and to consider whether information being presented is for the common good or for profit.”

As multiple narratives regarding what people should do flood the media, people rely on the leadership they trust. Compelling and honest communication from leadership can help build that people’s confidence.

Leadership’s silence or lack of trustworthy communication allows unresearched narratives to thrive.

Similarly, consistency in messages is important as guidelines that vary from area to area confuse those who would follow them otherwise.

“Life is hectic and anxious,” acknowledges Cadesky. “People have every reason to be emotional.

The best that we can do is to consider the information presented to us and our biases.” U

SPORTS+REC

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY

EDITOR DIANA HONG

17

FALL CANCELLATION //

Canada West and U Sports cancel 2020/21 first-term team competitions

COURTESY UBC ATHLETICS

“We have a lot of empathy for our entire department and our student athletes who won’t have a seat in those sports.”

Diana Hong Sports Editor

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Canada West and U Sports announced that no conference competition will be happening during the first term of the 2020/21 season.

This includes football, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s rugby 15s and women’s field hockey.

“We have a lot of empathy for our entire department and our student athletes who won’t have a seat in those sports. But we do know that decisions are grounded

in good medical advice and science,” said Kavie Toor, managing director of UBC Athletics & Recreation.

The decision to proceed with two-term sports such as basketball, hockey and volleyball prior to January 1, 2021 is to be made no later than October 8, 2020 along

with decisions regarding secondterm competitions, which include men’s and women’s track and field and women’s rugby sevens.

Canada West further states that the decisions regarding other first-term sports championships, such as swimming, golf and cross country, will be announced by

July 15, 2020. U Sports has also cancelled its six 2020 fall national championships.

“Although the Canadian sport system is working together to create evidence-based return to training, practice and competition protocols, it is not currently feasible or safe due to the COVID-19 Pandemic for USPORTS to be able to offer fall championships given the academic realities of student-sport,” said Dr. Taryn Taylor, U Sports chief medical officer and representative on the Own the Podium Return to Sport Task Force.

These decisions will result in modifications for eligibility and regulations for financial aid.

“We are planning on honouring our student-athletes’ scholarships commitments for the year ahead.

Obviously, it’s complex because it’s directly related to eligibility. So we’re supporting athletes if they want to push a year of eligibility.

We’re confident we’ll continue on a high level of support for students,” Toor said. Competitions may be cancelled, but T-Birds plan to continue training for competitions hopefully occurring later in the year if COVID-19 resolves.

“Our department of the university is going to continue to keep the student-athletes’ [well-being] down in the core of our decision making work and then we’ll be working with our coaching staff and our student athletes to create some level of regular training competition and competitive play,” Toor said. U

DISAPPOINTMENT //

Change of plans for T-Birds due to the ongoing global pandemic Tomila M. Sahbaei Contributor

On June 8, it was confirmed by Canada West and U Sports that all fall term team sport tournaments would be cancelled due to the ongoing global pandemic.

Football is one of the numerous sports affected by this decision.

Former defensive back James Vause is considering leaving the team.

“I felt pretty weird about it because I knew it was a possibility, but you never think it’s actually going to go through … when it happened, it just kind of hits you all at once, emotionally,” he said.

“Football’s been around for so many years and it’s gone through many things, and it’s something that you just expect to happen every fall and you look forward to it,” added Vause.

However, with cancellations becoming more common amid the pandemic, Vause saw it coming, “I thought maybe there would be a way to work around it, but I support their decision.”

Despite tournaments being

cancelled, the team is consistently in touch with each other, and continue to train despite cancellations.

“Immediately after [the cancellation was announced], there was a meeting we had as a team. Our coach just told us that it’s gonna be a battle-ridden [year] and to make sure we’re checking on each other,” Vause told The Ubyssey.

“We still have the resources in place that we can use, even though the seasons [are] not on. There’s counselling resources, we still have our strength coach ... and therapists to help us out with whatever we need. So there’s still a solid support system in place,” said Vause.

In addition to having a strong support system, the team is also committed to maintaining a strong training schedule.

“We have a really good strength and conditioning coach and he’s really committed to our success as individuals and players,” said Vause.

He also added that the team’s goal of winning the next national championship remains, which has

“It’s something you just expect to happen every fall.”

heavily influenced the training schedule, even if it might “look different for a lot of people.”

Vause pointed out that “typically, [players] can’t take a full course [load] and play football at the same time.” However, with the season cancelled, some students will have the option to take more courses than they normally do.

Besides being at home, Vause

mentioned the biggest change he’s made due to the cancellations has been focusing on his studies.

“It’s sort of allowed me to be more career directed. I was planning on having this as my last season and then sort of focusing on finishing up my degree, getting started on my career, but now I can kind of get a head start on that,” said Vause.

FILE CHOLADHORN SINRACHTANANT

Vause hopes that the next season will have a larger community turnout at the games.

“I just hope that the community will rally around all athletes in all sports that were cancelled and support in a bigger fashion than they ever have next year. Players love playing the game but they love when there’s fans there to watch as well.” U

18 | Sports+Rec | TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2020 FACILITIES //

UBC’s baseball field is named after a big oil company. What does that mean for divestment?

Andrew Ha News Editor

Tucked away behind trees off of the East Mall and West 16th Avenue roundabout lies Tourmaline West Baseball Stadium.

Home to Thunderbirds baseball, the $5 million field was built in 2018 to make UBC a “destination” for different baseball championships, according to a UBC website.

But part of that money — not to mention the stadium’s name — comes from Tourmaline Oil Corporation, a Canadian crude oil and natural gas company.

Tourmaline had revenues of $2.1 billion in 2019 from what Bloomberg calls its “aggressive” operations in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin spanning Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC and the Northwest Territories.

With the T-Birds’ baseball nest both funded by and named for a massive oil company, student activists like Rachel Cheang are left skeptical of how UBC can fulfill its commitment to fighting the climate crisis.

“It reminds us that divestment can’t be the end all,” said Cheang, a member of climate group UBCC350.

“Committing to divestment should really just be the beginning of challenging what our institutions should be doing to uphold the values and the principles of climate justice.”

MOGUL MONEY The stadium’s lead donor was Michael Rose, Tourmaline founder, president and CEO. His contribution was part of $26 million that he donated to a handful of Canadian schools and sports programs.

In addition to funding Tourmaline Stadium, the oil magnate was the sole donor of the eponymous Rose Indoor Training Centre. It’s unclear how much the university received in total: Tourmaline did not respond to requests for comment and UBC didn’t provide a figure to The Ubyssey.

According to the Okotoks Dawgs baseball team website, Rose is a longtime Boston Red Sox fan who played baseball in his youth. He became a donor of the Calgarysuburb team after his son joined the club, where Rose financed a fieldhouse named after his old company Duvernay Oil Corp. as well as the Dawgs’ own Tourmaline Field.

Rose’s 2019 induction into the Dawgs Hall of Fame in 2019 was accompanied by a UBC event with Baseball Director Terry McKaig and President Santa Ono honouring Rose’s donation.

In an emailed statement, university spokesperson Kurt Heinrich said UBC Athletics & Recreation had requested the stadium be named for Tourmaline

after his contributions. The Board of Governors approved the name in February 2018 in accordance with university naming policy GA6.

“Since receiving upgrades, the UBC Baseball Tourmaline West Stadium has had a tremendously positive impact on the campus and wider communities — putting the university on the map as a premier destination for international baseball, while also fostering health, wellbeing and social connections for the many community members who use the space,” said Heinrich.

“We are grateful to Mr. Rose for his generosity and commitment to supporting a world-class baseball facility and important community amenity at UBC.”

CLIMATE JUSTICE Cheang was surprised that the university would name a field after Tourmaline, but it’s not the first case of UBC accepting an industry cheque.

In November 2019, campus group Students for Mining Justice protested in solidarity with the Xinka Indigenous people against Vancouver-based Pan American Silver’s recent acquisition of Tahoe Resources Inc., which runs the Escobal silver mine in Guatemala.

Ross Beaty, university alumnus and Pan American Silver director, was a significant donor to the UBC Beaty

MATT ASUNCION

Tourmaline baseball stadium, a “destination” for different baseball championships.

Biodiversity Research Centre.

The link between racism and this funding exists on a systemic level, Cheang said. Not only does resource extraction continue to conflict with Indigenous claims to self-governance, but the fossil fuel industry contributes to the climate crisis which disproportionately impacts Indigenous peoples, especially those living in remote communities.

“It does not make sense for UBC to claim that it has ‘zero tolerance’ for racism and then go ahead and name a baseball field after a company that continues to profit [from] resource exploitation of violent extractions of stolen lands,” said Cheang.

Heinrich said UBC would not consider changing the name of Tourmaline West Baseball Stadium.

Still, Cheang said the university should rethink whom it chooses to honour through facility names or other means.

“It’s not just where we’re putting our investments in, but also questioning who we’re choosing to commemorate and celebrate,” she said.

“And that really signals to what kinds of values we uphold as an institution and what kinds of systems we are benefiting from and profiting off [of ].” U Rachel Cheang has illustrated for The Ubyssey.

THE PROS //

Vancouver Whitecaps return after COVID-19 phase one poses training interruption

Diana Hong Sports Editor

During phase one of COVID-19, UBC Athletics and Recreation shut down all facilities and suspended all programs “through May 20, 2020 as [a] precautionary measure against COVID-19.”

This included the closure of the National Soccer Development Centre, where the Vancouver Whitecaps and United Soccer League teams train.

These closures also affected the professional swimmers who train at UBC Aquatic Centre — one of Swimming Canada’s highperformance centres.

BACK TO BEING IN FULL GEAR June 15 marked the club’s first full team on-field training session since the league’s suspension in play on March 12. In-beom Hwang, a midfielder for the Whitecaps, said he’s happy to be back training with his teammates.

“During almost two months of quarantine, even though I ran around the park and played ball on my own, it was still hard to maintain my fitness level without training at the centre. But now, it just feels great that I am able to be back training with my teammates again,” said Hwang in an interview with The Ubyssey,

conducted in Korean.

“Our fitness coaches gave [us] programs, but it was hard because we’re soccer players and we play together as a team,” added Ranko Veselinovic, a defender for the Whitecaps.

The Whitecaps were not able to access the facility for almost two months since the facility closure on March 11.

However, the players still kept up their training by following the guidelines provided by the club’s sports medicine & science department.

“The club sent us home equipment that we can use for weight training,” said Hwang.

On May 12, there were voluntary individual training sessions for players and small group training sessions took place before the return of full team, onfield training.

POTENTIAL REOPENING OF UBC AQUATIC CENTRE

“It just feels great that I am able to be back training with my teammates again.”

UBC Aquatic Centre is home for T-Birds and for many professional swimmers. Since the closure, they have not have access to the facilities.

“I think we all probably took a couple of weeks off after March ...

Since then, we’ve just been working out on our own,” said Canadian national team member and UBC Thunderbird Markus Thormeyer.

All swim meets were cancelled including the 2020 Canadian Swimming National Championships on March 27 due to COVID-19.

Although professional swimmers are not back training yet, the facility is hoping to reopen for professional swimmers mid July, according to Thormeyer.

“They are going to try and test

out opening pools just to see what protocols work for social distancing and training. So, it’d be like one swimmer per lane kind of thing, and we are not allowed to get too close to anyone or the coaches.”

The facility reopening for July may be crucial for these professional swimmers as they have to train for the postponed

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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games next summer.

“We’ve not been training consistently for probably the longest time of our career. This summer for sure [we] have to keep it in mind that the Olympics is going to happen next year. So, we need to make sure we’re ready for that,” said Thormeyer. U

JUNE 30, 2020 TUESDAY | Sports+Rec | 19 SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES //

Road to Tokyo 2020: Evan Dunfee earns early nomination for his second Olympics Diana Hong Sports Editor

Evan Dunfee has earned an early nomination to Tokyo 2020, his second Olympic ticket.

Although COVID-19 had initially interrupted his normal training schedule, Dunfee said he looks forward to putting all his energy into working with his physiotherapist and strength coach as he heads toward the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. “It’s a big relief.

For my event, race walk, there’s only two of us in Canada that are in the position to qualify,” said Dunfee. “I wasn’t worried that I wouldn’t be selected, but having [the] box checked so early, now all my preparations can be focused on competing on the day in Tokyo, rather than trying to find another race to qualify.”

The opening ceremony of Tokyo 2020 was originally planned for July 24, but due to COVID-19, the Olympic Games have been postponed, now starting on July 23, 2021.

Although this may be a setback for some, Dunfee hopes to use the extra year as an advantage for him to prepare for the Olympic Games.

“It was absolutely the right decision and [I’m] really happy to see Canada playing such a big part in forcing the hand of that decision to be made. It’s been really cool to see all the teams coming together and … all the athletes doing what they can to share positive stories or online workouts or whatever they can do to keep spirits up,” Dunfee said.

FIRST OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE AT RIO 2016 Dunfee’s first Olympics was at Rio 2016 where he participated in the 20km and 50km race walk.

“I just wanted to test my body to see how long I can stay with the leaders. I had no business to be in the lead … If I collapse at 47 kilometres then so be it, that’s the way it goes,” said Dunfee as he recalled his experience at Rio 2016.

A couple of kilometers left to the finish line, the controversial “bump” from Hirooki Arai of Japan awarded Dunfee a bronze medal for a couple of hours after an appeal. “It was hot in Rio. We are absolutely exhausted ... I went to pass him, a little bit too close, and got tangled up and, when you are that tired, a gust of wind knocks you over,” said Dunfee.

“He barely touched me, but it was just an unfortunate circumstance where my legs were already in their last gas and then he kind of bucked. I composed myself enough to get to the finish line.”

Shortly after the race, Athletics Canada tweeted that they filed a protest about the “bump” and had won the appeal an hour later. This resulted in disqualification of Arai and put him in fourth place, but a bronze medal for Dunfee.

However, another announcement was made a couple

“Now all my preparations can be focused on competing on the day in Tokyo, rather than trying to find another race to qualify.”

of hours later that the Japanese team filed its own appeal and won, which put Dunfee back to fourth place. “I talked to Hirooki after the race ... We chatted a little bit through his translator and had shared some kind words.

I knew he didn’t do anything on purpose and knew there was no way to tell whether or not I would’ve beaten him anyways. So, it didn’t seem to me [that it’d] be the right thing to take his medal away from him and I was pretty happy with fourth place,” said Dunfee.

Beyond the fair play displayed in his decision to not file another appeal, he also shared his positive energy with the team.

“That day and the next night, we had a number of fourth-place finishes for Canadians … We had maple medals that [had] little, individual bottles of maple syrup on them. Anytime a Canadian athlete finishes fourth, we do a big, full medal ceremony in the village and outside the Canada building,” recalled Dunfee as he chuckled. “You know, just own it because it is an amazing place to

finish and no one should feel bad about finishing fourth. Just try to turn it around and make it into a more positive celebration rather than an ‘Aw I was so close’ type of thing.”

SECOND OLYMPIC GAMES, BUT WITH MORE CONFIDENCE On July 7 of last year, Dunfee broke his own Canadian 10km race walk record of 39 minutes, 21.3 seconds, with a time of 38 minutes, 54.2 seconds at the BC Championships.

“It was such a load off. It gave me good confidence heading into the rest of 2019 … Now I’m hoping 2020 goes really well and I have confidence going to 2021,” said Dunfee.

With the fourth-place finish along with a Canadian 50km race walk record at Rio, Dunfee hopes for a podium finish at Tokyo.

“I can go out with the same goal of giving my all … If I have the race that I know I can have, then I know a medal is possible,” said Dunfee. This may mean having more weight on his shoulders, but

Dunfee said he enjoys being on the radar.

“I went into Rio not really knowing who I was and I wasn’t expected to do very much ... and now I’m one of the players being looked at … I love having that role, being able to share my take on things and having that platform because it’s really nice.”

However, heading to Tokyo promises lonelier training sessions due to the absence of his two former teammates, Inaki Gomez and Ben Thorne, who are also UBC alumni.

“We were training together and we spent years in the build up to Rio … so this one’s a lot more independence and a lot more lonely training sessions on my own.” Nonetheless, Dunfee still has the support from the social circle he made at UBC as he heads toward Tokyo.

“In Rio, 15 to 20 UBC and SFU alumni came and supported while the UBC and SFU athletes were competing. They are going to be in Tokyo as well, at least a dozen of our friends and our teammates watching. On the race course, that

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certainly fuels you pretty heavily. So, it’s a great community that I’ve been lucky to be part of,” said Dunfee.

DUNFEE’S TIME AT UBC In 2014, Dunfee graduated from UBC with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and claims it helps him in his professional career now.

“I haven’t specifically gone into that area where I use that professionally, but I use it every day in my training … I’ve gotten to be part of different research studies, even speak at conferences,” said Dunfee.

When he was asked if he had any advice for the next “Dunfee” at UBC, he said, “The best advice or perspective I give to current students is take advantage of every opportunity you have. There’s so much at UBC I wish I had done, especially through the varsity program. I was just too shy or too nervous to put myself out there.”

Laughing, he also suggested current T-Birds to go to Pit Night, but maybe not every week. “I never once went to Pit Night. [But,] I don’t regret that I didn’t go every Wednesday night.” U

20 | games | TUESDAY JUNE 30, 2020

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did you know that . . .

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CROSSWORD PUZZLE

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DOWN 1. Yes, ___!

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