November 26, 2012

U THE UBYSSEY

CHERISHING GLEN CoCo SINCE 1918

UBC’S OFFICIAL STUdENT NEWSPAPER | NOVEMBER 26, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XIXV

Remembering Camille Gregory

by Jonny Wakefield

O

n Sept. 13, Camille Gregory received her bachelor of science degree from UBC. Like any graduation ceremony, family and friends had gathered to see someone they cared about complete an important milestone. They snapped photos and took videos. In one of the home videos of the ceremony, we see a very excited Camille decked out in the

traditional black robes and mortarboard. We also see three UBC administrators, wearing their colourful academic regalia. The man in the centre holds a single degree parchment.

Vitamin C’s “Graduation” can be heard on a stereo somewhere offscreen.

At this point, the similarities between Camille’s convocation and other graduation ceremonies start to break down.

CONTINUED ON P6

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

What’s on Tue 1226

OUR CAMPUS

This week, may we suggest...

film >>

2

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

MONDAY

Travelers and Magicians: 4 p.m. @ Global Lounge

Would you like to know more about the country of Bhutan? The International Student Association is hosting a movie night screening of the highly popular and acclaimed film from Bhutan, Travelers and Magicians.

Tsering Shakya, a professor and researcher from the asian studies department, will be a guest speaker. Free.

Tue 1227

Tue 1228

PAPERS >>

TUESDAY

theatre >>

WEDNESDAY

Writing Help Drop-In: 3 p.m. @ IKBLC Learning Commons The last week of the term is finally here, and essay deadlines are close! Are you getting stuck on how to write your paper? Need to develop an outline or format your paper for citations? Stop by for some help. Free.

Tue 1229

learn >>

THURSDAY

Women & Justice: 5:30 p.m. @ Liu Institute Learn more about social justice for women in Africa. The Africa Canada Accountability Coalition is hosting an event of cross-cultural exchange about women’s initiatives that fight for peace, reconciliation and rights. Free.

Tue 1230

KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Robert Taylor is the director of bands at UBC.

Dancing at Lughnasa: 7:30 p.m. @ Frederic Wood Theatre Want to see a great play? Theatre at UBC presents Dancing at Lughnasa, the semi-autobiographical story of playwright Brian Friel’s childhood. The play mixes memory, generous humour and bittersweet sadness. This week is your last chance to see it! $10 for students.

fun >>

FRIDAY

Stress Less for Exam Success Trivia Night: 4:30 p.m. @ Chapman Learning Commons Need to blow off some steam before final exams arrive? As part of Exam Success Week, there will be a trivia night with prizes and food! Bring along your friends and meet new ones with this group event! Free.

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

Video content Make sure to check out “Cooking with Tyler McRobbie,” airing now at ubyssey.ca/videos/.

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Senior Lifestyle Writer STAFF Zafira Rajan Bryce Warnes, Josh Curran, zrajan@ubyssey.ca

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Sports + Rec Editor CJ Pentland sports@ubyssey.ca

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Art Director Kai Jacobson art@ubyssey.ca

NOVEMBER 26, 2012 | Volume XCIV| Issue XIXV

Peter Wojnar, Anthony Poon, Veronika Bondarenko, Yara Van Kessel, Lu Zhang, Ginny Monaco, Arno Rosenfeld, Matt Meuse, Hogan Wong, Rory Gattens, Brandon Chow, Joseph Ssettuba. Tyler McRobbie, Sarah Bigam

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C.J. Pentland Sports + Rec Editor

Robert Taylor had always known that he liked music. But it wasn’t until his third year of university that he decided to make it his career.

“It was actually kind of a fluke; I started out as a physics major,” said Taylor, director of bands and assistant professor of conducting and ensembles at UBC. “[But] I was spending more and more time in the practice room playing my trumpet, playing the piano [and] composing, and I found a lot of joy in it.… I recognized that I was more passionate about music at that stage and maybe I had been afraid to count on it as my career.”

After opting to pursue an education in music — culminating in his master’s of music and doctor of music degrees from Northwestern University — Taylor found his passion in teaching, which has motivated him throughout his entire life.

“For me, it was incredible to finally make that choice to do one thing really well, and that’s when I went to graduate school to study conducting,” said Taylor. “It was a hard choice, but it definitely was the right one.”

As director of bands at UBC, Taylor takes on a wealth of projects. In addition to maintaining a busy schedule as a guest conductor and clinician,

he conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Winds, teaches instrumental conducting and heads the brass division.

Originally from the California Bay Area, Taylor taught high school for 10 years in Humbolt County in northern California before going to graduate school at Northwestern in Chicago.

But despite falling in love with Chicago, he couldn’t resist the lure of the West Coast and ended up in Vancouver.

“The cool thing about living here is that there’s a lot happening with the arts scene, but there’s also great access to the outdoors and other things that I really enjoy doing that give me inspiration,” he said. “That’s why I’m back here; I just love to be outside and this is the perfect place.”

With so much going on, Taylor uses the outdoors to help “recharge [his] batteries” and keep himself motivated. Whether it’s backpacking, riding his bike or kayaking, the fresh air keeps him energized.

It also wouldn’t be uncommon to see Taylor out walking on the Stanley Park seawall on the morning of a concert, preparing for the night’s event.

“I walk around the seawall and go through the entire program in my head, just to be able to do that in a really relaxed state. It’s just such great preparation for focusing on performance day.”

While his music is heavily influenced by the adventure and beauty of the Pacific Northwest, Taylor still finds his real motivation in the concert hall while conducting in front of his students.

“What gives me the most energy and most inspiration is working with students, and just that feeling of being the one that facilitates bringing an ensemble together and seeing that light in everybody’s eye when it really goes great.”

Under Taylor’s leadership, UBC remains one of the top music schools in Canada. His students maintain an extensive schedule that sees them play a number of concerts throughout the year.

This year’s big event is a 10-day tour through Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.

Two other main events include a wind ensemble performance with the principal flutist from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on Feb. 13, and a March 28 concert with the Concert Winds and Symphonic Wind Ensemble, where they will play major works from David Maslanka.

It may seem like a big workload, but for Taylor, it’s the perfect job.

“It’s a hard life being a music teacher; it’s a really demanding career.… But when you see what it does for students, it’s great motivation and inspiration to keep working so hard.” U

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 |

EdITORS WILL MCDONALD + LAURA RODGERS

SAuDER >>

3

SuStAiNAbilitY >>

A game-changer for climate change education

SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF STEPHEN SHEPPARd

The video game Future Delta will teach players the impact their actions have on the environment.

Elspeth Malcolm Contributor At a Commerce Undergraduate Society board meeting last Thursday, the society passed a valid budget after a spate of financial issues starting in July.

HOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Commerce Undergrad Society botches budget Will McDonald News Editor

The Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS) has been operating without an official budget from July up until today — and that isn’t the only financial problem they’ve been facing.

The society’s frosh co-chair, Ryan Buhrig, said they made a mistake in their budget that left off the $32,000 needed to fund Sauder students’ participation in the JDC West, a nationwide business competition to be held at UBC this year. But when Buhrig looked deeper into the society’s budget, he discovered there weren’t enough members at the July 18 meeting when the budget was passed to meet the required quorum to make the budget valid.

Buhrig brought his concerns to the AMS. The student society looked into the budget, determined it was invalid and suspended the

NEWS BRIEFS RCMP, Campus Security respond to fight at Buchanan Building A fight between two students at Buchanan last Friday prompted a response from Campus Security and the RCMP. RCMP Cpl. Robert Ploughman said two students were involved in a fistfight at the Buchanan building at 12:04 p.m. Campus Security broke up the fight and the RCMP showed up to investigate.

Ploughman said the students knew each other and no charges are being pressed. He said no one was injured in the altercation.

UBC leads coalition to teach sustainable mining techniques UBC and SFU are forming a partnership to run a new institute to make mining more sustainable.

The venture, financed by a $25 million grant from a federal agency, is called the Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and development. The aim is to share Canadian expertise in mining and extraction throughout the industry and around the world.

“The University of British Columbia, leading the coalition, will now establish and operate a world-class institute that will deliver knowledge on proven regulation and oversight to help resource-rich developing countries create jobs and economic growth,” said Julian Fantino, minister of international cooperation, in a press release. U

CUS’s funds on Nov. 22. They reapproved the budget with quorum at last night’s board meeting and the AMS will now reinstate their funds.

AMS VP Finance Tristan Miller said the issue arose due to confusion over who counted towards quorum.

CUS president Jacky Leung said he believed quorum was met at the summer meeting, but it was unclear whether new first-year reps counted towards the total.

“From our perspective, everything was honoured. There was some confusion whether we should include [first-year reps] or not,” said Leung.

However, Leung said the CUS did the right thing to re-approve the budget last night.

“If a student feels that we we didn’t follow the procedures, I think it’s necessary to respect that,” said Leung.

“I think if a student is brave enough to come forward, we need

to also be brave enough to come forward and follow the rules.”

Leung said that the rules about quorum are a grey area, but there aren’t other major concerns with the budget.

“There’s always going to be disputes.… As far as I understand, this is really the major dispute, whether first-year representatives should be counted or not,” said Leung.

Buhrig looked into the budget after he became aware the CUS didn’t allocate the $32,000 needed to fund the conference due to a problem with a budget spreadsheet. By the time the problem was discovered, they only had $27,000 left to give to the program, leaving UBC’s 45 participants in JDC West to come up with the remaining $5,000.

The CUS passed a motion at Thursday night’s board meeting allocating $5,000 from another fund to pay for the remainder of the competition fees. Leung said the

money is coming from a separate competition fund.

“Basically it was a broken promise from the CUS and we felt personally that it was very immoral and unethical to raise the fees on the competitors after they were already promised something,” said Jasper Zimmermann, the society’s frosh co-chair.

Buhrig and Zimmermann said they had an alternate plan in place if the two motions didn’t pass at last night’s board meeting. They had acquired 99 of the required 100 signatures for two Sauder-wide referendums: one to give the extra money for JDC West and another to impeach the CUS president. They withheld their own signatures so they could effect the motions at any time. However, since the budget issue has been resolved, they plan to scrap the referendums.

Miller said the AMS considers the new budget to be valid. U

DEvElOPMENt >>

Musqueam band to develop block of land beside campus

Arno Rosenfeld staff writer

The patch of forest between Acadia Park and University Boulevard may soon become home to mid-rise residential towers, as the Musqueam Band moves forward on developing the land.

The Musqueam Band wants to build low and mid-rise residential towers and a small hotel, as well as some commercial storefronts. These plans will be discussed at a public consultation in early December.

Musqueam councillor Wade Grant said the proposed construction has been in the works since 2008, when the province handed over a tract of land, known as Block F, as part of a settlement. Grant said the primary goal for the land is to provide a source of economic development for the band.

“Musqueam, like many other First Nations, wants to become a little more self-sufficient and move away from being dependent on third-party governments,” said Grant.

Given that the angular tract of land is currently zoned only for lowrise residential housing, rezoning will be required for the Musqueam’s plans to proceed.

“We anticipate significant community interest and the [University Endowment Lands] will be working with [the Musqueam], setting an

COLLYN CHAN GRAPHIC/THE UBYSSEY

The Musqueam hope to put housing and a hotel on a patch of land next to campus.

expectation of a thorough and transparent process,” said Trisha Kaplan of the University Endowment Lands, who oversees urban development in the area that includes Block F. Grant said the band hopes to break ground on the project in 2014, with construction taking place over the next decade.

The Block F development will be the biggest to date for the band, and is projected to provide more revenue than any of their other properties, according to Grant.

The residential towers are planned to be 10-12 stories high with 1,000-12,000 units ranging from housing for families to smaller condos. There will also be 30,000 square feet of commercial space and a hotel with 100-120 rooms.

Grant said the Musqueam were communicating with the university to ensure their plans did not clash with UBC’s goals.

“As their neighbour and an interested stakeholder, we ... would be pleased to actively participate in the process,” said Pascal Spothelfer, vice-president communications and community partnership for UBC. It is expected that the development will become the primary source of self-generated revenue for the Musqueam, Grant said. The band currently leases an office building in Burnaby and the old Fraser Arms Hotel building in Vancouver, as well as allowing some construction of private homes on Musqueam reserve lands.

Grant said the Musqueam are currently in negotiations to build an arena for pleasure boats in south Vancouver.

Along with Block F, the province also turned over the land where the University Golf Club is located, but Grant said part of the agreement was that it must remain a golf course until 2083. U

UBC professor Stephen Sheppard wants to educate youth on climate change with an unconventional method: a video game.

Sheppard is in the process of creating Future Delta, a video game that shows the impacts of climate change on the city of Delta, B.C. The game is based on the projection that if no actions are taken, the city of Delta will be immersed in water due to rising ocean levels.

The purpose of the game is to reduce the city’s CO2 emissions using renewable energy, local farming, green infrastructure and investments in public transit.

Players are faced with the challenges of increasing energy, food and water demands Players are faced with the challenges of increasing energy, food and water demands as the population of Delta grows.

“The game will play out through the future — out to 2050, maybe 2100,” said Sheppard.

The creators of Future Delta aim to work with Delta schools and students, with the hope that once the game gets in the hands of kids, it will pique the interest of their parents as well.

UBC professor Aleksandra Dulic is working on the design of the game. She said the Delta setting increases the game’s effectiveness.

“There is a huge impact on people who play the games and can see their homes in the simulation.

A student who was testing the prototype grew up in Delta, and she recognized the neighbourhood. It had a tremendous impact on her,” said Dulic.

Dulic hopes the game will open up discourse on climate change options for the citizens of Delta.

“We need to make a change as a larger community, the federal and municipal government, individuals and industries — we all need to play our role and we need to do it together.”

UBC student Kristine Liu, corporate relations director of the Commerce Undergraduate Society’s sustainability committee, thinks the video game holds promise for climate change education.

“The term ‘climate change’ is thrown around a lot, and the effects are hard to grasp because they happen over long periods of time. The concept of a video game based in B.C. can make it concrete for youth, especially if they’re seeing the effects that it could have right in their backyards,” said Liu. Future Delta is still in its early stages. Expansion ideas include a social media component and an option where students could develop, add and share their own ideas. In about two years, the game is slated to enter classrooms, where further evaluation and student feedback will improve its design. U

4 | national |

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012

IMMIGRATION >>

More spots for international students hoping to stay in Canada

voting >>

Elections B.C. thinks young Emily Carr students design campaign to get more 18- to 24-year-olds to vote Laura Rodgers B.C. Bureau Chief

Cindy andrie photo/Flickr

The Government of Canada plans to increase the number of permanent residency spots available to international students.

Darryl Gallinger The Lance (University of Windsor)

WINDSOR (CUP) — In 2013, there will be even more federal spots available for international students who want to stay in Canada.

The Government of Canada has announced the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) immigration intake, which includes permanent residency for international students after they complete their studies, is expected to quadruple from 2,500 in 2009 to 10,000 in 2013. The number of immigrants accepted through CEC, which requires at least one year of professional work experience after graduation, has grown steadily each year since the program’s introduction in 2008.

“Our government’s number one priority remains economic and job growth,” said Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney in a press release.

“Newcomers bring their skills and talents, contribute to our economy and help renew our workforce so that Canada remains competitive on the world stage.”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada intends to admit a total of 240,000 to 265,000 new permanent residents in total next year, making it the seventh year running that it has kept up these levels of entry. According to the government depatrment, this is the highest sustained level of immigration in Canadian history.

The CEC program will expand its admission from 6,000 in 2011

to a record high of 10,000 permanent residents in 2013. Through CEC, international students can gain permanent residency after graduating from a post-secondary institution and completing at least one year of skilled work.

Temporary foreign workers are eligible through the program for admission after two years of skilled work.

University of Windsor international student advisor Enrique Chacon said immigration maintains Canada’s population levels and sustains the economy. The CEC program allows Canada to bring in highly desired skilled workers and to hold on to the international students it has supported. Chacon added that the CEC encourages “would-be permanent residents” to spend at least two years in Canada before allowing them the opportunity to become permanent residents.

“A few people will still give up and return [home],” said Chacon.

“In general, less than a quarter of international students stay as permanent residents.”

He explained that while CEC appeals to international students, another path to permanent residency, the Ontario provincial nominee program, is often more attractive.

“You have all the provinces competing against each other,” Chacon said, adding that each province attempts to offer a good deal to international residents to

encourage them to immigrate to their province. Chacon considers Ontario’s deal to be one of the best.

To be eligible for the Ontario program, foreign workers and international undergraduate students require a permanent, full-time job offer in a managerial, professional or skilled trade occupation. Graduate students and Ph.D. students are eligible as soon as they finish their degrees.

Similarly in British Columbia, recent international graduates with an offer for a skilled job are eligible to apply for permanent residency in the B.C. provincial nominee program, without completing any work experience.

There are also provincial nominee categories for recent master’s or Ph.D. graduates in scientific fields and a variety of categories for skilled workers with work experience.

Varad Raval, a student at the University of Windsor who is pursuing an MBA, intends to apply for the Ontario provincial nominee program. “I’ll be applying next September,” he said, adding that it takes 10 to 12 months to process an application for permanent residency.

“I’m really liking it here in Canada. I’m having some problems with the cold, but I enjoy it here,” said Raval, who’s originally from India. After acquiring some work experience, he intends to start up a business that facilitates recycling and solid waste management.

VANCOUVER (CUP) — Very few young people vote in B.C. provincial elections. To try and change this, Elections B.C. is getting creative.

A recently launched partnership between Elections B.C. and Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design has created a new course called “Designing for Democracy.”

In it, up-and-coming creatives get university credit for putting together a campaign encouraging more 18- to 24-year-olds to vote. Elections B.C. hopes the resulting student-designed campaigns will get more young voters to the polls by the May 2013 provincial election.

“Youth are one of those groups that are under-represented on the provincial voters list, so we are looking at ways to increase youth voter registration,” said Don Main, Elections B.C. communications manager. In the last provincial election in 2009, only 27 per cent of eligible B.C. voters age 18 to 24 voted, as compared to 54 per cent of those 25 and up.

The course, which is running from September to December of this year, has students from various design areas work in groups to address B.C.’s chronic under-engagement of young voters.

Because most of the students themselves are between 18 and 24 years old, Elections B.C. is confident that they’ll be able to reach young voters on their own turf.

“It seemed like a logical step to have youth preparing materials for youth,” said Main.

Emily Carr professor Chris Hethrington, who is teaching the course, thinks it’s a valuable way for students to learn through the real-world experience of designing a campaign for a client.

“It’s more like a real-world job situation,” said Hethrington.

“There are challenges in the scope of this kind of project that [students] haven’t experienced before.”

In the 19-student class within Emily Carr’s Faculty of Culture and Community, student groups designed everything from social media strategies to environmental art in an effort to get out the vote.

“We didn’t know what we were going to deliver when we started,” said Hethrington. He encouraged students to brainstorm new and creative ways to reach young people and to take their own habits into account.

Hethrington explained that, as the students in the class did research and discussed the ways that they consume information, they learned that certain types of social media might be more useful than others.

The class decided to focus on Facebook and Tumblr, but place less emphasis on Twitter campaigning.

“Our brainstorming revealed that, actually, Twitter wasn’t as commonly used as a vehicle for communication in that target age group,” said Hethrington. “So that’s kind of surprising, but it was interesting.”

As well as planning a social-media blitz, the class is also floating ideas like setting up fake voting booths in SkyTrain stations and printing polling-station maps to scatter on the floor of TransLink buses. They’re also working on more traditional advertising avenues, like print ads and a website.

Students will deliver their final advertising concepts to Elections B.C. next month. If all goes well, the students’ concepts will be used as part of a voter-engagement campaign in anticipation of an update of B.C.’s voting rolls next March.

Hethrington hopes that the project will benefit not just the students taking the course, but also democratic engagement across the province.

“The students really brought their own unique, innate knowledge of their own target audience.

That’s one of the great benefits of this project,” he said.

Medical ethics >>

Study probes cash incentives for organ donors Connor Thorpe Capilano Courier (Capilano University)

NORTH VANCOUVER (CUP) — Would a financial incentive make you more likely to donate an organ? A recent study conducted by the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta and the University of Calgary says yes, noting that almost half of Canadians surveyed approve of the idea, despite the fact that the sale of organs is illegal in Canada.

The study, titled “Attitudes Towards Strategies to Increase Organ Donation: Views of the General Public and Health Professionals,” employed a web survey directed at the general public, health professionals and those affected by kidney disease.

“This study came about from a discussion on how to increase the pool of potential donors. In other words, how to get more

people to step forward to donate, living or deceased,” said Lianne Barnieh, a researcher for the Liben Institute.

“To do this, we did a survey and enlisted the help of a survey firm for the general public, and professional groups for those working in the area of kidney disease, and finally the Kidney Foundation of Canada to reach out to their members and supporters. We found that, on the whole, people found financial incentives for donation acceptable.”

Barnieh said that there are over 3,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in Canada and that 82 people died while waiting for one in 2010. The study hopes to encourage methods of increasing donation that will help speed up the process of transplantation.

While the study itself did not examine ethical topics relating to financial incentives for organ

donors, they did include detailed data about public acceptance of various approaches to the subject.

“There were varying levels of acceptability, depending on the incentive, between the three groups. Almost half the public found cash payment to living donors acceptable, whereas only 14 per cent of health professionals found this acceptable.

The most acceptable incentives were reimbursement of funeral expenses for deceased donors and tax breaks for living donors,” said Barnieh. “All of these financial incentives would be given out by a government organization. We did not, and would not, consider a system where money [would] be exchanged between individuals.”

The reasoning behind the projected increase of donations associated with a cash incentive is simple: people are often motivated by money.

“When looking at human behaviour, there is no one thing that motivates people,” said Barnieh.

“Though some people give from the ‘goodness of their heart,’ others may need more to motivate them to donate. We are hoping that by offering financial incentives, we appeal to this other group of people.”

Barnieh dismissed the concern that low-income citizens may be exploited by the financial incentives.

“Firstly, the assumption that people with lower income are only motivated by money for a given act is a very narrow view,” she said.

“Secondly, though $10,000 can be a large incentive, it is not sufficient to completely change someone’s financial situation.

Still, the ethics behind the study have come under fire,

though the ethical implications behind offering financial incentives to organ donors was never a focus on the study.

In an interview with CTV News , Arthur Schafer, an ethicist at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, said there are ethical problems in offering financial compensation for organ donors.

“Frankly, I think it would be bordering on obscene to offer financial compensation to the mother whose child has just died,” he said.

It’s unclear what the next step will be for both researchers and policy makers involved in organ donations. Barnieh said that the study conducted by the Libin Institute is a good start.

“Now that we know Canadians find many financial incentives acceptable, we can find a way to move forward.” <em>

</em>

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 |

EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

volleyball >>

Continuing winning ways UBC celebrates success of women’s volleyball C.J. Pentland Sports + Rec Editor

On a weekend that celebrated the unparalleled success of women’s volleyball at UBC, it was fitting that this year’s Thunderbird squad dominated the University of Regina Cougars at War Memorial Gym. UBC’s nine national championship teams were honoured this past weekend, with several former players in attendance to take part in pre-game events and watch the games. The T-Birds then took care of business on the court, defeating the Cougars three sets to one on Friday night and in straight sets on Saturday.

“You don’t really want to come, when you’re celebrating championships, and stink the joint up,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer after Saturday’s win. “There are distractions that go with doing these types of things,… but all in all it was very good to see.… It was great memories and quality team-building.”

With the event this weekend, it would’ve been easy for the T-Birds to come out flat, and after the first set on Friday night it seemed like that might be the case. The ’Birds noticeably struggled in the first set, failing to get much going and dropping the first set 27-25. However, they made sure nothing like that would happen again, taking the next set 25-11 and not dropping another one over the rest of the weekend.

The ’Birds, winners of five straight national championships, improved to 9-1 on the regular season with the two victories.

Their play has also given them the No. 2 ranking in the nation, showing that the team’s winning tradition is in no danger

ed ng photo/THE UBYSSEY

This year’s T-Bird team improved to 9-1 on the year with two wins over Regina.

of disappearing.

Regina did not provide the stiffest competition for the Thunderbirds, but UBC’s ability to put away those types of teams is one of the reasons for their constant success. The games also allowed the ’Birds to use their bench to spread out some of the playing time, and those who played delivered some impressive performances.

Leading the way was secondyear Alissa Coulter, who tied for the team lead in kills on Saturday with 11 on a .500 hitting percentage.

“She found a way to get some good kills, and that can help so much in the offence,” said Reimer. “Obviously teams are going to key in on Shanice [Marcelle] and Lisa [Barclay], so to have some balance in that in the other attacking position puts a lot of pressure on the other team’s blocking defence. So that was good to see.”

A few first-years also got in on

the action. Juliana Kaufmanis saw her first action of the year on Saturday, chipping in with a kill and a block. Alana Hansen and Danielle Brisebois also made contributions to the T-Bird victory.

“It’s always good when you can get them in, and sometimes when we struggled, it didn’t have anything to do with the first-year players coming in,” said Reimer.

In total, eight players registered kills in Saturday’s contest, with Marcelle also recording 11 along with Coulter. Brina Derksen-Bergen was constantly setting up the T-Bird attack, totaling 35 assists.

UBC will conclude their busy first half of the season on the road next weekend when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the University of Manitoba. They will then continue their quest for six straight national championships when they come back home in the new year to take on the University of Winnipeg on Jan. 11 and 12. U

volleyball >>

UBC men’s volleyball rolls over Regina

Bruce Chen Contributor

In an ultra-competitive conference like the Canada West, teams need to remain consistent and sharp no matter the circumstances. The UBC men’s volleyball squad was up to that challenge this past weekend, looking stellar in a two-game sweep of the University of Regina Cougars at War Memorial Gym. They won both games in straight sets.

It can be easy to let up when the other team isn’t putting up much of a fight — Regina is 1-9 on the year — but the Thunderbirds used this weekend to refine their skills and bring their best game.

In five of the six sets played on the weekend, the Thunderbirds were able to hold the Cougars to less than 20 points, showing their defensive prowess. In the game on Saturday, the T-Birds’ starting middle tandem of Chris Howe and Alex Russell were able to combine for 10 blocks, while outside hitter Jarrid Ireland contributed four and added 10 kills on 28 per cent hitting.

Saturday saw the Thunderbirds hit for a healthy 30.2 per cent, as opposed to Regina’s paltry .010. Ben Chow hit for a ridiculous 56 per cent, and throughout the weekend

bird droppings >>

Split with Alberta keeps UBC in fourth place

Late loss costs men’s basketball a weekend sweep

C.J. Pentland Sports + Rec Editor

This past weekend, the UBC women’s hockey team once again proved that they are one of the top teams in the Canada West.

The Thunderbirds split their weekend series with the CIS No. 4 ranked University of Alberta Pandas at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. They prevailed 3-2 on Friday night, while Saturday saw them fall just short in a 2-1 decision.

The result moves UBC to 7-4-3 on the season, good for fourth place in Canada West. This is all coming after a 2011-2012 season that saw the T-Birds win one game in 24 contests.

In Friday’s game, the Thunderbirds took a two-goal lead in the second period and held on for a one-goal victory despite a late Alberta comeback. Rebecca Unrau led the way with two goals, putting her in a tie for the conference lead in goals with eight.

Haley Voytechek added the other marker for UBC, as she tied the game up at one in the first period with her first career CIS goal.

Samantha Langford stood tall in net for the T-Birds, making 28 saves to record the victory. She came up especially big late in the

game, stopping several Alberta chances on a powerplay.

“I was really impressed with the girls,” said UBC head coach Graham Thomas, who is in his first year with the T-Birds. “It was probably one of our best team efforts to date.”

The Pandas were able to exact some revenge on Saturday night, leap-frogging UBC in the standings to move to third place. This time it was Alberta holding off some late T-Bird pressure; UBC had a flurry of chances late in the game with their goalie pulled, but couldn’t do enough to overcome the two-goal deficit.

Tatiana Rafter potted one home with 28 seconds left to cut the Panda lead to 2-1, but the clock ran out before UBC could add the equalizer.

Despite the loss, Thomas still saw a lot to like from his team.

“Tonight we had every excuse to pack it in against a tough team,” said Thomas. “We have to keep our heads held high. We have to be proud about that effort, even if it wasn’t the outcome we wanted.”

Danielle Dube played in net for UBC on Saturday and took the loss, despite making 26 saves. However, it was an overall solid defensive weekend for the

T-Birds, as they held their own against one of the country’s top teams and limited them to only four goals over two games.

The T-Birds will close out 2012 on the road next weekend in Regina when they take on the University of Regina Cougars.

After heading to Calgary to open up the new year, the team will head back home on Jan. 11 to take on Lethbridge in a weekend series. U

HOCKEY STATS

BY THE

NUMBERS

The UBC men’s basketball team looked poised to cement their status as the top team in the Canada West this past weekend, but ultimately couldn’t grind out two wins over lower-ranked opponents.

Friday night saw the Thunderbirds grind out a 84-81 win over CIS No. 8 ranked Saskatchewan, seemingly getting the No. 3 ranked ‘Birds back on track. However, UBC couldn’t hold off No. 10 Alberta on Saturday, falling to them 68-66.

UBC moves to 6-2 on the year and will come home next weekend to take on Calgary and Lethbridge.

Women’s basketball fights to earn a weekend split

4 points in 24 games last season

After falling 72-62 on Friday night to the CIS No. 9 ranked Saskatchewan Huskies, the UBC women’s basketball team bounced back on Saturday to take down the University of Alberta Pandas 71-58.

Kris Young and Leigh Stansfield were at the front of the UBC attack all weekend, especially during Saturday’s victory. Stansfield put up 19 points and grabbed nine boards against the Pandas, while Young racked up 25 points.

UBC, currently ranked tenth in Canada, moves to 5-3 on the year.

- For a more detailed recap of their weekend, visit ubyssey.ca/sports

8 goals scored by Rebecca

Unrau, tied for the most in the Canada West

1.69 goals against average for Danielle Dube, third best in the Canada West

16 T-Birds who have scored a goal this season

josh curran photo/the ubyssey

Basketball teams split, hockey drops two and swimming sees success at Canada Cup

17 points in 14 games for the

T-Birds

four different ’Birds got into double figures in points.

After starting out the season 2-4 due to weekend dates with both the CIS No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams, the Thunderbirds have helped themselves to two straight weekend sweeps over Calgary and Regina. Their side-out offence, which is when a team receives the ball on a serve and wins the point back, has looked stellar of late; the ’Birds were able to secure the ball back 80 per cent of the time against Regina.

Typically, teams that side-out well tend to get the ball back and go on huge runs of their own.

The ’Birds now have a 6-4 record, having played some of their best volleyball over the past two weekends. In order to make a serious run at the Canada West and CIS championships, the growth and execution must continue and stay consistent. The key will be continuing to side-out at a good rate and rack up blocks.

They’ll especially need to keep up the play next weekend, as they visit the No. 4 ranked University of Manitoba. A tough test like this will show whether or not UBC can join the conversation of top teams in Canada. U

UBC consistently stymied Regina’s offence on the weekend.

hockey >>

Women’s hockey means business

5

Men’s hockey drops two to U of A UBC men’s hockey couldn’t do enough to topple Alberta this weekend, dropping a pair of games in Edmonton. Friday saw the ’Birds lose a 2-0 contest, while Saturday saw them fall 6-2.

Goalie Jordan White was pesterd with shots all weekend and played, making 35 saves on Friday and 29 on Saturday, but the offence couldn’t provide much support. Only Cole Wilson and Brad Hoban could crack Alberta on the weekend.

The CIS No. 9 ranked ’Birds move to 8-5-1 on the year and will return home next weekend to take on the University of Regina Cougars.

Big weekend for UBC swimming UBC swimmers impressed this past weekend at the Canada Cup in Etobicoke, Ontario. Leading the way was Kelly Aspinall, who won five races over the two days and broke two Thunderbird varsity records. He was the overall winner for the men with 25 aggregate points.

Other winners included Heather MacLean, who finished first in the 200m and 100m freestyles, and Savannah King, who won the 400m freestyle.

With the help of several T-Bird podium finishes, the UBC Dolphins club team took home the team Canada Cup with a combined score of 1,199. U

6 | FEaTURE |

MoNDaY, NoVEMBER 26, 2012

Camille Gregory 1988-2012

“She said she had her degree and she knew she was going to get it. But she really wanted to ... hold it in her hands.”

CONTINUED FROM P1

T

his particular ceremony was held in the palliative care wing of Surrey Memorial Hospital. Camille was dying. She had cancerous tumours in her bones, her liver, her brain. She was given morphone, a painkiller many times stronger than morphine. Her speech was slurred and she was unable to walk.

Instead, her father Nick pushed her in a wheelchair across what passed for a stage. Camille was far from all there, but from the look in her eyes, it’s clear she knew what was going on.

One of the administrators from UBC, James Ridge, read a few lines, and Camille officially became a graduate of UBC. “In regards to the degree, bachelor of science in chemistry, I hereby admit you.”

Four days later, Camille passed at her family’s home in North Delta.

The ceremony at Surrey Memorial is haunting in its beauty. But it doesn’t fully represent Camille as she really was.

“She just wanted to keep going right until the end. It was kind of a declaration,” said Nick of Camille’s attitude after she was first diagnosed. “She would always say she didn’t want a lot of people to know that she had cancer. She said she didn’t want a pity party.”

“You didn’t give us time to feel sad for you,” wrote one friend on her Facebook page. Indeed,

Camille rarely slowed down. She had been active her entire life, hyper-involved in her schoolwork and extracurriculars. That started in Grade 8, when she began playing club volleyball.

“We didn’t really know much about it at the time until we heard that they had won the B.C.’s and that she had been a provincial all-star,” said Nick. After that, she went on to play at her high school, Seaquam Secondary. “[Camille] would slam a volleyball straight down into the ground with a fierce look on her face,” recalled Jessica Barclay, a former teammate. “Then she would look at us with an ear-to-ear grin.”

Despite her athletic prowess, Camille didn’t join any particular clique. “She was fairly independent,” said Nick. “She had a wide range of friends. She didn’t just have athletic friends; she didn’t just have smart friends.”

While she was in high school, Camille spent a summer modeling in Japan. For Camille, modeling wasn’t just a hobby; she made serious money off of it. She modeled for a Chinese Sony campaign that saw her likeness on billboards, in print and on TV. Modeling was something that her grandmother had always suggested. “Her grandmother had always said, ‘Oh, Camille’s so pretty, she should be a model,’” said Nick.

“And we just kind of ignored it because, oh yeah, fine, whatever.”

One of her aunts finally took it upon herself to make some phone calls. She set up several appointments with agencies in Vancouver.

PHOTOS COURTESY NICK GREGORY

Counter-clockwise from top: Camille at a café in Germany, where she did a co-op placement with Bayer; in the huddle with her highschool volleyball team; at the 2012 summer Olympics with her boyfriend Neil; one of Camille’s modelling head shots; enjoying beer after a race.

Camille finally settled on Richard’s, a Gastown-based firm that represents models to international clients.

“Funnily enough, though she was a model, she never really had a serious boyfriend until right at the end of high school,” said Nick.

In her senior year, Camille met Neil Aggarwal. They hit it off

immediately, but their relationship faced its first big challenge when Camille went to Japan.

“I was worried it would be too difficult to continue a long-distance relationship, but we made it work,” Neil said at Camille’s memorial service. “She must have known I needed some assurance of our love and decided to write and send letters

to me every day for the duration of her trip.”

“He still has them,” said Nick.

“This big stack of letters.”

Camille ultimately decided to attend the University of Victoria, in part because she wanted the independence of attending school outside of the Lower Mainland.

After her first year, many in the

MoNDaY, NoVEMBER 26, 2012

university realized Camille’s academic potential. She started getting recruitment calls from various departments. Ultimately, though, she settled on chemistry.

Then one day, Camille noticed a mole on her arm.

“She had come over to the mainland to get checked out. Had the biopsy done. When we got the results, then we knew what it was,” said Nick.

Camille had developed melanoma.

“Everyone was horrified, shocked; to be facing that kind of an illness at a young age is not something people expect,” said Nick.

“She was never a sun worshipper.

She was never out there, laying on the beach for hours on end.”

Camille was forced to return home to the mainland for treatment. But the thought of dropping out of school to undergo surgery and chemotherapy never crossed her mind. Plus, there was still the hope that the cancer might go into remission.

Camille enrolled in the chemistry department at UBC, where she worked under Dr. Mark Maclachlan. For her fourth-year project, Camille worked on synthesizing new materials. She created mesoporous organosilicas, which Maclachlan described as “new glass materials that are iridescent because they are structurally similar to beetle shells.” Camille was a top-notch student and a positive influence on the lab.

He said UBC...wanted to come out to the hospital to present the degree in person to Camille. So that’s what they did.

Nick Gregory Father

“Everywhere she went, she exuded this positive energy. When she went into a room, everybody was happy. She was always happy and really optimistic,” said Maclachlan.

No one in the lab had any reason to suspect that Camille was ill. According to Nick, it wasn’t something she told casual acquaintances.

“If she was just wearing a short-sleeve shirt, you’d see some of the big scars that she had from surgeries where they removed some of the tissue surrounding the mole,” he said. “If it came up, it was very matter of fact. ‘Oh, what’s that on your arm?’ ‘Oh, that’s where I had some surgery.’ She wouldn’t go into her shell or anything.”

In December 2011, things took a turn. Six months after Camille’s initial diagnosis and a series of surgeries, it looked as though the cancer had been contained. But it had come back.

Everywhere she went, she exuded this positive energy. When she went into a room, everybody was happy.

Mark Maclachlan Chemistry professor

It was the first time Maclachlan learned that one of his best students was sick.

“She came and talked to me and told me that she had cancer. She’d just found out it’d come back and she needed to get some treatment for it.”

Camille had to drop a few classes in order to keep up with her treatment. But she didn’t drop much else. In 2012 alone, Camille went on trips to Mexico, Paris and

London. She took that last trip with Neil between chemo sessions. They were there in time for the Olympics; Camille’s last Facebook profile picture is of her and Neil holding up a Canadian flag next to a London 2012 logo. Though her arms seem a little thin, Camille looks healthy.

Camille was vital up until the last few weeks of her life. She was on campus as recently as July, finishing up her last few degree requirements.

“I had literally seen her a month and a half before at the Coppertank with a group of her chemistry friends from UBC,” said Jessica.

The two hadn’t really kept in touch since high school, so she knew nothing of Camille’s illness. “She was smiling yet again and expressing how proud she was of her friend, who had just completed his thesis.”

Camille would have graduated at the most recent convocation. But in early September, her health began to deteriorate rapidly.

She was hospitalized on Sept. 7.

Nick, who works in the AMS store room, was busy with the Welcome Back Barbecue when he got the call.

He remembers his wife telling him it wasn’t worth coming in, because Camille was so heavily sedated.

When Camille was able to interact with people again, he went to see her.

“I said, ‘Is there anything you really want that I can do for you?’

“And she said she had her degree and knew she was going to get it.

But that she really wanted to get it and to hold it in her hands.”

Nick made a call to Camille’s academic advisor.

“Later that day, he called me to say that he literally had the degree in his hands, that he’d be able to make that happen. He said UBC and their department wanted to come out to the hospital to present the degree in person to Camille. So that’s what they did.”

James Ridge, who is the registrar and oversees graduation ceremonies, ended up getting a call from the Faculty of Science. “From the first phone call to the actual ceremony was around 48 hours,” he said.

Ridge said he attends every graduation ceremony he can on both UBC campuses. But none have been quite like the one that day at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

“It’s certainly a grad ceremony I’ll never forget,” said Ridge.

Almost 500 people attended Camille’s memorial service at St. Cuthbert Anglican in North Delta.

Nick said he expected about half that number.

Camille and her family had talked about what she wanted at such a ceremony, but Camille never got too specific about her last requests.

“There was nothing specific that she said she wanted. The selections were ones that I made or the minister made or my wife made,” said Nick.

“She was more concerned with living than dying.”

But Camille realized, on some level, that her story was inspiring.

At one point during her illness, the Faculty of Science contacted her family about including a piece on Camille in their newsletter. That note was released earlier this week, to coincide with the fall graduation, when Camille would have walked across the stage with her classmates.

Camille wanted people to hear her story. Despite her desire not to be known as the girl with cancer, she realized that her story might help people.

“If it can give someone some sort of comfort or determination to continue,” said Nick, “then it was fine with her.” U

| FEaTURE | 7

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 |

EdITOR ANNA ZORIA

tERRY tAlkS >>

Atwood’s brainy talk Renowned Canadian author questions the uncertainty of our future in a speech on the zombie apocalypse

By Catherine Guan

M

Atwood spoke at the Chan Centre on Nov. 22.

JOSH CURRAN PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

argaret Atwood, she of the sibylline prose and caustic tongue, took the stage at the Chan Centre on the evening of Nov. 22 to speak on the topic of “Writing the Future,” a meditation on the zombie apocalypse.

The chattering of the nearly full auditorium fell into a reverent hush once Atwood stepped on stage. The reverence is well-deserved, for she is probably the closest thing Canada has to literary royalty.

Atwood began the evening with a charming anecdote about her days teaching grammar to engineers at UBC. “At 8:30 in the morning,” she added, with a sidelong look.

Her appearance was part of The Terry Project’s Global Speakers Series, which was open to all students. Limited spots were reserved for the public.

Staunch fans stood in line cradling well-loved copies of Atwood’s work, ready for the book signing that followed her speech. Oryx and Crake had many devotees. </em>

8

There was also a smattering of The Handmaid s Tale and The Blind Assassin , Booker Award finalist and winner, respectively.

Having written over 35 volumes of acclaimed poetry, fiction and non-fiction, Atwood has come a long way since her first novel, The Edible Woman .

The proto-feminist book was composed while Atwood was teaching at UBC, and according to the author herself, was “written in UBC exam booklets — just the right length for a chapter.”

Atwood then eased into her subject, reflecting on how predictions for the future have become more ominous than the bright visions of the 1930s.

“We no longer imagine the future as a stroll in the park,” she said. “More like being bogged in a swamp. And then there is the zombie apocalypse: another item situated in the future.

“I became interested in zombies, because quite frankly, I initially failed to grasp their charm,” she continued.

“But others seem to have grasped it, so an investigation was in order. What was I missing?”

Atwood has been releasing in instalments The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home , a serialized novel written in collaboration with Naomi Alderman. Its unexpected popularity prompted her to consider the meaning of our current fascination with zombies. Atwood noted Alderman’s observation that compared to vampires, who are popular in times of prosperity, zombies come into favour in more austere periods.

“Zombies exist in the eternal now, because they lack memory and foresight.… They are strangely carefree, like in the old song, ‘The Zombie Jamboree.’”

Atwood gave the speech with her characteristically wry delivery. While she frequently drew appreciative chuckles, there was always a sense of aloof, feline amusement that distanced her from her audience.

During the question and answer period, Atwood demonstrated the wicked humour she is known for with a series of sharp one-liners. She was also swift to dispatch any misinterpretation or oversimplification of her work with regal authority.

The message Atwood concluded with was one of hope.

Commenting on the trend in questions she receives during Q&A sessions, Atwood said, “Lately, they have been asking a lot, ‘Is there hope?’

“There is always hope and it is also catching. Maybe that is the true meaning of zombies: they are ourselves, but without the hope.” U </em>

<em>

<em>

<em>

</em>

<em>

</em>

fAShiON >>

Wabi Collections: Girly, grungy, good karma Two fourthyear students introduce a fashion line with a charitable twist Zafira Rajan senior Lifestyle writer

What do leather bodycon dresses and UNICEF have in common?

A new, edgy fashion line is being designed by two fourth-year UBC students, Brianna MacNeil and Malissa Bautista, who will donate about 10 per cent of their profit to UNICEF to prevent human trafficking. The pair has taken the semester off to dedicate time to their company, Wabi Collections.

“There’s no sense in us keeping all the profits,… and so I thought of human trafficking, because I find it so striking and interesting that there’s not a lot being done about it, even though it’s such a huge problem,” MacNeil said.

They soon realized that there wasn’t a specific outlet to donate to human trafficking, so they had to think outside the box. If there wasn’t an organization designed to stop trafficking, they could at

least contribute to its prevention. That’s where UNICEF came in.

“Birth registration is probably one of the best preventative ways to stop human trafficking. If a child doesn’t have birth registration, their family can’t report them missing, because they won’t legally be listed,” MacNeil pointed out. “They can’t access healthcare and education, or any social services, for that matter.

If they don’t have proof what country they’re from or what their age is, they can be placed into child labour or the army, because they can’t prove that they are too young.

“UNICEF is really happy that they have a brand to represent them for younger people.”

The collection is aimed at women aged 17-28, and brings to mind the funky styles of Nasty Gal and Unif, but with the quality kicked up a notch.

“It’s kind of girly and grungy, a young and contemporary brand for women who are playful and fun. The clothes are really top quality, with some being 100 per cent silk and satin. It’s for someone who wants to be unique and edgy,” MacNeil said.

The current collection features high-quality denim shorts, skirts, dresses, studded georgette shirts and leather jackets. In the future, MacNeil and Bautista plan to expand the collection to include up-cycled high-end vintage clothes as well.

“Malissa used to design clothes for Barbie dolls, and she’s been making her own clothes for a long time, but I never really thought I’d be designing clothes,” MacNeil said with a laugh. “When I was younger I always wanted to be a fashion designer,… but I never thought it would actually happen.”

Currently, the company is seeking out crowd funding in collaboration with Indiegogo, an online platform where people can pledge money to the development of start-up initiatives. Donors will receive Wabi items and the company will donate birth registrations to UNICEF. The campaign runs until Dec. 14, by which point they hope to have contributed towards 2,500 birth registration certificates.

“This takes up a lot of time. We probably work 12-16 hours a day on this.... I’m not really sure how we’re going to juggle this with our degrees,” said MacNeil. “We can finish it at any time, and we’re not in any rush.”

MacNeil and Bautista have received warm responses to their collection here and in California. They hope to collaborate with big retailers like Nasty Gal and Urban Outfitters next year, and eventually break into other markets.

“The ultimate goal is to hopefully have some stores here and internationally. We think it’s really West Coast style, so places like San Francisco, L.A., California would love it.

We’d also love to have stores in New York, Miami and Toronto — maybe even Asia,” said MacNeil.

“People are really excited and really shocked when we tell them about UNICEF,” MacNeil said.

“Like TOMS, we want to be a company that will always be able to sustainably donate.” U

COURTESY OF WABI

Brianna MacNeil and Malissa Bautista plan on expanding their collection with vintage pieces.

MoNDaY, NoVEMBER 26, 2012

| CULTURE | 9

VanDolls put pasties on Picasso Burlesque group dresses up as famous artists and paintings buRlESQuE >>

Rhys Edwards senior Culture writer

Last Saturday evening, Bob Ross, Van Gogh and Leonardo Da Vinci dressed in revealing clothing, performed risqué dance numbers and posed onstage for eager audiences.

The artists were part of the lineup for the VanDolls Burlesque Troupe’s show, Paint and Pasties: An Evening of Art and Burlesque . They were joined by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Banksy and Roy Lichtenstein, among others. A member of the VanDolls played each famous visual artist, and several performers even joined together in group numbers to re-enact scenes depicted in famous paintings, from C.M. Coolidge’s “Dogs Playing Poker” to Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” <em>

</em>

It’s a really good mix, burlesque and art, because they go hand and hand.

Rufflesilkskin VanDolls performer

Although the event proved titillating, the VanDolls weren’t simply out to satirize art. The theme of famous paintings coincides with the VanDolls’ efforts to engage Vancouver’s visual art community. Along with the performances, Paint and Pasties featured an exhibit with works from several local <em>

</em>

The Vandolls stepped out to play in an art-inspired show on Nov. 24.

artists, and attendees could also buy painting supplies during the show itself.

“It’s a really good mix, burlesque and art, because they go hand and hand,” explained Rufflesilkskin, a member of the VanDolls troupe who requested that her real name be withheld.

“We also have lots of connections with artists in the city.

Lots of burlesque performers, they’re also crafters. They’ll

make things; we all make our own costumes or we do our own makeup.... There’s lots of tattoo artists, hair stylists. It all falls together, really.

“Burlesque is already a part of the artist’s community,” she added. “I would say we’re performance artists.”

With their holistic approach to entertainment, the VanDolls hope to open up the burlesque scene for people who might not

PHOTO COURTESY OF FRANKY PANKY

otherwise be interested. For instance, in February and March the troupe ran two video gamethemed burlesque nights that sold out weeks in advance.

“We had a lot of people who had never seen a burlesque show, but when they heard it was going to be video games,... people were like, ‘I would really like to see what happens when Mario decides to take her clothes off,’” said VanDoll Sweet Sashay, who

re-enacted a Toulouse Lautrec painting at Saturday’s show.

Although the VanDolls only formed in 2010, they’ve created a distinct identity within Vancouver’s burgeoning burlesque scene.

With nine members, they’re one of the largest troupes in the area, and each performer has a different body type and background.

The size and diversity of the group has allowed them to create shows that are both innovative and thematically consistent.

“For us, you have that one cohesive show, but you’re going to get a bag full of tricks within that show,” said Rufflesilkskin.

“You’re going to get some very neo-burlesque acts, some comedy,” Sweet Sashay said. “One of our girls really likes to push the envelope with stuff. And then you also have some girls who like to do the more classic striptease and the kind of sultry stuff.

“I do think, especially for female audience members, it’s partly that variety that’s so attractive.”

This reflects the changing demographics in burlesque entertainment; once considered a sleazy distraction staged by women for men, burlesque artists now identify with many sexualities and perform for audiences of different genders.

“I think that there’s starting to be that realization that there are a lot of other options to express your sexuality, to express yourself and to engage with other people,” Sashay observed. “Burlesque ties into that quite nicely and so has become more popular

MuSic >>

Breaking out the fiddle

Folk singer Tim Chaisson to perform at Pit Pub Reyhana Heatherington Contriubtor

Tim Chaisson is the definition of an artist. He plays the acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle, piano, drums and bass. The Prince Edward Island-bred singer-songwriter had been part of his family’s Celtic ensembles since his elementary school days, and he always knew music would be a part of his life.

“I kind of always had an inkling that I would be a musician.… I actually took my last semester off school to go on a tour, and I haven’t stopped touring since then.”

His latest tour brings him, along with Ontario rock band Poor Young Things, to UBC’s Pit Pub on Nov. 29.

Chaisson’s fifth and most recent solo album, The Other Side, is tenderly written and full of soothing instrumentals. The album’s first single — “Beat This Heart,” featuring Serena Ryder — has been climbing up the CBC Radio 2 Top 20 chart. The song is composed of poignant lyrics and beautiful harmonies that will leave you humming for hours.

One of Chaisson’s latest accolades comes courtesy of campuses across the country. The Canadian Organization of Campus Activities honoured him as 2012’s best emerging artist, as voted by students and staff of Canadian universities.

University campuses are familiar territory for Chaisson; while studying psychology and history <em>

</em>

at the University of Prince Edward Island, he always made time to seek out gigs.

“Whenever I used to book myself, I would go call the campus bar and see if they needed any music at any time, and I’d just go and play.

And then, you know, you kind of party with your friends and play a couple songs.”

Chaisson’s fanbase has grown steadily since his days playing in P.E.I. He actively responds to fans using social media, and has over 3,500 followers on Twitter. This was apparent at a recently packed show at a legendary Toronto venue, the Horseshoe Tavern.

“Coming from P.E.I. — and we still live in P.E.I. — people kind of put Toronto musically on a pedestal, in a way, and rightfully so, because it’s kind of a hub of where a lot of musicians go.… So it was like one of those moments when you get up on stage and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, wow,’ and you see the hard work paying off.”

In his shows, Chaisson forgoes a flashy performance style in favour of song-driven sets with strong vocals and heartfelt acoustic guitar.

Traditional East Coast instruments, including the fiddle, banjo and mandolin, are also featured in his repertoire.

“It’s kind of a little bit more folky and stripped down,” he said.

Chaisson is quick to deflect the spotlight onto those around him, including his cousin, Koady

Chaisson, who contributes vocals, bass and banjo to the show. Despite long hours spent in a van on the road, Chaisson has no complaints about touring Canada with his close friends.

“I love the guys that I’m with.…

Whenever you’re with good people, you know, you’re with your friends, it’s just like you’re on a road trip and you’re playing music every night.”

Chaisson said he is always striving for improvement, and the biggest payoff comes onstage with the support of the audience.

“My ultimate goal would be just to be able to be keep doing what I’m doing and make a modest living at it. I never had a desire to be rich and famous or anything like that — just to be successful and to be able to keep travelling and keep playing music and hope that people keep coming out to shows.”

Juno Award-winner Joel Plaskett, who has shared the stage numerous times with Chaisson, has high praise for the up-and-coming artist. Plaskett said in an email that he foresees a solid music career for his fellow Maritime musician.

“Every time I see Tim, his performances get stronger and his catalogue gets deeper. He seems super-dedicated and he’ll be in this game for a long time.”

Plaskett’s advice for Chaisson when he plays at UBC? “Don’t be afraid to break out the fiddle.”

That shouldn’t be a problem. U

Tim Chaisson will play a show at the Pit Pub on Nov. 29.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM CHAISSON

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 |

STUdENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.

LAST WORDS

Are stats distracting us from what matters?

KATICHISMS

Money is hurting A shortage of Young at is your position on AMS businesses. Wh ?

Pit bottle service at the

by Gordon Katic Never before have we been so obsessed with statistics.

The Obama campaign used advanced statistical modelling to guide their every decision, prompting Wired to label this “the wrath of math” and the “nerdiest election ever.” Other coverage was similar; the New York Times’ Nate Silver, a baseball statistician turned political forecaster, was perhaps the most-read and most-discussed pundit of the election.

Academics are not too far behind in their geekdom and wonkery. It’s difficult to read an international relations or political science paper without encountering probability theory, regression analysis or some such form of quantitative analysis.

At the same time, activists are trading in their ideological principles for data-driven political framing, engagement pyramids and social mobilization theories. For instance, slogans like “Defend Our Coast” are the product of months of sophisticated polling to discover which words resonate most with British Columbians.

Perhaps we should welcome this move towards quantifying our reality. Surely facts and figures are to be preferred over prejudice, ideology and superstition?

If we are not grounded on solid evidence, we have little hope of implementing and evaluating government policy, engaging in effective advocacy or winning election campaigns.

However, we should remember that statistics are as often used to obfuscate as they are to illuminate.

After all, one of the best-selling books on statistics happens to be How to Lie With Statistics , which outlines the many ways that statistics can deceive us, both intentionally and unintentionally.

You should be particularly worried about institutional and government statistics like unemployment figures, crime rates, university rankings or test scores.

Similarly, the television series The Wire is famous for dramatizing this phenomena in police departments. Based on real-world reporting, The Wire demonstrates <em>

ILLUSTRATION INdIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY

BLOCK F DEVELOPMENT MUST TAKE A FUNDAMENTAL LOOK AT SERVICES </strong>

If you look out the right-hand window of an eastbound #99 B-Line, you’ll see a patch of forest between Acadia Road and St. Anselm’s Anglican Church.

That piece of land is called Block F. It’s owned by the Musqueam, who recently announced a plan to undertake a major redevelopment of the area.

While we’re still years away from any ground breaking, the Musqueam have indicated that they would like to put between 10-12,000 housing units on the lot, as well as commercial space.

They’d also like to fit in a hotel.

Any development of that size is going to have transformative effects on a community. UBC’s current overnight population is around 9,000. This proposal would almost double that. Area residents are worried, in part because services in Point Grey are already strained. Transit is over capacity, and University Hill Secondary’s new campus by Save-On Foods is already full. Competition for childcare spots in the area is fierce. There’s one liquor store and one grocery store within the university bounds. The pursuit of residential development on Point Grey has sacrificed some of the basic things that make a community work.

This will be one of the largest new developments in the University Endowment Lands for some time. Hopefully the consultations promised by the Musqueam will give residents and other levels of government a chance to take a look into how Point Grey has developed over the past few years.

They may find that nobody’s really been at the wheel.

GOOD TO SEE THE AMS STARTING EARLY ON ELECTIONS </strong>

Last year, we complained ad nauseum about a poorly run AMS election campaign. There was almost no advertisement for the positions prior to the election.

Debates were announced days in advance, giving people almost no time to decide whether to attend. Several positions went uncontested.

We argued that many of these problems stemmed from the fact that the elections administrator

was hired far too late into the process. The administrator is supposed to make sure the voting system runs smoothly, that they have volunteers and that students know about the elections.

Well, the AMS seems to have gotten the message. This time around, they hired the elections administrator in the summer.

And while the original administrator ended up leaving before the January election season, their replacement was brought on much earlier in the fall than last year.

There are other changes, too: last Friday, the AMS held an information session for prospective candidates. This is far more than the AMS had done at this point last year. While none of these candidacies really come as any surprise, it’s still a crowded field that should offer students some real choice.

But it’s not enough.

Institutions like the AMS need to show that they’re investing time and energy into their elections. When they seem thrown together, when debates are one guy in the SUB conversation pit taking questions, students think the AMS itself doesn’t really care if anyone comes in and makes real change. At the low points, AMS elections seem like mere formalities.

At other schools, student elections get a lot more support.

The University of Alberta, for example, cancels one block of classes a year so students can attend an all-candidates forum.

While interest has waned in recent years, the forum used to be a big deal. And it still draws more attendees than the best-attended AMS debate. Plus, it shows that the school cares. We don’t get a whole lot of that from UBC.

HERE’S AN IDEA TO GET PEOPLE INTERESTED IN AMS ELECTIONS... </strong>

...get a celebrity to moderate one of the debates. Sure, it’s a cheap ploy. But getting a wellknown moderator to ask actual, hard-hitting questions would really make the process that much more engaging. While they might not know the ins and outs of AMS politics (what role do you think the legislative procedure committee ought to have in relation to your portfolio? ... snore), they would ask questions that open up the process to students who couldn’t care less about

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UBC’s internal loan structure (seriously, though, it’s terrible).

Easy mode: Get a former politico who’s fallen from grace/retired/ washed up. Like, seriously, what is Michael Ignatieff doing these days? Apparently Paul Martin just hangs around collecting honourary degrees. And Jim Leher is almost certainly looking for a new gig.

Medium mode: Somebody from the CBC. Jian Gomeshi, Gloria Macarenko, Stephen Quinn.

Hard Mode: Drake.

FEEDING THE TROLLS </strong>

The release of public-sector salaries is a chance to view how an institution weighs its priorities and fully understand how money plays into the power dynamics at places like a university. That is, unless you’re a troll with column inches at the Vancouver Province, in which case you argue for the abolishment of public universities because, you know, people are paid money?

After reading our list of UBC’s top 100 highest-paid employees, the Province ’s Jon Ferry wrote a fiery column citing us and arguing that university funding should be cut altogether because people get paid a lot of money, and that makes him mad.

Specifically, he’s angry because he thinks UBC doesn’t produce miners or electricians or “working” professions, but instead “eco-fawning” sociology and English literature majors who send him too many angry emails.

In doing so, Ferry shows that he failed to read the list, which shows that medicine and business deans, professors and lecturers (who we assume are not the target of his ire) make up the overwhelming majority of the university’s highest earners.

Plus, as UBC VP Finance Pierre Ouillet argued in an open letter to the Province , Ferry completely ignored that the university also does a lot of research and contributes money to the local economy. (Don’t even ask if he mentioned UBC’s world ranking.

Of course he did.)

Normally, we wouldn’t engage such generic, libertarian, public-sector bashing. But, you know, we’ve got column inches to fill. U <em>

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how crimes were re-classified to pad statistical categories that would make Baltimore seem safer than it really is.

Less insidious but equally pernicious is the “teaching to the test” phenomenon. After No Child Left Behind, teachers were found to be spending inordinate amounts of class time preparing students for exams, rather than teaching important material or nurturing invaluable and unquantifiable things like critical thinking and creativity.

Teaching to the test is a little bit different than statistical deception. Rather, teaching to the test is a case of a statistic perverting institutional incentives, creating a myopia that threatens broader and more important goals.

University rankings are notorious for this. Have you ever wondered why UBC continuously climbs world university rankings, while many of your courses leave much to be desired? The formula used to rank universities favours quantifiable things like research grants and citations, not the more abstract matters that affect you each day.

I am not suggesting that we throw statistics out entirely, but we should not be as confident in them as we are on the baseball diamond or football field. In those arenas of life, there is a clear, quantifiable goal: you want to win, and you do that by scoring the most points.

However, politics and education is not quite like that. There may be something resembling points in the horse race that is an election, or the report card you get at the end of term, but this is a very small part of a broader picture.

That broader picture is our foundational moral principles, where consensus is made only through discussing our values.

Feminists, civil rights campaigners and queer rights activists didn’t so profoundly change our society by out-savvying the mainstream with advanced statistical analyses; they did it by articulating their idealistic vision for the world.

Complicated statistics can be a tool, but we shouldn’t forget to have a simple discussion about exactly what we are striving towards. U

Animal research debate not based on ‘emotion’

LETTER The Ubyssey’s article on animal experimentation seriously misrepresents recent debate at UBC about the use of animals (“The question of animal testing,” Nov. 19). Quoted by The Ubyssey, UBC’s associate vice-president research reduces the debate to being “very personal and emotional.” In fact, last year at UBC, Green College hosted a scholarly speaker series on the university’s use of animals. It featured academics from law, animal welfare, philosophy, political science, applied ethics, et cetera.

Substantial, unresolved, scholarly questions were posed about how institutions in Canada approve and regulate the use of animal lives for university research, how there is limited systematic review of this use, how breeding and subsequent use is under-re-

ported to our democratic society, how the law does not protect research animals, permitting impositions of harm at the university that are otherwise criminally illegal, et cetera. Further, the Canadian system was unfavourably compared to that of other liberal democratic countries. In addition, The Ubyssey claims that “UBC’s approach to its animal research has been proactive.”

No. UBC’s 2011-12 release of very limited and previously inaccessible information about its use of animals was a reaction to scholarly and other public criticism of its lack of transparency in a democratic society.

Darren Chang Viara Gioreva Laura Janara Elisabeth Ormandy Green College

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2012 |

PICTURES + WORdS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

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HOW TO WIN AT FINALS Or just to learn a thing or two about learning

PLAN TO STUDY AHEAD OF TIME

Sleeping habits affects overall average by 9%

72% of students think cramming is the most effective way of studying. That’s just not true.

People are only good at remembering the beginning and ends of lists and often forget everything in the middle. This is essentially what you’re doing when you’re cramming.

The goal of studying is memory retention. Reviewing your notes within a day of making them can boost memory by 60%

NOURISH YOURSELF WHEN YOU STUDY AND BEFORE YOUR EXAM Coffee: Yes you may have it, but having too much will be like shooting yourself in the foot.

DON T PULL ALL-NIGHTERS People who work their best at night time get approximately 41 fewer minutes of sleep every night than those who work better in the morning or day. These types of workers are also more likely to pull all-nighters and sleep irregularly, which causes stress and can affect both short and long-term memory creation.

Studies have shown that students who get less sleep can have averages up to 9% lower.

BE REALISTIC ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU LL STUDY

Face it. You’re going to be on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, What Should We Call UBC, Netflix, et cetera. Dedicate smaller intervals to studying and give yourself breaks. 30-50 minutes with 10-minute breaks are recommended.

EAT, STUDY, BREAK, STUDY, SLEEP, REPEAT Study in a variety of ways to maximize your experience with the core material.

It is better to put sleep between your studying so your brain can file away information. Give yourself breaks. Eat healthily to stay alert. If you must cram, this method is said to be most effective, though some call it a myth:

Fruit: Gives a glucose boost to your brain, keeping you alert and concentrated.

Omega-3s: Fish has lots of this and it’s good for you to eat normal food. It also reduces memory loss.

HACKÉDEX

YOUR UBC WORD OF THE WEEK

Student Directed Seminars (SDS) are a way for innovative students to create their own class curriculums and teach a seminar for a small group of senior-level undergrad students. Seminar topics range from “ADHD: A ention Detours on a Highway Drive” to “Marx and Das Kapital.” Unless you plan on becoming an academic, this is literally your only chance to say you have taught at one of the top 40 universities in the world.

STUDY 30 MIN + SLEEP 20 MIN + STUDY 30 MIN + BREaK 20 MIN REPEAT FOR 5 HOURS. SLEEP FOR 4 HOURS. RINSE AND REPEAT.