Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Relay for a cause Students gathered on Saturday night for 12 hours of relaying for cancer. >> Pg. 3

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Team Sophie appeals decisions of the elections committee Hamza Tariq NEWS EDITOR @HamzaAtGazette

One final test waits for Team Litchfield as the USC’s appeals committee is set to deliberate on the objections launched by Team Sophie regarding the demerit points handed out by the elections committee.

In a controversial turn of events, the elections committee awarded Team Litchfield 30 demerit points, one short of automatic disqualification. The demerit points were based on post-campaigning violations, placement of campaign materials in off-campus residences and using alcohol in their campaigning.

President-elect Jack Litchfield and his opponent, Sophie Helpard, both declined to comment until the decision of the appeals board is made.

Last week on Tuesday, Helpard submitted an appeal to the chair of the appeals board, Derrick Dodgson.

The text of the appeal was made public on Thursday night.

In an email to Dodgson, she appealed three aspects of the elections committee’s decision regarding Team Litchfield’s violations.

The first appeal is regarding the elections committee’s sanctions on Team Litchfield for post-campaigning. >> see APPEALS pg.3

Inside

•••

Winnie Lu • GAZETTE

CHECK MY SWAG. CAISA packed Centennial Hall on Saturday with their 17th annual fashion show. The event mixed a variety of different kinds of dance while displaying formal dress, causal clothing, swimwear and lingerie. Read the story on page 4.

OUSA general meeting talks LGBTQ issues Kevin Hurren NEWS EDITOR-AT-LARGE @KevinAtGazette

Water Week at Western

P3

Lil Jon comes to town

P4

Review: The Last Five Years

P4

Art exhibition features Western students

P6

Journalism at a crossroads

P7

Badminton places second at provincials

P8

This weekend, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance held their Annual General Meeting – a time for passing policy papers that will direct the organization’s advocacy efforts.

Hosted by McMaster University, 11 delegates from the University Students’ Council were sent to the weekend-long event to learn about and discuss this year’s three policy papers addressing tuition, mature students and LGBTQ+ students.

According to Jen Carter, OUSA

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president and USC vice-president external, these topics were chosen for a variety of reasons.

“Our policy papers expire every four years, and this year it was time for the mature students paper to be updated. With the new funding formula being discussed in the province, it was incredibly timely to write the tuition paper. Lastly, the general assembly decided that it was time for OUSA to work on our first ever LGBTQ+ paper,” she said.

Delegates from seven student associations from across the province spent Friday and Saturday engaging in breakout sessions, going through the papers’ specific points

with OUSA steering committee members and other researchers or paper authors.

On Sunday, representatives gathered for the official plenary to debate changes and amendments to the papers.

The tuition paper, hoping to work with Ontario’s new tuition framework, aims to look at improving system regulation, ensure fair cost-sharing and address student debt. The second paper, an expiring version of earlier policies on mature students, outlines contemporary barriers that mature student often face such as stigmatization and isolation in the classroom.

While both papers passed little few debate, it was the LGBTQ paper that received the most contention.

The first of its kind for OUSA, the paper’s goal was to demonstrate significant differences in educational experiences for queer students and offer suggestions for improvement – including better programming and more gender-neutral accommodations. To research the paper, OUSA conducted a survey earlier in the year of over 300 students who identified on the LGBTQ spectrum.

>> see OUSA pg.3

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thegazette • Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Caught on Camera

Klara Franklyn • GAZETTE LOVE IS IN THE AIR. It seems like at every turn there are young couples publicly displaying their affection and don’t give a damn what anyone thinks. It’s nice to know people are finding time to love in between all the studying. To the couple in this photo, sorry for the unwanted publicity but keep doing what you’re doing!

CROSSWORD By Eugene Sheffer

Three policy papers debated >> OUSA continued from pg.1

However, one point particularly garnered the attention of delegates – a suggestion to advocate for LGBTQ floors in every Ontario university residence.

USC vice-president internal Emily Addison, who attended the AGM as a Western delegate, felt that LGBTQ floors worked against the spirit of the overall policy paper.

Similar to faculty or interest-specific living arrangements, LGBTQ floors are designated to students who identify themselves as a member or ally of the queer community. Western has had a LGBTQ floor for two years.

Solution to puzzle on page 6

After speaking with some of the students on these floors, Addison and other Western delegates felt they promoted feelings of separation from others in the residence.

“They said they felt the floor became too isolated of a community because everyone was in the same mentality,” she said.

Instead, Western delegates suggested LGBTQ-friendly spaces in residence that queer students could take advantage of but not be tethered to.

After a close vote, this recommendation was denied and the paper maintained its existing residence strategy, ultimately passing without modification.

But the lack of change doesn’t

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bother Addison.

“At the end of the day it’s not like what we vote on is policy. The whole point of this is to go advocate on behalf of these papers, and there were so many other valid things in the paper that would be fantastic for Western and universities in Ontario.”

Carter explained that the papers, after undergoing a final editing process, will be released to government officials, administration and the general public.

“These new policy statements will reflect what OUSA will now advocate on to the provincial government and relevant sector stakeholders,” she said.

News Briefs

Youth get business license break

Young entrepreneurs could be in for a big break. London city councillor Mo Salih proposed a motion for the millennial generation to get lower rates on business licenses last week.

The motion hopes to allow youth who open a business in London to have reduced rates on business licenses.

“I’m seconding it to start the conversation rolling. It’s one third of the population and has the highest unemployment rate,” Tanya Park, Ward 13 councillor, said.

Many graduates face difficulties finding jobs in their fields of study.

Salih explained that young people do have an entrepreneurial spirit and could prosper in creating their own jobs.

“Right now millennials are one of the groups who are hardest hit for jobs — unemployment is 20 per cent for youth,” said Salih, Ward 3 councillor.

A concern brought forth was that the motion is potentially discriminatory against other age groups. Salih explained that there are already similar things being done in the city, such as high school students being paid less than adults. The millennial demographic is certainly in need of help and giving them a break on business licenses is a way to do this, according to Salih.

“I’m feeling very positive about it. I feel that there should be enough support for it,” he said.

• Rita Rahmati

The Cryptoquip is a substitution cipher in which one letter stands for another. If you think that X equals O, it will equal O throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words and words using an apostrophe give you clues to locating vowels. Solution is by trial and error. © 2002 by Kings Features Syndicate, Inc.

•3

thegazette • Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Students relay and raise over $60,000

Taylor Lasota • GAZETTE

Water spotlight on campus @AmyAtGazette

The University Students’ Council’s Enviro Western is set to make a splash this week with the launch of Western Water Week, a threeday advocacy event kicking-off on Wednesday.

Jessica He, Enviro Western coordinator, said Western Water Week is about more than empty plastic water bottles hanging in the University Community Centre atrium. She said in light of World Water Day on March 23, Enviro Western wanted to plan engaging and receptive programming for students to spread awareness about water issues.

“Historically, World Water Week has been a thing that Enviro Western has undertaken although it [used to] focus more on research, water technology and … policy,” He said.

“We’re trying to make an approachable event where people can learn, and start asking questions about water, and build that interest.”

Hosted in the UCC basement

from Wednesday through Friday, Western Water Week will showcase new displays and features this year.

Morgan Rathwell, Enviro Western volunteer, said a show piece will be an interactive great Pacific garbage patch exhibit where students take the role of fish navigating a trash island.

“What we want to do is show people where the things they use end up, so they think about that before they’re over consuming, buying plastic and all these various items because it’s easy to distance yourself from it,” Rathwell said.

Besides the garbage patch exhibit, Western Water Week will promote daily educational challenges for students that reward participants with the chance to win gift cards, water bottles, mugs and other prizes. The tasks will include a UCC water refill station location challenge on Wednesday, and on Thursday, a water taste test challenge that compares bottled water to London’s public water supply.

Partnering with Enivro Western for Western Water Week is London Council of Canadians, a social

justice organization who will host an educational booth on Thursday.

Mackenzie Coombe, water project team leader for Enviro Western, added the three-day event will begin with a focus on local water issues and move towards international water education on Friday.

Engineers Without Borders Canada will be setting up a display on water filtration systems in developing countries for Friday – in-line with the day’s global spotlight.

He said a big goal of Enviro Western is to emphasize Western’s campus public water infrastructure.

She said she hopes if students take something away from Western Water Week, it’s to take advantage of it. “[Western had] spent a lot of money retrofitting a lot of the water dispensers that we have here to be filtered, refrigerated, and one of the big goals we want for this week is for students to … use public water infrastructure so we don’t continue this trend of the privatization of water. It’s a statement that we value public water and that it shouldn’t be a commodity for sale.”

Final decision to come on Litchfield violations >> APPEALS continued from pg.1

According to Helpard, the committee’s decision to treat all 21 of Team Litchfield’s social media posts as a single “extraordinary” violation did not equitably treat the violations that occurred.

The extraordinary violation resulted in Team Litchfield being awarded a total of 15 demerit points for post-campaigning.

“Other candidates during this election, including Team Sophie, received up to three demerit per post-campaigning violation,” she said in the appeal. “Had sanctions been distributed equitably, Team Litchfield would have received up to 63 demerit points.”

“We would suggest that the decision to consider all 21 violations as a single extraordinary offence was inconsistent and unjust.”

The second appeal is about the elections committee’s treatment of Team Litchfield’s off-campus violations.

According to Helpard, there was inconsistency in how these violations were treated. Team Litchfield also did not use the University Students’ Council’s Creative Services to print their off-campus campaign materials, which is a violation of the by-law.

“Non-arms length parties mass-distributed campaign

Sophie Helpard materials throughout the apartment buildings without the consent of the residents or building managers,” she said.

“We believe, cumulatively, that more demerit points should have been distributed considering the number of voters influenced.”

The third appeal is about the actions of Team Litchfield that, according to Helpard, undermined By-law 2.

Helpard argues that the way Team Litchfield treated the demerit point system could potentially damage the relationship between USC, students and partners across campus.

“Team Litchfield treated the

Courtesy of USC Charity Commitee

Olivia Zollino NEWS EDITOR @OliviaAtGazette

Western University students raised over $60,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society this weekend at Relay for Life.

The relay was broken up into various events, including opening ceremony, survivor lap, luminary ceremony and the first ever Skype date with Guelph University, who also had Relay on Saturday night.

Nikita Kanani, Relay for Life co-chair at Western, said she considers this year’s event to be a success.

“The event ran smoothly and everything went as expected,” Kanani said.

Many have participated in Relay for Life over the years due to their own personal connection with cancer.

Calee Benson, a third-year French language major, said she participated because her grandmother had passed away from cancer and that she felt a real sense of community at the event.

“It was really fun – it was a great environment, great feel because there were so many fun games and everything like that,” Benson said.

Benson added she would attend Relay again in the future.

“Cancer doesn’t target an individual, it targets families, friends, communities and that’s something I’m not okay with,” Kanani said.

Relay for Life initially set a goal of $75,000 but have only reached 80 per cent of their goal.

Additionally, a total of 531 people were registered for the event, a decrease from last year’s 800 participants.

Kanani said there were many overlapping events that occurred last Saturday, which may have contributed to the decreased participation, such as MedwaySydenham Hall’s formal and the CAISA fashion show.

“Due to these events being drinking related, it’s hard to get participants to attend Relay after because Relay is a strict dry event,” Kanani said.

Nonetheless, donations per person increased this year. The event fundraising page will remain open for another month for late donations.

This year was particular significant to Kanani who relayed in memory of her uncle and remains hopeful for the future.

“I’ve seen cancer affect people’s personalities and change families for the worse and if there is a possible cure, then shouldn’t we do our part to find one?”

Taylor Lasota • GAZETTE

demerit point system as a resource that should be budgeted and used, as opposed to a set of penalties to be avoided,” Helpard said.

“While the by-law may need to be updated and modernized, all candidates were working with the same set of regulations and Team Litchfield had the responsibility to follow them as they are written.”

Helpard added she is still awaiting information from the elections committee regarding violations that were submitted but were not reported on by the committee.

The appeal date, which is open to the public, is set for Sunday, March 29 at 1 p.m. in the USC Council Chambers.

We would like to remind you that you must meet with a counsellor at Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), in the Student Development Centre, to arrange academic accommodation for your 2014/15 winter courses.

If you have not yet requested accommodation for your courses, and you wish to use accommodation for April 2015 exams, you must meet with a counsellor by Friday, March 26th. If requested after this date, accommodation for April 2015 exams cannot be arranged by Exam Services.

To book your appointment please call

519-661-2147

150313

Amy O’Kruk NEWS EDITOR

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thegazette • Tuesday, March 24, 2015

arts&life

funwithpuns Why is it hard to explain a joke to a kleptomaniac?

• Because they always take things literally.

Lil Jon causes crunking and chaos

>> IN THEATRES > THE LAST FIVE YEARS

Amy O’Shea • GAZETTE

Conrad Floryan ARTS AND LIFE EDITOR @ConradAtGazette

Courtesy of Radius-TWC

Broadway adaptation not quite pitch perfect Erik Bajzert GAZETTE STAFF @uwogazette

GGGHF The Last Five Years Director: Richard LaGravenese Starring: Anna Kendrick, Jeremy Jordan The release of The Last Five Years has been hotly anticipated by a very select few. The original off-Broadway musical this film is based on has amassed a small cult following. The story of Jamie and Cathy has been loved and cherished by musical theatre die-hards for nearly 15 years, which creates an air of uncertainty around the actual film. How can any director, production crew, studio or actor possibly approach this material without betraying the expectations of the show’s obsessive fan base? Frankly, this film proves an effortless transition of this musical may be impossible.

For all its shortcomings, The Last Five Years is still a good film. In fact, it’s the best film that director Richard LaGravenese has made in quite some time. For those unacquainted with the original musical, it will play out as a solid, yet slightly awkward 90 minutes of singing.

The Last Five Years is a musical which tracks the five-year relationship between Jamie (Jeremy Jordan), a young and successful novelist, and Cathy (Anna Kendrick), a struggling

stage actress. The film uses a unique storytelling system to explore both sides of the relationship. Both characters are given a song to sing by themselves, where Cathy’s songs are sung in reverse chronological order and Jamie’s are sung chronologically.

They take turns exploring their emotions, until the middle where they sing together and part ways into the future or the past.

Jamie and Cathy are like two good friends to those who love this show. This is why it is a pleasure to see that they are almost perfectly casted and performed on screen. Kendrick is pitch perfect (pun intended) in the role of Cathy.

Jordan’s performance can come off as a little bit stagey to some, but for a first-time screen actor, he does his job well. The two sound great during the musical numbers. They certainly don’t hold a candle to the original Broadway cast of Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz, who coincidentally appear in cameo roles, but they sound fantastic nonetheless.

Jason Robert Brown’s music is given a loving treatment by the cast and filmmakers.

Special attention must be given to the way this film was shot. Many critics have praised Birdman this year for its loose, unmotivated camera work, which The Last Five Years adopts in its shot composition. This certainly isn’t as extravagant, but the feeling of a camera not dictated by gravity gives the audience a feeling

of floating through time, as well as the intimate feeling of a home movie. It’s an expertly shot film.

For all the work being done with the camera, it’s a shame that what’s being shot doesn’t look more engaging. While the actors look great and sound just as good, the locales they’re singing in borderline on awful. LaGravenese felt the need to shoot nearly every scene in a sunny exterior or brightly lit interior, save for a segment or two. This completely derails the tone of the film because every scene looks and feels the same.

The actors are being forced to carry the film on their performances alone, without any help from the director. This is a baffling mistake to see from a filmmaker who has been working for quite a while. It is also worth noting that many of the numbers have been censored. Many of the f-bombs have been awkwardly changed to meet a PG-13 rating. For a musical which thrives on its honesty, this feels like a betrayal.

The Last Five Years isn’t the perfect film that fans of the off-Broadway musical were hoping for, but it’s also not the disaster that it could have been. Despite the glaring flaws that exist, the film manages to do a lot of great things. It’s a solid production of an excellent musical.

The Last Five Years will be playing at Hyland Cinema this week.

Showtimes are available at www. hylandcinema.com.

Concerned Londoners who reported signs of an earthquake Thursday night were relieved to find out it was just Lil Jon up to his usual business.

Mr. Jonathan Smith touched down at the Mustang Lounge and whipped up a vintage crunk situation.

When the doors opened at 9 p.m., it was dead and the air of anticipation started to show cracks — how many fans would show on a Thursday? Did Lil Jon still have it?

The people slowly streamed in as the openers DJ Double Down and DJ Alpha kept the crowd alive and well. They played a solid selection of trap, house and sprinklings of rap.

Lil Jon started around 10:30 p.m.

The crowd cheered to see their cherished host manifest among a nebula of smoke and light effects. If Justin Timberlake makes Suit & Tie music, Lil Jon’s oeuvre is best described as Smoke & Light. While his energy filled the room, the man himself was indeed little — 5’6’’. Nevertheless, when he was jumping in the air the top of his fist reached at least eight feet.

Smith has been in the game for a while and he proudly shared his robust resume of club jams and Billboard smashes. Turn Down for What, Outta Your Mind and Yeah! gave the people what they paid for.

He peppered his own hits with a slew of trap and rap cuts that had the crunked-out audience checking their Shazam on overdrive.

Besides Shazam and taking a few camera snaps here and there, the mob was generally too into the show to care about checking their cellphones — always a good sign.

Some artists have started to ban cellphones from their concerts because they feel it’s a distraction that disengages the audience and saps a live performance of vital camaraderie.

Luckily Lil Jon already brought all the vital camaraderie he needs in his pimp cup, so he couldn’t care less.

The sizeable security presence forecast a possible riot, but nothing sketchy happened. Some girl went nuts and she needed a few bouncers to help her relax but that’s just par for the course. It wasn’t a packed house but there were enough faces there to facilitate Lil Jon doing his thing.

Kudos to the University Students’ Council for providing free bottled water. Not only did it keep the throngs from collapsing — it was cold, delicious and restaurant-quality overall. The customer service was exceptional across the board.

Chatter from the departing attendees indicated the people were pleased with the show. Once they were finally able to pass out, they probably slept like babies. Should Lil Jon return to Western? YEAH!!!

Amy O’Shea • GAZETTE

•5

thegazette • Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Fashion meets passion at Vivify 2015 Richard Joseph GAZETTE STAFF @uwogazette

Centennial Hall, the stately civic building in the downtown hub, became the site of what was perhaps the most energetic — and raunchiest — fashion show of the season.

On Saturday, the Canadian Asian International Students’ Association (CAISA) held their 17th annual fashion show, Vivify. The Hall was packed to capacity, with audience members from Lexus London, American Apparel and other affiliated companies present.

The show began with a speech from the representatives of the Children’s Health Foundation, who thanked the members of CAISA for fundraising an impressive $30,000 for Brain Trauma Research for Children and Adolescents through the fashion show.

Vivify, though advertised as a fashion show, was just as much a theatrical production — equal parts play, dance and catwalk. An abstract sort of narrative element continued throughout the show, based around the three “main characters” played by Luis Espinoza, Jordan Phouttharath and Marlie Goddard. They engaged with each other through the medium of dance, with the fascinating and surreal result of intense, highenergy interactions without any speech.

From the opening scene, the performers were able to retain an impressive amount of mobility given their clothing. Far from the tame stroll up and down the catwalk you might see at the fashion shows in Paris or Milan, the CAISA models, in everything from tuxedos to wedding gowns, backflipped, breakdanced and pirouetted around the stage in an

unconventional and glamorous display of sartorial acrobatics.

Following the “performance” aspects, the dancers walked up to the front of the stage in classic catwalk fashion to showcase their outfits. Vivify seamlessly combined the elegance of a Parisian runway with the glitz and glamour of a Broadway production.

Diversity was the show’s greatest strength. There was a variety of different types of dance; along with the blend of classical and modern dance styles of the three main characters, Western-based student groups WOOF and Hip-Hop Western added a contemporary edge with breakdance routines. The clothing on display ranged from mainstream retail to the work of independent designers.

The entirety of the formality spectrum was on display. “Ballroom formal” was the word that came to mind during the first act, with the

men in impeccably-cut suits and bold ties and the women in predominantly white, flouncy dresses.

This progressed to the more daring but equally dapper semiformal look with the mismatched blazer-pants combo and dresses in floral and aztec prints. Then, casual clothing took the stage — t-shirts with unusual prints, contrast sleeves, colour blocking and knit sweaters added excitement and variety to a fairly tame concept. Even sportswear made an appearance with black jerseys and varsity jackets.

Finally, there were the show-stopping swimwear and lingerie scenes. The sound of swooning and the discontented muttering of boyfriends could be heard as several muscle-bound men strutted on stage sporting nothing but a pair of very tight swim shorts or simple black Calvin Klein boxer briefs. The enthusiasm of the crowd reached a feverish pitch when the

female models took the stage, first in a series of elaborate one-piece and two-piece bikinis and then in black lace lingerie. The confidence, charm and natural stage presence of the performers, along with a series of drawn-out wolf-whistles from the crowd, made for a raucous and entertaining atmosphere.

Despite the diversity and glorious chaos of the CAISA fashion show, there was the unifying thread of the main narrative to pull it all together. The performance seemed to follow a theme of technology and modernity, the phenomena of the digital age — the dancing, though sometimes fluid and graceful, was often interestingly robotic, even mechanical, and the music was sometimes electronic with hints of dubstep. CAISA must be commended for combining so many different mediums, styles and aesthetics and still maintaining artistic cohesion.

Photos by Winnie Lu • GAZETTE

6 •

thegazette • Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A fusion of student art and design Meerna Homayed GAZETTE STAFF

Courtesy of Emily Copeland

GOT FAT STACKS. Eleven Western students are having their art displayed at The Arts Project this week. Above and below: Emily Copeland’s charcoal images depict stacks of teacups, books, wood, clothing and poker chips.

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An art exhibit featuring the work of Western students has been extended at the Arts Project downtown.

The Fused/Division art gallery exhibition opened Thursday night and showcased pieces by 11 Western students from the department of visual arts BFA. The fourth-year students displayed their yearlong independent art projects in different fashions.

The unique displays included printmaking fashion, photography, scented pieces, drawings, paintings and graphic novels.

Of particular interest was the project by Emily Copeland — a stunning display of five meticulously drawn charcoal images.

From left to right her images followed a “stacked” theme: a mound of teacups, a tower of books, a triangular pile of wood, a bundle of clothes on a suitcase and a heap of poker chips.

“I wanted to work on a big scale to give people a different viewpoint of things,” she says, referencing the size of her images. “I wanted to do different things that approached different audiences while still following the theme of everything being stacked.”

Each image boasted either a rectangular, triangular or circular design. Copeland also drew on diverse textures for her images —glass, paper, wood, fabric and plastic — to add dimensions to her striking pieces.

Copeland enjoys drawing random objects and making them work together. Her goal for the project was to produce an exhibit that would approach different audiences while still following a theme.

In fact, she recently moved away from portraiture paintings, as they didn’t touch upon this goal.

“I didn’t want to give too much info about what they’re all about because I think people can find their unique meanings within each piece,” says Copeland.

Sophie Bisnaire produced another memorable exhibit. She painted a plethora of small paintings, each adorned with its own quote and arranged in various heights on the wall.

I

WANTED TO TAKE THESE CRAZY MEMORIES AND JUST SIMPLIFY THEM AND BRING THEM DOWN INTO THIS VERY SMALL DELICATE FRAGMENT OF MY MEMORY AND SHARE THEM WITH EVERYONE.” SOPHIE BISNAIRE

FINE ARTS IV

The paintings were influenced by the pilgrimage Bisnaire accomplished last year, where she walked from the South of France to the end of Spain in a 30-day journey.

“I thought I would heighten one moment from each day and juxtapose it with a text from the journal that I wrote in everyday” she explains. “It’s kind of a nice little storyboard of how it went.”

The various levels of the display are a result of a mixture of different factors. Bisnaire arranged the paintings based on the elevation of the terrain she walked that day and how many others walked with her.

Accordingly, the pictures cluster around the beginning of the display and taper off at the end as she journeyed alone in the final days.

“I wanted to take these crazy memories and just simplify them and bring them down into this very small, delicate fragment of my memory and share them with everyone,” she explains, citing her love of children’s stories and Beatrix Potter as influences to her charming style of art.

Bisnaire used arbitrary quotes from her journal as a way to allow viewers to construct their own narratives from the paintings.

The exhibition contained remarkable pieces of art, with each student donning a particular style and method of expression. The event functioned as a testimonial to the diverse talent housed by the visual arts department.

The Fused/Division art gallery exhibition will run until March 30 at The Arts Project gallery.

For solution, turn to page 2

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Courtesy of Emily Copeland

7 •

thegazette • Tuesday, March 24, 2015

opinions HAVE YOUR SAY

The Gazette asked students if they thought there should be LGBTQ-only floors in residences.

Richard Raycraft MANAGING EDITOR

MIT IV Personally, being Perth in first year and being a gay Western student, I met lots of great friends, both gay and straight on my floor. I know lots of my other friends did too. I think that Western is a very inclusive environment … You really don’t feel like you are any different — especially with One Love and stuff like that. So I think Western does a really good job at creating that environment so I should hope that these types of floors wouldn’t be needed … I’d like to think that [LGBT students] would feel safe on any floor.

Rebecca Hartley

Anthropology IV It seems exclusive. I understand that a supportive system is helpful but in terms of support there’s a lot on campus. There’s the Peer Support Network and the Pride library. There’s a million other avenues … You don’t have to isolate them on a floor as if they can’t be integrated with other students.

• Tom Stoppard

Finding hope in a dying industry World of Raycraft

Michael Usling

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

@RichAtGazette

“A journalist,” German statesman Otto von Bismarck once remarked, “is a person who has mistaken their calling.”

And so it is. Statistics Canada reported in 2013 that newspaper revenues have fallen per cent in the previous five years.

The Great Recession walloped the industry. In 2009, the Newspaper Association of America released data that showed revenue had fallen by a full 30 per cent from the same time last year. With ad revenues in free fall, publications have resorted to pay-walls or doling out free content.

Neither model is sustainable — pay-walls are unbearable in the information age, where content of all types is expected to be free. At the same time, most newspapers or sites offering content for free are hemorrhaging money and producing sub-par journalism at best. What’s more, most pay their writers little, if anything at all.

Think things are better on the broadcast side? Think again. While the death of Sun News is generally blamed on its hyperbolic right wing populism, it did prompt a much-needed discussion on the state of cable news. Median viewing ages approach the sixties and are rising. The evening newscast, once a family staple across the nation, is now a bygone pastime of the wrinkled geriatric. The younger generation has cut the cable and flocked to Twitter for breaking news in spite of its inherent limits. How many friends can you name that regularly

watch or listen to a newscast? Exactly.

It’s against this backdrop that I enter journalism school in September. While my undergraduate friends move on to law or business, I dream of scraping out my living as a wordsmith or broadcaster.

I’m sure I’ll learn plenty of valuable skills and improve my reporting and writing, but that critical question remains — what awaits us doe-eyed journalism students on the other side? Scoring a nine to five reporting job at a daily newspaper is starting to seem like winning the lottery.

Switching to communications or public relations is referred to amongst former journalists, tongue-in-cheek, as moving to the “dark side.” What is one to do?

It’s a cliché to say that journalism is evolving, not dying. This is a useful distinction, but there’s something passive and fatalistic about it. Sure, consumer preferences change and the news media needs to change with them, but journalists themselves need to start experimenting and be proactive. We, the journalists of the future, have a moral imperative to start thinking creatively about providing quality coverage of the most pressing issues. Keeping the public informed is too important to democracy for the status quo to persist. You can’t move into this field for a job or money — you have to truly want to make an impact on public debate for the better.

Uncertainty is inherently scary, but it’s also exciting, opening up the chance of something new and improved. I know for myself this is what separates a field like journalism from law. While some may moan that we face a future of unemployment or short-term contract work, we also have a chance of being the innovators, the pioneers of the new media. It’s the Wild West out there, fellow J-school students, so let’s change the world.

We Get Letters!

“Healthy” soft drinks are a hard lie to swallow

Jenai Kershaw

MTP IV Off the top of my head I’m divided. A part of me agrees because I think it would foster a really inclusive environment. It fosters a great support system. The other side of me that doesn’t agree with that is because I think a big part towards a more accepting society is more assimilation, more understanding amongst different sects and groups of people. When you have all of them put on one floor, I think that limits that — having said that I’m on the fence.

thegazette

Volume 108, Issue 91 www.westerngazette.ca

Iain Boekhoff Editor-In-Chief Brent Holmes Deputy Editor Richard Raycraft Managing Editor

Contact: www.westerngazette.ca University Community Centre Rm. 263 The University of Western Ontario London, ON, CANADA N6A 3K7 Editorial Offices: (519) 661-3580 Advertising Dept.: (519) 661-3579

The Gazette is owned and published by the University Students’ Council.

To the editor: Soft drinks are a cheap drug made to look great by advertising.

Apparently there isn’t much a junk food company wouldn’t do to increase its sales. Soft drinks are NOT a healthy snack and should never be marketed as such.

It seems incredibly unethical that Coca-Cola is courting health and nutrition experts to endorse its products. Is integrity a thing of the past for these massive corporations? There is definite merit behind the claims that soft drinks are fuelling the current obesity epidemic.

When dietitians support these brands, an incredibly confusing message is sent to the general public.

Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and are written by a member of the editorial board but are not necessarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors or staff.

To submit a letter, go to westerngazette.ca and click on “Contact.”

All articles, letters, photographs, graphics, illustrations and cartoons published in The Gazette, both in the newspaper and online versions, are the property of The Gazette. By submitting any such material to The Gazette for publication, you grant to The Gazette a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to publish such material in perpetuity in any media, including but not limited to, The Gazette‘s hard copy and online archives.

Accurate and unbiased information on healthy diets is becoming increasingly harder to find as these companies target the health industry to help sell their products. Corporate profits are clearly the only thing on these companies’ minds, as their marketing techniques aim to manipulate perceptions of what counts as healthy. I am extremely disappointed that health experts are participating in such public relation schemes.

This situation is very reminiscent of marketing strategies used by tobacco industries. Hindsight is 20/20, and in the future these “health experts,” as well as the public will come to the realization that soft drinks, are akin to cigarettes — detrimental to health and should never have been promoted.

Taylor Disera Science IV

Gazette Composing & Gazette Advertising Ian Greaves, Manager Маја Анјоли-Билић

Robert Armstrong Diana Watson

Gazette Staff 2014-2015 Mohammad Abrar Abdul Hanan, Suhaib Al-Azem, Eric Bajzert, Sarah Botelho, Damon Burtt, Sam Frankel, Devin Golets, Kevin Heslop, Richard Joseph, Drishti Kataria, Sara Mai Chitty, Soheil Milani, Mackenzie Morrison, Amy O’Shea, Kyle Porter, Tristan Wu, Tom Ruess, Samah Ali, Claire Christopher, Rita Rahmah, Julie Hambleton, Brittany Hambleton

News Amy O’Kruk Hamza Tariq Katie Lear Olivia Zollino News-at-large Kevin Hurren Opinions Nusaiba Al-Azem Arts & Life Conrad Floryan Jennafer Freeman Jenny Jay Sports Bradley Metlin Nathan Kanter Robert Nanni Jr.

Dear Life Your anonymous letters to life

Dear Life, It’s sad that Rick McGhie gets more people out than Lil John.

Dear Life, Why are all the outfits for Fashion for Friday so boring?

Dear Life, Why do people make fun of redheads exactly? I am so hot for some of the ginger guys on this campus. And the ladies are lovely, too (but I’m gay, so I’ll pass on them).

Dear Life, Jack Litchfield, USC President 2015–2016* Dear Life, The Gazette can and has printed quotes from Hitler before. Words of villains can teach us much and should not be censored. Adults should not need coddling.

Dear Life, Am I the only one who feels that the Coca Cola Hug Me machine devalues physical human interaction into a soulless market exchange for free pop?

Dear Life, When your friends keep trying to set you up … and keep failing miserably. #foreveralone Dear Life, STOP FUCKING SENDING ME CANDY CRUSH INVITES. HOW MANY YEARS HAS IT BEEN?! I STILL DON’T WANT TO PLAY. Dear Life, Why does it look like summer but feel like death? wgaz.ca/dear-life

Associate Megan Devlin Photography Kelly Samuel Taylor Lasota Winnie Lu Graphics Jennifer Feldman Illustrations Christopher Miszczak Kirstyn Culbert-Kviring Graphics/Video Mike Laine Marketing and Recruitment Coordinator Vivian Liu

• Please recycle this newspaper •

8 •

thegazette • Tuesday, March 24, 2015

sports

factattack Tennis player Novak Djokovic thanked his fans for their support this past year after winning the BNP Paribas Open, as this win marks his fifth major tennis championship victory in a year for the second year in a row.

Badminton team finishes 2nd at provincials Nathan Kanter SPORTS EDITOR @NathanAtGazette

Despite what some may have thought, this was no rebuilding year for the Western Mustangs badminton team.

Thanks to four silver medals, they finished in second place at this weekend’s Ontario University Athletics championships held at Ryerson University in Toronto.

The Mustangs finished with a total of 45 points, 18 back of first place Waterloo and 18 ahead of third place McMaster.

“I was really happy with how the weekend went,” player and co-coach Adrianna Giuffre said. “Throughout the year we were shooting for gold and although we walked out with a silver medal, I’m still so proud of our whole team and it’s astonishing how everyone performed. I think we really stepped up to the plate considering a lot of the coaches at the university thought that this was our rebuilding year.”

Before this season, Western had won six of the last eight championships, but player and co-coach Neil Tai-Pow said the result is nothing to be disappointed about.

“There’s a lot to be very happy about,” he said. “[For] such a young team to come second place out of all these schools ... I think is excellent.”

One young player to stand out was Jack Hall, one of four

tournament all-stars from Western.

Hall is just a first-year, yet he came second in the men’s singles division. He lost a tight match to McMaster’s Jacob Kao 21–12, 9–21, 21–16.

“This year we were composed of a lot of players who have only come from club badminton,” Giuffre said.

“The way our first-years stepped up with their performances was unreal.”

Tai-Pow said he was also thoroughly impressed with the mental composure of Western’s veteran players.

“What worked well was a mental composure that some of our veteran athletes displayed over the weekend,” he said. “There were a lot of tight three setters.”

Tai-Pow did say a lot of those three setters didn’t go the Mustangs’ way, but he also said he thinks it will improve with time.

“A lot of that is just a matter of mental composure from our first year athletes,” Tai-Pow said.

Giuffre, who was also named an all-star and finished second in both women’s singles and women’s doubles, felt something new she saw was a sense of community among team members.

“This was the first OUAs I’ve experienced where we’ve really done everything as a team,” Giuffre said. “It was incredible to see that for every single match our entire team sat behind every single court.”

But team bonding wasn’t quite

enough to get Western past Waterloo, who claimed its first championship in five years. They won medals in all five events, for a total of two gold, one silver and two bronze.

Tai-Pow touched on how depth made Waterloo such a tough opponent in the tournament.

“Whenever you go into any match against a Waterloo player, it’s always going to be a challenge,” Tai-Pow said. “They might not necessarily have any superstar players on their team but each and every one of them is a solid player.”

Waterloo’s Surabhi Kadam was named female most valuable player of the tournament, while McMaster’s Jacob Kao was named male MVP. Waterloo’s Maurice Lee was also named coach of the year.

Two other Western players were named all-stars in addition to Giuffre and Hall: Bryan Jok and Aisyah Latib.

Latib was on a one-semester exchange from Singapore and will be representing her home country at the World University Games this summer.

There were a total of 14 players on the all-star team: five from Waterloo, four from Western, three from McMaster and two from Ottawa.

All four of Western’s all-stars earned a silver medal.

As for Western’s next season, there’s already excitement brewing.

“We’re ready for next year!”

Giuffre said.

Photos Courtesy of Mustangs Badminton