February 12, 2013

eVeN iN MY BUM SInCe 1918

UBC’S oFFICIal STUDenT neWSPaPeR | FeBRUaRy 12, 2013 | VolUMe XCIV| ISSUe XlI

HOME FOR THE PLAYOFFS Men and women’s volleyball begin their quests for national titles with home playoff games P5

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cAMPUS cONDUcTOR in conversation with Hussein Janmohamed P2

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WAkE UP! UBC students develop app to help heavy sleepers kick the snooze habit P8

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X E E G N D S ’ O T L A BUILDING A R H E W ISTL BRIDGE H W AG?E T I R HE LESS E PRIc

UBC reveals sticker price for controversial remedial english language college P3

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

What’s on Tue 1212

OUR CAMPUS

This week, may we suggest...

TUNES >>

2

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

TUESDAY

Karaoke: 9 p.m. @ the Gallery Lounge

We all saw Pitch Perfect and are totally dying to belt it out, perhaps with a little bit of alcoholic lubricant to help along the way. Bring yo’ friends. Bring yo’ Beyonce.

Tue 1213

Tue 1214

HEALTH >>

WEDNESDAY

GAMES >>

THURSDAY

Kombucha & Beyond: 5:30– 8:30 p.m. @ UBC Farm Make a trip to the UBC Farm on south campus to hear Foodwisdom discuss how to make your own healthy drinks, from Kombucha to Rejuvelac. $36.87, register online.

Tue 1215

SPORTS >>

FRIDAY

Footy Madness: 5–9 p.m. @ UBC Varsity Field The Science Undergad Society and the Grassroot Soccer Club are organizing a co-ed soccer tournament before the reading break. Prizes include gift cards to The Keg and soccer balls.

Tue 1216

kai jacobson photo/the ubyssey

Hussein Janmohamed is involved with many choirs, both on campus and in the city.

Winning Wednesday: 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. @ UBC Bookstore If the name doesn’t entice you, not much else will. If you want to play some video games and possibly win some sweet high-end stationery, swing by the Bookstore during your lunch break on Wednesday and have a go.

TBIRDS >>

SATURDAY

Women’s hockey: UBC Thunderbirds vs. Manitoba Bisons: 7 p.m. @ Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena What do you have to do that is going to be this much fun? Watch your fellow T-Birds pass the puck during the playoff season. $2 for students, free for Blue Crew members.

Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

Code of conduct Johannah Cramer Contributor

Hussein Janmohamed, a grad student in conducting at UBC’s School of Music, walks around campus waving his arms and turning conversation into melody. He’s made his life revolve around what he loves most: choir music.

“In junior high, the jazz choir came to sing at our school, and I just fell in love.

So I sang in four choirs all through high school,” said Janmohamed.

Janmohamed was raised with an eclectic ear for music.

At age six he moved from Nairobi, Kenya to Red Deer, Alberta, where he grew up and discovered his love for choral music. He now holds a bachelor’s degree in general music studies and a master’s in opera production from UBC.

Janmohamed is involved with many of the choirs on campus. Apart from being a teaching assistant for the UBC Choral Union and one of 40 select voices in the University Singers, his main focus is conducting the 27 members of the UBC Women’s Choir with his colleague, Peggy Hua. But Janmohamed’s talents are not limited to UBC choirs.

He is currently the assistant conductor of the Vancouver Peace Choir. He has conducted the children’s choir at the Sarah McLachlan School of Music (which was featured in the famous Canadian Haiti relief video) and he also co-founded the Ismaili Muslim Youth Choir in the late 1990s.

“We had a national group for three years to commemorate the golden jubilee of our spiritual leader. We toured around

Canada, [sang] for the governor general, the prime minister and our spiritual leader,” said Janmohamed. “That was really great because I got to share my love for singing with a whole community.”

But perhaps the best achievement of all came in 2004, when Janmohamed conducted 40 young singers from across the Lower Mainland in a tribute concert for the Dalai Lama. He co-wrote a piece of music for the event that combined Muslim and First Nations traditions. “It blew my mind,” he said.

Janmohamed encouraged everyone to make their voices heard: “Even if you have a small voice, when you sing with others, your voice is amplified.” U

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013 |

eDIToRS WILL MCDONALD + LAURA RODGERS

POLITIcS >>

BUILDINGS >>

KIM PRInGle IllUSTRaTIon/THe UBySSey

With limited post-secondary funding to be had in B.C., research universities and trade schools both want a piece of the pie.

Trades, research schools jockey for funding Laura Rodgers News Editor

A limited pot of post-secondary funding in B.C. has begun to pit the province’s large research universities and trade schools against one another.

As technical and skills-based programs at schools were given sizeable sums in recent weeks as part of the B.C. Liberals’ Jobs Plan funding rollout, a group representing research universities’ interests across the province fired back.

The Research Universities Council of B.C., representing UBC, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, University of Northern B.C., Royal Roads University and Thompson Rivers University, recently re-released a report they’d originally publicized back in October 2012. The report shows, based on the government’s own jobs data, that job-market demand for university graduates in B.C. will outstrip supply by 2016.

But the Liberals are still committed to staying the course on their plan to beef up trade and

NEWS BRIEFS Feelings of shame can cause alcoholics to relapse: UBC study a UBC study has found a new way to predict if recovering alcoholics will relapse.

The study found that patients who showed signs of shame through their body language were more likely to start drinking again. “our study finds that how much shame people display can strongly predict not only whether they will go on to relapse, but how bad that relapse will be – that is, how many drinks they will consume,” said UBC psychology professor Jessica Tracy, who led the study with graduate student Daniel Randles, in a release.

U.s. opinion on global warming fluctuates with daily forecasts according to a UBC study, opinions about global warming in the U.S. change with the weather forecast.

The researchers found that people in the U.S. were more likely to doubt global warming during periods of unusually cold weather. “our findings help to explain some of the significant fluctuations and inconsistencies in U.S. public opinion on climate change,” said UBC geography professor Simon Donner. in a release. “our study demonstrates just how much local weather can influence people’s opinions on global warming.” U

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technical programs at key schools, while giving post-secondary grants across the province an overall $41 million cut by 2014.

The NDP opposes this cut, but the party has yet to reveal whether it will prioritize research-based universities or skills-based trade certification programs in its post-secondary platform.

University of Victoria President David H. Turpin said the province needs a variety of education options so young people can choose what path they’ll take to try to obtain employment.

“Trades are valuable, college diplomas are valuable, university degrees are valuable. What’s important is that there be space in the system for every qualified student,” Turpin said. “I’m a firm believer in this being driven by demand.”

And when given a chance to speak at a recent invitation-only event promoting student involvement, UBC President Stephen Toope took a more adversarial stance. He argued that a tradeschool education, while helpful

for employment, doesn’t help students become versatile and agile leaders.

While the overall cut in operating grants has shrunk the number of funded spaces available at many schools in the province, targeted capital spending has allowed some schools to expand. Emily Carr University of Art + Design was given over $100 million to expand into a new campus in late January.

And Thompson Rivers University — a midsize institution that is part of the Research Universities’ Council, but also houses a good number of trade certification programs — was just given $1.39 million specifically for heavy equipment used by trades and technology students.

This shows the shift in priorities as laid out by B.C. Liberal Minister of Advanced Education John Yap when he took over the cabinet post in September 2012 from Naomi Yamamoto.

“Taxpayers invest $5 million each and every single day to support the [B.C. post-secondary] system. The four major research

universities — UBC, SFU, UVic, UNBC — receive more than half of the operating grants provided to the 25 institutions,” said Yap. “We need to make sure that we’re training people for the jobs that need to be filled,” Yap added.

“We want to ensure that we have a situation where people are looking for jobs, and jobs are looking for people. To try and do better at matching the skills training that is happening to what jobs need to be filled,” he continued, giving a more optimistic spin on the “people without jobs, jobs without people” refrain that’s long been used across the country to describe the frustrations faced by students who don’t pick programs that prepare them for high-demand areas of the job market.

As for the NDP’s take on all of this, advanced education critic Michelle Mungall said the party, if elected, would focus on increasing aid going directly to students across the board, rather than prioritizing either universities or trade schools. Their plan is to introduce a $100-million program of non-refundable grants for students.

“It’s true that universities do get the bulk of post-secondary funding, but they also have the bulk of students,” said Mungall.

“The skilled labour shortage, while being felt in the trades most acutely right now, especially up north, is actually across the board. Every single occupation is going to feel that shortage.”

Turpin argues that a significant uptick in funding should be given to schools’ operating budgets, rather than just focusing on affordability for needy students.

“The quality of our programs is going to erode. And that is a longterm problem for the province of British Columbia. Our view is that the investments we’re calling for are truly investments. By generating talented people for society, they’re going to be able to give back through the tax system,” he said. U

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS >>

UBC’s got a Bridge to sell you, and it costs $30,000

Nicholas Gorgopa Contributor

UBC may become home to 1,000 additional international students who don’t meet current admissions requirements to the university.

The university is proposing a college that will accept international students who do not meet the university’s English language requirements. The college is currently unnamed, but has been called both “Pathways” and “Bridge to UBC.” Tuition is proposed at $30,000 per year. $22,000 will go to first-year level courses, and the rest will go toward intensive English instruction.

The new college is presented as a way to diversify UBC’s student population. James Ridge, principal of the proposed college, listed Brazil, Turkey, Vietnam and Pakistan as some of the target countries for student recruitment.

“The goal of the college that is being created is to allow us to reach into parts of the world, into indigenous school systems, and bring to UBC students whose high school language of instruction may not have been English but are very strong academically,” said Ridge.

But the school also plays a key role in UBC’s budget. The university is counting on the program to help pad its predicted $2.5 million deficit for 2013-2014.

HoGan WonG PHoTo/THe UBySSey

James Ridge and Susanne Schmiesing helped develop the plan for the college.

“[UBC has] been very upfront about the fact that there is a revenue-generating component to this.

It’s not the only thing, but it is a significant part of it,” said AMS VP Academic Kiran Mahal.

The new college would follow a three-term, 12-month program, after which students would progress out of the college and into regular second-year standing at UBC. A supplemental fourth term is being proposed for students who are unable to meet program requirements at the end of the 12 months.

Enrolment will start at 300 students in August 2014. The university plans to increase the program to 1,000 students by 2017.

Admission to the college will be based on the same English language exams that are currently used to accept international students directly into UBC; however, required scores are lower than requirements for direct entry into

UBC. Students will be required to score 70 on the TOEFL instead of the 80-100 score required for most direct entry programs.

Mahal, who has been working closely with UBC administration on the proposal, is focused on preventing segregation between students in the college and the broader UBC community.

The proposal also includes the construction of Orchard Commons, a planned building along West Mall that would contain classrooms, student residences and staff offices.

Students in the college will reside at the Commons as well as in Totem Park and Place Vanier.

“One thing I do want to stress about the residences is there will be enough residence spaces built for the college students, whether they’re built all in one location or not,” said Ridge.

The full academic proposal goes before Senate on March 20. U

Engineers’ deal on student space governance sets a new precedent

ColIn CHIa PHoTo/THe UBySSey

Ian Campbell is the president of the eUS.

Laura Rodgers News Editor

The Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) fought long and hard against UBC to keep control of their soon-to-be-built student space. The compromise they reached will likely become the new standard for any student-financed buildings on campus in the future.

UBC wanted to make it so that the dean of the Faculty of Applied Science needed to sign off on any events that would happen in the space. But the EUS argued that since students and alumni were funding the new student centre, control of the building should be shared between a committee of students, alumni and faculty.

This disagreement became a sticking point in negotiations, making them drag on longer than expected. The EUS approved a student fee to fund the building back in 2008, but it took until December of last year to reach an agreement to build the structure.

The new building will cost $5 million and will replace the engineers’ current student centre, the “Cheeze,” which has fallen into disrepair.

A yearly plan for what will happen in the building, which is expected to open by December 2014, will be developed by a committee. That committee will have eight members. Five members ,four of whom must be current engineering students, will be appointed by the EUS; two will be appointed by the Faculty of Applied Science; and the final member will be appointed by the UBC administration.

The dean of Applied Science still needs to sign off on the plan. If the dean rejects it, it has to go back to the committee for redrafting. If the EUS is unhappy with the plan as approved by the dean, it has the option of appealing the dean’s decision to the UBC VP Students office.

The decision of the VP Students is final.

EUS President Ian Campbell said he felt this is a fair balance of power. But the amount of power given to the university prompted the alumni representatives brought in to work on the project to withdraw their support.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s certainly something we can work with,” said Campbell. U

4 | News |

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013

SPONSORSHIP >>

Gym deal resolved after contract confusion Ming Wong Senior News Writer

A student society president said Gold’s Gym has agreed to honour a $12,000 contract that’s hung in limbo for months.

From October to early December of 2012, Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) President Harsev Oshan was convinced that a breakdown in contract negotiations meant the University Village Gold’s Gym wouldn’t pay its end of a $12,000 sponsorship contract, despite the AUS fulfilling what they believed to be their obligations. But Oshan said new management at the gym has agreed to uphold the deal, and the two parties are back on good terms.

“At that time I was uncertain if they [were] going to pay because there was [a] lack of communication,” said Oshan.

“Then, when I heard there was new management [at Gold’s], I approached them again and now it’s resolved.”

The original agreement was that the AUS would print the Gold’s logo in free planners handed out to arts students, allow the gym to set up promotional booths at Faculty of Arts events and acknowledge Gold’s as an AUS sponsor. In return, they expected Gold’s Gym to give them $5,000 in sponsorship cash and 10 one-year gym memberships valued at an estimated total of $6,000, as well as cover the cost of printing frosh T-shirts (worth $1,400, according to Oshan).

Oshan said he first approached

KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Arts Undergraduate Society President Harsev Oshan shows this year’s arts student agenda, which included an ad for Gold’s Gym.

the gym in July about a sponsorship deal. He met with managers and the gym’s owner, Victor Newman. Oshan said he reached an agreement on the terms with management at Gold’s through email and in person.

Oshan gave the gym a formal contract, which was not returned. But by that time, the AUS had already begun printing the Gold’s logo on their planners.

Gold’s Gym owner Victor Newman declined a request for comment from The Ubyssey.

As Oshan saw it, since the AUS had already given Gold’s significant exposure through the planners, the gym should be on the hook for the rest of the agreement. But the AUS never got the contract back from Gold’s, and <em>

</em>

a shakeup in the gym’s management complicated matters further.

Mars Arefaine, the former sales manager at Gold’s who brokered the AUS deal, said he signed the contract soon after the AUS sent it over, but didn’t feel the need to return it right away because he expected to see Oshan, a frequent Gold’s customer, around the gym regularly.

“I did sign the contract. I didn’t give it to [Oshan], but there is a written consent through email. We [were] happy to go with the contract and there [was] no problem. Mr. Newman told me and Harsev, ‘Let’s go and do it.’”

But not long after this, Arefaine left his job at Gold’s.

His relationship with the gym

had become strained, and he said he was unhappy with the way he was being treated at work.

Oshan pressed Gold’s for a copy of the signed contract, which they eventually provided.

But the AUS is not an independent legal entity, and this presented another wrinkle in the proceedings. Oshan then found out that the contract also needed to be signed by the AMS — the parent organization of the AUS — before it was legally binding. The AMS looked over the agreement and signed it.

In December 2012, Oshan tried contacting Gold’s again. With the signed contract in hand, Oshan said he spoke to an employee named Peter who introduced himself as the president of Gold’s

Gym, and said the gym would pay their end of the contract.

This was not the first time the AUS had entered into an agreement with Gold’s. In 2011, as AUS social coordinator, Oshan said the organization received eight one-year membership passes from the gym in return for putting the Gold’s logo on AUS T-shirts.

“We did not even sign a contract last year; they just held their end of the deal,” said Oshan. “I feel like that’s part of the reason why I had confidence they will hold their end of the deal.”

Oshan met with Gold’s staff again on Feb. 4. “I approached them with the issue because it was [a] completely new staff,” said Oshan.

Oshan said he is now confident that once he sends them an invoice, Gold’s Gym will fulfill all the obligations listed in the contract.

The gym did not tell Oshan exactly why there was confusion over what would happen with the agreement.

The terms of the contract are in effect until Aug. 1, and no earlier dates are given for when Gold’s needs to provide the agreed-upon payment. Oshan said the AUS and Gold’s may continue to work together, but it will be up to next year’s Arts Undergraduate Society executives to decide whether or not to sign another contract with the gym.

Oshan said now that the contract has been agreed to by all parties, he’s confident everything will work out. “They do look very cooperative right now,” he said. U

STUDENT FEES >>

Sauder student society investment plan vetoed

KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

The Henry Angus building houses UBC’s Sauder School of Business

Will McDonald News Editor

The Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS) wants to invest leftover student fees, but the AMS has sent this proposal back to the drawing board.

CUS President Jack Leung said the society for Sauder School of Business students has had extra money sitting in its student fee-funded accounts since 1941.

He planned to invest $250,000 of the $365,000 the society has in savings into a UBC-run endowment and put the interest back into the CUS operating budget each year. The plan was to invest just under $50,000 per year over the next five years, circumventing the need to have commerce

students approve the measure through a referendum.

Since the CUS is not its own legal entity, the AMS would have to sign the contract with the university. The AMS Council rejected a motion to approve the contract at a meeting last Wednesday.

AMS VP Finance Tristan Miller said he supports the CUS’s decision to invest the money, but not the way they are going about it.

“It, in my opinion, was a weak contract,” said Miller.

Miller said the contract read more like an agreement for a donation to UBC than an investment from a student society. The proposed contract would have given UBC the final say on how the money was used, which became

the main point of contention during debate at last Wednesday’s Council meeting.

“At the end of the day, this is students’ money,… so you need to make sure that you’re protecting that money when you give it to the university,” said Miller.

Leung said he didn’t see any problems with the terms of the contract.

“This is indeed a binding agreement.… I don’t think [the university] would immediately escalate to a point where they would unilaterally change the agreement terms. That would burn a lot of bridges,” said Leung.

The agreement also would have required approval from the dean of Sauder to withdraw money from the endowment.

“It’s a culture of trust, it’s a culture of cooperation, and I don’t think any future deans will start doing things that are not beneficial for both parties,” said Leung.

Some AMS Council members also questioned whether a university-run endowment was the best choice for investing the money when other alternatives are available.

The CUS takes in $266 in fees from each commerce student every year. In the 2011—2012 school year, they collected a total of $769,187. They also charge students a second $500 fee each year, which is given directly to UBC to fund continuing renovations to Faculty of Commerce buildings.

That $500 building fee was agreed upon by commerce stu-

dents in a referendum in 2010, but it was a highly controversial measure. UBC originally tried to collect money from commerce students for the renovations in the form of a tuition fee increase, but this broke the rules governing how much tuition can go up each year.

So the university convinced the CUS to collect the increase as a student fee instead, despite critics who charged that they shouldn’t be pressuring a student society to collect what should be a university expense. Leung said he didn’t think UBC’s handling of the building fee issue had any bearing on whether or not to put the CUS’s extra money into a UBC-run endowment fund.

Leung said the university endowment fund would provide a consistent 2.5 per cent return, making it the best option for collecting interest. At Wednesday’s Council meeting, AMS President Matt Parson argued that bonds or guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) run by other entities could give better returns.

Miller said most of the AMS’s investments are in government bonds, government utilities and GICs. He said they bring in an average interest rate between 3.5 and 4.5 per cent.

Leung said the AMS is wrong about the return rate of GICs and bonds.

“That was totally inaccurate.

It was outrageously impossible,” said Leung. “If we account for the risks, the return [of the endowment] is very optimal for us.”

Miller said a UBC-run endowment wouldn’t necessarily bring in consistent returns. He said the interest rate could fluctuate dramatically and UBC also charges a fee to handle the money.

Leung said the CUS considered other options for the money, but he thought investing with UBC was the best choice. He said he didn’t feel it was necessary to consult students directly on the decision through a referendum, because investing the money is an administrative matter.

“The money isn’t really ours.

It’s really the alumni’s legacy.…

Even if we distribute it back to the students,… it’s really meaningless,” said Leung, giving his opinion on the option of returning the money to current commerce students through reduced student fees.

Miller also recommended that the AMS get a legal opinion on the contract if they were going to agree to it. He said the contract itself might be legally questionable because it gives UBC the ability to change it unilaterally. But Leung insisted that he thought the agreement would have been legally sound.

Leung plans to amend the contract and bring it back to AMS Council in March. He said he wasn’t happy with the AMS’s criticisms, but he is willing to make changes to the contract to get it signed by the AMS. “They’re on the right track with this. It’s just the specifics of the agreement that need to be worked out,” said Miller. U

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013 |

EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

Home sweet home volleyball >>

Bird Droppings

T-Bird volleyball will host playoff games after weekend sweeps

WEEKEND RESULTS

C.J. Pentland Sports + Rec Editor

The UBC men’s and women’s volleyball teams will enjoy the comforts of home during the playoffs, as both squads took care of business this past weekend, sweeping their respective weekend series against the Mount Royal University Cougars. It was the 20th consecutive victory for the women’s team (21-1), and the third consecutive win for the men’s team (15-7).

The T-Bird women had their streak of 37 straight set wins snapped on Friday night, but that was just a small hiccup en route to their 19th straight victory. Saturday night was a 3-1 victory for the ’Birds, as they bounced back from a first set loss to take the final three.

Lisa Barclay led the offensive attack with a total of 48 kills on the weekend. She was also key on defence; the third-year outside hitter recorded 11 digs each night.

“To win championships you need to have steady, consistent attacking, especially from your outside hitters, because they are going to get a lot of volume when you’re out of system, and we are getting that from Lisa for sure,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. “Backto-back nights — that’s important.”

It was also seniors’ weekend for the T-Birds. The departing players all had solid performances in what looks to be their last series of regular season games. Shanice Marcelle played to her usual standards, totalling 24 kills and 21 digs over the two games. Setter Brina Derksen-Bergen racked up 83 assists, Jessica von Schilling had 12

blocks and libero Danielle Richards contributed 13 digs in Saturday’s contest. Reimer also praised the plays that didn’t show up on the scoresheet.

“Brina had all those other contributions, all those touches that don’t make the stats sheet. Same for Shanice. Getting so many touches and saving balls [doesn’t] show up in the stats, but they provide flow and continuity of play,” said Reimer.

Thanks to their superb 21-1 regular season record, the ’Birds have earned a first round bye in the

defence [and] blocking; I think there are areas there that we can improve,” said Reimer.

As for the men’s team, they will enjoy the friendly court in War Memorial Gym for their first round playoff matchup against the University of Manitoba Bisons. Their two weekend wins clinched fourth place in the conference for the ’Birds — no small feat, considering the competitiveness of the Canada West. There are currently seven Canada West teams ranked in the CIS top 10.

geoff lister photo/the ubyssey

The UBC women’s volleyball team has won 20 straight games dating back to November.

Canada West playoffs, and will host the Canada West Final Four from Feb. 22–24. While the T-Birds seem poised to return to the CIS championships and make a run at their sixth straight national title, Reimer acknowledged that his team can still make improvements.

“It’s just our overall team

The UBC men’s team, currently ranked seventh in the nation, made short work of Mount Royal on the weekend, taking down the Cougars in straight sets on both nights. It was a full onslaught, with the ’Birds hitting for a .423 percentage on Friday night and .370 on Saturday.

“We were efficient. Our serve

receivers did an exceptional job against Mount Royal, and those guys are tough servers,” said UBC head coach Richard Schick. “I thought we took care of the ball well on our side. We just wanted to worry about first contact, and we did a good job of it tonight.”

David Zeyha is the lone fifthyear on the roster, but he made his last regular season game a significant one. The outside hitter led the way on Saturday night with 11 kills on .500 hitting, and added an ace and three blocks. Jarrid Ireland and Ben Chow also recorded games of 10-plus kills over the weekend.

Behind all the kills was setter Milan Nikic, who had another good weekend of passing the ball. The second-year totalled 66 assists over the six sets, which is just above his normal rate of 9.85 assists per set, the fourth highest average in the Canada West.

UBC will be up against a tough foe next weekend in Manitoba: the Bisons are currently ranked No. 3 in the nation. However, the T-Birds won both meetings against the Bisons this year, and both of those games were on the road.

“I’m sure they will be itching to play us after we went into their house and beat them two times,” said Schick. “We’re excited to have them.”

The first game of the best-ofthree series is on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m.; the second is on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.

Game three, if necessary, will take place on Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. If the ’Birds can prevail, they will head to Edmonton to compete in the Canada West Final Four, and from there, the top three teams will head to CIS nationals in Laval, Quebec. U

hockey >>

’Birds stifled by West’s best UBC finishes fifth, will head on the road for the playoffs Colin Chia Staff Writer

The UBC men’s hockey team was distinctly second-best against the country’s second-ranked team this past weekend, ending their regular season with two losses against the University of Alberta Golden Bears.

UBC’s hopes of earning a home playoff series were dashed as the T-Birds struggled to cope with the Bears’ speed and aggression all weekend. UBC lost 2-0 on Friday night, outshot 39 to 16; after a scrappy first period, Alberta dominated the play. UBC goaltender Steven Stanford did well to keep the scoreline close, but the offence wasn’t able to get much going. On Saturday night, a valiant comeback effort came up short: the Thunderbirds were down 3-0 and clawed back to only be down one, but they couldn’t keep Alberta off the board and eventually fell 5-2.

While disappointed with the losses, head coach Milan Dragicevic was focused more on the post-season.

“I like the way we came back today — I like the way we came back and battled. Especially in the third period, I thought we made a pretty good push,” he said after Saturday’s contest. “[I’m] not, obviously, happy with the two losses, but the regular season’s over and now we’ve got to plan and prepare for the playoffs.”

josh curran photo/the ubyssey

Alberta stifled UBC’s offence on the weekend, handing the T-Birds two losses.

Alberta took an early lead in the second game when Johnny Lazo scored off a rebound at 18:57, and got a second goal on the power play with Ben Lindemulder firing a slap shot from the high slot with 42 seconds left in the first period.

Colin Joe then made it 3-0 for Alberta with 14:43 to go in the second period. As both teams stepped up their physical play, the T-Birds finally got on the board on a power play goal with 2.7 seconds left in the frame. Cole Wilson wired a shot into the back of the net from the blue line directly off the faceoff to cut the deficit to 3-1 at the second intermission.

Undisciplined play by the Bears let UBC back into the game; they took three penalties in the first seven minutes of the third period.

Alberta’s Rhett Rachinski went to the box for roughing when he took down Cole Pruden and gave him a gloved punch to the head, and UBC capitalized to make it 3-2 on the resulting power play when Ben Schmidt used a backhand from point-blank range to get the puck past Bears goaltender Real Cyr. A comeback was certainly in the cards, but just over two minutes later Alberta had a two-man advantage for 1:32 and the T-Birds had to put in an incredible effort to kill it

off. But Dragicevic didn’t think this stalled the momentum; in fact, quite the opposite.

“I thought it kind of gave us momentum because we played desperate hockey. We blocked shots; [White] made some good saves. And for us to be successful, that’s how we have to play.”

Dragicevic added that this sets the right tone for the playoffs.

“We have to play desperate, and on that 5-on-3 we were desperate and we played hard. That’s a good lesson for our guys because if we want to be successful in the playoffs we’ve got to play desperate hockey.”

But there simply wasn’t enough time left for the ’Birds. Travis Toomey’s empty net goal made it 4-2 and sealed UBC’s fate with 47 seconds left, and Jordan Hickmott added another past Jordan White to finish the game with a 5-2 scoreline.

UBC ends the regular season fifth in the Canada West with a 14-11-3 record. The T-Birds will now prepare for next weekend’s rematch of last season’s best-ofthree quarterfinal series against the University of Calgary Dinos.

“We’ve got to work on specialty teams; they’re an opponent that we’re very familiar with.... It’s a big ice surface in Calgary [and we need to] use our speed and really play to our strengths,” said Dragicevic. U

5

WOMEN’S HOCKEY Friday, Feb. 8 UBC 3 (SO) Alberta 2 Danielle Dube: 32 saves Nikola Brown-John and Rebecca Unrau: one goal each Saturday, Feb. 9 UBC 3 (OT) Alberta 2 Samantha Langford: 18 saves Christi Capozzi: OT winner UBC has won 10 of their last 11 games and finishes third in the Canada West with a 17-74 record. They host Manitoba next weekend in the first round of the playoffs.

All this comes after a year in which the T-Birds won only one game, making this season all the more impressive.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Friday, Feb. 8 UBC 63 UNBC 60 Victoria Spangehl: 10 points, 9 rebounds Saturday, Feb. 9 UBC 70 UNBC 48 Leigh Stansfield: 16 points, .875 field goal percentage With two games to go, UBC is 16-4 and tied for first in the Canada West Pacific Division.

Currently ranked No. 6 in Canada, they have clinched a playoff berth and will host Victoria on Friday at 6 p.m. in their final regular season home game.

MEN’S BASKETBALL Friday, Feb. 8 UBC 93 UNBC 69 Brylle Kamen: 21 points, 12 rebounds Saturday, Feb. 9 UBC 93 UNBC 61 David Wagner: 20 points, 7 rebounds UBC, ranked second in the nation, is now 18-2 on the year and has clinched first place in the Canada West.

The team will also have home court advantage throughout the playoffs. The final regular season home game is against Victoria on Friday at 8 p.m.

6 | Feature |

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013

The Cabin at Alta

Colin Chia Staff Writer

F

or over four decades, UBC students have had a home on one of Canada’s most famous mountains. But with the Whistler Lodge in disrepair and revenues falling, the future of this historic part of both Whistler and UBC is in doubt. Throughout fall of 1965, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC) members worked frenetically to build the Whistler Lodge in time for the opening of a new ski area.

Whistler, then known as Alta Lake, was a very different place in 1965. The road from Vancouver ended at Squamish, and a dirt road ran the rest of the way. Logging and prospecting, rather than skiing and tourism, were the mainstays of the economy. The VOC’s cabin was one of the first structures to be built on land reserved for club cabins by the operators of the new ski area, who were anxious to make their venture a success.

Roland Burton, who remains involved with the VOC under the tongue-in-cheek title of Useful Person, was one of the volunteers who helped build the lodge. It wasn’t meant to be much more than a place to sleep, and certainly not a hotel, he said. “It was pretty ad-hoc; not a lot was provided. We kept the lodge above freezing most of the time,” Burton said.

“It was designed as a bit of a party place,” he added. “There were some pretty wild times up there.”

The lodge was run by a volunteer — “squatter” might be a more appropriate term ­­— who collected a $5 fee from people staying there. But increasing development and commercialization soon made Whistler less appealing to

many VOC members, who tend to prefer backcountry touring to riding chairlifts.

In 1974, uninterested in maintaining a cabin they hardly used, the VOC sought to sell the lodge to the nascent Ski Club (precursor to today’s Ski and Board Club), many of whose members were also VOC members. But instead, the AMS swept in and blocked the deal, citing student clubs’ status as subsidiaries of the AMS with no independent legal status. The lodge came under direct AMS control, despite howls of protest from the VOC and Ski Club.

“The VOC felt pretty upset about this because they had put in a considerable amount of effort and quite a bit of cash,” said Burton.

The club campaigned long and hard for compensation. Student Court ruled in 1977 that the AMS had to allocate $30,000 to the VOC, which it finally did after almost three years of wrangling, legal threats and a student referendum. The VOC used the money to build more backcountry huts in the Coast Mountains, which have proven more self-sustaining and suited to the interests of VOC members, Burton said.

“Believe it or not, they’re maintained and they’re operated profitably, strictly on volunteer labour.

So those who are still around in the club and who care — they wonder how the hell the AMS can manage to continue to pump huge quantities of money into this thing, lose money with both hands and not actually attract anybody who wants to use it.”

Now, Burton said, it seems that the AMS’s only strategy for solving the Whistler Lodge problem is to sell it to a private developer, at which point it will no longer be

reserved for UBC students.

This was the fate the lodge narrowly avoided in a failed referendum last year, when the question of whether to sell the lodge failed to meet quorum.

Going downhill The lodge’s long history is part of its intangible value, but also a key reason why the building has required expensive renovations and repairs over the years. Plumbing, sewage and heating all had to be installed at a cost of $55,000 in 1975, but the lodge was ordered closed for a period of time in 1976 because there was no fire alarm.

AMS councillors didn’t anticipate the lodge to be a money drain. Duncan Thomson, then the secretary of the AMS, said in 1974 that the lodge would be at least as self-sustaining as the Pit Pub. A report released by the AMS in 2011 provides a complex picture of the lodge’s financial situation over a five-year period. Between 2007 and 2011, one quarter of revenue came from UBC students, and the rest from the general public. Making up much of the non-student revenue were tourists looking for cheap accomodation and members of Whistler’s highly transient workforce, who often stay in hostels while looking for more permanent arrangements.

During this period, the lodge earned $200,000 in operating profit, but cost the AMS $300,000, once $500,000 of repairs conducted in 2006 is factored in.

Committed to keeping the lodge accessible to students, the AMS turned down lucrative offers to rent the entire lodge during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Not only did this prevent an Olympic wind-

The Varsity Outdoor Club, which built the lodge in the fall of 1965, was granted the land for the lodge by the original developers of Whistler, who were eager to attract clubs to the new ski slopes.

From The Ubyssey archive: The VOC was furious that by 1979, the AMS had still not compensated them after taking control of the lodge in 1974 (left). In 1974, after taking over, AMS Secretary Duncan Thomson told The Ubyssey the lodge would not need to be subsidized.

fall, but the 2010 Winter Games gave the lodge an additional kick in the teeth by converting the athlete’s village into a massive hostel.

After the Olympics, the athletes’ village at Cheakamus was turned over to Hostelling International

(HI). The 188 new beds more than doubled the amount of low-cost accommodation previously available in that area, and put a major dent in the Whistler Lodge’s revenue.

From a high of $230,000 in 2009, the lodge’s revenue from the public

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013

| Feature | 7

$250k

$125k

$5k

During this period, the lodge earned $200,000 in operating profit, but cost the AMS $300,000, once $500,000 of repairs conducted in 2006 is factored in.

lta Lake kai jacobson PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

fell to a paltry $89,000 in 2011.

Neither the Whistler Lodge nor the HI hostel is a clearly better option for visitors to Whistler. Both have similar facilities, like kitchens and wireless Internet. HI is much newer, but the Whistler Lodge has an outdoor hot tub. The lodge is walking distance — less than one kilometre — from a ski run and the Creekside Village. HI’s location is comparatively isolated: reaching the ski area or the village requires a 15-minute bus ride, which costs $2 each way. But for whatever reason — perhaps due to HI’s reputation as an international hostelling organization — non-student revenue for the lodge nose-dived after the Olympics.

In 2012, faced with a $40,000 operating loss for the 2011 fiscal year and the looming prospect of expensive repairs, the AMS decided to hold a referendum to authorize the sale of the lodge.

Councillors hoped that money from the sale would be placed in

the AMS endowment fund and accrue interest that would help financially stabilize the society.

The prospect of losing the lodge galvanized a vocal group of students led by the Ski and Board Club. The referundum failed to meet quorum, although out of those who did vote, 46 more people were in favour of selling the lodge than keeping it.

A bumpy traverse Incoming AMS President Caroline Wong, who handled the lodge over the last year as part of the VP Administration portfolio, said she thinks the AMS should stop approaching the lodge as a business that should turn a profit and instead see it as a service for students.

According to the AMS, in the most recent fiscal year the lodge brought in about $171,000 in revenue with an operating deficit of $5,626 — not ideal, but a much less

Rich in history but plagued by money problems, does the Whistler Lodge have a future?

INFOGRAPHICS WITH DATA FROM CORIOLIS REPORT ON WHISTLER LODGE (DEC 2011), AMS EXPERIENCE SURVEY 2012, AMS REFERENDUM SURVEY 2012

dire figure than the year before.

In addition, said Wong, consultations with student groups over the past year have yielded important feedback that was quickly implemented, and prompted a rethink of the AMS’s approach towards the lodge.

Wong said she had been viewing the lodge as a business when she called for it to be sold last year. But that isn’t how most students see it, according to a survey the AMS released on Jan. 5; even students who have never used the lodge would prefer to keep it, as long as it doesn’t require an increase in their student fees.

“Looking at it from a service perspective, and after sitting down and talking to Ski and Board, VOC, and having our surveys and open forums, there is a benefit to having the lodge there,” Wong said.

The results of the survey revealed that 48 per cent of students see the lodge as a service and only 14 per cent as a business. A majority would prefer the AMS to maintain a lodge in Whistler.

The survey also did not find much support for the plan of monetizing the lodge and putting it into an endowment fund, assuming a return of $60,000 annually.

“Students built it themselves, and to have that kind of real estate in Whistler is so rare, and to own that — there’s a lot of pride invested in it as well,” Wong said.

What also needs to be invested now is money. The immediate, necessary repairs will amount to $85,000. Repairs to leaks in the roof, washroom ventilation, windows and the building envelope are also pressing, but could be delayed beyond 2014 if necessary; these would cost a further $335,000.

Wong pointed out that the

48%

14%

of students see the lodge as a service

of students SEE the Lodge AS a business

38%

HAVE NO OPINION Student Spaces Fund specifically includes renovations and expansion of the Whistler Lodge in its mandate. The concern, however, is that the fund might not be able to cope with unforeseen emergency needs. Wong said she wants a lasting solution.

“I don’t want to do band-aid solutions anymore; we need some kind of long-term plan,” she said.

While the AMS may have misjudged students’ opinions towards the lodge, Ski and Board Club president Braden Parker said he’s happy the AMS sought input on the lodge’s future, especially because it’s something unique to UBC. “They agree that the Whistler Lodge is a huge attraction for incoming students as well. I know; I’ve talked to a ton of people who’ve said a reason they came here is they think it’s so cool that UBC has this Whistler Lodge,” said Parker.

“Part of living in UBC and

around Vancouver is all the things you can do,” Parker continued.

“There’s so much to do outdoors.

We’re such an active, healthy, clean city.”

As for how the lodge should be run, Parker said he believes there is too much red tape within the AMS and the best option would be to bring in a third-party operator to manage the lodge, while retaining ownership over it.

But regardless of what’s put in place going forward, the bottom line for Parker is that there is no realistic prospect to replace the lodge, and it would be short-sighted to lose it to development.

“I think selling it would be a big shame, because the property value is going to grow and it is an amenity that pulls a lot of people to UBC,” he said.

“In 20 or 30 years, the AMS VP Finance is going to look back and be like, ‘What were we thinking?

We had this lodge that we can never get back.’” U

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013 |

eDIToR ANNA ZORIA

8

HOT cHOcOLATE >>

the sweetest fest in the city I Tiffany Law Contributor

f you’re tired of drinking the same old bland coffee every day, now is a good time to try out a sweeter pick-me-up.

The Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival, running from Jan. 19 to Feb. 14, is in its third year of making Vancouverites a happier lot. Offering more than 60 flavours at 19 cafés, the festival is known for pairing chocolate with everything from passionfruit to bacon. Participating cafés are scattered throughout the Lower Mainland, from Kitsilano to Port Moody, and include many wellknown spots such as CocoaNymph, Bella Gellateria and Leonidas.

We’ve narrowed this list down to three intriguing hot chocolates at locations close to campus.

rAspberry beret Hot CHoColAte At blenZ (AlmA And 4tH AVe.) This hot chocolate is infused with raspberry syrup, topped with whipped cream and can be made with white, milk or dark Belgian chocolate. If that’s not enough to get you on the next #84, this drink is paired with a sampling of Cocolico’s gourmet chocolate bars.

Flavours include white chocolate with caramelized cocoa nib praline; milk chocolate with salted toffee hazelnut; and dark chocolate with almond, apricot and violet. Is your mouth watering yet?

dainty squares of maple and vanilla shortbread, this hot chocolate has a unique Canadian taste. It’s not too thick, but still loaded with a full blast of flavour — perfect for someone who’s not a big fan of overly sweet desserts. The buttery shortbread perfectly balances the flavour of the hot chocolate. Thomas Haas Patisserie also features the equally intriguing Malteaser, a malt-infused hot chocolate served with malted caramel fleur de sel truffles.

Our recommendations for what to try at Vancouver’s annual Hot Chocolate Festival

tHe AyAlA At CoCoAnympH (AlmA And 10tH AVe.) Our third recommendation is most suitable for lactose intolerant hot-chocolate lovers.

The Ayala is made with jasmine and topped with house-made juniper marshmallows. It can be made dairy-free and is offered in several exquisitely crafted flavours, including balsamic, orange and basil.

Located at Alma and 10th, Cocoa Nymph is also one of the closest locations to campus. U

tHe lumberJACk At tHomAs HAAs pAtisserie (broAdWAy And lArCH) Made with bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup and paired with

eMMa DoUGlaS PHoTo/THe UBySSey

latte art is so last season.

TEcHNOLOGY >>

An alarm app to get even the laziest student out of bed Rhys Edwards Senior Culture writer

For students who spend every waking hour glued to a keyboard, hammering out essays and updating Facebook pages, the thought of starting the day with even more typing might seem unattractive.

But a group of UBC students believe that copying out phrases in the morning might actually be good for you.

Unlock Alarm is a new iPhone app developed by ThinkingCapp Technologies, a startup company founded by three UBC students.

The app is an alarm that, when triggered, opens up a text prompt while simultaneously playing a song. Users must retype a given phrase — which can be a song lyric, quote, motivational advice or even a joke — in order to shut off the alarm. Any typos will result in the loss of a lifeline; lose too many lifelines, and the user must start again. The app is free, but users can pay a small fee to purchase additional message prompts.

According to Timothy Lee, one of the co-founders of ThinkingCapp, the app is designed to address the shortcomings of most other alarms.

“People always [hit] snooze. It’s not that they don’t wake up; it’s that they wake up, look at the time,

no more sleeping in: Unlock alarm prompts you to do a typing test before it shuts off.

[hit] snooze and go back to sleep,” said Lee, a fifth-year engineering student specializing in mechatronics.

“Some alarm apps, all they do is they look nice, period.... Other ones have similar functions that force

you to wake up. A popular one would be doing math,... but that one is sometimes, like, if you know it well enough, it’s a no-brainer. So that’s why we went into this one.”

The other two co-founders of ThinkingCapp are Patrick Yao,

KaI JaCoBSon PHoTo/THe UBySSey

a graduate of UBC’s electrical engineering program, and Edward Yu, who currently studies business and psychology. They met each other in high school, and last May, Yao bought them together again to see if they could test their skills

in real-world software development. The incentive to collaborate and experiment, said Lee, lies in the relative safety of the academic environment.

“You’re better off failing or succeeding at the beginning, rather than 40 years from now, when you have a family and your investment will be larger.... It’s very difficult for one person to take that much risk, especially when you’ve just graduated,” said Lee. Released last December, Unlock Alarm has already been downloaded in 51 countries, and currently has a 4.8/5 customer rating on the App Store. ThinkingCapp’s success is no small feat: the trio spent months researching the market and worked entirely without external funding. They also juggled the project with both academic and geographic challenges: Lee was in Japan for a co-op program for part of the development phase, which forced the group to use Skype and Google Docs to work together.

But the minds behind ThinkingCapp are far from done with the project. They are constantly updating the app in response to customer feedback, and are also considering other app ideas for the future. Their design philosophy is simple: make fun and useful technology. U

| CULTURe | 9

TUesDAY, FeBRUARY 12, 2013

GARDENING >>

New class sows seeds of urban gardening

Local horticulturist Senga Lindsay introduces edible landscaping to students Sara Amadi Contributor

Local, fresh and sustainable are a few buzzwords that we Vancouverites hear daily. But environmentally friendly food options can be tough on a student’s wallet. What if you could have organic produce and stretch your dollar further?

Senga Lindsay, author of the book Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great , will be using her extensive knowledge of plant systems to teach students how to do just that.

The horticulturist-turned-landscape architect will be teaching a UBC continuing studies class on “edible landscape design” this March. The three-day workshop <em>

</em>

People think it’s got to be rows and rows of vegetables and tons of weeding. But it can just be pieces in the garden.

Senga Lindsay horticulturist, Landscape Architect and Author

will lead students through basic design and construction lectures on how to properly create a garden space.

“There are a lot of reasons why people should grow their own food,” said Lindsay. “It’s social, it’s healthy and it’s less taxing on the system.”

Having your own garden could also be the golden ticket to shedding that Freshman 15. According to Lindsay, it helped her lose weight in a natural way.

“Growing your own food allows you to become very food aware,” she said. “You start growing all this stuff, it’s great, you’re eating it and all of a sudden, junk and the bags of chips just don’t seem quite right.”

Lindsay’s debut book shows the average person that creating a beautiful and wholesome garden with their favourite plants is possible and easy — and maintaining a garden and healthy diet does not require hundreds of dollars and several hectares of land.

“There is a lot of wasted space in an average city lot that is just lawn,” she said. “While you’re maintaining your lawn with pesticides and fertilizers and all that other stuff, you could be growing food for you and your family organically.”

MIKe WaKeFIelD PHoTo/THe UBySSey

Senga lindsay, author of edible Landscaping: Urban food Gardens That Look Great, is set to teach the course in March.

And according to Lindsay, it doesn’t have to be hard.

“People think it’s got to be rows and rows of vegetables and tons of weeding. But it can just be pieces in the garden,” she said.

The edible landscape design course, which runs from March 8–10, will teach students how to integrate gardening into a sustainable garden space that is unique to

their living situation.

Though it may sound complicated, there’s no experience necessary for the course. “Any beginner can easily grasp it. Once you understand how you work through it, it’s pretty easy,” said Lindsay.

“My thing is, if you’re going to have a garden anyway, or a yard or a balcony, just replace it with edibles. You get something out of it,

and you get beauty out of it at the same time.” U

More online To learn more or register for the edible landscape design course, visit cstudies.ubc.ca.

GroW YoUr oWn Here are some of Senga lindsay’s tips for optimal results in your mini garden:

1. Figure out what you like — grow something you’ll enjoy eating.

2. If you grow warm season crops (ex. tomatoes), start with more mature plants, available for purchase at local garden centres.

3. If you grow cool season crops (ex. kale, lettuce), get seeds and start your plants from scratch.

4. Start with something small and manageable.

5. Don’t get frustrated; patience is key.

LOCKING CAMERAS

PHOTOGRAPH FOR THE UBYSSEY kAI JAcOBSON | ART@ UBYSSEY.cA

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013 |

STUDENT VOICe. COMMUNITY REACH.

LAST WORDS

Should the AMS scrap the Whistler Lodge?

T

indiana joel Illustration/the ubyssey

The recent vote to ban bottled water taught the AMS that its easier to let UBC take the lead on some things.

Looking to UBC to battle the big, bad bottle A group of students calling themselves Tap That UBC would like the AMS to get out of the bottled water game. Tap That’s presentation at AMS Council last week put the AMS in an awkward position. On the one hand, the AMS likes to bill itself as being super sustainable.

But despite having installed several thousand dollars worth of “green” water filtration devices in the SUB over the past few years, the AMS is still dependent on the bottle. The AMS makes around $75,000 a year selling bottled water, and is hard up for cash as it is.

So, Council came up with a compromise that seems a little mealy-mouthed, but is ultimately pragmatic. They decided to ask UBC to lead the way on banning bottled water.

UBC, unfortunately, is in the same boat: wedded to green ambitions but near broke.

RE: Asking UBC to take the lead on banning bottled water

UBC, unfortunately, is in the same boat: wedded to green ambitions but near broke. And UBC is hopelessly divided internally on this issue. The Bookstore, on the one hand, was offering 20 per cent discounts on water bottles to students who signed the Tap That petition.

Housing and Food Services, on the other, make a huge chunk of change selling bottled water.

Despite UBC’s green marketing, getting all UBC’s competing factions on board won’t be easy.

Kicking the bottle is ultimately a noble goal. But putting UBC on point for this one is about as effective as doing nothing at all.

A costly Bridge to higher tuition UBC has finally put a price tag on its Bridge to UBC program.

The program would fast-track international students who do not meet entrance requirements into an affiliated college. Those who perform well would be streamed directly into UBC. The catch? It costs $30,000 a year.

The Bridge program has its merits. Some private colleges exist for the sole purpose of getting students to pass language proficiency requirements, but don’t really prepare students for UBC. Language proficiency is a real issue for some international students, and Bridge seems qualified to address that.

But the university has shown no sign of tightening its language requirements to weed out unqualified students.

The Bridge program is being marketed as a way to improve diversity on campus and help otherwise qualified students get into a top university. But it also plays a key role in UBC’s budget.

UBC is counting on the program to pad its financial bottom line. International students have always been a big source of cash for the university. We have to question UBC’s motivations for charging $30,000 a year so international students can get into the university and pay even more money.

The CUS plays with funny money Last Wednesday, the Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS) brought a contract to AMS Council for approval.

The CUS wants to form an endowment fund with a portion of its accumulated surplus — about $400,000 of students’ money that the CUS can’t seem to spend.

Currently, the surplus does not generate any interest for the undergraduate society itself; any interest flows into AMS coffers. And there is a good argument that the AMS should receive that interest, because it covers many of the CUS’s financial costs, not to mention annual audits and other administrative minutia.

So the CUS, after exhausting every other method to extract

10

the bank interest from the AMS or invest the money, wants to create an $250,000 endowment fund through the university.

The CUS claims that the endowment would guarantee a return of 2.5 per cent each year (that’s a whopping $6,250) that would go back into student programming, increasing the CUS budget by about 0.6 per cent.

The contract set out by the CUS is as patchy as their reasoning for an endowment in the first place. The document hands over final say of the endowment to the dean of Sauder and allows the Board of Governors to change the terms of the agreement.

And while the CUS may have the university’s word that students could withdraw the capital should they ever want to, that little detail didn’t seem important enough to make it into the formal agreement.

The CUS needs to look at why they have generated nearly half a million dollars, and how they can give it back to students instead of the university.

RE: the Commerce Undergraduate Society’s massive surplus

On top of all this, the CUS purposefully sidestepped their own constitution, which sends major spending decisions to referendum, by funding the endowment in instalments of $50,000 over five years, leaving average students out of the process.

CUS President Jackie Leung might think that $250,000 isn’t a lot of money, and perhaps the dean really won’t give a crap about a quarter-million-dollar gift. But to the rest of us, it is equal to a third of what commerce students pay to the CUS each year.

Perhaps the CUS needs to look at why it has generated nearly half a million dollars, and how it can give it back to students instead of the university. U

he AMS is about to sink some more cash into its Whistler Lodge, a perpetual money-loser that the AMS failed to sell off through a referendum in early 2012. As we saw in this issue’s feature (pg. 6) the lodge has a colourful history.

But it has fallen on rough times as of late. Should the AMS sell its Whistler property? It depends on whether you see the lodge as a business — which should make enough money to at least cover its own expenses — or as a service that the AMS should subsidize.

Pro: The AMS should keep the lodge There are some things you can never get back. One such thing is property sold to greedy real estate developers. This is especially true when said property has increased exponentially in value over the past 50 years and is continuing to grow in worth. Deciding to sell the Whistler Lodge, then, even if one looks at it as a business, would be unwise.

The AMS should hold onto this valuable piece of real estate, not only because it provides an essential student service — a place to crash on the cheap while skiing Whistler — but because it will provide more money for the AMS down the road, if a sale becomes necessary.

As a student service, the lodge is a point of pride for students.

This was backed up by a student survey conducted by the AMS that showed overwhelming support for keeping the lodge, even among those who said they had not personally used it. Not only does it provide the cheapest rates for students to stay at Whistler, but it is part of the history of a school full of those who love the great outdoors. It’s an entirely student-created enterprise that has seen Whistler go from a handful of dinky ski hills to the home of the Olympics. It reminds prospective students that UBC and the AMS are still able to have fun — and for that reason alone, the thought of selling it should be banished from the AMS’s collective mind.

Viva la lodge!

Con: the ams should Get rid of the lodge The Whistler Lodge is a place a lot of people have strong feelings about, unsurprisingly. But we shouldn’t let those feelings get in the way of the place’s reality.

More online

kai jacobson PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

As it currently operates, the lodge can hardly be called a service. The cost to stay there, for a single student, is a scant $10 less than at Hostelling International.

And while the HI lodge operates as a business, the AMS’s lodge is a huge money sink. It’ll cost $85,000 this year just to keep the place from falling apart.

And in order to do much-needed repairs to keep it open long-term, the AMS will need to spend another $335,000 within the next couple of years.

Is that $10 savings — given solely to the handful of people who actually use the lodge — a good reason to spend that much student money? No. There are a lot of things the AMS sinks student money into that are worth it. Services like AMS Tutoring and Safewalk are widely used and easily available to all students, and the AMS is uniquely able to offer them. If AMS Tutoring shut down tomorrow, nobody else would move in right away and start offering first-year course tutoring for next to no cost. If Safewalk disbanded, there would be nobody else to walk you home at night for a handful of change.

Block Party? Now and then it loses money, though it tries to break even. If the AMS stopped putting on that year-end show, nobody else would mount another one in its place and charge you a couple bucks more for a ticket.

But if the Whistler Lodge is shut down, students hoping to stay there would be out a whopping 10 bucks.

There’s an argument to be made that the value of the lodge isn’t as a service used by individual students, but as a rent-thewhole-thing space for student events. That argument is pretty weak. A couple of groups do book events there, like the AMS and some Greek organizations, but the overwhelming majority of student ski trips take place at other resorts, where the cost of lift tickets is a lot cheaper.

Like many student groups, The Ubyssey once looked into booking a staff retreat at the lodge. But we backed out because student groups booking the place have to follow a bunch of overly paternalistic rules that wouldn’t be in place if we booked accommodations elsewhere.

The lodge has a rich history, but at present, there isn’t enough justification to pay the money needed to keep it open. U <em>

<em>

Gordon Katic’s weekly column can be found at ubyssey.ca/opinions/.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013 |

PICTURES + WORDS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

11

buildings >>

ARTS UNDERGRADUATE SOCIETY

HACKÉDEX

by the numbers

your UBC word of the week

RECENT HISTORY: MEEKISON ARTS STUDENTS’ SPACE (MASS) The Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) referendum question on renovation and expansion of MASS fails. The referendum asked if students would support an increase in fees to: “$18 for the academic years 2010/2011 to 2011/2012, and to; $23 for the academic years 2012/2013 to 2013/2014, and to; $28 for the academic year 2015/2016,

“C+CP” UBC Campus and Community Planning (C+CP) is tasked with guiding land, building, transportation, and infrastructure development on both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses of the university. They are the de facto city planning department of UBC. The unincorporated status of the university has led to the department making many controversial planning decisions that have caused opposition from students and the AMS.

for the purpose of building a new student social and study space....”

The AUS proposes a new building — separate from MASS — at a pricetag of $5.5 million dollars. The referendum asks for: “$15.00 fee to every Arts undergraduate student starting in September 2013, and will increase in September 2018 to a yearly fee of $25.00 until the cost of the building is paid off.”

Starting Balance $200k

Surplus for fiscal year Net Balance

$111K $103K $80K

AUS BUDGET BREAKDOWN 2010-2013

2013

($30K)

The ARTS UNDERGRADUATE SOCIETY has retained a net balance of more than $100K for the past two years due to accrued surplus.

For the fiscal year of 2010/2011, the AUS retained a surplus of approximately $34K. In 2011/2012, they retained a surplus of approximately $8K. For the year 2012/2013, they project to use approximately $30K of their accrued surplus.

12 | GAMes |

TUesDAY, FeBRUARY 12, 2013

54- attractive route 59- elevator man 60- Dirty look 62- Basic monetary unit of Sweden 63- oscar winner Patricia 64- Sea eagle 65- Singer John 66- Ultimatum word 67- Slugger Sammy 68- Brings up

52- Corn bread 53- Cravings 55- author ___ Stanley Gardner 56- ___ chance!

57- are you ___ out?

58- Tins 61- “Michael Collins” actor

doWn

PUZZle CoURTeSy BeSTCRoSSWoRDS.CoM. USeD WITH PeRMISSIon.

ACross 1- “The Planets” composer 6- Winglike parts 10- Singer Vikki 14- Tennyson’s “___ arden” 15- Torn clothing 16- Pulitzer winner James 17- Pave over 18- latin 101 word 19- Immature herring 20- “I, Robot” author 22- Surprised 24- afflict 26- Grommet

27- Person with new parents 31- Having four sharps 32- Forget it!

33- That group 36- Cornfield sound 39- Baltic feeder 40- German submarine 41- ___ avis 42- Rejections 43- Shooting sport 44- More secure 45- Big bird 46- Short-tempered person 48- Capital of the Philippines 51- Snow runner 52- Courteously

1- Mother of ares 2- Till bills 3- Monetary unit of lesotho 4- Con game 5- Husky 6- altar in the sky 7- Hightails it 8- Playing marble 9- editorial writer 10- Fortified feudal residence 11- light on one’s feet 12- Sublease 13- Funny Foxx 21- Compete 23- actor auberjonois 25- Do not disturb 27- Bartlett’s abbr.

28- extinct flightless bird 29- Is in the red 30- Hole goal 34- Weeding implement 35- Vows 36- latte spot 37- Domain 38- Division of a hospital 40- Small guitars 41- Go, team!

43- Struck, old-style 44- adhesive label 45- Isolate 47- approves 48- Highway stop 49- assumed name 50- olds model

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