Friday, January 23, 2015

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2015

Charges laid against driver in campus car crash

Fashion for Friday >> pg. 4

VOLUME 108, ISSUE 62

>> FROSH NO MORE

23-year-old Elton Sabino charged in fatal early morning crash Hamza Tariq NEWS EDITOR @HamzaAtGazette

The London Police Service has laid charges against the driver of the vehicle involved in last Sunday’s fatal car crash on Western’s campus. According to a media release from the LPS, the driver of the vehicle was Elton Sabino, a 23-yearold resident of London. Sabino has been charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, dangerous operating of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death, impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm and novice driver-blood alcohol content above zero. The fatal car crash in the early hours of Sunday on Perth Dr., in front of Western’s Chemistry Building, resulted in the death of Jan Broz, a 22-year-old resident of London. Three individuals were seated in a grey Volkwagen Golf when the vehicle went off the road and hit a tree. As a result, the car flipped on its passenger side with the tree pinned against the roof. Sabino and the other surviving passenger of the crash, whose identity has not yet been released, are still in the hospital. They are reported to be in fair condition. Keith Marnoch, director of media relations at Western, confirmed earlier this week that the three individuals involved in the crash were not directly associated with the university in any capacity. Currently, Sabino has been released from custody and will have a court appearance in the coming weeks, according to the media release. His friends remembered Broz, who immigrated from Czech Republic as a child, as an auto enthusiast who was able to fix just about anything. More than 60 people gathered at a west London parking lot on Sunday night and drove to the crash site, where they held a candlelight vigil in memory of Broz.

Inside

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Western on the World: Greek election

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Wild: Movie review

P4

Apples and Barbells

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Men’s hockey wins at home

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Women’s hockey looking to get back on track

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Taylor Lasota • GAZETTE

FROSH, FROSH EVERYWHERE. While nearly universally referred to as “frosh,” sophs and residence staff at Western have been directed not to use the word “frosh” when addressing first-year students. This is absurd, says news editor Hamza Tariq. See page 6 for his take.

Prof. drops out of Health sci addresses Con. Black conference students concerns Katie Lear NEWS EDITOR @KatieAtGazette

Western associate professor Bipasha Baruah declared in an email on Monday that she will no longer participate in the Social Science Students’ Council’s Academic Conference. Baruah had previously agreed to speak at the professor panel, but did not agree with Conrad Black’s position as the keynote speaker for the conference. “When I found out that he had been invited as a paid keynote speaker, and given the defining platform for the conference, that to me is completely unacceptable, and that’s not something that I can possibly participate in,” Baruah said in an interview. According to Baruah, a distinction needs to be drawn between controversial speakers, who she has no problem with having as a keynote speaker, and having Black participate. “He’s a criminal – he’s a convicted criminal who destroyed peoples’ lives … if anybody else – if they didn’t have his money and power and his influence, would have in many countries probably faced execution.” “He’s been given the defining platform for this conference, and he of all people shouldn’t have one, he certainly shouldn’t have one in Canada, and that really bothers me,” Baruah continued. Since Baruah announced she would not be participating, the SSSC has found a replacement for

their panel on short notice. “We only heard that she dropped out of the speaking engagement … this Monday, which obviously is a very short window of time to replace somebody on a speaker panel, and we’ve been able to do so, but it’s been a huge struggle,” Litchfield said. The conference’s theme on capitalism was partially chosen to unite the departments within social science. “Our premise was that we wanted to have representation from all of the departments within the faculty because a lot of previous academic programming has only targeted one specific large department … the whole idea of this conference is to try and reach out to everyone and get a lot of different perspectives [on capitalism],” Litchfield continued. “The way we’ve laid out our conference provides an opportunity for students to have discussions, to start debate, and to interact with different professionals,” Sean Fry, associate vice-president of academics, said. “We really regret that professor Baruah did decide to not participate in the professor panel, but we have found some replacements that we think will be great and we’re really excited for the event,” Fry continued. Black will be delivering his keynote presentation for the SSSC’s conference, titled Capitalism in Today’s Society, at 7 p.m. on Sunday in Alumni Hall.

Megan Devlin ASSOCIATE EDITOR @MegAtGazette

The faculty of health science has denied allegations that it lowered grades to meet a prescribed class average in Health Sciences 3010F: Introduction to Rural Communities. Kevin Wamsley, associate dean of the faculty, said his faculty does not have a senate-approved policy to regulate class averages. “We are committed to fairness,” Wamsley said. “If a student has any concern whatsoever, we want to make sure that student has every opportunity to be treated fairly through the appeals process.” Sandy Girgis, a fourth-year health sciences student, organized a Google document via Facebook compiling signatures of classmates who wished to appeal after the entire class allegedly received six out of 10 for their participation grade. Fifty-five students out of a class of 91 indicated they want to appeal. “It doesn’t reflect your effort if everyone’s getting the same mark on the dot,” Girgis said. Wamsley, however, said 55 signatures on a Google document does not amount to 55 appeals with the university. Jess Bechard, media relations for the faculty of health science, also added that the allegation that the entire class received 60 per cent on their second essay assignment was not true. Wamsley announced via OWL

that he has booked HSB 236 today for a meeting with students in the class at 4:30 p.m. to address, “misinformation circulating among the students on many academic issues, including an appeals deadline.” Both Wamsley and Bechard said they could not comment on the number of appeals without breaking their privacy policies. Wamsley said he couldn’t speak to the students’ concerns with their allegedly identical grades because, “no students came to [him] with those concerns.” He did, however, stress the effectiveness of the university’s private and confidential appeals process. The process begins with a student appealing their grade with their professor, either orally or in writing. If the student believes they are being treated unfairly, they can then write a letter to the chair of their department or director of their school. “The director of the school then responds to that appeal, gathers information, makes a decision and provides that decision to the student,” Wamsley explained. If the student is still dissatisfied, he or she can appeal to the dean of his or her faculty. After the dean, the final level of appeal is the Senate Review Board Academic. As for the students in Health Science 3010F, screenshots from the class’s OWL announcements reveal the faculty originally stood by six out of 10 participation grades, but later decided to re-weigh them.


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