January 31, 2013

YOU’RE LIKE A SEWER RAT SINCE 1918

UBC’S OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER | JANUARY 31, 2013 | Volume XCIV| Issue XXXVII

A WINTER’S KALE P7 Want to eat local this winter? Get to know this leafy greens

U

CAMPUS CRIME

the ubyssey WAVE

T-Bird trio brings youthful energy to men’s basketball team

P5

Belongings disappear from SRC, engineering student spaces

P3

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

What’s on Tue 1231

OUR CAMPUS

This week, may we suggest...

spies >>

2

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

THURSDAY

CSIS Employer Information Session: 12–1 p.m. @ MacLeod 418

If you’ve been watching Showtime’s Homeland, you know how, well, awesome working for the CIA is. Here in Canada, that dream isn’t as reachable as one would hope. Fortunately, you can totally dream of working for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service! Come to this info session to learn all about protecting Canada.

12 1Tue

Tue 122

SPORTS >>

FRIDAY

THEATRE >>

SATURDAY

UBC Thunderbirds vs. Manitoba Bisons: 7 p.m. @ Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena What do you have planned that could be more fun that this?

Watch your fellow T-Birds pass the puck before heading out on the town. $2 for students, free for Blue Crew members.

Tue 123

hogan wong PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Sam Rowan is the editor-in-chief of UBC’s Journal of International Affairs.

Publishing, Paris and politics

SLEEP >>

SUNDAY

Rest up, b*tchez.

It’s been exactly a month since you started actually going to class. Just take the day and rest up, cause it ain’t even halfway yet. We suggest taking in a movie, strolling the seawall or burying yourself in a pile o’ Netflix.

Tue 124

Rhinoceros: 7:30–9:30 p.m. @ TELUS Studio Theatre Seriously, this thing is ending next week, and it is truly a masterpiece. This absurdist French-Romanian classic is playing until Feb. 9, so make sure to see it soon. $10 for students.

NEW MEDIA >>

MONDAY

Social Media and Health: 7–9 p.m. @ UBC Robson Square Have you ever asked yourself whether all that tweeting is good for your health? The Faculty of Medicine is hosting a public info session that addresses the future of social media and technology, and how they can help or harm medicine. 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 our latest weekly show, airing now at ubyssey. ca/videos/.

U The Ubyssey

editorial

JANUARY 31, 2013 | Volume XCIV| Issue XXXVII

Senior Lifestyle Writer STAFF Justin Fleming Bryce Warnes, Josh Curran, jfleming@ubyssey.ca Peter Wojnar, Anthony

Coordinating Editor Jonny Wakefield coordinating@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Arno Rosenfeld Managing Editor, Print features@ubyssey.ca Jeff Aschkinasi printeditor@ubyssey.ca Video Editor David Marino Managing Editor, Web video@ubyssey.ca Andrew Bates Copy Editor webeditor@ubyssey.ca Karina Palmitesta News Editors copy@ubyssey.ca Will McDonald + Art Director Laura Rodgers Kai Jacobson news@ubyssey.ca art@ubyssey.ca Senior News Writer Graphics Assistant Ming Wong mwong@ubyssey.ca Indiana Joel ijoel@ubyssey.ca Culture Editor Anna Zoria Layout Artist culture@ubyssey.ca Collyn Chan cchan@ubyssey.ca Senior Culture Writer Rhys Edwards Videographer redwards@ubyssey.ca Lu Zhang lzhang@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Webmaster CJ Pentland Riley Tomasek sports@ubyssey.ca webmaster@ubyssey.ca

Poon, Veronika Bondarenko, Yara Van Kessel, Lu Zhang, Catherine Guan, Ginny Monaco, Arno Rosenfeld, Matt Meuse, Hogan Wong, Rory Gattens, Brandon Chow, Joseph Ssettuba. Tyler McRobbie, Sarah Bigam, Stephanie Xu, Natalya Kautz

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Sam Rowan has led a colourful life at UBC. Throughout his undergraduate years, Rowan, editor-in-chief of UBC’s Journal of International Affairs, has been deeply involved with campus life. But it wasn’t always that way. Rowan used to find UBC too big and impersonal — especially when he joined the large international relations program in his second year.

But soon after, Rowan began to find his niche in the political science department.

“I was happy to see there’s an honours political science program, which is a smaller cohort of 15 students or so,” Rowan said.

He is now working on a dissertation, which all honours political science students must produce.

“I’m developing an abstract for studying the stability of international politics with the presence of a rising power,” he explained.

As an international affairs aficionado, Rowan said he is intrigued by China’s rise and major shifts in world politics, which led him to his thesis choice. He cited the Economist, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times and the Globe and Mail as some of his daily reads.

While Rowan likes his program, it wasn’t the UBC courses <em>

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that sparked his interest in international relations. As a third-year he studied abroad at Sciences Po in Paris for two semesters.

“The opportunity to spend a year in Paris studying, to put aside everything for a year and go away — it was something I didn’t want to pass up,” he said.

Despite it being his first time living on his own, Rowan said he had a smooth transition adapting to a new environment, save for one incident. Near the end of his exchange, Rowan ventured to a public pool, only to find himself stopped for wearing the wrong bathing suit.

“It was the strangest experience of my entire life; the lifeguards stopped me because I wasn’t wearing a bathing cap and speedo,” he said with a chuckle. “You never catch something like that in a guidebook.”

After returning to UBC the next year, Rowan joined the editorial board of the Journal of International Affairs.

The journal is a 27-year-old, student-run, faculty-reviewed publication put out by the International Relations Student Association.

“It really opened my eyes to what good academic papers are like,” he said, having edited many of the essays submitted to the journal by fellow undergrads.

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This year, as the editor-inchief, Rowan has been busy managing the editorial process, which involves five rounds of detailed edits and reviews.

“The most challenging part is making everyone’s schedules work, and it gets hard when you have a Doodle poll with 18 people,” Rowan said.

Despite the challenges, Rowan said he is trying to break new ground: for the first time, the journal will be featuring an honours thesis.

“The idea behind JIA is to publish the best undergraduate work, and I thought there was a missing component from the previous years,” he said.

Rowan’s interests extend beyond the journal. He was part of a group that revived Cinema Politica UBC, a series of film screenings covering social and political issues. “We show political documentaries on issues that aren’t very well covered in the mainstream media, issues that fall between the cracks,” he explained.

Rowan isn’t sure what lies in his future, other than continuing to learn about international affairs.

“I’m applying to a couple of graduate programs in IR [international relations] and political theory. We’ll see what sticks,” he said. “The plan is just to do more schooling and take it from there.” U

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013 |

EDITORS WILL Mcdonald + laura rodgers

equity >>

3

labour >>

Managerial staff unhappy about new deal with university Nick Gorgopa Contributor

KIM PRINGLE ILLUSTRATION/THE UBYSSEY

UBC’s female-identified faculty members are getting a 2% raise to account for a gender-based discrepancy in pay.

Female profs get a raise Laura Rodgers News Editor

Every female faculty member at UBC is getting a raise.

UBC’s female profs and instructors have been getting paid two per cent less than their male counterparts, according to research that has been going on since 2007. Every female-identified tenure-track faculty member is getting a two per cent bump in their paycheques, retroactive to July 2010, in an attempt to address the gap.

Two studies out of the UBC Equity office, one in 2007 and one in 2009, indicated strongly that women were being paid less than male faculty members.

The university has an obligation under human rights law not to discriminate based on gender, so the findings could not be ignored.

Two working groups, which were formed in 2010, looked into addressing the problem.

NEWS BRIEFS UBC plans “Teach-In” about Idle No More movement The university’s First Nations House of Learning is planning an event to give background on the Idle No More movement. The event will “outline the aspects of Bills 38 and 45 that are seen as problematic, and discuss ways that classroom dialogue about this issue can be incorporated in an informed and productive way,” according to a UBC release.

Four aboriginal UBC faculty members will speak at the event, touching on topics like treaty rights, racism and the role of aboriginal women. The event will take place from 1–3 p.m.

Partnership gives research opportunities for materials science UBC has entered into a partnership with CANMET Materials, a fabrication laboratory in Hamilton run by the federal government. The university will get “learning and research opportunities” out of the deal, according to a government press release.

“This agreement fosters the innovation of advanced materials that will advance clean energy, support the transition to a low carbon economy and contribute to economic development,” said Helen Burt, UBC associate vice-president research, in a statement. U

They found that when rank, job title and other possible factors were controlled for, a gender-based pay gap still existed that couldn’t be explained.

“Even after you factored in women being at different ranks, and men being at different ranks, and the conclusion arrived at was the two per cent difference across the board really could only be explained by gender,” said Gurdeep Parhar, UBC acting associate vice-president equity.

He said that the solution needed to be an across-the-board raise for the entire university, because a very large group was needed in order to be sure, statistically, that the gap wasn’t due to any other factor besides gender.

The university isn’t sure how much this will affect their budget, but it’s likely to be a hefty sum.

The solution was agreed upon by the UBC administration, the university’s equity office and the Faculty

Association. The raises will come into effect at the end of February.

“This is a very complicated issue to understand, so it took a while to try to untangle why the pay gap had unfolded,” said Nancy Langton, president of the UBC Faculty Association. “Both the university and the Faculty Association worked together collaboratively to identify solutions and to reach agreement as to the best way to create a settlement.”

Currently, only 38 per cent of tenure-track faculty identify as female. And the rank of full professor — the highest rung on the academic ladder — is 21 per cent female.

Although the study was able to address the issue of women getting paid less than men when they’re both at the same rank, it wasn’t able to quantitatively examine the possibility of discrimination in hiring or promotion.

“Why aren’t there more women at the higher ranks? Obviously,

that’s something that needs to be looked at,” said Parhar.

UBC also wants establish more mentorship opportunities for female faculty, and offer more training to make sure fewer people engage in subtle, unintentional acts of discrimination.

“UBC has actually ramped up its effort significantly in the last few years, not only in gender, but supporting equity and diversity in general,” said Rachel Kuske, UBC senior advisor to the provost on women faculty.

The UBC equity office is also experiencing a shake-up due to the departure of its long-time associate vice-president, Tom Patch.

As far as other UBC employees, from unions to management staff, UBC says they’ve already worked to account for gender discrimination in their ranks. “Pay equity for these staff groups was accomplished nearly a decade ago,” said Lisa Castle, UBC VP human resources. U

crime >>

Campus theft on the rise

Veronika Bondarenko Staff Writer

A new wave of thefts is sweeping campus.

A recent break-in at the materials engineering undergrad clubroom in the Frank Forward building took place on Jan. 13. The morning of Jan. 14, faculty and staff came in to find the back ripped off a large wooden storage unit. They also found that someone had attempted to force open a row of lockers.

According to Fiona Webster, administration manager of materials engineering, this is the third time that a similar kind of vandalism has occurred in the Frank Forward building. While Webster is not able to pinpoint a specific amount of money for the damage and property loss incurred, she encouraged students not to leave their belongings unsupervised for even very short periods of time.

“Just don’t leave your knapsack unattended and think, oh, you’ll be right back,” said Webster.

A similar act occurred on the same night in the mining engineering clubroom.

An email warning students to keep a close watch on all of their belongings has been sent to all mining and materials engineering students.

The Birdcoop Fitness Centre at the Student REC Centre has also

JOSH CURRAN PHOTO illustration/THE UBYSSEY

Theft from an unattended backpack can happen anywhere, Campus Security warns.

experienced a recent surge in theft.

Over 20 backpacks, most of them containing expensive electronics, have disappeared from the cubbyholes by the entrance of the gym over the course of two weeks.

While this sort of theft is a fairly regular occurrence at the Student REC Centre, the sheer number of bags stolen over such a short period of time has raised eyebrows. As such, REC Centre facility and operations coordinator Andrea Barrios encouraged students to take extra precautions when leaving bags unattended in the busy workout area.

Acting operations manager of UBC Campus Security Ali Mojdehi has been looking into the backpack thefts for several weeks now. He said most of the thefts happen when a thief comes across unsecured belongings and seizes

the opportunity.

While Mojdehi confirmed that both Campus Security and the RCMP were already looking into suspects, he was not able to reveal any more information on the subject.

Both Barrios and Mojdehi advised against placing valuables in the cubbyholes and encouraged students to opt for the lockers located inside the change rooms or outside the gym.

“It is important that they [the students] protect their items as best as possible because the thieves are going after it. They try to find the most insecure items,” said Mojdehi.

“In most cases, they do not have to work really hard, because, unfortunately, there are items that are just left alone without any kind of security.” U

UBC’s administrative and professional staff have a new collective agreement, but they aren’t happy with all the details.

UBC’s Association of Administrative and Professional Staff (AAPS) ratfied a new two-year contract with UBC on Jan. 4, with 97 per cent of members voting in favour. AAPS represents over 3,400 UBC administrative and professional staff members on campus.

Michael Conlon, AAPS executive director, said the association is relatively happy with the new collective agreement.

The agreement allows for a two per cent retroactive wage increase effective July 1, 2012, as well as a further two per cent wage increase effective July 1, 2013. The changes will be implemented on Jan. 31, 2013.

Despite being satisfied with the wage increases, Conlon said the association found bargaining with the university frustrating.

Conlon said UBC had also made a pre-existing commitment to AAPS to match median wages for comparable positions at competing employers. But a recent proposal from the university to bring pay in line with the market didn’t satisfy AAPS. Conlon said the university insisted on negotiating both the dispute over tying pay to industry averages and the two-year contract renewal at the same time, which AAPS was also unhappy with.

“I think from our perspective, is the collective agreement itself something our members can live with? Yes, but we as a bargaining committee were not happy the university tied the market survey to the collective bargaining process,” said Conlon.

He said the association was pleased with the two across-theboard two per cent increases, but there is still lingering discontent over how the market-based pay evaluation went.

UBC spokesperson Lucie McNeill said the university wasn’t fully satisfied with the outcome of bargaining either, but they were pleased to have reached an agreement.

“There are things that we didn’t achieve, but that’s the nature of negotiations. If one side comes out celebrating and the other comes out glum, then negotiations were not very effective,” said McNeill.

Aside from wage increases, the new two-year agreement clarifies the university’s policies on sick leave and devotes $5,000 to a professional development fund for AAPS members.

Conlon said the union was left unsatisfied with the university’s stance on employee termination.

According to Conlon, the new agreement allows the university to terminate employees based on performance reviews.

“They have the right to fire members for any reason so long as it doesn’t violate the human rights code,… but outside of that, they can fire for any reason whatsoever,” said Conlon.

The collective agreement was ratified by the UBC Board of Governors on Jan. 18, 2013, and had already been approved by the Public Sector Employer’s Council and the University Public Sector Employers’ Association. U

4 | News |

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

FRAUD >>

Fake donations set back panic button for sex workers

UBC student-led project receives over $15,000 in fraudulent donations through online fundraising Sarah Bigam Staff Writer

A group of students is trying to build a mobile panic button for sex workers, but they’ve just suffered a massive setback.

They raised over $16,000 through the rally.org website to fund the project — or, rather, they thought they did. They’ve just found out over $15,000 of that was from scam donations, and now they only have barely over $1,000 to continue with their work.

According to Nick Warshaw, communications manager of rally. org (a website that processes hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to causes), scam artists using fake accounts crop up regularly, but only contribute a vanishingly small percentage of the site’s overall donations.

“We actually do have a fraud department here, which looks at [and] examines patterns and questionable activity,” said Warshaw. He said he couldn’t figure out what the motive of these fake philanthropists were, but the site is putting donations to the panic-button project under tighter scrutiny from now on.

The students, who call their group the Keep-Safe Initiative, will continue with the project despite having most of their raised funds pulled out from under them.

One of them, UBC student Isabel Chen, said she was worried that they might not be able to raise enough money to finish the project.

“We were kind of worried about [whether] such huge donations would deter people from donat-

Kai JAcobson File Photo/THE UBYSSEY

A group developing GPS-enabled mobile panic buttons for sex workers lost $15,000 when fraudulent online donations were discovered.

ing, because it appeared that we’d already met our goal,” said Chen.

They estimate the total cost of the project, including pilot devices and focus groups with streetbased sex workers, to be $8,140.

Any additional funds raised over the goal will go to community organizations for sex workers, like the WISH drop-in centre in the Downtown Eastside.

But despite this setback, KeepSafe still plans to move forward with the project. “It was disappointing, understandably so, and it’s brought the team together and instead of feeling like overnight we could achieve anything, it’s

just made us refocus,” Chen said.

Since the donations hadn’t been processed yet, none of the money has been spent or committed to anything specific.

There’s been a lot of media coverage about the project, and Chen said they had not been expecting so much attention this early on. And rather than the quick surge in donations they thought they had, they’re stuck with exactly the sort of slow trickle they had expected before they started.

“Donations have been much slower,… but we’ve still been receiving steady donations, and we’ve just been continuing to meet

Education >>

with local organizations, and also addressing and responding to and trying to integrate people’s feedback,” said Chen.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the website calculated total donations at $1,068. A technical issue on rally. org led to some genuine donations being temporarily refunded, and then re-collected.

Though they are still thousands of dollars away from the funding needed for their six-month pilot, they were still able to order six test devices for the upcoming focus groups with the money they had.

“We started ... definitely not at ground zero; we had already

amassed tons of support,” Chen said.

She said encouragement has been coming in from around the world. Keep-Safe has been contacted by sex worker advocates in Vancouver and the U.S. — and even some from as far away as Ireland and Africa — about potentially using similar devices once the project is up and running.

“We’re offering other people all our information and access to suppliers, so they too, if they want pursue it, can. But for now we’re just focusing on our pilot. Then we can offer people much more helpful advice.”

Keep-Safe made sure the project had involvement and buy-in from street-based sex workers from the beginning. They’ll be consulting heavily with WISH, and trying to heed the recommendations in the recent Missing Women Commission of Inquiry report.

The plan is for the buttons to be GPS-enabled, but only transmit their location when activated in a crisis situation. Chen said the size and shape of the button, and who receives the location and crisis message, still has to be worked out.

“It’s absolutely important to reiterate that we’re by no means trying to play saviour.… The project would never have gone off the ground had we not had key buy-in and key support from sex workers,” Chen said. “We want sex workers to decide which device they want, if they want a device at all.… We won’t go forward with anything that isn’t dictated by them.” U

MONEY >>

Proposed Christian law school draws controversy AMS to fund student research Law deans object to conduct policy governing sexual orientation on post-secondary issues Laura Rodgers News Editor

Should a Canadian law school be able to turn students away because they’re gay?

Langley-based Christian university Trinity Western wants to open up a law school. But deans of existing law schools across Canada want the school shut down before it opens because of a longstanding rule on the school’s books that threatens expulsion for gay and lesbian students.

A document all Trinity Western students sign, called a “Community Covenant,” requires them to be committed Christians. It includes rules banning pornography and on-campus boozing. A section titled “Healthy Sexuality” requires that students adhere to “a Biblical view of sexuality,” meaning “sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman.”

Although TWU administrators have argued through various media outlets that this section has never been enforced, the current rules would still allow the university to discipline or expel a student for being openly gay.

The Canadian Council of Law Deans takes serious issue with this rule. “In the view of the Council of Canadian Law Deans, it involves discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” said Bill Flanagan, president of the council and dean of law at Queen’s University.

“So the long and short of it is that gay and lesbian students at

TWU are subject to the threat of expulsion.

“This is a matter of great concern to Canadian law schools. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is fundamentally at odds with the core values of all Canadian law schools,” he said.

Flanagan said the council’s objection to this is primarily a moral one, though a letter they sent to Canada’s Federation of Law Societies questioned whether this kind of rule about sexuality could violate Canadian human rights law.

TWU fired back, arguing that a 2001 Supreme Court case (also involving TWU) allows any religious school to exempt themselves from human rights laws regarding discrimination.

But Flanagan and the council maintain that TWU’s rules are immoral, regardless of whether they break the law.

“We’re not taking a position yet on the legality of TWU; we’re reserving the right to do so, of course, but first and foremost we want to make a stated principle of objection to the practice,” Flanagan said.

He addressed statements from TWU arguing the issue had been overblown because the school isn’t actually in the practice of disciplining gay and lesbian students.

“If that is the case, if gay and lesbian students are in fact welcome at TWU, I would encourage ... the university to reconsider its Covenant, which, on its face, is

directly discriminatory.

“Is that the message that TWU wants to send to its gay and lesbian students?”

Christian law schools are common in the United States, many of them dating back to an era when, in general, there was greater overlap and involvement between the church and colleges or universities. The proposed TWU school would be the first of its kind in Canada.

The proposed law school is being spearheaded by Janet Epp-Buckingham, a TWU professor, legal academic and conservative Christian activist.

She said most of the proposed school’s curriculum won’t be explicitly Christian, but two courses — one on the history of law and one on the development of the common law — will include Biblebased components.

She hopes the school will be welcoming to aspiring Christian law students, some of whom can feel out of place in secular university classrooms.

“There are Christian law students who have expressed to me over the last 20 years they have found that law professors tend to be derogatory about faith perspective expressed in the classroom,” Epp-Buckingham said.

“There are not very many Christian law professors, but there are actually quite a lot of Chrisian law students.”

Neither side has yet received a reply from the Federation of Law Societies. U

Lawrence Neal Garcia Contributor

The Alma Mater Society wants to pay students to do the society’s homework.

AMS president Matt Parson has hatched a plan to fund short undergraduate research projects. He hopes this will yield high-quality, unbiased data about issues like university funding, housing affordability and student mental health.

At an AMS Council presentation to launch the plan, Parson argued there isn’t enough local, relevant research done on post-secondary issues.

“I saw a real need within the AMS to support a lot of our work and advocacy through sound research, and also it’d be preferable if that research would be independent,” said Parson.

Small research grants will be available, likely in the $3,000– 5,000 range, for students to work on issues related to post-secondary education and student life.

Parson said the AMS can use the data to lobby and push for positive change. The grants will be open to all UBC students, regardless of their faculty.

He also hopes that the grants can provide more undergrad research opportunities, particularly for students in the humanities.

Project timelines and grant values would be built into individual students’ research proposals. Parson said there won’t be an official limit on the dollar amount of the grants.

“We’re not providing any ceiling in expectation, in that if we did, people would probably just apply for the maximum,” said Parson.

The grants are partially being funded by the VP Students office and the Faculty of Arts. Parson said the money available might already exceed six figures, but Janet Teasdale, UBC’s managing director of student development and services and part of the VP Students office, said since the project is just beginning, they aren’t yet sure how much funding to give.

Students in the program must have mentorship from a faculty member or Ph.D. student. Parson hopes to eventually create an AMS network to swiftly pair up students and mentors. “[Students] will be required to look out and find faculty and research expertise so that the research is valid, reliable research,” said Teasdale.

Parson said that since the program is just getting off the ground, he doesn’t know how many applications it will receive, but hopes to offer around 10 grants this year.

He plans to start taking applications in early February, and have them judged later in the month. Grants will be assigned by a board made of AMS executives, faculty and student representatives.

If everything goes as planned, the first projects could start as early as this summer. U

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013 |

EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

5

UBC’s ‘wolfpack’ of rookies basketball >>

They eat together, play video games together and spend nearly every minute off the court together. And they’re one of the main reasons why the T-Birds have the best men’s basketball team in the West.

Despite being key players on the team, Isaiah Solomon, Conor Morgan and Jordan Jensen-Whyte still have to shoulder the typical rookie duties imposed on them by the veterans.

C.J. Pentland Sports + Rec Editor

A

sk Conor Morgan, Isaiah Solomon and Jordan Jensen-Whyte who would win in a one-on-one tournament between all three of them, and the results are going to be a little varied.

“I win,” replied Jensen-Whyte before the question was even finished.

“Conor Morgan wins,” replied Morgan, the 6-8 forward.

“Conor can’t shoot right now,” said Solomon, taking a jab at the big man.

“I can’t dribble right now,” corrected Morgan quickly, drawing laughs from the others. “So I’m not even getting over half court.

I’ll dribble it off my foot out of bounds.”

While the three rookies couldn’t decide on who would be the ultimate victor, their head coach Kevin Hanson seemed to know what would really happen if such an event occurred.

“I think all three of them would try and convince you that each of them would win, but the funny thing is that with their personalities, I don’t think they would care who actually won. They’d honestly be happy for the guy that did win it.

And I don’t know if they’d actually get to the final because they’d lose their focus partway through the game, so I don’t think it would ever end.”

That’s how it is with the group of guys known by nicknames such as “The Three Amigos” or “The Wolfpack.” This trio of rookies on the UBC men’s basketball team aren’t

just one of the main reasons why the Thunderbirds are currently in first place in the Canada West; they are also three of the most energetic and easygoing players on the squad.

It’s that combination that makes them nearly inseparable, both on and off the court.

Solomon, Jensen-Whyte and Morgan came into the school year without knowing anyone; they had played against some of the other Thunderbirds before, but weren’t familiar with anyone. Luckily, all three rookies were going through the exact same thing.

“We were kind of put in a situation where we didn’t know much of the guys when we came in, and the three rookies kind of got the title [of rookies], and we just hung out together all the time,” said Jensen-Whyte, a Calgary native.

“It’s been awesome. I came in from Calgary and knew these two sort of before I got here, and I just fit right into the group and it’s been awesome. It’s been a great transition.”

Now, the three banter back and forth in person and on Twitter as if they’ve known each other for years.

“We’re just always joking around. We’re never serious,” said Solomon, a point guard from Richmond, B.C. But their coach doesn’t mind this sense of humour, since it hasn’t affected their play on the court.

“Sometimes practice gets all serious, but they certainly bring some light humour to it and you just have to laugh,” said Hanson.

“The three don’t miss a practice.

The three of them are side by side during warmup, and just jokingly

we put a guy in between them just to sort of separate the pack. But then they’re off just shooting on the side, and there’s the three of them.”

On the court, though, you wouldn’t know that Jensen-Whyte, Solomon and Morgan are so easygoing. They play with a determination and maturity well beyond their years, and have been rewarded for it with substantial playing time. All three are averaging over 10 minutes of floor time per game, and at times they will all be out there at the same time.

“There’s times when we’re playing three freshmen on the floor,… so that really says something as to where they are,” said Hanson.

“It’s just an added bonus when you can get freshmen playing as many minutes as they have. And they’re ending games. That just bodes really well for the future.”

There was a void at the point guard position heading into this season, and it’s a hole that both Solomon and Jensen-Whyte have been able to fill nicely. The pair have shared point guard duties this year, making it the first time that rookies have led the offence in Hanson’s UBC coaching career. It’s a risk that could backfire catastrophically, but the duo’s play-making ability has enabled the T-Bird offence to run smoothly this year.

Solomon is second on the team, with 59 assists in 23 games, while Jensen-Whyte isn’t far behind with 42.

Morgan hasn’t been able to receive the same amount of playing time due to being behind fifthyears Doug Plumb and O’Brian Wallace on the depth chart. But he

is still showing promise during the minutes he does receive; he has hit 18 three-pointers this year.

It’s a unique situation where you have three guys that are super close friends, and I’m just thrilled that they’re in the program.

Kevin Hanson Head coach, UBC men’s basketball

“I’m gaining experience playing behind Doug and O’Brian, who are both fifth-year guys,” said Morgan, who hails from Victoria. “But I still find a way to contribute, so it’s good.”

Morgan cited the influence of several NBA players, such as Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder team, which gives the Kobe Bryant loving Solomon and Jensen-Whyte ample opportunity for trash-talking. This good-natured rivalry also extends over to video games, which Jensen-Whyte said is one of the main reasons why they gel so well. While the two guards always play as the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA 2K13, Morgan opts to play as the New York Knicks.

“We don’t play each other, we just smash Conor,” joked Solomon.

“I don’t think I’ve lost a game yet,” replied Morgan. “I just win every game; it’s king of the court,

Geoff lister photo/the ubyssey

right?”

This lively competitiveness has rubbed off on the Thunderbird team; it’s safe to say that it’s helped the ’Birds to their 14-2 record on the year. Thanks to that record, the T-Birds are now in prime position to finish with the best record in the Canada West and earn home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

“We know that our fate is in our hands now. We’re clear-cut first now, so all we have to do is keep looking forward and keep getting those wins,” said Jensen-Whyte.

The guard’s brother and mentor is former T-Bird standout and CIS MVP Josh Whyte, but Josh is also a player who twice fell just short of capturing a national championship, which is something that his younger brother wants to avoid. He, along with his teammates, wants five titles by the time they are done.

It’s a lofty goal, but considering these three will be around for another four years — and players like David Wagner, Brylle Kamen and Tommy Nixon will be at UBC for a couple more as well — the goal seems attainable.

“Those three guys are the future of our program,” said Hanson.

“They’re just kids that have fallen in love with basketball and the situation, and the situation has been good to them. We’ve had success on the court, and they’ve had success, and it’s just inspiring. It’s fantastic that we’ve had those guys in the program.”

It will be a fun few years of basketball for Jensen-Whyte, Morgan and Solomon — and maybe by the end, they’ll know who really is the one-on-one champ. U

6 | SPORTS + REC |

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

ZOMbIES >>

Campus of the living dead

On Feb. 8, it will be up to students to save UBC from the zombie apocalypse Chloe Williams Contributor

By Feb. 8, UBC campus will be the only remaining location with human survivors in the world.

The globe’s population will be infected by a mutant virus that will turn entire nations into malignant, menacing hordes of zombies. Society will collapse, and the fate of the human race will be in the hands of a small number of UBC students, hunted by the living dead.

This is the premise for UBC REC’s upcoming event, Humans Versus Zombies, which puts players in the heart of the zombie apocalypse.

As its title suggests, the game is a battle for survival between humans and zombies. On that Friday afternoon, each team must complete challenges while avoiding the traps set up to catch people: the humans must avoid zombie infection, while the zombies must sidestep manmade traps. The humans’ goal is to acquire the intel, resources and materials needed to create a vaccine that will stop the zombie virus, whilst the zombies try to thwart the humans’ efforts for survival.

At the start of the event, competitors will not know which team they are on until they are “scanned” for the infection.

Healthy humans will be separated from the zombies, and each side will be given costumes.

Then the team will be split into squads, each with a distinct mission to various locations around campus; these missions must be completed in order for the team to survive.

Games of similar styles have gained popularity at university campuses around the world, but this UBC event is meant to be a one-of-a-kind experience.

Gordon Newell, the tournaments and races coordinator for UBC REC, has developed and overseen

STEPHANIE XU PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

UBC will turn into a zombie-infested campus on Feb. 8, and the humans have to stay alert if they don’t want to get infected.

the event from the beginning; he’s taken a typically simple tag-style game and turned it into something much more complex.

As a former army officer, Newell has created an elaborate tactical game inspired by military training scenarios and pop culture zombie takeovers.

“We’ve got a few really good tricks up our sleeves,” said Newell, who advises participants to expect “nothing less than fireworks” from this event. Although

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK COLEMAN ALLEN SAVANNAH KING

the game has been carefully planned, and will be led by the UBC REC team and overseen by referees, the outcome truly depends on the players. “There’s an element of ambiguity, and there’s the opportunity for a lot of excitement and emotion within that,” explained Newell.

This event has been created as part of UBC REC’s mission to encourage people to get involved in recreation of any form.

“We’re really keen to reach

C

out and get students involved in recreation here at UBC, and recreation can be everything from going to a golf tournament to doing Day of the Longboat to something like this,” said Newell.

“All you need to enjoy this game is a pair of feet and a few hours off on a Friday afternoon.”

So far, students have responded to Humans Versus Zombies with enthusiasm and intrigue. Fifty participants have registered already, and many

more are expected to join within the final days of registration. Although the Versus series of REC events will most likely become an annual tradition, Humans Versus Zombies may not be returning, so those interested should seize this opportunity to participate. U Registration closes on Feb. 4 at 5 p.m. To register, visit the UBC REC website at www.rec.ubc.ca/events/ versus/. <em>

</em>

PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER OSHKAI/UVIC

oleman Allen, a second-year Arts student from Spokane, WA, was named the CIS male athlete of the week thanks to his dominant performance at last week’s Canada West swimming championships in Victoria. His performance also helped UBC men’s swimming to a second place finish at the championships.

Allen picked up five gold medals, one silver and one bronze, as he finished on the podium in all seven races he swam. His golds came in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterflys; the 200m freestyle; and the 4x100m freestyle relay. He also set meet records in the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle.

S

avannah King, a third-year kinesiology student from Vernon, B.C., was named the CIS female athlete of the week after her record-setting performance at the Canada West swimming championships last weekend in Victoria.

In addition to picking up five gold medals, King also helped UBC women’s swimming win

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARmANDO TURA

their fourth straight Canada West championship.

A two-time Olympian, King was unbeatable on the weekend, as she won a gold in each event that she swam: the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyles; 200m backstroke; and the 4x200m freestyle relay. The 2012 CIS female swimmer of the year also set or was a part of four meet records. U

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013 |

EDITOR ANNA ZORIA

7

FARM >>

no growing pains for ubc farm

Fresh crops grown all year round in South Campus WHAT AM I EATING?

by Tyler mcRobbie It’s the middle of winter and I’m hungry. I go to my fridge. It’s empty. I go to the grocery store and see the produce aisle looking a little worse for wear. Many of the usual fruits and vegetables are missing altogether. In lieu of spinach and bananas are little green signs informing me that due to unforeseen weather conditions abroad, supplies of some fresh foods have not been able to meet the demand. Outside, it’s drizzling and grey. The weather, it appears, is sandbagging me at every turn.

Given our dependence upon the bounty of the agricultural industry, should any of us really be surprised to see this

wavering supply in the dead of our Canadian winter? Farms in Canada, and especially B.C., are perfectly robust during the summer and early fall, but that only represents a fraction of the total year. For the remainder, while consumers are busy buying food from an increasingly volatile global food market, what exactly are our farmers doing to stay competitive?

At the UBC Farm, it would appear that they’re doing a lot. As a research and teaching centre, winters at UBC Farm are all about “report writing, grant writing, reflection, preparation and organization,” according to Mel Sylvestre, field research assistant at UBC Farm. This, of course, is on top of regular farm tasks such as equipment maintenance, cleaning and reviewing yields from the previous year.

Kale, shown here growing in a UBC Farm greenhouse, is one of a few vegetables available year round.

It might not be putting food in my fridge, but such planning and organization is crucial to a successful fall harvest, as well as the growth of the farm. And no, Sylvestre suggests, not all farms are as diligent with their paperwork as UBC’s.

“Most don’t write reports the way that we do,” she commented in an email.

But then, the average Canadian farm is considerably larger and has fewer workers than UBC’s. And certainly no field research assistants.

With so many months of downtime, how does the average farmer budget for ongoing life expenses?

“Some farmers do manage to live off their main fall harvest income through the winter and some others have to find winter jobs,” Sylvestre explained.

At UBC, workers are paid throughout the year through grants and various other funding sources.

One of these sources includes a marginal amount of produce sales. Eureka! Things do grow in

KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

the winter, it appears. The UBC Farm grows varieties of kale and chard in greenhouses while the perennial crops lie dormant.

But man cannot survive on a fridge full of leafy greens alone.

Luckily, modern technologies practically deliver food from around the globe to our front doors. And with only a few short months to go, it won’t be long before B.C. farmers are back in action themselves. Until then, the folks at the UBC Farm are waiting out this crappy weather, just like the rest of us. U

PuSh FEST >>

Seeing the world with no eyes

Do You See What I Mean? deprives the senses and enriches the mind Andrew Bates

managing editor, web

When someone blindfolds you before taking you on a tour, what are they trying to show you?

First conceived of by French art collective Project in Situ, Do You See What I Mean? is a performance art project that runs until Feb. 3 as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Participants are blindfolded and introduced to a guide, who takes them on a two-and-a-half hour tour of downtown Vancouver.

At the end of the exhibit, participants are asked to make a choice: take off their blindfold and meet their guide, or leave it on. While I was interested in the overall experience (which varies from guide to guide), it’s this particular choice that drew me to put on the blindfold and see what I could see.

My immediate expectation was that I was going to find out what it’s like to be blind. Partly, it’s true; I learned a lot more about my other senses, and how to make everyday things work without sight.

When being led, I was asked to hold the guide’s elbow. I couldn’t just tug on their sleeve; I had to actually wrap my fingers around the inside of the elbow. That way, the guide could use their elbow to steer me past obstacles.

Of course, two and a half hours alone isn’t the same as actually being blind, and the performance never veers into gimmicky disability tourism; instead, it treats the issue sensitively and subtly. <em>

</em>

feel ignored or because I might ignore them. How often have you cordially spoken to people in an elevator?

One part of the tour was entirely non-verbal, an exercise where I and another temporary guide moved while holding elbows: faster, slower, running, stopping, crouching. I didn’t realize it until I was forced to focus on it, but the ability to communicate with another person just through physical presence is amazing.

The final theme of Do You See What I Mean? is choice. Every significant part of the tour pressured me to make decisions, ask questions, analyze the answers and find my own meaning in what I was shown.

Although, as my guide reminded me, there were no wrong answers, I was entirely responsible for asking the question in the first place. For example, the couple who had been to Costa Rica mentioned that they were very passionate about recent developments in Parkinson’s research. Why was this? I didn’t move past small talk to the big stuff before I had to leave, and I regretted it.

On a number of occasions, there wasn’t even communication of an expectation. During the movement exercise, my guide stood still until I realized that I had to move. At one point, she began repeating the same movement over and over until I realized I had to respond differently.

I was expected to notice when to act, and the performers were patient enough to wait for me. <em>

</em>

JUAN SUEZ/COURTESY PUSH FESTIVAL

Do You See What I Mean? shows Vancouver like it’s never been “seen” before.

The main feature of the experience was my dependency on other people. My immediate impulse when I started wearing the blindfold was to self-guide based on guesswork; this was clumsy. I had to trust my guide, and I was soon totally reliant on her.

Some parts of the tour, like

when a couple hosted us in their home and told us about a vacation to Costa Rica, were entirely about social interaction and what other people can mean to you.

Later, when the guide and I took an elevator, I found that I had to say hello to everyone around me, either because they might

Essentially, the guides led me to things, but it was my duty to perceive what was happening around me. Even though the experience of being guided suggests surrender, I was forced to exercise my agency and — remember, this is a devised art piece — assume my own role in the story that had been written around me.

And the story ended with that choice: whether or not to remove my blindfold and meet my guide.

I had been anticipating this from the start, and it didn’t make the choice any easier. Would a conversation be easy, or laboured?

Would I have to cut it short for time and go back to work?

It was tantalizing to consider letting someone I trust out into the world without knowing who they are — but it wasn’t release, it was like something tearing.

My guide had told me earlier that she was in a theatre show that weekend, and I told her I would go to it and we could possibly meet then, if she wanted. It felt like a cop-out. I didn’t take my blindfold off. She left. It was really hard.

I tried to go to the show, but the person just before me in line bought the last ticket.

I left her a note, thanking her for the experience but not including any contact information.

Did I make the right choice in not taking off my blindfold?

There are no wrong answers, she had told me earlier. The choice was only mine to make.

And I guess that was what I was supposed to see. U

8 | Culture |

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

Improv >>

Winning like they just don’t care

UBC Improv takes its wisecracks to College Improv Tournament finals

Maitrayee Dhaka Contributor

UBC Improv is going places.

Chicago, to be specific. The newly crowned champions of the northwest College Improv Tournament in Seattle beat nine other schools, including previous champions The Dead Parrots Society.

They are the only team representing Canada at the national College Improv Tournament in the Windy City this March. The team had previously scored a wildcard entry to the Chicago tournament last year after coming in second at the Northwest tournament in 2012.

“We’re on cloud nine right now,” said Ghazal Azarbad and Noah Goldenberg, co-presidents of UBC Improv.

“Improv is never really a competition,” said Goldenberg. “It never really should be a competition and it’s often dressed up as competition, such as Theatre Sports. There is no real way to judge it. It is totally subjective, and based on what people like to see and the individuality of every person’s upbringing. Some people are into jokes and gags, others are more into scene work. They have a lot of judges.”

“Unfortunately Noah got very sick, and we lost a member,” said Azarbad. “We performed twice the same night. We came second in the first round, and won the judges’ unanimous support for first place in the finals. The second set was a simple story of forbidden love and arranged marriage.

The audience had heard the story before, a million times, but it won them over.”

claire melanson/ubyssey

For UBC Improv, the imaginary sky is the limit.

“It’s this thing that’s happening in Pacific Northwest improv, this tone of sentimentality and seriousness,” said Goldenberg. “Improv is a comedic form and there are a lot of jokes, but it’s not supposed to be comedy necessarily. During our set, there were hilarious moments, but also chuckles and moments when the audience was genuinely engaged and invested in the story.

The host came out and said, ‘How

dare you make me feel feelings?

Because feelings are what I felt.’

“They give us notes after both sets, and the notes after the first one were on how to improve. The notes that we read on the way home were all compliments. It was not humbling in the least,” Goldenberg added.

Every competition demands a strategy, and UBC Improv’s was multifaceted.

“We talk about our goal for the set right before we are about to go on,” said Azarbad. “We individually succeeded at our goals. We read the judges’ critique. If [we] had not done that, we would not have won.”

“It really builds up our reputation as a group,” Goldenberg added. “We are attracting students who want to come to UBC to learn improv; UBC is the go-to

place, at least in B.C., if you want to learn how to do improv. There are students in our club who have auditioned from other schools.”

The club, which functions on “exceedingly limited” support from the university, has gained popularity on campus in recent years.

“We had 130 people try out, which is ridiculous, and they were so good that we had to add a team, so we now have three regularly performing teams,” said Azarbad.

“We have such devoted fans. We have regulars. Two years ago, we’d be lucky to fill four rows at Scarfe 100, and now we have the room packed. We can go up there knowing that we have the support of an entire audience.

“In improv, if you don’t have community, you have competition.

We do well because we’re all on the same team.”

The teams are preparing for three consecutive weekly shows and a nationwide improv festival, Impulse, that hosts professional and student teams from Vancouver, Canada and the U.S. Azarbad and Goldenberg aren’t losing much sleep over Chicago at the moment.

“We beat what we did last year, and there is nothing to worry about anymore,” said Goldenberg.

“We’ve already done what we set out to do, and at this point, it’s all gravy.” U UBC Improv has three shows coming up, including a fundraiser for their Chicago trip, on Feb. 1, 8 and 15 in Neville Scarfe 100 at 7 p.m.

Tickets $3 or free for members. </em>

film >>

Film student captures the drama of real life Alina Anghel Contributor

Cari Green is no novice to film production. With 25 years in the film industry under her belt, she’s worked on a diverse range of projects addressing socially and politically charged topics ranging from corporate power to women in the military.

After six years of teaching at the Vancouver Film School, she has decided to pursue her master’s of film production at UBC. Most recently, she worked as the associate producer on When I Walk, a candid account of filmmaker Jason DaSilva’s struggles with multiple sclerosis. The documentary was recently released to critical acclaim at the world-renowned Sundance Film Festival, which Green attended along with DaSilva.

“He’s such an inspiration. He is an inspiration in the way he’s championed life,” attested Green.

“It doesn’t mean he hasn’t had his sad moments along the way.

The film looks at all of that. It’s not that it just tries to be hopeful or modest; it really faces the illness straight on.”

As a producer, Green helps kickstart, finance and market projects. She chooses to work specifically with documentaries

stopped the advance of corporate influx into government and every aspect of our life, health and education. But I think that’s not the case, [and] now we have a film that we can reference in terms of what we think is wrong.”

The first film Green worked on was Songololo: Voices of Change, which documented how artists were battling against apartheid in South Africa. During the making of the film, no one in South Africa imagined that the apartheid would end in their lifetime, but the documentary’s release coincided with the release of Nelson Mandela, and the film was subsequently nominated for a Genie award.

“Timing is everything, right?” she said.

Green’s commitment to the documentary medium is partly informed by her opinion of the current state of journalism; she believes that documentaries can communicate vital information that the mainstream media otherwise avoids.

“Newspapers are taking a dive, trying to compete for the market, and are becoming very light,” said Green. “Some of the critical journalists are still out there, but not all. That’s why documentaries have become so important.

We didn’t see that coming, in <em>

<em>

courtesy cari green

Cari Green has produced several groundbreaking documentaries, and she’s not slowing down.

and real-world stories, which, for Green, are a means for social change. She’s perhaps most wellknown for co-producing the award-winning 2003 documentary The Corporation . Nearly a <em>

</em>

decade after its release, and after the upsurge in corporate social responsibility and the global financial melt-down, Green still feels that the film is relevant. “I wish that it could say that it has

a way; we didn’t see that there would be a gap.”

For her master’s thesis, Green is putting on the director’s gloves with Citizen Jane , a dramatic feature partially inspired by the real life work of Michelle Douglas, the woman who single-handedly reversed the policy against lesbian and gay people serving in the Canadian military.

“It’s looking at how individuals can create change that affects large segments of our population, and moves us forward in society as well,” said Green.

Much like Douglas, Green’s own career reflects the potential of a single person.

“I believe in the group, because I do think it does take a village and it does take a movement,” affirmed Green. “But sometimes, it’s individuals that step forward and are able to make that change happen.” U <em>

</em>

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

| National | 9

Freedom of INformation >>

McGill moves to bar public document requests

School says student journalists’ spate of requests are ‘retaliation’ after tuition protests Matthew Guité The Concordian (Concordia University)

MONTREAL (CUP) — McGill University has filed a motion that would grant it the ability to deny access to information (ATI) requests from the McGill Daily , the Link , the website McGillliLeaked and anyone associated with them. This comes in response to what the university describes as a “complex system of repetitious and abusive requests” for information.

According to the Canadian Access to Information Act, publicly funded, government-run institutions like universities are required to release certain documents to the public when officially requested.

The McGill Daily reported on Jan. 19 that the university filed the motion to the Commission d’accès à l’information, the provincial body which oversees access to information requests, claiming that the ATI requests were set up “as a retaliation measure against McGill in the aftermath of the 2011-2012 student protests.”

The motion, which names 14 respondents, seeks the authority to disregard current requests as well as any future requests made by the respondents or any person who can be linked to them, essentially barring the individuals named from ever submitting ATI requests to McGill. <em>

</em>

<em>

<em>

</em>

</em>

McGill wants to ban a number of student journalists from filing Access To Information requests for public documents.

It also seeks the right to deny future requests on a variety of subjects, such as military research and mining investments. Future requests could also be denied if they were found to be “overly broad,” “frivolous” or if they target “trivial documents and information.”

McGill’s motion claims that the respondents set up a “complex system” via repeated ATI requests, which the university describes as repetitious and abusive. It also argues that responding to the requests would represent “serious

Crime >>

impediments to [the university’s] activities.”

McGill student Christopher Bangs, the founder of the website McGilliLeaked and one of the respondents involved in the case, told the Concordian that he was not only worried about the motion itself, but also the motivation behind it.

“We’ve had a lot of complaints, not just from McGill students but from a lot of members of the McGill community, about how ATI requests are handled,” he said. “We’ve all had trouble with it, but the fact that <em>

</em>

Viola Ng/Flickr

they’re going to take this extreme step at this point makes us wonder about their commitment to ensuring both an open dialogue and access to information.”

Bangs also contested the suggestion that the 14 respondents were operating in collaboration while filing their requests.

“There were 14 of us in this motion, and the 14 of us did not coordinate our motions,” Bangs said.

“We did not submit them together, we did not have some sort of secret plan to bring down the university

through access to information requests, so the fact that they were all submitted at the same time does not give McGill University the right to deny not only those requests, but also all future requests we might make.”

Julie Fortier, associate director for McGill’s media relations office, explained that the motion is based on current law, which allows ATI recipients the right to not answer a request if it breaks certain rules.

Fortier added that the ATIs in question fall into these categories.

“There are provisions within the law on access to information that allow an organization to make the request to the commission to not reply to certain requests when these are abusive by their nature, when they’re systematic or repetitive, or when they could seriously disrupt normal activities, and we thought that this was the case,” said Fortier.

Fortier also said that prior to this motion, the ATIs in question were not rejected, and that future requests would be denied if they were considered to be of the same nature as those in the motion.

The Concordian contacted Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota for comment on the nature, depth and number of ATI requests that Concordia receives, but Mota said that the school could not comment on the matter. <em>

</em>

money >>

Ottawa student loses fee refund appeal Langara student killed in sword attack U of O fifth-year sued student union over mandatory fees Adam Feibel The Fulcrum (University of Ottawa)

Photo Courtesy Facebook

A memorial was set up to honour 19-year-old murder victim Manraj Akalirai.

Angela Holubowich The Voice (Langara College)

VANCOUVER (CUP) — A Langara criminology student is dead in Vancouver’s first homicide of 2013.

Nineteen-year-old Manraj Akalirai died on his way to hospital after he was allegedly swarmed by a group of men.

Police have arrested five in connection with the murder, after four of the men arrived at hospital with injuries.

On Jan. 25, The Province reported that police are questioning a sixth man in connection to the murder.

Multiple weapons were used, including bats and clubs, when the men allegedly attacked the victim in his vehicle.

The attackers allegedly smashed out the back window of the vehicle and dragged Akalirai onto the street. Akalirai’s fatal wounds were allegedly caused by a sword.

A statement issued by a spokesperson of Langara College said, “Langara extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends <em>

</em>

of Manraj Akalirai. As this is still an ongoing police investigation, we will not be making further comment at this time.”

The family of Akalirai issued a statement to CBC News: “Our family is devastated by the tragic events involving our son and brother, Manraj. We are still in shock and coping with our loss.

Manraj was a well-mannered, humble and respectful individual. At this time, our family would like privacy as we grieve the loss of our beloved son and brother.”

Mourners gathered on Facebook to express grievances.

“I’ll never meet someone as Loyal, Genuine and Trustworthy as you. You didn’t go down without a fight bro, you’re a warrior, you’re a solider, but most of all you’re a Hero and that’s how we all knew and will remember you as,” wrote Jordan Rolfe.

Police believe there may be connections to the drug trade or gang activity, although the family of Akalirai denies these claims.

OTTAWA (CUP) — A student who sued the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) to have his incidental fees reimbursed because of a disagreement with its operations had his case dismissed in court.

Fifth-year chemistry student Edward Inch filed suit against the SFUO in the amount of $92.60, the portion of his tuition for the winter 2012 term that went toward the student federation and its extended and individually levied services.

Inch decided to take the SFUO to small claims court in October after repeated requests to be removed from the federation’s email list went ignored and he attempted to resign from membership of the SFUO. Inch said the SFUO is a “political organization” that takes stances he does not agree with and felt the federation exercised negligence in dealing with the matter of his removal from the email list and subsequent attempt at resignation.

Members of the SFUO include all full-time and part-time undergraduate students at the University of Ottawa. Inch felt his resignation from the federation would warrant the reimbursement of incidental fees.“My resignation was accepted, so I feel that the fees and bylaws should not apply to me,” Inch said in court.

However, Ontario Small Claims Court Deputy Judge Lyon Gilbert determined that then-president Amalia Savva did not have the proper authority to accept a resignation, according to SFUO bylaws, and Gilbert ruled

Photo Courtesy the Fulcrum

Fifth-year chemistry student Edward Inch lost his legal battle over student fees.

against the reimbursement at the conclusion of the six-hour trial.

“As a student, Mr. Inch is bound to the terms and conditions of enrolment,” said Gilbert.

The SFUO’s constitution does not formally state whether or not its fees may be reimbursed.

Inch’s argument, which namely cited the Government of Ontario’s Corporations Act and Consumer Protection Act, was that the services provided by the SFUO were unsolicited and that this would exempt him from the mandatory fees.

However, by paying his tuition and fees and by accepting the

terms and conditions required to register courses, Inch entered into a standard form contract with the university and, by extension, the SFUO. The federation reserves the ability to set its own membership bylaws, one of which is that resignations are in fact not permitted.

“It’s contract 101. He accepted the terms,” said the defendant’s lawyer Jean-Francois Lalonde.

After the verdict, Inch made out a cheque for $50 to the Children’s Miracle Network in exchange for the SFUO opting not to seek costs from the case.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013 |

STUDENT VOICe. COMMUNITY REACH.

Press PROBLEMS >>

LAST WORD

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Student journos hard at work in the UWO Gazette office.

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“Sugar babies” represents the worst of university news coverage </strong>

Most media outlets have a pretty limited playbook when it comes to covering universities.

College coverage tends to focus on one of the following subject areas: sex, student debt, depression, booze, hazing, feel-good scientific research, university rankings, etc. The general public, reared on films like Animal House and American Pie, don’t have an appetite for much else.

This past week, we had a groan-inducing trifecta. It came in the form of seekingarrangements.com, a website that hooks prospective “sugar babies” up with wealthy benefactors who provide thousands of dollars a month in exchange for youthful “companionship.” Turns out, more and more Canadian students are selling themselves, because — you guessed it — they’re in debt. The website recently released a list of students at Canadian universities using the service. UBC ranked 12th in the nation, with 60 alleged “sugar babies” on campus (alleged, as many of the profile pictures on the site are stock images).

The media love lists, and they love sexy, broke young people.

So for outlets like CTV and the Globe and Mail, the story was a no-brainer. For a day or two, the story was one of the Globe’s top shared articles.

This kind of coverage shows an incredibly shallow understanding of this generation in particular and universities in general. It’s an understanding

rooted in 1980s sex comedies, rather than the reality of Canadian universities today. On the heels of a Maclean’s cover story that declared ours a lost generation, this sleaze was salt in an undeserved wound.

Bridging UBC’s gender equity gap </strong>

It’s good that UBC has moved to address pay equity for its female faculty members.

Equity problems in the university’s faculty ranks have been a nasty issue underneath the surface ever since a 1995 report on gender discrimination in the political science department. Two years after a study showed an average $3,000 pay gap between equivalent male and female profs at UBC, it’s good to finally see movement on this issue.

There are remaining issues, though. The equation used to settle on a two per cent pay increase adjusts for rank and advancement, which is a good compromise but a keen reminder that female faculty make up only 38 per cent of UBC’s tenure track. Only 21 per cent of full professors are women.

So steps are being taken to make things a little less of a boy’s club, but there’s still a ways to go.

A pot of money for post-secondary research? Hope this works... </strong>

So the AMS wants to pay students to do research on post-secondary issues. It’s a pretty great idea. Rather than going up against powerful

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indiana joel illustration/the ubyssey

groups like UBC or the provincial government with pleas and platitudes, they can arm themselves with actual research numbers about issues like housing, tuition and transit.

The student society gets to do better advocacy, students get to do fancy-looking research they can put on their resumés, everybody wins. Well, sort of.

We’re really hoping this plan works, but the way it’s being rolled out so far leaves something to be desired. The pot of money the AMS has for the project mostly comes from UBC, and it comes with strings.

There’s a cap on how much money can go to one student, so we’re talking about six-month part-time projects done by undergrads, not deep, intensive work from grads with more experience in their fields. And UBC gets a significant presence on the committee that evaluates research proposals, meaning there’s the possibility they could deep-six proposals that plan to look at the university with a critical eye.

Also, the AMS thinks they can just put money on the table, and students will bring forward great, useful proposals for interesting projects without any outside help. It’d be really nice if they get so many good applications that it’s hard to choose what to fund. But realistically, untrained undergrads, many of whom are more concerned with beefing up their resumés than post-secondary lobbying, may not have ideas that are all that great.

We’re speculating, of course.

Maybe this thing will take off.

Maybe there are a ton of eager students waiting to do policy research. Here’s hoping. U

e sometimes forget how good we have it at The Ubyssey. The paper won independence from the AMS in 1995, and has a sustainable financial model. Neither internal student politics nor financial considerations dictate our coverage.

Other papers aren’t so lucky.

The Western Gazette, for example, recently had its office space cut in half after publishing articles critical of the student union. Since the student union owns the paper, the editorial staff are at the mercy of a bunch of mealy-mouthed student politicians.

And the McGill Daily, one of the oldest student papers in Canada, is facing a mandatory fiveyear levy referendum. The paper needs a majority “yes” vote to continue receiving funding from students. Student are voting over the next few days whether to keep this vital campus watchdog alive. A “no” vote would doom the publication.

Both are unique institutions in the world of Canadian student journalism. The Gazette is the last student publication with a daily print edition, and the Daily is the only student paper to publish in both of Canada’s official languages. Both have a strong history of holding power to account and fighting for students.

We wish them the best of luck.

Independent media essential to campus The Cord Editorial Board The Cord (Wilfrid Laurier University)

WATERLOO (CUP) — University of Western Ontario’s (UWO) student newspaper, the Gazette, has been put in a critical spotlight ever since its ongoing struggle with UWO’s Student Council.

The fundamental problem is that the Gazette is at the mercy of the university and its student council. Some of the ongoing issues are rooted in this close connection between the two bodies, in which the Gazette is unable to accurately report on the council or the university’s governance.

When the paper rated the student government a B- in April of 2012, for example, piles of papers started mysteriously disappearing from the racks.

Things boiled over when representatives from the student council called for cutting the paper’s budget as well as sitting in on editorial board meetings.

This came just before the student council downsized the Gazette’s

indiana joel illustration/the ubyssey

office space, which has been the paper’s home for 40 years.

While the student council argued the space was needed to expand a multi-faith resource centre, their real intentions are difficult to decipher.

But what is clear is the vital need for a university to have a student-run and owned newspaper that exists independently from the institution and its governing bodies.

The basic function of a student newspaper is to act as a watchdog for the thousands of students who are impacted by the university and its decision-making processes and outcomes.

It is important to recognize the fundamental need to have an organization that protects the interests of students before the need to protect the university’s reputation.

An endorsement of the Daily Publications Society The Canadian University Press

(CUP) — The Daily Publications Society (DPS) holds a unique position in the Canadian student press landscape. Not only is the McGill Daily one of only three campus papers that continues to publish more than once a week, but the French-language paper Le Délit makes the DPS unique from any other student journalism organization in the country.

Together, the Daily and Le Délit were nominated for 12 John H. MacDonald Awards this year, the highest honour in Canadian student journalism.

Taken together, the Daily and Le Délit were nominated for more awards than any other publication society in the country. And this was only the most recent in a string of extremely successful showings.

And over the past year, these two papers provided coverage of the student strike that was informative, nuanced and conducted with the vigour that only young, hungry student journals can provide.

A measure of their success is the level that McGill has taken to fight against them, through legal means and intimidation. And yet, these two papers and the students behind them stand strong.

To cut the levy of Le Délit and the Daily would not just be a crushing blow to the press at McGill; it would deprive all of Canada of one its most unique and accomplished journalistic institutions.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013 |

PICTURES + WORDS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

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ADVICE >>

Dr. B talks SUB sex, ghostly ex WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

by Dr.* Bryce Warnes <em>

Hey Dr. Bryce,

Despite having completely cut all ties with her, I m having trouble forgetting my ex. I ve reconnected with a couple of old friends, and they ve been worlds of help, but on some nights, I stay up, and I still see her ghost. Oh Bryce, I m still not sure what I stand for. What do you stand for? you might say.

What do I stand for? Most nights, I don t know anymore.

Envious

</em>

Envious, I’ll interpret the “ghost” line as a figure of speech. Hopefully your

ex is still alive, and hopefully you aren’t literally hallucinating her spectral form.

Here’s my advice: If you have a dick, get it wet. Old loves can be fucked away. The real question is, “What do you (one night) stand for?” If you’re not willing to pursue emotionally empty hookups with women whose charms only become apparent after three or four drinks, pick up a new hobby.

Model airplanes are cool. So is Jesus.

Getting over relationships you actually care about isn’t easy. Try to find distractions from your emotional agony and accept that it will one day heal. To paraphrase Nietzche the Barbarian, “What does not kill you makes you stronger.”

Ideally, anyway. <em>

HACKÉDEX

YOUR UBC WORD OF THE WEEK

Dear Dr. Bryce,

I have a fantasy about having sex inside the SUB. Any suggestions on how my partner and I can make this come to fruition?

Dom

</em>

have the keys.

Suggestions: BrUBC isn’t in their office often, and you won’t have to BYOB. And I know that prominent members of the AMS have made good use, in the past, of the Council Room’s giant round desk thing.

The Ubyssey has couches, but scabies might be an issue.

The second-best option — actually, the worst — is a bathroom stall. Just keep in mind that someone might start pooping/ barfing (depending on time of day/night) in the stall next to you. Don’t let it throw off your rhythm. <em>

Some nights, I stay up, and I still see her ghost.

Oh Bryce, I’m still not sure what I stand for.

Envious

</em>

deeply moving requests for advice. I have enjoyed these past months of advice-writing very much; sometimes, too much. As always, keep them coming. I live to serve.

If any of you has any tips that will help the reader above with their SUB sex fantasy — favourite hook-up spots/times, secret entrances or stories of your own SUB debauchery — send them my way. There is potential for a special theme column here.

Before long, the new SUB will be complete. Let’s do our best to send out the old one with a bang. U

<em>

Dear Dom, Comfort-wise, the best option I can think of is to join some sort of club or association with space in the SUB, and work your way into a position where they let you

Dear Readers (A Message from Dr. Bryce), Thank you for all your perplexing, disgusting and sometimes

Don t know what you should do?

Dr.* Bryce does! Ask online at ubyssey.ca/advice/ and have your personal problems solved in the paper. All submissions are entirely anonymous. *Bryce is not a doctor.

CAPPED!

THE UBYSSEY CAPTION CONTEST!

CUS

The Commerce Undergraduate Society is the undergrad constituency representing Sauder students.

Widely known as the wealthiest constituency in the AMS, the CUS provides conference funding and free coffee (among other things) to its members. It is also partly responsible for funding the Business Career Centre. The CUS elections run this week, so if you’re a Sauderite, go on VISTA and vote.

UBC’s official student newspaper.

Send story ideas and tips to feedback@ubyssey.ca.

News that matters to UBC students.

Tweets by news editors @laurarodgers and @w_d_mcdonald.

Covering campus and beyond, the culture section of the @Ubyssey.

Tweets by editor @annazoria

@cjpentland. Sports. AKA el’ Grande Poppasito. Tweeter of campus sports and recreation.

We follow the news for you.

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U

@Ubyssey @UbysseyNews @UbysseySports @UbysseyCulture

Welcome to Capped!, The Ubyssey’s new caption contest. We’ll periodically run cartoons on this page that lack context. We need you to fill in the blanks. Winning entries will run in the paper, and the clever captioneer will receive a free book or CD. Fill in the conversation bubbles above and send your responses to art@ubyssey.ca. Bon cappetite!

This week, a bunch of super mean spambots a acked the accounts of an altruistic UBC research project (see page 3). For some reason, the cyber a ack made it look like the project had raised thousands of dollars more than it actually had. What was spambot’s heinous motive?

U

“If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” J.S mill BE RIGHT! BE WRONG! TALK OUT OF YOUR ASS! COME TO A UBYSSEY OPINIONS MEETING. TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS IN SUB 24. MORE INFO: OPINIONS@UBYSSEY.CA

</em>

12 | GAMES |

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

48- Inveigh against 50- Discovers 53- Head rests 54- Dwelling 55- Pad user 57- Debussy’s “La ___” 58- Sign of spring 60- 1957 hit for the Bobbettes 65- Illustrative craft 66- Begin’s co-Nobelist 67- Garlic sauce 68- RR stop 69- Diciembre follower 70- Summits of buildings

44- “___ Brockovich” 47- Discomfort 49- Baseball’s Roberto 50- Actor Lorenzo 51- movie critic Roger 52- Artery that feeds the trunk 53- Basil-based sauce 55- Pro or con 56- Drop of water expelled by the eye

59- Hurried 61- Carnival site 62- Elton’s john 63- Pole worker 64- Frozen Wasser

doWn

PUZZLE COURTESY BESTCROSSWORDS.COm. USED WITH PERmISSION.

across 1- Lowly workers 6- Indian term of respect 11- Draft org.

14- Planet’s path 15- Jalopy 16- With it 17- Judge, e.g.

18- Permit 19- ___ Dawn Chong 20- Inuit dwelling 22- White-barked poplar tree

24- Liquor 28- merchant 29- Hurry 30- Healing plants 32- Jazzy James 33- Deep sleep 35- mayberry kid 39- Long time 40- A Bobbsey twin 41- Breathe hard 42- Walked 43- So spooky as to be frightening 45- Hawaiian native dance 46- Examine account books

1- Cooking container 2- Be off 3- Kimono accessory 4- Never, in Nuremberg 5- Hit 6- Snakelike 7- Woody’s boy 8- Circle of light often seen around the head of saints 9- Simpson trial judge 10- Careful!

11- Cut into small pieces 12- Bobby of the Black Panthers 13- Nuremberg trial defendant 21- mil. leaders 23- A type of leukocyte 24- Cereal grain 25- misanthrope 26- Playground retort 27- Norm 28- Rocky hilltop 30- Separated 31- Actress Anderson 34- Dedicated to the ___ Love 36- Sao ___ 37- Relative by marriage 38- Les ___-Unis 43- Begley and Bradley

PUZZLE COURTESY KRAZYDAD. USED WITH PERmISSION.

1. send us your flash fiction & poetry

2. get published The Ubyssey’s annual creative writing contest is open for submissions! Have your flash fiction and poetry judged by published authors and working magazine editors. You could be published in the paper and win some cold, hard cash.

rules

• Email submissions by Feb. 1, 2013 • 300-500 words for flash fiction • 1 page or less for poetry

Visit ubyssey.ca/literary/ for full submission guidelines.

Follow us on Twitter! @ubyssey