March 26, 2019

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march 26, 2019 | VoLuME c | IssuE XXViI four loko since 1918

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news

culture

SCIENCE

SPORTS

Where’s the line for far-right speakers at UBC?

Features

International students create nostalgic playlist

What is UBC doing with your data?

The sci-fi contest winner is here

Baseball is back — in a big way

THE UBYSSEY

Ask Pawan W h at i s y o u r l i f e g o i n g t o b e l i k e a f t e r y o u l e av e UB C ? //11


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march 26, 2019 TUesday

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS & PEOPLE

EVENTS

2

OUR CAMPUS

From Kenya to Beto O’Rourke’s campaign, Dr. Jamie McCasland is making the numbers count

Wednesday, March 27 VANCOUVER’S LARGEST CLOTHING SWAP 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. @ THE NEST Donate the clothes you don’t wear and take home some new ones to support the Unist’ot’en Camp! $2 minimum donation

friDAY, march 29 ubc improv graduates :( 7 p.m. @ NEVILLE SCARFE BUILDING A viking-style send-off to this year’s UBC Improv team. $5 ONLINE/$4 AT THE DOOR

SATURDAY, MARCH 30 goosehunt 2019 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. @ koerner’s UBC’s favorite student-run music festival is back. $20 ONLINE

ON THE COVER COVER BY Maged

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

U The Ubyssey

editorial

Coordinating Editor Illustrations Coordinator Business Manager Douglas Baird Samantha McCabe Ella Chan coordinating@ubyssey.ca illustrations@ubyssey.ca business@ubyssey.ca Visuals Editor Claire Lloyd visuals@ubyssey.ca News Editors Alex Nguyen & Zak Vescera news@ubyssey.ca Culture Editor Bridget Chase culture@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Lucy Fox sports@ubyssey.ca Video Producer Marina McDuff video@ubyssey.ca Opinion + Blog Editor Tristan Wheeler opinion@ubyssey.ca Science Editor James Vogl science@ubyssey.ca Photo Editor Elizabeth Wang photos@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Moira Wyton features@ubyssey.ca

march 26, 2019 | Volume C| Issue XXVII Contact

BUSINESs

Staff Pawan Minhas, Zubair Hirji, Jack Yuan, Emma Livingstone, Jane Procyshyn, Matt Asuncion, Olivia Johnson, Candice Lipski, Marissa Birnie, Rolando Hinojosa, Lua Presidio, Salomon Micko Benrimoh, Chimedum Ohaegbu, Ryan Neale, Hannah Feodorov, Angela O’Donnell, Cat Hartt Towle, Johann Cooper, Jack Lamming, Kristine Ho, Clare Skillman, Zainab Fatima, Iain Coates, Charlotte Alben, Riya Talitha, Tait Gamble, Chelsea Dumasal, Joshua Azizi, Sammy Smart, Danni Olusanya, Shamit Rahman, Divija Madhani, Moe Kirkpatrick, Daphnée Lévesque, Benoit Dupras, Sonia Kung, Scott Young, Eve O’Dea, Andrew Ha, Anupriya Dasgupta, Aki Ota, Amy Shandro, Henry Anderson, Micah Killjoy, Sonia Pathak, Maged, Brendan Smith, Mitchell Ballachay, Negin Nia, Sarah Zhao, Darby Lynch, Maneevak Bajaj, Tolu Amuwo, Tara Osler, Isabella Falsetti, Karolina Skupien, Alex Vanderput, Sophie Galloway, Arshiya Malik, Paige Mayo, Yunji Hwang, Kevin Jiang, Jack Bailey, Shamit Rahman

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President Ben Amuwo president@ubyssey.ca

LEGAL The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Tuesday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization and all students are encouraged to participate. Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publications Society. The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles. The Ubyssey accepts opinion articles on any topic related

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Editorial Office: SUB 2208 604.283.2023 Business Office: SUB 2209 604.283.2024 NEST 6133 University Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Online: ubyssey.ca Twitter: @ubyssey Instagram: @ubyssey editorial board. Full opinions policy may be found at ubyssey.ca/ submit-an-opinion It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ads.

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

“It’s easy to join a team of all these people who are feeling really inspired about his candidacy.”

Samantha McCabe Coordinating Editor

Think of a stereotypical ‘economist’ and you’ll probably come up with a mundane image of someone parked behind a desk. But Dr. Jamie McCasland’s career path has been anything but boring. The assistant professor at the Vancouver School of Economics has done grassroots volunteering abroad, conducted field research in Africa and most recently, advised on former US House Representative Beto O’Rourke’s Senate campaign in Texas. McCasland moved to Kenya as part of the US Peace Corps, helping mostly with their reproductive health education sector. Working in a low-income country as a selfdescribed “critical and rigorous” person got her thinking: Were the programs being implemented there actually working? “I transitioned into a role as a researcher because I was looking for something that was a little bit more focused on ensuring that we have an evidence base for the kind of programming that we were doing,” she explained. She moved back to the US and completed her PhD in economics at the University of California, Berkeley in May 2015, with a focus on development economics. She has since spent years conducting field experiments in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Ghana. Almost four years ago, she started teaching at UBC. “I really appreciate that part of the job [at UBC] is to interact with students and to inspire people to think a little bit differently about policy and their everyday lives,” said McCasland.

Running the trail And she’s also taken her own advice. In 2018, McCasland received an exciting offer from an old friend and long-time colleague:

take some time off from teaching and come work on an American campaign trail. She didn’t hesitate. “I’ve always been really interested in policy and politics. And that was kind of the primary motivator for me … I’ve always wanted to participate politically and have in more minor ways, but I think, like many people after the 2016 election, I was particularly motivated to find some way to use my expertise to contribute,” she said. As someone who lived in Texas as a child, O’Rourke’s campaign felt like a great place to start. O’Rourke ran to represent Texas in the United States Senate in 2018 as a Democratic candidate against incumbent Republican Ted Cruz, to whom he narrowly lost. McCasland worked as an economist on his campaign, analyzing policy choices of O’Rourke’s — like his proposal to raise the national minimum wage to $15 and its potential effect on inflation — as well as making recommendations and occasionally presenting alternative policy options. The fast-paced, metamorphosing role turned out to be a perfect fit — McCasland said that “the majority of the evidence base for [many progressive policies these days, like universal basic income] is coming, actually, from work that development economists have done in low-income countries.” “It definitely intersects with my personal politics,” she said. “I would never work for a candidate who I didn’t feel cared about evidence-based policy or had values that are similar to mine.” She was excited about the political environment at the time — the rare potential to flip a very important strategic seat for the Democrats — and described O’Rourke as “a really inspiring guy.” “It’s easy to join a team of all these people who are feeling really inspired about his candidacy.”

COURTESY JAMIE MCCASLAND

Onwards and upwards What is less easy is being a woman in a male-dominated field. McCasland interrogates her gender identity both as she experiences it and as others do, acknowledging that the field of economics is a long way from equity. “It’s a salient identity for me ... it’s something that is kind of constantly in the back of your mind: that you are a woman economist, and there are very few of you,” said McCasland. “As a teacher, what I like about being young and being a woman is that for students, representation is important ... and so being able to just be there, and be standing there, and be a young woman, I think is potentially powerful.” McCasland noted that this point doesn’t just stand for women’s representation. There are many marginalized groups that are even more “extremely underrepresented” that the discipline is still very much closed off to, and she thinks academia only gets better when we let those voices in. In February, during her interview with The Ubyssey, McCasland didn’t rule out working in political spaces again. While O’Rourke didn’t win a Senate seat, many dubbed his narrow loss (2.5 per cent) to Cruz as historic, given that it took place in a dependably red state. McCasland, too, was optimistic about how the race went. “Arguably, you know, we might see a kind of different political outcome in the next election, or the one after that … it got some people really excited to participate politically,” she said. And on March 13, O’Rourke announced his 2020 presidential bid. While McCasland didn’t confirm whether she will be working on that campaign as well, whatever comes next for her won’t be dull — and teaching at UBC is still new, and exciting, and full of opportunity. “Tenure would be fantastic,” she laughed. U


nEWs

MarCH 26, 2019 tueSDAY

eDItors ALEX NGUYEN + ZAK VESCERA

3

LinE in thE sand //

Silencing, resisting or talking back: How should UBC respond to far-right speakers on campus?

“Censoring speech or trying to prevent speech doesn’t usually work.”

henry anderson senior staff Writer

A now-cancelled far-right talk on campus has many students talking about where — and if — UBC should draw the line on freedom of speech. The Free Speech Club (FSC) was originally scheduled to hold an event that would feature Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern at the Chan Centre on March 16. Molyneux and Southern have been described by anti-hate groups like the Southern Poverty Law Centre as racists who promote conspiracy theories of white genocide. The Chan Centre raised security costs after it received a series of letters and emails encouraging them to cancel. According to the FSC, the messages were threatening and violent. On February 22, the FSC refunded all tickets and rescheduled the event to March 15 off campus at the Hellenic Community of Vancouver, citing increased security costs. The cancellation was not ordered by UBC or the Chan Centre but was the FSC’s own choice. “[W]e need to consider our budget, and we need to consider our annual budget,” said FSC Director Angelo Isidorou. “Security fees are going to be high because people make threats, and the Chan Centre becomes nervous and they up the security.” The event was rescheduled and then cancelled. But many students are still asking why the event was allowed to proceed in the first place. UBC’s discrimination and harassment policy notes that “The University and all Members of the University Community share responsibility for ensuring that the work and study environment at the University is free from Discrimination and Harassment.” But the same policy protects academic freedom, or the ability “... to engage in frank discussion of

potentially controversial matters and to make statements, assign readings or use instructional techniques that challenge and may even offend the sensibilities, ideas and beliefs of others.” UBC has taken a hard stance that speech will be protected on campus so long as speakers obey hate speech laws. “As a public academic institution UBC places a paramount value on the free and lawful expression of ideas and viewpoints,” wrote UBC Provost Andrew Szeri in a statement to The Ubyssey. “This is the case even where some members of the University community may consider the guest speaker’s ideas, or the way in which they are expressed, to be controversial, or offensive.” Isidorou emphasized that neither UBC nor the Hellenic Community were “hosting,” or endorsing, the event by allowing the FSC to use their venues. But other students disagreed. A petition that asked UBC to cancel the talk gathered 451 supporters. After the event was rescheduled, the petition was closed and marked as a “victory,” even though the decision to move the event off-campus was the FSC’s and not UBC’s. One of the groups that circulated the petition is UBC Students Against Bigotry (SAB), which formed in late February specifically to oppose the event. It is not officially recognized as an AMS club or organization. “Just a few people had basically shown some initiative and said, ‘Who can we get who’d be interested in doing this,’” said Anton Cu Unjieng, a firstyear PhD student in art history and one of the SAB’s founding members. “A bunch of people agreed, and then we met.” They have led a campaign of posters, flyers and mass emails that encouraged students to protest the Hellenic Community on March 15. “[We] want to be a structure and a student body that really examines each person that is being invited to make sure that

FILe saMUeL DU BoIs

[they are] respectful of UBC’s bylaws in terms of hate speech and harassment, in terms of the BC Human Rights Code and just in the general idea of inclusivity and valourizing the multiculturalism that we cherish within the UBC community,” said fourth-year history student Louis Coustets, another SAB founding member. The SAB believes that speakers like Molyneux and Southern promote bigotry more than critical discussion. “This idea that all ideas should be aired I think actually is just

a way for racists and bigots to signal to other racists and other bigots, and offers ways for them to gather and organize,” said Cu Unjieng. Isidorou says that if Molyneux and Southern’s views are as reprehensible as groups like the SAB claim, the best way to combat them is to challenge them in public events. “We’re thinking about it from a very Enlightenment perspective, which is, you’re giving this person a second in the spotlight, and that could either help them or destroy them, because if their ideas are shit, then their ideas are going to get called out,” said Isidorou. Isidorou says the SAB’s tactics verge on censorship. “This is simple psychology here,” he said, “If you put an idea underground, people who feel isolated are going to go underground, and all they’re going to find waiting for them is that idea, and they’re going to be infiltrated by that idea.” Dr. Jennifer Berdahl, a professor of sociology, recently attended the Harry Crowe Foundation conference on free speech on campus on February 22. While she disagrees with the FSC and its speakers, she worries silencing them won’t solve the problem. “Censoring speech or trying to prevent speech doesn’t usually work, and some evidence was presented to that effect as well, that censorship is often

counterproductive,” said Berdahl. “It often ends up in the hands, of course, of the powerful, and then it gets used against marginalized groups further.” But Berdahl believes the proper course of action is to also provide a platform for those who disagree with Molyneux and Southern. “The answer to speech that marginalizes groups or punches down is more speech, not less speech — so making sure to take steps to get people who don’t usually have a voice a voice,” said Berdahl. “More speech is not just a response, but a moral obligation on the part of universities.” Isidorou believes that the FSC already provides such as a platform at its events, saying that audience members who disagree with the speakers are given priority to ask questions and challenge their views. But the power imbalance between an experienced speaker and a university student is usually not a level playing field, notes Berdahl, since the speaker is addressing a large crowd of people who already presumably support their view. “Speakers are being given a powerful and high-status platform that audience members don’t have,” she explained. “It is an honour to be invited as a speaker, to be recognized as someone who has something to say on a topic.” U


4 | News | tuEsDAY march 26, 2019 SOLIDARITY //

‘I was immediately brought to tears’: UBC community holds vigil for victims of New Zealand terror attacks

ISABELLA FALSETTI

“We are gathered here to show that we will not live in fear, that we will not be isolated or divided.”

Kevin Jiang Staff Writer

UBC students held a vigil on the evening of March 18 to honour the victims of the March 15 terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Hosted in front of the Martha Piper Fountain, the vigil was organized by Thaqalayn Muslim Association UBC (TMA), Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UBC (SPHR), Arab Students Association at UBC (ASA), Muslim Students Association UBC (MSA), UBC Pakistani Students’ Association and Colour Connected Against Racism UBC. The Christchurch shootings took place at the Al Noor Mosque

and the Linwood Islamic Centre during Friday prayer, leaving at least 50 dead and more injured. It is the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s history. At the vigil, around 300 UBC students, faculty and members of the greater Vancouver community gathered to share thoughts, poetry and prayers. “[The organizing team] has been trying to recover emotionally, as well as plan an event, which has been really difficult,” said TMA President Tuqa Al-Shakarchi, one of the event organizers. Standing next to a line of lit candles, event organizers and faculty members took turns reflecting on the shootings and the global political climate. For

many, the attacks in New Zealand — while horrendous — did not come as a surprise. “A shooting happens and we react. We hold a vigil. We speak up and say we need gun control. And then another one happens,” said Mohamed Abdelkhalek, who is the president of the SPHR and events coordinator for the ASA. “[Our climate has] been one where people at the highest levels of government have exploited the vulnerability of minorities,” added Dr. Youcef Soufi, a lecturer in Islamic studies at UBC. “Where the prime minister of Australia, where Donald Trump, where Stephen Harper used Islamophobia to get votes.” The speakers also condemned

the sharing of the mosque shooting footage on the internet. “It’s incredibly disrespectful to those who’ve lost their lives,” said MSA member Noeman Arshad Virk. Amidst the anger and grief, many speakers also pointed out the strength of the Muslim community and the need to live with compassion. “We are gathered here to show that we will not live in fear, that we will not be isolated or divided,” Al-Shakarchi said. “… I urge us all to revisit the meaning of love, the glue of common humanity, so that we may find strength and stand together to fight against oppression, hate and violence.” Throughout the vigil, attendees

embraced one another, laughed and cried together. Many expressed appreciation for the show of solidarity and community. “I saw students from different backgrounds, I saw students from different ethnicities, religions, but they all had one common goal: to stand in solidarity against these attacks and to show support for the Muslim community,” said Amanda Hage-Hassan, an event organizer. “I was immediately brought to tears.” The night ended with a silent march to the Nest. Attendees laid extinguished candles and flowers at the base of the grassy hill before embracing and dispersing into the evening. u


march 26, 2019 tueSDAY | NEWS | 5 counting votes //

Federal budget 2019 //

In AMS Elections, many students see abstaining as their best option

Gov lowers interest on student loans

and has taken this important step towards mitigating student debt,” added BC Federation of Students (BCFS) Chair Aran Armutlu in a The federal government is lowering press release. student loan interest and making But the BCFS believes the federal the grace period before graduating students need to begin repaying their government must go further to support education affordability. loans interest-free. Citing the recent elimination of the The federal budget, announced provincial student loan interest by on March 19 by Finance Minister the BC government, the federation Bill Morneau, will reduce floating calls for “a complete elimination” of student loan interest from prime the federal student loan interest. plus 2.5 percent to just the prime “With tuition fees at an all-time rate. The fixed interest rate will be high, student debt in BC continues to decreased from prime plus five per grow as students and their families cent to prime plus two per cent. struggle to afford the education It also proposes giving students a they need to enter the workforce,” six-month grace period before loans Armutlu said. “Eliminating interest begin accumulating interest. on student loans relieves some of the “Budget 2019’s proposed changes to the Canada Student Loans interest pressure faced by those who have to borrow to access education.” rate policy will respond to today’s The budget also includes realities, including higher tuition, measures to make loans and grants higher living costs and the changing more accessible for marginalized nature of work faced by young students. workers,” reads the budget. If approved, the budget would The changes are projected to cost see an additional $15 million be the federal government $1.7 billion invested into the Canada Student over the next five years. Loans Program to more than double Student unions across the FILE ELIZABETH WANG In the VP External Affairs race, 45.2 per cent of voters did not vote for any of the three candidates. the cap on grants for students with country are celebrating the changes, disabilities from $8,000 to $20,000. “One question or office may which the federal government while current VP Academic and Charlotte Alden The investment will also allow have brought them to the polls,” estimates will save the average University Affairs Max Holmes Senior Staff Writer students with mental health or Owen said. “When faced with borrower $2,000. (27.2 per cent) only beat AMS law Information and opportunities for input on other races where they have low “The AMS is incredibly excited medical issues to take interestcouncillor Dylan Braam (23.6 per Fear of losing the U-Pass drove improvements Walter Gage Road between free breaks from their studies for information, they abstain.” about the to 2019 Federal Budget, cent) for the second seat by 700 more students than usual to vote Wesbrook Mall and East Mall will also be provided. up to 18 months. which incorporates funding votes. in the latest AMS elections — but “This budget takes important measures that will make a real Awais Quadre received 17 per many abstained more than they A Senate story attend in person? steps forward and we’re excited impactCan’t on student lives across cent of the votes, despite having no actually voted. OnlineCanada,” feedback said on the Pacific Residences willtobecontinue to work with AMS VP External prior experience in the AMS — and Voter turnout at the AMS However, voters were not allowed accepted until March 5, 2019. To learn more or to Cristina Ilnitchi in a statement elections is notoriously bad — so to abstain from voting in the Senate likely little name recognition. comment on this project, please visit: different parts of the government to support more of these positive to The Ubyssey. “... This directly This could support a secondplanning.ubc.ca/vancouver/projects-consultations bad that this year’s turnout of 21.7 and Board of Governor’s (BoG) changes,” wrote Ilnitchi. theory — that when they’re forced addresses the affordability of per cent is seen as a good year. races because the University Act, “... The AMS will continue to But many of the 12,383 total which governs BC post-secondary to, many voters might just check a post-secondary education for collaborate with student unions low-to-middle income students couple boxes and move along. voters focused more on the schools, requires these positions across Canada to advocate federally and recognizes opportunities to “If you were ... given a list of referenda questions, specifically be filled. to make post-secondary education support students.” names you’ve never seen before, the U-Pass, than they did on the This raises a question: if more affordable, accessible, and “Students are pleased that the and you had to vote, you could just AMS executive races — despite the voters were so reluctant to vote supportive for all students.” u be picking a random,” Owen said. u government listened to their call, fact that every single executive race for executive positions that they was contested. abstained from voting altogether, Over 30 per cent of voters what did those voters do when Notice of Development Permit Applications - DP 19006 + DP19007 abstained from voting in the AMS forced to vote for Senate and presidential race — that was the BoG? lowest rate of abstention of all of Owen says that if a voter the executive races. is forced to choose, name 1 DP 19006 Arts Student Centre In the VP External race, 45.2 recognition could make the per cent of voters did not vote for difference. 2 DP 19007 Bosque Enhancement Design any of the three candidates. “If you know the name and The VP Academic and you know no other information, I Join us on Tuesday, April 2 to view and comment on a new Arts Student Centre (ASC) to serve the Arts University Affairs race was think people would tend to vote Undergraduate Society to be located in the 1900 Block of East Mall and Bosque Enhancement Design comparatively better with an for that person,” he said. underway for improvements to the Bosque (adjacent stand of trees). abstention rate of only 41 per cent. However, that didn’t Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2019 Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm VP Finance and VP necessarily hold ground in the Administration were even worse, Senate races. Place: Concourse, UBC Life Building, 6138 Student Union Blvd. with abstention rates of 44.9 per Incumbents Max Holmes and Plans will be displayed for: cent and 48.8 per cent, respectively. Nick Pang received fairly high If “Abstain” had been a candidate, percentages of the vote, with 1. Arts Student Centre (ASC), a 912m2 multi-purpose facility it would have been almost 10.8 per cent and 13 per cent to support learning, social-interaction, and collaboration for unanimously elected. respectively. Faculty of Arts students. Construction of the ASC will Political science professor Dr. But the candidates that received require the removal of 8 trees in the Bosque. Andrew Owen theorized the high the most votes were newcomers rates of abstention could be due to Julia Chai (14.7 per cent) and Julia 2. Bosque Enhancement Design to improve the ecological lack of general information about Burnham (14.4 per cent). health and usability of the bosque. the candidates. Chai worked in the Science Representatives from the project teams and Campus and “Typically when people have Undergraduate Society, so Community Planning will be on hand to discuss and answer little information about the she likely garnered votes questions about these projects. candidates ... there’s lots of other from students in science, but things you can use, like party Burnham’s work in the AMS This event is wheelchair accessible. [affiliation],” Owen said. “That’s office previously wouldn’t lend For further information: a shortcut that people can use itself to much name recognition. Can’t attend in person? Online feedback on the Arts Student Centre Please contact: Karen Russell and Bosque Enhancement Design will be accepted until April 9, 2019. without gathering too much However, AMS President-elect Manager, Development Services To learn more or to comment on these projects, please visit: information if they know how they and current VP Admin Chris karen.russell@ubc.ca planning.ubc.ca/vancouver/projects-consultations feel about the parties.” Hakim saw a fairly high turnout 604-822-1586 AMS executives have no party at 14.1 per cent, giving the name affiliations, making it more difficult recognition theory some ground. to know their exact platform positions without doing the research. Board of Governors race Owen says many voters are unlikely to take that ‘active step.’ In the BoG election, name “Little information promotes recognition seems to have made a apathy, which promotes no desire to difference. seek out information, which means Incumbent Jeanie Malone even less information,” he said. received 32.3 per cent of the vote, Alex Nguyen & Zak Vescera News Editors

Public Open House


CULTURE festival of spring //

Editor BRIDGET CHASE

march 26, 2019 tuesday

6

Holi at UBC is a colourful blast of culture Photos by Isabella Falsetti


MarCH 26, 2019 tueSDAY | CuLtuRe | 7 sLaps and BOps //

International students at UBC create a playlist that reminds them of home hilary Leung Contributor

Music is a powerful tool. A single melody or a note can bring back a rush of memories and sensations for a person. For many international students at UBC, music is a way to connect them back to their home countries. For some students, there’s a certain song that brings them back to their childhood and their family. For others, a song can encapsulate their complex feelings better than words ever could. Here are some examples from a few of the international students studying at UBC:

mEXiCO Tú sí sabes quererme by Natalia Lafourcade A warm ukulele begins the song, bringing flourishes of reds, oranges and blacks into Rolando Hinojosa’s mind. Tú sí sabes quererme means “You do know how to love me” from one of Lafourcade’s albums, which is focused on reinvigorating Mexican music genres. “The instrumentations, the beats, the lyrics ... the musicality ... they’re all very infused by the Mexican songwriting tradition so it just instantly transports me to [Mexico],” Hinojosa said.

China Spring Festival Overture This upbeat orchestral piece can be heard around Lunar New Year, especially amongst the Chinese community. Since this is commonly heard around Lunar New Year, everywhere you look is covered in red. “Red is about happiness,” Ian Zhu said. “And also red is the colour of [the] Communist Party and this song represents the collectivism of the country ... it also reminds me of my family, my friends there.” Yellow River Piano Concerto Yue Ming Xing’s house is near the Yellow River in the northern part of China which is why as soon as she thinks of home, this is the first song she thinks of. This song is about the love for China, more specifically the love for northern China. “Basically, I saw the Yellow River every day of my life so I feel that kind of relationship to the river,” said Yue.

afghanistan Da Zamong Zeba Watan by Ustad Awalmir As Ruhullah Khapalwak walks to school, this is the song that he listens to, reminding him of home. The song is slow and rich as the singer sings about the beauty of the land and its history. “It talks a lot about who I am and where I’m from,” Khapalwak said. “Even though I’m living so far away now, it takes me back. I can imagine my childhood and also the time that I had there and also hopeful for the future that I’ll be

aMrIt krIsHna

For many international students at UBC, music is a way to connect them back to their home countries.

able to go back and raise my family and live there.”

KOREa Departure by Kim Dong Ryul This song is about the singer leaving his country to travel by himself. It’s a journey that Ina Nakyoung Lee has made a few times when she left South Korea to study in the Netherlands and then to Canada. While the song is surprisingly upbeat, Lee feels nostalgic. “Right before you leave the place, you feel kind of bittersweet,” Lee said. “That’s why I feel ... the moment right before I left my country, it’s my feelings. It describes my feelings for my country.”

iRan Photograph by Ed Sheeran Ed Sheeran’s song may be about his girlfriend and how he uses the photograph he carries as a way to move on, but this is also a way for Matin Moradkhan to remember her family back in Iran. “It somehow reminds me of my homeland and my family and relatives there. I always [carry] a photograph of them,” Moradkhan said. “I feel like I miss my family when I listen to it but there’s a kind of encouragement in the song as well which keeps me going.”

tuRKEY Ederlezi by Goran Bregović When Cinar Kiper thinks about Turkey, he doesn’t think

of traditional Turkish music. Because he spent half of his time in the US and the other half in Turkey, his taste in music is a fusion of Turkish and Western music. Balkan Roma music is one of his favourites. “Balkan music definitely makes me think of Turkey because that was my favourite type of music to hang out at local clubs [to],” Kiper said. “Turkish folk fused with jazz, Turkish rock fused with Turkish Black Sea regional music and Balkan music, those are my three [types of music] that kind of remind me of home.”

duBai/paLEstinE/iRaQ Helwa Ya Balady The title translates to “You’re Beautiful My Country” and it’s about how nice the country is and how you love it. It’s a song that calms Yahya Abdul Ghani. ‘Home’ for him isn’t something that he can easily describe: he grew up in Dubai but is from Iraq and Palestine. “I’ve never been to Iraq or Palestine,” Abdul Ghani said. “It’s like this place I’ve never been to but I’m always going to be comfortable there.”

india Our Last Summer by ABBA ABBA is the classic pop group of the ’70s. And when Aishwarya Abhiram is homesick, she plays this song. “It was a good time,” Abhiram said. “Because days were longer and my mom and I would ... get

ice cream all the time. It was also the time when my dad took days off work and as a family we would travel.”

paKistan Dil Dil Pakistan by Junaid Jamshed Dil translates to “heart” and this song would translate to “My heart is all about Pakistan.” The singer unfortunately died in a plane crash in 2016. This was the song that Danyal Tariq grew up with. A smile breaks across his face as he hums a short excerpt of it. “My dad was in the air force, he’s retired now, and so we grew up on these military bases and whenever there were these Pakistan days like 23rd March or the Independence Day, we’d always have this song playing.”

sYRia Lama badua Yatasana There’s a calming effect to the singer’s voice as she sings. While the song is about a person, it’s also how Ely Bahhade thinks about his country — it’s something that he loves and cherishes. The lyrics talk about a tree which sways with the wind. However, with the crisis happening in Syria, this song takes a whole different meaning. “There’s a huge wind that came which is the crisis that shifted everything away from [the tree’s] growing up,” Bahhade said. “Instead of growing up, it’s kind of shifting it away.”

usa Timber by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha The first song that came to Leah Siegel’s mind as soon as she thinks of USA is Timber. “I think when I think about home, I think of comfort and good memories and stuff and that came out in my senior year of college and we played it at all the parties.” Siegel said. Then she laughed, “I also think the message it has is funny because one might make that case that the direction of my country is [going down].”

VEnEZuELa The House that Built Me by Miranda Lambert This is the song that brings Sofia Santamaria back in time to when she was still living in Venezuela — to a time of pink walls and decorated rooms. This is where 10 years of her memories are stored. And while it sometimes makes her feel sad, it’s also a song that makes her reflect. “This is where I grew up,” Santamaria said. “But this is also not where [I] became [the person that I am today] because I’ve grown so much.” U To listen to this international student playlist, open the Spotify app on your phone and on the search bar tap the camera icon. Then hover the camera over the code below:


8 | CULTURE | TUESDAY march 26, 2019 humanizing conversations //

Taking the politics out of politically charged conversations with the ‘Let’s Talk About’ series at the Global Lounge Samira Sallow Contributor

It has been said that you shouldn’t indulge yourself in a conversation about politics, especially with friends or colleagues. This sort of idea feeds into a narrative that people cannot have normal conversations with each other, even if they agree to disagree. However, first-year student Danilo Angulo Molina, alongside the International Relations Student Association (IRSA), has changed the way politics can be discussed among students. The “Let’s Talk About” series is a new initiative started by the IRSA and different campus organizations. It aims to give UBC students a platform to talk about international relations and use their experiences to help educate others about countries that have recently or historically been portrayed negatively in the media. They’ve previously held two events covering Palestine and Syria. On the evening of March 20, the IRSA held its third event on the topic of Pakistan at the Global Lounge. “Pakistani students should have a voice to talk about what has been happening since [the] 9/11 attacks, and [how] Pakistan suffered a really negative connotation in the

media after these attacks,” Angulo Molina said. However, these conversations aren’t meant to be politically charged. Talking about countries around the world, from Canada to Pakistan, is tricky without getting into the politics of it. But with the “Let’s Talk About” event, the IRSA has created a way for UBC students to engage in a conversation where they can educate or be educated about countries around the world. “We come up with questions in advance, then we send them to our speakers,” he said. He acknowledged that it is difficult to talk about topics like these, but ensured that he wants to “... create a safe and comfortable space for speakers to talk about their experiences.” Angulo Molina understands that students may want to talk about politics, and that it’s fine to do so. However, the aim of “Let’s Talk About” is to go beyond what the media creates of other countries, and to engage students in a respectful discussion. “I feel like ‘Let’s Talk About’ … will be a platform for [students] to speak their mind … it is a way to humanize it.” U Danilo Angulo Molina has also previously volunteered for The Ubyssey.

On the evening of March 20, the IRSA held their third event on the topic of Pakistan at the Global Lounge.

COURTESY IRSA

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—— Instructor Shaun Sinclair meets with BCIT Business students at the Downtown Campus.


FEATURES

march 26, 2019 Tuesday

Editor moira wyton

‘Double-edged sword’ Canvas is tracking your data. What is UBC doing with it? words zak vescera art ella chan design claire lloyd

I

t’s around 8 p.m. and you decide to start your readings for tomorrow. You log into Canvas and scan tomorrow’s text: something about Descartes, again. You give up after about five minutes and shut down the browser. Who cares? Your prof won’t know. But Canvas will. UBC’s new learning management system is tracking your data. Everything from how much time you spend on your readings to your quiz answers to how your mouse moves is being recorded. It’s called learning analytics, a data-based breakdown of how you study and learn. Proponents think it could revolutionize teaching. But some worry it’s a slippery slope towards an invasion of privacy.

‘Double-edged sword’ UBC has been gathering learning data from students for years. But it’s only recently been able to use it. Dr. Simon Bates, UBC’s associate provost for teaching and learning, sees learning analytics as part of a new generation of tools to help professors support more students with less individual effort. “[If ] you think about the way that data is used to support positions

or experiences or interactions that people have, there’s a huge amount of data that can be used,” he said. “The flipside is [that] it can be very scary.” Since 2017, Bates has helped direct the Learning Analytics Project Steering Committee, a group of UBC professors, administrators and student representatives trying to figure out how exactly learning analytics will work at the university. So far, they’ve looked at over 30 prospective learning analytics projects and arranging a network of “data stewards” to make sure that student data is used ethically. The goal, eventually, is that professors will be able to use data insights from Canvas and other programs to help students succeed in their courses — and make sure it’s done without giving professors access to data students don’t want them to see. “It’s a double-edged sword,” Bates said. “There’s tremendous potential, but there’s also a need ... to tread carefully and appropriately.” UBC has been collecting student data for some time. In 2013, the school paid $151,870 to Blackboard Connect — the learning management system that preceded Canvas — for analytical and scientific software. It also signed a contract agreeing to pay Blackboard over $100,000 for each

year following that to use outcomes analysis and learning analytics software. But as many students know too well, Connect was not an ideal learning platform. As for its learning analytics services, Bates says the school “never really got it to work.” Now on Canvas, Bates says he’s already been able to use some of the system’s “baked-in” features to assist students in his own classroom. A physics professor, Bates teaches a 100-year level class with a range of skill levels. He says he can use test scores from Canvas to automate emails to students, with pointers on the questions they got wrong. It’s not a replacement for a good teacher — but Bates says it frees up a lot of time for him to directly engage with his students. “It’s not a magic bullet,” he said. “You can’t say, ‘I have a 94 per cent … pass rate for my course, and it’s all down to the use of this tool.’ It’s not, but it’s one of the sort of combination of things that I think support students learning in the course.”

A short case While UBC has been building its learning analytics strategy, students have been left out of the loop — and some have actively tried to resist it.

Bryan Short, for example, tried to opt out. The second-year master’s of journalism student was curious about what UBC knew about him. So he filed freedom of information requests asking to see all the records the school had collected. Originally, UBC refused to give them to him. Short had to appeal to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC), an independent arbitrator, to get his own data. When the file did arrive, it contained more information than he had ever imagined. “It was something like 400,301,000 individual data points about me,” said Short. The information that was gathered on Short went well beyond test scores and basic analytics. It included details about how he used his mouse, how he interacted with the learning system and when he did it. “There’s really all these ways to get metadata out of Connect. But it’s not just metadata — professors could pull a lot of personal information from students off of Connect,” said fifth-year engineering student and Board of Governors member Jakob Gattinger, who sat briefly on the learning analytics steering committee in 2017 when he was interim AMS VP Academic and University Affairs.

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10 | features | TUESDAY march 26, 2019

“They were able to see who had logged on, who had looked at what — and this was all on the system.” Bates says that even though data has been collected on students, instructors don’t currently have access to anything beyond what they would normally have in the course — meaning those data points remain private. “There are very strict controls over who has access to that data,” he said. Short was more concerned that the data had been collected in the first place. “They weren’t informing students about any of this — anything being collected,” he said. UBC’s legal basis for collecting the data is a waiver students sign when they create a campus-wide login, which happens before they’re even accepted. “If you didn’t look for it, you wouldn’t know that you’d actually signed it,” said Gattinger. “And when you go and apply to the university, the last thing on your mind is, ‘Wow, the [learning management system] might take my personal information.’” Brad Weldon, the OIPC’s director of policy, said ‘secondary uses’ of personal information — like learning analytics — should always be the subject of scrutiny. “We’re concerned always that that threshold is being respected, that they’re not collecting more information than is necessary,” said Weldon. Short still decided he would opt out of Canvas. But he quickly found that there was no alternative for students who didn’t want to use the service. “It was really difficult for me to complete certain courses, and instructors had to make workarounds to let me succeed in those courses,” said Short. Weldon says because students who attend post-secondary do so voluntarily, the school can decide which programs are necessary for them to use.

But it didn’t matter. Even though Short tried, learning without Canvas at UBC was basically impossible. He had no choice but to use the service and give up his data.

“It put the onus on the instructor, it put the onus on me and there was really no alternative there,” he said.

Changing learning

platform, someone comes along with another platform.”

The question of data

Data from learning analytics has a lot of potential to help students. But if used incorrectly, it could just as easily hurt them. Say you’re a student in a study group: you share PDFs of readings with your friends and meet to discuss them each week before class. You might be doing extremely well, but Canvas would measure you as having spent no time on readings. Contrarily, you could leave Canvas open in a browser page all week and never look at it, but it would note you had spent hours and hours online. It’s a limitation that Bates and the committee are actively weighing.

The biggest concern with learning analytics isn’t just that data is being collected — it’s who gets to see it. Under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) section 30(1), public organizations can’t store personal data anywhere outside Canada, which has prevented UBC from using a huge range of tools open to other universities. A professor using Google Drive or Facebook in a class, for example, is technically illegal even though most students use those services privately. In 2016, UBC’s Privacy Counsel Paul Hancock lobbied the provincial legislature on behalf of five BC postsecondaries to revise FIPPA.

“Even if you can get solid inferences from data, data never tells the whole story,” said Bates. “You have to be very careful how you interpret the digital breadcrumb trail some of these observations leave behind.” Professors share some of those worries. Dr. Juliet O’Brien is an associate professor of French at UBC who’s enthused by the potential learning analytics has to help students. But she points out most faculty aren’t trained data stewards and don’t know how to handle personal information. “None of us have enough pretraining beforehand on how to read and use this data responsibly, and how this data should be available to our concerns,” said O’Brien. Above all Bates stressed that the field is constantly evolving, which means administrators have to constantly adjust course to make sure they’re balancing privacy and access. “The technology tools that we have available now — it’s going to be another set of tools in 18 months’ time, and another set of tools in three years’ time,” he said. “Every time you think you have one

“... no section of the FIPPA has caused greater challenges for the post-secondary sector in B.C. than section 30(1),” said Hancock. “It erodes our competitiveness. It’s preventing us from using worldclass tools that other universities use in other jurisdictions. And it’s adding costs and administrative complexity.” BC is essentially unique in the developed world for how strict its cross-border information laws are — which means that many professors routinely ignore the restrictions. “If you look at some of these subscriptions that profs have their students get, that sort of stuff is definitely not okay,” said Gattinger. In the end, UBC went with Canvas, a cloud-based service operated by Infrastructure, an American tech company based in Salt Lake City. Infrastructure stores its data at Amazon servers in Quebec, which means it is compliant with BC law. But there’s a catch: Canvas has third-party agreements with various service providers, like Amazon, that allows it to access the data for the purposes of repairing the system if it needs repair.

“If you have a warning light on the dashboard, that tells you something’s wrong, but you don’t always know what,” said Bates, who adds that this practice is compliant with FIPPA because it doesn’t retain any information taken during repairs.

“Sometimes, you’ve just gotta let people under the hood, as it were.” But there’s technically little stopping Infrastructure or Amazon from using the de-aggregated data to improve their own services — and that’s what has Short worried. “This is stuff that’s private personal information that you’re sharing in the context of your education of your university, but this information is now accessible to a company in the United States,” argued Short. And as Weldon notes, it’s virtually impossible to make data completely anonymous. In a statement to The Ubyssey, Infrastructure’s VP Security Matt Hillary said Infrastructure does use analytics internally to improve the services it offers, but stressed the data isn’t identifiable. “When Instructure does analytics internally for the purpose of improving Canvas, personally identifiable information is removed from datasets prior to performing analytics,” Hillary wrote. “It is increasingly more difficult to consider information to be deidentified such that it cannot be reidentified. We’re almost at the point where we agree that information cannot be de-idenfitied to the point that FIPPA would not apply to it,” he added. “If you were able to aggregate the information to the point where we would agree it is de-identified, it probably wouldn’t be useful for analytics.” Bates is quick to point out that learning analytics is a new technology and that UBC has been extremely careful to protect student privacy — and like O’Brien, he’s optimistic about the insights data could give him as a teacher. “You hear these stories about learning analytics that say, ‘Well, we can correlate what you had for dinner last night with your success on a midterm,’” he said. “Maybe you can and maybe you can’t, but all the data I have is the same data I have access to already as an instructor. I’m just able to interrogate it in a different way.” U —With files from Alex Nguyen.


OPINIONS

march 26, 2019 TUesday

Editor TRISTAN WHEELER

11

Ask Pawan What do I do after I graduate? words by pawan minhas art by maged

P

i cture this: you’ve descended from the graduation stage, rolled parchment in one hand and lingering warmth of the dean’s slightly-sweaty grip in the other. You rightfully congratulate yourself for an era of your life well done, and make your way out of the Chan Centre. After thanking the ushers and shrugging off your ceremonial robes, two thoughts hit you: you’ve just lost your Spotify Premium student pricing and you’ve got to figure out what the hell comes next, for … forever? Yikes. Dear Pawan, I’m graduating this year and I’ve never really read The Ubyssey before. Grad scares me and I don’t like leaving UBC, but I have to. My friends, my colleagues, my everything is here. I don’t know how to prepare for whatever is out there. Before I get to giving any advice, academic integrity says I have to disclose my sources and the way I went about preparing to answer this huge question. I consulted with a variety of folks who will be crossing stages and throwing caps come May, so I can try to tackle a variety of questions and worries that surround the big “what comes next?” As always, remember this advice is somewhat superficial, but can be carefully applied to your own circumstances if you’re cognizant.

Redefining what’s you When asked about postgraduation fears, the most common answer I received was one of losing the structure and sense of purpose being a student provides. One person spoke of the fact that, by the end of your bachelor’s degree, you’ve likely been in schooling for almost 20 years, usually with no time to

yourself beyond the few months of summer break. Where jumping from high school to university gives you marginally more freedom, that seems more like crossing a puddle when compared to the chasm between university and the world beyond. “Redefining yourself ” is unique because it seems no term can elicit the same urge to roll your eyes while simultaneously elevating your heart rate to the heights of terror. Throughout your life, you’ve slowly been developing yourself with your favourite hobbies, the company you keep and the bits of entropy that latched onto you. As it turns out, a lot of those developing factors came from those endless hours you spent in primary and secondary school as you learned about what the world has to offer. Post-secondary has been a bit less restrictive with a bit more reading, but largely equal in its ability to shape your personality. So, seeing as you’ve put just about two decades into creating your identity, I have to ask: why does that need to change, after you’ve thrown your grad cap? You’ve been into drama since grade school, you’ve been into gymnastics since diapers or you’ve written for a hyper-local newspaper religiously for years. Why does the passion that lies at the heart of those activities have to evaporate once you’ve gotten that diploma? This continuity may seem naive of me to believe in, but I implore you to cast your mind back to the weeks leading up to your arrival at university. You wondered “Do college kids talk differently? “Is joining a club lame?” “How the hell do you make friends in a lecture of 300?” These are all thoughts that crossed my mind before I

landed in YVR and, looking back, I find them laughable. Though despite seeing that time as archaic, I understand why I was anxiously trying to predict what the next four years – practically forever in my eyes – were going to look like. That’s exactly what you’re doing now. Trying your best to understand what a life without ‘structure’ is something you’ve been thinking about since you stood outside your kindergarten classroom, your first day of that summer job, your hand on the door to that first-year lecture and now, as you’re making your way out of the Chan. Your adaptability has been tested in the thousands of ‘firsts’ you’ve experienced and this time is no different. It might feel like it’s an impossibly large world you’re going into but, just like before, you’ll soon grow to be just as big.

Realizing what’s ending “How do you deal with the idea that your friends won’t continue being your friends?” That was the last question in my interviews and following that, there was always a few moments of silent reflection. Some people responded in an upbeat way, insisting school hasn’t had a big effect on their social development; others responded more morosely, seemingly resigned to travelling diverging paths and seeing an inevitability to those relationships ending. Either of these responses are great. Just like your hobbies, the company you keep proves to be just as capable of affecting you, if only a bit less predictable. From the minute any relationship starts, a seed of influence starts budding in both people with its growth hinging on the relationship. Appreciating your friends and examining the details of your relationship is to take more care in how the plant is doing and what can alter how it grows.

Proximity proves to be the most reliable way of finding and maintaining a relationship, and constant contact with someone can be reflected in how attached to them you feel. Graduating seems to promise a swift end to that plant by way of severing all connections with that. How could you stay friends with someone when you’re no longer on the same continent? Also, what has been the point of committing so much time and effort into growing those relationships if they’re doomed to expire? The value you place upon a connection with someone is directly correlated with the effort you put in to maintain it. If you drift apart, it’s because there’s a disconnect between yourself and the other person that needs to be addressed if you wish to stay friends. Specific to graduation, it’s the same story with a few caveats. Sometimes, the comfortability you feel in class or with a friend group is hard to pinpoint. No single person in that group is responsible for that atmosphere, it’s more akin to a process being greater than the sum of its parts. The breaking down of these ‘parts’ through graduation is a unique loss because it feels impossible to restore. Getting six people onto a Skype call seems untenable, especially when everyone used to naturally gravitate together a few times a week for lecture. Fighting this seemingly undeniable end is where you have to lean into the affection you all have in more concrete ways. Where before you could just hang out with those friends and all have an implicit understanding of trust and appreciate appreciation, that’s something that becomes harder when the physical aspect is removed. You have to consider what was once the “extra mile” of overtly expressing your appreciation is now the new norm. For the second question, where some cynicism shines

through and you feel a futility in forming relationships that seem to have expiration dates, I ask that you combat your nihilism in favour of enjoying the moment. Something does not need to last forever to have value. That seed of influence in every relationship doesn’t wither away as soon as you stop talking to someone. You can enjoy the time you’ve spent with someone and value their contributions to your life without those positive additions being marred by the fact that, as life continues, paths diverge. There’s an almost endless revolving carousel of people who will have an impact upon you and, while some stick around for longer than others, appreciating the larger process and the positive contributions those people have made makes it so their work isn’t in vain.

Redistributing what’s helped The last part of this article is meant to be a platform for appreciation. UBC students have been asking me questions for over a year and now I want to ask one back. If you could give a piece of advice to someone who’s trying to make the most of their university experience, what would you say? Go to ubyssey.ca/advice to anonymously send in a short piece of advice you would give to another student or your firstyear self. I will feature the best, the most unique and the most eyebrow-raising in the next Ask Pawan! Finally, I offer my sincerest thanks to the graduates who lent their voices to help me understand that which is unfamiliar. Jenna Cleyle, Lucy Fox, Samantha McCabe, Marina McDuff and Moira Wyton: I won’t wish you luck because you’ve got more than enough talent to make your way, but I appreciate all that you have done for myself and those blessed enough to be around you. U


fROm thE BLOg

MarCH 26, 2019 tueSDAY

eDItor TRISTAN WHEELER

12

VandaLism //

fOWL //

We respond to graffiti from the Buchanan bathroom

A cause for celebration: There are 100 chickens on campus tristan Wheeler Blog & opinion editor

anupriya dasgupta senior staff Writer

I m interested in a boy but I only have his house address We have so many questions. Start by getting to know something else about him! Like his name or his social insurance number. I feel like I m stupid and will never make it in uni You made it to uni and you can very well make it through it. Instead of overthinking this, focus on your problem areas and seek help. A positive growth mindset and a little bit of motivation will get you out of this funk. If you think there are people around you who are smarter than you, ask them for tips or to study with them! What do you think the meaning of life is? Easy there, Socrates. That’s a very complex question and of course, very subjective. Different people would have different answers, but to me, life is about growth. It’s about challenging yourself and saying yes to new opportunities and growing from all the rough moments. We like the idea that mistakes or difficult times are experiences from which you learn best. But that’s the cool thing about life — everyone finds their own unique purpose!

If you’ve ever walked down Main Mall and had the completely understandable thought of “this campus has a major lack of farm animals,” you’d be wrong. As a matter of fact, the UBC Farm is home to one of the mainstays of animal husbandry: 100 clucking chickens. Situated on the west side of campus, UBC Farm has been the on-and-off home to feathered fowl for at least 10 years according to the one in charge of the chickens, Annuals Field Technician Mike Millar. Over the the last few years, UBC Farm’s chicken of choice has been what is called a Hy-line Brown, a common egg laying chicken breed. “We get the chickens as pullets, when they’re just about ready to laying eggs at 18 or 19 weeks. We get those from another organic egg producing farm in the valley,” said Millar. The flocks spend most of their time in a pasture over their two seasons at UBC, after which they’re donated to another farm.

“this campus has a major lack of farm animals.”

From a production standpoint, the chickens are kept for their eggs, which are sold alongside produce at UBC Farm’s Saturday markets come summer time. But aside from laying eggs, they also have a very important role in agricultural education. “[They’re also] for training the practicum students here at the farm over the summer in how to

kyLe GatUs

take care of chickens, move their pasture, move all their coops and everything,” said Millar. The chickens also have been part of animal ethics and welfare classes, an event that could have only been mentally stimulating for all parties involved. You must now be thinking, “I can only imagine they keep these precious, precious birds under

strict lock and key!” — wrong again! Anyone can check out the flock at any time during the hours of operation, which are Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That’s right. At any moment you can leave your seat, take a short bus ride or walk, and find yourself face to face with 100 chickens who — we can only assume — would be thrilled to meet you. U

WatER fEatuREs //

The most underrated fountains on campus for it to have a small waterfall. It’s a large pool of water filled with leaves and trash, though sometimes it’s completely dry. In the middle stands a sculpture called Classical Toy Boat (1987) by Glenn Lewis. The fountain feels like it’s had better days, but there’s always an opportunity to have good ones again.

Does true love exist?

iRVing K. BaRBER LEaRning CEntRE

We think all kinds of love are ‘true.’ There are definitely a lot more reasons why things don’t often work out between people, like wanting different things or bad timing. If you do want true love though, you can never go wrong with adopting a dog.

Outside the old entrance to the library is a small fountain. In it lie puddles and under-utilized jet fixtures. The edge of the fountain is made of stone, and it’s bumpy and hard to sit on or lay your coffee on without it rocking back and forth with the wind. People often take pictures of the library near the fountain without featuring it, usually posing on the bench in front of it. This fountain deserves more love and fewer cigarette butts floating in the small puddles. It also deserves to be the focal point of photos.

Anarchist symbols Literally every bathroom stall I’ve visited has the anarchy symbol and a different message written in black sharpie. What are you trying to do? How are you so committed and why do you think the revolution will begin in a university bathroom stall?

UBC has a few other fountains that go unnoticed and under-appreciated.

I poop here before every midterm

sammy smart senior staff Writer

There’s a sense of comfort in knowing that public bathrooms form such a significant part of our existence. Whatever gets you through those 50 minutes of hell, pal. You do you. U

We all know our beloved fountain in the Martha Piper Plaza, situated in the middle of Main Mall. It’s the location of many grad pictures, many touristy pictures and a beautiful symbol

of UBC. Martha Piper Fountain is a perfectly rated fountain that deserves our respect (and not vandalism). However, it’s not the only fountain on campus. UBC has a few other fountains that go unnoticed and under-appreciated. These fountains aren’t ornate

ZUBaIr HIrJI

or all that functional, but they deserve appreciation too.

uniVERsitY CEntRE This technically counts as a fountain because there’s a pipe that water comes out of on the side of it and also the opportunity

EVERY singLE dRinKing fOuntain “Ew, tap water?” you may think. But water fountains are the best way to stick it to the man and not succumb to buying a public resource. Water fountains are part of the resistance and I will stand by that forever. U

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sCiEnCE

MarCH 26, 2019 tueSDAY

eDItor JAMES VOGL

Arrestee

Among the diverse and creative submissions we received for The Ubyssey’s second-annual science fiction contest comes our winner about the dangers of pushing scientific research too far. Read more submissions at ubyssey.ca/science. Words by David Wakeham Art by Kyle Gatus

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14 | SCIeNCe | tueSDAY MarCH 26, 2019

T

he theory was simple: the present doesn’t exist. Or better: ‘now’ is like ‘here,’ a place you can happen to be, nowhere special. But the brain has its own ideas about time, marching forward to the beat of a different drum, ... an arch wherethrough Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. Kovalevskaya and I took the same undergraduate class on Tennyson, then another on the philosophy of time. She was quickwitted, intellectually omnivorous, incandescent; we met in coffee shops, and later, her apartment. When her interests drifted towards neuroscience, I drifted with her. After graduation we fell out of touch, but she quickly established herself as one of the most promising young neuroscientists in the world. She had never stopped thinking about Tennyson’s arch, and wondering if that ineluctable motion could be slowed or even arrested. This was a physiological problem, something about the way the brain processed sensation and memory; since the present didn’t exist, it had to be. So Sonya

Kovalevskaya turned her thoughts towards stopping time.

The doctor explained the Treatment to the woman in front of me, leafing through her fMRI, gene assays, blood work, motif summaries for hormone and transduction networks, slicing along a different set of coordinates. “The Hippocampal Kinase Network Treatment — or Treatment for short — alters the way we store memories and perceptions, slowing the subjective flow of time.” The woman in front was obviously terrified; the doctor softened and he tapped the wad of panel readouts. “We know your neurophysiology back to front. It’s perfectly safe.” “But the critical dosage...” she offered weakly. “Does not exist. The kinase transduction networks across the hippocampus, frontal cortex, caudate and so forth, are rather delicate. Increase the dosage, and you start to get traffic jams in the network, so beyond a certain point the Treatment does nothing. Effectively, there is a minimum coupling to the past.” “I can’t lose my memories?”

“Precisely.” He smiled ambiguously as the orderly led her away.

Kovalevskaya started with a prototype Treatment for rats, concluding from cortisol levels that mild doses could switch off the stress response. Two years later, clinical trials were approved for humans; small doses relieved stress, while larger doses mitigated anxiety, depression, psychosis. Once the synthesists figured out all the parts of the neuroactive cocktail, they were in business: a New Pharma, whose universal active ingredient was the flow of time. Sonya and I stopped talking in the first year of grad school. We were in different countries, busy with new research, new friends, new romances, but it was more than that. I was disturbed by her obsession with the Treatment. My concerns also played out in the murine realm. Rather than talk to Sonya, I started investigating high doses in rats. Pump in enough Treatment, and it messes with the relation between perception and memory permanently (Hodgkin


MarCH 26, 2019 tueSDAY | SCIeNCe | 15

hysteresis). But brain-damaged rats brought us together again. Sonya, now heading her own lab, made me a job offer to study hysteresis with her. How could I say no? A month after I started, people in defense and corrections started asking about hysteresis in humans. The military wanted drugs for soldiers, a sort of one-shot modafinil; corrections wanted an alternative to capital punishment. With our reluctant cooperation, they found some desperate volunteers and juiced them up until they changed. The corrections system people were happy with the

results: servile, weakly-coupled drones fit for hard labour. We called them “the corrected.” But the military wanted more.

The doctor approached. “Dr. Hodgkin, it’s an honour. I think we can dispense with the introductory material, but I doubt many issues of nature neuroscience find their way into maximum security. I’ve taken the liberty of printing some studies on cognition and affect for correctional doses. You may find them... encouraging. Take your time, you’re the last today.” The CCTV camera swiveled as he left the room. I sat and read: delayed matching, Gabor filters, effect sizes... All it proved is that the corrected were

functional. It didn’t show that they weren’t different people. Identity was more than memory: it required a sense of proprietorship, that these things happened to you, the same you now invoking the trace. The clock struck its hammer blows on the wall. The prison officer by the door yawned, checked her pager. Just another day at the women’s correction farm. The doctor returned and motioned to the officer, who glanced briefly in my direction and stepped outside. The doctor paused awkwardly. “This is against protocol, but I have to ask: what really happened

to Sonya Kovalevskaya?” You’ve read the headlines. I confessed. “Yes yes, the greatest mind of a generation, destroyed by a homicidal Luddite colleague. I consulted for forensics on the case, signed an NDA the length of a Tolstoy novel. We could never prove it was you, or even determine what was wrong with her.” I’ll bet. You probably won’t believe me, but whoever walks out of here won’t care either way. You’re in corrections. You have low-level clearance, but don’t know about the military experiments. The critical dosage is real. “I’m a high-dosage specialist. I would have heard.” Not if it was more classified than MKUltra. Sonya believed that we are just slices in time, bound by cause and effect. She called it the “salami model”: brain states as salami

slices, squished together along the sausage axis of time. At the critical dosage, you completely decouple from the past. The salami model breaks down. The military trials probed the super-correctional regime and found a plateau where the Treatment has no further effect, just like the textbooks say. But three subjects at the tip of our dosage spectrum were different. Their EEG readings were completely unintelligible; a military doctor went to check on them and sort of... crumpled. Then the door was open and they were gone. We doubt they thought of themselves as people. Some arousal of the sympathetic nervous system told them to escape, to respond with force to force. But upstairs, they were evolving in perceptual space, sifting out finer and finer frequencies in the world around them. Complete decoupling opened up new structures in the data, things that you and I can’t see. The camera footage shows three creatures clumsily dragging around wires and drips, who could speak without words, see round corners, do things to people. Sonya and I argued that they should be isolated, studied, but we were overruled. After considerable effort, security forces shot them at the perimeter. I wonder what it felt like: one slice, dying forever. Later, Sonya joked darkly about “joining the ranks of the fully rotated” and their “Fouriertransformed salami.” I didn’t take it seriously. But the obsession had never gone away, the ... yearning in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. One day, she figured out how to damp the sympathetic nervous response and took a critical dose. I couldn’t get her on the pager, sensed that something was wrong and went to her apartment, but it was too late

— she was gone. I dragged her into the auton and took her to the lab to run scans, but I must have triggered some security wetware. The police arrived and found me trying to fix her, red-handed, I guess, from their point of view. I knew all along the Treatment would consume her; I should have been the one to stop her, and I failed. Now she sits in a hospital somewhere, fully rotated and evolving harmlessly in perceptual space. And here I am. The doctor smiled ruefully. “You know, she’s held in this very facility? Her neural activity is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. One of our forensics wags jokes that her mind remains unique.” It’s not a mind. She’s not a person. “No, you’re suggesting we have a Nobel prize-winner turned telekinetic zombie. But I wonder— if the rotated are not people in our sense, could they bind along a different axis? An orthogonal notion of personhood, born from the critical dosage. Perhaps Sonya is still there, lonely and looking for friends.” Rotation seems more like death than birth. That’s why I feel like I killed her. There was a thud somewhere; an alarm sounded in the distance. The prison officer rushed back in, locked the door, and cuffed me. “Code silver. We need to abort the procedure and move to a secure location.” Static, bursts of panicked crosstalk on the walkie. There was a crash, and the door opened onto total blackness. The cuffs undid themselves, and the doctor gave a gasp and collapsed, bleeding from the nose. The officer unholstered, fired twice into the dark before something burst wetly and they slumped to the floor. Light flickered in the corridor. A shambling creature trailing wires and drips. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks; The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep Moans round with many voices. U


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—— BRITISH COLUMBIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

—— A Geomatics instructor teaches a student how to use drone technology as a tool to collect data at the Burnaby Campus.


spORts+REC

MarCH 26, 2019 tueSDAY

eDItor LUCY FOX

17

BasEBaLL //

pLaYERs tO WatCh niaLL WindELER // Left-HANDeD pItCHeR In his third season with the ’Birds, pitcher Niall Windeler has secured his spot at the top of the team’s starting rotation. Following a strong sophomore showing last season, Windeler has become a bona fide ace, with dominant outings in each of his four appearances in the first half of the season. The le y has averaged nearly 11 strikeouts per game this year, including 15 and 14 strikeout outings to open his season. His longevity has also been key in keeping the bullpen fresh, averaging over 100 pitches and 7 innings per

CoUrtesy UBC atHLetICs

game. With an ERA of 1.86, and a 3-1 record, Windeler has been a key component of the T-Bird roster so far.

JaXOn VaLCKE // INfIeLDeR/outfIeLDeR

eLLa CHan

Baseball breakdown: What we expect this season from the thunderbirds mitchell Ballachay senior staff Writer

The UBC Thunderbirds baseball team has opened its National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics West (NAIAW) season in dominant fashion. The team cruised through the first half of the year, including an active nine-game winning streak and a 13-3 record to comfortably secure the top spot in the Cascadia Collegiate Conference (CCC). The strength of the team is twofold, with formidable bats helping to power the offense to the highest run production in the conference, and a rotation that features a young core with excellent spot starts from veterans. The ’Birds have seen each of the other CCC teams once and have yet to lose a series. They opened NAIAW play with a 3-1 series victory over Lewis-Clark State in a matchup that featured an explosive opener for UBC. The Thunderbirds racked up eight hits and drew six walks in a strong offensive display — securing an 11-5 victory. Fourthyear catcher Zach Prisciak had a particularly strong day, picking up four runners batted in (RBI), including a three-run homer in the fifth inning to pull the game out of reach. The team would go on to draw a series with Corban Warriors, with each side winning a pair of games. To open the series, the ’Birds were unable to take advantage of a characteristically strong outing from ace Niall Windeler. The lefthanded vet surrendered just one run in seven innings, striking out fourteen, but was tagged with a loss following a tough relief appearance from Barry Caine and solid outing from the Corban staff. In the first game of the Sunday double-header, Corban was able to knock rookie starting pitcher Garrett Hawkins off the mound

early in his Saturday start, tagging him with five earned runs on six hits through four. Jack Caswell threw four and two-thirds solid innings, but the lineup couldn’t string together their nine hits to complete a comeback. The Thunderbirds would respond to their Warriors series draw with a pair of dominant weekends on the road. In a fourgame set with the Oregon Tech Owls, the Thunderbirds bats started to click and the team’s 33-run weekend would help them close out the sweep with ease. In the series opener, UBC hammered the Owls with five homeruns off the bats from five different players through the first two innings. They would add three more homeruns on the weekend for good measure. In a much tighter series, the Thunderbirds would hold on to close out a four-game sweep of the College of Idaho Yotes. Though they opened Saturday’s doubleheader with a 15-3 win, the other three games were all within three runs, including a 4-2 win on Friday, and a 7-5 sweep-clinching victory on Sunday afternoon. The tight nature of the games they were able to close out against the Yotes is a very positive sign. Following their explosive weekend against the Owls, the offense has managed to maintain some momentum, at least enough to provide decent run-support for their starters. In games against Corban, solid outings from rotation pieces like Windeler and rookie Garrett Hawkins were missing the offensive production needed to close out victories. With the lineup in midseason form, as they were against the College of Idaho, those decent starts become winnable games. Just as was the case last season, there is no team in the CCC with a lineup that can get hotter than UBC when they are rolling, but this similarity is fairly surprising

considering the turnover that the team has seen coming into this year. With many departures among the key pieces of last year’s team — Mitch Robinson, Anthony Cusati and John Whaley, among others — this year’s lineup is packed with young talent. The team that UBC fielded in its most recent matchup with the Yotes featured five rookies and three sophomores with backstop Prisciak being the lone senior, but the squad has not seen the youth and inexperience slow them down. Up to speed now, this lineup is dangerous — and heading into a bye-week, teams can expect these Thunderbird batters to be rested and ready to continue their intimidating play down the stretch. As the batters for UBC have continued to build confidence through the first half of the season, the young pieces of the rotation have started to follow suit. Windeler has led the way for the trio of regular starters all year, with nearmasterful outings in each of his four appearances in conference play, but Hawkins and sophomore Jared Spearing are also starting to find their midseason rhythm, with each posting some of their best games in the series against the Yotes. Hawkins, in particular, looked very comfortable on Saturday as he picked up his third conference win of the season. He fanned 12 and threw 8 scoreless innings for his best start in a Thunderbird uniform. As UBC continues to reach midseason form, they have shown signs of dominance on both sides of the ball. The team can look forward to an away series in Idaho against Lewis-Clark State to kick off the second half of their season. The Thunderbirds enter their break five games above .500, sitting comfortably atop the CCC standings — and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. U

Jaxon Valcke has had an impressive start to his sophomore year — a follow-up to a breakout rookie campaign that saw him earn a spot as a regular in the T-Birds’ starting lineup. On a team that is loaded with young talent, Valcke has quickly become a key part at the heart of the batting order. He has been the most productive hitter for the team so far this year, hitting .389 over the course of the conference season, including seven doubles, four homeruns and 16 RBIs. Valcke has eight multi-hit games

CoUrtesy UBC atHLetICs

this season, including a four-hit performance this past weekend in a victory over the College of Idaho.

nOLan WEgER // INfIeLDeR Sophomore infielder Nolan Weger has had an excellent start to his second season with the team. Getting most of his starts at third base, Weger has played a solid defensive game, surrendering just one error all season and amassing 26 fielding assists. The product of Surrey has also proved to be an effective weapon in the middle of the lineup, batting .328 in conference play so far this year, with seven extra-base hits and five walks. Weger is also the team leader in

CoUrtesy UBC atHLetICs

stolen bases with a perfect 4 for 4 so far this season.


18 | SpoRtS+ReC | tueSDAY MarCH 26, 2019 RECap //

Weekend Rundown: As the summer seasons rev up, it was a rare weekend of all away games for the T-Birds Ryan neale senior staff Writer

School’s winding down and so is the number of sports you can watch on campus. This weekend in regular season play, the baseball, softball and rugby teams competed for your prized attention.

BasEBaLL BREEZEs thROugh idahO UBC baseball (who have an 1811 record) extended their win streak to nine games on Sunday, sweeping the weekend series over the College of Idaho Yotes 4-0 (4-2, 15-3, 3-0, 7-5) in Caldwell, Idaho. The second contest — a 15-3 blowout — was perhaps most indicative of the Thunderbird’s recent mid-season surge, with the game cut short in the seventh inning due to the 10-run rule. Notable performers included Jaxon Valcke who scored 4 runs and 6 runners batted in (RBIs), and centre fielder Brandon Hupe who hauled in 5 runs and 3 RBIs. Rookie pitcher Gareth Hawkins pitched the only perfect game of the series, earning 12 strikeouts in game two. Next up for baseball is another series in Idaho, this time versus Lewis-Clarke State — against whom they have a 3-1 record so far this year. First pitch of that series is 3:30 p.m. on Friday at UBC.

niall Windeler pitches for UBC baseball.

CoUrtesy LIZa staFForD/ InsIDe tHe LInes pHotoGrapHy

kaia Gyorfi pitches for UBC softball.

CoUrtesy LIZa staFForD/I InsIDe tHe LInes pHotoGrapHy

sOftBaLL sLidEs UBC softball lost their series against the College of Idaho Yotes, going 0-4 (0-12, 0-1, 0-4, 3-8) on Friday and Saturday. However, they bounced back on Sunday, beating Northwest Christian 8-2 — levelling that series 1-1. They came into the weekend with an 8-5 record, and will leave 9-10 barring Monday’s result. Yote pitcher Colette Roberts tossed a strong series, extinguishing what is usually a potent batting lineup for the ’Birds. In Sunday’s double header, right fielder Cassa Courtney had 3 RBIs and 2 home runs. Left fielder Avery Hilpert tacked on 2 more RBIs and one homer to cap off the weekend on a high note. This Friday they play Providence at Softball City in Surrey at 1:30 p.m.

RugBY dOminatEs YEt again As has been the trend through most of the season, the Thunderbirds men’s rugby team put on another convincing performances against James Bay AA with a 54-13 win on the road in Victoria over the weekend. The away victory puts UBC on a 12-3 conference record, and with just one week left of regular season play likely puts them in second place going into playoffs. It’s the second time in as many weeks that the Thunderbirds have surpassed the 50-point mark in a game. Last week, the team defeated Capilano RFC 67-12. Harrison Smith also won player of the week in the Premier League. U

Sport

Fixtures

Home

Score

Away

Softball

College of Idaho

12-0

UBC

Baseball

College of Idaho

2-4

UBC

Softball

College of Idaho

1-0

UBC

Friday, March 22

Saturday, March 23 Softball

College of Idaho

4-0

UBC

Baseball

College of Idaho

3-15

UBC

Softball

College of Idaho

8-3

UBC

Rugby (M)

James Bay AA

13-54

UBC

Baseball

College of Idaho

0-3

UBC

Baseball

College of Idaho

5-7

UBC

Softball

Northwest Christian

6-5

UBC

Softball

Northwest Christian

2-8

UBC

Sunday, March 24

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march 26, 2019 TUESDAY | sports+rec | 19 beyond varsity //

It may not be a typical team, but the T-Birds marching band plays an important role in campus athletics culture

The Thunderbird marching band performs outside UBC Bookstore.

Angela O’Donnell Senior Staff Writer

In the basement of the Life Building, the Thunderbird Marching Band is practicing “O Canada.” The band members stand in third position belting the national anthem — they’re practicing for their next gig. The song is performed with such power that it’s enough to move any person to tears, even if it is being played in a fluorescently lit dance studio. Over the course of its history, UBC has had various pep bands, but the Thunderbird Marching Band didn’t start until 2012. The club was founded to create

something similar to the American university experience. “In the States, the marching band is part of the football team ... when there’s a home football game, it’s just expected that the marching band is going to be there, they’re going to be in the crowd, they’re going to be in the stands kind of riling everybody up, and making it seem like it’s a big, fun time,” Thunderbird Marching Band drum major Nicolas Moss explained. While the club gets many opportunities outside the UBC community like partnering with YVR airport to march in the Santa Claus parade or being invited to a parade all the way in Penticton,

Lucy fox

their most visible partnership on campus is with UBC Athletics. According to Dash Foster, president of the Thunderbird Marching Band, the UBC group is similar to college marching bands in the US, though those across the border are far more integrated into the structure of athletics departments. Here at UBC, the Thunderbird team is independent from the rule of university athletics administration, though they receive some funding from the department to keep the group afloat. “We receive a certain amount of funding every year from Athletics,” Foster explained of the team’s connection to varsity athletics,

“with the expectation that at least a few times a month we’ll play at an athletics events, especially the big festival games.” “[UBC Athletics gives] us money so that we can continue to get instruments and do other things that the band needs money for,” Foster continued. Though based in American marching band tradition, Foster and Moss explained what freedom the club has in being administratively separate from the varsity department unlike their US counterparts. “I would say, given the current structure of having a student-run exec, it makes more sense to not have as many ... expectations of the band as maybe a larger university in the States would have if the band leader or leaders was a full-time, paid position,” Foster said. Moss further explained that bands in the States often have full-time staff trained in music education. “Whereas us we’re just a group of students trying to run the whole show,” Moss said. “It is quite helpful for us to kind of be in this bizarre limbo in between the AMS [and] Athletics, because it gives us a little bit more freedom to be what we want.” The partnerships with various organizations helps the club to act on its central mission: improving

school spirit, especially in the ‘no fun city’ of Vancouver. “It’s nice that Athletics has been recognizing that, while there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle, the marching band does play a role in getting people excited. Everyone loves the marching band. At least that’s what we think,” Foster said. In a move to add perceived authenticity and visibility to their image on campus, the band also recently acquired uniforms. Previously, the band wore matching jackets, which caused some issues when they arrived to play at gigs. “We’ll show up where people will request us for their event saying, ‘We want a marching band’ and we’ll say ‘We are a marching band, we can play at your event. Just so you know, we don’t have uniforms.’ Then they’re like, ‘Ah well, I’m not so sure about that anymore.’” It was a process that took months to complete, but in the end only elevates their status in the North American marching band landscape. “We think that our image now with uniforms will be more recognizable to people. When they look around because they hear a bunch of music ... it’ll be distinctly a marching band,” Foster said. U


20 | GAMeS | tueSDAY MarCH 26, 2019

CoUrtesy BestCrossWorDs.CoM

CoUrtesy kraZyDaD.CoM

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U

NOTICE OF UBYSSEY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Board of Directors invites the membership of the Ubyssey Publications Society to the 2019 Annual General Meeting of the society. Anyone who has paid the Ubyssey Publications Society fee is eligible to participate. This meeting will take place in the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre Family Boardroom at 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on March 29, 2019. Free food will be provided. Join us in discussing our financials and our goals. Make your voice heard. All members in good standing are welcome. MaGeD


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