November 5, 2012 by The Ubyssey

EATING NO FOOD SINCE 1918

UBC’S OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER | NOVEMBER 5, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XIX

WOMEN’S

FIELD

HOCKEY

TAKES

GOLD UBC caps off a dominant season by winning their second straight national championship P5

THE UBYSSEY

S A W S I R H T YOU

E K I B

UBC is in the crosshairs of some of Vancouver’s best bike thieves P6

CANADIAN

TUX

Read about denim, combat boots and other fall fashion staples on P8

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

What’s on Tue 125

THIS WEEK, MAY WE SUGGEST...

SPEAKER >>

OUR CAMPUS

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

MONDAY

Crazy for Quidditch

The Brains of Whales: 8 p.m. @ Green College

Ever wondered why the brains of whales and dolphins are so huge and complex? Why do humans have large and complex brains while some animals have brains the size of walnuts? Wonder no more: speaker Kieran Fox will answer these questions by drawing from his research in paleontology, neuroscience and anthropology. Free.

Tue 126

12 7Tue

AMERICA >>

TUESDAY

Tue 128

Earthquake Preparedness: 7 p.m. @ St. James Community Square Remember the earthquake that shook the coast of B.C. last week? Author Jerry Thompson will be hosting a discussion on how an organized community can respond to such an event, preserve property, save lives and assist emergency responders. Free.

MEDITATE >>

THURSDAY

UBC Meditation Community: 5:30 p.m. @ SUB Room 211 Ever been distracted while studying for midterms or writing your paper? The UBC Meditation Community offers meditation classes for people from all levels of experience. Free. Tue 129

EMERGENCY >>

WEDNESDAY

Election results: 8 p.m. @ the Gallery Lounge Our neighbours to the south are electing a new president on Tuesday. Be part of the action by watching the live election results on the big screen. The best part? Regardless of who wins, the Gallery will keep serving crispy brews.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID DANOS

MUSIC >>

FRIDAY

UBC Symphony Orchestra: 8 p.m. @ the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Don’t want to spend Friday night partying? Treat yourself to a relaxing evening with the UBC Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will be performing six pieces under the direction of conductor Jonathan Girard. Free.

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

This Week at The Norm Wednesday 7–Sunday 11 Moonrise Kingdon: 6 p.m.

Tickets are $5 for students, $2.50 for FilmSoc members. Learn more at UBCfilmsociety.com!

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

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

NOVEMBER 5, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XIX BUSINESS

CONTACT

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Maitrayee Dhaka Contributor

David Danos has always been a die-hard Harry Potter fan. Now a second-year Arts student, Danos heard about the UBC Quidditch team even before he stepped on campus. When he first joined the team, Danos tried his hand as a chaser, which is an offensive position. But after a number of failed attempts at scoring goals, he found his Quidditch calling in defensive play; he became a beater, throwing bludgers at chasers to prevent them from scoring. “It’s a heck of a lot easier throwing a ball at somebody instead of through a hoop,” he said. When Danos joined the team, he had reservations about its level of ability. “I watched some videos of the east coast American university teams. UBC had a team ... ish. We were just a bunch of dorks who were running around with brooms between our legs,” he joked. But after a strong performance against the UVic team, Danos’s hopes were lifted. Last summer, after he heard about the Quidditch Olympic Expo held in Oxford, England, Danos seized the opportunity to take the sport to the next level. “We didn’t really have a team for Canada. I started helping out by getting in touch with people to get a Canadian Quidditch alliance together. They were strapped for players.” When Danos described his international aspirations at a family reunion, his family agreed to pitch in for his trip to Oxford. “I signed up at the last minute.

I can’t thank them enough. It was mind-blowing,” he said. Danos ended up playing as a beater at the tournament. Though the Canadian team hadn’t even met one another until the day before the tournament, let alone practiced together, the team won against Australia and the U.K. in their first two matches. The team then faced France in the semi-finals. “We were very evenly matched with the French team, and we got along very well with them since the entire Canadian team was bilingual. We were the translators between them and the referees,” Danos said with a laugh. “We were all singing the anthems and especially the U.K. and French ones.” Canada won against France, but had to play three more backto-back 45-minute games, where a combination of injuries and exhaustion got the better of them. The team placed fourth, but Danos was all smiles. “After the day-long tournament, we ended up meeting the lord mayor of Oxford. I played Quidditch with the actor who portrayed the young Lily Evans [Harry Potter’s mother] in the last Harry Potter movie, a year after I met her at the movie’s premiere. It was pretty amazing.” And since the Olympic Expo, Danos has set ambitious goals for the UBC Quidditch team back home. “We’ve being trying to make it varsity.... We’re playing in regionals and playing in a tournament next weekend in Bellingham. Hopefully, we’ll make it to [the] Olympic Expo someday.” U

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 |

EDITORS WILL MCDONALD + LAURA RODGERS

TRANSIT >>

UNA >>

Campus residents speak out against planned highrises

Hogan Wong PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

UNA chair Richard Alexander was elected as part of a slate that promised residents more of a voice on campus.

Arno Rosenfeld Staff Writer A UBC alumna has been charged with two counts of fraud for allegedly buying other people’s U-Passes and seling them for a profit.

Kai Jacobson PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Transit police arrest alum for selling U-Passes Former student accused of buying and reselling passes on Craigslist Laura Rodgers News Editor

A former UBC student has been charged with fraud in connection with allegedly buying U-Passes issued to other people and reselling them on Craigslist, according to Vancouver transit police. The UBC alumna, 25-year-old Betty Sze Yu Wong, has been charged with two counts of fraud and is set to appear in court in Vancouver on Dec. 14. According to Staff Sgt. Ken Schinkel, transit police have been monitoring online avenues where people try to resell U-Passes for some time. “It’s one of the many things that we try to monitor, in regards to revenue strategy for TransLink,” said Schinkel. “Be aware that if you’re selling a U-Pass, there’s potential for criminal consequences should you be caught doing it.”

Schinkel said the transit police crime reduction unit has made a number of arrests over the past two years relating to various types of transit pass fraud. “Over and above the U-Passes, there’s ministry passes, and there’s monthly passes, and there’s people manufacturing fraudulent passes, so all of that stuff gets looked at,” he said. UBC’s acting director of transportation planning, Margaret Eckenfelder, said there was a suspicious spike in students asking for replacement U-Passes at the beginning of this summer, when the one-month passes first came into play. Students taking one- or twomonth summer courses were only issued passes in the months when they had classes. In response, UBC limited the number of replacement passes issued and told students they need to fill out a Campus Security form

LABOUR >>

TA union heads back into mediation Will McDonald News Editor

The TA union is going back to bargaining with UBC, but they say strikes will continue until they get a deal. The first day of talks is scheduled for Nov. 6. Vince Ready, the thirdparty mediator who brokered a deal between the CUPE 116 support worker union and UBC over the course of one weekend, will return to mediate this discussion. “We are optimistic,” said Trish Everett, president of the TA union, CUPE 2278. “Vince Ready is a well-known and well-respected mediator, and he had great success getting a deal for [CUPE] 116 and so we’re hoping we can do the same.” UBC is also eager to get back to the table, according to university spokesperson Lucie McNeill. In the meantime, the TAs will keep striking. For three hours last Thursday afternoon, the union picketed all entrances to the H.R. Macmillan Building, which houses the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Everett said roughly 10 to 15 TAs working inside the building walked off the job, and estimated that 60 to 100 TAs from around campus took part in the strike. The TA union also picketed the Irving K. Barber Learning Cen-

tre for over two hours on Friday morning. Everett said around 100 students opted not to cross the picket line and waited outside the building. So far, students have been supportive of the TAs, according to Everett. “[Picket lines are] also an educational experience.… This has been a good learning opportunity for [undergrads] and for us,” said Everett. McNeill said the strikes continue to have little impact on the functioning of the university. She said that if any students who choose not to cross a picket line need to make up class work, the matter will be dealt with by their respective faculties. “Some [students] may get aggravated at the inconvenience,” said McNeill. “It’s important to really stay cool, calm and collected in the midst of all this and to keep in mind that this dispute will end.” Everett said that TAs will continue to escalate job action until they reach an agreement with the university. “Nothing is off the table at this point. We need to continue exerting pressure on the employer until we secure a fair collective agreement that’s worth signing,” said Everett. “Depending on how things go Tuesday, we’ll proceed accordingly. U —With files from Laura Rodgers

before replacing a lost pass. The new measures proved successful, according to Eckenfelder; passes are now being replaced less often than they were in the summer, even though roughly twice as many students are at UBC during the fall. Eckenfelder said UBC takes U-Pass fraud very seriously, and she’s glad transit police do as well. “If I were a student and I actually saw criminal charges being laid against someone for something that I thought was not a big deal, I would think twice about doing it,” she said. She also warned students that widespread U-Pass fraud could have the potential to endanger the U-Pass program. “If it proved that a lot of passes were being misused and abused, [TransLink] might consider either cancelling the program — unlikely — or making the program a whole

lot more complicated to administer.” AMS VP External Kyle Warwick, who’s currently involved in negotiating an extension of the U-Pass contract from the student side, agreed that U-Pass fraud by UBC students can hurt negotiations to keep the pass available. “Because the amount of money that’s lost because of this activity,... it’s quite significant in terms of potentially affecting the program in a large way,” he said. But like Eckenfelder, Warwick stressed that the overall level of pass fraud at UBC is down since this summer. He said he hopes that further enforcement from transit police will keep this trend going. Schinkel said that the investigation connected with Wong’s arrest continues, and further charges may be pending for other individuals involved. U

AMS >>

Security union gets a deal Will McDonald News Editor

The unionized security workers in the SUB have reached their first tentative deal with UBC’s student society, the AMS. The tentative four-year deal includes wage increases and increased job security. AMS security workers, represented by the COPE 378 union, haven’t had a collective agreement since they voted to unionize in 2011. If the agreement is ratified, security guards would see first-year wage increases ranging from 8.7 to 22 per cent, according to COPE 378 chief negotiator Brad Bastien. Bastien said the wage increase would work out to anywhere from $1 to $2.50 per hour more, depending on how many hours each employee has worked in the past. Guards would get another two per cent wage increase for the next two years and a 2.5 per cent increase in the final year of the agreement. AMS VP Finance Tristan Miller said that the money for the wage increases came from scheduling fewer security guards to watch the building. “We had some nights where we had an empty building, but we had five guards on, and that doesn’t make any sense,” said Miller. “It means, essentially, at the end of the day, [we schedule] fewer shifts in the evenings.”

He said a number of AMS security guards have graduated or moved on to other jobs, so current employees won’t see a reduction in hours. Miller added that the new deal for wages will still fit within the AMS’s security budget. Bastien said the agreement also gives the guards more job security by ensuring that any guard who isn’t given shifts during the summer slowdown has the option of coming back to work in September. The AMS has been contracting out extra security guards for large events, like the Halloween Pit Night, from private security company LiveHost. The tentative deal would make sure any LiveHost guards contracted by the AMS only work within event venues. The deal also says that hours will be assigned to security guards based on seniority. Bastien said the bargaining committee is recommending that the union take the deal. “Nothing ever comes easy.… It was tough bargaining, but it wasn’t adversarial,” said Bastien. “We’re pretty happy with the outcome. It’s a very good agreement for a first agreement.” The deal has to be ratified by AMS Council before it can be voted on by union membership. Miller said the agreement should pass easily at Council. U

Residents of private housing on campus blasted what they consider unjust treatment by UBC at an open meeting last week. The University Neighbourhoods Association, which represents private residents on campus, held a public meeting last Tuesday to listen to residents’ concerns. It was an opportunity for the newly elected Organization for U-Town Residents (OUR) slate on the UNA Board of Directors to hear member feedback. The meeting was billed to focus on housing development, density and public space on campus. Roughly 50 residents showed up, and many had concerns about the rapid pace of development in campus neighbourhoods. Brian Suderman, who lives in Wesbrook Village, lamented the area’s lack of public space and worried that a spate of high-rise towers planned for the neighbourhood would further erode the sense of community. He pointed to the liquor store, recently built in Wesbrook Village. “[It] mocks the sense of community — it says we’re going to replace community [with] whatever liquor does for you — the current plan for the towers does the exact same thing.... They’re totally isolated from everything.” The room agreed with Suderman, strongly rebuking UBC’s plans for more high-rises in Wesbrook. The planned development will increase the campus population to 12,000, although in 2005, residents were told to expect a total campus population of only 5,000. However, some in attendance also had positive things to say about living on campus. Hawthorn Place resident Mike Feeley said he was glad his neighbourhood was such a great place for raising children. “The kind of social engagement of kids in the neighbourhood ... is the envy of other parts of Vancouver,” said Feeley. The meeting came out of the OUR slate’s pledge to listen directly to residents and take their wishes into account. OUR slate member Richard Alexander, who is now the board’s new chair, said he thought the meeting was a success. “[It was] insightful in terms of the information it provided to the board,” Alexander said. He shied away from those at the meeting who seemed to suggest that UBC was acting in bad faith when it came to campus planning. “[UBC ] are experienced planners and go through a process which ... meets various provincial guidelines,” Alexander said. “What there is, is a gap in understanding between [UBC] campus planning and residents, so the UNA [will] seek to bridge that gap.” U

4 | News |

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012

WORLD >>

Rethinking education in refugee camps UBC to train teachers using online courses Arno Rosenfeld Staff Writer

Top: Secondary school teachers at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya listen to a presentation about UBC online courses. Middle: A teacher presents a physics lesson. Bottom: Secondary school students attend classes in the Dadaab school. PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARINA MILNER BOLOTIN

Mustafa Ibrahim Ahmed came to UBC from a refugee camp in eastern Africa five years ago. He and his family, fleeing from war, walked hundreds of miles from their home on the coast of Somalia to a semi-arid patch of desert across the Kenyan border: the Dadaab refugee camp. Ahmed was one of just eight students selected for a scholarship to attend university in Canada. Now, UBC and a consortium of Canadian and Kenyan universities are looking to improve education for refugee students who are unable to qualify for the few scholarships provided by World University Service Canada (WUSC). The initiative will target teachers in the camps, first providing teaching certification and then offering a handful of degrees cobbled together from online courses provided by universities in the consortium. UBC’s Faculty of Education is working with Moi University in Kenya to provide teacher education for secondary-level instructors, while York University in Toronto with Kenyatta University in Kenya will offer certification for teachers at the primary level.

The Somali refugee students in the Dadaab refugee camp sit the same exams as Kenyan students, but their preparation is often inferior. “To compete, they need qualified teachers,” said Samson Nashon, a professor in the UBC Faculty of Education. “You have teachers who have given their time and their energy…. All they lack is skills,” said Emmy Kipsoi, the head of Moi’s School of Education in Nairobi. UBC will teach educational theory, while Moi will focus on technical instruction like physics labs, according to Nashon. Each university will offer 30 credits toward the 60-credit diploma, which will initially be granted by Moi. UBC began their relationship with Moi four years ago. Two years ago, UBC joined the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program, based out of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York. The program will send 400 students through the teacher certification program, followed by a two-year degree program offering majors such as public administration, public health and education, though UBC is currently only committed to the teacher certification aspect.

You have teachers who have given their time and their energy.... All they lack is skills. Emmy Kipsoi Head of Moi Univerity’s School of Education

“It really is an idea whose time has come,” said Wenona Giles, co-leader of the program. “We can’t have huge numbers of people not having access to higher education.” Giles hopes that improving education in the camp will give refugees choices other than returning to Somalia, a country that is still plagued by violence despite being on the mend. “It gives young people an option that is not entering the militia, that is not joining the pirates, that is not having to become a prostitute or a drug runner,” said Giles. While aid organizations CARE Canada and Windle Trust Kenya provide free K-12 education in the camp, there is a lack of facilities and resources. “If you go there, you find parents are sitting outside of schools just to ensure they are running,” said Nashon. “I’ve [seen] before some who just cried. This is [all] they want for their kids.” But up until now, even those students who finish secondary school and do well on their exams are in a bind, unable to attend Kenyan universities because they are not citizens of the country. Five years ago, when UBC President Stephen Toope was also serving as president of WUSC, Windle

Trust Kenya approached WUSC to solicit assistance from Canadian universities to train teachers at the camp. Toope asked UBC’s Faculty of Education to help. “Since then, we have been persistent in doing what it takes to make it happen,” said Rita Irwin, associate dean in the Faculty of Education. Students in Dadaab admitted to BHER’s program will take courses online and in person at a learning centre that’s being built adjacent to the camp.

People know the only way out of the refugee camps is education. Mustafa Ibrahim Ahmed WUSC scholarship student

In addition to improving the lives of those receiving teaching certification and degrees, BHER hopes that creating hundreds of well-qualified teachers will improve life in the entire camp. Nashon said one of the courses that the program hopes will pay dividends beyond the classroom is peace education. “[That course] is aimed at allowing these teachers to discuss the concept of peace,” he explained. “You would like teachers who have been exposed to various peace models. You wouldn’t want them to go [back to Somalia] and contribute to the conflict, but instead be peacemakers.” Aside from their tangible work, UBC and BHER are seeking to perfect a model that could be used in long-term refugee situations around the world. “We want to demonstrate that first of all it can be done,” Giles said of using technology to bring higher education to refugees. While BHER’s plan for Dadaab is partially a pilot program, Nashon said that it’s unlikely UBC will abandon their work in the camp if funding is available after the initial $6 million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency runs out. The grant is in the process of being finalized now. “If someone else is to [provide funding],… I don’t think UBC will say, ‘Nope, we’re out,’” Nashon said. Giles added that since the grant pays for computers and the construction of the learning centre, any subsequent funding would be less costly. Barriers remain for refugee students in the camp, even with the introduction of BHER. “The schools are free, but the challenges are too many,” Ahmed said. “Still, when I talk to my friends, my classmates, my family, you see that people have this resolution in them: ‘We’re going to make it. It’s going to be okay.’ “People know the only way out of the refugee camps is education.” U

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 |

EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

FIELD HOCKEY >>

Gold for women’s field hockey

’Birds complete dominant season with second straight national championship C.J. Pentland Sports + Rec Editor

An undefeated season, 10 straight Canada West titles and two straight CIS national championships — yeah, the UBC women’s field hockey team is pretty good. The Thunderbirds took down the University of Toronto Varsity Blues 3-0 on Sunday afternoon in Toronto, winning CIS gold for the second straight year and capping off an undefeated season that saw them go 12-0-1. Their only tie came against the Blues in the round robin stage of nationals. UBC made sure that no such thing would happen again in the final. The T-Birds got on the board just five minutes in on a tally from second-year Sara McManus, and they didn’t look back from that point on. Toronto applied pressure near the end of the first half, but UBC held strong and kept their slim lead heading into the break. The Blues were awarded a number of corners in the T-Bird end, but UBC was able to defend each time with ease. The second half saw UBC get

some much-needed insurance. McManus added her second goal of the game off a penalty stroke, putting the Thunderbirds up by two in the 48th minute. She then completed the hat trick in the 60th minute, eliminating any chance of a Toronto comeback and raising the score to 3-0, which was how the game ended. “I couldn’t have had those chances without the team setting me up, so it was really a total team effort,” said McManus, who led the Thunderbirds with five goals during the tournament. “We knew it was going to be a battle against Toronto and that we would have to fight really hard.” It was an ideal end to a dominant season. Including the final, the ’Birds outscored their opponents 50-7 during the season. Goalie Bea Francisco gave up only two goals in the six games that she played, while Alexandra Bland gave up only three in three games. Their offence was as just as potent; the top five scorers in the Canada West all came from UBC. Hannah Haughn — CIS rookie of

Bernarda Gospic PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

The T-Birds outscored their opponents 50-7 this year en route to a CIS gold medal.

the year in 2012 and MVP of the championships — along with Katherine Gillis led the way with seven goals each. T-Birds Cassandra Taylor, Natalie Sourisseau and Kathryn Jameson round out the top five. Gillis, Haughn, McManus and Sourisseau were all named CIS tournament all-stars at the

SOCCER >>

VOLLEYBALL >>

Men’s soccer off to nationals

Men’s volleyball drops tough test

T-Birds head to Laval as Canada West champs Andrew Bates Managing Editor, Web

UBC’s dominance in the regular season would’ve meant nothing if they couldn’t deliver when it counted. That was last year’s lesson, as the University of Alberta scored just before extra time in the Canada West final to end the men’s soccer team’s hopes of making CIS nationals. It’s a lesson that UBC head coach Mike Mosher has been trying to drill into his players throughout their undefeated season, and it’s a lesson that they seem to have learned. UBC’s 2-1 extra time win over the U of A Golden Bears on Sunday in the Canada West final is more than revenge for last year’s heartbreaking loss; it also proves that the Thunderbirds can take out tough teams when it matters, and it gives them an undefeated record as they head to CIS nationals at Laval University. UBC hadn’t won a game against Alberta since October 2009, with a string of four losses and four ties. Two of those losses knocked UBC out of the post-season, and the 2-2 draw between the two teams at Foote Field in Alberta this year answered little about whether UBC could raise its game. In the first half of Sunday’s final, Alberta confirmed it was a formidable opponent, but the Thunderbirds contained them and prevented the Bears from mustering a single shot on target. The game in the middle of the pitch was tense, but once UBC broke onto the wings, they caused trouble for the Golden Bears. In the game’s first goal, Reynold Steward found Milad Mehrabi with a cross 13 minutes in to give UBC a lead it would hold for the first 45 minutes. But the Bears burst through the gates to start the second half, tying up the UBC defence when a shot from 20 yards out by

kai jacobson PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Canada West MVP Gagandeep Dosanjh scored the winning goal in UBC’s 2-1 win.

Jermele Campbell found the back of the net. UBC responded with a flurry of chances — including a point-blank shot from Gagandeep Dosanjh and a snap header from Steve Johnson — but didn’t finish any, and the game headed to overtime tied 1-1. However, Dosanjh finally made one of his many chances count once the game got to overtime. After losing the ball in the six-yard box, he got it back and slotted it home to give UBC the 2-1 lead at the 105th minute. It was a lead UBC would keep. Luke O’Shea was solid for the remainder of the game, and came up big to stop a blistering Zenon Markevych shot from 20 yards. With 25 attempts and 10 shots on target, UBC would have had no excuses had they been closed out for a second consecutive year. But they have talent and made it count: as a result, they were able to keep their undefeated streak alive and finally get a win against Alberta. The ’Birds will head to the CIS national tournament next week as Canada West champions. On Sunday, they proved once and for all that they can pull out a knock-

out win against worthy opponents, which can only bode well as they head off to Laval. U WOMEN’S SOCCER FALLS SHORT

conclusion of the tournament. Sourisseau was also named a firstteam All-Canadian, while Haughn and Miranda Mann were named second-team All-Canadians. 2012 marks the 14th time that UBC has won the McCrae Cup as champions of Canada. Overall, this is head coach Hash Kanjee’s

ninth CIS gold while at the helm of the team. “Absolutely satisfying,” said Kanjee. “I think the kids did an amazing job listening to us and taking in the information we were giving them. They let the ball do the work and used the width. They kept their structure and we just dug away. Defensively, we held tight, even with Toronto looking very strong themselves.” The ’Birds should come back in equally good shape next season as they look for three straight national championships. There are no fifthyears on the roster; the majority of the team are third-years or younger. There is a winning tradition that surrounds the UBC women’s field hockey team, and it doesn’t seem to be one that will disappear any time soon. This year’s national gold was simply the latest instalment for a T-Bird team that lets no one stand in its way. Winning was by no means an easy task, but the Thunderbirds definitely made it look that way. Once again, UBC has Canada’s best women’s field hockey team. U

SOCCER

The UBC women’s soccer team gave the University of Victoria all they could handle on Friday night, but in the end it wasn’t enough. The ’Birds fell 1-0 in a shootout against the Vikes in the Canada West semi-final, ending their chance at qualifying for CIS nationals. The game remained scoreless after 120 minutes, and it took 10 rounds before UVic scored and UBC missed. The ’Birds ended their season with a win, though, as they knocked off the University of Regina Cougars in the bronze medal game. Rachel Ramsden scored just two minutes in, and UBC held on for a 1-0 victory to finish third in the Canada West. For a more detailed account of their weekend, check out the recap at ubyssey.ca.

Bruce Chen Contributor

After losing three sets to none to the CIS No. 1 University of Alberta Golden Bears on Friday, the UBC men’s volleyball squad didn’t feel that it would be right to throw up another blank in front of the home fans at War Memorial on Saturday. The young ’Birds, led by outside hitters David Zeyha and Ben Chow, took it to the Bears in the second game of the two-game series, but ultimately couldn’t come out on top. It was a back-and-forth affair that went all the way, with the Golden Bears triumphing 25-18, 23-25, 2426, 25-17 and 15-13 in five sets. Zeyha had match-high 23 kills on 40 attempts for UBC. Chow, on the other hand, was 12 for 31, but had some timely kills, including four in the fifth set to keep the ’Birds competitive. However, Alberta’s best player of the night, Tristan Aubry, followed up with two blocks out of the middle, including a solo block on Chow to seal a 15-13 win in the set. Aubry finished with 14 kills, hitting an unconscionably good 70 per cent while chipping in an ace and five blocks. Yet there is still reason for optimism for head coach Richard Schick’s squad. The disparity between the 3-0 shellacking from the Bears on Friday to the barn-burner of a 3-2 war on Saturday may mark some consistency issues for the young squad, but it’s clear that the ’Birds can hang with the best of them. They sit at 1-3 on the year, but splitting the last weekend’s series with two-time defending CIS champion Trinity Western was nothing to sneeze at. Alberta is also ranked No. 1 for a reason. They have few holes in their starting lineup and boast two of the best outside hitters in the nation in Mitch Irvine and Jay Olmstead, who scored a combined 34.5 points on Saturday. Statistically, the Golden Bears were just a little bit better and a little more clutch on the weekend. They outblocked the ’Birds 13-11, were better by six per cent on serves, had a hitting efficiency of .310 compared to .234 for UBC and outdug UBC

59-43. They also have a core that is older and has played together for several years, which creates the familiarity and chemistry that it takes to gut out fifth sets. Yet the game on Saturday was decided by a mere two points. The weekend was supposed to play out just like it did on Friday, but the ’Birds kept fighting. UBC may have had three sophomores starting for them on Saturday, but they showed a fight that is typical of much more experienced players. The next couple of weekends features series against Saskatchewan, Calgary and Regina. If UBC can perform at the level they did on Saturday, there is no reason to think they can’t get well above .500 by Christmas. U

WEEKEND SCORES Friday, Nov. 2

SCORES

Women’s basketball UBC 60 TWU 54 Men’s basketball UBC 91 TWU 84 Women’s hockey Mount Royal 1 UBC 2 (SO) Saturday, Nov. 3 Women’s basketball UBC 75 TWU 52 Men’s basketball UBC 77 TWU 66 Women’s hockey Mount Royal 2 (SO) UBC 1

MORE ONLINE Read recaps of women’s volleyball and women’s hockey at ubyssey.ca

6 | feature |

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012

GOING, GOING, GONE

Bicycle theft is a common but under-publicized part of life at UBC. So what attracts thieves to campus, and how can you stay safe? By Priyanka Hariharan & Raul Arambula

t 11 a.m. on Oct. 11, Douglas Ober’s bike was stolen. “At first, I was a little confused, and began to secondguess where I had parked it. Then it set in, and I realized that the bike was gone.” Ober, currently working on his Ph.D. in Asian studies, had locked up his bike outside of Koerner Library. When Ober returned to the rack where he had locked up his bike, a student approached him. The student had observed the entire theft from the library, and he gave Ober a description of the thief. Shortly after, two other students came out from the library, telling Ober that they had just witnessed the robbery as well; one had even filmed it on a cellphone. The video, now posted on Youtube, shows the ease with which his bike was taken. “The bike was locked with a cable and a U-Lock,” said Ober. “It took the thief no more than a minute or so just to cut or disable the lock.” Based on the video footage, the thief was carrying a car jack and cable cutters. “He walked around, scoped out several different bikes,… put on a bicycle helmet, removed his tools,… did the deed and rode off.”

Bike theft has become a concern on campus. Many students have their own stories about their bikes getting stolen. “There are a lot of bikes [on campus] and we do get one person a day who’s like, ‘My bike got stolen,’” said Tom Bancroft, who has been working as a mechanic at the Bike Kitchen since July. During the months of August and September, a total of 83 bikes were reported stolen from various areas around campus, according to the RCMP. In comparison, 826 bikes were reported stolen to the Vancouver Police Department in 2011. “This happened in a busy thoroughfare in broad daylight in front of several people,” said Ober. “It is one thing to have your bike stolen in the middle of the night; it’s another measure altogether when it is stolen in front of several people that do nothing to prevent it.” A quick survey of students living in rez reveals that bikes locked up outside residence buildings

are often targeted, especially on the weekends when bikes aren’t used as much. Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS), which serves approximately 9,000 students, has received about 30 reports of bike theft since early August. However, only a small fraction of stolen bikes are reported to the front desks in rez, according to Janice Robinson, director of residence life at SHHS. Bikes locked near Place Vanier and Totem Park and in bike cages at the Gage parkade are often the target of bike thieves. “The reality is that where there are bikes, there is likely to be thefts,” said Robinson. Such was the case for Pat McDonald, a medical student who left for Victoria over the weekend in mid-October. Upon his return to UBC, McDonald found his bike missing from the bike racks near Gage residence. “I had two locks on it. I did everything, and it still got stolen because they wanted it. There is nothing I could’ve done.”

CRIME OF CONVENIENCE There is an abundance of bikes on UBC campus; 97 per cent of bike

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lockers on UBC campus are occupied. UBC’s reputation as a cycling hotspot only encourages thieves to frequent campus. Corporal Brenda Winpenny from University RCMP describes bike theft at UBC as a “crime of convenience.” “Thieves look for an easy opportunity to conduct their business and UBC has a colossal number of bikes on campus,” she said. Student cyclists are generally stereotyped as careless and unattached to their bikes. “There are a lot of bikes around that are locked clumsily, and they are owned by people who are not around for more than one semester or two,” said Bancroft. “Generally, the owners treat them with a lot less care than if it was something that got them to work every single day.” As such, UBC is a strong draw for skilled thieves. “They are professionals,” said Bancroft. “It’s the kind of bike thief that would have a vehicle and just load up on all the easy ones that are there to steal. “They take them apart and then reassemble them so that they won’t be identified, and [they are] sold through whatever channels.” After losing his bike, Doug Ober went online to find it. He spent hours on Craigslist looking for a post about his bike.

As a popular classifieds website, Craigslist has many posts about missing bikes. However, it’s also one of the most popular websites for selling stolen bikes. “Tons of stolen bikes are posted on Craigslist. If you carefully decipher the posts, you can see that [the seller] doesn’t really know anything about the bike. So it’s clear that they don’t belong to them,” said Bancroft. A Vancouver bylaw states that all consignment businesses must store their goods for 35 days before they are put up for sale. Goods are stored in a warehouse, where they are inspected to determine whether they are stolen merchandise. But to avoid dealing with issues of theft altogether, most secondhand stores in Vancouver set stricter policies. The UBC Bike Kitchen, for instance, will not accept bikes to sell; they only take donations. In the late 1980s, Barry Gilpin, an entrepreneur, started up the well-known consignment store Cheapskates. Located on Dunbar St., Cheapskates sold a wide variety of sporting goods, including bicycles. “We wanted to distance ourselves from pawn shops and other used good stores, so we designed our own system,” said Gilpin. “[Cheapskates] would ask people to leave their cheques with

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Two students in Koerner Library used a cellphone to record the theft of Douglas Ober’s bike outside. The 49 second video shows the speed and ease with which his bike was stolen.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012

The bike was locked with a cable and a U-Lock... It took the thief no more than a minute or so just to cut or disable the lock. Douglas Ober UBC Ph.D. student

their names, addresses, et cetera. We did this because robbers want cash. “We could not report the items for 35 days since we have no room to store the bikes. There are no warehouses in Dunbar.” As a result, Cheapskates was forced to stop selling used bikes in January 2007. Though the store received support from the community, its appeals failed to sway City Hall to amend the bylaw. The bylaw limits the supply of secondhand bikes available for sale in Vancouver. Those seeking a cheap bike are forced onto less reputable avenues, like Craigslist.

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES After the theft, Doug Ober had hopes of getting back his bike. Though he had the rare distinction of having footage of the crime, Ober was told the chances of finding his bike are low. “I called RCMP [and] sent them the cellphone footage, but after an hour they sent me an email and said it would be difficult to identify the suspect. “They told me that it was doubtful that they would find the bike.” On UBC campus, the chances of recovering a stolen bike vary. Ober had not recorded his serial number, nor had he registered his bike,

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Maybe I was just ignorant, but having the bike lock ... gave me a false sense of security.

The reality is that where there are bikes, there is likely to be thefts. Janice Robinson Director of residence life at Student Housing and Hospitality Services

which did not help his case. “It really depends on what measures of precaution you took when you bought the bike. A picture and serial number is a must,” said Paul Wong, acting director of UBC Campus Security. But many students are uninformed about the importance of registering their bike and recording its serial number. The Vancouver Police Department recovers over 1,000 stolen bikes per year, but 700750 bikes are not claimed and cannot be tied to their former owners. However, many students remain either uninterested in or unconvinced by the registry. “I never put too much faith in them. I’ve had a couple of bikes stolen and the cops never do anything about it. I wouldn’t think it is worth the effort,” said Bancroft. “The best thing you can do is record your own serial number and stuff like that so that if your bike gets stolen you can identify it as yours, if it is possible to recover. But nobody is going to look for it but you.” BikeRegistryCanada.com and Bike Revolution are Canada’s national bicycle databases. The registry process involves recording the bike’s serial number and the owner’s personal details. After the process, the owner is presented with a certificate of registration.

| feature | 7

We do get one person a day who’s like, ‘My bike got stolen.’ Tom Bancroft Bike Kitchen mechanic

Pat McDonald UBC medical student

But with the current underuse of the registry by students, thieves are encouraged to target campus and theft rates remain high. The RCMP argues that if the UBC community used the registry system more, there would be an overall decrease in bike theft. But outside the registry, what is being done on campus to fight bike theft? “If a thief is determined, then they’re determined. But the more difficult you make it, it is likely that thief is going to move on to something that is less difficult,” said Robinson. Diverse measures are being taken on campus by different departments and faculties. In residence buildings, Robinson explained, UBC has put some measures in place to help students keep their possessions safe. “We believe that more proactive education helps prevent students falling victim to bike thiefs. Anecdotally, more expensive bikes are targeted, and hence the most secure place to keep your bike is your room,” she said. Many beds in residence are adjustable up to hip height, so students can store their bikes under the bed. In Totem Park’s həm’ləsəm’ and q’ələχən houses, there is a special hook and a protective coating on the wall so that students have a specifically

0:34

designed space to hang their bike. “While they are not theft-proof — nothing is to a determined or professional thief — those additional locked doors can be a deterrent,” said Robinson. But some students living in residence feel not enough is being done. “There is nothing really to prevent bike theft. No surveillance, no cameras.… [The bike racks] are situated off to the side and not visible in the entrance where there is 24-hour front desk service,” said McDonald, a residence of Gage towers. Bancroft said he believes that the key is to simply make your bike a difficult target and not worth the thieves’ time. “Don’t give the impression that your bike is abandoned or neglected.… If you are not coming back for it, then it’s going to be too easy. When I lock up my bike, I want to make it tougher for them to steal it. “Every lock is breachable with power tools.” Campus Security takes an extra step by educating students about bike theft.

“We have tags that we place on bikes around campus to increase knowledge of security and prevention of crime. We also hang up posters around campus to initiate and encourage purchase of more durable locks and [encourage] students to record the serial number. But there’s only so much you can do,” said Wong. Wong added that at least some of these measures have been successful. “At the end of last semester, we did see more bikes with hardened steel locks than previously,” he said. But still, many UBC students continue to feel in the dark about bike theft on campus. “There are no signs that tell you about the high theft rate,” said McDonald. “Maybe I was just ignorant, but having the bike lock and then having the bike rack gave me a false sense of security.” The problem of theft remains difficult to tackle. Though many policies are in place, lasting changes seem far off. “This happened in the middle of the day and no one did anything to stop it. Everyone is a bystander,” said Ober. “I am not planning to buy a bike again. I guess I have to walk now.” U

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SCREEN CAPTURE FREDERIK VERMOTE/YOUTUBE

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 |

EDITOR ANNA ZORIA

FASHION >>

UNDER REVIEW >>

Novel about UBC students to come out this November

4 5

Courtesy of Sarah Lane

The God of My Art is Lane’s debut novel.

Arno Rosenfeld Staff Writer

With an ex-prostitute mother, a bible-thumping stepfather and a tangled love life, Helene is one UBC student who’s got her fair share of problems. Then again, she’s not actually real. Helene is the protagonist in Sarah Lane’s forthcoming book, The God of My Art , which is set to be published this month. Set in Vancouver and following the main character’s interactions with a handful of fellow UBC students, the novel is a mix of beautiful prose and tired clichés, intriguing existential notions and slightly banal storylines. The book is broken into multiple sections; the first deals with Helene’s summer fling with a ponytailed, Nietzsche-quoting mountain climber, and the second section details the aftermath of his departure. “I would say that it explores the question of to what extent we are free to choose our lives,” Lane said about her book in an email. “It is also about redemption through self-knowledge, despite the limitations of that knowledge.” Helene’s life at UBC is interspersed with phone calls from her mother and flashbacks to her troubled childhood. These scenes lean towards the melodramatic, which is a problem throughout the book in general. Nowhere is this more evident than in the extended discussion of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In all fairness, Lane said in her email that she had been working on the book since 2001, which makes her use of 9/11 as a vehicle for reflections on mortality seem more reasonable. Nonetheless, after 11 years and countless literary treatments, the insertion of 9/11 into the plot seems tired. Even less welcome are the distracting, extended political opinions offered up by Helene’s friends on the injustice of the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan and the problems with the military-industrial complex. But putting aside the melodrama and plot detours, The God of My Art is, at its heart, a charming read. There is something about it that envelops the reader, sitting them right next to the tortured Helene. The setting of Vancouver, and especially the scenes in Point Grey, will make the book a fun read for UBC students. While Lane occasionally seems to expect a local audience, ticking off various intersections throughout the course of the book, she’s at her best with descriptions of local hangouts like Wreck Beach. With exams approaching, this book makes for a pleasant study break. But be warned: Lane’s prose has a tendency to gently lure you into reading the book in one sitting. U

STUDY IN

STYLE

6 trends to fall for

by Astrid Tentorio

Between tests, papers and presentations, many of us tend to reach for a comfy, oversized hoodie and sweatpants combo instead of a more presentable outfit. Who has time to follow this season’s trends when you’re dealing with back-to-back term papers? That’s where we come in. Here are six current fall fashion trends that won’t take much time, but will make you look like you put in some extra effort. No more excuses!

KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY

1. Printed pants From leopard print to flowers to houndstooth, printed pants are everywhere this season. Give them a try if you’re up for the risk. Pair them with a more casual, solid-colour tee and you’ll feel like you’ve completely renovated your wardrobe.

2. The Canadian tuxedo For those of you who don’t already know, the Canadian tuxedo is a classic jean-on-jean combo that has the mysterious ability to simultaneously repel and attract the opposite sex. Do it right, and

you’re giving off that sexy asshole lumberjack vibe. Do it wrong, and you end up looking like last season’s hipster. Just remember: if it’s good enough for Ryan Gosling, it’s good enough for you.

3. Lace-up combat boots Last season’s ankle combat boot got a bit edgier with a mid-calf, lace-up version. With the days getting colder and the puddles getting bigger, these tough babies will keep your feet warm and toasty throughout the day. And forget about overpriced Hunters; combat boots will deal with Vancouver’s non-stop rain showers just as well.

4. Herschel backpacks The backpacks from this Vancouver-based company are all over campus right now, and it’s no wonder: they’re practical, timeless and well-made. If you’re struggling to carry all of your books to class or looking for a weekend getaway backpack, don’t hesitate to check these out. Prices range from $39.99 to $149.99.

5. Grandpa cardigans No, this isn’t literally the moth-ridden cardigan that your grandpa used to wear every day — but it is

one of the comfiest trends on this list. Big, chunky cardigans work great over a clean button-down shirt for guys or over a dress for girls. Whether you prefer them in one colour or with a pattern is totally up to you; bonus points if you can score a sweater with kitschy, seasonal graphics.

6. Collar necklaces One of the newest trends in jewellery, the collar necklace is a big, fancy statement piece. Wear it with a plain top that doesn’t already have a collar. For a night out, give this trend a try by pairing it with a little black dress. U

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012

| culture | 9

BATTLE OF THE BANDS >>

Come for the beer, stay for the music

SHiNDiG! returns for another year of debauchery, fun and sonic competition Rebekkah Ho Contributor

Timeless and just a little bit rowdy: that’s SHiNDiG! Hosted by UBC campus radio station CiTR, this four-month-long battle of the bands allows young musicians to get public exposure. “It’s a way for our station to showcase some local bands,… tell people there’s good music, [and] at the same time make it interesting by making it a competition-type of contest,” said Ben Lai, who is hosting SHiNDiG! for the 11th year in a row.

It’s kind of a good excuse to get drunk and shout at people on a Tuesday night. Sarah Cordingley CiTR music department manager

The competition has been part of the Vancouver music scene since the mid-’80s. This year, it’s being held at the Railway Club every Tuesday from September to December. The competition is a creative outlet for both amateurs and potential rockstars. “It really encourages people to play music, even if it’s not a band that they’ve been working on for

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE LOUIE

Twenty-seven bands are competing for the top three spots at SHiNDiG! over the course of four months.

years,” said Sarah Cordingley, music department manager at CiTR and one of the many SHiNDiG! judges. “It’s a fun, funny thing that no one should take too seriously,... because it’s very interactive and very entertaining regardless of what kind of music you’re into. “It’s kind of a good excuse to get drunk and shout at people on a Tuesday night.” Though the competition is lighthearted and often boozy, SHiNDiG!

has had some very notable past contestants. Local indie darlings the Oh Wells, Japandroids, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and You Say Party! We Say Die! have all participated in the Tuesday night sonic battle. But the chance of local fame isn’t the only thing that attracts upand-coming bands to this contest. SHiNDiG! gets its credibility from its free-for-all environment. “We don’t give the judges any

specific guidelines, like 20 points or this style. We don’t base it on audience,” Lai said. “I really like character,” admitted Cordingley. “I probably am one of those fickle judges that are looking for something a little bit different and something new, something exciting or something weird. I’m not that fond of virtuosic guitar-playing in a standard rock setting. I kind of find a lot of rock music a little bit boring.”

Alex Smith, a SHiNDiG! judge and member of the band Village, agreed: “You’ll generally do better at SHiNDiG! when your band is a bit different.… If you’re playing something kind of generic, it’s not going to be interesting to someone who goes and sees bands all the time. Originality is probably the big thing.” SHADOWS, the alternative indie rock band from Surrey that won the first night this year, seems to have fulfilled the judges’ criteria — or lack thereof. “The first night was tons of fun. It was a really good vibe from Ben and the rest of the judges. It seemed like they were a lot of close locals that knew about the scene, so it wasn’t like a biased contest,” said Dianne Ocampo, lead guitarist of the group. Even though they are one of the youngest bands in the competition, SHADOWS’s style is far from happy-go-lucky. Ocampo describes their sound as “heavier and darker,” like “Radiohead meets the Artic Monkeys and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.” Many more promising bands are set to play throughout November and December. “Get out of the house on a Tuesday night and see some good bands,” Smith said. “See some terrible bands. Tell a joke for beer — free beer. Yell at Ben Lai.… It’s a lot of fun.” U

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 |

STUDENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.

LAST WORDS

End of UBC Insiders a blow to campus journalism

B.C. lost 11,000 jobs last month. Time for some UBC make-work projects!

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

by Jonny Wakefield

I still have the recording of the first interview I ever did. It starts with the sound of awkward shuffling, and I can be heard muttering, “Is this recording?” into the mouthpiece. There’s a clatter as I set the device down on the table, then my hesitant opening question: “So, uh, how did you start looking into this SOL thing? I was talking to a student named Neal Yonson about an investigation he had been doing into Special Occasion Licences — the piece of paper you need to hold licensed liquor events in B.C. As soon as I (mercifully) spit out that first question, Neal launched into liquor policy. Neal was the editor of a blog called UBC Insiders . He had looked into SOLs at UBC, and turned up something fishy. The university detachment of the RCMP, which approves all SOLs on campus, had been fudging the rules — giving an illegal number of licences to UBC departments while denying applications submitted by student groups for seemingly no reason. Neal thought that was unfair, and had the numbers to prove it. That was four years ago. So why bring this up now? Because after years of late nights of data entry, lengthy exposés and hundreds of hours of UBC meetings, Neal is hanging up his hat. Neal announced he was done with UBC Insiders last week. He’s going cold turkey and it isn’t easy. Over beers in his Dunbar basement suite, he describes a recent conversation with his girlfriend, who works as a law librarian. At work, she had to search for a legal decision in the Canadian Legal Information Institute database (CanLII). “My mind automatically goes to, ‘Huh, I haven’t done a UBC CanLII search in a while; maybe I should go do that.’ I had to check myself and say no, no, you’re not going to do that. You’re done. It doesn’t matter.” A brief history of the blog shows that this isn’t the case; Insiders did matter. It’s been around since 2007, when it was the plaything of a student Board of Governors representative and an AMS councillor. It was a frequent entrant in the AMS’s voter-funded media (VFM) competition, a now mostly defunct program that allowed students to vote on blogs that cover the AMS. The blogs deemed most useful/ silly got a little bit of money from the fund. Insiders was consistently the best of the bunch, producing original content and commentary on UBC politics. Neal, who’s been at UBC since 2006 as a Ph.D. student, took up a position at Insiders when there was an opening, and he’s been the driving force behind the blog ever since. Along with a few other contributors, Neal took the blog in a new direction. Instead of insider baseball stuff from student representatives, there was a new investigative focus. Of course, there was also the occasional post designed simply to piss off UBC administrators — like when Neal helpfully pointed out that UBC did

ILLUSTRATION INDIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY

B.C. LOST 11,000 JOBS IN THE PAST MONTH? OH CRAP... ..

So you know how governments are about “jobs” these days? The B.C. Liberals are one of the many political parties that have hung their hats on job creation, come hell or high water. So last week’s Statistics Canada announcement that B.C. has lost 11,000 jobs in the past month looked really bad. So bad, in fact, that the only thing Jobs Minister Pat Bell could think to do was dispute the numbers. Bell announced last week that his ministry was going to “look into” Stats Can’s numbers, because, you know, maybe someone forgot to carry a one somewhere. What does this mean for you? Well, as we mentioned, the Libs have been doing a full court press on getting people back to work. Part of that press is coming from the Ministry of Advanced Education, which has been focusing almost exclusively on the “skills and training” aspect of post-secondary. Are these numbers a direct result of these policies? Hard to say. We’re not Stats Can. But then again, neither is the B.C. government.

UBC’S KENYA PROGRAM MAKING HEADWAY WHERE MOOCS CAN’T UBC is offering online courses to teachers in Kenyan refugee camps. Education is often cited as the key to getting out of the camps; most children there lack basic academic skills and their teachers often have little to no formal training. And UBC is taking a concrete step to address this complicated issue from the ground up. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) like Coursera are getting a lot of attention as the future of education. They provide free online courses to anyone with an Internet connection. MOOCs have been hailed as an

almost utopic solution to access to education, but this is an example where MOOCs alone aren’t going to cut it. MOOCs are meant for a more general audience and assume students already have basic academic skills. By contrast, the courses offered in the refugee camps will focus on teachers rather than students. UBC is taking a step in the right direction by educating teachers. Students in refugee camps have very specific needs that can’t be addressed by general online courses. And given the limited infrastructure, face-toface classroom learning seems like the best option.

UNA MEMBERS NEED TO QUIT CRYING OVER BROKEN CONSULTATION PROCESS There’s a palpable sense of outrage from the University Neighbourhoods Association, the group that represents residents of market housing on campus. And last Tuesday, that outrage came to a head. Boy, were they angry — mostly about UBC’s community planning process. One resident said that she “cried every day” because a high-rise condo tower was going to be built near her low-rise condo building. To be fair, when it comes to development, UBC usually just play-acts through the “consultation process” before going ahead and building exactly what they want. Students’ wishes aren’t respected, and neither are non-student campus residents. But the put-upon victim act we’re seeing from UNA members needs to stop. These are people who can afford some of the priciest real estate in what’s already one of the most expensive cities in Canada. They moved to a pleasant, low-crime, well-maintained little ivory-tower enclave — and then started complaining about students holding beer gardens

on Fridays or children playing too loudly on playgrounds (no, really). The real target of UNA outrage should be UBC’s sham of a consultation process whenever they’re trying to build stuff or change what can be built where. It really does marginalize both residents and students. The UNA’s general anti-student attitude seriously hurts their cause. If they can rise above petty squabbles about liquor licences and set aside their seething resentment over past conflicts, they’ll find a real ally in their quest to hold UBC accountable. But we don’t expect this to happen any time soon.

TRANSLINK FINALLY THROWING THE BOOK AT THE RIGHT KIND OF FRAUDSTER In a shocking turn of events, TransLink has decided to deal with fraud by, you know, actually dealing with fraud. In the past, the transit authority hasn’t always seemed reasonable about fraud. Their estimates for the amount of money they lost to U-Pass fraud seemed arbitrary, and over the last two years, they’ve made changes in the name of fraud prevention that made the U-Pass much less pleasant to use. You used to get a full-term pass in the mail, and now you have to pick up a new one every month. And if you lose it, you must file a police report and pay $35 to replace it. All of those changes seemed annoying, because while TransLink talked so tough about fraud on the student side, they weren’t doing anything to prevent it on the fraudster side. Passes are still for sale on Facebook and Craigslist all the time. So if they’re making an example of someone, it’s good that it’s a scalper. God knows TransLink needs the money. It’s nice to see them implement a fraud protection measure that actually works. U

not actually own the copyright to its own motto. Instead of owning the rights to Tuum Est, they had bought Cuum Est, which translates roughly to “It’s Cuum’s.” UBC quietly acquired Tuum Est shortly thereafter. Some think Yonson ultimately cost the university far more than just a copyright fee. Sean Cregten, a longtime AMS hack, worked with Yonson during the fight to stop the university from building market housing on Gage South, the field by the bus loop. Cregten imagines UBC’s reluctant decision to build subsidized student housing on the same plot probably cost the university close to $40 million. At The Ubyssey, we’ve enjoyed a kind of symbiotic relationship with Insiders. From time to time, Neal would bring us stories he thought we’d be able to cover more effectively. A brief scan of headlines in the Insiders archive shows that a lot of what Neal and co. wrote wasn’t for general consumption. (Let’s be honest: “UBC Maximizing Housing Density by Minimizing Legal Compliance” doesn’t exactly sound like a crackling yarn.) “I don’t know who reads it anymore,” says Neal. “When me and [former editor Alex Lougheed] started, we knew lots of people who read it. And it was more about who reads it instead of how many people read it. We need to make sure admin are reading it, and obviously they did. If 2,000 students read it and do nothing because they’re students, versus 200 people from admin and other places, it’s going to make more of an impact.” And in that regard, Neal sometimes kicked The Ubyssey’s ass, breaking stories we knew nothing about. He rarely hung around our office. We were competition, and that made both of us — and the student body — better off. Which is part of what makes this an especially sad case. There’s little left in the way of media on campus. Every undergraduate society used to have a newspaper that did actual reporting on their own little corners of campus. Now it doesn’t make much sense for them to produce a monthly print product with little visibility. VFM blogs used to be at least of interest to people in the campus politics sphere. Now, saying that VFM is a useless slush fund for friends of the AMS is a generous assessment. The Ubyssey isn’t going anywhere, but it’s sure going to be lonely. We want — hell, need — other people out there to put us through our paces. But back to Neal. It’s good he’s moving on. Everyone has to at some point. But still, there’s the lingering question: why? Why did he attend the hundreds and hundreds of hours of UNA, BoG and AMS meetings? Why did he stay up through the night entering data? Why did he put off his degree for years for little money or acclaim? “I love to find scoops, new information,” he says. “Finding something that’s like ‘Oh my god, this is so juicy. This will start a conversation.’ It was a soap box to say things, to [criticize] things, to make change. “I just had something to say.” U

WHERE’S KATIC?!

Don’t worry, Gordon Katic’s regular Monday column is online at ubyssey.ca/opinions/.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012 |

PICTURES + WORDS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

HACKÉDEX

ADVICE >>

Going down, getting paid and letting go

YOUR UBC WORD OF THE WEEK

Dr. Bryce tackles questions on flings, flirtationships and future careers WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

with Dr. Bryce Warnes Dr. Bryce, Please answer in both text form and in .gif form. I have a f lirtthing with someone but I’m not sure if he wants to continue on. I don’t want to seem desperate and don’t want to be too forward. Sometimes I just want to get drunk so I can blow him, but I don’t want to come off as too blowjobby. What should I do? Sincerely, Mittens Rombey Dear Mittens, Your blowie instincts are correct. BJs are like a USB connection to the id of anyone with a schlong and can be used as a tool of manipulation. Don’t waste that leverage early on. Save the tongue depressor routine for later in your relationship with this guy, whether he becomes a BF or a FWB. If you feed him enough liquor, you should find out pretty quick whether he wants to take your flirtationship to the next level. Knock back a few as well and you’ve got an excuse for seeming too “forward.” It’s not healthy to build your sex life around alcohol, but some-

times a little lubrication is necessary. Remember how complicated it was getting laid in high school? Reflect on how becoming 19+ changed the situation. ••• Can’t get over my summer f ling. Haven’t seen or spoken to him since. What do I do? Dear Anonymous, Maintaining contact is his prerogative as well as yours. If he’s failed in that regard, then he isn’t interested in you. You are not an important part of his life. Move on. There are plenty of dicks in the world. Don’t get stuck on this one. ••• Dear Dr. Bryce, I’m graduating soon, and majoring in English lit. Other than time travel, how can I remedy this terrible professional situation? Sincerely, Dr. No-Job PS: How can I become a doctor* like you? Dear Dr. No-Job, In “The Uses and Abuses of University,” (The Walrus, Oct. 2012)

Ken Coates and Bill Morrison remark that “those with non-specialized degrees, bachelor’s in the arts and sciences … face prolonged underemployment,” and that “one of the most common strategies for coping with the poor returns from a degree is to go back to college for practical, career-oriented training.” If you have student loans or a line of credit available to you, use it to complete a one- or two-year skills-based diploma/ certificate program. Otherwise, try begging your parents for funding. Research a projected income for your career of choice, and use that to back up your panhandling. Now that you’ve got all that critical theorizing and essay-writing out of your system, it’s time to focus on financial stability. Your best chance is through post-post-secondary education. *Ordination in the Universal Life Church allows you to choose your title. U 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. *Editor’s note: Bryce is not a doctor.

VFM

Voter Funded Media, or VFM, is a contest held during the AMS elections in the spring. Individuals and groups may participate by covering the elections. Students who vote in the AMS elections will also be asked to vote for who should receive the funds.

What I’m Drinking Now: Game Edition Drinking Game for this Week

HAVE A PAPER?

Take a shot of tequila for the all-nighter you’re going to pull.

ROUND TWO OF MIDTERMS SCREWING YOU OVER? Vodka pong. ’Nuff said.

ROMNEY WINS? Centurion. With whiskey.

12 | games |

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012

52- Like untended yards 53- State in the E United States 56- Frees (of) 57- Extra-wide shoe size 58- Fancy home 62- Creamy-beige colour 63- Part of ETA 64- Uncovered 65- Mariners can sail on seven of these 66- Go bad 67- Capital of New South Wales

52- Gossamer 54- 365 days 55- Revivalists 59- Abby’s twin 60- Driver’s aid 61- Dreyer’s partner in ice cream

DOWN

PUZZLE COURTESY OF BESTCROSSWORDS.COM. USED WITH PERMISSION.

ACROSS 1- Capital of the Philippines 7- When doubled, a dance 10- Siouan speaker 14- Subsides 15- Author Rand 16- Actress Diana 17- Dwarfed tree 18- PC linkup 19- Part of Q.E.D. 20- Loving 23- Snakelike 26- Small island 27- Doorkeeper 28- Mata ___ 29- And so on

30- Sault ___ Marie 31- Six-legged creatures 33- River to the Volga 34- Baby newt 37- Aussie hopper 38- “Lord, is ___?”: Matthew 39- Excavate 40- Sprechen ___ Deutsch? 41- Sawbuck 42- Managed 43- Put up 45- IV units 46- Queue after Q 47- Gripped 48- Old French expression meaning “goodbye” 51- DDE opponent

1- Fairy queen 2- Blood letters 3- A Bobbsey twin 4- I’ve been framed! 5- Like spinach 6- Clueless catchphrase 7- Containing lime 8- Hilton competitor 9- Years in old Rome 10- Hans Christian Andersen’s birthplace 11- Law of Moses 12- Use a soapbox 13- Fragrant compound 21- Dines at home 22- Power problem 23- Tee, e.g. 24- Slender boat 25- Favoured crime of pyromaniacs 29- Kett and James 30- Garment worn by women 32- Performing animal show 33- Black Sea port 34- Lauder of cosmetics 35- Paddock 36- Woman’s one-piece undergarment 44- Defrauded 45- Official count of population 46- Return to a former condition 48- ___-ski 49- Free of frost 50- Chief of the Vedic gods 51- Olds model

PUZZLE COURTESY OF KRAZYDAD. USED WITH PERMISSION.

First person to enter The Ubyssey office and debate Helvetica’s importance to modern society with Jeff Aschkinasi gets 100 free copies of the paper. Great for reading or making paper airplanes! COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE: SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS