December 3, 2012

MY LITTLE DRUMMER BOY SINCE 1918

UBC’S OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER | DECEMBER 3, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XIXVII

healthy h o

Two UBC engineering students hope their new device will improve access to clean water in developing countries p3

U

THE UBYSSEY

d l o h n o s p ho clude a bre its plan to in on ed ol co S has p3 rns, the AM ct through nsing conce them to see the proje ce li d an s n t lovers wan cost overru Faced with ut many student beer B .

B SU New

wing facility

in the

Bathroom

graffiti

What the scribblings on the walls of campus washrooms say about UBC p6

Board of goVernors

checK-in We look at the highlights from the last meeting of UBC’s top decision makers p4

equity soccer renos Budget

up & doWn

The ’Birds split a weekend series with a 3-0 win and a 3-0 loss. Is their championship identity in doubt? p9

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

What’s on Tue 12 3

OUR CAMPUS

This week, may we suggest...

STUDYING >>

2

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

MONDAY

Exam Jam: 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

As the first term of the year comes to a close, exam season is upon us. For first-years looking for a little extra help with some of those daunting tests, Student Services has organized a campus-wide study group system.

Free snacks, peer-advising, and a mix of silent and group study areas are available. Check out students.ubc.ca/exam-jam for more information.

Tue 124

Tue 125

FOOD >>

TUESDAY

EXAMS >>

WEDNESDAY

Annual Donut Sale for United Way: 10 a.m. @ SUB South Lounge Need a quick snack while you’re studying? UBC Campus Security will be hosting an annual donut fundraiser that will curb your study hunger.

Tue 126

SINGING >>

THURSDAY

Open Mic Night: 9 p.m. @ the Gallery Lounge Looking for an outlet to express your desires to be one of the Glee kids? Stop by Open Mic Night at the Gallery to hear campus sing its heart out. Plus, the Gallery has nachos — what else could you need?

12 7Tue

PHOTO COURESTY MICHAEL ELDER

Michael Elder is the director of the UBC Engineering Godiva band.

Directing the engineers Joan Tan Contributor

First Day of Exams You have diligently worked for the past four months to get to this point. While this may be a stressful time, don’t forget: there is light at the end of the tunnel! Break out that study playlist, find yourself a study carrel in Koerner, and don’t forget to take a break now and then. Also, the Pit is still open, so no matter how your exams go, there is still somewhere to celebrate and commiserate.

HEALTH >>

SATURDAY

Yoga and Relaxation Session: 1:30–2:30 p.m. @ International House If the title alone doesn’t entice you to take a break from studying, we aren’t sure what will. I. House is offering free yoga to help you unwind a little bit. So dig out that yoga mat and RSVP online at http://ow.ly/fKUa9

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 video content, airing online at ubyssey.ca/videos/

U The Ubyssey

editorial

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

Coordinating Editor Jonny Wakefield coordinating@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Natalya Kautz features@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Print Jeff Aschkinasi Video Editor printeditor@ubyssey.ca David Marino video@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Web Andrew Bates Copy Editor webeditor@ubyssey.ca Karina Palmitesta News Editors Will McDonald + Laura Rodgers news@ubyssey.ca

copy@ubyssey.ca

Senior News Writer Ming Wong mwong@ubyssey.ca

Graphics Assistant Indiana Joel ijoel@ubyssey.ca

Culture Editor Anna Zoria culture@ubyssey.ca

Layout Artist Collyn Chan cchan@ubyssey.ca

Senior Culture Writer Rhys Edwards redwards@ubyssey.ca

Videographer Soo Min Park spark@ubyssey.ca

Sports + Rec Editor CJ Pentland sports@ubyssey.ca

Webmaster Riley Tomasek webmaster@ubyssey.ca

Art Director Kai Jacobson art@ubyssey.ca

DECEMBER 3, 2012 | Volume XCIV| Issue XIXVII

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, Stephanie Xu

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Though engineers aren’t usually known for their extracurriculars, Michael Elder manages to multitask. Besides fulfilling the demands of being a third-year engineering student, Elder also co-directs the Engineering Godiva Band.

Comprised of a dozen engineering students, Godiva is the self-proclaimed “Engineering Spirit Band.” The band is perhaps best known for embarking on a three-hour march around campus, singing and playing Christmas tunes on the last day of classes.

“We wanted to give people something to be happy about, a little bit of comic relief before the exams,” said Elder. “It’s fun for us, and we hope other people have fun with it too.

“Especially since it was the last day of classes, we really wanted to give people the light in the tunnel. It’s right before finals, and we wanted to kind of say ‘Hey, Christmas is coming up right after finals, remember that?’”

Elder also found it interest-

ing that it was the engineers who were the ones providing this holiday spirit.

“We have that image and reputation of being serious,” he said. “It’s reflected in UBC campus memes; they post lots of things like ‘engineers don’t have any fun, we all just play video games all day,’ … so I think this makes a huge statement, that we are more than that, and we can have fun too.”

Even before coming to UBC, music had been a big part of Elder’s life. “Throughout high school, I was in Army Cadets and I was involved in a lot of marching band type things.

So when I heard there was a marching band here, I decided to join.”

When Elder joined in his first year, the Godiva Band was only in its second year of existence. But within a span of three years, he has seen significant change.

“It was still fairly new and not that established in terms of what we were going to do for the year,” he said. “We also didn’t have that much of a budget or a system. But it has

improved a lot.

“Now we have proper rehearsal space,… and now people actually know who we are.”

Elder has been involved in organizing Godiva for the past two years, and they now have weekly practices.

“It’s amazing to see it all come together in the end, seeing all these people have fun and enjoy it. The band and everyone has done amazing and we hope to continue to spread the joy and fun through music.

“I’m really happy because it shows there are more people like me that are also really passionate about music and want to be able to do something about that. So I’m glad to know that there’s a group like the Godiva band as a place to go for people like us.”

And though he’s a committed engineering student, the band has allowed Elder pursue what’s important to him.

“Music is my biggest passion,… and I’m really glad that I have that time each week to build on my passion.” U

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 |

EDITORS WILL Mcdonald + laura rodgers

GOvernance >>

beer >>

Kai Jacobson photo/THE UBYSSEY

Concerned students showed up in droves at last week’s AMS Council meeting to voice their concerns about the New SUB brewery.

New SUB microbrewery in limbo Veronika Bondarenko Staff Writer

The opening of the new Student Union Building is fast approaching, but the future of the student-run microbrewery set to go inside it is still up in the air.

No budget for the proposed brewery has been finalized yet, and at last Wednesday’s AMS council meeting, a vote was planned on whether or not to scrap the project entirely. But just a few hours before the meeting, the AMS realized the pace of new SUB construction gave them a little more time, and they’ve commissioned a new consultant’s report to help them decide whether or not to commit to building the brewery.

At the meeting, AMS executives, permanent staff, alumni and a vocal delegation from the BruBC homebrewing club argued over the financial aspects of bringing a microbrewery to UBC campus.

There was spirited debate about whether the potential monetary and social gains from brewing beer in the SUB outweighed the risks of the project.

AMS Council decided to spend $11,000 of the new SUB budget on another consultant’s report that will attempt to predict whether or not the brewery will make enough money to pay back the hefty building and equipment costs required to get it started. According to AMS designer Michael Kingsmill, who gave part of the presentation about the brewery at the meeting, $48,000 has been spent on financial consultations for the microbrewery to date.

A five-person committee will review the new report and the business case for the project, and make a recommendation about whether or not it should be built.

The AMS had originally planned to build a brew pub in the new SUB, and only sell

the beer they made on-site. But AMS president Matt Parson and vice-president administration Caroline Wong decided that, if a brewing facility is to be built at all, it might as well be a full brewery that can also produce beer to sell elsewhere. They hope that being able to sell kegs and bottles will help the business turn more of a profit.

But with start-up costs for construction and equipment reaching close to $1 million, the microbrewery will have to sell a lot of beer in order to even pay back the capital costs.

Parson is hopeful that, despite the possible risks, a microbrewery at UBC can still become a reality.

“We are re-engaging … consultants to take a second look over the business feasibility of including a microbrewery in the new Student Union Building,” said Parson.

“We are just re-evaluating the new conditions.”

Still, Parson is confident that the initial expense will pay off in the end.

“They’ll be looking at the financial projections with our new brewing capacity as well as weighing those against the cost,” said Parson. “There’s a very exciting new potential for partnerships with external groups now that our capacity is quite a lot more significant.”

Former AMS vice-president finance Elin Tayyar, who has been one of the brewery’s first proponents back in 2011, believes that some details still need to be finalized before construction can proceed.

“Financing is a big issue for any business venture. The actual management of the microbrewery also needs to be finalized — this depends on the partnership plan. Last, and most important, someone needs to spearhead this project; that seems to be missing at this point.”

Dano Morrison, president of BruBC, is willing to do whatever it takes to bring the microbrewery to campus. “We’d love to see it happen. That’s our number one right now,” said Morrison. “We’d love to see quality beer being put out by the brewery, possibly with the help of students — either students helping run the process, [or] maybe as part of some educational program for those who are interested in the brewing industry.”

Morrison hopes that by bringing students, the AMS and BruBC together, the AMS can help ensure that the microbrewery project gets off the ground.

“We seem to have gotten a lot of support so far and we’re going to keep working for it, keep trying to make it good,” said Morrison.

“If they think about going down the road and trying to get [a third party like] Molson in on the project, we’ll fight that tooth and nail.”

A final AMS Council vote on the status of the microbrewery is expected in January 2013. U

NEWS BRIEFS

Tuition >>

Man pleads guilty to secretly recording nudity on campus Jay Winship Forster, the man accused of secretly recording women in a UBC change room, pled guilty to one count of secretly observing or recording nudity in a public place at Richmond Provincial Court last Tuesday.

His next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 31, 2013. Both a pre-sentence report and a psychiatric or psychological report will be presented.

The crime of secretly observing or recording nudity in a public place can be either a summary offence or an indidictable offence. If it is charged as an indictable offence, the maximum sentence is a prison term of five years.

Decision comes after objections from several student groups

Sauder study finds customer complaints hurt product ratings A new study from the Sauder School of Business found that it can be risky to give customers a chance to complain about a product.

The study found that consumers given a chance to complain about a faulty product gave the item a lower rating than participants who weren’t given a chance to complain.

“When a person feels implicated in a product’s failure – think building Ikea furniture – they’re more likely to shift blame to the product when complaining and increase ill will toward it,” said study co-author and Sauder professor Darren Dahl in a press release. U

3

UBC to reconsider high cost of new econ degree Will McDonald News Editor

UBC is going to reconsider the price of the proposed new Bachelor of International Economics degree.

The decision comes after elected representatives from the AMS student society, the International Students’ Association and the Economics Students’ Association gave a presentation at last Friday’s Board of Governors committee meeting opposing the high cost of the program.

The program has a proposed tuition of $10,000 per year for domestic students and $29,000 per year for international students.

Student groups argued there wasn’t enough justification for the price tag or consultation on the cost of the program.

“This is not a program, and this is not a tuition amount, that is justified by the rationale provided,” AMS VP Academic Kiran Mahal said at the meeting, where she made a presentation on the AMS’s behalf.

She and the AMS also submitted a document to the Board prior to the meeting meeting arguing that, in the AMS’s view, the program could still make money even if the tuition cost was lowered.

After the presentation, the UBC Board of Governors voted to pull a motion for approval of the

program’s tuition costs from next week’s full Board meeting.

UBC President Stephen Toope said the university has now committed to consider other options for the new degree.

“I hope that we can find a way forward,” said Toope. “[We] will commit to having immediate further consultations with students and also commit to looking at the numbers much more aggressively.”

Board of Governors member Maureen Howe said the administration needs to look at other ideas, but time is of the essence.

“We would actually like to go back and ask our administration to sharpen their pencil and do a little further work,” said Howe. “They must be as expeditious as possible.

We would really like to get this school up and operational … by September [2013].”

The university has already begun to accept applications from students who hope to start in the program next September. Applications are still being accepted.

The university had originally planned to approve the program’s tuition at the September Board meeting, but it was pulled from the agenda when the AMS objected because there had been no student consultation. The program’s directors talked with students at a town hall meeting on Oct.

9, but the tuition numbers went back onto the December Board agenda unchanged.

Mahal has previously expressed concerns that the town hall was not really a consultation, but an “information session.” However, she said she is hopeful that the university will take students’ concerns into account go “[The university] seemed to make a strong commitment that they will look at making this consultation more robust and more inclusive and more open to hearing suggestions … we’re hopeful that it will be better than the last,” Mahal said later on Friday.

Mahal said that no further consultations have been scheduled yet, but they would involve elected student reps from the AMS, the Arts Undergraduate Society, the Economics Students Association and the International Students Association, as well as representatives from the university.

Mahal said the university would like to meet before the end of the year, but it may be difficult to coordinate students’ schedules during exams.

“We understand that the university is on a short timeline … but at the same time we want to make sure that we give it enough consideration, that all the issues are addressed.” U

Engineers reach deal on new student space

YAra Van Kessel photo/THE UBYSSEY

The Engineers are planning a new student building to replace the Cheeze, their current student centre.

Matt Meuse Staff Writer

Now that they’ve ironed out a deal with UBC about how the building will be run, the Engineering Undergraduate Society is one step closer to getting a new student space.

The agreement defines how the engineers’ new student space will be controlled, and it will set the precedent for other student groups hoping to acquire new student spaces.

The undergrad society went through drawn-out negotiations with UBC about who would have final say over what happens in the space. UBC wanted to give full control to the Dean of Applied Science, but the students argued for a balance of power between students, engineering alumni and university staff. Most of the building’s budget will come from student fees and alumni donations.

EUS president Ian Campbell said the agreement requires the engineers to present an annual event plan for the building to the Dean of Applied Science for approval.

Campbell wouldn’t reveal the full details of the deal until the AMS signs off on it.

Overall, the undergrad society is pleased with the agreement. “I think it was very beneficial for student life as a whole that we engaged on this,” said Campbell. “I think now [UBC has] a better idea of what students want, and how student life can be impacted by student space.”

The length of the agreement’s term was a sticking point in negotiations, and though the EUS had initially hoped for a longer term, Campbell said the final 30-year term length was mutually agreed to be in both parties’ best interests.

Campbell doesn’t think needing the dean’s approval to host events will make things any more difficult than they already are, because faculty approval is currently required for any student events with a liquor license.

UBC VP Students Louise Cowin said UBC was happy with the result of the negotiations as well. Both parties were conscious of how the agreement would shape the way other, yet-to-be-built student spaces would be run as well.

“I would say that any future deal will look very close to the one that we’ve achieved with Engineering,” Cowin said. “It doesn’t make sense to me that one group has one deal and another group has another deal.

“I think it’s a great outcome for student social spaces at UBC.” Other undergrad groups on campus — from Arts, Commerce and Kinesiology — have expressed interest in building their own student centres, and they’ll likely be looking for similar agreements soon.

The Engineering students hope for full Board of Governors approval of project specifics by next spring. U

4 | news |

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Board of Governors >>

Board committees do heavy lifting on equity, development UBC’s head honchos talk aboriginal enrolment, faculty structures and soccer fields at year-end meeting

Other (7.1)

White (37.3)

West Asian (1.9)

South East Asian (4.6)

South Asian (8.1)

Latin American (2.4)

10

Korean (6.0)

15

Japanese (1.9)

20

Filipino (2.3)

25

Chinese (37.3)

30

Black (1.0)

35

Arab (0.9)

40

Aboriginal Peoples (1.5)

UBC student population by race/ethnicity (%,2011)

5 0

White (67.1)

West Asian (1.2)

South East Asian (2.2)

South Asian (4.3)

Latin American (2.2)

20

Korean (0.9)

30

Japanese (1.5)

40

Filipino (3.8)

50

Chinese (15.3)

60

Black (0.9)

70

Arab (0.5)

Faculty/staff population by race/ethnicity (%,2011) 80

Aboriginal Peoples (1.3)

L

ast Friday, UBC’s board of governors — the group in charge of most important decisions about the university — held their last standing committee meetings of the year.

They made recommendations and gave progress reports on a number of initiatives, from employment equity to construction projects.

Anything recommended at the committee stage will more than likely be passed at next week’s regular Board meeting.

A presentation about sustainability showed that UBC met goals to reduce on-campus water usage to 40 per cent below 2010 levels and keep auto traffic at or below 1997 levels.

They failed, however, to meet goals to reduce CO2 emissions to 33 per cent below 2007 levels, or to divert 55 per cent of solid waste away from landfills.

According to John Robinson, associate provost of sustainability, by the time the steam-to-hot-water heating system conversion is up and running, this will cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to make the CO2 goal achievable.

There was also a presentation about changes to UBC’s policy on plagiarism and scholarly integrity, which won’t happen until next year.

The proposed changes are subtle, but what’s interesting is that UBC has no choice in any of them; the changes are decided entirely by the Tri-Council federal research granting agencies. If UBC doesn’t change their policy to be in line with Tri-Council guidelines, they’ll be out a lot of research cash.

A few other highlights: the Bookstore is still expanding its retail space, and the Start an Evolution alumni fundraising campaign has made 65 per cent of the $1.5 billion they’re trying to raise.

Here are a few brief recaps about other important things the Board discussed. They also talked about the Bachelor of International Economics program, which you can read about on page 3. U —Laura Rodgers

10 0

The 2011–2012 Equity Report: Aboriginal enrolment down, employees with disabilities up The university’s annual equity report shows that some of its goals for diversity aren’t being met.

Although all of the data was self-reported and there was a low response rate, it does give a snapshot of various demographics.

It provides a breakdown of the university’s administration, professors, staff and students. Categories include race, gender, and disabilities.

Despite UBC’s numerous cam-

Source: 2011-2012 UBC Equity report

paigns to increase the number of aboriginal students on campus, the percentage of students who identify as aboriginal fell from 1.5 per cent in 2011 to 1.1 per cent in 2012.

The report also found no increase in aboriginals, visible minorities or disabled persons in the past year for the university’s senior administration. Although the report found an increase in employees who self-report as disabled, Associate VP Equity Tom Patch said that most of those numbers come from employees who have become disabled after they have been hired, and not an increase in hiring people with disabilities. U —Will McDonald

All health-related programs set to amalgamate UBC is planning to move its vast assortment of health-related programs into one central department.

The university says it will make things more efficient in a number of ways, such as how the university works with health authorities to arrange clinical work placements for students. There’s a long list of programs set to go into the new umbrella department: nursing, population and public health, social work, dietetics, clinical psych, physiotherapy, kinesiology, dentistry, audiology, pharmacy, occupational therapy, genetic counselling, midwifery and, of course, medicine.

Currently, the Dean of Medicine, Gavin Stuart, also serves as UBC’s vice-provost of health.

The plan is to give the vice-provost position to someone else who isn’t a dean, and have them head up all the health-related departments.

At the committee meeting, UBC provost David Farrar argued that the department’s restructuring fit with the trend toward more patient-focused health care, where health professionals from various fields work together more closely.

“Our students should really be going out as teams to clinical placements,” he said.

Farrar talked about the concerns he heard from some of the smaller departments involved in the amalgamation, like Dentistry and Pharmacy.

“They feel very threatened when they’re put next to Medicine,” he said.

Plans for the restructure are still being discussed, and UBC expects to have final plans on how to move forward by next July. U —Laura Rodgers

Board gives go-ahead to shared national soccer development centre The Whitecaps will be building a National Soccer Development centre on campus, and they plan to share it with UBC. The university won’t be paying any of the cost of the $23.5 million facility, which includes a field house, two grass playing fields, a turf field and a training centre.

Soccer Development Centre

BY THE

NUMBERS

Cost: 23.5 million $9 million from Whitecaps $14.5 million from the province Field house 15–20,000 square feet. About 8,000 square feet to be used by UBC Grass field use: 85% Whitecaps, 15% UBC Turf field use: 75% Whitecaps, 25% UBC UBC will get to use the grass practice fields 15 per cent of the time, and the artificial turf field 25 per cent of the time, with the Whitecaps using the rest. The university will also get approximately 8,000 square feet of the 15-20,000 square-foot field house.

The fields are set to be completed by August 2013, but the field house won’t be fully ready until 2015. The Property and Planning Committee has recommended seeking the approval of the Board of Goverors in the early stages of the project. U —Will McDonald

engineering >>

Students dive into water filter market with new design Sarah Bigam Staff Writer

Two UBC engineering students have designed a new filter that they hope will ease access to clean water.

UBC engineering alum Bradley Pierik said the device, called Tapp, is designed to be adaptable to situations ranging from hiking to the aftermath of a natural disaster. He and chemical engineering student Kevin Reilly created Twothirds Water Inc. to sell the new filter.

Pierik discovered his passion for water treatment while doing field work in Ethiopia during his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto.

“It really bothers me that something that’s so easy to avoid is causing suffering to so many people in the world. And when I think about what things can be done just to make the world better – you start with the low-hanging fruit, right, here’s something that’s causing half of the world’s hospitalizations and there’s really easy fixes, so let’s work on that one for now,” Pierik said.

He came up with the idea for Tapp while he was a graduate

JOsh Curran PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

The Tapp filter, designed by UBC engineers Bradley Pierik and Kevin Reilly, filters 99 per cent of bacteria and dirt from water.

student at UBC. During his degree, he worked in Haiti, Senegal, Uganda, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Kenya.

During his travels, he gathered feedback on the design of his water filter. Consistently, he found that simplicity was key.

“I started taking apart other people’s products and putting

things together the way I thought they should work,” Pierik said.

“That was a long, fun process as an engineer who geeks out on this stuff.”

In its final design, Tapp can be connected to containers full of dirty water through tubing or bottle threads. Water flows through the Tapp and comes out

clean on the other end.

Inside the Tapp, the water is filtered through a hollow fiber microfiltration membrane. Essentially, it works like a playground sand sifter; water flows through, and particles are trapped by the membrane.

Pierek said the process should remove 99 per cent of bacteria,

parasites and dirt from the water.

Pierre Bérubé, an associate professor with the faculty of engineering at UBC who specializes in drinking water treatment, had high praise for Pierek’s new device.

“It’s always exciting to see a student take the knowledge developed, or that they learned in our classes, and apply that to develop an independent product,” Bérubé said.

Bérubé also applauded the design of the filter.

“The one aspect that I saw that’s different from a lot of products out there is the ability to clean the filter … that’s a very innovative part of the design.”

Twothirds Water Inc. is currently holding a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo to raise startup funds. The money they raise will also be used to increase their profile to help them find partners to distribute Tapp in other countries.

Their stated goal is $20,000.

For every Tapp purchased, one will be sent to someone in a developin country.

Pierek expects the first shipment of his water filters to arrive on March 31. U

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 |

EDITOR ANNA ZORIA

5

morals >>

Finding your inner philosopher

Lecturer looks at the philosophical solutions to problems usually solved with pills Rhys Edwards Senior Culture Writer

There is a cruel irony in higher education. Contrary to idealized views of university, students may find themselves becoming increasingly insular and less certain of themselves over the course of their studies. With our heads buried deep in textbooks, particularly during the stressful exam season, it’s easy to forget your personal well being. The result of this neglect, more often than not, is depression and disillusionment.

Lou Marinoff, the founding president of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association and a former lecturer in UBC’s department of Philosophy, believes that our culture has lost touch with the search for wisdom.

The professor emeritus and author of the bestseller Plato, Not Prozac! came to UBC on Nov. 30 to deliver a talk titled “The Inner Philosopher: A Conversation on Philosophy’s Transformative Powers.”

“It’s the ascendency of science and technology, which has helped to convince people that most of our problems are somehow quantitative or reducible to biology, and that we don’t have to bother so much about thinking, or indeed, fathoming the qualitative aspects of our being,” said Marinoff.

“Not everything in the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual <em>

HOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Lou Marinoff argues that conditions like depression are best remedied through introspection and not chemicals.

</em>

of Psychological Disorders] has a biological substrate.”

Personal betterment through philosophic practice is the subject of Marinoff’s latest work, The Inner Philosopher , co-authored with renowned Buddhist thinker and leader Daisaku Ikeda. Rather than pandering only to students of philosophy or Buddhism, the two scholars are determined to show that anyone can use valuable philosophical knowledge to improve their well-being.

Like the classical philosophical <em>

</em>

works that inspired it, the text takes the format of 16 dialogues between Marinoff and Ikeda.

Their conversations, which began as far back as 2003, cover subjects such as technological alienation, the distinction between life and death, and the practice of virtue.

According to Ikeda and Marinoff, many of the profound social problems that permeate Western societies, from depression and heart disease to educational decline and callous consumerism, are systemic to the beliefs of the culture itself.

Wines that scream Froot Loops, potato chips and exam failure

As such, they need to be addressed through cultural means, rather than only institutional means.

“If indeed we have a medical problem then we do need to seek a medical cure, but if indeed we have a philosophical problem then the same argument applies: we need to apply for a philosophical remedy and not a medical one. So it’s a question of finding appropriate solutions,” explained Marinoff.

Intriguingly, each of The Inner Philosopher’s discussions feature references to ancient philosophers <em>

</em>

I

recently spilled wine all over my laptop’s keyboard. The left shift key refused to listen to me, and getting past the royal guards (the password screen) was impossible.

If you’ve found yourself in a similar end-of-the-world situation, the solution is simple: more wine.

Here are some wines to pair with your last-minute projects, final exam studying, or your sad little college meals.

2011 Yalumba Y Series Viognier — $17.99 (BC Liquor Stores) Viognier is known for exuding characteristics of spiced stone fruit, floral notes and an oilier texture.

Comfort wine!

Although the winery describes aromas of “honeysuckle, poached quinces, and mandarin peel,” I swear that this stuff smells like Froot Loops. That’s right: a liquid breakfast, for when desperate times call for desperate measures.

Viognier can oftentimes smell too much like the unnecessarily overpowering perfume of that old lady that you’re crammed next to on the 99, but this is a well-balanced, fruity, and dry, comfort wine. Save Riesling for the crowd that knows they’re going to pass their exams — this stuff is just for you and me.

Also Try: • Oxford Landing Estates Viognier ($12.99, Liberty Wine Merchants — Commercial Drive) • Cono Sur Viognier ($10.99, BC Liquor Stores)

Jaume Serra Cristalino Cava Brut — $17.99 (Liberty Wine Merchants) kai jacobson PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

These affordable wines are perfect for that late-night study session, whether it’s going well or not — especially if it’s not.

I can hear you. Literally. I know you’re that one person in class who

from both Western and Eastern traditions. Despite the differences in their metaphysical worldviews, Marinoff believes that both can contribute to the development of wisdom.

“Within any school of philosophy, you’ll find irreconcilable beliefs ... any two philosophers you can put in a room, will take not more than five minutes to discover irreconcilable metaphysical differences,” reasoned Marinoff.

“The beauty of philosophical practice is that we don’t care what people’s philosophical orientations are. The theory is that almost every philosophical school has some way of being applied to the betterment of people, so the differences in this case become a virtue, as opposed to something divisive.”

But are Socrates and Confucius even relevant to today’s analytically-oriented students?

“If postmodernism has succeeded, then it’s made people more confused than ever, by virtue of having deconstructed everything, including the moral compass, which we as individuals need to have at times,” said Marinoff. “There’s a return to the ancient mission of philosophy precisely because it has pragmatic purchase in the everyday lives of people.

“The wisdom of the ancients is timeless and applicable today.” U struggles to get their noisy bag of chips open.

Lucky for you, there’s a wine that you can pair with those Frito-Lays.

Cava, like champagne, is made in the traditional method, which can give it a yeasty quality.

For all you biochemistry geeks out there: this happens because the yeast undergoes autolysis. The yeastiness pairs with your potato chips; the bubbles go with the crunchy texture, and the bright acidity wipes your palette clean of all that fat. Sparkling wines are quite versatile, so experiment.

Grilled cheese! Fries! Chips! Pizza!

FRIED THINGS!

Also Try: • Segura Viudas Brut Reserva ($15.99, BC Liquor Stores) • Opera Prima Brut ($14.99, Liberty Wine Merchants — Point Grey)

2010 Pacific Breeze Late Harvest Riesling — $14.99 (Liberty Wine Merchants) Let’s say you fail. Let’s say you end up crumbling into the fetal position and rock yourself to sleep with a mickey of Smirnoff clutched in your hand instead of what should’ve been Gateman’s textbook.

Well, hey! You’d look just like a late harvest Riesling grape that’s been left on the vine to dry up and get concentrated. That came out wrong, but you get the point — you’re still a star.

Also Try: • Errazuriz Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc ($15.99, BC Liquor Stores) • 2006 Chateau Loupiac-Gaudiet ($21.99, Liberty Wine Merchants — Commercial Drive). U —Joshua Decolongon

6 | CULTURE |

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

NICHOLE Z. YAM, OLIVIA SANCHEZ, RHYS EDWARDS PHOTOS/THE UBYSSEY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Rhys Edwards senior Culture writer

At first glance, public washrooms are not places of great beauty.

Despite the valiant efforts of the custodial services, many of UBC’s older bathrooms remain a gauntlet for the senses; even the antiseptic taint of freshly cleaned commodes can turn a pleasant study break into an ordeal to remember.

But amid the squalor of UBC’s lavatories lies a vital creative force: stalls across campus are home to a variety of bathroom graffiti.

It’s true that the hardboard walls of lavatory stalls are unlikely to arouse the close scrutiny of the average student, for several reasons. Aside from the unpleasant atmosphere of the washroom itself, which compels us to leave it as soon as possible, as well as the fact that we may be occupied with more pressing concerns, most bathroom graffiti is predominantly crude in nature. A torrent of vulgar language, though amusing, does not lend itself to artistic posterity.

| CULTURE | 7

However, not every toilet scrawling is repulsive; opening the door to a stall may reveal hitherto unknown treasures.

Many displays exhibit a considerable degree of ingenuity. Rather than being stymied by the difficult working environment, bathroom graffiti artists take advantage of the unique characteristics of the wall – such as its size and texture – to produce works of variety.

There is also something inherently democratic about bathroom graffiti. There are no special skills or materials required to make it. It is made by everyone, and it is for everyone; whether you’re a first-year student or an esteemed faculty member, the writing on the wall is indifferent. It’s open to interaction and modification from future attendees, while the same cannot be said for most other art forms.

Perhaps most fascinating is what bathroom graffiti reveals about us. Although most markings are irreverent, many others feature combinations of imagery, personal narrative, and poetry that are stark or even poignant.

UBC’s washrooms are a veritable cornucopia of art, aphorisms and axioms. The following images represent only a sample of works from around campus. U

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 |

EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

8

basketball >>

UBC big men contribute to big wins

Strong performances in the paint lead ’Birds to two wins before winter break B-BALL STATS

BY THE

NUMBERS

37 rebounds grabbed by

Brylle Kamen between the two games

21 rebounds by Kamen

in Saturday’s game — two short of the UBC record for most in a game

49

points scored by David Wagner betweenthe two games

9

players who scored points on the weekend

25 steals by UBC on the

weekend — 11 more than the opposition

200

career regular season wins for head coach Kevin Hanson

61 career regular season losses for Hanson

UBC’s offence was firing on all cylinders on the weekend, scoring 82 points on Friday night and 96 points on Saturday night.

Joseph Ssettuba Staff Writer

The Thunderbirds looked to their big men to score early and often this past weekend, and it led to some huge nights for forwards Brylle Kamen and David Wagner.

Friday night saw the ’Birds easily handle the University of Calgary Dinos 82-63, and Saturday featured them knocking off the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns 96-84. Kamen paced the Thunderbirds with a monster effort on both ends of the floor against the ‘Horns, finishing with 26 points, 21 rebounds and two steals, while Wagner rounded out the dominating pair of performances down low by notching 28 points of his own to go along with six rebounds, a block and a steal.

Fifth-year guard Doug Plumb set the tone for the rest of the offence on Saturday, finishing

with nine assists, 16 points and six rebounds. The game plan was to feed guys down low with the ball. It certainly worked out, but success did not come as easily as it might have seemed.

The first half was a fairly even affair between the two teams, as they both traded buckets and stops. The Thunderbirds’ excellent effort on the boards all game limited the Pronghorns with their second chance efforts, but Lethbridge was able to hang in the game with their three point shooting. The ’Birds took a slim 41-38 lead into halftime thanks to Wagner, who had 12 points by the break, and Kamen, who had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

UBC started to pull away in the third quarter, but the Pronghorns would not quit. They rallied from two huge T-Birds runs of 14-0 and 11-0, and in the fourth, they managed to cut what was a 22 point

deficit down to nine with about three minutes left in the game.

However, a technical foul by the Pronghorns effectively killed their chances of a comeback, and the Thunderbirds were able to finish the job en route to the 12 point victory.

Kamen was the main force all over the court, winning numerous offensive and defensive rebounds, fighting for prime position in the paint and even starting several fast breaks, showing what he could do in all facets of the game.

His infectious energy helped set the level that the Thunderbirds wanted to play at.

The third-year transfer admitted he had not been in top form due to a hamstring injury earlier in the season which led to belowpar performances for his standards, especially at the free-throw line. On Saturday he managed to break out of his struggles, going 14

Hogan wong photo/the ubyssey

for 17 at the free-throw line.

“It’s a matter of my legs,” Kamen said after Saturday’s game.

“Just coming from injuries, it’s always hard to get your rhythm back, but I’ve always been a decent free throw shooter. Tonight was more what I should be able to do. It’s still 70 per cent of what I can do.”

If 70 per cent of Kamen equals over 20 points and 20 rebounds, the prospect of what he can do with some extended rest over the winter break should have Thunderbirds fans itching with excitement for the new year.

The CIS No. 4 ranked Thunderbirds will definitely face tougher competition during the rest of the year, but for head coach Kevin Hanson a win was still a win, especially Saturday’s game, his 200th career regular season victory. He becomes only the third Canada West coach to reach that

milestone. Kamen almost set another record with his magnificent effort on the glass, but was just two rebounds shy of the record of 23 in a game set by Aaron Point in 1987. Rebounding was only half the battle on the court, but the renewed emphasis in the paint had Hanson pleased after the game.

“I think the difference came when we lost to the Fraser Valley here when we jacked up 30 threes and we didn’t get any presence inside. That loss really helped us refocus. It made me analyze and say we need to do a better job playing inside-outside basketball,” said Hanson after the win.

The Canada West regular season resumes in the new year when the ’Birds go on the road to take on the University of Manitoba on Friday, Jan. 11. The next home game for UBC will see them take on Brandon University on Friday, Jan. 18. U

Recaps >>

Bird droppings: Victorious volleyball, basketball business Men’s volleyball extends win streak to seven The UBC men’s volleyball team had a tough test on the road against Manitoba this past weekend, but the T-Birds rose to the occasion and defeated the Bisons in five sets on Friday night and four sets on Saturday.

Friday night was a come-frombehind effort for the ’Birds.

Trailing two sets to one and 20-18 in the fourth set, UBC pulled together to come back in that set and carried that momentum into the final frame, prevailing 20-18 in the fifth set.

Saturday saw UBC get out to a early two-set lead, and they were able to close it out in the fourth. It was yet another tight game, as the

second set saw UBC winning 34-32 and the third one saw the Bisons prevail 26-24. After the one-set slide, UBC closed it out in the fourth with a 25-21 win.

Jarrid Ireland was dominant on offence all weekend, racking up 36 kills over the two games. In total, UBC’s 62 kills on Saturday was the most by a Canada West team this season in a four-set match. Libero Ian Perry paced the defensive effort, totaling 16 digs in each game.

UBC is now 8-4 on the year and is in fourth in the Canada West.

Dual wins send women’s basketball into the break victorious After handing the Calgary Dinos their first loss of the year on Friday, the T-Birds completed their

two-win weekend after knocking off the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Saturday night.

Strong shooting and tough rebounding was the difference on Friday, as the ’Birds shot 48 per cent en route to a 70-58 victory over the Dinos. Leigh Stansfield led the way with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Kris Young added 18 points and nine boards.

Saturday saw the T-Birds lead all the way, as they comfortably beat the Pronghorns 74-57. Young once again led the way with 22 points, with Maggie Sundberg pouring in 12 and Adrienne Parking scoring nine points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

With the two wins, UBC is now 7-3 and is tied for third in the Canada West Pacific division.

Another UBC volleyball sweep

Women’s hockey falls twice

It was yet another victory for UBC women’s volleyball as the T-Birds took down Manitoba in straight sets on both Friday and Saturday night. The wins extend their streak to 10 games.

It was a steady attack all weekend for UBC, with setter Brina Derksen-Bergen keeping the offence flowing. Lisa Barclay, Shanice Marcelle, Rose Schlagintweit and Alissa Coulter all had strong weekends offensively, helping Derksen-Bergen average over 13 assists per set.

Now 11-1, UBC heads into the break in first place in the Canada West and will most likely be ranked first in the next CIS rankings. They resume play on Jan. 11 at home against the University of Winnipeg.

The T-Birds couldn’t get much going on the weekend, as the women’s hockey team dropped two games on the road to the Regina Cougars.

Friday night saw them fall 3-1, and Saturday was a 5-1 defeat.

Injuries got the best of the ’Birds, as their short-handed lineup couldn’t keep up with Regina.

They could only muster two goals, and had trouble stopping the Cougar offence. Nikola Brown-John and Kaitlin Imai scored the goals for UBC. Now with a 7-6-3 record, UBC sits in fourth place in the Canada West. They will kick off the second half of their season on the road in the new year when they take on Calgary on Jan. 4 and 5. U

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

| SPORTS + REC | 9

HOckEY >>

Consistency is key for T-Birds

Men’s hockey has shown potential, but needs work to be one of country’s elite C.J. Pentland sports + Rec Editor

To say it’s been an up-and-down first half of the season for the UBC men’s hockey team is a bit of an understatement.

They’ve been in the CIS top 10 twice now, but have dropped right back out after immediately losing two straight games. They’ve had moments where they looked like one of the country’s top squads, and others where they’ve struggled simply to score goals.

This past weekend followed the same trend. After a convincing 3-0 victory on Friday night over the University of Regina Cougars, the visitors outplayed the ’Birds on Saturday and UBC fell 3-0 to split their last weekend series before the winter break.

Friday night saw UBC off to an early lead, using shutdown defence to keep Regina off the board. The T-Bird line of Max Grassi, Brad Hoban and Michael Wilgosh paced the offence and combined for two goals, including one just over two minutes into the game. Net minder Steven Stanford made 23 saves for his first shutout of the season. Overall, it was a performance that showcased how well the ’Birds can play.

“I thought we had pretty good puck possession all game, our powerplay scored a nice goal and I thought our [penalty kill] did a good job, especially in the first period,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragcevic after Friday’s game.

“System-wise, we were very good [at] getting pucks deep and creating turnovers in the neutral zone.”

But Saturday saw the tides turn.

The ’Birds came out flat, giving up two goals in the opening period.

team in the conference twice they know exactly what they need to do in order to be successful. In the second half of the season, it will basically be a matter of putting all those pieces together and making them fit on a consistent basis.

T-BIRDS AT THE BREAK </strong>

HOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Michael Wilgosh opened the scoring on Friday night in UBC’s 3-0 win over Regina.

They were never able to get much going on offence. It was a step backward for a team that was looking to head into the winter break in sole possession of third place in the Canada West. With the weekend split, they now sit in fourth place in the conference, with a 9-6-1 record.

It is true that the T-Birds are on pace for their best regular season under Dragcevic, who is in his tenth year behind the bench. However, the team has loftier goals than just a successful regular season. They want to go to CIS nationals in Saskatoon, and they know what they need to do to get there.

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“We’ve got to be a little better than that if we’re playing against Alberta and Saskatchewan,” said Dragcevic on Friday in reference to two of the top three teams in Canada. “We have to be a lot sharper than that.”

Dragcevic stresses that his team plays to a championship identity.

That’s the identity we saw on Friday — creating neutral-zone turnovers, enforcing a strong forecheck, having a strong breakout from their own end, maximizing their scoring chances.

But when they start taking penalties in the offensive zone and not

getting enough shots on net, we see games like the one on Saturday. Elite teams can’t have blips against teams like Regina, who have a roughly equal win-loss ratio, and especially not against teams near the top of the standings.

“Against Alberta we never played to our identity at all,” he said. “[On Friday] you saw that we controlled the puck down low, we moved the puck east-west on the cycle, and those are little things that we have to do because that’s the type of team we are.”

The pieces are all there for the T-Birds, and after playing every

Without a true top line, the T-Birds are relying on scoring from all four forward lines. Max Grassi leads the team with 15 points, with firstyear Brad Hoban right behind him with 14. Nate Fleming and Wyatt Hamilton have also been consistent two-way forces — Fleming has 13 points to go along with a +11 plus/ minus rating, while Hamilton has 11 points and a +9. Cole Wilson and Scott Wasden are tied for the team lead in goals with eight apiece.

On defence, first-year Neil Manning has emerged as a top player, racking up 13 assists so far. The rookie oozes potential, playing with the poise of a player well beyond his years. Ben Schmidt also has a +5 and Kevin Smith has a +4 and 7 points.

In net, Jordan White has been getting most of the workload, but Stanford started both games this weekend. White currently sits third in the Canada West with a .917 save percentage and six wins.

Stanford has three wins to go along with a .898 save percentage and one shutout.

After playing a couple of exhibition games over the winter break, the Thunderbirds will continue their regular season at home in the new year when they take on Calgary in a two-game series. The games will be on Jan. 4 and 5, with the puck drop on both nights at 7 p.m. U

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 |

STUDENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.

LAST WORDS

The failures of final exams KATICHISMS

by Gordon Katic

INDIANA JOEL ILLUSTRATION/THE UBYSSEY

Desperate to sell their surplus homebrew, the AMS turns to the Godiva band in the hope they’ll make their revelry bi-weekly.

concerted student support necessary to saVe BreWery </strong>

The AMS still plans to have some sort of brewery in the new SUB, but beyond that, they’ve got a lot to figure out.

It turns out that although there were plans for a brew pub, the AMS never officially allocated money for it.

Now they have decided switch to a microbrewery, so they can also sell thier beer outside the SUB. This comes with its own problems.

The microbrewery could cost almost double what they had planned, but the AMS is counting on increased beer sales to pick up the slack. They are basing their calculations on dramatically increased draft sales in the new SUB, which is a risky business, especially when you take a look at how much AMS bars are already losing.

Counting on profits to fund the microbrewery could come back to bite them.

Although there isn’t clear direction for the brewery, it is one of the few things that makes students care enough to show up to a Council meeting.

A few dozen showed up to the standing room only meeting — a first for this year.

But a few students who think a brewery is a cool idea isn’t enough to make it happen. The executives who were driving the original project are gone, and no one seems willing to step up and take ownership of what could be a financial disaster.

So for the time being, support isn’t coming from the top. In the end, students will have to show they care by buying the AMS’s beer — and a lot of it.

eVen uBc is haVing a hard time Justifying the Bie After much ballyhoo, the Board of Governors have agreed to hold back on approving the super-high tuition for the new Bachelor of International

Economics degree.

For the second time.

Yep, by this point it’s hard to believe that anything UBC’s doing here is in good faith. They initially tried to ram through the tuition prices without consulting anyone. Then, when the AMS balked, the university set up a couple of “consultation sessions” — but ignored the near-universal, well-articulated criticisms from everyone

The microbrewery could cost almost double what they had planned, but the AMS is counting on increased beer sales to pick up the slack.

Which is a risky business, especially when you look at how much AMS bars are already losing. re: The AMs brewery

they talked to and just put the same numbers back up for approval again.

Because the truth is, they never cared about what students thought about anything.

Making money is the new degree’s whole raison d être, and if they lose the high margins, there’s very little motivation left to see the program to completion.

It’s abundantly clear they can’t justify the tuition cost based on what students are getting — the numbers are what they are because UBC hopes to make as many extra bucks as they can get away with.

If the Board of Governors has any shame left, they’ll let the BIE die.

rogue student group shouldn’t spoil the party for all graduate students At this year’s conference of the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies (CAGS), a national

10

group that lobbies Ottawa on issues affecting graduate programs, the membership voted to do something that seems counterintuitive.

They stood by their 2011 decision to drop a student seat from their board of directors.

Not having a student representative on an association that makes decisions affecting students doesn’t seem to make much sense.

But by the board’s reasoning, the student movement in Canada has lost its privileges for misbehaving.

Mainly comprised of deans and faculty, the organization had a student seat that rotated every year between the national student group Canadian Federation of Students and a Quebec counterpart.

But the CFS has drawn controversy in recent years, and CAGS dropped the seat over concerns that the group doesn’t represent all students any more.

It’s hard to say that assessment isn’t correct. The CFS is busy suing students that want to leave the organization, Quebec is doing its own thing and the Canadian Alliance of Students Associations, a separate group that UBC graduate students are members of, never had influence in CAGS in the first place. Things are a mess.

But there are still major issues for students in graduate studies that need addressing: funding, copyright, years required to finish the degree.

Graduate student associations can still join CAGS on their own. Groups like the GSS should work harder from within the organization on building a voice so they don’t have to rely on the fractious student lobbying scene.

Graduate studies programs are a two way street between the administrators and the students, and cutting them out is not the way to make sure students’ interests are represented. U

Exam season transforms many UBC students into unkempt, overstressed, anxiety-ridden basket cases. All-night campers cram for the grade, garbage cans in IKB overflow with pizza boxes and Red Bull, while the solitary ones turn dorm rooms into study caves, making the outdoors a distant memory.

For a few weeks, the collective physical and emotional well-being of our campus is dangerously compromised.

Sadly, much of this effort doesn’t even translate into scholastic success. A casual survey of the basic research on learning, reading, and writing will reveal an upsetting truth: most students are simply doing everything wrong.

Over the years, students — myself included — have developed habits of passive learning, cramming, remembering isolated facts, taking detailed class notes, and multitasking. However, many of these strategies are ineffectual, if not counterproductive.

For one, cramming — particularly if it means sleep deprivation — simply does not work. There are limits to the amount of attention we can devote to a subject, and the longer we study without interruption, the less we get out of each additional hour.

Moreover, as a study in Contemporary Educational Psychology reveals, time spent studying is not a very good indicator of success.

The most important factor is the amount of high-quality, focused practice. To this end, group work, music and disruptive environments like coffee shops tend to do more harm than good.

There is similar evidence to suggest the same of offices, where common distractions make it impossible to get things done. The argument is that work, particularly creative work, is only accomplished during long periods of uninterrupted focus.

Efficient learning is done through deep-level processing, which means active engagement.

Taking detailed stenographer-like class notes is passive. Rather, you <em>

</

em>

should engage with your lectures by using notes to group ideas together, jot down questions and reactions to the material, and summarize concepts in your own words.

Similarly, UBC’s Carl Weiman, who pioneered the study of interactive teaching methods, demonstrated that technologies like iClickers improve student learning by fostering active engagement in the lecture hall.

Creating a long list of study notes or a towering stack of cue cards, another popular study method, is also said to be passive and ineffective. Memorizing isolated facts does little to help you understand the complex relationship between those facts, or prepare you for the task of utilizing those many facts in an exam essay.

Rather, rephrasing the material in your own words, and creating things like mind maps is far more effective.

More dangerously, passive learning styles threaten not only your efficiency, but your critical capacity. As Josipa Roksa and Richard Arum demonstrate, 45 per cent of college students (U.S. figures) are shown to have “no statistically significant gains in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and writing skills.”

Universities should bear much of the blame. George Kuh — a leading scholar of student development, and founder of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) — identified a “disengagement compact” between students and faculty. Professors, obsessed with their own research, aren’t much bothered by teaching, and most students don’t seem to mind.

But the recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and the advancements in pedagogy should be seen as opportunities for reform. The midterm/paper/final class model is clearly failing, and it should make room for classes that emphasize active engagement, and professors who truly value teaching.

The efficiencies gained from active learning would not only aid our mental health, but it would nurture our critical capacity. U

Why we protested at the Hillel House LETTERS I’m writing in response to the Nov. 28 letter, “Israel protesters’ ire is misdirected.” The writer seems to think that we were protesting outside the Hillel House on Nov. 22 because it’s a Jewish community centre, and as such, the protest would be offensive to all Jewish students. Far from it. I was one of those protesters and I am also a Jewish student at UBC. We were protesting because the Hillel House was hosting a speaking event for Eliaz Luf, Israel’s deputy ambassador, immediately after Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, where over 150 Palestinians were killed.

This is only the most recent of a long line of Israeli atrocities against the people of Gaza, which include Operation Cast Lead in 2008 which killed well over 1,000 Palestinians, and the blockade on Gaza which to this day causes massive unemployment and food insecurity, and

leaves Palestinians without the necessary means to rebuild homes destroyed by Israeli bombs. Israel’s atrocities in the Gaza Strip are part of its ongoing history of violently dispossessing the Palestinians.

We see another example right now with Israel ramping up construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

By repeatedly and erroneously claiming that Israel is an integral part of Jewish culture and identity, it’s the Hillel House that has forced the link between Judaism and Israel.

Contrary to the letter writer’s assumptions, based on my ethnicity, I am not offended that we protested Eliaz Luf’s visit to the Hillel House. I am offended that the Hillel House hosts war criminals and publishes brochures that wrongly equate supporting Israeli apartheid with being accepting of Jews. <em>

—Arielle Friedman

</em>

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012 |

PICTURES + WORDS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

PIC OF THE WEEK

11

2012: UBC’S WEB SCENE Some of our favourite university-related web ephemera from the past year

UBC MEMES February 2012 — Memes had been popping up all over the Web for some time, and this Facebook page fed our hunger for them. The page encouraged users to create classic memes with a UBC twist, like Futurama’s Fry musing about an econ exam.

@overheardatUBC Overheard at UBC @overheardatubc

“Welcome to Vancouver, where your bus leaks when it’s raining.” #ubc (via @igitot)

29 Nov 12

September 2010 — The account has been around for over two years, but the anonymous Twitter account @overheardatubc has seen strong resurgence in recent months. Followers can contribute “those funny, weird and occasionally disturbing things you hear people saying around campus,” and there’s also a Facebook group set up fo the same purpose.

#WHATWESHOULDCALLUBC “AT THE SKYTRAIN STATION WHEN THE TRANSIT POLICE ARE CHECKING FARES...UPASS HOLDERS:”

September 2012 — #whatweshouldcallubc is an anonymous Tumblr blog in the now-classic the #whatweshouldcallme series. The author promises to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, with a dash of sarcasm and awkwardness” through photos and animated GIFs describing quinessential UBC experiences.

UBC Compliments DAVID MARINO PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

UBC engineers spread holiday cheer by caroling on the last day of class.

HACKÉDEX

YOUR UBC WORD OF THE WEEK

SOL

A Special Occasion License (SOL) is required to host beer gardens or other miscellaneous boozing parties around campus. Because UBCity is not really a city, all one-time liquor licenses for events must be approved by the university and the campus RCMP detachment. If you host an event with an SOL, you’ll have to hire security and make sure you don’t serve any minors.

tweets of the Week

@overheardatubc Exchange student on the bus: “Do you know what Costco is? I went for the first time this weekend. It was soooo scary.” #UBC (@AR_FrancysI) @future1stlady1 Keep calm and take an Adderrall.

@totalsorormove Maybe I should’ve been taking notes instead of Facebook creeping this entire semester. #finals #TSM

To all my fellow UBC students worried about finals/grad school/ finding a job/getting somewhere in life, etc: You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

November 2012 — This Facebook page is an “anonymous forum for spreading your love” for all things and people at UBC. It’s based off of a similar experiment from Queen’s University.

12 | GAMES |

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

65- Longfellow’s bell town 66- Curse 67- First name in cosmetics

doWn

PUZZLE COURTESY BESTCROSSWORDS.COM. USED WITH PERMISSION.

across 1- City in Nebraska 6- Greek portico 10- Flying stinger 14- Destined 15- Held on to 16- It may be happy 17- Blaze 18- CPR experts 19- Jason’s craft 20- Duck 22- Plaid 24- Arguing 25- Trumpet flourish 26- Low-frequency loudspeaker 29- Autumn tool 30- Part of q.E.D.

31- Simple 37- First name in photography 39- May ___ excused?

40- Conical dwelling 41- Moving backward 44- Legal claim 45- Back 46- Recompense 48- Pollen producers 52- Heroin, slangily 53- Like a dog 54- Apothegm 58- Extent of space 59- Cab 61- Forbidden 62- Rich soil 63- The doctor ___ 64- Sniff

1- Does in 2- Former French colony of northwestern Africa 3- Not much 4- From now on 5- ___ Fideles 6- Shooting sport 7- Office fill-in 8- Decide 9- On the line 10- Pier 11- Large artery 12- Sucrose 13- Lying flat 21- Make weary 23- Concerning 25- Noted 26- Don 27- Writer Sarah ___ Jewett 28- Kiln for drying hops 29- Rod used to reinforce concrete 32- Turkish money 33- Morse messages 34- Neat as ___ 35- Oboe, e.g.

36- Longings 38- Actress Sophia 42- DNA-related 43- Apiece 47- ___-tung 48- Milan’s La ___ 49- Fortune-telling cards 50- Lend ___ 51- Orange Bowl site 52- Rotates 54- Turning point 55- Yeah, right!

56- Flat-fish 57- Yard tunneler 60- Sun Devils’ sch.

PUZZLE COURTESY KRAZYDAD. USED WITH PERMISSION.

Games page too easy?

Get in touch and your suggestions will be used to make a better page in the future!

• Make puzzles • Learn layout • Draw comics JEFF ASCHKINASI | PRINTEDITOR@UBYSSEY.CA